Effect of Sub-Micron Pillar Array on DNA Kinetics in a

Free-Solution Capillary Electrophoresis Microsystem

Y. C. Chan, Y.-K. Lee, M. Wong and Y. Zohar

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study of the effect of a sub-micron pillar array, embedded in the separation channel, on DNA kinetics in a free-solution capillary electrophoresis microsystem. DNA plugs have been observed to migrate with different velocity depending on the cross-sectional shape of the pillars. This velocity variation can be partly explained by the electric field re-distribution due to the pillar array. Numerical simulations have been carried out to verify the effect of the sub-micron pillar geometry on the electric field distribution, and the computations of DNA plug velocity are qualitatively consistent with the measurements.

Keywords: DNA kinetics, electrophoresis, free-solution, sub-micron pillars

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work is supported by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council through RGC grant HKUST6017/02E.

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