185 results about "Bimorph" patented technology

A piezoelectric device connected to a vibration source converts vibration energy to electrical current. A plurality of pairs of oppositely polarized piezoelectric wafers deflect to produce an electrical current. Each pair of wafers are arranged back-to-back and electrically joined together. The plurality of pairs of wafers are each connected to a set of micro-machined parts. Each pair of wafers form a bimorph, configured as a cantilevered beam attached to a set of parts to form an element. Each cantilevered beam has a mass weighted first end and is fixedly attached to one or more flexible sheaths on a second end. A plurality of elements form a cell unit. A plurality of cell units form an array. The electrical current produced varies by the number of elements per cell unit, and / or with the number of cell units per array.

A micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) switch formed on a substrate, the switch comprising a transmission line formed on the substrate, a substrate electrostatic plate formed on the substrate, and an actuating portion. The actuating portion comprises a cantilever anchor formed on the substrate and a cantilevered actuator arm extending from the cantilever anchor. Attraction of the actuator arm toward the substrate brings an electrical contact into engagement with the portions of the transmission line separated by a gap, thus bridging the transmission line gap and closing the circuit. In order to maximize electrical isolation between the transmission line and the electrical contact in an OFF-state while maintaining a low actuation voltage, the actuator arm is bent such that the minimum separation distance between the transmission line and the electrical contact is equal to or greater than the maximum separation distance between the substrate electrostatic plate and arm electrostatic plate.

A diaphragm air pump comprises a pump chamber, a diaphragm and one or more piezoelectric beams or bimorphs. Fluid flows into the pump chamber and then flows out of it, the diaphragm is provided within the pump chamber, and one or more central openings are formed in the diaphragm. One or more central check valves are provided in the central openings. The diaphragm is just bonded with piezoelectric beams, not fixed to the lower housing of the pump chamber in order to get large displacement. With the provided diaphragm air pump, it is possible to actively adjust the air quantity according to the requirement for fuel cell or a part-to-be-cooled, and it is also possible to reduce noise and power consumption compared with a conventional fan type cooler or air pumps.

An image stabilizer of the present invention is provided with a lens module 101 that holds a lens and an imaging element, an inner frame that turnably supports the lens module 101, and driving portion that turns the lens module 101 relative to the inner frame 11, with the driving portion including a bimorph 14. An image stabilizer thereby can be provided that allows the overall size and profile of an imaging apparatus to be reduced.

A micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) switch formed on a substrate, the switch comprising a transmission line formed on the substrate, a substrate electrostatic plate formed on the substrate, and an actuating portion. The actuating portion comprises a cantilever anchor formed on the substrate and a cantilevered actuator arm extending from the cantilever anchor. Attraction of the actuator arm toward the substrate brings an electrical contact into engagement with the portions of the transmission line separated by a gap, thus bridging the transmission line gap and closing the circuit. In order to maximize electrical isolation between the transmission line and the electrical contact in an OFF-state while maintaining a low actuation voltage, the actuator arm is bent such that the minimum separation distance between the transmission line and the electrical contact is equal to or greater than the maximum separation distance between the substrate electrostatic plate and arm electrostatic plate.

A diaphragm air pump comprises a pump chamber, a diaphragm and one or more piezoelectric beams or bimorphs. Fluid flows into the pump chamber and then flows out of it, the diaphragm is provided within the pump chamber, and one or more central openings are formed in the diaphragm. One or more central check valves are provided in the central openings. The diaphragm is just bonded with piezoelectric beams, not fixed to the lower housing of the pump chamber in order to get large displacement. With the provided diaphragm air pump, it is possible to actively adjust the air quantity according to the requirement for fuel cell or a part-to-be-cooled, and it is also possible to reduce noise and power consumption compared with a conventional fan type cooler or air pumps.

A sensing system, sensing method, and method of producing a sensing system capable of providing a cumulative measurement capability, such as in the form of a RFID tag capable of measuring cumulative heat and humidity for continuous monitoring of storage and shipping conditions of various goods. The system includes integrated circuitry and a plurality of sensing elements, preferably having cantilevered bimorph beams. Each sensing element is responsive to an environmental condition so as to deflect toward and away from open contacts in response to changes in the environmental condition. Each sensing element produces a digital output when it contacts and closes its open contacts. The integrated circuitry interfaces with the sensing elements so that the digital outputs of the sensing elements are processed to generate a system output of the sensing system.

A device for the positioning of fiber optic output including a base having a hole disposed at a midpoint thereof, a collar having an opening at a midpoint, a plurality of bimorph actuators, each actuator connected to an outer side surface of the base and located at opposite ends, a plurality of flexible beams, each having a first end connected to the collar and a second end connected to a bimorph actuator, a flexible tube inserted in the hole, where a bottom end of the tube is cantilevered at a bottom of the base and a top end of the tube is inserted in the opening of the collar, and a fiber optic embedded in the flexible tube.

An equivalent to the spatial separation either side of a nominal median plane that is inherent in a bimorph (with one piezoelectric layer on one side, and the second on the other side of the plane) is attained by structurally shaping the cross-section of a simple, single piezoelectric layer (11) such that it has a multiplicity of piezoelectric portions arranged in two generally-planar groups one either side of a median plane, so that any dimension change undergone by a portion on one side of that plane will tend to bend the whole device in the opposite direction to the same sense dimension change undergone by a portion on the other side of that plane. The simple, single layer acts as though it were a bimorph if elongate and beam-like, bending along its length, one end moving up / down, or back / forth, relative to the other but with any need for an internal, electrode.

The invention discloses a piezoelectric ceramic flapping-wing-type robot. The piezoelectric ceramic flapping-wing-type robot comprises a robot body support frame, robot wings, a piezoelectric driver, a driving electric cable, a transmission amplifying mechanism and driving feet, wherein the robot wings are based on a bionic design and are similar to a dipster hoverfly in shape; when the robot walks on land, a piezoelectric ceramic sheet is selected as the piezoelectric driver, and the piezoelectric ceramic sheet and a single-bent-end transmission amplifying mechanism form the driving feet; the driving electric cable inputs two common grounding sine wave signals for respectively driving the two driving feet, and the robot is driven to do controllable plane motion by utilizing a resonant oscillation principle. When the robot flies in the sky, the driving feet are taken down; a piezoelectric ceramic bimorph element is used as the piezoelectric driver to input a driving voltage signal; by a four-connecting-rod transmission mechanism, the oscillation is amplified and is converted into flapping of wings, thereby driving the robot body to fly. The robot is simple, light and convenient, and has certain adaptability to the environment.

The invention discloses a bipolar two-dimensional fully flexible high-precision servo platform, which comprises a base, a macro moving platform, first and second voice coil motors, a micro moving platform, first and second bimorphs, first and second displacement sensors and a controller connected with the voice coil motors, the bimorphs and the displacement sensors. The servo platform provided by the invention adopts a fully flexible structure and is formed by connecting the macro moving platform and the micro moving platform in series, and the macro moving platform and the micro moving platform respectively adopt a parallel structure, are respectively and directly driven by the voice coil motors and the bimorphs, move by relying on the transmission of flexible hinge structure based macro and micro moving platform guide rails, do not need to be assembled and lubricated, have no gaps and friction, and make large-stroke, high-speed and high-precision movement while ensuring movement decoupling and improving carrying capacity. The first and second displacement sensors are respectively used for measuring displacement signals of the servo platform in X and Y directions and feeding back to the controller to realize the full closed loop control of the servo platform.

This invention concerns improvements relating to a deformable-mirror holder for holding a mirror in a desired position, to within accepted tolerances, even whilst the mirror is deforming or in a deformed state. More particularly but not exclusively, this invention relates to a holder for a bimorph mirror. A deformable mirror holder (31) is provided comprising a body with a receiving portion for receiving a deformable mirror (30), and wherein the receiving portion is defined by a passive flexible support structure (41) such that, in use, to the support structure provides a supporting surface to the mirror. This invention extends to a deformable mirror and a deformable mirror holder as described above.

A neural probe and method of fabricating same are provided. The probe comprises a plurality of frames connected to each other and to a substrate by respective bimorphs. A probe base is connected by another bimorph to the frames. A probe tip extends from the probe base. The probe can achieve a large vertical motion and out-of-plane curling. The probe can operate according to three modes. The first mode pertains to a large-signal motion for tuning in single-unit neuronal activity. The second pertains to a small-signal motion with lock-in amplifier that increases SNR. The third pertains to burst small-signal motion for clearing tissue responses. Fabrication of a neural probe begins with a processed CMOS chip. Post-CMOS processing incorporates self-aligned selective nickel plating and sacrifices two aluminum layers. The fabrication technique produces a neural probe in which the sensing elements are in close proximity to CMOS circuitry. The fabrication technique obviates the need for post-CMOS masks, alignment, or assembly.

The present invention relates generally to a High Efficiency MEMS Micro-Vibrational Energy Harvester (μVEH) having a thick beam bimorph architecture. The disclosed architecture is capable of producing a voltage of sufficient magnitude such that the requirement to connect a plurality of harvesters in series to produce an adequate voltage magnitude is eliminated.

A high-fill-factor and large-aperture tip-tilt micromirror array is disclosed. Electrothermal actuation can be used to obtain a large scan range, and the actuation engine can be hidden underneath the mirror plate for high fill factor. In one embodiment, inverted-series-connected (ISC) bimorph actuators can be used to achieve tilt and piston scanning. Embodiments can be used to implement optical phased array technology for steering active and passive electro-optical systems based on MEMS mirrors.

An apparatus comprising a substrate; and a platform elevated above the substrate and supported by curved flexures. The curvature of said flexures results substantially from variations in intrinsic residual stress within said flexures. In one embodiment the apparatus is a deformable mirror exhibiting low temperature-dependence, high stroke, high control resolution, large number of degrees of freedom, reduced pin count and small form-factor. Structures and methods of fabrication are disclosed that allow the elevation of mirror segments to remain substantially constant over a wide operating temperature range. Methods are also disclosed for integrating movable mirror segments with control and sense electronics to a produce small-form-factor deformable mirror.

An apparatus comprising a substrate; and a platform elevated above the substrate and supported by curved flexures. The curvature of said flexures results substantially from variations in intrinsic residual stress within said flexures. In one embodiment the apparatus is a deformable mirror exhibiting low temperature-dependence, high stroke, high control resolution, large number of degrees of freedom, reduced pin count and small form-factor. Structures and methods of fabrication are disclosed that allow the elevation of mirror segments to remain substantially constant over a wide operating temperature range. Methods are also disclosed for integrating movable mirror segments with control and sense electronics to a produce small-form-factor deformable mirror.

The invention discloses a self-adaptive optical fiber coupler or collimator control system capable of bilaterally receiving and transmitting laser beams. The self-adaptive optical fiber coupler or collimator control system comprises a coupling or collimating lens, a connecting sleeve, an optical fiber end face positioner, a first optical fiber, a three-port optical fiber circulator, a second optical fiber, a third optical fiber, a laser, a photoelectric detector, a control platform and a high-voltage amplifier, wherein the optical fiber end face positioner comprises a flexible crossed beam, a bimorph driver, a damping material, a boss and a fixed seat. Due to the adoption of the self-adaptive optical fiber coupler or collimator control system, the light beam arriving angle errors caused by factors such as atmosphere turbulence, mechanical vibration, thermal distortion and the like can be corrected adaptively; and meanwhile, according to the reversibility principle of a light path, the transmitting angle correction of emitted collimating light beams is also realized. The self-adaptive optical fiber coupler or collimator control system has an important application prospect in the field of optical fiber-based laser space application, such as free space laser communication, laser precise positioning and laser radar.

An electromechanical Braille cell assembly includes a plurality of parallel bimorph reeds. A first plurality of bimorph reeds is mounted to a first side of a printed circuit board by a first plurality of clips and a second plurality of bimorph reeds is mounted to a second side of the printed circuit board by a second plurality of clips. A frame has a top wall, a bottom wall, a first side wall in the form of an angle wall and a second side wall in the form of a flat wall. Pinholes are formed in the angle wall to accommodate Braille pins and the flat wall is slotted to accommodate a plurality of printed circuit boards. A monolithic cap covers all of the Braille pins. Pinholes formed in the cap receive the respective tips of the Braille cells when actuated bimorph reeds cause displacement of the Braille pins.

The present invention is directed to scanning probes in which a cantilever contacts a stylus via an integrated stylus base pad, and methods for fabricating such probes. The probe offer many advantages over other types of scanning probes with respect to eliminating the need for a soft, reflective coating in some applications and providing for the simple fabrication of sharp stylus tips, flexibility with respect to functionalizing the tip, and minimal thermal drift due to reduced bimorph effect. The advantage of these features facilitates the acquisition of high resolution images of samples in general, and particularly in liquids.

The Resettable Latching MEMS Temperature Sensor provides the capability of recording external temperature extremes without consuming electrical power. The device incorporates a thermal bimorph, contacts, latches, and actuators for device reset. The device can be designed, hardwired, or programmed to trigger at various temperature levels. The device can be fabricated in a simple micromachining process that allows its size to be miniaturized for embedded and portable applications. During operation, the device consumes no quiescent power. The device can be configured to close a circuit, switch an interrupt signal, or switch some other electrical trigger signal between devices at the time of a temperature extreme being reached, or it can be configured to latch and be polled at some time after the temperature limit has occurred.

An adaptive optics scanning laser opthalmoscopes is introduced to produce non-invasive views of the human retina. The use of dual deformable mirrors improved the dynamic range for correction of the wavefront aberrations compared with the use of the MEMS mirror alone, and improved the quality of the wavefront correction compared with the use of the bimorph mirror alone. The large-stroke bimorph deformable mirror improved the capability for axial sectioning with the confocal imaging system by providing an easier way to move the focus axially through different layers of the retina.

A sensing system, sensing method, and method of producing a sensing system capable of providing a cumulative measurement capability, such as in the form of a RFID tag capable of measuring cumulative heat and humidity for continuous monitoring of storage and shipping conditions of various goods. The system includes integrated circuitry and a plurality of sensing elements, preferably having cantilevered bimorph beams. Each sensing element is responsive to an environmental condition so as to deflect toward and away from open contacts in response to changes in the environmental condition. Each sensing element produces a digital output when it contacts and closes its open contacts. The integrated circuitry interfaces with the sensing elements so that the digital outputs of the sensing elements are processed to generate a system output of the sensing system.

A bimorph actuator has been found that uses commonly available piezoelectric material and is operational up to about 150° C. or one half of Curie temperature, in that it does not exhibit depolarization due to negative electric fields and / or elevated temperature. This result is accomplished by driving both piezoelectric materials with a positive electric field along the polarization direction.

An adaptive optics retina imaging system based on a bimorph deformable mirror mainly comprises two bimorph deformable mirrors, a Hartmann wavefront sensor (HWS), a CCD camera and a control system. The system is characterized in that the two bimorph deformable mirrors adopt different structures; one of the bimorph deformable mirrors has fewer unit numbers and is used for correcting large-amplitude defocus and astigmatism while the other one has more unit numbers and is used for correcting other higher order aberration with relatively small amplitude; the two deformable mirrors form a series connection structure in the lightpath. With the advantages of compact structure and large correcting value, the bimorph deformable mirror can greatly shrink the volume of the current system and provide greater correction capability; relatively low manufacturing cost of the bimorph deformable mirror can contribute to reduction of the cost of the system.

A bimorph actuator is driven by electrostrictive materials configured to change length in response to applied electrical field. A first electrostrictive material is positioned between a first electrode and a second electrode. A second electrostrictive material is positioned between a second electrode and a third electrode. The second electrostrictive material and the first electrostrictive material are attached to each other such that a differential change in their respective lengths results in a lateral motion. A first voltage source provides a voltage differential between the first electrode and the third electrode. A second variable voltage applied to the second electrode causes the length of the first electrostrictive material to lengthen when the second electrostrictive material shortens, and vice versa. A system of electrodes for the bimorph actuator and a method for actuating electrostrictive materials are also provided.

Micro-electromechanical devices include a temperature-compensation capacitor and a thin-film bulk acoustic resonator having a first terminal electrically coupled to an electrode of the temperature-compensation capacitor. The temperature-compensation capacitor includes a bimorph beam having a first electrode thereon and a second electrode extending opposite the first electrode. This bimorph beam is configured to yield an increase in spacing between the first and second electrodes in response to an increase in temperature of the micro-electromechanical device. This increase in spacing between the first and second electrodes leads to a decrease in capacitance of the temperature-compensation capacitor. Advantageously, this decrease in capacitance can be used to counteract a negative temperature coefficient of frequency associated with the thin-film bulk acoustic resonator, and thereby render the resonant frequency of the micro-electromechanical device more stable in response to temperature fluctuations.

An exciter for a panel-type loud speaker comprises a bimorph and a bimorph holding member. The bimorph comprises a plate member and a pair of piezoelectric ceramic layers, each formed on the opposite sides of the plate member. The bimorph holding member is holds one end of the bimorph and comprises a bimorph end holding portion for holding the one end of the bimorph, which comprises a three-layer embedded section embedding the pair of piezoelectric ceramic layers and the plate member sandwiched therebetween at the one end of the bimorph, and an extension embedded section in which an extension of the plate member is embedded, and a mounting protrusion protruding from the bimorph end holding portion, wherein a distal end of the mounting protrusion is connected to the diaphragm so that the bimorph is disposed on the diaphragm with a space interposed between the bimorph and the diaphragm.