A Numerical Study of Droplet Splitting using Different Spacers in EWOD Device

In this paper, we investigated the droplet splitting using different spacers in the air. The droplets were manipulated by the EWOD force and the level set method was used for our numerical implementation. The results show that the property of spacer has the effect on the droplet splitting. Specifically, we showed that the re-merging occurred when split daughter droplets pass the sub-channels for the short spacer and unequal droplet splitting can be achieved for the off-centered obstacle. In the study of the thickness, the thicker spacer made the splitting process unstable. Furthermore, we found that the triangle spacer was optical for the separation from the consideration of pressure. Our task can provide some help for the design of the spacer size in the future.