Patent ID: 8679338

Claim:
A system comprising: at least one acoustic microfilter through which is flowed a mixture of a fluid and a particulate to selectively filter particles from the fluid; and at least one phononic crystal unit fluidly coupled to the at least one acoustic microfilter to further selectively filter particles from the fluid, the at least one phononic crystal unit comprising: an array of parallel spaced tubes, each tube being surrounded by a porous membrane; a second flow chamber with an inlet and an outlet through which is flowed the filter mixture of fluid and particulate after being filtered by the at least one acoustic microfilter; one or more ultrasonic transducers embedded in a wall of the second flow chamber or located outside a second flow chamber wall; and one or more reflectors corresponding to each transducer located on the opposite wall of the second flow chamber from each corresponding transducer, wherein the ultrasonic transducer/reflector pairs in combination with the array of tubes further selectively filter particles from the fluid.