Preparation of dielectric layers for applications in digital microfluidic thermal switches
Abstract
In this work, we prepared dielectric layers of three different dielectric materials – Al2O3, polyimide and epoxy-based photopolymer SU-8 and investigated their properties. Aerosol deposition method was used to prepare Al2O3 and polyimide layers, while spin-coating method was used for SU-8 layers. Microstructural analysis revealed dense layers with no anomalies. Temperature- and frequency-independent dielectric permittivity ε’ was observed for Al2O3 and SU-8 layers, while there was slight downside trend with increasing temperature for polyimide layers. According to Young-Lippmann equation of electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) effect, Al2O3 is considered to be the best due to highest ε’ (∼11) among all three materials, since it requires the lowest voltage to achieve certain droplet contact angle with EWOD.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.33180/InfMIDEM2024.305
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