Optimization of Liquid DiElectroPhoresis (LDEP) Digital Microfluidic Transduction for Biomedical Applications

Digital microfluidic has recently been under intensive study, as an effective method to carry out liquid manipulation in Lab-On-a-Chip (LOC) systems. Among droplet actuation forces, ElectroWetting on Dielectric (EWOD) and Liquid DiElectroPhoresis (LDEP) are powerful tools, used in many LOC platforms. Such digital microfluidic transductions do not require integration of complex mechanical components such as pumps and valves to perform the fluidic operations. However, although LDEP has been proved to be efficient to carry and manipulate biological components in insulating liquids, this microfluidic transduction requires several hundreds of volts at relatively high frequencies (kHz to MHz). With the purpose to develop integrated microsystems µ-TAS (Micro Total Analysis System) or Point of Care systems, the goal here is to reduce such high actuation voltage, the power consumption, though using standard dielectric materials. This paper gives key rules to determine the best tradeoff between liquid manipulation efficiency, low-power consumption and robustness of microsystems using LDEP actuation. This study leans on an electromechanical model to describe liquid manipulation that is applied to an experimental setup, and provides precise quantification of both actuation voltage Vth and frequency fc thresholds between EWOD and LDEP regimes. In particular, several parameters will be investigated to quantify Vth and fc, such as the influence of the chip materials, the electrodes size and the device configurations. Compared to current studies in the field, significant reduction of both Vth and fc is achieved by optimization of the aforementioned parameters.

[1]  D. Collard,et al.  Droplet formation and fusion for enzyme activity measurement by liquid dielectrophoresis , 2009, TRANSDUCERS 2009 - 2009 International Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference.

[2]  Aaron R Wheeler,et al.  Electrowetting-based microfluidics for analysis of peptides and proteins by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry. , 2004, Analytical chemistry.

[3]  T. G. Mitchell,et al.  Multiplexed real-time polymerase chain reaction on a digital microfluidic platform. , 2010, Analytical chemistry.

[4]  Richard B. Fair,et al.  Digital microfluidics: is a true lab-on-a-chip possible? , 2007 .

[5]  T. Jones,et al.  Institute of Physics Publishing Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering Dynamic Control of Dep Actuation and Droplet Dispensing , 2022 .

[6]  Ravi Prakash,et al.  Liquid dielectrophoresis and surface microfluidics. , 2010, Biomicrofluidics.

[7]  R. Fair,et al.  Electrowetting-based actuation of droplets for integrated microfluidics. , 2002, Lab on a chip.

[8]  James Jungho Pak,et al.  Driving characteristics of the electrowetting-on-dielectric device using atomic-layer-deposited aluminum oxide as the dielectric , 2010 .

[9]  Kwan Hyoung Kang,et al.  How Electrostatic Fields Change Contact Angle in Electrowetting , 2002 .

[10]  Hiroyuki Fujita,et al.  ISOLATION OF SINGLE DNA MOLECULE IN A PICOLITRE-SIZED DROPLET FORMED BY LIQUID DIELECTROPHORESIS , 2008 .

[11]  S. Cho,et al.  Creating, transporting, cutting, and merging liquid droplets by electrowetting-based actuation for digital microfluidic circuits , 2003 .

[12]  S. Cho,et al.  Low voltage electrowetting-on-dielectric , 2002 .

[13]  T. Jones,et al.  Dielectrophoretic liquid actuation and nanodroplet formation , 2001 .

[14]  B. Berge,et al.  Electrowetting : a recent outbreak , 2001 .

[15]  C. Kim,et al.  Frequency-Based Relationship of Electrowetting and Dielectrophoretic Liquid Microactuation , 2003 .

[16]  Karan V. I. S. Kaler,et al.  Liquid DEP actuation and precision dispensing of variable volume droplets. , 2010, Lab on a chip.

[17]  J. Baret,et al.  Electrowetting: from basics to applications , 2005 .

[18]  Shih-Kang Fan,et al.  Enhanced Droplet Mixer by LDEP on Spiral Microelectrodes , 2007, 2007 2nd IEEE International Conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems.

[19]  T. Blake,et al.  An Investigation of Electrostatic Assist in Dynamic Wetting , 2000 .

[20]  Shih-Kang Fan,et al.  Reconfigurable liquid pumping in electric-field-defined virtual microchannels by dielectrophoresis. , 2009, Lab on a chip.

[21]  N. Lobontiu Mechanics of microelectromechanical systems , 2004 .

[22]  T. B. Jones Dynamics of Dielectrophoretic Liquid Microactuation , 2001 .

[23]  Thomas B. Jones,et al.  On the Relationship of Dielectrophoresis and Electrowetting , 2002 .

[24]  R. Garrell,et al.  Electromechanical model for actuating liquids in a two-plate droplet microfluidic device. , 2009, Lab on a chip.

[25]  Jeong-Yeol Yoon,et al.  Electrowetting on Dielectrics ( EWOD ) : Reducing Voltage Requirements for Microfluidics , 2001 .

[26]  Jun Kwon Park,et al.  Fast and reliable droplet transport on single-plate electrowetting on dielectrics using nonfloating switching method. , 2010, Biomicrofluidics.

[27]  Y. Fouillet,et al.  Digital microfluidic design and optimization of classic and new fluidic functions for lab on a chip systems , 2008 .

[28]  Phil Paik,et al.  Electrowetting-based droplet mixers for microfluidic systems. , 2003, Lab on a chip.

[29]  R. Garrell,et al.  Droplet-based microfluidics with nonaqueous solvents and solutions. , 2006, Lab on a chip.

[30]  Kai-Liang Wang,et al.  DEP actuated nanoliter droplet dispensing using feedback control. , 2009, Lab on a chip.

[31]  R. Fair,et al.  An integrated digital microfluidic lab-on-a-chip for clinical diagnostics on human physiological fluids. , 2004, Lab on a chip.

[32]  I. Kang,et al.  Wetting Tension Due to Coulombic Interaction in Charge-Related Wetting Phenomena , 2003 .

[33]  Thomas B. Jones,et al.  Dispensing picoliter droplets on substrates using dielectrophoresis , 2006 .