Patents by Inventor Cristian Pantea
Cristian Pantea has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 11946834Abstract: A method of sample collection includes collecting an analyte from a sampling surface using a rapidly curable liquid gel comprising one or more metal particles; co-aggregating the one or more metal particles from the rapidly curable liquid gel and the analyte from the sampling surface; and rapidly curing the rapidly curable liquid gel. The composition and sample preparation conditions may facilitate improved collection efficiency of analytes during environmental and forensic evidence sampling. In addition, the composition and sample preparation conditions may facilitate enhanced detection and identification of the analyte using e.g., Surface Enhanced Raman Spectrometry (SERS).Type: GrantFiled: October 29, 2021Date of Patent: April 2, 2024Assignee: TRIAD NATIONAL SECURITY, LLCInventors: Ann Junghans, Eric Davis, Cristian Pantea, Rollin Lakis, Vlad Henzl
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Patent number: 11879868Abstract: Techniques are provided for detecting wafer defects. Example techniques include exciting a wafer using an acoustic signal to cause the wafer to exhibit vibrations, measuring one or more of linear frequency response metrics or nonlinear frequency responses metrics associated with the vibrations, and identifying any defects in the wafer based at least in part on one or more of the linear frequency response metrics or nonlinear frequency responses metrics. In embodiments, the wafer includes bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3).Type: GrantFiled: May 14, 2021Date of Patent: January 23, 2024Assignee: TRIAD NATIONAL SECURITY, LLCInventors: Cristian Pantea, John James Greenhall, Alan Lyman Graham, Dipen N. Sinha
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Patent number: 11567038Abstract: Described are an apparatus, computer program product, and associated methods for shaped waveform acoustic interrogation of substances and materials to determine one or more properties of the materials or substances. In some embodiments, a shaped waveform is formed by summing two or more different waveforms and an acoustic wave is generated according to the shaped waveform. The acoustic wave is transmitted by one or more transmitting transducers through the substance or material and received by one or more receiving transducers. The shaped waveform acoustic wave can have a duration or a period that is less than about 20 ?s and can comprise predetermined frequency content. Characteristics of the shaped waveform acoustic wave, as received at the receiving transducer(s), including characteristics such as amplitude, frequency, time of flight, etc., can be associated with said one or more properties of the substance or material to provide for real-time monitoring of these properties.Type: GrantFiled: September 28, 2020Date of Patent: January 31, 2023Assignee: TRIAD NATIONAL SECURITY, LLCInventors: Dipen N. Sinha, Cristian Pantea
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Patent number: 11474073Abstract: Methods for noninvasive determination of acoustical properties of flowing in pipes having a large ratio (>10) of pipe diameter to wall thickness, and in highly attenuating fluids are described. When vibrations are excited on the outer surface of the wall of a pipe, the resulting vibrations propagate directly through the wall in a normal direction and through the pipe wall as guided waves, appearing on the opposite side of the pipe. This dual path propagation through pipes, where guided waves take the circumferential path in the wall of the pipe and may interfere with the time of-flight measurement obtained from the direct path through the fluid, is at least in part resolved by subtracting the signal from the guided wave from the combined signal, thereby permitting improved observation of the direct path propagation through the fluid.Type: GrantFiled: July 20, 2017Date of Patent: October 18, 2022Assignee: TRIAD NATIONAL SECURITY, LLCInventors: Dipen N. Sinha, Cristian Pantea, Blake T. Sturtevant, Anirban Chaudhuri
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Publication number: 20210356435Abstract: Techniques are provided for detecting wafer defects. Example techniques include exciting a wafer using an acoustic signal to cause the wafer to exhibit vibrations, measuring one or more of linear frequency response metrics or nonlinear frequency responses metrics associated with the vibrations, and identifying any defects in the wafer based at least in part on one or more of the linear frequency response metrics or nonlinear frequency responses metrics. In embodiments, the wafer includes bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3).Type: ApplicationFiled: May 14, 2021Publication date: November 18, 2021Inventors: Cristian Pantea, John James Greenhall, Alan Lyman Graham, Dipen N. Sinha
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Publication number: 20210096109Abstract: Described are an apparatus, computer program product, and associated methods for shaped waveform acoustic interrogation of substances and materials to determine one or more properties of the materials or substances. In some embodiments, a shaped waveform is formed by summing two or more different waveforms and an acoustic wave is generated according to the shaped waveform. The acoustic wave is transmitted by one or more transmitting transducers through the substance or material and received by one or more receiving transducers. The shaped waveform acoustic wave can have a duration or a period that is less than about 20 ?s and can comprise predetermined frequency content. Characteristics of the shaped waveform acoustic wave, as received at the receiving transducer(s), including characteristics such as amplitude, frequency, time of flight, etc., can be associated with said one or more properties of the substance or material to provide for real-time monitoring of these properties.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 28, 2020Publication date: April 1, 2021Inventors: Dipen N. SINHA, Cristian PANTEA
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Patent number: 10908131Abstract: Apparatus and methods for the measurement of gas volume fraction of produced oil are described. A first method measures the response of a pipe containing the produced oil excited by a source of vibration in the form of an acoustic frequency chirp containing a linearly varying range of frequencies in the tens of kilohertz range encompassing at least one resonant mode of the pipe. As the gas volume fraction increases, the location of the peak maximum of the measured frequency spectrum responsive to the excitation increases in frequency, and the height of the peak maximum increases, thereby permitting a linear calibration curve to be obtained. A second method measures the response of a pipe containing the produced oil to excitation by a continuous source of vibration having a chosen frequency above those which excite flexural vibrations in the pipe and simultaneously excite acoustic waves in the fluid contained in the pipe, known as the coincidence frequency.Type: GrantFiled: April 4, 2016Date of Patent: February 2, 2021Assignee: TRIAD NATIONAL SECURITY, LLCInventors: Dipen N. Sinha, Anirban Chaudhuri, Cristian Pantea
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Patent number: 10887682Abstract: Acoustic signal sources include acoustic resonators that include acoustic nonlinear materials. Acoustic signals at higher frequencies are mixed in the nonlinear materials to produce a lower frequency acoustic signal. Resonance provides increased efficiency in producing acoustic signals at difference frequencies corresponding to resonance frequencies. Higher frequency acoustic signals used in nonlinear mixing are preferably at frequencies corresponding to resonance frequencies as well.Type: GrantFiled: February 22, 2018Date of Patent: January 5, 2021Assignee: Triad National Security, LLCInventors: Cristian Pantea, Dipen N. Sinha
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Patent number: 10794865Abstract: An apparatus and method for the separation of an oil-water mixture into its components are described. An acoustic radiation force moves oil droplets to the nodes of an acoustic standing wave generated in a vertical column containing the oil-water mixture. Once the droplets are sufficiently close together, attractive forces become dominant and the droplets may coalesce to form larger droplets, which have greater buoyancy, and separation of the mixture into a layer of oil and a layer of water occurs, not possible by simple gravitational separation. Acoustically-driven oil-water separation may be used for water-cut measurements in oil production wells, since separation of the oil from the water permits accurate sound speed measurements to be made for both the oil and the water, thereby allowing frequent in situ calibrations of the apparatus to determine whether sound speed measurements on the mixture are accurate in the event that one or both of the mixture constituents is changing.Type: GrantFiled: April 1, 2016Date of Patent: October 6, 2020Assignee: Triad National Security, LLCInventors: Dipen N. Sinha, Cristian Pantea
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Patent number: 10605640Abstract: An apparatus and method for real-time visualization of particulate matter suspended in a static or flowing fluid and fluid flow patterns in a pipe, tube, conduit, or other container, are described. Ultrasonic scanning and detection of scattered sound from the particles in the fluid create a real-time image of the particles, or of flow patterns in the liquid. A mechanical wobbler directs a piezoelectric transducer over a chosen angle in an oscillatory manner. The transducer is operated in a pulse-echo mode wherein the same transducer detects the return signal from the target region through which particles are passing and/or a flow is present. The pulse-echo measurements are made rapidly and continuously during a single sweep of the transducer over the chosen angle. Received signals are processed in the ultrasound scanner electronics module and displayed as an image in real-time.Type: GrantFiled: September 6, 2011Date of Patent: March 31, 2020Assignee: Triad National Security, LLCInventors: Dipen N. Sinha, Curtis F. Osterhoudt, Cristian Pantea
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Patent number: 10502648Abstract: A pressure sensor and a method of measuring pressure with the pressure sensor, based on measuring the effect of pressure loads on the acoustic resonance mode frequencies of a spherical core (e.g., a hollow sphere). The pressure sensor includes a transmitter configured to transmit vibrational signals to a sphere, and a receiver on the opposite side of the spherical core that is configured to receive vibrational signals from the spherical core. According to the method of measuring pressure with this sensor, the spherical core exhibits a pressure-dependent resonance response that can be monitored utilizing a frequency response technique. Peak shifts observed under an unknown pressure load can be compared to a calibration of the spherical core under a series of known pressure loads to thereby determine the unknown pressure. The pressure sensor and method may be operated in real-time at very high temperatures and pressure, and may be used in borehole applications and in aggressive media.Type: GrantFiled: September 28, 2017Date of Patent: December 10, 2019Assignee: Triad National Security, LLCInventors: Cristian Pantea, Dipen Sinha, Blake Sturtevant
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Publication number: 20190242851Abstract: Methods for noninvasive determination of acoustical properties of flowing in pipes having a large ratio (>10) of pipe diameter to wall thickness, and in highly attenuating fluids are described. When vibrations are excited on the outer surface of the wall of a pipe, the resulting vibrations propagate directly through the wall In a normal direction and through the pipe wall as guided waves, appearing on the opposite side of the pipe. This dual path propagation through pipes, where guided waves take the circumferential path in the wall of the pipe and may interfere with the time of-flight measurement obtained from the direct path through the fluid, is at least In part resolved by subtracting the signal from the guided wave from the combined signal, thereby permitting improved observation of the direct path propagation through the fluid.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 20, 2017Publication date: August 8, 2019Inventors: Dipen N. Sinha, Cristian Pantea, Blake T. Sturtevant, Anirban Chaudhuri
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Patent number: 10352907Abstract: A compact, rugged and portable measurement cell design for the determination of sound speed in fluids at temperatures up to 250° C. and pressures up to 3,000 psi is described. Swept Frequency Acoustic Interferometry measurement for liquid sound speed determinations in liquids up to 250° C. is of both fundamental interest, as in the case of basic equations of state, and applied interest, such as for characterizing geothermal or petroleum down hole environments. Representative sound speeds for water, as a function of temperature and pressure, are in agreement with an internationally accepted standard for the sound speed of water.Type: GrantFiled: November 26, 2014Date of Patent: July 16, 2019Assignee: Los Alamos National Security, LLCInventors: Blake T. Sturtevant, Cristian Pantea, Dipen N. Sinha
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Patent number: 10331025Abstract: The present invention is a method and an apparatus that can image objects immersed in optically opaque fluids using ultrasound in a confined space and in a harsh environment. If the fluid is not highly attenuating at frequencies above 1 MHz, where commercial ultrasound scanners are available, such scanners can be adapted for imaging in these fluids. In the case of highly attenuating fluids, such as drilling mud, then a low frequency collimated sound source is used.Type: GrantFiled: October 24, 2013Date of Patent: June 25, 2019Assignee: Los Alamos National Security, LLCInventors: Dipen N. Sinha, Curtis F. Osterhoudt, Cristian Pantea
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Patent number: 10309932Abstract: An apparatus and method for noninvasively monitoring steam quality and flow and in pipes or conduits bearing flowing steam, are described. By measuring the acoustic vibrations generated in steam-carrying conduits by the flowing steam either by direct contact with the pipe or remotely thereto, converting the measured acoustic vibrations into a frequency spectrum characteristic of the natural resonance vibrations of the pipe, and monitoring the amplitude and/or the frequency of one or more chosen resonance frequencies, changes in the steam quality in the pipe are determined. The steam flow rate and the steam quality are inversely related, and changes in the steam flow rate are calculated from changes in the steam quality once suitable calibration curves are obtained.Type: GrantFiled: August 15, 2016Date of Patent: June 4, 2019Assignee: Los Alamos National Security, LLCInventors: Dipen N. Sinha, Cristian Pantea
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Patent number: 10088590Abstract: Methods for real-time, continuous measurements of the composition and other properties of individual phases of petroleum, water and gas mixtures during the oil production process, without requiring test separators, test lines, with associated valving and instrumentation, are described. Embodiments of the present invention direct ultrasonic sound transmission through a flowing multiphase fluid in three frequency ranges: low frequencies, gas bubble resonance frequencies, and high frequencies, wherein certain sound propagation measurements, including sound speed, sound attenuation and sound scattering, are made in one or more of the three separate frequency regions, from which the multiphase composition and other properties are extracted without having to separate the multiphase fluid or the gas from the flowing stream.Type: GrantFiled: April 4, 2014Date of Patent: October 2, 2018Assignee: Los Alamos National Security, LLCInventors: Dipen N. Sinha, Anirban Chaudhuri, Cristian Pantea
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Publication number: 20180120269Abstract: Apparatus and methods for the measurement of gas volume fraction of produced oil are described. A first method measures the response of a pipe containing the produced oil excited by a source of vibration in the form of an acoustic frequency chirp containing a linearly varying range of frequencies in the tens of kilohertz range encompassing at least one resonant mode of the pipe. As the gas volume fraction increases, the location of the peak maximum of the measured frequency spectrum responsive to the excitation increases in frequency, and the height of the peak maximum increases, thereby permitting a linear calibration curve to be obtained. A second method measures the response of a pipe containing the produced oil to excitation by a continuous source of vibration having a chosen frequency above those which excite flexural vibrations in the pipe and simultaneously excite acoustic waves in the fluid contained in the pipe, known as the coincidence frequency.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 4, 2016Publication date: May 3, 2018Applicant: Los Alamos National Security, LLCInventors: Dipen N. Sinha, Anirban Chaudhuri, Cristian Pantea
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Publication number: 20180088083Abstract: An apparatus and method for the separation of an oil-water mixture into its components are described. An acoustic radiation force moves oil droplets to the nodes of an acoustic standing wave generated in a vertical column containing the oil-water mixture. Once the droplets are sufficiently close together, attractive forces become dominant and the droplets may coalesce to form larger droplets, which have greater buoyancy, and separation of the mixture into a layer of oil and a layer of water occurs, not possible by simple gravitational separation. Acoustically-driven oil-water separation may be used for water-cut measurements in oil production wells, since separation of the oil from the water permits accurate sound speed measurements to be made for both the oil and the water, thereby allowing frequent in situ calibrations of the apparatus to determine whether sound speed measurements on the mixture are accurate in the event that one or both of the mixture constituents is changing.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 1, 2016Publication date: March 29, 2018Applicant: Los Alamos National Security, LLCInventors: Dipen N. Sinha, Cristian Pantea
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Patent number: 9843400Abstract: A passive, linear arrangement of a sonic crystal-based apparatus and method including a 1D sonic crystal, a nonlinear medium, and an acoustic low-pass filter, for permitting unidirectional broadband ultrasound propagation as a collimated beam for underwater, air or other fluid communication, are described. The signal to be transmitted is first used to modulate a high-frequency ultrasonic carrier wave which is directed into the sonic crystal side of the apparatus. The apparatus processes the modulated signal, whereby the original low-frequency signal exits the apparatus as a collimated beam on the side of the apparatus opposite the sonic crystal. The sonic crystal provides a bandpass acoustic filter through which the modulated high-frequency ultrasonic signal passes, and the nonlinear medium demodulates the modulated signal and recovers the low-frequency sound beam. The low-pass filter removes remaining high-frequency components, and contributes to the unidirectional property of the apparatus.Type: GrantFiled: April 6, 2015Date of Patent: December 12, 2017Assignee: U.S. Department of EnergyInventors: Dipen N. Sinha, Cristian Pantea
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Publication number: 20170108471Abstract: A compact, rugged and portable measurement cell design for the determination of sound speed in fluids at temperatures up to 250° C. and pressures up to 3,000 psi is described. Swept Frequency Acoustic Interferometry measurement for liquid sound speed determinations in liquids up to 250° C. is of both fundamental interest, as in the case of basic equations of state, and applied interest, such as for characterizing geothermal or petroleum down hole environments. Representative sound speeds for water, as a function of temperature and pressure, are in agreement with an internationally accepted standard for the sound speed of water.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 26, 2014Publication date: April 20, 2017Applicant: Los Alamos National Security, LLCInventors: Blake T. Sturtevant, Cristian Pantea, Dipen N. Sinha