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Enhanced electrothermal pumping with thin film resistive heaters
Author(s) -
Williams Stuart J.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/elps.201200377
Subject(s) - materials science , resistive touchscreen , thin film , microfluidics , joule heating , heating element , electrode , current (fluid) , optoelectronics , flow (mathematics) , mechanics , electrical engineering , nanotechnology , composite material , chemistry , physics , engineering
This work demonstrates the use of thin film heaters to enhance electrothermal pumping in microfluidic systems. Thin film heating electrothermal pumping is more efficient than J oule heating alone. Numerical simulations of an asymmetric electrode array are performed to demonstrate the advantages of incorporating thin film heaters. This specific simulation shows that thin film heater electrothermal pumping provides approximately two and one‐half times more volumetric flow than J oule heating alone for the same input power to both systems. In addition, external heating allows for electrothermal pumping to be applicable to low conductivity media.