Positioning of organic and inorganic objects by electrophoretic forces including for microlens alignment

An adaptive alignment technique provides precise control and active positioning in two-dimensions of sub-millimeter-sized objects such as, a spherical microlens (1) through the application of electrophoretic forces in a microfluidic well (2). A microfluidic well (2) and electrodes (3) can be addressed to position or align the spherical microlens (1) to a corresponding beam source . The motion of the microlens is preferably controlled using CMOS compatible voltages that are preferably applied to opposite electrodes (3) in the microfluidic well (2). By applying voltages to opposed electrode pairs, movement of spherical microlenses with sizes ranging from,0.87 microns to 40 microns in directions parallel to the electrode surface is realized. Optical alignment of the spherical or ball microlens preferably accomplished by use of feedback from a photodetector serves to position the microlens for maximum efficiency. Microlenses or other elements may thus be aligned to optical fibers, VCSELs, LEDs, photodetectors, etc.