Distributed Circuit Model for Multi-Color Light-Actuated Opto-Electrowetting Microfluidic Device

We report on a distributed circuit model for multi-color light-actuated optoelectrowetting devices. The model takes into consideration the large variation of absorption coefficient (15×) of photoconductors in the visible spectrum and the nonuniform distribution of photogenerated carriers. With the help of this model, we designed opto-electrowetting devices with optimum thickness of photoconductors. This leads to significant improvement in performance compared with prior reports, including 200× lower optical power, 5× lower voltage, and 20× faster droplet moving speed. This enables the use of commercial projectors to create on-demand “virtual” electrodes for large-scale parallel manipulation of droplets. We have achieved simultaneous manipulation of 96-droplet array. Finally, we have demonstrated parallel on chip detection of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 within 45 min using a real-time isothermal polymerase chain reaction assay.