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Dielectrophoretic Microfluidic Switching for Lab on a ChipApplications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Lisen Wang and
Abraham Philip Lee
Lisen Wang
Affiliation:
lisenw@uci.edu, University of California, Irvine, Biomedical Engineering Department, 3120 Nature Science II, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
Abraham Philip Lee
Affiliation:
aplee@uci.edu, University of California, Irvine, Biomedical Engineering Department, 3120 Nature Science II, Irvine, CA, 92697, United States
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Abstract

Dielectrophoresis switching with vertical microelectrodes in the side wall of microchannel have been designed, fabricated and tested. A set of interdigitated electrodes in the side wall of the microchannels is used for the generation of non-uniform electrical field to introduce DEP force to repel or attract beads/cells to the sidewalls. A countering DEP force is generated from another set of electrodes patterning on the opposing side walls. These DEP forces can be adjusted by the voltage and frequency applied. By manipulating the coupled DEP forces, the particles flowing through the microchannel can be positioned at different equilibrium points along the width direction and continue to flow into different outlets. The objects of interest can be switched to desired channel outlets in the flow with no need of any moving parts and the down-stream channel can be more than three outlets. Experimental results for switching cells to two outlets and polystyrene microbeads to five outlets have been achieved.The effect of the geometry and flow rate on the performance of the switching was studied and an analytical solution for the optimal design and operation of DEP electrode arrays has been derived from the proposed model.

Keywords

microelectro-mechanical (MEMS)dielectric propertiesfluidics

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