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. 17, 2009
Filed:
Dec. 29, 2006
Jonathan R. Heim, Pacifica, CA (US);
Ilya Polyakov, San Francisco, CA (US);
Alireza Zarrabi, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Otto Hui, Burlingame, CA (US);
Jonathan R. Heim, Pacifica, CA (US);
Ilya Polyakov, San Francisco, CA (US);
Alireza Zarrabi, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Otto Hui, Burlingame, CA (US);
Artificial Muscle, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
Electroactive polymer transducers are disclosed. They are biased in a manner that provides for increased force and/or stroke output, thereby offering improved work potential and power output capacity. The biasing may offer additional or alternate functional advantage in terms of matching transducer performance with a given application such as a normally-closed valve. The improved biasing (including increased output biasing) may utilize negative spring rate biasing and/or a combination of negative or zero-rate biasing with positive rate biasing to achieve the desired ends.