Abstract: An apparatus comprising a liquid switch. The liquid switch comprises a substrate having a surface with first and second regions thereon and a fluid configured to contact both of the regions. The regions each comprise electrically connected fluid-support-structures, wherein each of the fluid-support-structures have at least one dimension of about 1 millimeter or less. The regions are electrically isolated from each other.

Abstract: A switch comprises a first wafer having a thin-film structure defined thereon, a second wafer having a plurality of features defined therein, and a seal between the first wafer and the second wafer forming a two-wafer structure having a liquid metal microswitch defined therebetween.

Abstract: A switch comprises an input contact and at least one output contact, a single droplet of conductive liquid located in a channel, the droplet being in constant contact with the input contact, and a heater configured to heat a gas. The heated gas expands to cause the droplet to translate through the channel.

Abstract: The switch device comprises a pair of cavities, an elongate passage, a non-conductive fluid having a high electrical resistance, a conductive fluid having a high electrical conductivity and an electrical path. The passage is in fluid communication with the cavities and has a substantially elliptical cross-section over at least part of its length. The non-conductive fluid is disposed in each of the cavities. The conductive fluid is located in the passage. The electrical path is changeable between a connected state and a disconnected state by the non-conductive fluid separating the conductive fluid in the passage into non-contiguous conductive fluid portions.

Abstract: A first resist is deposited on at least a portion of a substrate (or existing feature on the substrate) that will underlie a feature in a nonphotoimagable material that is to be deposited on the substrate. Thereafter, the nonphotoimagable material is deposited so that it overlaps at least a portion of the first resist. A second resist is then deposited on at least a portion of the nonphotoimagable material, and a feature is patterned on the second resist. Subsequently, the part is sandblasted until the first resist is exposed, and the first and second resists are then removed. In one embodiment, the nonphotoimagable material is deposited on a channel plate and used to seal at least a switching fluid between the channel plate and another substrate.

Abstract: Each of pressure-detecting switches to be connected to one another has a first connector provided at one side section and a first connector provided at the other side section. Electric wiring is mutually effected for the pressure-detecting switches by attaching/detaching the first connectors. The pressure-detecting switches are mutually fixed by using a fixing mechanism arranged for the side sections to effect the function for mutually attaching/detaching the pressure-detecting switches.

Abstract: A drawback device to ensure the return of a moving part to its original position, after it has been moved away from it by another force. The existing method, involving an elastic mechanical component which acts as a spring, is replaced in this invention by a quantity of liquid, placed between the moving part and a fixed part, and remaining there through the effect of capillarity. When the moving part moves away from the fixed part, surface tension is created on the surface of the liquid, tending to draw the moving part back to its original position. Such devices are used in sealed miniaturized relays with mercury-wetted contacts.

Abstract: This electric contact device is a variant of those described in Anizan et al., French Pat. No. 2,385,208.The composite unit formed by the insulating coating and the conducting material form a single insulator-conductor unit. The electrical duct penetrates the insulation to reach the conductor. The composite unit is made of enamelled metal, a metal on which insulation is deposited by "shoopage" (a process apparently involving the deposit of a vaporized metal) or of a cermet (ceramic alloy) from whose surface the metallic phase has been eliminated. The duct may be cylindrical, a groove, or grooves crossing at a right angle.Usable for many types of electric contact.

Abstract: A device for switching a plurality of electrical circuits, each including a group of electrodes separated by insulators and a duct formed by coaxial holes made in the electrodes and insulators and filled partially with a conducting liquid wetting the surface of the electrodes within the duct. An element controls the flow of conducting liquid within the duct so as to close the electrodes. The element is linked mechanically with a duct sealing element in common with the ducts of all the groups. The sealing element has a cavity filled with a dielectric liquid communicating with the ducts of all the groups.

Abstract: A self-encoding key switch is formed of a body having a well for storing a pool of mercury, a plurality of contact chambers with encoding contacts therein and having channel portions communicating with the well of a size to resist flow of the mercury therethrough due to surface tension of the mercury, and a plunger movable into the well to force the mercury through the channel portions into the contact chambers to momentarily connect the encoding contacts thereby providing tactile feedback, self-encoding and N-key rollover. A keyboard system utilizes a plurality of the above-described self-encoding key switches along with a register, and a strobe contact is disposed in a contact chamber of each key switch such that the trailing edge of the signal from the strobe contact precedes the breaking of electrical connection between a supply contact in the body and the encoding contacts to trigger the register and enter coded data from the encoding contacts.

Abstract: Switches operated by gas, preferably controlled electrothermally, include a capillary tube closed at both ends with a conductive liquid piston dividing the tube into two chambers each filled with a non-oxidizing gas. A pair of electrical contact points are disposed within the capillary tube with the piston positioned to, at selected intervals, contact both points simultaneously. In one embodiment of the switches, a closed glass capillary tube contains a pair of aligned nickel wires with ends selectively contacted simultaneously by a mercury piston or globule providing a circuit-closing position for the switch. The switch is set in the circuit-closing position by applying heat to a non-oxidizing gas within one end of the capillary tube. The switch is then reset to a circuit-opening position at any desired time by applying heat to a non-oxidizing gas within the other end of the capillary tube.