Abstract
Image dielectrophoresis (iDEP) has been developed based on real-time reconfigurable image controlled photoconductivity. Compared with the electrode-based dielectrophoresis, the functionalities will not be limited by the fixed geometry of electrodes. In this thesis, the fundamental characteristics of iDEP including velocity, force, effective radius of iDEP and size limitation are discussed in detail. In our experiment, when a particle was operated by iDEP, the maximum velocity was 80 □m/s and the equivalent DEP force was 19 pN. The effective radius of iDEP was about 200 □m. We have developed an integrated iDEP chips for simultaneous operation in both static and dynamic flow fields. This chip can be used to manipulate cells and particles. Based on image pre-designs and environment settings, the integrated iDEP chip owns powerful functionalities including cell separation, transportation, aggregation, single cell or cell flock manipulation, virtual channel guidance, etc. By using iDEP for the manipulation of cells or particles, the damage to the specimen caused by the direct contact will be reduced. These characteristics make this technology as a candidate of medical diagnoses or chemical analysis and make it possible to develop a micro-total-analysis-system (μTAS).