Jinsoo Park

Microchannel Anechoic Corner for Size-Selective Separation and Medium Exchange via Traveling Surface Acoustic Waves

We demonstrate a miniaturized acoustofluidic device composed of a pair of slanted interdigitated transducers (SIDTs) and a polydimethylsiloxane microchannel for achieving size-selective separation and exchange of medium around polystyrene particles in a continuous, label-free, and contactless fashion. The SIDTs, deposited parallel to each other, produce tunable traveling surface acoustic waves (TSAWs) at desired locations, which, in turn, yield an anechoic corner inside the microchannel that is used to selectively deflect particles of choice from their streamlines. The TSAWs with frequency fR originating from the right SIDT and propagating left toward the microchannel normal to the fluid flow direction, laterally deflect larger particles with diameter d1 from the hydrodynamically focused sample fluid that carries other particles as well with diameters d2 and d3, such that d1 > d2 > d3. The deflected particles (d1) are pushed into the top-left corner of the microchannel. Downstream, the TSAWs with frequency fL, such that fL > fR, disseminating from the left SIDT, deflect the medium-sized particles (d2) rightward, leaving behind the larger particles (d1) unaffected in the top-left anechoic corner and the smaller particles (d3) in the middle of the microchannel, thereby achieving particle separation. A particle not present in the anechoic corner could be deflected rightward to realize twice the medium exchange. In this work, the three-way separation of polystyrene particles with diameters of 3, 4.2, and 5 μm and 3, 5, and 7 μm is achieved using two separate devices. Moreover, these devices are used to demonstrate multimedium exchange around polystyrene particles ∼5 μm and 7 μm in diameter.

Acoustothermal heating of polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic system

We report an observation of rapid (exceeding 2,000 K/s) heating of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), one of the most popular microchannel materials, under cyclic loadings at high (~MHz) frequencies. A microheater was developed based on the finding. The heating mechanism utilized vibration damping in PDMS induced by sound waves that were generated and precisely controlled using a conventional surface acoustic wave (SAW) microfluidic system. The refraction of SAW into the PDMS microchip, called the leaky SAW, takes a form of bulk wave and rapidly heats the microchannels in a volumetric manner. The penetration depths were measured to range from 210 μm to 1290 μm, enough to cover most sizes of microchannels. The energy conversion efficiency was SAW frequency-dependent and measured to be the highest at around 30 MHz. Independent actuation of each interdigital transducer (IDT) enabled independent manipulation of SAWs, permitting spatiotemporal control of temperature on the microchip. All the advantages of this microheater facilitated a two-step continuous flow polymerase chain reaction (CFPCR) to achieve the billion-fold amplification of a 134 bp DNA amplicon in less than 3 min.

Lamb Wave-Based Acoustic Radiation Force-Driven Particle Ring Formation Inside a Sessile Droplet.

We demonstrate an acoustofluidic device using Lamb waves (LWs) to manipulate polystyrene (PS) microparticles suspended in a sessile droplet of water. The LW-based acoustofluidic platform used in this study is advantageous in that the device is actuated over a range of frequencies without changing the device structure or electrode pattern. In addition, the device is simple to operate and cheap to fabricate. The LWs, produced on a piezoelectric substrate, attenuate inside the fluid and create acoustic streaming flow (ASF) in the form of a poloidal flow with toroidal vortices. The PS particles experience direct acoustic radiation force (ARF) in addition to being influenced by the ASF, which drive the concentration of particles to form a ring. This phenomenon was previously attributed to the ASF alone, but the present experimental results confirm that the ARF plays an important role in forming the particle ring, which would not be possible in the presence of only the ASF. We used a range of actuation frequencies (45-280 MHz), PS particle diameters (1-10 μm), and droplet volumes (5, 7.5, and 10 μL) to experimentally demonstrate this phenomenon.

On-Demand Droplet Capture and Release Using Microwell-Assisted Surface Acoustic Waves

We demonstrate an acoustofluidic platform that uses surface acoustic waves (SAWs) for the facile capture of droplets inside microwells and their on-demand release. When the ac signal applied to the device is tuned to modulate the location of the SAW, the SAW-based acoustic radiation force retracts or pushes the droplets into or out of one of three microwells fabricated inside a microchannel to selectively capture or release the droplet.

Generation of Dynamic Free-Form Temperature Gradients in a Disposable Microchip

Temperature gradients (TGs) provide an effective approach to controlling solvated molecules and creating spatiotemporally varying thermal stimuli for biochemical research. Methods developed to date for generating TGs can only create a limited set of static temperature profiles. This article describes a method for establishing dynamic free-form TGs in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as well as in gases and liquids in contact with the PDMS. The heating mechanism relies on the efficient acoustic absorption by the PDMS of high-frequency (5-200 MHz) surface acoustic waves (SAWs). MATLAB-aided actuation of a transducer enabled the generation and propagation of SAWs in a controlled fashion, which permitted spatiotemporal control over the temperature in the PDMS microstructures. This technique is exploited to perform one-shot high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis to detect single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in DNA. The experimental results displayed a 10-fold higher resolution and an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio compared to the results obtained using a conventional real-time PCR machine.

Transfer of Microparticles across Laminar Streams from Non-Newtonian to Newtonian Fluid

Engineering inertial lift forces and elastic lift forces is explored to transfer microparticles across laminar streams from non-Newtonian to Newtonian fluid. A co-stream of non-Newtonian flow loaded with microparticles (9.9 and 2.0 μm in diameter) and a Newtonian carrier medium flow in a straight rectangular conduit is devised. The elastic lift forces present in the non-Newtonian fluid, undeterred by particle-particle interaction, successfully pass most of the larger (9.9 μm) particles over to the Newtonian fluid. The Newtonian fluid takes over the larger particles and focus them on the equilibrium position, separating the larger particles from the smaller particles. This mechanism enabled processing of densely suspended particle samples. The method offers dilution-free (for number densities up to 10,000 μL(-1)), high throughput (6700 beads/s), and highly efficient (>99% recovery rate, >97% purity) particle separation operated over a wide range of flow rate (2 orders of magnitude).

Acoustic impedance-based manipulation of elastic microspheres using travelling surface acoustic waves

We present a method for size-independent manipulation of elastic polystyrene (PS), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and fused silica (FS) microspheres that uses travelling surface acoustic waves (TSAWs). Normally incident TSAWs originating from an interdigitated transducer (IDT) were used to separate similar-sized pairs of PS and PMMA or PS and FS elastic particles by producing distinct lateral deflections across laminar streamlines in a continuous flow microfluidic channel. Elastic particles with similar diameters but different acoustic impedances exhibit significantly different deflection characteristics when exposed to TSAW-based acoustic radiation forces (ARFs). For instance, exposing a mixture of PS and PMMA particles with similar diameters (∼5 μm) to TSAWs with frequencies of 140 MHz and 185 MHz produces larger deflections of the PS and PMMA particles, respectively. This difference arises because of the resonance of the elastic particles with the incoming acoustic waves at certain frequencies. Similar particle deflection characteristics were observed for mixtures of PS and FS particles with comparable diameters (3/3, 4.8/5, 10/10 μm). This difference in deflection distances was used to experimentally characterize the non-linear behavior of the ARFs acting on particles (3–10 μm) exposed to a range of TSAW frequencies (120–205 MHz). Our experimental results can be explained by plotting the acoustic radiation force factor (FF) against the TSAW frequency (fTSAW) and the dimensionless Helmholtz number (1 < κ < 4), which is calculated by using a theoretical model of an elastic microsphere suspended in a fluid.

Spatiotemporally controllable acoustothermal heating and its application to disposable thermochromic displays

Polydimethylsiloxane, the most common microchannel material, effectively absorbs acoustic waves and converts the acoustic energy into thermal energy. Here, we quantitatively characterize this phenomenon and develop a heating platform that offers spatiotemporal temperature control in two dimensions. We demonstrate the use of this heating platform to innovate thermochromic displays (TCDs). A TCD comprises a display layer covered with a thermochromic substance and a heater attached to the bottom of the display layer. The thermochromic substance is opaque at room temperature and becomes translucent when heated beyond a transition temperature. Consequently, the TCDs deliver visual information concealed beneath the thermochromic substance by controlling the temperature of the display layer. The previously reported TCDs have limitations including restricted flexibility in display information and cumbersome spatiotemporal temperature control. We address these limitations by developing a disposable TCD system using our spatiotemporally controllable heating platform. The utility of the proposed system is demonstrated in shutter-type TCDs for coloured, intricate picture displays, as well as in segment-type TCDs for on-demand information displays of alphanumeric characters. Finally, we propose a new type of TCD that can represent colour gradients based on the ability of the heating technique to generate free-form, continuous temperature gradients.

Vertical Hydrodynamic Focusing and Continuous Acoustofluidic Separation of Particles via Upward Migration

Abstract A particle suspended in a fluid within a microfluidic channel experiences a direct acoustic radiation force (ARF) when traveling surface acoustic waves (TSAWs) couple with the fluid at the Rayleigh angle, thus producing two components of the ARF. Most SAW‐based microfluidic devices rely on the horizontal component of the ARF to migrate prefocused particles laterally across a microchannel width. Although the magnitude of the vertical component of the ARF is more than twice the magnitude of the horizontal component, it is long ignored due to polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannel fabrication limitations and difficulties in particle focusing along the vertical direction. In the present work, a single‐layered PDMS microfluidic chip is devised for hydrodynamically focusing particles in the vertical plane while explicitly taking advantage of the horizontal ARF component to slow down the selected particles and the stronger vertical ARF component to push the particles in the upward direction to realize continuous particle separation. The proposed particle separation device offers high‐throughput operation with purity >97% and recovery rate >99%. It is simple in its fabrication and versatile due to the single‐layered microchannel design, combined with vertical hydrodynamic focusing and the use of both the horizontal and vertical components of the ARF.

In-droplet microparticle separation using travelling surface acoustic wave

Droplets in microfluidic systems can contain microscale objects such as cells and microparticles. The control of the positions of microscale objects within a microchannel is crucial for practical applications in not only continuous-flow-based but also droplet-based systems. This paper proposes an active method for the separation of microparticles inside moving droplets which uses travelling surface acoustic waves (TSAWs). We demonstrate the preconcentration and separation of 5 and 10 μm polystyrene microparticles in moving water-in-oil droplets through the application of TSAWs with two different frequencies. The microparticles inside the droplets are affected by the acoustic radiation force induced by the TSAWs to move laterally in the direction of the TSAW propagation and are thereby separated according to their size. In-droplet separation is then demonstrated through droplet splitting at a Y-junction. Compared to our previous studies, this acoustic approach offers the label-free and on-demand separation of different-sized micro-objects in moving droplets. The present method has potential uses such as in-droplet sample purification and enrichment.