Simulation-Based Design of an Electrostatically Driven Micro-Actuator for Fluid Transport in Mobile Applications

The emerging lab-on-chip technology for in-situ medical use and environmental surveillance brought with it the demand for new, micro-scale actuator designs specialized in energy-efficient fluid transport, supporting the development of lightweight and mobile systems. In this work, we present the simulation-based design of a novel, integrated micro-fluidic actuator intended for mobile applications. The design is laid-out to be compatible with standard semiconductor manufacturing processes in order to enable mass-production at low cost per unit. The development of the device is supported and accelerated by a dedicated fully energy-coupled finite element model (FEM). The FE model takes into account the fluid-solid interaction in addition to the electro-mechanical interrelations, therefore reproducing the full device behavior in reaction to electrical input signals. In the end, we discuss several design parameters exhibiting space for improvement compared to the chosen standard values, as identified by the FEM simulations.