Wide electrode gap single plate digital microfluidics for biological assay.

Date

4-2011

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics

College

College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Lou Serafin M. Lozada

Co-adviser

Juzzel Ian B.Zerrudo

Abstract

The actuation of a droplet using a wide electrode gap digital microfluidics (DMF) system was investigated in this study. An open-channel digital microfluidic device designed for basic biological operation, such as transportation and mixing, was fabricated. The design was implemented by etching on commercially available printed circuit board. Unlike the usual design, where the electrodes form an array of square pads. the electrodes in this study formed an array of rectangular strips that had uniform width of 0.3 mm and are 2 mm apart. As a consequence of this design, the area in contact with the droplet at any time was smaller compared to that in the usual square-shaped design. The actuation of droplet was examined by characterizing the droplet motion and contact angle. and the electric potential profile of the system. To determine the range of operation. different volumes of water from 2.54 to 22.54 were actuated from 400 V to 1100 V at 100 V increment. It was observed that increasing the voltage between the electrodes increased the range of volume increments that can be actuated and the droplet velocity. These results were consistent with the predictions of the Lippmann-Young equation, which relates the change in the contact angle to the applied voltage. The mixing of different solutions was also successfully demonstrated by moving two droplets (one droplet for each solution) back and forth from one electrode to another. A simulation of the system was performed and the plots of electric field that were generated clarified the results of the experiments.

Language

English

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section (USCS)

Call Number

Thesis

Document Type

Thesis

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