A thermopneumatically actuated microvalve for liquid expansion and proportional control

Author

Henning, Albert K. ; Fitch, John ; Hopkins, Dean ; Lilly, Les ; Faeth, Rick ; Falsken, Ed ; Zdeblick, Mark

Author_Institution

Redwood Microsyst. Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA

Volume

2

fYear

1997

fDate

16-19 Jun 1997

Firstpage

825

Abstract

The analysis, design, fabrication, and testing of a thermopneumatic expansion valve to control single-phase and two-phase flow of liquids is described. The valve is normally open, and shuts off flow with low power consumption, below 0.5 watt, reducing the power consumption of earlier thermopneumatic designs by a factor of ten. The device has been applied as an expansion valve to the problem of proportional control of refrigerants. Differential pressures of 140 psid (~1 MPa) are sustained across the valve. Flow rates up to 10 gm/sec for the refrigerant R-134a have been demonstrated

Keywords

flow control; fluidic devices; microactuators; pneumatic control equipment; proportional control; refrigeration; semiconductor device testing; valves; 0.5 W; 1 MPa; R-134a; Si; Si membrane layer; anodic bonding; design; differential pressures; expansion valve; fabrication; flow rates; liquid expansion; low power consumption; micro-fluidics; proportional control; refrigerants; single-phase flow control; testing; thermopneumatically actuated microvalve; two-phase flow control; Biomembranes; Energy consumption; Fluid flow; Fluid flow control; Heat transfer; Liquids; Microvalves; Proportional control; Refrigerants; Valves;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid State Sensors and Actuators, 1997. TRANSDUCERS '97 Chicago., 1997 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Chicago, IL

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3829-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SENSOR.1997.635228

Filename

635228