Apparatus and method for extended plasma confinement

    公开(公告)号:US12127324B2

    公开(公告)日:2024-10-22

    申请号:US17827379

    申请日:2022-05-27

    申请人: ZAP ENERGY, INC.

    摘要: Methods and systems are provided for plasma confinement utilizing various electrode and valve configurations. In one example, a device includes a first electrode positioned to define an outer boundary of an acceleration volume, a second electrode arranged coaxially with respect to the first electrode and positioned to define an inner boundary of the acceleration volume, at least one power supply to drive an electric current along a Z-pinch plasma column between the first second electrodes, and a set of valves to provide gas to the acceleration volume to fuel the Z-pinch plasma column, wherein an electron flow of the electric current is in a first direction from the second electrode to the first electrode. In additional or alternative examples, a shaping part is conductively connected to the second electrode to, in a presence of the gas, cause a gas breakdown of the gas to generate a sheared flow velocity profile.

    Computer-implemented system and method for updating a network's knowledge of the network's topology

    公开(公告)号:US12113854B2

    公开(公告)日:2024-10-08

    申请号:US18232815

    申请日:2023-08-10

    IPC分类号: H04L67/1042

    CPC分类号: H04L67/1042

    摘要: The computer implemented invention provides a method, corresponding systems and arrangement within a network for detecting changes in the topology, ordering those changes by occurrence and constructing a new topology reflecting the changes. The invention addresses problems with keeping the knowledge of the network topology at each network node current, particularly when the network topology is dynamic, i.e., when links fail and recover at arbitrary times. The topology updating is event driven, as it is activated when some change in the network, particularly with nodes and links occurs. Events cause topology changes to be reported to other nodes in the network. Timestamping of messages allows the messages to be correctly applied as the most recent update or discarded. An algorithm is provided that allows each merchant node to maintain a correct view of the network topology despite link and node failures.

    SPAD array with ambient light suppression for solid-state LiDAR

    公开(公告)号:US12099145B2

    公开(公告)日:2024-09-24

    申请号:US17144115

    申请日:2021-01-07

    发明人: Yunpeng Song

    摘要: In various embodiments, described herein are systems and methods for ambient light suppression on a photodetector of a LiDAR device. The LiDAR device can be configured to scan laser pulses in such a manner that reflected laser pulses are incident on one column of macro-pixels at a time in a macro-pixel array on the photodetector, where only that column is turned on, and the rest of the columns are turned off. The LiDAR device can further be configured to scan at different angles such that laser pulses from a same portion of a target object can be incident on the turned-on column multiple times to increase the resolution of a LiDAR image. Further, outputs from multiple SPADs in a max-pixel are concatenated to form a multi-level digital signal, and a threshold can be used for discarding or registering the multi-level digital signal for further noise reduction.

    Carbon dioxide redox flow battery having a bi-functional negative electrode

    公开(公告)号:US12087983B2

    公开(公告)日:2024-09-10

    申请号:US17348544

    申请日:2021-06-15

    摘要: A redox flow battery (“CRB”) performs as an energy storage system and has a negative electrode that directly utilizes CO2 in the battery charge step as an active species instead of metals. The CRB also has a positive electrode utilizing a metallic or non-metallic redox species, and a cation exchange membrane in between the negative and positive electrodes. The negative electrode comprises a porous base layer, a porous intermediate layer containing a metal oxide and a bi-functional catalyst layer for electrochemical reduction of CO2 or carbonate to formate and for formate oxidation to either carbonate or CO2. The bi-functional catalyst can be a PdSn based catalyst, such as PdSn, PdSnIn, and PdSnPb. The metal oxide in the intermediate layer acts as a catalyst support and can be a non-Platinum group metal (PGM) oxide, such as LaCoO3 or LaNiO3.