Development of electrolysis pump for subepidermal microperfusion system

Concentrations of biological substances are useful as indicators of physiological and pathological states. In our previous work, minimally invasive microperfusion needle which collects biological substances from subepidermal tissue had been developed. In this study, an electrolysis pump was developed as the pump which perfuses perfusate into microperfusion needle. Electrolysis pump is suitable for our wearable microperfusion system, because it requires simple structure and low power consumption. This pump consists of electrolyte chamber which contains interdigitated array electrodes, discharge liquid (perfusate) chamber and Parylene corrugated membrane between two chambers. When voltage is applied to the electrodes, gases are generated in electrolyte chamber and perfusate is discharged by pushing the corrugated membrane. The fabricated pump had enough function to discharge the discharge liquid at flow late of less than 5 μl/min.