Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 87-93). / In this thesis, I propose aqueous droplets as a form of programmable material that can computationally transform its physical properties. Liquid matter can undergo physical transformation through interfacial forces and surface tension. I introduce a system called DropletIO to regulate interfacial forces through a programmable electric field. The system can actuate and sense macro-scale (micro-liter to milli-liter) droplets on arbitrary planar and curved surfaces. The system can precisely move, merge, split, and change shape of droplets and thus enables a range of applications with human interactivity, information displays, parallelized programmable chemistry and dynamically tunable optics. DropletIO system uses electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) to manipulate droplets. EWOD is a physical phenomenon where a polar droplet on a dielectric surface is attracted to a charged electrode. I constructed EWOD arrays with integrated actuation and sensing on inexpensive printed circuit boards that can scale to arbitrarily large areas and different form factors. Additionally, in this thesis I discuss how semiconductor device scaling applies to electrowetting for smaller volume droplets and hence miniaturized programmable lab-on-a-chip. Droplet based microfluidics is extensively used in biology and chemistry. In this thesis I describe two novel fluid manipulation mechanism for microfluidics. First, I show an approach for splitting aqueous droplets on an open digital microfluidic platform and thus a system capable of performing a complete set of microfluidic operations on an open surface. Second, I demonstrate how electrowetting platforms can handle large volume fluids, and hence enable a new direction in programmable fluid handling called digital millifluidics. / by Udayan Umapathi. / S.M.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/114062 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Umapathi, Udayan |
| Contributors | Hiroshi Ishii., Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| Publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | M.I.T. Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 93 pages, application/pdf |
| Rights | MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 |
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