Patents by Inventor James Downer

James Downer has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6049148
    Abstract: A rotary motor and a rotary magnetic bearing are integrated in a compact assembly that is contact-less. A stator assembly surrounds a ferromagnetic rotor with an annular air gap which can accommodate a cylindrical wall, e.g. of a chamber for semiconductor wafer processing. The stator assembly has a permanent magnet or magnets sandwiched between vertically spaced magnetic stator plates with plural pole segments. The rotor is preferably a ring of a magnetic stainless steel with complementary pole teeth. The stator assembly (i) levitates and passively centers the rotor along a vertical axis and against tilt about either horizontal axis, (ii) provides a radial position bias for the rotor, and (iii) establishes a motor flux field at the rotor poles. Polyphase coils wound on the stator plates produce a rotating flux field that drives the rotor as a synchronous homopolar motor. A rotor without pole teeth allows operation with an asynchronous inductive drive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2000
    Assignee: SatCon Technology Corporation
    Inventors: Stephen B. Nichols, Shankar Jagannathan, Kevin Leary, David Eisenhaure, William Stanton, Richard Hockney, James Downer, Vijay Gondhalekar
  • Patent number: 5818137
    Abstract: A rotary motor and a rotary magnetic bearing are integrated in a compact assembly that is contact-less. A stator assembly surrounds a ferromagnetic rotor with an annular air gap which can accommodate a cylindrical wall, e.g. of a chamber for semiconductor wafer processing. The stator assembly has a permanent magnet or magnets sandwiched between vertically spaced magnetic stator plates with plural pole segments. The rotor is preferably a ring of a magnetic stainless steel with complementary pole teeth. The stator assembly (i) levitates and passively centers the rotor along a vertical axis and against tilt about either horizontal axis, (ii) provides a radial position bias for the rotor, and (iii) establishes a motor flux field at the rotor poles. Polyphase coils wound on the stator plates produce a rotating flux field that drives the rotor as a synchronous homopolar motor. A rotor without pole teeth allows operation with an asynchronous inductive drive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 1995
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1998
    Assignee: SatCon Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen B. Nichols, Shankar Jagannathan, Kevin Leary, David Eisenhaure, William Stanton, Richard Hockney, James Downer, Vijay Gondhalekar
  • Patent number: 4062720
    Abstract: A process is disclosed for forming a ledge-free aluminum-copper silicon conductor structure that is free of the silicon bridging problem which has produced electrical shorting conditions in the prior art. The process comprises the steps of depositing the aluminum-copper metallurgy, depositing a photoresist layer to delineate the shape of the resulting conductors, etching the aluminum copper metallurgy with phosphoric/nitric acid, for example, removing the photoresist, evaporating a layer of silicon on the surface of the etched conductor layer, sintering the composite to drive the necessary amount of silicon into the aluminum-copper, and removing the residual silicon layer by a reactive plasma etching technique. The resulting conductor structure is free of silicon bridging.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 1976
    Date of Patent: December 13, 1977
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: George Edward Alcorn, James Downer Feeley, Julian Turner Lyman
  • Patent number: 3986912
    Abstract: A process is disclosed for controlling the inclination of the side wall of a layer of sputtered quartz etched by a reactive plasma etching technique. The process consists of coating a selected fractional area of the backside of a silicon wafer to be etched, with a material resistant to plasma etching. Then coating the front side of the wafer bearing a layer of sputtered quartz, with a coating of organic material having a temperature dependent plasma etching rate, so as to delineate locations in the sputtered quartz layer for the formation of via holes. Next, exposing the wafer in a reactive plasma etching chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 1975
    Date of Patent: October 19, 1976
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: George Edward Alcorn, James Downer Feeley