ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,297,836, issued on May 13, was assigned to TC1 LLC (St. Paul, Minn.).
"Alternating pump gaps" was invented by Masamichi Yanai (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Shunzhou Yu (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and Tao Zhang (Ann Arbor, Mich.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A blood pump system includes a pump housing and an impeller for rotating in a pump chamber within the housing. The impeller has a first side and a second side opposite the first side. The system includes a stator having drive coils for applying a torque to the impeller and at least one bearing mechanism for suspending the impeller within the pump chamber. The system includes a position control mechanis...