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:
Sep. 09, 2008
Filed:
Jun. 10, 2005
Dino Accoto, Andrano, IT;
Friedrich B. Prinz, Woodside, CA (US);
Tibor Fabian, Mountain View, CA (US);
Wonhyoung Ryu, Stanford, CA (US);
Jun Sasahara, Saitama, JP;
Hideaki Tsuru, Columbus, OH (US);
Georg Brasseur, Vienna, AT;
Dino Accoto, Andrano, IT;
Friedrich B. Prinz, Woodside, CA (US);
Tibor Fabian, Mountain View, CA (US);
WonHyoung Ryu, Stanford, CA (US);
Jun Sasahara, Saitama, JP;
Hideaki Tsuru, Columbus, OH (US);
Georg Brasseur, Vienna, AT;
The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
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.