Experimental study on a single particle trap with a pneumatic vibrator matrix

Abstract

This paper describes a fundamental study on a pneumatic particle trap with a vibrator matrix. The particle trap device consisted of pneumatic vibrators and a trap chamber used to trap a particle. The entire structure was fabricated from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The particle in the trap chamber was manipulated and trapped in the equilibrium region by exploiting the geometrical symmetry of the vibrators. The x-axial velocity of the viscous fluid induced by the deformation of the flexible diaphragms was eliminated or minimized at the center of two vibrators. Therefore, a particle could be trapped in the central capturing region by two or four vibrators. The trapping of static and dynamic single particles was observed to verify the proposed operational method.