Integrated surface-micromachined mass flow controller

An integrated surface-micromachined mass flow controller (MFC) that consists of an electrostatically actuated microvalve and a thermal flow sensor is presented here. With a unique design and utilizing a multilayer Parylene process, the active microvalve and the flow sensor are integrated onto a single chip to perform closed-loop flow control. Sensitivity of the flow sensor is 55 μV/(μ/L/min) for airflow and 12.2 μV/(nL/min) for water. The valve is actuated with a 10 kHz AC signal and an applied pressure of 21 kPa can be sealed with an actuation voltage of 200 V_peak (±200 V). For flow control, both Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and actuation voltage adjustment are demonstrated. PWM shows better performance in terms of controllability and linearity.