Development of PZT Actuated Valveless Micropump

Abstract

A piezoelectrically actuated valveless micropump has been designed and developed. The principle components of this system are piezoelectrically actuated (PZT) metal diaphragms and a complete fluid flow system. The design of this pump mainly focuses on a cross junction, which is generated by a nozzle jet attached to a pump chamber and the intersection of two inlet channels and an outlet channel respectively. During each PZT diaphragm vibration cycle, the junction connecting the inlet and outlet channels with the nozzle jet permits consistencies in fluidic momentum and resistances in order to facilitate complete fluidic path throughout the system, in the absence of any physical valves. The entire micropump structure is fabricated as a plate-by-plate element of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) sheets and sandwiched to get required fluidic network as well as the overall device. In order to identify the flow characteristics, and to validate the test results with numerical simulation data, FEM analysis using ANSYS was carried out and an eigenfrequency analysis was performed to the PZT diaphragm using COMSOL Multiphysics. In addition, the control system of the pump was designed and developed to change the applied frequency to the piezoelectric diaphragms. The experimental data revealed that the maximum flow rate is 31.15 mL/min at a frequency of 100 Hz. Our proposed design is not only for a specific application but also useful in a wide range of biomedical applications.

Research on Inlet and Outlet Structure Optimization to Improve the Performance of Piezoelectric Pump

“…The researchers designed some valveless piezoelectric pumps to eliminate the detrimental effect of check valves on piezoelectric pumps, thus improving the performance of the piezoelectric pump. In 2018, Munas et al [ 19 ] designed a valveless piezoelectric pump with a cross junction. The cross junction is generated by a nozzle jet attached to a pump chamber and the intersection of two inlet channels and an outlet channel, respectively.…”

A Novel PZT Pump with Built-in Compliant Structures

“…There are many types of visible valves—such as ball valves, bridge valves, membrane valves, cantilever valves, and wheel valves—which have appeared in the valved PZT pumps [40]. The invisible valves include nozzle/diffuse tubes [41,42], spiral flow tubes by Coriolis force [43], special flow tubes by Coanda effect [44], flow tubes by centrifugal force [45], Tesla flow tubes [46,47], Y-shaped tubes [48,49], block components arranged on the flow channel or on the pump chamber like triangular prisms [50], and asymmetry-slope blocks [51], etc. However, PZT pumps with a valve might be easily fatigued and damaged, have relatively high structural complexity, and can generally obtain higher flow rate and back pressure than valveless PZT pump.…”

Performance Analysis of a Microfluidic Pump Based on Combined Actuation of the Piezoelectric Effect and Liquid Crystal Backflow Effect

“…The commonly used microfluidic non-mechanical actuation methods mainly include electroosmotic [15,16,17], magnetic [18,19], optical [20,21,22], thermal [23,24], and piezoelectric [25,26,27]. As a common microfluidic driving method, piezoelectric actuation has been widely used due to its low cost, easy operation, and high efficiency [28,29].…”

“…Kasai et al constructed a high-speed-on-chip micropump that could sort cells with synchronized actuation of a piezo-driven dual membrane pump [25]. Munas et al presented a sandwiched micropump with a PZT actuating on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) sheets [26]. The finite element method (FEM) analysis and experiment were carried out.…”