Universal electrode structure based on digital microfluidic chip

Abstract

The invention belongs to the technical field of digital microfluidic control and particularly relates to a universal electrode structure based on a dielectric electrowetting digital microfluidic chip. The center part of the electrode is in a strip shape, the two sides of the center part extend outwards in a form of a plurality of pulses, and outwards extending parts between the two adjacent electrodes are mutually embedded and form a crossed finger nesting mode. Through the electrode structure, the contact between liquid drops and adjacent electrodes can be increased, and the liquid drops can be driven even when the dimension of the liquid drops is smaller than the dimension electrodes, so the universal function of automatically operating and controlling liquid drops with different sizes can be realized. The universal electrode structure has the advantages that the structure is simple, convenience is realized, the automation degree is high, and the like. The practical functions and the application range of the dielectric electrowetting digital microfluidic chip are respectively and greatly increased and expanded.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of digital microfluidics, and in particular relates to a general electrode structure of a digital microfluidic chip based on electrowetting on a medium. Background technique [0002] The digital microfluidic technology based on the dielectric electrowetting effect refers to the microfluidic technology that changes the wettability of the droplet on the surface of the medium by applying a voltage on the dielectric structure, thereby changing the contact angle between the droplet and the interface to further manipulate the discrete droplet. It has many advantages such as simple driving method, strong driving force, convenient operation and high degree of automation. It is the mainstream technology in the field of digital microfluidics and has very good development prospects in the field of LOC. [0003] Digital microfluidic chips based on the electrowetting effect can be structurally divided into single-sided d...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, regardless of the electrode shape, traditional digital microfluidic chips are dedicated, that is, once the electrode size is designed, it can only manipulate droplets of a basically fixed size, especially the generation and transportation of droplets , the size of the electrode has a certain limit on the size of the droplet, which greatly reduces the realization function and scope of application of digital microfluidic devices

Although it has also been reported that micro-electrode combinations and micro-strip-shaped electrode clusters can be used to manipulate droplets of different sizes, these electrode structures are firstly due to the need for more micro-electrodes, so the chip requires more complex control signals; the more important Yes, the chips of these electrode structures are non-automatically controlled, that is, the size of the droplet must be determined to determine the control mode of the signal and then manipulate the droplet, which violates the convenient operation and high degree of automation of electrowetting digital microfluidic technology principle, but also limits its specific scope of use

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