Multi-layer phononic crystal thermal insulators

US9291297B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Elwha LLC · US

Inventors

• Paul G. Allen · Seattle, US
• Jeffrey A. Bowers · Bellevue, US
• Kenneth G. Caldeira · Redwood City, US
• William D. Duncan · Sammamish, US
• Roderick A. Hyde · Redmond, US
• Muriel Y. Ishikawa · Livermore, US
• Edward K.Y. Jung · Bellevue, US
• Jordin T. Kare · Seattle, US
• John Latham · Boulder, US
• Eric C. Leuthardt · Chesterfield, US
• Nathan P. Myhrvold · Bellevue, US
• Thomas J. Nugent, Jr. · Bellevue, US
• Stephen H. Salter · Edinburgh, GB
• Clarence T. Tegreene · Bellevue, US
• David B. Tuckerman · Lafayette, US
• Thomas A. Weaver · San Mateo, US
• Charles Whitmer · North Bend, US
• Lowell L. Wood, JR. · Bellevue, US
• Victoria Y.H. Wood · Livermore, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 19, 2012
• Grant date: Mar 22, 2016
• Expiry date: Dec 19, 2032

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10T428/24942
• WIPO field: Micro-structural and nano-technology
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A thermal insulator includes a plurality of layers. At least some of the layers include phononic crystals having a phononic bandgap, wherein heat transporting phonons within a selected range of frequencies are substantially blocked by each phononic crystal layer. The plurality of layers thermally isolate a first region from a second region, wherein the first region is at one end of the plurality of layers and the second region is at the other end of the plurality of layers.