Design of a microfabricated magnetic cell separator

A new magnetic separation idea utilizing several ideas from microfabricatio n and nano-magnetics is presented. The basic idea comes from our earlier wo rk using asymmetry in obstacles and Brownian motion to effect separation of objetcs [10] by moving them in streams whose angle to the hydrodynamic ave rage velocity is a function of the diffusion coefficient of the object. The device we propose here is not technically a Brownian ratchet device but us es the idea of force which acts at angle to the hydrodynamic flow. In our c ase, the force is generated by a magnetic field gradient which comes from a n array of magnetized wires which lie at an angle 0 to a hydrodynamic field flow. The sum of the hydrodynamic force and the magnetic force create a ne w vector which as in the case of the Brownian ratchet moves the cell out of the main stream direction.