ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,345,916, issued on July 1, was assigned to Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek TNO ('s-Gravenhage, Netherlands).
"Photonic integrated device for converting a light signal into sound via a solid photo-acoustic converter" was invented by Peter Johan Harmsma (Vleuten, Netherlands), Paul Louis Maria Joseph Van Neer (Bergschenhoek, Netherlands), Robert Karl Altmann (Abcoude, Netherlands), Daniele Piras (Amsterdam) and Maurits Sebastiaan Van Der Heiden ('s-Gravenhage, Netherlands).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The photonic integrated device for converting a light signal into sound comprises-a substrate having...