Patents Assigned to Virginia Tech
  • Patent number: 11950835
    Abstract: Methods and systems for distributing electrical energy to tissue which minimize Joule heating, thermal effects, and/or thermal damage, without sacrificing efficacy of treatment, are described. The methods and systems are particularly suitable to electrical energy-based therapies employing multiple electrodes, such as arrays of electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignees: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc., AngioDynamics, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy J. O'Brien, Robert E. Neal, II, Rafael V. Davalos
  • Patent number: 11956914
    Abstract: A number of different sealed interfaces for power modules are described. In one example, a sealed interface includes a printed circuit board including a contact pad for power conduction to a bus bar of the printed circuit board, a semiconductor module including at least one power transistor, a terminal pin electrically coupled to the power module, and a housing for the power module. The housing includes an open terminal aperture that extends through the housing. The printed circuit board is seated upon the open terminal aperture, to close and seal the open terminal aperture, with the contact pad positioned within the open terminal aperture. The terminal pin contacts the contact pad of the printed circuit board within the open terminal aperture, and the open terminal aperture comprises a transitional feature to abate electric field intensity around an interface between the open terminal aperture and the printed circuit board.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignees: VIRGINIA TECH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, INC., UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
    Inventors: Christina DiMarino, Mark Cairnie, Dushan Boroyevich, Rolando Burgos, C. Mark Johnson
  • Patent number: 11952568
    Abstract: The present invention provides systems, methods, and devices for electroporation-based therapies (EBTs). Embodiments provide patient-specific treatment protocols derived by the numerical modeling of 3D reconstructions of target tissue from images taken of the tissue, and optionally accounting for one or more of physical constraints or dynamic tissue properties. The present invention further relates to systems, methods, and devices for delivering bipolar electric pulses for irreversible electroporation exhibiting reduced or no damage to tissue typically associated with an EBT-induced excessive charge delivered to the tissue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert E. Neal, II, Paulo A. Garcia, Rafael V. Davalos, John H. Rossmeisl, John L. Robertson
  • Patent number: 11947163
    Abstract: In one aspect, the disclosure relates to multi-material fibers capable of distributedly measuring temperature and pressure in which the methods comprise a thermal drawing step, and the methods of fabricating the disclosed fibers. The fibers can be utilized in methods of temperature and pressure mapping or sensing comprising electrical reflectometry for interrogation. Further disclosed are devices comprising a disclosed fiber with the multi-point detection capability with simple one-end connection. Also disclosed are articles, e.g., smart clothing, wound dressing, robotic skin and other industrial products, comprising a disclosed fiber or a fabric comprising a disclosed fiber. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: VIRGINIA TECH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, INC.
    Inventors: Xiaoting Jia, Anbo Wang, Haifeng Xuan, Li Yu
  • Patent number: 11925405
    Abstract: Described herein are methods and systems of performing immunotherapy on a subject and/or determining if a subject will be responsive to ablation immunotherapy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.
    Inventors: Rafael V. Davalos, Natalie White
  • Patent number: 11923463
    Abstract: This disclosure provides a diode including a semiconductor region having at least one two-dimensional carrier channel of a first conductivity type. The diode also includes a plurality of sidewalls exposed in the semiconductor region defining at least one trench extending through the at least one two-dimensional carrier channel and a material of a second conductivity type, the second conductivity type being the other of the n-type and the p-type conductivity, disposed on the plurality of sidewalls and in contact with the at least one two-dimensional carrier channel. The diode also includes an anode material in contact with at least a portion of the semiconductor region and in contact with at least a portion of the material of the second conductivity type, and a cathode material in contact with the at least one two-dimensional carrier channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.
    Inventors: Yuhao Zhang, Ming Xiao
  • Patent number: 11912819
    Abstract: Semicrystalline polyethylene-2,2?-bifuran-5,5?-dicarboxylate (PEBF) homopolyester or copolyester with up to 5 mole percent isophthalate or up to 2.7 mole percent terephthalate, based on the diacid component, or up to 2.5 mole percent 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol (CHDM), based on the diol component, prepared by esterifying or transesterifying the diacid and the diol components with a catalyst including about 10 to about 50 ppm wt metal, and polycondensation, wherein the bifuran polyester has an intrinsic viscosity of at least 0.4 g/dL and a semicrystalline melting peak (Tm) with ?Hf equal to or greater than 5 J/g on the second heating ramp.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignees: ExxonMobil Chemical Patents, Inc., Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.
    Inventors: Monica Lotz, Kapil Kandel, Michael Salciccioli, Stephen Cohn, Alan A. Galuska, Javier Guzman, S. Richard Turner, Hans Eliot Edling, Edward E. Paschke
  • Patent number: 11914937
    Abstract: Techniques, systems, and devices are described for providing a computational frame for estimating high-dimensional stochastic behaviors. In one exemplary aspect, a method for performing numerical estimation includes receiving a set of measurements of a stochastic behavior. The set of correlated measurements follows a non-standard probability distribution and is non-linearly correlated. Also, a non-linear relationship exists between a set of system variables that describes the stochastic behavior and a corresponding set of measurements. The method includes determining, based on the set of measurements, a numerical model of the stochastic behavior. The numerical model comprises a feature space comprising non-correlated features corresponding to the stochastic behavior. The non-correlated features have a dimensionality of M and the set of measurements has a dimensionality of N, M being smaller than N.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignees: LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL SECURITY, LLC, VIRGINIA TECH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, INC.
    Inventors: Xiao Chen, Can Huang, Liang Min, Charanraj Thimmisetty, Charles Tong, Yijun Xu, Lamine Mili
  • Patent number: 11914954
    Abstract: Described herein are systems and methods to enable generation of high-quality summaries of documents that have questions and answers. To help summarize such documents, parsing methods are disclosed that account for different document formats. Methods are disclosed to anonymize personal and identifying information present in the documents. An ontology is defined to categorize dialog acts for the questions and answers present. Classifiers are disclosed based on this ontology. Methods are also disclosed to transform a question-answer pair to a canonical form. Based on the dialog acts for the question and answer combination, transformation methods were developed that build upon each of traditional NLP, and deep learning, techniques.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: VIRGINIA TECH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, INC.
    Inventors: Edward A. Fox, Saurabh Chakravarty, Raja Venkata Satya Phanindra Chava, Maanav Mehrotra
  • Patent number: 11903690
    Abstract: Provided herein are devices, systems, and methods for monitoring lesion or treated area in a tissue during focal ablation or cell membrane disruption therapy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.
    Inventors: Rafael V. Davalos, Mohammad Bonakdar, Eduardo L. Latouche, Roop L. Mahajan, John L. Robertson, Christopher B. Arena, Michael B. Sano
  • Patent number: 11894778
    Abstract: Aspects of direct current (DC)-DC converters with an integrated matrix transformer and multiphase current doubler rectifiers are described. In some examples, a DC-DC converter can include a matrix transformer that has multiple magnetically integrated transformer components that are magnetically integrated using transformer components that share a top plate and a bottom plate. A multiphase current doubler rectifier can include multiple synchronous rectifiers corresponding to the plurality of transformer components of the matrix transformer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: VIRGINIA TECH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, INC.
    Inventors: Xin Lou, Qiang Li, Fred C. Lee
  • Patent number: 11890046
    Abstract: A medical system for ablating a tissue site with real-time monitoring during an electroporation treatment procedure. A pulse generator generates a pre-treatment (PT) test signal prior to the treatment procedure and intra-treatment (IT) test signals during the treatment procedure. A treatment control module determines impedance values from the PT test signal and IT test signals and determines a progress of electroporation and an end point of treatment in real-time based on the determined impedance values while the treatment progresses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignees: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc., AngioDynamics, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Neal, II, Rafael V. Davalos
  • Patent number: 11883959
    Abstract: The present invention concerns a novel leg mechanism for quadrupedal locomotion. This design engages a linkage to couple assembly that only requires a single degree of actuation. The topological arrangement of the system produces a foot trajectory that is well-suited for dynamic gaits including trot-running, bounding, and galloping.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: VIRGINIA TECH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, INC.
    Inventors: Pinhas Ben-Tzvi, Vinaykarthik Kamidi
  • Patent number: 11880188
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to the intelligent distribution of data for robotic, autonomous, and similar systems. To reduce the impact of multi-agent coordination on networked systems embodiments are disclosed that include the use of action-based constraints which yield constrained-action POMDP (CA-POMDP) models, and probabilistic constraint satisfaction for the resulting infinite-horizon finite state controllers. To enable constraint analysis over an infinite horizon, an unconstrained policy is first represented as a finite state controller (FSC). A combination of a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) routine and a discrete optimization routine can be performed on the finite state controller to improve probabilistic constraint satisfaction of the finite state controller, while minimizing impact to a value function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: VIRGINIA TECH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, INC.
    Inventors: Michael Fowler, Ryan Williams
  • Patent number: 11863258
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for training and deploying machine-learned communication over multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) channels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy James O'Shea, Tugba Erpek
  • Publication number: 20230416867
    Abstract: The present disclosure concerns a Gas-Assisted Microbubble Extraction (GAME) system with an innovative dispersion module that can be used to efficiently separate and purify base metals and rare earth elements from various sources. The GAME system utilizes a three phase system of a gas phase, an organic phase, and an aqueous phase to efficiently extract low concentration metals from a solution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2023
    Publication date: December 28, 2023
    Applicants: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc., Phinix, LLC
    Inventors: Wencai Zhang, Subodh Das
  • Patent number: 11848140
    Abstract: Various examples of an integrated parallel matrix transformer and inductor are disclosed herein. In one aspect, the transformer includes a first magnetic core having a first set of pillars of a first transformer and a second set of pillars of a second transformer and a second magnetic core having a first and second inductor pillar. The first and second magnetic cores can be separate or integrated into one core. The transformer also includes a planar winding structure. The planar winding structure may include a primary winding and a plurality of secondary windings. The primary winding can be configured to equally divide a primary current. The primary winding can extend a number of turns to conduct half of the primary current around the first inductor pillar and the first set of pillars and to conduct half of the primary current around the second inductor pillar and the second set of pillars.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2023
    Assignee: VIRGINIA TECH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, INC.
    Inventors: Mohamed Hassan Abouelella Ahmed, Fred C. Lee, Qiang Li
  • Patent number: 11840606
    Abstract: Described here are blocky PEEK copolymers and corresponding synthesis methods. It was surprisingly found that synthesis of blocky PEEK copolymers in a non-solvent environment with respect to PEEK produced blocky PEEK copolymers with high degrees of functionalization and crystallinity. The blocky PEEK copolymers had an increased blocky structure, relative to corresponding PEEK copolymer synthesized with other known methods. Moreover, membranes formed from the blocky PEEK polymers are particularly desirable in fuel cell applications. For example, the membranes formed from the blocky PEEK polymers had surprisingly large ion conductivities as well as significantly improved chemical and thermal resistance, at least in part, to the improved functionalization and crystallinity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignees: SOLVAY SPECIALTY POLYMERS ITALY S.P.A., VIRGINIA TECH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kelly D. Branham, David B. Roller, Stéphane Jeol, Marco Apostolo, Robert B. Moore, Lindsey Anderson, Samantha Talley, Xijing Yuan
  • Patent number: 11821771
    Abstract: A method of thermodynamic assessment of flow through a turbomachine having a compressor, comprising: receiving sensor readings from a plurality of acoustic sensors located about an intake for the turbomachine upstream of the compressor; and receiving pressure and stagnation temperature readings for the flow into the intake. A static temperature is determined for the flow into the intake and an average velocity of the flow over a flow area of the intake upstream of the compressor using the acoustic sensor readings. A mass flow rate of the flow through the intake is determined using the average velocity of the flow and the stagnation pressure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: VIRGINIA TECH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, INC.
    Inventors: Vasileios Kyritsis, Kevin Todd Lowe, Maurice Bristow, Peter Loftus
  • Publication number: 20230340203
    Abstract: The present invention relates to poly(amide imide) (PAI) precursor polymers which can for example be used in Vat photopolymerization processes like lithographic processes for the photofabrication of three-dimensional (3D) articles. The invention further relates to polymer compositions including these poly(amide imide) (PAI) precursor polymers. Still further, the invention relates to vat photopolymerization methods to form three-dimensional (3D) objects that incorporate the aforementioned polymer compositions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 12, 2021
    Publication date: October 26, 2023
    Applicants: SOLVAY SPECIALTY POLYMERS USA, LLC, VIRGINIA TECH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES, INC.
    Inventors: Eduardo Soriano, Joel Pollino, Kermit S. Kwan, Clay Bradley Arrington, Viswanath Meenakshisundaram, Timothy Edward Long, Christopher Bryant Williams, Daniel Andrew Rau