Acoustic micromixer for enhancement of DNA biochip systems

Robin Hui Liu; Ralf Lenigk; Piotr A. Grodzinski

doi:10.1117/1.1582467

1 July 2003 Acoustic micromixer for enhancement of DNA biochip systems

Robin Hui Liu, Ralf Lenigk, Piotr A. Grodzinski

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS, Vol. 2, Issue 3, (July 2003). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.1582467

Abstract

Microfluidics is emerging as one of the fastest growing segments of micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technologies due to its potential applications in biotechnology, chemical microreactors, and drug discovery. Micromixing is one of the most challenging problems in microfluidic systems, since it is a diffusion-limited process and can be very inefficient. A micromixing device based on an acoustic microstreaming principle is developed to enhance micromixing. The micromixer uses air bubbles as actuators that can be set into vibration by a sound field. The vibration of the air bubbles generates steady circulatory flows, resulting in global convection flows and thus rapid mixing. The time to fully mix dyed solutions in a 50-μL shallow chamber using acoustic microstreaming is significantly reduced from hours (a pure diffusion-based mixing) to 6 s. We demonstrate the use of this micromixer to enhance the performance of conventional DNA microarray biochips that often suffer from lengthy hybridization and poor signal uniformity due to a diffusion-limited hybridization process. Experiments showed that the acoustic micromixer results in five-fold hybridization signal enhancement with significantly improved signal uniformity, as compared to conventional diffusion-based biochips. Acoustic microstreaming has many advantages over most existing micromixing techniques, including a simple apparatus, ease of implementation, low power consumption (~ 2 mW), and low cost.

©(2003) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Citation Download Citation

Robin Hui Liu, Ralf Lenigk, and Piotr A. Grodzinski "Acoustic micromixer for enhancement of DNA biochip systems," Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS 2(3), (1 July 2003). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.1582467

Published: 1 July 2003

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

;

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE