Patent ID: 8841820

Claim:
A synthetic jet apparatus comprising: a bimorph piezoelectric plate separating first and second fluid chambers and configured to alternately increase and decrease the volumes of the first and second fluid chambers by alternately bowing toward the first fluid chamber and then the second fluid chamber in response to application of voltages of alternating polarity across the plate, the first fluid chamber being configured to communicate in fluid flow with a source of a first fluid, and the second fluid chamber being configured to communicate in fluid flow with a source of a second fluid such that alternate actuation of the bimorph plate to bow in one direction and then in another direction causes the first and second fluids to be alternately drawn into and expelled from the respective first and second fluid chambers out-of-phase; a second bimorph piezoelectric plate separating a third fluid chamber from the first fluid chamber and configured to alternately increase and decrease the volumes of the first and third fluid chambers by alternately bowing toward the first then the third chamber in opposition to the first plate and in response to application of voltages of alternating polarity across the plate, the third fluid chamber being configured to communicate in fluid flow with the second source of fluid such that alternate actuation of the second bimorph plate to bow in one direction and then the other causes the first and second fluids to be alternately drawn into and expelled from the respective first and third fluid chambers out-of-phase; and a first synthetic jet assembly comprising a first hinge connecting the first and second plates to each other and cooperating with the plates to define the first fluid chamber, the first hinge comprising a first fluid port configured to provide fluid flow communication between the first fluid chamber and the first source of fluid.