In this paper, the development and characterization of thermopneumatic peristaltic micropumps are presented. Micropumps with three different designs are fabricated using soft lithography techniques.  The equivalent circuit models of a thermopneumatic actuation cell are formulated. The analytical solutions for predicting the device transient behaviors are also derived.  The dynamical responses of the diaphragms are measured using an interferometer, and are in good agreement with the modeled results. Tiny drive circuits, which require only 5V, are implemented for driving the pumps. The dimension of an integrated 3-chamber micropump system, which consists of a pump and a drive circuit, is 16mm×18mm×5.5mm. The optimal operating conditions, such as actuation sequences, operating frequencies, and duty ratios, are obtained.  The maximum flow rate occurs at a driving frequency of 1.5Hz with a duty ratio of 40% using a 3-phase actuation sequence.