Low-voltage DEP microsystem for submicron particle manipulation in artificial cerebrospinal fluid

In this paper, we present a new low voltage biochip for micro and nanoparticle separation. The proposed system is designed to detect the concentration of particles after being separated through reconfigurable DEP-based electrode architecture. The described system in this work is focusing on the particle frequency dependent separation. Experimental results in artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF) show that each particle has its own crossover frequency. Thus based on the crossover frequency, particles are attracted to the electrode's surface, while others are pushed away. Five different particles are tested with different diameters in the range of 500 nm to 4 μm. All separation process is controlled by a CMOS chip fabricated using 0.18 μm technology from TSMC and powered with 3.3 V. Efficient particle separation is observed with low voltage, below 3.3V unlike other techniques in the range of kV. The proposed platform includes an advanced PDMS based assembly technique for fast testing and prototyping in addition to reconfigurable electrode architecture.

[1]  Mohamad Sawan,et al.  Dielectrophoresis-Based Integrated Lab-on-Chip for Nano and Micro-Particles Manipulation and Capacitive Detection , 2012, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Circuits Syst..

[2]  K. Kaler,et al.  Continuous dielectrophoretic separation of cell mixtures , 1979, Cell Biophysics.

[3]  Yong Liu,et al.  IC/microfluidic hybrid system for magnetic manipulation of biological cells , 2006, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[4]  R. Maeda,et al.  Room-temperature microfluidics packaging using sequential plasma activation process , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging.

[5]  T. Yao,et al.  Simultaneous Determination of l-Glutamate, Acetylcholine and Dopamine in Rat Brain by a Flow-Injection Biosensor System with Microdialysis Sampling , 2008, Analytical sciences : the international journal of the Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry.

[6]  S. Jaffer,et al.  Thick SU-8 and PDMS Three-Dimensional Enclosed Channels for Free-Standing Polymer Microfluidic Systems , 2007, 2007 Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering.

[7]  Ling Xie,et al.  Development of a Disposable Bio-Microfluidic Package With Reagents Self-Contained Reservoirs and Micro-Valves for a DNA Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) Application , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging.

[8]  Mohamad Sawan,et al.  Low-voltage lab-on-chip for micro and nanoparticles manipulation and detection: experimental results , 2012 .

[9]  Chun Yang,et al.  Modeling of dielectrophoretic force for moving dielectrophoresis electrodes , 2008 .

[10]  M. Kothare,et al.  Novel microfluidic interconnectors for high temperature and pressure applications , 2003 .

[11]  A. B. Frazier,et al.  Reliability aspects of packaging and integration technology for microfluidic systems , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability.

[12]  D. Walt,et al.  CMOS Microelectrode Array for Electrochemical Lab-on-a-Chip Applications , 2009, IEEE Sensors Journal.

[13]  K. R. Williams,et al.  Novel interconnection technologies for integrated microfluidic systems , 1998 .

[14]  S. D. Collins,et al.  Removable tubing interconnects for glass-based micro-fluidic systems made using ECDM , 2004 .

[15]  Shaochen Chen,et al.  Polydimethylsioxane fluidic interconnects for microfluidic systems , 2003 .

[16]  Frédéric Clerc,et al.  Detection of 28 neurotransmitters and related compounds in biological fluids by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. , 2006, Rapid communications in mass spectrometry : RCM.