Manipulation of microparticles using phase-controllable ultrasonic standing waves

C. R. P. Courtney, C.-K. Ong, B. W. Drinkwater, P. D. Wilcox, C. Demore, S. Cochran, P. Glynne-Jones, and M.

Hill

Citation: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 128, EL195 (2010); doi: 10.1121/1.3479976
View online: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.3479976
View Table of Contents: http://asa.scitation.org/toc/jas/128/4
Published by the Acoustical Society of America

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Courtney et al.: JASA Express Letters 关DOI: 10.1121/1.3479976兴 Published Online 10 September 2010

Manipulation of microparticles using phase-

controllable ultrasonic standing waves
C. R. P. Courtney,a) C.-K. Ong, B. W. Drinkwater, and P. D. Wilcox
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TR, United Kingdom
c.r.p.courtney@bristol.ac.uk, co7014@bristol.ac.uk, b.drinkwater@bristol.ac.uk, p.wilcox@bristol.ac.uk

C. Demore and S. Cochran

Institute for Medical Science and Technology, School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics, University of
Dundee, Dundee DD2 1FD, United Kingdom
c.demore@dundee.ac.uk, s.cochran@dundee.ac.uk

P. Glynne-Jones and M. Hill

School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
p.glynne-jones@soton.ac.uk, m.hill@soton.ac.uk

Abstract: A method of manipulating microparticles in a liquid using ultra-

sound is proposed and demonstrated. An ultrasonic standing wave with nodal
planes whose positions are controllable by varying the relative phase of two
applied sinusoidal signals is generated using a pair of acoustically matched
piezoelectric transducers. The resulting acoustic radiation force is used to
trap micron scale particles at a series of arbitrary positions (determined by
the relative phase) and then move them in a controlled manner. This method
is demonstrated experimentally and 5 µm polystyrene particles are trapped
and moved in one dimension through 140 µm.
© 2010 Acoustical Society of America
PACS numbers: 43.25.Qp, 43.38.Ar, 43.20.Ks [MFH]
Date Received: June 29, 2010 Date Accepted: July 18, 2010

Forces acting on particles because of the scattering of ultrasonic waves1,2 have proved ef-
fective in the manipulation of microparticles.3 This has led to substantial interest in the use of
ultrasonic devices to manipulate biological cells,4 with applications including aggregation,5
separation6 and sensing.7 Many of these applications rely on the use of resonant standing waves
and move the particles to positions determined primarily by the geometry of the device.4–7
There has been recent interest in developing methods to trap and then move particles using the
acoustic force: approaches include using focused transducers8 (in a manner analogous to optical
tweezers) and mode switching between resonant states.9–11 Here an alternative method of trap-
ping and moving particles at arbitrary positions, which uses spatially controlled standing waves,
is proposed and demonstrated by manipulating 5 µm-radius polystyrene spheres. This ap-
proach has significant advantages, in terms of the simplicity and flexibility of the device, over
previous attempts to controllably manipulate particles using ultrasound. First, the monotonic
relationship between a user-variable property of the input signals (the phase difference) and the
particle position allows straightforward control of particle positions. This does not require de-
tailed knowledge of system modes or calculations based thereon, as is the case for existing
mode switching approaches and is not restricted to a limited set of nodal positions based on
device geometry. Second, the device can be operated in a narrow frequency band that allows the
transduction system to be optimized which, for example, allows the exploitation of the rela-
tively high Q values of piezoceramics. Third, as the approach does not rely on establishing a
standing wave throughout the device so it may be operated with pulsed excitation which leads to
more rapid force variation, particularly where the chamber is many wavelengths across.

a兲
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 128 共4兲, October 2010 © 2010 Acoustical Society of America EL195
Courtney et al.: JASA Express Letters 关DOI: 10.1121/1.3479976兴 Published Online 10 September 2010

y
Matched transducers for
x manipulation in x-direction Glass plate
reflector

4 mm
Liquid-filled cavity

15 mm
Piezoceramic plate
for levitation in y-direction

Aluminum-doped
epoxy matching layer

Tungsten-doped
Piezoceramic plate
epoxy backing layer

Fig. 1. Cross-section of particle manipulation device. The device extends 15 mm in direction perpendicular to the
cross-section with the liquid-filled cavity enclosed front and back with acrylic windows to facilitate imaging. The z
axis is out of plane.

The principle of operation is to produce a standing wave in a liquid-filled cavity using

counter-propagating traveling waves with a controllable phase difference between them. The
traveling waves are generated by opposing piezoelectric transducers at either end of the cavity.
The transducers are acoustically matched to the liquid to minimize resonances within the cavity.
If the field amplitude generated by each transducer is the same then a standing wave pattern is
generated with nodes positioned at half-wavelength separations. The acoustic radiation force
exerted by the plane standing wave acts to move dense particles to the nodes of the pressure
field.1 Assuming that there is negligible reflection from the transducer faces, the position of the
nodes changes linearly with the relative phase, ⌬⌽, between the excitation signals applied to the
transducers.
Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a prototype device. The device can be divided into
a levitation stage, which holds the particles against gravity in the y-direction, and a manipula-
tion stage, which traps the particles in the x-direction and allows them to be moved in that
direction. The levitation stage is a resonant system comprising a 5 mm-thick piezoceramic plate
共15 mm⫻ 15 mm兲 separated from a 1 mm-thick glass reflector by a 4 mm-thick water-filled cav-
ity. The manipulation stage consists of two identical transducers placed facing each other. Each
transducer comprises a 15 mm⫻ 2 mm section of 1.33 mm thick piezoceramic plate, with doped-
epoxy matching and backing layers. A one-dimensional electro-acoustic transmission line
model12,13 was used to determine suitable thicknesses and acoustic properties for these layers, in
particular the matching layer impedance, Zm, would ideally be related to the impedances of the
transducer ZT and the water Zw by the relationship Zm = 共ZwZT兲1/2. The experimental results of Wang
et al.14 were then used to select suitable epoxy dopant compositions to achieve the desired acoustic
properties. The resultant Zm is within 50% of this optimal value, however it still provides sufficient
matching the present device to this work. The thicknesses (in the x-direction) and material properties
of the components of the transducers are summarized in Table 1.
A minimum in the reflection at the transducer faces occurs when the frequency is such that
the thickness of the matching layer is equal to 3/4 of the wavelength within it. Theoretically this
was expected to occur at 5 MHz for the current device, but in practise the best operation was
found at 5.25 MHz. Each transducer was excited using a separate sine-wave generator and an
amplifier to apply a sinusoidal voltage of 35 Vp-p. The sine-wave generators were phase-locked to

EL196 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 128 共4兲, October 2010 Courtney et al.: Microparticle manipulation using ultrasonic standing waves
Courtney et al.: JASA Express Letters 关DOI: 10.1121/1.3479976兴 Published Online 10 September 2010

Table 1. Mechanical properties of materials used for matched transducers.

Bulk longitudinal
Thickness Density sound velocity
Component Material 共mm兲 共kg m−3兲 共m s−1兲

Backing Epoxy 共7.5% W by vol.兲 9 2520 1950

Piezoelectric plate Noliac, NCE51 1.33 7800 4500
Matching Epoxy 共10% Al2O3 by vol.兲 0.40 1320 2700

allow control of ⌬⌽. At this frequency a standing wave of wavelength ␭ = 0.28 mm in the water was
produced. The acoustic pressure field was imaged with a Schlieren imaging15 system in the absence
of particles and with no excitation of the levitation stage, and was observed to form broadly uniform
planes perpendicular to the x-axis. By varying ⌬⌽ in the range 0 ⱕ ⌬⌽ ⱕ 2␲ it was possible to
move the pressure field nodes one complete period in the x-direction (i.e., a distance of ␭ / 2
= 0.14 mm). This behavior is shown in the Schlieren images in Fig. 2(a).
Having demonstrated the ability to control the nodal positions of the acoustic pressure field,
spherical polystyrene particles (radius, 5 µm; density, 1050 kg m−3; longitudinal bulk velocity,
2170 m s−1) were added to the water. The piezoceramic plate in the levitation stage was excited
with a sinusoidal signal at 5.00 MHz with an amplitude of 10 Vp-p. The pressure field of the result-
ing resonant mode forced the polystyrene spheres to its nodal planes, forming bands perpendicular
to the y-axis separated by 0.15 mm (half a wavelength at 5.00 MHz).
With the particles trapped relative to the y-axis, 5.25 MHz sinusoidal signals were again
applied to the matched transducers and the particles moved to points separated by ␭ / 2
= 0.14 mm in the x-direction. Thus a regular grid pattern, resulting from the actions of the levitation
plate and the two side transducers, was formed. The concentration of particles was such that most of
the traps contained multiple particles. This grid pattern can be seen in the top image of Fig. 2(b) and
is similar to the pattern achieved by Shi et al.16 in the horizontal plane.
When ⌬⌽ was increased from 0 to 2␲ the particles moved up to a maximum distance of
␭ / 2 = 0.14 mm in the x-direction. Figure 2(b) shows images of the particles in a region of the test
cell for five different values of ⌬⌽. When ⌬⌽ reaches 2␲ the particles have been moved to the
position of the adjacent trap in the original nodal pattern. The process can be repeated to move the
particles over greater distances. A negative change in ⌬⌽ produces movement in the opposite direc-
tion.

a) b)

DF=0

DF=p/2

DF=p

DF=3p/2

100mm
DF=2p

Fig. 2. Views of a 740 ␮m by 220 ␮m region 共in the x - y plane兲 of the test cell as the phase between excitation
signals, ⌬⌽, is increased from 0 to 2␲ radians in steps of ␲ / 2 showing: 共a兲 normalized Schlieren images of the
pressure field from the opposed transducers in water without particles; 共b兲 photographs of agglomerates of 5 ␮m
radius polystyrene beads at the pressure nodes.

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 128 共4兲, October 2010 Courtney et al.: Microparticle manipulation using ultrasonic standing waves EL197
Courtney et al.: JASA Express Letters 关DOI: 10.1121/1.3479976兴 Published Online 10 September 2010

0.15

Displacement, mm
0.1

0.05

0
0 2 4 6
∆Φ, radians

Fig. 3. Variation of particle position with phase difference, ⌬⌽, between opposing transducers. Plotted are positions:
measured experimentally 共o兲, with error bars; predicted based on transmission line model with parameters based on
experimental system 共solid line兲; predicted for hypothetical cases of no reflection at the transducer faces and
artificially increased reflection 共twice the original pressure reflection coefficient兲 at the transducer faces 共dashed
lines兲.

A similar, but more extensive, series of images was produced and used to measure the
position of a specific group of particles as a function of ⌬⌽, relative to the initial position when
⌬⌽ = 0. The results are shown in Fig. 3. In addition to the experimental result, the position of the
pressure field nodes predicted using the transmission line model is plotted. The behavior of the
particles is in good agreement with the node positions predicted by the model; the small dis-
crepancy is attributed to the sensitivity of the transducer matching layer performance to the
matching layer thickness and material properties. The pressure amplitude of the standing wave
generated is predicted by the model to be 300 kPa. Applying the analytical solution for a com-
pressible sphere in a plane standing wave derived by Yosioka and Kawasima1 to this pressure
gives a peak force of 50 pN.
The deviation from linearity between position and ⌬⌽, seen in Fig. 3, is due to reflection at
the transducers surfaces. The matched transducers have (according to the same transmission
line model used to model particle position) a pressure reflection coefficient, R = 0.21 (intensity
reflection coefficient 0.04). The effect of nonzero reflection is to introduce a variation in the peak
pressure amplitude as the phase is varied and an excursion from linearity of position with phase. If
P0 is the maximum value of the pressure antinode amplitude for a given reflection coefficient then
for R = 0 the pressure antinode has the same amplitude, P0, regardless of ⌬⌽, but for R = 0.21 the
pressure antinode amplitude varies, between 0.65P0 and P0, as ⌬⌽ changes. For a hypothetical R
= 0.42 case, modeled by reducing the density used for the matching layer by 25%, but maintaining
the same velocity, this variation is between 0.45P0 and P0. Figure 3 includes (in addition to the result
of modeling the actual system used) the expected node positions for the ideal R = 0 (which gives a
linear relation) and for R = 0.42: an increase in the deviation from linearity with increased R can be
seen. While particle manipulation is, in principle, possible for large values of R the amplitude varia-
tion and departure from linear control limit the effectiveness as R increases.
The results reported here demonstrate that standing waves with nodal positions determined
by the relative phase, ⌬⌽, between applied signals can be generated and used to control the
position of microparticles in a liquid medium. It is anticipated that this will offer opportunities
in biological research relating to the behavior of cells and in manoeuvring particles in micro-
fluidic biosensors. In particular the response time of particles to changes in the nodal positions
is a potential method to determine particle properties.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the EPSRC through the Sonotweezers project.
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