We present a novel separation device for the front-end of a biodetection system to discriminate between biological and non-biological analytes captured in air samples. By combining AC dielectrophoresis along the flow streamlines and a field-induced phase-separation, the device utilizes "dielectrophoretic gating"to separate analytes suspended in a flowing fluid based on their intrinsic polarizability properties. The gates are integrated into batch fabricated self-sealed surface-micromachined fluid channels. We demonstrate that setting the gate to a moderate voltage in the radio frequency range removed bacteria cells from a mixture containing non-biological particles without the need for fluorescent labeling or antibody-antigen hybridization, and also validate experimentally basic relations for estimating the gate performance.
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