Dosage of gases and liquids to the nearest nanoliter is a central and longstanding area of expertise at Fraunhofer EMFT, covering a broad range of applications – from medical technology through to industrial applications and consumer electronics.
Micropumps
Piezo-electrically powered micropumps are at the heart of micro dosing systems. The Fraunhofer EMFT team possesses extensive expertise and practical experience in the design of micropumps. On this basis, it is possible to adapt the technological requirements in terms of dosage precision, counterpressure resistance, size, energy consumption, particle resistance, bubble tolerance and free-flow protection to the application in question.
Fraunhofer EMFT has designed a portfolio of silicon and stainless steel micropumps for various areas of use. One main focus of the R&D activities in the area of silicon micropumps is further miniaturization. The aim here is to significantly reduce production costs, thereby facilitating access to the mass markets. The smallest silicon membrane pump currently available in the world, sized 3.5 x 3.5 x 0.6 mm3 , was developed at Fraunhofer EMFT. A key focus just now in the area of stainless steel micropumps is designing the micro dosing components. Here Fraunhofer EMFT cooperates closely with industry partners: the aim is for the latter to able to manufacture the components themselves in high volumes subsequent to the respective technology transfer.
Besides micropumpsthe EMFT competence field micro dosing consists of the sub-topics micro dosing components and microfluidics on foil substrates.