Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.P.

Bao Yeh

Dennis J Schloeman

Adel Jilani

Kenneth James Faase

Hang Liao

Galen H Kawamoto

Richard R Clark

James Richard Przybyla

James McKinnell

Arthur Piehl

Eric Lee Nikkel

Tony S Cruz-Uribe

Murali Chaparala

Eric L Nikkei

James Mckinnell

Arthur R Piehl

A firing circuit for a thermal inkjet-printing nozzle includes a heater resistor and a switch. The heater resistor heats ink to cause the ink to be ejected from the nozzle. The heater resistor has a first end and a second end, the second end connected to a ground. The switch controls activation of the heater resistor. The switch has a first end connected to a voltage source and a second end connected to the first end of the heater resistor. The switch operates in a constant current mode, such that an at least substantially constant current flows through the heater resistor upon activation.

Constant current mode firing circuit for thermal inkjet-printing nozzle

Systems, methodologies, and other embodiments associated with a micro-electrical-mechanical system (MEMS) Fabry-Perot interferometric device (FPID) are described. Fabricating a MEMS FPID may include fabricating a pixel plate and a reflector plate so a Fabry-Perot cavity is defined therebetween. Fabrication may include producing a capacitor plate that facilitates electrostatically moving the pixel plate. Fabrication may include producing electrical connections between plates and producing circuitry to control plate voltages to facilitate creating an electrostatic force between plates. The MEMS FPID may include stops fabricated from a conductive material and circuitry for maintaining the stops and plates at an electrical potential that will yield a zero electric field contact event.

Fabry-perot interferometric MEMS electromagnetic wave modulator with zero-electric field

A micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) device includes bottom and top capacitive plates, such that a capacitor is definable therebetween. A mechanism is electrostatically movably disposed between the bottom and top capacitive plates. One or more flexures are movably disposed between the bottom capacitive plate and the mechanism, and having distance stops between the bottom capacitive plate and the mechanism corresponding to maximum downward movement. The MEMS device includes one or more electrodes of the bottom capacitive plate corresponding to the flexures. Energizing different of the electrodes causes the flexures to move to different of the distance stops, causing the mechanism to move to different positions between the bottom and top capacitive plates.

MEMS device having distance stops

An electronic device for at least partially displaying a pixel of an image, the device comprising first and second reflectors defining an optical cavity therebetween, the optical cavity being selective of an electromagnetic wavelength at an intensity by optical interference, the device having a concentric control structure comprising at least an inner and an outermost electrode, the optical cavity being controlled only by the inner electrode.

Light modulator with concentric control-electrode structure

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Corvallis, OR, United States of America

Bao Yeh