Modeling the Fluid Dynamics of Electrowetting on Dielectric (EWOD)

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Date
2006-08Author
Shapiro, Benjamin
Walker, Shawn
Citation
S.Walker, B.Shapiro. Modeling the Fluid Dynamics of Electro-Wetting On Dielectric (EWOD). Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (JMEMS), vol 15, no 4, pg 986-1000, Aug 2006.
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This paper discusses the modeling and simulation of a parallel-plate Electrowetting On Dielectric (EWOD) device that moves fluid droplets through surface tension effects.We model the fluid dynamics by using Hele–Shaw type equations with a focus on including the relevant boundary phenomena. Specifically, we show that contact angle saturation and hysteresis are needed to predict the correct shape and time scale of droplet motion.We demonstrate
this by comparing our simulation to experimental data for a splitting droplet.Without these boundary effects, the simulation shows the droplet splitting into three pieces instead of two and the motion
is over 15 times faster than the experiment. We then show how including the saturation characteristics of the device, and a simple
model of contact angle hysteresis, allows the simulation to better predict the splitting experiment. The match is not perfect and suffers mainly because contact line pinning is not included. This is
followed by a comparison between our simulation, whose parameters are now frozen, and a new experiment involving bulk droplet
motion. Our numerical implementation uses the level set method, is fast, and is being used to design algorithms for the precise control of microdroplet motion, mixing, and splitting.