Design and modelling of a micro fluid filter for separating spermatogenic cells

The small size of microfabricated structures are opening new avenues in the field of biomedical engineering where structures are being developed to process [1] and analyze[2,3] nanolitre quantities of biological fluids, and cellular tissues. This paper outlines the design and manufacture principals of a passive micro-mechatronic device for the filtration and sorting of spermatogenic cells. This device is to be applied in a urological clinical environment where it can be used to semiautomate the spermatozoa selection process from nonobstructive azoospermic testis biopsies. Detailed and discussed herein are the advantages and drawbacks of Micro-ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) as applied to clinical biomedical situations, and requirements for the design methodology and process of a microfluidic system based on MEMS technology with a view to manufacture by Deep Reactive Ion Etching process. The modelling of the micro device using computational fluid dynamic simulation methods is also covered in this paper. MEMS, biomedical, urology, testicular biopsy, microfluid