Method and apparatus for dielectrophoretic storage and retrieval of information
First Claim
1. An apparatus for storing and retrieving information comprising:
- a housing containing first and second immiscible electrically neutral materials, said first and second materials having different dielectric constants,means for applying a non-uniform electrical field to said first and second materials for varying the relative position of said materials within said housing as a result of dielectrophoretic forces resultant from said applied non-uniform electrical field, the position of one of said materials within said housing corresponding to information to be stored, andmeans for detecting the position of said one material in said housing fo retrieving the information corresponding to said position of said one material.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for storing and retrieving information using the phenomenon of dielectrophoresis. First and second materials are contained within a housing, and a non-uniform electrical field is applied to the materials. The materials have different dielectric constants, and relative movement of the materials occurs as a result of dielectrophoretic forces resulting from the applied non-uniform field. Different positions of one of the materials within the housing correspond to stored information and varying the applied non-uniform field varies the position of the one material to change the corresponding information. A detector is provided to locate the position of the one material in the housing corresponding to the stored information to retrieve the information represented by that position.
32 Citations
15 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for storing and retrieving information comprising:
-
a housing containing first and second immiscible electrically neutral materials, said first and second materials having different dielectric constants, means for applying a non-uniform electrical field to said first and second materials for varying the relative position of said materials within said housing as a result of dielectrophoretic forces resultant from said applied non-uniform electrical field, the position of one of said materials within said housing corresponding to information to be stored, and means for detecting the position of said one material in said housing fo retrieving the information corresponding to said position of said one material. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. An apparatus for storing and retrieving information comprising,
a plurality of housings, each of said housings containing first and second electrically neutral materials having different dielectric constants and means for applying a non-uniform electric field to said materials to vary the position of said materials within said housing as a result of dielectrophoretic forces resultant from said applied non-uniform field, the position of one of said materials in each of said housings corresponding to information to be stored, and means for determining the position of said one material in each of said housings.
-
13. A method of storing and retrieving information comprising the steps of:
-
providing first and second electrically neutral materials having different dielectric constants within a housing, applying a non-uniform electrical field to said materials to vary the relative position of said materials within said housing as a result of dielectrophoretic forces resultant from said applied non-uniform electrical field, the position of one of said materials within the housing corresponding to stored information, and detecting the position of said one material within said housing to retrieve said stored information. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
-
Specification