Force Sensor Clamp for Fixation of Ultra-thin Membrane Using Micro-hole Array for Tensile Characterization*

To develop the well mimicked tissue model for simulating the surgery containing mechanical interaction between the tissue and surgical tools, we should know the mechanical properties of human tissues. As for the measurement of mechanical properties of tissues, the tensile characterization of ultra-thin membrane is one of the challenges because of the difficulty in handling of thin-membrane. Therefore, we have previously proposed a tensile characterization system utilizing a developed force sensor clamp to evaluate the tensile and tearing characteristics of ultra-thin membrane. The force sensor clamp mainly consists of a force sensor based on a quartz crystal resonator (QCR) and a microfluidic chip having micro-hole array which is utilized a microfluidic suction clamp. In this paper, we discussed design strategy of the micro-hole array to fix the membrane. Finally, tensile experiments of the inner limiting membrane (ILM) samples are conducted to demonstrate the proposed measurement system.