The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 15, 2006
Filed:
Nov. 26, 2002
Paul F. Herbert, Wayland, MA (US);
Douglas M. Bissonnette, Ashland, MA (US);
Gregory C. Troiano, Weymouth, MA (US);
Paul F. Herbert, Wayland, MA (US);
Douglas M. Bissonnette, Ashland, MA (US);
Gregory C. Troiano, Weymouth, MA (US);
Alkermes Controlled Therapeutics, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for filtering and drying a product. In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus comprises a container having a plurality of porous walls and a plurality of solid walls that divide the container into a plurality of product chambers, a plurality of vacuum chambers, and, preferably, a plurality of heat transfer chambers. Each product chamber shares at least one porous wall with an adjacent vacuum chamber. Each product chamber preferably shares at least one solid wall with an adjacent heat transfer chamber. According to the method of the present invention, a product is introduced into the product chambers, where the product is held while a substance is filtered from the product through the porous walls and the product is dried by reducing the pressure in the vacuum chambers and the product chambers. In a preferred embodiment of the method, a heat transfer fluid flows through the heat transfer chambers to facilitate keeping the product frozen and/or to facilitate faster drying of the product.