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US 9,805,873 B2Granted
Vacuum variable capacitor
AssigneeComet AG
InventorsMark Joachim Mildner, Roland Bieri, Mike Abrecht, Walter Bigler, Douglas Beuerman, Jack Gilmore
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vacuum variable capacitor includes a pre-vacuum enclosure for reducing a pressure differential across the bellows. The vacuum force load on the drive system can thereby be reduced, allowing faster movement of the movable electrode, faster capacitance adjustment of the vacuum variable capacitor and longer lifetimes of the device.
Claims14
A vacuum variable capacitor adjustable between a minimum capacitance value and a maximum capacitance value, the vacuum variable capacitor comprising:
- a first vacuum enclosure containing capacitor electrodes separated by a vacuum dielectric, the wall of the first vacuum enclosure comprising a first deformable region, hereafter referred to as first bellows, for transferring mechanical movement between a drive means disposed outside the first vacuum enclosure and a mobile one of the capacitor electrodes inside the first vacuum enclosure, and
- a second enclosure, referred to hereafter as the pre-vacuum enclosure, containing a gas at a predetermined pressure, lower than atmospheric pressure, the pre-vacuum enclosure being arranged such that the first bellows separates the gas in the pre-vacuum enclosure from the vacuum dielectric in the first vacuum enclosure,
- wherein the drive means, the electrodes, and the pre-determined pressure in the pre-vacuum enclosure are configured so that the minimum adjustment time between the minimum capacitance value and the maximum capacitance value is less than 0.1s.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.