A capillary dielectrophoretic chip for real-time blood cell separation from a drop of whole blood

Shu-Hsien Liao; Ching-Yu Chang; Hsien-Chang Chang

doi:10.1063/1.4802269

A capillary dielectrophoretic chip for real-time blood cell separation from a drop of whole blood

Biomicrofluidics. 2013 Apr 18;7(2):24110. doi: 10.1063/1.4802269. eCollection 2013.

Authors

Shu-Hsien Liao¹, Ching-Yu Chang², Hsien-Chang Chang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
² DELBio Inc., Taiwan.
³ Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan ; Institute of Nanotechnology and Microsystems Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan ; Center for Micro/Nano Science and Technology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan ; Medical Device Innovation Center, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.

Abstract

This study proposes a capillary dielectrophoretic chip to separate blood cells from a drop of whole blood (approximately 1 μl) sample using negative dielectrophoretic force. The separating efficiency was evaluated by analyzing the image before and after dielectrophoretic force manipulation. Blood samples with various hematocrits (10%-60%) were tested with varied separating voltages and chip designs. In this study, a chip with 50 μm gap design achieved a separation efficiency of approximately 90% within 30 s when the hematocrit was in the range of 10%-50%. Furthermore, glucose concentration was electrochemically measured by separating electrodes following manipulation. The current response increased significantly (8.8-fold) after blood cell separation, which was attributed not only to the blood cell separation but also to sample disturbance by the dielectrophoretic force.