| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08027514B2 |
Apparatus for recognizing object in image
An object recognition apparatus sets each of keypoints extracted from a typical image and one of keypoints extracted from an input image, having scale invariant features similar to each other, as a typical corresponding point and an object corresponding point matching with each other, and produces a position vector directed from a typical reference point of the typical image to each typical keypoint. The apparatus determines a position of an object reference point in the input image from a position of each object corresponding point and the vector of the typical corresponding point matching with the object corresponding point. When the positions of the object reference point are concentrated, the apparatus judges that an object picture having the object corresponding points in the input image matches with the typical image, and the apparatus recognizes the picture as an object indicated by the typical image. |
| US08027513B2 |
Bitmap tracker for visual tracking under very general conditions
System and method for visually tracking a target object silhouette in a plurality of video frames under very general conditions. The tracker does not make any assumption about the object or the scene. The tracker works by approximating, in each frame, a PDF (probability distribution function) of the target's bitmap and then estimating the maximum a posteriori bitmap. The PDF is marginalized over all possible motions per pixel, thus avoiding the stage in which optical flow is determined. This is an advantage over other general-context trackers that do not use the motion cue at all or rely on the error-prone calculation of optical flow. Using a Gibbs distribution with a first order neighborhood system yields a bitmap PDF whose maximization may be transformed into that of a quadratic pseudo-Boolean function, the maximum of which is approximated via a reduction to a maximum-flow problem. |
| US08027511B2 |
System for virtually distributing mailpieces
A method of enabling mailpieces to be distributed and consulted in electronic form, including the steps of scanning each of the mailpieces and transmitting the images of the mailpieces to a first server; displaying the images on a first viewing screen associated with the first server, and assigning each of the images to a recipient by “dropping ” the image into one of the pigeonholes of a virtual sorting rack associated with the recipient and displayed on the first viewing screen or on a second viewing screen also associated with the first server; and displaying a dynamic dialogue box on at least one consultation screen of a final recipient. |
| US08027508B2 |
Interactive gaming objects
A method for operating an electronic gaming system captures an image of a gaming object, extracts identifying information from the image of the gaming object, and uses the extracted identifying information to reference a database to determine a behavior associated with the identifying information. The method returns data to the gaming system to execute or control the behavior of the gaming system in response to the gaming object. Various system configurations for this method as well as unique applications of it are also disclosed. |
| US08027507B2 |
Method and apparatus for embedding auxiliary information within original data
This patent application is generally related to watermarking and steganography. One claim recites a method of transmarking a media signal previously embedded with a first digital watermark using a first digital watermark embedding method. The method includes: utilizing a programmed electronic processor, detecting the first digital watermark in the media signal; converting the media signal to a different format; utilizing a programmed electronic processor, embedding detected message information from the first digital watermark into a second digital watermark in the converted media signal such that the second digital watermark is adapted to robustness or perceptibility parameters associated with the new format. Of course, other combinations and claims are provided as well. |
| US08027505B2 |
System and method for providing simulated images through cosmetic monitoring
An automated cosmetic applicator uses wide-angle cameras, a high-resolution camera, and a differential lighting process to capture images of a body. Software analyzes these images to identify large and small features of the subject and to use these features as landmarks to create in computer memory a corresponding map that is highly accurate and data rich with pixel-level data about the subject's color, light value and texture characteristics. The rich images may be used for tracking the device on the skin, for making accurate corrections to skin, for simulating possible cosmetic enhancements and selecting a desired correction, and for use in other applications such as video games and animations. |
| US08027503B2 |
Diaphragm for speaker device, speaker device and mobile phone
A diaphragm of a speaker device, formed into an elongated configuration, has a recessed shape and includes a voice coil arrangement part extending in its longitude direction. The voice coil arrangement part has a gap with a constant width in its lateral direction and includes a voice coil supporting part for supporting a voice coil and an expanded part provided at a position along it. |
| US08027502B2 |
Speaker device and mobile phone
A speaker device includes a magnetic circuit which includes a magnetic gap, a diaphragm which has a recessed part arranged in the magnetic gap and extending in a direction substantially orthogonal with respect to an extending direction of a magnetic flux in the magnetic gap, and a voice coil which is formed into an annular shape and has a first parallel part extending in one direction and a second parallel part extending in a direction in parallel with the first parallel part and opposite to the first parallel part with a constant space. Particularly, the first parallel part and the second parallel part are arranged in a direction in parallel with an extending direction of the recessed part, respectively. The first parallel part is arranged in the recessed part to be positioned in the magnetic gap, and the second parallel part is positioned above the recessed part. |
| US08027499B2 |
Portable audio system with changeable functionality
A portable audio system includes a housing, battery, wiring harness, speakers, and two or more audio controllers, each including at least one audio functionality different from at least one other. The functionality of the portable audio system may be reconfigured as desired by removing one audio controller and installing a different audio controller. A quick-detach connector on the wiring harness facilitates the swapping of audio controllers, which are preferably automotive audio controllers. The portable audio system includes external power and speaker connectors, with the internal power and speakers being switchably disconnectable. Thus, the portable audio system may also be used as a fixed, or home, audio system. |
| US08027493B2 |
Biplane line array speaker with arcuate tweeter array providing controlled directivity
A biplane line array speaker includes a line array of tweeters mounted substantially directly in front of a line array of woofers. The tweeter line array is arcuately shaped to provide controlled vertical dispersion above and below the boundaries of the speaker cabinet. The woofers are displaced from the tweeters in stepped manner. The speaker cabinet is a rectangular box, allowing efficient wall mounting in single or multiple unit columns. In multiple unit columns, the individual units acoustically couple to each other. |
| US08027491B2 |
Contact speaker
A tactile sound speaker transmits sound-generated vibrations to a user through a touchpad to provide a tactile sound experience. The tactile sound speaker can include a speaker driver, a speaker cone, and a touchpad. The touchpad can be coupled to the speaker cone by transmission shafts that transmit vibrations generated by the speaker driver's output. A user may experience tactile sound by contacting the touchpad with a hand, foot, or other body part while listening to music or other sound. |
| US08027489B1 |
Multi-voltage biasing system with over-voltage protection
A multi-voltage biasing system with over voltage protection has an amplifier with a stage including at least one output device and one cascode protection device having a predetermined maximum recommended voltage; a biasing network is selectively responsive to a plurality of different supply voltages at least one of which is higher than the maximum recommended voltage for providing to the stage a bias voltage to operate the cascode device and output device below their maximum recommended voltages. |
| US08027485B2 |
Multiple channel audio system supporting data channel replacement
An audio processing system which allows a surround sound system to utilize the transmission bandwidth efficiently by adaptively transmitting a supplementary data from a secondary source in addition to the audio signals of a primary source. The system consists of a transmitter component, capable of transmitting audio signals from a primary source and adaptively inserts supplementary data of the secondary source in the reserved communication bandwidth. The transmitter inserts headers in the channels used by the supplementary data to allow the receivers to identify the channel allocation between the primary source and the secondary source. Another part of the audio processing system is that of a receiver component which is capable of discriminating between data from the primary source and data from the secondary source. The primary source may comprise of audio signals from mono, stereo or surround sound music source, or voice signals such as that of a television channel while the supplementary data may comprise of advertisements, community information, public service information or even computer data. |
| US08027481B2 |
Personal hearing control system and method
A personal hearing control system includes a microphone located within a user's sealed ear canal, a speaker having a diaphragm which directs sound into the ear canal, and a controller which drives the speaker such that the system emulates the acoustics of the user's open ear canal. Also provided are a microphone located on the outer ear side of the sealed ear canal, which is coupled to a handheld interface unit having multiple inputs and operating modes. A user-selected input is processed by the interface unit, and the processed signal is coupled to the speaker. In one operating mode, the output of the outer ear mic is processed so as to cancel sound that leaks from the outer ear to the inner ear side of the seal. |
| US08027480B2 |
Multichannel spectral mapping audio apparatus and method
A method and circuit for deriving a set of multichannel audio signals from a conventional monaural or stereo audio signal uses an auxiliary multichannel spectral mapping data stream. Audio can be played back in stereo and multichannel formats from a conventional stereo signal on compact discs, FM radio, or other stereo or monaural delivery systems. The invention reduces the data rate needed for the transmission of multichannel digital audio. |
| US08027479B2 |
Binaural multi-channel decoder in the context of non-energy conserving upmix rules
A multi-channel decoder for generating a binaural signal from a downmix signal using upmix rule information on an energy-error introducing upmix rule for calculating a gain factor based on the upmix rule information and characteristics of head related transfer function based filters corresponding to upmix channels. The one or more gain factors are used by a filter processor for filtering the downmix signal so that an energy corrected binaural signal having a left binaural channel and a right binaural channel is obtained. |
| US08027474B2 |
Method and system for secure data aggregation in wireless sensor networks
A method for transmitting sensed data in a wireless sensor network including multiple sensors, includes: encrypting the sensed data with an encryption key and a verification key to generate encrypted data in each of the multiple sensors that senses data; wirelessly receiving the encrypted data from the multiple sensors; determining that the sensed data from one of the multiple sensors is different from the sensed data from others of the multiple sensors without decrypting the encrypted data; and transmitting the encrypted sensed data determined to be different. |
| US08027470B2 |
Video slice and active region based multiple partial encryption
A selective encryption decoder for decrypting and decoding a selectively encrypted digital video signal has a demultiplexer that receives packets of digital video, certain of the packets being unencrypted and certain of the packets being encrypted. Certain of the encrypted packets carry data representing an active region of a video frame. The unencrypted packets have a first packet identifier (PID) and the encrypted packets have a second packet identifier (PID). A decrypter receives the encrypted packets having the second PID and decrypts the encrypted packets using a first encryption method to produce decrypted packets. A PID remapper changes at least one of the first and second PIDs so that the unencrypted packets and the decrypted packets have the same PID. A decoder decodes the unencrypted and decrypted packets to produce a decoded video signal. This abstract is not to be considered limiting since other embodiments can include more, fewer or different features than those described in this abstract. |
| US08027469B2 |
Video slice and active region based multiple partial encryption
A television set-top box has a receiver receiving a digital television signal comprising, a plurality of unencrypted packets; and a plurality of encrypted packets. The encrypted packets are of at least one selected packet type and the at least one selected packet type has at least one of the following: packets containing a video slice header appearing in an active region of a video frame, any packet carrying data describing an active region of a video frame, I Frame packets, packets containing motion vectors in a first P frame following an I Frame, packets having an intra_slice_flag indicator set, packets having an intra_slice indicator set, packets containing an intra_coded macroblock, packets that carry data for a slice containing an intra_coded macroblock, packets containing data from a first macroblock following the video slice header, packets containing video slice headers, packets containing anchor data, and P Frame packets for progressively refreshed video data. A decrypter decrypts the encrypted packets; and a decoder decodes the unencrypted packets and the decrypted packets to produce a signal suitable for play on a television set. This abstract is not to be considered limiting since other embodiments can include more, fewer or different features than those described in this abstract. |
| US08027464B2 |
Holding apparatus for accommodating a mobile telephone
The invention relates to a holding device provided with a receiving system for receiving a mobile telephone (30, 30′), said holding device comprising a housing (1). The receiving system is formed by at least two lateral jaws (3) projecting from a rear wall of the housing (1), at least one of said jaws being laterally displaceable and both of said jaws being provided with padding (5) that can be compressed by from lateral housing walls of the mobile telephone (30, 30′). The distance between the jaws (3) can be adjusted to the width of the mobile telephone (30, 30′) by means of an adjusting device (11) provided in the rear wall (2). The adjusted jaws (3) remain fixed for the insertion and the removal of the mobile telephone (30, 30′), and the mobile telephone is fixed in the holder exclusively by means of a friction connection produced between the compressible padding (5, 6) and the mobile telephone (30, 30′). The aim of the invention is to create a universal holding device for different types of mobile telephones (30, 30′). To this end, the adjusting device (11) comprises a rotatably arranged plate (15) that is connected to the two jaws (3), and can be fixed in the rotary position thereof by means of a centrally arranged screw. The screw head (14) can be actuated on the rear wall (2) and covered by the inserted mobile telephone (30, 30′). |
| US08027456B1 |
Method and system for providing call tones service in a system with multiple media content providers
A carrier providing wireless services provides ringback media such as call tones via one or more call tones content providers. In one aspect, a service entity (e.g., SCP or application server) is provisioned with data unique to ringback media service subscribed to by the subscriber. The service entity provides routing instructions to a mobile switching center identifying a ringback media server (e.g., content provider platform) to render ringback media to the caller. In another aspect, a caller can exercise control over the play of ringback media, e.g., by inputting DTMF tones, which responsively cause a ringback media server to change the play of ringback media, e.g., stop it or play a different selection. In another aspect, when a subscriber initiates a call to called party that subscribes to a competitor carrier, the carrier limits exposure of the subscriber to the ringback media of the competitor carrier. In one possible configuration, the carrier inserts its own ringback media. |
| US08027455B2 |
Ringbacks based on extrinsic information
An apparatus and methods are disclosed that enable a first user of a telecommunications terminal to receive, upon placing a call to a second user, a ringback signal that is based on information that is extrinsic to the telecommunications system that handles the call (i.e., information that is independent of the state of the telecommunications system). Such extrinsic information might include: entries in a user schedule (e.g., from a groupware application such as Lotus Notes® that is hosted on a server, from a personal digital assistant [PDA] calendar, etc.); environmental parameters at the first and/or second user's terminal (e.g., temperature, ambient sound pressure, ambient luminosity, etc.); physiological parameters of the first and/or second users (e.g., heart rate, respiration rate, body temperature, brain activity, etc.); stock ticker information; weather forecasts; sports scores; updated election results; and so forth. |
| US08027454B1 |
Trunk sparing
A method is provided for reserving trunks on a trunk group for designated class of service calls. The trunks available for a denominated class of service is specified, and the trunks remaining are enumerated and designated as of no class and available for all calls. When the no class trunks are in use and a new call is a denominated class of service, it is allocated to a trunk and the trunks available is reduced accordingly. If the no class trunks are in use and a new call is not of a denominated class of service, the new call is allocated to a further trunk group. When a call is released and the number available is reduced below a specified number, the number of available trunks increases. If the number of trunks available is not reduced below a specified number, the released trunk is made available for all calls. |
| US08027453B2 |
System and method for an online speaker patch-through
Systems and methods described herein may be incorporated into a “service marketplace” system that matches users with potential information or service providers and establishes a real-time communications connection between the user and a selected information provider. In one embodiment, an alternate is selected for the user when the service provider that the user is trying to connect with cannot be reached. In an alternative embodiment, the alternates can be used in conjunction with the service provider that does connect with the user in order to provide a second opinion or possibly deeper background information. In one embodiment, the service providers can either be a live person at the other end of the connection or a recording. |
| US08027444B1 |
Ringback tones management for phones having a profile specifying both organizational and personal ringback tones
A call tones management platform provides a facility for configuration of a user profile. The user profile specifies the circumstances under which organizational call tones (such as a call tone of an employer of the subscriber using the phone) or a personal, non-organizational tone should be rendered to a calling party. When a call is placed to the subscriber, the profile is consulted and an instruction for rendering a call tone in accordance with the profile is sent to a call tones content provider or run time site generating call tones during the time of a call. The call tones management platform implements logic for resolving potential scheduling conflicts between organizational call tones and private call tones, such as, for example, a rule in which the organizational call tone trumps personal call tones for calls are made to the subscriber telephone during business hours. |
| US08027440B2 |
System and method for facilitating call routing
A telecommunications system utilizes a central database to determine characteristics for international calls, to facilitate call routing for international calls, or both. The central database includes termination information for telephone numbers in multiple nations outside the North American Numbering Plan. In one aspect, an interexchange switch receives a termination number for an international call from a local exchange carrier and uses information from the central database to help complete the call. In another aspect, the central database receives a telephone number from a remote user such as interexchange carrier (IXC) and, in response, transmits termination information to the remote user to identify whether the telephone number uses wireless termination. The remote user may then charge a customer for wireless termination, if appropriate, possibly even before the remote user receives an invoice that reflects wireless termination charges from a foreign wireless carrier. |
| US08027439B2 |
Self-calibrating fraud detection
A method for dynamically updating a model is described. The method includes accessing a model that specifies expected characteristics for a transaction. The model includes variables associated with fraud. The method also includes receiving at least one value for each of the variables while monitoring transactions, and updating a distribution of values for each variable based on the received value. The received value is compared with the updated distribution to determine a deviation from a threshold value associated with a percentile of the updated distribution that is indicative of fraud. |
| US08027437B2 |
System and method for improving message delivery in voice systems utilizing microphone and target signal-to-noise ratio
A method for delivering a message to a recipient in an environment with ambient noise includes the steps of recording the ambient noise in the environment at a certain time interval, analyzing the recorded ambient noise to obtain an average power Pnoise or a RMS amplitude Anoise of the ambient noise, providing a predetermined desired SNRdesired, calculating an average signal power Psignal or a RMS amplitude Asignal of the message to be delivered based on the Pnoise or Anoise and the desired SNRdesired, and adjusting a volume of the message to be delivered according to the Psignal or Asignal. Alternatively, the actual SNRactual will be computed and the message will be repeated if the SNRactual falls below the SNRmin. Systems for delivering a message to a recipient in an environment with ambient noise and computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for carrying out the methods are also provided. |
| US08027432B2 |
Radiography control apparatus and radiography control method
A radiography control apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire data of image-capturing mode and a change unit configured to change the number of times a correction image is captured, the correction image being used to correct a radiographic image in accordance with the acquired image-capturing-mode data. |
| US08027431B2 |
System and method for dynamic strobe arc therapy
Some embodiments include receiving a radiation treatment plan for delivering at least a portion of a prescribed radiation dose to a target volume in a series of individual treatment beams, each individual treatment beam defined by a segment including start angle and a stop angle, and delivering a portion of the prescribed radiation dose to the target volume over each of the segments, the segments arranged in a contiguous manner on an arc. |
| US08027429B2 |
Device and method for real-time mark of substance identification system
Disclosed are a method and a device for real-time mark for a high-energy X-ray dual-energy imaging container inspection system in the radiation imaging field. The method comprises the steps of emitting a first main beam of rays and a first auxiliary beam of rays having a first energy, and a second main beam of rays and a second auxiliary beam of rays having a second energy; causing the first and second main beams of rays transmitting through the article to be inspected; causing the first and second auxiliary beams of rays transmitting through at least one real-time mark material block; collecting values of the first and second main beams of rays that have transmitted through the article to be inspected as dual-energy data; collecting values of the first and second auxiliary beams of rays that have transmitted through the real-time mark material block as adjustment parameters; adjusting the set of classification parameters based on the adjustment parameters; and identifying the substance according to the dual-energy data based on adjusted classification parameters. The method according to the invention simplifies the mark procedure for a substance identification subsystem in a high-energy dual-energy system while improves the stability of the material differentiation result of the system. |
| US08027425B1 |
Asynchronous loadable down counter
The disclosed embodiments relate to an asynchronous down counter, which can be loaded with any value N and then decrement exactly N times. The counter comprises an array of cells, wherein each cell is configured to hold a digit in a redundant base-k representation of a number contained in the array of cells. Each cell further comprises a finite state machine that defines state transitions between states, where these states are held on wires and state transitions are synchronized between neighboring cells. Each cell is further configured to asynchronously borrow, if possible, from a more significant adjacent cell to increase a value of a digit in the cell. This asynchronous borrowing improves performance by ensuring that a decrement operation, which decrements a digit in a least significant cell in the array, will borrow from an adjacent more significant cell, without having to wait for the completion of a rippling sequence of borrows from more significant cells. |
| US08027424B2 |
Fuel element for a boiling water reactor
A fuel assembly for a boiling-water reactor has a water channel and a fuel assembly base, made from a sieve plate and a frame section enclosing the same. The water channel supports a plug with a bore running therethrough, at the lower end thereof, to which the fuel assembly base is fixed. The fuel assembly further comprises an opening through the sieve plate, a skirt, formed on the underside of the plug, surrounding the bore, extending into the opening in the sieve plate, a bush, provided with a first and a second longitudinal section, whereby the first longitudinal section extends from the underside of the sieve plate into the opening in a rotationally-fixed manner and a radial shoulder is provided between the two sections which contacts the underside of the sieve plate. A threaded section of a screw extends through the bush which engages in a thread in the bore in the plug. |
| US08027423B2 |
Synchronizing apparatus, synchronizing method, synchronizing program and data reproduction apparatus
A synchronizing apparatus, which controls, by a PLL circuit, a sampling clock to be used to sample input data and synchronizes a phase of the sampling clock with a target phase that is desirable for sampling the input data, includes: phase error detection means for detecting a phase error from sampling data and the sampling clock, the sampling data being sampled from the input data at timing of the sampling clock; frequency error detection means for detecting, based on a differential coefficient obtained as a result of detecting the phase error, a frequency error; and frequency correction means for correcting a frequency of the sampling clock such that the detected frequency error becomes close to zero by adding a frequency correction value to an integral term of a loop filter of the PLL circuit, the frequency correction value being calculated based on the frequency error. |
| US08027422B2 |
Symbol timing recovery circuit
An analog-to-digital (A/D) converter samples an input signal with a first clock. An finite impulse response (FIR) filter generates data at a zero-crossing point/data decision point from the sampled data. A decimation circuit decimates an output of the FIR filter 2 with a second clock. A phase comparator detects a phase error of the output signal of the decimation circuit. An Numerically Controlled Oscillator (NCO) (A/D) generates a phase signal by integrating the phase error. A tap coefficient computing unit generates tap coefficients of the FIR filter in accordance with the phase signal. In the NCO, if the phase signal exceeds “π”, “2π+the phase error” is subtracted from the phase signal. |
| US08027420B2 |
Apparatus and method for transferring a signal from a fast clock domain to a slow clock domain
A circuit is provided for transferring a signal from a fast clock domain to a slow clock domain. The circuit includes a fast clock domain configured to receive an input signal and, responsively, transfer an intermediate signal. The circuit also a slow clock domain configured to receive the transferred intermediate signal from the fast clock domain and, responsively, generate an output signal. The circuit further includes a first synchronizer disposed in the slow clock domain and a second synchronizer disposed in the fast clock domain. The first synchronizer, operating with a slow clock, is configured to receive the intermediate signal and, responsively, provide the output signal as a transferred signal which is synchronized to the input signal. The second synchronizer, operating with a fast clock, is configured to receive a feedback signal from the first synchronizer for acknowledging synchronization of the output signal to the input signal. |
| US08027416B2 |
Structure for data communications systems
A machine-readable medium thereupon stored a design structure; the design structure includes a receiver for a data communications system. The receiver includes a data path for receiving a data signal from a data channel, the data path comprising an automatic gain control (AGC) loop; and, a signal detector for generating a data valid signal indicative of the validity of the data signal in response to detection of the data signal on the channel exceeding a threshold and in dependence upon gain information from the AGC loop in the data path. |
| US08027415B2 |
Data communications systems
A receiver for a data communications system comprises: a data path for receiving a data signal from a data channel, the data path comprising an automatic gain control (AGC) loop; and, a signal detector for generating a data valid signal indicative of the validity of the data signal in response to detection of the data signal on the channel exceeding a threshold and in dependence upon gain information from the AGC loop in the data path. |
| US08027413B2 |
Ultratight coupling prefilter detection block
An observation lock detector block receives I&Q correlations and generates error measurement vectors, each including phase, frequency, code, pseudorange, and covariance residual estimates, and generates validity indicator and confidence indicator vectors, one of which error measurement vectors is an output as a selected error measurement vector with a respective validity indicator and confidence indicator vector, both of which selected vectors are communicated to a navigation solution processor in a ultratightly coupled navigation system for providing improved estimations of a navigation solution, the indicators indicating the usefulness of measurement errors, the prefilter detector block comprising discriminators, sequential filters, observation lock detectors and a measurement selector for selecting measurement vector based on phase, frequency, and code discriminations, the measurement errors being residual estimates that are indicated as valid or invalid for dynamic propagation of the residuals in a navigation receiver for improved performance, especially in low signal-to-noise environments, such as, for use in an ultratight GPS navigation system. |
| US08027408B2 |
ASK modulator
An ASK modulator for reducing the difference in the On/Off ratio due to the difference in the envelope frequency components without deteriorating an adjacent wave leakage power is disclosed. The ASK modulator includes a Manchester encoder that generates Manchester-encoded signals by applying Manchester encoding to an input signal sequence, a waveform shaping unit that generates band-limited encoded signals from the Manchester-encoded signals, and detects and limits minimum values of waveforms of the band-limited encoded signals to generates shaped signals, and a modulating unit that modulates carrier waves based on the shaped signals. |
| US08027407B2 |
Method and apparatus for asynchronous space-time coded transmission from multiple base stations over wireless radio networks
A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for asynchronous space-time coded transmission from multiple stations. In one embodiment, the method comprises one or more terminals and at least two base stations wirelessly communicating information-bearing signals to the one or more terminals using orthogonal space-time block codes. In one embodiment, the proposed codes maintain “orthogonality” at the receiver even in the presence of asynchronous signal reception among signals transmitted from distinct transmit base stations. |
| US08027406B2 |
Transmitter
A transmitter processes signals to be transmitted. The transmitter reduces the peak power generated in a transmission signal, even when many peaks exist. In the transmitter, the peaks of the transmission target signals are detected, and a peak suppression coefficient for suppressing the detected peaks is generated. The levels of the transmission target signals are suppressed using the peak suppression coefficient generated. |
| US08027405B2 |
Data communication using constant total current
A data communication system, comprising at least three signal conductors and a first and a second power supply terminal, for supplying currents of mutually opposite direction to the signal conductors respectively. A driver circuit establishes respective combinations of currents through the signal conductors from a selectable set of combinations, which includes combinations with currents from the first supply terminal and to the second supply terminal, so that a sum of the currents through the signal conductors substantially has a same value for each combination and at least one of the conductors in operation does not merely function in a differential-pair relation with another one of the conductors, the driver circuit determining which of the combinations from the set are established depending on information to be transmitted. |
| US08027404B1 |
Limiting candidates for symbol detection in a MIMO communication system
A circuit detects symbols communicated between multiple transmitting antennas and multiple receiving antennas (MIMO). Distance blocks are coupled in a sequence according to an ordering of the transmitting antennas. The respective distance block associated with each transmitting antenna determines a distance value for each pairing of one or more candidates and a symbol in a constellation. A respective selector block is coupled between each successive pair of distance blocks in the sequence. The respective selector block selects the one or more candidates for the successive distance block as a limited number of the pairings having smaller ones of the distance values. A limit block coupled to the selector blocks provides the limited number to each selector block. An identifier block selects the pairing having a smaller one of the distance values from the last distance block in the sequence. |
| US08027403B2 |
Equalising structure and method with maximum likelihood detection
The present invention relates to an equalizing structure (10) and method for a receiving device of a wireless communication system, in which two or more information signals are transmitted in parallel from one or more transmitters, wherein for the information signals transmit information is modulated onto carrier signals according to a modulation scheme, whereby all possible data symbols are represented as constellation points in the signal constellation of the modulation scheme and whereby the equalizing structure (10) performs, for each information signal, a maximum likelihood detection in order to determine a constellation point with a minimum Euclidean distance to a received signal vector as a most likely received signal vector by searching over the whole set of possible transmit signals, Sm, the equalizing structure (10) comprises means (11) for detecting channel estimation information in the information signals and means. (31) for calculating the product of channel matrix, H,n, and transmit signal vector, sm, based on the channel estimation information detected by the detecting means (11), wherein the calculating means (31) calculates the product of channel matrix, Hm, and transmit signal vector, s,n, in at, least two steps, wherein in the first step a partial product of channel matrix, Hm, and transmit signal vector, sm, based on at least one or a part of the channel estimation information detected by the detecting means (11) is calculated. The reference signals used for channel estimation are sent from the different transmitter antennas with time offset from each other. |
| US08027397B2 |
Apparatus for creating, demodulating, transmitting and receiving orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbol
The present invention relates to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal transmitting and receiving device, in which a peak to average power ratio characteristic is improved without reducing a data transmission speed. The OFDM signal transmitting device separates a digital modulated symbol as a real part and an imaginary part, and performs discrete cosine transform (DCT) and discrete sine transform (DST) operations respectively for real and imaginary part symbols, performs an inverse fast Fourier transform operation, and generates an OFDM symbol. The OFDM signal receiving device performs a fast Fourier transform operation for the OFDM symbol, and performs an inverse DCT operation and an inverse DST operation, performs a digital demodulating operation, and generates a final binary data symbol. |
| US08027387B2 |
Moving picture coding apparatus utilizing a DCT coefficient for performing intra-coding
In a moving picture coding apparatus, a first determining section determines whether the parameter is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold and a first measuring section, for each divided blocks, measures time duration while the first determining section is determining that the parameter is less than or equal to the predetermined threshold. After that, a second determining section determines whether the time duration comes up to a predetermined condition. Then, a coding control section forcibly sets intra-coding for a block, if the second measuring section determined that the time duration has come up to the condition. |
| US08027384B2 |
Scalable MPEG video/macro block rate control
A scaleable macro block rate control method particularly well-suited for MPEG video. There is provided a method to easily derive a quantization parameter (QP) value using information such as bit usage, previous QP values and SAD values from the past encoded and future frames. The method utilizes quantization estimation techniques based on statistical relationships between different intensity measures, such as distortion intensity, absolute difference intensity and mean of absolute difference intensity. The method is well-suited to applications utilizing MPEG video such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, JVT/H.264 standards and so forth. |
| US08027381B2 |
Robust mode staggercasting user controlled switching modes
A method and apparatus for staggercasting includes encoding a set of signals representing content. The set of encoded signals is capable of being decoded to produce a corresponding set of decoded signals, each having a quality which is different from the qualities of the decoded signals corresponding to the other encoded signals. A composite signal is generated which includes the set of encoded signals, staggered in time. The set of encoded signals extracting from the composite signal. Errors in the set of extracted encoded signals are detected to produce a subset of available extracted encoded signals which are not erroneous. A content representative signal at a selectable desired quality is then decoded. |
| US08027380B2 |
Method and apparatus for fast nearest neighbor search for vector quantizers
A method comprises identifying a component k of a codevector from a codebook C having one or more codevectors, the component k introducing highest variance for an input vector; allowing ordering of codevectors in the codebook C; and searching for a best match vector for the input vector using ordered codevectors. |
| US08027375B2 |
Shared filter design for pilot symbol averaging in rake fingers in WCDMA systems
A rake receiver having a shared moving average filter that is operable in a multiplexed manner to receive and filter outputs from a plurality of pilot signal correlators. |
| US08027371B2 |
Combine time multiplexed pilot (TMP) derotation with descrambling and despreading in data correlators used by rake receivers
The invention provides a code modification circuit for receiving a descrambling/dispreading code at a first input pair thereof and a pilot derotation code at a second input pair thereof, and arranged to combine the codes to form a combined code for providing to a correlator such that the correlator can recover data or a pilot signal from an input sequence supplied thereto. |
| US08027366B1 |
Technique for reducing physical layer (PHY) overhead in wireless LAN systems
A physical layer (PHY) packet aggregation technique may be used to reduce the percentage of PHY overhead in data transmission in order to achieve better PHY efficiency and higher throughput. Higher layer packets in an upper layer data queue may be fragmented into appropriate small-size sub-packets, which include a body encapsulated by a MAC header and an FCS field. The sub-packets are then concatenated to form the data field of an aggregated PHY packet. Since each of the sub-packets contains its own MAC (Media Access Control) header and FCS (Frame Check Sequence) field, the receiver can identify and flag erroneous sub-packets on an individual basis. The receiver may transmit a block ACK, which includes the acknowledgement status for each of the sub-packets in the aggregated PHY packet, to the transmitter. The transmitter may resend only the erroneous sub-packet(s). |
| US08027361B2 |
Class-based bandwidth allocation and admission control for virtual private networks with differentiated service
A method and apparatus for establishing a virtual private network (VPN) session for a priority request. The method and apparatus includes identifying a priority request from a plurality of VPN session request classes. Reserved bandwidth is allocated to the priority request if a nominally allocated bandwidth is insufficient to satisfy the priority request. Once the allocated bandwidth is assigned, admission control is applied to the priority request. |
| US08027358B2 |
Dynamic link width modulation
Techniques for dynamically adjusting point-to-point link width based, at least in part, on link conditions. When operating at full power and at the highest performance level, the full width of a point-to-point link may be utilized to transmit data between the end points. If the link is not fully utilized, a portion (e.g., one half or one quarter) of the link may remain active for communication purposes. |
| US08027357B2 |
Broadband wireless communications using multiple contention channels
a communication system comprises a plurality of downstream transmission systems configured to transmit downstream wireless communications to an area having a plurality of sectors over a plurality of downstream channels to a plurality of users in the plurality of sectors and a plurality of upstream receiver systems configured to receive upstream wireless communications over a plurality of upstream channels from the plurality of users in the plurality sectors. In an embodiment, the plurality of upstream channels comprise multiple contention channels associated with each of the plurality of sectors and a plurality of bearer channels associated with each of the plurality of sectors and the plurality of upstream receiver systems are further configured to receive a plurality of requests from the plurality of users over the multiple contention channels for access to the plurality of bearer channels. |
| US08027354B1 |
Network consolidation for virtualized servers
Techniques are disclosed for virtualized server kernel and virtual networks consolidation. The network consolidation allows a data center to migrate from an infrastructure that uses multiple dedicated gigabit Ethernet Network Adapters to manage system virtualization and migration to an infrastructure using consolidated, redundant, 10 gigabit Ethernet adapters. Different priority classes may be defined for different classes of network traffic such as hypervisor management traffic, inter-host virtual machine migration traffic, virtual machine production traffic, virtualized switching control plane traffic, etc. Further, an enhanced transmission standard may be used to specify a minimum bandwidth guarantee for certain traffic classes. Thus, the hypervisor management and inter-host virtual machine migration traffic may be transmitted, even the presence of congestion. |
| US08027352B2 |
Gateway apparatus and data managing method
A gateway apparatus for performing transfer control of frame data between a plurality of different communication channels is provided with a time stamp unit for adding time stamp information to received frame data and a data discarding unit for determining processing delay of the frame data or abnormality of the apparatus by referring to the time stamp information and for deleting the time stamp information added to the frame data at the time of sending the frame data. |
| US08027344B2 |
Transmission of data packets of different priority levels using pre-emption
A method for transmitting data packets of at least two different priority levels via one or more bearer channels is described. The method comprises the steps of fragmenting a data packet into a plurality of corresponding code words, each code word comprising a sync code, with the sync code being adapted for indicating a priority level of the corresponding data packet, and of transmitting the code words via the one or more bearer channels. In case high priority code words corresponding to a high priority data packet arrive during transmission of low priority code words corresponding to a low priority data packet, the following steps are performed: interrupting transmission of low priority code words, transmitting the high priority code words corresponding to the high priority data packet, and resuming the transmission of the low priority code words via the one or more bearer channels. |
| US08027338B2 |
Discontinuing the implementation of an aggregation protocol
A method comprises on a first port, receiving a frame from a network device and determining whether the received frame includes a system identifier (ID) that matches a system ID corresponding to a second port. If the received frame's system ID matches the second port's system ID, the method further comprises discontinuing an aggregation protocol that otherwise enables multiple ports to be operated together as a virtual port. |
| US08027337B2 |
SONET multiplexer card having front panel access to electrical and optical connectors for use in compact enclosure for SONET multiplexer cards
A reduced size multiplexer and, in particular, a reduced size SONET multiplexer module is provided for use in a reduced size enclosure. The SONET multiplexer module has electrical and optical connectors on its faceplate to provide ease in access without having to remove the SONET multiplexer from the enclosure. The SONET multiplexer circuit is configured in a standard Type 400 mechanics circuit board arrangement. The SONET multiplexer module therefore can be inserted into an enclosure in a direction opposite to that in which the DS1 or DS3 connector projects from the face plate, so that the DS1 or DS3 connector remains freely accessible outside of the enclosure when the SONET multiplexer module is fully loaded into the enclosure. DS1 and DS3 cables and optical fibers can thus be easily coupled to the DS1 and DS3 and optical connectors, respectively, when the SONET multiplexer circuit is fully loaded into the enclosure. |
| US08027335B2 |
Multimedia access device and system employing the same
A method of establishing a voice communication session with a multimedia access device employable in a multimedia communication system. In one embodiment, the method includes initiating a session request from a first endpoint communication device employing an instant messaging client and coupled to a packet based communication network. The method also includes processing the session request including emulating the instant messaging client for a second endpoint communication device coupled to said packet based communication network. The second endpoint communication device is a non-instant messaging based communication device. The method still further includes establishing a voice communication session between the first and second endpoint communication devices in response to the session request. |
| US08027333B2 |
IP-based enhanced emergency services using intelligent client devices
Providing enhanced emergency services (E-911) to an IP Telephony-based PBX or similar system, by utilizing aspects of the intelligence of end-user SIP client devices to address challenges and difficulties associated with E-911-like services in LAN-based telephony environments. |
| US08027331B2 |
Data transmission method and communication system using the same
A data transmission method suitable for a communication system is provided. The communication system includes a plurality of first stations which uses an 802.11 protocol and a plurality of second stations which uses an 802.11e protocol and supports Quality of Service (QoS). The data transmission method includes following steps. One of the second stations is used as a Contention AssisTance (CAT) station to obtain a medium access right with a first access category (AC). The second station broadcasts a CAT packet to all the first stations and the other second stations. The other second stations stop contending for the medium access right for a first predetermined time according to the CAT packet, and the first stations transmit a packet with a QoS requirement according to the CAT packet. |
| US08027329B2 |
Preamble design for synchronization and cell search
A method of synchronizing signals in a wireless network uses a two part preamble transmitted on the downlink between a base station and a mobile station. The preamble includes a common pilot common to a plurality of base stations and a dedicated pilot unique to the transmitting base station. The mobile station performs coarse synchronization based on the common pilot and fine synchronization based on the dedicated pilot. The mobile station also identifies one or more nearby cells based on unique pilot tones in the dedicated pilot transmitted by the nearby cells. |
| US08027326B2 |
Method and system for high data rate multi-channel WLAN architecture
A method and system provides a way to achieve very high data rate expanded bandwidth (wide band) WLAN operations reusing existing single channel radio designs. The system provides a dual-channel form of operation for greater flexibility and performance across multiple platforms. Further, the system provides adaptive anti-aliasing techniques for eliminating aliasing due to adjacent channel waveform effects. These techniques mesh with existing systems cleanly. |
| US08027323B2 |
Packet transfer control device and mobile node
Disclosed is technique for avoiding packet reflection between home agents. According to the technique, a MN 10 includes a home address (HoA1) assigned thereto from a home network 12, and a home address (HoA2) assigned thereto from a home network 14. CoA is further acquired from a foreign network 15. Then, the MN uses the home addresses as care-of addresses, and performs binding-update including HoA1-HoA2 for the HA 12 and binding-update including HoA2-HoA1 as well as HoA2-CoA for the HA 14. A packet transmitted from a CN 16 to HoA1 is encapsulated by the HA 12 and transferred to the HA 14. The HA 14 refers to a source address of the received encapsulated packet and selects CoA as a transfer destination address instead of HoA2 having the same prefix. |
| US08027321B2 |
Method and system for interconnecting digital subscriber line network and radio communication network
A method and system for interconnecting a DSL network and a radio communication network are disclosed. The DSL network carries data transmitted in the radio communication network so that the radio communication network and the DSL network are interconnected. The xDSL is adopted to perform the base station transmission. The scheme may function as a radio extension of the wire access of the DSL network and is suitable to fixed wireless, nomadic connectivity, laptop and mobile access applications. |
| US08027316B1 |
Efficient selection of interoperability gateway for CDMA terminated PTT calls
A communications system includes a first PTT network, and a second PTT network having a plurality of interoperability gateways. A method for efficiently selecting an interoperability gateway for PTT calls terminated at the second PTT network includes receiving a PTT call request from the first PTT network, the PTT call request identifying a target subscriber unit on the second PTT network and forwarding the PTT call request to a first interoperability gateway. Notification is received if the request has succeeded, and the notification includes an identification of the target and a second interoperability gateway. This information is stored in cache for directing subsequent PTT calls to the same target to the corresponding second interoperability gateway. In one embodiment, the first PTT network is an iDEN network and the second PTT network is a HPPTT network and the PTT call is a HPPTT call. |
| US08027314B2 |
Method, network system and destination network for transmitting QoS during a handover process between systems
A method for transmitting quality of service (QoS) during a handover process between systems and a network system and a destination network thereof are provided, which enable the QoS to be transmitted to a second access network during a handover process of a user equipment (UE) between systems. The method comprises: a mobility management network element of the second network acquires QoS of a UE during a handover process of the UE from a first network to a second network; and the mobility management network element of the second network transmits the acquired QoS to the access network of the second network and/or a user plane network element. |
| US08027312B2 |
Wireless communication methods and components that implement handoff in wireless local area networks
This invention relates to wireless local area networks, and particularly to the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. It consists of a method and apparatus that can be implemented in access points (APs) and subscriber wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs), in order to allow an AP to initiate re-association of a WTRU to itself or a different AP. The invention improves the robustness of the network by enabling more efficient load balancing, congestion control, and roaming, without compromising the user experience. |
| US08027311B2 |
Method of uplink packet scheduling and supporting thereof in wireless mobile communication system
A method of uplink packet scheduling in a wireless mobile communications system and method of supporting the same are disclosed, scheduling efficiency can be enhanced in case that one base station schedules uplink packet transmission to a user equipment which is in soft handover with a plurality of base stations. A method of uplink packet scheduling, which is for a user equipment in a soft handover state in a wireless mobile communications system, includes the steps of transmitting a NACK signal in response to an uplink packet transmitted from the user equipment, receiving instruction information for a reception result of the uplink packet in at least one base station from the user equipment or at least one different base station, and performing the uplink packet scheduling for the user equipment by considering the instruction information. |
| US08027306B2 |
Miscellaneous improvements on the HRPD system
Mechanisms for improving the proposed high rate packet data (HRPD) system are provided. Approaches proposed are including PilotGroupID in the sector parameter message to convey the pilot group information, encoding to enable shortened NeighborList messages, improvements on RoutUpdateRequest message for request updates on multiple carriers, inclusive of the channel record of the reference pilot in the RouteUpdate message when the message sent in the connected state, using pilot drop timer of a Candidate Set pilot as a trigger for sending RouteUpdate, encoding the TrafficChannelAssignment message to shorten the message in certain situations, limiting the usage of auxiliary DRC cover in some situations to avoid confusion in determining the serving sector and processing OverheadMessages. Updated Indication and OverheadMessagesNeighborList Initialization in the idle state. |
| US08027301B2 |
Cooperative OFDMA and distributed MIMO relaying over dense wireless networks
A method for wireless communication combines OFDMA resource allocation and power control policies with cooperative relaying techniques. The techniques are preferably implemented in a dense wireless network of power-limited mobile devices assisted by mobile relay devices having superior power supplies. Preferably, MIMO beamforming techniques are used to further increase energy efficiency and spectral efficiency beyond the increases provided by ODFMA cooperative relaying. |
| US08027299B2 |
Hybrid system having multiple downlink channels and a single uplink channel
Methods and systems for hybrid point to multipoint communication systems having multiple downlink channels and a single uplink channel, including the steps of: centrally allocating bandwidth to, and synchronizing communications with, a first and a second wireless clients; transmitting, over a shared signal wired distribution line, a first downlink signal transported over a first frequency, a second downlink signal transported over a second frequency, and an uplink signal transported over a fifth frequency; converting the frequency of the first downlink signal to a third frequency, and bi-directionally wirelessly communicating with a first wireless client over the third frequency; converting the frequency of the second downlink signal to a fourth frequency, and bi-directionally wirelessly communicating with a second wireless client over the fourth frequency; and converting and superpositioning a first received wireless uplink signal having the third frequency and a second received wireless uplink signal having the fourth frequency to the uplink signal that is transmitted over the shared signal wired distribution line using the fifth frequency. |
| US08027293B2 |
Communication channel selection and use
Methods and systems for characterizing requests for individual items of information available from a target address as part of a request for content are provided. The characterization of requests for items of information is applied to select one of a plurality of communication channels for servicing the request. In addition, where different requests for items of information are assigned to different communication channels, those different communication channels can be used to obtain items of information from the target address simultaneously. |
| US08027289B2 |
Ultra-low latency packet transport in ad hoc networks
The systems and methods described herein include, among other things, processes for providing low latency packet transport in ad hoc networks. To this end, the systems, in certain embodiments, employ an architecture for communication nodes in MANETs, in which the delay introduced in “routing” or “relaying” the packet is reduced. In these systems invention, the data plane of the OSI stack at relay nodes is collapsed so that bits entering the node are re-energized “on-the-fly”, with only a brief pause. A transit key in each packet, inserted by the originator of the packet, is used to index into a transit table to determine one of three actions to perform—drop, keep, or retransmit the packet. A control plane determines, for each packet, whether it should be re-energized or not. The control algorithm ensures that only nodes along the path from the source to the destination re-energize (relay) the packet. |
| US08027287B2 |
Apparatus and method for gating transmission of a data rate control channel in an HDR mobile communication system
A communication method in a mobile communication system in which an access terminal transmits to an access network DRC information indicating a selected one of forward data rates requested by the access terminal is provided. The access network designates a DRC information length DRCLength indicating a number of slots where the DRC information is repeated and transmits the designated DRC information length to the access terminal. The access terminal gates transmission of DRC information to the access terminal at one time slot in every DRC information length received from the access network. |
| US08027283B2 |
Method and apparatus for waiting time gain of user equipment through efficient process of assigned slot in mobile communication system
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for increasing the waiting time of a User Equipment (UE) through an efficient processing of assigned slots. The method includes processing a first 10 ms half frame of the assigned slot initially when the assigned slot is processed, identifying a general page message located in the first half frame, and performing a transition operation into a sleep state, when the general page message corresponds to a null general page message having no paging information and no control information to be updated. |
| US08027282B2 |
Heterogeneous wireless data transmission network
A heterogeneous wireless network topology suited for low-power, short-range and ubiquitous ad-hoc communication. The network topology integrates different wireless transmission technologies, in particular to a wireless sensor network including different node types and communication technologies. The network is highly heterogeneous and can be operated according to the master-slave principle. The nodes can have different wireless communication means tailored to their individual role in the network and other constraints, thus allowing different communication patterns. |
| US08027280B2 |
Layered architecture for data management in a wireless sensor network
A wireless sensor network comprises a plurality of nodes that communicate over wireless communication links. At least one of the plurality of nodes receives sensor data from a sensor. The wireless sensor network is queried by specifying a set of events of interest. For each event of interest included in the set of events of interest, a producer node included in the plurality of nodes identifies when that event of interest occurs and, when that event of interest occurs, transmits event data related to that event of interest to a consumer node included in the plurality of nodes. The wireless sensor network further comprises a data management stack that comprises a plurality of layers. The plurality of layers comprises an execution layer that executes on each producer node included in the plurality of nodes. For each event of interest included in the set of events of interest, the execution layer executing on the producer node for that event of interest identifies when that event of interest occurs. |
| US08027274B2 |
Multicast communication system and method
The present invention aims to realize a system and method of reliably performing multicast communication via a bandwidth-guaranteed network, and provides a multicast communication system for performing multicast communication via a bandwidth-guaranteed network, the system including: a multicast proxy response device added with a group address destination identifier; and a multicast client, wherein the multicast proxy response device transmits a session connection request to the group address destination identifier of the multicast proxy response device when starting reception, the multicast proxy response device which has received said session connection request transmits a session connection response to said multicast client, and the multicast client receives multicast data through a bandwidth secured in the bandwidth-guaranteed network by the session connection response. |
| US08027273B2 |
System and method for visually creating, editing, manipulating, verifying, and/or animating desired topologies of a mobile ad hoc network and/or for generating mobility-pattern data
A method and apparatus for creating virtual topologies for a mobile ad hoc network comprising generating at least two nodes representing transmitters and/or receivers in the network; each of said at least two nodes having parameters (which may be for example, location, direction, velocity, receiving/transmitting capability); generating a bidirectional or unidirectional link between two nodes when appropriate; storing the specifications of the topology of the network in memory; whereby the stored topologies are adapted to be inputted into a test-bed system capable of emulating a mobile ad-hoc network. Optionally, the images of the nodes and links are displayed on a display and/or may be stored on a programmable storage medium. |
| US08027269B2 |
Method and arrangement for determining transmission delay
Determining mutual differences of transmission delays experienced by protocol data units transmitted in a communications network is based on a surprising discovery that the time difference between the receiving moments of protocol data units the temporal receiving order of which deviates from their temporal transmitting order represents the smallest possible difference between the transmission delays experienced by these protocol data units. In a method it is determined, based on an order indicator associated with a protocol data unit received at an earlier point of time and an order indicator associated with a protocol data unit received later, whether the mutual order of the protocol data units changed during transmission. If the mutual order has changed, the time difference between the receiving moments of the protocol data units is calculated, which time difference represents the smallest possible difference between the transmission delays experienced by these protocol data units. |
| US08027265B2 |
Providing a capability list of a predefined format in a communications network
In a communications network having plural nodes, a first node receives a capability list that has a predefined format and includes plural entries identifying corresponding data processing functions supported by one or more nodes along a communications path of a communications session involving the first node. The first node adds at least one additional entry into the capability list in response to determining that the first node supports a data processing function that is not identified in the capability list. |
| US08027264B2 |
Method and apparatus for measuring subjective assessment of digital video impairment
A method and system for using key performance indicators of a transport channel to determine key quality indicators associated with information transported there through. |
| US08027262B2 |
Method and apparatus for keeping track of virtual LAN topology in network of nodes
An arbitrary node that belongs to a virtual LAN sends a request packet including a count value indicating the number of communication hops across nodes to each of its adjacent nodes that belong to the virtual LAN and are adjacent. Upon receiving the request packet, each of the adjacent nodes sends the request packet in which the count value is incremented or decremented to each of its adjacent nodes that belong to the virtual LAN and are adjacent to the node, excluding a sender of the request packet received, and sends a reply packet including the sender's address, an address of the node that is a replying node, and the count value to a given return destination. The return destination collects reply packets sent thereto and keeps track of the topology of the nodes constituting the virtual LAN from information contained in the reply packets. |
| US08027260B2 |
Mixed integer programming model for minimizing leased access network costs
A device receives network configuration information from a network, determines a logical network based on the network configuration information, and constructs a mixed integer programming (MIP) model based on the logical network. The device also calculates an optimal solution, which minimizes network costs, using the mixed integer programming (MIP) model, performs a post-optimization mapping procedure on the optimal solution to produce an optimal network configuration mapping, and outputs the optimal network configuration mapping for implementation. |
| US08027252B2 |
System and method of defense against denial of service of attacks
A system and method comprise a first buffer having a first capacity and a first threshold level adapted to store data frames having the lowest priority, a second buffer having a second capacity greater than the first capacity and a second threshold level greater than the first threshold level adapted to store data frames having a medium priority, a third buffer having a third capacity greater than the second capacity and a third threshold level greater than the second threshold level adapted to store data frames having the highest priority. The system further includes means for differentiating a data frame as having lowest, medium or highest priority and storing the data frame in the respective first, second or third buffer, and discarding the data frame in response to the first, second or third buffer reaching the respective threshold level. |
| US08027249B2 |
Methods for using a detector to monitor and detect channel occupancy
Methods for using a detector to monitor and detect channel occupancy are disclosed. The detector resides on a station within a network using a framed format having a periodic time structure. When non-cooperative transmissions are detected by the network, the detector assesses the availability of a backup channel enabling migration of the network. The backup channel serves to allow the network to migrate transparently when the current channel becomes unavailable. The backup channel, however, could be occupied by another network that results in the migrating network interfering with the network already using the backup channel. Thus, the detector detects active transmission sources on the backup channel to determine whether the backup channel is occupied. Methods for using the detector include scheduling detection intervals asynchronously. The asynchronous detection uses offsets from a reference point within a frame. |
| US08027248B2 |
Access port adoption to multiple wireless switches
An apparatus, network and techniques for minimizing wireless network downtime associated with a wireless switch failure are disclosed. Access ports are adopted to multiple wireless switches wherein one switch operates to exchange data and control traffic with the access port and remaining switches operate to exchange control traffic with the access port. In the event of a link failure between the wireless switch exchanging data and control traffic with the access port, the access port remains adopted to remaining switches and exchanges data and control traffic with one of the remaining switches. |
| US08027244B2 |
Base station apparatus, mobile station apparatus, and method of transmitting synchronization channels
A base station apparatus in a radio communications system is disclosed. The base station apparatus communicates with a mobile station using an OFDM scheme in downlink. The base station apparatus includes a sync signal generating unit which generates a secondary sync channel; a multiplying unit which multiplies a scramble code with the secondary sync channel; and a transmitting unit which transmits the secondary sync channel with which the scramble code is multiplied. Cell-specific information is detected by the secondary sync channel. |
| US08027238B2 |
Holographic data support and method for production thereof
The invention relates to a data support (1) with a core layer (15) and at least one adjacent layer (14a), laminated to the core layer and a corresponding production method, said core layer being embodied from a holographic data store in the form of a volume hologram (5). The surface (141) facing the core layer, on the layer directly adjacent to the core layer, has a roughness (19), before lamination to the core layer, which affects the wavelength shift of the image reconstructed by the volume hologram. |
| US08027237B2 |
Optical storage medium, information recording apparatus, and information reproducing apparatus
An optical storage medium can be provided by which illegal usage of the optical storage medium involving an infringement on the copyright can be prevented effectively without impairment of the functions for reproducing physical format information and optical storage medium manufacturing information. The optical storage medium includes a main information region in which encrypted data information is recorded as a pit row that is capable of being read out by means of light and a control data region. In the control data region, key information for decoding the encryption of the data information, the physical format information and the optical storage medium manufacturing information are recorded by wobbling a groove. |
| US08027235B2 |
Defect managing method and defect managing device
Performing sequential recording to alternate destinations of an information recording medium and improving access performance of accessing the information recording medium are achieved by estimating sequential defective areas of the information recording medium based on prescribed conditions, allocating blocks of a spare area as alternate destinations of the defective areas, and performing alternate recording to the allocated alternate destinations, in response to a recording request to record information to the sequential defective areas. The above can be achieved because the use of the alternate destinations will help to prevent a time-out from occurring due to he the defective areas. |
| US08027221B2 |
Memory device
A memory device that can include a power-supply voltage detector that detects power-supply voltage values and that outputs a detection result indicating which power-supply voltage value is detected; a data-rate setter that sets data rates corresponding to the detection result of the power-supply voltage detector, in synchronization with a rising edge or falling edge of a clock signal; and a memory cell array that performs reading/writing at the data rates set by the data-rate setter. |
| US08027220B2 |
Oscillation device, method of oscillation, and memory device
An oscillation device includes a first setting unit that outputs an oscillation period designation signal, a calculating unit that performs an arithmetic operation on the oscillation period designation signal, and an oscillating unit that generates an oscillation signal having a period based on the oscillation period designation signal subjected to the arithmetic operation. |
| US08027217B2 |
Supply voltage distribution system with reduced resistance for semiconductor devices
A supply voltage distribution system for distributing a supply voltage through a semiconductor device, the supply voltage distribution system comprising: a first supply voltage distribution line arrangement and a second supply voltage distribution line arrangement, said first supply voltage distribution line arrangement and said second supply voltage distribution line arrangement being adapted to receive from outside the semiconductor device a semiconductor device supply voltage and to distribute a supply voltage to respective first and second portions of the semiconductor device; a voltage-to-voltage conversion circuit connected to the first supply voltage distribution line arrangement, wherein the voltage-to-voltage conversion circuit is adapted to either transfer onto the first supply voltage distribution line arrangement the semiconductor device supply voltage received from outside the semiconductor device, or to put on the first supply voltage distribution line a converted supply voltage having a value different from the semiconductor device supply voltage, wherein the voltage-to-voltage conversion circuit further comprises means selectively activatable for causing the first supply voltage distribution line arrangement to be electrically coupled to said second supply voltage distribution line arrangement. |
| US08027216B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
A memory may includes: word lines; bit lines; memory array blocks including memory cells, each memory array block being a unit of a data read operation or a data write operation; a row decoder configured to selectively drive the word lines; sense amplifiers configured to detect data; and an access counter provided for each memory cell block, the access counter counting the number of times of accessing the memory array blocks in order to read data or write data, and activating a refresh request signal when the number of times of access reaches a predetermined number of times, wherein during an activation period of the refresh request signal of the access counter, the row decoder periodically and sequentially activates the word lines of the memory array blocks corresponding to the access counter, and the sense amplifier performs a refresh operation of the memory cells connected to the activated word lines. |
| US08027214B2 |
Asymmetric sense amplifier
Sensing circuits for determining the state of memory cells include a sense amplifier. The sense amplifier includes an imbalanced cross-coupled latch (ICL), a first gate field effect transistor (FET) between a bit line (BL) and a first output node, and a second gate FET between a bit line inverse (BLB) and a second output node. The ICL includes a first pull down FET between the first output node and an enable FET connected to electrical ground, and a second pull down FET between the second output node and the enable FET. Channel widths of the second pull down FET and the second gate FET are greater than channel widths of the first pull down FET and the first gate FET to enhance the ability to detect a one (1) and a zero (0) stored in a memory cell connected to the sense amplifier. |
| US08027212B2 |
Method and apparatus for a dynamic semiconductor memory with compact sense amplifier circuit
A high-density dynamic memory device with compact sense amplifier circuit is described. The memory device achieves high density through the use of a compact sense amplifier circuit that employs a single transistor to sense stored dynamic data. Functionality of the device is enabled by an architecture and method of operation that support a compact sense amplifier circuit. Enabling techniques include sequential sensing of memory columns, a two-pass write operation, a two-step refresh operation, a reference scheme that uses reference data stored in regular memory cells, and the application of digital signal processing to determine sensed data and cancel crosstalk noise. |
| US08027210B2 |
Data input apparatus with improved setup/hold window
In the data input apparatus, a data delay unit outputs data input from outside the data input apparatice. The data delay unit varies the degree of delay in response to a test mode signal. A data alignment signal generating unit receives a first signal synchronized with an external clock signal and a second signal synchronized with a data strobe signal, and the data alignment signal generating unit outputs one of the first signal and the second signal as a data alignment signal in response to the test mode signal. A data alignment unit is synchronized with the data alignment signal to align the data delayed in the data delay unit. The data input apparatus improves the setup/hold window when a semiconductor memory device is in the test mode. |
| US08027208B2 |
Flash memory device and programming method thereof
The flash memory device includes a memory cell array having a plurality of memory cells, a high voltage generator configured to generate a plurality of pass voltages, with a first pass voltage of the plurality of pass voltages supplied to the memory cell array during a programming operation; and a main controller including a voltage controller configured to shift the first pass voltage at a plurality of time intervals during the programming operation. |
| US08027206B2 |
Bit line voltage control in spin transfer torque magnetoresistive random access memory
A Spin Transfer Torque Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM) and associated read operations are disclosed. A bit cell includes a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) and a word line transistor, the bit cell being coupled to a bit line and a source line. A clamping circuit is coupled to the bit line and is configured to clamp the bit line voltage to a desired voltage level during a read operation of the STT-MRAM to prevent the bit line voltage from exceeding the desired voltage level. The desired voltage level is less than a write voltage threshold associated with a write operation of the STT-MRAM. |
| US08027201B2 |
Nonvolatile memory device with load-free wired-or structure and an associated driving method
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes an internal output line, and a page buffers. Each page buffer is coupled to at least one bitline, the internal output line, and a data input line physically distinct from the internal output line, and configured to pull the internal output line to an output drive voltage in response to a bitline voltage on one of the bitlines coupled to the page buffer. |
| US08027198B2 |
Trap-charge non-volatile switch connector for programmable logic
A nonvolatile trap charge storage cell selects a logic interconnect transistor uses in programmable logic applications, such as FPGA. The nonvolatile trap charge element is an insulator located under a control gate and above an oxide on the surface of a semiconductor substrate. The preferred embodiment is an integrated device comprising a word gate portion sandwiched between two nonvolatile trap charge storage portions, wherein the integrated device is connected between a high bias, a low bias and an output. The output is formed by a diffusion connecting to the channel directly under the word gate portion. The program state of the two storage portions determines whether the high bias or the low bias is coupled to a logic interconnect transistor connected to the output diffusion. |
| US08027196B1 |
Parallel programming of multiple-bit-per-cell memory cells by controlling program pulsewidth and programming voltage
Write operations that simultaneously program multiple memory cells on the same word line in an MBPC Flash memory employ word line voltage variation, programming pulse width variation, and data-dependent bit line and/or source line biasing to achieve uniform programming accuracy across a range of target threshold voltages. A first type of write operation reaches different target threshold voltages during different time intervals, but uses word line signals that optimize threshold voltage resolution regardless of the target threshold voltage. A second type uses bit line and/or source line biases that depend on the multi-bit data values being written so that different memory cells reach different target threshold voltage at about the same time. Source line biasing can also reduce bit line leakage current through unselected memory cells during read or verify operations. A memory includes divided source lines that permit separate data-dependent source biasing. During or at the end of write operations, remedial programming sequences can adjust the threshold voltages of memory cells that program slowly. |
| US08027195B2 |
Folding data stored in binary format into multi-state format within non-volatile memory devices
Techniques for the reading and writing of data in multi-state non-volatile memories are described. Data is written into the memory in a binary format, read into the data registers on the memory, and “folded” within the registers, and then written back into the memory in a multi-state format. In the folding operation, binary data from a single word line is folded into a multi-state format and, when rewritten in multi-state form, is written into a only a portion of another word line. A corresponding reading technique, where the data is “unfolded” is also described. The techniques further allow for the data to be encoded with an error correction code (ECC) on the controller that takes into account its eventual multi-state storage prior to transferring the data to the memory to be written in binary form. A register structure allowing such a “folding” operation is also presented. |
| US08027193B2 |
Semiconductor memory device having bit line disturbance preventing unit
A read data path circuit for use in the semiconductor memory device includes a bit line sense amplifier, a local input/output line sense amplifier, a column selection unit operationally coupling a bit line pair with the local input/output line pair in response to a column selection signal, where the bit line pair is coupled to the bit line sense amplifier and the local input/output line pair is coupled to the local input/output line sense amplifier, and a bit line disturbance preventing unit configured to equalize signal levels of the local input/output line pair before the column selection signal is activated, and configured to sense and amplify signal levels of bit line data transferred to the local input/output line pair after the column selection signal is activated. |
| US08027187B2 |
Memory sensing devices, methods, and systems
The present disclosure includes devices, methods, and systems for sensing memory, such as resistance variable memory, among other types of memory. One or more embodiments can include a method for generating currents to be used in sensing a memory cell, the method including providing a number of initial currents, and generating a number of reference currents by summing particular combinations of the initial currents. |
| US08027182B2 |
Electric current measurement apparatus, voltage measurement apparatus and power supply apparatus
An electric current measurement apparatus for measuring an electric current of each electrode of an electron tube includes a transformer, a detection resistor connected in an ampere meter route for measurement, a voltage detection unit for detecting electric potential difference of the detection resistor and outputting pulse signals corresponding to the detected electric potential difference, a switching part for providing a short circuit of the secondary winding according to the pulse signals, and a measurement current value output unit. The measurement current value output unit measures pulse attribute of pulse-shape signals which are induced on the primary winding of the transformer caused by the short circuit of the secondary winding, and outputs a value of electric current flowing through the detection resistor with referring to a predetermined relationship between a value of the electric current flowing through the detection resistor and the pulse signals generated in the voltage detection unit. |
| US08027180B2 |
Power generating apparatus
A power generating apparatus including an AC generator that supplies electric power to a load including a voltage accumulating means, an inverter that applies AC control voltage to armature winding of the generator from the voltage accumulating means, and a controller that controls a phase of control voltage applied to the armature winding by the inverter to keep load voltage at a target value, wherein the phase of the control voltage is controlled so as to advance when the load voltage is higher than the target value, hold the present phase when the load voltage is equal to the target value, advance when the load voltage is lower than the target value and a phase of phase voltage of the generator is delayed behind a phase of a phase current of the same phase, and delay when the load voltage is lower than the target value and the phase of the phase voltage of the generator is advanced ahead of a phase of a phase current of the same phase. |
| US08027174B2 |
Adapter power supply
An advantage of the present invention is to provide an adapter power supply which varies a link voltage of DC power serving an input power of a DC/DC converter according to variation of a load current estimated by measuring a secondary current using a lossless current measurement technique at a primary terminal of a transformer of the DC/DC converter and thus presuming a load current of an output power.An adapter power supply according to present invention may include an AC/DC converter converting a commercial AC power into a DC power; a DC/DC converter including a transformer composed of a primary terminal and a secondary terminal in order to output an output power by converting a link voltage of the DC power; and a controller presuming a load current of the output power through a primary current of the transformer and varying the link voltage of the DC power according to variation of the estimated load current. |
| US08027173B2 |
Apparatus for providing AC voltage
An apparatus for providing an AC voltage includes a synthesizer for generating at least one periodic output voltage signal, each periodic output voltage signal having an output frequency. The synthesizer is supplied by an input AC voltage having an input frequency, and is configured such that each output frequency differs from the input frequency. |
| US08027170B2 |
Substrate and electronic device using the same
An electronic device which includes a feedthrough capacitor mounted on a front surface of a substrate. A feedthrough electrode penetrates a laminate (body of the capacitor). External electrodes are electrically connected to opposite ends of the feedthrough electrode. A capacitor electrode is disposed to form capacity in cooperation with the feedthrough electrode. A wiring conductor is formed on a rear surface of the substrate or inside the substrate, and via-hole conductors are connected to the wiring conductor. The feedthrough electrode and the external electrodes constitute a first current path. The wiring conductor and the via-hole conductors constitute a second current path electrically connected in parallel to the first current path. |
| US08027169B2 |
Multilayer printed wiring board for semiconductor devices and method for manufacturing the board
A multilayer printed wiring board includes one or more resin layers having via-holes and a core layer having via-holes. The via-holes formed in the one or more resin layers are open in the direction opposite to the direction in which the via-holes formed in the core layer are open. A method for manufacturing a multilayer printed wiring board includes a step of preparing a single- or double-sided copper-clad laminate; a step of forming lands by processing the copper-clad laminate; a step of forming a resin layer on the upper surface of the copper-clad laminate, forming openings for via-holes in the resin layer, and then forming the via-holes; and a step of forming openings for via-holes in the lower surface of the copper-clad laminate and then forming the via-holes. |
| US08027167B2 |
Case cable management
The case cable management has a shell, a circuit board, multiple sockets and a cover. The shell has a bottom board and a sidewall. The circuit board is attached securely to the bottom board of the shell. The sockets are mounted through the sidewall of the shell and have multiple terminals connected securely to the circuit board. The cover covers the shell. Multiple power lines are mounted through the sidewall of the shell to connect the circuit board and sockets to a power supply and cables from computer apparatuses are connected to the sockets to receive electric power. Different cables can be distinguished clearly and conveniently for simplified cable routing to avoid confusion and facilitate replacement. |
| US08027164B2 |
Mounting arrangement for fixing printed circuit boards disposed one above the other in a housing
A mounting configuration for a plurality of printed circuit boards that are arranged one above the other and equipped with electrical components. The printed circuit boards are fixed in a housing assembly formed with a bottom and a top for receiving the printed circuit boards. Engagement holes are positioned congruently in the printed circuit boards, the housing bottom, and the housing top, such that the printed circuit boards, the housing bottom and the housing top can be fixed relative to one another by way of at least one fastener. |
| US08027163B2 |
Display device
A display device is disclosed. In one embodiment, the display device includes i) a display panel configured to display an image, ii) a chassis base configured to support the display panel, iii) an auxiliary chassis disposed between the display panel and the chassis base, wherein one end of the auxiliary chassis covers and contacts an edge of the chassis base. The display device further includes i) a driving board disposed at the back of the chassis base and configured to drive the display panel and ii) at least one signal transmission member comprising at least one circuit device and configured to electrically connect the display panel and the driving board, wherein one side of the at least one signal transmission member is supported by the auxiliary chassis, and wherein the one side faces the edge of the chassis base. |
| US08027162B2 |
Liquid-cooled electronics apparatus and methods of fabrication
Liquid-cooled electronics apparatuses and methods are provided. The cooled electronics apparatuses include a liquid-cooled cold rail and an electronics subassembly. The liquid-cooled cold rail has a thermally conductive structure and a coolant-carrying channel extending within and cooling the thermally conductive structure. The electronics subassembly includes an electronics card(s) and one or more thermal transfer plates. The electronics card(s) includes electronic devices to be cooled, and the one or more thermal transfer plates are each rigidly affixed to one or more electronic devices of the electronics card(s). Each thermal transfer plate is thermally conductive and couples the electronics subassembly to the liquid-cooled cold rail to thermally interface the one or more electronic devices to the liquid-cooled cold rail to facilitate cooling of the electronic devices. In one embodiment, the electronics subassembly includes multiple interleaved electronics cards and thermal transfer plates. |
| US08027161B2 |
Electronic power converter and mounting structure of semiconductor device
An electric power converter has a main circuit section including a semiconductor module and a cooling device; a control circuit substrate section electrically connected to a signal terminal of the semiconductor module, and having a control circuit; and a power wiring section connected to a main electrode terminal of the semiconductor module. The main circuit section is interposed between the control circuit substrate section and the power wiring section. |
| US08027156B2 |
Keyboard connection configuration and electronic device
A keyboard includes a keyboard unit and casing. The keyboard unit is rectangular and includes a first and second surface, the first surface including at least one key disposed thereon, the second surface including a protrusion portion that protrudes therefrom. The protrusion portion includes an engagement hole open toward a first direction that corresponds to a longitudinal direction of the rectangle. The casing includes a third surface on which the keyboard unit is mounted, the third surface including an insertion or through hole into which the protrusion portion is insertable, the casing including an engagement protrusion provided at a position opposed to the engagement hole of the protrusion portion that is inserted into the through hole, the engagement protrusion being engaged with the engagement hole of the inserted protrusion portion when the keyboard unit is moved in the first direction. A method of assembling the keyboard is also described. |
| US08027153B2 |
Lead frame for quad flat no-lead package
A lead frame for a quad flat no-lead package includes a plurality of units arranged in a matrix manner and each having four comers. Each of the corners extends outwards to define an attaching portion for attachment to a UV tape such that four sides of each of the units won't fly off when the sides are cut off. |
| US08027150B2 |
Conductive polymer solid electrolytic capacitor
A solid electrolytic capacitor having an electrolytic layer containing at least two types of ionic liquids and a conductive polymer is provided. Preferably, the ionic liquids include at least one type of ionic liquid for supplying an excellent impedance characteristic and at least one type of ionic liquid for supplying an excellent withstand voltage characteristic. Thus, a solid electrolytic capacitor exhibiting a high withstand voltage and an excellent impedance characteristic can be obtained. |
| US08027149B2 |
Electrolytic capacitors with multiple anodes and anode lead configurations thereof
A capacitor comprising a cylindrical casing sidewall extending to closed first and second end walls and an anode assembly housed therein including a first, second and third anodes is described. Each anode comprises an anode sidewall extending to first and second anode end walls and a conductive lead extending therefrom. The anodes are in a side-by-side relationship within the casing with their respective sidewalls parallel to each other. The cathode of the capacitor may include a first conductive substrate supporting a cathode active material. The conductive substrate is wrapped around the anodes, and the cathode active material is disposed on the substrate at locations such that the respective sidewalls of the anodes are opposed by cathode active material. A separator is positioned between the side-by-side anodes and the cathode. The open volume within the casing is filled with an electrolyte, and the casing is hermetically sealed. |
| US08027147B2 |
Ultracapacitor and method of manufacturing the same
A method for producing an ultracapacitor includes the steps of: providing a negative porous electrode in contact with a negative conducting plate; providing a positive porous electrode in contact with a positive conducting plate; providing an ultracapacitor separator being a microporous material that separates the negative porous electrode from the positive porous electrode; providing an electrolytic solution that impregnates the negative porous electrode, the positive porous electrode, and the ultracapacitor separator; and curing the ultracapacitor at a temperature of at least 200° C. |
| US08027144B2 |
Capacitor structure
A capacitor structure is provided. The capacitor structure comprises a plurality of parallel conductive line levels and a plurality of vias. Each conductive line level comprises first conductive lines parallel to each other and second conductive lines parallel to each other. Also, the first conductive lines on different conductive line levels are aligned to each other and the second conductive lines on different conductive line levels are aligned to each other so as to form first conductive line co-planes and second conductive line co-planes. The vias are located on the conductive line co-planes and between the conductive line levels for connecting the conductive lines on the neighboring conductive line levels. The vias, on a height level of each of the conductive line co-planes, are arranged only on one of the neighboring conductive line co-planes. |
| US08027140B2 |
Reed switch arrays
An array of reed switches (13) is assembled on a circuit board (11) having a plurality of through-apertures (12) with one reed switch (13) disposed in each aperture with the axis of the switch envelope (14) extending perpendicularly to the plane of the board. A plurality of coils (16) is provided on the board so that each switch (13) is surrounded by a respective coil, the coils being connected to conductors on the board for operation of the switches. Also disposed is a control circuit wherein the reed switch drive coils (26) are connected in series across a constant-current voltage source and a respective solid-state switch TR1, TR2 . . . connected across each coil, with divers for each solid-state switch to permit operation of a selected reed switch. |
| US08027138B2 |
Capacitor sharing surge protection circuit
A capacitor sharing surge protection circuit for protecting multiple ports from harmful energy surges, such as electrostatic discharge (ESD) and cable discharge events (CDE), is provided. The protection circuit includes a plurality of diodes with respective cathodes and anodes. Each anode of the plurality of diodes is coupled to one of the plurality of ports. A bypass capacitor is coupled between the cathodes of the plurality of diodes and ground. In an embodiment, a bulk capacitor is further coupled between the cathodes of the plurality of diodes and ground. |
| US08027132B2 |
Failure detection device for power circuit including switching element
A failure detection device detects the voltage across the main electrodes of an IGBT via a diode. The failure detection device determines occurrence of short-circuit failure in the IGBT when the anode voltage of the diode is lower than a first predetermined reference voltage. Determination can be made, excluding the case of a proper operation corresponding to a flywheel diode in an ON state, preferably together with the condition that the anode voltage of the diode is higher than a second predetermined reference voltage. |
| US08027131B2 |
Method and circuit arrangement for protection against electrostatic discharges
An electronic circuit device is provided which comprises an electronic circuit unit, an ESD protection unit connected in parallel to the electronic circuit unit and configured to clamp a supply voltage of the electronic circuit unit, at least one input clamp unit configured to clamp input voltages applied at at least one input terminal of the electronic circuit unit, and at least one ESD clamp provided at the at least one input terminal and configured to protect the electronic circuit unit against electrostatic discharges. |
| US08027125B2 |
PMR with improved writability and process controllability by double layer patterning
Improved writability and a sharper neck transition are achieved in a PMR writer with a yoke that has essentially vertical sidewalls and a write pole that has sidewalls with a beveled angle. An alumina mold is made with a negative differential bevel angle by employing a two mask process. A first photoresist layer is patterned and etched to form a rectangular trench in an alumina layer. The trench extends beyond the intended ABS plane and in the opposite direction into the intended yoke area. A second photoresist layer is patterned into a yoke shape that is partially superimposed over the rectangular trench. After a second RIE process, the yoke opening adjoins the trench at a neck transition point along each long trench side. The volume of magnetic material in the yoke adjacent to the neck is thereby maximized. Dimension control of the main pole becomes independent of ABS positioning errors. |
| US08027124B2 |
Magnetic head
A system in one embodiment includes first and second modules, each module having a substrate, a closure, and a gap situated therebetween, the gap comprising transducers selected from readers and writers; wherein the closures face each other, wherein the closure and the substrate of each module form a flat tape bearing surface, wherein a module spacing is defined as a distance from a point proximate to the transducers in the gap of the first module to a point proximate to the transducers in the gap of the second module, wherein the module spacing is less than 1.3 mm and greater than 0 mm. |
| US08027123B2 |
Integrated windage blocker for reduction of flex cable vibration in a disk drive
A windage blocker integrated with a base for a hard disk drive is disclosed. One embodiment provides a cavity portion comprising a planar surface defining an inner bottom surface of the cavity, the cavity portion for receiving an actuator assembly, the actuator assembly comprising a flex cable. The cavity includes at least one windage blocker integrated with the planar surface of the cavity of the base, the windage blocker for reducing detrimental local excitation of an airflow encountering the flex cable. |
| US08027116B2 |
Method of manufacturing a hard-disk drive using a bulk eraser
A method of manufacturing of a hard-disk drive using a bulk eraser for erasing recorded information on a magnetic-recording disk. The method includes providing a bulk eraser that produces magnetic-flux density in a gap sufficient to erase recorded information from a magnetic-recording disk, a hard-disk drive, a disk-stack having at least one magnetic-recording disk, and a drive motor for rotating the magnetic-recording disk. The method also includes configuring a plurality of magnets and a structure of the bulk eraser such that magnetic-flux density is oriented parallel to and in a radial direction of the magnetic-recording disk; and rotating the magnetic-recording disk. The method further includes inserting the hard-disk drive into the gap of the bulk eraser; and erasing recorded information from the magnetic-recording disk located in the gap; and removing the hard-disk drive from the gap. |
| US08027114B1 |
Spiral servo detection with phase-locked loop (PLL)
The present disclosure includes apparatus, systems and techniques relating to detecting sync marks. In some implementations, an apparatus includes phase locking circuitry that includes a phase calculator to identify a phase of sampled data, and a phase-locked loop to generate an output signal and phase-lock the generated output signal with the calculated phase of the sampled data to produce a phase-locked signal. The apparatus includes detector circuitry to receive phase information of the phase-locked output signal. The detector circuitry includes a detector to generate a stream of decision bits for the sampled data with each bit in the stream being associated with a different phase. The detector circuitry includes an output selector to select at least one bit from the stream based on the received phase information of the phase-locked output signal. |
| US08027102B2 |
Cam mechanism of a telescoping lens barrel
A cam mechanism of a lens barrel includes a cam ring; and a movable frame which moves along an optical axis when the cam ring is rotated, without rotating relative to the cam ring, by engagement of a cam groove provided on the cam ring with a corresponding cam follower provided on the movable frame. The cam groove is formed as a bottomed cam groove including two inclined side surfaces and a bottom surface which connects the two inclined side surfaces. The cam ring includes a single-sided cam section on an end surface of the cam ring, wherein continuity of the reference cam diagram is maintained along the single-sided cam section, and at least a part of one of the two inclined side surfaces which is positioned closer to a nearby end of the cam ring is absent at the single-sided cam section. |
| US08027101B2 |
Optical element fixing component and imaging unit
The present invention relates to an optical element fixing component having a hollow portion which includes an optical element. The optical element fixing component is made from a non-crystalline alloy, and a ratio of a linear expansion coefficient of the optical element fixing component toward a linear expansion coefficient of the optical element is 1.5 or less. |
| US08027095B2 |
Control systems for adaptive lens
Systems and methods for controlling a fluid lens in a data collection device. One or more micropump control systems are used to control one or more fluid lenses. The micropump control systems are used to change volume and/or pressure within the fluid lens system, changing the radius of curvature of the lens. |
| US08027088B2 |
Catadioptric projection objective with tilted deflecting mirrors, projection exposure apparatus, projection exposure method, and mirror
In general, in one aspect, the invention features a catadioptric projection objective having a plurality of optical elements arranged along an optical axis to image a pattern arranged in an object surface of the projection objective onto an image surface of the projection objective. The optical elements include a concave mirror, a first deflecting mirror tilted relative to the optical axis and a second deflecting mirror. The catadioptric projection objective can image patterns including sub-patterns oriented in various directions such that line width variations due to differences of orientation of sub-patterns are largely avoided. |
| US08027086B2 |
Roll to roll nanoimprint lithography
Apparatus and methods for a nano-patterning process to fabricate nanostructures. A roller type mold is used to continuously imprint nanostructures onto a flexible web or a rigid substrate. The process includes a coating and an imprinting module, which rotate the web synchronously. Liquid resist materials are used for imprinting and the patterns are set by thermal or UV curing. The process is used to produce bilayer metal wire-grid polarizers, organic solar cells, and organic light emitting diodes. |
| US08027082B2 |
Raman amplifier and excitation light source used thereof
A Raman amplifier provided with a pump source outputting a pumping light; a rare-earth doped fiber inputting the pumping light and outputting an excitation light; and a guiding unit guiding the excitation light to an optical fiber to a direction opposite to which a signal light propagates in the optical fiber.Also a Raman amplifier provided with a plurality of pump sources outputting a plurality of pumping lights; a plurality of rare-earth doped fibers inputting the each of the plurality of pumping lights and outputting a plurality of excitation lights; a guiding unit guiding the plurality of excitation lights to an optical fiber to a direction opposite to which a signal light propagates in the optical fiber. |
| US08027081B2 |
Electro-optic display with edge seal
Various types of edge seals for protecting electro-optic displays against environmental contaminants are described. In one type of seal, the electro-optic layer is sandwiched between a backplane and a protective sheet and a sealing material extends between the backplane and the protective sheet. In other seals, the protective sheet is secured to the backplane or to a second protective sheet adjacent the backplane. The electro-optic layer can also be sealed between two layers of adhesive or between one layer of adhesive and the backplane. Other seals make use of flexible tapes extending around the periphery of the display. |
| US08027080B2 |
Transflective electro-wetting display device
An exemplary transflective electro-wetting display (EWD) device includes an upper substrate, a lower substrate opposite to the upper substrate, a first polar liquid disposed between the upper and lower substrates, a second, colored, non-polar liquid disposed between the upper and lower substrates, and a reflective pattern disposed at the lower substrate. The second liquid is immiscible with the first liquid. An area of the reflective pattern covered by the second liquid varies according to an area of the lower substrate covered by the second liquid. |
| US08027076B2 |
Light scanning device and thrust-direction force canceling method
At least a part of a first thrust-direction force generated by air resistance received by at least one surface of reflection surfaces arrayed in a rotating direction of a polygon mirror 35 and tilted with respect to a rotation axis 35p of the polygon mirror 35 is canceled by a second thrust-direction force generated by air resistance received by a surface tilted with respect to the rotation axis 35p in a direction opposite to the surface where the first thrust-direction force is generated. |
| US08027074B2 |
Scan optical system, light scan device, and image formation device
An imaging lens good in mass-productivity, compact, low in manufacturing cost, good in aberration performance is provided by effectively correcting aberrations without greatly varying the variation of the thickness of a curing resin. An imaging device having such an imaging lens and a portable terminal are also provided. A third lens (L3) has a flat surface on the object side, a convex surface near the optical axis on the image side, and a concave aspheric surface around the peripheral portion within the region where a light beam passes. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the other optical aberrations such as distortion and simultaneously to design the imaging lens so that the astigmatism takes on a maximum value at the outermost portion. Hence, the resolutions at low to middle image heights are high. In addition, such a shape does not cause a large variation of the thickness of the third lens (L3) from the region along the axis to the periphery. Therefore, the thickness of the third lens (L3) can be small, and the material cost can be reduced. |
| US08027073B2 |
Image forming apparatus with laser scanning device and method of aligning the laser scanning device
An image forming apparatus includes a light source to emit a laser beam; a resonant scanning mirror, including a reflection surface to reflect the laser beam emitted from the light source, to scan the reflected laser beam by oscillating the reflection surface; at least one detector to detect the reflected laser beam during the scanning of the reflected laser beam, and generate a synchronizing signal each time the reflected laser beam is detected; and at least one light selection unit to restrict a path over which the reflected laser beam is incident on the at least one detector to a predetermined path. |
| US08027062B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus which is capable of eliminating influence of in-plane variation contained in secondary-color patches, which is caused by devices, in performing gradation correction. A first toner pattern having a uniform density (of gray) and a second toner pattern having gradation (of gray and black) are formed in a direction orthogonal to a direction of driving an image bearing member. Gradation correction data for converting an input image signal associated with the toner of black is formed, based on density information on the second toner pattern formed by the two toners, and density information on the second toner pattern formed by the toner of gray. |
| US08027061B2 |
Security encoding unit and image forming apparatus including same
A security encoding unit performs security encoding processing on a plurality of images simultaneously, for example, an image on a front side of the document and an image on a back side of the document. The security encoding unit includes at least a first detector for detecting first security information of a first image based on a first original image data, a second detector for detecting second security information of a second image based on a second original image data, a first security encoding device for performing security encoding processing on the first original image data to generate the first image data, and a second security encoding device for performing security encoding processing on the first original image data to generate the second image data. The first original image data of the first image and the second original image data of the second image are input simultaneously. |
| US08027055B2 |
Mobile phone with retractable stylus
A mobile phone includes: a phone body having a stylus holder; a retractable stylus slidably mounted in the holder, the stylus being slidable between a retracted position and an extended writing position, the stylus having a nib including an inkjet printhead; an ink cartridge, housed in the phone body, for supplying ink to the inkjet printhead of the stylus; and a flexible conduit linking the cartridge to the stylus. The flexible conduit is configured for carrying data, power and ink. |
| US08027054B2 |
Apparatus and method of scanning and/or printing an image
A scanning apparatus and a method thereof include a scanning unit scanning a document and outputting a scanned result, at least one external storage unit detachably attached to the apparatus, at least one internal storage unit, and a controller detecting an attachment state of the external storage unit and storing the scanned result in one of the external storage unit and the internal storage unit according to the attachment state of the external storage unit. The scanning unit of the scanning apparatus is combined with a user scanning unit and a user printing unit into a combination apparatus, and the scanned result is printed in a printing apparatus spaced-apart from the scanning apparatus by a distance, thereby removing cables between the scanning or printing apparatus and a personal computer. Regardless of an attachment state of the external storage unit, the document is scanned in the real time, and the scanning apparatus is commonly used with a plurality of personal computers which are not connected to the scanning apparatus. |
| US08027052B2 |
Printing apparatus and method for controlling the same
A printing apparatus includes a CPU that determines whether or not to use operation information included in paper information received from another printing apparatus. If it is determined to use the operation information, the received paper information is registered as the paper information of Type 2. In addition, the CPU included in the printing apparatus selects one of a plurality of pieces of paper information and controls a printer unit such that the printer unit performs a printing process in an operating state based on the operation information included in the selected piece of paper information. |
| US08027050B2 |
Computer containing a print control program, the program, and program recording medium
A computer storing a print control program, the program, and a recording medium containing the program according to the present invention control access from the computer to a printer in the kernel mode.When access is made from an application program (4) to a printer (69), a spooler (65) operates. An access request is detected in response to an event occurring when the spooler (65) operates. A common interface driver (7) controls data output to the printer (69) at a filter (41) or the spooler (65) according to a control condition previously registered in a control condition database (36). |
| US08027047B2 |
Information processing apparatus, control method thereof, and program thereof
An information processing apparatus according to this invention acquires function restriction information used to restrict the use of functions of an image processing apparatus. The apparatus acquires job log data of a job which is processed using the functions of the image processing apparatus. The apparatus changes the acquired function restriction information. The apparatus calculates a cost incurred upon using the functions of the image processing apparatus within a designated period, based on unit price information indicating the unit prices of the resources consumed upon using the functions of the image processing apparatus, the job log data, and the changed function restriction information. The apparatus outputs the calculation result. |
| US08027037B2 |
Method for evaluating microstructures on a workpiece based on the orientation of a grating on the workpiece
In a measuring system, a method for evaluating parameters of a workpiece includes measuring a periodic structure, such as a grating, on the workpiece to produce image data. An orientation of features in the image data, produced by higher order diffractions from the periodic structure, is identified. An orientation of the periodic structure is determined based on the orientation of the features in the image data. The image data is then modified, based on the orientation of the periodic structure, to correlate with, and for comparison to, simulated image data to ascertain parameters of the workpiece. Alternatively, optical components in the measuring system, or the workpiece itself, are adjusted to provide a desired alignment between the optical components and the periodic structure. A microstructure on the workpiece may then be measured, and the resulting image data may be compared to the simulated image data to ascertain parameters of the microstructure. |
| US08027036B2 |
Apparatus for detecting particles on a glass surface and a method thereof
The present invention relates to an apparatus for detecting particles on a glass surface and a method thereof, and more specifically, to an apparatus for detecting particles on a glass surface and a method thereof for exactly inspecting particles which may be created on a glass surface where micro circuits are deposited. The apparatus for detecting the particles on the glass surface in accordance with the present invention comprises laser beam irradiators for detecting particles on a glass substrate on upper and lower sides of the glass substrate at certain intervals, respectively, and wherein the irradiators are configured so that beams emitted from the laser beam irradiators can be irradiated in a direction vertical to a transferring direction of the glass substrate, thereby exactly detecting particles detached to the glass surface without exception. |
| US08027035B2 |
Non-orthogonal particle detection systems and methods
Described herein is a particle detection system capable of spatially resolving the interaction of particles with a beam of electromagnetic radiation. Using a specific electromagnetic beam cross sectional shape and orientation, the detection sensitivity of a particle detection system can be improved. Also provided are methods for detecting and sizing particles in a manner that has low background signal and allows for spatially resolving the scattering or emission of electromagnetic radiation from particles. |
| US08027034B2 |
Method for manufacturing spectroscopy module, and spectroscopy module
In a spectroscopy module 1, a light detecting element 5 having a light passing hole 50 is used. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the relative positional relationship between the light passing hole 50 and a light detecting portion 5a of the light detecting element 5 from deviating. Moreover, the light detecting element 5 is electrically connected to a wiring 9 formed on a front plane 2a of a substrate 2 by face-down bonding, and a resin layer 79 is formed as an underfill resin between the substrate 2 and the light detecting element 5. Therefore, it is possible to improve the fixing strength between the substrate 2 and the light detecting element 5. Additionally, before the resin layer 79 is formed, a resin layer 78 is formed along a guide portion 77 that surrounds the passing hole 50. Thus, the resin layer 79 is prevented from penetrating into the light passing hole 50, which makes it possible to make a light be appropriately incident into the substrate 2. |
| US08027031B2 |
Spectrometric metrology of workpieces using a permanent window as a spectral reference
In a spectrographic workpiece metrology system having an optical viewing window, the viewing window is calibrated against a reference sample of a known absolute reflectance spectrum to produce a normalized reflectance spectrum of the reference sample, which is combined with the absolute reflectance spectrum to produce a correction factor. Successive production workpieces are measured through the window and calibrated against the viewing window reflectance, and transformed to absolute reflectance spectra using the same correction factor without having to re-load the reference sample. |
| US08027029B2 |
Object detection and tracking system
An object detection system for a vehicle includes an imaging device, an image processor and a Lidar device. The imaging device is operable to capture image data representative of a scene exterior the vehicle. The image processor processes image data to detect an object of interest in the field of view of the imaging device. The Lidar device is responsive to the image processing so as to have its line of sight guided to point toward the detected object of interest. The Lidar device is operable to measure the distances between the host vehicle and the detected object of interest. |
| US08027028B2 |
Precise positioning system for dual stage switching exposure
A precise positioning system for dual stage switching exposure, which includes a base, a first wafer stage positioning unit disposed on the base for a pre-processing workstation, and a second wafer stage positioning unit for an exposure workstation. Each of the wafer stage positioning units includes a wafer stage, a motion positioning detector, an X-direction guide bar, and a Y-direction guide bar. The pre-processing workstation and the exposure workstation both have two X-direction guide bars positioned on and movable along the Y-direction guide bars. The X-direction guide bars of adjacent workstations can be connected to each other. |
| US08027027B2 |
Exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method
A lithographic projection apparatus includes a substrate table that holds a substrate, a projection system that projects a patterned beam of radiation onto the substrate, and a liquid confinement structure that confines a liquid in a space between the projection system and the substrate, the substrate, the substrate table, or both, to form a part of a boundary of the space. In addition, a closing plate forms a part of a boundary of the space in place of the substrate, the substrate table, or both, when moved without substantially disturbing the liquid, the liquid confinement structure, or both. |
| US08027025B2 |
Exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method
An exposure apparatus which exposes a substrate with exposure light, includes a projection optical system which projects a pattern image of an original onto the substrate; a first illumination unit which illuminates the original with the exposure light; and a second illumination unit which guides illumination light that is different from the exposure light for exposing the substrate to the projection optical system, the second illumination unit includes a modifier which modifies an illumination distribution of the illumination light entering an optical element near a pupil of the projection optical system and an optical element which is the closest to the original in the projection optical system. |
| US08027024B2 |
Replacement device for an optical element
Replacement devices for at least one replaceable optical element mounted at least indirectly in a lithographic projection exposure apparatus are disclosed. Lithography objectives and illumination systems are also disclosed. Methods for positioning a replaceable optical element within a lithographic projection exposure apparatus of this type, and methods for replacing a replaceable optical element within a lithographic projection exposure apparatus via a replacement device are also disclosed. |
| US08027023B2 |
Optical imaging device and method for reducing dynamic fluctuations in pressure difference
There is provided an optical imaging device, in particular for microlithography, comprising at least one optical element and at least one holding device associated to the optical element (109), wherein the holding device holds the optical element and a first part (109.1) of the optical element contacts a first atmosphere and a second part (109.2) of the optical element at least temporarily contacts a second atmosphere. There is provided a reduction device at least reducing dynamic fluctuations in the pressure difference between the first atmosphere and the second atmosphere. |
| US08027016B2 |
Panel for a liquid crystal display and method of forming the same
A panel for a liquid crystal display including a substrate, and at least one spacer formed over the substrate. The at least one spacer has a tapered shape with an inclination angle in the range of about 20- about 70 degrees and a height in the range of about 2.5- about 5.0 microns. |
| US08027012B2 |
Liquid crystal display panel comprising an array glass substrate and an opposing glass substrate with a liquid crystal filler
To provide a liquid crystal display panel which can be produced at low cost by using inexpensive alkali glass for at least an opposing glass substrate, which is free from troubles in a liquid crystal display due to panel warpage attributable to the thermal treatment since such treatment is not required in the production process, and further which is free from panel warpage which tends to bring a trouble in a liquid crystal display derived from the difference in the thermal expansion coefficient by change in ambient temperature at the time of use.A liquid crystal display panel comprising an array glass substrate and an opposing glass substrate facing it, in which a liquid crystal is filled between such substrates, and an ultraviolet curable resin is sealed at a peripheral area, wherein the above opposing glass substrate is an alkali glass substrate, and the difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the above array glass substrate and the above opposing glass substrate is at most 35×10−7/° C. |
| US08027011B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
An object of the present invention is to form spacers for defining the space between the TFT substrate and the facing substrate of color filters, and by doing so, finely control the height of the spacers. First spacers 10 are formed of green color filters G in pillar form on top of red color filters R and blue color filters B (green color filters G) having a large area between blue pixels BP; second spacers 20 are formed by layering blue color filters B (green color filters G) and green color filters G having a large area on top of red color filters R in pillar form between green pixels GP; and the second spacers 20 are shorter than the first spacers 10 due to the leveling effects of the layered blue color filters B (green color filters G) and green color filters G. |
| US08027005B2 |
Liquid crystal display having a pixel region with a source electrode of at least a high-melting-point metal layer
An active matrix liquid crystal display device includes first and second substrates, a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first and second substrates, and plural image signal lines and scan signal lines formed on the first substrate. Respective pixel regions are formed by adjacent image signal lines and adjacent scan signal lines, and the respective pixel regions have at least one of a semiconductor layer, a pixel electrode, a counter electrode, and a source electrode which has a high-melting-point metal layer and an aluminum layer formed on the high-melting-point metal layer; wherein the high-melting-point layer enables connection of the semiconductor layer and the pixel electrode, and the pixel electrode is formed between the high-melting-point metal layer and the first substrate; and wherein a part of the scan signal lines positioned between the pixel regions and the gate terminal is covered by an ITO layer electrically connected to the counter electrode. |
| US08026994B2 |
Liquid crystal display device having members for preventing shifting of the light guide plate and method of assembling the same
A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel; a backlight unit to provide a light to the liquid crystal panel, the backlight unit includes an optical sheet and a light guide plate; and a main support to receive the liquid crystal panel and the backlight unit together, the main support having first and second movement preventing members to prevent shifting of the optical sheet and the light guide plate of the backlight unit in a direction on a plane, and a third movement preventing member to prevent shifting of the light guide plate of the backlight unit in a direction normal to the plane. |
| US08026992B2 |
Display device
A plurality of display elements each includes two signal lines: S1 and S2. An electrode 4, which is one of the electrodes constituting an element capacitor Cp, is connected to the signal line S1 via a switching element TFT1, while the other electrode 5 is connected to the signal line S2 via a switching element S2. The gate electrodes of the switching elements TFT1 and TFT2 are connected to a single common scanning line G. With this structure the drive voltage applied to the element capacitor can be increased even when a TFT has a limited withstand pressure. |
| US08026989B2 |
Liquid crystal display panel
A liquid crystal display (LCD) panel employed in an LCD device includes an array substrate and an opposite substrate. The array substrate includes a pixel electrode formed in a pixel area including a first sub-pixel area and a second sub-pixel area. The opposite substrate is spaced apart from the array substrate to receive a liquid crystal layer. The opposite substrate includes a first common electrode formed in correspondence with the pixel area, and a second common electrode being floated in correspondence with the second sub-pixel area to form a coupling capacitor. |
| US08026988B2 |
Pixels using associated dots on multiple sides of color components for multi-domain vertical alignment liquid crystal displays
A multi-domain vertical alignment liquid crystal display that does not require physical features on the substrate (such as protrusions and ITO slits) is disclosed. Each pixel of the MVA LCD is subdivided into color components, which are further divided into color dots. The drive component areas, i.e. where switching elements and storage capacitors are located, are converted to associated dots by adding an electrode that can be electrically biased. The voltage polarity of the color dots and associated dots are arranged so that fringe fields in each color dot causes multiple liquid crystal domains in each color dot. Specifically, the color dots and associated dots of a pixel are arranged so that associated dots have opposite polarity as compared to neighboring color dots. |
| US08026987B2 |
Panel assembly
According to an embodiment of the present invention a panel assembly includes a first display panel having a first insulation substrate, a second display panel having a second insulation substrate opposite to the first insulation substrate, and a touch sensing unit formed on a surface of the second insulation substrate not facing the first insulation substrate. The touch sensing unit includes an electrostatic induction insulating layer formed on the second insulation substrate, an electrostatic induction pattern layer formed on the electrostatic induction insulating layer along edges of the electrostatic induction insulating layer, and a dielectric layer that covers the electrostatic induction insulating layer and the electrostatic induction pattern layer. |
| US08026984B2 |
Multimedia television
A multimedia television is provided. The multimedia television includes a video playback apparatus, an audio processing device, M front loudspeakers, a rear audio playback apparatus, and a mixing device. The video playback apparatus is used for displaying a video signal. The audio processing device processes an audio signal into a multi-channel audio signal consisting of M front sub-audio signals and N rear sub-audio signals. Each front loudspeaker plays back one corresponding front sub-audio signal. And, the mixing device mixes the N rear sub-audio signals into a mixed audio signal, which is then wirelessly transmitted to the rear audio playback apparatus. After the mixed audio signal is processed into N rear sub-audio signals, N rear loudspeakers in the rear audio playback apparatus playback the N rear sub-audio signals. |
| US08026981B2 |
Method of intelligently selecting a signal source and associated apparatus
A method of intelligently selecting a signal source and associated apparatus is provided. The method comprises the following steps. A display is activated. The display detects activities of a plurality of connection ports to determine at least one active video source. The display displays an image according to the at least one active video source and/or a priority. The connection ports can be an HDMI port, a DVI port, an A/V port or a Y/Pb/Pr port. |
| US08026979B2 |
Methods and systems for picture resampling
Aspects of the present invention relate to systems and methods for picture up-sampling and picture down-sampling. Some aspects relate to a selective filter process whereby a filter is selected based on the position of a first resolution picture relative to a second resolution picture. Some aspects relate to an up-sampling and/or down-sampling procedure designed for the Scalable Video Coding extension of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. |
| US08026976B2 |
Digital camera and method for controlling emission amount of flash
A digital camera including an imaging unit, a flash device, a face region extraction unit for detecting a face region from image data generated by the imaging unit, and a flash control unit for controlling emission amount of the flash using the region information outputted from the face region extraction unit. The flash control unit includes a first calculation means for performing a calculation on the image data generated by the imaging unit without using the region information, a second calculation means for performing a calculation on the image data generated by the imaging unit using the region information, and an emission amount determination means for determining an adequate emission amount Ch of the flash by performing an adjustment using the provisional adequate value Cn supplied from the first calculation means and provisional adequate value Cf supplied from the second calculation means as reference values. |
| US08026973B2 |
Imaging apparatus, imaging method and storage medium
An imaging apparatus comprises a focusing unit configured to focus an object to be shot by an imaging unit, a first shooting control unit configured to control the imaging unit in order to continuously shooting at first time intervals upon detecting a shooting instruction, a determining unit configured to determine whether the object moves in a distance direction during a control operation of the first shooting control unit, and a second shooting control unit configured to control the imaging unit in order to continuously shoot at second time intervals and to control the focusing unit in order to focus the object when the determining unit determines that the object moves in the distance direction. |
| US08026972B2 |
Picture-taking lens unit
A camera according to the present invention includes a picture-taking lens unit including a picture-taking optical system having a bending optical system which optically bends incident light and an optical finder unit including a finder optical system having a bending optical system which optically bends incident light. A pre-bending optical system and a post-bending optical system in the bending optical system of the optical finder unit are arranged adjacent to a pre-bending optical system and a post-bending optical system in the bending optical system of the picture-taking lens unit, respectively. The body of the camera is therefore decreased in size. |
| US08026962B2 |
Image synthesizing apparatus and image pickup apparatus with a brightness adjusting processing
Disclosed is an image synthesizer including an image frames memory which memorizes a plurality of image frames which are produced by continuously taking pictures of a subject, an image synthesizer which synthesizes a plurality of image frames to a summation image, an image brightness adjuster which adjusts brightness of the summation image by synthesizing the image frames with the image synthesizer, and a display which displays the summation image which is being synthesized by the image synthesizing means in the image brightness adjusting processing. |
| US08026946B2 |
Gate access system with visitor imaging and memory
A gate access system is described where the system includes an imaging system configured to capture an image of an object disposed in a predetermined field of view in response to an image capture signal. The imaging system is also configured to associate time/date data with the image. The time/date data represents a time and a date when the image was captured. At least one gate access panel device is disposed in the field of view and coupled to the imaging system. The at least one gate access panel device is configured to transmit the image capture signal in response to being actuated. A gate transceiver is coupled to the imaging system. The transceiver is configured to transmit the image and the time/date data via a wireless communication channel. |
| US08026944B1 |
Method and apparatus for hosting a network camera with image degradation
A method and apparatus for providing an improved Internet camera is described. The method of keeping a refreshed image from a camera on a user's system comprises sending the image to the user's system and refreshing the image periodically. The method further comprises after a period of time, degrading the image. |
| US08026942B2 |
Skin imaging system with probe
A skin testing and imaging station and corresponding method for capturing, displaying and analyzing images of a person and for testing the skin using a variety of probes includes a digital camera, a light source capable of providing at least two different wavelengths of light, a plurality of probes for conducting skin tests, a touch-screen display and a computer for controlling the components of the station. The apparatus selectively captures and displays a plurality of digital images using different wavelengths of illuminating light, e.g., using a plurality of flashes and filters, some of which may be adjustable to adjust the angle of incidence of the illuminating light on the subject. In video mode, the camera displays a real time image on the display facilitating a user to position a probe for testing any specific area of the skin. Preferably, the apparatus is self-serve, allowing any person to capture, review and analyze the images and skin data. Verbal and/or graphic instructions to a user aid in use of the station. An intuitive graphic user interface with thumbnail images is employed. Focus control, zoom and synchronized side-by side comparison of images are available. |
| US08026941B2 |
Light scanning unit and image forming apparatus comprising the same
A light scanning unit includes: a light source unit; a polygon mirror for deflecting and scanning light emitted from the light source unit, in a main scanning direction, and having a plurality of deflection surfaces and a plurality of edges at which adjacent deflection surfaces meet one another; an image forming optical system for condensing the deflected light; and a synchronization detection optical system for detecting a portion of light that is divided and reflected at an edge of the polygon mirror. The light scanning unit may be incorporated into an image forming apparatus. |
| US08026940B2 |
Image forming apparatus
A CPU (91) of an image forming apparatus includes a beam detecting part (911) that detects each of laser beams scanning by a predetermined number (e.g., four) of polygon mirrors (332) at a preset position (where a beam sensor (335) is disposed), a reference phase setting part (912) that sets a reference phase that is a phase to be a reference of the predetermined number of rotation phases of the polygon mirrors (332) based on a result of detection by the beam detecting part (911), and a phase control part (913) that controls polygon motor (330) so that predetermined number of rotation phases of the polygon mirrors (332) match the reference phase. |
| US08026939B2 |
Optical printer head and image forming apparatus equipped with the same
The invention relates to an optical printer head 12 provided with one or a plurality of light emitting element array units 3. The light emitting element array unit 3 is provided with a circuit board 30, a base member 33 supporting the circuit board 30, and a plurality of light emitting elements mounted onto the base member 33 and arranged in a row in main scanning directions M1 and M2. The base member 33 has a lower hygroscopic rate than the circuit board 30. The plurality of light emitting element array units 3 are arranged along the main scanning directions M1 and M2, for example, so that end portions 34 in adjacent light emitting element array units 3 are overlapped with each other in vertical-scanning directions S1 and S2. |
| US08026937B2 |
Image forming method, image forming apparatus and toner image pattern
An image forming method exposes image bearing members by simultaneously reflecting light beams corresponding to different colors by different reflection surfaces of a polygon mirror, transforms electrostatic latent images formed on the image bearing members into toner images for correction, transfers the toner images in an overlapping manner onto a transfer body, and calibrates overlapping positions of the toner images based on an optical detection of the toner images. The toner images are arranged at positions on the transfer body such that the toner images of different colors have no overlap therebetween, even if the toner images shift in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction due to a color registration error. Two first toner images simultaneously formed by two corresponding light beams reflected by one reflection surface of the polygon mirror are arranged adjacent to each other in a transport direction of the transfer body, and are sandwiched by two second toner images simultaneously formed by the two corresponding light beams reflected by the one reflection surface of the polygon mirror along the transport direction. |
| US08026934B2 |
Driving control apparatus of display apparatus, display method, display apparatus, display monitor, and television receiver
In one embodiment of the present invention, to time-divide one frame of an input image signal into a first-half sub frame and a second-half sub frame, the grayscale of the signal in the second-half sub frame is set at a grayscale for dark display and the grayscale of the display signal of the first-half sub frame is adjusted, when the input image signal indicates low brightness. When an image with high brightness is displayed, the grayscale of the display signal of the first-half sub frame is set at a second predetermined value smaller than the maximum value and the grayscale of the display signal of the second-half sub frame is adjusted. Thereafter, in accordance with a combination of the input image signals of the (N-1)-th frame and the N-th frame, overshoot is performed with respect to the display signal of the first-half sub frame. |
| US08026932B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, image processing program, and image pickup apparatus
An image pickup apparatus includes: a first base image selection unit selecting a piece of image data as a first base image used in superposition; a shift amount calculation unit calculating an amount of shift between the first base image and another different piece of image data; an image superposition unit detecting a superposing area as an area in which the different piece of image data can be superposed on the first base image after a shift correction is made on a basis of the calculated amount of shift, and performing superposition for the superposing area; a second base image selection unit selecting a piece of image data as a second base image used in a non-superposing area; and an image combination unit combining a superposition result with the non-superposing area in the second base image, and outputting image data as a combination result. |
| US08026921B2 |
Driving method, driving circuit and driving apparatus for a display system
A table-based driving circuit for displays that switches between a normal operational mode and a read table block mode. The driving circuit comprises an address sequencer and a memory. The memory comprises the full table of individual sequences, such as interlacing or color-sequential sequence. In the read table mode, the next upcoming addresses are read, i.e. are downloaded, from the memory into an address table register in the address sequencer. In the normal operational mode, the address sequencer generates the addresses for the video data to be stored in the memory or to be displayed. |
| US08026920B2 |
Extensible visual effects on active content in user interfaces
Methods and systems for applying visual effects to active content, such as buttons, comboboxes, video, edit fields, etc., wherein interactivity of the active content are retained thereafter. Also, the present disclosure provides a mechanism for developers to build new visual effects and have them applied to active content. |
| US08026915B1 |
Programmable visible surface compositing
Programmable or user-defined visibility functions can be defined to achieve rendering effects and eliminate rendering errors. A renderer traverses the set of geometry samples potentially visible to an image sample. Rather than accumulate opacity and color in strict depth order, the renderer can invoke visibility functions associated with some or all of the geometry samples. Each geometry sample's visibility function can access attributes of any other geometry sample associated with the image sample. Furthermore, each geometry sample's visibility function can identify the position of its associated geometry sample and any other geometry samples in the depth sequence of geometry samples associated with an image sample. A visibility function can return any arbitrary value based on attributes of its associated geometry sample, attributes of other geometry samples associated with the image sample, and/or the position of geometry samples in the depth sequence associated with the image sample. |
| US08026910B2 |
Offline optimization pipeline for 3D content in embedded devices
Apparatus are provided including assets defining 3D models, including 3D icons and scenes, and animations of the 3D models. An offline optimization engine is provided to process data to be acted upon by a graphics engine of a target embedded device. A graphics engine simulator is provided to simulate, on a computer platform other than a target embedded device, select functions of a target embedded device running a graphics engine including API calls that directly calls API functions of a hardware level API of the target embedded device. |
| US08026909B2 |
Electro-luminescence display device and driving apparatus thereof
An electro-luminescence display device includes: pixels provided between data lines and scan lines, each of the pixels including a light-emitting cell driven with a current; and a current controller for temporarily increasing the current for driving the light-emitting cells. |
| US08026908B2 |
Illuminated surround and method for operating same for video and other displays
In a video or other screen display apparatus, a surround to the actual screen is provided whose light output is variable in order to compensate for the effect of ambient (room) illumination on apparent contrast and chroma of the displayed image. The relationship between ambient light level and the surround illumination is an inverse power function. This provides the effect of making the viewer perceive that the entire room is brighter than it actually is, resulting in a desirable change in his perception of brightness. Thereby, the chromaticity of the surround is variable to allow a match to the calibrated white point of the video display. The apparatus includes an ambient light sensor whose output signal is provided to a control system driving the illuminated surround. |
| US08026906B2 |
Integrated force sensitive lens and software
A software compensation method that allows a touch sensitive display to be built using low-cost FSR force sensors The compensation method comprises an array of functional compensation modules including filtering, voltage conversion, temperature compensation, humidity compensation, sensor calibration, sensor reading linearization, auto calibration, positioning determination and finally end-user and mechanical calibration. The array of compensation modules can bring system accuracy from a non-compensated average positioning error in the 25% to 50% range, down to aN end-user acceptable range of 0% to 5%. The increased positioning accuracy makes it possible to use FSRs as opposed to traditional piezoresistive based touch screen sensors. |
| US08026905B2 |
Double-sided touch sensitive panel and flex circuit bonding
A multi-touch sensor panel can be created using a substrate with column and row traces formed on either side. Metal traces running along the border of the substrate can be used to bring the row traces to the same edge as the column traces. A single flex circuit can be fabricated to connect to the rows and columns on directly opposing sides. Flex printed circuits can be bonded to directly opposing attachment areas of a substrate by cooling one side of the substrate while bonding the other. In addition, “coverlay” material extending over right-angled traces on the flex circuit ensure that those traces do not get shorted should conductive bonding material get squeezed out during bonding. Furthermore, a spacer is placed at the distal end of the flex circuit to apply even bonding pressure over the entire flex circuit attachment area during bonding. |
| US08026902B2 |
Input device for a motor vehicle
An input device, e.g., for a motor vehicle, includes: a display for the visual representation of an operating element; a touch screen disposed above the display for detecting a touching contact of the touch screen in the region of the operating element; and a control system for displacing the operating element, represented with the aid of the display, according to a touching motion across the touch screen, and the input device including an actuator for deflecting the touch screen when the operating element attains a predefined position or is moved a predefined distance. |
| US08026899B2 |
Computer input device having movable light pervious plate
A computer input device includes a housing, a move tracking module, and a light pervious plate. The move tracking module is disposed in the housing, and emits a sensing light. The light pervious plate is movably disposed between the housing and the move tracking module, and may be moved between a first position and a second position relatively to the move tracking module. In this manner, the sensing light selectively penetrates the light pervious plate and is emits out of the housing, or is directly emits out of the housing, so that the computer input device correspondingly executes a touch mode or a mouse mode. |
| US08026893B2 |
Liquid crystal display device and apparatus and method for driving the same
A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel with four colors of sub-pixels, and a backlight unit having light emitting diodes of at least five colors to apply multi-primary light to the liquid crystal display panel. |
| US08026888B2 |
Voltage supplying device
A voltage supplying device (1) comprising a video line (LV1), a video line (LVn), a source line (LS1) of a source line group (GS1) supplied with a gray scale voltage through the video line (LV1), a source line (LSn) of a source line group (GS1) supplied with a gray scale voltage through the video line (LVn), a source line (LS1) of a source line group (GS2) supplied with a voltage through the video line (LV1), and a controlling means for continuing to supply the source line (LSn) of the source line group (GS1) during a transition from a state in which the source line (LS1) of a source line group (GS1) is supplied with a voltage to a state in which the source line (LSn) of a source line group (GS1) is supplied with a voltage. |
| US08026886B2 |
Electro-optical device and driving method for the same
A grey tone display and a driving method are described. The display comprises a light influencing layer, an electrode pad located adjacent to the layer at one side of the layer in order to define a pixel in the layer, an n-channel field effect transistors connected to the electrode pad at its source terminal, a p-channel field effect transistors connected to the electrode pad at its source terminal, a first control line connected to the drain terminal of the n-channel field effect transistor, a second control line connected to the drain terminal of the p-channel field effect transistor, a third control line connected to the gate terminals of the n-channel field effect transistor and the p-channel field effect transistor, and a control circuit for supplying control signals to the first, second and third control lines. By this configuration, the voltage of the electrode pad can be arbitrarily controlled by adjusting the input level at the gate terminals. |
| US08026884B2 |
Optical module and positioning frame thereof
A system for driving a liquid crystal display is provided. The system receives a video signal including a first predetermined gray level signal and a second predetermined gray level signal. The system includes a memory, an impulse signal module, a first multiplexer and a detection unit. The memory stores the first predetermined gray level signal. The impulse signal module receives the first and second predetermined gray level signal to generate a plurality of impulse signals. The first multiplexer receives the plurality of impulse signals and outputs the second predetermined gray level signal or the plurality of impulse signals according to the first control signal. The detection unit generates a first control signal to be applied to the first multiplexer according to the first predetermined gray level signal and the second predetermined gray level signal. |
| US08026880B2 |
Optical element, and illuminating optical device, display device and electronic device using the same
A microlouver includes a periodic structure in which a transparent layer and a light absorption layer are alternately disposed with a constant, repetitive period. The range of the exit direction of a light beam passing through the transparent layer is restricted by the light absorption layer. The periodic structure includes a periodic structure portion divided in the direction that intersects the direction in which the transparent layer and the light absorption layer are repeatedly disposed. In the periodic structure portion, between the periodic structures adjacent to each other, there is a difference of 180 degree in the phase of spatial frequency of each periodic structure. |
| US08026878B2 |
Image display device with plural light emitting diodes
Disclosed herein is an image display device having a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs), which can maintain a primary color which is desired to be expressed, and prevent an interference of other unwanted colors and a change of the primary color at the time of application of a light source of each light emitting diode. The image display device comprises: a first optical filter layer containing a violet wavelength-absorbing material having a wavelength range of from 380 nm to 450 nm such as Bi2O3 so as to prevent light having a wavelength ranging from 380 nm to 450 nm from being leaked out to an undesired region of an image display portion of the image display device; and a second optical filter layer such as a blue color filter layer so as to allow a white light to be expressed in a desired region of the image display portion. |
| US08026874B2 |
Display apparatus, method of driving a display, and electronic device
In a display apparatus including a correction unit and a switching transistor, the correction unit operates in a non-light emission period such that a correction voltage for eliminating an effect of a variation in a characteristic of a driving transistor is stored in a storage capacitor. The switching transistor is disposed between one current terminal of the driving transistor and a light emitting element. The switching transistor turns off during the non-light emission period thereby to electrically disconnect the light emitting element from the one current terminal of the driving transistor thereby preventing a leakage current from flowing through the light emitting element during the period in which the correction unit operates, and thus preventing the correction voltage from having an error due to the leakage current. |
| US08026873B2 |
Electroluminescent display compensated analog transistor drive signal
Apparatus for providing an analog drive transistor control signal to the gate electrode of a drive transistor in a drive circuit that applies current to an EL device, the drive circuit including a first supply electrode of the drive transistor and the EL device connected to a second supply electrode of the drive transistor, comprising a measuring circuit for measuring the current passing through the supply electrodes at different times to provide an aging signal representing variations in the characteristics of the drive transistor and EL device caused by operation of the drive transistor and EL device over time; a compensator for changing a linear code value in response to the aging signal to compensate for the variations in the characteristics of the drive transistor and EL device; and a linear source driver for producing the analog drive transistor control signal in response to the changed linear code value. |
| US08026867B2 |
Plasma display device and method of driving the same using variable and multi-slope driving waveforms
The present invention relates to a plasma display device and a method of driving the plasma display device. A gradually rising waveform and then a falling waveform are applied to the scan electrodes. A rising waveform has a slope different from that of a rising waveform applied in a first sub-field in at least one of sub-fields posterior to the first sub-field. |
| US08026866B2 |
Method for applying the same dithering table to different flat panels and display panel driving method using the same
A method for applying the same dithering table to different flat panels and a display panel driving method using the same. The method for applying the same dithering table to different flat panels is mainly to set different dot counts between different panels on the rows, in which pixels are shifted, so that the display data of scan lines, in which the pixels are shifted, is shifted by the dot counts when the display data is substituted into the dithering table. Thus, even if different display panels use the same dithering table, the display entropy can be uniformly distributed. |
| US08026859B2 |
Horn antenna with integrated impedance matching network for improved operating frequency range
A dual- or quad-ridged horn antenna with an embedded impedance matching network is provided herein. According to one embodiment, the horn antenna may include at least one pair of ridges arranged opposite one another for guiding an electromagnetic wave there between. A transmission line is coupled to a first one of the ridges for supplying power to, or receiving a signal from, a feed region of the horn antenna. To reduce impedance mismatches between the transmission line and the ridges, an impedance matching network is embedded within a second one of the ridges at the feed point. The impedance matching network reduces impedance mismatch and extends the operational frequency range of the horn antenna by providing a sufficient amount of series capacitance between the transmission line and the ridges at the feed region. As set forth herein, the impedance matching network is preferably implemented as an open-circuit transmission line stub or capacitive stub. |
| US08026858B2 |
Glass antenna device for a vehicle
An antenna element 1 is installed at a glass part 5 of a vehicle 4. The antennal element 1 has a ground part 3 and a radiating element 2. A metallic part side ground part 3b of the ground part 3 is overlapped with a metallic part 6 of the vehicle 4, while a glass part side ground part 3a of the ground part 3 and the radiating element 2 are not overlapped with the metallic part 6. The ground part 3 is installed such that a ratio of the area of the glass part side ground part 3a to be overlapped with the glass part 5 to the area of the metallic part side ground part 3b to be overlapped with the metallic part 6 is from 1:5 to 1:10. |
| US08026855B2 |
Radio apparatus and antenna thereof
A feed element and a parasitic element are formed on the ends of a board. The feed element is formed on the surface of the board, and the parasitic element is formed on the back of the board. A circuit region of the board is mounted with a radio communication circuit. The feed element is connected with a signal line, and the parasitic element is connected with a GND line. A slit is provided between the feed element and the circuit region, and a slit is provided between the parasitic element and the circuit element. |
| US08026853B2 |
Broadside high-directivity microstrip patch antennas
High-directivity microstrip antennas comprising a driven patch and at least one parasitic element placed on the same plane, operate at a frequency larger than the fundamental mode of the driven patch in order to obtain a resonant frequency with a high-directivity broadside radiation pattern. The driven patch, the parasitic elements and the gaps between them may be shaped as multilevel and/or Space Filling geometries. The gap defined between the driven and parasitic patches according to the invention is used to control the resonant frequency where the high-directivity behavior is obtained. The invention provides that with one single element is possible to obtain the same directivity than an array of microstrip antennas operating at the fundamental mode. |
| US08026851B2 |
Planar antenna and manufacturing method thereof
A planar antenna has a circuit pattern including an antenna part and a connection terminal part on a plastic film, in which the circuit pattern has a metal layer and a heat-sealable conductive layer provided on a surface layer of a connection terminal part of the metal layer. The planar antenna is obtained by forming a circuit pattern including a metal layer on a plastic film, providing a heat-sealable conductive layer in a connection terminal part of the circuit pattern, and then removing an unnecessary part with etching. |
| US08026849B2 |
Systems and methods for three dimensional antenna selection and power control in an ad-hoc wireless network
A system (105) determines a power level for transmitting to a neighboring node in a wireless network. The system (105) receives a message indicating a three-dimensional position and orientation of the neighboring node and a type of directional antenna of the neighboring node that transmitted the message. The system (105) determines the power level for transmitting to the neighboring node based on the three-dimensional position and orientation of the neighboring node and the type of the directional antenna. |
| US08026848B2 |
Radio-based position location systems, antenna configurations, and methods for determining antenna configurations
A radio-based position location system for determining a relative position of a first object with respect to a second object may include a first radio operatively associated with the first object. A first directional antenna having at least a high gain region is mounted to the second object so that the high gain region is directed generally outwardly from the second object and defines a first detection zone. A second directional antenna having at least a high gain region is also mounted to the second object and is oriented so that the high gain region is also directed generally outwardly and defines a second detection zone. A second radio connected to the first and second directional antennas exchanges radio signals with at least the first radio to determine the relative position of the first object with respect to the second object at least in part by determining a time-of-flight of a radio signal. The radio signals are primarily exchanged via the first directional antenna when the first object is in the first detection zone, whereas the radio signals are primarily exchanged via the second directional antenna when the first object is in the second detection zone. |
| US08026846B2 |
Mobile radiation surveillance network
A detection system and method having at least one detection unit, and a control center unit.The detection unit includes at least one sensor configured to generate sensor data correlated to sensed conditions, a locator for actively determining location data corresponding to the location of the detection unit, and a communicator configured to communicate the sensor data and location data.The control center includes a receiver for receiving the sensor data and the location data, together with a control processor which is configured to determine a threat level correlated to the sensor data. |
| US08026837B1 |
Systems and methods for converting wideband signals in the optical domain
Systems and methods for converting wideband signals in the optical domain are provided. A device for obtaining a digital representation of a received signal may include a spatially dispersive element that may be configured to spatially disperse frequencies in an optical-domain representation of the received signal; a spatial light modulator that may be configured to mix the dispersed optical frequencies by imposing a mixing matrix on an optical intensity of the dispersed optical frequencies; an optical sensor that may be configured to obtain an electrical representation of the mixed dispersed optical frequencies; and a signal recovery processor that may be configured to obtain a digital representation of the received signal based on the electrical representation and the mixing matrix. The signal recovery processor may be further configured to determine a modulation format of the digital representation and may demodulate the digital representation based on the modulation format. |
| US08026834B2 |
Method and system for operating a display device
Methods and systems for operating a display device are provided. A first image is caused to be displayed on the display device. The first image is at least representative of a field of view from on-board an aircraft. A second image is rendered over the first image on the display device. A luminance of at least a portion of the second image is temporally modulated. |
| US08026832B2 |
Mobile system for exacting parking tolls
Mobile systems are provided for charging electronic toll collection accounts for parking fees. The systems are configured to wirelessly request and receive tag data from an electronic toll device. Some embodiments include a vehicle and a boom, some embodiments include a handheld device, and other embodiments include combinations thereof. Methods of charging an electronic toll payment system are also provided. A mobile scan system wirelessly requests and receives tag data from an electronic toll device on a customer's vehicle which is checked for validity, and then an electronic toll collection account is charged a fee for parking. |
| US08026831B2 |
Weather information notification apparatus and program for the same
A weather information notification apparatus mounted to a vehicle is disclosed. The weather information notification apparatus includes: an acquisition section that cyclically acquires information about weather at a point; a record section that stores the acquired information about weather at the point in an external storage medium unit; and a notification section that causes an external notification unit to notify information about non-latest weather at the point, the information about non-latest weather at the point being a piece of the information about weather at the point stored in the external storage medium unit. |
| US08026827B1 |
Virtual push button switch
A user interface display system can include at least one user responsive element. The user responsive element can include an optical mechanism. A pulsed light source can produce a light beam. Apparatus are provided for causing the light beam to repeatedly scan across the activity field. A controller can be arranged to repeatedly turn the light source on at one or more predetermined scan positions to illuminate the user responsive element. The controller can also be programed to act upon a signal regarding the status of the element. A photo detector can send the signal to the controller. The optical mechanism acts upon the light beam differently based upon the status of the user responsive element. |
| US08026826B2 |
Door bell with compact profile
A door bell includes a case and a frame is located within the open space of the case. An electro-magnetic valve is connected to the frame and controls two hit pins and a circuit board is connected to the frame and electronically connected to the electro-magnetic valve. Two resilient members are mounted to the hit pins which hit a sound plate located beneath the hit pins to generate sound. The sound is amplified by two sound boxes. The circuit board transfers alternative current into direct current so that no hulky part projecting from the door bell. |
| US08026825B2 |
Light sensing pull station
An alarm pull station includes a housing, an alarm indicator carried within the housing, an alarm activation mechanism carried within the housing, such that the alarm activation mechanism is adjacent to the alarm indicator, and configured to generate an alarm signal, and a sensor carried within the housing such that the sensor is configured to generate a signal in response to a sensed condition and the alarm indicator is activated in response to the signal generated by the sensor. |
| US08026815B2 |
Reading out of information using an optoelectronic sensor and an RFID reader
A device (10) is provided for the reading out of information from a transponder (14) arranged at an object (12), said device comprising an optoelectronic sensor (24), a reading device (16) able to excite the transponder (14) to radiate the information and able to read out the radiated information and a control (26) which is made for a control of the reading device (16) and of the sensor (24) as well as for an evaluation of the read out information.In this connection, the optoelectronic sensor (24) can determine a movement pattern of the object (12) and the control (26) is made only to evaluate the read out information with objects (12) of a preset movement pattern.A corresponding method is furthermore described. |
| US08026811B2 |
Security system and method for using an LF activated RFID tag
A security system includes a system control panel for arming and disarming a security system. A door sensing unit is mounted proximate to a door to be monitored. The door sensing unit includes a door contact, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver, and a low frequency (LF) transmitter. The door contact is configured to detect open and closed states of the door. The RF transceiver is interconnected with the system control panel over a network and the LF transmitter transmits an LF data packet when the door contact detects the open state of the door. A disarm device having an LF detection circuit detects the LF data packet. The disarm device transmits an RF disarm data packet based on the LF data packet. The RF transceiver transmits a disarm message to the system control panel over the network to disarm the security system based on the RF disarm data packet. |
| US08026810B2 |
Device for controlling and monitoring sequential subsections of an installation
A device for controlling and monitoring an installation that is composed of sequentially disposed sub-sections in a chain so that each sub-section lies between a forward sub-section and a rearward sub-section, with the exception of the terminal sub-sections of the installation. Each sub-section is connected to a first control unit and a second control unit and the control units of the sub-sections communicate at least partially with one another, with the sub-sections, and/or with a higher-level control center. Increased safety requirements are satisfied with the novel device, while at the same time being cost-effective, in that the first control unit is also connected to the forward sub-section and the second control unit is also connected to the rearward sub-section. |
| US08026809B2 |
Monitoring method and stationary unit for a motor-driven door
A monitoring method and a monitoring device for a motor-driven door, wherein a stationary unit and a monitoring device mounted on the movable door communicate bidirectionally with one another, wherein data and/or signals of at least one door safety sensor are relayed to the stationary unit, and wherein a waking device is automatically wakened cyclically or is wakened by a vibration sensor and wakes the control device, which in turn wakes the transmitter/receiver and actively queries the stationary unit assigned individually to it as to whether the monitoring device must remain active or be switched back to a power-saving idle state. |
| US08026808B2 |
Display of information related to data collected via wireless network sensors
A method for displaying an indication of data collected via a wireless network sensor involves processing the collected data to generate reports. The wireless network sensor includes a plurality of sensors for detecting events occurring proximate the sensors, a processor for receiving and processing data from the sensors, and a wireless transmitter for wirelessly transmitting data. The method displays an indication of parsed events, episodes, vectors, links, and paths based upon the received data. Another method displays a representation of a location of each sensor in the wireless network sensors in a monitored environment and information related to data collected via the sensors. |
| US08026804B2 |
Residential security surveillance and notification management system
The apparatus is applicable to a communications network, wherein, via an information processing platform of a network server end, the system is connected to a network surveillance device installed in a monitored environment, in which the information processing platform processes and saves event message about the environment acquired by the network surveillance device, and generates corresponding notification messages. Via a browsing authorization certification mechanism, the system allows a user having been identified as a certified user to connect to the information processing platform via a communication terminal device for monitoring message information. Using the system, a certified user is capable of the following: accessing or receiving surveillance message information via the information processing platform, receiving notification message from the information processing platform, accessing the information processing platform to manage and maintain user authorized certification information, and/or selectively switching on/off connection between the network surveillance device and the information processing platform. |
| US08026802B2 |
Vehicle abnormality detection method and device thereof and sensor unit thereof
There is provided a vehicle abnormality detection method detecting an abnormal state in which a high temperature occurs due to maladjustment of a vehicle bearing mechanism section or vehicle brake mechanism section, and a device thereof and a sensor unit thereof. By use of the sensor unit 100 mounted in a rim 31, an air temperature within a tire 2 is sensed as a first temperature and a temperature (second temperature) of the rim 31 is sensed as a temperature related to at least one of a temperature of the vehicle bearing mechanism section and a temperature of the vehicle brake mechanism section 40. Then a temperature difference between the first and second temperatures is calculated and when the temperature difference is a predetermined value or more, it is determined that an abnormality has occurred in the vehicle bearing mechanism section or vehicle brake mechanism section 40. The abnormality is thus detected. |
| US08026799B2 |
Vehicle collision determination apparatus
A collision determination apparatus detects a current value of a lateral acceleration of a subject vehicle for calculating a collision risk index, and the collision risk index is used to determine the risk of collision of the subject vehicle with a front object. As the collision risk index takes the lateral acceleration of the subject vehicle into account, the collision risk index correctly represents a risk of collision of the subject vehicle with the front object when the subject vehicle is traveling in a condition that is under an influence of the lateral acceleration. |
| US08026792B2 |
Global asset tracking enterprise system
A system for operating a container lock mechanism includes a housing, at least two lock members, the two lock members including a first lock member configured to engage a first portion of a container and a second lock member configured to engage a second portion of the container to mount the container lock mechanism outside of the container and lock at least one container door in a closed position. The system further includes a latching mechanism coupled to the first and second lock members, a lock circuit at least partially enclosed within the housing. The lock circuit includes a first memory, a wireless module configured to receive a wireless signal and a lock controller coupled to the first memory, the wireless module and the latching mechanism and configured to receive commands related to operation of the lock mechanism, at least a portion of the commands being part of the wireless signal, to cause the latching mechanism to resist having the first and second lock members be disengaged from the first and second portions of the container when the first and second lock members are engaged to the first and second portions of the container, thereby locking the at least one container door in response to the received commands, and a battery coupled to the lock circuit and configured to provide electrical power to at least a portion of the lock circuit. |
| US08026791B2 |
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for implementing remote control processes
A method, apparatus, and computer program product for implementing remote control processes is provided. The method includes receiving a request to execute an operation on a target device via selection of a function key on a remote control device. The function key is associated with the operation and the target device that performs the operation for remotely controlling operation of the target device via a signal transmitted from the remote control device to the target device when the function key is selected. The method also includes approving the request to execute the operation when authorization has been secured, and transmitting the signal from the remote control device to the target device in response to the approval. |
| US08026789B2 |
State-based remote control system
A state-based remote control system for providing efficient and simple operation of a plurality of electronic devices as a coordinated system based upon an overall task. The state-based remote control system includes a housing, a keypad in communication with an electronic system contained within the housing, and a communication device in communication with the electronic system for communicating with external electronic devices. The electronic system monitors the buttons selected by a user to determine the state of all external electronic devices that are to be controlled. When the user selects a task (e.g. watch television), the electronic system automatically determines the actions required to achieve the desired task based upon the current state of the external electronic devices. After the task has been fulfilled, the electronic system updates the data to reflect the modified state of the external electronic devices. |
| US08026788B2 |
Thin-film resistor with a layer structure and method for manufacturing a thin-film resistor with a layer structure
A thin-film resistor with a layer structure with a Ti layer and a TiN layer is described, wherein a layer thickness of the Ti layer and a layer thickness of the TiN layer are selected such that a resulting temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) is smaller than 1000 ppm/° C. |
| US08026787B2 |
Ceramic component element and ceramic component and method for the same
A ceramic component element is provided. The ceramic component element includes: an insulating ceramic base with pores formed on its surface and previously fired; and a functional ceramic sheet bonded to the insulating ceramic base and having electrical characteristics. The functional ceramic sheet is physically bonded to the insulating ceramic base by forming pressing a green sheet for the functional ceramic sheet on the insulating ceramic base at constant temperature and pressure so that parts of the green sheet are forced to put into the pores and anchored, and the functional ceramic sheet is chemically bonded to the insulating ceramic base by firing the anchored green sheet in such a manner that functional oxides of the green sheet penetrate the insulating ceramic base by solid diffusion to form a diffusion bonding layer. |
| US08026786B2 |
Touch safe fuse module with improved wiring lugs
A fuse module includes a wiring lug. The wiring lug includes a fuse clip member comprising a first pressure plate and a fuse clip, a lug box comprising a second pressure plate, and a securing member operably coupled to the lug box. The securing member operates between a first position and a second position to move the second pressure plate of the lug box with respect to the first pressure plate of the fuse clip member. The first pressure plate and the second pressure plate have a clamping relationship when the securing member is in the first position and have a non-clamping relationship when the securing member is in the second position. |
| US08026781B2 |
Solenoid device with stable activation
A solenoid may include a core having a junction surface; a plunger having a junction surface and located adjacent to the core; a shading ring located proximate to an interface between the core junction surface and the plunger junction surface, the shading ring having an outside diameter slightly smaller than the diameter of the core, and operable to produce a concentration of magnetic attraction within an annular range of the interface between a center of the interface and a location of the shading ring; wherein a contact region between the core junction surface and the plunger junction surface is substantially smaller than the respective junction surfaces and located proximate to the annular range of the concentration of magnetic attraction. |
| US08026779B2 |
Vibrator, resonator using the same and electromechanical filter using the same
An object is to provide a resonator and a vibrator with a high Q value in which dissipation of vibration energy in vibration of the vibrator is small, and a thickness of a support part of the vibrator of a beam structure is made thicker than a thickness of the vibrator and the support part is formed in axisymmetry with respect to a length direction of a beam. By this configuration, brittleness of the support part is improved and loss of vibration energy from the support part is reduced and also loss of vibration energy resulting from surface roughness of a surface of the vibrator can be reduced, so that a resonator having a high Q value can be provided. |
| US08026778B2 |
LC composite component
An LC composite component capable of reducing an overall size while keeping a Q-value of a resonator at a high level and increasing coupling flexibility of resonators includes two capacitor electrodes and two input/output terminal electrodes extending therefrom provided on a first dielectric layer. A ground electrode and another capacitor electrode are provided on second and sixth dielectric layers, respectively. Two substantially linear line electrodes are provided on a third dielectric layer. Two substantially U-shaped line electrodes are provided on a fourth dielectric layer. Two substantially crank-shaped line electrodes are provided on a fifth dielectric layer. Six via electrodes arranged to connect ends of respective line electrodes are provided on the third, fourth, and fifth dielectric layers. These via electrodes and line electrodes constitute electrodes of a double helix structure. |
| US08026777B2 |
Energy conditioner structures
Disclosed are energy conditioner structures, method of making and using them wherein the structure comprises a sequence of conductive layers including a first A layer, a G layer, and a first B layer; wherein said first A layer, said G layer, and said first B layer are each conductive, and are conductively isolated from one another in said energy conditioner structure; wherein said first A layer includes a first A layer main body and a first A layer tab, said first B layer includes a first B layer main body and a first B layer tab, and said G layer includes a G layer main body and a G layer first tab; wherein said G layer is in a plane between a plane containing said first A layer and a plane containing said first B layer; where the main body of at least one of said first A layer and said first B layer opposes a portion of said G layer main body; wherein two of said first A layer tab, said first B layer tab, and said G layer first tab are on a first side of said energy conditioner, and the remaining one of said first A layer tab, said first B layer tab, and said G layer first tab is on a second side of said energy conditioner, and said second side is opposite from said first side; and said method comprising applying electrical energy to one of said first A layer, said G layer, and said first B layer. |
| US08026773B2 |
System and method for a digitally tunable impedance matching network
The present disclosure relates generally to digitally tunable impedance matching networks. In one example, a digitally tunable impedance matching network is configured to produce an overall reactance value of approximately X, and includes multiple reactive components that are configured to produce a reactance value in the range of approximately zero to X with a minimum resolution of approximately X/2n. |
| US08026765B2 |
Audio frequency amplifier
An amplifier is operable in push-pull mode, single-ended mode, or a composite mode that is an intermediate between single-ended and Push-pull modes. Moreover, at least one output device may be configured to operate using a high performance AC servo loop that functions the output device as a current source. Still further, a control input driver stage is provided that is capable of supplying sufficient AC current to overcome Miller capacitance induced roll off within the intended frequency spectrum of triode vacuum tubes. Additionally, methods are provided to substantially null or selectively introduce DC magnetic bias within the output transformer core. Still further, a solid state power supply stage provides substantial AC hum reduction during single-ended operation and simultaneously provides output voltage load regulation attributes similar to traditional vacuum tube rectifier circuits. |
| US08026760B1 |
Gain enhanced switched capacitor circuit and method of operation
A switched capacitor circuit utilizes a pair of serially connected differential amplifiers that have plus inputs, minus inputs, plus outputs, and minus outputs. Feedback to the plus/minus inputs is in a first configuration relative to the output of the pair of differential amplifiers in a sampling mode and a second configuration in a hold mode. Similarly, the plus/minus inputs relative to the plus/minus outputs of the serially connected differential amplifiers is reversed between the sampling and hold modes. |
| US08026755B2 |
Signal output apparatus, charge pump, voltage doubler and method for outputting current
A signal output apparatus, a charge pump, a voltage doubler and a method for outputting a current are provided. The interior circuit of a chip is used to generate an oscillation signal with a swing of 0 to 2×VIN, which drives a charge-pump type voltage doubler using large capacitors outside the chip to output a large current. |
| US08026752B2 |
Delay circuit
Disclosed is a delay circuit. The delay circuit includes a pulse generating unit, a timing adjusting unit, and a pulse width adjusting unit. The pulse generating unit is configured to generate a pulse signal having a preset width in response to a rising edge of an input signal. The timing adjusting unit is configured to activate an output signal in response to the pulse signal after a predetermined time has lapsed. The pulse width adjusting unit is configured to adjust a pulse width of the output signal in response to the activation of the output signal. |
| US08026749B2 |
Phase locked loop circuit, method of operating phase locked loop circuit and semiconductor memory device including phase locked loop circuit
A phase locked loop circuit includes a delay compensation circuit and a phase change circuit. The delay compensation circuit is adapted to generate a delay clock signal by delaying a phase of a first output clock signal by a second phase, the phase of the first output clock signal having a phase leading a phase of an input clock signal by a first phase, and the second phase corresponding to a delay compensation time greater than a period of the input clock signal and greater than the first phase. The phase change circuit is adapted to change the second phase to the first phase and to generate a feedback clock signal having a phase synchronized with the phase of the input clock signal in response to the first phase, wherein the first phase is a phase corresponding to a remainder time resulting from the delay compensation time being divided by the period of the input clock, and wherein the quotient is an integer. |
| US08026747B2 |
Apparatus and method for multi-phase clock generation
An apparatus and method for multi-phase clock generation are disclosed. One embodiment of the apparatus includes a module generating first and second intermediate signals delayed from first edges of a clock signal having a first frequency. Each of the first and second intermediate signals has a second frequency that is half of the first frequency. The first and second intermediate signals have a phase difference of 180° from each other. The apparatus also includes a first delay line delaying the first intermediate signal by a first delay amount; a second delay line delaying the first intermediate signal by a second delay amount; a third delay line delaying the second intermediate signal by a third delay amount; and a fourth delay line delaying the second intermediate signal by a fourth delay amount. The apparatus also includes a closed feedback loop for detecting and adjusting the second and fourth delay amount. |
| US08026745B2 |
Input/output driver with controlled transistor voltages
In an embodiment, an integrated circuit comprises core circuitry and at least one driver circuit. The core circuitry is powered by a first supply voltage during use, and comprises a control circuit configured to generate a pull up control signal, a pull down control signal, and at least one reference voltage. The driver circuit is powered by a second supply voltage during use, the second supply voltage having a greater magnitude than the first supply voltage. The driver circuit is connected to a pad to be connected to a pin on a package of the integrated circuit. The driver circuit comprises a cascode connection of a first transistor and a second transistor, and a capacitor coupled between a first gate terminal of the first transistor and a second gate terminal of the second transistor. The first gate terminal is coupled to receive the pull down control signal. |
| US08026744B2 |
Clock signal switching device, clock signal switching method, data bus switching device, and data bus switching method
A clock signal switching device includes: a plurality of signal synchronization generation means for generating mask signals and synchronized switching signals; a plurality of clock signal mask means for generating masked clock signals; a synchronized switching signal selection means for selecting one from among the synchronized switching signals; and a masked clock signal selection means for selecting one from among the masked clock signals. |
| US08026743B2 |
Envelope detector for high speed applications
An envelope detecting circuit is provided. The envelope detecting circuit comprises a source degeneration circuit that amplifies an input differential signal, a differential gain stage that supplies a voltage proportional to the amplified signal, a potential hold circuit that holds the voltage supplied from the gain stage, a comparator circuit that compares the voltage held by the potential holding circuit with a reference potential to output a detect signal, and envelope level adjustment and selection unit that responds to the detect signal and outputs a control signal to the source degeneration circuit. |
| US08026741B2 |
CMOS circuitry with mixed transistor parameters
CMOS circuitry having mixed threshold voltages is disclosed. Circuits may be implemented using PMOS transistors, NMOS transistors, or both. For at least one given type of transistor (PMOS or NMOS), a circuit includes at least one transistor configured to switch at a first nominal threshold voltage and at least one transistor configured to switch at a second nominal threshold voltage. The different threshold voltages among a given transistor type are realized by varying the thickness of the transistor gate oxides and/or the channel dopant density, for example. |
| US08026739B2 |
System level interconnect with programmable switching
Different functional elements are all located on a same integrated circuit wherein at least one of the functional elements comprises a micro-controller. Configuration registers or configuration memory in the integrated circuit store configuration values loaded by the micro-controller. Connectors are configured to connect the integrated circuit to external signals. A system level interconnect also located in the integrated circuit programmably connects together the different functional elements and different connectors according to the configuration values loaded into the configuration registers. |
| US08026734B2 |
Dual tip test probe assembly
A dual tip test probe assembly for use in both cantilever and vertical probe applications includes first and second elongated test probes, each having a body portion and a tip portion with a tip configured to make contact with a device under test. An electrically-insulating material is disposed between but not in contact with the body portions of the first and second elongated test probes to electrically isolate the first and second elongated test probes. The first and second elongated test probes are held in alignment with respect to each other so that the tip of the first elongated test probe is adjacent to and not in contact with the tip of the second elongated test probe for making simultaneous contact with the device under test. The dual tip test probe assembly provides a low inductance and a small, stable footprint for testing small and/or non-flat test points. |
| US08026733B2 |
Interface structure of wafer test equipment
A wafer test equipment system includes a performance board connected to a tester head of a tester. A universal block printed circuit board is positioned on the performance board, directly connecting a plurality of normal signal lines to a probe card and dividing each of a plurality of power signal lines into multiple paths and connecting them to the probe card. A cable assembly transfers the normal signal lines and the power signal lines between the universal block printed circuit board and the tester head. The cable assembly is soldered directly to the universal block printed circuit board in a perpendicular direction through a center portion of the performance board. A probe card is removably secured to the performance board including the universal block printed circuit board. The probe card includes an interposer on an upper surface thereof, a ceramic multi-layer substrate positioned below the interposer, and a plurality of needles positioned below the ceramic multi-layer substrate on a lower surface thereof opposite the upper surface. |
| US08026732B2 |
Probe with bi-directional electrostatic actuation
A probe system that has a probe body comprising at least three arms extending from a central region and a probe tip centrally located on the probe body in the central region. A substrate is proximate the probe body opposite the probe tip. A first electrode is positioned to provide a centrally positioned voltage across the probe body and the substrate and a second electrode set is positioned radially outward from the first electrode, to provide an outer voltage across at least one of the at least three arms and the substrate. The probe structure may have, for example, four arms. Methods of actuating the probe tip are provided. |
| US08026721B2 |
Remote body arrays for high-performance magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy
In a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and method, radio frequency signals are radiated into an examination subject and/or received from the examination subject by an array of radio frequency coils that completely encircles the examination subject, and that is located at a distance from the examination subject out of contact with the examination subject. |
| US08026716B2 |
Device for measuring magnetic particles and corresponding method
The invention concerns a device for the qualitative or quantitative measurement of a magnetically labelled analyte. The device includes a coil arrangement for measuring the analyte from a sample absorbed in a test base. The coil arrangement includes at least one measuring coil and a reference coil arranged in connection with it. From the signal of the coil arrangement a change in inductance correlating to the content of the magnetically labelled analyte is arranged to be detected. The change in inductance is arranged to be detected from a change (ΔA, Δφ) in amplitude and/or phase appearing in the output signal of the coil arrangement, which is arranged to be measured at the frequency of the input signal. In addition, the invention also relates to a corresponding method. |
| US08026714B2 |
Accelerometer with enhanced DC stability
An accelerometer with improved immunity to sensitivity drift is disclosed. In some embodiments, the accelerometer comprises an actuator that induces a known acceleration on a reference frame. A signal based on this known acceleration is used to calibrate the accelerometer to mitigate the effects due to at least one of sensitivity drift, D.C. bias drift, sense laser wavelength drift, and resonant frequency drift. |
| US08026713B2 |
State detection device for detecting operation state of high-frequency heating apparatus
An operating state detection technique is provided which makes it possible to accurately detect an abnormality of a high-frequency heating apparatus. An anode current detected by the anode current detection resistor 40 of a magnetron is inputted into the A/D converter terminal of a microcomputer 27 on a control panel circuit board side. The current is subjected to an analog-to-digital conversion to thereby obtain an anode voltage IaDC value. The microcomputer 27 determines an operating state based on a plurality of the anode voltage IaDC values thus read. Further, the microcomputer 27 obtains a summed value of the IaDC values corresponding to one period of the revolution of rotary antennas 68, 69 to thereby determines the operating state of the high-frequency heating apparatus 100 based on the summed value. According to the aforesaid IaDC value reading method, it makes it possible to accurately detect an abnormality without an erroneous operation also in correspondence to the change of the feeding distribution. Further, the microcomputer 27 changes, in accordance with the set output of the high-frequency heating apparatus, a threshold value used for determining the abnormality and a changing value (increasing amount) from the start of the operation with respect to the change of the output of the apparatus and the operating state of a heated subject etc., whereby it makes it possible to accurately detect an abnormality without an erroneous operation. |
| US08026711B2 |
Measuring device and method for locating objects enclosed in a medium, using high-frequency electromagnetic signals
The invention relates to a measuring device, in particular a hand-held measuring device for locating objects enclosed in a medium, using high-frequency electromagnetic signals. Said device comprises a housing (82) and at least one high-frequency sensor, which is located in the housing and has a first antenna assembly (10) containing at least one first antenna element (12), the latter preferably emitting and/or receiving signals on a first polarization plane. According to the invention, the antenna assembly (10) has at least one additional antenna element (14), whose polarization plane is rotated in relation to the polarization plane of the first antenna element (12). The invention also relates to a method for locating objects enclosed in a medium, using high-frequency electromagnetic signals, in particular a method for operating a hand-held locating device comprising a plurality of antenna elements (12, 14; 11, 13), in which the measuring signal can be transmitted and/or received on different polarization planes. |
| US08026710B2 |
Low power and high accuracy band gap voltage reference circuit
A system includes a device configured to operate in a first mode and a second mode. The device includes a first circuit configured to receive a first band gap voltage potential from a first band gap circuit when the device is operating in the first mode, and a second circuit configured to receive a second band gap voltage potential from a second band gap circuit when the device is operating in the second mode. The device is configured to generate a mode select signal to selectively turn on and off the first band gap circuit and the second band gap circuit. A calibration circuit is configured to compare the second band gap voltage potential to the first band gap voltage potential, output a calibration signal to the second band gap circuit to adjust the second band gap voltage potential based on the comparison, and turn off the first band gap circuit in response to the second band gap voltage potential being within a predetermined range of the first band gap voltage potential. |
| US08026706B2 |
Adaptive controller with mode tracking and parametric estimation for digital power converters
A controller for a power stage may adaptively control power switches to improve the efficiency of power consumption by the power stage and detect continuous conduction mode (“CCM”) and discontinuous conduction mode (“DCM”) operations of the power stage without instantaneous or cycle by cycle sensing and sampling of the output inductor current. Additionally, the controller may be used to facilitate the estimation of output inductor value, the peak inductor current value, and other information on converter operations. |
| US08026704B2 |
System and method for controlling a converter
A system and method for controlling a converter. One embodiment provides the cyclic actuation of a first switching element, used for applying an input voltage to an inductive storage element. A second switching element is used as a first rectifier element in a rectifier arrangement, in a step-up converter. An actuating circuit is provided for the first and second switching elements. |
| US08026703B1 |
Voltage regulator and method having reduced wakeup-time and increased power efficiency
A voltage regulator and method of using the same are provided that improve wakeup-time and reduce power wastage in switching a device from standby or sleep-mode to active mode. Generally, the voltage regulator includes: (i) a standby regulator having a high-impedance node (NGATE); (ii) an active regulator having a high-impedance node (dominant pole node); (iii) a compensation capacitor; and (iv) a switching circuit to couple the compensation capacitor to the high-impedance node (NGATE) of the standby regulator while the device is in sleep-mode to pre-charge the compensation capacitor, and to couple the compensation capacitor to the high-impedance node (dominant pole node) of the active regulator while the device is in active or non-sleep-mode. Other embodiments are also disclosed. |
| US08026700B1 |
DC to DC converter having switch control and method of operation
In a D.C. to D.C. converter, an input voltage is received via an inductor at an input terminal and stored onto a capacitor of an integrator. A first switch is coupled between the input terminal and a reference terminal such as ground and thereby fluxes the inductor. The input voltage stored on the capacitor falls at a rate determined by the integrator circuit and an initial value of the input voltage. After a time duration, the first switch becomes nonconductive. Current flows from the inductor through a diode to an output terminal until a second switch across the diode is made conductive. Stored voltage on the capacitor of the integrator increases in response to the second switch being conductive. The stored voltage on the capacitor is continuously compared with a reference voltage. The second switch is made nonconductive when the stored voltage on the capacitor exceeds the reference voltage. |
| US08026699B2 |
Frequency converter for a double-fed asynchronous generator with variable power output and method for its operation
A frequency converter circuit for a double-fed asynchronous generator with a variable power output, which can be connected to a voltage network contains a rotor rectifier, which can be connected to the rotor of the asynchronous generator, a network frequency converter, which can be connected to the voltage network, and an intermediate circuit. The intermediate circuit contains a semiconductor switch arranged on the rotor rectifier, an intermediate circuit capacitor arranged on the network frequency converter, and a diode arranged between the semiconductor switch and the intermediate circuit capacitor. According to a method for operating such a frequency converter circuit, the semiconductor switch is kept closed during the sub-synchronous operation of the asynchronous generator, and during at least some periods of synchronous or super-synchronous operation of the asynchronous generator the semiconductor switch is opened. |
| US08026692B2 |
Portable electronic device
An exemplary portable electronic device includes a main body and a battery therein. The main body has a wind power generating and charging module mounted therein. The wind power generating and charging module includes a wind turbine generator and a control circuit. The control circuit is configured for controlling the wind generator to charge the battery. |
| US08026691B2 |
Double ended inverter system with a cross-linked ultracapacitor network
A double ended inverter system for an AC traction motor of a vehicle includes a fuel cell configured to provide a DC voltage, an impedance source inverter subsystem coupled to the fuel cell, a DC voltage source, and an inverter subsystem coupled to the DC voltage source. The impedance source inverter subsystem, which includes an ultracapacitor, is configured to drive the AC traction motor. The inverter subsystem is configured to drive the AC electric traction motor. The ultracapacitor is implemented in a crossed LC network coupled to the fuel cell. |
| US08026688B2 |
Driving device
In order to provide a driving device that is capable of eliminating sticking of a movable member due to nonuse, the driving device includes a drive shaft that reciprocates in axial directions with expansion and contraction of an electromechanical transducer element, a movable member that frictionally engages with the drive shaft, and a drive circuit that inputs drive voltage into the electromechanical transducer element, the drive circuit outputting drive operation pattern voltage having a frequency (fd1′) lower than a resonance frequency (fr) of the electromechanical transducer element and lower than a frequency (fd1) that maximizes moving velocity of the movable member and sticking elimination pattern voltage having a frequency lower than the frequency (fd1′) of the drive operation pattern voltage and in vicinity of a frequency (fd2) that maximizes thrust acting on the movable member. |
| US08026683B2 |
Motor controller
A motor controller that outputs a drive signal to a direct-current brush motor to drive the motor is provided. The motor controller includes a drive signal generating section that generates the drive signal. The drive signal generating section generates the drive signal by superimposing on a direct-current voltage a compensation voltage for generating a compensation torque that can cancel rotation torque fluctuations in a no-load rotation state of the motor. |
| US08026676B2 |
Dimming control circuit
The present invention discloses a dimming control circuit, comprising: an input terminal for receiving an input signal; an analog and digital dimming circuit receiving the input signal, wherein the analog and digital dimming circuit provides an analog dimming function when a voltage level of the input signal is between a predetermined lower limit and a predetermined upper limit, and a digital dimming function when the voltage level of the input signal switches above and below the predetermined lower limit, and wherein the analog and digital dimming circuit generates an analog signal when the voltage level of the input signal is above the predetermined lower limit; and a power circuit for supplying an output current in correspondence to the analog signal generated by the analog and digital dimming circuit. |
| US08026674B2 |
Electron source and method for the operation thereof
An electron source has an electron emitter with an electron emission cathode, a high voltage unit provided for power supply of the electron emission cathode, and a low voltage unit provided to control the high voltage unit. Data are transmitted non-electrically (in particular optically) between the high voltage unit and the low voltage unit. |
| US08026661B2 |
Electronic displays using optically pumped luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals
A multicolor electronic display is based on an array of luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals. Nanocrystals which emit light of different colors are grouped into pixels. The nanocrystals are optically pumped to produce a multicolor display. Different sized nanocrystals are used to produce the different colors. A variety of pixel addressing systems can be used. |
| US08026658B2 |
Flexible screen comprising cathodic microtubes
A display screen, characterized in that the pixels of the image are generated by individual light-emitting capsules, said capsules constituting miniature cathodic tubes cold-cathode and being assembled in a matrix on a least one substrate of supple support, optionally transparent. The material emitting electrons of the capsules may be constituted by carbon nanotubes.The assembly of the capsules may be realized by forced insertion of the prefabricated capsules into a supple support, with or without previously cutting out placements of the capsules in the supports. Assembly of the capsules may likewise be done by moulding the prefabricated capsules in a supple support.Advantageously, the size of the capsules is optimized to ensure optimum matricial assembly of the pixels or correct balance of the non-printing areas, with for example a larger size for the capsules emitting its green light. |
| US08026656B2 |
Film containing conjugated polymer chains and method of producing the same
A method of producing a film containing an oxide having a plurality of tubular structures and a plurality of conjugated polymer chains includes preparing a solution by dissolving a precursor substance having a first site containing a precursor of the oxide and a second site containing a precursor of a component constituting the conjugated polymer chains; forming a film containing the oxide having the tubular structures on a substrate, the surface of which exhibits anisotropy, by applying the solution onto the substrate so that the tubular structures and the conjugated polymer chains are oriented; and forming the conjugated polymer chains in pores of the tubular structures by polymerizing the second site in the film formed on the substrate, wherein an inorganic component of the first site is connected to carbon of the second site through a covalent bond. |
| US08026655B2 |
Lamp with a base at one end
A lamp with a base at one end, in particular a high-pressure lamp, with a light bulb sealed in a vacuum-tight fashion, with the latter being surrounded by an outer bulb and an enveloping part, with a base supporting firstly the outer bulb and secondly the enveloping part, having the following features: a) the base has a base insulator which is produced from an insulating material and has a central opening which holds the outer bulb; b) the base insulator has a circular segment with a plateau; c) the enveloping part has a circular opening with a radially projecting edge which has a lower and upper contact face relative to the base on the base side, the lower contact face of the edge fitting together with the upper plateau of the circular, radially projecting segment on the base insulator; d) the enveloping part is attached to the base insulator by a cement-free mechanical holding mechanism, with an annular damping element being inserted between enveloping bulb and base insulator. |
| US08026654B2 |
Ignition device having an induction welded and laser weld reinforced firing tip and method of construction
An ignition device for an internal combustion engine and method of construction therefore includes a housing with an insulator secured therein. A center electrode is mounted within the insulator. A ground electrode extends from the housing with a portion of the ground electrode defining a spark gap across from the center electrode. The center electrode has a firing tip, wherein a resistance weld joint initially bonds the firing tip to the center electrode and a continuous bead of overlapping first weld pools formed substantially from the material of the firing tip further bonds the firing tip to the electrode. A continuous bead of overlapping second weld pools formed radially outwardly from the first weld pools forms a rounded shoulder surface extending from the first weld pools to an outer surface of the center electrode. |
| US08026653B2 |
Display device and optical filter
A display device provided with a screen, comprising: an optical filter having a blind sheet that comprises a plurality of semitranslucent layers having translucence arranged side-by-side extending in a horizontal direction and having a predetermined thickness in a vertical direction, and a plurality of transparent layers which are disposed between the semitranslucent layers and which are of a higher translucency than that of the semitranslucent layers and of a greater thickness than the thickness of the semitranslucent layers; and an adhesive member for sticking the optical filter to the screen, wherein the ratio of the transmittance of a limit angle of the screen with respect to the transmittance of the optical filter at the center of the screen is at least 0.10 and not more than 0.50. |
| US08026651B2 |
Ultrasound transducer and electronic device
An ultrasound transducer includes a substrate, an ultrasound transducer cell placed on one surface of the substrate and having a lower electrode, a first gap portion placed on the lower electrode and an upper electrode placed on the first gap portion, a first conductive layer placed on the other surface of the substrate and electrically connected to one of the lower electrode and the upper electrode, an electret film placed on the first conductive layer, an insulating layer placed on the electret film, and a second conductive layer placed on the insulating layer and electrically connected to the one of the lower electrode and the upper electrode not electrically connected to the first conductive layer. |
| US08026649B2 |
Rotor for electric machine
Electric machine rotor comprising: an inner rotor element and an outer rotor element positioned more outwards in the radial direction than the inner rotor element, the inner rotor element and the outer rotor element being made of a material of high permeance, and an air gap of low permeance between the inner rotor element and the outer rotor element. The outer rotor element forms a shape-mating pair with the inner rotor element, the inner rotor element and the outer rotor element being shaped in such a way that radial detachment of the outer rotor element from the inner rotor element is prevented. |
| US08026648B2 |
Electric machine
An electric machine, especially a brushless DC motor. Said electric machine comprises a rotor and a stator which is provided with current-carrying coils. Said rotor, in the circumferential direction, is provided with a plurality of permanent magnets that are embedded in respective magnet retainers between the peripheral surface and the shaft of the rotor in such a manner that the permanent magnets, in the radial direction, are completely encircled by the peripheral surface of the rotor. In the area of the magnet retainer, recesses extend laterally in the circumferential direction of the rotor and axially within the rotor. |
| US08026646B2 |
Motor with urging member comprising a flat spring
A motor may include a rotor having a rotation shaft, a stator disposed on an outer peripheral side of the rotor, a frame fixed to the stator, and an urging member made of metal for urging an end part on an output side of the rotation shaft to an opposite-to-output side. The frame includes a bottom face part, a stator fixing part which is formed to be bent from the bottom face part and which is fixed to the stator, and a shaft support part which is formed to be bent from the bottom face part so as to face the stator fixing part and which supports the end part on the output side of the rotation shaft, and the urging member is fixed by welding to an output side face which is a face on an output side of the shaft support part. The urging member is preferably a flat spring. |
| US08026644B2 |
Electric propulsion system useful in jet-type model airplanes and UAVS
A power plant for a jet-type model airplanes and UAVs includes an electric motor and a cover. The cover receives a portion of the electric motor and a sleeve into which the electric motor is inserted. The sleeve has a plurality of fins to dissipate heat and create openings into the cover. Air from the fan rotor passes through the openings to cool an electronic speed control member and exits a rear opening in the cover. The cover may also have additional openings for air to enter into the cover. |
| US08026642B2 |
Driving apparatus and vehicle including driving apparatus
A driving apparatus includes a rotating electrical machine; an inverter capable of supplying electric power to the rotating electrical machine; a containing case; a coolant circuit distributing coolant capable of cooling the inverter and the rotating electrical machine; a cooling mechanism, which is provided in the coolant circuit, is contained in the containing case, and is capable of cooling the rotating electrical machine and the inverter; and a supplying pipe capable of supplying the cooling mechanism with the coolant circulating in the cooling circuit. |
| US08026640B2 |
Electric machine having a rotary and a linear actuator
The invention relates to an electric machine which comprises a first machine part (30), comprising a stator element (31) and a rotor element (32) and being configured as a rotary actuator which interacts with a rotary movement of the rotor element (32). The electric machine (40) also comprises a second machine part (20), comprising a primary part (1) and a secondary part (2) and being configured as a linear actuator which interacts with a linear movement of the secondary part (2). The rotor element (32) of the first machine part (30) and the secondary part (2) of the second machine part (20) are interlinked. The secondary part (2) of the second machine part (20) can be rotated and is configured as an external rotor. Such a secondary part (2) allows to generate a higher power of a secondary machine part (20) acting as the linear motor. The secondary part (2) is mounted in the center thereof in relation to the primary part (1). |
| US08026638B2 |
System for multiple energy storage and management and method of making same
A propulsion system comprising an electric drive, a DC link electrically coupled to the electric drive, and a first energy storage system electrically coupled to the electric drive, the first energy storage system comprising at least a high specific-power energy storage device is shown. The propulsion system further includes a second energy storage system, wherein a first terminal of the second energy storage system is electrically coupled to the electric drive through the DC link and a second terminal of the second energy storage system is coupled in series with a terminal of the high specific-power energy storage device. A multi-channel bi-directional boost converter is coupled to the first energy storage system and to the second energy storage system, wherein the connection between the terminal of the high specific-power energy storage device and the second terminal of the second energy storage system bypasses the multi-channel bi-directional boost converter. |
| US08026634B2 |
Direct current system, method, and apparatus
A system and method for providing direct-current power is described. In one embodiment a direct current voltage is converted into at least two regulated DC voltages, and a first of the at least two regulated DC voltages is applied across a first and second outputs and a second of the at least two regulated DC voltages is applied across the second output and a third output. And when a first impedance across the first and second outputs is less than a second impedance across the second and third outputs, current is received via the second output while delivering power to the first and second impedances. |
| US08026630B2 |
System and method for supplying voltage to electrical loads of a motor vehicle by using a supercap
A system and method for supplying voltage to electrical loads in the onboard electrical system of a motor vehicle are provided. The onboard electrical system consists of at least two onboard electrical system regions. The first onboard electrical system region has an electric generator, a vehicle battery, as well as one or more first electrical loads. The second onboard electrical system region has a double-layer capacitor or a so-called supercap and one or more second electrical loads. Between the two onboard electrical system regions, a blocking device is provided, in particular, a semiconductor diode or a power switch, which permits a current flow from the first onboard electrical system region into the second electrical system region and largely prevents a reverse current flow from the second onboard electrical system region into the first onboard electrical system region. The output voltage of the electric generator is raised and the supercap is charged when a first threshold value of the electric voltage in the second onboard electrical system region is undershot. |
| US08026627B2 |
Powered device for power over Ethernet system with increased cable length
A Powered Device (PD) in a Power Over Ethernet system that supports increased cable lengths of more than 100 m is provided herein. The proposed PD design requires no modifications at the PSE side. Embodiments include example modifications of IEEE 802.3af PD system rules, including example modifications of PD classification and port voltage ranges to enable increased cable length PoE. |
| US08026613B2 |
Interconnections for flip-chip using lead-free solders and having reaction barrier layers
An interconnection structure suitable for flip-chip attachment of microelectronic device chips to packages, comprising a two, three or four layer ball-limiting composition including an adhesion/reaction barrier layer, and having a solder wettable layer reactive with components of a tin-containing lead free solder, so that the solderable layer can be totally consumed during soldering, but a barrier layer remains after being placed in contact with the lead free solder during soldering. One or more lead-free solder balls is selectively situated on the solder wetting layer, the lead-free solder balls comprising tin as a predominant component and one or more alloying components. With a two-layer ball-limiting composition comprising an adhesion/reaction barrier layer, wherein the adhesion/reaction barrier layer serves both as an adhesion layer and a reaction barrier layer, the adhesion/reaction barrier layer can be comprised of a material selected from the group consisting of Zr and ZrN. |
| US08026612B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing semiconductor device
A semiconductor device has a plurality of wafers which are laminated to each other, wherein: each wafer comprises an lamination surface to which another wafer is laminated; the lamination surface is provided with an electric signal connecting portion that electrically connects to said another surface so as to form a semiconductor circuit; at least one of the electrical signal connecting portions facing each other is a protruding connection portion that protrudes from the lamination surface; and a reinforcing protruding portion that is insulated from the semiconductor circuit and is provided in an area where the protruding connection portion is not disposed on the lamination surface formed with the protruding connection portion so as to protrude from the lamination surface with a height equal to or larger than that of the protruding connection portion. |
| US08026611B2 |
Stacked microelectronic packages having at least two stacked microelectronic elements adjacent one another
A microelectronic assembly including a first and second microelectronic elements. Each of the microelectronic elements have oppositely-facing first and second surfaces and edges bounding the surfaces. The first microelectronic element is disposed on the second microelectronic element with the second surface of the first microelectronic element facing toward the first surface of the second microelectronic element. The first microelectronic element preferably extends beyond at least one edge of the second microelectronic element and the second microelectronic element preferably extends beyond at least one edge of the first microelectronic element. |
| US08026610B2 |
Silicon interposer and method for manufacturing the same
A method for manufacturing a silicon interposer, includes a step of forming a protection film on a surface, on which an element portion is formed, of a silicon wafer, a step of forming open holes according to planar arrangements of through holes which pass through the silicon wafer in a thickness direction, a step of forming the through holes by etching the silicon wafer using the protection film as a mask, a step of forming an oxide film on inner wall surfaces of the through holes by a thermal oxidation, a step of forming a contact hole, which is in communication with the element portion, in the protection film, and a step of forming wirings on both surfaces of the silicon wafer. In the step of forming the wirings, one of the wirings is formed to be connected electrically to the element portion via a contact portion formed in the contact hole. |
| US08026609B2 |
Semiconductor device and method for producing the same
Provided, is a reliable semiconductor device with a layered interconnect structure that may develop no trouble of voids and interconnect breakdowns, in which the layered interconnect structure comprises a conductor film and a neighboring film as so layered on a semiconductor substrate that the neighboring film is contacted with the conductor film. In the device, the materials for the conductor film and the neighboring film are so selected that the difference between the short side, ap, of the rectangular unit cells that constitute the plane with minimum free energy of the conductor film and the short side, an, of the rectangular unit cells that constitute the plane with minimum free energy of the neighboring film, {lap−anl/ap}×100=A (%) and the difference between the long side, bp, of the rectangular unit cells that constitute the plane with minimum free energy of the conductor film and the long side, bn, of the rectangular unit cells that constitute the plane with minimum free energy of the neighboring film, {lbp−bnl/bp}×100=B (%) satisfy an inequality of {A+B×(ap/bp)}<13. In this, the diffusion of the conductor film is retarded. |
| US08026607B2 |
Semiconductor apparatus
A semiconductor apparatus has a configuration in which multiple copper wiring layers and multiple insulating layers are alternately layered. A low-impedance wiring is formed occupying a predetermined region. A first wiring pattern includes multiple copper wiring members arranged in parallel with predetermined intervals in a first copper wiring layer, each of which has a rectangular shape extending in a first direction. A second wiring pattern includes multiple copper wiring members arranged in parallel with predetermined intervals in a second copper wiring layer adjacent to the first copper wiring layer, each of which has a rectangular shape extending in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. The region occupied by the first wiring pattern and that occupied by the second wiring pattern are arranged such that they at least overlap. The first wiring pattern and the second wiring pattern are electrically connected so as to have the same electric potential. |
| US08026601B2 |
Encapsulated wafer level package with protection against damage and manufacturing method
A packaged semiconductor device may include a substrate including at least one device layer and at least one connector arranged thereon, and a resin cover covering each side of the substrate, the resin cover on at least one side of the substrate including an opening exposing the connector and the resin cover on at least one other side of the substrate exposing a portion of the substrate. |
| US08026600B2 |
Controlled impedance structures for high density interconnections
An interconnection structure suitable for use as an IC package, probe head or other electrical termination of high density where uninterrupted controlled impedance is desired is described. |
| US08026599B2 |
Method of protecting integrated circuits
The present application relates to the manufacture of Wafer Level Chip Scale Packages (WLCSPs), which are a type of CSP in which the traditional wire bonding arrangements are dispensed with in favor of making direct contact by means of conductive bumps (typically solder balls) to the integrated circuitry. WLCSPs differ from fine pitch Ball Grid Array (BGA) and leadframe based Chip Scale Packages (CSPs) in that most of the packaging process steps are performed at wafer level. A package and method of manufacture are provided which prevent the ingress of light to the internal circuitry of WLCSP packages by providing a substantially opaque coating on the inactive side of the WLCSP packages and at least partially on the sides of WLCSP packages. |
| US08026597B2 |
Fluid cooled encapsulated microelectronic package
An encapsulated microelectronic package includes a fluid conducting cooling tube directly coupled to one or more semiconductor chips, with the encapsulant being molded over the semiconductor chips and portions of the cooling tube in proximity to the semiconductor chips. The encapsulant immobilizes the cooling tube with respect to the semiconductor chips, and the cooling tube and encapsulant are designed to minimize differences in their coefficients of thermal expansion relative to the semiconductor chips. |
| US08026591B2 |
Semiconductor device with lead terminals having portions thereof extending obliquely
A semiconductor device in which a semiconductor chip, a lead frame and metal wires for electrically connecting the lead frame are sealed with sealing resin. The lead frame has a plurality of lead terminal portions, a supporting portion for supporting the semiconductor chip, and hanging lead portions supporting the supporting portion. Each of the lead terminal portions adjacent to the hanging lead portion is a chamfered lead terminal portion having, at its head, a chamfered portion formed substantially in parallel with the hanging lead portion so as to avoid interference with the hanging lead portion. |
| US08026581B2 |
Gallium nitride material devices including diamond regions and methods associated with the same
Gallium nitride material structures are provided, as well as devices and methods associated with such structures. The structures include a diamond region which may facilitate conduction and removal of heat generated within the gallium nitride material during device operation. The structures described herein may form the basis of a number of semiconductor devices and, in particular, transistors (e.g., FETs). |
| US08026579B2 |
Silicon pillars for vertical transistors
In order to form a more stable silicon pillar which can be used for the formation of vertical transistors in DRAM cells, a multi-step masking process is used. In a preferred embodiment, an oxide layer and a nitride layer are used as masks to define trenches, pillars, and active areas in a substrate. Preferably, two substrate etch processes use the masks to form three levels of bulk silicon. |
| US08026577B2 |
Semiconductor apparatus having a triple well structure and manfacturing method thereof
A semiconductor apparatus according to the present invention includes a first well-region and a second well-region in a semiconductor substrate, and a plurality of transistors formed to the second well-region. Further, the semiconductor apparatus includes a through-hole region that is formed so as to pierce through the first well-region and enables the second well-region to be electrically conductive to the semiconductor substrate on the bottom of the second well. Furthermore, in the semiconductor apparatus, the border of the through-hole region is arranged between the transistors, and is also arranged to be planarity apart from the transistor. |
| US08026576B2 |
Wiring board
There is provided a wiring board. The wiring board includes: a semiconductor substrate having a through hole and covered with an insulating film; a through electrode formed in the through hole; a first wiring connected to one end of the through electrode; and a second wiring connected to the other end of the through electrode. The semiconductor substrate includes: a semiconductor element and a first guard ring formed to surround the through hole. The semiconductor element includes a first conductivity-type impurity diffusion layer having a different conductivity-type from that of the semiconductor substrate and is electrically connected to the first wiring and the second wiring. |
| US08026572B2 |
Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing same
A semiconductor device having plural active and passive elements on one semiconductor substrate is manufactured in the following cost effective manner even when the active and passive elements include double sided electrode elements. When the semiconductor substrate is divided into plural field areas, an insulation separation trench that penetrates the semiconductor substrate surrounds each of the field areas, and each of the either of the plural active elements or the plural passive elements. Further, each of the plural elements has a pair of power electrodes for power supply respectively disposed on each of both sides of the semiconductor substrate to serve as the double sided electrode elements. |
| US08026571B2 |
Semiconductor-device isolation structure
A manufacturing method for a semiconductor-device isolation structure comprises providing a substrate with at least one shallow trench isolation structure, performing a salicide process that forms a recess on the surface of the shallow trench isolation structure, forming a cap film covering the substrate and filling the recess, performing an etching process to remove the cap film outside the recess, and forming a contact etch stop layer covering the substrate and filling the recess. Due to the filling recess with the cap film first, the contact etch stop layer covering the substrate and filling the recess does not have seams or voids. |
| US08026568B2 |
Second Schottky contact metal layer to improve GaN Schottky diode performance
A Schottky contact is disposed atop a surface of a semiconductor. A first Schottky contact metal layer is disposed atop a first portion of the semiconductor surface. A second Schottky contact metal is disposed atop a second portion of the surface layer and adjoins the first Schottky contact metal layer. The first Schottky contact metal layer has a lower work function than the second Schottky contact metal layer. |
| US08026567B2 |
Thermoelectric cooler for semiconductor devices with TSV
A thermoelectric structure for cooling an integrated circuit (IC) chip comprises a first type superlattice layer formed on top of the IC chip connected to a first voltage, and a second type superlattice layer formed on the bottom of the IC chip connected to a second voltage, the second voltage being different from the first voltage, wherein an power supply current flows through the first and second type superlattice layer for cooling the IC chip. |
| US08026565B2 |
Thin film semiconductor device comprising nanocrystalline silicon powder
A thin film semiconductor in the form of a metal semiconductor field effect transistor, includes a substrate 10 of paper sheet material and a number of thin film active inorganic layers that are deposited in layers on the substrate. The active layers are printed using an offset lithography printing process. A first active layer comprises source 12.1 and drain 12.2 conductors of colloidal silver ink, that are printed directly onto the paper substrate. A second active layer is an intrinsic semiconductor layer 14 of colloidal nanocrystalline silicon ink which is printed onto the first layer. A third active layer comprises a metallic conductor 16 of colloidal silver which is printed onto the second layer to form a gate electrode. This invention extends to other thin film semiconductors such as photovoltaic cells and to a method of manufacturing semiconductors. |
| US08026564B2 |
Image sensor and fabrication method thereof
An image sensor and a method of fabricating an image sensor. A method of fabricating an image sensor may include forming a plurality of photodiodes on and/or over a semiconductor substrate, a filter array including color filters arranged corresponding to upper parts of photodiodes, a plurality of hydrophilic lenses arranged over a filter array spaced apart from one another, and/or a plurality of hydrophobic lenses arranged over a filter array between hydrophilic lenses. A curvature of a lens may be substantially equal in a horizontal, vertical and/or diagonal direction. |
| US08026563B2 |
Spin transistor based on the spin-filter effect, and non-volatile memory using spin transistors
A spin transistor comprises a spin injector for injecting, from a first nonmagnetic electrode carriers with a spin parallel to a spin band forming the band edge of a first ferromagnetic barrier layer, to a second nonmagnetic electrode layer, as hot carriers. It also comprises a spin analyzer whereby, due to spin-splitting at the band edge of a second ferromagnetic barrier layer, the spin-polarized hot carriers are transported to a third nonmagnetic electrode when the direction of the spin of the carriers injected into the second nonmagnetic electrode is parallel to that of the spin of the spin band at the band edge of the second ferromagnetic barrier layer, whereas the hot carriers are not transported to the third nonmagnetic electrode in the case of antiparallel spin. A memory element is also provided that comprises such a spin transistor. |
| US08026561B2 |
Spin MOSFET and reconfigurable logic circuit
A spin MOSFET includes: a first ferromagnetic layer provided on an upper face of a semiconductor substrate, and having a fixed magnetization direction perpendicular to a film plane; a semiconductor layer provided on an upper face of the first ferromagnetic layer, including a lower face opposed to the upper face of the first ferromagnetic layer, an upper face opposed to the lower face, and side faces different from the lower face and the upper face; a second ferromagnetic layer provided on the upper face of the semiconductor layer, and having a variable magnetization direction perpendicular to a film plane; a first tunnel barrier provided on an upper face of the second ferromagnetic layer; a third ferromagnetic layer provided on an upper face of the first tunnel barrier; a gate insulating film provided on the side faces of the semiconductor layer; and a gate electrode provided on the side faces of the semiconductor layer with the gate insulating film being interposed therebetween. |
| US08026555B2 |
Bipolar/dual FET structure having FETs with isolated channels
According to an exemplary embodiment, a bipolar/dual FET structure includes a bipolar transistor situated over a substrate. The bipolar/dual FET structure further includes an enhancement-mode FET and a depletion-mode FET situated over the substrate. In the bipolar/dual FET structure, the channel of the enhancement-mode FET is situated above the base of the bipolar transistor and the channel of the depletion-mode FET is situated below the base of the bipolar transistor. The channel of the enhancement-mode FET is isolated from the channel of the depletion-mode FET so as to decouple the enhancement-mode FET from the depletion mode FET. |
| US08026552B2 |
Protection element and fabrication method for the same
The protection element of the present invention is constructed of a MOS capacitor composed of a semiconductor substrate, an insulating film formed on the semiconductor substrate and a word line formed on the insulating film. A well region having a conductivity type opposite to that of the semiconductor substrate is formed in a portion of the semiconductor substrate constituting the MOS capacitor. If charge exceeding the breakdown voltage of the insulating film constituting the MOS capacitor is induced in the word line, the induced charge is released into either the semiconductor substrate or the well region depending on whether the induced charge is positive or negative. |
| US08026543B2 |
Semiconductor devices having phase change memory cells, electronic systems employing the same and methods of fabricating the same
A phase-change memory device has an oxidation barrier layer to protect against memory cell contamination or oxidation. In one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a molding layer disposed over semiconductor substrate, a phase-changeable material pattern, and an oxidation barrier of electrically insulative material. The molding layer has a protrusion at its upper portion. One portion of the phase-changeable material pattern overlies the protrusion of the molding layer, and another portion of the phase-changeable material pattern extends through the protrusion. The electrically insulative material of the oxidation barrier may cover the phase-changeable material pattern and/or extend along and cover the entire area at which the protrusion of the molding layer and the portion of the phase-change material pattern disposed on the protrusion adjoin. |
| US08026542B2 |
Low resistance peripheral local interconnect contacts with selective wet strip of titanium
Methods for forming memory devices and integrated circuitry, for example, DRAM circuitry, structures and devices resulting from such methods, and systems that incorporate the devices are provided. |
| US08026539B2 |
Metal oxide semiconductor devices having doped silicon-compromising capping layers and methods for fabricating the same
Methods are provided for forming a semiconductor device comprising a semiconductor substrate. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, a method comprises the steps of forming a high-k dielectric layer overlying the semiconductor substrate, forming a metal-comprising gate layer overlying the high-k dielectric layer, forming a doped silicon-comprising capping layer overlying the metal-comprising gate layer, and depositing a silicon-comprising gate layer overlying the doped silicon-comprising capping layer. |
| US08026537B2 |
Semiconductor integrated circuit having an oblique global signal wiring and semiconductor integrated circuit wiring method
A semiconductor integrated circuit includes a function block arranged on a substrate, a first buffering cell arranged adjacent to a first side of the function block, a second buffering cell arranged adjacent to a second side adjacent to the first side of the function block, and signal wiring passing over the function block obliquely relative to the first side and the second side, connecting the first buffering cell and the second buffering cell. |
| US08026536B2 |
Semiconductor device having a dummy gate
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of MOS transistors, wherein each of the MOS transistors has a drain region, a pair of source regions sandwiching therebetween the drain region, and a pair of normal gates each overlying a space between the drain region and a corresponding one of the source regions. A plurality of dummy gates are provided each between adjacent two of the MOS transistors. The dummy gate electrodes are maintained at an equi-potential with the adjacent drain regions. MOS transistors include a row of pMOS transistors and nMOS transistors, wherein each of pMOS transistors and a corresponding nMOS transistor configure a CMOS gate, and a plurality of CMOS gates configure a ring oscillator. |
| US08026535B2 |
Thin film transistor and organic electroluminescence display using the same
In a thin film transistor, a semiconductor layer containing Si and Ge is applied, a Ge concentration of this semiconductor layer is high at the side of the insulating substrate, and crystalline orientation of the semiconductor layer indicates a random orientation in a region of 20 nm from the side of the insulating substrate, and indicates a (111), (110) or (100) preferential orientation at the film surface side of the semiconductor layer. |
| US08026534B2 |
III-V semiconductor device structures
The benefits of strained semiconductors are combined with silicon-on-insulator approaches to substrate and device fabrication. |
| US08026532B2 |
Single chip LED as compact color variable light source
A color variable light-emitting device includes an array of LEDs formed on one highly resistive substrate. The array includes first, second and third set of at least one LED arranged to provide light of first, second and third color, respectively. At least one of the sets is independently addressable. Further, each light-emitting diode in the array has a separate connection to a circuitry, and at least one of the sets includes at least two LEDs, interconnected in series via the circuitry. Thus, all connections between separate LEDs, for example in the same set, can be done via the circuitry allowing for a very dense packing of the LEDs in the array, as no interconnects between different LEDs of the array need to be arranged in the array. |
| US08026529B2 |
Light-emitting diode light source module
A light-emitting diode light source module includes a light-emitting diode and an optical lens which faces the light-emitting diode. The optical lens includes a light-emitting surface, a light-extracting surface opposite to the light-emitting surface, and a side surface interconnecting the light-emitting surface and the light-extracting surface. The light-emitting surface includes a first light-emitting portion and a second light-emitting portion. The light-extracting surface includes a first light-extracting portion and a second light-extracting portion surrounding the first light-extracting portion. An angle between the first light-emitting portion and the second light-emitting portion is an obtuse angle. An angle between the second light-emitting portion and the side surface is an acute angle. An angle between the side surface and second light-extracting portion is an acute angle. |
| US08026528B2 |
Fiber optic phototherapy devices including LED light sources
Phototherapy devices for phototherapy treatment of a patient include a light emitter for emitting light received from a light source. Means may be provided for increasing the amount of power to the light source in response to a decrease in light output to maintain a substantially constant light output. The light source may be inside a housing and bonded to a heat sink attached to the back side of the housing to dissipate excess heat generated by the light source. Also the light source may comprise at least one LED that generates blue light output bands and at least one other LED that generates other color light output bands that are selectively mixed with the blue light output bands. |
| US08026527B2 |
LED structure
A light emitting device, a wafer for making the same, and method for fabricating the same are disclosed. The device and wafer include a first layer of a first conductivity type, an active layer, and a layer of a second conductivity type. The active layer overlies the first layer, the active layer generating light. The second layer overlies the active layer, the second layer having a first surface in contact adjacent to the active layer and a second surface having a surface that includes features that scatter light striking the second surface. A layer of transparent electrically conducting material is adjacent to the second surface and covered by a first layer of a dielectric material that is transparent to the light generated by the active layer. A mirror layer that has a reflectivity greater than 90 percent is deposited on the first layer of dielectric material. |
| US08026526B2 |
Optoelectronic semiconductor component
An optoelectronic semiconductor component includes a basic body, at least one semiconductor chip arranged thereon, and an encapsulation embedding the at least one semiconductor chip and composed of a radiation-transmissive material with scattering particles. A radiation-transmissive covering layer with an absorber is applied to the encapsulation. |
| US08026523B2 |
Nitride semiconductor free-standing substrate and device using the same
A nitride semiconductor free-standing substrate includes a surface inclined in a range of 0.03° to 1.0° from a C-plane, and an off-orientation that an angle defined between a C-axis and a tangent at each point on a whole surface of the substrate becomes maximum is displaced in a range of 0.5° to 16° from a particular M-axis orientation of six-fold symmetry M-axis orientations. The substrate does not include a region of −0.5°<φ<+0.5° on the surface, where φ represents a displacement angle of the off-orientation on a surface of the substrate from the particular M-axis orientation. |
| US08026522B2 |
Thin film transistor array panel and method for manufacturing the same, and liquid crystal display
A thin film transistor array panel includes a substrate, a first thin film transistor formed on the substrate, a color filter formed on the first thin film transistor and having a through hole, a capping layer formed on the color filter and having an opening, and a pixel electrode formed on the capping layer and connected to the first thin film transistor through the through hole. The opening exposes the color filter outside the through hole. |
| US08026521B1 |
Semiconductor device and structure
A device comprising semiconductor memories, the device comprising: a first layer and a second layer of layer-transferred mono-crystallized silicon, wherein the first layer comprises a first plurality of horizontally-oriented transistors; wherein the second layer comprises a second plurality of horizontally-oriented transistors; and wherein the second plurality of horizontally-oriented transistors overlays the first plurality of horizontally-oriented transistors. |
| US08026519B1 |
Systems and methods for forming a time-averaged line image
Systems and methods for forming a time-averaged line image having a relatively high amount of intensity uniformity along its length is disclosed. The method includes forming at an image plane a line image having a first amount of intensity non-uniformity in a long-axis direction and forming a secondary image that at least partially overlaps the primary image. The method also includes scanning the secondary image over at least a portion of the primary image and in the long-axis direction according to a scan profile to form a time-average modified line image having a second amount of intensity non-uniformity in the long-axis direction that is less than the first amount. For laser annealing a semiconductor wafer, the amount of line-image overlap for adjacent scans of a wafer scan path is substantially reduced, thereby increasing wafer throughput. |
| US08026507B2 |
Two terminal quantum device using MOS capacitor structure
A gated quantum well device formed as an MOS capacitor is disclosed. The quantum well is an inversion region less than 20 nanometers wide under the MOS gate. The device may be fabricated in either polarity, and integrated into a CMOS IC, configured as a quantum dot device or a quantum wire device. The device may be operated as a precision charge pump, with a minority carrier injection region added to speed well filling. |
| US08026503B2 |
Phase-change memory and method of making same
A phase-change memory cell structure includes a bottom diode on a substrate; a heating stem on the bottom diode; a first dielectric layer surrounding the heating stem, wherein the first dielectric layer forms a recess around the heating stem; a phase-change storage cap capping the heating stem and the first dielectric layer; and a second dielectric layer covering the first dielectric layer and the phase-change storage cap wherein the second dielectric layer defines an air gap in the recess. |
| US08026501B2 |
Method of removing or deposting material on a surface including material selected to decorate a particle on the surface for imaging
A method that may be applied to imaging and identifying defects and contamination on the surface of an integrated circuit is described. An energetic beam, such as an electron beam, may be directed at a selected IC location having a layer of a solid, fluid, or gaseous reactive material formed over the surface. The energetic beam disassociates the reactive material in the region into chemical radicals that either chemically etch the surface preferentially, or deposit a thin layer of a conductive material over the local area around the energetic beam. The surface may be examined as various layers are selectively etched to decorate defects and/or as various layers are locally deposited in the area around the energetic beam. SEM imaging and other analytic methods may be used to identify the problem more easily. |
| US08026490B2 |
Radiation image device
Wiring substrates 11 and 12 are positioned on a fixed base 10 in a manner such that there is a step between the wiring substrates, and radiation imaging elements 2 and 3, respectively having scintillators 25 and 35 deposited on photosensitive portions 21 and 31, are respectively mounted on the wiring substrates 11 and 12. The radiation imaging element 2 is positioned so that its setting surface protrudes beyond a radiation incident surface of the radiation imaging element 3, and the photosensitive portion 21 of the radiation imaging element 2 and the photosensitive portion 31 of the radiation imaging element 3 are juxtaposed to a degree to which the portions do not overlap. The photosensitive portion 21 of the radiation imaging element 2 extends close to an edge at the radiation imaging element 3 side and the scintillator 25 of substantially uniform thickness is formed up to this position. |
| US08026489B2 |
Device for characterizing a particle beam
The invention concerns a device for analyzing a particle beam comprising at least one detector including a fiber-optic network, the network of parallel fibers comprising at least one first plane of parallel optical fibers oriented along a first direction X; the detector is designed to produce a light signal when the particle beam passes through the fiber-optic network, an image sensor coupled with the detector so as to output a signal representing characteristics of the light signal. The invention is characterized in that the image sensor comprises a CCD or CMOS sensor, wherein the ends of the fibers of the fiber-optic network are designed to form an image of the light signal in the plane of the CCD or CMOS sensor. |
| US08026485B2 |
Chitin-based cantilever bimorphs and readout devices
An infrared sensor with at least one cantilever beam functionalized with chitin, chitosan or their derivatives that can be tailored to be sensitive to certain IR bands for detection and does not require cooling is described. The functional layers expand differently than the structural layer of the cantilever beam causing the beam to bend in response to exposure to infrared radiation. The sensor can be adapted to optical, piezoresistive, capacitive and piezoelectric methods of detect beam deflection. Sensitivity can be increased with a reflective layer to increase the absorption of infrared radiation by the functional layer. |
| US08026479B2 |
Systems and methods for analyzing substances using a mass spectrometer
Systems and methods for analyzing compounds in a sample. In one embodiment, the present technology is directed towards a method of analyzing a sample, comprising: emitting ions from the sample; selectively filtering the emitted ions for at least one designated trigger ion; fragmenting the designated trigger ions; scanning for a designated trigger ion fragment; and upon detecting the designated trigger ion fragment, scanning for at least one confirmatory ion fragment. |
| US08026478B2 |
Mass spectrometer
An Electrospray ionization ion source is disclosed comprising a capillary tube surrounded by a gas nebulizer tube. One or more wires are provided within the capillary tube. An analyte solution is supplied to the capillary tube and a nebulizing gas is supplied to the gas nebuliser tube. |
| US08026476B2 |
Mass analyzing method
When the analyzer provides the mass and composition formula of the product ion, which is probably produced in the process of a dissociation, through the input unit, based on known information, a composition formula list is created in the database. When a product ion is obtained in an MSn analysis, the data processor checks whether or not the ion's mass exists in the composition formula list, and in the case where it does, the composition formula corresponding to the mass is determined. Then, based the mass difference between the precursor ion and product ion or other factors, the precursor ion's composition formula is deduced, and if it is possible to ultimately narrow down the candidates for the target ion's composition formula, the analysis is terminated. Accordingly, if the composition formula list is available, the refinement operation for the candidates for the composition formula can be omitted. |
| US08026466B2 |
Beam power with receiver impingement detection
A beam power source transmits a signal indicating power availability, receives a request for power in response, and beams power in response to the request. |
| US08026456B2 |
TIG welding system and method
The invention provides a welding arrangement designed to respond to the need of an improved welding system that aids in supplying filler material to a weld location. Provided is a welding system including a welding gun and a welding wire feed directly coupled to the welding gun. The welding gun includes a filler material housing, a filler material positioning extension, and a manual advancement device configured to advance a filler material through the welding wire feed. Further provided is a method of operating a welding gun. The method includes passing a current between an electrode and a work piece at a weld location, and advancing a filler material toward the weld location via a channel of a positioning extension in response to engagement of a manual advancement device. |
| US08026455B2 |
Connector structure of waterproof and explosion-proof button
A connector structure of waterproof and explosion-proof button is provided. A waterproof element completely covers the connecting part of the connecting element. By pressing a first button bar of the waterproof element, a second button bar is driven to depress the button therein. A companion part inside the connecting element is connected and fixed with an explosion-proof element. The connector structure thus achieves the waterproof and explosion-proof effects and has the button function at the same time. The structure solves the problem of having too many elements and too complicated assembly process for achieving the waterproof effect in the prior art. According to the structure, the assembly of the connector structure is simple and both waterproof and explosion-proof effects are simultaneously achieved. |
| US08026454B2 |
Linear pressure switch apparatus and method
A linear pressure switch is described that has two conductors separated by strips of insulation. The conductors are resilient members that can vary in thickness and material along with the insulation to provide a range of switch sensitivities. The switch can include connectors and an attachment mechanism that facilitates the installation and removal the switch from a given application. In addition, the switch can ergonomically enhanced actuation. The switches can be stacked in layers and selectively have different sensitivities to provide a desired signal output for each switch in a given application. The switch can also include external coatings on the jacket which enhance the feel and resistance of the jacket to wear and misuse. |
| US08026447B2 |
Electrical microfilament to circuit interface
Devices and methods for electrical interconnection for microelectronic circuits are disclosed. One method of electrical interconnection includes forming a bundle of microfilaments, wherein at least two of the microfilaments include electrically conductive portions extending along their lengths. The method can also include bonding the microfilaments to corresponding bond pads of a microelectronic circuit substrate to form electrical connections between the electrically conductive portions and the corresponding bond pads. A microelectronic circuit can include a bundle of microfilaments bonded to corresponding bond pads to make electrical connection between corresponding bonds pads and electrically-conductive portions of the microfilaments. |
| US08026446B2 |
Cable assembly for multiple batteries
A vehicle battery cable has a plurality of subsidiary or daughter cables where the subsidiary cables have the same length and gauge and exhibit closely matched resistance. The vehicle battery cable connects a plurality of batteries in parallel to a load in a way that each battery carries the same proportion of the load as every other battery. |
| US08026444B2 |
Radiation-proof resin composition and radiation-proof cable
A radiation-proof resin composition includes a polymer containing chlorine, a radiation resistance providing agent for providing the polymer with a radiation resistance, an amorphous inorganic material for capturing an ionic component generated in the polymer by radiation application, and a reinforcing material for reinforcing a mechanical strength of the polymer. An amount of the reinforcing material is not more than that of the amorphous inorganic material. |
| US08026443B1 |
Plastic electrical box having a flush mountable knockout plug
An electrical enclosure or housing, such as a power inlet box, is constructed of weather resistant material and has a knockout opening formed in a wall member and a plug that can be removably seated in the knockout opening. The opening and the plug have complimentary geometries and thicknesses which enable the plug to be mounted flush with the exterior and interior wall surfaces of the wall member when seated in the knockout opening. The opening and plug are shaped such that a seated plug is normally removed by applying a blunt force to the plug from within the interior volume of the inlet box, and cannot be removed from the exterior of the box. |
| US08026436B2 |
Method and apparatus for producing audio tracks
A system for automatically manipulating prerecorded audio data to produce an audio track synchronized to a target video track. The system allows a user to select a music source from multiple music sources stored in a music library. Each music source includes multiple audio portions having block data and beat data associated therewith. The block data includes data blocks respectively, specifying the duration of the associated audio portions. Each data block preferably also includes interblock compatibility data and/or suitability data. The beat data, generally referred to as a “beatmap”, comprises timing information specifying the rhythmic pulse, or “beat” for the associated music source portion. The system is operable to produce an audio track synchronized to a video timing specification (VTS) specifying successive timing segments delimited by successive video events. After the user selects a music source, the system generates a music segment for each defined timing segment. Each music segment is generated by assembling an ordered sequence of compatible data blocks selected at least in part based on their suitability and/or compatibility characteristics. |
| US08026434B2 |
Musical instrument pedal
A musical instrument pedal has a base, two supporting posts, a pedal plate, a shaft, an elevation-angle-adjusting assembly, a chain assembly and two beaters. The pedal plate is mounted pivotally on the base. The shaft is mounted rotatably between the supporting posts. The elevation-angle-adjusting assembly is mounted on the shaft and selectively changes an angle thereof relative to the shaft. The chain assembly connects the pedal plate to the shaft. The beaters are mounted on the shaft. The elevation-angle-adjusting assembly allows users to quickly change an elevation angle of the pedal plate. |
| US08026431B1 |
Maize variety hybrid X7K497
A novel maize variety designated X7K497 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprises crossing maize variety X7K497 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X7K497 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X7K497, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X7K497. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X7K497. |
| US08026430B1 |
Maize variety hybrid X8M209
A novel maize variety designated X8M209 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprises crossing maize variety X8M209 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X8M209 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X8M209, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X8M209. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X8M209. |
| US08026429B2 |
Plants and seeds of corn variety CV749169
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the corn variety designated CV749169. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CV749169, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CV749169 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to corn seeds and plants produced by crossing plants of variety CV749169 with plants of another variety, such as another inbred line. The invention further relates to the inbred and hybrid genetic complements of plants of variety CV749169. |
| US08026428B2 |
Plants and seeds of corn variety CV494817
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the corn variety designated CV494817. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CV494817, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CV494817 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to corn seeds and plants produced by crossing plants of variety CV494817 with plants of another variety, such as another inbred line. The invention further relates to the inbred and hybrid genetic complements of plants of variety CV494817. |
| US08026426B1 |
Maize variety PHTFE
A novel maize variety designated PHTFE and seed, plants and plant parts thereof. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprise crossing maize variety PHTFE with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PHTFE through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. Hybrid maize seed, plant or plant part produced by crossing the variety PHTFE or a trait conversion of PHTFE with another maize variety. Inbred maize varieties derived from maize variety PHTFE, methods for producing other inbred maize varieties derived from maize variety PHTFE and the inbred maize varieties and their parts derived by the use of those methods. |
| US08026425B2 |
Sweet pepper hybrid 9942595
The invention provides seed and plants of the pepper hybrid 9942595 and the parent lines thereof. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of pepper hybrid 9942595 and the parent lines thereof, and to methods for producing a pepper plant produced by crossing such plants with themselves or with another pepper plant, such as a plant of another genotype. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates to parts such plants, including the fruit and gametes of such plants. |
| US08026419B1 |
Soybean variety RJS35004
According to the invention, there is provided a novel soybean variety designated RJS35004. This invention thus relates to the seeds of soybean variety RJS35004, to the plants of soybean RJS35004 to plant parts of soybean variety RJS35004 and to methods for producing a soybean plant produced by crossing plants of the soybean variety RJS35004 with another soybean plant, using RJS35004 as either the male or the female parent. |
| US08026416B2 |
Broccoli type having curds with detached florets
The present invention includes broccoli plants with curds having detached florets and methods for obtained such broccoli plants. The present invention also provides reagents that can be used in methods for obtaining such broccoli plants. |
| US08026415B2 |
Defensin polynucleotides and methods of use
Methods and compositions for modulating development and defense responses are provided. Nucleotide sequences encoding defensin proteins are provided. The sequences can be used in expression cassettes for modulating development, developmental pathways, and defense responses. Transformed plants, plant cells, tissues, and seed are also provided. |
| US08026413B2 |
EMP4 gene
The present invention relates to altering plant development and more particularly to altering the development of the plant endosperm. It concerns in particular nucleic acid molecules which alter the endosperm development. |
| US08026412B2 |
Soybean MTH1 promoter and its use in constitutive expression of transgenic genes in plants
The promoter of a soybean metallothionein protein (MTH1) and fragments thereof and their use in promoting the expression of one or more heterologous nucleic acid fragments in a tissue-independent or constitutive manner in plants are described. |
| US08026411B2 |
Enhanced floral sink strength and increased stability of seed set in plants
The invention discloses a transgenic method for enhancing sink strength in female reproductive organs. It involves the temporal and spatial expression of genes affecting the starch and sucrose metabolic pathways in a plant organ or plant tissue. The invention also includes expression constructs, and methods for the production of crop plants with heritable phenotypes which are useful in breeding programs designed to increase yield potential over a range of environmental conditions. |
| US08026410B2 |
Transgenic plants expressing L3 delta proteins are resistant to trichothecene fungal toxins
Disclosed are specific mutants of L3 and transgenic plants that produce them. The plants exhibit increased resistance to fungal toxins that target ribosomal L3 protein. Also disclosed are transgenic plants that co-produce L3 mutant and an RIP protein, and exhibit increased resistance to various fungal toxins and viruses, while reducing toxicity normally associated with production of the RIP. Uses of the L3 mutants in animals are further disclosed. |
| US08026407B2 |
Antimicrobial compression bandage
An antimicrobial material suitable for use in a compressive bandage is provided. Also, a composition that is used to produce this material and the methods for production are provided. |
| US08026405B2 |
Dressing and an epidermal positioning mechanism and method for using same
A dressing mechanism comprising a first section, a second section, and a third section. The first section and the third section each may each include one side having an adhesive layer. An overlaying, non-adhesive barrier layer may be located between a portion of the adhesive layer and a first or third section. At least one of the first or third sections may further include a plurality of hook or loop members which are arranged to be fastened to corresponding hook or loop members of a hook and loop fastener. |
| US08026404B2 |
Method of making harmful material remediating agent and for using the same
The present invention relates to a harmful material remediating agent comprising a metal oxide and a reducing material, and it can remediate environmental pollutants such as harmful organic compounds and nitrate or nitrite nitrogen-containing compounds efficiently and at low cost. |
| US08026401B2 |
Hydrodeoxygenation process
A process for producing a hydrocarbon from biomass. A feed stream having free fatty acids, fatty acid esters or combinations thereof is provided. The feed stream is heated in the presence of a first catalyst to produce a partially hydrodeoxygenated stream. The partially hydrodeoxygenated stream is heated in the presence of a second catalyst to produce an effluent stream containing the hydrocarbon. |
| US08026390B2 |
Photoacid generator containing aromatic ring
An acid generator represented by the following formula (1) is provided: wherein X represents an alkylene group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, —X1—O—X2—, or a heteroatom selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, sulfur and fluorine; X1 and X2 each independently represent an alkylene group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms; Y represents a cyclic hydrocarbon group having 5 to 30 carbon atoms and containing one or more aromatic rings, while one or more hydrogen atoms on the ring of the cyclic hydrocarbon group may be substituted by one or more members selected from the group consisting of —O—Y1, —CO—Y2, an alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, an alkoxy group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, a perfluoroalkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a perfluoroalkoxy group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a hydroxyalkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group and a cyano group; Y1 and Y2 each independently represent an alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms; n represents an integer of 0 or 5; and A+ represents an organic counterion. |
| US08026388B2 |
Process for making 1-hydroxyalkylidene-1,1-biphosphonic acids
Synthesis of biphosphonate compounds can be advantageously carried out in a solvent/diluent comprising a compound of formula (3) wherein R is hydrogen or a C1-C6 alkyl group; each of R1 is a C1-C6 alkyl group or both R1 groups are linked to form a C1-C3 alkylene group; and R2 is hydrogen, a C1-C6 alkyl group, a C1-C6 alkoxy group, or is linked together with R to form a C3-C7 carbon ring. |
| US08026387B2 |
Method for producing isocyanates
The present invention relates to a multiple-stage process for the continuous preparation of organic, distillable polyisocyanates, preferably diisocyanates, more preferably aliphatic or cycloaliphatic diisocyanates, by reaction of the corresponding organic poly-amines with ureas to form low-molecular monomeric polyureas, and the thermal decomposition thereof. |
| US08026381B2 |
Continuous production process for ethyl esters (biodiesel)
This application refers to an industrial production process for ethyl esters (biodiesel). |
| US08026379B2 |
Paricalcitol intermediates
The present invention relates to a compound and a novel process for the preparation of Paricalcitol intermediates. |
| US08026373B1 |
1,2,3-triazole bound borane compounds, synthesis of, and use in reduction reactions
A 1,2,3-triazole coordinated borane such as where the B and the R3 groups can be on any of the three N positions and R1, R2, R3, R4, and R5 can be one or more of H, any alkyl, aryl, or substituted alkyl or aryl groups and the position of the final products are the combination of any N position; i.e. N1—R3—N3—BH etc. The triazole-borane compounds can be synthesized in a single-step from simple organic molecules under mild reactions. The 1,2,3-triazole coordinated borane can be synthesized by use of about a 1 to 1 equivalent of the benzole-triazole and the BR3 can be added together without solution or dissolved in an organic solvent (between about 5 M to about 0.001 M for each reactant). The solution can be stirred for about 1 to about 5 hours at an effective temperature to yield the triazole-borane. These compounds can be used as an effective reductant in a reduction reaction for one or more of the groups aldehyde, ketone, imine, and reductive coupling between aldehyde/ketone with amine (both primary and secondary) in a wide range of media. |
| US08026372B2 |
Process for the preparation of ε-alkoxycarbonyllysines and their analogues
A process for the preparation of ω-alkoxycarbonylamino-α-aminoacids and α,ω orthogonally diprotected diaminoacids from α,ω-diaminoacids using 1-alkoxycarbonylbenzotriazoles as protecting agents is disclosed. In an alternative embodiment, carbamoylating agents in the presence of benzotriazoles are used instead of 1-alkoxycarbonylbenzotriazoles. This reaction is preferably applied to the preparation of ε-alkoxycarbonyllysines from lysine. A process for the preparation of t-butoxycarbonylbenzotriazoles and novel complexes of ω-alkoxycarbonylamino-α-aminoacids with benzotriazoles are also disclosed. |
| US08026371B2 |
Hydroxamates as therapeutic agents
The present invention is directed to certain hydroxamate derivatives that are useful in the treatment of hepatitis C. These compounds are also inhibitors of histone deacetylase and are therefore useful in the treatment of diseases associated with histone deacetylase activity. Pharmaceutical compositions and processes for preparing these compounds are also disclosed. |
| US08026370B2 |
Carboxylic acid derivative containing thiazole ring and pharmaceutical use thereof
According to the present invention, a compound represented by the following formula (I) having a superior PPARα agonist action and concurrently showing a hypolipidemic action can be provided, and further, a compound useful as a synthetic intermediate for the compound can be provided. |
| US08026369B2 |
Composition containing thiazole rings, organic semiconductor polymer containing the composition, organic active layer containing the organic semiconductor polymer, organic thin film transistor containing the organic active layer, electronic device containing the organic thin film transistor and method of preparing the same
Disclosed herein is a composition containing hetero arylene or arylene showing a p-type semiconductor property in addition to thiophene showing a p-type semiconductor property and thiazole rings showing a n-type semiconductor property at a polymer main chain, an organic semiconductor polymer containing the composition, an organic active layer containing the organic semiconductor polymer, an organic thin film transistor (OTFT) containing the organic active layer, an electronic device containing the OTFT, and a method of preparing the same. The composition of example embodiments, which is used in an organic semiconductor polymer and contains thiazole rings, may exhibit increased solubility to an organic solvent, coplanarity, processibility and an improved thin film property. |
| US08026368B2 |
Hydrazide compounds and thrombopoietin receptor activators
Compounds effective for preventing, treatment or improving diseases against which activation of the thrombopoietin receptor is effective are provided.A compound represented by the formula (I) (wherein R1, R2, R3, L1, L2, X and Y are defined in the description), a tautomer, prodrug or pharmaceutically acceptable salt of the compound or a solvate thereof. |
| US08026362B2 |
Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors
Compounds of formula I, wherein R1, X1, X2 and A, are as defined herein or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, inhibit HIV-1 reverse transcriptase and afford a method for prevention and treatment of HIV-1 infections and the treatment of AIDS and/or ARC. The present invention also relates to compositions containing compounds of formula I useful for the prevention and treatment of HIV-1 infections and the treatment of AIDS and/or ARC. |
| US08026359B2 |
Fungicidal heterocyclic amines
Disclosed are compounds of Formula 1, N-oxides, and salts thereof, wherein R1, R2, R9a, R9b, G, W, X, Y, and Z are as defined in the disclosure. Also disclosed are compositions containing the compounds of Formula 1 and methods for controlling plant disease caused by a fungal pathogen comprising applying an effective amount of a compound or a composition of the invention. |
| US08026355B2 |
Oligomeric compounds for the modulation of survivin expression
Oligonucleotides directed against the survivin gene are provided for modulating the expression of survivin. The compositions comprise oligonucleotides, particularly antisense oligonucleotides, targeted to nucleic acids encoding the survivin. Methods of using these compounds for modulation of survivin expression and for the treatment of diseases associated with either overexpression of survivin, expression of mutated survivin or both are provided. Examples of diseases are cancer such as lung, breast, colon, prostate, pancreas, lung, liver, thyroid, kidney, brain, testes, stomach, intestine, bowel, spinal cord, sinuses, bladder, urinary tract or ovaries cancers. The oligonucleotides may be composed of deoxyribonucleosides or a nucleic acid analogue such as for example locked nucleic acid or a combination thereof. |
| US08026352B2 |
Methods for determining the presence or absence of elite event RF-BN1 in Brassica plant material
This invention relates to transgenic winter oilseed rape (WOSR) plants, plant material and seeds, harboring a specific transformation event. It pertains to winter oilseed rape plants, more particularly to a pair of winter oilseed rape plants, which is particularly suited for the production of hybrid seed. More specifically, one plant is characterized by being male-sterile, due to the presence in its genome of a male sterility gene, while the other is characterized by carrying a fertility-restorer gene, capable of preventing the activity of the male-sterility gene. The invention further provides a method for producing hybrid seed, a process for producing a transgenic WOSR plant oil or plant, and a method to identify a transgenic plant, cell or tissue. A kit for identifying the transgenic plants comparing the elite event of the present invention is also described. The WOSR plants of the invention combine the ability to form hybrid seeds with optimal overall agronomic performance, genetic stability and adaptability to different generic backgrounds. |
| US08026350B2 |
Tumor suppressor gene, p28ING5
This disclosure provides a novel tumor suppressor, referred to as p28ING5, nucleic acid molecules encoding this protein, and methods of making and using these molecules. Also provided are methods of ameliorating, treating, detecting, prognosing, and diagnosing diseases and conditions associated with abnormal p28ING5 expression, such as neoplasia. Kits are also provided. |
| US08026349B2 |
Polynucleotide synthesis labeling chemistry
Methods and compositions for making nucleoside phosphoramidites and nucleic acids, including mono-, di-, and polynucleotides, comprising a linker covalently attached to a levulinyl moiety are provided. A levulinyl-protected linking moiety affords an orthogonal approach to modifying a polynucleotide during or after solid phase synthesis with a molecule of interest, for example, a conjugate or a dye. |
| US08026347B2 |
Methods and compounds useful for the preparation of sodium glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors
Methods of synthesizing sodium glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors, as well as compounds useful therein, are disclosed. Particular inhibitors are compounds of formula I: |
| US08026344B2 |
Targeted binding agents directed to uPAR and uses thereof
Targeted binding agents directed to the antigen uPAR and uses of such antibodies are described. In particular, fully human monoclonal antibodies directed to the antigen uPAR. Nucleotide sequences encoding, and amino acid sequences comprising, heavy and light chain immunoglobulin molecules, particularly sequences corresponding to contiguous heavy and light chain sequences spanning the framework regions and/or complementarity determining regions (CDR's), specifically from FR1 through FR4 or CDR1 through CDR3. Hybridomas or other cell lines expressing such immunoglobulin molecules and monoclonal antibodies. |
| US08026339B2 |
Polysulfone, electrolyte membrane using the same, and fuel cell using the electrolyte membrane
A polysulfone is provided with a nitrogen-containing functional group having an affinity to an acid, an electrolyte membrane using the polysulfone, and a fuel cell including the electrolyte membrane. In particular, the polysulfone includes a nitrogen-containing functional group that has an affinity to an acid, such as a phosphoric acid, thereby having an excellent acid retaining ability. In an electrolyte membrane including the polysulfone and an acid, the amount of the retained acid can be controlled. Therefore, the electrolyte membrane has a high ionic conductivity and a high mechanical strength. A polysulfone blend of polysulfone and a thermoplastic resin prevents the dissolution of polysulfone by phosphoric acid, so that an electrolyte membrane using the polysulfone blend has an improved durability. A cross-linked reaction product of polysulfone, a cross-linking agent and a polymerization product of polysulfone, a thermoplastic resin, and a cross-linking agent strongly resist a phosphoric acid. Thus, a fuel cell using these polymerization products has a long lifetime and can operate at a high temperature and at a high efficiency. |
| US08026335B2 |
Baked resin product and electronic device comprising the same
The present invention provides a baked resin product that exhibits an excellent heat resistance and an electronic device that incorporates this baked resin product. The present invention provides a baked resin product obtained by baking a resin composition that contains a main chain-type aromatic benzoxazine structure, wherein the baked resin product has a peak measured by 13C-NMR at 58±2 ppm and a half width of this peak of 4 to 10 ppm. The present invention also provides a method of producing a baked resin product, comprising baking a resin composition that contains a main chain-type aromatic benzoxazine structure at 270° C. to 350° C. The present invention further provides an electronic device that incorporates this baked resin product. |
| US08026334B2 |
Polyurea and polyurethane compositions for golf equipment
Golf equipment having improved cut and shear resistance that includes a polyurea composition, preferably saturated and/or water resistant, formed of a polyurea prepolymer and a curing agent, wherein the polyurea prepolymer includes an isocyanate and an amine-terminated compound, and wherein the curing agent includes a hydroxy-terminated curing agent, amine-terminated curing agent, or a mixture thereof. |
| US08026333B2 |
Protected air-activated organotin catalysts for polyurethane synthesis and processes therefore
This invention relates to a protected organotin-based catalyst system for polyurethane synthesis that is useful in coatings applications. The catalyst has a formula according to; R1aR2bR3cSn[CH(OX)R4]d, wherein R1, R2, and R3 are the same or different and represent an optionally substituted hydrocarbyl, aromatic, alkoxide, amide, halide or stannyl group, R4 represents an optionally substituted hydrocarbyl or optionally substituted aryl group. a, b, and c are independently 0, 1, 2, or 3; d is 1, 2 or 3; and a+b+c+d=4; and X is an acid-labile or moisture-labile protecting group. When a coating mixture comprising the catalyst is sprayed and/or applied to a substrate as a thin film in air, the catalyst is activated. For solvent-based refinish systems comprising hydroxyl and isocyanate species at high solids levels, the catalyst system therefore provides extended viscosity stability, i.e., pot life. |
| US08026323B2 |
Propylene ethylene polymers and production process
Ethylene propylene copolymers, substantially free of diene, are described. The copolymers will have a uniform distribution of both tacticity and comonomer between copolymer chains. Further, the copolymers will exhibit a statistically insignificant intramolecular difference of tacticity. The copolymers are made in the presence of a metallocene catalyst. |
| US08026318B2 |
Mixed polycycloaliphatic amines (MPCA) and MPCA alkylates
Mixed polycycloaliphatic amines (MPCA) and alkylates thereof (MPCA alkylates), methods for making mixed polycycloaliphatic MPCA amines and MPCA alkylates thereof, as well as polymeric compositions, such as spray-applied polyurea coating compositions, comprising said mixed amines MPCA and MPCA alkylates thereof are described herein. In one embodiment, the polymeric composition comprises an isocyanate component, and a resin component comprising an organic compound having the following Formula I: where R1, R2 and R3 are each independently selected from a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group comprising from 1 to 20 carbon atoms, an aryl group comprising from 3 to 12 carbon atoms, an aralkyl group comprising from 3 to 12 carbon atoms and combinations thereof, provided that there is at least one alkyl group within Formula I, and X is a methylene bridged polycycloaliphatic amine (MPCA). |
| US08026312B2 |
Polyolefin compositions having low hardness and low gloss
A polyolefin composition comprising, in percent by weight: A) 20-35% of a propylene homopolymer or copolymer with up to 8% of comonomer(s); B) 65-80% of a copolymer of ethylene and (i) propylene or (ii) CH2═CHR alpha-olefins, where R is a 2-8 carbon alkyl radical, or (iii) a combination thereof, optionally with minor amounts of a diene, containing from 40 to less than 54% of ethylene; wherein the weight ratio B/XS of the content B of copolymer component (B) to the fraction XS soluble in xylene at room temperature, both referred to the total weight of (A)+(B), is of 1.25 or less. |
| US08026311B2 |
Process for production of propylene copolymers
The properties and the amounts of polymers produced in the second stage of a polymerization process in the presence of propylene and ethylene or other alpha olefin are controlled by the addition of an external electron donor to the second stage polymerization. The dosage of external donor to the second stage polymerization is based on a percentage of the dosage of external donor to a first stage polymerization of propylene in the process. The external donor added to the second stage is either the same as or different from the external donor added to the first stage. |
| US08026310B2 |
Coating powder of epoxy resin, styrene-maleimide curing agent and a second curing agent
A low temperature curable coating powder comprising an epoxy functional resin is cured with styrene maleimide in combination with at least one other curing agent such as dicyandiamide, imidazole, or an imidazole adduct. The combination of three curing agents such styrene maleimide, dicyandiamide, and an imidazole or imidazole adduct is useful for achieving gloss control. The coating powder may be curable at temperatures of 300° F. or lower. The coating of heat-sensitive and non-conductive substrates is facilitated with use of such coating powder, although other substrates, such as metal may be coated in accordance with the invention. |
| US08026309B2 |
Process for producing compatibilized polymer blends
A process is provided for producing a compatibilized polymeric blend. A first thermoplastic polymer and a reactive moiety are provided to a progressive melt kneading apparatus. The reactive moiety comprises a first reactive group capable of reacting with the first thermoplastic polymer but not a second polymer and a second reactive group capable of reacting with the second polymer but not the first polymer. The first thermoplastic polymer and the reactive moiety are then melt kneaded so that the first reactive group reacts with the first thermoplastic polymer and the second reactive group is grafted to the first thermoplastic polymer, forming a molten self-compatibilizer. A molten second polymer is then provided. The molten self-compatibilizer is melt kneaded with the molten second polymer so that the second reactive group reacts with the second polymer to form a compatibilized polymeric blend. Also provided are articles formed from the compatibilized polymer blend. |
| US08026303B2 |
Halogen-free flame retardant compositions, thermoplastic compositions comprising the same and methods of producing the compositions
The present invention relates to a halogen-free or substantially halogen-free flame-retardant composition comprising a blend of (i) at least one of each highly charring polymer (ii) at least one low volatility phosphate ester, and (iii) at least one compound which splits off a high volatility phosphorus-containing fragment. The invention also relates to a flame retarded thermoplastic composition wherein the flame retardant composition is blended with at least one thermoplastic resin (iv), preferable a polystyrene resin. The invention also relates to a process for manufacturing a flame retardant composition and a thermoplastic composition containing the same. |
| US08026299B2 |
Use of nanoparticulate organic pigments in paints and coatings
A protective and decorative coating composition including about 2 to 10 different colorants which in combination with a resinous composition produce a desired visible coating. A majority of the colorants has a maximum haze of about 10% and exhibits an absorbance peak in the visible spectrum wherein at least about 50% of the total absorbance in the visible spectrum occurs at wavelengths within about 50 nm of the wavelength of the peak absorbance. |
| US08026297B2 |
Dental primer adhesive system and optional hydrophobic resin
The present application relates to a polymerizable dental primer/adhesive system comprising a primer component having a relatively hydrophilic monomer component in an amount that renders the system relatively hydrophilic before polymerization of the system and capable of penetrating a prepared dental surface such as etched tooth dentin or enamel, and a multi-functional cross-linking agent in an amount that renders the system relatively hydrophobic after polymerization. A polymerizable hydrophobic monomer component is also included in the primer. The inclusion of said hydrophobic polymerizable monomer and said multi-functional cross-linking agent improves the long term stability or durability of the polymerized primer system to the dental restoration and to the tooth, dentin, enamel and other dental surfaces. An additional hydrophobic resin can also be employed with the primer adhesive system. The dental primer adhesive system exhibits greater stability and durability over time when compared to other dental adhesive systems. |
| US08026294B2 |
Water absorbent resin composition and method for producing the same
An object is to provide a water absorbent resin composition containing a water absorbent resin as a main component, with excellent deodorant property and antimicrobial property without impairing appearance and absorption characteristics of the water absorbent resin. The water absorbent resin composition according to the first aspect includes a water absorbent resin containing a polyacrylic acid (salt)-based water absorbent resin as a main component, and an extract of bamboo and an extract of tea. The water absorbent resin composition according to the second aspect includes a water absorbent resin containing a polyacrylic acid (salt)-based water absorbent resin as a main component, and at least two kinds of compounds selected from a group consisting of hexanoic acid (salt), ethyl butyrate, and 3-methyl-2-cyclopenten-1-one. In addition, the method for producing the water absorbent resin composition according to the third aspect includes the step of adding an alcoholic solution of an extract of bamboo, before or after polymerization of an unsaturated monomer containing an acrylic acid (salt) as a main component. |
| US08026291B2 |
Expanded and extruded polyolefin foams made with methyl formate-based blowing agents
Expanded and extruded polyolefin foams are obtained using environmentally benign non-VOC methyl formate as a blowing agent. The blowing agent can be a blend further including at least one co-blowing agent, preferably an environmentally friendly species (e.g., non-VOC), which is either a physical co-blowing agent (e.g. an inorganic agent, a hydrocarbon, a halogenated hydrocarbon, a hydrocarbon with polar, functional group(s) or any combination thereof), or a chemical co-blowing agent, or combinations thereof. The blowing agent blend can include any combination of methyl formate and one or more co-blowing agents. The polymer foam can include polyethylene, polypropylene or a combination thereof. The methyl formate-based blowing agent blends produce stable foams for various applications, including containers, packaging systems, as well as for insulation and protective cushioning. Processes for the preparation of such foams are also provided. |
| US08026290B2 |
Methods and apparatus for continuous removal of carbon dioxide from a mixture of reacting gases
The disclosed invention provides methods and apparatus for producing one or more C1-C4 alcohols (such as ethanol) from syngas, while simultaneously removing CO2, thereby providing low CO2 yields. The present invention provides reactors for producing one or more C1-C4 alcohols from syngas, the reactors containing a first composition capable of catalyzing the conversion of syngas to C1-C4 alcohols under reaction conditions and a second composition capable of (a) adsorbing CO2 under the reaction conditions and then (b) releasing at least some of the CO2 under different regeneration conditions. |
| US08026288B2 |
Defoaming method
A defoaming method capable of destroying foams generated when a container is filled with drink, or the like, efficiently at a high speed and destroying foams effectively even in the case of a container having a narrow mouth. Liquid surface (6) in a container (1) is irradiated with pulse-like light (2) and a pulse-like sound wave (8) is generated from an irradiated point (7) as a sound source. The pulse-like sound wave thus generated propagates from the sound source as a strong spherical wave to reach a bubble (9) and to destroy the bubble. It can also destroy a bubble located at a place remote from the optical path quickly, thus destroying bubbles efficiently at a high speed. Alternatively, pulse-like light is condensed at a gas portion above the liquid surface and the bubbles can be destroyed with a shock wave generated by breakdown phenomenon. |
| US08026286B2 |
Pharmaceutical compositions providing enhanced drug concentrations
A drug in a solubility-improved form is combined with a concentration-enhancing polymer in a sufficient amount so that the combination provides substantially enhanced drug concentration in a use environment relative to a control comprising the same amount of the same solubility-improved form of drug without the concentration-enhancing polymer. |
| US08026285B2 |
Control release of biologically active compounds from multi-armed oligomers
The present invention relates to the discovery of biodegradable multi-armed oligomers wherein the end groups of these oligomers have been functionalized with biologically active molecules. The resultant multi-armed oligomers end-functionalized with biologically active molecules have a controllable degradation profile. The hydrolytic degradation of oligomers of the present invention releases the biologically active compound as such with no change in native chemical structure. |
| US08026283B2 |
Exo-S-mecamylamine formulation and use in treatment
A pharmaceutical composition includes a therapeutically effective amount of exo-S-mecamylamine or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, substantially free of exo-R-mecamylamine in combination with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. Preferably the amount is about 0.5 mg to about 20 mg. Medical conditions are treated by administering a therapeutically effective amount of exo-S-mecamylamine or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, substantially free of its exo-R-mecamylamine, said amount being sufficient to ameliorate the medical condition. The medical conditions include but are not limited to substance addiction (involving nicotine, cocaine, alcohol, amphetamine, opiate, other psychostimulant and a combination thereof), aiding smoking cessation, treating weight gain associated with smoking cessation, hypertension, hypertensive crisis, Tourette's Syndrome and other tremors, cancer (such as small cell lung cancer), atherogenic profile, neuropsychiatric disorders (such as bipolar disorder, depression, an anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, a seizure disorder, Parkinson's disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), chronic fatigue syndrome, Crohn's disease, autonomic dysreflexia, and spasmogenic intestinal disorders. |
| US08026281B2 |
Treating metabolic syndrome with fenofibrate
A method of treating metabolic syndrome in a human diagnosed with metabolic syndrome by administering a therapeutically effective amount of fenofibrate over a treatment period. The results can include identifying a human as not having clinical metabolic syndrome after treatment, as compared to having metabolic syndrome before treatment. |
| US08026274B2 |
Use of oxandrolone in the treatment of burns and other wounds
The subject invention provides a method of treating burn-induced weight loss in a burn patient which comprises administering a therapeutically effective amount of an oxandrolone to the patient. The invention also provides a method of treating a wound in a patient suffering from a wound which comprises administering a therapeutically effective amount of an oxandrolone to the patient. The subject invention further provides a method of treating burn-induced weight loss in a burn patient which comprises administering a therapeutically effective amount of an oxandrolone in conjunction with a protein supplement to the patient. |
| US08026271B2 |
Formulations of indol-3-yl-2-oxoacetamide compounds
This invention relates to an oral formulation containing an effective amount of the compound of the following formula I: d-alpha-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (“TPGS”); and 2-(2-ethoxyethoxy)ethanol (“Transcutol”). R1 through R4 and n are defined herein. Also disclosed is a method of treating cancer by administering this formula to a subject orally. |
| US08026270B2 |
Benzo [F] isoindoles as EP4 receptor agonists
The present invention relates to naphthalene derivatives, to processes for their preparation, to pharmaceutical compositions containing them and to their use in medicine. |
| US08026267B2 |
Non-pegylated liposomal doxorubicin triple combination therapy
The present invention relates to a method for treating metastatic breast cancer in an individual comprising administering to an individual in need thereof a dosing regimen which comprises administering to the individual nonpegylated liposomal doxorubicin, a taxane and a HER2/neu receptor antagonist, wherein the individual previously has been administered an anthracycline. |
| US08026264B2 |
Triazole derivatives as inhibitors of 11-β hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-1
Triazole derivatives of structural formula I are selective inhibitors of the 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-1. The compounds are useful for the treatment of diabetes, such as noninsulin-dependent diabetes (NIDDM), hyperglycemia, obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, Metabolic Syndrome, and other symptoms associated with NIDDM. |
| US08026261B2 |
Fluorinated derivatives of deferiprone
The present invention relates to novel derivatives of deferiprone. In particular, the present invention relates to fluorinated derivatives of deferiprone or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, pharmaceutical compositions comprising same, processes for the manufacture thereof and their use in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases caused by the presence of free iron or iron accumulation in neural tissues and in diseases wherein excess iron must be removed or redistributed. |
| US08026259B2 |
Indoles
The present invention is concerned with novel indol-2-yl-carbonyl-piperidine derivatives as V1a receptor antagonists, their manufacture, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use as medicaments. The active compounds of the present invention are useful in the prevention and/or treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders and other diseases. Present invention is concerned with compounds of the general formula (I) wherein R1 to R6, R8 to R14, R12,, R13,, X and Y are as defined in the specification. |
| US08026250B2 |
Compositions for delivering highly water soluble drugs
The present invention provides compositions for delivering highly water-soluble drugs (such as vinca alkaloids) and methods of using such compositions. |
| US08026245B2 |
HIV replication inhibiting purine derivatives
The present invention relates to the use of a compound of formula (I) for the manufacture of a medicament for the prevention or the treatment of HIV infection wherein the compound of formula (I) is a compound of formula a N-oxide, a pharmaceutically acceptable addition salt, a quaternary amine or a stereochemically isomeric form thereof, wherein A and B each represents a radical of formula and wherein —C-D- represents a bivalent radical of formula —N═CH—NR17— (c-1); or —NR17—CH═N— (c-2); provided that when A represents a radical of formula (a) then B represents a radical of formula (b) and when A represents a radical of formula (b) then B represents a radical of formula (a). |
| US08026236B2 |
6-phenyl-1H-imidazo[4,5-c]pyridine-4-carbonitrile derivatives
The present invention relates to 6-phenyl-1H-imidazo[4,5-c]pyridine-4-carbonitrile derivatives having the general Formula I to pharmaceutical compositions comprising the same as well as to the use of these derivatives for the preparation of a medicament for the treatment of cathepsin S related diseases such as atherosclerosis, obesity, inflammation and immune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, cancer, and chronic pain, such as neuropathic pain. |
| US08026235B1 |
Pyridyl benzoxazine derivatives, pharmaceutical composition comprising the same, and use thereof
Discloses is a benzoxazine benzimidazole derivative, represented by Chemical Formula 1, functioning as an antagonist to the vanilloid receptor-1, a pharmaceutical composition comprising the same, and the use thereof. The benzoxazine benzimidazole derivative can be useful for preventing or treating a disease associated with antagonistic activity of vanilloid receptor-1, without hyperthermia: wherein, R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 are as defined in the specification. |
| US08026234B2 |
Polo-like kinase inhibitors
Compounds of the following formula are provided for use with kinases: wherein the variables are as defined herein. Also provided are pharmaceutical compositions, kits and articles of manufacture comprising such compounds; methods and intermediates useful for making the compounds; and methods of using said compounds. |
| US08026233B2 |
P38 inhibitors and methods of use thereof
Compounds of formula (I): in which A, B, X, Ar1, R8 and R4 have any of the meanings given in the specification, are inhibitors of p38 useful in the treatment and prevention of various disorders mediated by p38. |
| US08026232B2 |
Benzothiophene oxide derivative and salt thereof
Disclosed is a benzothiophene oxide derivative represented by the general formula (wherein R1 and R2 are the same or different and each represents one or more groups selected from a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl group, an aryl group, an aralkyl group, an alkoxy group, an aryloxy group, an alkenyl group, an amino group, a heterocyclic group, an amino group, a hydroxyl group, a carboxyl group, an oxo group and the like; R3 represents an alkylamino group, an amino group, a hydroxyl group or the like; and m and n are the same or different and each represents an integer of 1-6) or a salt thereof, which is useful as a prodrug of a benzothiophene derivative or a salt thereof. |
| US08026231B2 |
Aminothiolester compounds, pharmaceutical and cosmetic compositions containing same and uses thereof
The invention relates to novel aminothiol ester compounds having the general formula (I): and to a method for preparing them and to their use in pharmaceutical compositions intended for use in human or veterinary medicine (cancers and precancers, dermatological, rheumatic and ophthalmological complaints in particular) or in cosmetic compositions. The invention also relates to a pharmaceutical or cosmetic composition, characterized in that it comprises, as active agent, a compound of general formula (I) in combination with a pharmaceutically or cosmetically acceptable support. |
| US08026228B2 |
Estrogenic compounds in combination with progestogenic compounds in hormone-replacement therapy
One aspect of the present invention relates to a method of hormone replacement in mammals, which method comprises the oral administration of an estrogenic component and a progestogenic component to a mammal in an effective amount to prevent or treat symptoms of hypoestrogenism, wherein the estrogenic component is selected from the group consisting of substances represented by the above formula in which formula R1, R2, R3, R4 independently are a hydrogen atom, a hydroxyl group or an alkoxy group with 1-5 carbon atoms; each of R5, R6, R7 is a hydroxyl group; and no more than 3 of R1, R2, R3, R4 are hydrogen atoms; precursors capable of liberating a substance according to the aforementioned formula when used in the present method; and mixtures of one or more of the aforementioned substances and/or precursors. Another aspect of the invention concerns a pharmaceutical kit comprising oral dosage units that contain the aforementioned estrogenic component and a progestogenic component as well as an androgenic component. |
| US08026227B2 |
Chemoprotective methods and compositions
Compositions and methods for reducing, preventing, mitigating, and/or delaying the onset of, attenuating the severity of, and/or hastening the resolution of, for example, one or more chemotherapy-associated toxicities in a subject receiving one or more chemotherapeutic agents. |
| US08026226B2 |
Medical and nutritional applications of highly refined cellulose
The present invention provides a method for using processed cellulose. Preferably, the processed cellulose is a highly refined cellulose (HRC). The HRC is useful in a number of medical and nutritional applications. These medical and nutritional applications can include, but are not limited to, administering effective amounts of the HRC for lowering values of risk factor measurements for such diseases as arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Treatment of other diseases and conditions with the HRC is also possible. |
| US08026224B2 |
Tumor cells with increased immunogenicity and uses therfor
Tumor cells modified to express a T cell costimulatory molecule are disclosed. In one embodiment, the costimulatory molecule is a CD28/CTLA4 ligand, preferably a B lymphocyte antigen B7. The tumor cells of the invention can be modified by transfection with nucleic acid encoding a T cell costimulatory molecule, by using an agent which induces or increases expression of a T cell costimulatory molecule on the tumor cell surface or by coupling a T cell costimulatory molecule to the tumor cell surface. Tumor cells further modified to express MHC class I and/or class II molecules or in which expression of an MHC associated protein, the invariant chain, is inhibited are also disclosed. The modified tumor cells of the invention can be used in methods for treating-a patient with a tumor, preventing or inhibiting metastatic spread of a tumor or preventing or inhibiting recurrence of a tumor. A method for specifically inducing a CD4+ T cell response against a tumor and a method for treating a tumor by modification of tumor cells in vivo are disclosed. |
| US08026220B2 |
C-linked glucuronide of N-(4-hydroxybenzyl) retinone, analogs thereof, and method of using the same to inhibit neoplastic cell growth
Compounds of the formula: are described, along with pharmaceutical compositions containing these compounds, and methods of using the compounds to prevent and to treat cancer in mammals, including humans. |
| US08026219B2 |
Antimicrobial linear peptides
The present invention relates to novel linear peptides with antimicrobial activity. Said peptides are made up of 11 amino acids, and they have the amino group of the amino acid constituting the N-terminal end in a non-derived form or functionalized with an acetyl group, p-toluene sulphonyl, benzyl or benzoyl. The amino acid constituting the C-terminal end of said peptides is in carboxamide form. The invention describes the synthesis and use of said peptides as antimicrobial agents to combat pathogenic bacteria for plants. The invention also relates to compositions containing said peptides and an auxiliary agent, and to a method for preventing and treating infections and diseases of plants caused by pathogenic bacteria. |
| US08026213B2 |
Methods for treating muscle diseases and disorders
The invention relates to methods of treating diseases and disorders of the muscle tissues in a vertebrate by the administration of compounds which bind the p185erbB2 receptor. These compounds are found to cause increased differentiation and survival of cardiac, skeletal and smooth muscle. |
| US08026207B2 |
Peptides and compositions for inhibiting fungal growth
It is intended to provide a novel peptide which can exert higher antifungal effect also on a patient whose organ function is impaired with no side effect problems. The peptide comprises the following amino acid sequence: (1) SEQ ID NO:1: Lys -Arg-Leu-Phe-Arg-Arg-Trp-Gln-Trp-Arg-Tyr, (2) SEQ ID NO:2: Arg-Arg-Trp-Gln -Trp-Arg-Met-Lys-Lys-Tyr, (3) SEQ ID NO:3: Lys-Arg-Trp-Gln-TTp-Arg-Leu-Tyr, or (4) SEQ ID NO:4: Lys-Arg-Leu-Phe-Lys-Tyr, an antifungal agent comprising the peptide, a composition having a fungicidal and/or growth inhibitory action against fungus containing an effective amount of the peptide as an active ingredient, a medical apparatus/device which contains the peptide, whereby a fungicidal action is conferred, and a fungicidal and/or growth inhibiting method against fungus comprising administering the peptide and the like. |
| US08026206B2 |
Low solids, high viscosity fabric softener compositions and process for making the same
Disclosed are low solids and high viscosity fabric softener compositions and processes for preparing them. The composition contains from about 0.05% to about 10% by weight of a rheology modifying fabric softening active comprising at least one long chain amine of the present technology, a derivative thereof, or a mixture thereof, and from about 1% to 10% by weight of an additional fabric softening active dispersed in water. |
| US08026200B2 |
Low pH mixtures for the removal of high density implanted resist
A method and low pH compositions for removing bulk and/or hardened photoresist material from microelectronic devices have been developed. The low pH compositions include at least one mineral acid and at least one oxidizing agent. The low pH compositions effectively remove the hardened photoresist material while not damaging the underlying silicon-containing layer(s). |
| US08026199B2 |
Lubricating oil composition
The present invention provide a lubricating oil composition suitable for internal combustion engines, which composition is excellent in thermal/oxidation stability and can inhibit the increases of the viscosity and acid number even in the presence of NOx and can be used for a long period of time or provide a lubricating oil composition particularly suitable for diesel or direct injection engines equipped with an exhaust-gas after-treatment device such as DPF or various catalysts, which composition is excellent in high-temperature detergency and base number retention properties and further can achieve the effect of inhibit wear caused by soot contamination in the oil occurring significantly when the content of phosphorus compounds such as ZnDTP is decreased, at a high level and can inhibit the exhaust-gas after-treatment device from being adversely affected. The lubricating oil composition comprises a lubricating base oil containing, a specific amount of a base oil with specific properties, and two or more types of additives selected from specific additives. |
| US08026195B2 |
Fungicidal N-cycloalkyl-carboxamide derivatives
The present invention relates to N-cycloalkyl-thiocarboxamide or N-cycloalkyl-N-substituted carboximidamide derivatives of formula (I) wherein A and B represent a 5-membered heterocyclyl groups, T represents an oxygen, sulphur or amino derivatives, Z1 represents a cycloalkyl group and Z2 and Z3 represent various substituents, their process of preparation, their use as fungicide active agents, particularly in the form of fungicide compositions, and methods for the control of phytopathogenic fungi, notably of plants, using these compounds or compositions. |
| US08026192B2 |
Fluorinated alkoxy-imino catalyst components
This invention relates to fluorinated alkoxy-imino metallic complexes and their use in catalyst systems for the polymerisation or oligomerisation of ethylene and alpha-olefins. |
| US08026191B2 |
Carbon-containing refractory composition containing no resinous binder
The present invention provides a carbon-containing refractory composition comprising a carbon-containing refractory matrix material, and a binder selected from molasses, lignosulphonate, magnesium sulfate, magnesium chloride, and a mixture thereof. The inventive composition having satisfactory good thermal and physical properties causes no environmental hazard. |
| US08026190B2 |
Insulating element from mineral fibers for shipbuilding
Insulating element from mineral fibers for shipbuilding with an insulating element in form of a plate or roll felt for shipbuilding the composition of the mineral fibers of the insulating element points an alkali/alkaline-earth mass ratio of the fiber structure of the insulating element is determined by an average geometrical fiber diameter of ≦4 μm and a surface weight of 0.8 through 4.3 kg/m2 and a binding agent portion above 0.5 until 4 weight %. |
| US08026189B1 |
High-temperature and fire-resistant fabric and a method of manufacturing thereof
A method of making a high-temperature and fire-resistant fabric is described in which staple carbon fiber yarns are woven into a unified multi-layer woven fabric. The warp ends and filling picks of the unified multi-layer woven structure are positioned such that they prevent penetration of fire flames, welding sparks and molten metal spatter from penetrating through the unified multi-layer fabric. |
| US08026179B2 |
Patterning method and integrated circuit structure
A patterning method is provided. First, a mask layer and a plurality of first transfer patterns are sequentially formed on a target layer. Thereafter, a plurality of second patterns is formed in the gaps between the first transfer patterns. Afterwards, a plurality of third transfer patterns is formed, wherein each of the third transfer patterns is in a gap between a first transfer pattern and a second transfer pattern adjacent to the first transfer pattern. A portion of the mask layer is then removed, using the first transfer patterns, the second transfer patterns and third transfer patterns as a mask, so as to form a patterned mask layer. Further, a portion of the target layer is removed using the patterned mask layer as a mask. |
| US08026176B2 |
Film forming method, plasma film forming apparatus and storage medium
A technique for embedding metal in a microscopic recess provided in the surface of a process object, such as a semiconductor wafer, by plasma sputtering. A film forming step and a diffusion step are alternately performed a plurality of times. The film forming step deposits a small amount of metal film in the recess. The diffusion step moves the deposited metal film towards the bottom portion of the recess. In the film forming step, bias power to be applied to a stage for supporting the wafer is set to a value ensuring that, on the surface of the wafer, the rate of metal deposition due to the drawing-in of metal particles is substantially equal to the rate of the sputter etching by plasma. In the diffusion step, the wafer is maintained at a temperature which permits occurrence of surface diffusion of the metal film deposited in the recess. |
| US08026174B1 |
Sequential station tool for wet processing of semiconductor wafers
Methods and apparatus are provided for processing semiconductor wafers sequentially. Sequential processes employ multi-station processing modules, where particular encompassing wafer processes are divided into sub-processes, each optimized for increasing wafer to wafer uniformity, result quality, and overall wafer throughput. In one example, a copper electroplating module includes separate stations for wetting, initiation, seed layer repair, fill, overburden, reclaim, and rinse. |
| US08026173B2 |
Semiconductor structure, in particular phase change memory device having a uniform height heater
A phase change memory formed by a plurality of phase change memory devices having a chalcogenide memory region extending over an own heater. The heaters have all a relatively uniform height. The height uniformity is achieved by forming the heaters within pores in an insulator that includes an etch stop layer and a sacrificial layer. The sacrificial layer is removed through an etching process such as chemical mechanical planarization. Since the etch stop layer may be formed in a repeatable way and is common across all the devices on a wafer, considerable uniformity is achieved in heater height. Heater height uniformity results in more uniformity in programmed memory characteristics. |
| US08026170B2 |
Method of forming a single-layer metal conductors with multiple thicknesses
A pattern that includes trenches of different depths is formed on a substrate using nanoimprint lithography. A subsequent metal deposition forms lines of different thicknesses according to trench depth, from a single metal layer. Vias extending down from lines are also formed from the same layer. Individual bit lines are formed having different thicknesses at different locations. |
| US08026166B2 |
Interconnect structures comprising capping layers with low dielectric constants and methods of making the same
Interconnect structures comprising capping layers with low dielectric constants and good oxygen barrier properties and methods of making the same are provided. In one embodiment, the integrated circuit structure comprises: an interlevel dielectric layer disposed above a semiconductor substrate; a conductive interconnect embedded in the interlevel dielectric layer; a first capping layer comprising SiwCxNyHz disposed upon the conductive interconnect; a second capping layer comprising SiaCbNcHd (has less N) having a dielectric constant less than about 4 disposed upon the first capping layer; and a third capping layer comprising SiwCxNyHz disposed upon the second capping layer, wherein a+b+c+d=1.0 and a, b, c, and d are each greater than 0 and less than 1, and wherein w+x+y+z=1.0 and w, x, y, and z are each greater than 0 and less than 1. |
| US08026162B2 |
Method of manufacturing layer-stacked wiring
A layer-stacked wiring made up of a microcrystalline silicon thin film and a metal thin film is provided which is capable of suppressing an excessive silicide formation reaction between the microcrystalline silicon thin film and metal thin film, thereby preventing peeling of the thin film. In a polycrystalline silicon TFT (Thin Film Transistor) using the layer-stacked wiring, the microcrystalline silicon thin film is so configured that its crystal grains each having a length of the microcrystalline silicon thin film in a direction of a film thickness being 60% or more of a film thickness of the microcrystalline silicon thin film amount to 15% or less of total number of crystal grains or that its crystal grains each having a length of the microcrystalline silicon thin film in a direction of a film thickness being 50% or less of a film thickness of the microcrystalline silicon thin film amount to 85% or more of the total number of crystal grains making up the microcrystalline silicon thin film. |
| US08026160B2 |
Semiconductor device and semiconductor device manufacturing method
In a semiconductor device using a SiC substrate, a Junction Termination Edge (JTE) layer is hardly affected by fixed charge so that a stable dielectric strength is obtained. A semiconductor device according to a first aspect of the present invention includes a SiC epi-layer having n type conductivity, an impurity region in a surface of the SiC epi-layer and having p type conductivity, and JTE layers adjacent to the impurity region, having p type conductivity, and having a lower impurity concentration than the impurity region. The JTE layers are spaced by a distance from an upper surface of the SiC epi-layer, and SiC regions having n type conductivity are present on the JTE layers. |
| US08026154B2 |
Laser working method
An object to be processed is restrained from warping at the time of laser processing. A modified region M2 is formed within a wafer 11, and fractures a2, b2 extending in directions parallel to the thickness direction of the wafer 11 and tilted with respect to a plane including lines 5 are generated from the modified region M2. A modified region M3 is formed within the wafer 11, and a fracture a3 extending in a direction parallel to the thickness direction of the wafer 11 and tilted with respect to the plane including the lines 5 is generated from the modified region M3 so as to connect with the fracture b2. That is, the fractures a2, a3, b2 are generated so as to be connected together. Therefore, at the time of laser processing, the fractures cause both side parts holding the lines to cut 5 therebetween in the wafer 11 to mesh with each other, whereby internal stresses occurring in a direction parallel to the thickness direction of the wafer 11 and perpendicular to the surface including the lines 5 when the modified regions are formed can be reduced. |
| US08026153B2 |
Wafer processing method
A wafer processing method of dividing a wafer into individual devices, the wafer having on a front surface a device area and an external circumferential redundant area surrounding the device area, the method including: a wafer grinding step in which, in the state where the wafer is held on the side of a protection tape stuck to the front surface of the wafer, a rear side of the device area in a rear surface of the wafer is ground to form a recessed portion to form a ringlike reinforcing portion on an outer circumferential side of the recessed portion; a metal film coating step for coating, with a metal film, a rear surface of the wafer stuck with the protection tape on the front surface; and a wafer dividing step for cutting the predetermined dividing lines from a rear surface side of the wafer stuck with the protection tape on the front surface, thereby dividing the wafer into the individual devices. |
| US08026152B2 |
Separation method of semiconductor device
It is an object to provide a semiconductor device integrating various elements without using a semiconductor substrate, and a method of manufacturing the same. According to the present invention, a layer to be separated including an inductor, a capacitor, a resistor element, a TFT element, an embedded wiring and the like, is formed over a substrate, separated from the substrate, and transferred onto a circuit board 100. An electrical conduction with a wiring pattern 114 provided in the circuit board 100 is made by a wire 112 or a solder 107, thereby forming a high frequency module or the like. |
| US08026151B2 |
Method with high gapfill capability for semiconductor devices
A method of performing an STI gapfill process for semiconductor devices is provided. In a specific embodiment of the invention, the method includes forming an stop layer overlying a substrate. In addition, the method includes forming a trench within the substrate, with the trench having sidewalls, a bottom, and a depth. The method additionally includes forming a liner within the trench, the liner lining the sidewalls and bottom of the trench. Furthermore, the method includes filling the trench to a first depth with a first oxide. The first oxide is filled using a spin-on process. The method also includes performing a first densification process on the first oxide within the trench. In addition, the method includes depositing a second oxide within the trench using an HDP process to fill at least the entirety of the trench. The method also includes performing a second densification process on the first and second oxides within the trench. |
| US08026149B2 |
Substrate with marker, manufacturing method thereof, laser irradiation apparatus, laser irradiation method, light exposure apparatus, and manufacturing method of semiconductor device
To provide a laser irradiation apparatus which performs alignment of an irradiated object and emits a laser beam precisely, a laser irradiation method, and a manufacturing method of a TFT with high reliability with the use of a method for precisely targeting a desired irradiation position of the laser beam. A substrate with marker is mounted on a stage formed using a material which transmits infrared light; a marker, which is provided in the substrate with marker mounted on the stage, is detected using a camera capable of sensing infrared light, and a position of the stage is controlled; a laser beam is emitted from a laser oscillator; the laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator is processed into a linear shape by an optical system, and the substrate with marker mounted on the stage is irradiated with the laser beam. |
| US08026148B2 |
Methods of utilizing silicon dioxide-containing masking structures
Some embodiments include methods of forming capacitors. Storage nodes are formed within a material. The storage nodes have sidewalls along the material. Some of the material is removed to expose portions of the sidewalls. The exposed portions of the sidewalls are coated with a substance that isn't wetted by water. Additional material is removed to expose uncoated regions of the sidewalls. The substance is removed, and then capacitor dielectric material is formed along the sidewalls of the storage nodes. Capacitor electrode material is then formed over the capacitor dielectric material. Some embodiments include methods of utilizing a silicon dioxide-containing masking structure in which the silicon dioxide of the masking structure is coated with a substance that isn't wetted by water. |
| US08026147B2 |
Method of fabricating a semiconductor microstructure
Provided is a method of fabricating a semiconductor microstructure, the method including forming a lower material layer on a semiconductor substrate, the lower material layer including a nitride of a Group III-element; forming a mold material layer on the lower material layer; forming an etching mask on the mold material layer, the etching mask being for forming a structure in the mold material layer; anisotropic-etching the mold material layer and the lower material layer by using the etching mask; and isotropic-etching the mold material layer and the lower material layer. |
| US08026141B2 |
Method of producing semiconductor
In a conventional SGT production method, during dry etching for forming a pillar-shaped silicon layer and a gate electrode, an etching amount cannot be controlled using an end-point detection process, which causes difficulty in producing an SGT while stabilizing a height dimension of the pillar-shaped silicon layer, and a gate length. In an SGT production method of the present invention, a hard mask for use in dry etching for forming a pillar-shaped silicon layer is formed in a layered structure comprising a first hard mask and a second hard mask, to allow the end-point detection process to be used during the dry etching for the pillar-shaped silicon layer. In addition, a gate conductive film for use in dry etching for forming a gate electrode is formed in a layered structure comprising a first gate conductive film and a second gate conductive film, to allow the end-point detection process to be used during the dry etching for the gate electrode. |
| US08026140B2 |
Method of forming flash memory device
The present invention relates to a method of forming a flash memory device, which is capable of forming floating gates. According to a method of forming a flash memory device in accordance with the present invention, isolation mask patterns are first formed over a semiconductor substrate. Trenches are formed by performing an etching process using the isolation mask patterns. Isolation layers are formed between the isolation mask patterns, including the insides of the respective trenches. The isolation mask patterns are removed. Tunnel dielectric layers and crystallized first conductive layers are sequentially formed over the exposed semiconductor substrate. A dielectric layer and a second conductive layer are formed over the isolation layers and the first conductive layers. |
| US08026139B2 |
Method of fabricating a non-volatile memory device
In a method of fabricating a non-volatile memory device, a semiconductor substrate includes an isolation layer formed in an isolation region, a tunnel insulating layer and a first conductive layer for a floating gate formed in an active region, and a dielectric layer, a second conductive layer for a control gate, and a gate hard mask formed over the first conductive layer including the isolation layer. The second conductive layer is patterned using the gate hard mask as an etch mask. The dielectric layer is patterned so that the first conductive layer, which is exposed as the dielectric layer is etched, is also etched. The first conductive layer is patterned along a pattern of the gate hard mask. Accordingly, at the time of gate patterning, micro bridges between the floating gates can be prevented and a 2-bit failure between neighboring cells is less likely. |
| US08026135B2 |
Formation of shallow junctions by diffusion from a dielectric doped by cluster or molecular ion beams
A process for forming diffused region less than 20 nanometers deep with an average doping dose above 1014 cm−2 in an IC substrate, particularly LDD region in an MOS transistor, is disclosed. Dopants are implanted into a source dielectric layer using gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) implantation, molecular ion implantation or atomic ion implantation resulting in negligible damage in the IC substrate. A spike anneal or a laser anneal diffuses the implanted dopants into the IC substrate. The inventive process may also be applied to forming source and drain (S/D) regions. One source dielectric layer may be used for forming both NLDD and PLDD regions. |
| US08026134B2 |
Recessed drain and source areas in combination with advanced silicide formation in transistors
During the manufacturing process for forming sophisticated transistor elements, the gate height may be reduced and a recessed drain and source configuration may be obtained in a common etch sequence prior to forming respective metal silicide regions. Since the corresponding sidewall spacer structure may be maintained during the etch sequence, controllability and uniformity of the silicidation process in the gate electrode may be enhanced, thereby obtaining a reduced degree of threshold variability. Furthermore, the recessed drain and source configuration may provide reduced overall series resistance and enhanced stress transfer efficiency. |
| US08026132B2 |
Leakage barrier for GaN based HEMT active device
An improved HEMT formed from a GaN material system is disclosed which has reduced gate leakage current relative to known GaN based HEMTs and eliminates the problem of current constrictions resulting from deposition of the gate metal over the step discontinuities formed over the gate mesa. The HEMT device is formed from a GaN material system. One or more GaN based materials are layered and etched to form a gate mesa with step discontinuities defining source and drain regions. In order to reduce the leakage current, the step discontinuities are back-filled with an insulating material, such as silicon nitride (SiN), forming a flat surface relative to the source and drain regions, to enable to the gate metal to lay flat. By back-filling the source and drain regions with an insulating material, leakage currents between the gate and source and the gate and drain are greatly reduced. In addition, current constrictions resulting from the deposition of the gate metal over a step discontinuity are virtually eliminated. |
| US08026124B2 |
Method for fabricating copper/indium/gallium/selenium solar cell by wet process under non-vacuum condition
A method for fabricating a copper/indium/gallium/selenium solar cell by a wet process under non-vacuum condition is provided. In the method for fabricating a copper/indium/gallium/selenium solar cell by a wet process under non-vacuum condition, a substrate having a backside electrode layer is provided, and then a first transparent conduction oxide (TCO) layer, a copper/indium/gallium/selenium layer and a cadmium sulfide layer, a zinc oxide layer, and a second TCO layer are sequentially formed on the backside electrode layer by using a first TCO layer forming process, a copper/indium/gallium/selenium layer and a cadmium sulfide layer forming process, a zinc oxide layer forming process, and a second TCO layer forming process to form the copper/indium/gallium/selenium solar cell with a high conversion efficiency, wherein the first TCO layer forming process, the zinc oxide layer forming process, and the second TCO layer forming process respectively comprise a laser cutting process to individually perform laser cutting and scraping knife cutting for the work piece such that the segmented work pieces are formed for increasing the integration of process and the quality of production. |
| US08026123B2 |
Integrated circuit including a memory apparatus and production method
The memory apparatus according to the invention and having a cell 14 has a high electrical resistance in a first state and a low electrical resistance in a second state. The cell 14 has an edge area 16 and a core area 15, in which the electrical resistivity in the edge area 16 is higher than in the core area 15 in the second state. |
| US08026120B2 |
Method of manufacturing MEMS device
A method of manufacturing an MEMS device includes: forming a covering structure having an MEMS structure and a hollow portion, which is located on a periphery of the MEMS structure and is opened to an outside, on a substrate; and performing surface etching for the MEMS structure in a gas phase by supplying an etching gas to the periphery of the MEMS structure from the outside. |
| US08026118B2 |
Gallium nitride based compound semiconductor light-emitting device and method for manufacturing same
The present invention provides a gallium nitride based compound semiconductor light-emitting device having high light emission efficiency and a method of manufacturing the same. The gallium nitride based compound semiconductor light-emitting device includes: a substrate 11; an n-type semiconductor layer 13, a light-emitting layer 14, and a p-type semiconductor layer 15 that are composed of gallium nitride based compound semiconductors and formed on the substrate 11 in this order; a transparent positive electrode 16 that is formed on the p-type semiconductor layer 15; a positive electrode bonding pad 17 that is formed on the transparent positive electrode 16; a negative electrode bonding pad 18 that is formed on the n-type semiconductor layer 13; and an uneven surface that has random convex portions formed thereon and is provided on at least a portion of the surface 16a of the transparent positive electrode 16. |
| US08026116B2 |
Display device and method of manufacturing the same
Disclosed herein is a display device, including a display element, a first scanning line, a second scanning line, a data signal line, a switching element having a first terminal and a second terminal of a first conduction type, the first terminal being connected to the data signal line, for being held in a conducting state or a non-conducting state according to a voltage applied to the first scanning line, and a storage capacitance having a first electrode and a second electrode that shares the second scanning line, wherein the second terminal of the switching element is connected to the display element and connected to the first electrode of the storage capacitance including a semiconductor film of a second conduction type different from the second terminal. |
| US08026112B2 |
Method of manufacturing semiconductor device
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes: forming first conductive layer on semiconductor substrate; forming a magnetic film on the first conductive layer; forming second conductive layer on the magnetic film; forming a first mask layer on the second conductive layer; patterning the second conductive layer; patterning the magnetic film; forming a first insulating film on the first conductive layer to cover side surfaces of the patterned second conductive layer and the patterned magnetic film; forming a second mask layer on the first insulating film to cover the patterned second conductive layer, the patterned magnetic film, and the first insulating film; patterning the first insulating film; patterning the first conductive layer; forming a second insulating film on the semiconductor substrate to cover the patterned second conductive layer, the patterned magnetic film, and the patterned first conductive layer; and forming a third insulating film on the second insulating film. |
| US08026111B2 |
Dielectric enhancements to chip-to-chip capacitive proximity communication
A method for improving signal levels between capacitively-coupled chips in proximity communication (PxC) includes depositing a high permittivity dielectric material layer over a signal pad of a first chip, and placing a second chip in close proximity to the first chip such that faces of the signal pads align to enable for capacitive signal coupling. The high permittivity dielectric material layer that fills at least a portion of a gap between the first chip and the second chip, and improves capacitive coupling between signal pads of the first chip and the second chip by providing for an increased permittivity in the gap between the first chip and the second chip. The increased permittivity ensures that electric fields are substantially confined to a space between the signal pad of the first chip and the signal pad of the second chip. |
| US08026109B2 |
Hapten-carrier conjugates for treating and preventing nicotine addiction
Novel hapten-carrier conjugates are capable of inducing the production of antibodies, in vivo, that specifically bind to nicotine. These conjugates comprise a nicotine hapten conjugated to an immunogenic carrier protein. The novel conjugates preserve the chirality of nicotine in its native (S)-(−) state, and have good stability properties. The conjugates are useful in formulating vaccines for active immunization, that are used to prevent and treat nicotine addiction. The antibodies raised in response to the nicotine hapten-carrier conjugate are used for passive immunization. These antibodies are administered for prevention and treatment of nicotine addiction. |
| US08026108B1 |
Detection of biotargets using bioreceptor functionalized nanoparticles
An ultra sensitive method for detection of biomolecules includes the step of providing a plurality of bioreceptor functionalized nanoparticle probes. The nanoparticles can include metal, semiconductor, radioactive isotope or fluorescent dye molecules. A sample solution suspected of including the target is contacted with the probes, wherein if present, the target binds to the bioreceptor. After such binding a separating step follows. In the separating step, probes having the target bound thereto are separated from probes not having the target bound thereto. In one embodiment probes having the target bound thereto are then decomposed to generate ions, or broken into discrete radioactive isotopes or fluorescent dye molecules to form a solution including a large plurality of metal ions, radioactive isotopes or dye molecules. A concentration of ions, radioactive isotopes, or dye molecules in the solution is then determined and using this information the concentration of the target in the original sample solution is determined. |
| US08026104B2 |
Transient decay amperometry
A biosensor system determines an analyte concentration of a biological sample using an electrochemical process without Cottrell decay. The biosensor system generates an output signal having a transient decay, where the output signal is not inversely proportional to the square root of the time. The transient decay is greater or less than the −0.5 decay constant of a Cottrell decay. The transient decay may result from a relatively short incubation period, relatively small sample reservoir volumes, relatively small distances between electrode surfaces and the lid of the sensor strip, and/or relatively short excitations in relation to the average initial thickness of the reagent layer. The biosensor system determines the analyte concentration from the output signal having a transient decay. |
| US08026102B2 |
Apparatus and method to characterize blood and red blood cells via erythrocyte membrane fragility quantification
The present disclosure describes an apparatus and associated method for quantifying the quality degradation of individual stored red blood cell (RBC) units, thereby yielding information to improve decisions regarding their respective allocation, patient suitability, and use. This apparatus and the methods of its use are amenable to clinical implementation as well as indicative of any given unit's relative viability and thus prospective efficacy. This would provide clinicians with actual data on RBC quality when making decisions about which and how many units to use for transfusion of a given patient. Moreover, deploying this testing throughout the supply chain will improve distribution, planning, and inventory control decisions. A vital aspect of this testing system is the accumulation of copious output and other associated data and the mathematical analyses thereof to optimize algorithms by which to characterize each subsequent test output as meaningfully as possible. While the present invention is directed toward applications in blood quality control, the core technology of “quantifying RBC fragility via stress-induced hemolysis and subsequent optical and computational analysis” could have broader application, such as in disease diagnosis.The apparatus for quantifying the quality degradation of individual stored (RBC) units comprises: a hemolysis unit; an optical analysis unit; and a computation unit. Similarly, the associated process for quantifying the quality degradation of individual stored (RBC) units comprises: a hemolysis step; an optical analysis step; and a computation step. |
| US08026101B2 |
Failure detection in automated clinical analyzers
The invention is a method for detecting failures in an analyzer for conducting clinical assays. Potential errors that can result in assay failures in an analyzer are identified, as are their potential sources. The probability that an error source so identified will result in a clinically significant error is also determined. Available potential detection measures corresponding to the source of potential errors are identified with a combination of such measures selected and implemented based on their probability of detecting such errors within an acceptable limit with a concomitant low probability of the false detection of an assay failure. Each of the measures selected are functionally independent of others chosen to address the source of the error and are not subject to the same inherent means of failed detection. Applications of the method in a clinical analyzer are also presented. |
| US08026100B2 |
Method of determining lifetime of a nanotube-producing catalyst
The present teachings are directed toward methods of determining the lifetime of a catalyst for producing carbon nanotubes. The methods include providing different isotopically-labeled reaction components, primarily hydrocarbon sources containing different carbon isotopes, to the catalyst and measuring the Raman spectra of the carbon nanotubes produced with the different hydrocarbon sources. |
| US08026099B2 |
Lipid profile as a biomarker for early detection of neurological disorders
The present invention relates to compositions and methods for the early detection or monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases and neurological disorders including Alzheimer's disease. The invention provides biomarkers based on lipid profiles of biological samples and methods for using the biomarkers for the detection of neurodegenerative diseases and neurological disorders. |
| US08026095B2 |
Biological production of ethanol from waste gases
Apparatus for biological production of ethanol from waste gases includes a bioreactor including a plurality of tunnels each having inlet and outlet passageways, a gasifier reactor generates a continuous supply of syngas from waste gases into the upper portion of each tunnel. A mixing device provides a continuous supply of fermentation microbes in a liquid directed by pumps and spray misters into the tunnel. Pumps direct the liquid vertically for conversion of the syngas into ethanol. |
| US08026094B2 |
Microarray synthesis instrument and method
During the light illumination period of a monomer addition cycle in synthesizing an DNA microarray, undesirable reflections of illumination light from various interfaces that the illumination light passes through near the synthesis surface of the substrate may reduce the light-dark contrast, and negatively affect the precision and resolution of the microarray synthesis. The present invention provides an flow cell that reduces the undesired reflections by constructing certain flow cell structures with materials that have similar refractive indexes as that of the solution that is in the oligomer synthesis chamber during the illumination period and/or constructing certain flow cell structures or covering the structures with a layer of a material that has a high extinction coefficient. |
| US08026090B2 |
Modified chondroitin synthase polypeptide and crystal thereof
Disclosed are: (A) a polypeptide consisting of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, or (B) a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2 including deletion, substitution or addition of one or several amino acid residues and having chondroitin synthase activity; a nucleic acid encoding the polypeptide; a method for producing the polypeptide, comprising at least the steps of: (1) expressing the nucleic acid to produce the polypeptide; and (2) collecting the polypeptide produced in the step (1); and a crystal of the polypeptide. The crystal may be a monoclinic or tetragonal crystal. |
| US08026087B2 |
Method of continuously producing ethanol and electricity from a sustainable renewable biomass feedstock
Disclosed is a method of continuously producing ethanol and electricity from a sustainable renewable biomass feedstock in a processing plant contiguous to the acreage providing the biomass. The process is a closed loop operation having a dedicated crop grown year round producing multiple crops per acre. The renewable biomass feedstock is a sugar containing feedstock such as sweet sorghum. The biomass is grown year round and produces multiple crops per acre. |
| US08026086B2 |
Methods for co-production of ethanol and silica from equisetum
A method for the co-production of silica and at least one other useful industrial chemical such as ethanol, comprises the steps of: pre-treating siliceous plant matter derived from plants, such as horsetail weeds from the genus Equisetum, to create a feedstock having exposed cellulose; placing the feedstock in a reactor containing a biological agent effective to break down the cellulose into at least one useful organic chemical reaction product and a silica-containing co-product; separating the at least one useful organic chemical product from the reactor; separating the silica-containing co-product from the reactor; and refining the silica-containing co-products into silica or other industrially useful silicon containing products. The biological agent may be an anaerobic thermophyllic bacteria, enzymes, or a co-mixture of enzymes and yeast. |
| US08026079B2 |
Method for detection of microorganism and kit for detection of microorganism
According to the following steps, live cells, injured cells, VNC cells and dead cells of a microorganism in a test sample are detected by flow cytometry:a) the step of treating the test sample with an enzyme having an activity of decomposing cells other than those of the microorganism, colloidal particles of proteins or lipids existing in the test sample,b) the step of treating the test sample with a topoisomerase poison and/or a DNA gyrase poison.c) the step of treating the test sample treated in the steps a) and b) with a nuclear stain agent, andd) the step of detecting the microorganism in the test sample treated with the nuclear stain agent by flow cytometry. |
| US08026078B2 |
Method of quantifying glycosylated protein using redox reaction and quantification kit
The present invention provides a method of measuring a glycated protein in a sample using a redox reaction, by which the glycated protein can be measured accurately with high sensitivity. In order to remove a glycated amino acid present in the sample other than the glycated protein, the glycated amino acid is degraded in advance by causing a fructosyl amino acid oxidase to act thereon, and thereafter, a fructosyl amino acid oxidase is caused to act on the glycated protein in the presence of a tetrazolium compound and sodium azide to cause a redox reaction. The amount of the glycated protein is determined by measuring the redox reaction. As the glycated protein, glycated hemoglobin is preferable. |
| US08026072B2 |
Method of identifying compounds that bind BAFF-R
Disclosed are nucleic acids encoding BAFF-R polypeptides, as well as antibodies to BAFF-R polypeptides and pharmaceutical compositions including the same. Methods of treating tumorigenic and autoimmune conditions using the nucleic acids, polypeptides, antibodies and pharmaceutical compositions of this invention are also provided. |
| US08026069B2 |
Process for identification of compounds for modulating the activity of sodium/calcium exchange transporter
The invention refers to a cell free assay for determining the activity of a Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX) protein by means of a cell free electrophysiological sensor chip, a kit of parts comprising the sensor chip with a NCX protein as well as the manufacturing and use of the kit of parts. |
| US08026068B2 |
Use of silica material in an amplification reaction
This invention relates to a method for the isolation of a target nucleic acid using a material with an unmodified silica surface and subsequent amplification of the target nucleic acid in the presence of the material with an unmodified silica surface. The method is preferably carried out as an automated process preferably in a high throughput format. The method is preferably used in diagnostics. |
| US08026067B2 |
Marker for prenatal diagnosis and monitoring
The present invention relates to new methods for diagnosing a pregnancy-associated disorder by analyzing fetal DNA present in the mother's blood. More specifically, this invention relies on the discovery that the maspin gene is differentially methylated in fetal DNA and in maternal DNA and provides these new diagnostic methods, which distinguish fetal DNA from maternal DNA and detect prenatal disorders based on abnormalities in fetal DNA level and methylation status. |
| US08026065B2 |
Assessment of oocyte competence
Methods are provided for evaluating an oocyte for fertilization and implantation. For example, methods are provided for determining whether an oocyte expresses, or does not express, one or more of a group of markers identified as differently expressed between chromosomally normal and chromosomally abnormal oocytes. Also provided, for example, are methods for determining whether a cumulus cell expresses, or does not express, one or more of a group of markers identified as differently expressed between cumulus cells associated with chromosomally normal oocytes and cumulus cells associated with chromosomally abnormal oocytes. Methods are provided for the detection of marker expression of differentially expressed genes at the RNA level, as well as at the protein level. |
| US08026064B2 |
Compositions, methods and systems for inferring bovine breed
Provided herein are methods to discover and use single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) for identifying breed, or line and breed, or line composition of a bovine subject. The present invention further provides specific nucleic acid sequences, SNPs, and SNP patterns that can be used for identifying breed or breed combinations for Angus, Holstein, Limousin, Brahman, Hereford, Simmental, Gelbvieh, Charolais and Beefmaster breeds. These patterns can be utilized to manage animals in a feedlot to obtain optimum performance based on known characteristics of specific breeds and identify animals for breeding in selection programs. In another aspect, these patterns can be used to ensure labeling on breed specific branded products. |
| US08026056B2 |
Compositions and methods for detecting Borrelia afzelii
Disclosed are oligonucleotides useful in methods for determining whether a sample contains Borrelia afzelii, a spirochete which is a causative agent of Lyme disease in humans. These oligonucleotides, which have nucleotide sequences derived from a coding segment of the gene encoding the p24 gene for the outer surface protein of Borrelia afzelii, are useful as forward and reverse primers for a polymerase chain reaction using nucleic acids from a biological sample as templates, and as probes for detecting any resultant amplicon. Detection of an amplicon indicates the sample contains Borrelia afzelii. Real-time PCR and detection using florescence resonance energy transfer is disclosed. |
| US08026055B2 |
Materials and methods for prognosing lung cancer survival
The invention provides methods of prognosing and classifying lung cancer patients into poor survival groups or good survival groups. The invention also includes kits for use in the methods of the invention. |
| US08026047B2 |
Resist pattern forming method, supercritical processing solution for lithography process, and antireflection film forming method
A fine and high-accuracy pattern, which is also excellent in either or both of high sensitivity and etching resistance can be provided. Disclosed is a resist pattern forming method in which a single- or multi-layered film 2 is formed on a substrate 1 and a resist pattern is formed on the film 2 through a lithography technique including exposure and development, the method comprising performing supercritical processing in which the film 2 is brought into contact with a supercritical processing solution 5′ in which an organic matter 4 is dissolved before the exposure or development. |
| US08026044B2 |
Method of forming fine patterns of semiconductor device
A method of forming fine patterns on a semiconductor substrate includes forming a first pattern, including first line patterns having a feature size F and an arbitrary pitch P, and forming a second pattern, including second line patterns disposed between adjacent first line patterns, to form a fine pattern having a half pitch P/2, the first and second line patterns being repeated in the first direction. A gap is formed in at least one first line pattern in a second direction, perpendicular to the first direction, to connect second line patterns positioned on each side of the first line pattern through the gap. At least one jog pattern, extending in the first direction, is formed from at least one first line pattern adjacent to the connected second line patterns. The jog pattern causes a gap in at least one of the connected second line patterns in the second direction. |
| US08026040B2 |
Silicone coating composition
The present invention relates to a composition comprising: (a) a polymer having at least one repeating unit of formula where R1 is a non-hydrolysable group and n is an integer ranging from 1 to 3; and (b) a crosslinking catalyst. The composition is useful in forming low k dielectric constant materials and as well as hard mask and underlayer materials with anti-reflective properties for the photolithography industry. |
| US08026039B2 |
Radiation-sensitive resin composition
A radiation-sensitive resin composition includes a resin that includes a repeating unit shown by the following formula (1) and a solvent. The radiation-sensitive resin composition has an excellent performance as a radiation-sensitive acid generator, includes a resin that adversely affects the environment and a human body to only a small extent, and can form a resist film that has a high resolution and forms an excellent resist pattern. wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom or the like, M+ represents a specific cation, and n represents an integer from 1 to 5. |
| US08026032B2 |
Carrier, supplemental developer, developer in image developer, developer feeding apparatus, image forming apparatus and process cartridge
A carrier for use in an image forming apparatus in which a toner and a carrier are fed to an image developer thereof and an extra developer including the toner and the carrier in the image developer is discharged therefrom, wherein at least one of the carrier fed to the image developer and a carrier readily contained therein includes a core material; and a coated film coating the core material, and wherein the coated film includes a binder resin and a particulate material having a ratio of an average particle diameter thereof to an average thickness of the coated film of from 0.01 to 1, and includes concavities and convexities having an average difference of elevation of from 0.02 to 3.0 μm. |
| US08026030B2 |
Toner
The present invention provides a toner which is excellent in low-temperature fixability and transparency and has high gloss, and which is excellent in offset resistance, storage stability, and development stability. The toner is characterized in that: a square radius of inertia Rt at a peak top of a main peak in GPC-RALLS-viscometer analysis of tetrahydrofuran (THF) soluble matter when the toner is dissolved in a THF solvent at 25° C. for 24 hours is 1.0 nm to 3.8 nm; and the square radius of inertia Rt and a square radius of inertia Rp at a peak top of a main peak in GPC-RALLS-viscometer analysis of THF soluble matter when linear polystyrene, having an absolute peak molecular weight value at the same value as a main peak value of the toner, is dissolved in a THF solvent at 25° C. for 24 hours satisfy the relationship of Rt/Rp<0.85. |
| US08026022B2 |
Long-length fiber Bragg creating sequential UV writing by probing phase mask
A new fiber position monitoring method for sequential FBG UV-writing processes with a reference phase mask as the phase reference is proposed. Also, the new method by probing a reference phase mask can overcome the optical alignment difficulties in using reference fiber as well as provide more signal power for achieving better monitoring accuracy. Moreover, the present invention provides a method for sequentially joining a plurality of grating sections into a fiber grating longer than a phase mask. |
| US08026018B2 |
Electrolyte membrane-electrode assembly and production method thereof
An electrolyte membrane-electrode assembly of the present invention includes: an electrolyte membrane; an anode-side electrode including an anode-side catalyst layer disposed on one side of the electrolyte membrane and an anode-side gas diffusion layer formed on the anode-side catalyst layer beyond a surface-direction end of the anode-side catalyst layer; an anode-side adhesive layer disposed on at least a part of a periphery of the anode-side catalyst layer; and an anode-side gasket layer disposed in contact with the anode-side adhesive layer, wherein a surface-direction inner end of the anode-side adhesive lay is located inside beyond a surface-direction inner end of the anode-side gasket layer, and a part of the anode-side adhesive layer is located to overlap with a part of the anode-side gas diffusion layer with respect to a thickness direction. Further, on the other side of the electrolyte membrane, cathode-side respective layers having the same constructions as above are disposed. |
| US08026013B2 |
Annular or ring shaped fuel cell unit
A fuel cell unit includes a plurality of angularly spaced fuel cell stacks arranged to form a ring-shaped structure about a central axis, each of the fuel cell stacks having a stacking direction extending parallel to the central axis. The fuel cell unit also includes an annular cathode feed manifold surrounding the fuel cell stacks to deliver a cathode feed flow thereto, a plurality of baffles extending parallel to the central axis, each of the baffles located between an adjacent pair of the fuel cell stacks to direct a cathode feed flow from the annular cathode feed manifold and radially inwardly through the adjacent pair, and an annular cathode exhaust manifold surrounded by the fuel cell stacks to receive a cathode exhaust flow therefrom. |
| US08026007B2 |
Crosslinked polymer electrolyte and use thereof
A polymer electrolyte composition characterized by comprising: (1) a crosslinked material of a polyether binary copolymer which has a main chain comprising repeating units represented by the formula (i) and crosslinking units represented by the formula (ii) and which has a weight-average molecular weight of 104 to 107, (2) an electrolyte solution comprising an aprotic organic solvent, (3) an additive, as an optical ingredient, which comprises an ether compound having an ethylene oxide unit, and (4) an electrolyte salt compound comprising a lithium salt compound. The composition is excellent in liquid retention and ionic conductivity, is usable in a wide temperature range, and has excellent electrochemical properties. |