Ultrasonic Microfluidic Devices

Photograph showing a wafer of FPW devices, a single FPW die mounted in a zero insertion force package, and an oscillator board.

Goals:

To establish capabilities of micromachined ultrasonic devices to perform fluidic functions such as pumping, stirring, filtering, and manipulation of gases and liquids, cells, bacteria, and other biological substances.

Funding Source:

DARPA MicroFlumes Project

The DARPA ETO Program Manager for this effort is Dr. Rosalyn B. Ritts.

Personnel:

Co-Principal Investigators:
Prof. Richard M. White -- UC Berkeley and BSAC
Prof. Marc Madou -- Ohio State University


Associated researchers:
Justin Black
Pamela Caton
Cliff Knollenberg
Audra Meng
Amy Wang (graduated)

Typical Devices Under Study:

Views of the flexural plate wave device.

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Flow channel with distributed acoustic pumping.

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Re-entrant flexural plate-wave pump. View looking down onto membrane of ultrasonic device in diamond-shaped chamber fitted from beneath with unidirectional transducers, one sees 2-micron marker spheres that have been channeled by ultrasonic stranding waves while being pumped around the diamond as a result of acoustic streaming. Result shows ability to manipulate and move cell-sized objects.

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Ultrasonically driven micromachined silicon needle. Originally designed for surgery, when its tip is immersed in a liquid and the needle is driven ultrasonically, the hollow shaft acts as a pump. It can also be used as an ultrasonic source for lysing cells.

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Micromachined silicon horns for ultrasonic longitudinal drivers.

FPW Fabrication Process:

Slide showing FPW fabrication sequence.

Links related to our research:

Marc Madou's book
MEMS Interchange
Microlab's Homepage

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