Integrated, microminiature electric to fluidic valve

Abstract

There is disclosed herein an apparatus for converting control signals of an electrical or optical nature of any other type or signal which may be converted to a change of temperature of a fixed volume of material trapped in a chamber to flexure of a membrane forming one wall of the chamber. Typically the device is integrated onto a silicon wafer by anisotropically etching a trench into said wafer far enough that a thin wall of silicon remains as the bottom wall of the trench. In some embodiments, polyimide is used as the material for the membrane. The trench is then hermetically sealed in any one of a number of different ways and the material to be trapped is either encapsulated during the sealing process or later placed in the cavity by use of a fill hole. Typically, a resistor pattern is etched on the face of a pyrex wafer used as a top for the trench to form the cavity. When current is passed through this resistor, the material in the cavity is heated, its vapor pressure increases and expansion occurs. This causes the flexible wall to flex outward. This outward flex movement may then be used to either shut off a fluid flow path, or be sensed in some manner when using the device as a transducer. Typically, a fluid passageway having a nozzle aperture surrounded by a sealing surface is photolithographically etched into a third wafer. This third wafer is then bonded to the first wafer such that the sealing surface is adjacent to the membrane such that when expansion in the cavity occurs, the membrane flexes until it contacts the sealing surface and shuts off fluid flow through the nozzle aperture.