Highly integrable silicon micropumps using lateral electrostatic bending actuators

• Published in: Microsystem technologies : sensors, actuators, systems integration actuators, systems integration, 2024-08, Vol.30 (8), p.949-960
• Main Authors: Uhlig, Sebastian, Gaudet, Matthieu, Langa, Sergiu, Ruffert, Christine, Jongmanns, Marcel, Schenk, Harald
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Actuators; Bending machines; Cantilever beams; Design parameters; Electrodes; Electronics and Microelectronics; Energy consumption; Engineering; Flap valves; Flow velocity; Instrumentation; Lead content; Mechanical Engineering; Micropumps; Modular units; Nanotechnology; Physical properties; Portable equipment; Pressure distribution; Silicon; Technical Paper; Valves
• ISSN: 0946-7076; 1432-1858
• DOI: 10.1007/s00542-024-05635-w

We present the design, fabrication, and characterization of an innovative silicon-based micropump with high potential for portable lab-on-chip (LoC) as well as point-of-care (PoC) applications. The actuators of the pump are electrostatic driven in-plane bending devices, which were presented earlier (Borcia et al. in Phys Rev Fluids 3(8): 084202, 2018. 10.1103/PhysRevFluids.3.084202; Uhlig et al. in Micromachines, 9(4), 2018. 10.3390/mi9040190). This paper presents the characterization results achieved with the micropump. The dielectric non-polar liquid Novec7100™ was used as a test liquid due to its adequate physical properties. When applying a periodic voltage of 130 V, a flow rate of up to 80 µL/min was detected. The counter pressure amounts up to 30 kPa and the correspondent fluidic power (volumetric flow rate times the counter pressure) was calculated to 10 µW. The pump contains passive flap valves at the inlet and outlet, which are based on a bending cantilever design. Depending on the application requirements, the micropump can be designed modularly to adjust the specific parameters by an adequate arrangement of pump base units. In this paper, the proof of principle is shown using a single base unit with different number of stacked NED-actuator beams, as well as the serial arrangement of base units. Both modular concepts target the increase of backpressure of the NED-micropump in an inherently different way compared to conventional membrane micropumps.