Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) Design

The explosion of microtechnology has now reached the point where new designs for micro-scale pumping analysis is possible, but there are many questions that must be explored before the field can be considered "mature."  Our particular interest is in developing design strategies for MEMS devices and systems, allowing us to answer questions like "how should a pump be fabricated to deliver X amount of fluid to a given location at a given rate with the least power required?"  Fundamental design issues are in a sense scale-independent - we want to get the most for the least - but microsystems involve power limitations, heat removal, and surface interactions in ways that are rarely significant on the large scale of chemical production plants.

Our current work focuses on two areas:  micropump design and integration of microsystem components.  Any microsystem that involves fluids must move the fluids from place to place, necessitating a pump.  There are a wide range of micropump fabrication strategies, including electroosmotic pumps, passive-valve diaphragm pumps, and flexural-wave acoustic pumps.  In collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), we are working on the design of a high-speed, small-chamber-volume peristaltic pump (click here or on the thumbnail below to see a design for a typical pump).  The upper surface of the pump is polysilicon and is electrically grounded.  When the actuation pads on the bottom of the pump are charged in series, a peristaltic wave is created in the pump, driving fluid from the inlet to the outlet.


 

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