Simultaneous Orientation Locking and Translation of Samples with Phased Arrays

Abstract

Acoustic levitation allows non-contact, non-destructive and non-contaminating handling of samples. Acoustic levitation is possible by overcoming gravity through acoustic radiation force. Simultaneous orientation locking and translation has been demonstrated before. Here, we demonstrate the use of these methods for precise manipulation of multiple samples simultaneously. The ability to control orientation while simultaneously translating samples could prove useful in many fields from chemistry to the assembly of small electronics. The acoustic pressure field was created with an acoustic levitator that features 450 transducers controlled by FPGAs. The FPGAs allow for amplitude, phase, and frequency control for each transducer individually.