Electronic Weapon Electrodes with Spreading Structures
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electronic weapons experience high current densities at the electrode tip, leading to discomfort and potential trauma, while struggling to distribute current effectively across the target's skin, which can result in inefficient locomotion inhibition.
Innovation Solution
The development of electrodes with binding, coupling, and spreading structures that deploy filaments and conductive materials to distribute current density across the target's skin, reducing electric field flux at the tip and enhancing conductivity at the skin surface, thereby inhibiting locomotion without causing blunt impact trauma.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional electrodes with sharp barbed tips are used to penetrate and lodge in the target, then mechanical coupling and positioning are improved, but current density at the electrode tip becomes excessively high causing discomfort and potential trauma
Solution Approach 1:
The electrode is divided into distinct functional segments: a penetration tip for mechanical coupling and a separate spreading structure with conductive material for current distribution. This segmentation allows the tip to perform its mechanical function while the spreading structure handles current distribution, preventing excessive current density at the tip.
Solution Approach 2:
A spreading structure acting as an intermediary element is introduced between the electrode tip and the target skin. This intermediary distributes the current over a larger area of the skin surface, reducing the current density that would otherwise concentrate at the sharp tip while maintaining effective electrical coupling.
2Reliability
If conventional electrodes concentrate current at the sharp tip for effective penetration, then mechanical coupling is achieved, but current distribution across the target's skin becomes inefficient for locomotion inhibition
Solution Approach 1:
Different parts of the electrode are given different functional properties: the tip is sharp for penetration while the spreading structure contains conductive material optimized for current distribution. This local differentiation of properties allows each segment to perform its specific function optimally - mechanical coupling at the tip and efficient current distribution across the skin at the spreading structure.
3Power
If high field strengths and current densities are maintained at the electrode tip for effective stimulus delivery, then stimulus signal transmission is improved, but risk of trauma and discomfort increases
Solution Approach 1:
The spreading structure with conductive material serves as an intermediary that delivers the stimulus signal to a larger area of the skin. This maintains adequate stimulus strength for effective locomotion inhibition while distributing the electrical field over a broader area, thereby reducing the peak field strength and current density that would cause trauma or discomfort at a concentrated point.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively reduces current density at the electrode tip and increases it at the target's skin, providing efficient locomotion inhibition with reduced risk of trauma, ensuring effective and controlled stimulus delivery.
Implementation Method 1
The shaft includes a coupling structure including a locale. The locale electrically couples the current through the target... enhancing conductivity at the skin surface
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic weapon with an installed deployment unit, from which at least one tethered electrode is launched, provides a stimulus current through a target to inhibit locomotion by the target. The wire tether, also called a filament, conducts the stimulus current. The one or more electrodes, according to various aspects of the present invention, perform one or more of the following functions in any combination: binding the filament to the electrode, deploying the filament from the deployment unit, coupling the electrode to the target, and distributing a current density with respect to a region of target tissue and/or a volume of target tissue. For an electrode that includes a body and a spear, the spear may be implemented with conductive rings or with materials that include integrated conductive and insulative substances (e.g., conductive fibers in insulative composite material). Relatively high electric field flux density at a tip of the spear may be reduced or avoided by practice of the invention.