Micro-viscometer based on electrowetting on dielectric

A viscometer used to measure the viscosity of 10 μl of a liquid, must be miniaturized down, and the liquid velocity gradient in the channel used to determine the viscosity coefficient. Two major factors that affect the liquid velocity are the mechanical forces exerted by the mechanical motors and electromagnetic forces. In this study, electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) is adopted to drive liquids. Variously sized electrodes on a chip, and two shapes of channel are employed to measure the velocity gradient to determine the viscosity coefficient. The device is fabricated by microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology. The dielectric layer used in EWOD has a high dielectric constant, BST (Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3), to reduce the required applied voltage; its surface is coated with hydrophobic polymer, polytetrafluoro-ethylene (PTFE, Teflon® AF DuPont). Experimental results demonstrate that liquids can be pulled at 660 μm/s in linear channels by applying a voltage of 15 V. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.