US Patent Issued to Imec VZW on July 21 for "Electric field gradient focusing device" (Belgian Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,687,516, issued on July 21, was assigned to Imec VZW (Leuven, Belgium).

"Electric field gradient focusing device" was invented by Willem Van Roy (Bierbeek, Belgium), Chengxun Liu (Heverlee, Belgium) and Tinne De Moor (Kessel-Lo, Belgium).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An electric field gradient focusing device is provided that includes: (i) a fluidic channel having an inlet and an outlet for a fluid, (ii) a first actuator configured to induce a fluid flow in the fluidic channel from the inlet to the outlet via AC electroosmosis, and (iii) a second actuator configured to generate a DC electric field gradient along at least part of the flui...