Computer-aided Synthesis of Microscale Electrophoretic Separation Systems in Confined Areas

Complex designs result from the desire to create compact microscale electrophoretic devices in confined chip areas. Knowledge of how the interconnectivity of electrophoretic channel sections effects chip performance is necessary to develop feasible and efficient designs. In this paper, we demonstrate an approach for the design and synthesis of microscale electrophoretic systems using computer aided simulation and optimization. We have investigated serpentine and spiral channel topologies which are commonly found in the literature. This approach is demonstrated for the design of systems in confined areas as well as the design of systems that utilize minimal area. Device performance will be evaluated in terms of plate number and resolution and limited by available voltage, detector and fabrication constraints. NOMENCLATURE A chip area D molecular diffusivity Deff effective diffusivity dL band separation distance di band distance E electric field strength L separation length Laxial start of transverse diffusion regime Corresponding author. Lunskew end of transverse diffusion regime N plate number PAD inter-channel spacing