Piezoelectric pump
AssigneeMurata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
InventorsKenichiro Kawamura, Masayuki Miyamoto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A piezoelectric pump is capable of reliably discharging gas and reliably transporting liquid even when intermittently driven. The piezoelectric pump includes a piezoelectric vibrator, a diaphragm deflected and deformed by the piezoelectric vibrator, a pump chamber including at least one wall surface defined by the diaphragm, an inlet through which liquid, gas, or a mixture of liquid and gas flows into the pump chamber, an outlet through which the fluid is discharged, and a liquid holding member arranged to provide a gap between the liquid holding member and the inner surface of the pump chamber and to maintain the liquid in the gap using capillary effect or surface tension. A flow passage plate includes a flow passage groove provided therein.
Claims6
A piezoelectric pump comprising:
- a piezoelectric vibrator arranged to vibrate when an AC voltage is applied;
- a diaphragm arranged to be deflected and deformed by the piezoelectric vibrator;
- a pump chamber including at least one wall surface defined by the diaphragm;
- an inlet through which a fluid including liquid, gas, or a mixture of liquid and gas flows into the pump chamber;
- an outlet through which the fluid is discharged;
- check valves arranged to prevent the fluid from flowing back through the inlet and the outlet;
- and
- a liquid holding member, which is separate from the check valves, disposed in the pump chamber to maintain any liquid included in the fluid in a gap between an inner surface of the pump chamber and the liquid holding member;
- wherein
- the liquid holding member includes a single sheet or a plurality of sheets disposed in the pump chamber in a movable manner.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.