US 11,937,556 B2
Channel-less drip irrigation emitters and methods of using the same
Julia Sokol, Cambridge, MA (US); Jaya Narain, Santa Clara, CA (US); Amos Greene Winter, V, Somerville, MA (US); Jeffrey Costello, Brighton, MA (US); Dheekshita Kumar, East Walpole, MA (US); and Tristan J. McLaurin, Cambridge, MA (US)
Assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed by MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed on Aug. 13, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/402,234.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/065,481, filed on Aug. 13, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0046870 A1, Feb. 17, 2022
Int. Cl. A01G 25/02 (2006.01)
CPC A01G 25/023 (2013.01) 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A drip irrigation emitter, comprising:
an inlet;
a body;
a membrane cavity formed in the body, the membrane cavity having an opening formed therein;
an outlet in fluid communication with the membrane cavity;
a membrane disposed above a bottom surface of the membrane cavity, the bottom surface of the membrane cavity having each of the opening and the outlet associated therewith, the opening and the outlet being disposed on opposed sides of the bottom surface of the membrane cavity; and
a flow path formed in the body, the flow path having an entry point that is in fluid communication with the inlet and an exit point that is in fluid communication with the opening formed in the membrane cavity, the flow path being configured to decrease a pressure of fluid flowing therethrough as it passes from the entry point to the exit point,
wherein the membrane cavity is devoid of a channel through which fluid passes as it moves from the membrane cavity, to the outlet, and to an outside environment.