ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,276,592, issued on April 15, was assigned to Particle Measuring Systems Inc. (Boulder, Colo.).

"Particle detection via scattered light combined with incident light" was invented by Daniel Rodier (Boulder, Colo.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Particle detection systems and methods are disclosed. In one embodiment, a particle detection system comprises an incident beam light source that emits an incident beam, a particle interrogation zone disposed in the path of the incident beam, a photodetector disposed to detect the incident beam after passing through the particle interrogation zone, a pump beam light source for emitting a pump beam, th...