Topologically optimized electrodes for electroosmotic actuation

Electroosmotic pumps with electrochemically active electrodes

MEMS design with separated electrodes for actuation and RF..

This paper presents the work realized on a new RF MEMS design for micro-switch application. This design relies on the separation between the commutation and actuation electrodes for improving the switch lifetime. The design can reduce electrical charging effects during the actuation by preventing a direct contact with the actuation electrode. The proposed structure is optimized by addressing ke...

AC electroosmotic pump with bubble-free palladium electrodes and rectifying polymer membrane valves.

We present the design, test and theoretical analysis of a novel micropump. The purpose is to make a pump with large flow rate (approximately 10 microL min-1) and high pressure capacity (approximately 1 bar) powered by a low voltage DeltaV<30 V. The pump is operated in AC mode with an electroosmotic actuator in connection with a full wave rectifying valve system. Individual valves are based on a...

An Oscillation-Based Technique for Degradation Monitoring of Sensing and Actuation Electrodes Within Microfluidic Systems

There is significant interest in the use of electrodes for sensing or actuation in bio-fluidic microsystems. Within these systems high levels of reliability are crucial and complimented by requirements for extremely low levels of false positive and false negatives. This paper extends previous work on impedance and oscillation based condition monitoring of electrode arrays by investigating the a...

Conduction Electrohydrodynamics with Mobile Electrodes: A Novel Actuation System for Untethered Robots

Electrohydrodynamics (EHD) refers to the direct conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy of a fluid. Through the use of mobile electrodes, this principle is exploited in a novel fashion for designing and testing a millimeter-scale untethered robot, which is powered harvesting the energy from an external electric field. The robot is designed as an inverted sail-boat, with the thrus...