Deterministic Radial Displacement: Modular, Reconfigurable, and Reusable

Abstract

Deterministic Lateral Displacement (DLD) is an effective method of micro particle separation that has always been constructed of monolithic arrays of obstacles. By cylindrically revolving the 2D geometry through a complete circle, Deterministic Radial Displacement (DRD) devices can be fabricated in segments and assembled to form a re-usable and re-configurable system. It is not known how the critical particle size changes for strongly curved DLD geometries. We use COMSOL simulations of 2D and cylindrically swept geometries to show that the critical size changes slightly depending on curvature. We use low-cost resin 3D printing to build and test a scale version of DRD device with a nominal critical size of 134 µm. The experimental device performs well with a critical size that aligns with the classical value. The DRD device is disassembled cleaned and re-used 3 times, with one in 10 segments replaced each time. Advances in 3D printing technology will reduce the critical size and increase the durability of future DRD systems.