IC/Microfluidic Hybrid System for Magnetic Manipulation of Biological Cells

This paper introduces an integrated circuit (IC)/microfluidic hybrid system for magnetic manipulation of biological cells. The hybrid system consists of an IC and a microfluidic system fabricated on top. Biological cells attached to magnetic beads are suspended inside the microfluidic system that maintains biocompatibility. The IC contains a microcoil array circuit that produces spatially-patterned microscopic magnetic fields. Programmable, rapid reconfiguration of the field pattern made possible by the IC allows an efficient simultaneous manipulation of multiple individual bead-bound cells with precise position control. Two prototypes, SiGe/microfluidic and CMOS/microfluidic hybrid systems, validate the proposed approach.