Parametric study on the geometrical parameters of a lab-on-a-chip platform with tilted planar electrodes for continuous dielectrophoretic manipulation of microparticles

Abstract

Advances in lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices have led to significant improvements in the on-chip manipulation, separation, sorting, and isolation of particles and cells. Among various Loc-based approaches such as inertia-based methods, acoustophoresis, and magnetophoresis, the planarslanted-electrode dielectrophoresis (Dep) method has demonstrated great potential as a label-free, cost-effective, and user-friendly approach. However, the devices built based on this method suffer from low flow throughput compared to devices functioning based on other LOC-based manipulation approaches. in order to overcome this obstacle, the geometrical parameters of these types of DEP-based devices must be studied to increase the effectiveness of DEP manipulation. With the consideration of both numerical and experimental studies, this paper studies the geometrical factors of a Loc platform consisting of tilted planar electrodes with the goal of achieving higher throughput in continuous manipulation of polystyrene particles. coMSoL Multiphysics software was used to study the effect of the electrodes geometry on the induced electric field. The simulation results show that by increasing the electrode's width and decreasing the electrode's spacing, higher Dep force is generated. furthermore, the experimental outcomes indicated that lower channel height, higher voltage, and larger particle size resulted in the most improvement to Dep manipulation. Additionally, the experimental results demonstrated that slanted electrodes with an angle of 8° with respect to the direction of flow provide a more effective configuration. Cell manipulation, as a preliminary step for cell-based analysis, is a rapidly growing area of interdisciplinary research for the development of single-cell technologies. Over the past two decades, single-cell manipulation and analysis methods have improved significantly due to advances in microfluidic cell manipulation methods 1,2. These methods can be broadly categorized as either passive or active. The passive methods, including microfiltration 3 , inertia-based 4 , contraction-expansion channels 5 , deterministic lateral displacement 6 , and pinched flow fractionation 7 , do not rely on any external forces. On the other hand, the active methods, such as dielectrophoresis (DEP) 8 , magnetophoresis 9 , acoustophoresis 10 , and optical-based manipulation 11 , require an external force to manipulate the cells/particles. Although passive methods can handle higher flow rates, active methods offer more control over cells/particles, real-time tuning, reliability, and higher manipulation efficiency 12-14 .

3D Numerical Simulation of Acoustophoretic Motioninduced by Boundary-driven Acoustic Streaming Instanding Surface Acoustic wave Microfluidics

“…( 9)) and the vibration velocities of the substrate (u x and u y are substrate displacement components in eqn. (5) and eqn. ( 6)) is regarded as the interface tangential velocities u a0 and v a0 which can be expressed as 39 ,…”

“…Manipulation of microparticles is of utmost importance in a wide array of biomedical, biochemical, and biophysical applications [1][2][3] . Since the emergence of lab-on-a-chip (LoC) technologies, especially in the past two decades, different manipulation strategies, including electrokinetic, hydrodynamic, optical, magnetophoretic, and acoustophoretic based method have been developed [4][5][6][7] . Each method has its portfolio of strengths and weaknesses, which makes them suitable for a particular application.…”

Sheath‐assisted versus sheathless dielectrophoretic particle separation

“…Microfiltration [4], inertia‐based [5], pinched flow fractionation [6], and deterministic lateral displacement [7] are among the passive methods. Dielectrophoretic [8], acoustophoretic [9], magnetic [10], and optic forces [11] are the most popular active methods used for sorting and separation. The mechanisms, advantages, and disadvantages of each one of these methods are reviewed in detail in the literature [2,12].…”

“…Several studies have investigated the effect of different geometrical as well as operational parameters on the DEP‐induced displacement of the particles. In our previous study [8], we investigated the effect of the geometry of the electrodes, applied voltage, volumetric throughput, particle size, as well as the height, width, and length of the microchannel on the displacement of the particles. COMSOL Multiphysics simulation results showed that by decreasing the electrode gap and increasing the electrode width to a critical value, which depends on the channel height, the DEP force enhances significantly.…”

Microfluidic Separation of Blood Cells Based on the Negative Dielectrophoresis Operated by Three Dimensional Microband Electrodes

“…The levitation of cells by n-DEP will decrease the separation effect. Recently, the electrode geometries of slanted electrodes were investigated by the simulation of the induced electric field for the effective and high throughput separation of particles [ 24 ].…”