Ultrahigh frequency ultrasound microbeam for biomedical applications

Several 200-MHz lithium niobate (LN) single crystal single-element press-focused ultrasonic transducers were developed for biomedical applications. Micro-particle trapping experiments were carried out to demonstrate that the acoustic device can manipulate a single microbead as small as 5 µm within the range of hundreds of micrometers in distilled water. As the result suggests that the 200-MHz microbeam device is capable of manipulating particles two-dimensionally at the cellular level, the device was used for studying red blood cell (RBC) mechanical deformation. It was found that by attaching the trapped microbead to a RBC, the RBC could be stretched by moving the trapped microbead. This preliminary result demonstrates the acoustic microbeam may be promising tool for studying the RBC membrane elastic properties.