Two-valve thin plate micropump

A two-valve thin plate micropump comprising:

• a pump body comprising an assembled combination of a substrate plate, an intermediate thin membrane plate and a surface plate,
• said substrate plate containing therein an inlet port and an outlet port,
• said thin membrane plate having a first major surface in surface engagement with said substrate surface and an integral inlet valve and an integral outlet valve for opening and closing access to said inlet port and outlet port;
• said thin membrane plate having an integral diaphragm and a pump chamber formed between a first major surface of said diaphragm and a portion of said substrate surface and forming as assembled as said pump body a fluid flow route system between said inlet and outlet ports and said pump chamber;
• diaphragm driving means secured to a second major surface surface of said diaphragm;
• said surface plate in surface engagement with a second major surface of said thin membrane plate opposite to said first major surface;
• and a support extending between said surface diaphragm and said substrate surface portion and substantially concentric relative to cross sectional length of said diaphragm to function as a stopper to uniformly attenuate the displacement of said diaphragm upon operation of said diaphragm driving means.

A two-valve thin plate micropump comprising:

• a pump body comprising an assembled combination of a substrate plate, an intermediate thin membrane plate and a surface plate,
• said substrate plate containing therein an inlet port and an outlet port,
• said thin membrane plate having a first major surface in surface engagement with said substrate surface and an integral inlet valve and an integral outlet valve for opening and closing access to said inlet port and outlet port;
• said thin membrane plate having an integral diaphragm and an adjacent pump chamber and forming as assembled as said pump body a fluid flow route system between said inlet and outlet ports and said pump chamber;
• said surface plate in surface engagement with a second major surface of said thin membrane plate;
• a cup-shaped valve body provided for each of said inlet and outlet valves with annular rims thereof in engagement with a surface of said substrate plate, annular membranes formed on said cup-shaped body annular valve rims so that the height of said valves extend from a surface plane of said membrane plate to provide a pre-biasing condition relative to the seating of said valve inlet and valve outlet on said substrate surface upon assembly of said pump body.

A two-valve thin plate micropump comprising:

• a pump body comprising an assembled combination of a substrate plate, an intermediate thin membrane plate and a surface plate,
• said substrate plate containing therein an inlet port and an outlet port,
• said thin membrane plate having a first major surface in surface engagement with said substrate surface and an integral inlet valve and an integral outlet valve for opening and closing access to said inlet port and outlet port;
• said thin membrane plate having an integral diaphragm and an adjacent pump chamber and forming as assembled as said pump body a fluid flow route system between said inlet and outlet ports and said pump chamber;
• said surface plate in surface engagement with a second major surface of said thin membrane plate;
• a thin support wall formed in said thin membrane plate having one face thereof supporting said outlet valve;
• and
• detection means secured to the other face of said partition wall for sensing the motion of said outlet valve for determining if the micropump is functioning properly.