Dielectrophoresis-Based Integrated Lab-on-Chip for Nano and Micro-Particles Manipulation and Capacitive Detection

We present in this paper a new Lab-on-Chip (LoC) architecture for dielectrophoresis-based cell manipulation, detection, and capacitive measurement. The proposed LoC is built around a CMOS full-custom chip and a microfluidic structure. The CMOS chip is used to deliver all parameters required to control the dielectrophoresis (DEP) features such as frequency, phase, and amplitude of signals spread on in-channel electrodes of the LoC. It is integrated to the LoC and experimental results are related to micro and nano particles manipulation and detection in a microfluidic platform. The proposed microsystem includes an on-chip 27-bit frequency divider, a digital phase controller with a 3.6° phase shift resolution and a 2.5 V dynamic range. The sensing module is composed of a 3 × 3 capacitive sensor array with 10 fF per mV sensitivity, and a dynamic range of 1.5 V. The obtained results show an efficient nano and micro-particles (PC05N, PA04N and PS03N) separation based on frequency segregation with low voltages less than 1.7 V and a fully integrated and reconfigurable system.