The influence of the pump chamber geometry on the characteristics of the micropump operated by surface tension

This paper presents the influence of the geometry on the performance of the micropump operated by thermopneumatic pressure and surface tension. The micropump is made of PDMS without any moving part. This micropump injects a desired amount of liquid by means of the bubble expanded by electric heating, fills the chamber using negative pressure and controls liquid using surface tension. For various shapes of the pump chamber we compare the micropump characteristics such as the discharge volume, the discharge time, the backward flow loss, etc. we draw an efficient geometry from the test results. The efficient micropump discharges 126.2 nL for 5 seconds and its discharge volume deviation is 2.2 nL.