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High‐Efficiency Mixing Chip with Liquid Flow Actuators Operated by Surface Acoustic Waves
Author(s) -
Saiki Tsunemasa,
Utsumi Yuichi
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
electronics and communications in japan
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.131
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1942-9541
pISSN - 1942-9533
DOI - 10.1002/ecj.11440
Subject(s) - mixing (physics) , materials science , chip , actuator , acoustics , micromixer , surface acoustic wave , flow (mathematics) , channel (broadcasting) , interdigital transducer , flow control (data) , substrate (aquarium) , microfluidics , optoelectronics , electrical engineering , nanotechnology , engineering , mechanics , telecommunications , physics , oceanography , quantum mechanics , geology
SUMMARY Surface acoustic wave ( SAW ) devices can be used as component parts for micro total analysis systems ( μTAS ) because their structures are very simple. We thus fabricated a mixing chip with liquid flow actuators operated only by SAWs . The chip consists mainly of one Y‐type flow channel, two pumps, and one mixer. The pumps are located in the upstream areas of the merging point of the flow channel, and the mixer is located in its downstream area. Additionally, the flow actuators have interdigital transducers ( IDTs ) to generate the SAWs . The IDTs were fabricated by patterning Al/Cr on a LiNbO 3 substrate, and the flow channel wall was made of the epoxy‐based negative resist SU ‐8. Using the mixing chip, we carried out a mixing experiment with two water solutions of different concentrations using glycerin, and a chemical reaction experiment involving luminol luminescence. Through the experiments, it was found that local and rapid mixing of a continuous liquid flow was possible by using the SAW actuators, and the capability of our fabricated mixing chip as a reactor was demonstrated. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 97(1): 54–61, 2014; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/ecj.11440