Miniaturized electrothermal flow induced infusion pump
AssigneeCFD Research Corporation
InventorsSivaramakrishnan Krishnamoorthy, Guiren Wang, Jianjun Feng, Yi Wang
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Abstract
A micropump that pumps liquid using electrothermally-induced flow is described, along with a corresponding self-regulating pump and infusion pump. The micropump has applications in microfluidic systems such as biochips. The self-regulating infusion pump is useful for the administration of large and small volumes of liquids such as drugs to patients and can be designed for a wide range of flow rates by combining multiple micropumps in one infusion pump system.
Claims13
An electrothermal flow pump comprising:
- a) a pumping chamber comprising walls that define a fluid-filled volume in the chamber,
- b) at least one inlet to and at least one outlet from the pumping chamber,
- c) at least one set of at least three elongated electrodes arranged in parallel and separated by a regular gap distance in one wall or opposing walls of the pumping chamber,
- d) a power supply electrically coupled to each of the electrodes of the at least one set of electrodes with a phase shift of 3π/n where n is the number of electrodes in the at least one set of electrodes to produce electrothermal flow that moves fluid within the pumping chamber in a direction perpendicular to the elongated electrodes.
A self-regulating electrothermal flow drug infusion pump comprising an electrothermal flow pump, a flow rate sensor, and a controller wherein:
- a) the electrothermal flow pump comprises:
- (i) a plurality of ETF micropumps in liquid communication with one another and
- (ii) a conduit for delivering a liquid pumped from the plurality of ETF micropumps to a conduit outlet placed within a patient;
- b) the flow rate sensor is a device that measures the flow rate of liquid through the conduit;
- and
- c) the controller comprises a fluid reservoir, a microprocessor, and a power supply wherein:
- (i) the microprocessor receives flow rate information from the flow sensor and controls electrode activation and
- (ii) the fluid reservoir is in liquid communication with the plurality of ETF micropumps.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.