Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) devices, particularly those made of Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3), are extensively used in telecommunications and microfluidic applications. This work describes the fabrication of a LiNbO3-based SAW test structures using maskless photolithography for rapid device dimension changes as well as introduces a cost-effective technique to solder Sub-Miniature version A (SMA) connectors to delicate substrates such as LiNbO3-based SAWs, without the need to fully create printed circuit boards. The SMA connected device facilitated improved characterization results compared to simple copper tape connections. The characterization accuracy is then validated through simulation.

IDT (Interdigitated Electrodes or Transducers) fabricated Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW)-based devices have been popularly used in microfluidic applications. The mask-based photolithography system is commonly used for fabricating IDTs on SAW devices. But the process does not provide much freedom for changing the design, once the mask is made. On a different note, Lithium Niobate ( LiNbO3)is very fragile and brittle which can be broken or can induce stress that may impact the piezoelectric properties due to hard contact of the Chromium mask during UV exposure. A novel maskless photolithography process is introduced for such devices to mitigate these limitations. In terms of cost, this maskless approach is cheaper than creating a new mask each time for a change in design parameters. This process is also suitable for the "lift-off" and "etching" techniques regardless of "Bright-field" or "Dark-field" masks with the same computer-aided drawing ( CAD). In this study, the dosage rate has been estimated for the maskless process by converting the dosage parameters from the masked photolithography process. Finally, the devices made by the maskless photolithography process have been characterized with a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA), and the results are validated through comparison with the conventional mask-based photolithography process.

Osteoporosis is a severe health issue in the aging population. It can be alleviated or delayed with proper medication as well as mechanical loading. Various studies showed that the oscillation of pressure inside the intramedullary cavity is an effective stimulus to initiate bone remodeling. Current in vivo methods designed to modulate intramedullary pressure involve infection-vulnerable external oscillatory equipment. We report a methodology that combines a wireless micropump and a wireless pressure monitoring system for new bone formation. A wireless magnetic micropump was used to oscillate the intramedullary pressure of the rat femur. Pressure variations inside the intramedullary cavity were recorded using a wireless pressure monitoring system. Following 10 min of applied pressure oscillations and seven days of recovery, bone formation in femora of rats tended to increase.

Osteoporosis is a major health care concern. In addition to medication, mechanical loading (e.g., exercise) can augment bone mass to alleviate or delay osteoporosis. Reports in the literature indicate that the stimuli initiating bone remodeling with mechanical loading are fluctuations in intramedullary pressure and interstitial fluid flow. Methodologies designed to altered intramedullary pressure and fluid flow involve infection susceptible and external oscillatory equipment. We report preliminary data indicating enhanced bone formation in rat femora by use of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based pressure modulating micropump, which alters intramedullary pressure. These pressure alterations are sensed and recorded via a wireless pressure sensor system for real-time measurement of bone intrameduallry pressure. With only 10 minutes of pressure fluctuation and 7 days of recovery, new bone volume formation in the rats tended (p=0.09) to be higher in femora receiving pressure modulation vs. the contralateral control bone. These results suggest that our system may be efficacious in augmenting bone mass.

Simple and low-cost fabrication of microfluidic devices has attracted considerable attention among researchers. The traditional soft lithography fabrication method requires expensive equipment like a UV exposure system and mask fabrication facility. In this work, an alternative and low-cost UV exposure system was introduced along with an alternative mask fabrication system. A previously reported passive microfluidic mixer was fabricated successfully using this modified soft lithography method. Challenges were presented during this modified fabrication method. Another emerging potential alternative for the fabrication of microfluidic mixers is 3D printing. It was also used in this experiment to fabricate a passive micromixer. This method is well known for rapid prototyping and the creations of complex structures. However, this method has several disadvantages like optical transparency, lower resolution fabrication, difficulties in flow characterization, etc. These problems were addressed, and the solutions were discussed in this work. Comparative analysis between 3D printing and soft lithography fabrication was presented. Flow characterization inside the 3D printed micromixer was carried out using the microparticulate image velocimetry (micro-PIV) system. It explains how the geometrical shape of the micromixer accelerates the natural diffusion process to mix the different fluid streams. Finally, a 3D numerical simulation of the passive micromixer was carried out to visualize the flow dynamics inside the micromixer. The flow pattern found from the numerical simulation and the experimental flow characterization is analogous. These observations could play an important role to design and fabricate cost-effective micromixers for lab-on-a-chip devices.

Manipulation, guiding, and focusing of particles is an important phenomenon in the area of biomedical research. In most cases, particles are suspended in a microfluidic environment. These microfluidic environments can be high or low conductive. Most importantly these flows seeded with the microparticles are manipulated and guided in microfluidic channels. Microfluidic channels have very low dimensions and considering the flow rate the characteristic of the flow in a microfluidic channel is laminar in nature. There are many micromachining methods available for fabricating microfluidic channels such as soft-lithography, wet etching, electroforming, PDMS molding, laser ablation followed by wet etching but in most of these cases, a microfabrication facility is required which is very costly in nature. Now a days 3D printing process is widely used to design microfluidic channels as a cheap process for conducting laboratory experiments. In this work, a 3D printed microfluidic channel fabrication process was presented along with a CAD drawing with microstructural dimension analysis. Previously V-electrode pattern was used in the static fluid system. In this work, a V-elect rode pattern was inserted in the microfluidic system for the first time to analyze the behavior of the flowing fluid of different conductivity under the application of AC current. The flow characteristics were presented and analyzed with the Reynolds number and the flow region of maximum velocity before and after the implementation of the AC electric field. The direction of the flow was also observed in the V-shaped microfluidics environment.

Sensing and detecting micro particles require a bulk fluid motion towards the sensing element in order to get a desirable response from the sensing element. Specially for low-concentrated fluid suspension response time is very long. So both for detection and sensing mechanism if the fluid flow is guided at a reasonable speed and at a low voltage and relatively low frequency which is suitable for bio-particles; the sensing mechanism can be enhanced largely. But sometimes it is required to re-accumulate or recombine the fluid. Previously parallel plate configuration was used to concentrate particle, but this is for the first time a V-shaped electrode pattern used to guide the bulk flow for concentration purpose. The V-shaped electrode set-up was made by following an unconventional way using sputtering machine which was cheaper than the conventional Photolithography method. AC-Electroosmosis from planar electrodes is a strong mechanism for creating micro-flows from several hundred microns away from the electrode surface. The mechanism for the AC Electroosmotic fluid flow is based on Capacitive charging which causes due to the generation of counter-ions at the electrode-electrolyte interface and Faradaic charging which is generated by the accumulation of co-ions. These two different methods are responsible for a converging and diverging surface flow of the fluid particles. At lower voltage capacitive charging method plays a significant role and most of the applied voltage drops occur at the electrical double layer but up to a certain voltage level Faradaic charging method takes over and starts dominating. The induced flow velocity by both methods has different relationship with the applied voltage. In this experiment Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) was used to determine the suitable frequency range for the application & 2.12Vrms was used initially which is a very low voltage. An equivalent circuit for the setup was analyzed. Finally, an analysis was made on this setup using conductive fluid to observe the AC Electrothermal (ACET) effect. In our experiment the goal was to get an optimum velocity for concentration at low voltage and low frequency also to observe the guiding direction of the fluid flow in order to find a way to focus the fluid flow towards the desired direction.

AC electrokinetics is one of the widely used methods as an actuating mechanism in the lab-on-a-chip devices because of the absence of moving mechanical parts. In this paper, an analysis is done by using two perpendicular electrodes which are placed in V-shape to each other while maintaining an angle of 45 degrees with the third horizontal electrode. A semi-conductive fluid was used to observe the microfluidic behavior and characteristics under the application of a DC biased AC signal. Applying the AC signal produced two different mechanisms of electrokinetics such as DC-biased AC electrothermal (ACET) and DC-biased AC electroosmosis (ACEO). In the ACEO process, a time-varying voltage was applied to the electrodes to create the double layer capacitance and zeta potential. This ACEO mechanism required lower voltage. On the other hand, the AC Electrothermal (ACET) flow produced a non-uniform electric field that generated spatially varying heat sources which in turn created a non-uniform temperature distribution. Two surface characteristics were also analyzed experimentally; one of these was by using the hydrophobic surface and the other used glass-surface only. At the microscale, mechanical microdevice encounter very high flow resistance and put stringent requirements on the strength of fluid channels, chambers and the interconnects. While many types of microfluidic manipulations can be effectively done by AC electrokinetics techniques, current research work focused on the observation of varying frequencies and voltages and their effects on microfluidic manipulations.

Fluid flows in a microchannel with highly ordered laminar fashion. For this reason, two different fluid streams cannot mix easily, or it takes a very long time. The problem becomes intense for large molecules such as peptides, proteins, and nucleic acids during rapid mixing for biochemical applications in a microfluidic device. Many researchers tried to solve this problem by applying an electric potential. In this work, a numerical simulation was performed on a 2D micromixer. Four symmetric electrodes were placed on the wall of a straight microchannel of width 19 μm. The electroosmotic slip velocity boundary condition was used to create the turbulence on the laminar fluid stream. It was found that this model creates a well-mixed flow at the channel outlet. Then the input parameters were changed to compare the mixing performance in terms of concentration distribution at the channel outlet. Channel width, inter-electrodes gap, the magnitude of electric potential, frequency of the electric potential and asymmetricity of the electrodes were changed and results were compared. An experimental micromixer like the numerical model was fabricated by dc magnetron sputtering machine. Four gold electrodes (thickness, 120 nm) were sputtered on top of a silicon substrate. The value of the input parameters was chosen based on the results obtained from the numerical simulation. To test the mixing functionality of our device the movement of tracer particles was tracked down on the zone surrounded by four electrodes. The micro-PIV (Particulate Image Velocimetry) system was used to analyze the movement of the tracer particles and visualize the flow field in the mixing zone. The magnitude of the AC electric potential and frequency was changed to find out the optimum input parameters for the micromixer. These results could play an important role to design and improve a micromixer design using an AC electric field. A micromixer has many potential applications in biology (DNA analysis, enzyme Screening), chemistry (synthesis, polymerization) and detection (drug discovery, diagnosis).