Abstract: An electrostrictive micro-valve is provided for modulating a fluid flow through a cannula or other narrow liquid conduit. The micro-valve includes a valve body having a passageway for conducting a flow of fluid, a valve element formed from a piece of viscoelastic material and disposed in the passageway, and a control assembly coupled to the viscoelastic material for electrostatically controlling the shape of the material to open or close the passageway. The valve element has a flat lower side connected to an inner wall of the passage of the valve body, and an upper side which faces an opposing wall within the passageway. The control assembly includes a pair of electrodes disposed over the upper and lower sides of the valve element. The electrode facing the lower side of the element is patterned so that localized electrostatic forces are generated across the viscoelastic material when a voltage is applied across both electrodes.

Abstract: An electrostrictive micro-pump is provided for controlling a fluid flow through a cannula or other narrow liquid conduit. The micro-pump includes a pump body having a passageway for conducting a flow of fluid, a pump element formed from a piece of viscoelastic material and disposed in the passageway, and a control assembly coupled to the viscoelastic material for electrostatically inducing a peristaltic wave along the longitudinal axis of the pump element to displace fluid disposed within the pump body. The control assembly includes a pair of electrodes disposed over upper and lower sides of the pump element. The lower electrode is formed from a plurality of uniformly spaced conductive panels, while the upper electrode is a single sheet of conductive material. A switching circuit is provided for actuating the conductive panels of the lower electrode in serial, multiplex fashion to induce a peristaltic pumping action.

Abstract: An electrostrictive micro-valve is provided for modulating a fluid flow through a cannula or other narrow liquid conduit. The micro-valve includes a valve body having a passageway for conducting a flow of fluid, a valve element formed from a piece of viscoelastic material and disposed in the passageway, and a control assembly coupled to the viscoelastic material for electrostatically controlling the shape of the material to open or close the passageway. The valve element has a flat lower side connected to an inner wall of the passage of the valve body, and an upper side which faces an opposing wall within the passageway. The control assembly includes a pair of electrodes disposed over the upper and lower sides of the valve element. The electrode facing the lower side of the element is patterned so that localized electrostatic forces are generated across the viscoelastic material when a voltage is applied across both electrodes.

Abstract: An electrostrictive micro-pump is provided for controlling a fluid flow through a cannula or other narrow liquid conduit. The micro-pump includes a pump body having a passageway for conducting a flow of fluid, a pump element formed from a piece of viscoelastic material and disposed in the passageway, and a control assembly coupled to the viscoelastic material for electrostatically inducing a peristaltic wave along the longitudinal axis of the pump element to displace fluid disposed within the pump body. The control assembly includes a pair of electrodes disposed over upper and lower sides of the pump element. The lower electrode is formed from a plurality of uniformly spaced conductive panels, while the upper electrode is a single sheet of conductive material. A switching circuit is provided for actuating the conductive panels of the lower electrode in serial, multiplex fashion to induce a peristaltic pumping action.

Abstract: An inkjet printer nozzle plate having a non-wetting surface of uniform thickness and an orifice wall of tapered contour, and method of making the nozzle plate. In the method a metal masking layer is deposited on a glass substrate, the masking layer having an opening therethrough for passage of light only through the opening. Next, a negative photoresist layer is deposited on the masking layer, the negative photoresist layer being capable of photochemically reacting with the light. A light source passes light through the substrate, so that the light also passes only through the opening in the form of a tapered light cone. This tapered light cone will define the tapered contour of a nozzle plate orifice wall to be formed. The negative photoresist layer photochemically reacts with the light only in the light cone to define a light-exposed region of hardened negative photoresist.

Abstract: An ink jet printing process comprising the steps of; a) providing an ink jet printer in which a continuous stream of ink jet ink is emitted from a nozzle that is responsive to digital data signals; b) loading the printer with an ink jet recording element; c) loading the printer with an inkjet ink comprising a thermally-responsive polymeric material; and d) ejecting ink from a thermally-steered continuous ink jet print head onto one of the ink jet recording elements in response to the digital data signals.

Abstract: A mandrel for forming an inkjet printer nozzle plate having a non-wetting surface of uniform thickness and an orifice wall of tapered contour, and method of making the mandrel. A metal masking layer is deposited on a glass substrate, the masking layer having an opening therethrough for passage of light only through the opening. Next, a negative photoresist layer is deposited on the masking layer, the negative photoresist layer being capable of photochemically reacting with the light. A light source passes light through the substrate, so that the light also passes only through the opening in the form of a tapered light cone. This tapered light cone will define the tapered contour of a nozzle plate orifice wall to be formed. The negative photoresist layer photochemically reacts with the light only in the light cone to define a light-exposed region of hardened negative photoresist.

Abstract: A method for forming lenslets of a solid-state imager, includes providing a first etch-stop layer on a spacer layer formed on a substrate or layer(s) on a substrate; providing a patterned first photosensitive resin layer to form a first mask pattern; performing an etch transfer of the first mask pattern to the first photosensitive resin layer to form a first etch-stop mask pattern, and removing the first photosensitive resin layer; providing a transparent lenslet-forming layer on the spacer layer.

Abstract: A device is described for a very low cost anti-aliasing filter to be used to suppress aliasing artifacts present in discretely sampled solid-state electronic imaging devices. This device includes a transparent substrate upon which a multiplicity of transparent phase spots are placed. The diameter and thickness of the transparent phase spots are designed in such a way to cause just the right amount of blurring to suppress the aliasing artifacts, yet render a reasonable sharp image for spatial frequencies below the sampling frequency of the imager. This suppression is further accomplished over a broad spectral range. The phase noise filter thus formed can be placed either in object space or in image space.

Abstract: An optical phase noise filter for use with an optical imaging system such as a solid-state imager or the like, including a transparent substrate; and a plurality of transparent spots randomly placed on the transparent substrate for producing a phase difference between a wavefront transmitted through the transparent spots and that portion of the transparent substrate other than the transparent spots to define an optical phase noise filter having a spatial sampling cut-off frequency and wherein the variance of the transparent spot to transparent spot distance between adjacent spots is minimized while maintaining the randomness of transparent spot placement.

Abstract: A mandrel for forming a nozzle plate having orifices of precise size and location, and method of making the mandrel. The nozzle plate is formed by overcoating a substrate with a metal film. The film is covered with a photoresist material. Portions of the photoresist are exposed to light passing through a photomask having an annular light-transparent regions, of precise diameters and pitch. The photoresist is subjected to a developer bath which dissolves the photoresist exposed to the light, thereby revealing selected portion of the film. Next, an etchant is brought into contact with the film for etching-away the film so as to an annular opening in the film defining a column of precise diameter at the center of each opening. A new photoresist layer is then applied to the film. Portions of the new photoresist layer is exposed to light passing through a second photomask.

Abstract: In a method for forming lenslets which collect light and focus it onto photosensitive elements of an electronic imager includes providing a transparent lenslet-forming layer on a substrate or on layers on the substrate,(a) providing a transparent polyester lenslet-forming layer on a substrate or on layer(s) on the substrate, the polyester containing repeat units, in part, having the structure ##STR1## wherein: n is 2 or greater;x is selected from the group consisting of H, CH.sub.3, Br and Cl; andZ is selected from the group consisting of nil, O, S, CH.sub.2, C.dbd.O, SO, SO.sub.2, CH--CH.sub.3, CH.sub.3 --C--CH.sub.3, CF.sub.3 --C--CF.sub.3, CH.sub.3 --C--CH.sub.2 CH.sub.

Abstract: A method of forming a wavelength-selective optical low-pass antiliasing filter for use with an optical imaging system of a solid-state color imager or the like is disclosed. The method includes coating a transparent glass wafer with a layer of transparent photopatternable organic polymer material having a thickness that is equal to the thickness of randomly placed transparent low-pass antiliasing filter spots, exposing the transparent photopatternable layer in areas to form a pattern of randomly placed spots in unexposed areas that correspond to the optical low-pass antiliasing filter, and developing the exposed transparent photopatternable layer to remove the exposed regions corresponding to pattern of randomly placed transparent low-pass antiliasing filter spots.

Abstract: A method for forming lenslets which collect light and focus the light onto photosensitive elements of an electronic imager. The method includes providing a transparent lenslet-forming layer on a substrate or on layers on the substrate, forming a thin etch-stop layer on the transparent lenslet-forming layer and patterning a thin photosensitive resin mask on the etch-stop layer so that the mask pattern corresponds to lenslets to be formed. The method further includes transferring by etching the pattern of the photosensitive resin mask to the thin etch-stop layer to form a thin etch-stop mask, anisotropically plasma etching the transparent lenslet-forming layer according to the patterned thin etch-stop mask, removing the thin etch-stop mask, and thermally reflowing the etched transparent lenslet-forming layer to form the lenslets.

Abstract: A method for forming lenslets which collect light and focuses it onto photosensitive elements of an electronic imager includes providing a transparent lenslet-forming layer on a substrate or on layers on the substrate and forming a thin etch-stop layer on the transparent lenslet-forming layer and patterning the etch-stop layer so that the mask pattern corresponds to lenslets to be formed, The method further includes anisotropically plasma etching the transparent lenslet-forming layer according to the thin etch-stop mask pattern, removing the thin etch-stop mask, and thermally reflowing the patterned transparent layer to form the transparent lenslets.