Optoelectronic trapping

Optoelectronic Trapping (OET) use a light-patterned photoconductive electrode to provide control over the spatial positioning of electric fields within a medium (light-induced dielectrophoresis, LIDEP) to achieve real-time trapping and manipulation of particles, such as cells.

Conventionally, demonstrations of OET have used bulky light sources, such as a Digital Micro-mirror Device (DMD) or an LCD display. As an alternative, we have demonstrated a miniaturised OET device which consists of a CMOS-controlled micro-LED array [1]. Using this configuration, a compact, portable and user-friendly OET system can be realised.

Our current research in this area is investigating the possibility of combining fluorescence lifetime measurements with OET using this system.

References

[1] A. Zarowna-Dabrowska et al., “Miniaturized optoelectronic tweezers controlled by GaN micro-pixel light emitting diode arrays,” Optics Express, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 1714–1720, 2011.

[2] A. Jeorrett et al., "Miniaturised optoelectronic tweezers driven by CMOS-controlled micro-LEDs for trapping and manipulation of T-cells", Photon 12 Conference, 2012.