The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 24, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 06, 1996
David K Biegelsen, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Patrick C Cheung, Oakland, CA (US);
Andrew A Berlin, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Warren B Jackson, San Francisco, CA (US);
Lars-Erik Swartz, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Raj B Apte, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Richard H Bruce, Los Altos, CA (US);
Xerox Corporation, Stamford, CT (US);
Abstract
A bistable valve useful for paper handling applications is disclosed. The valve can be batch fabricated in two dimensional valve arrays, with each valve in the array being controlled by passive matrix addressing. Typically, each valve includes a valve housing an electrically conductive movable element such as cantilever beam, diaphragm or film. Valve action is provided by use of housing embedded switching electrodes for moving the movable element between an aperture blocking position and an aperture open position. To reduce unswitched movement when the switching electrode bias is reduced or not present, electrostatic or mechanical catches can be used.