Microactuation by Electrical Control of Surface Tension

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Chang-Jin "CJ" Kim, UCLA ENG-9980874Microactuation by Electrical Control of Surface TensionThe goal of this Engineering Microsystems: "XYZ" on a Chip project is to establish surface tension as a main source of force for moving liquid media in microdevices. Surface tension dominates most conventional forces as things scale down to micrometers. Encouraged by the recent success of liquid micromotors, which have demonstrated unprecedented efficiency in terms of requiring both low driving voltage and low energy consumption, electrowetting (EW) is proposed as a more general and direct mechanism upon which to base surface-tension microactuation for microdevice liquid movement. The main goal of this project is to establish the foundation of science and fabrication technology for EW-based microactuation. A plan to study, develop, and characterize this new microactuation mechanism is described. The targeted result is a highly energy-efficient yet simple and practical liquid-driving method for microscale fluidic devices. for This technology will find numerous applications in chemical and biomedical microdevices. A prototype DNA printhead actuated by the EW mechanism will be developed to both demonstrate the technology and to illustrate some of the potential impact to be realized by the fundamental microactuation advances proposed in this study.