Optimization of Electrode Structure for Effective Particle Separation in a Micro-Fluidic Chip

This paper presents the optimization of electrode structure for effective particle separation in a micro fluidic chip. The purpose of electrodes in the micro fluidic chip is to generate the DEP (dielectrophoresis) force that is perpendicular to the micro channel direction to separate both nDEP and pDEP particles of the same sizes. The particles will experience DEP force when passing through the electric field which is created by electrode arrays located in different positions in the channel. In this study, we optimize the electrode structure by investigating different shapes and dimensions using numerical simulation and modeling. The optimized electrode structure can provide better separation effect due to larger effective area of DEP force and relative small variation of electric field gradient as demonstrated in this study.