Wavelet transform for Shah convolution velocity measurements of single particles and solutes in a microfluidic chip

Wavelet transform analysis is applied to determine the speed of fluorescent polystyrene microspheres and fluorescent solutes in a microchip. The data analysed consist of the periodical signal (Shah convolution) obtained when fluorescent particles or solute plugs move in a channel that is covered with a chromium grid pattern. This setup converts velocity into a (fluorescence emission) frequency, and previous analyses therefore used Fourier transform to extract the frequency information. In this paper it is shown that wavelet transform has some advantages over Fourier transform. With wavelet transform, time information can be obtained in addition to frequency information. Thus the speed of individual particles was determined together with their moments of appearance and disappearance in the system. With solutes small changes of velocity during the analysis were detected, and an improvement in peak frequency resolution was obtained.