Liquid DEP actuation and precision dispensing of variable volume droplets

Droplet based microfluidic systems, in recent years, have demonstrated numerous advantages and exciting potential for Lab-On-a Chip applications. In order to fully realize the potential benefits of this technology, one requires precision dispensing and manipulation of droplets of known volume and sample concentration, in a rapid and controlled manner. In this article, we demonstrate the rapid and controlled microactuation of aqueous samples and subsequent dispensing of variable volume droplets in nanolitre to picolitre regime by using a coplanar tapered electrode structure that leverages the phenomena of liquid dielectrophoresis (L-DEP). The transient behavior of the tapered liquid jet departs significantly from that of a uniform liquid jet case and is not adequately explained in terms of a simplified lumped capacitance model as in the case of the uniform jet, during the L-DEP actuation. A more generalized numerical model is developed for the tapered actuation scheme to account for the experimental observations. We furthermore demonstrate that the density of the dispensed droplets can be proactively controlled by the judicious placement of electrode bumps and pinches in the electrode structure thus overcoming the limitations imposed by Rayleigh's instability criterion. The proposed droplet dispensing schemes are superior to existing L-DEP based dispensing schemes which are restricted in size and spacing of the dispensed droplets by Rayleigh's instability criteria and furthermore mostly restricted to equi-volume droplets.