| There is growing demand in the fields of semiconductor manufacturing and biotechnology to reliably generate repeatable, uniform, picoliter-size fluid droplets. Such droplets can be generated using MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) technology. We propose 2-D micromachined microdroplet ejector arrays for environmentally benign deposition of photoresist and other spin-on materials, such as low-k and high-k dielectrics used in integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing. Direct deposition of these chemicals will reduce waste and production cost. These ejectors are chemically compatible with the materials used in IC manufacturing, and do not harm fluids that are heat or pressure sensitive. Moreover, these ejectors are attractive to biomedicine and biotechnology for droplet generation in applications such as printing of DNA or protein assays and drug testing.; Two novel methods for generating millions of droplets per second using acoustically actuated 2-D micromachined microdroplet ejector arrays will be presented. First, membrane based 2-D micromachined ejector arrays will be introduced. Each element of a membrane based 2-D ejector array consists of a flexurally vibrating circular membrane on one face of a cylindrical fluid reservoir. The membrane has an orifice at the center. A piezoelectric transducer generating ultrasonic waves, located at the open face of the reservoir, actuates the membrane and droplets are ejected through the membrane orifice. The ejectors operated most efficiently at 1.2 MHz and generated 3--7 mum diameter droplets. Second, acoustic focus based 2-D micromachined ejector arrays will be demonstrated. The radiation pressure associated with the acoustic beam overcomes the surface tension force, and releases droplets into air in every actuation cycle. The ejectors operated most efficiently at 34.7 MHz, and generated 28 mum diameter droplets in both drop-on-demand and continuous modes of operation, as predicted by the finite element analysis. Photoresist, water, isopropanol, ethyl alcohol, and acetone were ejected from a 4 x 4 2-D micromachined ejector array. The theory of operation, fabrication and the experimental results obtained with novel acoustically actuated 2-D micromachined microdroplet ejector arrays will be presented. |
