Microfabricated high-throughput electronic particle detector

We describe the design, fabrication, and use of a radio frequency reflectometer integrated with a microfluidic system, applied to the very high-throughput measurement of micron-scale particles, passing in a microfluidic channel through the sensor region. The device operates as a microfabricated Coulter counter [U.S. Patent No. 2656508 (1953)], similar to a design we have described previously, but here with significantly improved electrode geometry as well as including electronic tuning of the reflectometer; the two improvements yielding an improvement by more than a factor of 10 in the signal to noise and in the diametric discrimination of single particles. We demonstrate the high-throughput discrimination of polystyrene beads with diameters in the 4-10 mu m range, achieving diametric resolutions comparable to the intrinsic spread of diameters in the bead distribution, at rates in excess of 15 x 10(6) beads/h. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.