Design and numerical simulation of a microfluidic lab-on-a-chip utilizing positive and negative dielectrophoresis technique for separation of multiple CTCs distinctly

Proper diagnosis and successful cancer therapy monitoring depend on the early identification of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in a patient's blood. One of the most promising techniques is the dielectrophoresis (DEP) to separate CTCs from the blood cells. In this paper, to separate distinct multiple CTCs like A549 (lung cancer) CTCs and MDA-MB-231 (breast cancer) CTCs from the normal cells like white blood cell (WBCs) variants and red blood cell (RBCs), a lab-on-a-chip (LOC) device is designed using the positive and negative DEP technique. Two different electrode geometrical shapes, various voltages on electrodes and flow velocity ratios between sample and buffer inlets have been investigated in terms of separation performance in COMSOL Multiphysics 5.4 simulation. The segregation results dependent on finite element method showed that the LOC with trapezoid microcut electrode geometry achieved nearly 100% separation purity and efficiency at 200 kHz driving frequency, 21.6 Vp-p (peak to peak) electrode voltage and 1:2 velocity ratio between sample and buffer inlets.

We anticipate that a design this thorough and methodical will be appropriate to produce DEP-based relevant cell separation biochips.