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Simulation and experimentation of a microfluidic device based on electrowetting on dielectric

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Abstract

Electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) moving fluid by surface tension effects offers some advantages, including simplicity of fabrication, control of minute volumes, rapid mixing, low cost and others. This work presents a numerical model using a commercial software, CFD-ACE+, and an EWOD system including a microfluidic device, a microprocessor, electric circuits, a LCD module, a keypad, a power supply and a power amplifier. The EWOD model based on a reduced form of the mass conservation and momentum equations is adopted to simulate the fluid dynamics of the droplets. The EWOD device consists of the 2 × 2 mm bottom electrodes (Au/Cr), a dielectric layer of 3,000 Å nitride, 500 Å Teflon and a piece of indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass as the top electrode. The complete EWOD phenomenon is elucidated by comparing simulation with the experimental data on droplet transportation, cutting and creation. In transportation testing, the speed of the droplet is 6 mm/s at 40 Vdc. In addition, the droplet division process takes 0.12 s at 60 Vdc in the current case. Finally, a 347 nl droplet is successfully created from an on-chip reservoir at 60 Vdc.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Council (NSC 94-2215-E-006-051) of Taiwan. The authors would like to thank National Center for High-Performance Computing, Tainan, Taiwan, for the support of CFD-ACE+. Additionally, the authors would like to thank the Center for Micro/Nano Science and Technology, and National Nano Device Laboratories, Tainan, Taiwan, for equipment access and technical support. Furthermore, this work made use of Shared Facilities supported by the Program of Top 100 Universities Advancement, Ministry of Education, Taiwan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Center for Micro/Nano Science and Technology, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Road, Tainan, 701, Taiwan

    Ling-Sheng Jang, Chih-Yuan Hsu & Wai-Hong Kan

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

    Guo-Hua Lin & Chiun-Hsun Chen

  3. Institute of Nanotechnology and Microsystems Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Ling-Sheng Jang & Yi-Liang Lin

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  1. Ling-Sheng Jang
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  2. Guo-Hua Lin
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  3. Yi-Liang Lin
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Correspondence to Ling-Sheng Jang.

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Jang, LS., Lin, GH., Lin, YL. et al. Simulation and experimentation of a microfluidic device based on electrowetting on dielectric. Biomed Microdevices 9, 777–786 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-007-9089-8

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