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AssigneeDavid Sarnoff Research Center, Inc.
InventorsPeter J. Zanzucchi, Sterling E. McBride, Charlotte A. Burton, Satyam C. Cherukuri
Estimating the term…
By combining electro-osmotic and electrohydrodynamic pumps in a microchannel, both polar and non-polar fluids can be moved along said channel. The pumps can be made from pairs of wire electrodes inserted into openings in the channel and connected to a source of a pulsed DC power. By reversing the voltages on alternate pairs of pumps, fluid flow can be reversed, thereby acting as a gate or valve. By using digital drivers, for example shift registers that can apply a signal to a switching device connected to an electrode by means of enabling and latch signals to an AND gate, control of flow in individual channels in an array of channels can be had with a high degree of integration, and provide for ready manufacturability.
A pumping device in a microchannel comprising electrodes situated alone the length of the microchannel, two of which are separated by a first length of microchannel and can be operated together to form an electrohydrodynamic pump and two of which are separated by a second length of microchannel and can be operated together to form an electro-osmotic pump, wherein the second length is greater than the first length.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.