Microvalves are important flow-control components in many standalone and integrated microfluidic circuits. Although there is a large body of work regarding microvalves, there is still a need for an easyto-fabricate, small-footprint, low-power device that can control both liquids and gases at moderate pressures. This paper details the development of a piezoelectric microvalve compatible with both liquids and gases with a maximum driving pressure of 1 bar. A novel combination of accessible methods like 3D-printing and lasercutting has been used to realize this device. The device has a flow range of 0 - 90 μL min−1 at 1 bar inlet pressure. When fully closed, a leakage of 0.8% open-flow was measured with a power consumption of 37.5 μW.@en

Microvalves are important flow-control devices in many standalone and integrated microfluidic applications. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based pneumatic microvalves are commonly used but they generally require large peripheral connections that decrease portability. There are many alternatives found in the literature that use Si-based microvalves, but variants that can throttle even moderate pressures (1) tend to be bulky (cm-range) or consume high power. This paper details the development of a low-power, normally-open piezoelectric microvalve to control flows with a maximum driving pressure of 1, but also retain a small effective form-factor of 5x5x1.8. A novel combination of rapid prototyping methods like stereolithography and laser-cutting have been used to realize this device. The maximum displacement of the fabricated piezoelectric microactuator was measured to be 8.5 at 150. The fabricated microvalve has a flow range of 0–90 at 1 inlet pressure. When fully closed, a leakage of 0.8 open-flow was observed with a power-consumption of 37.5. A flow resolution of 0.2— De-ionized (DI) water was measured at 0.5 pressure.@en