Modal Analysis of Acoustofluidic Devices

Particle manipulation in microfluidics with acoustic fields is a promising technique with applications that range from 3D metal printing to life science. The research group of Professor Jürg Dual at the Institute of Mechanical Systems at the ETH in Zurich operates at the forefront of the fundamental research on such acoustofluidic devices. Of key interest is the understanding of how induced mechanical vibrations of the device can lead to well-defined pressure fields in the liquid.

The confocal optical design of the PICOSCALE Vibrometer makes it possible to image the nanometer vibrations of the multi-layered transparent devices which helps to understand and to improve their performance.