Microfluidic capacitive sensors for noncontact particle detection in a microchannel

In this work two microfluidic devices based on microchannels combined with micrometric capacitive sensors are proposed. The devices are intended to sense flow discontinuities and detect particles with size in the tens of microns passing through the sensing section. In these devices the sensing electrodes are insulated from the fluid thereby preventing sample contamination. In the experimental tests the devices demonstrate the ability to detect flow discontinuities such as microbubbles and clusters of cells. The obtained results are promising to extend the proposed sensors to biological measurements such as counting and sizing of particles or cells in biological samples