Microfluidic systems are widely used for applications in biology, medicine and chemistry. Particles separation by microfluidics is a scientific subject that requires ongoing research efforts. In this article, we demonstrate a micropillar-based particles separator fabricated using digital micromirror device (DMD)-based optical projection lithography from the perspectives of theory, design, simulation and experiments. Micropillars can be fabricated with customized shapes and sizes which shows high flexible and efficient. The particles separator employs the physical separation of a cylindrical array, a rectangular array, or a triangular array to separate particles. The simulation and experiment results indicate that the device with different micropillars could achieve separation of 20 and 200 μm polystyrene microspheres. Furthermore, the separation efficiency depended on flow rate and the shape of micropillars. All the results can be used to support the redesign of microfluidic structures to address particles separation needs.

微流控系统广泛应用于生物学、医学和化学领域。微流控颗粒分离是一门科学课题，需要持续的研究工作。在本文中，我们从理论、设计、模拟和实验的角度展示了一种使用基于数字微镜器件（DMD）的光学投影光刻技术制造的基于微柱的颗粒分离器。微柱可以定制形状和尺寸，表现出高度的灵活性和效率。颗粒分离器采用圆柱形阵列、矩形阵列或三角形阵列的物理分离来分离颗粒。模拟和实验结果表明，不同微柱的装置可以实现20和200μm聚苯乙烯微球的分离。此外，分离效率取决于流速和微柱的形状。所有结果均可用于支持微流体结构的重新设计，以满足颗粒分离需求。