Hydrodynamically Focused Particle Filtration Using an Island Structure
Authors
Kangsun Lee1, Choong Kim2, Byungwook Ahn1, Ji Yoon Kang2 & Kwang W. Oh1
Institutions
1SMALL (Sensors and MicroActuators Learning Lab), Department of Electrical Engineering, The State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA 2Nano-Bioresearch Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), 39-1 Hawolgok Dong, Seongbuk Gu, Seoul 136-791, Korea
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to K.W. Oh (kwangoh@buffalo.edu)
Abstract
We propose a particle filtration method based on hydrodynamic focusing. Three microchannels associated for the filtration were networked with an island structure to control a boundary to limit particle sizes. By adjusting the ratios of hydraulic resistances of the three microchannels, the boundary distance was controlled. Using hydrodynamic focusing in the microfluidic network, we have successfully designed and tested the device to filtrate particles of 10 μm and 20 μm. The proposed method can continuously separate particles by size. Thus, the proposed separation method can be applicable for many fields in biology and biomedical engineering.
