ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,629,677, issued on May 19, was assigned to SHANGHAI TIANMA MICROELECTRONICS Co. LTD. (Shanghai).

"Microfluidic device" was invented by Kaidi Zhang (Shanghai), Baiquan Lin (Shanghai), Kerui Xi (Shanghai), Wei Li (Shanghai), Yunfei Bai (Shanghai) and Ping Su (Shanghai).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A microfluidic device includes a first substrate and a second substrate disposed opposite to each other. A cavity is formed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The first substrate includes multiple drive electrodes and multiple first electrodes, and the drive electrodes are disposed on a side of the first electrodes facing the s...