Insertion-type liquid metal latching relay
AssigneeAgilent Technologies, Inc.
InventorMarvin Glenn Wong
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A high frequency electrical relay uses a conducting liquid in the switching mechanism. The relay uses an actuator, such as a piezoelectric element, to cause the switch actuator to insert into a cavity in a static switch contact structure. The cavity has sides and a pad on its end that are wettable by the conducting liquid. The cavity is filled with the conducting liquid, which may be liquid metal. The volume of conducting liquid is chosen so that when the actuator returns to its rest position, the electrical contact is maintained by surface tension and by wetting of the contact pads on both the static switch contact structure and the actuator.
Claims16
An electrical relay comprising:
- a first electrical contact, having a wettable surface;
- a second electrical contact with a wettable surface, at least partially lining the cavity in the second electrical contact to form a liquid well;
- a well-support structure in close proximity to the first and second electrical contacts, the well-support structure having a liquid well formed within it;
- a first conducting liquid volume in wetted contact with the first electrical contact;
- a second conducting liquid volume in the liquid well in wetted contact with the second electrical contact;
- and
- an actuator having a rest position at least partially within the liquid well;
- wherein expansion of the actuator decreases the volume of the liquid well and displaces the second conducting liquid volume, thereby causing the first and second conducting liquid volumes to coalesce and complete an electrical circuit between the first and second electrical contacts, and contraction of the actuator increases the volume of the liquid well, thereby causing the first and second conducting liquid volumes to separate and break the electrical circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.