Current micropump technologies and their biomedical applications

This paper briefly reviews recent research and developments of micropump designs with a particular emphasis on mechanical micropumps and summarizes their applications in biomedical fields. A comprehensive description of the actuation schemes, flow directing concepts and liquid chamber configurations for micro pumping is provided with illustrative diagrams. Then, a comparative study of current mechanical micropump designs highlighting their advantages and limitations for various applications is presented, based on performance criteria such as actuation voltage and power consumption, ranges of operating frequency and maximum flow rate and backpressure. This study compiles and provides some basic guidelines for selection of the actuation schemes and flow rate requirements in biomedical applications. Different micropumps in biomedical applications, such as blood transport and drug delivery also have been reviewed.