Dispenser
First Claim
1. An inhaler, comprising:
- an inhaler housing;
a mouthpiece coupled to the inhaler housing;
a dispenser housing defining a dispensing chamber adapted to house a flowable substance to be inhaled;
a bubble jet ejection device coupled to the dispensing chamber and including a plurality of dispensing nozzles and a plurality of heating elements, the plurality of heating elements creating bubbles of the flowable substance with sufficient momentum in the dispensing chamber to create an ejection of a portion of the flowable substance through at least one of the plurality of dispensing nozzles; and
an actuation sensor coupled to the bubble jet ejection device, the actuation sensor generating an actuation signal in response to a detection of an inhalation to actuate the bubble jet ejection device.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A dispenser (FIG. 1, 1) comprises a reservoir (10) of a physiologically active substance and a droplet ejection device (14), for example a bubble jet or pizeoelectric device, which is controlled to issue a predetermined number of discrete droplets of the substance from ejection orifices (15) upon actuation. Device (14) may be actuated by a pressure transducer (19) responsive to inhalation and issue the droplets into an airstream (A) which enters at slot (7) and is then inhaled via mouthpiece (5). In other embodiments (FIG. 5) the dispenser is finger actuated and directed by hand for topical application. The number and/or frequency of droplets issued is programmatically controlled by a control circuit (16) whereby average and total dose of the substance are predetermined.
1049 Citations
42 Claims
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1. An inhaler, comprising:
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an inhaler housing; a mouthpiece coupled to the inhaler housing; a dispenser housing defining a dispensing chamber adapted to house a flowable substance to be inhaled; a bubble jet ejection device coupled to the dispensing chamber and including a plurality of dispensing nozzles and a plurality of heating elements, the plurality of heating elements creating bubbles of the flowable substance with sufficient momentum in the dispensing chamber to create an ejection of a portion of the flowable substance through at least one of the plurality of dispensing nozzles; and
an actuation sensor coupled to the bubble jet ejection device, the actuation sensor generating an actuation signal in response to a detection of an inhalation to actuate the bubble jet ejection device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. An inhaler, comprising:
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a dispenser housing defining a dispensing chamber adapted to house a flowable substance to be inhaled; a mouthpiece coupled to the dispenser housing; a bubble jet ejection device coupled to the dispensing chamber and including a dispensing nozzle and a heating element, the heating element generating sufficient energy to form bubbles in the dispensing chamber and effect an ejection of a portion of the flowable substance through the dispensing nozzle; and an actuation sensor coupled to the bubble jet ejection device, the actuation sensor generating an actuation signal in response to a detection of an inhalation to actuate the bubble jet ejection device.
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42. An inhaler, comprising:
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a dispenser housing defining a first dispensing chamber adapted to house a first flowable substance and a second flowable substance; a mouthpiece coupled to the dispenser housing; a bubble jet ejection device coupled to the dispensing chamber and including a first dispensing nozzle, a second dispensing nozzle, a first heating element and a second heating element, the first heating element generating sufficient energy to form bubbles in the first dispensing chamber and effect an ejection of a portion of the first flowable substance through the first dispensing nozzle, the second heating element generating sufficient energy to form bubbles in the second dispensing chamber and effect an ejection of a portion of the second flowable substance through the second dispensing nozzle; and an actuation sensor coupled to the bubble jet ejection device, the actuation sensor generating an actuation signal in response to a detection of an inhalation to actuate the bubble jet ejection device.
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Specification