Fabrication and drive test of piezoelectric PDMS valveless micro pump

Abstract

Poly‐dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) valveless micropumps with single chambers and double chambers, based on a reciprocation principle, are fabricated in this work. A drive test of a piezoelectric valveless PDMS micro pump is conducted and the influence on the flow behavior of water is investigated. Applied voltage and frequency are major factors that affect the flow rate of the micropump. The flow rate of the micropump increases with applied voltage due to the increase of piezoelectric‐disk deflection. The flow rate of the micropump is found to be when the applied voltage frequency matches the first range of the resonant frequency of the PDMS micropump filled with water at 15 to 25 Hz. The maximum flow rate and the backpressure of the micropump are about 10.51 ml/min and 274.5 Pa when applying 120 Volts at 15 Hz. The maximum flow rate of the double chamber micropump at 120 Volts and 15 Hz is 2.74 ml/min which is less than the single chamber pump. When pumping at the second range of the resonant frequency of 860–1230 Hz, the flow rate of the micropump approaches zero because a lot of air bubbles are sucked into the chamber and interfere the flow of water. Experimental measurements of generation of bubbles at a wide span of frequencies that have not previously appeared in the literature are presented and discussed.