Patent ID: 7998436

Claim:
An article of manufacture comprising: (a) a substrate, a top plate mounted parallel to and separated from the substrate thereby providing a sealable interior volume between the substrate and the top plate, and one or more ports in the top plate arranged for introduction of one or more liquids into the interior volume and onto the substrate; (b) an array of processing wells in the interior volume which are not in direct fluid communication with the one or more ports, each processing well defined by well walls, and wherein for each processing well the well walls comprise one or more openings in the well walls, the openings configured to enable liquid to be transported by electrowetting through the one or more openings and into each processing well, and wherein each processing well comprises one or more planar control electrodes in the substrate or top plate within the well walls; and (c) a network of droplet transport pathways comprising pathways of electrodes arranged to provide direct or indirect electrowetting-mediated droplet transport from each of the ports through the openings in the walls and into each of the processing wells, wherein the one or more planar electrodes within the well walls of each processing well are arranged to operate in cooperation with the electrodes of the droplet transport pathways to conduct droplet operations.