MICROPUMPING BY ELECTROWETTING

摘要

This paper introduces the recent effort to use surface tension in MEMS, especially, to use electrowetting for efficient pumping in microfluidics. Importance of surface tension in microscale is explained, and examples of utilizing it to design microdevices are presented. Development of several devices employing different types of electrowetting is explained. Empowered by the efficient pumping by electrowetting microactuation, a programmable digital microfluidic circuit chip is proposed.