阅读说明：本技术 一种数字微流控芯片 (Digital micro-fluidic chip ) 是由 不公告发明人 于 2021-08-20 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明涉及微流控技术领域,公开了一种数字微流控芯片,包括芯片基板和像素电极层,所述像素电极层设置有若干同心圆,每两相邻同心圆组成的圆环中设置若干第一像素电极,所述第一像素电极的面积随着圆环到圆心的距离增大而增大,在所述芯片基板上与每个所述第一像素电极的对应区域内均设置一驱动电路,所述驱动电路分别与对应所述第一像素电极连接。本发明使得液滴在靠近圆心的方向上的移动,促使液滴的分选移动目的性更强,无需通过移动芯片基板来配合显微镜视野,提高了实验的效率。(The invention relates to the technical field of microfluidics, and discloses a digital microfluidic chip which comprises a chip substrate and a pixel electrode layer, wherein the pixel electrode layer is provided with a plurality of concentric circles, a plurality of first pixel electrodes are arranged in a ring formed by every two adjacent concentric circles, the area of each first pixel electrode is increased along with the increase of the distance from the ring to the circle center, a driving circuit is arranged in a corresponding area of each first pixel electrode on the chip substrate, and the driving circuits are respectively connected with the corresponding first pixel electrodes. The invention enables the liquid drop to move in the direction close to the circle center, promotes the sorting movement of the liquid drop to have stronger pertinence, does not need to match the microscope vision by moving the chip substrate, and improves the experimental efficiency.)

1. A digital microfluidic chip, characterized in that: the pixel electrode layer is provided with a plurality of concentric circles, a plurality of first pixel electrodes are arranged in a ring formed by every two adjacent concentric circles, the area of each first pixel electrode is increased along with the increase of the distance from the ring to the circle center, a driving circuit is arranged in the corresponding area of each first pixel electrode on the chip substrate, and the driving circuits are respectively connected with the corresponding first pixel electrodes.

2. The digital microfluidic chip of claim 1, wherein: the driving circuit comprises a transistor and a capacitor, and the transistor is connected with the capacitor.

3. The digital microfluidic chip of claim 2, wherein: the chip substrate is further provided with a plurality of first control pins, a plurality of first control signal lines, a plurality of second control pins and a plurality of second control signal lines, the first control pins are connected with the first control signal lines, the second control pins are connected with the second control signal lines, the transistor sources of all the driving circuits in the same circular ring are connected in series through the first control signal lines, and the transistor gates of all the driving circuits distributed in the same vertical circular ring direction are connected in series through the second control signal lines.

4. The digital microfluidic chip of claim 3, wherein: the chip substrate is also provided with a plurality of third control signal lines and a plurality of third control pins, the capacitors of all the driving circuits in the same ring are connected in series through the third control signal lines, and the third control pins are connected with the third control signal lines.

5. The digital microfluidic chip of claim 4, wherein: the first control signal line is parallel to the third control signal line.

6. The digital microfluidic chip of claim 1, wherein: and a second pixel electrode is arranged at the circle center of the pixel electrode layer and is connected with an external control system.

7. The digital microfluidic chip of claim 1, wherein: the number of the first pixel electrodes in the circular ring is increased along with the increase of the distance from the circular ring to the circle center.

8. The digital microfluidic chip of claim 1, wherein: a plurality of first pixel electrodes with the same area are equally arranged in each circular ring.

9. The digital microfluidic chip of claim 1, wherein: the orthographic projection area of the driving circuit on the chip substrate is located in the orthographic projection area of the corresponding first pixel electrode on the chip substrate, and the area of the orthographic projection area of the driving circuit on the chip substrate is smaller than that of the orthographic projection area of the corresponding first pixel electrode on the chip substrate.

10. The digital microfluidic chip of claim 1, wherein: the distance between two adjacent first pixel electrodes is 1-20 mu m.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of micro-fluidic, in particular to a digital micro-fluidic chip.

Background

Digital Microfluidics (DMF) is a powerful emerging technology that utilizes precise manipulation of droplets in the microliter to nanoliter range to achieve complex laboratory analyses. By combining and repeating the operations in a series of steps in a series of levels, a complex experimental procedure is achieved. The basic mechanism of digital microfluidics is similar to more traditional methods, but the volumes of liquids involved are much smaller, and the procedures are also highly automated, also known as lab-on-a-chip technology, with numerous advantages in the field of life science research, including its high potential for portability, and a significant reduction in the consumption of (rare or expensive) reagents or samples.

The pixel electrodes in the existing digital microfluidic chip are all in a horizontal, horizontal and vertical row-column and vertical cross design, a rectangular pixel electrode array area is finally formed, the sizes of all the pixel electrodes in the rectangular pixel electrode array area are the same, the moving directionality of liquid drops in a rectangular range is not clear, when the liquid drops are observed by a microscope, the visual field is not strong, the chip platform is often required to be moved by being matched with the visual field of the microscope, and a biological sample on the chip is easily damaged due to shaking, so that the experimental result is influenced. In addition, the rectangular pixel array area is almost not used by the pixels at the four sides and corners, which is a waste in design and use.

In summary, the pixel electrodes in the existing digital microfluidic core are arranged in a rectangular array mode with the same size, which results in undefined moving directionality of the liquid drop in the experiment process, and the chip platform needs to be moved in cooperation with the microscope field, so that the biological sample on the chip is easily damaged due to shaking, and the experiment result is affected.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to overcome the defects of the prior art, the invention aims to provide a digital microfluidic chip which can solve the problems that the moving directionality of liquid drops in the experiment process is not clear due to the fact that pixel electrodes in the conventional digital microfluidic chip are arranged in a rectangular display mode and the like, a chip platform needs to be moved in cooperation with the field of a microscope, and the biological sample on the chip is easily damaged due to shaking, so that the experiment result is influenced.

The purpose of the invention is realized by adopting the following technical scheme:

a digital micro-fluidic chip comprises a chip substrate and a pixel electrode layer, wherein the pixel electrode layer is provided with a plurality of concentric circles, a plurality of first pixel electrodes are arranged in a ring formed by every two adjacent concentric circles, the area of each first pixel electrode is increased along with the increase of the distance from the ring to the circle center, a driving circuit is arranged in the corresponding area of each first pixel electrode on the chip substrate, and the driving circuits are respectively connected with the corresponding first pixel electrodes.

Further, the driving circuit includes a transistor and a capacitor, and the transistor is connected to the capacitor.

Furthermore, a plurality of first control pins, a plurality of first control signal lines, a plurality of second control pins and a plurality of second control signal lines are further arranged on the chip substrate, the first control pins are connected with the first control signal lines, the second control pins are connected with the second control signal lines, the transistor sources of all the driving circuits in the same ring are connected in series through the first control signal lines, and the transistor gates of all the driving circuits distributed in the same vertical ring direction are connected in series through the second control signal lines.

Furthermore, a plurality of third control signal lines and a plurality of third control pins are further arranged on the chip substrate, the capacitors of all the driving circuits in the same ring are connected in series through the third control signal lines, and the third control pins are connected with the third control signal lines.

Further, the first control signal line is parallel to the third control signal line.

Furthermore, a second pixel electrode is arranged at the center of the circle of the pixel electrode layer and connected with an external control system.

Further, the number of the first pixel electrodes in the ring increases as the distance from the ring to the center of the circle increases.

Furthermore, a plurality of first pixel electrodes with the same area are equally arranged in each circular ring.

Further, an orthographic projection area of the driving circuit on the chip substrate is located in an orthographic projection area of the corresponding first pixel electrode on the chip substrate, and the area of the orthographic projection area of the driving circuit on the chip substrate is smaller than that of the orthographic projection area of the corresponding first pixel electrode on the chip substrate.

Further, the distance between two adjacent first pixel electrodes is 1-20 μm.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that: a digital micro-fluidic chip in this application sets up through the mode of arranging first pixel electrode according to the ring, just the area of first pixel electrode increases along with the increase of distance of ring to the centre of a circle, the first pixel electrode area that is close to the centre of a circle more promptly is littleer, when carrying out the liquid drop experiment, the direction that will be close to the centre of a circle is as the target moving direction of liquid drop, drive circuit triggers corresponding first pixel electrode and adsorbs the liquid drop, make the liquid drop be in the ascending removal in the direction that is close to the centre of a circle, make the sorting of liquid drop remove the mesh stronger, need not to cooperate the microscope field of vision through removing the chip base plate, the efficiency of experiment has been improved.

The foregoing description is only an overview of the technical solutions of the present invention, and in order to make the technical solutions of the present invention more clearly understood and to implement them in accordance with the contents of the description, the following detailed description is given with reference to the preferred embodiments of the present invention and the accompanying drawings. The detailed description of the present invention is given in detail by the following examples and the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the invention without limiting the invention. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a digital microfluidic chip according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a portion of area A in FIG. 1;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a first pixel electrode in a digital microfluidic chip according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the layout of a first control signal line in the digital microfluidic chip according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the layout of a second control signal line in the digital microfluidic chip according to the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an inventive digital microfluidic chip.

In the figure: 1. a chip substrate; 2. a first pixel electrode; 3. a drive circuit; 31. a transistor; 32. a capacitor; 4. a first control pin; 5. a first control signal line; 6. a second control pin; 7. a second control signal line; 8. a third control pin; 9. a third control signal line; 10. a fourth control pin; 11. a fourth control signal line.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings and the detailed description, and it should be noted that any combination of the embodiments or technical features described below can be used to form a new embodiment without conflict.

As shown in fig. 1 to 6, a digital microfluidic chip in the present application includes a chip substrate 1 and a pixel electrode layer, the pixel electrode layer is provided with a plurality of concentric circles, a plurality of first pixel electrodes 2 are disposed in a circular ring formed by every two adjacent concentric circles, the area of each first pixel electrode 2 increases with the distance from the circular ring to the center of the circle, the first pixel electrodes 2 with the same size are equally disposed in each circular ring, a driving circuit 3 is disposed on the chip substrate 1 and each corresponding region of each first pixel electrode 2, the driving circuit 3 is respectively connected to the corresponding first pixel electrodes 2, the driving circuit 3 is located in an orthographic projection region of the first pixel electrode 2 on the chip substrate 1, and the area of the orthographic projection region of the driving circuit 3 on the chip substrate 1 is smaller than the corresponding area of the first pixel electrode 2 on the chip substrate 1 The area of the orthographic projection area on the sheet substrate 1; and a second pixel electrode is arranged at the circle center of the pixel electrode layer and is directly electrically connected with an external control system through a control signal line.

Preferably, the driving circuit 3 includes a transistor 31 and a capacitor 32, the transistor 31 is connected to the capacitor 32, the driving circuit 3 is connected to the first pixel electrode 2 through a via, the transistor 31 includes a gate, a source and a drain, the capacitor 32 includes a capacitor common electrode and a capacitor data electrode, the drain of the transistor 31 is connected to the capacitor data electrode, the chip substrate 1 is further provided with a plurality of first control pins 4, a plurality of first control signal lines 5, a plurality of second control pins 6, a plurality of second control signal lines 7, a plurality of third control pins 8, a plurality of third control signal lines 9, a fourth control pin 10 and a fourth control signal line 11, the first control pin 4 is connected to the first control signal line 5, the second control pin 6 is connected to the second control signal line 7, and the transistor sources of all the driving circuits 3 in the same ring are connected in series through the first control signal line 5, the gates of the transistors of all the driving circuits 3 distributed in the same vertical ring direction are connected in series through the second control signal line 7, and the third control signal lines 9 on all the adjacent rings are also connected in series, and finally connected to the third control pin 8, and the common capacitor electrodes of the capacitors 32 in all the driving circuits 3 in the same ring are connected in series through the third control signal line 9. The second pixel electrode located at the center of the circle is connected to a fourth control signal line 11, and is thus connected to an external control system through a fourth control pin 10, and the first control pin 4, the second control pin 6, the third control pin 8, and the fourth control pin 10 are all connected to the external control system.

In this embodiment, for example, if the number of the rings is 32, as shown in fig. 3, if the number of the ring closest to the center of the circle is 1, the numbers of the rings farther from the center of the circle are sequentially 2, 3, … …, and 32, and the number of the center of the circle is 0, the number of the first pixel electrodes 2 in the ring farther from the center of the circle is the largest, and the area of the first pixel electrode 2 in the ring farther from the center of the circle is larger, that is, the width of the first pixel electrode 2 is larger, where the width is the width of each pixel electrode in the direction perpendicular to the ring, as shown in table 1 below:

TABLE 1 first Pixel electrode information Table

As can be seen from table 1, the pixel electrode layer includes 32 circular rings in total, and 1796 first pixel electrodes 2 and one second pixel electrode in total. The distance between two adjacent first pixel electrodes 2 in this embodiment is 1 μm to 20 μm, and the distance between the second pixel electrode and its adjacent first pixel electrode in this embodiment is also 1 μm to 20 μm, and in this embodiment, is preferably 6 μm.

The working principle is as follows: when the test is carried out, the external control system controls the driving circuit 3 through the first control signal line and the second control signal line 7, so that the driving circuit 3 triggers the switch of the first pixel electrode 2, when the first pixel electrode 2 is in an on state, the first pixel electrode 2 can generate an adsorption acting force on the liquid drop, when the first pixel electrode 2 is in an off state, the first pixel electrode 2 can generate a repulsive acting force on the liquid drop, the liquid drop can be gradually adsorbed to a position close to the circle center from the outermost ring of the pixel electrode layer, so that the observation requirement on the liquid drop is met, the liquid drop is in the visual field range of a microscope of an experimenter, and the experimenter does not need to move the chip substrate 1.

A digital micro-fluidic chip in this application sets up through the mode of arranging first pixel electrode according to the ring, just the area of first pixel electrode increases along with the increase of distance of ring to the centre of a circle, the first pixel electrode area that is close to the centre of a circle more promptly is littleer, when carrying out the liquid drop experiment, the direction that will be close to the centre of a circle is as the target moving direction of liquid drop, drive circuit triggers corresponding first pixel electrode and adsorbs the liquid drop, make the liquid drop be in the ascending removal in the direction that is close to the centre of a circle, make the sorting of liquid drop remove the mesh stronger, need not to cooperate the microscope field of vision through removing the chip base plate, the efficiency of experiment has been improved.

The foregoing is merely a preferred embodiment of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention in any manner; those skilled in the art can readily practice the invention as shown and described in the drawings and detailed description herein; however, those skilled in the art should appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conception and specific embodiments as a basis for designing or modifying other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims; meanwhile, any changes, modifications, and evolutions of the equivalent changes of the above embodiments according to the actual techniques of the present invention are still within the protection scope of the technical solution of the present invention.