A negative dielectrophoresis and gravity-driven flow-based high-throughput and high-efficiency cell-sorting system

We present a negative dielectrophoresis (n-DEP)-based cell separation system for high-throughput and high-efficiency cell separation. To achieve a high throughput, the proposed system comprises macro-sized channel and cantilever-type electrode (CE) arrays (L × W × H = 150 µm × 500 µm × 50 µm) to generate n-DEP force. For high efficiency, double separation modules, which have macro-sized channels and CE arrays in each separation module, are employed. In addition, flow regulators to precisely control the hydrodynamic force are allocated for each outlet. Because the hydrodynamic force and the n-DEP force acting on the target cell are the main determinants of the separation efficiency, we evaluate the theoretical amount of hydrodynamic force and n-DEP force acting on each target cell. Based on theoretical results, separation conditions are experimentally investigated. Finally, to demonstrate the separation performance, we performed the separation of target cells (live K562) from nontarget cells (dead K562) under conditions of low voltage (7Vp-p with 100 kHz) and a flow rate of 15 µL•min⁻¹, 6 µL•min⁻¹, and 8 µL•min⁻¹ in outlets 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The system can separate target cells with 95% separation efficiency in the case of the ratio of 5:1 (live K562:dead K562).