Equivalent electrical network for performance characterization of piezoelectric peristaltic micropump

Utilizing an electronic–hydraulic analogy, this study develops an equivalent electrical network of a piezoelectric peristaltic micropump which has not been modeled the whole system operation completely by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) or equivalent electrical network so far due to its excessive complicated structure. The validity of the proposed model is verified by comparing the simulation results obtained using the SPICE (simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis) software package for flow rate spectrum and its maximum state of a typical micropump with the experimental observations for two working fluids, namely DI water and blood. The simulation results predict a maximum flow rate frequency and flow rate of 280 Hz and 43.23 μL/min, respectively, for water, and 210 Hz and 24.12 μL/min for blood. The corresponding experimental results are found to be 300 Hz and 41.58 μL/min for water and 250 Hz and 23.75 μL/min for blood. The relatively poorer agreement between the two sets of results when using blood as the working fluid is thought to be the result of the non-Newtonian nature of blood, which induces a more complex, non-linear flow behavior within the micropump. Having validated the proposed model, the equivalent network is used to perform a systematic analysis of the correlation between the principal micropump design parameters and operating conditions and the micropump performance. The results confirm the validity of the equivalent electrical network model as the first microfluidic modeling tool for optimizing the design of peristaltic micropumps and for predicting their performance.     

Peristaltic micropump system with piezoelectric actuators

This work presents a driving system for a peristaltic micropump that is based on piezoelectric actuation. The effects of the actuation sequence on pump performance are also considered. A valveless peristaltic micropump based on piezoelectric actuation is designed and fabricated using microelectromechanical system technology. The pump has three parts––silicon, Pyrex glass and commercially available bulk PZT (lead zirconate titanate) chips. The peristaltic micropump actuated by PZT chips comprises three chambers that are in series. The driving system consists of an ATmega 8535 microprocessor, a high voltage power supply, three differential amplifiers, a phase controller, an A/D converter, a 555 oscillator and an LCD module. It is supplied via a 110 Vrms 60-Hz AC line and is programmable. The system can produce step-function signals with voltages of up to 100 V_pp and frequencies ranging from 10 Hz to 1 kHz, as the inputs for the pump. Fluid pumping with air is successfully demonstrated. Additionally, 3-, 4- and 6-phase actuation sequences for the pump are designed and used to study the effects on pump performance, as revealed by the flow rate and the displacement of a pump diaphragm. The experimental results show that the flow rate and the displacement of the diaphragm actuated by the 4-phase sequence exceed those actuated by the 3- and 6-phase sequences. A flow rate of 17.6 μl min⁻¹ and a displacement of 2.91 μm (peak-to-peak) in 4-phase peristaltic motion are achieved at 100 Hz and 100 V_pp. The results demonstrate that the pump actuated in the 4-phase sequence is the most efficient. Consequently, the actuation sequences can affect the pump performance.     

A PMMA valveless micropump using electromagnetic actuation

We have fabricated and characterized a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) valveless micropump. The pump consists of two diffuser elements and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane with an integrated composite magnet made of NdFeB magnetic powder. A large-stroke membrane deflection (~200 m) is obtained using external actuation by an electromagnet. We present a detailed analysis of the magnetic actuation force and the flow rate of the micropump. Water is pumped at flow rates of up to 400 µl/min and backpressures of up to 12 mbar. We study the frequency-dependent flow rate and determine a resonance frequency of 12 and 200 Hz for pumping of water and air, respectively. Our experiments show that the models for valveless micropumps of A. Olsson et al. (J Micromech Microeng 9:34, 1999) and L.S. Pan et al. (J Micromech Microeng 13:390, 2003) correctly predict the resonance frequency, although additional modeling of losses is necessary.     

Normally-closed peristaltic micropump with re-usable actuator and disposable fluidic chip

We present a new peristaltic micropump offering three key features: (i) a disposable pump body and a re-useable actuator unit, (ii) an intrinsic normally-closed mechanism blocking unintended liquid flows up to a pressure of 100 kPa and (iii) a backpressure independent pump performance up to 40 kPa. The modular concept basing on a re-usable actuator unit and a low-cost disposable microfluidic chip enables an easy and cost-efficient exchange of all contaminated parts after use, which addresses especially the needs in the health care sector. The intrinsic normally-closed feature blocks liquid flow in both directions up to a pressure difference of 100 kPa when the electric power is off. The micropump is actuated in a peristaltic manner by three piezostack actuators. Up to a frequency of 15 Hz the pump rate increases linearly with operation frequency leading to a pump rate of 120 μL/min. This was proved for an operation voltage of 140 V by pumping water. In addition the pump rate is independent on backpressure up to 40 kPa and shows a linear decrease for higher pressure differences. The maximum achievable backpressure at zero flow rate was extrapolated to be 180 kPa. As for all peristaltic micropumps, the pump is bidirectional, e.g. the pump direction can be changed forward to reverse mode.     

Study of an innovative one-sided actuating piezoelectric valveless micropump with a secondary chamber

Previous studies have indicated that a one-sided actuating piezoelectric micropump (OAPMP) combined with two valves may enhance the liquid flow rate to 4.1 ml/s and make it possible to reach the maximum pump head of 9807 Pa in a limited space. In this study, an innovative one-sided actuating piezoelectric valveless micropump (OAPMP-valveless) has been developed to actuate fluid at a higher flow rate in one direction by adding a secondary chamber. The secondary chamber plays a key role in the application of the valveless micropump: the flow rate of the pump can reach 0.989 ml/s by adding a secondary chamber. The maximum pump head is 1522.5 Pa when using the 0.3 mm-thick secondary diaphragm and the 0.5 mm-thick primary diaphragm. In addition, if a nozzle/diffuser element is applied to the OAPMP-valveless with a secondary chamber, the flow rate can be further improved to 1.183 ml/s at a frequency of 150 Hz. A three-dimensional numerical model of the valveless micropump has been built to compare the measured results with the simulated results.     

A low cost,high performance insulin delivery system based on PZT actuation

A low driving voltage, low cost, high performance insulin delivery system based on PZT actuation is presented in this paper, which consists of two functional units, namely, micropump unit and electronic control unit. The PZT micropump is the core of micropump unit and is the key base to ultimately realize insulin precision delivery of the whole system. The electronic control unit is the important auxiliary unit for the realization of the whole system function. To obtain a higher working performance under low voltage, a serial structure with two chambers and three check valves is adopted in the design of PZT micropump. In place of silicon and glass, main parts of micro-pump unit are manufactured using the polymers which have good biocompatibility, stability and low cost. Through the systematic experimental test for the prototype of PZT insulin delivery system in lab, the maximum backpressure of 14.64 kPa is recorded at applied voltage of 36 V and working frequency of 160 Hz, the maximum flow rate of 5.74 ml/min is obtained in the condition of 36 V and 300 Hz. Under the voltage of 36 V and working frequency of 200 Hz, the micro-dosage pumped by PZT micro-pump displays a good linear characteristic with the number of driving impulses. The minimum resolution of insulin delivery can obtain 3 × 10^?4 ml (0.03 U insulin at the concentration of 100 U).     

A micropump based on water potential difference in plants

In land plants, water vapor diffuses into the air through the stomata. The loss of water vapor creates a water potential difference between the leaf and the soil, which draws the water upward. Quantitatively, the water potential difference is 1–2 MPa which can support a water column of 100–200 m. Here we present the design and operation of a biomimetic micropump. The micropump is mainly composed of a 48-μm thick metal screen plate with a group of 102-μm diameter micropores and an agarose gel sheet with nanopores of 100 nm diameter. The micropores in the screen plate imitate the stomata to regulate the flow rate of the micropump. The agarose gel sheet is used to imitate the mesophyll cells around the stomata. The lost of water from the nanopores in the gel sheet can generate a water potential difference (more than 30 kPa) which can drive solution flow in a microfluidic chip. Results have shown that a precise flow rate of 4–8 nl/min can be obtained by using this micropump, and its ultra-high flow rate is 113–126 nl/min. The advantages of this biomimetic micropump include adjustable flow rate, simple structure and low fabrication cost. It can be used as a “plug and play” fluid-driven unit in microfluidic chips without any external power sources or equipments.     

Microfabricated centrifugal pump driven by an integrated synchronous micromotor

This paper presents the development of a new design of the microfabricated centrifugal force pump. The pumping concept is based on running an impeller (a rotor including permanent magnets carrying straight and backward blades) within an integrated synchronous motor, which can be operated at different rotational speeds to pump water. The impeller is 5.5 mm in diameter, and is 1.5 mm in height. This micropump with 7-straight-blade impeller can operate smoothly up to a rotational speed of 9000 rpm. It can deliver a non-pulsating maximum flow rate of up to 12 ml/min and allows water to be pumped up to a 24 cm water head. Additionally, the micropump with the backward-blade-impeller pump delivered a flow rate of up to 14.3 ml/min. at a rotational speed of 11,400 rpm with no back pressure. The micropump was patterned using a series of microfabrication processes including sputtering, photolithography and electroplating within a clean room. Such a pump can be integrated into a system of a compact size and can provide a wide range of flow rates. It could also be a promising device for use within biological and micro biomedical fields. To our knowledge, this is the smallest centrifugal pump in the world with an integrated electromagnetic synchronous motor that offers such high flow rates.

     

Flow characterization of valveless micropump using driving equivalent moment: theory and experiments

A valveless micropump, actuated by a PZT disk bonded to a glass plate, can generate positive flow. In order to estimate flow characteristics of micropumps, it is necessary to theoretically analyze the radial expansion (more specifically, the equivalent moment) of the PZT disk according to the voltage input. Using the equivalent moment, deflection equations are derived for the tri-layer disk (PZT, epoxy bonder and glass plate) and are confirmed to match well with experiments. The flow rate of the valveless micropump is also theoretically and experimentally investigated in terms of input voltage and oscillation frequency. The flow increased at a rate of 0.1 μL/min/V, and the maximum flow rate was obtained at the driving frequency of around 225 Hz.     

Optimization design of multi-material micropump using finite element method

This paper presents a micropump fabricated from low cost materials with specific goal of cost reduction. The micropump does not require any valve flap and comprises one plastic pump polyether–ether–ketone (PEEK) body, one metal diaphragm, and three piezoelectric ceramics to form piezoelectrically actuated diaphragm valves. The valve actuation simplifies micropump structural designs and assembly processes to make the pump attractive for low cost bio-medical drug delivery applications. A detailed optimization design of geometric parameters of the piezoelectrically actuated diaphragm is undertaken by use of 3D finite element method (FEM) to maximize piezoelectric actuation capability and ensure actuation reliability. An optimized geometric dimensional design: the ratio of thicknesses between the piezoelectric ceramics and the metal diaphragm, and the lateral dimension of the piezoelectric ceramic, is obtained through simulations. Based on the optimized design, a good agreement has been reached between simulated and measured strokes of the micropumps. The tested results show that the micropump has a high pump flow rate for air, up to 39 ml/min, and for water, up to 1.8 ml/min, and is capable of ensuring diaphragm’s maximum stress and strain is within material strength for reliable work.     

一种低成本压电无阀微泵的研制

提出了一种低成本的由压电材料驱动的平面扩张/收缩管无阀微泵的制作工艺.通过数值模拟确定了扩张/收缩管扩张角的最优值,在此基础上,采用光刻和湿法刻蚀工艺,刻蚀了300μm深的泵腔基片和100 μm深的盖片;使用等离子体清洗技术将其与PDMS薄膜键合,完成了可以实现单向泵送的压电无阀微泵样机制作.研究了该压电无阀微泵样机的...     

预应力压电泵的结构设计与实验研究

提出了一种由压电晶片驱动的新结构微泵,采用精密机械加工工艺制作而成。设计了预应力阀膜,组装压电微泵,对预应力阀的可靠性和压电微泵的液体输送特性做了研究。通过系统的实验研究证明：预应力压电泵具有很好的防倒吸能力,稳定性高,具有很好的工作性能,在250V,200Hz方波信号下,流速可达5．5027mL／min,且适于微型化,可为该类型泵的实际应用提供有意义的借鉴。     

A pneumatic micropump incorporated with a normally closed valve capable of generating a high pumping rate and a high back pressure

This study reports on a new pneumatic micropump integrated with a normally closed valve that is capable of generating a high pumping rate and a high back pressure. The micropump consists of a sample flow microchannel, three underlying pneumatic air chambers, resilient polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane structures and a normally closed valve. The normally closed valve of the micropump is a PDMS-based floating block structure located inside the sample flow microchannel, which is activated by hydraulic pressure created by the peristaltic motion of the PDMS membranes. The valve is used to effectively increase pumping rates and back pressures since it is utilized to prevent backflow. Experimental results indicate that a pumping rate as high as 900 μL/min at a driving frequency of 90 Hz and at an applied pressure of 20 psi (1.378 × 10⁵ Nt/m²) can be obtained. The back pressure on the micropump can be as high as 85 cm-H₂O (8,610.5 Nt/m²) at the same operation conditions. The micropump is fabricated by soft lithography processes and can be easily integrated with other microfluidic devices. To demonstrate its capability to prevent cross contamination during chemical analysis applications, two micropumps and a V-shape channel are integrated to perform a titration of two chemical solutions, specifically sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and benzoic acid (C₆H₅COOH). Experimental data show that mixing with a pH value ranging from 2.8 to 12.3 can be successfully titrated. The development of this micropump can be a promising approach for further biomedical and chemical analysis applications.     

A three phase serpentine micro electrode array for AC electroosmotic flow pumping

A new three-phase electrode array with a serpentine electrode is designed and prototyped using PolyMUMPs process for micro flow pumping. Numerical model of the micropump has been developed using COMSOL Multiphysics™. Experimental testing is conducted and time-averaged flow velocities from testing and simulation agree well. Peak time-averaged flow velocity of 270 μm/s is achieved at 30 Hz using ethanol.     

Bioparticle separation in non-Newtonian fluid using pulsed flow in micro-channels

Micro total analysis system (μTAS) devices frequently need to deal with bio-particle suspensions in solution and separation of certain bio-particles is often desirable. Separation of plasma from the whole blood has become increasingly popular in clinical diagnostics. Using the coupled volume of fluid (VOF) and the discrete phase (DP) governing equations for multiphase flow, the effect of Newtonian viscosity of water and the non-Newtonian shear-thinning viscosity of blood on particle separation under pulsed pressure condition is determined. It is observed that the red blood cells (RBC) accumulate at the front of the blood column while the opposite is observed in water. For the selected parameters, 20% of the plasma observed is to be separated from the whole blood, while in contrast, for a 98% diluted blood, 45% of the plasma can be separated. The present calculations can be adopted to design the flow parameters necessary for the instantaneous separation of plasma from the whole and the diluted blood for μTAS; thus reducing the number of experimental studies.     

Valveless micropump with acoustically featured pumping chamber

This article presents a new design of a valveless micropump. The pump consists of a nozzle-shaped actuation chamber with acoustic resonator profile, which functions as both pumping chamber and flow rectification structure. The pump is fabricated by lamination of layers made of polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) and dry adhesives, and is driven by a piezoelectric disk. The performance of the pump has been studied by both experimental characterization and numerical simulations. Both the experimental and numerical results show that the pump works well at low frequencies of 20–100 Hz to produce relatively high backpressures and flowrates. Moreover, the numerical simulations show that in the pumping frequency range, the flow patterns inside the chamber are found to be asymmetric in one pumping cycle so as to create a net flowrate, while outside the pumping frequency range, the flow patterns become symmetric in the pumping cycle. The pumping frequency can be shifted by modifying the pump configuration and dimensions. The pump is suitable for microfluidic integrations.     

LIGA fabrication and test of a DC type magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) micropump

 This paper reports a research effort to design, microfabricate and test a DC type magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) micropump using LIGA method (Menz et al., 1991). The micropump is driven using the Lorentz force and can be used to deliver electrically conductive fluids. In operation, a DC voltage is supplied across the electrodes to generate the distributed body force on the fluid in the pumping chamber, and therefore a constant pressure difference along the pumping chamber. The external magnetic field was supplied using permanent magnets. The major advantage of a MHD-based micropump is that it does not contain any moving parts. It may have potential applications in medicine delivery, biological and biomedical studies. The test of the DC prototype micropump shows that bubble generation mechanism affect the performance significantly and an AC driving mechanism may be used to improve the performance.     

Design,fabrication and characterization of a piezoelectrically actuated bidirectional polymer micropump

We present the design, fabrication and characterization of a new, piezoelectrically actuated fully polymeric three chamber peristaltic micropump. An optimized bimorph bending actuator has been designed to deform the polymer membranes in an optimal and most-efficient way. The piezoelectric actuators of the micropump are driven with actuation voltages of ±260 V. The pump has a total size of 46 × 18 × 4 mm, is produced by hot embossing and is assembled in a very simple way. The presented design is able to pump water with a flow rate of 4.8 ml/min and achieves a maximum back pressure of app. 200 mBar.     

A surface-tension driven micropump for low-voltage and low-power operations

In this paper, we first report a micropump actuated by surface tension based on continuous electrowetting (CEW). We have used the surface-tension-induced motion of a mercury drop in a microchannel filled with an electrolyte as actuation energy for the micropump. This allows low voltage operation as well as low-power consumption. The micropump is composed of a stack of three wafers bonded together. The microchannel is formed on a glass wafer using SU-8 and is filled with electrolyte where the mercury drop is inserted. The movement of the mercury pushes or drags the electrolyte, resulting in the deflection of a membrane that is formed on the second silicon wafer. Another silicon wafer, which has passive check valves and holes, is stacked on the membrane wafer, forming inlet and outlet chambers. Finally, these two chambers are connected through a silicone tube forming the complete micropump. The performance of the fabricated micropump has been tested for various operation voltages and frequencies. We have demonstrated actual liquid pumping up to 70 /spl mu/l/min with a driving voltage of 2.3 V and a power consumption of 170 /spl mu/W. The maximum pump pressure is about 800 Pa at the applied voltage of 2.3 V with an operation frequency of 25 Hz.     

Effects of channel surface finish on blood flow in microfluidic devices

The behaviour of blood flow in relation to microchannel surface roughness has been investigated. Special attention was focused on the techniques used to fabricate the microchannels and on the apparent viscosity of the blood as it flowed through these microchannels. For the experimental comparison of smooth and rough surface channels, each channel was designed to be 10 mm long and rectangular in cross-section with aspect ratios of ≥100:1 for channel heights of 50 and 100 μm. Polycarbonate was used as the material for the device construction. The shims, which created the heights of the channels, were made of polyethylene terephthalate. Surface roughnesses of the channels were varied from R _z of 60 nm to 1.8 μm. Whole horse blood and filtered water were used as the test fluids and differential pressures ranged from 200 to 5,000 Pa. The defibrinated horse blood was treated further to prevent coagulation. The results indicate that a surface roughness above an unknown value lowers the apparent viscosity of blood dramatically due to boundary effects. Furthermore, the roughness seemed to influence both water and whole blood almost equally. A set of design rules for channel fabrication is also presented in accordance with the experiments performed.