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A stack bonded thermo-pneumatic micro-pump utilizing polyimide based actuator membrane for biomedical applications

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Abstract

This paper presents a simple and low-cost fabrication method of thermo pneumatic micropump with very thin polyimide (Pi) membrane. The measurement and functional testing of the whole micropump system is investigated as well. The thermo-pneumatic micropump consists of three main components, such as micro heater, thin film membrane with thermal cavity and planar valve with diffuser nozzle. Three different processes were used to fabricate the micropump due to different material used in each component. The thin polyimide membrane acts as an actuator and actuated by thermal expansion volume in thermal chamber. The diameter and the thickness of the actuator diaphragm are 2 mm2 and 3.5 µm, respectively. The meniscus motion in the outlet tube is observed with a microscope image video and the flow rate of the micropump is calculated through the frame analysis of the recorded video data. The flow rate range of the micropump is about 770 pL to 12.5 nL at approximately 33.5–63.5 °C, when the input voltage of 2–12 V applied to the micro heater. This flow rate range is suitable to be used with artificial kidney function, nano pipet and other biomedical application.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Higher Education and Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka for sponsoring this study. This research was supported by MEMS group research from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia under the project NND/ND/(1)/TD11-002.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100, Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia

    Norihan Abdul Hamid, A. R. Syafeeza & Yan Chiew Wong

  2. Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

    Burhanuddin Yeop Majlis & Jumril Yunas

  3. Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100, Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia

    Mazree Ibrahim

Authors
  1. Norihan Abdul Hamid
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  2. Burhanuddin Yeop Majlis
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  3. Jumril Yunas
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  4. A. R. Syafeeza
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  5. Yan Chiew Wong
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  6. Mazree Ibrahim
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Correspondence to Norihan Abdul Hamid.

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Hamid, N.A., Majlis, B.Y., Yunas, J. et al. A stack bonded thermo-pneumatic micro-pump utilizing polyimide based actuator membrane for biomedical applications. Microsyst Technol 23, 4037–4043 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-016-2951-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-016-2951-y

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