Battery-powered portable instrument system for single-cell trapping, impedance measurements, and modeling analyses

A battery-powered portable instrument system for the single-HeLa-cell trapping and analyses is developed. A method of alternating current electrothermal (ACET) and DEP are employed for the cell trapping and the method of impedance spectroscopy is employed for cell characterizations. The proposed instrument (160 mm × 170 mm × 110 mm, 1269 g) equips with a highly efficient energy-saving design that promises approximately 120 h of use. It includes an impedance analyzer performing an excitation voltage of 0.2-2 Vpp and a frequency sweep of 11-101 kHz, function generator with the sine wave output at an operating voltage of 1-50 Vpp with a frequency of 4-12 MHz, cell-trapping biochip, microscope, and input/output interface. The biochip for the single cell trapping is designed and simulated based on a combination of ACET and DEP forces. In order to improve measurement accuracy, the curve fitting method is adopted to calibrate the proposed impedance spectroscopy. Measurement results from the proposed system are compared with results from a precision impedance analyzer. The trapped cell can be modeled for numerical analyses. Many advantages are offered in the proposed instrument such as the small volume, real-time monitoring, rapid analysis, low cost, low-power consumption, and portable application.