Proportional Microvalve Using A Piezoelectric Unimorph Microactuator
Arun Gunda (Student TU Delft)
Gürhan Özkayar (TU Delft - Micro and Nano Engineering)
Marcel Tichem (TU Delft - Micro and Nano Engineering)
Murali Ghatkesar (TU Delft - Micro and Nano Engineering)
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Abstract
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.