Novel systems for configurable AC electroosmotic pumping

In this paper we present a novel method of creating and using geometric asymmetries for AC electroosmotic pumping. The method relies on grouping similar electrodes together in terms of applied voltage, in order to create configurable asymmetries in periodic electrode arrays, which induce a net pumping AC electroosmotic velocity. Using a numerical model for a system designed by applying the described method, it is demonstrated that by varying the degree of asymmetry it is possible to control the direction of the pumping velocity at a given voltage by simple switching of the voltages on the electrodes.     

Continuous size-based focusing and bifurcating microparticle streams using a negative dielectrophoretic system

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is an electrokinetic phenomenon which is used for manipulating micro- and nanoparticles in micron-sized devices with high sensitivity. In recent years, electrode-based DEP by patterning narrow oblique electrodes in microchannels has been used for particle manipulation. In this theoretic study, a microchannel with triangular electrodes is presented and a detailed comparison with oblique electrodes is made. For each shape, the behavior of particles is compared for three different configurations of applied voltages. Electric field, resultant DEP force, and particle trajectories for configurations are computed by means of Rayan native code. The separation efficiency of the two systems is assessed and compared afterward. The results demonstrate higher lateral DEP force, responsible for particle separation, distributed wider across the channel width for triangular shape electrodes in comparison with the oblique ones. The proposed electrode shape also shows the ability of particle separation by attracting negative DEP particles to or propelling them from the flow centerline, according to the configuration of applied voltages. A major deficiency of the oblique electrodes, which is the streamwise variation of the lateral DEP force direction near the electrodes, is also eliminated in the proposed electrode shape. In addition, with a proper voltages configuration, the triangular electrodes require lower voltages for particle focusing in comparison with the oblique ones.     

High field asymmetric waveform for ultra-enhanced electroosmotic pumping of porous anodic alumina membranes

An electroosmotic EO process is presented for nanoporous membranes capable of generating EO flow rates over thirty times higher than previously possible with the same membrane and solution. In generating high EO flows, a limiting factor is faradaic reactions which appear at high electric fields. A process is presented capable of limiting and even canceling these reactions allowing electric field between one and two orders of magnitude higher. This is achieved by applying an asymmetric bipolar rectangular voltage waveform. The results show the enhanced EO pumping capabilities of membranes under a high electric field asymmetric waveform which prevents gas generation at high voltages. A baseline is established by measuring the EO pump performance when a constant voltage is applied to SiO₂-coated nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide membranes. The analysis compares the effect of the applied voltage type on the maximum flow rate, power consumption, and maximum pressure. Results show that large gas generation prevents membrane operation when direct current DC voltages above 50 V are applied. On the other hand, it operates normally under an asymmetric voltage +1,800/?900 V applied, with negligible gas generation. This results in a thirty-time flow rate increase. Larger flow rates/voltages are possible but were not considered due to hardware limitations.     

Effects of discrete-electrode configuration on traveling-wave electrohydrodynamic pumping

Traveling-wave electrohydrodynamic (EHD) micropumps can be incorporated into the package of an integrated circuit chip to provide active cooling. They can also be used for fluid delivery in microdevices. The pump operates in the presence of a thermal gradient through the fluid layer such that a gradient in electrical conductivity is established allowing ions to be induced. These ions are driven by a traveling electric field. Such a traveling electric field can be realized in practice only via discrete electrodes upon which the required voltages are imposed. The impact of using discrete electrodes to create the traveling wave on the flow rates generated is explored through numerical modeling. The change in performance from an ideal sinusoidal voltage boundary condition is quantified. The model is used to explore the widths of electrodes and the intervening isolation regions that lead to optimized pumping. The influence of the choice of working fluid on the performance of the pump is determined using an analytical model.     

AC electrokinetic pumping on symmetric electrode arrays

AC electro-osmotic (ACEO) pumping is experimentally demonstrated on a symmetric gold electrode array. Using asymmetric connection of electrodes to the applied AC voltage, spatial asymmetry along the array is created, which produces unidirectional flow of electrolyte. An aqueous solution of 100 μM KCl is selected as the pumping fluid. The liquid velocity obtained as a function of voltage and frequency is compared to that generated using travelling-wave electroosmosis (TWEO) with the same electrode array. The expected velocities from the linear electrokinetic models of ACEO and TWEO are computed numerically. The comparison shows that TWEO generates greater velocity amplitudes and the streamlines are smoother than those generated by ACEO.     

Electrokinetically driven flow control using bare electrodes

This paper presents a novel technique for manipulating fluid flows within microchannels using bare electrodes. The electrodes, with a width of 100 μm, are fabricated using conventional photolithography techniques by etching the bulk flow channel into a glass substrate and then depositing Pt/Cr thin films within this channel. The application of an external voltage to these electrodes produces localized variations in the electrical potential distribution, which in turn induce changes in the velocity and direction of the flow within the microchannel. The effectiveness of the proposed control technique is investigated numerically using computational fluid dynamics simulations and experimentally using a fabricated microchip containing multiple bare electrode-pairs. The results demonstrate that the application of appropriate driving voltages to the bare electrode-pairs enables the microdevice to function as a nozzle, a diffuser, a mixer or a valveless valve.     

A resonant, dielectric micro-motor driven by low ac-voltages (<6V)

 An asynchronous, dielectric micro-motor consisting of an Al-SiO₂ rotor of 50 to 200 μm diameter was driven with 4 or 8 circularly arranged electrodes in water. The motor elements were fabricated by micromachining. Each electrode was designed to be an oscillatory circuit with a sharp resonance frequency in the upper kHz-range. The resonances at all electrode tips increase the voltage in the stator-rotor gap by a factor of up to 15. As a result, the dielectric rotor operates in a sharp frequency window at 5 V_pp excitation as if driven with more than 75 V_pp. With square wave pulses, the higher order Fourier-components induce several changes in rotor spin direction within two frequency decades. The micro-motor has been driven for hours without noticeable wear. It developed high starting torques and was useful for circular water pumping. The system has the advantage of very sensitive frequency dependence and the low drive voltages (below 10 V) can be produced by most electronic circuits. Received: 2 December 1996/Accepted: 15 January 1997     

Performance improvement of an AC electroosmotic micropump by hydrophobic surface modification

This paper describes the improvement of bi-directional micropump velocity by deposition of a hydrophobic nanocomposite monolayer. A polymer base nanocomposite coating consisting of a homogeneous mixture of silicon nanoparticles in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is used to improve the hydrophobicity of the micropump surfaces. For hydrophobic nature of PDMS and the monolayer coating with nanoscale surface roughness, the hydrophilic surface of a biased AC electroosmotic micropump will transform to a hydrophobic surface. In our previous research the applied AC voltage, frequency, channel dimension, and electrode width were optimized (Islam and Reyna, Electrophoresis 33(7), 2012). Based on the prior results obtained for the biased AC electroosmotic micropump, the pumping velocity was 300 micron/s in 100-μm channel thickness for applied voltage of 4.4 V at 1 kHz frequency. Here in this work, improvement of the micropump velocity is investigated through a surface modification process. The highest velocity of 450 micron/s is observed by modifying the surface characteristics. This paper will also discuss the synthesis process and characteristics of the polymer base nanocomposite monolayer. In addition to hydrophobicity improvement, adding a thin nanocomposite monolayer will physically separate the electrodes from the pumping liquid, thus eliminating their reaction, which is usually observed due to the application of voltage. As a result, higher voltages can be applied to the electrodes and higher pumping rates are achievable.     

A multi-domain vertical alignment liquid crystal display to improve the V–T property

The voltage–transmittance (V–T) property is important for the liquid crystal displays (LCDs). In this work, we propose a sub-pixel structure with two common electrodes of a multi-domain vertical alignment (MVA) mode. The sub-pixel is divided into two sub-areas and different common electrode voltages are applied to it. The optimal voltage difference of the common electrodes between sub-area 1 and sub-area 2 is proposed. The simulated results on the plotted displays and the voltage–transmittance property of the LCD, which has 1:1 sub-area ratio, have been carried out. The results show that the structure can form MVA liquid crystal display mode, such as 8-domain VA mode. It can improve the V–T property at large oblique viewing angle and make the transmittance difference between the normal direction and the oblique direction viewing angle less than that of conventional 4-domain MVA mode.     

Stability analysis of an electrostatically actuated out of plane MEMS structure

In the present research, stability and static analyses of microelectromechanical systems microstructure were investigated by presenting an out-of-plane structure for a lumped mass. The presented model consists of two stationary electrodes in the same plane along with a flexible electrode above and in the middle of the two electrodes. The nonlinear electrostatic force was valuated via numerical methods implemented in COMSOL software where three-dimensional simulations were performed for different gaps. The obtained numerical results were compared to those of previous research works, indicating a good agreement. Continuing with the research, curves of electrostatic and spring forces were demonstrated for different scenarios, with the intersection points (i.e., equilibrium points) further plotted. Also drawn were plots of deflection versus voltage for different cases and phase and time history curves for different values of applied voltage followed by introducing and explaining pull-in and pull-out snap-through voltages in the system for a specific design. It is worth noting that, at voltages between the pull-in and pull-out snap-through voltages, the system was in bi-stable state. Based on the obtained results, it was observed that the gap between the two electrodes and the applied voltage play significant roles in the number and type of the equilibrium points of the system.

     

新型双并联电渗微泵的制备与测试

设计了一个双并联电渗驱动泵,它由三条并联的主通道和叉指型电极两部分组成,其中每条主通道由若干个与电渗流形成方向成45°角的沟槽并联构成。通过选用ITO载玻片作为芯片基底并获得其最佳工艺参数,制作了带电极的PDMS-玻璃微流控芯片。最后对制作的电渗微泵进行测试,通过记录一段时间内单个主通道泵输送液体的体积,得出单个主通道的流速与微泵总流速。实验发现在5V内,微泵泵送液体的能力随着电压的增加而增大,微泵流速可以达到正常人体眼球房水生成速度,该结构在未来房水引流器件制作方面具有潜在的应用价值。     

Effects of geometry factors on microvortices evolution in confined square microcavities

Recently, microcavities have become a central feature of diverse microfluidic devices for many biological applications. Thus, the flow and transport phenomena in microcavities characterized by microvortices have received increasing research attention. It is important to understand thoroughly the geometry factors on the flow behaviors in microcavities. In an effort to provide a design guideline for optimizing the microcavity configuration and better utilizing microvortices for different applications, we investigated quantitatively the liquid flow characteristics in different square microcavities located on one side of a main straight microchannel by using both microparticle image velocimetry (micro-PIV) and numerical simulation. The influences of the inlet Reynolds numbers (with relatively wider values Re?=?1–400) and the hydraulic diameter of the main microchannel (D_H?=?100, 133 μm) on the evolution of microvortices in different square microcavities (100, 200, 400 and 800 μm) were studied. The evolution and characteristic of the microvortices were investigated in detail. Moreover, the critical Reynolds numbers for the emergence of microvortices and the transformation of flow patterns in different microcavities were determined. The results will provide a useful guideline for the design of microcavity-featured microfluidic devices and their applications.     

Effect of electrode geometry on performance of an EHD thin-film evaporator

This paper presents details of an optimization process of electrode geometry for an electrohydrodynamically (EHD) driven thin-film evaporator. The operation principle of the device is based on the action of the EHD force on the molecules of a dielectric liquid in a highly convergent electric field. The force starts at the end of a pair of electrodes, where the electric field changes from zero far from the electrodes to a finite value in between the electrodes. This force drives the liquid up into the spacing between the electrodes. The electrodes in this study were deposited thinly on a SiO/sub 2//Si wafer, so the liquid could be held within micrometers of thickness over the surface. Since the performance of the device in removing heat from the surface is a function of its pumping head and consequently its electrode geometry, the performances of different electrodes were evaluated by testing twelve sets of electrode pairs with different geometries. Then the optimum electrode design was incorporated into the design of a large size (32/spl times/32 mm/sup 2/) EHD thin-film evaporator. The device was fabricated, and its pumping and heat transfer performances were tested. A pumping head equal to the full height of the electrodes and a heat transfer coefficient of 1.9 W/cm/sup 2/./spl deg/C was achieved using HFE-7100 liquid.     

Electric field breakdown at micrometre separations in air and vacuum

At large separations, the behaviour of electrodes has been widely studied and is reasonably well understood. However, some fundamental problems have not been properly addressed such as maximum safe operating voltages and critical dimensions required at small separations between different types of materials. A systematic study of electrical breakdown at sub-millimetre separations using materials commonly used in the fabrication of microdevices has been undertaken. Specimens for examination at electrode separations from 500 nm to 25 μm have been made with different electrode configurations, such as flat to flat, flat to point and point to point. All the tests were made in air and at differing pressures. Received: 18 December 1998/Accepted: 4 January 1999     

Optimization of planar interdigitated microelectrode array for biofluid transport by AC electrothermal effect

Point-of-care (POC) diagnostics is one of the most important applications for microfluidic research. However, the development of microfluidic POC devices needs to overcome great obstacles to reach market. One challenge is to find a chip-scale pumping strategy that is of low cost, small size, and light weight. Because of their simple implementation, electrokinetic techniques have been extensively investigated as a promising candidate for realizing disposable pumps, with the majority of research effort focusing on direct current and alternating current (AC) electroosmosis. As POC applications often need to handle conductive biofluids with medium to high salt content, AC electrothermal (ACET) effect has been investigated recently for pumping of biofluids, albeit with less than desirable pumping performance. In order to achieve effective on-chip ACET micropumps, this paper presents one of the first efforts in optimizing ACET micropump design utilizing planar interdigitated electrodes. The effects of electrode dimensions on pumping rate were numerically studied using COMSOL Multiphysics and MATLAB, and an optimal ratio of electrode geometry was found for various pumping scenarios. The optimal geometry ratio was tested to be valid over a wide range of electrode characteristic lengths, AC signals, and fluid ionic strengths. Experimental validation of the simulation results was also conducted, and higher flow velocities over prior reports were consistently demonstrated by optimized electrode arrays.     

Micro-PIV measurements of induced-charge electro-osmosis around a metal rod

A cylindrical gold-coated stainless steel rod was positioned at the center of a straight microchannel connecting two fluid reservoirs on either end. The microchannel was filled with 1 mM KCl containing 0.5 μm diameter carboxylate-modified spherical particles. Induced-charge electro-osmotic (ICEO) flow occurred around the metallic rod under a sinusoidal AC electric field applied using two platinum electrodes. The ICEO flows around the metallic rod were measured using micro particle image velocimetry (micro-PIV) technique as functions of the AC electric field strength and frequency. The present study provides experimental data about ICEO flow in the weakly nonlinear limit of thin double layers, in which, the charging dynamics of the double layer cannot be presented analytically. The measured ICEO flow pattern qualitatively agrees with the theoretical results obtained by Squires and Bazant (J Fluid Mech 509:217–252, 2004). Flow around the rod is quadrupolar, driving liquid towards the rod along the electric field and forcing it away from the rod in the direction perpendicular to the imposed electric field. The measured ICEO flow velocity is proportional to the square of the electric field strength, and depends on the applied AC frequency.     

A three-axis SOI accelerometer sensing with both in-plane and vertical comb electrodes

A three-axis capacitive accelerometer based on silicon-on-insulator is designed and fabricated. In the accelerometer, totally eight groups of capacitors are compactly arranged around an octagonal proof mass. The four groups of capacitors along orthogonal direction with in-plane comb electrodes detect XY acceleration, while the other four groups of capacitors along diagonal direction with vertical comb electrodes detect Z acceleration. Measurements of in-plane and vertical motion by the respective in-plane and vertical comb electrodes enable direct detection for all the three axes with differential capacitive sensing scheme. For the fabricated accelerometer in the size of 4 × 4 mm², the capacitance sensitivities of in-plane and out-of-plane accelerometers are 145.3 and 9.1 fF/g, respectively.     

Electroosmotic pump performance is affected by concentration polarizations of both electrodes and pump

Current methods of optimizing electroosmotic (EO) pump performance include reducing pore diameter and reducing ionic strength of the pumped electrolyte. However, these approaches each increase the fraction of total ionic current carried by diffuse electric double layer (EDL) counterions. When this fraction becomes significant, concentration polarization (CP) effects become important, and traditional EO pump models are no longer valid. We here report on the first simultaneous concentration field measurements, pH visualizations, flow rate, and voltage measurements on such systems. Together, these measurements elucidate key parameters affecting EO pump performance in the CP dominated regime. Concentration field visualizations show propagating CP enrichment and depletion fronts sourced by our pump substrate and traveling at order mm/min velocities through millimeter-scale channels connected serially to our pump. The observed propagation in millimeter-scale channels is not explained by current propagating CP models. Additionally, visualizations show that CP fronts are sourced by and propagate from the electrodes of our system, and then interact with the EO pump-generated CP zones. With pH visualizations, we directly detect that electrolyte properties vary sharply across the anode enrichment front interface. Our observations lead us to hypothesize possible mechanisms for the propagation of both pump- and electrode-sourced CP zones. Lastly, our experiments show the dynamics associated with the interaction of electrode and membrane CP fronts, and we describe the effect of these phenomena on EO pump flow rates and applied voltages under galvanostatic conditions.     

用于心电信号采集的织物电极技术研究进展

针对传统Ag/AgCl胶状电极在长期心电监护中出现的问题和近年来可穿戴式健康监测的发展需求,对可用于心电信号采集的新型传感器技术——织物电极技术进行了综述。介绍了干电极、织物电极的概念;从有源电极和无源电极两方面分别对织物电极技术研究进展进行了分析;从制作工艺、导体材质、依托载体、电化学性能等织物电极技术进行了讨论;分析了目前织物电极在市场应用中的制约因素,并对未来织物电极技术的发展方向进行了展望。     

Effect of Electrode Asymmetry on Performance of Electrohydrodynamic Micropumps

The effect of asymmetry in the electrode geometry and interelectrode spacing on the performance of ion-drag-type electrohydrodynamic micropumps was studied. The micropumps consisted of chromium/gold planar electrodes on a glass substrate that was integrated within a polydimethylsiloxane microchannel that was 100 $muhbox{m}$ in height. The pumps were tested using HFE-7100 as the working fluid for the maximum-pressure generation under a no-flow condition and the maximum flow rate under a no-back-pressure condition. The micropumps with an asymmetric-electrode design, where the emitter and collector electrode widths were different, generated a significantly higher pressure head and flow rate than the corresponding micropumps with symmetric-electrode designs for the same applied voltage. The power consumption of the pumps with asymmetric electrodes was significantly lower than that with symmetric electrodes. $hfill$[2008-0217]