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.

Acoustic devices for particle and cell manipulation and sensing.

An emerging demand for the precise manipulation of cells and particles for applications in cell biology and analytical chemistry has driven rapid development of ultrasonic manipulation technology. Compared to the other manipulation technologies, such as magnetic tweezing, dielectrophoresis and optical tweezing, ultrasonic manipulation has shown potential in a variety of applications, with its advantages of versatile, inexpensive and easy integration into microfluidic systems, maintenance of cell viability, and generation of sufficient forces to handle particles, cells and their agglomerates. This article briefly reviews current practice and reports our development of various ultrasonic standing wave manipulation devices, including simple devices integrated with high frequency (>20 MHz) ultrasonic transducers for the investigation of biological cells and complex ultrasonic transducer array systems to explore the feasibility of electronically controlled 2-D and 3-D manipulation.