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US 11,298,700 B2Granted
Feedback system for parallel droplet control in a digital microfluidic device
AssigneemirOculus Inc.
InventorsIk Pyo Hong, Irena Barbulovic-Nad, Jorge Abraham Soto-Moreno
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Digital microfluidics apparatuses (e.g., devices and systems) configured to determine provide feedback on the location, rate of movement, rate of evaporation and/or size (or other physical characteristic) of one or more, and preferably more than one, droplet in the gap region of a digital microfluidics (DMF) apparatus.
Claims18
A digital microfluidic (DMF) apparatus, the apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of actuation electrodes configured to move one or more droplets when actuated;
- a ground electrode;
- a voltage source coupled to the ground electrode;
- a plurality of sensing circuits, each of the plurality of sensing circuits comprising a charging circuit and a discharging circuit, wherein each sensing circuit is electrically connected to a corresponding actuation electrode of the plurality of actuation electrodes, and wherein each sensing circuit is configured to detect a charged voltage of a capacitor in the charging circuit of the sensing circuit;
- and
- a controller configured to alternately provide voltage from the voltage source to the ground electrode and one or more actuation electrodes of the plurality of actuation electrodes to move the one or more droplets, further wherein the controller is configured to sense, in parallel, one or more properties of the one or more droplets based on input from the plurality of sensing circuits when applying voltage to the ground electrode.
3 more elements
A method of simultaneously determining one or more properties of multiple drops in a digital microfluidics (DMF) apparatus, the method comprising:
- applying voltage to a plurality of actuation electrodes to move one or more droplets within a gap between the plurality of actuation electrodes and one or more ground electrodes;
- applying voltage to one or more of the one or more ground electrodes;
- concurrently sensing, in a plurality of sensing circuits, wherein each sensing circuit of the plurality of sensing circuits is associated with an actuation electrode of the plurality of actuation electrodes, a charging voltage while applying voltage to the one or more ground electrodes;
- and
- determining the one or more properties of the one or more droplets based on the sensed charging voltages by comparing the sensed charging voltages to a predetermined value or range of values, wherein the one or more properties includes one or more of:
- a location of the one or more droplets relative to the plurality of actuation electrodes, a rate of movement of the one or more droplets, a rate of evaporation of the one or more droplets, or a size of the one or more droplets.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.