Cell/particle separation enabled by lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices has been a promising solution for separating target cells from the body fluids. Understanding the effects of fabrication and performance parameters on the separation efficiency can further advance applications of such devices in life sciences. This study presents a parametric study on the displacement of the cell-representative polystyrene particles in dielectrophoresis (DEP) based microseparators. The proposed device includes slanted planar interdigitated electrodes to apply a lateral DEP force on the particles. The effect of fabrication parameters (i.e., the channel length and width, and the deflection angle of the electrodes), as well as operational factors (i.e., the volumetric throughput and particle size) on the DEP-induced displacement, are studied. The results show that the volumetric throughput has the most contribution to the position of the particles. Among the geometrical parameters, the channel length is found to be the most effective factor in the particles position, while the effect of the channel width is shown to be negligible. The device was also tested with NIH 3T3 mouse fibroblast cells, which exhibited the same behavior. The results of this research render the desired separation performance to be attained via the design of low-angle slanted electrodes alongside with a balance between the volumetric throughput and the length of the DEP region. These findings lead to a successful size-selective sorting or focusing of 5 μm–15 μm particles, which can provide valuable insights into the design of microfluidic platforms to selectively separate different cell types in biofluids.

通过芯片实验室（LOC）装置实现的细胞/颗粒分离已成为从体液中分离靶细胞的有前途的解决方案。了解制造和性能参数对分离效率的影响可以进一步推动此类设备在生命科学中的应用。这项研究提出了基于介电泳（DEP）的微分离器中具有细胞代表性的聚苯乙烯颗粒的位移的参数研究。所提出的装置包括倾斜的平面叉指状电极，以在颗粒上施加横向DEP力。研究了制造参数（即通道的长度和宽度以及电极的偏转角）以及操作因素（即体积通量和粒径）对DEP引起的位移的影响。结果表明，体积通过量对颗粒位置的贡献最大。在几何参数中，发现通道长度是影响颗粒位置的最有效因素，而通道宽度的影响却可以忽略不计。该设备还用表现出相同行为的NIH 3T3小鼠成纤维细胞进行了测试。这项研究的结果使得通过设计低角度倾斜电极以及在容积通量和DEP区域的长度之间取得平衡，可以达到理想的分离性能。这些发现导致成功地对5 μm–15μm颗粒进行了尺寸选择分选或聚焦，这可以为微流体平台的设计提供有价值的见解，以选择性地分离生物流体中的不同细胞类型。