Development of an active micromixer by dielectrophrosis particle manipulating

Abstract

A particle manipulating micromixer was developed successfully in this study. The present device was fabricated by simply MEMS process. Only two photomasks, one for electrode array chip and another for micro-channel, were needed to manufacture the micromixer. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) force was used to manipulate the particles in the micro-channel. In this experience, polymer particles with diameter of 1 m were tested in the fluid with conductivity of 0.10mS/cm. The results show that the symmetrical vortices were observed at frequency of 100 kHz. The traveling wave DEP (twDEP) occurred when the input frequency was 10MHz. Micro-mixer chip which can stir fluid to achieve mixing was fabricated successfully by combining an electro array chip and Y-type micro-channel. The mixing performance depends on the voltage input. The flow phenomena were obtained and analyzed by micro-PIV technology. In the future, different cells can be manipulated by the present micromixer to achieve the rapid mixing with different driving frequency. It is useful in the biological or biomedical application.