A Microfluidic Driving Method based on Ultrasonic Cavitation Bubbles

Abstract

The applications of traditional thermal bubble microfluidic driving methods are limited by high local heat. To overcome this problem, a novel microfluidic driving method based on ultrasonic cavitation bubbles is proposed in this paper. A piezoelectric transducer is employed instead of thermal method, to generate ultrasonic cavitation bubbles, in this case, the flow rate can be extremely low but continuous, without heat problems. A prototype based on this principle has been designed, fabricated and tested, showing a minimal flow rate of 0.1873 nL/min with 80Vpp applied voltage, and a maximal valid flow rate of 17.741 nL/min with 130Vpp applied voltage at the frequency of 23.78kHz.