Je-Ryung Lee

Size-Dependent Inertial Focusing Position Shift and Particle Separations in Triangular Microchannels

A recent study of inertial microfluidics within nonrectangular cross-section channels showed that the inertial focusing positions changes with cross-sectional shapes; therefore, the cross-sectional shape can be a useful control parameter for microfluidic particle manipulations. Here, we conducted detail investigation on unique focusing position shift phenomena, which occurs strongly in channels with the cross-sectional shape of the isosceles right triangle. The top focusing positions shift along the channel walls to the direction away from the apex with increasing Reynolds number and decreasing particle size. A larger particle with its center further away from the side walls experiences shear gradient lift toward the apex, which leads to an opposite result with changes of Reynolds and particle size. The focusing position shift and the subsequent stabilization of corner focusing lead to changes in the number of focusing positions, which enables a novel method for microparticle separations with high efficiency (>95%) and resolution (<2 μm). The separation method based on equilibrium focusing; therefore, the operation is simple and no complex separation optimization is needed. Moreover, the separation threshold can be easily modulated with flow rate adjustment. Rare cell separation from blood cell was successfully demonstrated with spiked MCF-7 cells in blood by achieving the yield of ∼95% and the throughput of ∼106 cells/min.

Off-centered Double-slit Metamaterial for Elastic Wave Polarization Anomaly

The polarization anomaly refers to the polarization transition from longitudinal to shear modes along an equi-frequency contour of the same branch, which occurs only in some anisotropic elastic media, but the lack of natural materials exhibiting desired anisotropy makes its utilization impossible for potential novel applications. In this paper, we present a unique, non-resonant type elastic metamaterial made of off-centered, double-slit unit cells. We show that its wave polarization characteristics that determine the desired anomalous polarization for a certain application are tailorable. As an application, a mode converting wedge that transforms pure longitudinal into pure shear modes is designed by the proposed metamaterial. The physics involved in the mode conversion is investigated by simulations and experiments.

Realization of 3D Image on Metal Plate by Optimizing Machining Conditions of Ultra-Precision End-Milling

3D images are generally manufactured by complex production processes. We suggested a simple method to make 3D images based on a mechanical machining technology in this study. We designed a tetrahedron consisted of many arcs having the depth of 100 μm and the pitch of 500 μm, and machined them on an aluminum plate using end-milling under several conditions of feed-rate and depth of cut. The area of undeformed chip including depth of cut and feed-rate can predict quality of the machined arcs more precisely than the undeformed chip thickness including only feed rate. Moreover, a diamond tool can improve the quality than a CBN tool when many arcs are machined. Based on the analysis, the designed tetrahedron having many arcs was machined with no burr, and it showed different images when observed from the left and right directions. Therefore, it is verified that a 3D image can be designed and manufactured on a metal plate by end-milling under optimized machining conditions.