Design and simulation of a MEMS based cell separator utilizing 3D travelling-wave dielectrophoresis

Abstract

In this work a novel electrode structure is proposed to separate viable and non-viable yeast cells by travelling-wave dielectrophoresis (twDEP). The electrodes are chevron-shaped which the sharp angle at the center of the electrodes is replaced by a curvature. We employed finite element method to simulate and observe the electric fields related to conventional dielectrophoresis (cDEP) and twDEP and correspondingly to estimate the cell trajectories under the applied electric field. Furthermore, we discuss different physical and geometrical parameters to design our twDEP microseparator to get the most accurate operation and higher separation efficiency. First, we study the adequate frequency and medium conductivity. Then, we explore the optimized electrode dimensions for target cells. From the simulations, we discovered that by the proposed electrode structure and applying phase shifted AC electric potential with amplitude of 2 V p-p and frequency of 70 kHz viable yeast cells discriminate from non-viable ones and get focused on a band at the center of the channel, simultaneously. The simulation results reveal that here the maximum twDEP force is applied to yeast cells when electrode width is about 12 μm. Finally, we propose possible different electrode forms that can be derived from our proposed electrode shape to manipulate different cells/particles.