Microfluidic bioparticle separation and detection system based on standing surface acoustic wave and lensless imaging

Abstract

Separation and detection of biological particles or cells from samples by point-of-care (POC) systems are very important for biomedical and healthcare applications. The acoustophoresisbased microfluidic separation technique has the advantages of label-free, contactless, and good biocompatibility. However, most of the separation techniques are bulky, requiring additional equipment for analysis, not suitable for POC-based in-field realtime applications. Here we proposed a platform, which integrates an acoustophoresis-based separation device and a lensless imaging sensor into a compact standalone system. Stand Surface Acoustic Wave (SSAW) is utilized for label-free particle separation, while the lensless imaging system is for the seamless detection and particle counting using self-developed dualthreshold motion detection algorithms. The results showed that the integrated platform was capable to separate, distinguish, and count microbeads of different sizes. We believe that such a platform and the design methods offer a promising POC solution for label-free cell separation and detection in biomedical diagnostics applications.