Harold Barnard
Microfluidic Test System
During the summer of 2000, after my second year of high school, I worked at Albany NanoTech, testing MEMS microfluidic devices (mostly electro-statically actuated micro-valves).
I developed a novel, reusable method for packaging the valves, and providing electrical connections. The system consisted of a tiny, machined, gasket-sealed holder for the device, mounted on a PCB surrounded by a sealed acrylic chamber. For electrical connections, the device could be wire-bonded to bond pads on the PCB.
To control these arrays of valves, I created a 32-channel switching circuit for the power supply, and designed a computer interface to send signals to the valves. A pressure controller was used upstream, along with a mass flow meter downstream, to expose controlled pressurized gas to test the valves.