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US 2003/0200748 A1Published application
Thermally-activated actuator
AssigneeADC Telecommunications, Inc.
InventorsSusan C. Bromley, Bradley J. Nelson, Karl Vollmers, Arunkumar Subramanian, Eniko Enikov, Kamal Deep Mothilal
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An actuator having a hot-arm and a cold-arm wherein the hot-arm and cold-arm are vertically offset from one another. The hot-arm is heated to cause the actuator to move both vertically and horizontally. When used as a relay, an electrostatic force latches the actuator when the electrodes are brought in close proximity to one another.
Claims28
A microelectromechanical structure comprising:
- a substrate defining a reference plane;
- two spaced apart supports located on the substrate;
- a first beam having a proximal and distal end, the proximal end of the first beam coupled to a first of the spaced apart supports wherein the first beam extends in a first plane parallel with the reference plane;
- a second beam having a proximate and a distal end, the proximal end of the second beam coupled to the other of the spaced apart supports wherein the second beam extends in a second plane parallel with the reference plane wherein the second plane is vertically offset from the first plane and the distal end of the second beam is coupled to the distal end of the first beam;
- and
- wherein the first and second beams are heated to cause the first beam to expand by a greater percentage than the second beam to move the distal end of the structure in a direction towards the reference plane.
3 more elements
A microelectromechanical structure comprising:
- a substrate defining a reference plane;
- a first beam having a proximal and distal end, the proximal end of the first beam supported above the substrate wherein the first beam extends in a first plane parallel with the reference plane;
- a second beam having a proximate and a distal end, the proximal end of the second beam supported above the substrate wherein the second beam extends in a second plane parallel with the reference plane wherein the second plane is vertically offset from the first plane;
- and
- a connector coupling the distal end of the first beam to the distal end of the second beam;
- wherein the first beam is heated to cause the first beam to expand and move the distal end of the structure in a direction towards the reference plane.
3 more elements
A microelectromechanical structure comprising:
- a substrate defining a reference plane;
- a contact located on the substrate;
- an actuator having a portion thereof suspended above the reference plane of the substrate, the actuator comprising:
- a hot arm having a distal end;
- a cold arm having a distal end that is coupled to the distal end of the hot arm offset from the hot arm in a direction perpendicular to the reference plane;
- wherein the hot arm receives an electric current to cause the hot arm to expand and move the distal ends of the hot and cold arms towards the contact located on the substrate.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.