Pneumatic gas regulator with cascaded PDMS seal valves

This paper presents for the first time the pneumatic gas regulator with cascaded polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) seal valves toward the miniaturization of the gas detection system. All PDMS gas regulator is fabricated through a soft lithography. The fabricated gas regulator is characterized under various operational conditions. The efficiencies of the static valve are estimated as a function of the introduced gas pressures. The valve efficiency of three valves is much higher that one of the single valve. Either when the gas input pressure is relatively smaller or when the control pressure for valves is higher, the valve efficiency is close to 100%.It will provide an effective method to control and rectify the highly pressurized gas by taking advantages of the cascaded rubber-seal valves. Moreover, PDMS gas regulator can be easily integrated with other essential components to develop the gas monitoring systems.