US Patent Issued to Hutchinson Technology on March 11 for "Shape memory alloy actuators and methods thereof" (Minnesota Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,248,233, issued on March 11, was assigned to Hutchinson Technology Inc. (Hutchinson, Minn.).

"Shape memory alloy actuators and methods thereof" was invented by Ryan N. Ruzicka (Waconia, Minn.), Yasushi Sakamoto (Hutchinson, Minn.) and Mark A. Miller (Hutchinson, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "SMA actuators and related methods are described. One embodiment of an actuator includes a base; a plurality of buckle arms; and at least a first shape memory alloy wire coupled with a pair of buckle arms of the plurality of buckle arms. Another embodiment of an actuator includes a base and at least one bimorph actuator including a shape memor...