Rapid and Controllable Digital Microfluidic Heating by Surface Acoustic Waves

E-ISSN： 1616-3028|25|37|5895-5901

ISSN： 1616-301x

Source： ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS, Vol.25, Iss.37, 2015-10, pp. : 5895-5901

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Abstract

Fast and controllable surface acoustic wave (SAW) driven digital microfluidic temperature changes are demonstrated. Within typical operating conditions, the direct acoustic heating effect is shown to lead to a maximum temperature increase of about 10 °C in microliter water droplets. The importance of decoupling droplets from other on‐chip heating sources is demonstrated. Acoustic‐heating‐driven temperature changes reach a highly stable steady‐state value in ≈3 s, which is an order of magnitude faster than previously published. This rise time can even be reduced to ≈150 ms by suitably tailoring the applied SAW‐power excitation profile. Moreover, this fast heating mechanism can lead to significantly higher temperature changes (over 40 °C) with higher viscosity fluids and can be of much interest for on‐chip control of biological and/or chemical reactions.