Development and characterization of MEMS membranes based on thin-film PZT actuators for microfluidic applications

Vibrating microsystems can offer a contactless and label-free manipulation of liquids. It has a large interest for a wide field of applications, especially in microfluidics and biological assays. One of the key points of these systems is the control of the vibrating behavior of the microsystem in liquid media. This paper presents the development of a microfluidic system based on a Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) to stimulate a liquid environment. It reports on the fabrication, characterization and modeling of thin-film piezoelectric driven vibrating circular membranes for actuation in liquid media. The vibrating behavior of the system is studied through the analysis of the initial deformation of the membrane and its dynamic electromechanical deformation. In parallel, a 2D axisymmetric Finite Element Method (FEM) model is developed and simulated results are compared to experimental measurements of resonant frequencies.