The ability to drive microcentrifugation for efficient micromixing and particle concentration and separation on a microfluidic platform is critical for a wide range of lab-on-a-chip applications. In this work, we investigate the use of amplitude modulation to enhance the efficiency of the microcentrifugal recirculation flows in surface acoustic wave microfluidic systems, thus concomitantly reducing the power consumption in these devices for a given performance requirement—a crucial step in the development of miniaturized, integrated circuits for true portable functionality. In particular, we show that it is possible to obtain an increase of up to 60% in the acoustic streaming velocity in a microdroplet with kHz order modulation frequencies due to the intensification in Eckart streaming; the streaming velocity is increasing as the modulation index is increased. Additionally, we show that it is possible to exploit this streaming enhancement to effect improvements in the speed of particle concentration by up to 70% and the efficiency of micromixing by 50%, together with a modest decrease in the droplet temperature.
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September 2016
Research Article|
September 20 2016
Amplitude modulation schemes for enhancing acoustically-driven microcentrifugation and micromixing
Kar M. Ang;
Kar M. Ang
1School of Engineering,
Monash University Malaysia
, 47500 Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia
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Leslie Y. Yeo
;
Leslie Y. Yeo
2Micro/Nanophysics Research Laboratory,
RMIT University
, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
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Yew M. Hung;
Yew M. Hung
1School of Engineering,
Monash University Malaysia
, 47500 Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia
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Ming K. Tan
Ming K. Tan
a)
1School of Engineering,
Monash University Malaysia
, 47500 Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia
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a)
Electronic mail: tan.ming.kwang@monash.edu
Biomicrofluidics 10, 054106 (2016)
Article history
Received:
September 02 2016
Accepted:
September 08 2016
Citation
Kar M. Ang, Leslie Y. Yeo, Yew M. Hung, Ming K. Tan; Amplitude modulation schemes for enhancing acoustically-driven microcentrifugation and micromixing. Biomicrofluidics 1 September 2016; 10 (5): 054106. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4963103
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