Abstract
Various microfluidic architectures designed for in vivo and point-of-care diagnostic applications require larger channels, autonomous actuation, and portability. In this paper, we present a normally closed microvalve design capable of fully autonomous actuation for wide diameter microchannels (tens to hundreds of µm). We fabricated the multilayer plunger-membrane valve architecture using the silicone elastomer, poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and optimized it to reduce the force required to open the valve. A 50-µm Nitinol (NiTi) shape memory alloy wire is incorporated into the device and can operate the valve when actuated with 100-mA current delivered from a 3-V supply. We characterized the valve for its actuation kinetics using an electrochemical assay and tested its reliability at 1.5-s cycle duration for 1 million cycles during which we observed no operational degradation.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Kevin King, Annie Mao, and Scott Sterrett for previous microfluidics work toward safe DC stimulator design. We also acknowledge the funding sources that made this work possible: MedEl Corporate Grant: FK2350 and NIH R01NS092726.
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Cheng, C., Nair, A.R., Thakur, R. et al. Normally closed plunger-membrane microvalve self-actuated electrically using a shape memory alloy wire. Microfluid Nanofluid 22, 29 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-018-2049-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-018-2049-1