Abstract
This paper introduces the synchronous micromotor concept and presents new investigations on its application as an integrated driving mechanism in microfluidic systems. A spiral channel viscous micropump and a microstirrer are considered and tested as examples to verify the concept. The fabrication technology of such integrated systems is based on UV depth lithography, electroplating and soft lithography. The synchronous micromotor consists of a stator including double layer coils, and a rotor disk containing alternate permanent magnets. The coils are distributed evenly around the stator and arranged in three phases. The phases are excited by sinusoidal currents with a corresponding phase shift resulting in a rotating magnetic field. Regarding the spiral channel viscous micropump, a spiral disk was fixed onto the rotor disk and run at different rotational speeds. Tests showed very promising results, with a flow rate up to 1023 µL·min−1 at a motor rotational speed of 4500 rpm. Furthermore, for the application of a microstirred-tank bioreactor, the rotor disk design was modified to work as a stirrer. The performance of the developed microbioreactor was tested over a time period of approximately 10 h under constant stirring. Tests demonstrated the successful cultivation of S. cerevisiae through the integration of the microstirrer in a microbioreactor system. These systems prove that synchronous micromotors are well suited to serve as integrated driving mechanisms of active microfluidic components.
Highlights
For marketing purposes, new technical products should demonstrate extensive functionality, high reliability, low power consumption, and portability wherever applicable
This work provides a brief review on selected examples of externally driven microfluidic systems, and reports on the synchronous micromotor concept and fabrication
It reviews recently published micropumping concepts driven by the synchronous micromotors and describes new biotechnological application of synchronous micromotor as a microstirrer for microbioreactor providing continuous homogenization of biomass suspension
Summary
New technical products should demonstrate extensive functionality, high reliability, low power consumption, and portability wherever applicable. This approach can be used to miniaturize mechatronics products; thereby, it provides additional potential for the creation of high-quality products The latter approach has caused the rapid development of micromechatronics technology, which integrates signal processing with miniaturized sensors and actuators. The integration of the driving mechanism on the same chip offers considerable reduction of the overall chip size and its packaging complexity Due to their unique performance as integrated driving mechanisms of active components and systems, magnetic microactuators such as synchronous micromotors promise novel applications in active microfluidic devices such as micropumps, microvalves and micromixer. This work provides a brief review on selected examples of externally driven microfluidic systems, and reports on the synchronous micromotor concept and fabrication It reviews recently published micropumping concepts driven by the synchronous micromotors and describes new biotechnological application of synchronous micromotor as a microstirrer for microbioreactor providing continuous homogenization of biomass suspension. It presents the successful testing of a spiral channel micropump
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