Microengineered Devices

Optimizing the efficiency of droplet formation, disintegration and stabilization is the domain of microengineered devices. Here, micromixers, optimized high-pressure homogenizer nozzles and specific microfluidic devices such as microchannels are under investigation. 

J.J. Yao, RF MEMS from a device perspective (topical review), J. Micromechanics Microengineering 10, 2000, R9-R38. 

EMM can also be effectively utihzed for fabrication of several of microfeatures for a wide range of microengineering applications such as fuel processing, aerospace, heat transfer, microfluidics, and biomedical applications. These microdevices have to often withstand high stresses at elevated temperatures during their service in different applications such as microcombustors, electrochemical reactions required at elevated temperatures in microreactors, and also in microthermal devices. For biomedical applications, microcomponents are to be made of biocompatible materials and... 

Surface modification of poly(methyl methacrylate) used in the fabrication of microanalytical devices. Anal Chem 72(21) 5331-5337 9. Lahann J, Choi IS, Lee J, Jensen KF, Langer R (2001) A new method toward microengineered surfaces based on reactive coating. Angew Chem Int Ed 40(17) 3166-3169... 

A desktop chemical factory (DCF) can be deployed as a pilot plant to produce a small scale of chemicals. Many patents on novel microreactors and microengineering processes related with the DCF system have been published. Although one of the earliest patents on new micro structured device was proposed in 1977, the number of patents has been consistently increased from the early 1990s [14]. The main contents of these patents were the micro-fabrication and assembly of device, tabletop systems, fluidic platforms, united system, and process controls. Most of the patents were focused on how to control microreaction processes. 

M. A. Eddings, M. A. Johnson, and B. K. Gale, "Determining the optimal PDMS-PDMS bonding technique for microfluidic devices," Journal of Micromechanical Microengineering, vol. 18, p. 067001,2008. 

A novel microengineered instrument with a rather different planar electrode layout has been proposed by Muller [3]. Figure Id shows the device, which uses the microwave ion source described earlier and electrostatic filtering. This time, however, mass selection is based on the filtering action provided by the interaction between the ion beam and a three-phase travelling electrical field, which is created by a periodic electrode structure fed by suitably phased drive signals. 

Metz S, Trautmann C, Bertsch A, Renaud P (2004) Polyimide micro-fluidic devices with integrated nanoporous filtration areas manufactured by micromachining and ion track technology. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering 14 324-331. 

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