Proceedings of the IEEE
International Conference on Information and Automation
Ningbo, China, August 2016
Localized Manipulation of Magnetic Particles in a Group*
H.H. See1 , Sahan C.B. Herath1,2 , Yue Du1 , H. Asada2,3 , and Peter C.Y. Chen1,2
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore
2
Biosystem and Micromechanics Interdisciplinary Research Group,
Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Program, Singapore
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
mpechenp@nus.edu.sg
Abstract— The ability to precisely manipulate a single magnetic
particle (within a closely distributed group of such particles) has
potential applications in studying cellular and molecular behavior
at an ensemble-level and in enabling more sophisticated ways of
manipulating cells, biomolecules, and other micro-structures. This
requires the applied magnetic field be localized. The extent of this
localization gives rise to the issue of proximity interference, where
the magnetic field intended to influence a specific particle may
exert a force on another particle nearby. A properly localized
magnetic field enables selective pulling or capturing of particle
in a group. In this paper, we present a novel magnetic micro-
manipulation system that uses an electromagnetic needle (EMN)
and a flux collector strategically positioned relative to each other
to realize magnetic field localization. We pair an EMN with a soft
magnetic core identical to that of the EMN but without the coiling.
This core acts as a flux collector for the EMN. The collector
provides a specified path for the magnetic field emanating from
the tip of the EMN, thus reducing its spread and concentrating
the field in the region between the EMN and the collector. We
evaluated the proposed EMN-collector system by first compar-
ing numerically its magnetic field with that generated by the
EMN alone through numerical simulation. We then conducted
experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed
system for magnetic field localization. This system can be applied
to manipulate magnetic nano/micro-particles suspended in a
media in 3D, possibly focusing on individual particles of interest.
This system can manipulate magnetic nano/micro-particles at
forces ranging from atto- to pico-Newtons. It has the potential
for applications involving the mechanical manipulation of cells
and biological organisms, such as in probing molecular binding
interactions, separating biological materials, and characterizing
the mechanical properties of cell and the extracellular matrix.
Index Terms— Electromagnetic needle, localized magnetic field,
magnetic actuation, magnetic tweezer.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Micromanipulation of magnetic nano/micro-particles is an
effective technique for investigating the mechanical behavior of
biological systems. It has been applied in a wide range of stud-
ies, including the measurement of the elasticity of biopolymers,
the characterization of the mechanical properties of living cells,
the targeted delivery of gene to cells or tissues for treatment,
etc. [1-7]. One form of such magnetic manipulation uses an
electromagnetic needle (EMN) to apply a magnetic force on
magnetic particles with diameter measured in nanos [8, 9]. For
∗ This work is supported by Singapore A*Star Public Sector Funding
Programme (Project No. 1321202077), Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research
and Technology, and the China Scholarship Council
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978-1-5090-4102-2/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
instance, in single cell analysis, a magnetic field is directed at
a single or group of magnetic particles attached to a tethered
cell to study its mechanical response to the applied forces [10-
13]. Compared to other techniques (such as optical tweezers),
the main advantages of magnetic manipulation using an EMN
include high force gradients over relatively larger distances,
ease of controlling the applied forces, and low power require-
ments [14-18]. The ability to precisely manipulate a single
magnetic particle (within a densely distributed group of such
particles) has potential applications in studying cellular and
molecular behavior at an ensemble-level and in enabling more
sophisticated ways of manipulating cells, biomolecules, and
other micro-structures. For instance, to control magnetically
actuated micro-robots, a localized magnetic field would be
able to concentrate on the robots individually and navigate
them independently to reach a targeted position (as in drug
delivery). The extent of this localization gives rise to the issue
of proximity interference, where the magnetic field intended
to influence a specific particle may exert a force on another
particle nearby. A properly localized magnetic field enables
selective pulling or capturing of particle in an group. This
has led to the development of miniaturized EMNs consisting
of a solenoid for magnetic field generation and a protruding
core with a sharp tip for reducing the spread of the magnetic
field emanated from the tip. Several technical challenges
remain in the application of the miniaturized EMN. First,
fabrication of such micro-EMN may be challenging due to its
size and geometry. Fabricating the 3D micro-solenoid involves
complicated procedures such as repeated lithography, thick
photoresist processing, and electroplating [19-21]. To form
the protruding core, harsh chemicals and etching conditions is
required to remove the substrate underneath, which may result
in material incompatibility [22]. Second, the size of the micro-
EMN inherently limits the magnitude of the magnetic field
gradient generated; consequently, magnetic force produced on
a magnetic particle is weak. Third, resistive heating of the
micro-electromagnet causes thermal expansion of the EMN
core; this expansion hinders precise control of the relative
distance between the particle and the EMN tip, leading to
errors in the desired force applied on a magnetic particle
[23]. In the work reported in this paper, we proposed a novel
magnetic micro-manipulation system that uses an EMN and
a flux collector strategically positioned relative to each other
to realize magnetic field localization. We pair an EMN with
a soft magnetic core identical to that of the EMN but without
the coiling. This core acts as a flux collector for the EMN, i.e.,
a magnetic-field sink. The collector provides a specified path
for the magnetic field emanating from the tip of the EMN,
thus reducing its spread and concentrating the field in the
region between the EMN and the collector. We refer to this (a)
configuration as the EMN-collector system (i.e., EMNC). We
evaluate the proposed EMNC by first comparing numerically
its magnetic field with that generated by the EMN alone
through numerical simulation. We then conducted experiments
to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system for
magnetic field localization. The remainder of this paper is orga-
nized as follows. Section II describes the design of the EMNC
and the relevant numerical simulations. Section III presents the (b)
experimental setup and results. Section IV concludes the paper
and recommends possible further improvement.
II. M ETHOD
An EMN with specific geometry and functionality has been
designed and fabricated. The EMN consists of a core and a
solenoid. The core, made of high permeability Mµ-metal with
a density of ρ = 8747 kg/m3 , is in the shape of a cylindrical
shank (i.e., the cylinder) with a protruding extension (i.e., the
(c)
cone). It has a diameter of 12.7 mm, a cylinder length of
69 mm, and a cone height of 21 mm with a tip angle of Fig. 2. (a) EMN. (b) EMNC. (c) Actual EMNC
33.65◦ . A solenoid with 583 windings of insulated copper
wire wraps around the shank. Fig. 1 illustrates the EMN.
In an EMNC, by changing the angle of inclination (with and the distance between the tips of the EMN and collector
respect to the horizontal axis) and the distance between the (d), as shown in Table I. Due the size of the coiling, there
tips of the EMN and the collector it is possible to localize is only sufficient space between the EMN and the collector
and control the area of influence of the magnetic field, as is to accommodate a maximum of inclination angle of 60◦ . In
illustrated in Fig. 2(b). This will create various magnetic-field the numerical simulations, the magnetic fields were evaluated
focusing points that are skewed towards the EMN. Numerical within a 10 by 10 mm2 planar area and at a distance of 700
simulations (using COMSOL Multiphysics
R
) based on the µm from the needle tips. Finite-element models of the EMN
finite-element method (FEM) were conducted to study how and the collector were constructed using 2,855,507 elements
the placement of EMN and collector affects magnetic field and with 3,846,948 degrees of freedom to capture the accurate
localization. Different EMN and EMNC configurations were behaviour around the tips. Specifically, the mesh resolution of
investigated by varying the angle of inclination (denoted by θ) the tips has been adjusted to be of extremely fine in COMSOL
Multiphysics
R
, which corresponds to having an element size
ranging from 5e-5 to 0.005 m in the entire model. This FEM
model incorporates the geometry and the material properties of
the EMN and the collector. The simulations were simplified by
the application of the Amperes law around the closed current
paths, coupled with the axial symmetry argument of the EMN,
under the condition that the magnetic field produced by the
solenoid lies parallel to the longitudinal axis of the EMN.
(a)
This reduces the dimensionality of the modelling problem and
permits representation of the magnetic field produced by the
solenoid by a uniform magnetic field parallel to the EMN axis.
Fig. 3(a) and Fig. 3(b) show the mesh and the streamlines
of the magnetic flux (respectively) around the tips of the
EMN and the collector. For the finite-element model of the
EMN alone, the collector is excluded. The spatial magnetic
field distributions for the EMN and the EMNC were obtained
(b) using the AC/DC module of COMSOL Multiphysics
R
. The
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic diagram of the EMN. (b) An actual EMN. stimulated fields were the perpendicular component of the

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 TABLE I
A REA OF INFLUENCE OF MAGNETIC FIELD

Configuration EMN EMNC

Distance NIL d = 300 d = 500 d = 800
(µm)
Angle 45 52.5 60 45 52.5 60 45 52.5 60 45 52.5 60
(◦ )
Area 26.6739 26.1249 24.1937 17.6845 12.8419 0.5197 18.4002 13.9006 2.4507 19.3706 15.2730 5.0681
(mm2 )

Image

tracking of the movement of two magnetic particles in a

(a)
(b)
Fig. 3. (a) Mesh of the tip of the EMN and collector (i.e., COL). (b)
Streamlines of the magnetic flux density around the tip of the EMN and the
collector.
magnetic field with respect to the planar area, Bz , which were
then thresholded with a value of 0.0263T to obtain the results
shown in Table I. Results from the numerical simulation as
shown in Table I indicate that the EMNC configuration with
θ = 60◦ and d = 300 µm produces the best result in localizing
the magnetic field to an area of 0.5197 mm2 . Fig. 2(c) depicts
the actual EMNC corresponding to this optimal configuration.
The EMN and the collector are fixed at θ = 60◦ (with a tip-
to-tip separation of 700 µm) by a custom-made holder. The
holder has an aluminum body with brass fasteners. This choice
of non-ferrous metals, both having a relative permeability
of 1 (i.e., the same as that of free space), means that the
holder neither responds to the surrounding magnetic field nor
influences the magnetic interaction between the EMN and the
collector.
III. E XPERIMENT
Two experiments were designed and conducted to inves-
tigate the effect of EMNC in magnetic field localization.
The first experiment involved tracking of the movement of
a group of super-paramagnetic micro-particles in a micro-
chamber filled with water. The second experiment involved
straight channel with its inner surface coated with mineral
oil. In the first experiment, the movement of a collection of
superparamagnetic micro-particles, with a mean diameter of
3.02 µm and a density of 1220 kg/m3 (ProMag 3 Series, Bangs
Laboratories, Inc.), was filmed when a single EMN and then
the EMNC were powered on with a current of 1 amp near the
micro-particles. Image analysis was done for frames captured 1
second apart to determine particle movement when the supply
current was switched on for these two cases.
Fig. 4(a) and Fig. 4(c) show the micro-chamber under the
EMN and the EMNC before the current was switched on,
while 4(b) and 4(d) show that after. It can be observed from
the white spot count shown in Fig. 4 (b) and Fig.(d) that the
single EMN displaced approximately 61% more particles than
the EMNC did. This indicates that EMNC was able to localize
the generated magnetic field, which only affected the particles
nearest to its pole tips, unlike in the case of the single EMN
where all particles in the micro-chamber were affected by
the magnetic field. The second experiment involving only two
magnetic particles, each with a diameter of 2 mm, as depicted
in Fig. 5(a). Initially, the first particle (indicated by the solid
circle) was placed directly below the EMNC tips while the
second (indicated by the dotted circle) was placed 7.5 mm
away from the EMNC tips. The experiment was carried out
as follows. First the EMNC was supplied with a current of 2
amps. After a brief pause to allow the movement of the particle
to stabilize,the collector was removed, leaving the EMN alone
but stilled powered. The movement of both particles was film
throughout the experiment. Analysis on the captured video
revealed that, when the current to the EMNC was switched on,
only the first particle was attracted to the EMN tip as shown in
Fig. 5(b). Once the collector was removed, the second particle
was also attracted to the EMN tip, as depicted in Fig. 5(c). This
demonstrates that the EMNC was able to localize its magnetic
field and only affects the particles closer to its pole tips.
IV. C ONCLUSION
We have developed a novel magnetic micro-manipulation
system using an electromagnetic needle and a flux collector
strategically positioned relative to each other to realize mag-
netic field localization. We pair an electromagnetic needle with

476
a soft magnetic core identical to that of electromagnetic needle
but without the coiling. This core acts as a flux collector (i.e.,
a magnetic-field sink) for the electromagnetic needle. We have
conducted extensive numerical simulation in the design of this
system to reduce the area of influence of the magnetic field
generated. We have also conducted experiment to demonstrate
the effectiveness of the system. This system can manipulate
magnetic nano/micro-particles suspended in a media in 3D,
possibly focusing on individual particles of interest. Forces
with magnitudes spanning tens atto-newtons to hundreds pico-
newtons can be exerted on superparamagnetic nano/micro-
particles with diameters ranging from 6 nm to 3 m [24, 25].
For instance, a force of from 20 aN to 500 pN can be induced
by the system on a nano- or micro-particle located directly
beneath the tips of the needles at a distance of 300 m and
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Fig. 4. Movement of the magnetic micro-particles (3 µm in diameter) due to
the magnetic field in a micro-chamber filled with water. Frame differencing
was done on two frames at a second apart to compare the areas of magnetic
particles affected by a single EMN and by the EMNC, both supplied with
a current of 1 ampere. Images (a) and (c) show the micro-chamber under
the EMN and the EMNC before the current was switched on, while images
(b) and (d) show the micro-chamber after the current was switched on. Dark
spots indicate the locations of magnetic micro-particles, and white spots show
movement of magnetic micro-particles after the current was switched on. A
total of 57 white spots were detected in (b) while only 22 in (d), indicating
that the EMNC affected a much smaller region of the micro-chamber.
477
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 5. Movement of the two magnetic particles (2 mm in diameter) due to
the magnetic field in a straight channel coated with mineral oil. Images (a) and
(b) show the state of the two particles before and after the current to the EMN
was switched on, respectively. Image (c) shows the state of the two particles
upon the removal of the collector, with the current remained switched on.
an angle of inclination 60 with a supply current of 3 amps.
This is consistent with the common practice of manipulating
biological system involving magnetic particles where a force
in one direction (typically normal to the region of interest)
is applied on a sample [26-29]. This system thus has the
potential for applications involving mechanical manipulation
of cells and molecule, such as in probing molecular binding
interactions, separating biological materials, characterizing the
mechanical properties of cell and the extracellular matrix.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the Singapore A*Star
Public Sector Funding Programme (Project No. 1321202077),
Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, and the
China Scholarship Council, for their financial support.
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