Microdevices enabled by rarefied flow phenomena

In this paper we review emerging applications of rarefied gas dynamics for microscale sensing, actuation, power generation and thermal management. The performance of conventional fluidic devices such as pumps, combustors and heat engines drops with the decrease of characteristic length scale due to greater viscous and heat transfer losses. However, the close coupling between non-equilibrium gas, liquid and solid-state transport and electromagnetic phenomena enables unconventional micro/nanodevices. We specifically consider three distinct examples of devices with non-equilibrium gas-phase transport based on i) very large thermal gradients; ii) increased capillary forces; iii) high electric fields – all of which are generated by scaling down device size by using nano/micromanufacturing techniques.