Microparticle manipulation on the surface of a piezoceramic actuator

Abstract

In this paper, a technique called piezoelectric interfacial particle manipulator (PIPM) for the manipulation of single and multiple microparticles on the surface of a piezoelectric actuator is demonstrated. The PIPM is capable of controlled manipulation of single and multiple microparticles ranging in size from 0.5 to 50 μm. Piezoelectrically excited bulk modes of vibration, ranging from 10 kHz to 2 MHz, are used to generate a complex distribution of manipulation forces acting in opposition to particle-surface normal adhesion and tangential frictional forces. The vibration of the PIPM is characterized using a finite element method (FEM) simulation and a theoretical study of the particle-surface interfacial forces. A comparative study of the manipulation forces and the adhesive particle-surface interfacial forces, measured using atomic force microscopy, is performed. The results confirm the ability of the PIPM to overcome adhesion forces ranging from 10 to 250 nN for particles ranging in radii from 10 to 30 μm. Furthermore, reproducible high throughput particle manipulation is demonstrated via the translation of a 25 μm stainless steel particle, over a distance 600 times its radius, with an average speed of 5 mm s −1 . Experimental results correlated with theoretical expectations indicate that the PIPM can prove to be a versatile tool for the controlled non-destructive manipulation of single as well as multiple microparticles in the fields of biosensors, tissue engineering, biochips, micro-fabrication and MEMS devices.

Multi-particle acoustic manipulation on a Chladni plate

“…Those fields allow us to control the motion of multiple objects independently and simultaneously for a wide range of objects where the properties of individual objects may or may not be the same. Despite its remarkable ability, our hardware is the simplest among all acoustic manipulation systems [1], [4], [20]- [23].…”

A charged-particle manipulator utilizing a co-axial tube electrodynamic trap with an integrated camera

“…Different techniques have been developed to manipulate 100nm to 100µm diameter particles, which can be cataloged into two groups: direct contact methods and non-contact methods. Direct-contact manipulation methods, such as electro-thermal nanogripper [8], nanoprobes [9,10], and piezoelectric actuators [11] are effective in manipulating larger particles; while non-contact methods, such as optical tweezers [12][13][14], ultrasonic manipulator [15], electrostatic force manipulator [16], and alternating electric field trap [17][18][19], provide better performance in manipulating smaller particles.…”

Modeling of Biological Interfacial Processes Using Thickness–Shear Mode Sensors

“…Phenomena such as cell adhesion (Soonjin et al, 2006. ), superhydrophobicity (Sun et al, 2006, Roach et al, 2007, particle-surface interactions (Zhang et al,2005), organic and inorganic particle manipulation (Desa et al, 2010) and rheological and interfacial properties of blood coagulation (Ergezen et al 2007) were studied using TSM sensors. Due to the high interfacial sensitivity of TSM sensors, it has been shown that cell motility can be monitored by analyzing the noise of the TSM sensor response (Sapper et al, 2006).…”