Claims
- 1. An apparatus for nebulizing a liquid, the apparatus comprising:
- a dome shaped member comprising a front surface, a rear surface, and a plurality of apertures extending therebetween, said apertures being tapered to narrow from the rear surface to the front surface;
- a liquid supplier which delivers liquid to the rear surface such that substantially all of the liquid adheres to the rear surface by surface tension forces; and
- a vibrator comprising a vibratable element which vibrates the dome shaped member to eject liquid droplets from the front surface of the dome shaped member.
- 2. An apparatus as in claim 1, further comprising an acoustical sensor which detects when the unit volume of liquid has been ejected from the dome shaped member.
- 3. An apparatus as in claim 2, wherein the acoustical sensor comprises a piezoelectric element.
- 4. An apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the apparatus further comprises a mouthpiece and means for actuating the vibrator when a patient begins to inhale from the mouthpiece.
- 5. An apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the tapers have a size in the range from about 1 .mu.m to 6 .mu.m at their narrowest dimension.
- 6. An apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the liquid comprises a medicament.
- 7. An apparatus for nebulizing a liquid, the apparatus comprising:
- a dome shaped member comprising a front surface, a rear surface, and a plurality of apertures extending therebetween, said apertures being tapered to narrow from the rear surface to the front surface;
- a liquid reservoir; and
- a liquid-delivery system in fluid communication with the liquid reservoir, said liquid delivery system being disposed to transfer liquid from the reservoir to the rear surface of the dome shaped member such that substantially all of the delivered liquid adheres to the rear surface by surface tension forces; and
- a vibrator which vibrates the dome shaped member to eject liquid droplets from the front surface of the dome shaped member.
- 8. An apparatus as in claim 7, wherein the liquid delivery system comprises a capillary system which comprises a wicking member having a bottom end within the liquid reservoir and a delivery end near the rear surface of the non-planar member and an outer member spaced-apart from the wicking member by a capillary gap so that liquid from the reservoir may be drawn toward the delivery end by capillary action.
- 9. An apparatus as in claim 8, wherein the wicking member further includes at least one capillary channel at the delivery end so that liquid delivered from the capillary gap may continue its travel to the rear surface of the non-planar member through the capillary channel.
- 10. An apparatus as in claim 8, wherein a bottom portion of the wicking member is cylindrical in geometry and wherein the outer member includes an annular body which surrounds the wicking member.
- 11. An apparatus as in claim 8, further comprising a housing having a chamber and a mouthpiece, and wherein the outer member is attached to the housing.
- 12. An apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the wicking member is attached to the liquid reservoir, and wherein the liquid reservoir is detachably secured to the housing so that the liquid reservoir may be separated from the housing.
- 13. An apparatus as in claim 8, wherein the wicking member includes a flexible portion so that it may axially flex upon contact with the vibrating member.
- 14. An apparatus as in claim 8, wherein the liquid reservoir has a concave shape and includes capillary channels which move the liquid toward the capillary gap between the outer member and the wicking member.
- 15. An apparatus as in claim 7, further comprising a power supply which supplies power to the vibrator.
- 16. An apparatus as in claim 15, wherein the power supply comprises a rechargeable battery.
- 17. A method for nebulizing a liquid, the method comprising:
- providing a dome shaped member comprising a front surface, a rear surface, and a plurality of apertures extending therebetween, said apertures being tapered to narrow from the rear surface to the front surface;
- transferring liquid from a liquid reservoir to place the liquid in contact with the rear surface of the dome shaped member, with substantially all of the delivered liquid adhering to the rear surface by surface tension forces; and
- vibrating the dome shaped member to eject the liquid on the rear surface from the front surface, wherein liquid is at least periodically supplied from the liquid reservoir to the rear surface as the dome shaped member is vibrated.
- 18. A method as in claim 17, further comprising vibrating the dome shaped member until substantially all of the liquid within the reservoir is depleted.
- 19. A method as in claim 18, wherein the liquid reservoir holds an amount of liquid equal to a unit dosage amount.
- 20. A method as in claim 17, further comprising providing a housing having a chamber, a mouthpiece, the outer member, and the vibratable dome shaped member, and further comprising attaching the reservoir to the housing prior to vibrating the vibratable dome shaped member.
- 21. A method as in claim 20, further comprising detaching the housing from the reservoir and washing the housing and reservoir.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/604,313, filed Feb. 21, 1996 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,637, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference. This application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/521,641, filed Aug. 31, 1995, the complete disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference.
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Continuations (1)
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604313 |
Feb 1996 |
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