3D-printed piezoelectric micropump with ball valves

Abstract

Micropumps are essential for providing controlled fluid dynamics in Organ-on-a-Chip (OoC) devices. Additive manufacturing builds up prototypes in several hours with a free-geometry advantage. Therefore, this master's thesis investigates the utilization of additive manufacturing to produce a micropump with a flowrate in the range of several $\mu l/min$ for OoC applications. A ball valve-based piezoelectric micropump was fabricated with a mSLA 3D printer. This micropump generates unidirectional flow through the reciprocating motion of the piezoelectric actuator and the movement of a ball within the conical channel. The virtual mass due to the inertia of the fluid inside the chamber shifts the resonance frequency of the piezoelectric actuator from the 1600 Hz to 43 Hz. The maximum flow rate of $26.5 \mu l/min$ was generated when the applied sinusoidal voltage was 240 Vpp at 5Hz and the maximum back pressure of 36.5 mbar was obtained under this power supply. These results confirm that additive manufacturing provides a promising option for miniature pump manufacturing.