Ultrasonic Manipulation Research Articles

Acoustic Hologram Enhanced Phased Arrays for Ultrasonic Particle Manipulation

By combining phased-array technology with recent developments in acoustic holograms, the authors enhance the capabilities of ultrasonic particle manipulation while reducing the cost. A 3D-printed hologram enables them to create high-fidelity force fields and manipulate small objects along complex paths. Attached to this hologram is an array of independent sound sources; controlling the output delay (phase) of these sources allows movement of the force field in space, yielding noncontact ``tweezers'' that can trap particles of almost any shape. Applications include 3D-bioprinting of cells to create designer tissues, as well as holding microorganisms in place for careful biological study.

Ultrasonic Extraction and Manipulation of Droplets from a Liquid-Liquid Interface with Near-Field Acoustic Tweezers

The acoustic radiation force and associated trapping by ``acoustic tweezers'' is an efficient means of particle manipulation in a variety of applications, although this trapping is highly sensitive to parameters of the object and beam. The authors show how to extract and manipulate droplets from a fluid interface without mechanical contact, using near-field acoustic tweezers, with the near-field pressure gradient allowing automatic trapping after extraction. The strong, flexible trapping here is an advantage over traditional tweezers based on focused beams or standing waves, and can be of great importance in both laboratory and industrial settings.

Generating Bessel beams with broad depth-of-field by using phase-only acoustic holograms

We report zero-th and high-order acoustic Bessel beams with broad depth-of-field generated using acoustic holograms. While the transverse field distribution of Bessel beams generated using traditional passive methods is correctly described by a Bessel function, these methods present a common drawback: the axial distribution of the field is not constant, as required for ideal Bessel beams. In this work, we experimentally, numerically and theoretically report acoustic truncated Bessel beams of flat-intensity along their axis in the ultrasound regime using phase-only holograms. In particular, the beams present a uniform field distribution showing an elongated focal length of about 40 wavelengths, while the transverse width of the beam remains smaller than 0.7 wavelengths. The proposed acoustic holograms were compared with 3D-printed fraxicons, a blazed version of axicons. The performance of both phase-only holograms and fraxicons is studied and we found that both lenses produce Bessel beams in a wide range of frequencies. In addition, high-order Bessel beam were generated. We report first order Bessel beams that show a clear phase dislocation along their axis and a vortex with single topological charge. The proposed method may have potential applications in ultrasonic imaging, biomedical ultrasound and particle manipulation applications using passive lenses.

Determination of 5-nitro-2-furaldehyde as marker residue for nitrofurazone treatment in farmed shrimps and with addressing the use of a novel internal standard

We developed a significantly improved ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for determination of 5-nitro-2-furaldehyde (NF) as a surrogate using a novel internal standard for the detection of nitrofurazone. We used 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine derivatization and furfural as the internal standard. Derivatization was easily performed in HCl using ultrasonic manipulation for 5 min followed by liquid extraction using ethyl acetate. The samples were concentrated and purified using reverse phase and alumina cartridges in tandem. The derivatives were separated using a linear gradient elution on a C18 column with methanol and water as the mobile phase in negative ionization mode and multiple reaction monitoring. Under the optimized conditions, the calibration curves were linear from 0.2 to 20 μg/L with correlation coefficients >0.999. Mean recoveries were 80.8 to 104.4% with the intra- and inter-day relative standard deviations <15% at spiking levels of 0.1 to 10 μg/kg. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.05 and 0.1 μg/kg, respectively. This method is a robust tool for the identification and quantitative determination of NF in shrimp samples.

Medical Microrobot - Wireless Manipulation of a Drug Delivery Carrier through an External Ultrasonic Actuation: Preliminary Results

To achieve precise and untethered clinical therapeutics, microrobots have been widely researched. However, because conventional microrobot actuation is based on magnetic forces generated by a magnetic field and magnetic particles, unexpected side effects caused by additional magnetic ingredients could induce clinical safety issues. In this paper, as an alternative to an untethered actuator, we present a novel ultrasonic actuation mechanism that enables drug particle/cell manipulation and micro/nano-robot actuation in clinical biology and medicine. Firstly, characteristics of the acoustic field in the vessel mimic circular tube, formed from particles emerging through a submerged ultrasonic transducer, are mathematically analyzed and modeled. Thereafter, a control method is proposed for trapping and moving the micro-particles by using acoustic radiation force (ARF) in a standing wave of a tangential standing wave. The feasibility of the proposed method could be demonstrated with the help of experiments conducted using a single transducer with a resonance frequency of 950 kHz and a motorized linear stage, which were used in a water tank. The micro-particles in the tube were trapped via ultrasound and the position of the micro-particles could be controlled by frequency manipulation of the transducer and motor control. This study shows that ultrasonic manipulation can be used for specific applications, such as the operation of a micro robot inserted in a peripheral blood vessel and targeted for drug delivery.

Self-assembly of polyoxometalate-based hybrid molecules into nanoparticles or vesicles regulated by simple experimental manipulation

A polyoxometalate (POM)-cholic acid hybrid was prepared by grafting cholic acid moieties on two sides of the POM cluster. The self-assembly behaviors developed by POM-cholic acid hybrid molecules in a methanol/toluene mixed solution were studied to improve the control of molecular architectures. Under the control conditions, nanoparticles and vesicles in solution systems were formed using simple experimental manipulation. The nanoparticles were prepared with hybrid molecules using ultrasonic manipulation, while the vesicles were formed through aging manipulation. More specifically, these different morphologies were thoroughly studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. The results revealed that the self-assembly behaviors of hybrid molecules can be readily regulated through simple experimental manipulations. Additionally, we also propose the mechanisms of formation of nanoparticles and vesicles. This work may provide a smart approach to the effective design and fabrication of multifunctional supramolecular materials with adjustable structural architectures.

Acoustically Triggered Harvesting of Nanometer Airborne Particles – A Numerical Model for the Ultrasonic Manipulation

In this study, the focus is to model the physics of acoustic harvesting for 100 nanometer particles in order to lay the groundwork for technical feasibility studies. Based on a simplified 2D test-case channel geometry with an intense acoustic standing wave field the relevant drag and acoustic forces are reviewed and implemented in a numerical model. The standing wave is appropriately formulated to harvest particles in one single pressure antinode which conforms to the centerline of the channel. The particle trajectories along the chosen test-case channel have been analytically verified. Advancements in the acoustic manipulation of particles have mainly received attention for liquid carrier media. The conceived model is numerically stable and suitable to assess the potential of harvesting nanometer aerosols in gaseous environments.

Simultaneous quantitation of hydrazine and acetylhydrazine in human plasma by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry after derivatization with p-tolualdehyde.

A high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method was developed for simultaneous quantitative analysis of hydrazine and acetylhydrazine in human plasma based on the strategy of p-tolualdehyde derivatization. The derivatization reactions were easily realized by ultrasonic manipulation for 40min. Good separation of the derivatization products was achieved using a C18 column by gradient elution. The optimized mass transition ion-pairs (m/z) monitored for the two hydrazine derivatives were m/z 237.1≫>119.9 and m/z 176.9≫>117.8, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for hydrazine were 0.002 and 0.005ngmL-1 separately. And they were 0.03 and 0.05ngmL-1 for acetylhydrazine, respectively. The linear range was 0.005-50ngmL-1 for hydrazine and 0.05-500ngmL-1 for acetylhydrazine with R2 greater than 0.999. The recovery range was determined to be 95.38-108.12% with the relative standard deviation (RSD) in the range of 1.24-14.89%. The method was successfully applied to detect 30 clinical plasma samples of pulmonary tuberculosis patients treated with isoniazid. The concentrations were from 0.04-1.99ngmL-1 for hydrazine and 0.06-142.43ngmL-1 for acetylhydrazine. The results indicated that our developed method had the potential for the detection of hydrazine toxicology in complex biological samples. Furthermore, the method has an important significance to clinical treatment with drugs.

Effective cell trapping using PDMS microspheres in an acoustofluidic chip

We present a facile particle-based cell manipulation method using acoustic radiation forces. In this work, we selected several representative particles including poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres, silica-coated magnetic microbeads, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microspheres and investigated the responses of these particle systems to ultrasonic standing waves (USWs) in a microfluidic chip. We show that depending on the nature (positive or negative acoustic contrast factors) of the particles, these particle systems display different alignment behaviors along the microfluidic channel under USWs. Specifically, PLGA microspheres and silica-coated magnetic microbeads are able to be aligned in the middle of the microfluidic channel, while PDMS microspheres are translocated to the side walls of the channel, which is beneficial for cell trapping and manipulation. Further results demonstrate that the functional PDMS microspheres with a negative acoustic contrast factor can be used to trap cells to the pressure antinodes in the acoustofluidic chip. Cell viability tests reveal that the ultrasonic manipulation does not exert any harmful effect to the cells. This acoustic-based particle and cell manipulation technique may hold a great promise for the development of rapid, noninvasive, continuous assays for detecting of cells and separation of biological samples.

Self-bending elastic waves and obstacle circumventing in wireless power transfer

We demonstrate self-bending of elastic waves along convex trajectories by means of geometric and phased arrays. Potential applications include ultrasonic imaging and manipulation, wave focusing, and wireless power transfer around obstacles. The basic concept is illustrated through a geometric array, which is designed to implement a phase delay profile among the array elements that leads to self-bending along a specified circular trajectory. Experimental validation is conducted for the lowest asymmetric Lamb wave mode in a thin plate over a range of frequencies to investigate the bandwidth of the approach. Experiments also illustrate the functionality of the array as a transmitter to deliver elastic wave energy to a receiver/harvester located behind a large obstacle for electrical power extraction. It is shown that the trajectory is not distorted by the presence of the obstacle and circumventing is achieved. A linear phased array counterpart of the geometric array is then constructed to illustrate the concept by imposing proper time delays to the array elements, which allows the generation of different trajectories using the same line source. This capability is demonstrated by tailoring the path diameter in the phased array setting, which offers the flexibility and versatility to induce a variety of convex trajectories for self-bending elastic waves.

On-chip ultrasonic manipulation of microparticles by using the flexural vibration of a glass substrate

As biotechnology develops, techniques for manipulating and separating small particles such as cells and DNA are required in the life sciences. This paper investigates on-chip manipulation of microparticles in small channels by using ultrasonic vibration. The chip consists of a rectangular glass substrate with a cross-shaped channel (cross-section: 2.0×2.0mm2) and four lead zirconate titanate transducers attached to the substrate’s four corners. To efficiently generate the flexural vibration mode on the chip, we used finite element analysis to optimize the configurations of the glass substrate and transducers. Silicon carbide microparticles with an average diameter of 50μm were immersed in the channels, which were filled with ethanol. By applying an in-phase input voltage of 75V at 225kHz to the four transducers, a flexural vibration mode with a wavelength of 13mm was excited on the glass substrate, and this flexural vibration generated an acoustic standing wave in the channel. The particles could be trapped at the nodal lines of the standing wave. By controlling the driving phase difference between the two pairs of transducers, the vibrational distribution of the substrate could be moved along the channels so that the acoustic standing wave moved in the same direction. The trapped particles could be manipulated by the two-phase drive, and the transport direction could be switched at the junction of the channels orthogonally by changing the combination of the driving condition to four transducers.

Holograms for acoustics.

Holographic techniques are fundamental to applications such as volumetric displays, high-density data storage and optical tweezers that require spatial control of intricate optical or acoustic fields within a three-dimensional volume. The basis of holography is spatial storage of the phase and/or amplitude profile of the desired wavefront in a manner that allows that wavefront to be reconstructed by interference when the hologram is illuminated with a suitable coherent source. Modern computer-generated holography skips the process of recording a hologram from a physical scene, and instead calculates the required phase profile before rendering it for reconstruction. In ultrasound applications, the phase profile is typically generated by discrete and independently driven ultrasound sources; however, these can only be used in small numbers, which limits the complexity or degrees of freedom that can be attained in the wavefront. Here we introduce monolithic acoustic holograms, which can reconstruct diffraction-limited acoustic pressure fields and thus arbitrary ultrasound beams. We use rapid fabrication to craft the holograms and achieve reconstruction degrees of freedom two orders of magnitude higher than commercial phased array sources. The technique is inexpensive, appropriate for both transmission and reflection elements, and scales well to higher information content, larger aperture size and higher power. The complex three-dimensional pressure and phase distributions produced by these acoustic holograms allow us to demonstrate new approaches to controlled ultrasonic manipulation of solids in water, and of liquids and solids in air. We expect that acoustic holograms will enable new capabilities in beam-steering and the contactless transfer of power, improve medical imaging, and drive new applications of ultrasound.

Effect of holed reflector on acoustic radiation force in noncontact ultrasonic dispensing of small droplets

We investigated the fundamental aspects of droplet dispensing, which is an important procedure in the noncontact ultrasonic manipulation of droplets in air. A holed reflector was used to dispense a droplet from a 27.4 kHz standing-wave acoustic field to a well. First, the relationship between the hole diameter of the reflector and the acoustic radiation force acting on a levitated droplet was clarified by calculating the acoustic impedance of the point just above the hole. When the hole diameter was half of (or equal to) the acoustic wavelength λ, the acoustic radiation force was ∼80% (or 50%) of that without a hole. The maximal diameters of droplets levitated above the holes through flat and half-cylindrical reflectors were then experimentally investigated. For instance, with the half-cylindrical reflector, the maximal diameter was 5.0 mm for a hole diameter of 6.0 mm, and droplets were levitatable up to a hole diameter of 12 mm (∼λ).

Acoustic radiation and viscous torque for micromanipulation controlled rotation of particles in fluid cavities

Our investigations at ETH Zurich aimed at the theoretical analysis of the acoustic torque and its experimental realization of a controlled rotation of spherical and non-spherical particles by ultrasound. Ultrasonic manipulation of particles provides a contactless handling method for particles suspended in a fluid by acoustic streaming and radiation forces. In addition to the translation of particles in all three spatial directions, particles like functional beads, cells, clumps of cells, fibers, etc., can be rotated. Various methods for the rotation of non-spherical particles were developed with the acoustic radiation torque. The necessary varying pressure field, where the orientation of the nodal pressure lines was controlled by two orthogonal standing waves, was achieved by a modulation of one single parameter over time, e.g., amplitude, phase, and frequency. Stable particle and fiber rotations up to 40 rpm were reached. The rotation can be performed continuously or in a stepwise fashion. Moreover, the rotation of spherical objects was realized by the viscous torque. This torque is formed by acoustic streaming, due to two orthogonal standing waves shifted in phase at the same excitation frequency and amplitude. Angular rotations up to 1200 rpm for spherical 35.5 μm copolymer particles were reached.

Performance and Robustness Improvements in Ultrasonic Transportation Against Large-Scale Streaming

Acoustic streaming generated from the traveling-wave component of a synthesized sound field often has considerable influence on ultrasonic manipulations, in which the behavior of microparticles may be disturbed. In this work, the large-scale streaming pattern in a chamber with three incident plane waves is simulated, illustrating a directional traveling stream pattern and several vortical structures. Based on the numerical results, the trapping capability of an acoustic potential well is quantitatively characterized according to several evaluation criteria: the boundary and elastic constant of the acoustic potential well, the acoustic radiation force offset ratio, and the elastic constant offset ratio. By optimizing these parameters, the constraint of the acoustic potential well can be strengthened to promote the performance and robustness of the ultrasonic transportation. An ultrasonic manipulation device employing three 1.67-MHz lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducers with rectangular radiation surface is prototyped and performance tested. The experimental results show that the average fluctuations of a microparticle during transportation have been suppressed into a region less than 0.01 times the wavelength. Particle displacement from equilibrium is no longer observed.

3D printed components with ultrasonically arranged microscale structure

This paper shows the first application of in situ manipulation of discontinuous fibrous structure mid-print, within a 3D printed polymeric composite architecture. Currently, rapid prototyping methods (fused filament fabrication, stereolithography) are gaining increasing popularity within the engineering commnity to build structural components. Unfortunately, the full potential of these components is limited by the mechanical properties of the materials used. The aim of this study is to create and demonstrate a novel method to instantaneously orient micro-scale glass fibres within a selectively cured photocurable resin system, using ultrasonic forces to align the fibres in the desired 3D architecture. To achieve this we have mounted a switchable, focused laser module on the carriage of a three-axis 3D printing stage, above an in-house ultrasonic alignment rig containing a mixture of photocurable resin and discontinuous 14 μm diameter glass fibre reinforcement(50 μm length). In our study, a suitable print speed of 20 mm s−1 was used, which is comparable to conventional additive layer techniques. We show the ability to construct in-plane orthogonally aligned sections printed side by side, where the precise orientation of the configurations is controlled by switching the ultrasonic standing wave profile mid-print. This approach permits the realisation of complex fibrous architectures within a 3D printed landscape. The versatile nature of the ultrasonic manipulation technique also permits a wide range of particle types (diameters, aspect ratios and functions) and architectures (in-plane, and out-plane) to be patterned, leading to the creation of a new generation of fibrous reinforced composites for 3D printing.

Dynamic-field devices for the ultrasonic manipulation of microparticles.

The use of acoustic radiation forces in lab-on-a-chip environments has seen a rapid development in recent years. Operations such as particle sieving, sorting and characterisation are becoming increasingly common with a range of applications in the biomedical sciences. Traditionally, these applications rely on static patterns of ultrasonic pressure and are often collectively referred to as ultrasonic standing wave devices. Recent years have also seen the emergence of devices which capitalise on dynamic and reconfigurable ultrasonic fields and these are the subject of this review. Dynamic ultrasonic fields lead to acoustic radiation forces that change with time. They have opened up the possibility of performing a wide range of manipulations such as the transport and rotation of individual particles or agglomerates. In addition, they have led to device reconfigurability, i.e. the ability of a single lab-on-a-chip device to perform multiple functions. This opens up the possibility of channel-less microfluidic devices which would have many applications, for example in biosensing and microscale assembly. This paper reviews the current state of the field of dynamic and reconfigurable ultrasonic particle manipulation devices and then discusses the open problems and future possibilities.

Two-dimensional noncontact transportation of small objects in air using flexural vibration of a plate.

This paper investigates a two-dimensional ultrasonic manipulation technique for small objects in air. The ultrasonic levitation system consists of a rectangular vibrating plate with four ultrasonic transducers and a reflector. The configuration of the vibrator, the resonant frequency, and the positions of the four transducers with step horns were determined from finite element analysis such that an intense acoustic standing-wave field could be generated between the plates. A lattice flexural vibration mode with a wavelength of 28.3 mm was excited on the prototype plate at 24.6 kHz. Small objects could get trapped in air along the horizontal nodal plane of the standing wave. By controlling the driving phase difference between the transducers, trapped objects could be transported without contact in a two-dimensional plane. When the phase difference was changed from 0° to 720°, the distance moved by a small particle in the orthogonal direction was approximately 29 mm, which corresponds with the wavelength of the flexural vibration on the vibrating plate.

Screen-printed ultrasonic 2-D matrix array transducers for microparticle manipulation

This paper reports the development of a two-dimensional thick film lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ultrasonic transducer array, operating at frequency approximately 7.5MHz, to demonstrate the potential of this fabrication technique for microparticle manipulation. All layers of the array are screen-printed then sintered on an alumina substrate without any subsequent patterning processes. The thickness of the thick film PZT is 139±2μm, the element pitch of the array is 2.3mm, and the dimension of each individual PZT element is 2×2mm2 with top electrode 1.7×1.7mm2. The measured relative dielectric constant of the PZT is 2250±100 and the dielectric loss is 0.09±0.005 at 10kHz. Finite element analysis was used to predict the behaviour of the array and to optimise its configuration. Electrical impedance spectroscopy and laser vibrometry were used to characterise the array experimentally. The measured surface motion of a single element is on the order of tens of nanometres with a 10Vpeak continuous sinusoidal excitation. Particle manipulation experiments have been demonstrated with the array by manipulating Ø10μm polystyrene microspheres in degassed water. The simplified array fabrication process and the bulk production capability of screen-printing suggest potential for the commercialisation of multilayer planar resonant devices for ultrasonic particle manipulation.

An ultrasonic manipulator with noncontact and contact-type nanowire trapping functions

The ultrasonic manipulation technology had a breakthrough recently, which makes ultrasonic trapping, orientation, transportation, rotation and concentration of nanowires possible. However, the existing manipulation technology based on ultrasound cannot integrate the noncontact and contact nanowire trapping functions in one device. It would widen the application range if a manipulator has both the noncontact and contact trapping functions. In this work, we proposed and developed a dual function device capable of trapping individual nanowires in the noncontact and contact ways. The device is simply made up of a piezoelectric component, a vibration transmission needle, and a micro manipulating probe. The vibration transmission needle, made of steel, is bonded along the narrower side of the piezoelectric component to transmit vibration energy from the piezoelectric component to the manipulating probe. The micro manipulating probe, made of fiberglass, is bonded to the tip of the vibration transmission needle, to generate an acoustic streaming field to trap an individual nanowire in water film on a substrate. In the experiments, individual silver nanowires with a 300nm-diameter and length up to 30μm can be trapped and transferred in the contact and noncontact ways. The analyses show that making the micro manipulation probe oscillate linearly and elliptically at proper working frequencies is a way to integrate the noncontact and contact trapping functions in one device.