Microfluidic platform for dielectrophoretic separation of bio-particles using serpentine microelectrodes

Recently, there is a great concern in developing integrated microfluidic platforms for biological analysis systems that can perform general biochemistry and biological analysis. Dielectrophoresis, the movement of particles in a non-uniform electric field is widely used to separate viable and non viable cells with good efficiency. The present study aims to develop a universal bio-particle separator in a C-serpentine geometry which could separate particles by varying the operating conditions. We present the design, fabrication and testing for continuous separation structure based on dielectrophoretic forces. The C-Serpentine geometry is composed of consecutive C shaped curves to generate a gradient required for the dielectrophoretic effect. Known mixture of viable and non viable cells of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae was selectively trapped using negative dielectrophoretic force generated by microelectrodes. Through measurement of cell count, a trapping efficiency of 86% was obtained for mixed cell suspension and 93–98% trapping efficiency was obtained in case of trapping live and dead yeast cells individually. Also the results show that cell viability was not affected by the separation procedure as percentage of viable cells was calculated to be 96%.