High-throughput, temperature-controlled microchannel acoustophoresis device made with rapid prototyping

• Published in: Journal of micromechanics and microengineering Vol. 22; no. 7; pp. 75017 - 8
• Main Authors: Adams, Jonathan D, Ebbesen, Christian L, Barnkob, Rune, Yang, Allen H J, Soh, H Tom, Bruus, Henrik
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.07.2012; Institute of Physics
• Subjects: Acoustophoresis; Beads; Biological and medical sciences; Blood; Blood cells; Compressibility; Density; Devices; high-throughput microchannel acoustophoresis; Human; Medical sciences; Radiotherapy. Instrumental treatment. Physiotherapy. Reeducation. Rehabilitation, orthophony, crenotherapy. Diet therapy and various other treatments (general aspects); rapid prototyping; Technology. Biomaterials. Equipments. Material. Instrumentation; temperature-controlled ultrasound standing waves; Human; Fluid mechanics; Particle size; Glass; High temperature; Experimental study; Particle separation; Blood cell; Rapid prototyping; Temperature control; Ultrasound; Microfluidics; Standing wave; Production process
• ISSN: 0960-1317; 1361-6439
• DOI: 10.1088/0960-1317/22/7/075017

We report a temperature-controlled microfluidic acoustophoresis device capable of separating particles and transferring blood cells from undiluted whole human blood at a volume throughput greater than 1 L h−1. The device is fabricated from glass substrates and polymer sheets in microscope-slide format using low-cost, rapid-prototyping techniques. This high-throughput acoustophoresis chip (HTAC) utilizes a temperature-stabilized, standing ultrasonic wave, which imposes differential acoustic radiation forces that can separate particles according to size, density and compressibility. The device proved capable of separating a mixture of 10- and 2-μm-diameter polystyrene beads with a sorting efficiency of 0.8 at a flow rate of 1 L h−1. As a first step toward biological applications, the HTAC was also tested in processing whole human blood and proved capable of transferring blood cells from undiluted whole human blood with an efficiency of 0.95 at 1 L h−1 and 0.82 at 2 L h−1.