Proportional Microvalve Using a Unimorph Piezoelectric Microactuator

Gunda, A.; Özkayar, Gürhan; Tichem, Marcel; Ghatkesar, Murali Krishna

doi:10.3390/mi11020130

Cited by 16 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Subsequent developments include: testing the platform inside an incubator, testing a lung-on-a-chip protocol with an OoC device, developing low-power temperature control for the OoC chip, miniaturized flow controllers that cover the full range of OoC applications [33][34][35], and a miniaturized switch valve [36]. Eventually, a library of flow control components and a design simulation software that enables users to design and implement their flow control scheme will accelerate the OoC testing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Portable and Integrated Microfluidic Flow Control System Using Off-the-shelf Components Towards Organs-on-chip Applications

Zhu

Özkayar

Lötters

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Organ-on-a-chip (OoC) devices require the precise control of various media. This is mostly done using several fluid control components, which are much larger than the typical OoC device and connected through fluidic tubing, i.e., the fluidic system is not integrated, which inhibits the system’s portability. Here, we explore the limits of fluidic system integration using off-the-shelf fluidic control components. A flow control configuration is proposed that uses a vacuum to generate a fluctuation-free flow and minimizes the number of components used in the system. 3D printing is used to fabricate a custom-designed platform box for mounting the chosen smallest footprint components. It provides flexibility in arranging the various components to create experiment-specific systems. A demonstrator system is realized for lung-on-a-chip experiments. The 3D-printed platform box is 290 mm long, 240 mm wide and 37 mm tall. After integrating all the components, it weighs 4.8 kg. The system comprises of a switch valve, flow and pressure controllers, and a vacuum pump to control the diverse media flows. The system generates liquid flow rates ranging from 1.5 micro-litre per minute to 68 micro-litre per minute in the cell chambers, and a cyclic vacuum of 280 mbar below atmospheric pressure with 0.5 Hz frequency in the side channels to induce mechanical strain on the cells-substrate. The components are modular for easy exchange. The battery operated platform box can be mounted on either upright or inverted microscopes and fits in a standard incubator. Overall, it is shown that a compact integrated and portable fluidic system for OoC experiments can be constructed using off-the-shelf components. For further down-scaling, the fluidic control components, like the pump, switch valves, and flow controllers, require significant miniaturization while having a wide flow rate range with high resolution.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Portable and Integrated Microfluidic Flow Control System Using Off-the-shelf Components Towards Organs-on-chip Applications

Zhu

Özkayar

Lötters

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…In the past few years, there have been many different trials involving microvalves within various projects. In 2020, Gunda et al 17 developed a low power, proportionally controlled piezoelectric microvalve. They were able to achieve a device that could work with as high as 1 bar driving pressure with very little leakage (0.8% of the open flow).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and optimization of piezoelectric actuators for microflap-embedded micropumps

Parsi

Abouzarkhanifard

Zhang

2023

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

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In this paper, we propose a new method to use cost-effective multi-sheet off-the-shelf piezoelectric material (e.g. PZT) as an actuator for micropumps. Instead of one customized single PZT sheet that is typically expensive, multiple commercially available PZT sheets are utilized to decrease the cost of fabrication. For this purpose, we have derived analytic equations for expressing the natural frequency and mode shape of the actuator. The FEM simulations are utilized to verify the analytic equations. Thanks to their high accuracy, we can utilize the derived analytic equations as fitness functions of genetic algorithm (GA) for the optimization purpose of PZT physical aspects. Our experimental measurement results show that the GA is capable of optimizing multiple physical parameters of the piezoelectric actuator. Moreover, one-way compliant microflaps are presented for the first time to act as one-way valves for a PZT micropump aided by our proposed multi-sheet PZT actuator. The flow rate of this configuration is compared with a single-sheet PZT actuator in order to demonstrate the effect of the optimized PZT actuators in the practical applications of micropumps.

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“…It finds extensive applications in Genomics, diagnostics, single cell analysis, micro biology, cell biology, drug discovery, organ-on-a-chip, heavy metal ion detection, purity testing, high throughput genetic screening etc. 1,2,3,4 Microfluidics is a promising and upcoming technology for diagnostics and drug developments. Major advantages of microfluidics are the drastic decrease in chemical reaction time and less consumption of expensive chemical reagents, as well as enhancement of reliability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of different membrane shapes for integrated pneumatically actuated microvalves with PDMS

Ravi¹,

Sujatha²,

P³

2023

Microfluidics, BioMEMS, and Medical Microsystems XXI

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Fabrication of Microfluidic devices have gained popularity in a wide range of application demanding fluid flow control such as Anti-microbial resistance, Integrated blood test systems, drug delivery system, protein separation, DNA extraction, in-vitro diagnostic studies, lab-on-a-chip, organ-on-a-chip, inkjet printers and other industrial sensors. Fluid flow regulation, on/off switching and sealing of fluids can be achieved by incorporating Microvalves. The shape of the microvalve plays a key role in desired actuation of the microvalves. Therefore, a detailed study of various structures of the microvalve is crucial. This work discusses about the stability and reliability of different microvalve shapes. Simulation work gives a comparative study showcasing the displacement of the microvalve thin film polymer layer on account of applied pressure on several shapes of same area. Furthermore, details of stress distribution for the same has been carried out. The analysis focusses on the circular, elliptical and capsule shapes of the microvalve. The comparative study of the simulation results revealed that the maximum stress experienced by the microvalves of circular shape is 1.1 times lower than that of elliptical shape. While, circular shape microvalve shows 1.22 times lower stress when compared to capsule shape. In addition, displacement of the circular shape microvalve is 1.33 and 1.31 times greater than elliptical and capsule shapes for the same area and applied pressure respectively. The study manifests that the circular shape microvalve performance indicate better stable actuation when compared to the rest of the shapes. Microfabrication of the same is carried out using dry film photoresist which is highly cost effective.

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Proportional Microvalve Using a Unimorph Piezoelectric Microactuator

Cited by 16 publications

References 17 publications

Portable and Integrated Microfluidic Flow Control System Using Off-the-shelf Components Towards Organs-on-chip Applications

Portable and Integrated Microfluidic Flow Control System Using Off-the-shelf Components Towards Organs-on-chip Applications

Design and optimization of piezoelectric actuators for microflap-embedded micropumps

Study of different membrane shapes for integrated pneumatically actuated microvalves with PDMS

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