Comparing Piezoelectric and Electroosmotic Micropumps for Biomedical Devices

A micropump is an essential component of a microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device, especially for their biomedical applications. Based on their actuation method to drive the fluid flow, pumps may be categorized as mechanical or non-mechanical devices. In our proposed paper, we will report our comparative study of the most promising micropumps in each of these categories: a piezoelectrically-actuated micropump (PAμP) and an electroosmotic micropump (EOμP). A PAμP requires relatively high applied voltage, but provides high flow rates and has emerged to be the dominant type of micropump in biomedical applications. A valveless diffuser-nozzle micropump, driven by an oscillating membrane, has an important advantage, since the fabrication of any additional moving part, such as a check valve, would add significantly to its cost and render a more failure-prone device. The piezoelectrically actuated, valveless micropumps use moving mechanical parts to pump fluid and control the flow with optimized actuation frequency and applied voltage. In the present study, the microflow-structure interaction in the PAμP is modeled using an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method including a parametric study of applied voltage and frequency. An EOμP consists of multiple micron-scale channels in parallel that are subjected to the electroosmotic effect. However, a major drawback in the conventional design of an EOμP is the need for a high driving voltage to increase the flow rate or to overcome the back pressure. In the present study, a low-voltage EOμP is proposed and computationally modeled. Our simulations are performed in order to study the low-voltage EOμP for its various flow rate and back pressure characteristics. In the proposed paper, we will discuss our comparisons of PAμP and EOμP, with respect to their actuation mechanisms, applied voltages, pump sizes, flow rates and back pressures.