Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 12(59), p. 4895-4906, 2012
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This paper presents a novel gas microvalve design concept, in which a flow control gate is opened by a pneumatic pressure and closed by a shape memory alloy actuator, allowing large flow control. Two different design variations were fabricated using a novel wafer-level Au-Si eutectic bonding process for TiNi to silicon integration. The resulting microvalves demonstrate a record pneumatic performance per footprint area; a microvalve with a footprint of only 1 3.3 mm2 successfully controls a flow difference of 3100 sccm at a pressure drop of 70 kPa using a power of 0.35 W.