Effect of Microfluidic Rectangular Microelectrode Geometry on Bioparticles Manipulation in Dielectrophoretic Application

Microfluidic cell manipulation techniques have been continually developed and integrated into miniature chips as a so-called lab-on-a-chip (LOC) platform for high-throughput bioassays. Among the various mechanisms of bioparticles manipulation by electrically induced forces, dielectrophoresis (DEP) has been regarded as the most promising technique utilized in microfluidic systems. Into the micro- to nano-scale level of DEP configuration, the common challenges of undesirable side effects such as electrohydrodynamic effects, joule heating, and electrolysis that may occur in the microfluidic system has always been a hurdle that would severely limit the DEP performance. A simulation study was performed on the versatile capabilities of designed rectangular type of dielectrophoresis microelectrodes geometry configuration to manipulate, trap, and characterize bioparticles suspended in the liquid medium. By using this geometry, the performance of this rectangular microelectrode geometry was studied, and an attempt was made to characterize this microelectrode design pattern for different bioassay functions, as well as to provide microelectrode design information for DEP device enhancement were investigated.

微流控细胞操控技术持续发展并被集成至微型芯片，形成所谓的芯片实验室（lab-on-a-chip, LOC）平台，用于高通量生物检测。在电场诱导力介导的各类生物粒子操控机制中，介电泳（dielectrophoresis, DEP）被视为微流控系统中最具应用前景的技术。当介电泳构型进入微纳尺度时，微流控系统中易出现的电流体动力学效应、焦耳热与电解等不良副效应，始终是严重制约介电泳性能的障碍。本研究针对一款定制设计的矩形介电泳微电极几何构型开展仿真研究，以实现对悬浮于液体介质中的生物粒子的操控、捕获与表征。通过该几何构型，本研究分析了矩形微电极的性能，尝试针对不同生物检测功能表征该微电极设计方案，并探索了可为介电泳器件性能提升提供微电极设计依据的方向。