Figure 4.
Temperature increase per applied voltage squared (unit power) due to the dielectric loss in a DEP device as a function of frequency. The maximum ΔT for PBS and no media in the channel is 9 °C and 45 °C, respectively, at an applied voltage of 26 Vpp. The maximum ΔT with PBS in the channel is lower due to the larger thermal mass of PBS compared to that of air. (a) The temperature is measured with PBS solution in the channel. The measured data is in good agreement with the dielectric loss analysis (Eq. 8). The blue circles are measured data. The red dotted line is the power dissipated in the capacitor (Eq. 8). The black dotted line is the dielectric loss factor (Eq. 3). The regression of the data fit is higher than 0.999. (b) The same plot with no media in the channel (empty). The data clearly shows that the temperature increase is due to the SiN dielectric loss since no media is in the channel.