A material system for reliable low voltage anodic electrowetting

TL;DR

This paper presents a reliable low-voltage electrowetting system using a thin fluoropolymer dielectric and citric acid electrolyte, achieving durable droplet actuation over thousands of cycles at just 10 V, suitable for low-cost manufacturing.

Contribution

It introduces a novel material system combining a spin-coated fluoropolymer and citric acid electrolyte for durable low-voltage electrowetting.

Findings

Achieved 5000 droplet actuation cycles at 10 V

Demonstrated repeatability with defect-free dielectric layers

Proposed a low-cost, scalable manufacturing process

Abstract

Electrowetting on dielectric is demonstrated with a thin spin-coated fluoropolymer over an aluminum electrode. Previous efforts to use thin spin-coated dielectric layers for electrowetting have shown limited success due to defects in the layers. However, when used with a citric acid electrolyte and anodic voltages, repeatable droplet actuation is achieved for 5000 cycles with an actuation of just 10 V. This offers the potential for low voltage electrowetting systems that can be manufactured with a simple low-cost process.