A digital microfluidic system includes a substrate, a plurality of electrode sets provided on the substrate, wherein each of the electrode sets includes two co-planar interdigitated finger electrodes, and a driving circuit including an AC/DC voltage source and a controller. Each of the electrode sets is individually addressable by the driving circuit under control of the controller such that an AC/DC voltage generated by the AC/DC voltage source may be selectively provided to one or more of the electrode sets. Also, an anti-biofouling electrode for a digital microfluidic system includes an electrode layer, and a slippery liquid infused porous surface structure provided on the electrode layer.

The present invention discloses a microstructured discrimination device for separating hydrophobic-hydrophilic fluidic composites comprising particulate and/or fluids in a fluid flow. The discrimination is the result of surface energy gradients obtained by physically varying a textured surface and/or by varying surface chemical properties, both of which are spatially graded. Such surfaces discriminate and spatially separate particulate and/or fluids without external energy input. The device of the present invention comprises a platform having bifurcating microchannels arranged radially. The lumenal surfaces of the microchannels may have a surface energy gradient created by varying the periodicity of hierarchically arranged microstructures along a dimension. The surface energy gradient is varied in two regions. In one pre-bifurcation region the surface energy gradient generates a fluid flow. In the other post-bifurcation region, there is a difference in surface energy proximal to the bifurcation such that different flow fractions are divided into separate channels in response to different surface energy gradients in each of the post-bifurcation channels. Accordingly, fluids of different hydrophobicity and/or particulate of different hydrophobicity are driven into separate channels by a global minimization of the fluid system energy.

The present invention provides methods and apparatus for manipulating and interrogating the contents of large numbers of microdroplets in parallel on a surface of a microfluidic chip. According to one aspect of the invention a method is provided for manipulating and inspecting microdroplets on a microfluidic chip by optically- mediated electrowetting (oEWOD), the method comprising forming, using a first optical assembly, a plurality of oEWOD traps on a surface of the chip and forming, using a second optical assembly, a second array of oEWOD traps on the surface of the chip, and making an adjustment to the first optical assembly whilst one or more of the microdroplets are held in place by second array of oEWOD traps. Apparatus comprising a microfluidic chip and first and second optical assemblies is also provided.

Coagulation assays for a point-of-care platform is disclosed. For example, the disclosure provides methods of measuring viscoelastic properties in a droplet on a microfluidics device, including using electrowetting-mediated droplet operations on the microfluidics device. In some embodiments, a microfluidics point-of-care platform may be used for assaying and/or monitoring coagulation of a blood sample. The disclosure provides a system, digital microfluidics device, and methods for measuring coagulation of a blood sample. In various embodiments, the disclosure provides a microfluidics device including droplets subject to manipulation by the device wherein droplet movement is used to characterize coagulation of a blood sample.

A microfluidic apparatus is provided for manipulating and sensing the droplets of fluid. The microfluidic apparatus includes an electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) device and a sensing device. The EWOD device receives one or more droplets of fluid, and includes a plurality of electrode elements arranged in an array of rows and columns. The sensing device is disposed external or internal to the EWOD device and includes a plurality of optical sensors corresponding to the electrode elements of the EWOD device, respectively. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the cost and/or volume of the microfluidic apparatus.

Air-matrix digital microfluidics (DMF) apparatuses and methods of using them to prevent or limit evaporation and surface fouling of the DMF apparatus. In particular, described herein are air-matrix DMF apparatuses and methods of using them including thermally controllable regions with a wax material that may be used to selectively encapsulate a reaction droplet in the air gap of the apparatus; additional aqueous droplets may be combined with the encapsulated droplet even after separating from the wax, despite residual wax coating, by merging with an aqueous droplet having a coating of a secondary material (e.g., an oil or other hydrophobic material) that may remove the wax from the droplet and/or allow combining of the droplets.

Disclosed are methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for performing a process on biological samples. An analysis of biological samples in multiple regions of interest in a microfluidic device and a timeline correlated with the analysis may be identified. One or more region-of-interest types for the multiple regions of interest may be determined; and multiple characteristics may be determined for the biological samples based at least in part upon the one or more region-of-interest types. Associated data that respectively correspond to the multiple regions of interest in a user interface for at least a portion of the biological samples in the user interface based at least in part upon the multiple identifiers and the timeline. A count of the biological samples in a region of interest may be determined based at least in part upon a class or type of data using a convolutional neural network (CNN).

Provided is an apparatus, system and method for on-chip microfluids dispensing. The apparatus comprising a substrate; a plurality of first electrodes arranged one next to another on the substrate; a dielectric layer above and enclosing the plurality of first electrodes; and a second electrode on the substrate, wherein each of the plurality of first electrodes is in electric communication with a respective first driving signal input; wherein the second electrode is in electric communication with a second driving signal input; wherein the plurality of first electrodes define a continuous fluid path along a longitudinal direction for retaining microfluids, and wherein the second electrode is arranged within the continuous fluid path and defines a jetting position and an adjacent mixing position within the continuous fluid path.

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a microfluidic chip, including: a first substrate; wherein the first substrate includes a first base, a first electrode layer on the first base; the first electrode layer includes a plurality of first electrodes at intervals along a first direction, wherein a cross-sectional shape of the first electrode parallel to the first base is a centrosymmetric shape, and the cross-sectional shape includes: a first boundary and a second boundary opposite to each other in the first direction; a shape of the first boundary is a centrosymmetric curve, a distance between two end points of the first boundary in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction is less than a length of the first boundary; the second boundary has a same shape and length as the first boundary, and the first and second boundaries are parallel to each other in the first direction.

A micro-fluidic chip is provided. The micro-fluidic chip includes: a first base substrate; a first electrode on the first base substrate and electrically coupled to a wire at a driving end; a second electrode on a side of the first electrode away from the first base substrate and spaced apart and electrically insulated from the first electrode, the second electrode including a plurality of sub-blocks of the second electrode, and an orthographic projection of the second electrode on the first base substrate being at least partially overlapped with an orthographic projection of the first electrode on the first base substrate; and voltage-dividing resistors coupled to the plurality of sub-blocks of the second electrode in one-to-one correspondence and electrically coupled to a ground wire.