Improvement of dielectrophoretic impedance measurement method by bacterial concentration utilizing negative dielectrophoresis

In this study, the concept design for the improvement of the bacterial detection sensitivity of the DEPIM (Dielectrophoretic Impedance Measurement) method has been proposed. The cells in the micro-chamber are repelled and concentrated by n-DEP (negative dielectrophosesis). The concentrated cells are captured by p-DEP (positive DEP) and detected by measuring the change in the electrical impedance. The numerical simulations and the preliminary test were performed to investigate the effectiveness of the n-DEP concentration. When n-DEP concentration was employed, the increase in the rate of the conductance became approximately two times higher than that obtained without n-DEP.