A novel centrifugal miniature pump and its medical application

Abstract

A miniature pump based on a high precision machining technique is described. The working principle of the pump is centrifugal. The blades of the pump are driven by a micromotor to rotate at very high speed, so the fluids from the axial direction of the pump are thrown out to the tangential direction of the pump. The available back pressure of the pump is 0 to 10 kPa (1 mH/sub 2/O). Its highest flow rate is relatively very large, so by using throttle tubes of different length and different inner diameter, variable flow rates of less than 1 /spl mu/l/min and up to 100 ml/min can be achieved easily. It is of very useful in medical and other applications.