Simulation and Fabrication of Piezoelectrically Actuated Nozzle/Diffuser Micropump

Micropumps are one of the most important parts of a microfluidic system. In particular, for biomedical applications such as Lab-on-Chip systems, micropumps are used to transport and manipulate test fluids in a controlled manner. In this paper, a low-cost, structurally simple, piezoelectrically actuated micropump was simulated and fabricated using poly dimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The channels in PDMS were fabricated using patterned SU-8 structures. The pump flow rate was measured to be 9.49 mu L/min, 14.06 mu L/min and 20.87 mu L/min for applied voltages of 12 V, 14 V and 16 V respectively. Further, we report finite element analysis (FEA) simulation to confirm the operation of the micropump and compare favorably the experimentally obtained flowrate with the one predicted by simulation. By taking these flow rates as a reference, the chamber pressure was found to be 1.1 to 1,5 kPa from FEA simulations.