Larger-Stroke Piezoelectrically Actuated Microvalve

A proposed normally-closed microvalve would contain a piezoelectric bending actuator instead of a piezoelectric linear actuator like that of the microvalve described in the preceding article. Whereas the stroke of the linear actuator of the preceding article would be limited to ≈6 μm, the stroke of the proposed bending actuator would lie in the approximate range of 10 to 15 μm — large enough to enable the microvalve to handle a variety of liquids containing suspended particles having sizes up to 10 μm. Such particulate-laden liquids occur in a variety of microfluidic systems, one example being a system that sorts cells or large biomolecules for analysis.