Pumpless dispensing of a droplet by breaking up a liquid bridge formed by electric induction

Abstract

Dispensing uniform pico-to-nanoliter droplets has become one of essential components in various application fields from high-throughput bio-analysis to printing. In this study, a new method is suggested and demonstrated for dispensing a droplet on the top plate with an inverted geometry by using electric field. The process of dispensing droplets consists of two stages: (i) formation of liquid bridge by moving up the charged fluid mass using the electrostatic force between the charges on the fluid mass and the induced charges on the substrate and (ii) its break-up by the motion of the top plate. Different from conventional electrohydrodynamic methods, electric induction enables the droplets to be dispensed on various surfaces including non-conducting substrate. The use of capillarity with an inverted geometry removes the need of external pumps or elaborates control for constant flow feed. The droplet diameter has been characterized as a function of the nozzle-to-plate distance and the plate moving velocity. The robustness of the present method is shown in terms of nozzle length and applied voltage. Finally, its practical applicability is confirmed by rendering a 19 by 24 array of highly uniform droplets with only 1.8% size variation without use of any active feedback control.