Hanyang University School of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering Professor Choi Sung-young and his research team, along with Pusan National University Professor Yang Seung-yun, and Pukyong National University Department of Medicine and Engineering undergraduate student Han Won (senior), developed a precision pump for portable microfluidics, and Mr. Han’s paper "Wind-up Precision Pump for Portable Microfluidics" was published in the SCI-level international academic journal Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical.

Microfluidics technology is used for disease diagnosis, cell experiments, new material development, new drug development, and fine particle production. For the operation of microfluidics device, precise syringe pumps are necessary, but there were limits on mobility and site applicability as syringe pumps are expensive, bulky, and use electricity.

The portable pump “PALM,” which is only a size of a palm, uses the theory of a wind-up clock. When the spring is wind-up one time, it can continuously pump the fluid for an hour maximum, and it shows accuracy and precision comparable to already commercialized precision pumps.

With this pump, the research team operated microfluidics device to generate microdroplets that contain radioactive matters and proved the pump’s functions through experiments confirming the anti-cancer effect of the microdroplets.