A Traveling-Wave Dielectrophoresis Bio-Chip for Cell Manipulation in Standard CMOS Process

This brief presents a lab-on-a-chip for cancer cell manipulation and separation. The programmable microelectrode dot array with 115,200 sub-microelectrodes is used to generate traveling wave electric field on the proposed chip. The proposed sub-microelectrode,
$5\times 5\,\,\mu {\mathrm{ m}}^{2}$
, is useful to improve the traveling field strength under low applied voltage. The proposed chip with area size of
$3.2\times 2.2$
mm
²
is implemented in standard 0.18
$\mu {\mathrm{ m}}$
CMOS process. Experimental results show that MDA-MB-231 cells and HELA cells can be manipulated at the speed of 1.08
$\mu {\mathrm{ m}}$
/s and 1.5
$\mu {\mathrm{ m}}$
/s respectively under the supply voltage of 1.8V.