Design and Fabrication of a PDMS/Parylene Microvalve for the Treatment of Hydrocephalus

Author

Oh, Jonghyun ; Kim, Gyuman ; Kralick, Francis ; Noh, Hongseok

Author_Institution

Mech. Eng. & Mech. Dept., Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA, USA

Volume

20

Issue

4

fYear

2011

Firstpage

811

Lastpage

818

Abstract

We present a novel microvalve for the treatment of a pathological condition, i.e., hydrocephalus. This microvalve is made of polydimethylsiloxane/Parylene composite layer which has a 3-D dome petal shape. This geometry enables the microvalve to rectify fluid flow in the forward and backward directions. New microfabrication techniques such as dome-shaped SU-8 mold fabrication and excimer laser machining for valve opening have been investigated to build the proposed microvalve. The pressure drop versus flow rate characteristics of the fabricated microvalve was investigated through in vitro flow tests. The flow test results showed that a 10 × 10 microvalve array with a cross-cut opening shape (200 × 60 μm) was found to be optimal for the treatment of hydrocephalus.

Keywords

bioMEMS; biomedical equipment; microfabrication; microvalves; patient treatment; polymers; 3D dome petal shape; PDMS-parylene microvalve; dome-shaped SU-8 mold fabrication; excimer laser machining; flow rate characteristics; fluid flow; hydrocephalus treatment; in-vitro flow tests; microfabrication; microvalve array; pathological condition; polydimethylsiloxane-parylene composite layer; Arrays; Fabrication; Geometry; Microvalves; Shape; Synthetic aperture sonar; Excimer laser machining; Parylene; hydrocephalus; implantable microdevice; microvalve; polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JMEMS.2011.2148158

Filename

5776634