Sophisticated acoustofluidic patterns generated in quasi-Sierpiński-carpet shaped chambers with heterogeneous radiation surface distributions

Abstract In this research, an original strategy to generate diversified acoustofluidic fields in quasi-Sierpiński-carpet shaped chambers has been proposed and simulated for patterned manipulation of massive micro-scale particles. All of the structural elements in the fractalized chambers are symmetrical in spatial arrangement, and all radiation surfaces possess the same setting of input frequency point and oscillation amplitude along individual normal direction. Plenty of splendid acoustofluidic patterns can be obtained in the originally-static quasi-Sierpiński-carpet shaped chambers generated at different levels of recursion without complicated parameter modulation. The simulation results of acoustofluidic distributions together with micro-scale particle movement trajectories under different oscillation conditions further demonstrate the manipulation functionality of these artificially-designed devices. In comparison with the existing structural design schemes of miniaturized lab-on-a-chip systems, the introduction of fractal features like Sierpiński carpet/triangle and Koch snowflake can provide extraordinary insights and broaden application prospects of acoustofluidics, which is conducive to ultrasonic micro/nano manipulations from simplification to pluralism. The preliminary work shows the possibility of utilizing Sierpiński-type fractal structures as amenable components to customize acoustofluidic fields for the investigation of topographical manipulation of biological samples and orientational manoeuvre of micro/nano-scale machines in ways that are not achievable via traditional approaches.