Patents Examined by Bernard Souw
  • Patent number: 9658102
    Abstract: There is described a method of determining the UV fluence received by a fluid. The method comprises the steps of: (a) irradiating the fluid at an unknown UV fluence; (b) measuring the fluorescence of a test sample of the fluid after irradiation in Step (a) to produce a test signal proportional to the concentration of a prescribed fluorescent composition of matter comprised in the test sample; and (c) determining the value of the unknown UV fluence by comparing the test signal to a calibration curve of a control signal proportional to concentration of the prescribed fluorescent composition of matter in the fluid as a function of applied UV fluence. There is also described a system for determining the UV fluence received by a fluid being treated in UV fluid treatment system comprising at least one UV source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2017
    Assignee: Trojan Technologies
    Inventors: Mark Adrian Kustermans, Michael Sasges, Ankit Patras, Trisevgeni Trissa Kantzas
  • Patent number: 9638178
    Abstract: An ion electrospray device with a porous reservoir and at least one porous emitter includes a porous compliant interface sandwiched between the porous reservoir and the porous emitter for transferring fluid from the porous reservoir to the porous emitter. The interface has a characteristic capillary pressure stronger than the characteristic capillary pressure of the porous reservoir to fill the porous emitter with fluid via a fluid injection section of the interface and before the porous reservoir is then partially filled with fluid. Emitter leakage and propellant bridging problems are addressed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2017
    Assignee: Busek Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Courtney, Nathaniel Demmons, Peter Wright
  • Patent number: 9633820
    Abstract: In a method for forming a resist film, a first resist film is formed on a light shielding film formed on a substrate, by using a spin coating method. A protective film is formed on the first resist film. The protective film and the first resist film are simultaneously removed at the same region to expose a portion of the light shielding film. A first region in which the second resist film is formed on the light shielding film and a second region in which the second resist film is formed on the first resist film through the protective film, are provided. The protective film and the second resist film are simultaneously removed in the second region to expose the first resist film. A region in which the first resist film, and a region in which the second resist film, is formed, are separately provided on the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Takayuki Ohnishi, Hirohito Anze
  • Patent number: 9633815
    Abstract: A cold field emitter for emitting an electron beam for an electron beam device is described. The emitter includes an emitter tip having a tip surface; and two or more adjacent facets formed at the tip surface and having facet boundaries, each of the facets forming a recess in the emitter tip, wherein the facets are separated. An intermediate area is provided between and around the two or more adjacent facets and the intermediate area is configured for electron emission. Further, an electron beam device, a method for operating an electron beam device and a method for producing an emitter for an electron beam device is described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: ICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft für Halbleiterprüftechnik mbH
    Inventors: Pavel Adamec, Harry Kleinschmidt
  • Patent number: 9633827
    Abstract: In various embodiments of the invention, a cargo container can be monitored at appropriate time intervals to determine that no controlled substances have been shipped with the cargo in the container. The monitoring utilizes reactive species produced from an atmospheric analyzer to ionize analyte molecules present in the container which are then analyzed by an appropriate spectroscopy system. In an embodiment of the invention, a sorbent surface can be used to absorb, adsorb or condense analyte molecules within the container whereafter the sorbent surface can be interrogated with the reactive species to generate analyte species characteristic of the contents of the container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: IONSENSE, INC.
    Inventor: Brian D Musselman
  • Patent number: 9633818
    Abstract: To provide a charged particle beam apparatus capable of obtaining an image with high contrast and high visibility, the apparatus has: a charged particle optical system; a detection part to detect secondary charged particles generated from the sample; an image formation part to receive a detection signal from the detection part and form an image of the sample; an image processing part to process the image formed with the image formation part; and a display part to display the result of processing with the image processing part, wherein the image formation part has a pulse-count signal processing part to generate cumulative histogram information on a pulse signal component in the detection signal, set a threshold value for pulse signal detection using information on the generated cumulative histogram, and output a detection signal having a value higher than the set threshold value as a pulse signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Kazuki Ikeda, Wen Li, Hajime Kawano, Hiroyuki Takahashi, Makoto Suzuki
  • Patent number: 9627169
    Abstract: An inductively coupled plasma source having multiple gases in the plasma chamber provides multiple ion species to a focusing column. A mass filter allows for selection of a specific ion species and rapid changing from one species to another.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: FEI Company
    Inventors: Anthony Graupera, Charles Otis
  • Patent number: 9620342
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for interlacing ramped mass spectrometer parameter values during data acquisition. Ions from a sample are acquired within a cycle time, Ct, using a mass spectrometer. Within each Ct, two or more scans of the acquired ions are performed using two or more ramped values for a parameter of the mass spectrometer. When it is determined that scans for a desired range of ramped parameter values cannot be performed within Ct, the desired range of ramped values is divided into at least two interlaced groups of ramped values. The mass spectrometer is instructed to perform scans for each of the interlaced groups within two or more cycle times. Spectra from the scans for each of the at least two interlaced groups are combined. The ramped parameter values of the combined spectra have the desired range and the desired effective step size.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2017
    Assignee: DH Technologies Development Pte. Ltd.
    Inventor: David Michael Cox
  • Patent number: 9610384
    Abstract: A method of reducing the deterioration of a wetted hydrophilic coating caused by sterilization by radiation is provided. The method comprises the step of incorporating a thiosulfate anion and a buffer into the wetting hydrophilic coating comprising water. Some embodiments of the invention relate to a wetted hydrophilic coating, a wetting agent, a package comprising a wetted hydrophilic coating, and a method of sterilizing a wetted hydrophilic coating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2017
    Assignee: DSM IP ASSETS B.V.
    Inventors: Johannes Wilhelmus Belt, Robin Elisabeth Maria Jacobus Daenen
  • Patent number: 9601312
    Abstract: A single column charged particle source with user selectable configurations operates in ion-mode for FIB operations or electron mode for SEM operations. Equipped with an x-ray detector, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy analysis is possible. A user can selectively configure the source to prepare a sample in the ion-mode or FIB mode then essentially flip a switch selecting electron-mode or SEM mode and analyze the sample using EDS or other types of analysis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: FEI COMPANY
    Inventor: Brian Roberts Routh, Jr.
  • Patent number: 9589780
    Abstract: Certain embodiments described herein are directed to systems including a cell downstream of a mass analyzer. In some instances, the cell is configured as a reaction cell, a collision cell or a reaction/collision cell. The system can be used to suppress unwanted ions and/or remove interfering ions from a stream comprising a plurality of ions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2017
    Assignee: PerkinElmer Health Sciences, Inc.
    Inventors: Hamid Badiei, Samad Bazargan
  • Patent number: 9589687
    Abstract: An apparatus arranged to control the temperature of uranium material in a uranium material storage container, comprising a thermal guide which wraps around an external surface of the uranium material storage container to cause the uranium material storage container to exchange heat energy with a heat transfer medium inside the thermal guide and a heat exchanger to heat or cool the heat transfer medium outside the thermal guide. A method of controlling the temperature of uranium material in a uranium material storage container is also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2017
    Assignee: URENCO Limited
    Inventors: Sebastian Olma, Ferdinand Rose
  • Patent number: 9579075
    Abstract: Among other things, one or more techniques and/or systems are described for measuring the attenuation of a line integral through an object via a photon counting cell (302) and via an energy integrating cell (304). That is, an imaging apparatus is provided that comprises a radiation source (208) and a detector array (210). The detector array is comprised of both photon counting cells (302) and energy integrating cells (304) arranged such that, during an examination of the object, attenuation of a line integral through the object is measured by at least one photon counting cell and at least one energy integrating cell. In this way, at least two substantially complete views of an object may be acquired, one from measurements yielded from the photon counting cell (and other photon counting cells) and one from measurements yielded from the energy integrating cell (and other energy integrating cells).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2017
    Assignee: Analogic Corporation
    Inventors: Guy M. Besson, Charles Shaughnessy, Douglas Abraham
  • Patent number: 9583311
    Abstract: At least one drawing apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment includes a plurality of optical systems and repeats an operation to draw a pattern on a substrate while partly overlapping stripe-shaped regions drawn by the optical systems. The drawing apparatus includes a creation unit configured to create data to be supplied to each of the plurality of optical systems by using a plurality of sub pattern data, each of the plurality of sub pattern data serving as unit data of pattern data used by the plurality of optical systems, corresponding to a region having a width obtainable by dividing the stripe-shaped regions in a drawing width direction, and including information relating to continuity of drawing instruction data and exposure amount information. The creation unit is configured to create the data by changing exposure amount information corresponding to an overlapping drawing region based on the information relating to the continuity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masato Muraki, Yoshihiro Hirata
  • Patent number: 9576766
    Abstract: The present invention is a shielded anode having an anode with a surface facing an electron beam and a shield configured to encompass the anode surface. The shield has at least one aperture and an internal surface facing the anode surface. The shield internal surface and anode surface are separated by a gap in the range of 1 mm to 10 mm. The shield of the present invention is fabricated from a material, such as graphite, that is substantially transmissive to X-ray photons.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: Rapiscan Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Edward James Morton, Russell David Luggar, Paul De Antonis
  • Patent number: 9570268
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to provide a charged particle gun using merely an electrostatic lens, said charged particle gun being relatively small and having less aberration, and to provide a field emission-type charged particle gun having high luminance even with a high current. This charged particle gun has: a charged particle source; an acceleration electrode that accelerates charged particles emitted from the charged particle source; a control electrode, which is disposed further toward the charged particle source side than the acceleration electrode, and which has a larger aperture diameter than the aperture diameter of the acceleration electrode; and a control unit that controls, on the basis of a potential applied to the acceleration electrode, a potential to be applied to the control electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Yuta Imai, Takashi Ohshima, Hideo Morishita
  • Patent number: 9563744
    Abstract: A classifier and method for predicting or characterizing graft-versus-host disease in a patient after receiving a transplant of pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells or bone marrow. The classifier operates on mass-spectral data obtained from a blood-based sample of the patient and is configured as a combination of filtered mini-classifiers using a regularized combination method, such as logistic regression with extreme drop-out. The method also uses a “deep-MALDI” mass spectrometry technique in which the blood-based samples are subject to at least 100,000 laser shots in MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry in order to reveal greater spectral content and detect low abundance proteins circulating in serum associated with graft-versus-host disease.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: Biodesix, Inc.
    Inventors: Heinrich Röder, Joanna Röder
  • Patent number: 9564304
    Abstract: In one aspect of the invention, an ion trap mass analyzer includes a variable- or multi-potential type ion guide (MPIG) assembly which has been pre-configured to produce a parabolic-type potential field. Each MPIG electrode has a resistive coating of designed characteristics. In one example the coating varies in thickness along the length of an underlying uniform substrate. The MPIG assembly can be a single MPIG electrode or an array of a plurality of MPIG electrodes. An array can facilitate delocalization for improved performance. This chemical modification of a uniform underlying substrate promotes cheaper and flexible instruments. The modified MPIG electrodes also allow miniaturization (e.g. micro and perhaps even nano-scale), which allows miniaturization of the instrument in which the single or plural modified MPIG electrode(s) are placed. This promotes portability and field use instead of limitation to laboratory settings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: University of Northern Iowa Research Foundation
    Inventor: Curtiss Dwight Hanson
  • Patent number: 9558916
    Abstract: At least one method of manufacturing articles and at least one lithography system are provided herein. A lithography system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure includes a drawing apparatus that includes a plurality of optical systems and draws a pattern on a substrate with beams having been respectively shaped by the plurality of optical systems, and a transmission unit configured to select pattern data to be used by the drawing apparatus from a plurality of types of pattern data commonly used by the plurality of optical systems and configured to transmit the selected pattern data to the drawing apparatus. The pattern data is a set of data including a plurality of sub pattern data, and a width of a stripe-shaped drawing region corresponding to one sub pattern data piece is equivalent to a length obtainable by dividing a drawing width of the beams by an integer value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masato Muraki, Yoshihiro Hirata
  • Patent number: 9558915
    Abstract: The present invention provides apparatus for an imaging system comprising a multitude of imaging elements upon a substrate. In some embodiments the substrate may be approximately round with a radius of approximately one inch. Various methods relating to using and producing an imaging system are discussed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Inventor: Frederick A. Flitsch