High Resolution Temperature Profile Creation in a Digital Microfluidic Device
AssigneeDigital Biosystems
InventorChuanyong Wu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Designs of a digital microfluidic devices are described comprising droplet control electrodes and heating electrodes that have effects in the regions for droplet manipulations. Specifically, the digital microfluidic device comprises a first substrate having liquid control electrodes for droplet control and a second substrate having heating electrodes for temperature control. Shielding electrodes are disposed on the second substrate to ensure that the heating electrodes can control the digital microfluidic device to a desired temperature profile without interfering the droplet operations such as transport, merging/mixing, splitting, particle distribution, etc.
Claims23
An apparatus for droplet manipulations, comprising:
- a. a first substrate comprising a first substrate surface;
- b. an array of droplet control electrodes disposed on the first substrate surface;
- c. a first dielectric layer disposed on the first substrate surface to cover at least some of the droplet control electrodes;
- d. a second substrate, comprising a second substrate surface facing the first substrate surface, spaced from the first substrate surface by a distance to define a space between the first and the second substrates, wherein the distance is sufficient to contain a droplet disposed in the space;
- e. one or more heating electrodes disposed on the second substrate surface;
- f. a second dielectric material layer disposed on the second substrate surface to cover at least some of the thin film heating electrode(s);
- g. one or more shielding electrodes disposed on the second substrate surface to cover at least a portion of the second dielectric material layer;
- and
- h. a third dielectric material layer disposed on the second substrate surface to cover at least some of the shielding electrodes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.