Patents Examined by Michael P Lapage
  • Patent number: 11920915
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for inspection. One embodiment is a method for measuring a hole. The method includes driving a fiber optic probe into the hole, determining a profile by scanning the hole via the fiber optic probe, and determining whether an interface gap exists at the hole based on the profile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: Farahnaz Sisco, Jeffrey Martin Devlin, Nathan Christopher McRae
  • Patent number: 11913870
    Abstract: Provided are methods and devices for assessing biological particles for use in cell immunotherapy. By utilizing a microfluidic chip device together with optical force measurement and cell imaging, the methods enable comprehensive assessment and characterization of biological particles with regard to morphology, motility, binding affinities, and susceptibility to external forces, including but not limited to, chemical, biochemical, biological, physical and temperature influences. The methods enable the selection and production of biological particles, such as engineered T-cells, for use in immunotherapy and biomanufacturing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: Lumacyte, Inc.
    Inventors: Sean Hart, Colin Hebert
  • Patent number: 11913889
    Abstract: A prediction device for predicting the growth direction of a crack that occurs in a subject includes: an obtainer that obtains video of the subject; a derivation unit that derives displacement of each of a plurality of regions in the obtained video; a selector that selects, from among the plurality of regions, two or more regions each having displacement similar to displacement of a reference region included in the plurality of regions; and an identification unit that identifies, as the growth direction, the longitudinal direction of a collective region made up of the two or more selected regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yuki Maruyama, Hiroya Kusaka, Taro Imagawa, Akihiro Noda
  • Patent number: 11906287
    Abstract: A shape profile measurement device includes: a light projector and a light receiver arranged facing each other; a belt conveyor for conveying an object for measurement; and a calculation unit. The light projector includes a plurality of light-emitting portions arranged in an array direction, and each emits substantially parallel measurement light. The light receiver includes a plurality of light-receiving portions arranged in the array direction facing the plurality of light-emitting portions, and each receives the measurement light emitted from a corresponding light-emitting portion. The light-receiving portions output a signal indicating a light intensity of the received measurement light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: SICK K.K.
    Inventors: Tatsuya Eki, Kou Ikeda, Yuji Ogusu
  • Patent number: 11905545
    Abstract: Method for characterising a microorganism, comprising: —illuminating, in the wavelength range of 390 nm-900 nm, the microorganism having a natural electromagnetic response in said range; —acquiring, in said range, a light intensity reflected by said (or transmitted through said) illuminated microorganism; and —determining the microorganism as being a yeast or a bacterial strain according to the light intensity acquired in said range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: BIOMERIEUX
    Inventors: Jordane Lallemand, Denis Leroux, Manuel Petit
  • Patent number: 11867605
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure include a particle sorter with a droplet deflector configured to apply a known offset deflection force to a droplet stream. Particle sorters according to certain embodiments include a flow cell, a light source, e.g., laser, for irradiating an interrogation point of the flow cell, a detector for detecting light from the interrogation point, a droplet generator for producing a droplet stream from fluid exiting the flow cell and a droplet deflector configured to apply a known offset deflection force to the droplet stream. In some cases, the droplet deflector comprises first and second plates configured to be offset from one another. Methods and particle sorting modules for applying a known offset deflection force are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: BECTON, DICKINSON AND COMPANY
    Inventor: Geoffrey Osborne
  • Patent number: 11867507
    Abstract: A system for providing a virtual distance of a device under test, the system including a light source, a wedge shear plate including a first surface, a second surface and a wedge angle, wherein the second surface is disposed at the wedge angle with respect to the first surface and the wedge shear plate is configured to be disposed between the device under test and the light source, a first detector configured for receiving a first interference pattern formed as a result of the light source being disposed through and reflected by the first surface and the second surface of the wedge shear plate and a second detector configured for receiving a second interference pattern formed as a result of the light source being disposed through and reflected by the first surface and the second surface of the wedge shear plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2023
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: MLOptic Corp.
    Inventors: Pengfei Wu, Wei Zhou
  • Patent number: 11862499
    Abstract: Implementations disclosed describe an integrated sensor controller comprising a sensor circuit and a logic circuit. The sensor circuit includes a light source driver to generate a driving signal, a demultiplexer to produce, using the driving signal, a plurality of output driving signals to be delivered to one of a plurality of sensors, and an amplifier to: receive a first signal from a first sensor, the first signal being associated with a first event representative of a position of a substrate within a device manufacturing machine, and generate a second signal. The sensor circuit further includes an analog-to-digital converter to receive the second signal and generate a third signal. The logic circuit includes a memory device and a processing device coupled to the memory device, the processing device to obtain based on the third signal, information about the position of the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.
    Inventors: Kiyki-Shiy Shang, Mikhail Taraboukhine, Venkata Raghavaiah Chowdhary Kode
  • Patent number: 11846584
    Abstract: A measurement apparatus for measuring a coating amount of a slurry according to the present disclosure includes a light emitter configured to irradiate terahertz wave onto a release paper coated with the slurry, a light receiver configured to receive the terahertz wave, which is irradiated from the light emitter and passes through the release paper coated with the slurry, to obtain a power of the terahertz wave, and a calculating part configured to calculate a thickness of an electrode, formed from the slurry applied to the release paper, based on the power of the terahertz wave received by the light receiver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2023
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION, ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
    Inventors: Ha Seung Seong, Ho Jin Lee, Il Min Lee, Ki Won Moon, Eui Su Lee, Dong Woo Park, Jeong Woo Park, Kyung Hyun Park, Hyun Soo Kim
  • Patent number: 11841428
    Abstract: A system and method for storing sensed values in an optical receiver corresponding to time-of-flight windows for receiving optical signals elicited by emitted optical pulses includes at least one photodetector, a storage array, and a control circuit. The at least one photodetector is configured to generate output signals indicative of received optical signals. The storage array includes a plurality of storage elements and is connected to receive and store the output signals from the at least one photodetector corresponding to at least a portion of a time-of-flight receive window.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignee: Analog Devices International Unlimited Company
    Inventors: Tairan Sun, Libo Meng
  • Patent number: 11835330
    Abstract: A video measurement system for measuring a test object comprising an imaging system comprising an imager having an imaging pupil, the imager arranged for viewing at least a portion of a silhouette of the test object by receiving light transmitted by the test object over a first angular extent; and an illumination system comprising (i) an illumination source; (ii) output having a second angular extent in object space that is larger than the first angular extent received by the imaging pupil; and (iii) a substrate arranged to diffuse light from the illumination source, the substrate having an axial centerline and a light obscuration element, wherein the light obscuration element is at least approximately coaxial to the axial centerline of the substrate, and wherein the pupils of the illumination and imaging systems are in at least approximately conjugate image planes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: Quality Vision International Inc.
    Inventor: Daniel James Lawler Williams
  • Patent number: 11835337
    Abstract: There is described an interferometer for use in an optical locker. The interferometer comprises at least two transparent materials having different thermal path length sensitivities. The interferometer is configured such that an input beam is split by the interferometer into first and second intermediate beams, which recombine to form an output beam, the first and second intermediate beams travelling along respective first and second intermediate beam paths which do not overlap. At least one of the intermediate beam paths passes through at least two of the transparent materials. A length of each intermediate beam path which passes through each transparent material is selected such that an optical path difference between the first and second intermediate beam path is substantially independent of temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: Lumentum Technology UK Limited
    Inventor: Adrian Perrin Janssen
  • Patent number: 11828592
    Abstract: An apparatus comprising: a void; an interferometer detector; and light guide means for guiding a light signal along a light path to the interferometer detector wherein the light path comprises a cantilever light guide that is supported such that a free-end can move within the void and the interferometer detector is configured to detect a deflection of the free-end of the cantilever light guide; and a reflector, wherein the cantilever light guide comprises a light outcoupler configured to out-couple the light signal to extend the light path from the cantilever light guide to the reflector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2023
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventor: David Bitauld
  • Patent number: 11819843
    Abstract: An example of a flow cell includes a substrate, which includes nano-depressions defined in a surface of the substrate, and interstitial regions separating the nano-depressions. A hydrophobic material layer has a surface that is at least substantially co-planar with the interstitial regions and is positioned to define a hydrophobic barrier around respective sub-sets of the nano-depressions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: Illumina, Inc.
    Inventors: Tarun Kumar Khurana, Arnaud Rival, Lewis J. Kraft, Steven Barnard, M. Shane Bowen, Xi-Jun Chen, Yir-Shyuan Wu, Jeffrey S. Fisher, Dajun Yuan
  • Patent number: 11822233
    Abstract: An image pickup apparatus includes a stage configured to support a sample at a plurality of support points, a bending data acquisition unit configured to acquire bending data corresponding to a bending of the sample supported on the stage, a height information detection unit configured to detect a height of the sample supported on the stage, a difference value calculation unit configured to calculate a difference value between a height indicated by height information and a height indicated by the bending data at each of a plurality of points on the sample, a correction data calculation unit configured to calculate correction data based on the difference value, and an estimation unit configured to calculate estimation data for estimating the height of the sample by correcting the bending data using the correction data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: Lasertec Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroki Miyai, Yoshito Fujiwara, Yoshihiro Kato
  • Patent number: 11821725
    Abstract: A fracture surface inspection device for inspecting a first fracture surface and a second fracture surface that are generated through fracture splitting, which is provided with a data acquisition unit configured to acquire two-dimensional data and three-dimensional data on each of the fracture surfaces, a contour extraction unit configured to extract, from the two-dimensional data, a first contour of the first fracture surface and a second contour of the second fracture surface, a transformation amount calculation unit configured to calculate a transformation amount X(affine) when the second contour is affine-transformed to the first contour, a distortion correction unit configured to calculate distortion correction data by affine-transforming the three-dimensional data on the second fracture surface with the transformation amount X(affine), and a comparison unit configured to compare the three-dimensional data on the first fracture surface and the distortion correction data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: YASUNAGA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Ryosuke Murakami
  • Patent number: 11808564
    Abstract: A calibration method for fringe projection systems based on plane mirrors. Firstly, two mirrors are placed behind the tested object. Through the reflection of mirrors, the camera can image the measured object from the front and other two perspectives, so as to obtain 360-degree two-dimensional information of the measured object. The projector projects three sets of phase-shifting fringe patterns with frequencies of 1, 8, and 64. The camera captures the fringe image to obtain an absolute phase map with a frequency of 64 by using the phase-shifting method and the temporal phase unwrapping algorithm. By using the calibration parameters between the projector and the camera, the absolute phase map can be converted into three-dimensional information of the measured object. Then, the mirror calibration is realized by capturing a set of 3D feature point pairs, so that the 3D information from different perspectives is transformed into a unified world coordinate system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: NANJING UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Chao Zuo, Wei Yin, Qian Chen, Shijie Feng, Jiasong Sun, Tianyang Tao, Yan Hu, Liang Zhang, Jiaming Qian
  • Patent number: 11808687
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems and methods capable of identifying, tracking, and sorting particles flowing in a channel, for example, a microfluidic channel having a fluid medium. The channel and the fluid medium can have a similar refractive index such that they appear translucent or transparent when illuminated by electromagnetic radiation. The particles can have a refractive index substantially different from that of the channel and the medium, such that the particles interfere with the electromagnetic radiation. A sensor can be disposed adjacent to the channel to record the electromagnetic radiation. The sensor can be used for identifying, tracking, and sorting the particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: VERILY LIFE SCIENCES LLC
    Inventors: Andrew Homyk, Saurabh Vyawahare
  • Patent number: 11808696
    Abstract: A coating/developing device includes: a first laser unit that irradiates a coating liquid with laser light and acquires a state of the coating liquid based on a change in the laser light; and an irradiation propriety determination mechanism that determines whether the first laser unit irradiates the coating liquid with the laser light based on the coating liquid on a liquid bottle side of a position where the laser light is irradiated from the first laser unit in a flow path. The irradiation propriety determination mechanism includes: a second laser unit that acquires color information of the coating liquid; and a controller. The controller determines whether the color information of the coating liquid is predetermined color information that readily absorbs a wavelength of the light irradiated by the first laser unit and executes determining whether to irradiate the coating liquid with the laser light based on the determination result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: TOKYO ELECTRON LIMITED
    Inventor: Noboru Matsuyama
  • Patent number: 11802837
    Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for using optical interferometry in the context of material modification processes such as surgical laser, sintering, and welding applications. An imaging optical source that produces imaging light. A feedback controller controls at least one processing parameter of the material modification process based on an interferometry output generated using the imaging light. A method of processing interferograms is provided based on homodyne filtering. A method of generating a record of a material modification process using an interferometry output is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2023
    Assignee: IPG PHOTONICS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jordan Kanko, Paul Webster, James M. Fraser