Field programmable digital microfluidics chip for high-throughput droplet array manipulation

We present a field programmable active-matrix digital microfluidics chip for biological applications, where we demonstrate high-throughput droplet manipulation, as well as single-cell generation. The fabricated microfluidics chip comprises 640×280 pixels that can be independently addressed to execute parallel concurrent droplet generation and single-cell operation. Here, the size of a single pixel is 100×100 μm ² . The system employs 9T2C GOA circuits to generate scanning signals and novel 3T1C pixel circuits to supply the driving voltage to each pixel. High-resolution digital droplet generation capability is presented, with a droplet splitting success rate of more than 80% and movement stability of more than 20 hours. The smallest stable single-droplet volume achievable is 1.2 nL, constituting two orders of magnitude smaller than that reported at IEDM previously. In addition, single-cell sorting and recognition of biological (hybridoma) cells were performed with high accuracy owing to a system level optimization of pixel circuits and driving scheme. This work paves the way for new large-scale applications of digital microfluidics for in vitro diagnosis and single-cell-based screening process.