Flow Cell With Piezoelectric Ultrasonic Transducer

摘要

A flow cell has a cavity (34) with an upper transparent plate (1) providing a window and a lower transparent plate (30) coated on its upper surface (31) with an antibody (32). The upper plate (1) supports a transparent piezoelectric transducer (2) formed by a lithium, niobate wafer (20) with transparent indium tin oxide electrodes (21) and (22) on opposite surfaces. The height of the cavity (34) is selected such that energy from the transducer (2) produces a pressure node in liquid (35) in the cell at the surface (31) of the lower plate (30). Particles (36) in suspension flowing through the cell are concentrated by the pressure node at the antibody coating (32) to which they bind and are viewed through the window (1, 2).