Patent ID: 7992975

Claim:
A method of forming fluid droplets comprising: providing a non-conductive fluid jet; providing an electrical charge on an electrically conductive portion of a stimulation electrode; and stimulating the non-conductive fluid jet to form a non-conductive fluid droplet by transferring the electrical charge from the electrically conductive portion of the stimulation electrode to a portion of the non-conductive fluid jet, wherein stimulating the non-conductive fluid jet to form a non-conductive fluid droplet includes forming a plurality of fluid droplets, the non-conductive fluid having a resistivity, ρ f chosen to satisfy a relationship: ρ f ≧|T b (½∈)(r j 2 /S 2 )ln(r j /r g )|, wherein: T b is a break-off time for each of the plurality of fluid droplets, ∈ is a permittivity of a medium surrounding the non-conductive fluid jet, r j is a radius of the non-conductive fluid jet r g is a distance from the non-conductive fluid jet to a ground surface, and S is a center-to-center distance between successively formed droplets of the plurality of fluid droplets.