High pressure EWOD digital microfluidics

Author

Nelson, W.C. ; Yen, M. ; Keng, P.Y. ; van Dam, R.M. ; Kim, C.-J.

Author_Institution

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

fYear

2011

fDate

5-9 June 2011

Firstpage

2932

Lastpage

2935

Abstract

We are developing new electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) digital microfluidic systems for operating at non-atmospheric conditions. The first generation is a compact pressure chamber with an electric feed-through, enabling EWOD operation within a gaseous medium of well-controlled pressure and composition. EWOD performance is insensitive to chamber pressure because the chip is of open-channel architecture. We demonstrate two different types of previously unachievable processes - (i) controlling evaporation rates of common solvents (water, methanol, acetonitrile) by adjusting the pressure of an inert gaseous medium (N₂), and (ii) controlling the reaction rate of a solid-liquid-gas-phase reaction by adjusting the pressure of a gas-phase reagent (H₂).

Keywords

diffusion; drops; evaporation; microfluidics; wetting; compact pressure chamber; electric feed-through; electrowetting-on-dielectric; gas-phase reagent; high pressure EWOD digital microfluidics; open-channel architecture; solid-liquid-gas-phase reaction; Electrodes; Heating; Image color analysis; Methanol; Microfluidics; Solvents; Temperature measurement; Electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD); diffusion; digital microfluidics; evaporation; pressure chamber;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (TRANSDUCERS), 2011 16th International

Conference_Location

Beijing

ISSN

Pending

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0157-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TRANSDUCERS.2011.5969430

Filename

5969430