	US 11,992,842 B2
	Control of evaporation in digital microfluidics
Mais Jehan Jebrail, Toronto (CA); Mathieu Gabriel-Emmanuel Chauleau, San Francisco, CA (US); Poornasree Kumar, San Francisco, CA (US); Eduardo Cervantes, San Francisco, CA (US); Foteini Christodoulou, San Francisco, CA (US); Nikolay Sergeev, San Francisco, CA (US); Spencer Seiler, San Francisco, CA (US); Alejandro Tocigl Domeyko, San Francisco, CA (US); and Ana Eugenia Carvajal, San Francisco, CA (US)
Assigned to mirOculus Inc., San Francisco, CA (US)
Filed by mirOculus Inc., San Francisco, CA (US)
Filed on Nov. 3, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/088,572.
Application 17/088,572 is a continuation of application No. PCT/US2019/033794, filed on May 23, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/675,749, filed on May 23, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0069714 A1, Mar. 11, 2021
Int. Cl. B01L 3/00 (2006.01); C12M 3/06 (2006.01); G01N 27/447 (2006.01)

CPC B01L 3/502792 (2013.01) [C12M 23/16 (2013.01); G01N 27/44791 (2013.01); B01L 2200/027 (2013.01); B01L 2200/142 (2013.01); B01L 2300/042 (2013.01); B01L 2300/0874 (2013.01); B01L 2300/1822 (2013.01); B01L 2400/0415 (2013.01)]

24 Claims

1. A digital microfluidics method, the method comprising:

driving a droplet within an air gap of an air-matrix digital microfluidic (DMF) apparatus to a sub-region of the air gap by electrowetting;

coating the droplet with a liquid wax material within the air gap;

pinning the droplet within the sub-region by contacting the droplet with two or more protrusions extending from an upper surface of the air gap into the air gap, wherein the two or more protrusions extend only partially into the air gap;

vortexing a plurality of magnetic beads within the coated droplet within a thermal zone; and

performing one or more manipulations on the pinned droplet.