Abstract
A novel method is presented for triggering a robust capillary stop valve fabricated in silicon using the thermal expansion of trapped air bubble (with a footprint of just 300 μm × 320 μm) as the actuation element. A heating element on the backside of a bubble trap chamber is utilized for thermal expansion of the air bubble. A voltage pulse of around 6 V, the capillary barrier, around 1400 Pa was easily breached. A non-dimensionalized model has been developed using equivalent circuit model to describe the complex thermal/hydraulic behavior of the system. The trapped gas bubble temperature is input as a function of time in the model. A thermal finite element-based simulation is conducted to determine the gas temperature from the experimentally measured heater temperature. The model results are validated against experiments to aid in characterizing the dynamics of the problem.
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