Anil Kumar1, Boris Khusid2, Conrad James3, and Andreas Acrivos1. (1) Department of Chemical Engineering, The Levich Institute, 1M2, Steinman Hall, The Levich Institute, 140th Street & Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031, (2) Mechanical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102, (3) Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
We present the design of a microfluidic device and an ac electrical power supply capable of combining both conventional (DEP) and traveling wave dielectrophoresis (tw-DEP) in a single microchip for the consecutive separation and manipulation of suspended particles according to their electrical properties. The electrical power supply is capable of producing four sinusoidal signals, each shifted 90 degree in phase from the previous, with amplitude of up to 200 V (peak-to-peak) and frequency of up to 250 kHz. We will present the operating principle of the device along with the experimental results on suspensions of ~3 micrometer diameter latex particles dispersed in an aqueous medium.