Issue



Inventor's Corner


11/01/2001







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Disposable mask and suction catheter
The invention helps to prevent fogging of glasses or other eyewear due to moist, exhaled air that escapes from behind the mask, and improves user comfort by constantly removing the warm, moist air behind and around the mask and drawing cool dry air into the mask.

The mask has a front side and a backside, which covers the user's face. The disposable mask and suction catheter also includes a catheter tube having a first and a second end, the first end being removable and attachable to a suction source for removing exhaled air, and the second end is attached to the back side of the mask.
Patent number: 6,237,596
Date granted: May 29, 2001
Inventor: George L. Bohmfalk (Texarkana, TX)

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Induction assembly
The induction assembly for a high-efficiency air filter includes a primary intake plenum, a primary throat aperture, a secondary intake plenum, a momentum transfer section, a static regain section, and a discharge opening. The primary intake plenum directs primary air at high pressure to the primary throat aperture, which constricts the flow of the primary air and increases the primary air velocity. The primary throat aperture directs the high-velocity primary air into the momentum transfer section, thus creating a negative pressure region by the Bernoulli principle and drawing a substantially equal quantity of the secondary air into the momentum transfer section.

After the gasses mix in the momentum transfer section, the gas mixture continues on into the static regain section. As the gas mixture passes through the static regain section, the velocity pressure of the gas mixture is converted into static pressure, which is sufficient to force the gas mixture through a resistance at the discharge opening such as an output filter.
Patent number: 6,248,146
Date granted: June 19, 2001
Inventor: Herbert L. Willke, Jr. (Cambridge, MA)

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Air purifier
The air-purifying filter comprises an ion-exchange fiber filter and a high- or ultrahigh-performance filter made of glass fibers. It is capable of rejecting gases or ions that are present in trace amounts. The invention can purify air in a cleanroom that has been contaminated with fine particles or those gases that are present in trace amounts. Air within the cleanroom is passed through the ion-exchange fiber filter, which also includes hydrophilic groups that are chemically bound to the surface of the substrate, and the glass fiber filter.
Patent number: 6,228,135
Date granted: May 8, 2001
Inventors: Takanobu Sugo, Kunio Fujiwara,
Kideaki Sekiguchi, Takeshi Takai and Atsushi Kobayashi,
Ebara Corporation and Japan Atomic Research Institute (Japan)

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Processing chamber liner
The container used in a processing chamber lessens the amount of contaminants found within the chamber after processing. The container fits within the chamber and includes ports for gas conduit and vacuum conduit. The container may be locked to the chamber through a locking mechanism and a recess in the container. Grooves or beveled edges guide the container into the chamber. The container can be used in inductively coupled plasma chambers, electron cyclotron resonance chambers, and chambers capable of receiving microwaves.
Patent number: 6,234,219
Date granted: May 22, 2001
Inventor: Kevin G. Donohue, Micron Technology Inc. (Boise, ID)

Send your inventions
Information on the patents highlighted above was obtained through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Inventors who have been granted patents within the last six months for new cleanroom and contamination technology are encouraged to submit them to CleanRooms magazine for publication. Send a brief description of the invention along with a detailed drawing to Mark A. DeSorbo, associate editor, CleanRooms, 98 Spit Brook Road, Nashua, NH 03062, or e-mail at [email protected].