| Tunable Membrane-Based Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery |
- Customizable membrane structure and surface properties provide selective removal of contaminants of emerging concerns (CEC) and recovery of valuable components.
- An enlarged membrane surface area, combined with a gutter effect from the interlayer, results in nearly double the water permeability of current filtration membranes.
- Achieves high-performance recovery of essential nutrients/fertilizers that are free of CECs.
|
8633 |
|
| Scalable Manufacturing Approach of Graded Polymer Thin Film Has Potential for Widespread Use |
- Combines slot die coating with a custom roll-to-roll imaging system to allow for efficient, rapid, and scalable fabrication of high-quality gradient thin films.
- An improved manufacturing process over existing techniques because it uses broad material combinations and yields higher quality patterned thin films.
- Incorporates multiple materials to increase the application of patterned thin films across industries, including microelectronics, energy technologies, and environmental systems.
|
8994 |
|
| Lymphatic System-Specific Lipid Nanoparticles |
- This platform technology improves current targeting to lymphatic tissues and specifically lymphatic endothelial cells.
- Provides superior tissue targeting and functional delivery of mRNA to lymphatics via loco-regional dermal or subcutaneous avenues.
- mRNA-based platforms offer a transient and less immunogenic method of delivery compared to protein therapeutics or adeno-associated virus-based platforms.
|
9056 |
|
| Sustained Lymphatic Drug Delivery System Potentially Improves Efficacy and Safety of Immunotherapy and Targeted Therapies |
- This sustained lymphatic drug delivery system guides therapeutics and imaging agents to the injection site, lymphatic vessels, and lymph nodes.
- Sustained lymphatic delivery enables lower dosing and fewer administrations to potentially improve therapeutic response while reducing adverse effects and costs.
- The simplicity of a vaccine-like, sustained drug release injection allows use at less expensive community health centers.
|
8637 |
|
| Superluminescent Light Projection (SLP) System Decreases Nanoscale Printing Costs by 10–50 Times |
- This superluminescent light projection (SLP) system decreases overall nanoscale printing costs by 10–50 times.
- A parallel writing mechanism supports higher throughput speeds: up to 100 times higher than existing metal printing methods and four times higher than existing polymer printing methods.
- SLP creates sharp-edged images with minimal speckling patterns, resulting in high-resolution images and structures on both polymer and metal-based films.
|
9066 |
|
| Electric Field Treatment Creates Safe, Effective Antimicrobial Surfaces |
- Creates safe, effective antimicrobial surfaces via bacteria inactivation without the use of chemicals
- Targets cell membranes or capsid, is less likely to induce antimicrobial resistance, and should be effective for antibiotic-resistant bacteria
- Requires very short electrical pulses to achieve effective bacteria inactivation, potentially leading to better antifouling performance
|
9130 |
|
| Microrobots for Neurosurgery Applications |
- Minimally invasive: Significantly reduces invasiveness of procedures in comparison to current macroscale, neurosurgical robots
- Precise control: Uses 3D position data of the microrobots on the brain surface in a closed-loop system to adjust the magnetic field parameters (i.e., magnitude, frequency, phase, and direct current [DC] offset of each coil) as well as the forces the robots exert to the biopsy tissue
- Facilitates movement: Employs microfabricated shapes that dictate the microrobot's movements, limits their contact with the brain surface to reduce adhesion, and may also provide a means for the robot to propel itself in fluid
|
8749 |
|
| Cluster-Wells: Isolating Aggressive Tumor Cell Clusters for Improved Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment |
- High performing: Demonstrates superior abilities to isolate CTCs without clogging the system or dissociating the clusters
- Low cost: Shows high potential for large-scale production because it uses simple equipment and a straightforward process
- Versatile: Isolates CTC clusters of any cancer type and uses hardware that can be modified to accommodate various devices
|
8203 |
|
| Thin Current Spreading Layers Improve Breakdown Performance |
- Increases current uniformity: Improves cumulative current flow distribution from ~40% to ~100% of the p-type contact
- Improves breakdown performance: Avoids premature breakdown at the mesa edges making quasi-vertical devices comparable in performance to more expensive vertical devices.
- Improves Immunity to Etch Variation: Because current flow is no longer crowded along the mesa edges, process related variations in the mesa etching are less important to the diode performance.
|
8789 |
|
| Low-Power Real-Time Ionizing Radiation Detector |
- Sensitive: Detects the charge generated from the interactions of ionizing radiation within matter with a high level of precision and discerns X-ray pulses of varying dose
- Scalable: Covers a significantly larger detection area than other methods, ranging from 60,000 square micrometers to one square millimeter
- Responsive: Responds within microseconds and proportionately with the overall radiation dose when exposed to X-rays of varying tube voltage (energy) and tube current (number of particles)
|
8780 |
|
| Cascaded Nickel Hard Mask |
- Substantially deeper etches: Because a very thick metal mask can be created, a wide range of µm features can be etched in a variety of III-Nitride semiconductors, allowing for extremely high voltage devices that require thicker layer structures
- Robust: This method has demonstrated highly consistent and effective protection against the kind of damage that is typical with standard fabrication methods
- Scalable: The nickel hard mask with cascaded e-beam evaporation and sputtering metal deposition method can readily be applied to the large-scale production of electronic devices
|
8790 |
|
| Self-Powered Highly Stretchable Sensing Interface for Gesture Recognition |
- Self-contained: Includes a signal processing pipeline, providing gesture recognition for an extensive range of input modalities without the need for external power or sensing equipment
- Assistive: Enables eyes-free, unobtrusive, and ergonomic interaction with computing devices embedded in wearables
- Versatile: Demonstrates far-reaching potential for applications beyond gesture recognition including in actuation and data acquisition
|
7987 |
|
| p-type Be-Doped AlN Films and Layered Films |
- Enabling: Leverages MME method to provide the first access to p-type AlN:Be films, a superior ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor material good for high-power, high-temperature diodes and transistors
- Ease of fabrication: Avoids costly and complicated methods unfavorable for beryllium doping
- Improved breakdown performance: Achieves high reverse breakdown voltage—a significant advantage over WBG materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and GaN
|
8810, 8666, 8786 |
|
| Integrated Alkali Dispenser Collimator |
- Precise: Reducing the “spread” of vapor via collimation can reduce potential signal-to-noise ratio degradation and avoid contamination of nearby electronic components.
- Simple: Generating a directed atomic beam from the dispenser can be achieved via integrated packaging.
- Cooler: Placing a spacer material between the dispenser and collimator creates a sealed gap that not only prevents leakage, but also allows the vapor to cool (via rapid thermalization with the collimator plate).
|
8872 |
|
| Micro Ammonia Production System (MAPS)—Systems and methods for making nitrogen-based compounds |
- Higher yield and efficiency: Uses hollow hybrid nanoparticles instead of solid nanoparticles for a three-fold enhancement in electrocatalytic activity due to the increased surface area and higher number of successful reactant collisions
- Sustainable production: Leverages renewable electricity sources and offers clean and sustainable ammonia electrosynthesis, unlike the current industrial method for ammonia production that is energy intensive and heavily relies on fossil fuels
- Simplified process: Enables production of ammonia via gas-phase system with few or no additional steps for separation and purification
|
8056 |
|
| Superior Supercapacitors |
- High performance: Achieves average energy densities as high as 90 Wh/Kg
- Scalable: Leverages a low-cost PAN fabrication process that dramatically increases surface area
- Widely applicable: Demonstrates potential for advances in a variety of energy storage and capacitive water desalination applications
|
6201 |
|
| Skin-Conformal Wearable Stress Monitor Delivers Greater Precision and Continuous, Wireless Monitoring with Comfort and Flexibility |
- All-in-one: The personal adhesive bandage-like single device platform offers wireless, multi-data sensing by simply mounting it on the skin.
- Disposable: This wearable device is fully disposable after the use and the measured data can be simply sent to the cloud via a tablet or smartphone app.
- Compact: The unique, thin design of this bioelectric device is one-sixth the volume of current market offerings—weighing less than 7 g, including its rechargeable battery.
|
8414 |
|
| Purely Passive Radio-Frequency Identification |
- Powerful: Projected to support energy harvesting sensors at distances over 100 meters from readers and/or radio transmission sources
- Efficient: Enables conversion of RF energy at higher efficiency and at higher output voltages than current electronic energy harvesting methods
- Widely applicable: May advance RFID applications in a wide range of fields including computing, sensing, and communication
|
7194 |
|
| Sustainable Combination Technology Delivers a Long-Lasting Self-Powered Battery |
- Continuous: Regulates power harvested in the presence of constant mechanical motion to store excess energy while pushing a constant voltage to the external load
- Eco-friendly: Reduces the need for consumers and technology developers to utilize supply-limited traditional batteries that are thrown away after a short use and could leak harmful chemicals into the environment
- Sustainable: Eliminates the need to mine an additional power supply by harvesting energy from underutilized electrostatic induction found in naturally occurring mechanical motion
|
6418 |
|
| Heat Dissipation for Microelectronic Systems via Capillary Trap |
- Effective: Dissipates large heat fluxes via 3D heat spreading and evaporative cooling that could approach kW/cm2 and beyond while keeping the surface temperature under 90oC
- Preventive: Mitigates coolant dry-out at the critical heat flux levels that result in a rapid and large temperature rise and thus cause device burn-out
- Efficient: Exploits high cooling capabilities associated with phase-change heat transfer through evaporation
|
6272 |
|
