JOURNAL OF MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS, VOL. 16, NO.
6, DECEMBER 2007
A Bidirectional Electrostatic Microvalve With
Microsecond Switching Performance
Byunghoon Bae, Jeahyeong Han, Richard I. Masel, and Mark A. Shannon
Abstract—This paper describes a new bidirectional high-
pressure gas electrostatic microvalve that opens and closes in
50 µs or less. The microvalve consists of a valve-closing electrode,
a flexible movable membrane, and a valve-opening electrode that
is directly opposed to the valve-closing electrode. The membrane
contains an embedded electrode, so the valve can zip closed when
a potential is applied between the membrane and the valve-closing
electrode. The valve-opening electrode allows the valve to open
again in a rapid discontinuous motion, without requiring a large
applied potential. A pressure-balance port is used to enhance
the microvalve switching speed and to allow the valve to close
against applied pressures greater than 8.3 atm (840 kPa). The gas
conductance through the valve is 2.8 nl/Pa · s (17 sccm/atm), and
the fluid leakage measured zero over the entire pressure range up
to a burst pressure of 10.8 atm (1.1 MPa). Measurements show that
the valve can open or close in 50 µs or less for applied pressures
up to 126 kPa. In an extended lifetime test, a sample microvalve
has been opened and closed 47 million times before failure.
[2007-0037]
Index Terms—Electrostatic microvalve, high pressure, micro-
second, touch-mode capacitance.
I. I NTRODUCTION
T HIS PAPER describes a new bidirectional high-pressure
gas electrostatic microvalve that opens and closes in 50 µs
or less. Microvalves are key components in micropumps,
microcompressors, micrototal-analysis systems, gas/liquid-
sample injection systems, laboratory-on-a chip devices, and
microgas-chromatograph (micro-GC) systems. Many mi-
crovalves have been described in the literature, with a recent
review in [1]. Fast centimeter-scale devices have been de-
scribed previously [2], [3] as have piezoelectric valves that
can close in 1 ms [4], [5] and an electrostatic valve [6].
Several microvalves employing electrostatic, piezoelectric, or
electromagnetic have been developed with different pressures
and switching times [6]–[16]. However, a bidirectional gas-
regulating microvalve has yet to be fully described that can
open and close in 100 µs or less against reasonably high
pressures (on the order of 1 atm or more) and continue to
Manuscript received February 14, 2007; revised August 15, 2007. This work
was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
under the U.S. Air Force Grant FA8650-04-1-7121. Subject Editor C.-J. Kim.
B. Bae, J. Han, and M. A. Shannon are with the Department of Mechanical
Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana,
IL 61801 USA (e-mail: bhbae@uiuc.edu; jhan3@uiuc.edu; mshannon@
uiuc.edu).
R. I. Masel is with the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engi-
neering, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801 USA
(e-mail: r-masel@uiuc.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JMEMS.2007.907782
1057-7157/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE
1461
operate for millions of cycles. Yet, fast microvalves are needed
in micro-GC systems, where high applied gas pressures are
needed for fast temporal responses, and the speed of the in-
jector valves often limits the device resolution. The higher
the injection pressure the valve can handle, the higher the
velocity of the gas that can be achieved through the separa-
tion column, thereby reducing the analysis time. For a 4-m
column with a 100-µm diameter, injection pressures greater
than 2 atm with air are needed to achieve a 4-s separation time.
As an injected plug moves down the column, individual compo-
nents within the plug begin to separate, albeit with broadening
due to diffusion, velocity-induced shearing, and smearing at
bends. Long columns can be used to resolve components into
separate peaks but at the expense of longer separation times.
Hence, for high-velocity flows in short columns needed to
achieve short analysis times, a small plug of concentrated sam-
ple needs to be initially injected to obtain resolved peaks over a
short column distance. For a 1-mm-long plug injected at 1-m/s
velocity, the injection time can be no more than 1 ms. To pro-
duce a sharp band, the valve opening and closing time should
be much less than 1 ms, on the order of 100 µs or less. The
objective of this paper is to describe and analyze a fast-acting
microvalve that meets the speed requirements for a micro-GC
and has been tested for millions of cycles before failure.
This microvalve uses electrostatic actuation. Electrostatic
actuation was developed for this valve because the efficiency of
an electrostatic actuator can improve as its size is reduced [17]
and because the energy consumption can be small as compared
to that of other types of actuators. For the valve reported, the
peak power consumed during activation (opening or closing)
from changes in capacitance (on the order of 40 pF) when
switching at 50 V in 50 µs is on the order of a milliwatt.
When closed, due to intervening high-quality insulators (3-µm
polyimide and 1000-Å thermal oxide) between the conductors,
only a very small leakage current (much less than 1 nA at 50 V)
occurs at steady state, giving a resting-state power consumption
much less than 1 µW. Furthermore, the speed of actuation
can be on the order of milliseconds or less due to the so-
called “snap-through instability” [18]. Electrostatic actuators,
though, often require relatively high applied voltages (> 100 V)
to generate sufficient force to open and close the valves against
even a modest pressure (1 kPa), since the electrostatic force
is inversely proportional to the square of the gap between the
electrodes. However, if one uses touch-mode capacitance to
close the valve, relatively modest voltages (≤ 50 V) can be
employed to close against the pressures used in the micro-GC
system, which will need higher pressures than used in normal-
scale GC systems, if the sweep time is the same or less, due to
1462
Fig. 1. SEM image of the cross-sectional view of the fabricated microvalve.
The microvalve consists of a flexible membrane that contains an imbedded
electrode and two rigid electrodes—a valve-closing electrode and a valve-
opening electrode that also serves to balance pneumatic pressure.
the smaller sizes of the fluidic channels and columns, creating
a greater pressure drop. In addition, for shorter columns, the
peak resolution improves with decreasing valve-injection time,
such that the valves opening and closing in microseconds create
sharp injection bands into the column.
There have been several previous papers on touch-mode
electrostatic actuation [7], [19]–[23]. A touch-mode actuator
consists of a flexible membrane and a fixed electrode. The
membrane starts out touching the fixed electrode at one side
of the membrane. When a voltage is applied, a zipping action is
created that pulls the membrane onto the rest of the electrode.
An advantage of a touch-mode capacitance actuator is that the
electrostatic force can be maintained or increased by using the
zipping action, even though the initial gap between electrodes
is larger than the one of a typical electrostatic actuator. In a
previous work, an S-shaped touch-mode microvalve was devel-
oped, where the moving electrode was capable of being zipped
between two fixed-plate electrodes [7]. The switching response
time of the S-shaped microvalve was 7.7 ms at atmospheric
pressure [19], which is not fast enough for our micro-GC
system.
The purpose of this paper is to present, analyze, and char-
acterize the performance of the switching time for a bidirec-
tional electrostatic microvalve that can open and close in less
than 100 µs against a pressure of more than 100 kPa. This
paper is composed of the following sections. In Section II, the
basic design and operating principles of the fabricated bidi-
rectional electrostatic microvalve are described. In Section III,
the fabrication processes are illustrated. In Section IV, var-
ious experimental results to measure the characteristics and
switching speed of the microvalve are presented, including
measuring capacitances, flow rates, and pressure. In Section V,
the microvalve is modeled to predict the fluid flow rate using the
experimental capacitance results. In Section VI, we conclude.
II. D ESIGN AND O PERATING P RINCIPLES
Fig. 1 shows a scanning-electrode-microscope (SEM) image
of a cross-sectional view of the fabricated microvalve. The
microvalve consists of a flexible membrane that contains an
JOURNAL OF MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS, VOL. 16, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2007
Fig. 2. Diagrams of the valve when (a) closed and (b) opened, which show the
fluid-flow path. The gas flows from A to C, which is normally blocked when
the membrane electrode touches the valve-closing electrode. These touching
electrodes seal tightly and hold-off the forward pressure Pc at A due to
an electrostatic force when Vc is applied between the membrane and valve-
opening electrodes. The pneumatic pressure Po for pressure balancing can be
applied to either enhance the hold-off pressure or increase the closing speed. In
order to make the gas flow from A to C, Vc is removed. Then, Vo can be applied
between the membrane electrode and the valve-opening electrode, attracting
the membrane electrode toward the center pad of the valve-opening electrode
to increase opening speed.
imbedded electrode, two rigid electrodes (a valve-closing and a
valve-opening electrode), and a variety of fluidic channels. Gas
flows in through port A and out through port C. The membrane
is designed to cover and seal ports A and C when the valve
closes, while gas flows when the valve opens. The pressure-
balance port B can be employed to assist the electrostatic force.
The microvalve also includes a raised center pad to increase the
opening electrostatic force by creating a small gap within the
larger cavity that the membrane opens into to permit fluid
to flow.
Fig. 2 shows how the microvalve opens and closes. The gas
flows from A to C, which is normally closed by the pneu-
matic pressure Po and the residual tensile stress in the mem-
brane, both of which act to hold the membrane against the
closing electrode unless the pressure Pc is sufficiently higher
than Po to overcome the pressure and residual stress in the
membrane. When the membrane electrode is in contact with
the valve-closing electrode and a closing-voltage potential Vc
is applied across the electrodes, it seals tightly and holds
off the forward pressure Pc at A. A previous microvalve
that we developed [22] employs a touch-mode capacitance
to hold the valve closed, similar to this current valve being
BAE et al.: BIDIRECTIONAL ELECTROSTATIC MICROVALVE WITH MICROSECOND SWITCHING PERFORMANCE
Fig. 3. Process flow for the valve-closing electrode. (a) Thermal oxide growth
(over 1000 Å) on a Si wafer which is patterned with PR followed by
buffered oxide etching to remove oxide where doping of Si is needed.
(b) Doping with boron. (c)–(e) Formation of microchannels, inlet/outlet holes,
holes for the connection to the valve-opening electrode ohmic contact metal
layers by using DRIE. (f) Two thermal oxide growth and BOE etching to
smooth DRIE sidewalls for ports, followed by a final oxide step to form a
thermal oxide dielectric layer over all exposed surfaces. (g) Ohmic contact
openings patterned by shadow masking using RIE, Cr/Au (100 Å/1000 Å)
sputtering with the shadow mask, and heating to 370 ◦ C to form Au/Si eutetic
ohmic contact. (h) Non-stiction coating of [CF2 ]n on the valve seat using a
shadow mask.
reported. When the electric field was on the order of 25 V/µm,
it was reported that pressure that could be held exceeds
18 atm for a port size at A of 150-µm diameter and a to-
tal polyimide (PI) membrane thickness of 6 µm, which is
similar in size and thickness to the current valve. For the
current valve, 25 V/µm translates to about 75 V, and 60 V
was observed to hold off a forward pressure of 1.5 atm for
an inlet port size of 400 µm. The pneumatic pressure Po for
pressure balancing can be applied to either enhance the hold-
off pressure or increase the closing speed. In order for the gas to
flow from A to C, the closing voltage is removed. If Pc is greater
than Po , the membrane can be forced open, depending on the
residual stress in the membrane and the strength of the van
der Waals forces at the interface. However, to ensure opening
1463
Fig. 4. Process flow for the valve-opening electrode. (a) Oxide is patterned
by using a PR mask, followed by dry etching of the exposed oxide using RIE.
(b) PR mask is removed, and the other PR mask is patterned aligning with
the oxide pattern, since the oxide at the center is also employed as a mask,
(c) cavity is fabricated around the center pad by using DRIE. (d) Oxide on the
center pad is removed using BOE, followed by DRIE in order to etch down the
center pad.
or to increase the opening speed, an opening voltage potential
Vo is applied between the membrane electrode and the valve-
opening electrode, attracting the membrane electrode toward
the raised center pad in the valve-opening electrode. This pad
protrudes almost, but not all the way, to the center of the
cavity in order to increase the electrostatic force acting on the
membrane electrode to pull it off the valve-closing electrode in
a discontinuous nonzipping motion, which affords a rapid valve
opening. The gap between the membrane electrode and the pad
is much less than the gap between the membrane electrode and
the bottom of the cavity (on the order of 10 versus 100 µm).
The force between the membrane electrode and the center pad
therefore is much stronger (up to 100 times stronger) than
the force between the membrane electrode and the bottom of
the cavity. Without the raised center pad, either the cavity
gap would need to be much smaller, thereby reducing the
flow rate between A and C (which may also increase the
shearing of the fluid and increase band broadening through
the valve), or the opening voltage would need to be increased
proportionally, leading to an increased chance of electrical
breakdown.
III. F ABRICATION P ROCESS
Next, we wish to describe how the valve was actually fabri-
cated. Fig. 3 shows the fabrication process for the valve-closing
electrode. A thermal oxide (over 1000 Å) is first grown on
a 1–5 Ω · cm p-doped Si wafer. The oxide layer is patterned
with photoresist (PR). Then, a buffered oxide etch (BOE) is
used to selectively remove the oxide to expose the Si wafer,
as shown in Fig. 3(a). The exposed Si pattern is then doped
with boron in a diffusion furnace tube to make the pattern
conductive to yield the device in Fig. 3(b). Next, deep reactive-
ion etching (DRIE) is used to cut microchannels into the front of
1464 JOURNAL OF MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS, VOL. 16, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2007
Fig. 5. Process flow for the membrane electrode. (a) SC-1 cleaned cover glass
as a temporary substrate carrier for the membrane. (b) Polyimide is spun and
cured on the cover glass. (c) Cr/Au/Cr stack layer is sputtered. (d) PR-patterned
layer. (e) Metal layers are etched and PR mask is deleted. (f) Finally, polyimide
is spun again to cover the bared metal layers and cured to provide a flexible
dielectric layer, and a nonstiction coating of [CF2 ]n is patterned to correspond
to the valve seat using a shadow mask. (g) Photograph of the package which
has electrical and fluidic connections.
the wafer, as shown in Fig. 3(c), inlet/outlet holes [small squares
in Fig. 3(d)] and larger openings for electrical connections [the
round circles in Fig. 3(d) and (e)]. In Fig. 3(f), the DRIE etched
wafer is thermally oxidized and then BOE etched to smooth the
sidewalls of the channels, holes, and openings. A final thermal
oxide is grown over all surfaces to form a high-quality dielectric
layer that prevents conduction and breakdown from the silicon-
conductive layers. Then, a thin (few monolayers at most) silicon
nitride is grown to suppress surface charges from accumulating
on the thermal oxide, which can lead to space charge shielding
and reduced performance of the valve over time. In Fig. 3(g),
openings to the Si wafer for the electrical contacts are formed
via RIE using a shadow mask to form the pattern, and a Cr/Au
(100 Å/1000 Å) is sputtered onto the exposed Si, also using a
shadow mask over the openings. The sample is then heated to
370 ◦ C to form a Au/Si eutectic ohmic contact. A nonstiction
coating of [CF2 ]n is deposited on the valve seat using C4 F8
Fig. 6. (a) Flow response for 7 kPa of applied pressure between the inlet and
the outlet when the valve is alternately opened and closed by turning the applied
voltage, Vc = 50 V, off and on, respectively. (b) Flow rate and leakage rate
when the valve is open and closed as in the same method as the one used in
(a) under Vc = 140 V and Pc = 32, 54, 84, 126, and 145 kPa. These applied
pressures are not pneumatically balanced, giving the worst case for leakage.
No leakage was observed for pneumatically balanced pressures up to the burst
pressure of 1.1 MPa.
plasma [cf. Fig. 3(h)] and a shadow mask to form the pattern. It
is important that the coating only cover the contact interfacial
region of the valve-membrane and the valve-closing electrode
and does not encroach on the bond region, as the presence of
[CF2 ]n at the bond region noticeably reduces the subsequent
bond strength.
The processing of the valve-opening electrode is similar to
the processing of the valve-closing electrode. However, a key
difference that is shown in Fig. 4 is that a two-depth DRIE is
used to form the raised center pad. The fabrication process for
the center pad starts with a 1-µm oxide grown over the wafer.
In Fig. 4(a), the oxide is patterned using a PR mask, followed
by dry etching of the exposed oxide using RIE. In Fig. 4(b), the
PR mask is removed and another PR mask is aligned with the
oxide pattern. Since the oxide at the center is also employed as
a mask, in Fig. 4(c), the cavity is fabricated around the center
pad by using DRIE to nearly the desired depth. The oxide in
BAE et al.: BIDIRECTIONAL ELECTROSTATIC MICROVALVE WITH MICROSECOND SWITCHING PERFORMANCE 1465

Fig. 7. Experimental setup to measure the current (left) and data (right) when the valve is (a) closing by applying Vc = 50 V and (b) opening by applying
Vo = 50 V, under the applied pressures of 7 and 84 kPa (for both Pc and Po , i.e., net pressure is zero).

Fig. 4(d) on the center pad is removed using BOE, and the DRIE
is resumed in order to etch down the center pad another 10 µm.
The rest of the cavity is also etched to the desired depth at the
same time.
Fig. 5 shows the fabrication process of the membrane elec-
trode. In Fig. 5(a), a coverslip glass, which is cleaned using
the RCA Standard Clean (SC)-1 recipe, is used as a temporary
substrate carrier for the membrane. In Fig. 5(b), a 3-µm-thick
polyimide PI5878G (Dupont) layer is spun and cured on the
cover glass at 375 ◦ C in 1 torr of nitrogen for 3 h. In Fig. 5(c),
a Cr/Au Cr (100 Å/1000 Å/100 Å) layer is sputtered on the PI
layer, which is patterned with PR in Fig. 5(d). In Fig. 5(e), the
metal layers are etched in chrome etchant and KI3 -based Au
etchant, and the PR mask is removed. Finally, in Fig. 5(f), a
second 3-µm-thick polyimide layer is spun to cover the metal
layers, which is cured as above to provide a flexible dielectric
layer. A nonstiction coating of [CF2 ]n , formed using a C4 F8
plasma, is deposited on the area corresponding to the valve
seat using a shadow mask. The device layers were then bonded
with epoxy using a thermal-transfer bonding process detailed
in [24]. [CF2 ]n coating on the polyimide and silicon nitride
layers also functions to suppress surface charging, whereas the
thermal oxide limits bulk charge, which contributes to avoiding
electrical shielding of the conductive layers, which is a problem
often encountered in touch-mode actuators. A package to hold
and test the valve assembly is fabricated using a stereolithog-
raphy process. The package has three fluidic connections that
correspond to the injection inlet, outlet, and pressure-balance
port of the injector valve. For the electrical connections, the
package has through holes that correspond with ohmic contacts
made with a eutectic Au contact deposited and annealed on the
Si wafer. Pogo-pins are fitted into the holes and tightened using
screws for solid connections. Fig. 5(g) shows a photograph of
the package.
IV. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
Fig. 6 shows the performance of the valve with no pneumatic
balance pressure added. As such, this test is the most extreme
operating condition for the valve. In Fig. 6(a), a helium flow
at Pc equal to 7 kPa was connected to the valve, and the
flow rate through the valve was measured as the valve was
opened and closed, by removing and reapplying Vc = 50 V.
Notice that the flow rate rises at the temporal response of
the flowmeter when the valve is opened and, similarly, falls
when the flow is stopped. Fig. 6(b) shows the flow and leak-
age rates when the valve is open and closed as in the same
method as the one used in Fig. 6(a) with Vc = 140 V and
1466 JOURNAL OF MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS, VOL. 16, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2007

Fig. 8. (a) Experimental setup for measuring the capacitance Ceo . The membrane electrode is attracted to the valve-closing electrode by applying the voltage
potential Vc . (b) Experimental setup for measuring the capacitance Cec . The membrane electrode is attracted to the valve-opening electrode by applying the
voltage potential Vo . (c) Circuit diagram of an amplitude-modulation method for measuring capacitance, whose placement is shown in (a) and (b).

Pc = 32, 54, 84, 126, and 145 kPa. All the experiments are
performed five times to find the average and standard deviation.
Since the leakage is not detectable using the flow sensor
(Sensirion ASF1430), the leakage rate is obtained by measuring
the volume of the bubbles in water, which are coming from the
outlet. The leakage is less than 0.002 sccm at 126 kPa, and no
observable leakage is found up to 84 kPa. When the pneumatic
balancing pressure Po is added, which is the normal operating
condition for the valve, there is no Helium leakage observed up
to 1.1 MPa (10.8 atm) with the valve initially closed. The test
ended at this pressure when the valve reached its burst pressure.
The residual stresses in the membrane are sufficient to prevent
any fluid flow with the normally closed valve.
With pneumatic balance added, the valve was tested for open-
ing and closing range, up to a pressure of 8.3 atm (840 kPa),
which is safely below its burst pressure. These tests were con-
ducted using a flowmeter to test for flow conductance and for
leakage, and thus, temporal switching speed was not measured
BAE et al.: BIDIRECTIONAL ELECTROSTATIC MICROVALVE WITH MICROSECOND SWITCHING PERFORMANCE 1467

Fig. 9. Typical responses when the valve switches from fully open and to fully closed. (a) V co when Vc = 140 V is applied under the pressures of Pc = 126 kPa.
(b) V cc when Vo = 140 V is removed under the pressures of Po = 126 kPa. These figures show the raw response from the mixer (Vm , solid) and the filtered
response (V co or V cc , dotted) with a cutoff frequency of 30 kHz. The switching time is the same as the transition time which is near 50 µs in these measurements.

as follows. Over the entire range from 0 to greater than 8 atm, a
switching voltage of 50 V was used to open and close the valve.
From Fig. 6, we estimate the gas conductance through the valve
to be 2.8 nl/Pa · s (17 sccm/atm).
An attempt was made to measure the lifetime of the valves by
taking a single valve and running it at 100 Hz until failure. The
valve ran properly for the first 47 000 000 cycles as estimated
by the electrical response of the valve, which corresponds to
over five years of use in a micro-GC sampling once every 4 s.
The valve failed sometime between 47 000 000 and 48 000 000
cycles.
To estimate the speed of the valves, one cannot use a flowme-
ter to measure the valve speed since commercial flowmeters
take 10 ms to respond, and the valves switch in much less than
a millisecond. However, one can estimate the valve speed from
electrical measurements. For this electrostatic actuator, with no
observable rest-state current, the current flows only when the
valve is activated. Fig. 7 shows an experimental setup to mea-
sure the current (left) and data (right) when the valve is closing
[Fig. 7(a)] and opening [Fig. 7(b)]. When the valve is closed,
the current flows between the valve closing and membrane
electrode where voltage, Vc = 50 V, is applied. When the valve
is opened, the other current flows between the valve opening
and membrane electrode where voltage, Vo = 50 V, is applied.
By measuring the voltage drop across the resistor, the current
responses corresponding to the valve closing and opening can
be obtained. It takes below 15 µs for both closing and opening
the valve under the applied pressures of 7 and 84 kPa (for both
Pc and Po , i.e., net pressure is zero). Due to the zipping motion
when the valve is closed, the squeeze film damping becomes
higher than when the valve is opened, since the valve opens
into a relatively large cavity. Hence, the current profile when
closing is a little bit smoother with a smaller peak than when
opening. From the current measurements alone, it is difficult to
determine if the membrane has completely opened or closed.
However, when measuring the capacitance, the beginning and
ending values can be known from steady-state measurements,
and thus, the degree of opening can be better determined from
the capacitance estimated from the I–V measurements.
Next, we attempted to use the capacitance between the valve-
closing electrode and membrane electrode to measure the valve
position. Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of the experimental
setup that was used to make the measurements. We used a
procedure to measure the dynamic capacitance developed by
1468
Fig. 10. (a) VCo when the valve is opened by removing Vc . (b) VCo when the valve is closed by reapplying Vc , with the pressure Pc at 42, 84, and 126 kPa.
(c) VCc when the valve is opened by applying Vo . (d) VCc when the valve is closed by removing Vo , with the pressure Po at 42, 84, and 126 kPa. For all the
cases, the applied voltage is Vc = Vo = 140 V.
previous investigators [8], [25]. A sinusoidal signal Va sin ωt
was applied to either [Fig. 8(a)] the membrane and the valve-
opening electrode to measure the capacitance Ceo or [Fig. 8(b)]
the valve-closing and membrane electrode to measure the ca-
pacitance Cec . Va and ω are the amplitude and frequency of the
sinusoidal signal, respectively. The membrane electrode was
attracted to the valve-closing or opening electrode by applying
a voltage potential Vc [Fig. 8(a)] or Vo [Fig. 8(b)], respectively.
In Fig. 8(c), small changes in the capacitance were detected
from the output of the mixer Vm , which is a multiplication of
the twice differentiated Va sin ωt signal across either Ceo or
Cec . Then, Vm is filtered with a low-pass filter to obtain the
dc component of VCc or VCo that directly corresponds to the
capacitances Cec or Ceo , respectively.
Fig. 9(a) and (b) shows typical responses when the valve
switches from fully opened and to fully closed with no balance
pressure added, which gives an upper bound on the opening
and closing time. When balance pressure is added, the response
is faster. Fig. 9(a) shows VCo when Vc = 140 V is applied
under the pressures of Pc = 126 kPa, whereas Fig. 9(b) shows
VCc when Vo = 140 V is removed under the pressures of Po =
126 kPa. These figures show the raw response from the mixer
(Vm , solid) and the filtered response (VCo or VCc , dotted) with
JOURNAL OF MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS, VOL. 16, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2007
a cutoff frequency of 30 kHz. The switching time is the same as
the transition time, which is near 50 µs in these measurements.
Fig. 10 shows VCo when the valve is opened by removing
Vc [Fig. 10(a)], VCo when the valve is closed by reapplying
Vc , with the pressure Pc at 42, 84, and 126 kPa [Fig. 10(b)],
VCc when the valve is opened by applying Vo [Fig. 10(c)], and
VCc when the valve is closed by removing Vo , with the pressure
Po at 42, 84, and 126 kPa [Fig. 10(d)]. For all the cases, the
applied voltage is Vc = Vo = 140 V. All the experiments are
performed five times to take the average and standard deviation,
which are also shown in Fig. 10. Notice that the closing time
increases slightly as the pressure increases while the opening
time does not change, although all times are approximately
50 µs. The overshoots that occur during the opening of the
valves in Fig. 10(a) and (d) come from the inertial effects of
the membrane and fluid.
V. S WITCHING -T IME A NALYSIS
Next, we wish to develop a model for the performance of the
valve. There are several factors that affect the switching time of
the valve, including the following: 1) the impedance between
the electrodes that are being actuated; 2) the pressure on the
BAE et al.: BIDIRECTIONAL ELECTROSTATIC MICROVALVE WITH MICROSECOND SWITCHING PERFORMANCE 1469

TABLE I
NOMENCLATURE AND DEFINITIONS

inlet port and balance port; 3) the flow rate of gas through the
valve, and 4) the mechanical compliance of the valve. Most
of these factors are coupled with each other. The fluid flow
through the microvalve affects both the fluidic and electrical
capacitance of the system, which in turn affects the motion of
the membrane.
In this section, we model the microvalve actuation with re-
spect to the fluidic and electrical capacitance to predict how the
fluid flows, although the valve varies with switching time. Our
model assumes the following: 1) the fluid above the valve can
be modeled as an equivalent capacitance Cf c , with a damping
bf c and an inertia If c ; 2) the fluid below the valve can be
modeled as an equivalent capacitance Cf o , with a damping
bf o and an inertia If o ; 3) the membrane can be modeled as
an equivalent spring kmc , with a damping bmc and a mass Im ;
4) that the electrical path between the valve-closing and mem-
brane electrode can be modeled as an equivalent capacitance
Cec , with a resistance Rec and an inductance Iec , and 5) that
the electrical path between the membrane and valve-opening
electrode can be modeled as an equivalent capacitance Ceo ,
1470 JOURNAL OF MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS, VOL. 16, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2007

with a resistance Reo and an inductance Ieo . The constitutive

equations become
qc
Vnc = (1)
Cec
Vc
Pnc = (2)
Cf c

where
εAc εA3c
Cec = and Cf c = (3)
(d − zm ) Cec ρc2

and the rest of the variables are defined in Table I. From the
stored energy Wc in a couple capacitance Cc , where electrical,
mechanical, and fluidic capacitances are coupled, the force,
Fc = −dWc /dzm , can be found to be

1 qc2 ρc2 Vc 2 Fig. 11. Simulation results of the flow rate, V̇c , when the valve is opened
Fc = − kmc zm − . (4) or closed by removing or reapplying Vc = 140 V under the pressure
2 εAc 4(d − zm )2 A2c Pc = 126 kPa. Note that the responses of the flow are approximately 30 µs
for both cases.
The state equations for the system, therefore, are
qc of the capacitance measurement. The difference in switching
ṗec = Vc − Rec q̇c − (5a) time between the simulation results of the flow rate and the
Cec
pec capacitance measurements is due to an additional RC delay by
q̇c = (5b) intrinsic electrical resistance and parasitic capacitance of the
Iec
valve and measurement system. The additional RC delay of
Vc
ṗf c = Pc − bf c V̇c − (6a) the system is on the same order of magnitude in time as the
Cf c fluid response. Therefore, we can expect the gas-flow switching
pf c
V̇c = (6b) response in the fabricated microvalve to be faster than the
If c capacitance data shows.
ṗm = Fc − bmc żm − kmc zm (7a)
pm
żm = (7b) VI. C ONCLUSION
Im
In summary, this paper describes the design and operation
where bf c = 6µdio /π(d − zm )3 (dio + 0.5(di + do )), If c = of a bidirectional electrostatic microvalve that utilizes touch-
ρa/Ac , d is the displacement between the electrodes, di and mode capacitance actuation and pneumatic balancing ports. The
do are the diameters of the inlet and outlet ports, respectively, valve opens and closes within 50 µs for applied pressures of up
dio is the distance between them, a is the side length of the to 126 kPa. Lifetime tests show that the valve can operate for
membrane, and µ is the viscosity of the fluid [26], [27]. 47 000 000 cycles before failure. Detailed analysis for the flow
One can solve (1)–(7) simultaneously to calculate the be- rate illustrates that damping is less when the valve is opened
havior of the system. We have done so by treating the various than when it is closed, due to squeeze film damping between
capacitances as variables. By fitting the electrical capacitance the membrane and valve-closing electrode. For both cases, the
Cec to the measured ones in Figs. 9 and 10, the system outputs valve is likely to switch faster than 50 µs considering the
including the flow rate V̇c can be obtained. Fig. 11 shows additional RC constant of the valve and measurement system.
simulation results of the flow rates V̇c when the valve is opened
or closed by removing and reapplying Vc = 140 V under a
pressure Pc = 126 kPa. The model predicts that the fluid flow ACKNOWLEDGMENT
should show an overshoot when the valve opens since the Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
inertia of the membrane and the fluid entering through port A expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not
causes the membrane to extend into the valve-opening electrode necessarily reflect the views of the Defense Advanced Projects
cavity beyond its steady-state position. However, when the Research Agency, or the U.S. Air Force.
valve closes, viscous damping increases when the valve zips
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Byunghoon Bae was born in Jeonju, Korea, in 1973.
He received the B.S. degree in control and instru-
mentation engineering from Kwangwoon University,
Seoul, Korea, in 1996, the M.S. degree from Pohang
University of Science and Technology, Gyungbuk,
Korea, in 1999, and the Ph.D. degree in mechatronics
from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technol-
ogy, Gwangju, Korea, in 2004.
During his Ph.D. degree, he was a Visiting
Scholar with the University of Illinois at Urbana–
Champaign, Urbana, in order to conduct micro-
electromechanical-system collaboration research under the supervision of
Profs. M. A. Shannon and K. Park. He was also a Senior Researcher and
Visiting Researcher in EM4SYS and Micromechatronics Research Center,
respectively. Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the
Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois
at Urbana–Champaign. His research interests include microfabrication, elec-
trostatic/electromagnetic microactuators, device integration, and microgas
sensors.
Jeahyeong Han was born in Pusan, Korea, in 1974.
He received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineer-
ing from Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea, in
2000 and the M.S. degree in aerospace engineering
from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in
2003. He is currently working toward the Ph.D.
degree in mechanical engineering at the University
of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana.
His research interests include microgas valve and
electrostatic microgas pump and capacitive pressure
sensors.
Richard I. Masel received the M.S. degree
in chemical engineering from Drexel University,
Philadelphia, PA, in 1973.
Since 1978, he has been with the University of
Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, where he is
currently a Professor of chemical and biomolecular
engineering and electrical and computer engineering
with the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering. He has worked on kinetics and catalysis
and, more recently, fuel cells, microchemical sys-
tems, and microelectromechanical systems. He has
helped found Tekion, a developer of fuel cells for portable electronics, in 2003,
where he served for three years as Chief Technical Officer before stepping down
to the position of Chief Technical Advisor. Recently, he and M. A. Shannon
founded Cbana Laboratories, a developer of microfluidic products.
Mark A. Shannon received the B.S., M.S., and
Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the
University of California, Berkeley, in 1989, 1991,
and 1993, respectively.
He is currently the James W. Bayne Professor of
mechanical science and engineering with the Depart-
ment of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Uni-
versity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana,
and is also currently the Director of a National
Science Foundation Science and Technology Center,
the WaterCAMPWS, which is a multiple university
and government laboratory center for advancing the science and engineering of
materials and systems for revolutionary improvements in water purification for
human use. He is also currently the Director of the Micro-Nano-Mechanical
Systems (MNMS) Laboratory. His current research includes fabrication of
micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems, microscale fuel cells and gas
sensors, microchemical reactors and microcombustors, and micronanofluidic
sensors for biological fluids, and he is heavily involved in studying micro-
nanoscale transport and systems for sensing and purification of water.
Dr. Shannon is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.