Valveless impedance micropump with integrated magnetic diaphragm

Abstract

This study presents a planar valveless impedance-based micropump for biomedical applications comprising a lower glass substrate patterned with a copper micro-coil, a microchannel, an upper glass cover plate, and a PDMS diaphragm with an electroplated magnet on its upper surface. When a current is passed through the micro-coil, an electromagnetic force is established between the coil and the magnet. The resulting deflection of the PDMS diaphragm creates an acoustic impedance mismatch within the microchannel, which in turn produces a net flow. The performance of the micropump is characterized experimentally. The experimental results show that a maximum diaphragm deflection of 30 μm is obtained when the micro-coil is supplied with an input current of 0.5 A. The corresponding flow rate is found to be 1.5 μl/sec when the PDMS membrane is driven by an actuating frequency of 240 Hz.