Patent ID: 7998328

Claim:
A microfluidic particle sorting apparatus comprising a separation chamber, said separation chamber comprising: a flow channel having an inlet, an outlet, a top wall, a bottom wall, and side walls, a side channel having an inlet and an outlet, wherein the inlet is positioned in a side wall of the flow channel and the side channel is configured to carry fluid and particles away from a flow path of the flow channel to the outlet of the side channel, and a first pair of consecutive, electrically coupled, planar electrodes wherein the first pair of planar electrodes: lie in the same plane, form a part of either the top or the bottom of the flow channel, have parallel opposing edges forming a gap between the electrodes, said parallel opposing edges being separated by a gap distance, and wherein the parallel opposing edges of the first pair of electrodes and the gap between the electrodes form an angle of about 45 degrees relative to a flow of fluid from the inlet of the flow channel to the outlet of the flow channel and the inlet of the side channel overlaps at least a portion of the gap between the electrodes.