Electrostatic Micromanipulation of a Conductive/Dielectric Particle by a Single Probe

This study reports the possibility of electrostatic micromanipulation of a conductive/dielectric particle using a single probe. The manipulation system consists of three objects: a conductive probe as a manipulating tool, a conductive plate as a substrate, and a conductive/dielectric particle that dubs as a micro-particle. For a conductive particle, a micromanipulation technique by applying accelerating and decelerating voltage with high switching rate is developed. We theoretically determine the desired voltage as the function of time by boundary element method, and experimentally verify the voltage effectively works with a 30-micrometer-in-diameter solder particle. For a dielectric particle, we experimentally demonstrate the successful picking-up of a 60-micrometer-in-diameter dielectric particle (phenol, polystyrene) from the substrate by electrostatic force. Besides, especially for a polystyrene particle, we observe the phenomenon of a micro-particle going back and forth between the substrate and the probe-tip like a micro-dribble even when just the constant voltage is applied. We discuss the possible mechanism of this interesting phenomenon and the feasibility of electrostatic manipulation for a dielectric micro-particle.