Fabrication of a cantilever-based microfluidic flow meter with nL min(-1) resolution
Publication: Research - peer-review › Journal article – Annual report year: 2011
A microfluidic flow meter based on cantilever deflection is developed, showing a resolution down to 3 nL min(-1) for flows in the microliter range. The cantilevers are fabricated in SU-8 and have integrated holes with dimensions from 5 x 5 to20x 20 mu m(2). The holes make it possible to measure in a liquid environment. With a lithography optimization, holes as small as 3 x 3 mu m(2) can be opened. Further on, an isotropic Si etch step is inserted into the fabrication sequence to ensure a high release yield of the devices (percentage of usable/not broken chips compared to the amount of released chips). With this etch the cantilever structures are under-etched before they are released by tweezers and the release yield is enhanced from 41.5% to 84.0%. In a continuous flow mode, the deflection of the cantilevers is directly proportional to the flow rate. By tuning the design of the integrated grid (hole size, hole-to-hole distance, amount of holes, etc) the sensitivity of the sensor can be changed.
| Original language | English |
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| Journal | Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering |
| Publication date | 2011 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Journal number | 1 |
| Pages | 015007 |
| ISSN | 0960-1317 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published |
| Citations | Web of Science® Times Cited: 1 |
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Keywords
- Sensors (chemical, optical, electrical, movement, gas, etc.); remote sensing, Fluidics, Instrumentation and measurement methoin fluid dynamicsds
ID: 5723728