Fast Real Time Binding for Surface Assays Using VCAT Coupled With SPRI

Microassays can take on the order of 1 to 72 hours due to complete the lack of mixing [1]. Various micromixers have been developed to quicken assay times, but they require bulky external equipment, difficult to fabrication and implementation, or are expensive. Robin Liu et al developed a low cost micromixer based on cavitation microstreaming which is easy to implement and has low power consumption. The device consists of small cavities or vertical cavity acoustic transducers (VCAT) located above a microfluidic chamber such that these small cavities trap air when a solution is injected into the chamber. A piezoelectric transducer (PZT) is then placed above the air cavities and is used to vibrate the air-liquid membrane to produce cavitation microstreaming within the chamber to cause mixing [2].