Integrating EWOD with Surface Ratchets for Active Droplet Transport and Sorting

Author

Duncombe, Todd A. ; Kumemura, Momoko ; Fujita, Hiroyuki ; Böhringer, Karl F.

Author_Institution

Electr. Eng. Dept., Univ. of Washington, Washington, DC

fYear

2009

fDate

25-29 Jan. 2009

Firstpage

531

Lastpage

534

Abstract

Combining surface ratchets and electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) produces novel microfluidic systems that achieve passive droplet transport by vibration along microscopically-rough surfaces and active droplet sorting by electric signals. The super-hydrophobic surface ratchet and EWOD plate sandwich a droplet; when vibrated the device adopts passive droplet transportation via the surface ratchet. The EWOD technology is utilized at particular junctions to produce several droplet specific control functions, including the combination of a new ratchet design with an EWOD plate to develop a switch (serving the same purpose as a switch in train tracks) that sorts 10 mul droplets at a junction.

Keywords

microfluidics; wetting; EWOD technology; active droplet sorting; active droplet transport; electrowetting on dielectric; microfluidic system; superhydrophobic surface ratchet; Dielectrics; Electrodes; Glass; Lighting control; Microfluidics; Microscopy; Rough surfaces; Sorting; Surface roughness; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2009. MEMS 2009. IEEE 22nd International Conference on

Conference_Location

Sorrento

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2977-6

Electronic_ISBN

1084-6999

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2009.4805436

Filename

4805436