Characteristics of a microfluidic single-gate oscillator

Microfluidic chips are considered to be one of the main controllers for future pneumatic flexible actuators. An oscillator is the most direct way to generate a pressure cycle signal, which drives an actuator to reciprocate. Based on the principle of a fluid equivalent circuit and membrane microvalve structure, the working characteristics of a microfluidic single-gate oscillator are described in this paper. This device can produce an oscillation pressure signal at frequencies over 80 Hz with a certain frequency stability. The results show that the operating characteristics of the oscillator are affected by the flow resistance, air cavity and input pressure. This research also provides a new potential application method for robot control in environments unfriendly to electronic devices, such as strong electric fields, strong magnetic fields and underwater environments.