Thesis presented December 07, 2009

Abstract:
Diamagnetic levitation is one of the rare way to compensate action of gravity. This kind of repulsion is negligible at our scale. However, at microscale, this effect becomes significant and can achieve levitation of diamagnetic objects. Through the development of micromagnets, analytical and numerical models, and experiments, applications of diamagnetic levitation of microdroplets and trapping of cells in paramagnetic media is explored. It is shown that diamagnetic levitation allows quantifying interactions between levitating charged droplets. The behavior of cells trapped in paramagnetic medium is also analyzed. This study opens attractive alternatives to cells sorting, based on size, magnetic susceptibilities and endocytocity. Finally, remote handling of levitating droplets is proposed and simulated by coupling diamagnetic levitation and ​dielectrophoresis.

Keywords:
Diamagnetism, magnetic microsystems, droplets, cells, sensors, actuators, ​dielectrophoresis

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