Finger-powered droplet actuation by electrophoretic force for portable microfluidics

Author

Cheng Peng ; Ju, Y. Sungtaek

Author_Institution

Mech. & Aerosp. Eng. Dept., Univ. of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

fYear

2015

fDate

21-25 June 2015

Firstpage

232

Lastpage

235

Abstract

We report finger-powered digital microfluidics based on electrophoretic control of droplets (EPD). An array of piezoelectric elements is connected to electrodes immersed in a dielectric fluid and deflected to charge and transport an aqueous droplet between adjacent electrodes. Using this scheme, we successfully demonstrated the transport and merging of aqueous droplets. Further, we confirmed direct manipulation of droplets of body fluids, such as human saliva, using our finger-powered EPD.

Keywords

bioMEMS; drops; electrohydrodynamics; electrophoresis; flow control; microfluidics; piezoelectric actuators; adjacent electrodes; aqueous droplets; body fluids; dielectric fluid; direct droplet manipulation; electrophoretic control; electrophoretic force; finger-powered EPD; finger-powered digital microfluidics; finger-powered droplet actuation; human saliva; piezoelectric elements; portable microfluidics; Dielectrics; Electrical resistance measurement; Electrodes; Finite element analysis; Force; Microfluidics; Voltage measurement; Portable digital microfluidics; electrophoresis of droplets; piezoelectric energy conversion;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (TRANSDUCERS), 2015 Transducers - 2015 18th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Anchorage, AK

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TRANSDUCERS.2015.7180904

Filename

7180904