Patents, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland

Patents Issued in 2009

Electrically Driven Microfluidic Pumping for Actuation," (U.S. Patent 7,523,608) was issued to Benjamin Shapiro and Associate Professor Elisabeth Smela on April 28, 2009. An actuator cell includes a supply chamber containing fluid, and an expansion chamber for receiving fluid from the supply chamber, and being expandable to deform a predetermined area of the actuator cell. The actuator cell further includes a channel providing a fluid flow passage between the supply and expansion chambers, and a compliant material substantially surrounding the supply chamber, the expansion chamber and/or the channel. An electric circuit applies an electric field adjacent the supply and expansion chambers, and thereby causes fluid flow from the supply to the expansion chamber. For more information about this patent, go here.

Patents Issued in 2008

"Micro-Optical Sensor System for Pressure, Acceleration, and Pressure Gradient Measurements," (U.S. Patent 7,428,054) was issued on September 23, 2008 to Assistant Professor Miao Yu and Professor Balakumar Balachandran. Their invention is a micro-optical fiber tip based sensor system for pressure, acceleration, and pressure gradient measurements in a wide bandwidth, the design of which allows for multiplexity of the input side of the system is based on micro-electromechanical fabrication techniques. The optical portion of the system is based on low coherence fiber-optic interferometry techniques which has a sensor Fabry-Perot interferometer and a read-out interferometer combination that allows a high dynamic range and low sensitivity to the wavelength fluctuation of the light source. A phase modulation and demodulation scheme takes advantage of the Integrated Optical Circuit phase modulator and multi-step phase-stepping algorithm for providing high frequency and real time phase signal demodulation. The system includes fiber tip based Fabry-Perot sensors each of which has a diaphragm that is used as a transducer. Go here for more detailed information about this invention.
"Heat-flux Vased Emissivity/Absorptivity Measurement," (U.S. Patent 7,318,671) by Saeed Moghaddam, John Lawlor and Associate Professor Jungho Kim was issued on January 15, 2008. The invention is a mechanism and method for directly observing data from which the thermal emissivity or absorptivity of a surface can be calculated. The invention teaches the use of a substantially planar heat-flux or heat-flow sensor employing a thermopile, to measure the rate of heat dissipation from a radiating surface thermally attached to one side of the heat-flux sensor where the radiating surface is exposed to a first temperature and where the second side of the heat flux sensor is in thermal contact with a heat source at a second higher temperature. Go here for more detailed information about this invention.

Patents Issued in 2007

"Novel Configuration of Thermoelectric Coolers to High-Heat-Flux Hot Spots," (U.S. Patent 7,290,596) by Assistant Professor Bao Yang and Professor Avram Bar-Cohen was issued on November 6, 2007. The invention serves to concentrate the cooling effect of a miniaturized thermoelectric device so as to provide more efficient thermal management of localized “hot spots” on semiconductor devices.” Go here for more detailed information about this invention.
“Shadow Moiré Using Non-Zero Talbot Distance,” (U.S. Patent 7,230,722) was issued on June 12, 2007 to Professor Bongtae Han and colleague Dr. C.W. Han of the Reliability and Failure Analysis Center of the Korea Electronics Technology Institute. Their invention copes with the limitations of shadow moire encountered in high precision in-situ warpage measurements. Using the non-zero order Talbot distances, the dynamic range of measurements is increased substantially and high measurement sensitivity becomes practical, which are critically required for the warpage measurements of high-end microelectronics devices. Go here for more detailed information about this invention.
“Fiber Tip Based Sensor System for Measurements of Pressure Gradient, Air Particle Velocity and Acoustic Intensity,” (U.S. Patent 7,224,465) was issued on May 29, 2007 to Professor Balakumar Balachandran, Dr. Moustafa Al-Bassyiouni and Assistant Professor Miao Yu. Their invention helps realize a miniature fiber tip based sensor system for pressure measurements that can be used to detect acoustic and vibration fields over a broad frequency range. Go here for more detailed information about this invention.
“Electrohydrodynamically (EHD) Enhanced Heat Transfer System and Method with an Encapsulated Electrode,” (U.S. Patent 7,159,646) by Professor Michael Ohadi and Research Associate Professor Serguei V. Dessiatoun was approved by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office in early 2007. Their invention helps increase the efficiency of waste heat utilization in low temperature heat recovery applications as well as in low temperature power and refrigeration cycles.
Go here for more detailed information about this invention.
“Electromechanical Device Having a Plurality of Bundles of Fibers for Interconnecting Two Planar Surfaces,” (U.S. Patent 7,220,131) by Professor Michael Pecht, Joseph A. Swift, Stanley J. Wallace and Yuliang Deng, was approved by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office on May 22, 2007. The invention allows for the formation of separable or non-separable electro-mechanical connections between one or more of the generally accepted six levels of interconnection. This can help reduce the thickness of interconnects, thus allowing redundancy and additional compliance as desired.
Go here for more detailed information about this invention.