Design and Simulation of a Piezoelectrically Actuated Micropump for the Drug Delivery System

In this paper, we present a new piezoelectrically actuated valveless micropump for the drug delivery system. A simple fabrication process is based on the deep reactive ion-etching (DRIE), glass etching and the anodical bond. The diffuser/nozzle element has the divergence angle of 9.4deg, the width of 0.1 mm for the narrowest part and the length of 1.1 mm. The pressure loss coefficient of the diffuser/nozzle element is analytically studied using the fluid mechanics method. In order to analyze the relationship between the behavior of the micropump membrane and the actuating frequency, the numerical simulation is accomplished by using the ANSYS software. Furthermore, the influences of piezoelectric actuator dimensions and material properties on the natural frequency are also studied to understand the characteristics of the actuator