Bio-MEMS Thermally-Actuated Micro pump

In this paper, the design and simulation of a MEMS thermal actuated micropump is reported.The micropump consists of a microfluic chamber on top of a thermal actuation chamber.Passive microvalves are embedded in the inlet and outlet of the pump to allow one-way flow of the microfluid.The thermal actuation chamber has sealed air inside it.A thermal resistor is embedded in the bottom surface of the actuation chamber.The top surface of actuation chamber is made by flexible thin silicon membrane.When a voltage is applied to the thermal resistor, the generated Joule heat raises the temperature of the sealed air in the actuation chamber.As a result, the air expands and presses the top membrane to bend up.In turn, the microfluid in the top chamber is pumped into the outlet.When the voltage is removed, the sealed air cools down due to thermal dissipation, and the silicon membrane becomes flat.Thus new fluid is sucked into the microfluidic chamber via inlet.The working principle of the micropump is analyzed in detail.Based on the theoretical analysis, a set of optimized design parameters of the micropump are suggested.ANSYS simulation is used to verify the function of the micropump.The proposed micropump can be used for lab-on-a-chip and micro drug delivery applications.