Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Roxhed, N
• Rydholm, S
• Samel, B
• van der Wijngaart, W
• Griss, P
• Stemme, G

Titel

A compact, low-cost microliter-range liquid dispenser based on expandable microspheres

Ist Teil von

• Journal of micromechanics and microengineering, 2006-12, Vol.16 (12), p.2740-2746

Ort / Verlag

Bristol: IOP Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

2006

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This work presents a new low-cost liquid dispenser for the dispensing of microliters to milliliter volumes. The dispensing mechanism is based on a thermal actuator where highly expandable microspheres expand into a liquid reservoir consequently displacing any stored liquid. All device components are made out of low-cost materials and the fabrication process has the potential for high volume batch manufacturing. The device utilizes the property of the expandable microspheres to form a heat insulating layer between the heat source and the delivered liquid. Moreover, it does not require any feed back or complicated flow metering. The device was successfully tested showing a mean dispensed volume of 101 mul with a standard deviation of 3.2% and with a maximum temperature of 59 deg C in the liquid during actuation. It was shown that the dispenser is strong enough to deliver against counter pressures as high as 75 kPa. The device can also function as a low flow rate dispenser as demonstrated in a microfluidic dye laser application. The flow rate can be controlled between 1 mul h-1 and 2400 mul h-1 by adjusting the actuation power.