The invention relates to microvalves and to method of manufacturing them.
The miniaturization of valves has led to the development of microvalves which owing the low inertia of their moving parts and short operating displacements offer an extremely short operating times, a low wear rate and a small power requirement of their drive. Microvalves, whose valve structures may have dimensions in the micron range, are furthermore characterized by a low internal and external dead volume and the possibility of highly precise metering.
As long as such microvalves are equipped with conventional electromagnetic drives limits are set to the degree of miniaturization which are due to the difficulties in connection with the assembly of macroscopic components on structures produced using microtechniques. There have thus been plans to develop microvalves which are equipped with piezoelectric or magnetostrictive drives or with a bimetallic drive.
However, even with such drive designs the fitting of the drive to the rest of the valve structure involves substantial difficulties, which are an obstacle to the intended goal of economic manufacture using mass production methods.