# Electrowetting on Dielectric (EWOD) Based Portable Multimaterial Printer To Fabricate Origami Devices

## TL;DR

A portable printer using electrowetting technology was developed to fabricate origami devices on paper, enabling on-site and compact production of 3D sensors.

## Contribution

A compact, portable multimaterial printer using electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) for on-demand origami device fabrication is developed.

## Key findings

- The printer successfully drives both conductive and insulating liquids on paper for precise printing.
- A portable control circuit enables rapid fabrication of 3D origami devices like strain and breath sensors.
- The system's durability was verified through repeated testing of fabricated origami devices.

## Abstract

Origami devices are expected to be applied in fields
such as space
exploration, medicine, and agriculture and are being extensively researched
in both scientific and engineering contexts. However, the difficulty
of fabrication is high, and it is particularly challenging to fabricate
them on-demand and on-site with a compact device. We have a technology
for automatically fabricating origami devices by printing conductive
and insulating solutions on paper. In this study, we have developed
a portable, multimaterial printer using electrowetting on dielectric
(EWOD) technique that drives both conductive and insulating liquids.
We overcame the low portability of conventional inkjet printers and
achieved a palm-sized compact printer. Specifically, we used EWOD
to promote the driving of liquid within the channels printed on paper
and investigated the electrical input, channel, and electrode designs
necessary for proper control. We successfully drove both insulating
and conductive liquids and evaluated the printing performance and
precision. As a demonstration, we successfully fabricated an origami
stretchable strain sensor and a breath sensor using the proposed system
and verified the durability of the origami device through repeated
testing. The development of a portable control circuit that generates
the investigated electrical input signals has enabled the rapid and
convenient fabrication of 3D devices without location constraints,
potentially accelerating the adoption of IoT devices.