Microfluidics is based on the performance of fluids in a microenvironment. As the microfluidics research advances in the cellular behaviour, the need for improved micro devices grows. This work introduces the design and fabrication of a micro ridge waveguide to be employed in fluids manipulations. Then it investigates the characteristics of the device in order to control the movement of the fluids on top of the ridge of the waveguide. The elastic vibration is excited along the ridge of the guide with the use of thickness poled lead zirconate titanate (PZT) elements attached to both sides of the waveguide. To excite anti-symmetric or flexural mode in the ridge of the guide, the propagation velocity has been kept significantly below the Rayleigh wave velocity. The velocity reduction of 15% is achieved with the high aspect ratio ridge (H/W =3) design. A three dimensional model of the micro waveguide has also been developed to determine the vibration characteristics; the natural frequency and the considered mode of the micro waveguide through finite element analysis using ANSYS. The travelling wave along the ridge of the guide is able to transmit strong vibration to the fluid atop of the substrate. The results represents a promising approach, through recasting the waveguide structure to be suitable in fluids and particle in fluids manipulations in one dimensional environment with the strong confined energy, at smaller scale with higher vibration displacement.

Date Published: 7 December 2013
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 8923, Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and Systems, 89234O (7 December 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2033743

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8923:
Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and Systems
James Friend; H. Hoe Tan, Editor(s)