A coupled-field fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulation of an electrostatically actuated diaphragm valveless micropump (EDVM)

In this study, a novel approach in designing an electrostatically actuated diaphragm valveless micropump (EDVM) based on CMOS-compatible surface micromachining (SMM) fabrication process has been presented. One major advantage of the designed EDVM using SMM process as compared to conventional EDVM fabricated using bulk micromachining process is that the actuation voltage is now applied across the working fluid. The working fluid must be included in the simulations as it will now have a major influence on the response and characteristics of the micropump. In view of that, a coupled-field electro-mechanical-fluidic model of the EDVM has been simulated using MemFSItrade, a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) solver available in CoventorWaretrade software package. Results obtained from the CoventorWaretrade simulations are compared with analytical studies for verification purposes. The designed EDVM with a diaphragm size of 1mm times 1mm times 0.5 mum is able to generate flow rates of up to 10nl/min for a low actuation voltage of 3V.