Accelerated Particle Separation in a DLD Device at Re > 1 Investigated by Means of µPIV

A pressure resistant and optically accessible deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) device was designed and microfabricated from silicon and glass for high-throughput fractionation of particles between 3.0 and 7.0 µm comprising array segments of varying tilt angles with a post size of 5 µm. The design was supported by computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations using OpenFOAM software. Simulations indicated a change in the critical particle diameter for fractionation at higher Reynolds numbers. This was experimentally confirmed by microparticle image velocimetry (µPIV) in the DLD device with tracer particles of 0.86 µm. At Reynolds numbers above 8 an asymmetric flow field pattern between posts could be observed. Furthermore, the new DLD device allowed successful fractionation of 2 µm and 5 µm fluorescent polystyrene particles at Re = 0.5–25.