Wirelessly addressable heater array for centrifugal microfluidics and escherichia coli sterilization

Abstract

Localized temperature control and heater interface remain challenges in centrifugal microflu idics and integrated lab-on-a-chip devices. This paper presen ts a new wireless heating method that enables selective acti vation of micropatterned resonant heaters using external radi ofrequency (RF) fields and its applications. The wireless heat ers in an array are individually activated by modulating the freque ncy of the external field. Temperature of 93 ° °° ° C is achieved in the heater when resonated with a 0.49-W RF output power. The w ireless method is demonstrated to be fully effective for he ating samples under spinning at high speeds, showing its applicab ility to centrifugal systems. Selective sterilization of Escherichia coli through the wireless heating is also demonstrated. Healthcare applications with a focus on wound sterilization ar e discussed along with preliminary experiments, showing promisi ng results.