Experimental research on surface acoustic wave microfluidic atomization for drug delivery.

This paper demonstrates that surface acoustic wave (SAW) atomization can produce suitable aerosol concentration and size distribution for efficient inhaled lung drug delivery and is a potential atomization device for asthma treatment. Using the SAW device, we present comprehensive experimental results exploring the complexity of the acoustic atomization process and the influence of input power, device frequency, and liquid flow rate on aerosol size distribution. It is hoped that these studies will explain the mechanism of SAW atomization aerosol generation and how they can be controlled. The insights from the high-speed flow visualization studies reveal that it is possible by setting the input power above 4.17 W, thus allowing atomization to occur from a relatively thin film, forming dense, monodisperse aerosols. Moreover, we found that the aerosol droplet size can be effectively changed by adjusting the input power and liquid flow rate to change the film conditions. In this work, we proposed a method to realize drug atomization by a microfluidic channel. A SU-8 flow channel was prepared on the surface of a piezoelectric substrate by photolithography technology. Combined with the silicon dioxide coating process and PDMS process closed microfluidic channel was prepared, and continuous drug atomization was provided to improve the deposition efficiency of drug atomization by microfluidic.

Influence of Waterproof Films on the Atomization Behavior of Surface Acoustic Waves.

One of the reasons why commercial application of surface acoustic wave (SAW) atomization is not possible is due to the condensation of aerosol droplets generated during atomization, which drip on the interdigitated transducer (IDT), thereby causing electrodes to short-circuit. In order to solve this problem, a SU-8-2002 film coating on an IDT is proposed in this paper. The waterproof performance of the film coating was tested on a surface acoustic wave (SAW) device several times. The experimental results reveal that the film coating was robust. The experiment also investigated the effects of the SU-8-2002 film on atomization behavior and heating.