Microfluidic Biosensor Design with Tapered Sidewall Electrodes for Cancer Cell Separation

Cancer is an uncertain disease which hampers the human life tragically and the major concern with this disease is the requirement of early-stage diagnostics. The biological cells possess such dielectric characteristics that their motion in a fluidic biosensor can be controlled in such a manner that infected cell can be separated from health cells using dielectrophoresis (DEP) phenomenon. Present paper interrogates a novel Y-Y shaped microfluidic biosensor designed using finite element modeling where biosensor was having tapered sidewall electrodes integrated in microchannel on sidewall for generating the required electric field at lower voltage level to manipulate the motion of healthy blood cells and infected cancer cells concluding to separation in two different outlets. In the current study the voltage on the tapered sidewall electrodes is applied in the range of 0-2V alternating current, as a result the electrical field is generated at the frequency 100 kHz. Result have shown optimal cancer cell separation at as low as voltage 1V.