Dry powder inhaler
AssigneeIEP Pharmaceutical Devices Inc.
InventorsPerry Genova, Warren Jewett
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A dry powder inhaler having a housing, at least one single dose storage chamber able to contain a single unit dose, a discharge path adjacent the storage chamber, and a flexible and bendable seal plate closing the discharge path. When an air flow under pressure is applied to the top of the dose, the top seal is broken and the dose is driven against the seal plate which deflects away, allowing the powder of the dose to be driven into and along the discharge path. The air flow causes the seal plate (in the discharge path) to vibrate, which acts to break up the dose into particles of preferred size, as the dose is carried along with the air flow and delivered to a patient.
Claims17
A dry powder inhaler operable with a source of pressurized air, comprising:
- a—a base substrate having top and front surfaces with an exit channel in the form of a trough defined in said top surface and extending lengthwise to and intersecting said front surface;
- b—a sheet of flexible material overlying said top surface of said base substrate;
- c—a dose storage substrate overlying said sheet, said dose storage substrate containing at least one single unit dose of agglomerated medicament powder, said dose storage substrate having a bottom surface adjacent said sheet, at least one chamber defined therein to contain said unit dose, and an opposite top surface,
- d—an air inlet substrate overlying said dose storage substrate and including at least one passageway for directing pressurized air from a source onto said top surface of said dose storage substrate, said pressurized air forcing said dose from said chamber, said sheet being deformed by said pressurized air downward into said trough, thus providing a discharge passage along said top surface of said sheet, and said dose being driven downward by application of said pressurized air, and forced against said sheet, said sheet vibrating so as to deagglomerate and fluidize said dose and meter the flow of powder through said trough, said dose being carried in a fluidized form through said trough, and said dose exiting from said front surface of said base substrate.
A method of deagglomerizing a dose of agglomerated dry powder in an inhaler where pressurized air is applied to said dose, blowing it through an exit channel having inlet and exit ends, comprising the steps:
- a providing a sheet of vibratable material in said exit channel, extending generally from said inlet to said exit end,
- b directing said pressurized air carrying said dry powder to flow along the surface of said sheet in said exit channel thereby causing said sheet to stretch deform and vibrate and create a standing wave in said sheet, whereby said standing wave helps to deagglomerize and fluidize said powder in said pressurized air flow.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.