Albuquerque, NM – September 9, 2014 The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) recently issued 12 patents during April, May and June for technologies invented at the University of New Mexico. The 12 patents, issued during STC.UNM’s 2014 fiscal 4th quarter, are for a variety of technologies created by researchers in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Center for High Technology Materials, Department of Pathology, Center for Biomedical Engineering, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Department of Neurology, College of Pharmacy, Department of Physics & Astronomy, and the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology.
Issued Patent for: “Large Area Patterning Using Interferometric Lithography”
Patent No.: 8,685,628, issued April 1, 2014
Inventors: Steven R. J. Brueck, Andrew Frauenglass, and Alexander K. Raub
This technology is a step-and-repeat-approach for several techniques for overlapping patterns and multiple methods for alignment between exposures. Current LEDs are being manufactured using 3″ diameter substrates. This technology enables the LED wafer size to grow just as it has with Si (silicon) wafers (now 12″ in diameter). Additionally, it is perfect for flat panel displays which currently exceed 65″ diagonal. This technology has application to many high growth markets. Interferometric lithography is perfect for the growing LED (Light Emitting Diode) market which grew to $25.4 billion in 2013. This technology addresses that need. Additionally, this innovation is pertinent to nanofluidic channels used in biological separations in research or drug development settings.
Issued Patent for: “Biological Detector and Method”
Patent No.: 8,698,494, issued April 15, 2014
Inventors: Laurel Sillerud, Todd Alam, and Andrew F. McDowell
This technology is useful for detecting dilute biological and chemical hazards. NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) is widely used for real-time identification of chemical compounds. In solids, liquids, and gases it can easily detect and characterize all components in a mixture without the effort of sample preparation. Unfortunately, NMR has poor sensitivity and can’t be used to detect dilute biological agents such as biohazards and biological and chemical warfare agents. This technology eliminates these problems by using nanoparticles. These particles, when coupled with either antibodies or other recognition small molecules or proteins, can selectively detect and identify dilute biological and chemical materials that are in either complex mixtures or by themselves.
Issued Patent for: “Detection of Bioagents Using a Shear Horizontal Surface Acoustic Wave Biosensor”
Patent No.: 8,709,791, issued April 29, 2014
Inventors: Richard S. Larson, Pamela Hall, Brian L. Hjelle, David C. Brown, Marco Bisoffi, Susan Brozik, David Wheeler, Darren Branch, and Thayne Edwards
This technology is a portable, real-time biosensor using biological ligands coupled with optimal waveguide materials and surface acoustic wave (SAW) signal transduction to detect pathogens such as HIV-1, HIV-2, anthrax, sin nombre virus, influenza and hepatitis B and C. Biological ligands are substances that bind specifically and reversibly to another chemical entity to form a larger complex so the ligands can be tailored to bind to specific threat molecular targets (bacterial or viral). The ligands are tethered to a surface that allows transduction of a signal indicating if the ligand is in a free (un-bound) or bound form, indicating whether there is the presence of the target microbe or not. This biosensor has shown good selective identification capabilities, even when presented with multiple threat molecules and in testing has had a detection limit much greater than the infectious level of the microbe(s). The global market for biosensors is forecasted to reach $12 billion by the year 2015 in order to face the problems of microbial public health threat agents.
Issued Patent for: “Generation of Metal and Alloy Micron, Submicron, or Nanoparticles in Simple, Rapid Process”
Patent No.: 8,709,126, issued April 29, 2014
Inventors: Claudia C. Luhrs, Zayd Leseman, Jonathan Phillips, and Hugo Richardo Zea-Ramirez
This technology is a method to reduce metal salts and oxides to metallic form extremely quickly using a simple, easily scaled, chemical process. Single metal and alloy metal particles are created on the nano and micron scale from metal nitrate salts. It is a simple two-step process with the capability of being a template for similar processes to create metal and alloy particles from metal halogen salts, oxides, hydroxides and other salts. The single rapid step process can be carried out at moderate temperature, is scalable for large amounts of materials in minutes using simple equipment, allows material to be easily recycled, and can be used for all the new technologies that use nano- and micron-scale metal powders, metal productions and recycling materials.
Issued Patent for: “System and Methods for Obstacle Mapping and Navigation”
Patent No.: 8,712,679, issued April 29, 2014
Inventors: Yasamin Mostofi and Pradeep Sen
This technology is a novel method for a macro model of mobile, ad-hoc networks, MANETs, which combine individual nodes into super-nodes on which a flow control procedure is easily performed. It allows a group of mobile nodes (robots) to map obstacles non-invasively (for instance, before entering a room or a building), with very few measurements and using only wireless transceivers. The inventors have conducted simulations that showed superior performance of their proposed framework and have reconstructed a real obstacle using an experimental setup. The technology can be used for mapping of floor plans and large areas, mapping the location and properties of objects inside an area, mapping a room before entering, and with robotic networks.
Issued Patent for: “System and Methods for Random Parameter Filtering”
Patent No.: 8,712,180, issued April 29, 2014
Inventors: Pradeep Sen and Aliakbar Darabi
This technology is a post-process algorithm that removes the noise from Monte Carlo rendering and produces a high quality result in just a few minutes. The key idea is to remove the noise by measuring the statistical dependency between the scene features of each sample and the random parameters of the Monte Carlo rendering system used to compute them in order to determine what is a scene feature (such as a noisy texture on the floor) and what is noise introduced by the Monte Carlo process. Using a filter similar to the bilateral filter, the noise is then removed by adjusting the variance of the filter based on the statistical dependencies of scene features on the random parameters. This technology will revolutionize the digital film industry, and save film productions millions of dollars per film in personnel and computing costs by making the physically correct Monte Carlo rendering a viable technology for production rendering.
Issued Patent for: “Apparatuses and Methods for Microparticle Dry Coating of Surfaces”
Patent No.: 8,715,770, issued May 6, 2014
Inventors: Parthiban Selvam, Hugh D. C. Smyth, and Martin Donovan
This technology is an innovative coating method to modulate the press-on forces between drug and substrate during coating. In addition, the particles are more homogenously added to the substrate. In this method, powder is fed into a jet mill, and deaggregated microparticles are coated onto a surface placed at a predetermined distance from the jet mill exit nozzle for the purposes of drug delivery through a dry-powder inhaler.
Issued Patent for: “Pulsed Growth of GaN Nanowires and Applications in Group III Nitride Semiconductor Substrate Materials and Devices”
Patent No.: 8,716,045, issued May 6, 2014
Inventors: Stephen D. Hersee, Xin Wang, and Xinyu Sun
This technology is a method that provides semiconductor devices including high-quality (i.e. defect free) group III-N nanowires and uniform group III-N nanowire arrays as well as their scalable processes for manufacturing, where the position, orientation, cross-sectional features, length, and the crystallinity of each nanowire can be precisely controlled. In addition, high-quality gallium nitride (GaN) substrate structures can be a GaN film coalesced from a plurality of GaN nanowires and/or nanowire arrays to facilitate the fabrication of visible LEDs and lasers. Furthermore, core-shell nanowire/multiple-quantum-well (MQW) active structures can be formed by a core-shell growth on the nonpolar sidewalls of each nanowire. The technology can be used to produce nanoscale photoelectronic devices having high efficiencies such as nanowire LEDs, nanowire lasers, lasers for solid-state lighting, UV sensors, and semiconductors.
Issued Patent for: “All-Solid-State Optical Cryocooler Using Intracavity Optically Pumped Semiconductor Lasers”
Patent No.: 8,720,219, issued May 13, 2014
Inventor: Mansoor Sheik-Bahae
This technology is an all-solid-state cryocooler, revolutionizing and breaking the temperature barrier of 170K attained by multi-stage standard thermo-electric or Peltier coolers. This method combines optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPSL) together with the intracavity enhancement method to construct a compact optical cryocooler. This device is called a Diode-pumped Intracavity Solid-state Cryocooler (DISC) and is compact, lightweight and portable; vibration free (no moving parts); and scalable through use of high power diode pump lasers or using multiple semiconductor disks. The technology can be used for space-borne infrared sensors, high-temperature superconducting electronics and sensors, micro-cooling applications, nitrogen or other gas liquefaction, and other applications that require compact cryocooling.
Issued Patent for: “Magnetically Susceptible Particles and Apparatuses for Mixing the Same”
Patent No.: 8,728,826, issued May 20, 2014
Inventors: Paul Bentley and Michael Davenport
This technology provides a new reaction stirring process that supports a diverse range of reactions and provides a variety of approaches and solutions for numerous needs. It uses the properties of chemicals on a solid support and a machine external to the reaction vessel to aid chemical reactions by a stirring process (without mechanical movement) to accelerate the rate of heterogeneous reactions, with the speed of chemical movement ultimately only limited by the viscosity of the liquid; easy removal of specific chemicals without the addition of chlorine-based or other harmful chemicals; and the ability to change the reaction conditions a chemical is exposed to with no physical movement (other than the chemical). The stirring technology is applicable to any scale, thereby allowing economical access to even micro-scale combinatorial simultaneous reactions (hitherto impossible) and reduced environmental impact due to retaining the original solvent (in effect, rendering it reusable).
Issued Patent for: “Porous Nanoparticle Supported Lipid Bilayer Nanostructures”
Patent No.: 8,734,816, issued May 27, 2014
Inventors: Juewen Liu, C. Jeffrey Brinker, Carlee Ashley, and Eric C. Carnes
This technology is a nanostructure comprised of a porous inorganic particle/nanoparticle core and a lipid bilayer shell to form a protocell that can be useful for a wide range of applications. The porous particle/nanoparticle part of the protocell(s) can be loaded with various desired cargoes including chemical molecules, nucleic acids, therapeutic agents, and/or nanoparticles. The lipid bilayer of the protocell(s) can provide biocompatibility and can be modified to possess target species including, but not limited to targeting peptides, antibodies, aptamers, and PEG (polyethylene glycol) to allow for example, a targeted delivery and a further stability of the protocell(s). Protocells can enter cells while empty liposomes cannot, can control release of cargo loads and are useful for diagnostics, imaging, disease treatment, anti-bacteria applications, and drug delivery.
Issued Patent for: “Structure, Synthesis, and Applications for Oligo Phenylene Ethynylenes”
Patent No.: 8,753,570
Inventors: David Whitten, Yanli Tang, Zhijun Zhou, Linnea Ista, Motokatsu Ogawa, David Keller, Brett Andrzejewski, Gabriel Lopez, and Kirk Schanze
This technology combines the biocidal activities of conjugated polyelectrolytes with control over polymer orientation and/or adhesive properties provided by stimuli responsive polymers. It provides a plurality of novel compounds known as cationic oligomeric phenylene ethynylenes (OPEs) which can be divided into two classes, non-symmetrical and symmetrical. These OPEs have been synthesized and studied as dark and light activated biocides. Various combinations of these two powerful technologies enables many different applications including but not limited to simultaneous detection and inactivation of pathogens, and creating a regenerating biocidal surface.
Source: STC.UNM
Denise Bissell
(505) 272-7310
dbissell@stc.unm.edu