Integrated peristaltic 18-stage electrostatic gas micro pump with active microvalves

Abstract

We report the design, fabrication, and testing of a fully integrated peristaltic 18-stage electrostatic gas micro pump with active microvalves. It consists of nine 2-stage pump units and 19 microvalves that are serially-connected and individually-controlled. It utilizes a number of techniques to achieve high-pressure and high flow-rate performance: 1) multi-stage (18-stage) configuration to distribute the total pressure across individual stages thus allowing each stage to operate at low pressure to accommodate the weak forces available in the micro scale; 2) a fluidic resonance-based operation to achieve high mass flow rate despite the small volume displacement of an individual membrane; 3) active timing control of microvalves to regulate pump operation for either high flow or high pressure; and 4) several new designs, such as checkerboard microvalves, dual-electrodes, and dual-chambers to achieve efficient electrostatic pumping. The fabricated 18-statge pump produced the highest air flow rate of ~4.0 sccm and maximum pressure difference of ~17.5 kPa with a total power of only ~57 mW. It has a total package volume of 25.1 × 19.1 × 1 mm3.