Non-uniform, AC electric fields created by coplanar electrodes patterned on a substrate are used to move and manipulate aqueous liquid masses, and to dispense very small droplets. This liquid dielectrophoretic microactuation scheme has potential applications for microfluidic systems in the laboratory on a chip. Simple, co-planar electrode strips are used to divide microliter-sized, sessile water droplets into large numbers of droplets down to ∼40 picoliters. The dispensing system uses the electrodes to draw a long finger or rivulet of liquid from the parent microliter droplet. When the voltage is removed, the rivulet breaks up into numbers of droplets as a result of the familiar capillary instability. We propose and provide data that supports a very simple power law dependence of the finger length upon time: Z(t)∝, which governs the time required to fill a structure. A capillary instability, very similar to the case of the cylindrical jet, leads to droplet formation when voltage is removed. The hydrodynamic instability features a critical wavelength, below which instability is not possible, and a most unstable wavelength, which controls the volume and spacing of the droplets formed.
Skip Nav Destination
ASME 2003 1st International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels
April 24–25, 2003
Rochester, New York, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Nanotechnology Institute
ISBN:
0-7918-3667-3
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Dispensing Picoliter Droplets Using DEP Micro-Actuation
C. Bailey,
C. Bailey
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Search for other works by this author on:
T. B. Jones
T. B. Jones
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Search for other works by this author on:
R. Ahmed
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
D. Hsu
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
C. Bailey
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
T. B. Jones
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Paper No:
ICMM2003-1110, pp. 837-843; 7 pages
Published Online:
February 24, 2009
Citation
Ahmed, R, Hsu, D, Bailey, C, & Jones, TB. "Dispensing Picoliter Droplets Using DEP Micro-Actuation." Proceedings of the ASME 2003 1st International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels. 1st International Conference on Microchannels and Minichannels. Rochester, New York, USA. April 24–25, 2003. pp. 837-843. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ICMM2003-1110
Download citation file:
9
Views
Related Proceedings Papers
Related Articles
Calculation of DEP and EWOD Forces for Application in Digital Microfluidics
J. Fluids Eng (August,2008)
Comparison of Experiments and Simulation of Joule Heating in ac Electrokinetic Chips
J. Fluids Eng (February,2010)
Dynamic Spreading of a Droplet Impinging on Micro-Textured Surfaces
J. Heat Transfer (August,2011)
Related Chapters
Towards Real-Time Optical Measurement of Microbubble Content in Hydrodynamic Test Facilities
Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Cavitation (CAV2018)
Key Technology of Interactive Music Game Installation based on Arduino
International Conference on Control Engineering and Mechanical Design (CEMD 2017)
Cubic Lattice Structured Multi Agent Based PSO Approach for Optimal Power Flows with Security Constraints
International Conference on Software Technology and Engineering, 3rd (ICSTE 2011)