• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.1 s.232
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• pp.67-73
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• 2005

The paper presents a single-heater microfluid injector, whose ejected droplet volume is adjusted by digital current path control for a single microheater. The previous droplet volume adjustable methods have used the digital current control for multiple heaters or the analog current control for a single heater, while the present method uses the digital current control for a single microheater. Two different microinjectors, having a rectangular heater and a circular hearter, are designed and fabricated in the chip area of $7.64\;mm{\times}5.26\;mm$. The fabricated microinjectors have been tested and characterized for the number, size, shape and lifetime of the generated bubbles as well as for the volume and velocity of the ejected droplets. The input power for the rectangular heater and the circular heater has been varied in the ranges of $8.7{\sim}24.9{\mu}W\;and\;8.1{\sim}43.8{\mu}W$, respectively. The projected area of the generated bubble has been changed in the ranges of $440{\sim}l,3600{\mu}m^2\;and\;800{\sim}3,300{\mu}m^2$ for the rectangular heater and the circular heater, respectively. The microinjector with the rectangular heater ejects three discrete levels of the droplet in the volume range of $9.4{\sim}20.7pl$ with the velocity range of $0.8{\sim}1.7m/s$, while the microinjector with the circular heater achieves five discrete levels of the droplet in the volume range of $7.4{\sim}27.4pl$ with the velocity range of $0.5{\sim}2.8m/s$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.3 s.234
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• pp.418-424
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• 2005

We present the design, fabrication and experimental results of 4-bit digital microinjectors, whose ejected droplet volumes are adjusted by the digital operation of a 4-bit microheater array. We design the reference microinjectors as well as its comparative test structures. In the fabrication process, we use a five-mask micromachining process and the total chip size of the fabricated microinjector is $7,640{\mu}m{\times}5,260{\mu}m.$ We measure the ejected droplet volumes and velocities, which are adjusted from $12.1{\pm}1.0~55.6{\pm}14.7pl\;and\;2.3{\pm}0.1~15.7{\pm}0.8m/s.$ respectively, depending on the 15 possible combinations of 4-bit microheater array. We also experimentally characterize the effect of geometric variation including the microheater size, inter-microheater gap, microchannel width and sequential operation of microheater array on the ejected droplet volume and velocity. Among these parameters, we find that the microheater size is the most dominant parameter affected to the ejected droplet volumes and velocities. Thus, the present microinjector has a potential for application to the high-resolution inkjet printers with multiple gray levels or high-precision fluid injectors with variable volume control.