Digital microfluidic system and method based on double half-moon serrated electrodes

With the advancement and widespread adoption of digital microfluidic technology, this paper designs and fabricates a PCB-based digital microfluidic system to reduce the drive voltage and manufacturing costs of digital microfluidic chips while efficiently enhancing droplet drive capability. This system integrates with other peripherals to establish a digital microfluidic platform. A new electrode shape, a double half-moon serrated electrode, is proposed, which is capable of providing a large droplet driving force, and at the same time has the ability to freely switch the direction of droplet motion in all directions by conveniently combining and arranging them. Three kinds of double half-moon sawtooth electrodes with different scaling parameters were designed and experimentally verified to drive the droplets, and the results showed that the scaling relation A=1 was more effective, and the average velocity of the droplets in the transverse direction at 120 V was 1.18 mm/s, and the average velocity at 200 V was 2.57 mm/s, while in the longitudinal direction, the average velocity at 120 V was 0.98 mm/s and in the longitudinal direction, the average velocity at 200V is 1.88mm/s. The experimental data illustrate that the digital microfluidic electrode designed in this paper can effectively enhance the driving ability of the droplet compared with the electrodes such as rectangular electrode and sawtooth electrode.