Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

Title

A Microchannel With Repeated Sharp Corners for Single Stream Particle Focusing

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

Summer 8-3-2014

Abstract

A new microfluidic device for fast and high throughput microparticle focusing is reported. The particle focusing is based on the combination of inertial lift force effect and centrifugal force effect generated in a microchannel with a series of repeated sharp corners on one side of the channel wall. The inertial lift force effect induces two focused particles streams in the microchannel, and the centrifugal force generated at the sharp corner structures tends to drive the particles laterally away from the corner. With the use of a series of the repeated, sharp corner structures, a single and highly focused particle stream was achieved near the straight channel wall at a wide range of flow rates. In comparison to other hydrodynamic particle focusing methods, this method is less sensitive to the flow rate and can work at a higher flow rate (high throughput). With its simple structure and operation, and high throughput, this method can be potentially used in microparticle focusing processes in a variety of lab-on-a chip applications.

Copyright © 2014 by ASME

Publication Title

ASME Proceedings | Biomedical and Lab-on-a-Chip

Issue

Paper No. ICNMM2014-21578

First Page

V001T10A003

Last Page

V001T10A003

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