For military applications, the availability of safe, disposable, and robust infusion pumps for intravenous fluid and drug delivery would provide a significant improvement in combat healthcare. To meet these needs, we have developed a miniature infusion prototype pump for safe and accurate fluid and drug delivery that is programmable, lightweight, and disposable. In this paper we present techniques regarding inter-digitated IPMCs and a scaleable IPMC that exhibits significantly improved force performance over the conventional IPMCs. The results of this project will be a low cost accurate infusion device that can be scaled from a disposable small volume liquid drug delivery patch to disposable large volume fluid resuscitation infusion pumps for trauma victims in both the government and private sectors of the health industry.

Date Published: 5 April 2007
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 6524, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2007, 65241U (5 April 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.716410

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6524:
Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2007
Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Editor(s)