Analysis of geometry effects on band spreading of microchip electrophoresis

The geometry and the flow field conditions in the separation microchannel of an electrophoresis chip system may have important impact on the system's separation efficiency. Understanding the geometry effect on the flow field physics in the separation microchannel is beneficial to the design or operation of an electrophoresis system. The turns in a microfabricated separation microchannel generally results in degraded separation quality. To avoid this limitation, channels are constructed with different types of turns to determine the optimum design that minimizes turn-induced band broadening. We have designed and tested various geometric bend ratios to greatly reduce this so-called "racetrack" effect. The effects of the separation channel geometry, fluid velocity profile and bend ratio on the band distribution in the detection area are discussed. Results show that the folded square U-shaped channel is better for miniaturization and simplification. The band tilting was corrected and the racetrack effect reduced in the detection area when the bend ratio is 4:1. The detection time obtained from the present numerical solution matches very well with the experimental data.