Acoustic Trapping: An Emerging Tool for Microfabrication Technology |
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| Authors: | Chengying Yin Xingyu Jiang Stephen Mann Liangfei Tian Bruce W Drinkwater |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Cardio-Cerebral Vascular Detection Technology and Medicinal Effectiveness Appraisal, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027 China;2. Centre for Protolife Research and Centre for Organized Matter Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TS UK;3. Faculty of Engineering, Queen's Building, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TR UK |
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| Abstract: | The high throughput deposition of microscale objects with precise spatial arrangement represents a key step in microfabrication technology. This can be done by creating physical boundaries to guide the deposition process or using printing technologies; in both approaches, these microscale objects cannot be further modified after they are formed. The utilization of dynamic acoustic fields offers a novel approach to facilitate real-time reconfigurable miniaturized systems in a contactless manner, which can potentially be used in physics, chemistry, biology, as well as materials science. Here, the physical interactions of microscale objects in an acoustic pressure field are discussed and how to fabricate different acoustic trapping devices and how to tune the spatial arrangement of the microscale objects are explained. Moreover, different approaches that can dynamically modulate microscale objects in acoustic fields are presented, and the potential applications of the microarrays in biomedical engineering, chemical/biochemical sensing, and materials science are highlighted alongside a discussion of future research challenges. |
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| Keywords: | acoustic trapping microfabrication tissue engineering |
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