Electromagnetically driven microvalve fabricated in silicon

This paper reports on a microvalve designed for the use with gaseous media and fabricated in silicon. The focus is on the functional part, the membrane plus valve seat. The membrane to switch the valve between open and closed position is designed having a low spring constant. So only little of the available force is needed for deflection and most of it remains for switching against the load (air pressure). This is shown by FEM simulation (ANSYS 5.2, 5.3). Due to the special design of the valve, packaging as a standalone device as well as full integration into a microsystem is possible.