Electroactive hydrodynamic weirs for microparticle manipulation and patterning

Abstract

We present a platform for parallelized manipulations of individual polarizable micron-scale particles (i.e., microparticles) that combines negative dielectrophoretic forcing with the passive capture of hydrodynamic weir-based trapping. Our work enables manipulations using ejection- and/or exclusion-based methods. In ejection operations, we unload targeted weirs by displacing microparticles from their capture faces via electrode activation. In exclusion-based operations, we prevent weir loading by activating selected on-chip electrodes before introducing microparticles into the system. Our work describes the device’s passive loading dynamics and demonstrates enhanced functionalities by forming a variety of particle patterns.