Safety valve in PCB-MEMS technology for limiting pressure in microfluidic applications

Author

Perdigones, Francisco ; Moreno, José M. ; Luque, Antonio ; Aracil, Carmen ; Quero, José M.

Author_Institution

Dept. Electron. Eng., Univ. of Seville, Seville, Spain

fYear

2010

fDate

14-17 March 2010

Firstpage

1558

Lastpage

1561

Abstract

A safety valve that prevents liquid from flowing through a fluidic circuit when its pressure is larger than a certain threshold is presented in this paper. The valve has been designed to be integrable in PCB fluidic systems, and its parameters can be modified easily to adapt the threshold pressure. Fabrication process uses PCB as the substrate, and the copper present as a sacrificial layer. Structural part is made of negative photoresist SU-8, which is deposited on top of copper and is released to form a suspended beam when copper is etched away. The experimental characterization of the valve is presented, showing its correct operation.

Keywords

microfluidics; photoresists; printed circuits; safety; valves; PCB fluidic systems; PCB-MEMS technology; fluidic circuit; microfluidic applications; negative photoresist; safety valve; Bridge circuits; Copper; Costs; Fabrication; Microfluidics; Orifices; Protection; Pumps; Safety; Valves;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Industrial Technology (ICIT), 2010 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Vi a del Mar

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5695-6

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-5696-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICIT.2010.5472462

Filename

5472462