How to display pictures and even videos on electrowetting displays (EWDs) still needs improvement. Therefore, we seek to develop a robust, portable and scalable system for the realization of high‐resolution EWDs. In this paper, a driving system for an 8 inch active matrix electrowetting display (AM‐EWD) based on a Field‐Programmable‐Gate‐Array (FPGA) is proposed, where the key components are an active matrix backplane, an FPGA driving waveform and driver integrated circuits (ICs). We successfully demonstrate an AM‐EWD with 1024×768 resolution and 16‐level gray‐scale realized by unique dynamic and asymmetric sub‐frame of FPGA. The whole system is just powered by a 3.7V 1100mAH lithium battery. Such a system has not been reported before, also well‐suited for transferring to a higher performance portable EWD in the future.

As one of the most popular research hotspot of lab-on-chip, digital microfluidic (DMF) technology based on the principle of electrowetting has unique advantages of high-precision, low cost and programmable control. However, due to the limitation of electrodes number, the throughput is hard to further upgrade. Therefore, active matrix electrowetting-on-dielectric (AM-EWOD) technology is a solution to acquire larger scale of driving electrodes. However, the process of manufacturing of AM-EWOD based on thin-film-transistor (TFT) is complex and expensive. Besides, the driving voltage of DMF chip is usually much higher than that of common display products.In this paper, a solution for mass production of AM-EWOD based on amorphous silicon (a-Si) is provided. Samples of 32 × 32 matrix AM-EWOD chips was designed and manufactured. A boost circuit was integrated into the pixel, which can raise the pixel voltage up by about 50%. Customized designed Printed Circuit Board (PCB) was used to supply the timing signals and driving voltage to make the motion of droplets programmable. The process of moving, mixing and generation of droplets was demonstrated.The minimum voltage in need was about 20 V and a velocity of up to 96 mm/s was achieved. Such an DMF device with large-scale matrix and low driving voltage will be very suitable for POCT applications.

Thin film transistor (TFT) active matrix arrays have been developed to achieve many applications, including flat panel displays, digital X-rays, digital microfluidics and high-throughput biosensors. Here, we focus on a review on TFT array technologies for biological sensing systems, which are regarded as one of the most promising emerging application fields of TFTs. As an important part of the biological sensing system, the digital microfluidic (DMF) chip will be introduced. In particular, development of the TFT-based active matrix DMF (AM-DMF) chips, which possess the characteristics of higher throughput and higher flexibility of manipulating liquid samples, will be discussed in details. Further, the developed TFT array based biological sensing systems will be summarized and discussed as well. Finally, we present prospects for AM-DMF chips and biosensors, along with a brief conclusion.

This paper presented a new design of boost circuit in pixel, which could meet the demand for high driving voltage in some special applications and avoid the increasing cost caused by using chips with high‐voltage output. The main circuit of pixel unit contained 3 TFTs and 3 capacitors. Compared with conventional TFT‐LCD, 2 new kinds of signals were added. 1 clock signal was shared by all pixels and 1 additional scanning signal was designed for each row. Through reasonable circuit parameters and timing design, the circuit scheme proposed in this paper could achieve effective boost. The simulation showed the pixel voltage was increased by 60%, compared with the voltage provided by the data line. In the actual sample verification, the voltage was increased by 50%. Therefore, the feasibility of circuit function was verified. Details of design, simulation and verification would be introduced in the text.

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