Piezoelectric micropumps: state of the art review

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of problems and some research gaps for better understanding of piezoelectric micropump studies. Micropumps have important and diverse application areas in health and engineering applications. In recent years, researchers have carried out simulations, analytical and experimental studies to develop these technologies with different methods for the same purpose. It has been determined that piezoelectric micropumps as MEMS devices have an effective deep interest. It is worth mentioning that piezoelectric material has been considered by researchers as an attractive actuator due to its high-performance, potential cost and design convenience. This paper comprehensively reviews the studies that bring innovations in the literature of piezoelectric micropumps. Analytical characterization and modeling procedures studied by various scientists in the field of the piezoelectric actuators are also presented in detail. The analytical section will mainly focus on the studies related to the static and dynamic behaviours of circular piezoelectric actuators. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of the various components used to fabricate micropumps have been investigated according to the available information in the literature. Consequently, this review enables researchers a useful reference on piezoelectric micropump parameters such as modeling, flow rate, shape control, geometry, and size optimization for key engineering applications.