Acoustic streaming of microparticles using graphene-based interdigital transducers.

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices offer many benefits in chemistry and biomedicine, enabling precise manipulation of micro-droplets, mixing of liquids by acoustic streaming and pumping of liquids in enclosed channels, while presenting a cost-effective and easy fabrication and integration with electronic devices. In this work, we present microfluidic devices which use graphene-based interdigital transducers (IDTs) to generate SAWs with a frequency of 100 MHz and an amplitude of up to 200 pm, which allow us to manipulate microparticle solutions by acoustic streaming. Due to the negligible mass loading of the piezoelectric surface by graphene, the SAWs generated by these devices have no frequency shift, typically observed when metal IDTs are used.

Acoustofluidics and whole-blood manipulation in surface acoustic wave counterflow devices.

On-chip functional blocks for sample preprocessing are necessary elements for the implementation of fully portable micrototal analysis systems (µTAS). We demonstrate and characterize the microparticle and whole-blood manipulation capabilities of surface acoustic wave (SAW) driven counterflow micropumps. The motion of suspended cells in this system is governed by the two dominant acoustic forces associated with the scattered SAW (of wavelength λf): acoustic-radiation force and acoustic-streaming Stokesian drag force. We show that by reducing the microchannel height (h) beyond a threshold value the balance of these forces is shifted toward the acoustic-radiation force and that this yields control of two different regimes of microparticle dynamics. In the regime dominated by the acoustic radiation force (h ≲ λf), microparticles are collected in the seminodes of the partial standing sound-wave arising from reflections off microchannel walls. This enables the complete separation of plasma and corpuscular components of whole blood in periodical predetermined positions without any prior sample dilution. Conversely, in the regime dominated by acoustic streaming (h ≫ λf), the microbeads follow vortical streamlines in a pattern characterized by three different phases during microchannel filling. This makes it possible to generate a cell-concentration gradient within whole-blood samples, a behavior not previously reported in any acoustic-streaming device. By careful device design, a new class of SAW pumping devices is presented that allows the manipulation and pretreatment of whole-blood samples for portable and integrable biological chips and is compatible with hand-held battery-operated devices.

Miniaturized Lab-on-a-Disc (miniLOAD).

A miniaturized centrifugal microfluidic platform for lab-on-a-chip applications is presented. Unlike its macroscopic Lab-on-a-CD counterpart, the miniature Lab-on-a-Disc (miniLOAD) device does not require moving parts to drive rotation of the disc, is inexpensive, disposable, and significantly smaller, comprising a 10-mm-diameter SU-8 disc fabricated through two-step photolithography. The disc is driven to rotate using surface acoustic wave irradiation incident upon a fluid coupling layer from a pair of offset, opposing single-phase unidirectional transducers patterned on a lithium niobate substrate. The irradiation causes azimuthally oriented acoustic streaming with sufficient intensity to rotate the disc at several thousand revolutions per minute. In this first proof-of-concept, the capability of the miniLOAD platform to drive capillary-based valving and mixing in microfluidic structures on a disc similar to much larger Lab-on-a-CD devices is shown. In addition, the ability to concentrate aqueous particle suspensions at radial positions in a channel in the disc dependent on the particles' size is demonstrated. To the best of our knowledge, the miniLOAD concept is the first centrifugal microfluidic platform small enough to be self-contained in a handheld device.

Nanoliter-droplet acoustic streaming via ultra high frequency surface acoustic waves.

The relevant length scales in sub-nanometer amplitude surface acoustic wave-driven acoustic streaming are demonstrated. We demonstrate the absence of any physical limitations preventing the downscaling of SAW-driven internal streaming to nanoliter microreactors and beyond by extending SAW microfluidics up to operating frequencies in the GHz range. This method is applied to nanoliter scale fluid mixing.