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:
Oct. 16, 2007
Filed:
Mar. 24, 2005
Roger O. Williams, Paradise Valley, AZ (US);
James Chiao, Saratoga, CA (US);
Humphrey W. Chow, Cupertino, CA (US);
Michael J. Forbush, Hollister, CA (US);
Andrew M. Rose, Mountain View, CA (US);
Roger O. Williams, Paradise Valley, AZ (US);
James Chiao, Saratoga, CA (US);
Humphrey W. Chow, Cupertino, CA (US);
Michael J. Forbush, Hollister, CA (US);
Andrew M. Rose, Mountain View, CA (US);
EDC Biosystems, Inc., Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention comprises a noncontact method for measuring viscosity and/or surface tension information of a liquid in a liquid containment structure. The steps of the method include exciting a surface of the liquid with an excitation burst of acoustic energy that causes the surface to oscillate; generating a positional data set comprised of a plurality of positional measurements related to the detected position of the surface at a plurality of times after the surface is excited; generating a frequency domain data set from the positional data set, the amplitude spectrum of the frequency domain data set comprising information about the oscillation frequency of at least one vibrational mode of the of the surface as it oscillates; and processing the frequency domain data set and/or the positional data set to yield information about the surface tension and/or viscosity of the liquid. A Fast Fourier Transform technique may be used in generating the frequency domain data set.