Detection and high-precision positioning of liquid droplets using SAW systems.

The capability to accurately handle liquids in small volumes is a key point for the development of lab-on-chip devices. In this paper, we investigate an application of surface acoustic waves (SAW) for positioning micro-droplets. A SAW device based on a 2 x 2 matrix of inter-digital transducers (IDTs) has been fabricated on a (YXI)/128 degrees LiNbO3 substrate, which implies displacement and detection in two dimensions of droplets atop a flat surface.