{"schema_version":"1.0","canonical_url":"https://patentable.app/patents/US-11517654","patent":{"patent_number":"US-11517654","title":"Microstructured discrimination device","assignee":null,"inventors":[],"filing_date":"2019-11-21T00:00:00.000Z","publication_date":"2022-12-06T00:00:00.000Z","cpc_codes":["G01N"],"num_claims":20,"abstract":"The present invention discloses a microstructured discrimination device for separating hydrophobic-hydrophilic fluidic composites comprising particulate and/or fluids in a fluid flow. The discrimination is the result of surface energy gradients obtained by physically varying a textured surface and/or by varying surface chemical properties, both of which are spatially graded. Such surfaces discriminate and spatially separate particulate and/or fluids without external energy input. The device of the present invention comprises a platform having bifurcating microchannels arranged radially. The lumenal surfaces of the microchannels may have a surface energy gradient created by varying the periodicity of hierarchically arranged microstructures along a dimension. The surface energy gradient is varied in two regions. In one pre-bifurcation region the surface energy gradient generates a fluid flow. In the other post-bifurcation region, there is a difference in surface energy proximal to the bifurcation such that different flow fractions are divided into separate channels in response to different surface energy gradients in each of the post-bifurcation channels. Accordingly, fluids of different hydrophobicity and/or particulate of different hydrophobicity are driven into separate channels by a global minimization of the fluid system energy."},"analysis":{"summary":null,"layman_explanation":null,"technical_analysis":null,"business_analysis":null,"faqs":null,"topics":[],"tech_cluster":null},"seo":{"title":"Microstructured discrimination device","description":"The present invention discloses a microstructured discrimination device for separating hydrophobic-hydrophilic fluidic composites comprising particulate and/or fluids in a fluid flow. The discriminati","keywords":[]},"attribution":{"source":"Patentable","source_url":"https://patentable.app","canonical_url":"https://patentable.app/patents/US-11517654","license":"CC-BY-4.0-like","license_terms":"AI-generated analysis on this page (summary, layman_explanation, technical_analysis, business_analysis, faqs) may be reused with attribution and a visible link back to the canonical URL above. Patent abstracts, claims, and bibliographic data are USPTO public domain.","required_link":"https://patentable.app/patents/US-11517654","citation_suggestion":"Patentable. \"Microstructured discrimination device\" (US-11517654). https://patentable.app/patents/US-11517654","copyright_holder":"Nomic Interactive Technology LLC"},"links":{"html":"https://patentable.app/patents/US-11517654","json":"https://patentable.app/api/llm-context/US-11517654","site":"https://patentable.app","llms_txt":"https://patentable.app/llms.txt"},"generated_at":"2026-05-31T08:38:30.539Z"}