3-D printed miniaturized diaphragm vacuum pump

This paper reports the first demonstration of a fully additively manufactured, miniature diaphragm vacuum pump. Using polyjet 3-D printing technology with 42 μm XY pixelation and 25 μm layer height, a single-stage vacuum pump design with active valves that has a total pumping volume of 1 cm
³
with 5% dead volume was implemented. While operating at 3.27 Hz, the devices consistently pumped down from atmospheric pressure to 330 Torr in under 50 seconds (8.7 cm
³
/min effective flow rate, which is >300X the highest reported flow rate from a diaphragm vacuum pump manufactured with standard microfabrication). Finite element simulations of the pump design estimate at 100 kPa the maximum stress on the piston diaphragm root at full actuation, and at 42 Hz the natural frequency of the compression chamber. Compression chamber diaphragms exhibited lifetimes approaching 20,000 cycles, while the valves membranes have not leaked after over 1,000,000 cycles.