A Disposable Electromagnetic Micropump for Oscillatory-flow PCR Microfluidic System

Inhalt:
This paper reports a bi-directional electromagnetic micropump with multi-channel pumping ability and disposability. Three vibrating membranes pump the fluid in each channel. Each membrane covering a chamber is driven by an axially vibrating cylindrical magnet and a rotating multi-pole ring magnet. The membranes, chambers, and flow paths of the pump made of PMMA and PDMS are disposable. Low-cost operation is realized by reusing all the NdFeB magnets through a retainer layer. With all the vibrating membranes arranged along a circle and the use of the multi-pole ring magnet, the pump density (channel number/pump footprint) has a threefold increase compared to the previous research. Meanwhile, a model predicting the micropump performance is proposed and evaluated for future optimization. The developed micropump can reduce the cost and improve the throughput of rapid point-of-care PCR tests based on an oscillatory-flow PCR microfluidic system.