Appeal No. 1997-1003
Application No. 08/188,145
between flex circuits. A thin layer of curable material forms
a planarizing layer between an electrode pattern formed on the
flex circuit, mechanically coupling the piezoelectric plate to
the flex circuit while allowing the electrodes and
piezoelectric elements to electrically contact each other.
Claim 1 is illustrative of the claimed invention, and it reads
as follows:
1. An electro-active device comprising a plurality of flex
circuits, each having a sheet of film and a conductor forming
electrodes on at least one surface of the film, said plurality
including at least first and second flex circuits, means
forming a recess between said first and second flex circuits,
and an electro-active element in said recess having opposed
first and second surfaces which are bonded to the flex
circuits such that said surfaces are mechanically coupled and
electrically contacted thereto over a distributed contact
area, wherein the electrodes have an electrode pattern, and
said element is bonded to said flex circuits by a planarizing
layer of curable material having a pattern complementary to
the electrode pattern.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the
examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are:
Sonderegger et al. (Sonderegger) 3,582,691 Jun. 01,
1971
Larson, III et al. (Larson) 4,404,489 Sep. 13,
1983
Kaneko et al. (Kaneko) 4,651,310 Mar. 17,
1987
Fujii et al. (Fujii) 4,701,659 Oct. 20,
1987
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007