Continuous Separation of Multiple Size Microparticles using Alternating Current Dielectrophoresis in Microfluidic Device with Acupuncture Needle Electrodes

The need to continuously separate multiple microparticles is required for the recent development of lab-on-chip technology. Dielectrophoresis（DEP）-based separation device is extensively used in kinds of microfluidic applications. However, such conventional DEP-based device is relatively complicated and difficult for fabrication. A concise microfluidic device is presented for effective continuous separation of multiple size particle mixtures. A pair of acupuncture needle electrodes are creatively employed and embedded in a PDMS（poly-dimethylsiloxane） hurdle for generating non-uniform electric field thereby achieving a continuous DEP separation. The separation mechanism is that the incoming particle samples with different sizes experience different negative DEP（n DEP） forces and then they can be transported into different downstream outlets. The DEP characterizations of particles are calculated, and their trajectories are numerically predicted by considering the combined action of the incoming laminar flow and the n DEP force field for guiding the separation experiments. The device performance is verified by successfully separating a three-sized particle mixture, including polystyrene microspheres with diameters of 3 μm, 10 μm and 25 μm. The separation purity is below 70% when the flow rate ratio is less than 3.5 or more than 5.1, while the separation purity can be up to more than 90% when the flow rate ratio is between 3.5 and 5.1 and meanwhile ensure the voltage output falls in between 120 V and 150 V. Such simple DEP-based separation device has extensive applications in future microfluidic systems.

Calculating the electron temperature in the lightning channel by continuous spectrum

Based on the theory of plasma continuous radiation, the relationship between the emission intensity of bremsstrahlung and recombination radiation and the plasma electron temperature is obtained. During the development process of a return stroke of ground flash, the intensity of continuous radiation spectrum is separated on the basis of the spectrums with obviously different luminous intensity at two moments. The electron temperature of the lightning discharge channel is obtained through the curve fitting of the continuous spectrum intensity. It is found that electron temperature increases with the increase of wavelength and begins to reduce after the peak. The peak temperature of the two spectra is close to 25 000 K. To be compared with the result of discrete spectrum, the electron temperature is fitted by the O I line and N II line of the spectrum respectively. The comparison shows that the high temperature value is in good agreement with the temperature of the lightning core current channel obtained from the ion line information, and the low temperature at the high band closes to the calculation result of the atomic line, at a low band is lower than the calculation of the atomic line, which reflects the temperature of the luminous channel of the outer corona.

Pneumatic separation system for collected seedlings using subdivided air streams

To adhere to the needs of automated supply of collected seedlings for mechanized grafting and cutting machines for enhancing their operational efficiency,herein,a separation system that uses subdivided air streams to separate the collected seedlings is developed.The separation system comprises a feeder for supplying collected seedlings,a seedling separator that uses subdivided air streams,a picking belt for the separated seedlings,a delivery unit for the separated seedlings,a pneumatic unit,and a control unit.To investigate the complete performance of separation,picking,and delivery of the separation system,several separation experiments were conducted to separate the collected Anthurium seedlings.The results show that the consistency of the moving direction of seedlings floated by subdivided air streams in the separation container and the moving direction of the picking belt have a significant effect on the picking of the separated seedlings by the picking belt.Moreover,the seedling supply timing of the feeder has a significant effect on the stability of the collected seedling separation rate during continuous separation.When this timing is such that the percentage of separated seedlings is 70%,the separation rate of continuous separation operation is 2.24 plant/s(the separation productivity is 8060 plants/h)with 0.12 CV.The operating conditions are 0.5 MPa separation pressure,0.5 s nozzle operation time,and 60 mm seedling thickness in the separation container.Moreover,the staying times of the collected seedlings separated in the separation container are less than 2.5 min.

Exploiting biased reptation for continuous flow preparative DNA fractionation in a versatile microfluidic platform

A new approach is presented for preparative,continuous flow fractionation of sub-10-kbp DNA fragments,which exploits the variation in the field-dependent mobility of the DNA molecules based on their length.Orthogonally pulsed electric fields of significantly different magnitudes are applied to a microchip filled with a sieving matrix of 1.2% agarose gel.Using this method,we demonstrate a high-resolution separation of 0.5,1,2,5,and 10 kbp DNA fragments within 2 min.During the separation,DNA fragments are also purified from other ionic species.Preparative fractionation of sub-10-kbp DNA molecules plays an important role in second-generation sequencing.The presented device performs rapid high-resolution fractionation and it can be reliably manufactured with simple microfabrication procedures.

Graded index separate confinement heterostructure transistor laser:analysis of various confinement structures

A new configuration of the confinement structure is utilized to improve optoelectronic performance, including threshold current, ac current gain, optical bandwidth, and optical output power of a single quantum well transistor laser. Considering the drift component in addition to the diffusion term in electron current density, a new continuity equation is developed to analyze the proposed structures. Physical parameters, including electron mobility, recombination lifetime, optical confinement factor, electron capture time, and photon lifetime, are calculated for new structures. Based on solving the continuity equation in separate confinement heterostructures, the threshold current reduces 67%, the optical output power increases 37%, and the-3 d B optical bandwidth increases to 21 GHz（compared to 19.5 GHz in the original structure） when the graded index layers of AlξGa1-ξAs（ξ：0.05 → 0 in the left side of quantum well, ξ：0 → 0.02 in the right side of quantum well） are used instead of uniform Ga As in the base region.