Particle Loss Reduction Technique Using Dielectrophoresis in Microfluidic Channel

유전영동을 이용한 미세유체채널 내부의 입자 손실 저감 기술

This paper demonstrates a novel electrodynamic technique to remove particles from the wall of microchannels. Dielectrohporesis(DEP) is generated by applying alternating electric potentials to the interdigitated electrodes integrated at the bottom of the micro-channel. The proposed technique is applied to a general microfluidic channel as a feasibility test. To examine the wall loss reduction efficiency, 10 ${\mu}m$ diameter Polystyrene latexes(PSL) were supplied to the inlet of the device. Then, the concentration of collected particles through devices was measured. In the experiment for 10 ${\mu}m$ diameter PSL particles, the concentration of the injected particles was $174.25{\times}10^4$ particles/ml. However, the concentration of collected particles at the outlet was $52.25{\times}10^4$ particles/ml. Only 30 % of particles had arrived at the outlet and 70 % of particles had adhered to the wall of the microfluidic channel. By applying alternating electric potentials from 0 to 20 $V_{pp}$ at 3 MHz, the concentration of injected particles was 135.00${\times}10^4$ particles/ml, the concentration of collected particles was increased as $105.25{\times}10^4$ particles/ml at 20 $V_{pp}$ at the outlet. When the electric potential was 20 $V_{pp}$, the particle loss was decreased by 39 % (initial loss: 70 %, loss at 20 Vpp: 31 %) with 10 ${\mu}m$ particle. The particle loss was decreased along to the incensement of electric potentials and the enlargement of the diameter of particles. According to these measured results, it was confirmed that the proposal of using DEP technique could be a good candidate for particle loss reduction in micro-particle processing chip application. Moreover, it is expected that the proposed technique could enhance performance of microfluidic and biochip devices.