• 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.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.425-428
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• 2006

Recently, Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) for portable devices has been received much attention because DMFC has a possibility of higher energy density than electrical batteries and smaller size than other fuel cells. This paper presents the fabrication and test of a thermopneumatic microactuator with a phase change for DMFC. A microactuator consists of an inlet an outlet a chamber, a heater and a sensor of resistance temperature detector(RTD). The micoractuator is fabricated by the spin-coating process, the lithograph process, the deep RIE process and so on. The total size of microactuator is $20{\times}20{\times}0.53mm^3$. When the current is applied, the heater heats liquid in chamber. As a result the liquid vaporizes. The response of temperature in the chamber was measured using thermocouple The changed temperature is $3^{\circ}C$ for 5 sec at 0.032W.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.599-606
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• 2010

In the present study, actuators with diaphragms of different thickness and chambers of different diameter are fabricated to examine experimentally how the behavior characteristics of the actuator diaphragm in a thermopneumatic micropump are affected by diaphragm thickness and chamber diameter under various operating conditions with different values of input voltage and frequency. The actuator comprises a microheater set on Pyrex glass, a chamber, and a diaphragm. For all values of the input energy, as the frequency decreases below 10 Hz, the maximum center deflection of the diaphragm greatly increases irrespective of diaphragm thickness and chamber diameter. At low frequencies, as the heat energy supplied to the chamber increases, the center of deflection of the diaphragm increases; the magnitude of deflection is high for thin diaphragms and for diaphragms whose chambers have small diameters. At frequencies higher than 10 Hz, all the design variables such as diaphragm thickness, chamber diameter, and the input energy have negligible effect on the center deflection of the diaphragm.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.649-654
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• 2005

This paper presents fabrication and drive test of a peristaltic PDMS micropump actuated by the thermopneumatic force. The micropump consists of the three peristaltic-type actuator chambers with microheaters on the glass substrate and a microchannel connecting the chambers and the inlet/outlet port. The micropump is fabricated by the spin-coating process, the two-step curing process, the JSR (negative PR) molding process, and etc. The diameter and the thickness of the actuator diaphragm are 2.5 mm and $30{\mu}m$, respectively. The meniscus motion in the capillary tube is observed with a video camera and the flow rate of the micro pump is calculated through the frame analysis of the recorded video data. The maximum flow rate of the micropump is about $0.36\;{\mu}L/sec$ at 2 Hz for the zero hydraulic pressure difference when the 3-phase input voltage is 20 V.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1433-1438
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• 2007

Characteristics of a phase change type micro actuator have been studied. The micro actuator has been designed for a micro-pump in an active direct methanol fuel cell(DMFC), consisting of an actuating chamber, a membrane, an electric heater, and a sensor of resistance temperature detector (RTD). In the present study, researches have been focused on the response of the actuator to control algorithm of the heater. The experiments demonstrated that the displacement of the membrane increase with temperature variation which is a function of applied voltage, duty ratio, and operating frequency of heating. The results also showed that operation of the actuator with high voltage at small duty of heating is more efficient than the same power consumption of heating with low voltage at large duty.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.22-28
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• 2012

We report a focal-length tunable liquid lens based on thermopneumatically driven fluidic pressure. The fluidic pressure is generated by deformation of an elastomeric diaphragm induced by thermopneumaticity from a laterally integrated microheater sealed within an air chamber. The pressure is transmitted by a confined liquid to a lens diaphragm through an internal fluid channel. The liquid filling under the lens diaphragm functions as a liquid lens for dynamic focusing with properties depending on the curvature of the deformed diaphragm. The diaphragm area of the air chamber is designed five times larger than that of the lens cavity to yield high focal-length tunability by amplified deflection of the lens diaphragm. With our method, we achieved excellent focal-length tunability from infinity (without an input current) to 4 mm (with an input current of 12 mA) with a lens aperture diameter of 2 mm.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1996.07c
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• pp.1960-1962
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• 1996

A thermopneumatic micropump with two micronozzles has been fabricated and tested. The actuator consists of a p+ diaphragm and a pyrex glass on which a microheater is deposited. Two micronozzles are fabricated on either side of a single silicon wafer and behave as a dynamic passive valves. The actuator and the micronozzle are assembled to make a micropump. The center deflection of the actuator diaphragm to step voltage input has been measured. The dynamic test hag been performed by measuring the center deflection of the diaphragm under various input voltages and duty ratios. Also dynamic pumping test is performed. The measured built-up pressure between inlet and outlet of the micropump is 80 Pa for the actuation at 20V, 10 Hz.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.615-618
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• 2005

All over the world, many kinds of micro-actuators were already developed for various applications. The actuators are using various principles such as electromagnetic, piezoelectric and thermopneumatic etc. The most of the micro-actuators have been made using 2D based MEMS technology. In these actuators, it is difficult to drive 3-dimensional motion. This characteristic gives the limit of actuator application. However, micro-stereolithography technology has made it possible to fabricate freeform three-dimensional microstructures. In this technology, 2-dimensional micro-shape layer is cumulated on the other layers. This layer-by-layer process is the main principle to fabricate 3-dimensioal micro-structures. In this research, a micro-bellows actuator that is vertically moving was developed using the micro-stereolithography technology. When pressure was applied into the bellows, a non-contact actuating motion is generated. For actuation experiment, syringe pump and laser interferometer were used for applying pressure and measuring the displacement. Several hundreds micro-scale actuation was observed. And, to demonstrate the feasibility of proposed actuation principle, in this research, a micro-gripper was developed using half-bellows structure.