Abstract
AbstractThe diagnosis of diseases is an important field in bio-medical science. Traditional diagnosis of disease must be proceeded with a variety of complicated instruments and complex steps. The results of diagnosis also need long-time waiting and heavy manpower. With the development of flourishing and BioMEMS technologies, the advantages of BioMEMS, such as miniaturization, fast response, low cost et al., greatly improve the diagnosis period of diseases.Flow Cytometry is an instrument with functions of biological cell detection, counting, and sorting. It can provide fast and high-precision results for medical diagnosis. It is widely used for all kind of medical research applications. It also can be applied to bacteria detection and embryonic stem cells including both fundamental researches and applications. It has also become an important diagnostic tool for hematology and oncology in clinical medical researches. The latest and main fields of Flow Cytometry include cancer detection, HIV recognition, embryonic stem cells, medicine discovery and genetic therapy.According to the application demands of Flow Cytometry and taking advantage of MEMS technology, this thesis proposes a novel micro T-switches for cell sorting applications. The sorting principle for Flow Cytometry is based on high-electric field between the sample outlet. The cells go through the high-electric field region and can be separated and sorted based on their dielectric properties and size. The driving mechanism for our research takes advantage of electrochemistry electrolyze electrolytic solution to generate micro-bubbles. We uses the micro-bubbles to push our micro T-switch structure either clockwise or counterclockwise by the surface tension of micro-bubbles. We can utilize these micro T-switch to sort out specific Cell.Electrolysis can be operated at room temperature. The usage of this diving mechanism can avoid the potential of cell-damage that happens for conventional electric-separation design. This micro T-Switch cell sorter potentially can be integrated into a portable and disposable Micro- Bio-chip. People can even finish self-disease detection at home to achieve the goal of homecare.