Numerical study of insulation structure characteristics and arrangement effects on cell trapping using alternative current insulating based dielectrophoresis

Abstract

Insulator-based dielectrophoresis is a recently developed technique in which insulating posts are used to produce non-uniformity in the electric eld in a microchannel. This study presents the e ects of insulating posts' geometry and arrangement on the trapping e ciency of red blood cells in an alternating current-insulator-based dielectrophoresis system. Microchannels containing square, circular, and diamond-shaped posts with particles under the in uence of positive dielectrophoresis force and uid ow were considered in this study. The nite element method was used to compute the velocity of the ow and electric eld. The numerical method was veri ed by comparing the numerical results with experimental data. Two distinct criteria for examining particle trapping for distinct shapes and arrangements of insulating posts were introduced. Particle tracing simulation was implemented to observe particle trapping and compare the trapping performance of systems with distinct posts. As shown in the results for the system with circular and square posts, insulators should be narrowed to improve particle trapping, while the diamond post should be widened to increase the trapping e ciency. In addition, the particle tracking results showed that the microchannel with square posts was more e cient in particle trapping.

Image-based cell sorting using focused travelling surface acoustic waves

“…The first active approach involved the use of a microfluidic optical stretcher to sort single cells based on their mechanical properties. 70 However, the sorting throughput was limited to 100 cells per h. Dielectrophoresis has been used as an actuation force for cell manipulation, 71 separation, 72 trapping 73 and deformation. 74 Based on their intrinsic electric properties, cells can be deformed by using dielectrophoresis and a model has been recently introduced to determine a lumped parameter indicative of cells' electrical and mechanical properties.…”

Cell properties assessment using optimized dielectrophoresis-based cell stretching and lumped mechanical modeling

“…Although some efforts have been conducted to evaluate the effect of the parameters on cell deformation 8,30 , expensive simulation is required. We have widely studied the fundamentals of DEP-based MEMS before [31][32][33][34][35] . What is new in this research is an explicit equation based on the most general electromechanical model (Maxwell Stress Tensor) to differentiate different cell types using the DEP method.…”