ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,485,437, issued on Dec. 2, was assigned to NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Tokyo).

"Spray ionization device, analysis device, and surface coating device" was invented by Shinichiro Fujii (Tsukuba, Japan), Kazumi Inagaki (Tsukuba, Japan) and Shinichi Miyashita (Tsukuba, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided in the present disclosure is a spray ionization device comprising: a first tube that has a first flow path in which a liquid can flow, the first tube having a first outlet on one end thereof from which the liquid is sprayed; a second tube that surrounds the first tube with a gap therebetween and...