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:
Feb. 13, 2001
Filed:
Nov. 13, 1998
William Paul Kornrumpf, Albany, NY (US);
Robert John Wojnarowski, Ballston Lake, NY (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
A switch structure having a base surface; a first high density interconnect (HDI) plastic interconnect layer overlying the base surface layer; a cavity within the HDI plastic interconnect layer; at least one patterned shape memory alloy (SMA) layer overlying the HDI plastic interconnect layer and the cavity, and at least one patterned conductive layer over the at least one patterned SMA layer; a fixed contact pad within the cavity and attached to the base surface and a movable contact pad attached to a portion of the first patterned SMA layer within the cavity such that when the first and second patterned SMA layers and the first and second patterned metallized layers are in a first stable position, the movable contact pad touches the fixed contact pad, thereby providing an electrical connection and forming a closed switch. The structure has a second stable position in which the SMA and metallized layers are flexed away from the cavity so that the contact pads are not in contact and form an open switch.