Mashed Articles

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7419616.html

Magnetorheological fluids have the property of variable viscosity dependent on magnetic fields which is useful for flow control switches. This patent from GM teaches controlling the aspect ratios of the particles forming these fluids to maintain a high and stable on/off ratio for the flow. Claims 1 and 15 read:

1. A magnetorheological fluid composition comprising: a carrier fluid; and a plurality of low aspect ratio magnetizable particles with interlocking structures.

15. A magnetorheological fluid composition comprising: a carrier fluid; and a plurality of high aspect ratio magnetizable particles comprising interlocking structures.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7417511.html

This patent from Lexmark includes some broad claims on the use of microelectromechanical circuits to generate spread spectrum clock signals. Claim 1 reads:

1. A spread spectrum clock generation (SSCG) circuit comprising a MEMS based circuit having a plurality of circuit components configured to generate a spread spectrum clocking signal based on a modulation of a resonant frequency of said MEMS based circuit and an output coupled to at least one of said circuit components to supply said spread spectrum clocking signal.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7418283.html

D-Wave is a company attempting to make quantum computation a reality. This latest patent seems to include some basic claims to quantum computation by monitoring the state of a Hamiltonian (math expression for energy state) describing superconducting qubits under adiabatic conditions. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method for adiabatic quantum computing using a quantum system comprising a plurality of superconducting qubits, wherein the quantum system is capable of being in any one of at least two quantum configurations at any given time, the at least two quantum configurations comprising:

a first configuration described by an initialization Hamiltonian HO; and

a second configuration described by a problem Hamiltonian HP having a ground state, the method comprising:

A) initializing the quantum system to the first configuration;

B) adiabatically changing the quantum system until it is described by the ground state of the problem Hamiltonian HP; and

C) reading out a state of the quantum system.