Eastman-kodak Company

Jeffrey I Hirsh

Joseph F Revelli, Jr

Alan C Nutt

Ravi Sharma

Douglas Robert Robello

Joseph Jech, Jr

Gilbert Allan Hawkins

Larry L Lapa

Edwin A Mycek

Stephen P Barry

Xin Wen

Zhihao Yang

Sharlene A Wilson

An electrostrictive micro-valve is provided for modulating a fluid flow through a cannula or other narrow liquid conduit. The micro-valve includes a valve body having a passageway for conducting a flow of fluid, a valve element formed from a piece of viscoelastic material and disposed in the passageway, and a control assembly coupled to the viscoelastic material for electrostatically controlling the shape of the material to open or close the passageway. The valve element has a flat lower side connected to an inner wall of the passage of the valve body, and an upper side which faces an opposing wall within the passageway. The control assembly includes a pair of electrodes disposed over the upper and lower sides of the valve element. The electrode facing the lower side of the element is patterned so that localized electrostatic forces are generated across the viscoelastic material when a voltage is applied across both electrodes. Localized electrostatic forces generate a sinusoidal ripple throughout the viscoelastic material forming the valve element whose peak portions act as obstructions throughout the valve body that partially or completely obstruct a fluid flow.

Electrostrictive valve for modulating a fluid flow

An electrostrictive micro-pump is provided for controlling a fluid flow through a cannula or other narrow liquid conduit. The micro-pump includes a pump body having a passageway for conducting a flow of fluid, a pump element formed from a piece of viscoelastic material and disposed in the passageway, and a control assembly coupled to the viscoelastic material for electrostatically inducing a peristaltic wave along the longitudinal axis of the pump element to displace fluid disposed within the pump body. The control assembly includes a pair of electrodes disposed over upper and lower sides of the pump element. The lower electrode is formed from a plurality of uniformly spaced conductive panels, while the upper electrode is a single sheet of conductive material. A switching circuit is provided for actuating the conductive panels of the lower electrode in serial, multiplex fashion to induce a peristaltic pumping action.

Electrostrictive micro-pump

An inkjet printer nozzle plate having a non-wetting surface of uniform thickness and an orifice wall of tapered contour, and method of making the nozzle plate. In the method a metal masking layer is deposited on a glass substrate, the masking layer having an opening therethrough for passage of light only through the opening. Next, a negative photoresist layer is deposited on the masking layer, the negative photoresist layer being capable of photochemically reacting with the light. A light source passes light through the substrate, so that the light also passes only through the opening in the form of a tapered light cone. This tapered light cone will define the tapered contour of a nozzle plate orifice wall to be formed. The negative photoresist layer photochemically reacts with the light only in the light cone to define a light-exposed region of hardened negative photoresist. The negative photoresist layer is thereafter developed to remove negative photoresist surrounding the light-exposed region, so as to define a column of negative photoresist extending into the opening. A layer of non-wetting material is then electroless deposited on the masking layer. A nozzle plate material is now electrodeposited on the non-wetting layer. Next, the column is removed by a solvent and the nozzle plate material having the non-wetting layer adhering thereto is released from the masking layer. In this manner, the nozzle plate having the non-wetting layer of uniform thickness and the orifice wall of tapered contour is made.

Method for forming a nozzle plate having a non-wetting surface of uniform thickness and an orifice wall of tapered contour, and nozzle plate

Continuous ink jet printing process

A mandrel for forming an inkjet printer nozzle plate having a non-wetting surface of uniform thickness and an orifice wall of tapered contour, and method of making the mandrel. A metal masking layer is deposited on a glass substrate, the masking layer having an opening therethrough for passage of light only through the opening. Next, a negative photoresist layer is deposited on the masking layer, the negative photoresist layer being capable of photochemically reacting with the light. A light source passes light through the substrate, so that the light also passes only through the opening in the form of a tapered light cone. This tapered light cone will define the tapered contour of a nozzle plate orifice wall to be formed. The negative photoresist layer photochemically reacts with the light only in the light cone to define a light-exposed region of hardened negative photoresist. The negative photoresist layer is thereafter developed to remove negative photoresist surrounding the light-exposed region, so as to define a column of negative photoresist extending into the opening. A layer of non-wetting material is then electroless deposited on the masking layer. A nozzle plate material is now electrodeposited on the non-wetting layer. Next, the column is removed by a solvent and the nozzle plate material having the non-wetting layer adhering thereto is released from the masking layer. In this manner, the nozzle plate having the non-wetting layer of uniform thickness and the orifice wall of tapered contour is made.

Mandrel for forming a nozzle plate having a non-wetting surface of uniform thickness and an orifice wall of tapered contour, and method of making the mandrel

A method for forming lenslets of a solid-state imager, includes providing a first etch-stop layer on a spacer layer formed on a substrate or layer(s) on a substrate; providing a patterned first photosensitive resin layer to form a first mask pattern; performing an etch transfer of the first mask pattern to the first photosensitive resin layer to form a first etch-stop mask pattern, and removing the first photosensitive resin layer; providing a transparent lenslet-forming layer on the spacer layer. The method further includes forming a second etch-stop layer on the transparent lenslet-forming layer to form a second mask pattern and patterning a second photosensitive resin layer on the second etch-stop layer wherein the second mask pattern corresponds to the lenslet array to be formed and wherein the lenslet array defined by the second mask pattern is aligned to the array of open regions of the first etch-stop mask pattern; transferring by etching the pattern of the second photosensitive resin layer to the second etch-stop layer to form a second etch-stop mask pattern; anisotropically plasma etching the transparent lenslet-forming layer according to the second etch-stop mask pattern; anisotropically plasma etching the spacer layer according to the first etch-stop mask pattern; isotropically etching to remove remaining portions of the first etch-stop layer forming the first etch-stop mask and portions of the second etch-stop layer forming the second etch-stop mask; and thermally reflowing the patterned transparent lenslet-forming layer to form the lenslets on the solid-state imager.

Dual mask pattern transfer techniques for fabrication of lenslet arrays

A device is described for a very low cost anti-aliasing filter to be used to suppress aliasing artifacts present in discretely sampled solid-state electronic imaging devices. This device includes a transparent substrate upon which a multiplicity of transparent phase spots are placed. The diameter and thickness of the transparent phase spots are designed in such a way to cause just the right amount of blurring to suppress the aliasing artifacts, yet render a reasonable sharp image for spatial frequencies below the sampling frequency of the imager. This suppression is further accomplished over a broad spectral range. The phase noise filter thus formed can be placed either in object space or in image space.

Phase-noise type broad spectral bandwidth optical low-pass anti-aliasing

An optical phase noise filter for use with an optical imaging system such as a solid-state imager or the like, including a transparent substrate; and a plurality of transparent spots randomly placed on the transparent substrate for producing a phase difference between a wavefront transmitted through the transparent spots and that portion of the transparent substrate other than the transparent spots to define an optical phase noise filter having a spatial sampling cut-off frequency and wherein the variance of the transparent spot to transparent spot distance between adjacent spots is minimized while maintaining the randomness of transparent spot placement.

Optical phase noise filter using randomly placed spots

A mandrel for forming a nozzle plate having orifices of precise size and location, and method of making the mandrel. The nozzle plate is formed by overcoating a substrate with a metal film. The film is covered with a photoresist material. Portions of the photoresist are exposed to light passing through a photomask having an annular light-transparent regions, of precise diameters and pitch. The photoresist is subjected to a developer bath which dissolves the photoresist exposed to the light, thereby revealing selected portion of the film. Next, an etchant is brought into contact with the film for etching-away the film so as to an annular opening in the film defining a column of precise diameter at the center of each opening. A new photoresist layer is then applied to the film. Portions of the new photoresist layer is exposed to light passing through a second photomask. The new photoresist material is then subjected to the developer which dissolves the new photoresist material to reveal the film beneath the photoresist and selected areas of the substrate. A second etchant is applied to create an annular recess extending into the substrate. The column resides at the center of the recess. This forms the nozzle plate mandrel. Next, a metal layer that will form the nozzle plate is deposited onto the film and grows into the recess to substantially fill the recess, except for the space occupied by the column. The finished nozzle plate is separated from the film/substrate structure to obtain orifices with precise diameters and pitch.

Mandrel for forming a nozzle plate having orifices of precise size and

In a method for forming lenslets which collect light and focus it onto photosensitive elements of an electronic imager includes providing a transparent lenslet-forming layer on a substrate or on layers on the substrate, (a) providing a transparent polyester lenslet-forming layer on a substrate or on layer(s) on the substrate, the polyester containing repeat units, in part, having the structure ##STR1## wherein: n is 2 or greater; x is selected from the group consisting of H, CH.sub.3, Br and Cl; and Z is selected from the group consisting of nil, O, S, CH.sub.2, C.dbd.O, SO, SO.sub.2, CH--CH.sub.3, CH.sub.3 --C--CH.sub.3, CF.sub.3 --C--CF.sub.3, CH.sub.3 --C--CH.sub.2 CH.sub.3, ##STR2## (b) forming a thin etch-stop layer on the transparent lenslet-forming layer and patterning the etch-stop layer to form a mask so that the pattern corresponds to lenslets to be formed; (c) anisotropically plasma etching the transparent lenslet-forming layer according to the pattern; (d) removing the thin etch-stop mask; and (e) thermally reflowing the patterned transparent layer to form the transparent lenslets.

Pattern transfer techniques for fabrication of lenslet arrays using

A method of forming a wavelength-selective optical low-pass antiliasing filter for use with an optical imaging system of a solid-state color imager or the like is disclosed. The method includes coating a transparent glass wafer with a layer of transparent photopatternable organic polymer material having a thickness that is equal to the thickness of randomly placed transparent low-pass antiliasing filter spots, exposing the transparent photopatternable layer in areas to form a pattern of randomly placed spots in unexposed areas that correspond to the optical low-pass antiliasing filter, and developing the exposed transparent photopatternable layer to remove the exposed regions corresponding to pattern of randomly placed transparent low-pass antiliasing filter spots.

Method for making wavelength-selective phase-type optical low-pass

A method for forming lenslets which collect light and focus the light onto photosensitive elements of an electronic imager. The method includes providing a transparent lenslet-forming layer on a substrate or on layers on the substrate, forming a thin etch-stop layer on the transparent lenslet-forming layer and patterning a thin photosensitive resin mask on the etch-stop layer so that the mask pattern corresponds to lenslets to be formed. The method further includes transferring by etching the pattern of the photosensitive resin mask to the thin etch-stop layer to form a thin etch-stop mask, anisotropically plasma etching the transparent lenslet-forming layer according to the patterned thin etch-stop mask, removing the thin etch-stop mask, and thermally reflowing the etched transparent lenslet-forming layer to form the lenslets.

Pattern transfer techniques for fabrication of lenslet arrays for solid

A method for forming lenslets which collect light and focuses it onto photosensitive elements of an electronic imager includes providing a transparent lenslet-forming layer on a substrate or on layers on the substrate and forming a thin etch-stop layer on the transparent lenslet-forming layer and patterning the etch-stop layer so that the mask pattern corresponds to lenslets to be formed, The method further includes anisotropically plasma etching the transparent lenslet-forming layer according to the thin etch-stop mask pattern, removing the thin etch-stop mask, and thermally reflowing the patterned transparent layer to form the transparent lenslets.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, NY, United States of America

Jeffrey I Hirsh