TY - JOUR
T1 - A rapid and controllable acoustothermal microheater using thin film surface acoustic waves
AU - Wang, Yong
AU - Zhang, Qian
AU - Tao, Ran
AU - Chen, Dongyang
AU - Xie, Jin
AU - Torun, Hamdi
AU - Dodd, Linzi E.
AU - Luo, Jingting
AU - Fu, Chen
AU - Vernon, Jethro
AU - Canyelles-Pericas, Pep
AU - Binns, Richard
AU - Fu, Richard
PY - 2021/2/1
Y1 - 2021/2/1
N2 - Temperature control within a microreactor is critical for biochemical and biomedical applications. Recently acoustothermal heating using surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices made of bulk LiNbO
3 substrates have been demonstrated. However, these are generally fragile and difficult to be integrated into a single lab-on-a-chip. In this paper, we propose a rapid and controllable acoustothermal microheater using AlN/Si thin film SAWs. The device's acoustothermal heating characteristics have been investigated and are superior to other types of thin film SAW devices (e.g., ZnO/Al and ZnO/Si). The dynamic heating processes of the AlN/Si SAW device for both the sessile droplet and liquid within a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchamber were characterized. Results show that for the sessile droplet heating, the temperature at a high RF power is unstable due to significant droplet deformation and vibration, whereas for the liquid within the microchamber, the temperature can be precisely controlled by the input power with good stability and repeatability. In addition, an improved temperature uniformity using the standing SAW heating was demonstrated as compared to that of the travelling SAWs. Our work shows that the AlN/Si thin film SAWs have a great potential for applications in microfluidic heating such as accelerating biochemical reactions and DNA amplification.
AB - Temperature control within a microreactor is critical for biochemical and biomedical applications. Recently acoustothermal heating using surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices made of bulk LiNbO
3 substrates have been demonstrated. However, these are generally fragile and difficult to be integrated into a single lab-on-a-chip. In this paper, we propose a rapid and controllable acoustothermal microheater using AlN/Si thin film SAWs. The device's acoustothermal heating characteristics have been investigated and are superior to other types of thin film SAW devices (e.g., ZnO/Al and ZnO/Si). The dynamic heating processes of the AlN/Si SAW device for both the sessile droplet and liquid within a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchamber were characterized. Results show that for the sessile droplet heating, the temperature at a high RF power is unstable due to significant droplet deformation and vibration, whereas for the liquid within the microchamber, the temperature can be precisely controlled by the input power with good stability and repeatability. In addition, an improved temperature uniformity using the standing SAW heating was demonstrated as compared to that of the travelling SAWs. Our work shows that the AlN/Si thin film SAWs have a great potential for applications in microfluidic heating such as accelerating biochemical reactions and DNA amplification.
KW - Acoustothermal heating
KW - AlN thin films
KW - PDMS chamber
KW - Surface acoustic waves
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098552424&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.sna.2020.112508
DO - 10.1016/j.sna.2020.112508
M3 - Article
SN - 0924-4247
VL - 318
JO - Sensors and Actuators A: Physical
JF - Sensors and Actuators A: Physical
M1 - 112508
ER -