Electrical and thermal characterization of a dielectrophoretic chip with 3D electrodes for cells manipulation

This paper presents a characterization of a DEP device with 3D electrodes fabricated using microtechnology. A characteristic of the proposed DEP device is that the microchannel walls are made from heavy-doped silicon, acting simultaneously as electrodes. Theoretical analysis shows that the structure with 3D electrodes presents a uniform DEP force in the cross-section of the microfluidic channel, hence producing a higher trapping efficiency compared to those classical DEP devices with thin planar electrodes. Numerical simulation using finite element method (ANSYS) has demonstrated that with 3D silicon electrodes, the change in temperature is 8-10 times lower as compared to those classical DEP devices with thin planar electrodes. Experimental results show that DEP device with 3D silicon electrodes has a better trapping efficiency of cells, hence providing a great potential for high volume cells manipulation. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.