METHOD OF CONTINUOUSLY SEPARATING MIXTURES OF MICROSCOPIC DIELECTRIC PARTICLES AND APPARATUS FOR CARRYING THROUGH THIS METHOD

A method of separating mixtures of microscopic dielectric particles in sunsions in an apparatus for carrying the method. A mixture of particles is forced onto guide paths by dielectrophoretic forces or by a flow of the suspension medium with an additional force, which is provided to compensate the force causing the particles to move along the guide paths for specific particle species causing the specific particle species to be fed out from the mixture of particles. The apparatus may be integrated on surfaces of silicon wafers at low cost and in mass-production numbers, and is suitable for isolating minute particles such as biological cells, cell organelles, bio molecules as well as organic dielectric particles.