Improved Two-Side AC Electroosmotic Micropump

This paper reports on the fabrication and experimental characterisation of improved design AC eletroosmotic micropumps. Since the first study and analysis of AC electroosmosis by Ramos et al. [1], many devices have been fabricated and tested [2]. The basic planar electrode design was improved and increased pumping velocities were measured. Among the proposed improvements, 3D electrode design seems very promising [3,4]. Nevertheless, 3D electrode structures occupy a large portion of the channel cross section, thus potentially reducing the generated flow rate. We demonstrate here that the flow generation may be improved, with no impact on the available cross-section, by using the planar electrode design to generate velocity on two sides of the channel.