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.