We present a novel 3D printed multimaterial microfluidic proportional valve. The microfluidic valve is a fundamental primitive that enables the development of programmable, automated devices for controlling fluids in a precise manner. We discuss valve characterization results, as well as exploratory design variations in channel width, membrane thickness, and membrane stiffness. Compared to prev...

A low-cost, manufacturable, thermally actuated, plastic microfluidic valve has been developed. The valve contains an encapsulated, temperature-sensitive fluid, which expands, deflecting a thin elastomeric film into a fluidic channel to control fluid flow. The power input for thermal expansion of each microfluidic valve can be controlled using a printed circuit board (PCB)-based controller, whic...

In this paper, a novel electromagnetic micropositioner is designed from an orthogonal 3-P(4S) parallel mechanism through the substitution method and modular design techniques. Preliminary prototype experiments show that possesses excellent decoupling performance. Thus independent control strategy carried out for motion of micropositioner. An RBF neural networks based adaptive backstepping termi...

A facile method enabling the integration of elastomeric valves into rigid thermoplastic microfluidic chips is described. The valves employ discrete plugs of elastomeric polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) integrated into the thermoplastic substrate and actuated using a threaded stainless steel needle. The fabrication process takes advantage of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) as a sacrificial molding materi...

A new concept of an impact actuated micro shift valve is presented. The impacts are transmitted to the interior of the valve through the casing. In order to predict the energy transmitted into the valve, the most important effects are discussed and two elastic multibody models using the Hertzian contact law are introduced and compared to a full finite element simulation. A simpler model with on...

We have demonstrated a three-dimensional movable metamaterial (MM) with reconfigurable electric split-ring resonators (eSRR) at terahertz frequencies. This is accomplished by making planar arrays of eSRR with movable stress curved beams (eSRR-MSCBs) which are actuated out-of-plane by electrostatic force. Our results have demonstrated that the eSRR-MSCBs possess blueshifting capabilities and pol...

The quantum mechanical model of electromagnetic waves is considered, in which the photon, as a particle, propagates with the speed of light, while the wave function of the photon spreads out with an infinite speed. The Lorentz transformation for the energy flux of electromagnetic wave is obtained while assuming the Galilei transformation for the space and time. The energy of the electromagnetic...

Implantable drug delivery devices are becoming attractive due to their abilities of targeted and controlled dose release. Currently, two important issues are functional lifetime and non-controlled drug diffusion. In this work, we present a drug delivery device combining an electrolytic pump and a thermo-responsive valve, which are both remotely controlled by an electromagnetic field (40.5 mT an...