Massively parallel microfluidic pump

A novel type of voltage-controlled pump based on electro-osmotic flow has been developed that uses massively parallel micromachined microfluidic channels to generate both high flow rates and high pressures. The approximately half-million microchannels have sub-micron cross-sections, and thus also function as a monolithically integrated microfilter with uniform pore size. This first generation device produces pressures of 5.5 kPa/V and flow rate of 0.054 mL/min/V/cm2. Such a small and light-weight, yet robust pump makes it useful, and often advantageous in a particularly broad array of applications and systems ranging from drug delivery to cooling microchips to filtration.