Implantable Micro Pump With Valve Control for Targeted Drug Delivery
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current micro pumps fail to detect human body conditions in real-time and deliver therapeutic drugs immediately and conveniently, especially for patients who need to carry medication or injection tools at all times, leading to inconvenience and potential harm from missed treatments.
Innovation Solution
A nanometer-processed micro pump implanted in human blood vessels, featuring a substrate with guiding channels, switching valves, a driving chip, and a micro-endoscope, which uses a flow-guiding-and-actuating unit to transport medicine fluid to target blood vessels upon external command, enabling real-time monitoring and drug delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a micro pump is designed to be implanted in human blood vessels, then the device can deliver therapeutic drugs immediately and conveniently, but the device size and complexity must be minimized to enable implantation
Solution Approach 1:
The micro pump is divided into multiple functional components including a body, drive means, valve means, and membrane, each fabricated using separate nanometer-scale semiconductor processing steps. This segmentation enables miniaturization while maintaining functional integrity, allowing the device to be implanted in blood vessels for convenient drug delivery.
Solution Approach 2:
The valve flap is formed integrally with the semiconductor plate, and the drive means is embedded within the pump body structure. This nested integration reduces overall device volume by eliminating separate components and interconnections, enabling the pump to fit within blood vessel dimensions while providing complete drug delivery functionality.
2Volume of moving object
If nanometer process is used to produce the micro pump, then the device can be miniaturized for implantation, but the manufacturing precision requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Mechanical fabrication methods are replaced with nanometer-scale semiconductor processing techniques including photolithography, etching, and thin-film deposition. These processes provide precise control over component dimensions and positioning, enabling miniaturization to implantable scales while maintaining manufacturing feasibility through established semiconductor industry capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The manufacturing approach transitions from macro-scale mechanical machining to nanometer-scale semiconductor processing parameters. This includes using light wavelengths in the nanometer range for photolithography, controlling film thickness at nanometer precision, and employing precise temperature and pressure control during fabrication, thereby achieving the required miniaturization with controllable precision.
3Productivity
If the micro pump includes multiple functional components (drive means, valve means, membrane), then the device can perform complete pump functions, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The drive means and valve means are integrated into a single semiconductor plate structure, with the valve flap formed as an integral part of the plate rather than a separate component. The membrane is bonded directly to the pump body, merging multiple functional elements into unified structures. This reduces component count and assembly complexity while maintaining complete pump functionality for effective fluid transport.
Solution Approach 2:
The semiconductor plate serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides the structural body of the pump, contains the drive means for membrane actuation, and incorporates the valve means for unidirectional flow control. This multi-functionality reduces the number of separate components needed, simplifying the overall device while enabling complete pump operation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The micro pump allows for real-time detection of body conditions and immediate delivery of therapeutic drugs to specific blood vessels, enhancing convenience and treatment efficacy by facilitating continuous fluid transport and positioning within the bloodstream.
Implementation Method 1
the flow-guiding-and-actuating unit is actuated to change the volume of the compressing chamber so as to transport fluid
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A
Figure 2B
AI summary
A micro pump is applied to be implanted into human's blood vessels and includes a substrate (1), a flow-guiding-and-actuating unit (2), plural switching valves (3, 3a, 3b, 3c), a driving chip (4) and a micro-mirror (5). The substrate (1) has plural guiding channels including an inlet channel (11), an outlet channel (12) and a branch channel (13). The flow-guiding-and-actuating unit (2) covers a compressing chamber (14), and is enabled to change the volume of the compressing chamber (14) so as to transport fluid. When a communication connector of the driving chip (4) receives an external command, the driving chip (4) enables the flow-guiding-and-actuating unit (2) and the micro-mirror (5), and controls the open/closed states of the switching valves (3, 3a, 3b, 3c) covering an outlet aperture (162) and a storage outlet (151), thereby the flow-guiding-and-actuating unit (2) drives the fluid medicine (6) from a storage chamber (15) to the outlet aperture (162), so as to deliver the fluid medicine (6) to a target blood vessel.