Differential microfluidic sensor on printed circuit board for biological cells analysis

Coulter principal based resistive pulse sensor has been demonstrated as an important platform in biological cell detection and enumeration since several decades ago. Recently, the miniaturized micro-Coulter counter has attracted much attention due to its advantages in point of care diagnostics for on chip detection and enumeration of rare cells, such as circulating tumor cells. In this paper, we present a microfluidic cytometer with differential amplifier based on Coulter principle on a SU-8 coated printed circuit board substrate. The electrical current changes induced by the blockage of the microparticles in the sensing aperture are calibrated by polystyrene particles of standard size. Finally, HeLa cells are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed device for enumeration of biological samples. The proposed cytometer is built upon the cheap and widely available printed circuit board substrate and shows its great potential as personalized healthcare monitor.