A CMOS single-cell deformability analysis using 3D hydrodynamic stretching in a GHz dielectric flow cytometry

This paper presents a high-throughput flow cytometry in CMOS for single-cell deformability analysis. By applying hydrodynamic stretching using microfluidics, cells are compressed and deformed depending on its elasticity. A CMOS 11-GHz dielectric sensor with on-chip coplanar electrodes is used to measure the degree of deformation through changes in the capacitance encoded in the measured waveforms. Experiments using polystyrene beads and THP-1 cells with and without ethanol incubation demonstrate the system capability with a throughput greater than 1 kcells/sec.