Design and fabrication of light driven micropump

A laser-light-driven micromechanical pump for fluids has been designed and fabricated. The fabrication process consists of photolithography and anisotropic wet etching. The pump consists of an array of microcells with membranes that are actuated by a light-heated working fluid. These cells are covered by a thin glass plate with an 18-μm gap that makes a flow channel. Actuation light input of approximately 11 mW per cell is required for operation. An operation frequency of 3 Hz is expected on the basis of the basic experiments made. Typical fluid pumping displacements are approximately 30 nl per cycle. It is noted that since this device operates in a reasonably low temperature range, there is no evidence of thermal influence being given to the human body