Photofluidic interface
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army
InventorsTadeusz M. Drzewiecki, Kenji Toda, John Gurney
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Abstract
A photofluidic interface that transduces optical control signals into fluid ontrol pressures is provided in which an AC modulated light source is utilized to transmit control signals to a photo acoustic cell that absorbs the light energy and converts it to heat energy thus creating pressure pulses within the cell. The output signal of the photo acoustic cell is then fluidically amplified, fluidically rectified and again fluidically amplified to create an output signal that drives an actuator.
Claims19
A photofluidic interface for transducing optical signals to fluidic signals comprising:
- a source of modulated electromagnetic energy that utilizes an optical carrier control signal that operates at a frequency in excess of 1000 Hz;
- means for converting said electromagnetic energy to modulated fluidic signals;
- means for fluidically amplifying said fluidic signals;
- means for fluidically rectifying said fluidic signals;
- and
- an actuator responsive to said rectified signals.
A method for transducing optical control signals into fluidic control pressures utilizing a photofluidic interface comprising:
- directing light from a high frequency modulated light source onto a light sensitive target material located with a photo fluidic cell;
- transfering the heat energy of the target material to an adjacent volume of fluid located within said photo fluidic cell thereby creating an AC acoustic current within said photo fluidic cell;
- fluidically amplifying the output signal produced by the AC pressure signal of said photo fluidic cell;
- fluidically rectifying the output signal of the fluidic amplification in order to produce a DC pressure output;
- and
- fluidically amplifying the output DC pressure signal of the fluidic rectification to create pressures to drive a control system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.