Journal
MICROMACHINES
Volume 10, Issue 4, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/mi10040249
Keywords
Knudsen pump; thermal transpiration; vacuum micropump; rarefied gas flow; kinetic theory; microfabrication; photolithography; microfluidics
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Funding
- European Union's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie [643095]
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The manufacturing process and architecture of three Knudsen type micropumps are discussed and the associated flow performance characteristics are investigated. The proposed fabrication process, based on the deposition of successive dry film photoresist layers with low thermal conductivity, is easy to implement, adaptive to specific applications, cost-effective, and significantly improves thermal management. Three target application designs, requiring high mass flow rates (pump A), high pressure differences (pump B), and relatively high mass flow rates and pressure differences (pump C), are proposed. Computations are performed based on kinetic modeling via the infinite capillary theory, taking into account all foreseen manufacturing and operation constraints. The performance characteristics of the three pump designs in terms of geometry (number of parallel microchannels per stage and number of stages) and inlet pressure are obtained. It is found that pumps A and B operate more efficiently at pressures higher than 5 kPa and lower than 20 kPa, respectively, while the optimum operation range of pump C is at inlet pressures between 1 kPa and 20 kPa. In all cases, it is advisable to have the maximum number of stages as well as of parallel microchannels per stage that can be technologically realized.
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