Cracking pressure control of parylene checkvalve using slanted tensile tethers

Abstract

MEMS check valves with fixed cracking pressures are important in micro-fluidic applications where the pressure, flow directions and flow rates all need to be carefully controlled. This work presents a new surface-micromachined parylene check valve that uses residual thermal stress in the parylene to control its cracking pressure. The new check valve uses slanted tethers to allow the parylene tensile stress to apply a net downward force on the valving seat against the orifice. The angle of the slanted tethers is made using a gray-scale mask to create a sloped sacrificial photoresist with the following tether parylene deposition. The resulted check valves have both the cracking pressures and flow profiles agreeable well with our theoretical analysis.