Low‐cost and flexible film‐based digital microfluidic devices

Abstract

This work proposed a low-cost and rapid fabrication approach for flexible thin film-based digital microfluidics. In this approach, the carbon electrodes were screen-printed on the surface of a polyester film using carbon resistive ink. Then, a layer of polyethylene was applied to seal the polyester film with electrodes. Finally, a surface treatment was conducted to enhance the hydrophobicity. Compared with the conventional fabrication approaches for digital microfluidic devices using metal electrodes deposition on glass/silicon substrate, the proposed fabrication technique for polymer-based digital microfluidic device is simple, low-cost, flexible, and without the requirement of sophisticated photolithography procedure, metal deposition instruments and cleanroom environment. The proposed polymer-based digital microfluidic device has a total thickness <200 μm. The whole device is transparent, flexible and bendable. A series of tests were also conducted for the manipulation of water droplets using electrowetting on the fabricated digital microfluidic devices. The proposed fabrication technique for flexible film-based digital microfluidics could have wide potential point-of-care applications in biological and medical filed.

Vertical Addressing of 1‐Plane Electrodes for Digital Microfluidics

“…The idea of using a thin, pre-formed dielectric cover for DMF is not new-it has been described previously in several different formats. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] A key advantage of this format: the inexpensive dielectric cover, not the entire device, is discarded after each use, minimizing waste and expense. The novelty in VAPE-DMF is: (i) unlike the previous methods, VAPE covers constitutively include the patterned arrays of driving electrodes, and (ii) VAPE covers are designed to interface with a second component (the sub-substrate) that allows for addressing arrays of electrodes with high density (by virtue of vertical addressing).…”

Research progress of electrode shapes in EWOD-based digital microfluidics

“…[27][28][29][30] Furthermore, exible materials and paper have also been used as substrates for DMF chips. 31,32 These materials enable droplet manipulation on non-planar surfaces, expanding the possibilities for droplet control and reducing costs. Selection of appropriate dielectric layer materials is essential for achieving optimal operational performance and functional expansion of the system.…”

Bridging the Gap between Digital Assays and Point-of-Care Testing: Automated, Low Cost, and Ultrasensitive Detection of Thyroid Stimulating Hormone

“…Furthermore, POC implementation of DMF requires a fully integrated small instrument, combined with low-cost disposables. Hence, attempts have been made to reduce the production cost and time of DMF chips by using a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) based roll-to-roll fabrication process and the biocompatibility and robustness of these low-cost DMF chips for multistep immunoassay testing has been proven. , Nevertheless, to our knowledge, low-cost DMF chips have yet to be combined with ultrasensitive digital target detection using microwell arrays.…”