Title: A microfluidic-based method for micro particle trapping and positioning

Authors: Qin Zhang; Chenying Xu; Weijun Huang; Hisayuki Aoyama

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Wushan, Guangzhou 510640, China ' School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Wushan, Guangzhou 510640, China ' School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Wushan, Guangzhou 510640, China ' Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan

Abstract: Micro particle trapping and positioning is widely used in bioengineering, pharmaceuticals, micro-assembly, chemical analysis, and material performance evaluation. In this paper, we present a non-contact microfluidic-based method for trapping and positioning micro particles. With this method, two identical microtubes are symmetrically aligned on both sides of a particle, which squirt inside fluid to produce a flow field. The particle is enveloped by a pressure surface which enables trapping and clamping the particle. This method is valid for micron-sized particles of arbitrary shapes. The trapping and positioning mechanism is analysed and the feasibility of the method is verified by experiments.

Keywords: microfluidics; microparticles; particle trapping; particle positioning; micromanipulation; noncontact; mechanism analysis; fluidics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMA.2015.075945

International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation, 2015 Vol.5 No.2/3, pp.80 - 85

Received: 29 Jan 2015
Accepted: 15 Apr 2015
Published online: 18 Apr 2016 *

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