Figure 3.

Piezoelectric actuator system for individual control of the all-glass valve. (a) The actuator system consists of three parts: a PC (with an installed graphic user interface (GUI)), a customized circuit board-based controller (with power and control signals), and a piezoelectric head; (b) Graphical pattern of activated valve locations; (c) Time-sequence-editing by the GUI; (d) Piezoelectric head with 110 piezoelectric units in an 11 × 10 array; (e) Fully assembled image of piezoelectric head, microfluidic device, and acrylic mounting jig; (f) Captured image from the demonstration of a word pattern displayed by the piezoelectric units.