A miniaturized thrombus dredger is proposed and developed in this study. The flexural resonance of the µ-resonator dredger is driven by a bulk-extensional magneto-elastic vibrator that is externally excited by alternating magnetic-field. With the fabricated prototype of the resonant dredger, a mice thrombus blocked in a simulated vessel is broken into micro-pieces, and the previously blocked vessel can recover to an unobstructed state within 1 h. A flow-rate ratio detection method is used to evaluate the thrombus-cleaning effectiveness. The comparison between the finite-element simulation and the experimental results validates the flow-rate ratio detection method. By optimally exciting the resonant dredger in its third resonant mode, the flow-rate ratio in the cleaned vessel increases by about 2.7 times compared with that in the partly blocked vessel, and the thrombus is smashed into micro-pieces.
Keywords: biomedical actuator; magneto-elasticity; micromechanical resonator; thrombus clean-up.