Huang Youta, Zhang Yang, Wu Weichang, Wang Yan, Qiu Weibao, Zhang Zhiqiang, Yu Yanyan
Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 508055 China; The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging Science and System, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China; National-Reginoal Key Technology Engineering Laboratory for Medical Ultrasound, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen University Medical School, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Ultrasound Imaging and Therapy, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 508055 China; The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging Science and System, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China; School of Electrical Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang, China; Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Ultrasound Imaging and Therapy, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Ultrasonics. 2025 Jan;145:107448. doi: 10.1016/j.ultras.2024.107448. Epub 2024 Sep 3.
Acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) has become the preferred method for liquid transfer in a variety of applications including synthetic biology, genotyping and drug discovery. Comparing with traditional pipetting techniques, the accuracy and data reproducibility of ADE based liquid transfer are improved, waste and cost are reduced, and cross-contamination is eliminated. The key component in the ADE system is the ultrasound transducer, which is responsible for generating focused ultrasound beam for droplet ejection. However, current ADE systems commonly utilize a single-element focused transducer with a fixed focal length that require mechanical movement to focus on the liquid surface, resulting in reduced liquid transfer efficiency. In this study, we first present a high-frequency annular array transducer for the ADE technology, which enables rapid and dynamic axial focusing to the liquid surface without mechanically moving the transducer, thereby accelerating liquid transfer. Experimental results show that the proposed 10 MHz, 5-element annular array transducer has good dynamic axial focusing ability, and can achieve accurate and stable droplet ejection of nanoliter volume at the designed focal length of 26-32 mm. Our results highlight the potential of the annular array transducer in advancing ADE system for rapid liquid transfer. This technology is expected to be useful in a variety of applications where precise and high-throughput liquid transfer is crucial.
声学液滴喷射（ADE）已成为包括合成生物学、基因分型和药物发现在内的各种应用中液体转移的首选方法。与传统的移液技术相比，基于ADE的液体转移的准确性和数据可重复性得到了提高，浪费和成本降低，交叉污染也得以消除。ADE系统的关键部件是超声换能器，它负责产生用于液滴喷射的聚焦超声束。然而，目前的ADE系统通常使用具有固定焦距的单元素聚焦换能器，这需要机械移动来聚焦于液体表面，从而导致液体转移效率降低。在本研究中，我们首先提出了一种用于ADE技术的高频环形阵列换能器，它能够在不机械移动换能器的情况下快速动态地对液体表面进行轴向聚焦，从而加快液体转移。实验结果表明，所提出的10MHz、5元素环形阵列换能器具有良好的动态轴向聚焦能力，并且在26-32mm的设计焦距下能够实现纳升体积液滴的准确稳定喷射。我们的结果突出了环形阵列换能器在推进用于快速液体转移的ADE系统方面的潜力。这项技术有望在各种需要精确和高通量液体转移的应用中发挥作用。
