Spiral microfluidic manipulator for continuous flow microscale particle separations

• MSB 2007: 21st International Symposium on Microscale Bioseparations

The spiral microfluidic particle manipulator addresses size and mass based separation of particles, including biological agents, using solely fluidic shear flow in curved fluidic channels. The methods employed currently for particle separation such as centrifugation, chromatography, etc. utilize batch processes (not continuous), require comparatively large investments in supporting equipment and frequent down time for system preparation. We propose a filterless continuous process employing simple spiral channel geometry to achieve separation of particles over a large dynamic size range. The continuous and simple separation process makes this device amenable to inline integration with other downstream processes. The ability to separate particles over a large dynamic size range through miniaturization makes it suited for both highthroughput macro-scale and refined micro-scale lab-on-chip sample preparation applications.

citation

Seo, J. ; Lean, M. ; Kole, A. Spiral microfluidic manipulator for continuous flow microscale particle separations. MSB 2007: 21st International Symposium on Microscale Bioseparations; 2007 January; Vancouver BC, Canada.