ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,578,035, issued on March 17, was assigned to Purdue Research Foundation (West Lafayette, Ind.).
"Microelectronic thermal valve" was invented by Alina Alexeenko (West Lafayette, Ind.), Anthony George Cofer (Lafayette, Ind.) and Stephen Douglas Heister (West Lafayette, Ind.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A microfabricated valve with no moving parts. In one embodiment, the valve includes a reservoir of a liquid that is in fluid communication with an outlet channel having a throat that is less than 100 microns wide. Preferably, the channel is an elongated slit. The configuration of channel is adapted and configured such that surface tension...