Advancements in Throughput, Lifetime, Purification, and Workflow for Integrated Nanoscale Deterministic Lateral Displacement

Abstract

Nanoscale deterministic lateral displacement (nanoDLD) has emerged as an effective method for separating nanoscopic colloids for applications in molecular biology, yet present limits in throughput, purification, on‐chip filtration, and workflow restricting its adoption as a practical separation technology. To overcome these impediments, array scaling and parallelization for integrated nanoDLD (i‐nanoDLD) enrichment devices are developed to achieve a density of ≈83 arrays mm−2 with 31 160 parallel arrays, producing an ≈30‐fold concentration of the target colloid and a record throughput of 17 mL h−1. Purification using a dual‐fluid input embodiment of i‐nanoDLD is demonstrated to successfully remove background contaminants from target colloid samples, including urine. Used serially, high‐throughput enrichment and purification chips achieve >1700 gain in particle over protein concentration compared to input sample. Additionally, integration of upstream filter banks shows improved operation lifetime > 7× for particles with diameters close to the gap size. Finally, the integrated design and associated flow rates allow a straightforward approach to chip‐to‐world interfacing as demonstrated using a prototype system for facile, turn‐key sample processing. Collectively, these developments advance nanoDLD into the range of sample volumes and process times needed for research and clinical samples.

Using symmetry to control viscoelastic waves in pillar arrays

“…Viscoelastic effects in the ows of polymer solutions through and around structures at the microscale are believed to have practical importance in diverse areas ranging from the extraction of oil from mineral matrices 1 and the transport of heat, 2 to the understanding of the transport of biological uids, both in their native environments 3 and through novel types of microuidic devices. 4,5 An example of the latter is microuidics devices for the separation of DNA molecules by length that use deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) [6][7][8][9][10][11] as well those relying on pulsed electrical elds combined with a pillar array arranged in a hexagonal pattern. 12,13 While the underlying mechanisms are entirely different, both are based on arrays of pillars through which the molecules follow size-dependent trajectories.…”

High-Throughput Separation of Long DNA in Deterministic Lateral Displacement Arrays

“…The high throughput makes it possible to collect the separated species in a high enough concentration for genetic analysis in a very short time. Others have chosen a different approach towards high throughput by massively parallelizing nanoDLD devices (up to 31,160 arrays in parallel [ 21 ]). While this method seems to work well, such parallelization is highly complex, expensive and limited to labs with advanced fabrication facilities.…”

Geometric structure design of passive label-free microfluidic systems for biological micro-object separation

“…A smaller critical diameter benefits the microfluidic device in many ways, such as reducing the clogging effect 67 , enabling a larger separation range, and maximizing the separation angle 68 . Much work has been done to alleviate the clogging effect and maintain high throughput 69 , 70 . Multiple agents have been applied in blood specimens to mitigate the clogging effect 71 , but pillar shape optimization has been showed to be a more generalized method.…”