Mr. Conrad Trevelyan,

Just to offer you an alternative view, I was involved in the
development of an air valve and jet array platform in Xerox PARC
two years ago. Each valve is made with aluminized mylar covering
an orifice of 1.5 mm. Switching speed is near 1 millisecond. Long
operating life and low fabrication cost. Operating voltage and
current are 300V and 1mA. It is possible to elongate the orifice
and modify the electrode to allow progressive opening.

A small photo of the platform (with 500+ valves) can be seen at
http://www.parc.xerox.com/spl/projects/ldc/

Cheers,

Patrick Cheung, research scientist   Xerox PARC, MS 35-1674
(O) 650-812-4338 (FAX) 650-812-4334   3333 Coyote Hill Road
pcheung@parc.xerox.com                  Palo Alto, CA 94304
           "pcheung can mems, and so can you!"
>>                                                       >>

On Fri, 31 Aug 2001, Conrad Trevelyan wrote:

> From: Conrad Trevelyan 
> To: mems-talk@memsnet.org
> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 10:42:40 PDT
> Subject: [mems-talk] opening and closing orifices with piezo-electric
>     devices
>
> Hello,
>               I'm new to this group and have a question I would like to ask.
My name is
> Conrad Trevelyan and I am a PhD student at Loughborough University.
>
>       I'm not sure if this question is applicable to this discussion group or
> not. Apologies if it isn't.
>
>       I am interested in being able to open and close an orifice progessively
to
> a maximum size of something in the region of 5mm in order to allow a stream
> of air to be throttled. It has been suggested to me that a piezo-electric
> device(s) maybe able to meet this spec. Firstly, am I at the right place
> and if so, does anyone here have any ideas, pointers or suggestions?
>
> Many Thanks in advance,
>
> Conrad
>
> ********************************************
> Conrad Trevelyan                                 Email to :
c.trevelyan@lboro.ac.uk
> CREST
> Angela Marmont Renewable Energy Laboratory
> Loughborough University
> Leicestershire                                   Telephone : 01509 228140
> LE11 3TU                                        Fax.: 01509 610031
> United Kingdom
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/el/
>
>
>
>
>
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