In this work the minimum actuation voltage Vmin for droplet actuation with electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) is analyzed. At first, the theoretical background of drop transport with EWOD is shown. Then the impact of thin dielectric films deposited with atomic layer deposition (ALD) and super-hydrophobic layers on the minimum required actuation voltage for drop transport are presented. To this, contact angles are measured on both Al2O3 and fluorinated DLC each with a drop of water. For verify the hypothesis, the analytically calculated values for the minimum actuation voltage Vmin are compared with numerical simulation results using COMSOL Multiphysics®. The results show that the actuation voltage value from the simulation is lower than calculated analytically.

This work presents the analysis of the minimum actuation voltage V min for droplet actuation with electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD). First, the fundamentals of electrowetting are described. In the second chapter, the impact on the actuation voltage in EWOD is shown by a dielectric deposited with atomic layer deposition (ALD) and micro-structured surface. In the last part, results of a simulation with COMSOL Multiphysics® are presented to verify the hypothesis and a short discussion about the results is given.

In this work, super-hydrophobic coatings are investigated for drop transport with electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD). At first, the basics of EWOD are shown. Then the impact of decreasing the thickness of the dielectric layer and using super-hydrophobic coatings on the actuation voltage Vmin for drop transport is presented. In the last part, simulation results made with COMSOL Multiphysics ??? are shown and the results are discussed.