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迭代发展，并被集成至微型芯片中，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。在诸多基于电场力操控生物微粒的机制中，介电泳（dielectrophoresis, DEP）被认为是微流控系统中最具应用前景的技术。当介电泳构型缩小至微纳尺度时，微流控系统中易出现的电液动力效应、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关键障碍。本研究针对一款定制化矩形介电泳微电极几何构型开展了仿真分析，探究其对悬浮于液相介质中的生物微粒的操控、捕获与表征等多功能特性；同时分析了该矩形微电极构型的性能，尝试针对不同生物检测功能表征该微电极的设计范式，并为介电泳器件的性能优化提供微电极设计参考依据。