A simple and quick fabrication method of microfluidic cell sorter using Dielectrophoresis

Abstract

We present a simple, fast and cheap fabrication method of a microfluidic device by combining many easy techniques, such as laser ablating microchannels on polyimide, creating chip by sandwiching geometry customized channel in between Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) coated glass that is served as electrodes. This chip is used in the phenomenon of Dielectrophoresis for cell sorting. In the fabrication methodology, two layers of polyimide sheets with different channel shapes are stacked in between two pieces ITO coated glass. Inlet and outlet holes are drilled through the glass and connected to the tubes with cubic prefabricated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) punctured by needles. The performance of the chip is demonstrated by simulating the particle movement under the influence of negative DEP (n-DEP). The results indicate that this device can be used to sort particles responding to n-DEP effects.