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US 11,815,881 B2Granted
Managing non-contact forces in mechanisms
AssigneeCBN Nano Technologies Inc.
InventorsJames F. Ryley, Mark N. Jobes, James MacArthur, Jeffrey E. Semprebon
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Abstract
Mechanisms can be designed to manage non-contact forces to reduce energy consumption and/or to control interactions between the parts. Management of non-contact forces is especially useful in micro-scale and nano-scale mechanisms, where van der Waals attraction between parts of the mechanism may be significant to the operation of the mechanism.
Claims22
A mechanism comprising:
- a first part;
- and
- a second part movable with respect to said first part through a defined range of motion and generating an attractive non-contact force with respect to said first part due to van der Waals attraction,
- wherein said first part and said second part are configured relative to each other such that movement throughout the defined range of motion does not move any portion of either part into such close proximity of an effective edge of another part so as to cause a material change in van der Waals attraction, and thus the non-contact force therebetween does not materially change throughout the defined range of motion,
- the mechanism being configured to accept data in the form of one or more mechanical inputs that encode values by position and to output data in the form of one or more mechanical outputs that encode values by position, wherein the mechanism is configured such that the position of at least one output is determined by performing a logic operation on at least one of said inputs, the logic operation including at least one operation from the group of combinatorial logic operations, sequential logic operations, and Boolean logic operations.
2 more elements
A mechanism comprising:
- a first part;
- and
- a second part movable with respect to said first part and interacting with said first part so as to generate a non-contact force therebetween due to van der Waals attraction,
- one of said first part and said second part having at least one active surface provided thereon, said active surface(s) having at least one effective edge, and
- wherein said first part and said second part are configured with respect to each other such that the non-contact force between said parts defines the range of allowed motion of said second part with respect to said first part, such range of motion of said second part being defined as the range of motion that does not move either of said first part or said second part relative to said effective edge(s) of said active surface(s) so as to create a material change in van der Waals attraction between said first part and said second part, and thus motion of said second part within such range not materially changing the non-contact force between said parts.
2 more elements
A mechanism comprising:
- a first movable part;
- a second movable part;
- one of said first part and said second part having at least one active surface provided thereon, and the other of said first part and said second part having at least one engaging element provided thereon, said active surface(s) having at least one effective edge,
- said engaging element(s) and said active surface(s) generating a non-contact force therebetween due to van der Waals attraction, and
- said first part and said second part being configured such that, at least in an active operational state of the mechanism, said second part is forced to move in response to motion of said first part, said second part moving so as to avoid material changes in the van der Waals attraction generated between said first part and said second part that would result from said engaging element(s) moving relative to said effective edge(s) if said second part did not move.
2 more elements
A mechanism comprising:
- a first part;
- and
- a second part movable with respect to said first part through a defined range of motion,
- wherein said first part and said second part generate an attractive non-contact force therebetween due to van der Waals attraction,
- wherein said first part and said second part are configured relative to each other such that throughout the defined range of motion, only portions of said first part and said second part that are separated by a sufficiently large distance that VDW attraction is insignificant change distance with respect to each other, and
- wherein the mechanism occupies a volume no greater than 0.001 mm3.
3 more elements
A mechanism comprising:
- a first part;
- and
- a second part attracted to said first part by a van der Waals attractive force,
- one of said first part and said second part having at least one active surface provided thereon, and the other of said first part and said second part having at least one engaging element provided thereon, said active surface(s) having at least one effective edge, and
- said first part and said second part being configured such that, at least in an active operational state of the mechanism, said second part is forced to move in response to motion of said first part, said second part moving so as to minimize changes in the van der Waals attractive force generated between said first part and said second part by moving so as to result in a less stiff change in the van der Waals attractive force than the change in such force that would result from said second part not moving, such changes in the force resulting from motion of said engaging element(s) relative to said effective edge(s).
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.