Patent ID: 6068198
Filing Date: 2000-05-30
Classification: A61M,B05B

Abstract:
A method of generating measured fluid in aerosol mode from a system having a fluid reservoir, a nozzle array at an aerosol delivery position with respect to said fluid reservoir and said nozzle array, and having a micro-stepper-operated linear actuator (12) for altering the volume of the fluid reservoir according to pulses from a control means having a dosage counter, characterized by the following steps:Step 1) activating a micro-stepper (13) to provide motion to the linear actuator (12) which increases the volume of a fluid reservoir having fill means at an aerosol fluid acceptance position, so as to fill the reservoir without air pockets;Step 2) providing a control pulse for activating the micro-stepper (13) to provide motion to the linear actuator (12) which decrements the volume of a fluid reservoir by a single unit volume per control pulse, said fluid reservoir being mounted at an aerosol delivery position, said nozzle array (2) having a large finite number of operational micro-vias of controlled characteristics related to selected droplet size, to deliver in aerosol form said single unit volume of fluid, one droplet per operational micro-via per control pulse; andStep 3) repeating Step 2 by providing a selected number of repetitions of the control pulse according to the dosage counter in the control means.