Patent · US Expired

Tapered piezoelectric in-plane bimorph and method of fabricating

US7005777B2 · kind B2 · utility

3Cited by
7References
26Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 9, 2002
Grant dateFeb 28, 2006
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 8, 2023

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10T29/42

Abstract

Tapered elements fabricated from a substrate of a size many times that of a single element are disclosed. Such tapered elements may be used as piezoelectric microactuators such as in-plane piezoelectric bimorph microactuators. A unique method of fabricating such tapered elements is provided. According to the method, cutting directions are first defined, the substrate is then cut a plurality of times in each cutting direction with adjacent cuts in each cutting direction indexed by proper indexing distances which are determined based on the dimensions of the final tapered elements. In one embodiment of the method, a plurality of optically detectable marks are used to define the cutting directions and cutting means is accordingly optically aligned with the cutting directions.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.