Portable Valve-less Peristaltic Micro-pump Design and Fabrication

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel portable valve-less peristaltic micro-pump design using piezoelectric actuators, fabricated with photolithography and PDMS, achieving controlled flow rates suitable for portable applications.

Contribution

It introduces a new valve-less micro-pump design with integrated control system, enhancing portability and flow control precision.

Findings

Flow rate of 365 microliters/min at 24V and 50Hz

Flow speed range from 0.4 to 0.48 mm/s

Successful integration of micro-pump system

Abstract

This paper is to describe a design and fabrication method for a valve-less peristaltic micro-pump. The valve-less peristaltic micro-pump with three membrane chambers in a serial is actuated by three piezoelectric (PZT) actuators. With the fluidic flow design, liquid in the flow channel is pumped to a constant flow speed ranged from 0.4 to 0.48 mm/s. In term of the maximum flow rate of the micro-pump is about 365 mircoliters/min, when the applied voltage is 24V and frequency 50 Hz. Photolithography process was used to fabricate the micro-pump mold. PDMS molding and PDMS bonding method were used to fabricate the micro-channel and actuator chambers. A portable drive controller was designed to control three PZT actuators in a proper sequence to drive the chamber membrane. Then, all parts were integrated into the portable valve-less peristaltic micro-pump system.