Active-Matrix Digital Microfluidics Chip for Efficient Droplets Manipulation

The emerging microfluidic tools bring new methods for miniaturized analytical systems and droplets manipulation. This study presents an active-matrix digital microfluidic platform for efficient droplets generation and manipulation. The microfluidic chip was fabricated by amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin-film transistor (TFT) technology. The active device contains 4096 electrodes that can be independently addressed to perform multiple and simultaneous droplets manipulation, which demonstrates extension of the ubiquitous TFT technology from displays to bio-applications, and leverage the well-established a-Si TFT manufacturing facilities and excess capacity. This work paves new ways for conducting low-cost and high-throughput applications in single cells manipulation.