Label-free detection of leukemia cells with a lab-on-a-chip system integrating dielectrophoresis and cmos imaging

This paper presents a fully-integrated lab-on-a-chip (LOC) system for label-free detection and real-time counting of dielectrophoretically trapped multidrug resistant (MDR) K562 cells. The system integrates a parylene-based microfluidic DEP channel on top of a CMOS image sensor for the first time in the literature. The DEP channel can trap MDR K562 cells with 9 Vpp and 10 μl/min flow rate, and the CMOS image sensor can detect the trapped cells as small as 3 μm in diameter with a noise level of 28.3 e-rms.