Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 165
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-30679-1

Regular Article

Hybrid Bio-Mag-MEMS combining magnetophoresis and dielectrophoresis^*

¹ G2Elab, CNRS UMR 5269 and Grenoble University, BP 46, 38402St. Martin d’Hères, France
² LMGP, CNRS UMR 5628 and Grenoble-INP, BP 257, Grenoble, France
³ Néel Institute, CNRS UPR 2940 and Joseph Fourier University, BP 166, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
⁴ LTM, CNRS UMR 5129 and CEA Grenoble, 38054 Grenoble, France

^a e-mail: >guillaume.blaire@g2elab.grenoble-inp.fr

Received: 24 July 2012
Received in final form: 5 February 2013
Published online: 18 April 2013

Abstract

The design of a new hybrid magnetic MEMS for biology (Bio-Mag-MEMS) is presented. It combines magnetophoresis, dielectrophoresis and microfluidics. These phenomena are used to sort magnetically tagged and non-tagged objects. Magnetic objects are trapped by the use of high gradient magnetophoresis. Thanks to dielectrophoresis these objects, once trapped, can be successfully released in a buffer. Efficient sorting is performed in this hybrid Bio-Mag-MEMS by using magnetic beads. A high sorting efficiency is demonstrated. Magnetic, Stokes and dielectrophoretic forces in the microfluidic channel are simulated with both analytical tools and the finite element method (FEM). The trajectories of magnetically tagged objects are simulated. Finally the fabrication and optimization of this device are detailed.