3D reconstruction of a micro pipette tip

  • Authors:

  • H. Ostadi;M. Malboubi;P. D. Prewett;K. Jiang

  • Affiliations:

  • Centre for Biomedical and Nanotechnology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK;Centre for Biomedical and Nanotechnology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK;Centre for Biomedical and Nanotechnology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK;Centre for Biomedical and Nanotechnology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

  • Venue:
  • Microelectronic Engineering
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Glass micro pipettes have been widely used for patch clamping. Although many researchers agree that the shape and roundness of pipette tip are important for cell grabbing and gigaseal formation, no numerical values of the geometry have been reported so far. In this research, a FIB/SEM system was used as a nano tomography tool to obtain the 3D shape of a pipette tip. The process involves a cycle of cutting a slice of the pipette using focused ion beam (FIB), taking an SEM image of the new surface, and then milling and imaging again to produce a stack of SEM images. A 3D reconstruction of the pipette was made based on the SEM images. The roundness of the pipette tip was measured and is presented in this paper for the first time.