US Patent 11513056 Parallel single cell lens free optical dielectrophoresis cytometer

A dual light source lens-free dielectrophoresis (DEP) flow cytometer for massively parallel single cell analysis. Each cells dielectric is inferred from measuring their altitude and subsequently velocity change due to DEP actuation in a microfluidic channel. Dual LED sources facilitate velocity measurement by producing two shadows for each cell passing through the channel. These shadows are detected using a linear optical array detector. Massively parallel analysis is possible as each pixel of the detector can independently analyze the passing cells. The DEP cytometer is composed of simple modular components and has the potential to be scaled to achieve a significantly high throughput label-free single-cell analyzer.