Patents by Inventor Richard N. Zare

Richard N. Zare 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).

  • Publication number: 20080241843
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure provide for single-cell analysis systems, methods of detecting target components in a single cell, cylindrical fluorescence detection systems, and the like.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Publication date: October 2, 2008
    Applicant: Stanford University
    Inventors: Richard N. Zare, Bo Huang
  • Publication number: 20080173807
    Abstract: Improved mass spectrometry is provided by modulating the fragmentation efficiency of analyte ions according to a modulation input signal. The fragmentation modulated ions are then analyzed according to time of flight and according to either ion kinetic energy or ion momentum to provide measured data. A mathematical inversion corresponding to the modulation input is applied to the measured data along the time axis to deconvolute the effect of the modulation input signal on the data, thereby providing 2-D data for time of flight vs. energy/momentum for precursor ions and fragment ions simultaneously. After the dissociation, the ion velocity remains almost unchanged, but the kinetic energy or momentum is partitioned amongst the fragments. Thus, the time of flight and energy/momentum can be converted to precursor mass and fragment mass to obtain 2-D spectrum of fragments vs. their corresponding precursors. The resulting technique can be referred to as fragmentation modulation mass spectrometry (FMMS).
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 10, 2007
    Publication date: July 24, 2008
    Inventors: Oh-Kyu Yoon, Richard N. Zare
  • Publication number: 20070284308
    Abstract: A method that comprises providing a polymerized sol-gel material (PSG) and linking an enzyme to a surface of the PSG via covalent linkage is provided. The surface of the PSG is derivatized with a linker that comprises a functional group for linking itself to the surface of the PSG and a functional group for linking itself with the enzyme. The linked-enzyme PSG, or microreactor, is an effective means of at least partially digesting a substrate, such as a biological substrate. The activity of the enzyme of the microreactor may be significantly enhanced, up to 200-fold to over 2000-fold, for example, relative to the activity of the enzyme free of the microreactor. The microreactor is thus an effective vehicle for digesting a substrate such as a biomolecule, a protein, an oligonucleotide, a peptide, a steroid, and/or an organic acid, after which, any remaining substrate and one or more digestion product(s) may be separated and detected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2006
    Publication date: December 13, 2007
    Inventors: Richard N. Zare, Maria T. Dulay
  • Publication number: 20070180693
    Abstract: A Bradbury-Nielson gate (BNG) includes a set of evenly spaced, co-planar, and parallel wires. The wires alternate in a repeating ABAB pattern, where all of the A wires are electrically connected to each other, all of the B wires are electrically connected to each other, and the set of A wires is electrically isolated from the set of B wires. Improved fabrication of Bradbury-Nielson gates is provided based on two key ideas. The first key idea is the use of wire positioning template surfaces having wire insertion features with enhanced spacing. Wire insertion features having enhanced spacing allow for non-microscopic assembly of finely spaced wire arrays. The second key idea is the use of two template surfaces, each having wires spaced by twice the eventual gate wire spacing. The use of two template surfaces facilitates making the alternating electrical contact required for a BNG.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 2, 2007
    Publication date: August 9, 2007
    Inventors: Oh-Kyu Yoon, Richard N. Zare
  • Patent number: 7176452
    Abstract: A beam modulation device gate is constructed from a silicon material, such as a silicon layer on an silicon on insulator wafer. The device further comprises a set of electrical contacts on the layer. The layer defines a set of electrically conducting silicon material fingers forming an array, wherein each of at least some of the fingers is connected electrically to one of the electrical contacts. The gate may be used in a mass or ion mobility spectrometer. Where the gate is constructed from a silicon on insulator wafer, an insulator layer supports the silicon layer and a handle layer supports the insulator layer. When predetermined electrical potentials are applied to the electrical contacts, at least some of the fingers will be substantially at said predetermined electrical potentials to modulate a beam of charged particles that passes through said array of fingers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2007
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventors: Ignacio A. Zuleta, Richard N. Zare
  • Patent number: 7067803
    Abstract: By connecting the Bradbury-Nielson gate (BNG) directly to a driver without a transmission line, distortion of the voltage waveform experienced a the BNG are much reduced. Because the magnitude of the modulation defects grows as the applied modulation voltage is increased, Bradbury-Nielson gates with finer wire spacing such as 100 microns, and operating at 10 to 15 V, significantly better signal-to-noise ratios are achieved. HT-TOFMS data were also post processed using an exact knowledge of the modulation defects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2006
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventors: Richard N. Zare, Facundo M. Fernandez, Joel R. Kimmel, Oliver Trapp
  • Patent number: 7064836
    Abstract: A container to be positioned in a ring-down optical cavity for containing a sample includes an outer surface having opposing first and second outer faces and an inner surface forming a void for containing the sample and having opposing first and second inner faces. The container may include a first portion forming the first outer face having a second index of refraction and a second portion forming the second outer face having a third index of refraction. The container may be placed in an optical cavity including a medium. The first and second outer faces of the outer surface and the first and second inner faces of the inner surface are oriented so that the cavity-to-container interfaces and the container-to-sample interfaces of the container transmit and receive a light beam at an incidence angle approximately equal to the Brewster's angle of the respective interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2006
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the LeLand Stanford Junior University
    Inventors: Kate L. Bechtel, Richard N. Zare
  • Patent number: 6986841
    Abstract: A separation column is provided with a photopolymer component which, when irradiated, causes controlled porosity polymerization. A particularly preferred embodiment is wherein the separation medium is retained by a photopolymer frit, which can be reliably and reproducibly generated with controlled porosity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2006
    Inventors: Richard N. Zare, Maria T. Dulay, Jing-Ran Chen
  • Patent number: 6884346
    Abstract: A separation column and a method of making the separation column are provided. The separation column includes a separation channel and a separation medium in the channel. The separation medium includes a porous matrix, and the porous matrix includes a support and a stationary phase. The support includes a metal organic polymer, such as a photopolymer, and the stationary phase includes a bonded phase. The separation medium can be used to separate a sample of analytes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2005
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventors: Richard N. Zare, Maria T. Dulay, Joselito P. Quirino, Bryson Bennett
  • Patent number: 6875348
    Abstract: A separation column and a method of preparing the separation column are provided. The separation column includes a separation channel and a porous matrix in the channel. The porous matrix includes a metal organic polymer, such as a photopolymer. The porous matrix can be a separation medium adapted to separate a sample of analytes or a frit adapted to retain a separation medium in the channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2005
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventors: Richard N. Zare, Maria T. Dulay, Joselito P. Quirino, Bryson D. Bennett
  • Patent number: 6870157
    Abstract: An ion beam supplied from a source is modulated so the ions at a constant flux is deflected by different amounts during two different types of deflection time periods according to a binary sequence, in order to encode the ion beam with phase information of the sequence. The binary sequence is such that ions released during two consecutive time periods of the same type overlap before reaching a detector, thereby increasing the duty cycle. The detector output signal is demodulated using the phase information of the binary sequence to recover an ion mass spectrum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2005
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventor: Richard N. Zare
  • Patent number: 6866785
    Abstract: A separation column and a method of making the separation column are provided. The separation column includes a separation channel and fritless separation medium in the channel. The separation medium includes a porous matrix, and the porous matrix includes a metal organic polymer, such as a photopolymer. The separation medium can be used to separate a sample of analytes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2005
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventors: Richard N. Zare, Maria T. Dulay, Joselito P. Quirino, Bryson Bennett
  • Publication number: 20040207852
    Abstract: A container to be positioned in a ring-down optical cavity for containing a sample includes an outer surface having opposing first and second outer faces and an inner surface forming a void for containing the sample and having opposing first and second inner faces. The container may include a first portion forming the first outer face having a second index of refraction and a second portion forming the second outer face having a third index of refraction. The container may be placed in an optical cavity including a medium. The first and second outer faces of the outer surface and the first and second inner faces of the inner surface are oriented so that the cavity-to-container interfaces and the container-to-sample interfaces of the container transmit and receive a light beam at an incidence angle approximately equal to the Brewster's angle of the respective interface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2003
    Publication date: October 21, 2004
    Inventors: Kate L. Bechtel, Richard N. Zare
  • Publication number: 20040144918
    Abstract: By connecting the Bradbury-Nielson gate (BNG) directly to a driver without a transmission line, distortion of the voltage waveform experienced a the BNG are much reduced. Because the magnitude of the modulation defects grows as the applied modulation voltage is increased, Bradbury-Nielson gates with finer wire spacing such as 100 microns, and operating at 10 to 15 V, significantly better signal-to-noise ratios are achieved. HT-TOFMS data were also post processed using an exact knowledge of the modulation defects.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 9, 2003
    Publication date: July 29, 2004
    Inventors: Richard N. Zare, Facundo M. Fernandez, Joel R. Kimmel, Oliver Trapp
  • Patent number: 6768548
    Abstract: A cavity ring-down spectroscopy system and method is provided for detecting and resolving the ring-down pulse-by-pulse. The pulse-by-pulse cavity ring-down spectroscopy system enables for measuring absorption spectra of rapidly evolving systems on the order of the roundtrip time. The pulse-by-pulse analysis of ring-down profiles enables non-exponential ring-down absorption dynamics to be determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2001
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2004
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventors: Richard N. Zare, Andrew Shaw
  • Publication number: 20040055940
    Abstract: A separation column is provided with a photopolymer component which, when irradiated, causes controlled porosity polymerization. A particularly preferred embodiment is wherein the separation medium is retained by a photopolymer frit, which can be reliably and reproducibly generated with controlled porosity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2003
    Publication date: March 25, 2004
    Inventors: Richard N. Zare, Maria T. Dulay, Jing-Ran Chen
  • Patent number: 6664545
    Abstract: Bradbury-Nielson gates for the modulation of beams of charged particles, particularly ion beams in mass spectrometry, have been produced with an adjustable wire spacing down to 0.075 mm or a smaller spacing. The gates are robust, they can be fabricated in less than 3 hours, and the method of production is reproducible. In time-of-flight mass spectrometers, fine wire spacing leads to improvements in mass resolution and modulation rates. Gates that were produced using this new method have been installed in a Hadamard transform time-of-flight mass spectrometer in order to demonstrate their utility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2003
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventors: Joel R. Kimmel, Friedrich Engelke, Richard N. Zare
  • Publication number: 20030170131
    Abstract: Microfluidic devices are disclosed. The microfluidic devices comprise pumps and mixers in which a microrotor rotated by coupled dipoles induced by alternating electric fields moves fluids in which it is immersed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2002
    Publication date: September 11, 2003
    Applicant: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventors: Richard N. Zare, Garth J. Simpson, Clyde F. Wilson
  • Publication number: 20030146392
    Abstract: Bradbury-Nielson gates for the modulation of beams of charged particles, particularly ion beams in mass spectrometry, have been produced with an adjustable wire spacing down to 0.075 mm or a smaller spacing. The gates are robust, they can be fabricated in less than 3 hours, and the method of production is reproducible. In time-off-light mass spectrometers, fine wire spacing leads to improvements in mass resolution and modulation rates. Gates that were produced using this new method have been installed in a Hadamard transform time-of-flight mass spectrometer in order to demonstrate their utility.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2002
    Publication date: August 7, 2003
    Applicant: THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Joel R. Kimmel, Friedrich Engelke, Richard N. Zare
  • Publication number: 20030062308
    Abstract: A separation column and a method of making the separation column are provided. The separation column includes a separation channel and fritless separation medium in the channel. The separation medium includes a porous matrix, and the porous matrix includes a metal organic polymer, such as a photopolymer. The separation medium can be used to separate a sample of analytes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 13, 2001
    Publication date: April 3, 2003
    Inventors: Richard N. Zare, Maria T. Dulay, Joselito P. Quirino, Bryson Bennett