The experimental results of the mixture with 5 and 10 Ојm beads demonstrate that our device does not merely measure the lateral position of single particles or cells, but also can characterize their physical properties ( e.g., size) simultaneously. Compared to the existing impedance-based methods for measuring the particle lateral position, we achieve the highest resolution, highest flow rate and smallest measured particle size (3.6 Ојm beads). The resolution of our system reflected by the root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) is 10.3 Ојm (5.15% of the channel width) for 5 and 10 Ојm beads, and 11.4 Ојm (5.7% of the channel width) for RBCs at a flow rate of 42.4 Ојl min в€’1. Statistical analyses show a good correlation ( R 2 = 0.99) and agreement (BlandвЂ“Altman analysis) between our results and those obtained by a microscopy imaging method. This microfluidic system is experimentally validated by measuring the lateral positions of 5, 7 and 10 Ојm diameter beads and human red blood cells (RBCs) flowing in a 200 Ојm wide channel at varying flow rates up to 59.3 Ојl min в€’1. Specifically, a simple analytical expression for determining the particle lateral position is derived from the measured electrical signal and geometry relationship among the positions of the flowing particles, electrodes and microchannel. In this work, we present an N-shaped electrode-based microfluidic impedance cytometry device for the measurement of the lateral position of single cells and particles in continuous flows. Tracking the lateral position of single cells and particles plays an important role in evaluating the efficiency of microfluidic cell focusing, separation and sorting.

Lateral position