ABSTRACT
Some of the longest established electrode designs for dielectrophoretic applications are those whose electric field morphologies can be calculated easily using analytical methods. While analytical methods allow the exact calculation of the electric field gradient at any point in space due to the electrodes used, it is only useful when considering a limited number of simple electrode geometries, generally in two dimensions. The finite difference method was the primary means of numerical field analysis from the 1930s to the 1960s, when it was largely superseded by finite element analysis. Finite difference models eventually became unfavorable because the models required the application of rigid, regular meshes across the solution space. As with the finite difference model, the Monte Carlo method involves the superimposition of a mesh across the solution space, with a series of difference equations relating to the potential at the nodes.
