Micromachined toroidal planar inductors that have three different magnetic core structures have been designed, fabricated, and characterized for MEMS and power electronic applications. A plain ring core shows a high inductance value of 10 pH in a low frequency range below 2 kHz, whereas both a ring core with an air gap and a spiral type core show higher inductance values in a high frequency range of 2 kHz -1 MHz. The inductors have a low resistance value of -1.5 Q with total dimensions 4 mm x 1.5 mm x 120 pm.
In this paper, we describe the design, fabrication, and testing of a prototype microvalve which makes use of a novel magnetic microactuator. The completed device consists of three layers, with the bottom two layers making up the normally closed valve. The top layer (actuator) contains the flux generator on its top surface combined with Ni/Fe plated through holes for guiding the flux to the valve. The actuator and valve components are separately fabricated and then attached to form the completed device. Preliminary test results show that the valve is capable of controlling gas flow in the range of tens to hundreds of .tL/min. This device will, therefore, be useful in its target application, which is a microfluidic total analysis system Q.tTAS) that will require precise valving at moderate flow rates (about 100 .tL 1mm).
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