An efficient microfluidic pressure sensing structure optimization using microcantilever integration

Abstract

Abstract Microfluidic pressure sensors are extensively present in a wide range of applications such as wearable devices, drug detection, and many healthcare applications. Integrated microfluidic pressure sensors are highly desirable in many fields where it offers high sensitivity, non-toxicity, and high biocompatibility. In the present work, an integrated microfluidic pressure sensing mechanism is analyzed in a microfluidic device. The device is composed of poly dimethyl siloxane (PDMS) based material with a microcantilever of the same material integrated on one side of the microchannel. The pressure of fluid in the microchannel is measured by deflection generated on the PDMS microcantilever while the fluid is made to be drive-in. The pressure-based deflection measurement process is analyzed for different types of fluids and the geometry of microcantilevers. The designs for the microcantilevers are considered rectangular-shaped, T-shaped, and Pi-shaped cantilever. The modelling and analysis are done in the commercially available software tool COMSOL Multiphysics®. The results have shown that maximum deflection is achieved with a Pi-shaped microcantilever in fluid plasma (37.05 μm) and in water (30.98 μm) at 8000 μm/s fluid inlet velocity. This maximum deflection was found to be in cooperation with the pressure value at the channel inlet 125.1 Pa for Pi-microcantilever. The optimization is achieved for improved fluid pressure sensing with an integrated microcantilever, which reduces the device setup for fluid pressure analysis. The purpose of research and study is to control fluid pressure inside microfluidic channels, which can pave the way for efficient small setup cytometry and cell separation microfluidic devices.