Pressure characteristics of pneumatic microfluidic chip system driven by stepper motor

ZHU Yunfeng, WANG Jinxian, LI Songjing

(School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China)

Abstract: Aiming at the request of miniaturization and integration of microfluidic chip, a pneumatic microfluidic chip system driven by a stepper motor was presented. A controller signal was sent to the stepper motor, and the valve opening was changed by deforming the PDMS channel. The simulation model was built by using Simulink nonlinear module after analyzing the flow rate of the micro valve and the pressure of the gas container. The pressure dynamic response characteristics of the pneumatic microfluidic chip system on different step signal of the stepper motor were given based on simulation. The pressure characteristic test curves of the gas container were obtained and compared with the simulation results by building a test platform. The results indicate that pressure characteristics of pneumatic microfluidic chip system through experiment are basically the same with the simulation results. The response of system is quick to the pressure cavity. When the valve opening is larger, the pressure of the gas container rises more quickly and higher.

Key words: pneumatic microfluidic chip system; stepper motor; pressure characteristic; Simulink