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Luo Z, Huang B, Xu J, Wang L, Huang Z, Cao L, Liu S. Machine vision-based driving and feedback scheme for digital microfluidics system. OPEN CHEM 2021. [DOI: 10.1515/chem-2021-0060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
A digital microfluidic system based on electrowetting-on-dielectric is a new technology for controlling microliter-sized droplets on a plane. By applying a voltage signal to an electrode, the droplets can be controlled to move, merge, and split. Due to device design, fabrication, and runtime uncertainties, feedback control schemes are necessary to ensure the reliability and accuracy of a digital microfluidic system for practical application. The premise of feedback is to obtain accurate droplet position information. Therefore, there is a strong need to develop a digital microfluidics system integrated with driving, position, and feedback functions for different areas of study. In this article, we propose a driving and feedback scheme based on machine vision for the digital microfluidics system. A series of experiments including droplet motion, merging, status detection, and self-adaption are performed to evaluate the feasibility and the reliability of the proposed scheme. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme can accurately locate multiple droplets and improve the success rate of different applications. Furthermore, the proposed scheme provides an experimental platform for scientists who focused on the digital microfluidics system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhijie Luo
- College of Information Science and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering , Guangzhou 510225 , China
- Smart Agriculture Engineering Research Center of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering , Guangzhou 510225 , China
- Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Agricultural Products Quality & Safety Traceability Information Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering , Guangzhou 510225 , China
| | - Bangrui Huang
- College of Information Science and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering , Guangzhou 510225 , China
| | - Jiazhi Xu
- College of Information Science and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering , Guangzhou 510225 , China
| | - Lu Wang
- College of Information Science and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering , Guangzhou 510225 , China
| | - Zitao Huang
- College of Information Science and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering , Guangzhou 510225 , China
| | - Liang Cao
- College of Information Science and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering , Guangzhou 510225 , China
| | - Shuangyin Liu
- College of Information Science and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering , Guangzhou 510225 , China
- Smart Agriculture Engineering Research Center of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering , Guangzhou 510225 , China
- Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Agricultural Products Quality & Safety Traceability Information Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering , Guangzhou 510225 , China
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Khan I, Castelletto S, Rosengarten G. A Novel Hexagonal Beam Steering Electrowetting Device for Solar Energy Concentration. MICROMACHINES 2020; 11:mi11111016. [PMID: 33228118 PMCID: PMC7699373 DOI: 10.3390/mi11111016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2020] [Revised: 11/11/2020] [Accepted: 11/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Traditional tracking devices for solar energy applications have several disadvantages, such as bulky mechanical structure, large wind loads, and ease of misalignment. This study aims to design a flat, thin, and adaptive beam steering device to eliminate these drawbacks. A proof of concept device was fabricated to demonstrate this design. The novelty of the proof of concept device is the hexagonal structure of the electrowetting cell design. The hexagonal cell was dosed with two immiscible liquids with different refractive indices. The hypothesis of this design is that by deforming the liquid shape with the application of voltage, light can be steered and concentrated for solar energy applications. A maximum contact angle change of 44° was observed with the application of 26 V to one of the electrodes of the hexagonal cell. The device demonstrated a 4.5° change of laser beam path with only a 0.2 refractive index difference of the liquids. The 3D simulation model developed in this study shows that a tilted and flat interface can be achieved using higher dielectric constant dielectric materials. The device can facilitate the planer steering and concentration of sunlight for rooftop applications without moving mechanical parts.
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Luo Z, Fan J, Huang B, Liu S, Dai F. Position and feedback for digital microfluidic system based on light intensity information. ASIA-PAC J CHEM ENG 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/apj.2449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Zhijie Luo
- College of Information Science and Technology Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering Guangzhou China
- Smart Agriculture Engineering Technology Research Center of Guangdong Higher Education Institues Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering Guangzhou China
- Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Agricultural Products Quality & Safety Traceability Information Technology Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering Guangzhou China
| | - Junjun Fan
- College of Information Science and Technology Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering Guangzhou China
| | - Bangrui Huang
- College of Information Science and Technology Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering Guangzhou China
| | - Shuangyin Liu
- College of Information Science and Technology Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering Guangzhou China
- Smart Agriculture Engineering Technology Research Center of Guangdong Higher Education Institues Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering Guangzhou China
- Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Agricultural Products Quality & Safety Traceability Information Technology Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering Guangzhou China
| | - Feng Dai
- College of Information Science and Technology Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering Guangzhou China
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Ruvalcaba-Cardenas AD, Thurgood P, Chen S, Khoshmanesh K, Tovar-Lopez FJ. Droplet on Soft Shuttle: Electrowetting-on-Dielectric Actuation of Small Droplets. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2019; 11:39283-39291. [PMID: 31547643 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b10796] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Here, we introduce the novel concept of a "soft shuttle" for transportation, manipulation, and diffusion studies of small liquid droplets using electrowetting on the dielectric mechanism. This method enables manipulation of droplets several times smaller than the electrode size and, importantly, minimizes evaporation, contamination, and exposure of the sample to high voltages. We demonstrate various modes of droplet loading, transporting, and unloading. Using advanced imaging processing techniques, we obtained detailed information about the shuttle and droplet centroids. Furthermore, varying water concentration on the soft shuttle allows for modulation of the diffusion kinetics of samples into the shuttle, which also can be controlled with soft shuttle actuation velocity. We believe that this novel approach for the manipulation of droplets will advance the field of droplet-based open microfluidics and can be potentially useful for applications in biotechnology, diagnostics, or analytical chemistry.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Peter Thurgood
- School of Engineering , RMIT University , Melbourne , VIC 3000 , Australia
| | - Sheng Chen
- School of Engineering , RMIT University , Melbourne , VIC 3000 , Australia
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Nahar MM, Moon H. Phase separation of multiphase droplets in a digital microfluidic device. MICRO AND NANO SYSTEMS LETTERS 2019. [DOI: 10.1186/s40486-019-0099-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
This study reports the first comprehensive investigation of separation of the immiscible phases of multiphase droplets in digital microfluidics (DMF) platform. Electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) actuation has been used to mechanically separate the phases. Phase separation performance in terms of percentage residue of one phase into another phase has been quantified. It was conceived that the residue formation can be controlled by controlling the deformation of the phases. The larger capillary number of the neck forming phase is associated with the larger amount of deformation as well as more residue. In this study, we propose two different ways to control the deformation of the phases. In the first method, we applied different EWOD operation voltages on two phases to maintain equal capillary numbers during phase separation. In the second method, while keeping the applied voltages same on both sides, we tested the phase separation performance by varying the actuation schemes. Less than 2% of residue was achieved by both methods, which is almost 90% improvement compared to the phase separation by the conventional droplet splitting technique in EWOD DMF platform, where the residue percentage can go up to 20%.
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Geng X, Yu X, Bao L, Priezjev NV, Lu Y. Directed transport of liquid droplets on vibrating substrates with asymmetric corrugations and patterned wettability: a dissipative particle dynamics study. MOLECULAR SIMULATION 2019. [DOI: 10.1080/08927022.2019.1667498] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Xinran Geng
- Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory for Numerical Simulation, Jilin Normal University, Siping, People’s Republic of China
| | - Xiaopeng Yu
- Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory for Numerical Simulation, Jilin Normal University, Siping, People’s Republic of China
| | - Luyao Bao
- School of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, People’s Republic of China
| | - Nikolai V. Priezjev
- Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA
| | - Yang Lu
- Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory for Numerical Simulation, Jilin Normal University, Siping, People’s Republic of China
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Min X, Bao C, Kim WS. Additively Manufactured Digital Microfluidic Platforms for Ion-Selective Sensing. ACS Sens 2019; 4:918-923. [PMID: 30855128 DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.8b01689] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Digital microfluidic (DMF) sensors integrated with circuit systems have been applied to a broad range of applications including biology, medicine, and chemistry. Compared with the conventional microfluidic devices that require extra liquid as a carrier and a complex pumping system to operate, DMF is an ideal platform for ion-selective sensing as it enables the droplet operation in a discrete, accurate, and automatic way. However, it is quite rare that DMF platform is utilized for the ion-selective detection. In this paper, we report an integrated DMF system which combines DMF and ion-selective sensing for facile blending of multiple ions, and detection of targeted primary ion. The platform is fabricated through an additive manufacturing method, together with the real-time droplet's motion monitoring feedback system. Thus, the fabricated system demonstrates controlled droplet manipulation ability including droplet actuation, mixing, and speed control. Targeted primary ion is selectively detected under concentration range from 10-6 to 1 M. The interference study with blended ions has been investigated through on-chip ion selective membranes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Min
- Additive Manufacturing Laboratory, School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering, Simon Fraser University, Surrey, British Columbia V3T 0A3, Canada
| | - Chao Bao
- Additive Manufacturing Laboratory, School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering, Simon Fraser University, Surrey, British Columbia V3T 0A3, Canada
| | - Woo Soo Kim
- Additive Manufacturing Laboratory, School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering, Simon Fraser University, Surrey, British Columbia V3T 0A3, Canada
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Ahmadi F, Samlali K, Vo PQN, Shih SCC. An integrated droplet-digital microfluidic system for on-demand droplet creation, mixing, incubation, and sorting. LAB ON A CHIP 2019; 19:524-535. [PMID: 30633267 DOI: 10.1039/c8lc01170b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
Droplet microfluidics is a technique that has the ability to compartmentalize reactions in sub nano- (or pico-) liter volumes that can potentially enable millions of distinct biological assays to be performed on individual cells. In a typical droplet microfluidic system, droplets are manipulated by pressure-based flows. This has limited the fluidic operations that can be performed in these devices. Digital microfluidics is an alternative microfluidic paradigm with precise control and manipulation over individual droplets. Here, we implement an integrated droplet-digital microfluidic (which we call 'ID2M') system in which common fluidic operations (i.e. droplet generation, cell encapsulation, droplet merging and mixing, droplet trapping and incubation, and droplet sorting) can be performed. With the addition of electrodes, we have been able to create droplets on-demand, tune their volumes on-demand, and merge and mix several droplets to produce a dilution series. Moreover, this device can trap and incubate droplets for 24 h that can consequently be sorted and analyzed in multiple n-ary channels (as opposed to typical binary channels). The ID2M platform has been validated as a robust on-demand screening system by sorting fluorescein droplets of different concentration with an efficiency of ∼96%. The utility of the new system is further demonstrated by culturing and sorting tolerant yeast mutants and wild-type yeast cells in ionic liquid based on their growth profiles. This new platform for both droplet and digital microfluidics has the potential to be used for screening different conditions on-chip and for applications like directed evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatemeh Ahmadi
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
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Bodénès P, Wang HY, Lee TH, Chen HY, Wang CY. Microfluidic techniques for enhancing biofuel and biorefinery industry based on microalgae. BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR BIOFUELS 2019; 12:33. [PMID: 30815031 PMCID: PMC6376642 DOI: 10.1186/s13068-019-1369-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2018] [Accepted: 02/03/2019] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
This review presents a critical assessment of emerging microfluidic technologies for the application on biological productions of biofuels and other chemicals from microalgae. Comparisons of cell culture designs for the screening of microalgae strains and growth conditions are provided with three categories: mechanical traps, droplets, or microchambers. Emerging technologies for the in situ characterization of microalgae features and metabolites are also presented and evaluated. Biomass and secondary metabolite productivities obtained at microscale are compared with the values obtained at bulk scale to assess the feasibility of optimizing large-scale operations using microfluidic platforms. The recent studies in microsystems for microalgae pretreatment, fractionation and extraction of metabolites are also reviewed. Finally, comments toward future developments (high-pressure/-temperature process; solvent-resistant devices; omics analysis, including genome/epigenome, proteome, and metabolome; biofilm reactors) of microfluidic techniques for microalgae applications are provided.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre Bodénès
- Department of Power Mechanical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Hsiang-Yu Wang
- Department of Engineering and System Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
- Institute of Nuclear Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Tsung-Hua Lee
- Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
| | - Hung-Yu Chen
- Department of Engineering and System Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
| | - Chun-Yen Wang
- Department of Engineering and System Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
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