Droplet creator based on electrowettin-on-dielectric for lab on a chip

摘要

Electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) is to directly control the wettability of liquids on the solid surface by applying the electric potential to the microelectrode array under the dielectric layer. The prototype of the EWOD droplet creator with the sandwiched structure is used: the droplet is sandwiched between the top and bottom plates; the bottom plate consists of silicon used as the substrate of the microelectrode array, nitride silicon film deposited by low pressure chemical vapor deposition as the dielectric layer and the fluorocarbon polymer film deposited by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition as the hydrophobic layer; and the top plate is the transparent electrode covered with the hydrophobic layer. To obtain the required minimum voltage, the process and the criterion of creating droplets are analyzed. At the voltage of 35 V the deionized water droplet surrounded in silicone oil is successfully created.