Chapter 543: Applying for a patent

Xu Qingzhou still couldn't help but sigh, this review speed is really fast.

Thinking back to when he was a graduate student, in order to submit to a top journal, he racked his brains and was almost in a state of madness.

During the review process, the editor replied to the email. Once asked to change, many times it required redesigning and collecting data again.

Submitting to a top 5, being rejected is fine, the most terrible thing is revising the thesis. When the review reaches 2-3 rounds, the editor will emphasize every time that they cannot guarantee publication, but the requirements given roughly require another 3-4 months of work. In the case of not being sure whether it can be published, he still has to go all out.

This process is very agonizing.

It is equivalent to you currently investing in a project, cannot guarantee a return, but the other party keeps saying "invest another 10 million in me, although I cannot guarantee a return, but if you don't invest, the money invested in the early stage will all be gone."

Zero Point Technology's first employee, Yorken Ross, set off for Singapore, responsible for docking with the group on the establishment of the Singapore branch. This company will be wholly owned by Zero Point Technology, mainly responsible for investment business.

Song Yao is responsible for auditing key nodes, and finally is not as busy as before.

Xu Qingzhou's side is buried in the laboratory.

These two months, the mathematical model on Song Yao's side, superconducting thin film experiment, lithium dendrite research have fallen behind a lot, or rather, have fallen into stagnation.

For this thing, he is not in a hurry. Originally, he wanted to find something to do, and now the top priority is still superconducting thin film iteration.

April 10th, it was sunny for a few days, and in the early morning, it started to drizzle again. Boston is prone to late spring cold, and the air carries a damp and cold breath.

Xu Qingzhou crossed the intersection of Vasa Street and Main Street, stopped at the office in Building 13, and shook his umbrella.

He walked into the office, but was stunned.

Carson, Sun Simin, Ma Ersi, the three of them were all looking at him eagerly, big eyes staring at small eyes, their expressions a bit melancholy.

Something wrong with the sample?

Xu Qingzhou's heart skipped a beat, but immediately denied this possibility. No matter how you look at it, the sample shouldn't have any mistakes.

Sun Simin couldn't help but laugh first, the other two seemed unable to hold back either, happy, especially Carson, who was so excited that he gave Xu Qingzhou a big hug.

"Professor, we succeeded!"

"Hey, Mr. Carson, I can see the data myself." Xu Qingzhou was dizzy from Carson shaking him, pushed this guy away, and picked up the test report on the side.

The JC of the best superconducting thin film reached 3.5×10⁴ A/cm² stably, the critical temperature (T_c) was stable at 18.3K±0.1K, mechanical strength had no cracks, bending radius ≤1mm, and magnetic field stability was also no problem.

"The critical temperature (T_c) fluctuation range of 6 of the samples is 17.5K±0.8K, which is far from reaching our requirements. As for the reason..."

Xu Qingzhou opened the electron microscope structure drawing on the side and soon found the reason, "Quantum dot agglomeration leads to uneven local carrier concentration, and charge-ordered phase competition in some areas."

"Unfortunately, our equipment is not good enough. If we could integrate an Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) module in the Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM), realize atomic-level in-situ prediction and doping process-related optimization, and let quantum dots be orderly distributed in a hexagonal close-packed manner, activating strong pinning, we could definitely achieve magnetic field stability under 30T."

Xu Qingzhou was extremely regretful.

"Deserving of being the boss, still able to calm down and find problems at this time."

Carson sighed on the side. The JC performance of the new batch of samples has been improved to the 3.0×10⁴ A/cm² magnitude, which means they are far ahead in this track.

In just eight months, they have created such a feat!

"OK, now there is a very important problem."

Xu Qingzhou put down the drawings in his hand, his gaze swept across the three team members: "Whose idea was it to scare me just now?"

Sun Simin lowered his head, Ma Ersi coughed dryly.

Carson immediately laughed: "Boss, didn't we want to give you a surprise... Besides, you scared us last time too."

"Compared to giving me a surprise, you should write the thesis well now. Three of you, before the end of this month, I hope to have the first draft of your thesis in my mailbox, understand what I mean?"

"Oh, boss, my thesis is only half written."

Ma Ersi shouted miserably.

Xu Qingzhou shrugged: "This is not a problem I need to care about."

Ma Ersi felt life was worse than death: "But it's less than 20 days until next month."

"Then why don't you hurry up?"

"..."

The three of them woke up immediately, feeling great pressure. Even Carson didn't act cocky, hurriedly sat in his position and started to struggle.

Xu Qingzhou shook his head, having a small "revenge" was very happy.

Of course, it is indeed time to put some pressure on these guys. The experiments are almost finished, and not a single thesis has come out, shameful.

He looked at the data, adjusted the experimental parameters, ordered Carson to continue redoing samples tomorrow, and he went directly to the library.

The experiment is progressing steadily, and it is time for the most critical step—patent application.

The key technical framework of the entire experiment has been fixed and will not have major changes. The rest is nothing more than changes in experimental data, which has little impact and can be gradually perfected after determining the priority date.

In the application materials, first, you need to write a specification, clarify the technical field, technical background, best embodiment, invention content, and implementation plan.

The most important are the last two.

Need to detail technical details, that is, those black technologies added by Xu Qingzhou, on precursors, changing traditional Sn(CH) to Sn(NET), H plasma enhanced reaction, quantum-level interface engineering, epitaxially growing topological insulator BiSe on the NBSN film surface... finally to YO nano-doping and quantum dot precision doping.

As for the use, nuclear fusion reactor magnet system, high-energy particle accelerator, quantum computing and low-temperature electronic devices, medical imaging equipment... how to say, his product is a pentagonal warrior directly.

Additionally, need to attach process flowcharts, film cross-section TEM images, JC-magnetic field curves, etc.

Xu Qingzhou spent four days preparing the patent application materials, and then directly found a patent registration firm, intending to lock the priority date first.

Song Yao could actually do it, but this thing is more troublesome. The claims, USPTO checking document format, clarity of drawings, etc., all have corresponding requirements.

April 14th, Xu Qingzhou met patent attorney Lise Anderson, the candidate recommended by Professor Morton.

A very enthusiastic old lady, with a personality completely opposite to Professor Morton.

The review of such patent applications is often 6 months, 1 year, or even 2 years, which is very normal, but the superconducting thin film field is slightly better, unlike traditional industries, which possess a large number of watered-down patents and require a lot of review time.

But superconducting materials belong to complex technology and still need to go through strict review. In order to shorten the time, Xu Qingzhou painfully paid a rush fee of 4,000 US dollars.

The firm's efficiency is very high, establishing the priority date on April 16th.

Next, the examiner evaluates novelty, creativity, and issues an Office Action, usually requiring 1-3 rounds of response.

Xu Qingzhou also prepared to call Zakaria of General Electric to synchronize the progress, just to give this gambler a surprise.

Of course, there is another meaning.

Brother, it's time to prepare money.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 544 =====