Voltage and Capacitance analysis of EWOD system using COMSOL

D. Das[1], S. Sohail[1], S. Das[2], and K. Biswas[1]
[1]Electrical Engineering Department, IIT Kharagpur, India
[2]School of Medical Science and Technology, IIT Kharagpur, India
Published in 2011

Electrowetting on Dielectrics (EWOD)systems is widely practiced digital microfluidic technique, used in Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) system for biomedical application. In EWOD, with applied potential, the droplet minimizes its surface energy by transiting towards the actuated electrode.

The problems with EWOD device for biological sample are that it will damage the cells if applied voltage across it is large and very often droplet loses its track in the system. Therefore, information about the exact applied voltage across test sample, its current position on the device is required for effective analysis.

In this work voltage analysis will provide the behaviour of the voltage distribution around the droplet, while capacitance analysis will allow for the ability to indicate the current position of droplet and to identify the composition of the fluid.

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