Patent ID: 7111877

Claim:
A latch having a unidirectional power release mechanism comprising: a rotatable gear with a gear boss thereon, a motor drivingly engaging said gear to orbit the gear boss through an operating cycle of the power release mechanism, a ratchet pivotally movable between a latched position and an unlatched position, said ratchet being biased to the unlatched position, a pawl pivotally movable between a ratchet engaged position to hold the ratchet in said latched position and a disengaged position allowing free rotation of said ratchet, said pawl being biased to said ratchet engaged position, a pawl lever pivotally mounted to engage said gear boss and pivot in response to engagement therewith and thereby responsively pivot said pawl away from said ratchet engaged position, allowing free rotation of said ratchet, a toggle pivotally movable between a first toggle position and a second toggle position, said toggle being biased to either the first toggle position or the second toggle position, said orbiting gear boss encountering said toggle and pivoting the toggle from the first toggle position to the second toggle position, said toggle presenting a stop to said orbiting gear boss terminating said operating cycle when said toggle is in said second position, and a slapper movable to pivot the toggle from the second toggle position to the first toggle position in response to the ratchet moving from the unlatched position to the latched position.