Acoustothermal tweezer for droplet sorting in a disposable microfluidic chip
Jinsoo Park1, Jin Ho Jung1, Ghulam Destgeer1
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon 34141, Korea. hjsung@kaist.ac.kr.
Lab on a Chip
|March 1, 2017
Summary
A novel acoustothermal tweezer precisely controls droplet position in microfluidics using acoustothermal heating. This method enables bidirectional droplet sorting and reusable lab-on-a-chip platforms.
Area of Science:
- Microfluidics
- Acoustics
- Thermal analysis
Background:
- Precise droplet position control is crucial for microfluidic applications.
- Existing methods for droplet manipulation have limitations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an acoustothermal tweezer for precise droplet position control in microfluidics.
- To enable bidirectional and multichannel droplet sorting.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an acoustothermal heater with a slanted finger interdigital transducer on a piezoelectric substrate and a PDMS membrane.
- Integrated the heater with a PDMS microchannel for droplet manipulation.
- Employed thermocapillary droplet migration actuated by acoustothermal heating.
Main Results:
- Achieved bidirectional droplet manipulation for sorting to three outlets.
- Demonstrated precise control and large lateral droplet displacement (hundreds of micrometers).
- Enabled deterministic, multichannel droplet sorting.
Conclusions:
- The acoustothermal tweezer offers significant advantages over previous methods.
- The system provides tunable, on-demand droplet position control.
- The disposable microfluidic chip and reusable heater design enhance practicality for lab-on-a-chip platforms.
