Figure 1

Device design and principle function.

(a) The schematic illustrates cell separation based on size and transportability. A deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) microarray is shown on the left and a trapping barrier microarray is shown on the right. , where E is Young’s modulus and μ is friction coefficient. (b) The overview shows the cell and buffer inlets on the microfluidic device, scale bar = 1 cm. (c) DLD structure design is shown. Rows of triangular microposts with sides 30 μm in length, 27 μm in height and separated by 30 μm gaps, are arranged with a tilt angle that gradually increases from the inlet to outlet side of the device, scale bar = 50 μm. (d) Cell size-based separation in the DLD structure is performed by dividing fluid flow into three streams using the microposts. Small cells (blue circles) follow the direction of fluid flow, whereas large cells (red circles) follow the direction of tilt of micropost rows, W = length of the first stream. (e) Stress analyses of trapped cells are performed, N = flow-induced force, arrows indicate the direction of fluid flow, F = compression force from micropost, f1 and f2 = friction forces between cell and micropost.