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AssigneeTiNi Alloy Company
InventorsA. David Johnson, Vikas Galhotra, Vikas Gupta, Valery Martynov
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A microrelay device formed on a silicon substrate wafer for use in opening and closing a current path in a circuit. A pair of electrically conducting latching beams are attached at their proximal ends to terminals on the substrate. Proximal ends of the beams have complementary shapes which releasably fit together to latch the beams and close the circuit. A pair of shape memory alloy actuators are selectively operated to change shapes which bend one of the beams in a direction which latches the distal ends, or bend the other beam to release the distal ends and open the circuit. The microrelay is bistable in its two positions, and power to the actuators is applied only for switching it open or closed,
A microrelay device for opening and closing a current path between first and second terminals that are carried on a substrate, the device comprising the combination of:
A microrelay device as in claim 7 in which the band in the first shape is stretched under a tension prestress, and the deformation is by axial contraction to the memory shape.
A method for closing a current path between first and second terminals of a microrelay device, the method comprising the steps of attaching proximal ends of a pair of electrically conducting latching beams to terminals on a substrate of the device, elastically bending one of the beams into a curved configuration, engaging a distal end of the one beam with a distal end of the other beam, and closing the current path responsive to said engagement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.