Manipulating particle trajectories with phase-control in surface acoustic wave microfluidics

We present a 91 MHz surface acoustic wave resonator with integrated microfluidics that includes a flow focus, an expansion region, and a binning region in order to manipulate particle trajectories. We demonstrate the ability to change the position of the acoustic nodes by varying the electronic phase of one of the transducers relative to the other in a pseudo-static manner. The measurements were performed at room temperature with 3 mu m diameter latex beads dispersed in a water-based solution. We demonstrate the dependence of nodal position on pseudo-static phase and show simultaneous control of 9 bead streams with spatial control of -0.058 mu m/deg +/- 0.001 mu m/deg. As a consequence of changing the position of bead streams perpendicular to their flow direction, we also show that the integrated acoustic-microfluidic device can be used to change the trajectory of a bead stream towards a selected bin with an angular control of 0.008 deg/deg +/- 0.000(2) deg/deg. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3661129]