US Patent Issued to GENTEX on March 17 for "Electrowetting, active self-cleaning surface" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,578,570, issued on March 17, was assigned to GENTEX Corp. (Zeeland, Mich.).

"Electrowetting, active self-cleaning surface" was invented by Ryan Barrido Balili (Holland, Mich.), Kurtis L. Geerlings (Zeeland, Mich.), Xiaoxu Niu (Grand Rapids, Mich.), Erik Christian Vyhmeister-Cancel (Berrien Springs, Mich.) and David Martin Bostrom (Zeeland, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An optical element is provided that has an outer surface, the optical element including: a coating on the outer surface for causing any fluid thereon to form into fluid droplets; a plurality of independently activated electrodes each having a plurality of interdigi...