Tunable acoustophoretic band-pass particle sorter.

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Microfluidics
• Acoustic Separation

Background:

• Acoustophoretic separation in microchannels is a label-free method for cell and particle sorting.
• Existing methods are limited to single-size thresholds (high-pass or low-pass filtering).

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a tunable acoustophoretic separation architecture.
• To enable sorting of cells and particles within a specific size range (band-pass filtering).

Main Methods:

• Design and implementation of a novel microchannel architecture for acoustophoretic separation.
• Utilizing tunable acoustic fields to control particle trajectories.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated efficient sorting of particle sizes between 3 and 10 µm.
• Achieved high separation efficiency (transfer fraction=0.98+/-0.02).
• Reached high throughput of approximately 10^8 particles/microchannel.

Conclusions:

• The tunable acoustophoretic device offers a versatile solution for size-based cell and particle separation.
• This advancement expands the capabilities of microfluidic sorting for various applications.
• The device provides precise control over separation ranges, enhancing microfluidic applications.