Bacterial handling under the influence of non-uniform electric fields: dielectrophoretic and electrohydrodynamic effects.

This paper describes the modeling and experimental verification of a castellated microelectrode array intended to handle biocells, based on common dielectrophoresis. The proposed microsystem was developed employing platinum electrodes deposited by lift-off, silicon micromachining, and photoresin patterning techniques. Having fabricated the microdevice it was tested employing Escherichia coli as bioparticle model. Positive dielectrophoresis could be verified with the selected cells for frequencies above 100 kHz, and electrohydrodynamic effects were observed as the dominant phenomena when working at lower frequencies. As a result, negative dielectrophoresis could not be observed because its occurrence overlaps with electrohydrodynamic effects; i.e. the viscous drag force acting on the particles is greater than the dielectrophoretic force at frequencies where negative dielectrophoresis should occur. The experiments illustrate the convenience of this kind of microdevices to micro handling biological objects, opening the possibility for using these microarrays with other bioparticles. Additionally, liquid motion as a result of electrohydrodynamic effects must be taken into account when designing bioparticle micromanipulators, and could be used as mechanism to clean the electrode surfaces, that is one of the most important problems related to this kind of devices.

[1]  Ronald Pethig,et al.  Selective dielectrophoretic confinement of bioparticles in potential energy wells , 1993 .

[2]  A. Brown.  Dielectrophoretic investigations of bacterial cells , 1996 .

[3]  Peter R. C. Gascoyne,et al.  Dielectrophoretic manipulation of particles , 1995, IAS '95. Conference Record of the 1995 IEEE Industry Applications Conference Thirtieth IAS Annual Meeting.

[4]  Orlin D. Velev,et al.  In situ assembly of colloidal particles into miniaturized biosensors , 1999 .

[5]  Carlos H. Mastrangelo,et al.  Large-volume integrated capillary electrophoresis stage fabricated using micromachining of plastics on silicon substrates , 1997, Proceedings of International Solid State Sensors and Actuators Conference (Transducers '97).

[6]  F. F. Becker,et al.  Numerical analysis of the influence of experimental conditions on the accuracy of dielectric parameters derived from electrorotation measurements , 1995 .

[7]  R. Pethig,et al.  The dielectrophoresis enrichment of CD34+ cells from peripheral blood stem cell harvests. , 1996, Bone marrow transplantation.

[8]  G. Fuhr,et al.  High-frequency electric field trapping of individual human spermatozoa. , 1998, Human reproduction.

[9]  H. Morgan,et al.  Electric field induced fluid flow on microelectrodes : the effect of illumination , 2000 .

[10]  Ronald Pethig,et al.  Dielectrophoretic characterization and separation of micro-organisms , 1994 .

[11]  Ronald Pethig,et al.  Development of biofactory-on-a-chip technology using excimer laser micromachining , 1998 .

[12]  Fabrication of electrode arrays in the quarter micron regime for biotechnological applications , 1995 .

[13]  Ronald Pethig,et al.  Positive and negative dielectrophoretic collection of colloidal particles using interdigitated castellated microelectrodes , 1992 .

[14]  Karan V. I. S. Kaler,et al.  Dynamic dielectrophoretic levitation of living individual cells , 1980 .

[15]  H. Morgan,et al.  Ac electrokinetics: a review of forces in microelectrode structures , 1998 .

[16]  F F Becker,et al.  Dielectrophoretic characterisation of Friend murine erythroleukaemic cells as a measure of induced differentiation. , 1990, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[17]  Hermine Hitzler,et al.  Force measurements of optical tweezers in electro-optical cages , 1998 .

[18]  H Morgan,et al.  Measurement of Bacterial Flagellar Thrust by Negative Dielectrophoresis , 1999, Biotechnology progress.

[19]  Kazuo Sato,et al.  Individual and mass operation of biological cells using micromechanical silicon devices , 1990 .

[20]  Hywel Morgan,et al.  RAPID COMMUNICATION: Separation of submicrometre particles using a combination of dielectrophoretic and electrohydrodynamic forces , 1998 .

[21]  Joel Voldman,et al.  Dielectrophoretic traps for single-particle patterning. , 2005, Biophysical journal.

[22]  H. Morgan,et al.  Ac electrokinetics: a survey of sub-micrometre particle dynamics , 2000 .

[23]  S. Shirley,et al.  Biological Application of Microstructures , 1998 .

[24]  A. Mizuno,et al.  Evaluation of cell characteristics by step-wise orientational rotation using optoelectrostatic micromanipulation , 1997 .

[25]  Yong-Kweon Kim,et al.  Design of a biological cell fusion device , 1995, Proceedings of the International Solid-State Sensors and Actuators Conference - TRANSDUCERS '95.

[26]  H. P. Schwan,et al.  Surface conductance and other properties of latex particles measured by electrorotation , 1987 .

[27]  Y. Tai,et al.  A micro cell lysis device , 1999 .

[28]  M. Mcdonnell,et al.  Optimizing particle collection for enhanced surface-based biosensors , 2003, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine.

[29]  B. Wagner,et al.  Adhesion-Inhibited Surfaces. Coated and Uncoated Interdigitated Electrode Arrays in the Micrometer and Submicrometer Range , 1996 .

[30]  H. A. Pohl.  The Motion and Precipitation of Suspensoids in Divergent Electric Fields , 1951 .

[31]  D. Figeys,et al.  Lab-on-a-chip: a revolution in biological and medical sciences , 2000, Analytical chemistry.

[32]  M. Heller,et al.  Preparation and hybridization analysis of DNA/RNA from E. coli on microfabricated bioelectronic chips , 1998, Nature Biotechnology.

[33]  Y. Huang,et al.  Dielectrophoretic separation of cancer cells from blood , 1995, IAS '95. Conference Record of the 1995 IEEE Industry Applications Conference Thirtieth IAS Annual Meeting.