Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 9.26
Exploded view of the two double-diaphragm minipumps equipped with syn-
thetic muscles and an inductive receiving coil.
FIGURE 9.27
Cutaway view of the double-diaphragm minipumps equipped with synthetic
muscles and an inductive receiving coil.
FIGURE 9.28
A fabricated double-diaphragm minipump equipped with IPMNC diaphragms.
Based on the preceding designs, a number of minipumps with rectangular and
circular chamber configurations were built with flexing IPMNC diaphragms. The
IPMNC diaphragms were sandwiched between two 24-K gold-plated ring electrodes,
which were circular or rectangular. The ring electrodes were cut from circular copper
tubing or rectangular copper channel tubing and then gold plated with 24-K gold.
The chambers were also equipped with gold-plated armature windings to act as
receiving inductive coils to energize the minipump in case it was implanted in a
patient's body or a remote location not easily accessible to a direct source of electricity.
Figure 9.28 depicts a double diaphragm minipump for which a series of exper-
iments for pumping characteristics were conducted.
Test results were obtained for this first generation of medipumps. The housing
of the pump was PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate, i.e., Plexiglas) and the synthetic
