A novel alternating current multiple array electrothermal micropump for lab-on-a-chip applications

Abstract

The AC electrothermal technique is very promising for biofluid micropumping, due to its ability to pump high conductivity fluids. However, compared to electroosmotic micropumps, a lack of high fluid flow is a disadvantage. In this paper, a novel AC multiple array electrothermal (MAET) micropump, utilizing multiple microelectrode arrays placed on the side-walls of the fluidic channel of the micropump, is introduced. Asymmetric coplanar microelectrodes are placed on all sides of the microfluidic channel, and are actuated in different phases: one, two opposing, two adjacent, three, or all sides at the same time. Micropumps with different combinations of side electrodes and cross sections are numerically investigated in this paper. The effect of the governing parameters with respect to thermal, fluidic, and electrical properties are studied and discussed. To verify the simulations, the AC MAET concept was then fabricated and experimentally tested. The resulted fluid flow achieved by the experiments showed good agreement with the corresponding simulations. The number of side electrode arrays and the actuation patterns were also found to greatly influence the micropump performance. This study shows that the new multiple array electrothermal micropump design can be used in a wide range of applications such as drug delivery and lab-on-a-chip, where high flow rate and high precision micropumping devices for high conductivity fluids are needed.

In-plane microvortices micromixer-based AC electrothermal for testing drug induced death of tumor cells

“…Free charges move in the nonuniform electric field, which exerts body force on the fluid to generate ACET flow. 32 When an electric field distribution occurs throughout the fluid region, Joule heating of the fluid can be expressed by the energy balance equation 36,38 …”

“…The cell culture medium was pumped by an ACET asymmetric electrode array, while two types of human cells, embryonic kidney (HEK293T) and colon carcinoma (SW620), grew well in the device for more than 72 h without experiencing Joule heating from ACET flow or electrical damage from the electrodes. This is a conventional asymmetric electrode array where ACET flow moves from the narrow electrode toward the broad one 26,36 ( Fig. 1(a)).…”

Fluid flow study of an AC electrothermal micropump consisting of multiple arrays of microelectrodes for biofluidic applications

“…However, increasing the frequencies to higher values (>10 5 kHz) can affect the electrothermal force 3 . The simulation method was verified by comparing one combination of the aforementioned parameters to the data obtained from our previously fabricated ACET micropumps 1,5,19 . The electrode arrays were fabricated on glass and silicon by photolithography and the fluidic microchannel was made from PDMS.…”

Effects of driving mode on the performance of multiple-chamber piezoelectric pumps with multiple actuators

“…Micropumps are becoming increasingly important for a wide range of applications, such as, pharmaceutical and bio-medical drug delivery systems, serving as micro-fluid flow control appliance for analyzing systems for chemical and biological substances [1][2][3] . Because micropumps have the unique ability to deliver an accurate amount of liquid, many different types of micropumps have been developed using several actuation methods such as, electrostatic, piezoelectric, thermopneumatic, electrochemical, shape memory alloy(SMA), and electromagnetic [4] .…”