Ma Zhichao, Teo Adrian J T, Tan Say Hwa, Ai Ye, Nguyen Nam-Trung
Pillar of Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore 487372, Singapore.
Queensland Micro and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia.
Micromachines (Basel). 2016 Nov 25;7(12):216. doi: 10.3390/mi7120216.
The surface acoustic wave (SAW) is effective for the manipulation of fluids and particles at microscale. The current approach of integrating interdigitated transducers (IDTs) for SAW generation into microfluidic channels involves complex and laborious microfabrication steps. These steps often require full access to clean room facilities and hours to align the transducers to the precise location. This work presents an affordable and innovative method for fabricating SAW-based microfluidic devices without the need for clean room facilities and alignment. The IDTs and microfluidic channels are fabricated using the same process and thus are precisely self-aligned in accordance with the device design. With the use of the developed fabrication approach, a few types of different SAW-based microfluidic devices have been fabricated and demonstrated for particle separation and active droplet generation.
表面声波（SAW）在微尺度下对流体和颗粒的操控方面具有显著效果。当前将用于产生SAW的叉指换能器（IDT）集成到微流体通道中的方法涉及复杂且繁琐的微加工步骤。这些步骤通常需要完全进入洁净室设施，并且需要花费数小时将换能器对准到精确位置。这项工作提出了一种经济实惠且创新的方法，用于制造基于SAW的微流体装置，无需洁净室设施和对准操作。IDT和微流体通道采用相同的工艺制造，因此根据器件设计精确地实现了自对准。通过使用所开发的制造方法，已经制造并展示了几种不同类型的基于SAW的微流体装置，用于颗粒分离和主动液滴生成。
