Electromechanical behavior of red blood cells in insulator-based dielectrophoretic device

We investigated the dielectrophoresis (DEP) of red blood cells by observing the critical frequencies that cause the cells to change between positive DEP to negative DEP. We fabricated a microfluidic device composed of a microchannel and electrodes. Red blood cells suspended in a conductive buffer were fed into the device and the DEP experiment was performed to determine the critical frequency of the red blood cells. Subsequently, the experimental critical frequencies were used to calculate electrical parameters, cytoplasmic conductivity and membrane capacitance, of the cells.