A peristaltic micropump using traveling waves of polymer membranes driven by a single actuator

Abstract

We demonstrate a peristaltic micropump that utilizes traveling waves of polymer membranes to transport liquids. This micropump does not require any valves and more importantly, the traveling waves can be generated by a single actuator. The micropump contains hydraulic displacement amplification mechanism (HDAM) that encapsulates incompressible glycerin in a micro chamber that has different cross-sectional area at the top and the bottom to amplify the amplitude of the traveling waves. The manufactured micropump achieved a flow rate of 1.3 ml/min, which was by far more efficient than a micropump without HDAM.