The micro pump system which releases the neuro-transmitter as an artificial synapse.

本研究的目的是开发一种人工突触，即模仿突触在神经系统中的信号传递机制的人机界面。人工突触是一种将神经递质喷射到突触膜上受体的微泵。我们选择了两种泵送机制。一种是由静电能驱动的泵。另一种是由振动能量驱动的泵。针对静电驱动泵存在的电解和能耗高两大问题，研制了压电泵和双压电泵作为利用振动能量的泵。两种泵都有一个小腔体，一侧被聚合物膜覆盖。这种膜有许多微小的通道，神经递质可以通过这些通道进入人体并进行融合。当驱动连接到腔体另一端的压电盘或双压电圆盘时，发射机的扩散速度显著提高。因此，这些泵可以通过改变驱动电压和占空比来控制变送器的释放速度。该压电泵可以将释放速度从基本速度的1倍改变到8.7倍。另一方面，双压片泵可以将其从基本转速的1倍改变到60倍。因此，双压片泵是人工突触系统中最有前途的微泵装置。

The purpose of this study is to develop an artificial synapse, i. e., a man-machine interface which mimics the signal transmission mechanism of the synapse in the nervous system. The artificial synapse is a kind of micro pump which ejects the neurotransmitter to the receptors in the membrane of the synapse.We selected two pumping mechanism. One was a pump which driven by the electrostatic energy. The other was a pump which driven by the vibration energy. The electrostatic driven pump had two problems, i. e., electrolysis and high energy consumption.As the pump which use the vibration energy, a piezoelectric pump and a bimorph pump were developed. Both pumps have a small chamber which covered by the polymer membrane at one side. The membrane has many tinY tunnels through which the neurotransmitter can pass and defuse into the body. When the piezoelectric disk or bimorph disk which attached to the other end of the chamber was actuated, the diffusion speed of the transmitter was remarkably increased. Therefore these pumps can control the release speed of the transmitter by changing the driving voltage and the duty factor. The piezoelectric pump can change the release speed from I to 8.7 times of that of basic speed. On the other hand, the bimorph pump can change it from 1 to 60 times of that of basic speed. It is concluded that the bimorph pump is the most promising device for the micro pump of the artificial synapse system.