Manufacturing of microsystems based on complex three-dimensional microstructures requires critical steps such as mass calibrations and integration process. However, such steps involve several manipulation steps which are not well controlled thus the fragile 3D microstructures could be damaged or destroyed. In this work, we have demonstrated an AFM based direct mass measurement and manufacturing of 3D helical microswimmer. The proposed method shows to be rapid, repeatable and minimally-destructive thanks to the precise force control and manipulation by AFM. The proposed micromanipulation steps consist of the pick-measure-integrate manipulation steps using van der Waals force-based attachment and the mass measurement by resonant frequency shift. For the testing structures, we fabricated the 6 different types of 3D helical microswimmers vertically fabricated on the conical shape microneedle supports for uniform surface metallization and facile detachment. With the mass measurement sensitivity of 25 Hz/pg and the direct integration to microfluidics, we successfully demonstrated the 3D propulsion and non-contact micromanipulation by 3D helical microswimmer in microfluidics.

中文翻译：

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通过 AFM 显微操作制造用于微流体应用的 3D 螺旋微型游泳器

基于复杂三维微观结构的微系统制造需要关键步骤，例如质量校准和集成过程。然而，这些步骤涉及多个操作步骤，这些操作步骤没有得到很好的控制，因此脆弱的 3D 微结构可能会被损坏或破坏。在这项工作中，我们展示了基于 AFM 的直接质量测量和 3D 螺旋微型游泳器的制造。由于 AFM 的精确力控制和操纵，所提出的方法显示出快速、可重复和最小破坏性。建议的显微操作步骤包括使用基于范德华力的附件的拾取-测量-集成操作步骤和通过共振频移进行的质量测量。对于测试结构，我们在锥形微针支架上垂直制造了 6 种不同类型的 3D 螺旋微型游泳器，以实现均匀的表面金属化和轻松分离。凭借 25 Hz/pg 的质量测量灵敏度和与微流体的直接集成，我们成功地展示了 3D 螺旋微型游泳器在微流体中的 3D 推进和非接触式显微操作。