Abstract

Separation of micro particle using insulator-based Dielectrophoresis mechanism in stair-shaped microchannel

Hamid Latifi, Professor, Shahid Beheshti University

Microparticle separation has had wide applications in chemistry, biology, medicine, etc. This work presents a numerical and experimental investigation on separation of microparticles in a stair-shaped microchannel using insulator-based Dielectrophoresis (iDEP) mechanism. At first a detailed Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was performed on important parameters in the focusing and separation of microparticles such as geometry of stair-shaped microchannel, total voltage and voltage difference applied to reservoirs. The suitable parameters obtained from numerical analysis were used for experimental work. Theoretically predicted microparticle trajectories are in good agreement with experimentally observed ones. Experimental and numerical results show that the performance of focusing of microparticles enhances with growth of the total voltage (in a constant voltage difference) and decreases with voltage difference. The fabricated iDEP microchip enhances the performance of focusing and separation of microparticles due to its staircase-shaped microchannel and therefore operates at low DC total applied voltages of 90-110 (V).