Designing and Manufacturing of a 2-Node Acoustofluidic Microchannel

These days, investigation on using acoustofluidic microchannels in separation of microparticles and cells is under consideration. Working under optimum efficiency, these microchannels should be designed and manufactured truly. In this work, a new methodology for designing and manufacturing of acoustofluidic microchannels are explained. Then, a metallic microchannel with 2-nodes of pressure wave based on this method was developed. For mass production purpose, a low cost and reliable method which is CNC micromachining is used. Also, to conduct the heat generated by the wave, this microchannel was made out of aluminum and then polishing technique is applied. Then, the performance of this microchannel in agglomerating of human blood cells and BT-20 breast cancer cells to nodal lines was experimentally studied. The results showed that the applied design and manufacturing technique are suitable. Although some tests were performed to find temperature rise of microchannel due to damping effect, it was found that true design method and also using metals with high thermal conductivity can prevent the temperature increase to the point beyond which living cells will be hurt.