Low-Cost Fabrication of Digital Microfluidic Platform

Abstract

This paper presents an accessible and cost-effective method for fabricating digital microfluidic (DMF) devices without the need for clean-room facilities or specialized equipment. Instead of traditional photolithography, this approach utilizes copper-clad PCBs and laser-etched masking tape to create electrode patterns with gaps as small as 150 μm. Low-cost materials, including Saran™ wrap for the dielectric layer and cooking oil for the hydrophobic layer, were used to replace expensive coatings such as Teflon-AF and parylene-C. The fabricated device enables single-plate droplet actuation and was successfully tested for basic droplet operations such as movement and merging. Out of 12 fabrication trials, 2 resulted in fully functional devices, achieving droplet actuation with volumes of 3–7 μL at 250 V<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">RMS</inf> and 50 Hz, with an average velocity of 0.5 mm/s. This simple fabrication method demonstrates the potential of low-cost DMF platforms for rapid prototyping, educational use, and research in resource-limited settings.