• KSTLE International Journal
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.101-109
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• 2002

This paper presents the fabrication and performance inspection of a peristaltic micropump by flow simulation. The valve-less micropump using the diffuser/nozzle is consists of base plate, mid plate, top plate and connection tubes fur inlet and outlet. In detail, the base plate is composed of two diffuser nozzles and three chambers, the mid plate consists of a glass diaphragm for the volumetric change of the pumping chamber. The inlet and outlet tubes are connected at the top plate and the actuator fur pressing the diaphragm is located beneath the top plate. The micropump is fabricated on the silicon wafer by DRIE (Deep Reactive ion Etching) process. The pumping performances are tested by the pneumatic test rig and compared with the simulated results fur various dimensions of diffuser nozzles. The pumping characteristics of the micropump by the volumetric change at the pumping chamber is modeled and simulated by the commercial software of FLOW-3D. The simulated results shows that reverse flow is the inherent phenomena in the diffuser nozzle type micropump, but it can be reduced at the dual pumping chamber model.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2672-2677
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• 2007

An investigation of low Reynolds number flow in nozzles and diffusers which are widely used in the valveless micropump is presented. Flow characteristics in the nozzle and diffuser are explained in view of viscous effect and flow oscillation induced by pumping membrane. These calculation results show that the rectification property of valveless micropump is due to a flow separation in the diffuser and the separation is largely originated from the flow oscillation. Under the assumptions of steady flow velocity profile and flow separation in the diffuser, simplified analytical models are provided to see the dependency of rectification on the micropump geometry. Geometric parameters of channel length, nozzle throat, chamber size, and converging/diverging angle are depicted through the analytical models in low Reynolds number flow, and the prediction and experimental results are compared. This theoretical study can be used to determine the optimum geometry of valveless micropump.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3104-3109
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• 2007

The present study has been carried out to investigate the pumping characteristics for different figures of inlet and outlet in diffuser/nozzle based on piezoelectric micropump. Piezoelectric micropump system consists of several parts like a pumping chamber, diffuser/nozzle, piezoelectric element and tubes. Parts of the micropump connected with diffuser/nozzle and tubes have been analyzed.. The magnified parts have been classified into two different models based on their resistance. These models have been further classified into six models with each one having three different angles at the magnified parts. Each model has been compared and analyzed using the simulation tool, namely, CFD-ACE depending on their flow rates and characteristics.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2788-2793
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• 2008

A numerical analysis has been conducted for flow characteristics and performance of a micropump with piezodisk and MHD(Magnetohydrodynamics) fluid. Various micro systems which could not be considered in the past have been recently growing with the development of MEMS(Micro Electro Mechanical System) and micro machining technology. Especially, micropumps, essential part of micro fluidic devices, are being lively studies by many researchers. In the present study, the piezo electric micropump with electromagnetic resistance for electrically conducting fluids is considered. The prescribed grid deformation method is used for the displacement of the membrane. The change of the performance of the micropump and flow characteristics of the electrically conducting fluid with the magnitude of the magnetic fields, duct size, the position of the inlet and outlet duct are investigated in the present study.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.342-346
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• 2004

A thermopneumatic-actuated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micropump has been fabricated and their properties are characterized. The diffusers are used as a flow-rectifying element instead of passive check valves. The advantages of the proposed microvalve are of the low cost fabrication process and the transparent optical property using PDMS and indium tin oxide (ITO) glass. We presented the PDMS micropump that is easily integrated with the in-channel PDMS microvalves on the same substrate. The flowrate of the micropump increases linearly as the applied pulse voltage to the ITO heater increases. The fabricated ITO heater resistance is 6.54k$\Omega$. The peak of the flow rate is observed at the duty ratio of 10% for the applied pulse voltage of 55V at 6Hz and the maximum flow rate of 78nl/min is measured.

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.4C no.4
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• pp.137-141
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• 2004

In this paper, a thermopneumatic PMDS (polydimethlysiloxane) micropump with nozzle/diffuser elements is presented. The micropump is composed of nozzle/diffuser elements as dynamic valves, an actuator consisting of a circular PDMS diaphragm and a Cr/Au heater on a glass substrate. Four PDMS layers are used for fabrication of an actuator chamber, actuator diaphragm by a spin coating process, spacer layer, and nozzle/diffuser by the SU-8 molding process. The radius and thickness of the actuator diaphragm is 2 mm and 30 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$, respectively. The length and the conical angle of the nozzle/diffuser elements are 3.5 mm and 20$^{\circ}$, respectively. The actuator diaphragm is driven by the air cavity pressure variation caused by ohmic heating and natural cooling. The flow rate of the micropump in the frequency domain is measured for various duty cycles of the square wave input voltage. When the square wave input voltage of 5 V DC is applied to the heater, the maximum flow rate of the micropump is 44.6 ${mu}ell$/min at 100 Hz with a duty ratio of 80% under the zero pressure difference.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2008

In this paper, the pumping performance of a piezoelectric valveless micropump is simulated with a commercial finite element analysis software, COMSOL Multiphysics. The micropump developed in the previous work is composed of a 4-layer lightweight piezo-composite actuator (LIPCA), a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) pump chamber, and two diffusers. The piezoelectric domain, structural domain and fluid domain are coupled in the simulation. Water flow rates are numerically predicted for geometric parameters of the micropump. Based on this study, the micropump is optimally designed to obtain its highest pumping performance.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.1864-1869
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• 2003

A novel piezoelectric micropump using active check valves in place of conventional passive check valves in inlet and outlet has been proposed and investigated. It actively controls open/close motion of check valves using piezoelectric actuator for expansion/contraction of pump chamber. In this paper, bi-directional flow characteristics and load characteristics are experimentally investigated using an adequate timing control for valve closing motion with a prototype micropump fabricated with the effective size of $17{\times}8{\times}11mm^{3}$. From the experimental results, it is ascertained that optimal values of phase shift against voltage to drive pump chamber for realization of a miniaturized but powerful micropump, are $15^{\circ}$ in inlet check valve and $195^{\circ}$ in outlet. Based on the obtained results, a sheet-type active shuttle valve that has a unified valve-body for inlet and outlet check valves is proposed. A micropump with the effective size of $10{\times}10{\times}10mm^{3}$ is fabricated and basic characteristics are experimentally investigated.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.428-432
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• 2013

This paper described the development of electrostatically driven peristaltic micropump. The proposed micropump consists of a flexible membrane and a single chamber which electrodes are inserted. The single chamber is divided into smaller cells by the electrodes. The fabricated micropump was operated with four electrodes in the membrane and a various phase sequencing actuation. We studied the changes in the flow rate corresponding to the actuating signal applied to the micropump under the zero hydraulic pressure difference between lnlet port and outlet port. The pump was operated from 60 to 130 V. Whereas the maximum flow rate in basic actuating signal is about 83 ${\mu}1/min$ at 15 Hz, the maximum flow rate in optimized actuating signal is about 114 ${\mu}l/min$ at 10 Hz.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.1196-1200
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• 2004

Micropump is very useful component in micro/nano fluidics and bioMEMS applications. In this study, a bubble-powered micropump was fabricated and tested. The micropump consists of two-parallel micro line heaters, a pair of nozzle-diffuser flow controller and a 1 mm in diameter, 400 ${\mu}m$ in depth pumping chamber. The two-parallel micro line heaters with 20 ${\mu}m-width$ and 200 ${\mu}m-length$ were fabricated to be embedded in the silicon dioxide layer of a wafer which serves as a base plate for the micropump. The pumping chamber, the pair of nozzle-diffuser unit and microchannels including the liquid inlet and outlet port were fabricated by etching through another silicon wafer. A glass wafer (thickness of $525{\pm}15$ ${\mu}m$) having two holes of inlet and outlet ports of liquid serve as upper plate of the pump. Finally the silicon wafer of the base plate, the silicon wafer of pumping chamber and the glass wafer were aligned and bonded (Si-Si bonding and anodic bonding). A sequential photograph of bubble nucleation, growth and collapse was visualized by CCD camera. Clearly liquid flow through the nozzle during the period of bubble growth and slight back flow of liquid at the end of collapsing period can be seen. The mass flow rate was found to be dependent on the duty ratio and the operation frequency. As duty ratio increases, flow rate decreases gradually when the duty ratio exceeds 60%. Also as the operation frequency increases, the flow rate of the micropump decreases slightly.