We present a prototype microfluidic device developed for the continuous dielectrophoretic (DEP) fractionation and purification of sample suspensions of biological cells. The device integrates three fully functional and distinct units consisting of an injector, a fractionation region, and two outlets. In the sheath and sample injection ports, the cell sample are hydrodynamically focused into a stream of controlled width; in the DEP fractionation region, a specially shaped nonuniform (isomotive) electric field is synthesized and employed to facilitate the separation, and the sorted cells are then delivered to two sample collection ports. The microfluidic behavior of the injector region was simulated and then experimentally verified. The operation and performance of the device was evaluated using yeast cells as model biological particles. Issues relating to the fabrication and operation of the device are discussed in detail. Such a device takes a significant step towards an integrated lab-on-a-chip device, which could interface/integrate to a number of other on-chip components for the device to undertake the whole laboratory procedure.
In this article we report on a planar miniaturized dielectrophoretic (DEP) microfluidic device developed for the purpose of continuous fractionation and purification of sample suspensions of microscopic particles or biological cells, employing specially shaped nonuniform (isomotive) electric fields. The device integrates three fully functional and distinct sub-units consisting of 1) sheath and sample injection ports, arranged to achieve hydrodynamic focusing of the cell stream; 2) the DEP fractionation region and 3) two sample collection ports. In the DEP fractionation region, the magnitude of the field induced DEP force acting on the particle is essentially constant and independent of the particle’s position and furthermore only dependent on the intrinsic polarization response of the particle, for identical sized particles. The operation and performance in terms of sample throughput, separation efficiency and repeatability of the device was evaluated using test microscopic sized dielectric particles and biological particles, including cancerous cell lines.
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