Explosive vaporization in microenclosures

The explosive vaporization of a liquid above planar microheaters induces a fast increase of pressure that is exploited in many thermally driven actuators in MEMS components such as ink jet printer cartridges, pumps, valves and optical switches. Some of these components need to enclose the working fluid as it is the case of valves in which the heated liquid is separated from the flow that it regulates by a flexible membrane. To achieve a better insight into the thermodynamic processes involved, the present work investigates experimentally an enclosed microsystem designed and fabricated for this purpose, composed of a small liquid volume (8 nL) heated by a electric pulse for 2 μs supplied to a planar microfabricated heater. During the heating, the temperature-induced change in resistance can be determined by imposing a defined current and measuring the voltage drop over the heater. While the chip is based on a silicon substrate with integrated platinum heaters and sensors, the structure enclosing the fluid (cavity and fluidic access to it) is made of a silicone elastomer, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). This transparent material is widely used in microfluidics and allows for flexible and transparent walls that can be deflected by increasing the pressure inside the cavity. To seal the system the inlet and the outlet were closed by blocking them with a metallic stab. In the present work we visualize vaporization of isopropanol in contact with a suddenly heated planar resistor for two different cavity heights, 150 μm and 16 μm. The rate of temperature rise of the thin liquid layer in contact with the heater is of the order of 107 K s−1 for a pulse duration of 2 μs. We compare bubble growth and collapse for the open and closed systems. Compared to the open system, the bubble growth in the closed system is considerably damped.