A Novel Thermo-pneumatic Peristaltic Micropump with Low Temperature
Elevation on Working Fluid

Ting-Ting Chia, Hsin-Hung Liao, Yao-Joe Yang

      This work presents a novel thermo-pneumatic peristaltic micropump with low temperature elevation on working fluid.  The proposed device, which consists of two separate zones for air-heating and fluidsqueezing, is realized by using micromachining techniques.  Also, the device can be operated by using a small and simple actuation circuitry with low applied voltages.  Under similar operational conditions, the proposed micropump shows similar fluid-pumping performance when compared with the conventional design of thermo-pneumatic micropumps.  However, for the proposed design, the temperature elevation on the fluid-pumping area is as small as about 2.0 K, which is less than 8% of that generated by the conventional design.  Furthermore, by applying higher voltages, larger flow rate can be achieved with relatively small increase in temperature elevation.  Due to low temperature elevation on working fluid, the proposed device is suitable for the applications such as DNA chips or protein chips.  In addition, because of its small size and simple actuation scheme, potentially the proposed device can be integrated
into the devices for point-of-care applications.

 

Publication:
Bonnie T. Chia, H.-H. Liao and Y.-J. Yang, “A Novel Thermo-pneumatic Micropump with Low Temperature Elevation,” in Proc. 15th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors and Actuators (Transducers' 09), Denver, Colorado, U.S.A., June, 2009.

Bonnie Tingting Chia, H.-H. Liao, Y.-J. Yang*, “A Novel Thermo-pneumatic Peristaltic Micropump with Low Temperature Elevation on Working Fluid,” Accepted by Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, Paper No: SNA-D-09-00584 (2010).