Patent ID: 7368005

Claim:
A portable oxygen concentrator, comprising: a plurality of sieve beds adapted to absorb nitrogen from air delivered into the plurality of sieve beds, wherein each sieve bed in the plurality of sieve beds comprising air inlet/outlet end and an oxygen inlet/outlet end; a reservoir in fluid communication with the oxygen inlet/outlet ends of the plurality of sieve beds to store oxygen from the plurality of sieve beds; a compressor adapted to deliver air to the air inlet/outlet ends of the plurality of sieve beds; an air manifold defining a plurality of passages therein communicating with the compressor and the air inlet/outlet ends of the plurality of sieve beds, wherein the air manifold defines an external wall of a housing for the portable oxygen concentrator, and wherein the compressor is mounted directly on the air manifold; a set of valves coupled to the air manifold; and a controller coupled to the valves and adapted to selectively open and close the valves to alternately charge the plurality of sieve beds by delivering compressed air into the plurality of sieve beds through the passages in the air manifold to cause oxygen to exit from the oxygen inlet/outlet ends into the reservoir and purge the plurality of sieve beds by evacuating pressurized nitrogen from the plurality of sieve beds through passages in the air manifold.