Study on an alternating current electrothermal micropump for microneedle-based fluid delivery systems

In this paper, we report on a modeling study of an AC electrothermal (ACET) micropump with high operating pressures as well as fast flow rates. One specific application area is for fluid delivery using microneedle arrays which require higher pressures and faster flow rates than have been previously reported with ACET devices. ACET is very suitable for accurate actuation and control of fluid flow, since the technique has been shown to be very effective in high conductivity fluids and has the ability to create a pulsation free flow. However, AC electrokinetic pumps usually can only generate low operating pressures of 1 to 100 Pa, where flow reversal is likely to occur with an external load. In order to realize a high performance ACET micropump for continuous fluid delivery, applying relatively high AC operating voltages (20 to 36 V-rms) to silicon substrate ACET actuators and using long serpentine channel allows the boosting of operating pressure as well as increasing the flow rates. Fast pumping flow rates (10(2)-10(3) nl/s) and high operating pressures (1-12 kPa) can be achieved by applying both methods, making them of significant importance for continuous fluid delivery applications using microneedle arrays and other such biomedical devices. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.