PRESENTATION ON

ELECTROWETT
ING ON
DIELECTRIC
HIMANSHU MUDGAL
16EE64R15

Contents

Basics of Electrowetting
Equations governing Electrowetting
EWOD
Application
Disadvantages
Refrences

 Electrowettinginvolves modifying
the surface tension of liquids on a
solid surface using a voltage.
Surface tension forces becomes more
prominent in the microscale system.
Precise Movement of droplets

 In Electrowetting, a electric double

layer is formed between the electrode
and aqueous solution.
Applying a voltage difference may
cause a hydrophobic surface to
behave like hydrophilic one.
The electric energy counterbalance
the change in surface energy and
lowers the surface tension.
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Ways to influence the

interface
Temperature gradient
Gradient in the concentration of
surfacetants across the droplet
Chemical and topographical structure
of surfaces
Disadvantage- these are static in
nature

 In contrast, EW has proven to be very

successful and is not static.
Contact angle variation of several
tens of degree is achieved.
Stability
Nowadays droplet can move along a
programmable path on surface and
can be split and merged.
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 Berge in early 1990 introduce the

idea of using a thin insulation layer
to separate the conducting liquid and
electrode in order to eliminate the
problem of electrolysis.
Electrowetting on Dielectric
(EWOD)

Theoretical Background
Bond number
which measures the strength of
gravity against surface tension, and
is smaller than unity.
Therefore behavior of droplet is
determined only by surface tension
The free energy of droplet is a
function of droplet shape.
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 Two well condition that any liquid

morphology must satisfy
Laplace equation
Youngs equation
SG- solid-gas interfacial energy(surface tension)
SL- solid liquid
LG- liquid-gas

ELECTROCAPILLARITY
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 The three interfacial tensions operate

together at the triple line to maintain
droplet equilibrium with a certain
contact angle. When voltage is
applied, the contact angle will
decrease to reach a new equilibrium
value

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 EWOD equation by combining Lippmann

equations with the Young equation
where q(V) is the contact angle under a
certain voltage, q0 is the contact angle
without applied voltage, e is the
dielectric constant, d is the thickness of
the dielectric film.
The last term of equation is called the
EW number.
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 it represents the ratio of the

electrostatic energy to the liquidvapor interfacial energy
Dimensionless quantity

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 AC electric fields. The theoretical treatment of

electrowetting as discussed so far was based on
static considerations. In the case of slow
variations of the applied voltage, the contact
angle and droplet shape
follow equilibrium
values.
AC frequency exceeds the hydrodynamic response
time of the droplet (for typical millimetre-sized
droplets at frequencies exceeding a few hundred
hertz), the liquid response depends only on the
time average of the applied voltage, i.e. the RMS
value has to be used in equation

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 the critical frequency for which ohmic

and displacement currents are equal
is given by
c = l/l0

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Refrences
S. K. Cho, H. Moon and C. J. Kim, Creating,
transporting, cutting, and merging liquid droplets by
electrowetting-based actuation for digital microfluidic
circuits. J.Microelectromech. Syst. 12, 7080 (2003)
Yeo, L.Y.; Chang, H.C. Static and spontaneous
electrowetting. Mod. Phys. Lett. B 2005, 19, 549569
Moon, H.; Cho, S.K.; Garrell, R.L. Low voltage
electrowetting-on-dielectric. J. Appl. Phys. 2002,92,
40804087
W. C. Nelson and C.-J. Kim, Droplet actuation by
electrowetting on-dielectric (EWOD): A review, J.
Adhes. Sci. Technol., vol. 26, pp. 17471771, May 2012
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