Monolithic integrated system with an electrowetting-on-dielectric actuator and a film-bulk-acoustic-resonator sensor

Abstract

Although digital microfluidics has shown great potential in a wide range of applications, a lab-on-a-chip with integrated digital droplet actuators and powerful biochemical sensors is still lacking. To address the demand, a fully integrated chip with electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) and a film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) sensor is introduced, where an EWOD actuator manipulates digital droplets and the FBAR sensor detects the presence of substances in the droplets, respectively. The piezoelectric layer of the FBAR sensor and the dielectric layer of the EWOD share the same aluminum nitride (AlN) thin film, which is a key factor to achieve the full integration of the two completely different devices. The liquid droplets are reliably managed by the EWOD actuator to sit on or move off the FBAR sensor precisely. Sessile drop experiments and limit of detection (LOD) experiments are carried out to characterize the EWOD actuator and the FBAR sensor, respectively. Taking advantage of the digital droplet operation, a ‘dry sensing mode’ of the FBAR sensor in the lab-on-a-chip microsystem is proposed, which has a much higher signal to noise ratio than the conventional ‘wet sensing mode’. Hg2+ droplets with various concentrations are transported and sensed to demonstrate the capability of the integrated system. The EWOD–FBAR chip is expected to play an important role in many complex lab-on-a-chip applications.