Patents by Inventor Donald L. Sparks

Donald L. Sparks 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).

  • Patent number: 9897547
    Abstract: A nanocomposite structure includes: a) a charged fibrous substrate including fibers having disposed on their surfaces a multilayer structure including a layer of a first polyelectrolyte and disposed thereon a layer of a second polyelectrolyte of opposite charge from the first, the second polyelectrolyte forming the outermost layer of the charged fibrous substrate; and b) charged nanorods having a charge opposite that of the charged fibrous substrate, including gold nanorods each having disposed on its surface one or more layers, the outermost of which is a third polyelectrolyte having a charge opposite that of the second polyelectrolyte, wherein the first and third polyelectrolytes may be the same or different; wherein the charged nanorods are disposed unaligned with respect to each other on the charged fibrous substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2018
    Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
    Inventors: John F. Rabolt, Wenqiong Tang, D. Bruce Chase, Donald L. Sparks
  • Publication number: 20160069811
    Abstract: A nanocomposite structure includes: a) a charged fibrous substrate including fibers having disposed on their surfaces a multilayer structure including a layer of a first polyelectrolyte and disposed thereon a layer of a second polyelectrolyte of opposite charge from the first, the second polyelectrolyte forming the outermost layer of the charged fibrous substrate; and b) charged nanorods having a charge opposite that of the charged fibrous substrate, including gold nanorods each having disposed on its surface one or more layers, the outermost of which is a third polyelectrolyte having a charge opposite that of the second polyelectrolyte, wherein the first and third polyelectrolytes may be the same or different; wherein the charged nanorods are disposed unaligned with respect to each other on the charged fibrous substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2014
    Publication date: March 10, 2016
    Applicant: UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
    Inventors: JOHN F. RABOLT, WENQIONG TANG, D. BRUCE CHASE, DONALD L. SPARKS
  • Patent number: 7961849
    Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus for redirecting an emergency communication include initiating emergency communication from an endpoint. Unavailability of a softswitch is determined, and an emergency server is identified that handles call control for emergency communication from the endpoint if the softswitch is unavailable. Emergency communication is initiated with the emergency server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2011
    Assignee: Genband US LLC
    Inventors: Donald L. Sparks, Andrew S. Bender
  • Publication number: 20080205600
    Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus for redirecting an emergency communication include initiating emergency communication from an endpoint. Unavailability of a softswitch is determined, and an emergency server is identified that handles call control for emergency communication from the endpoint if the softswitch is unavailable. Emergency communication is initiated with the emergency server.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2007
    Publication date: August 28, 2008
    Inventors: Donald L. Sparks, Andrew S. Bender
  • Patent number: 7239628
    Abstract: A network interface device includes a first interface, a power extractor, a transceiver, and a second interface. The first interface receives a signal that includes both power and packetized information. The power extractor extracts the power from the signal and powers the transceiver. The transceiver extracts the packetized information from the signal and communicates the information to a user device using the second interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: GenBand Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew A. Pendleton, Timothy J. Hurd, Anthony H. Anconetani, Donald L. Sparks
  • Patent number: 6879667
    Abstract: A voice gateway (18) in a telecommunications network (1) includes a plurality of telephony port modules (102). Each telephony port module (102) receives telephony voice signals from a public switched telephony network (13). Each telephony port module (102) includes one or more digital signal processors (110) that perform one or more processing functions on the telephony voice signals. A particular telephony port module (102) may receive a telephony voice signal and use its associated digital signal processor (110) to process the received telephony voice signal or transfer the received telephony voice signal for processing to any digital signal processor (110) on any telephony port module (102). Telephony signals may also be transferred for processing to digital signal processors (110) on another voice gateway (18) in a voice gateway system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2005
    Assignee: General Bandwidth Inc.
    Inventors: A. J. Paul Carew, Anthony H. Anconetani, I. Steve Gerson, George D. O'Brien, Jr., Matthew A. Pendleton, Peter J. Renucci, Donald L. Sparks, Robert H. Whitcher