ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,326,376, issued on June 10, was assigned to HRL LABORATORIES LLC (Malibu, Calif.).
"Spike arrays for small displacement force measurement" was invented by Peter Brewer (Westlake Village, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A device and method for measuring the force generated by an expanding micro-actuator structure whose displacement is typically in the sub-micron range. Measurement of forces that occur at small displacements falls beyond the range of traditional load cell technology whose transducers require a minimum travel to record force changes. The force measurement of this invention uses spike arrays (nanometer tipped microstru...