Back to results
US 9,412,547 B2Granted
Contactor
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsMing Li, Günther Schärtl
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A contactor includes a contact portion and an actuation portion. The contactor further includes a keeping portion. The keeping portion includes a capacitor structure and uses an electrostatic force between opposite plates of the capacitor structure to keep the contact portion in a contact state or a disconnection state. The electrostatic force generated by an electrostatic latch is used to keep the contactor in a switched-to static state. The contactor has reduced energy consumption in the static state, is convenient to manufacture, and has a low cost.
Claims6
A contactor, comprising:
- a contact portion;
- a keeping portion, including a capacitor structure, the keeping portion being configured to use an electrostatic force between opposite capacitor plates of the capacitor structure to keep the contact portion in a contact state or a disconnection state;
- and
- an actuation portion, including an electromagnet and an armature, one of the opposite capacitor plates of the capacitor structure being connected to the electromagnet and another one of the opposite capacitor plates of the capacitor structure being connected to the armature,
- wherein, upon the actuation portion causing the contact portion to switch to a contact state or a disconnection state, the opposite capacitor plates in the capacitor structure of the keeping portion are capable of carrying charges of opposite polarities or a same polarity, and an electrostatic attractive/repulsive force is generated between the electrodes of the opposite capacitor plates to keep the contact portion in the switched-to contact state or disconnection state.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.