Related Work

The history of acoustic positioning stretches back at least to the experiments attributed1 to Kundt (1866). The experiments of Kundt showed that dust would collect at the nodes of ducts with standing acoustic waves. Also, in the presence of strong air vibration levels, the dust would form into ridges at right angles to the axis. Ref. 2, published the same year as Ref. 1, presents various experiments on the flow set up by strong acoustic fluctuations. One recent driver of interest in this extensive field has been the development of non-contact positioners which can precisely place a small droplet or solid object at a desired position inside a hostile environment such as an oven. This has been studied and demonstrated both on the ground (Refs. 3, 4,5) and in the microgravity environment of the Space Shuttle(Refs. 6,7,8 ). Levitation in the 1-g ground environment requires powerful acoustic drivers placed along the vertical axis, usually in opposition. With sufficiently high acoustic levels, this forces particles (including steel spheres in a 183-dB ultrasonic levitator (Ref. 3) to go to nodes located above the floor. The speakers and reflector surfaces are tailored to ensure that there is only one stable point of minimum acoustic potential for the particle to occupy. Rey (Ref.9) described the use of multiple reflectors to manipulate and combine levitated materials, and achieve improvements in the processing of levitated objects. Interference between the primary waves and reflected waves was used to create a localized zone of minimized energy closely adjacent to the reflector in which an object could be stably levitated. The energy well thus produced was not dependent upon distance from the sound source, so that the levitated object could be moved in any direction by moving the reflector. In a variation of this process, phase variation between two opposed speakers has been used to drive a beat frequency which in turn moves particles inside the levitation chamber. Below is a listing of many papers and patents that we found in the course of this project. This is only a small subset of the huge amount of work done on acoustic levitation and positioning. The Patents are from the U.S. Patent Database available at the Georgia Tech Library.

REFERENCES

1. Andrade, E.N.D.C., "On the Groupings and General Behavior of Solid Particles under the Influence of Air Vibrations in Tubes". Philosophical Transactionsof the Royal Society, A., vol. 230, p. 413 - 451, 1932.

2. Andrade, E.N.D.C, "On the Circulations Caused by the Vibration of Air in a Tube". Proceedings of the Royal Society, A, vol. 134, p. 445 - 456.

3. Whymark, R. R., "Acoustic Field Positioning for Containerless Processing", Ultrasonics, pp. 251- 14 262 (Nov. 1975).

4. Collas, P., Barmatz, M., Shipley, C., "Acoustic Levitation in the Presence of Gravity". Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, 86 (2), August 1989, p. 777 - 787.

5. Zhuyou, C., Shuqin, L., Zhimin, L., Mingli, G., Yulong, M., Changhao, W., "Development of an Acoustic Levitation Reactor". Powder Technology, 69, 1992, p. 125-131.

6. Lee, C.P., Wang, T.G., "Outer Acoustic Streaming ". J. Acoustical Society of America, 88 (5), November 1990, p. 2367- 2375.

7. Elleman, D.D., Wang, T.G., Barmatz, M., "Acoustic Containerless Experiment System: A Non-Contact Surface Tension Measurement". N89-20308, p. 557- 657.

8. Trinh, E.H., Robey, J.L., "Experimental Study of Streaming Flows Associated with Ultrasonic Levitators". Physics of Fluids, 6 (11), November 1994, p. 3567-3579.

9. Rey, C.A., "Acoustic levitation and methods for manipulating levitated objects". United States Patent 4,284,403, August 1981.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Patents

Barmatz, Martin B., System for controlled acoustic rotation of objects U. S. Patent 4393706, July 1983.

Lee, Mark C., Acoustic suspension system U.S. Patent 4402221, September 1983.

Barmatz, Martin B., Granett, Dan, Lee, Mark C., "Vibrating-chamber levitation systems" U. S. Patent 4549435, October 1985.

Barmatz, Martin B., Allen, James L., Granett, Dan, Gravity enhanced acoustic levitation method and apparatus. U.S. Patent 4520656, June 1985.

Barmatz, Martin B., Allen, James L., "Single mode levitation and translation." U.S. Patent 4736815, April 1988.

Peterson, Stephen C., Brimhall, Owen D., McLaughlin, Thomas J., Baker, Charles D., Sparks, Sam L., "Methods and apparatus for moving and separating materials exhibiting different physical properties". U.S. Patent 4759775, July 1988.

Barmatz, Martin B., Garrett, Steven L., Stabilization and oscillation of an acoustically levitated object. U. S. Patent 4773266, September 1988.

Danley, Thomas J., Rey, Charles A., "Horn loaded transducer for acoustic levitation" U.S. Patent 4841495, June 20, 1989.

Ohkawa, Tihiro , "Acoustically fluidized bed of fine particles". U.S. Patent 4948497, August 1990.

Barmatz, Martin B., Aveni, Glenn, Putterman, Seth, Rudnick, Joseph, "Acoustic positioning and orientation prediction". U.S. Patent 4964303, October 1990.

Danley, Thomas J., Merkley, Dennis R., Rey, Charles A., Naperville, IL. "Method and apparatus for acoustic levitation". U.S. Patent 5036944, August 1991.

Rey, Charles A., Merkley, Dennis R. "Aero-acoustic levitation device and method" U.S. Patent 5096017, March 1992.

Ohkawa, Tihiro, "Plasma processing apparatus for controlling plasma constituents using neutral and plasma sound waves". U.S. Patent 5350454, September 1994.

Leung, Emily W., Man, Kin F., "Plasma heating for containerless and microgravity materials processing". U.S. Patent 5374801, December 1994.

Nuscheler, Reinhard, Wessner, Hans, "Closed loop control apparatus with frequency filters for controlling an air gap width in electromagnetic levitation systems". U.S. Patent 5387851, February 1995.

Goforth, Robert R., Ohkawa, Tihiro. "Acoustic barrier separator". U.S. Patent 5419877, May 1995.

Guign , Jacques Y., Barmatz, Martin B., Jackson, Henry W., Koptenko, Sergei V., "Acoustic beam levitation". U.S. Patent 5500493, March 1996.

Other Papers & Books

Oran, W.A., Berge, L.H., Reiss, D.A., Johnson, J.L., "Method and apparatus for shaping and enhancing acoustical levitation forces". United States Patent 421,8921, August 1980.

St. Clair, "An Electromagnetic Sound Generator for Producing Intense High Frequency Sound". Review of Scientific Instruments, May 1941, pp. 250-256.

E. H. Trinh, Compact Acoustic Levitation Device for Studies in Fluid Dynamics and Material Science in the Laboratory and Microgravity," 38 0 Rev. Sci. Instrum. 56 (11), Nov., 1985, pp. 2059- 14 2065.

E. Leung et al., "Resonance Frequency Shift of an Acoustic Chamber Containing a Rigid Sphere," 38 0 I J. Acoust. Soc. Am. L 72 (2), Aug. 1982, pp. 615- 14 620.

Morse, "Vibration and Sound", McGraw Hill, N.Y., 1948, pp. 389 401. Oran, W. A., et al., Parametric Study of an Acoustic Levitation System , Rev. Sci. Instrum., vol. 51, No. 5, May 1980.

Hueter & Bolt, Physical Mechanisms for Sonic Processing, SONICS, Techniques for the use of Sound and Ultrasound in Engineering and Science, L pp. 220- 14 225, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York (Copyright 1955).

Reethof, Acoustic Agglomeration of Power Plant Fly Ash for Environmental and Hot Gas Clean- 14 up" 38 , I Transactions of the ASME, L vol. 110, pp. 552- 14 557 (Oct. 1988).

Richards, et al., Applications of Acoustics in Advanced Energy Systems , I The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Winter Annual Meeting, L San Francisco, Calif., pp. 1- 14 8 (Dec. 10- 14 15, 1989).

Dyer, et al., Acoustic Levitation by Oseen Drag , J. Acoust. Soc. Am., L vol. 92:(4), Pt. 1, pp. 2207- 2211 (Oct. 1992).

Sonics by Hueter and Bolt, pp. 219 225.

Whymark et al., Acoustic Levitation Materials Processing , Jan. 1979. Ultrasonic Desliming and Upgrading of Ores S. C. Sun et al., Jun., 1956, pp. 639 644.

Apfel, Robert E., Acoustic Levitation for Studying Liquids and Biological Materials," 38 0 Naval Research Reviews, pp. 30- 14 40 (1978).

Baker, N. Vashon, Segregation and Sedimentation of Red Blood Cells in Ultrasonic Standing Waves," 38 0 Nature, vol. 239, pp. 398- 14 399 (Oct. 13, 1972).

Barmatz, M. B. et al., Phase Modulation Stops Levitated Sample Rotation, Invention Report prepared by J. T. English for NASA" 3 s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Tech. Brief, vol. 8 No. 2, Item 190 71 from JPL Invention Report, NPO- 14 16002/5412, pp. 1 to 3 (prepared Winter 1983).

Barmatz, Martin B. and Allen, James L., Acoustic Translation of an Acoustically Levitated Sample," 38 0 NASA Tech Briefs, May/Jun. 1986, p. 144.

Barmatz, Martin B. and Gaspar, Mark S., Acoustic Levitator Maintains Resonance, NASA Tech Briefs, May/Jun. 1986, p. 145.

Crum, Lawrence A. et al., Motion of Bubbles in a Stationary Sound Field, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 48, No. 1(2), pp. 181- 14 189 (1970).

Dyson, Mary, Flow of Red Blood Cells Stopped by Ultrasound, Nature, vol. 232, pp. 572- 14 573 (Aug. 20, 1971).

Eller, Anthony, Force on a Bubble in a Standing Acoustic Wave, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 170- 14 171 (1968).

Fairbank, Jr., William M., A New Noninvasive Technique for Cardiac Pressure Measurement: Resonant Scattering of Ultrasound from Bubbles," 38 0 IEEE Transactions of Biomedical Engineering, vol. BME- 14 24, No. 2, pp. 107- 14 110 (1977).

Howkins, S. D. et al., The Effect of Focused Ultrasound on Human Blood, Ultrasonics, pp. 174- 14 176 (Jul. 1970).

Jacobi, N. et al., Free Oscillations of a Large Drop in Space, Paper Provided by American Institute of Aeronautics and A0stronautics, Inc., pp. 1- 14 10 (1979).

Lewin, Peter A., Acoustically Induced Shear Stresses in the Vicinity of Microbubbles in Tissue," 38 0 J. Acousic Soc. Am. 71(3), pp. 729- 14 734 (Mar. 1982).

King, Louis V., F.R.S., On the Acoustic Radiation Pressure on Spheres, paper presented to McGill University, Montreal (received Jun. 14, 1934), pp. 212- 14 240.

Maidanik, G. et al., Acoustical Radiation Pressure Due to Incident Plane Progessive Waves on Spherical Objects," 38 0 The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 29, No. 6 (Jun. 1957).

Maidanik, G., Acoustical Radiation Pressure Due to Incident Plane Progressive Waves on Spherical Objects," 38 0 The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 29, No. 8 (Aug., 1957).

Pinamonti, S. et al., Further Experiments in Pulse Echo Sonication of Erythrocytes in Vitro," 38 0 p. 2101 (date unknown).

Sykes, Stephen M. et al., Blood Clotting as an Endpoint in Ultrasound Research, (no date), Division of Biological Effects Bureau of Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration, pp. III- 14 6 to III- 14 13.

Varanasi, Usha et al., A Novel Microtechnique for the Measurement of Acoustic Properties of Lipids," 38 0 Chemistry and Physics of Lipids 19, pp. 179- 14 184 (1977).

Wang. C. Y., Acoustic Streaming of a Sphere Near an Unsteady Source, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 71(3), pp. 580- 584 (Mar. 1982).

Westervelt, P. J., The Theory of Steady Forces Caused by Sound Waves, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 312- 14 315 (1951).

Whymark, R. R., Acoustic Field Positioning for Containerless Processing, Ultrasonics, pp. 251- 14 262 (Nov. 1975).

Ohkawa et al., Neutral Gas and Impurity Ion Flow Produced by a Plasma Sound Wave , Comments Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion, vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 261- 14 265 (1993). Dyer et al., Dusty Plasma Experiments , Extended Abstract for the 4th Workshop on Dusty Plasmas pp. 41- 14 42 (Sep. 1990).

Hueter, et al., Techniques for the Use of Sound and Ultrasonic in Engineering and Science" 38 , I Sonics, L pp. 220- 14 225, Joh0n Wiley & Sons (New York) (1955).

Dyer, et al., Acoustic Levitation by Oseen Drag , J. Acoust. Soc. Am, vol. 92 (4), pp. 2207- 14 2211 (Oct. 1992). Plasma Processing of Materials: Scientific Opportunities and Technological Challenges, L Chapters 2 & 3, pp. 6- 14 36, National Academy Press, Washington D.C. (1991).

Donovan, Particle Control for Semiconductor Manufacturing, Chapter 2, pp. 9 24, Marcel Dekker, Inc. (New York & Basel) (1990).

Barmatz, Martin B. & Allen, James0 L., Acoustic Translation of an Acoustically Levitated Sample" 38 , NASA Tech Briefs, May/Jun. 1986, p. 144.

Barmatz, Martin B. & Gaspar, Mark S., Accoustic Levitator Maintains Resonance , NASA Tech Briefs, May/Jun. 1986, p. 145.

S. Pinamonti et al., Further Experiments in Pulse Echo Sonication of Erythrocytes in Vitro" 38 , p. 2101 (no date).

Stephen M. Sykes et al., Blood Clotting as an Endpoint in Ultrasound Research , (no date), Division of Biological Effects Bureau of Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration, pp. III- 14 6 to III- 14 13.

M. B. Barmatz et al., Phase Modulation Stops Levitated Sample Rotation , Invention Report Prepared by J. T. English for NASA" 3 s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Tech. Brief, vol. 8, No. 2, Item 190 71 from JPL Invention Report, NPO- 14 16002/5412, pp. 1 to 3 (prepared Winter 1983).

Peter A. Lewin, Acoustically Induced Shear Stresses in the Vicinity of Microbubbles in Tissue" 38 , J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 71(3), pp. 728- 14 734, (Mar. 1982).

C. Y. Wang, Acoustic Streaming of a Sphere Near and Unsteady Source , J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 71(3), pp. 580- 584.

William M. Fairbank, Jr., A New Noninvasive Technique for Cardiac Pressure Measurement: Resonant Scattering of Ultrasound from Bubbles" 38 , IEEE Transactions of Biomedical Engineering, vol. BME- 14 24, No. 2, pp. 107-110 (1977).

R. R. Whymark, Acoustic Field Positioning for Containerless Processing , Ultrasonics, pp. 251- 14 262 (Nov. 1975).

N. Vashon Baker, Segregation and Sedimentation of Red Blood Cells in Ultasonic Standing Waves" 38 , Nature, vol. 239, pp. 398- 14 399 (Oct. 13, 1972).

Mary Dyson, Flow of Red Blood Cells Stopped by Ultrasound , Nature, vol. 232, pp. 572- 14 573 (Aug. 20, 1971).

S. D. Howkins et al., The Effect of Focused Ultrasound on Human Blood , Ultasonics, pp. 174- 14 176 (Jul. 1970).

Lawrence A. Crum et al., Motion of Bubbles in a Stationary Sound Field , The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 48, No. 1(2), pp. 181- 14 189 (1970).

Anthony Eller, Force on a Bubble in a Standing Acoustic Wave , The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 170- 14 171 (1968).

G. Maidanik, Acoustical Radiation Pressure Due to Incident Plane Progressive Waves on Spherical Objects" 38 , The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 29, No. 8 (Aug. 1957).

G. Maidanik et al., Acoustical Radiation Pressure Due to Incident Plane Progressive Waves on Spherical Objects" , The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 29, No. 6 (Jun. 1957).

P. J. Westervelt, The Theory of Steady Forces Caused by Sound Waves , Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 312- 14 315 (1951).

Louis V. King, F.R.S., On the Acoustical Radiation Pressure on Spheres , paper presented to McGill University, Montreal (Jun. 14, 1934), pp. 212- 14 240.

Whymark et al., "Acoustic Field Positioning for Containerless Processing", Nov. 1975.

Wang et al., "Arrangement for Producing Rotational Effects on Acoustically suspended or Positioned Samples", 38 0 July 24, 1975.

Elleman et. al., "Acoustic Energy Shaping of Meltable Metals", January 1977.

Whymark et. al., "Acoustic Levitation Materials Processing System", January 1979.