High-precision lens-less flow cytometer on a chip

Abstract

We present a flow cytometer on a microfluidic chip that integrates an inline lens-free holographic microscope. High-speed cell analysis necessitates that cells flow through the microfluidic channel at a high velocity, but the image sensor of the in-line holographic microscope needs a long exposure time. Therefore, to solve this problem, this paper proposes an S-type micro-channel and a pulse injection method. To increase the speed and accuracy of the hologram reconstruction, we improve the iterative initial constraint method and propose a background removal method. The focus images and cell concentrations can be accurately calculated by the developed method. Using whole blood cells to test the cell counting precision, we find that the cell counting error of the proposed method is less than 2%. This result shows that the on-chip flow cytometer has high precision. Due to its low price and small size, this flow cytometer is suitable for environments far away from laboratories, such as underdeveloped areas and outdoors, and it is especially suitable for point-of-care testing (POCT).