CHARACTERIZATION OF HYDRODYNAMIC FLOW FOCUSING SINGLE PARTICLE DETECTION

The focus of this paper is the development of a device to detect single particle in a diluted liquid suspensions by using hydrodynamic flow optical detection system. To encounter the robustness and cost effectiveness, the device developed in this work uses Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) as a base material that was fabricated using standard machining processes. This project explores the feasibility to construct a much larger micro-flow dimensions (approximately 0.5mm to 1.0mm channel width) using standard polymer fabrication techniques which does not require high-end silicon / MicroElectroMechanical System (MEMS) fabrication facilities. The focused stream width has been obtained within the range of 5μm to 50μm which is appropriate to allow confinement of particle or cell to flow continuously in single file. The analytical model has been established to predict the focused stream width formation and its relation to the flow rates ratio. The characterization of hydrodynamic flow has been constructed by using PMMA as the base and optical fiber as a detector for the desired size of 70mm x 40mm, the thickness of 5mm while the depth of each channel was 0.5mm.