Patenting of University and Non-University Public Research Organisations in Germany: Evidence from Patent Applications for Medical Research Results

BACKGROUND: Patents are one of the most important forms of intellectual property. They grant a time-limited exclusivity on the use of an invention allowing the recuperation of research costs. The use of patents is fiercely debated for medical innovation and especially controversial for publicly funded research, where the patent holder is an institution accountable to public interest. Despite this controversy, for the situation in Germany almost no empirical information exists. The purpose of this study is to examine the amount, types and trends of patent applications for health products submitted by German public research organisations. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted a systematic search for patent documents using the publicly accessible database search interface of the German Patent and Trademark Office. We defined keywords and search criteria and developed search patterns for the database request. We retrieved documents with application date between 1988 and 2006 and processed the collected data stepwise to compile the most relevant documents in patent families for further analysis. We developed a rationale and present individual steps of a systematic method to request and process patent data from a publicly accessible database. We retrieved and processed 10194 patent documents. Out of these, we identified 1772 relevant patent families, applied for by 193 different universities and non-university public research organisations. 827 (47%) of these patent families contained granted patents. The number of patent applications submitted by universities and university-affiliated institutions more than tripled since the introduction of legal reforms in 2002, constituting almost half of all patent applications and accounting for most of the post-reform increase. Patenting of most non-university public research organisations remained stable. CONCLUSIONS: We search, process and analyse patent applications from publicly accessible databases. Internationally mounting evidence questions the viability of policies to increase commercial exploitation of publicly funded research results. To evaluate the outcome of research policies a transparent evidence base for public debate is needed in Germany

Ultrafast and highly efficient resonant cavity enhanced photodiodes

In this talk, we will review our research efforts on resonant cavity enhanced (RCE) high-speed high-efficiency photodiodes (PDs) operating in the 1st and 3rd optical communication windows. Using a microwave compatible planar fabrication process, we have designed and fabricated GaAs and InGaAs based RCE photodiodes. For RCE GaAs Schottky type photodiodes, we have achieved peak quantum efficiencies of 50% and 75% with semi-transparent (Au) and transparent (indium-tin-oxide) Schottky layers respectively. Along with 3-dB bandwidths of 50 and 60 GHz, these devices exhibit bandwidth-efficiency (BWE) products of 25 GHz and 45 GHz respectively. By using a postprocess recess etch, we tuned the resonance wavelength of an RCE InGaAs PD from 1605 to 1558 nm while keeping the peak efficiencies above 60%. The maximum quantum efficiency was 66% at 1572 nm which was in good agreement with our theoretical calculations. The photodiode had a linear response up to 6 mW optical power, where we obtained 5 mA photocurrent at 3 V reverse bias. The photodetector had a temporal response of 16 psec at 7 V bias. After system response deconvolution, the 3-dB bandwidth of the device was 31 GHz, which corresponds to a bandwidth-efficiency product of 20 GHz

Radiating dipoles in photonic crystals

The radiation dynamics of a dipole antenna embedded in a Photonic Crystal are modeled by an initially excited harmonic oscillator coupled to a non--Markovian bath of harmonic oscillators representing the colored electromagnetic vacuum within the crystal. Realistic coupling constants based on the natural modes of the Photonic Crystal, i.e., Bloch waves and their associated dispersion relation, are derived. For simple model systems, well-known results such as decay times and emission spectra are reproduced. This approach enables direct incorporation of realistic band structure computations into studies of radiative emission from atoms and molecules within photonic crystals. We therefore provide a predictive and interpretative tool for experiments in both the microwave and optical regimes.Comment: Phys. Rev. E, accepte

Investigation of AlGaN buffer layers on sapphire grown by MOVPE

In this work, AlGaN layers were grown on sapphire by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) on (0001)-oriented sapphire substrates, with the intention to investigate the effect of varying Al/MO and V/III ratios on the Al incorporation into the AlGaN layers. The parameters Al/MO and V/III describe the proportions of source material inside the reactor. With the help of optical transmission measurements, characteristic cut-off wavelengths of the Al xGa(1-x)N layers were determined. These wavelengths were used to calculate the Al content x of the layers, leading to values between 26.6% and 52.1%. Using the two process parameters Al/MO and V/III as input and the Al content of the AlGaN layers as a response variable, the experimental results were further investigated with the help of the software STATGRAPHICS. An estimated response surface for the variable x was generated. It was found that the Al incorporation is only tunable within a wide range for high V/III ratios of about 900. For constant Al/MO ratios and varying V/III ratios, two different growth characteristics were observed at high and low Al/MO values. This behavior is ascribed to the superposition of two oppositional effects

Spin relaxation in (110) and (001) InAs/GaSb superlattices

We report an enhancement of the electron spin relaxation time (T1) in a (110) InAs/GaSb superlattice by more than an order of magnitude (25 times) relative to the corresponding (001) structure. The spin dynamics were measured using polarization sensitive pump probe techniques and a mid-infrared, subpicosecond PPLN OPO. Longer T1 times in (110) superlattices are attributed to the suppression of the native interface asymmetry and bulk inversion asymmetry contributions to the precessional D'yakonov Perel spin relaxation process. Calculations using a nonperturbative 14-band nanostructure model give good agreement with experiment and indicate that possible structural inversion asymmetry contributions to T1 associated with compositional mixing at the superlattice interfaces may limit the observed spin lifetime in (110) superlattices. Our findings have implications for potential spintronics applications using InAs/GaSb heterostructures.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

High-speed >90% quantum-efficiency p-i-n photodiodes with a resonance wavelength adjustable in the 795-835 nm range

We report GaAs/AlGaAs-based high-speed, high-efficiency, resonant cavity enhanced p-i-n photodiodes. The devices were fabricated by using a microwave-compatible fabrication process. By using a postprocess recess etch, we tuned the resonance wavelength from 835 to 795 nm while keeping the peak efficiencies above 90%. The maximum quantum efficiency was 92% at a resonance wavelength of 823 nm. The photodiode had an experimental setup-limited temporal response of 12 ps. When the system response is deconvolved, the 3 dB bandwidth corresponds to 50 GHz, which is in good agreement with our theoretical calculations. © 1999 American Institute of Physics

Towards a hybrid computational strategy based on Deep Learning for incompressible flows

The Poisson equation is present in very different domains of physics and engineering. In most cases, this equation can not be solved directly and iterative solvers are used. For many solvers, this step is computationally intensive. In this study, an alternative resolution method based on neural networks is evaluated for incompressible flows. A fluid solver coupled with a Convolutional Neural Network is developed and trained on random cases with constant density to predict the pressure field. Its performance is tested in a plume configuration, with different buoyancy forces, parametrized by the Richardson number. The neural network is compared to a traditional Jacobi solver. The performance improvement is considerable, although the accuracy of the network is found to depend on the flow operating point: low errors are obtained at low Richardson numbers, whereas the fluid solver becomes unstable with large errors for large Richardson number. Finally, a hybrid strategy is proposed in order to benefit from the calculation acceleration while ensuring a user-defined accuracy level. In particular, this hybrid CFD-NN strategy, by maintaining the desired accuracy whatever the flow condition, makes the code stable and reliable even at large Richardson numbers for which the network was not trained for. This study demonstrates the capability of the hybrid approach to tackle new flow physics, unseen during the network training

The Almon two parameter estimator for the distributed lag models

The two parameter estimator proposed by Özkale and Kaçıranlar [The restricted and unrestricted two parameter estimators. Comm Statist Theory Methods. 2007;36(15):2707–2725] is a general estimator which includes the ordinary least squares, the ridge and the Liu estimators as special cases. In the present paper we introduce Almon two parameter estimator based on the two parameter estimation procedure to deal with the problem of multicollinearity for the distiributed lag models. This estimator outperforms the Almon estimator according to the matrix mean square error criterion. Moreover, a numerical example and a Monte Carlo simulation experiment are presented by using different estimators of the biasing parameters. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Risk performance of some shrinkage estimators

Shrinkage estimators incorporating homogeneous and heterogeneous minimum mean square error estimators have a great deal of usage in the literature by means of adaptive choices of these estimators. In the present paper, we propose two new shrinkage estimators by utilizing the Lindley’s mean correction. The risk performance of the new estimators in comparison to the existing methods of estimation is conducted with the help of different loss functions through a Monte Carlo experiment. Numerical results prove that our method of estimation works quite well. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC