Experimental data underlying the research on particle manipulation using hydrodynamic forcing

The dynamic manipulation of particles, droplet and living cells is of crucial importance to many microfluidic applications. Such active manipulations are often achieved through the strong interactions between a particles and external forces and fields, including acoustic forces, lasers, magnetic and electric fields. Here, we present a microfluidic approach to accurately control the displacements of several particles by controlling the direction of the flow field on the scale of the particle. The approach combines a flow-through flow cell with path optimization and feedback control to manipulate, trap, separate and join particles with hydrodynamic forces only. Particles of various properties, including biological samples, can be manipulated within the same device. This approach is beneficial for rapid prototyping in the early design stage, as it allows to explore different micro-channel geometries and determine the best channel geometry suited for a given application.<br><br>The experimental raw images were recorded with a sCMOS camera (PCO) with a pixel pitch of 6.5 μm. The camera was mounted on a microscope (Nikon Eclipse Ti) with a 1x objective. Theacquisition frequency was 5 Hz corresponding to an average in-plane displacement of 4-6 pixels between two consecutive recordings.<br>