Paraffin actuated surface micromachined valves

Author

Carlen, E.T. ; Mastrangelo, C.H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor, MI, USA

fYear

2000

fDate

23-27 Jan 2000

Firstpage

381

Lastpage

385

Abstract

A new, active, normally-open blocking microvalve that uses the thermal expansion of a sealed, thin paraffin patch for actuation has been fabricated and tested. The entire structure is batch-fabricated by surface micromachining the actuator and channel materials on top of a single substrate. The paraffin actuated microvalves are suitable for applications requiring many devices on a single die, low processing temperatures, and simple, nonbonded process technology. Gas flow rates in the 0.1-2.0 sccm range have been measured for several devices with actuation powers less than 50 mW

Keywords

batch processing (industrial); microfluidics; microvalves; thermal expansion; 50 mW; actuation powers; batch-fabrication; channel materials; gas flow rates; low processing temperatures; nonbonded process technology; normally-open blocking microvalve; surface micromachined valves; thermal expansion; thin paraffin patch; Actuators; Bonding; Fabrication; Microactuators; Microfluidics; Microvalves; Temperature; Thermal engineering; Thermal expansion; Valves;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2000. MEMS 2000. The Thirteenth Annual International Conference on

Conference_Location

Miyazaki

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5273-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2000.838547

Filename

838547