Principle and structure of a printed circuit board process–based piezoelectric microfluidic pump integrated into printed circuit board

Abstract

Considering mature printed circuit board processes, researches on microfluidic pumps that can be integrated into printed circuit board will provide a solution for further miniaturization and integration of microfluidic systems with low costs. The principle and structure of a printed circuit board process–based piezoelectric microfluidic pump integrated into printed circuit board are proposed and realized in this article. The printed circuit board process–based design and manufacturing technology of a piezoelectric microfluidic pump integrated into printed circuit board is researched utilizing printed circuit board as a platform. The flow characteristics of the fabricated microfluidic pump are experimentally tested. The research results show that the proposed principle and structure of the piezoelectric microfluidic pump can be fabricated utilizing mature printed circuit board process with advantages of simple structure and convenient processing. The fabricated printed circuit board process–based microfluidic pump can linearly pump in and pump out fluid with self-injection. Moreover, the flow rate and back pressure can be controlled by changing the peak-to-peak value, frequency, and phase difference of the driving voltages. The instantaneous flow rate has the pulsation property consistent with the drive voltage frequency. The proposed principle and structure are beneficial to integrate the fabricated printed circuit board process–based microfluidic pump with other microfluidic components to realize complicated microfluidic systems on printed circuit board.