Skin-like micropumps transform human motion into fluidic flow via morphing valves

Soft, skin-conformal fluidic systems are essential for wearable healthcare; however, micropumps that rely on rigid external hardware for actuation have limited portability and on-body integration. Here, we introduce OSMiPump, a power-free, strain-driven micropump that directly converts natural human motion into unidirectional fluid transport using a soft, monolithic architecture. OSMiPump integrates out-of-surface microchannels (OSMiCs) with self-actuated valves (OSMiValves), where cyclic tensile strain induces volume reduction and valve snap-through/snap-back, producing reliable directionality over repeated strain cycles. Computational fluid-structure interaction modeling and nonlinear shell deformation analysis validate the operating mechanism. Experimentally, OSMiPump exhibits predictable performance across valve geometries, strain levels and profiles, fluid viscosities, and inlet/outlet resistance configurations. At 20% strain, it achieves average flow rates up to ~0.16 µL/s under low-resistance conditions and maintains ~0.02 µL/s under high-resistance conditions, reaching peak pressures of ~11 kPa and sustaining an average pressure of ~0.6 kPa, with consistent operation over 100 cycles. The self-morphing architecture further enables tunable pumping behavior, including adjustable strain thresholds and response dynamics. Wearable demonstrations show direct actuation by body motion and enable both on-body delivery and removal for applications such as wound care and drug administration during physical rehabilitation, exercise, or daily activities. Integration into silicone socks and skin-mounted Tegaderm films illustrates the versatility of the platform. Together, these results establish OSMiPump as a soft, monolithic, and skin-conformal micropump for next-generation wearable biomedical systems.

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Publication Details

Journal
Microsystems & Nanoengineering
Published
2026-05-11
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-026-01286-1
Primary Topic
Micro and Nano Robotics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Skin-like micropumps transform human motion into fluidic flow via morphing valves

Rana Altay, Andrea Pader, Kari Olson, I. Emre Araci et al.
Microsystems & Nanoengineering
Micro and Nano Robotics
article

Skin-like micropumps transform human motion into fluidic flow via morphing valves

Rana Altay, Andrea Pader, Kari Olson, I. Emre Araci, Johanna Brown
article en

Abstract

Soft, skin-conformal fluidic systems are essential for wearable healthcare; however, micropumps that rely on rigid external hardware for actuation have limited portability and on-body integration. Here, we introduce OSMiPump, a power-free, strain-driven micropump that directly converts natural human motion into unidirectional fluid transport using a soft, monolithic architecture. OSMiPump integrates out-of-surface microchannels (OSMiCs) with self-actuated valves (OSMiValves), where cyclic tensile strain induces volume reduction and valve snap-through/snap-back, producing reliable directionality over repeated strain cycles. Computational fluid-structure interaction modeling and nonlinear shell deformation analysis validate the operating mechanism. Experimentally, OSMiPump exhibits predictable performance across valve geometries, strain levels and profiles, fluid viscosities, and inlet/outlet resistance configurations. At 20% strain, it achieves average flow rates up to ~0.16 µL/s under low-resistance conditions and maintains ~0.02 µL/s under high-resistance conditions, reaching peak pressures of ~11 kPa and sustaining an average pressure of ~0.6 kPa, with consistent operation over 100 cycles. The self-morphing architecture further enables tunable pumping behavior, including adjustable strain thresholds and response dynamics. Wearable demonstrations show direct actuation by body motion and enable both on-body delivery and removal for applications such as wound care and drug administration during physical rehabilitation, exercise, or daily activities. Integration into silicone socks and skin-mounted Tegaderm films illustrates the versatility of the platform. Together, these results establish OSMiPump as a soft, monolithic, and skin-conformal micropump for next-generation wearable biomedical systems.

Microsystems & NanoengineeringVol. 12(1)
Santa Clara University (US)
National Science Foundation
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Micro and Nano Robotics
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