Microfluidic valveless pump actuated by electromagnetic force

This paper presents the study on displacement valveless micropump which is actuated by electromagnetic force on a permanent magnet embedded in PDMS diaphragm. The network channel of the present pump includes two inlets and one outlet channels forming an intersection in front of a pump chamber. Two designs of the pump with different structure of the inlet channels are investigated. One structure of the inlet is curved around the pump chamber (type I) and the other is straight channels (type II). Both types of pump are in one layer structure. The numerical simulation results show that type I produces larger flow rate than that of type II. However, at small deflection of the diaphragm, the difference in flow rates between two pumps is not much. Type I shows a clear advance pump performance in comparison with type II when deflection becomes large. Type I has been fabricated by MEMS technology for experiment study. The fundamental characteristics of the pump have been validated. The flow rate of up to 1.2 mL/min was obtained at driven frequency of 30 Hz and applied current of 35 mA.