Pulsed laser activated cell sorter with dielectrophoretic single stream sheathless focusing

We report a novel sheathless microfluidic fluorescence-activated cell sorter utilizing size-independent three-dimensional dielectrophoretic (DEP) single stream focusing and pulsed laser activated cell sorting (PLACS). This is realized by fabricating a 3D microfluidic device using two glass substrates with patterned electrodes sandwiching a thin and open PDMS channel. DEP forces are provided along a 4cm-long channel that focuses particles into a single stream passing through a fluorescence detection zone regardless of their sizes and types at high flow speeds. Pulsed laser-induced cavitation bubbles are used to provide rapid (~30 μs) and precise fluid perturbation to sort out particles upon the detection of fluorescence. High purity sorting has been accomplished at a throughput of 1500 particles sec
^-1
.