Fabrication and Performance Testing of Disposable Micropump Suitable for Microfluidic Chip

Micropumps represent one of the major components in microfluidic technology. This paper describes the design, fabrication and performance testing of a simple, compact, inexpensive and disposable micropump suitable for microfluidic chip applications. The proposed pump is made of polymeric materials, PMMA and PVC, and fabricated using a direct-write CO₂ laser machine. The size of pump body is 5 mm and it contains a 4.5 mm microfan which is driven by a DC motor. Flow-rate and pressure-head against microfan rotation speeds were measured in a 50 mm length of microchannel with a channel cross-section of 500 mum times 1000 mum. Promising results indicate that flow-rate and pressure-head are proportional to microfan rotation speeds and the maximum flow-rate is 15 ml/min. This prototype can be used as a platform to develop an inexpensive micropump which is suitable to be part of a disposable microfluidic chip.