US 6,983,088 B2
Thermal actuator and an optical waveguide switch including the same
Joel A. Kubby, Rochester, N.Y. (US); Jun Ma, Penfield, N.Y. (US); Kristine A. German, Webster, N.Y. (US); Peter M. Gulvin, Webster, N.Y. (US); and Pinyen Lin, Rochester, N.Y. (US)
Assigned to Xerox Corporation, Stamford, Conn. (US)
Filed on Aug. 05, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/634,941.
Prior Publication US 2005/0031288 A1, Feb. 10, 2005
Int. Cl. G02B 6/26 (2006.01); G02B 6/42 (2006.01); H01H 37/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 385—16 58 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A thermal actuator (200) comprising:
a substrate having a surface;
a first support and a second support disposed on the surface and extending orthogonally therefrom, a plurality of beams (212a212d) extending in parallel between the first support and the second support, thus forming a beam array (214), each beam being agonic and substantially straight;
each beam of the beam array having a beam width (226) with a corresponding beam width value, the beams in the beam array having beam width values that vary based on a predetermined pattern; and
an included coupling beam extending orthogonally across the beam array to couple each array beam substantially at its midpoint;
wherein the predetermined pattern is characterized in that extending orthogonally, across the beam array (214) from one side (250) to the opposite side (252), the beam width values of successive beam widths (226) do not decrease and at least sometimes increase.