We present on-chip acoustic actuation of in situ fabricated artificial cilia. Arrays of cilia structures are UV polymerized inside a microfluidic channel using a photocurable polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymer solution and photomasks. During polymerization, cilia structures are attached to a silane treated glass surface inside the microchannel. Then, the cilia structures are actuated using acoustic vibrations at 4.6 kHz generated by piezo transducers. As a demonstration of a practical application, DI water and fluorescein dye solutions are mixed inside a microfluidic channel. Using pulses of acoustic excitations, and locally fabricated cilia structures within a certain region of the microchannel, a waveform of mixing behavior is obtained. This result illustrates one potential application wherein researchers can achieve spatiotemporal control of biological microenvironments in cell stimulation studies. These acoustically actuated, in situ fabricated, cilia structures can be used in many on-chip applications in biological, chemical and engineering studies.

中文翻译：

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原位制造的人工纤毛的声驱动

我们提出了原位制造的人工纤毛的片上声驱动。使用光固化聚乙二醇 (PEG) 聚合物溶液和光掩模在微流体通道内对纤毛结构阵列进行紫外线聚合。在聚合过程中，纤毛结构附着在微通道内经过硅烷处理的玻璃表面。然后，使用压电传感器产生的 4.6 kHz 声振动来驱动纤毛结构。作为实际应用的演示，去离子水和荧光素染料溶液在微流体通道内混合。使用声激励脉冲和微通道特定区域内局部制造的纤毛结构，可以获得混合行为的波形。这一结果说明了一种潜在的应用，研究人员可以在细胞刺激研究中实现生物微环境的时空控制。这些声驱动的原位制造的纤毛结构可用于生物、化学和工程研究的许多片上应用。