A chip for catching, separating, and transporting bio-particles with dielectrophoresis

Abstract

This study aims at developing a 3D device for catching, separating, and transporting bio-particles based on dielectrophoresis (DEP). Target particles can be simultaneously caught and transported using the negative DEP method. In non-uniform electric fields, the levitation height or complex permittivity of certain particle may be different from that of another and this property can facilitate separation of particles. We have designed and constructed a 3D device consisting of two layers of electrodes separated by a channel formed by 50 microm thick photoresist. The electrodes can operate effectively with 10-15 V and 5-7 MHz to catch all particles in the channel, and can move particles after switching the electric field to 5-15 V and 500-1,000 KHz. Hence, particles experienced coupling force of two different directional twDEP forces, and tallied with our estimation to move along the coupling direction.

Lab‐on‐a‐chip device for continuous particle and cell separation based on electrical properties via alternating current dielectrophoresis

“…This unique dielectric signature can be utilized to discriminate and identify cells from the other particles or to detect and isolate diseased or damaged cells by means of AC electrokinetic methods. In this sense, DEP has been implemented for the separation of the cancer cells from the blood stream [12,28], the separation of the platelets from diluted whole blood [38], the separation of red blood cells and the white blood cells (WBCs) [40], the separation of viable and nonviable yeast cells [37,39], the separation of human leukocytes [29], the separation of the electroporated and nonelectroporated cells [33], the separation of bovine red blood cells of different starvation age [35,36], the isolation of the malaria-infected cells from the blood [30,31], the separation of healthy and unhealthy oocyte cells [41], the characterization and the sorting stem cells and their differentiated progeny [43], the isolation of rare cells from biological fluids [48], the separation and the detection of DNA-derivatized nanoparticles [44]. Except very few applications [21], particle and cell separation by DEP based on the electrical properties requires discrete processes (i.e.…”

“…Except very few applications [21], particle and cell separation by DEP based on the electrical properties requires discrete processes (i.e. trap and rinse) [12,28,29,[32][33][34][39][40][41][42][43].…”

Dielectrophoresis in microfluidics technology

“…This unique dielectric signature can be utilized to discriminate and identify cells from the other particles or to detect and isolate diseased or damaged cells by means of AC-DEP (DEP force spectra of different cell types can be found elsewhere [118,144]). AC-DEP has been implemented for the separation of cancer cells from blood stream [17,18], the separation of red blood cells and polystyrene particles [19], the separation of human leukocytes [20], the isolation of the malaria-infected cells from the blood [21,22], the separation of the electroporated and non-electroporated cells [23], the separation of the platelets from diluted whole blood [24], the separation of red blood cells and the white blood cells [25], the separation [26][27][28] and sorting [29] of viable and nonviable yeast cells, the separation of healthy and unhealthy oocyte cells [30], the characterization and the sorting stem cells and their differentiated progeny [31], the isolation of rare cells from biological fluids [32], the separation of three distinct bacterial clones of commonly used E. coli MC1061 strain [33], trapping of viable mammalian fibroplast cells [34], trapping of DNA molecules [35], trapping of single cancer and endothelial cells to investigate pairwise cell interactions [36], trapping of bacterial cells for the subsequent electrodisruption or electroporation [37], focusing of polystyrene particles [38], trapping of yeast cells [39], 3-D focusing of polystyrene particles and yeast cells [40], the separation of airborne bacterium, Micrococcus luteus, from a mixture with dust and polystyrene beads [41], trapping and isolation of human stem cell from heterogeneous solution [42], single-cell isolation [43], concentration and counting of polystyrene particles [44], the separation of polystyrene particles, Jurkat cells and HeLa cells …”

“…In this case, a transient force that represents the Brownian forces as an additional external force can be implemented to Eq. (27) [138].…”

Continuous particle separation based on electrical properties using alternating current dielectrophoresis

“…The dependence of the DEP force on the size and the electrical properties makes it possible for cell/ particle separation based on the size and electrical properties differences. Utilizing these, DEP has also been implemented for cell/particle separation [9,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. These separation applications include the separation of the cancer cells from the blood stream [23,24], the separation of the platelets from diluted whole blood [31], the separation of red blood cells and the white blood cells [34], the separation of viable and non-viable yeast cells [33], the separation of human leukocytes [25] and the separation of healthy and unhealthy oocyte cells [36].…”