Ion drag electrohydrodynamic (EHD) micro-pumps under a pulsed voltage

The use of pulsed voltages to improve the performance of an Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) micropump with HFE7100 as the working fluid was investigated. The micropump consisted of 100 planar electrode pairs that were embedded along the bottom wall of a 100 μm high microchannel. The pressure generation was measured at different operating pulse voltage parameters. An optimum pulse repetition rate and duty cycle for the pump geometry and fluid was found for maximum static pressure. The maximum pressure at the optimum pulse repetition rate was 75% greater than the average of the pressures generated at the two DC voltage levels.