Numerical study of acoustic cell trapping above elastic membrane disks driven in higher-harmonic modes by thin-film transducers with patterned electrodes

TL;DR

This study numerically investigates how patterned thin-film transducers can selectively excite higher-harmonic acoustic modes in silicon membranes to create stable, three-dimensional cell traps in liquid environments, demonstrating potential for biomedical applications.

Contribution

It demonstrates the selective excitation of higher-harmonic membrane modes using patterned electrodes to generate effective acoustic trapping regions above elastic membranes.

Findings

Higher-harmonic modes can be efficiently excited by electrode patterning.

A stable cell trap can be formed 50-100 um above the membrane.

A 60% iodixanol solution can hold a cancer cell in the trap.

Abstract

Excitations of MHz acoustic modes are studied numerically in 10-um-thick silicon disk membranes with a radius of 100 and 500 um actuated by an attached 1-um-thick (AlSc)N thin-film transducer. It is shown how higher-harmonic membrane modes can be excited selectively and efficiently by appropriate patterning of the transducer electrodes. When filling the half-space above the membrane with a liquid, the higher-harmonic modes induce acoustic pressure fields in the liquid with interference patterns that result in the formation of a single, strong trapping region located 50 - 100 um above the membrane, where a single suspended cell can be trapped in all three spatial directions. The trapping strength depends on the acoustic contrast between the cell and the liquid, and as a specific example it is shown by numerical simulation that by using a 60% iodixanol solution, a cancer cell can be held in the trap.