Hydrogel Microvalve Device Modeling and Simulation

Ibrahim M. W. A. (1), Saunders J. R. (2), and Moussa Walied A. (3)

(1)
& (3) Multiphysics and MEMS simulation laboratory, (1) (2) &(3) Mechanical
Engineering Department, University of Alberta, Edm, AB, Canada. T6G 2G8
(1)
mwa1@ualberta.ca & (3) walied.moussa @ualberta.ca

Abstract

The modeling and simulation of volume of diameter and depth 250 µm

fabricated 3-D hybrid hydrogel and 200 µm, respectively. The
microvalve using a commercial FE diaphragm is fabricated out four separate
package is presented in this paper. A layers of PDMS material, bonded using
PDMS diaphragm is deflected to surface tension driven self-alignment
197.5µm. A stimulated hydrogel volume method [7].
swelled to 465% of its original volume.
Results of the finite element analysis are
reported and a comparison to the
fabricated model results is made.

1- Introduction

Hydrogel material has the unique

characteristic of responding to external
stimulus by changing in volume. These
external stimuli can include light, pH,
electric field, or temperature [1-4]. Thus,
hydrogels can be used in microfluidic
devices as actuators and sensors,
performing both functions
simultaneously. It can be easily
fabricated in-situ in the microchannel
using the standard lithography process
[5,6].
In this paper, a finite element analysis
is carried out on a fabricated 3-D hybrid
hydrogel microvalve as shown is Figure
1. The hydrogel material components are
acrylic acid (AA) and 2-hydrooxyethyl
methacrylate (HEMA) in a 1:4 mol ratio.
The external stimulus used to stimulate
the hydrogel is a pH 11 buffer solution.
The hydrogel is fabricated in cylindrical
Fig.1. Schematic of 3-D hydrogel
microvalve [8].
The thickness (t) and diameter (2r) of the
diaphragm are 50 µm and 700 µm
respectively. The height of the
microchannel (h) is 200 µm.
2- Model
The model was built and finite
element analysis was done using a
commercial FE analysis package. The
model has the same dimensions and
material properties of the fabricated
microvalve. The simulation and the
results of the FE analysis are reported
hereafter.

Proceedings of the 2005 International Conference on MEMS, NANO and Smart Systems (ICMENS’05)
0-7695-2398-6/05 $20.00 © 2005 IEEE
 3- Results
The hydrogel volume is constrained
from the top by a Pyrex sheet causing
the hydrogel to swell only in the radial
and vertical downward direction. The
hydrogel swelled to a 465% of its
original volume. The hydrogel swelling
caused the PDMS diaphragm to deflect
to a 197.5 µm. Figure 2 displays the
simulation results of the swelled
hydrogel microvalve and the deflected
diaphragm.
Fig.2 Schematic of the swelled hydrogel
and deformed diaphragm.
4- Conclusions.
1- FE analysis of hydrogel microvalve
device was performed.
2- The hydrogel volume swelled to a 465
% with 2% increase in volume compared
to the fabricated microvalve.
3- The fabricated hydrogel microvalve
caused a diaphragm deflection of 185
µm only. This could be attributed to
ideal environmental conditions the
microvalve is being simulated under
which may not be the case during the
fabrication and actuation processes.
Proceedings of the 2005 International Conference on MEMS, NANO and Smart Systems (ICMENS’05)
0-7695-2398-6/05 $20.00 © 2005 IEEE
5- References
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