Manipulation of microparticles in microfluidic channel by surface acoustic wave

• Main Author: An, Minglei
• Other Authors: Du Hejun
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Fluid mechanics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/77131
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Microfluidic manipulation technology refers to precise control of the motion state of microparticles, such as capturing, screening, moving, and classifying cells, biomacromolecules, and nanomedicines. It has important applications in biomedical, chemical analysis, and materials science. It has aroused great concern from scholars all over the world. Acoustic manipulation uses sound waves to manipulate particles, which has advantages of non-contact, good penetrability, and no chemical modification to the particles. In recent years, with the rapid development of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and microfluidic chips, surface acoustic wave (SAW)-based micro-manipulation technology has received extensive attention and research. This dissertation introduces the background of surface acoustic waves and microfluidics and explains how to apply surface acoustic waves to microfluidics to manipulate microparticles. The design and fabrication process of surface acoustic wave-based devices is described in detail. Experiments were designed to manipulate microparticles using surface acoustic waves in microchannels. In the experiment, microparticles were successfully manipulated to form one-dimensional and two-dimensional patterns. The microparticles could be arranged in a pattern at any angle with respect to the horizontal. The experimental results were analyzed, and the reason why a small number of fine particles did not form a desired pattern well was demonstrated. Finally, the dissertation explains how future work should be done.