CMOS dielectrophoretic Lab-on-Chip platform for manipulation and monitoring of cells

We propose a novel Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) based Lab-on-Chip (LoC) platform for trapping, rotation and detection of cells and microorganism utilizing dielectrophoresis (DEP). DEP is a highly selective function of the permittivity, size and shape of the entity, and also depends on the permittivity of its environment; these dependencies can be used to identify and trap particles of interest with high precision. Real-time monitoring of such cellular manipulation is also desirable. Towards this goal, we have implemented a three-dimensional (3D) octa-pole electrode structure directly using the built-in metal layers of standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process and demonstrate trapping and rotating of yeast cells. Moreover, we implement an impedance readout circuitry to monitor this process in situ. Paper presented both simulation and experimental results validating the platform.