Leland Stanford Junior University

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

WonHyoung Ryu

Friedrich B Prinz

Rainer Johannes Fasching

Jun Sasahara

Tibor Fabian

Robert Lane Smith

Georg Brasseur

Dino Accoto

Hideaki Tsuru

Kyle Hammerick

Ralph S Greco

Seoung Jai Bai

Methods for compression molding through holes in polymer layers are provided, as are the resulting patterned polymer layers. Two key aspects of the invention are provision of a mold and substrate having different mechanical hardness, and provision of room for local flow of material. These aspects of the invention facilitate formation of through holes by compression molding that are not blocked or partially blocked by undesirable material. These polymer layers can be formed into three dimensional patterned structures by bonding patterned layers together. Since the layers include through holes, a three-dimensional polymer pattern can be formed. These patterned polymer layers and three dimensionally patterned polymer constructs have a wide variety of applications. For example, these constructs can be used for fabrication of micro-fluidic devices, and/or can be used for various medical and biological applications including drug delivery devices and tissue engineering devices.

3-D interconnected multi-layer microstructure of thermoplastic materials

A bistable minivalve includes a movable component, an actuator that is electrostatically, magnetically, or mechanically coupled to the movable component for controllably switching the movable component between open and closed states, and a casing providing structural support. The movable component has an actuation surface [movably positioned in the valve conduit and a bistable element attached to the actuation surface providing mechanical stability to the open and closed states of the movable component. The bistable element may be realized as a pair of elastic buckling beams [attached at their midpoints to opposite sides of the actuation surface. Optionally, there may also be elastic support beams [attached at their endpoints to the actuation surface and attached at their midpoints to the elastic buckling beams.

Bistable miniature valve

Growing community of inventors

Stanford, CA, United States of America

WonHyoung Ryu