On-chip density mixer enhanced by air chamber

This paper proposes an on-chip density mixer that can achieve even density in a target chamber with a swirling flow enhanced by an air chamber. The system is composed of a main channel, a target chamber where two liquids with different densities are included, an isolated air chamber, and an external vibration pump driven by a piezo actuator at the entrance of the main channel. The air chamber is expected to amplify the vibration owing to structure softening. The amplification would be more pronounced at the resonance frequencies of the structure. We developed the system and conducted experiments. We showed that the swirling motion in the target chamber with an air chamber is stronger than that without an air chamber. We also confirmed that the time resulting in even density is shorter when the pump is driven at a resonance frequency. An air-based virtual valve is introduced for maintaining a constant density in the target chamber.