CHTM faculty members contribute 23 patents to UNM's patent list for 2016

March 3, 2017 - Compiled by CHTM

USPTO seal with STC logo

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) issued nineteen patents to the UNM Science & Technology Corporation (STC) during October, November and December of 2016 for technologies invented at the University of New Mexico. Of this total, seven patents name CHTM faculty members.

Visit the original story at STC.UNM for the complete list of patents and the UNM academic departments whose faculty contributed research.

USPTO issued nine patents to STC during July, August and September of 2016; two patents name CHTM faculty as inventors.

USPTO issued eighteen patents to STC during April, May and June of 2016; six patents name CHTM faculty as inventors.

USPTO issued nineteen patents to STC during January, February and March of 2016; eight patents name CHTM faculty as inventors.

This brings the year's total for UNM for 2016 to 65 patents, of which 23 include CHTM faculty members as named inventors.

CHTM faculty members are listed on these patents:

2016 – October, November, December

Issued Patent for “Cubic Phase, Nitrogen-Based Compound Semiconductor Films”
Patent No. 9,461,112, issued October 4, 2016
Inventors: Seung-Chang Lee, Steven R. J. Brueck

This technology is a unique method and device for the epitaxial growth of cubic phase, nitrogen-based compound semiconductor thin films on a Si substrate which is periodically patterned with nanoscale grooves terminated in <111> sidewalls. The structure symmetry forces the growth of epitaxial, cubic-phase material within each groove. These initial growth nuclei can be extended to macro-scale islands sufficient for device fabrication or coalesced with the films grown from adjacent grooves to form a continuous film. This results in a wide-area, cubic phase nitrogen-based compound semiconductor film on a Si substrate.

Issued Patent for “Surface Plasma Wave Coupled Detectors"
Patent No. 9,466,739, issued October 11, 2016
Inventors: Steven R. J. Brueck, Sanjay Krishna, Seung-Chang Lee

This technology is a surface-plasma, wave-coupled detector consisting of binding a high- index layer above a low-index layer to confine the surface plasma wave mode. This type of structure helps to maximize absorption in the active detector medium with minimized contact resistance, as well as eliminates leaky mode characteristics which can lead to a drop in absorption.

Issued Patent for “Method and System for Feature Extraction and Decision Making from Series of Images”
Patent No. 9,471,974, issued October 18, 2016
Inventors: Sanjay Krishna, Sanchita Krishna, Majeed M. Hayat, Pradeep Sen, Maziar Yaesoubi, Sebastian Eugenio Godoy, Ajit Vijay Barve

This technology is a complete imaging and analysis system for the detection of skin cancer that can offer doctors and medical technicians an entirely passive, non-intrusive, way of detecting skin cancer. This concept is based on the principle that healthy tissue has different thermal properties than diseased tissue and by examining these differences, the system developed will give doctors a better idea of whether the abnormality is or is not malignant. This system is comprised of six stages which work together for proper functioning of the entire system. The most relevant part of such a technology is the procedure and methodology that enables the decision making from images acquired by the proposed imaging system.

Issued Patent for "WGM-based Molecular Sensors”
Patent No. 9,482,608, issued November 1, 2016
Inventors: Ravinder Jain, Mani Hossein- Zadeh

This technology is a novel method for ultrasensitive detection of trace molecules. This method proposes a device based on combining attenuation and unique phase properties along with the whispering gallery mode behavior in high-Q and infrared microresonators to permit ultrasensitive molecular sensors that are much easier to implement than those based on similar technology in the past.

Issued Patent for “Spatio-Temporal Tunable Pixels ROIC for Multi-Spectral Imagers”
Patent No. 9,521,346, issued December 13, 2016
Inventors: Glauco Rogerio Cugler-Fiorante, Payman Zarkesh-Ha, Sanjay Krishna

This technology is a novel 96 × 96 30 µm pitch mixed-signal ROIC, with a pixel-level tunable bias control. It is capable of providing a large bias voltage, in both polarities, on each individual pixel independently. Along with developing this innovative ROIC, the inventors have developed a FPGA-based test bench to control, test and characterize the new ROIC system, which already allows the FPA-ROIC to work as an autonomous IR detector and image processing system. This is an essential feature for portable applications. The ROIC has several applications in sensor technology, including infrared retina, classification cameras, and remote sensing imagers.

Issued Patent for “Growth of Cubic Crystalline Phase Structure on Silicon Substrates and Devices Comprising the Cubic Crystalline Phase Structure”
Patent No. 9,520,472, issued December 13, 2016
Inventors: Steven R. J. Brueck, Seung-Chang Lee, Christian Wetzel, Theeradetch Detchprohm, Christoph Stark

This technology is a method for producing sub-micrometer, symmetry-breaking periodic surface corrugation on silicon (Si) substrates using wet chemistry for etching. These methods are simple, cost effective and eliminate the need to use off-cut substrates. Conventional lithography as well as roll-to-roll nanoimprint techniques can be used to fabricate a variety of etch templates that serve as a mask during chemical etching of the Si surface. Such symmetry-breaking surface corrugation would improve light trapping and substantially increase the efficiency of Si-based solar cells.

Issued Patent for “Methods to Introduce Sub-Micrometer, Symmetry-Breaking Surface Corrugation to Silicon Substrates to Increase Light Trapping”
Patent No. 9,530,906, issued December 27, 2016
This technology is currently optioned / licensed.
Inventors: Sang Eon Han, Brittany R. Hoard, Sang M. Han, Swapnadip Ghosh

This technology expands upon the use of chirped grating systems to make high-power, optically-pumped, tunable mid-IR lasers. Chirped gratings are fabricated on the top surfaces of the target substrate, in a longitudinal orientation by translating the pump region up and down to tune the appropriate wavelengths that will be reflected/transmitted. This form of grating uses interferometric lithography for tuning over a wider spectrum.

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