CHARACTERIZATION OF MICROMACHINED CANTILEVER VALVES

This paper reports the fabrication and simulation of micromachined can tilever valves. For quasi-static fluid-structural simulations, the FEM package ANSYS and the CFD package Flow3D are coupled with a control p rogramme to yield the flow rate for the cantilever valve. The results are compared with micromachined cantilever valves. The fabrication of these valves can be subdivided into the generation of cantilevers and ducts via KOH etching and a final fusion bonding step to join them. Fo r the release of the cantilever, toluene is used to avoid stiction whi le drying the chips. Agreement between measured and simulated flow rat es is shown to be good and gives confidence in the use of this simulat or for valve development. Dynamic simulations are established with all impact model of the cantilever sitting on top of the duct. This allow s the prediction of the dynamic behaviour of cantilever valves.