Arrayed architectures for multi-stage Si-micromachined high-flow Knudsen pumps

作者:Qin Yutao*; An Seungdo; Gianchandani Yogesh B
来源:Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 2015, 25(11): 115026.
DOI:10.1088/0960-1317/25/11/115026

摘要

This paper reports an evaluation and a comparison of two architectures for implementing Si-micromachined high-flow Knudsen pumps. Knudsen pumps, which operate on the principle of thermal transpiration, have been shown to have great promise for micro-scale gas phase fluidic systems such as micro gas chromatographs. Simultaneously achieving both a high flow rate and adequate blocking pressure has been a persistent challenge, which is addressed in this work by combining multiple pumps in series and addressing the resulting challenges in thermal management. The basic building block is a Si-micromachined pump with approximate to 100000 parallel channels in a 4 mm x 6 mm footprint. In the primary approach, multiple pump stages are stacked vertically with interleaved Si-micromachined spacers. A stacked 4-stage Knudsen pump has a form factor of 10 mm x 8 mm x 6 mm. In an alternate approach, multiple stages are arranged in a planar array. The experimental results demonstrate multiplication of the output pressure head with the number of stages, while the flow rate is maintained. For example, a stacked 4-stage Knudsen pump with 8 W power operated at atmospheric pressure provided a blocking pressure of 0.255 kPa, which was 3.6 x of that provided by a single-stage pump with 2 W power; while both provided a approximate to 30 sccm maximum flow rate. The performance can be customized for practical applications such as micro gas chromatography.

  • 出版日期2015-11