# A Responsive and Precise Particle Position Control System Combining a Sidewall-Driven Peristaltic Micropump and a High-Speed Camera

## TL;DR

A new system combines a micropump and camera to precisely control particle positions in microfluidic channels for cell experiments.

## Contribution

A novel particle position control system using a sidewall-driven peristaltic micropump and high-speed camera with PID control is introduced.

## Key findings

- The system uses a pneumatic micropump that can pump indefinitely without flow limitations.
- Real-time pressure adjustment with PID control enables rapid and precise particle positioning.
- The system is simple to fabricate and avoids contamination risks compared to syringe pumps.

## Abstract

The systems to manipulate a single particle in a microfluidic channel can be adopted to pharmacological and cytological experiments of single-cell observation. The common cell position systems use syringe pumps driven by piezoelectric devices, and these have a flow quantity limit. To achieve single-cell manipulation using actuators without limiting the flow quantity and with a low risk of contamination, we propose a particle control system that uses a sidewall-driven peristaltic micropump driven by pneumatic pressure. The adopted pump was integrated into a single-layer mold with a flow path and was simple to fabricate. Unlike syringe pumps, it not only pumps water forward, but also inhales from the back simultaneously, and can pump indefinitely. We developed a responsive and precise particle position control system using this pump in combination with a high-speed camera. In this system, the pumping pressure is operated by real-time adjustment of a pneumatic pressure supply to realize PID control. This approach moves the particle rapidly when it is far from a designated target position for a quick approach and slowly near the target position to position precisely.