Digitized Heat Transfer Using Electrowetting on Dielectric

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) as the driving force for digitized heat transfer (DHT), a novel approach to microscale thermal management in which system cooling is actively achieved via the manipulation of an array of discrete microdroplets. Galinstan, a nontoxic, readily available, inexpensive liquid alloy with 65 times less thermal resistance than water, is proposed as a viable DHT coolant. The nature of the EWOD driving force and the velocity of EWOD-actuated droplets are presented, along with an analysis demonstrating the advantages of DHT over some other methods of microscale heat control.