We have developed a novel low-cost electrostatically actuated 1x2 fiber switch which basically consists of two active components only, i.e. metalized movable fibers and fixed electrodes. With this set-up, a direct movement and, additionally, a self-alignment of the fibers is performed. In contrary to other MEMS designs no complex moving parts are necessary. It is possible to fabricate the switch with low-cost polymer techniques. Driving voltages below 60V and switching times below 8ms have been demonstrated with these polymer devices.
The optical fiber switch presented utilises electrostatic forces to move one incoming fiber with respect to the two outgoing fibers. Simultaneous application of the actuation voltage to the inlet fiber and the respective outlet fiber will pull both fibers into the same corner of the actuation chamber, where they settle in a perfect optical alignment.
KEYWORDS: Diffusion, Microfluidics, Chemical elements, Chemical analysis, Microsystems, Chemical reactions, Turbulence, Convection, Laser induced fluorescence, Data modeling
The design and calculation of micro mixers is done by conventional analytical and numerical calculations. Due to the small dimensions, laminar flow is expected and the mass transfer is supposed to be dominated by diffusion. A detailed CFD-study by CFDRC-ACE+ of simple static mixers shows a deviation from strictly laminar flow in a wide range of Re numbers and channel dimensions. The static mixers under test have a T-Profile with rectangular cross sections and characteristic dimensions of 50 to 400 μm. The mean flow velocity is varied from 0,01 m/s to 5 m/s, which are typical values for chemical and biological applications, chemical analysis, and microfluidics with acceptable pressure losses.
With increasing flow velocity and increasing Re numbers the flow starts to develop a vortex at the entrance of the mixing channel. With further increasing velocity the flow tends to instabilities, which causes the break up of the flow symmetry. With the onset of the vortex formation and with the occurrence of the flow instabilities the mass transfer is enhanced by the exchange of fluid elements. The laminar diffusion model cannot describe this mixing effect. A simple analytical model for first calculations is proposed.
This paper deals with the formation and breakdown of liquid jets from different nozzle designs with square cross section. The jet formation is quantitatively examined in terms of a scaled viscosity and pressure transient for a convergent nozzle design. The study also shows, that a divergent nozzle outlet should be avoided, because it may cause asymmetric disturbances on the jet. Two different mechanisms of jet breakdown occur in dependence on the nozzle geometry. Curves of the critical Weber number vs. Reynolds number are calculated.
During the last decade rapid prototyping has made a tremendous success in almost every branch of industrial fabrication. Almost every article of today’s life is pre-fabricated in a rapid process during its design. Functional rapid prototypes represent an increasing share, as they allow realistic functional tests of a component in an early stage of development.
MEMS technology is still at the beginning of the rapid prototyping aera. Up to now, only a few conventional techniques, like stereolithography, have been downscaled to create rapid microprototypes with a limited choice of materials and geometries. Rapid prototyping of silicon is completely out of reach today.
In this paper we propose a micro rapid prototyping concept for functional silicon microstructures. The process combines laser technology with standard processes of silicon microstructuring and has been evaluated with a metal-silicon layer system. First, noble metal is vapour deposited on top of a silicon wafer. The metal is subsequently structured with a laser, thus creating a mask, which can be transferred into the silicon by standard chemical etching procedures like KOH-etch. The advantage of this concept is that the time-consuming photomask generation is omitted completely, as the laser can be guided with CAD data. Moreover, the standard structuring process gives the opportunity to gain a microstructure with features equivalent to the final component.
With laser ablation and KOH-etch two process steps are being carried out subsequently, which are inevitably linked to each other. Depending on the energy of the laser irradiation the ablation performance changes and, with it, the minimal structure width and the thermal melting zone at the edges of the mask openings. If the energy density is too high the crystalline structure of the silicon is destroyed by heat transfer and heat conduction. Hereby the anisotropic etch resistance is lost, which influences the following KOH-etch process.
At the current state the process is monitored and optimised for different values of laser energy density. In this progress report the optimisation and the principal feasibility will be shown with simple micromechanic and microfluidic structures.
Among the large number of microfluidic components realized up to now, micropumps clearly represent the case of a 'long runner' in science. A brief literature review reveals, that one of the first scientific papers on a micropump dates from 1978, which is more than two decades ago. An increasing number of publications is found from that time on representing widespread research activities, and there seems to be no change of this trend. An astonishing diversity of micropump concepts and devices has emerged until today, reaching from peristaltic micropumps to a large number of micro diaphragm pumps to recent high-pressure devices without any moving parts. Electrohydrodynamic, electroosmotic, electrostatic, electromagnetic, magnetohydrodynamic, SMA, piezoelectric, thermopneumatic, hydraulic or pneumatic - almost every MEMS-based or mesoscopic actuation principle has been combined with micropumps. An outstanding diversity is also found in the fabrication technology - the span reaches from silicon-based devices over precision machining to injection moulding. This altogether makes it worth to summarize and also take a look into the future of micropumps - after the first two decades.
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