Fabrication and Testing of PDMS Micropump Actuated by Piezoelectric Polymer Composite

Abstract

Appropriate technological solutions to healthcare can cause huge impact on medical processes and practices leading to sustainable future. Prevalence of diabetes and other chronic diseases has been steadily increasing for which self-attention and healthcare procedure is a logical solution. This paper proposes a piezoelectric polymer composite based micropump that is biocompatible and inexpensive. Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) powder is dispersed in polyvinyledene difluoride (PVDF) to form a novel PZT/PVDF composite material. The PZT/PVDF composite material is sonicated, cast, and cured to form a film which is used as the actuator. The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based micropump is designed and fabricated using soft lithography technique. Once the master mold is prepared in clean room, other fabrication steps can be accomplished in a normal environment and multiple PDMS replicas can be prepared with ease. The proposed processing and fabrication steps are simple and inexpensive leading to substantial reduction in the device cost. The piezoelectric polymer based valveless micropump thus fabricated is subjected to performance testing. The micropump is found to deliver fluid in small quantities in a controlled manner and sufficient back pressure and flow rate can be achieved at low applied voltage and frequency.