Physics World August 4, 2020
Researchers at the University of Washington designed ultrasound beams of specific shapes by numerical modeling and a phased array. The beams were shown to levitate and electronically steer solid objects (3-mm-diameter glass spheres) along preprogrammed paths in a water bath, and in the urinary bladders of live pigs. Deviation from the intended path was on average <10%. No injury was found on the bladder wall or intervening tissue. The work provides a framework for medical applications, as well as nonmedical uses that require noninvasively moving sizable, dense objects in a free field or within a container…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Acoustic tweezers. Left: the hourglass-shaped intensity pattern and the 256-element transducer array… (Courtesy: PNAS 10.1073/pnas.2001779117)CZ