| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08265200B2 |
Method and system for receiver synchronization
Provided is a method for synchronizing a multiple carrier receiver to receive a transmitted signal. The method includes determining a location of one or more scattered pilot carriers in a received symbol sequence and modulating the scattered pilot carriers in accordance with a single pseudorandom binary sequence. The method also includes performing phase error correction via the modulated scattered pilot carriers. |
| US08265196B2 |
Noise injection circuit and method for signal processing
A signal processing circuit is configured to calculate a gain ratio to efficiently reduce a peak to average signal ratio for an input signal by identifying signal peaks and determining the signal peak magnitudes. A window function in combination with the gain ratio is applied to a portion of the input stream having a peak signal to create a cancellation pulse to be applied to that peak signal. The cancellation pulse phase is aligned with the signal phase, thereby causing minimal phase distortion in the resultant output signal and accurate peak cancellation. The cancellation pulse can also include a finite impulse response filter portion to efficiently handle wide bandwidth signals. The hardware may be configured to process multiple signal streams in parallel to reduce hardware requirements. An algorithm can determine the effect of multiple corrections to the input stream to avoid overcorrection in the signal processing process. |
| US08265195B2 |
Hybrid data transmission circuit
A data transmitter having a parallel-to-serial conversion function is supplied with a clock by a PLL circuit unit. In the PLL circuit unit, a first multiphase clock supplied to a first parallel-to-serial conversion circuit is generated and output by a multiphase VCO circuit, while a second multiphase clock supplied to a second parallel-to-serial conversion circuit is generated and output by a multiphase clock generator. The multiphase clock generator generates the second multiphase clock based on the clock output from the multiphase VCO circuit. |
| US08265189B2 |
Multiple antennas transmit diversity scheme
A method from transmitting data via multiple antennas. The method contemplates modulating data to be transmitted into a plurality of modulated symbols, encoding each pair of modulated symbols from among said plurality of symbols in accordance with a transmission diversity scheme to result in a plurality of 2 by 2 matrices, with each 2 by 2 matrix corresponding to each pair of modulated symbols, orthogonally spreading the plurality of 2 by 2 matrices to generate an output matrix, and transmitting the symbols in the output matrix via a plurality of antennas by using either a space time transmission diversity scheme, a space frequency transmission diversity scheme, or a combination of a space time transmission diversity scheme and a space frequency transmission diversity scheme. |
| US08265188B2 |
Radio transmitter apparatus
Radio transmitter apparatus for transmitting data over a radio channel, the apparatus comprising an encoder for encoding the data to be transmitted to generate a first symbol, a processor for calculating from the first symbol a second symbol, a modulator for modulating the first symbol onto a primary carrier in a primary frequency band and for modulating the second symbol onto one or more secondary carriers in one or more secondary frequency bands and a transmitter for transmitting the primary carrier and the one or more secondary carriers over the radio channel, wherein the one or more secondary frequency bands are selected such that if aliasing occurs in a receiver receiving the signal an alias associated with the one or more modulated secondary carriers appears in the received primary frequency band. |
| US08265178B2 |
Methods and apparatus for signal and timing detection in wireless communication systems
In accordance with a detection method in a wireless communication system, an initial hypothesis for a starting position of a desired signal within a received wireless communication signal may be determined. The desired signal may have a conjugate symmetric property. At least one correlation value may be determined based on the initial hypothesis. The at least one correlation value may indicate the extent to which at least one sample sequence selected from the received signal has the conjugate symmetric property. |
| US08265177B2 |
System and method for wireless communication of uncompressed high definition video data using beambook-constructed beamforming signals
A system and method for generating a number of candidate beamforming vectors for transmission of high definition video data over a wireless medium is disclosed. In one embodiment the system comprises a memory configured to store a plurality of candidate beamforming vectors and a processor for executing software configured to i) determine the number (N) of transmitter antennas and the number (Q) of candidate beamforming vectors to be constructed, ii) provide a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) matrix comprising Q rows and Q columns, iii) select N rows of the DFT matrix, and iv) generate an abridged matrix using the selected N rows, wherein each column of the abridged matrix is configured to be used as a candidate beamforming vector for transmission of a high definition video data signal. |
| US08265176B2 |
Method for the spectral configuration of signals modulated by means of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) for an electrical network
It is characterized in that, maintaining the sampling frequency of the digital-analog converter of the transmitter and the analog-digital converter of the receiver, the bandwidth, the spectral position of the OFDM signal, the shape of the spectrum of the OFDM signal that is transmitted, the level of the spectrum of the OFDM signal that is transmitted, or any combination of the above, are selectively and independently varied for the transmission path and for the reception path, in order to permit the configuration of the spectrum of the OFDM signal in terms of bandwidth, position in frequency and power transmitted for being adapted to the regulations of different countries and to the channels found in the different sections of the electrical network. All these changes are carried out without affecting the analog components of the system, in other words, with the same physical implementation. |
| US08265159B2 |
Moving picture decoding apparatus
Provided is a moving picture decoding apparatus including: a picture memory (103) that stores previously decoded picture data of a picture including macroblocks and macroblock information described on a macroblock basis, in association therebetween; an error judging unit (104) that judges presence or absence of an error for a current picture to be decoded; a picture data replacing unit (109) that replaces, when an error is present, picture data of the current picture to be decoded with that of a previously decoded picture in the picture memory (103); and a macroblock information replacing unit (113) that replaces macroblock information in association with the current picture to be decoded including an error with macroblock information stored in association with the previously decoded picture, or a macroblock information storage unit (602) that stores information that indicates presence of the error for the current picture to be decoded in association therewith. |
| US08265156B2 |
Video encoding/decoding method and apparatus in temporal direct mode in hierarchical structure
A video encoding/decoding method and apparatus in a temporal direct mode in a hierarchical structure. The video encoding method in the temporal direct mode in the hierarchical structure includes calculating a temporal position of a forward reference frame or a backward reference frame of a high-pass frame; searching for frames that exist at the temporal position and have motion vector information; if there is a plurality of frames searched for, selecting as a co-located frame a frame, among the plurality of frames, having a motion vector of which an interval is closest to a difference in interval between the forward reference frame and the backward reference frame of the high-pass frame, and extracting the motion vector of the selected frame; and encoding information on the selected frame so that the high-pass frame can use the extracted motion vector. |
| US08265155B2 |
Method of block partition for H.264 inter prediction
Provided is a method for partitioning a block in inter prediction including selecting one standard reference frame from at least one reference frame which is a comparison target in inter prediction, searching whether or not a higher-level macroblock of a current frame is partitioned based on the selected standard reference frame, determining a partition size of the higher-level macroblock of the current frame, searching whether or not the higher-level macroblock in which the partition size is determined is partitioned by comparing with any certain reference frame other than the standard reference frame, and stopping a block size search on the higher-level macroblock of the current frame if a partition size of the higher-level macroblock of the current frame determined by comparing with the standard reference frame and a partition size of the higher-level macroblock of the current frame determined by comparing with the certain reference frame are different from each other. |
| US08265154B2 |
Redundant data dispersal in transmission of video data based on frame type
The transmitting end of a content distribution system selectively employs a redundancy mechanism to encoded video data based on the frame type of each frame being transmitted. In the event that a particular frame contains information upon which the decoding of multiple frames may depend, the transmitting end can apply a redundancy mechanism to redundantly distribute the data of the frame throughout a set of data segments, each of which is separately transmitted via the network to the receiving end. Otherwise, in the event that a particular frame to be transmitted does not contain substantial information upon which the decoding of multiple frames may depend, the loss of some or all of the data of the frame may not appreciably affect the presentation of the video content at the receiving end and thus the transmitting end can forgo application of the redundancy mechanism to such frames so as to avoid unnecessarily processing and reduce the overall network bandwidth used to transmit the encoded video data. |
| US08265151B1 |
Mode decision using approximate 1/2 pel interpolation
A method for video encoding is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) generating first sub-pel data for at least one of (i) a motion estimation and (ii) a mode decision by first filtering reference data and (B) generating second sub-pel data for a motion compensation by second filtering the reference data. Wherein a first performance of the first filtering may be different than a second performance of the second filtering. |
| US08265145B1 |
Management and selection of reference frames for long term prediction in motion estimation
Reference frames are selected for use in a frame reference buffer in a video encoding system, so as to provide long term prediction of motion in video sequences. Candidate reference frames are characterized by characteristic vectors. From the candidate reference frames, a number of reference frames are maintained in the frame buffer so as to obtain a specified distribution of the characteristic vectors over a vector space. Frames are selected for use in encoding a current frame based on the characteristic vector of the current frame and the reference frames in the frame buffer. |
| US08265138B2 |
Image processing apparatus, method and integrated circuit used in liquid crystal display by processing block velocity of noisy blocks
An image processing method, and an apparatus and an integrated circuit for implementing the method are adapted for use in a liquid crystal display. The method includes the steps of: determining which blocks in a decoded current frame are noisy blocks; finding, in a processed reference frame, a most similar reference block for each noisy block and generating a block velocity for each noisy block; and processing pixels that are in the noisy blocks having block velocities smaller than a liquid crystal response rate of the liquid crystal display, and that are not covered by after-images. The present invention utilizes the characteristics of liquid crystals to increase processing speed. |
| US08265133B2 |
Radio receiver having a multipath equalizer
A radio receiver has a multipath equalizer that includes a filter and a coefficient estimator. The filter provides a reconstructed signal by applying a transfer function including a reflection coefficient and a delay coefficient to a multipath radio signal. The coefficient estimator adapts the reflection coefficient and the delay coefficient in response to a deviation in magnitude of the reconstructed signal from a normalized value. In one form, the filter evaluates the transfer function by truncating it to eight terms. In another form, the filter includes a delay line having delay elements for storing samples of the multipath radio signal received both before and after a current sample. In yet another form, the multipath equalizer further includes a normalizer that receives the multipath radio signal and provides a normalized multipath radio signal having a normalized magnitude to an input of the filter. |
| US08265126B2 |
Receiving device for spread spectrum communication
A receiving device for spread spectrum communication includes a phase determining unit and a data demodulating unit. The receiving device receives a signal spread and modulated with first spreading code. The phase determining unit calculates a cross correlation between the received signal and a second spreading code and determines a phase P(0) of the received signal based on the cross correlation. The data demodulating unit synchronizes the phase P(0) and the first spreading code and despreads and demodulates the received signal with the first spreading code. The number of components in each of the first spreading code and the second spreading code is an integer greater than or equal to 2. |
| US08265125B2 |
Code phase error estimating method, code phase calculating method, program, code phase error estimating device, and code phase calculating device
A code phase error estimating method includes calculating correlation for I and Q components of a reception signal, judging code phase based on the result of the correlation calculation; calculating a ratio of first difference to a second difference, where the first difference is a first correlation value minus a third correlation value and the second difference is a second correlation value minus the third correlation value, the first correlation value being a correlation value at the code phase, the second correlation value being a correlation value at a phase shifted from the code phase by X chip (0 |
| US08265124B2 |
Received signal determination method, positioning device, and electronic instrument
A received signal determination method includes: receiving a positioning signal; performing correlation calculations on the received positioning signal using a code replica of one spreading code among the plurality of spreading codes; selecting a total peak value and a remote peak value, the total peak value being a first maximum correlation value among correlation values obtained by the correlation calculations, and the remote peak value being a second maximum correlation value among correlation values apart from a phase of the total peak value by a phase equal to or greater than a given phase; changing a threshold value condition for the total peak value based on the remote peak value; and determining whether or not the received positioning signal is spread-modulated with the one spreading code by determining whether or not the total peak value satisfies the threshold value condition. |
| US08265121B2 |
Receiver
Provided is a receiver including a receiving unit, a demodulator-decoder unit, a synchronization detecting unit, and an output control unit. The receiving unit receives digital broadcasting. The demodulator-decoder unit obtains an output including a transport stream through a demodulating processing and a decoding processing performed on a reception signal received by the receiving unit. The synchronization detecting unit secures synchronization on the basis of the reception signal received by the receiving unit, and generates a timing signal to be used in the demodulating processing and in the decoding processing. The output control unit outputs the output including the transport stream from the demodulator-decoder unit if the synchronization is secured. The output control unit fixes a logic level of the output including the transport stream if the synchronization is not secured. |
| US08265120B2 |
Parallel sequence spread spectrum type chaotic signal transmission device
A parallel sequence spread spectrum type chaotic signal transmission device is disclosed to convert a serial data signal into a parallel data signal and transmit a chaotic signal according to the converted data signal. The parallel sequence spread spectrum type chaotic signal transmission device includes: a signal converting unit that converts serial data desired to be transmitted into parallel data having a pre-set unit; a chaotic signal generating unit that generates a pre-set chaotic signal; and an amplifying unit that amplifies the chaotic signal from the chaotic signal generating unit according to the data which has been converted by the signal converting unit. |
| US08265116B2 |
Hermetically-sealed RF feed-through with integrated capacitor
A carbon-dioxide (CO2) gas-discharge slab laser includes elongated discharge-electrodes in a sealed enclosure. Radio Frequency (RF) power is supplied to the electrodes via an impedance matching network and a co-axial electrical low inductance transmission line feed-through sealed to the enclosure. The feed-trough includes two spring contacts which are configured to be spring compression push-fit in grooves in edges of the discharge-electrodes. A central conductor of the feed-through is fluid cooled. A capacitor of the impedance matching network is assembled on the central conductor as an integral part of the feed-trough. |
| US08265113B2 |
Group-III nitride semiconductor laser device, and method of fabricating group-III nitride semiconductor laser device
In a III-nitride semiconductor laser device, a laser structure includes a support base comprised of a hexagonal III-nitride semiconductor and having a semipolar primary surface, and a semiconductor region provided on the semipolar primary surface of the support base. An electrode is provided on the semiconductor region of the laser structure. |
| US08265107B2 |
Thulium and/or Holmium doped silicate glasses for two micron lasers
A laser glass fiber with a core of the fiber comprising a silicate glass host, one or more glass network modifiers, one or more glass network intermediators, and Thulium ions, Holmium ions, or a combination of Thulium ions and Holmium ions. The fiber emits laser light from 1.7 micron to 2.2 micron. |
| US08265106B2 |
Method and system for tunable pulsed laser source
A tunable pulsed laser source comprising a seed source adapted to generate a seed signal and an optical circulator. The optical circulator includes a first port coupled to the seed source, a second port, and a third port. The laser source also includes an amplitude modulator characterized by a first side and a second side. The first side is coupled to the second port of the optical circulator. The laser source further includes a first optical amplifier characterized by an input end and a reflective end including a spectral-domain reflectance filter. The input end is coupled to the second side of the amplitude modulator. Moreover, the laser source includes a second optical amplifier coupled to the third port of the optical circulator. |
| US08265104B2 |
Apparatus and methods for multi-stage multiplexing in a network
Methods and apparatus for performing multiplexing of video or other content (e.g., programs) within a network using feed-back from a subsequent digital program insertion stage, and/or feed-forward information from a prior multiplexing stage. In one embodiment, the network comprises a hybrid fiber coax (HFC) cable network having headend and hub-based statistical multiplexing stages, and communication between the two stages is used to improve the visual quality performance and bandwidth utilization of the output multi-program stream during conditions where downstream content is inserted into the transport stream. Business methods associated with the various multiplexing features described above are also disclosed. |
| US08265103B2 |
Apparatus and method for flexible visibility in integrated circuits with minimal package impact
An apparatus and method for flexible visibility in an integrated circuit are disclosed. As one example, an apparatus for flexible visibility in an integrated circuit is disclosed. The apparatus includes a switch unit disposed in the integrated circuit, the switch unit configured to receive a plurality of signals associated with a plurality of visibility points in the integrated circuit, and output the received plurality of signals in a serial form. Also, the apparatus includes a formatter unit disposed in the integrated circuit and coupled to the switch unit, the formatter unit configured to receive the plurality of signals in the serial form, and output a plurality of formatted signals including the received plurality of signals. |
| US08265101B2 |
Synchronization control device of slave devices connected to network and method thereof
The present disclosure relates to a synchronization control device and method of slave devices connected to a network capable of synchronizing operations of the slave devices, wherein a communication module generates a first synchronization signal and a second synchronization signal according to a distributed clock function, generating, by a processor, a control data for driving an actuator according to the first synchronization signal, outputting to a driver the control data if a synchronization interrupt is generated by the first synchronization signal, and inputting and processing, by the processor, a reception data of the communication module to generate the control data, and generating a timer interrupt on a period set up by a timer according to control of the processor, and generating, by the processor, the control data to output the generated control data to the driver if the first synchronization signal is not generated but the timer interrupt is generated. |
| US08265100B2 |
Safe start-up of a network
A method for start-up of a network, including a number of nodes, which are connected via channels. The nodes exchange information in the form of messages via the channels. The transition phase of a synchronizing node from its initial phase to a synchronized phase is separated in a first integration phase and a second subsequent cold-start phase. A synchronizing node in the integration phase listens to messages being sent from nodes in the synchronized phase and only reacts to an integration message (i-frame) if the integration message is a valid message. Furthermore, a synchronizing node, wherein integration of the synchronizing node to a set of already synchronized nodes was not successful after a specifiable period, changes into the cold-start phase, in which a cold-start procedure of the node is extracted, wherein in the cold-start phase the node does not react to integration messages of a node in the synchronized phase. |
| US08265097B2 |
Communication apparatus and communication method
A communication apparatus including multiplexed data receiving unit that receives multiplexed data including at least audio data, an extracting unit that extracts the audio data from the multiplexed data, a telephone unit that transmits/receives telephone audio data, and an audio output unit that outputs at least one of the extracted audio data and the telephone audio data. The telephone unit continues to transmit/receive the telephone audio data when an occurrence of an initiating event of the multiplexed data receiving unit is detected while the telephone audio data is being received. The audio output unit outputs the telephone audio data when the occurrence of the initiating event is detected while the telephone audio data is being received. The multiplexed data receiving unit initiates receiving the multiplexed data when the occurrence of the initiating event is detected while the telephone audio is being received. |
| US08265094B2 |
De-registering a multicast group member from a multicast group within a wireless communications network
Aspects of de-registering a multicast group member from a multicast group within a wireless communications network are disclosed. An access terminal sends a first multicast registration message to an access network, with the first multicast registration message identifying a first set of multicast groups. The access network receives the first multicast registration message and registers the access terminal for each of the first set of multicast groups. The access terminal sends a second multicast registration message, the second multicast registration message omitting at least one multicast group from among the first set of multicast groups, the second multicast registration message being sent to request de-registration, for the access terminal, from at least one multicast group. The access network receives the second multicast registration message and interprets the second multicast registration message as a request to de-register the access terminal from the omitted at least one multicast group. |
| US08265091B2 |
Traffic multiplexing using timestamping
Multiplexed traffic in a system where the maximum rate of all inputs exceeds the maximum rate of the output is processed via a separate queue for each input, and at any given forwarding clock cycle the earliest enqueued packet is forwarded via the output. In the event of congestion, a proportionally equal number of packets are dropped from each queue, where proportional equality corresponds to the number of packets dropped per number of packets enqueued. One implementation associates a time-stamp with each enqueued packet to indicate the time of enqueing relative to other enqueued packets. At any given forwarding clock cycle, the packet with the earliest time-stamp is forwarded. |
| US08265080B2 |
System and method for retransmissions in a discontinuous reception configured system
Methods of performing retransmissions in respect of communications, uplink and/or downlink, on semi-persistent resources are provided. Various embodiments include: the mobile device keeps its radio on for an additional period immediately following an awake period upon determining there will be a retransmission; the mobile device turning its radio on for an additional period separate and distinct from the awake period. |
| US08265076B2 |
Centralized wireless QoS architecture
A QoS mechanism that evaluates congestion in one or more network nodes along the wireless delivery path to optimize the processing priority at the centralized wireless network controller. The QoS mechanism determines an idealized processing time for a given client packet, within a rich set of configurable QoS attributes, for a given defined flow and then adjusts the expectation of delivering the packet based on resource congestion measurements of the wireless infrastructure. |
| US08265075B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing, configuring, and controlling an I/O virtualization device through a network switch
An apparatus and method bridges frames between entities running on the same server. The server has a physical network interface that supports I/O virtualization. The physical network interface has an IOV device with a bridging function capable of bridging frames between entities running on the server. A network switch has a physical port coupled to the server by a physical link and a switching fabric in communication with the physical port for transmitting and receiving Ethernet data frames to and from the IOV device. A control processor, in communication with the IOV device, configures the bridging function of the IOV device to bridge some frames locally within the server between the entities running on the server and to pass other frames through the IOV device over the physical link to the physical port and the switching fabric, so that the switching fabric bridges these other frames between the entities. |
| US08265072B2 |
Frame switching device
A header processing unit includes a key information supply unit that manages MAC addresses and MAC key information having a short bit length that corresponds to the addresses, and decides key information corresponding to a source MAC address and a destination MAC address of an input frame. A destination decision unit performs destination decision processing based on corresponding key information instead of destination MAC addresses. A flow decision unit decides a flow based on key information corresponding to a destination MAC address and a source MAC address. Since the key information supply unit does not need to set plural identical MAC addresses, the header processing unit becomes inexpensive. Thus, this invention achieves an inexpensive switch that performs output decision processing and flow decision processing. |
| US08265071B2 |
Methods and apparatus related to a flexible data center security architecture
In one embodiment, edge devices can be configured to be coupled to a multi-stage switch fabric and peripheral processing devices. The edge devices and the multi-stage switch fabric can collectively define a single logical entity. A first edge device from the edge devices can be configured to be coupled to a first peripheral processing device from the peripheral processing devices. The second edge device from the edge devices can be configured to be coupled to a second peripheral processing device from the peripheral processing devices. The first edge device can be configured such that virtual resources including a first virtual resource can be defined at the first peripheral processing device. A network management module coupled to the edge devices and configured to provision the virtual resources such that the first virtual resource can be migrated from the first peripheral processing device to the second peripheral processing device. |
| US08265069B2 |
System, terminal, method, and computer program product for establishing a transport-level connection with a server located behind a network address translator and/or firewall
A system, terminating node, method, and computer program product enable an originating node in a public network to communicate with a terminating node in a private network by sending a non-IP-based message from the originating node to the terminating node, thereby causing the terminating node to initiate IP-based communication with the originating node. Because a client behind a NAT and/or firewall in a private network will generally be able to connect and establish a TCP/IP session to a server in the public network, this improves the ability of the originating node to communicate with the terminating node whenever desired. Once the IP-based communication session is established, the two nodes can exchange data in both directions until the connection between them is closed by either node. As such, unmodified client and server TCP/IP applications are able to traverse a NAT/firewall, without the need for configuration of an intermediary node. |
| US08265068B2 |
Mapping of IP phones for E911
A system including a first network configured to receive IP device data from an IP device and to provide one or more IP addresses of the IP device based on the IP device data; a second network comprising: a second network location database configured to store physical location information, and a second network location server configured to receive the one or more IP addresses of the IP device from the first network, and query the second network location database to determine physical location information of the IP device based on the one or more IP addresses. |
| US08265066B2 |
Method and apparatus for reducing power consumption in wireless communication systems
A method and apparatus for reducing power consumption in a wireless communication system is described. Sending of unicast packets to an access terminal is ceased. It is determined if a ReverseTrafficChannelMAC.UATIReceived indication is received, wherein MAC is medium access control and UATI is unicast access terminal identifier. The access network transitions to a BindUATI state. |
| US08265065B2 |
Method and system for voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) transmission in a wireless communications network
The invention is a method and system for reliably detecting the start and/or end of silence periods during voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) sessions in a wireless communications network. A VoIP session typically includes “talkspurt” periods, during which VoIP packets are transmitted, and silence periods, during which silence indication (SID) packets are transmitted. Both the base station (eNodeB or eNb) and the mobile device (user equipment or UE) may inspect the packets to identify them as VoIP or SID packets. Alternatively, only the eNB inspects the packets. The eNB then flags the first SID packet after a VoIP packet as the start of a silence period, and flags the first VoIP packet after a SID packet as the end of a silence period. The eNB then modifies the header of the medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU) prior to transmission to the UE. The UE then detects the modified MAC headers to identify the start and/or end of silence periods. |
| US08265064B2 |
Systems, methods and computer products for logging of outgoing calls to an internet protocol television call log
Systems, methods and computer products for the logging of outgoing calls to an Internet Protocol Television call log. Exemplary embodiments include a method for logging outgoing communication requests related to an Internet-Protocol-enabled device, the method including receiving a request to initiate a communication request from an Internet Protocol-enabled device having an Internet-Protocol-enabled device address, mapping the Internet Protocol-enabled device address of a calling party to a calling party number, retrieving caller identification information associated with the called party and recording the caller identification information in a log associated with the Internet Protocol-enabled device. |
| US08265058B2 |
Method and an apparatus for route selection in routing protocols
A method and an apparatus to select a route in a network device within a networked system have been disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving at a router in a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) network a first route entry via local redistribution from a first protocol to BGP and a second route entry from a peer router coupled to the router via the network, wherein the first route entry is received earlier than the second route entry. The method may further include downloading administrative distances of the first and the second route entries to a route information base (RIB) of the router and redistributing the administrative distances from the RIB to a BGP table maintained by a BGP module of the router. In some embodiments, the method further includes selecting one of the first and the second route entries based on their administrative distances. |
| US08265051B2 |
Method and apparatus for network management using periodic measurements of indicators
A beacon signal used in data communications, such as the IEEE 802.11, is provided with data extensions. The data extensions permit additional information to be provided by the beacon signal, thereby reducing the traffic overhead of the network. The data extensions further permit handoffs and handoffs based on offset values. Periodic beacon requests are made during connection between a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) and an access point (AP) on a WLAN. A Measurement Request field corresponding to a beacon request contains a measurement duration value and channel number for which the request applies. The beacon request permits a scan mode which includes “Active Scan” mode, “Passive Scan” mode and “Beacon Table” mode. In Active Scan mode, the measuring station (STA) transmits a probe request with a broadcast SSID. In Passive Scan mode, the measuring STA passively receives on the specified channel and return a beacon report containing one information element for each STA from which it detects a beacon or probe response. In Beacon Table mode, the measuring STA returns a beacon report containing the current contents of its beacon table without performing additional measurements. |
| US08265050B2 |
System and method for sharing a payload among mobile devices in a wireless network
Systems and methods for sharing a payload among mobile devices in a wireless network. A first mobile device is configured to communicate with an access device via a first wireless path and with a media gateway server via a second wireless path. One or more other mobile devices are configured to communicate with the media gateway server via the second wireless path and with the first mobile device via a third wireless path. A payload is received at the first mobile device from the access device via the first wireless path and is partitioned into portions. One portion is assigned to the first mobile device, and the remaining portions are assigned to each of the one or more other mobile devices. The assigned payload portions are sent to the media gateway server via the second wireless path. The assigned payload portions are received at the media gateway server, and the payload is reconstructed from the received payload portions. The payload is sent to a destination address via a network. Payloads may also be received at the media gateway server, portioned, distributed to the first mobile device, reconstructed and delivered to the access device in a similar manner. |
| US08265049B2 |
Method and apparatus for implementing generic access network functionality in a wireless communication device
According to one aspect of the teachings presented herein, a “smart” phone or other wireless communication device includes a “modem” processor configured to support cellular communication network signaling and an “applications” processor configured to host call control and/or user applications, such as by providing a desired Operating System (OS) for hosting such applications. In at least one embodiment of a wireless communication device contemplated herein, the modem processor implements a cellular network signaling controller, a Generic Access Network (GAN) manager, and a privately routable, first Internet Protocol (IP) stack. Further, the applications processor implements a publicly routable, second IP stack that implements routing, e.g., a Network Address Translation (NAT) routing, for routing GAN traffic to and from the first IP stack on a local IP link bridging the first and second IP stacks. |
| US08265046B2 |
System and method for generic access network registration by a mobile station during network congestion
Systems and methods for providing mobile stations (“MS”) registration to a generic access network (“GAN”) via a wireless LAN interface are disclosed. The MS may receive a rejection message from a GAN controller with a “network congestion” indication set. The MS may also receive a “connection status” information element as part of the rejection message. The MS can determine from the information element whether the MS can release the connections made to a security gateway (“SEGW”) and to the GAN controller and whether it can release its WLAN connection facility. When the MS releases these connections, battery power is conserved while performing a timer decrement loop. At the end of the timer decrement loop, the MS makes another registration request. The network can reallocate resources when the MS releases the connections to the SEGW and the GAN controller. Methods for performing the GAN registration during network congestions are described. |
| US08265045B2 |
Method for power consumption in wireless sensor network
A method for reducing power consumption in a wireless sensor network is provided. An optimized path destined for a sink node is set using a common channel in which first and second nodes use a CSMA scheme. A first channel is set and transmission/reception slots for packet transmission/reception are allocated in the first channel. A packet is transmitted to the second node through a first transmission slot using a TDMA scheme. When a packet is not received from the second node through a first reception slot within a first set amount of time, the first reception slot is allowed to transition to an inactive state. The first node is one of the sink node, at least one parent node, and at least one child node of the parent node, and the second node is one of child nodes of the first node. |
| US08265043B2 |
Transmitting device, receiving device, and method used in mobile communication system employing OFDM
A transmitting device includes a transmission signal generating unit configured to generate a transmission signal by inverse-Fourier-transforming reference signals and data signals mapped to subcarriers and a transmitting unit configured to wirelessly transmit the transmission signal. In the transmitting device, a total power level allocated to signals to be transmitted in a time slot is equal to a total power level allocated to signals to be transmitted in any other time slot, and a power density per unit bandwidth of the reference signals is greater than a power density per unit bandwidth of the data signals. This configuration makes it possible to equalize the total transmission power level of all time slots and thereby to improve the power amplification efficiency. Also, with this configuration, since the reference signals are transmitted with a higher power than that for other signals, it is possible to improve the accuracy of channel estimation. |
| US08265040B2 |
Method of encoding group identification in a CDMA trunking system
The present invention discloses a method of encoding group identification in a CDMA trunking system. This method comprises: a trunking group where mobile stations locate is encoded by a preset GID encoding method to generate a GID of the trunking group. The GID is a character string consisting of a plurality of decimal digits from 0 to 9 for external processing, and is processed into a binary character string according to a GID type for internal processing. |
| US08265035B2 |
Method and apparatus for reselecting cell in mobile communication system
Embodiments of the present invention include a method for performing cell reselection in a mobile communication system. The method comprises the steps of reading, by a user equipment (UE), the Access Class (AC) barring parameters of the serving cell which are broadcast from a base station, and performing an AC barring check; calculating the cell reselection values of the serving cell and the adjacent cells according to the cell reselection parameters broadcast by the base station when the AC barring check fails; and ranking the calculated cell reselection values, selecting by the UE the cell corresponding to the maximum value of the calculated cell reselection values as the serving cell of the UE. |
| US08265029B2 |
Method and apparatus for assigning resources in a wireless system
A method and apparatus of signaling radio resource allocation in a wireless communication system includes the time-frequency resources into multiple regions; defining a channel tree within at least one region, wherein the channel tree has base nodes which are determined using the area of the region and the area of a base node; determining a channel identifier assignment for a mobile station, wherein the channel identifier corresponds to a collection of base nodes from a channel tree; transmitting an indication of the determined channel identifier to the mobile station; and transmitting a packet to a mobile station or receiving a packet from the mobile station using the physical time-frequency resources, which correspond to the channel identifier. |
| US08265028B2 |
Distributed allocation of physical cell identifiers
The present invention provides a method of assigning cell identifiers to a plurality of cells. The method includes detecting cells within a selected distance from a first cell in the plurality of cells. The distance is selected to encompass portions of neighbor cells of the first cell and neighbor-of-neighbor cells of the first cell. The method also includes assigning a first cell identifier to the first cell. The first cell identifier is different than cell identifiers assigned to the cells detected within the selected distance from the first cell. |
| US08265022B2 |
Apparatus and methods for transmission of emergency call data over wireless networks
Methods and apparatus for providing useful data in association with a high-priority call such as an emergency call. In one embodiment, the data comprises a data (e.g., an MSD or FSD) embedded within one or more real-time protocol packets such as RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) packets, that are interspersed within the voice or user data stream (carried in e.g., RTP packets) of an emergency call. Apparatus and methods are described for transmitting the data portion reliably from the initiating terminal (e.g., an in-vehicle system) to a Public Safety Answering Point CPSAP), by using the same transport connection as the user data. |
| US08265020B2 |
Cognitive error control coding for channels with memory
Techniques for adapting error control codes (ECCs) based on memory conditions in a channel. A wireless communication system may be adapted to detect and quantify memory in a channel, such as memory resulting from multipath fading, and adjust an ECC to reduce the possibility of errors impacting communication in the channel. In some implementations, adjusting the ECC may comprise determining a probability that a channel in an error-prone state will remain in an error-prone state, and selecting an ECC based on that probability. In other implementations, a concatenated code may be used, and the relative size of an inner and outer code may be adjusted, and/or an interleaver between the inner and outer code may be adjusted, based on the parameter quantifying the memory in the channel. |
| US08265016B2 |
Systems and methods for reducing the power used to transmit channel quality information (CQI) during persistent scheduling
A method for instructing a mobile node to reduce the power used to transmit channel quality information is described. A scheduling mode of a mobile node is determined. An uplink control channel in a first format is allocated to the mobile node if the mobile node is in a first scheduling mode. The number of bits to use to insert channel quality information (CQI) on the uplink control channel is provided. The mobile node is instructed to reduce the power used to transmit CQI by a power reduction amount if the mobile node is in the first scheduling mode. |
| US08265015B2 |
Communication path allocating entity and method
A communication path allocating entity and method are described. The entity (10) comprises a receiver (11) for receiving session requests for requesting one or both of an establishment of a new communication session and a change in existing communication session between a network and one or more terminals (20), and a processor (12) for processing the session requests and for allocating one or more communication paths (21, 23, 25) to each of the communication sessions. A session database (28) is provided for keeping record of the allocated communication path and their associated sessions. |
| US08265014B2 |
Method for multi-channel resource reservation in a wireless mesh network
In a mesh network a multiband OFDM Alliance (MBOA) system provides higher channel access efficiency through a Distributed Reservation Protocol (DRP). A MBOA Physical layer (PHY) and a MBOA Medium Access Control (MAC) are used to increase the efficiency of the mesh network. |
| US08265009B2 |
Systems and methods for selecting tracking areas and reducing tracking area updates
Some embodiments provide methods for selecting tracking areas in a network, comprising: receiving messages from a plurality of base transceiver stations, the messages identifying a previous tracking area identity and a current tracking area identity; storing probabilities based on a count of transitions between the received previous tracking area identities and current tracking area identities; receiving a message from a user equipment device indicating the user equipment device is located in a first tracking area identified by a first tracking area identity; and selecting at least a second tracking area identity based on the stored probabilities and the first tracking area identity; and sending a tracking area identity list to the user equipment device based on the selected second tracking area. |
| US08265008B2 |
Transmission resource assigning method, feedback method and processing method for response signals
The present invention discloses a transmission resource assignment method for response signals, a feedback method of response signals and a processing method of response signals. The transmission resource assignment method for response signals according to the present invention includes the steps of: determining a list of mobile stations required to transmit response signals currently; determining the number of the response signals required to be transmitted by each mobile station; and assigning a frequency-domain sequence and a time-domain sequence for each mobile station to transmit the response signals; wherein for multiple mobile stations assigned with the same frequency-domain sequence, the time-domain sequence assigned to the mobile station required to transmit multiple response signal groups is divided into multiple subsequences to be used to transmit the multiple response signal groups of the mobile station respectively; and parts of the time-domain sequences of different mobile stations corresponding to the multiple subsequences are orthogonal to each other respectively. |
| US08265006B2 |
Synchronization channel (preamble) structure for mobile worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) systems
Various embodiments are directed to a synchronization channel or preamble structure that may be used in mobile WiMAX systems designed to operate in accordance with the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard and/or the evolving IEEE 802.16m standard. In one embodiment, the synchronization channel (preamble) structure may comprise a base station group identifier field to store a k-bit base station group identifier, a base station identifier field to store an m-bit base station identifier, and a sector identifier field to store an n-bit sector identifier. The base station group identifier may be associated with a paging group identifier in a wireless communications system such as mobile WiMAX network. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08265005B2 |
Method and apparatus for communicating with a wireless network using a single address for multiple processors
A communication system that allows multiple data applications to work simultaneously within a distributed execution environment in which only one IP address is assigned to the mobile system by an external wireless network. The mobile system comprises a wireless communication system with a first processing device (such as a cell phone or a network card) and a second device with another processor (such as a laptop computer or a personal digital assistant). The single IP address is assigned to the second processor, and all incoming external communications are stored in the second processor. In some embodiments the first processing device includes a filter; in other embodiments the second processing device includes a proxy for each processor. Additional processors can be connected to the mobile system by adding an additional filter or additional proxy. |
| US08265003B2 |
Packet distribution system and packet distribution method
Provided is a technique for switching a session between a terminal and a network to a session using a plurality of peripheral terminals having respective functions, by considering the load on the distribution side system and distributing a packet to the plurality of peripheral terminals. This application for relaying a packet transmitted from a distribution node via a communication device in response to a request from a terminal to a relay destination peripheral terminal that becomes a relay destination, characterized in comprising: data acquiring means for decapsulating the packet encapsulated by the communication device, thereby to acquire a payload data; outputting means for outputting the acquired data by the data acquiring means to a predetermined reproduction function; and relay processing means for, based upon header information being contained in the decapsulated packet, relaying the decapsulated packet to the relay destination peripheral terminal. |
| US08265002B2 |
Repeater device and repeater system
A repeater device that is placed between a transmission device connected to a server device and a reception device connected to a console device that controls the server device. The repeater device repeats a signal between the transmission device and the reception device, and includes an equalizer amplifier that amplifies a signal that is received from the transmission device or another repeater device. |
| US08265001B2 |
Method and apparatus for communication of mobile terminal using relay device
A method and apparatus for allowing a mobile terminal to communicate using a relay device are provided. In the method, whether a communication environment between a base station and the relay device changes is determined so that information representing the change in the communication environment is selectively created, and then a communication environment between the relay device and the mobile terminal is controlled based on the created information. |
| US08264992B2 |
Control information feedback over the long-term evolution physical uplink shared channel
A network component comprising a plurality of encoders, a plurality of rate-matching modules coupled to the encoders, and a channel interleaver coupled to the rate-matching modules, wherein the rate-matching modules calculate the number of bits for rate matching a plurality of feedback control information based on a total number of bits allocated to a channel traffic without a traffic data. Included is a network component comprising at least one processor configured to encode a plurality of feedback control information, calculate the number of bits for rate-matching the feedback control information based on a total number of bits allocated to a channel traffic without a traffic data. Included is a method comprising receiving a downlink traffic, detecting a request to transmit uplink data in the downlink traffic, and transmitting feedback control information with or without data based on the request. |
| US08264990B2 |
Using consultation call to transfer call across endpoints
A method for transferring a telephone call from a client computer to a second electronic device includes establishing a connection for a telephone call between the client computer and a first electronic device, and sending a request to a server computer to transfer the telephone call from the client computer to the second electronic device, the client computer and the second electronic device having the same user, the request initiating a consultation call to the second electronic device. The method also includes receiving a response from the server computer that the second electronic device has accepted the telephone call, and replacing the client computer with the second electronic device as a party in the telephone call with the first electronic device, the continuity of the telephone call being maintained at the first electronic device during the time that the client computer is replaced with the second electronic device. |
| US08264989B2 |
VoIP server apparatus and method for maintaining software in VoIP server apparatus
Disclosed are a VoIP server apparatus and a method for maintaining VoIP server software in the server apparatus which transmits/receives a packet to/from an IP terminal via network to provide VoIP service. The method includes: assigning a virtual IP address to the server apparatus; associating a first IP address used by first VoIP server software with the virtual IP address; activating second VoIP server software while the first VoIP server software receives a packet addressed to the virtual IP address and provides VoIP service; changing the association of the virtual IP address with the first IP address to association of the virtual IP address with a second IP address used by the second VoIP server software; receiving a packet addressed to the virtual IP address by the second VoIP server software; and changing VoIP service by the first VoIP server software to VoIP service by the second VoIP server software. |
| US08264987B2 |
Methods, apparatus and data structures for segmenting customers using at least a portion of a layer 2 address header or bits in the place of a layer 2 address header
Limiting or controlling access to various services thereby performing a firewall function. An access router may permit or deny a packet based on at least a portion of a unique bit string (or context information) which replaced layer 2 header information (e.g., the layer 2 (e.g., MAC) address). Further, a particular quality of service may be indicated by at least a part of the unique bit string (or context information). The service provided to a group of customers, that group of customers being defined by at least a portion of the unique bit string (or context information), may be monitored. Multicast groups may be supported by checking at least a part of the unique bit string (or context information) to determine whether or not a customer associated with that port is permitted to join the multicast group. |
| US08264984B2 |
Telecommunications apparatus and method, storage medium, and program
A data transmitting apparatus including a transmitting unit connected to a first network and configured to transmit a check packet to a data receiving apparatus; a control unit configured to receive an acknowledgment message to the check packet from the data receiving apparatus, the acknowledgment message including acknowledgment information based on shared data shared with said data receiving apparatus; a computing unit configured to compute an expected acknowledgment information based on the shared data shared with said data receiving apparatus; a comparing unit configured to produce a comparison result for said data receiving apparatus based on the acknowledgment information and the expected acknowledgment information; a timer configured to determine whether a response time of the acknowledgment message is less than a predetermined time; and a judgment unit configured to judge whether to stop transmission of content data based on the comparison result and the determination of the timer. |
| US08264978B1 |
System and method for operating a wireless communication system to process packet payloads to determine RF signal adjustments
Various systems and methods are provided to manage and operate a wireless communication system. A processing system receives an application data flow from a wireless device located in a sector of a base station. The application data flow comprises a plurality of data packets. At least one of the data packets is inspected for an attribute. Also, an application data flow characteristic is measured for the application data flow. The processing system evaluates the attribute and the application data flow characteristic against a network policy associated with the wireless device. When the attribute and the application data flow characteristic meet the network policy, the processing system provides a wireless communication adjustment notification to the base station. |
| US08264976B2 |
Network monitoring based on pointer information
A computer system and method for identifying and extracting content from data traffic, the system including: a capture driver arranged to monitor data traffic and to copy data packets from the traffic to a buffer without disrupting the traffic flow, and to generate pointer information to identify specific parts of a data packet; a plurality of decoder modules, each module being adapted to decode one or more specific data transfer protocols; and a control interface adapted to receive pointer information from the capture driver, to route the pointer information to one or more of the plurality of decoder modules, and to route extracted content from the data traffic to an application. |
| US08264975B2 |
FFT-based estimation of thermal noise and rise over thermal in a wireless communication system
Techniques for estimating thermal noise and rise-over-thermal (RoT) in a communication system are described. Thermal noise in a sideband may be measured and used as an estimate of thermal noise in a signal band. In one design, samples containing a desired signal centered at DC or a frequency higher than DC may be partitioned into blocks of K samples. Each block of K samples may be transformed with an FFT to obtain a corresponding block of K transform coefficients for K frequency bins. The power of transform coefficients for frequency bins in the sideband may be computed. Thermal noise may be estimated based on power values for the frequency bins in the sideband. Power values for frequency bins in the signal band may also be obtained and used to estimate total received power. RoT may then be estimated based on the estimated thermal noise and the estimated total received power. |
| US08264974B1 |
Systems and methods for multi-channel network information collection
A network device may include logic configured to receive a first problem report from a first network device in a first network, receive a second problem report from a second network device in a second network, receive reconfiguration information from a third network device in a third network, store event data included in the first and second problem reports, determine whether the event data included in the first or second problem reports is associated with the reconfiguration information, transmit at least one of the first or second problem reports to the third network device when the reconfiguration information is not associated with the event data included in the first or second problem reports and transmit the reconfiguration information to at least one of the first or second network devices when the reconfiguration information is associated with the event data included in the first or second problem reports. |
| US08264973B2 |
Method and system for timestep stochastic simulation for networks
A method and system for analytically simulating the state of a 802.11 WLAN network having a plurality of stations at discreet timesteps, including analytically generating a plurality of sample paths of a network state, including obtaining probability distribution values for aspects of the network. The probability distributions may be precomputed and stored in a cache to be accessed during a simulation of a network. |
| US08264966B1 |
Overload management on backhaul links based on packet loss on RF links
An RF communication system comprises RF circuitry, access circuitry, and control circuitry. The RF circuitry receives reverse packets from users over reverse RF links. The access circuitry is operationally coupled to the RF circuitry and transfers the reverse packets over a reverse network link. The control circuitry is operationally coupled to the access circuitry and inhibits the transfer of a set of the reverse packets over the reverse network link in response to a reverse overload condition on the reverse network link. The inhibited set of the reverse packets are from the users having a lowest level of reverse packet loss on the reverse RF links. |
| US08264965B2 |
In-band DPI application awareness propagation enhancements
Various exemplary embodiments are a method and related device and computer-readable medium including one or more of the following: receiving a packet sent from the source node to the destination node; associating the packet with an active flow by accessing information in the packet; performing deep packet inspection (DPI) to identify an application associated with the active flow; associating application-identifying information with the packet; forwarding the packet including the application-identifying information towards the destination node; and performing application-specific processing at a downstream device on at least one packet belonging to the active flow, the downstream device identifying the application associated with the active flow by extracting the application-identifying information from the packet. |
| US08264959B2 |
Dynamic load balancing for layer-2 link aggregation
Load balancing for layer-2 link aggregation involves initial assignment of link aggregation keys (LAGKs) and reassignment of LAGKs when a load imbalance condition that merits action is discovered. Load conditions change dynamically and for this reason load balancing tends to also be dynamic. Load balancing is preferably performed when it is necessary. Thus an imbalance condition that triggers load balancing is preferably limited to conditions such as when there is frame drop, loss of synchronization or physical link capacity exceeded. |
| US08264958B1 |
Tiered subscriber service with advanced header compression methods in a VOIP system
One or more computer readable media, methods and systems that allow phone calls involving a mobile telephone to be to be conducted using VOIP technology with header compression of the voice packets and dynamically adjustable tiered subscriber service. A dynamic, tiered-subscriber service allows the bandwidth allotted to users subscribing to different levels of service to be adjusted between sessions to accommodate changing network conditions. Header compression involves compressing the voice packet header into a reduced number of bites. Embodiments of the present invention enable simultaneous header compression and dynamic tiered-subscriber service through a new call flow set up that includes a new policy. The new policy is given preference over the other installed policies and includes new attribute value pairs that enables both header compression and dynamic bandwidth adjustments. |
| US08264957B1 |
Control of preemption-based beat-down effect
In one embodiment, a node receives packets from one or more input interfaces, and may place the packets in an appropriate output queue for a corresponding output interface. The node may also place received unmarked packets from each of the input interfaces in a corresponding virtual queue of a virtual scheduler for the corresponding output interface. The virtual scheduler may be served at a configured rate, and any unmarked packets in the virtual queue that exceed a configured threshold may be marked. |
| US08264955B2 |
Internet protocol fast reroute for shared risk link group failure recovery
A scheme to achieve fast recovery from SRLG failures in the IP layer is described. An exemplary scheme, called multi-section shortest path first (“MSSPF”), builds on the idea of IP Fast Reroute (“IPFRR”), guarantees 100% recovery of SRLG failures and causes no dead loops. Given a source node, a destination node, and a shared risk group failure on a next hop from the source node to the destination node, failure recovery information may be determined by (1) accepting a graph representing network topology information including the source node and the destination node, (2) determining a node which is able to reach the destination node using a route which does not include the source node, wherein a path from the source node to the determined node is not affected by the shared risk group failure, and (3) storing, in association with the shared risk group failure, both (i) a network address associated with the determined node and (ii) an alternative output port of the source node using the shortest path from the source node to the determined node. |
| US08264952B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing packet ring protection
For a ring protection method in a packet transport network a failure is detected at a first network node (N4) in the ring (1, 2). The failure is communicated along the ring (1, 2) using an automatic protection switching protocol. At the first node (N4) or at a second node (N1) adjacent to the failure, a protection switch-over for at least one protected traffic stream (4) is activated by redirecting the traffic stream (4) into the reverse direction of the ring (1, 2). Selected network nodes (N2, N5) along the ring squelch the traffic stream (4) in accordance with pre-configured squelching tables. Squelching is performed only by networks nodes along the ring which perform either an add function or a drop & continue function for the traffic stream (4) to be squelched. |
| US08264951B2 |
Resilient PPP/ML-PPP services over multi-chassis APS protected routers
A system and method for resilient communication services under multi-chassis APS protected routers, including one or more of the following: an add-drop multiplexer; a working chassis; a plurality of working lines of communication between the add-drop multiplexer and the working chassis; a protection chassis; a plurality of protection lines of communication between the add-drop multiplexer and the protection chassis; and a multi-chassis APS control link between the working chassis and the protection chassis, wherein a plurality of active entities in the working chassis having state information send their state information to parallel inactive entities in the protection chassis by way of the multi-chassis APS, the active entities send changed state information to parallel inactive entities through the multi-chassis APS control link upon a state change in the active entities, and the inactive entities that were down request current state information from the active entities through the multi-chassis APS control link when the inactive entities that were down come back up after being down. |
| US08264950B2 |
Packet forwarding device and control circuit thereof
A packet forwarding device includes a storage that stores a path selection table in which link numbers of a Work path and a Protection path for each flow number of a transfer packet, a flag that indicates whether the link is made up of a plurality of physical lines, a link aggregation number that identifies an aggregation of the plurality of physical lines, and destination information are set in association with one another, a link status table, a node status table, and an LAG status table, and a path selection processor that selects a path that outputs the packet on the basis of the information. |
| US08264949B2 |
Method and apparatus for selecting between available neighbors in a rapid alternate path calculation
A weighting process may be used to select between alternate neighbors in a RAPID calculation to enable policy and/or traffic engineering considerations to affect the selection of an alternate path through the network. The information used to weight the neighbors may static administratively assigned weighting information or dynamic weighting information such as local statistical traffic condition information. The process may take into account the amount of traffic being handled by the current primary next hop for the destination, the available capacity of the available alternate neighbors, the ability of the alternate neighbors to handle the additional traffic, and other considerations. Weighting may occur after a set of available loop free alternate neighbors has been determined. Alternatively, weighting may occur before the RAPID calculation has been performed to cause the neighbors to be ordered prior to RAPID processing. This may enable RAPID calculation to stop without considering all available neighbors. |
| US08264947B1 |
Fault tolerant wireless access system and method
A fault tolerant wireless system and method is disclosed that provides redundancy against a data center failure. Wireless connections are routed to a switch at a primary data center and forwarded through a gateway router, also located at the primary data center, to the internet. A backup switch and backup gateway router provides redundancy and are located at a backup data center geographically separate from the primary data center. The backup switch and backup gateway router provides an alternate path to the internet if the primary path fails. Both the primary switch and backup switch are assigned to the same subnet but the backup switch is advertised with an offset to favor routes through the primary switch. |
| US08264943B2 |
Information recording medium and reproducing apparatus therefor
An environmental load information of an information recording medium is recorded on the information recording medium so as to recycle or dispose properly an information recording medium, which is not necessary any more. The information recording medium comprises a main information area (102) for recording or reproducing information and a recording area (101) for environmental load information, which is recorded with an environmental load information of the information recording medium. |
| US08264941B2 |
Arrangement and method to perform scanning readout of ferroelectric bit charges
An arrangement, a method and a system to read information stored in a layer of ferroelectric media. The arrangement includes a layer including a ferroelectric media having one or more ferroelectric domains holding bit charges, a domain corresponding to information; a probe having a tip, wherein the media and the tip are adapted to move relative to one another such that the tip scans the ferroelectric domains of the media while applying a contact force to the domains to generate a direct piezoelectric effect within the domains; and circuitry coupled to the tip and adapted to generate a signal in response to an electrical coupling between the tip and the domains while scanning the tip in contact with the domains, the signal corresponding to a readout signal for ferroelectric bit charges stored in the media. |
| US08264938B2 |
Optical pickup device
Two light flux areas are disposed in a direction along which a pair of vertically opposite angles defined by first and second straight lines are aligned, and the other two light flux areas are disposed in a direction along which the other pair of vertically opposite angles are aligned. A spectral element sets propagating directions of divided elements of each of light fluxes obtained by dividing each of the light fluxes by a third straight line intersecting with the first and second straight lines by an angle of 45 degrees, or by a fourth straight line orthogonal to the third straight line to disperse the divided elements on a photodetector. The photodetector is provided with sensors which individually receive the divided elements of the light fluxes. |
| US08264936B2 |
Diffractive optical element, objective optical system including the same, and optical pickup including the same
A diffractive optical element includes a first optical part and a second optical part bonded to each other with a bonded surface therebetween configured as a diffraction surface. In this diffractive optical element, the diffraction order of diffracted light with the largest quantity of light out of diffracted light for one of a plurality of kinds of laser beams obtained on the diffraction surface is different from the diffraction order for at least another laser beam. |
| US08264932B2 |
Adjusting method for recording condition and optical disc device
An optical disc device and an adjusting method for a recording condition for use with the optical disc device that records data into an optical disc medium by using codes whose shortest run length is 2T and reproduces the recorded data by using an adaptive equalizing procedure and a PRML procedure, wherein the recording condition is so adjusted that a reproduced signal with desired quality can be obtained, by using, as the adaptive equalizing procedure, a procedure in which a tap coefficient Cn is set to a value obtained by averaging values of a tap coefficient an renewed by a LMS method, located symmetrically with each other along the time axis. |
| US08264931B2 |
Optical recording medium, information recording method, and information reproducing method
According to one embodiment, an optical recording medium is provided in which interlayer crosstalk is low and in which stable and high-quality recording characteristics can be obtained. To this end, an optical recording medium comprises a first recording part which includes a first recording layer and a first light reflecting layer and which is disposed on a side closer to a light receiving surface, and a second recording part which includes a second recording layer and a second light reflecting layer and which is disposed on a side farther from the light receiving surface, the first recording part and the second recording part being stacked, wherein the thickness of the second light reflecting layer is larger than the thickness of the first light reflecting layer. |
| US08264930B2 |
Optical disc discriminating method and optical disc discriminating apparatus
An optical disc discriminating method and an optical disc discriminating apparatus which can discriminate a type of optical disc with a simple configuration, causes a drive means to vary an incident angle of a laser light beam with respect to an optical disc while irradiating the optical disc with the laser light beam from a light beam generating section, causes a photodetector to detect a diffraction light of the laser light beam from a recording track of the optical disc, detects a value corresponding to the incident angle when the diffraction light is detected, and discriminates the type of the optical disc on the basis of the detected value. |
| US08264929B2 |
Optical medium recognition system and method with an optical drive having plural lasers
An optical medium associated with a first type of optical drive laser, such as a blue laser, embeds identification information readable by a second type of optical drive laser, such as a red laser associated with DVD media or an IR laser associated with CD media, in order to reduce the time used by the optical drive to recognize media. An attempt to read the embedded identification information by the second laser that succeeds provides the optical drive with the information to proceed with use of the optical medium using the first laser. An attempt to read the embedded identification information that fails provides the optical drive with the opportunity to detect whether the optical medium is associated with the second laser so that a single spindle kick of the optical medium by the optical drive determines whether the optical medium is associated with either of two types of lasers. |
| US08264924B2 |
Data writing control device, data writing control method, and data writing control program
A data writing control device enable quickly writing data to optical discs. A reading process unit 62a, 62b reads data in predetermined read units from a storage device (hard disk drive 14) that has a head and stores the data. A storage unit (buffers 63a and 63b) has a storage area for storing the read units of data read by the reading process unit 62a, 62b. A writing process unit 64a, 64b acquires data stored in the storage unit in write units, which are smaller than the read units, and supplies the acquired write units of data to an optical disc drive is connected as a peripheral device. |
| US08264920B1 |
Near-field light generator and thermally-assisted magnetic recording head
A near-field light generator includes a waveguide, a plasmon generator, and a metal layer. The waveguide includes a core having an evanescent light generating surface. The plasmon generator includes a base part, and a protruding part that protrudes from the base part toward the evanescent light generating surface. The protruding part has: a front end face located at an end in a direction parallel to the evanescent light generating surface; a band-shaped flat surface facing toward the evanescent light generating surface; and two side surfaces connected to the flat surface. In at least a portion of the protruding part, the distance between the two side surfaces increases with increasing distance from the evanescent light generating surface. The flat surface includes a first portion contiguous with the front end face, and a second portion that is located farther from the front end face than is the first portion. The metal layer has an end face facing the first portion. The evanescent light generating surface faces the second portion. |
| US08264917B2 |
Heat generation control device for heat-assisted magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus
According to the present invention, heat generation amount control information for controlling a heat generation amount of a heat generating section (20) is arranged to correspond to each of temperatures so that a predetermined heat generation amount is obtained at each of the temperatures. The present invention includes a first computing section (41) that controls the heat generation amount of the heat generating section (20) according to the heat generation amount control information that is arranged in advance to correspond to temperature information that is obtained from a temperature sensor (13). This easily makes it possible to appropriately carry out at least either recording or reproduction with respect to a magnetic recording medium. |
| US08264914B2 |
Electronic timepiece and time adjustment method for an electronic timepiece
An electronic timepiece wherein, when the week number indicates an n-th cycle from a specific reference date as a cycle number, a date determination information setting unit sets the date determination information using a partial unit that is a different number in each date corresponding to the same week number in a plurality of consecutive cycle numbers, and the date determination unit acquires the date in each cycle number identified by the week number and time of week based on week number cycle information correlating week numbers, cycle numbers, and dates, and determines in which of these dates the partial unit matches the date determination information. |
| US08264910B2 |
Cipher watch
A watch able to be used as a cryptographic system to encrypt plaintext to ciphertext or decrypt ciphertext to plaintext includes a watch face and a plurality of concentric rings. Each of the plurality of concentric rings is rotatable with respect to the watch face and includes a number of symbols, the number of symbols corresponding to the number of hours represented on the watch face, at least some of the symbols corresponding to letters of an alphabet, characters in a writing system and/or numbers. At least one of the plurality of concentric rings is rotatable in a direction opposite to a direction of at least one other of the plurality of concentric rings. |
| US08264909B2 |
System and method for depth determination of an impulse acoustic source by cepstral analysis
A system and method for making an accurate estimate of the activation depth for an impulse acoustic source includes recording sounds produced by the activation of the underwater impulse acoustic source over a time period sufficient to capture reverberation, performing a cepstral scan of the recording to determine a quefrequency corresponding to the impulse from the underwater impulse acoustic source and deriving a depth estimate from the quefrequency corresponding to the impulse from the underwater impulse acoustic source. |
| US08264906B2 |
Adjusting clock error across a circuit interface
A system is provided with clock skew measurement and correction technology. A first circuit or memory controller 4 includes measuring circuits to measure relative timing or phase offsets of multiple clock signals of a second circuit or memory 6. One measuring circuit is configured for incremental changing of the phase of a transmitted test data sequence to measure and correct timing of a memory receiver circuit's quadrature clocks based on results of a data comparison of transmitted and received test data. Another measuring circuit is configured to scan a received test data sequence for data transitions to measure and correct timing of a memory transmitter circuit's quadrature clocks based on spacing or timing between detected transitions. Individual memory clock generators 30 are controlled with adjustable delay circuits 47 for changing phase of different clock signals of the memory to set the clock signals based on the measurements of the controller. |
| US08264904B2 |
Method of estimating self refresh period of semiconductor memory device
In a method of estimating a self refresh period of a semiconductor memory device according to an exemplary embodiment, a plurality of internal address signals are reset in response to a refresh reset signal. The plurality of internal address signals are sequentially changed synchronously with an oscillation signal. A refresh completion signal is generated based on the plurality of internal address signals. The self refresh period is detected based on the refresh reset signal and the refresh completion signal. |
| US08264901B2 |
Semiconductor device and control method of the same
The present invention provides a semiconductor memory and a control method therefor, the semiconductor device including a first current-voltage conversion circuit (16) connected to a core cell (12) provided in a nonvolatile memory cell array (10), a second current-voltage conversion circuit (26) connected to a reference cell (22) through a reference cell data line (24), a sense amplifier (18) sensing an output from the first current-voltage conversion circuit and an output from the second current-voltage conversion circuit, a compare circuit (28) comparing a voltage level at the reference cell data line with a predefined voltage level, and a charging circuit (30) charging the reference cell data line, if the voltage level at the reference cell data line is lower than the predefined voltage level during pre-charging the reference cell data line. According to the present invention, the pre-charging period of the reference cell data line can be shortened, and the data read time can be shortened. |
| US08264899B2 |
Assistance in reset of data storage array
A system is capable of assisting in reset of a data storage array including data storage array including one or more data storage array nodes. The system includes a control unit coupled to the data storage array configured to produce a control signal to reset the data storage array, and a reset unit communicatively coupled to the data storage array and the control unit configured to reset the data storage array by charge injection to the one or more data storage array nodes. |
| US08264898B2 |
Controlling AC disturbance while programming
A system and methodology that can minimize disturbance during an AC operation associated with a memory, such as, program, read and/or erase, is provided. The system pre-charges all or a desired subset of the bit lines in a memory array to a specified voltage, during an AC operation to facilitate reducing AC disturbances between neighboring cells. A pre-charge voltage can be applied to all bit lines in a block in the memory array, or to bit lines associated with a selected memory cell and neighbor memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cell in the block. The system ensures that source and drain voltage levels can be set to desired levels at the same or substantially the same time, while selecting a memory cell. This can facilitate minimizing AC disturbances in the selected memory cell during the AC operation. |
| US08264897B2 |
SRAM and method for accessing SRAM
A static random access memory includes: a memory cell connected with a pair of bit lines and supplied with a power supply voltage from a first power supply; a precharge circuit configured to precharge the pair of bit lines with a precharge voltage; and a voltage reducing circuit including: a control circuit comprising a differential amplifier circuit configured to amplify a difference input of a reference voltage generated through resistance division of the power supply voltage and the precharge voltage supplied to a node to output a control signal; and a voltage reduction control transistor connected between the node and the first power supply and configured to generate the precharge voltage in response to the control signal. The precharge circuit includes: precharge transistors configured to control supply of the precharge voltage to the bit lines in response to a first precharge control signal. |
| US08264895B2 |
Resistance based memory circuit with digital sensing
A method of sensing a data value stored at a resistance based memory is disclosed. The method includes receiving a data signal from a data cell. The data cell includes a resistance based memory element. A reference signal is received from a reference circuit. The reference circuit includes a resistance based memory element. The data signal is converted to a data output signal having a first frequency. The reference signal is converted to a reference output signal having a second frequency. A first output signal is generated when the first frequency exceeds the second frequency. A second output signal is generated when the second frequency exceeds the first frequency. |
| US08264894B2 |
Semiconductor memory device capable of memorizing multivalued data
In a memory cell array, a plurality of memory cells connected to word lines and bit lines are arranged in a matrix. A data storage circuit is connected to the bit lines and stores write data. The data storage circuit includes at least one static latch circuit and a plurality of dynamic latch circuits when setting 2k threshold voltages (k is a natural number equal to 3 or more) in each memory cell in the memory cell array. A control circuit refreshes data by moving the data in one of the plurality of dynamic latch circuits to the static latch circuit and further moving the data in the static latch circuit to one of the plurality of dynamic latch circuits. |
| US08264886B2 |
Delayed activation of selected wordlines in memory
Apparatus, systems, and methods may operate to receive an external read command at a control circuit coupled to a memory array. Individual wordline activation may be delayed according to a delay period determined by a read level voltage magnitude associated with a plurality of memory cells included in the array. |
| US08264875B2 |
Semiconductor memory device having an electrically floating body transistor
A semiconductor memory cell is formed in a semiconductor. The semiconductor memory cell includes: a floating body region defining at least a portion of a surface of the semiconductor memory cell, the floating body region having a first conductivity type; and a buried region located within the semiconductor memory cell and located adjacent to the floating body region, wherein the buried region has a second conductivity type. |
| US08264874B2 |
Semiconductor device
Objects of the present invention are to improve the manufacturing yield of semiconductor devices, reduce manufacturing cost of the semiconductor device, and reduce the circuit area of an integrated circuit included in the semiconductor device. A memory layer of a memory element and a resistive layer of a resistor included in the semiconductor device are formed of the same material. Therefore, the memory layer and the resistive layer are formed in the same step, whereby the number of manufacturing steps of the semiconductor device can be reduced. As a result, the manufacturing yield of the semiconductor devices can be improved and the manufacturing cost can be reduced. In addition, the semiconductor device includes a resistor having a resistive component which has high resistance value. Consequently, the area of the integrated circuit included in the semiconductor device can be reduced. |
| US08264869B2 |
Semiconductor storage device
A semiconductor storage device includes a memory cell array in which a memory cell including an MOS capacitor is arranged; a power supply unit that supplies a plate voltage to a plate line that is coupled to a gate electrode of the MOS capacitor; and a switch that couples the plate line to a first power supply line when an access to the memory cell array is caused. |
| US08264864B2 |
Memory device with band gap control
A memory device with band gap control is described. A memory cell can include a conductive oxide layer in contact with and electrically in series with an electronically insulating layer. A thickness of the electronically insulating layer is configured to increase from an initial thickness to a target thickness. The increased thickness of the electronically insulating layer can improve resistive memory effect, increase a magnitude of a read current during read operations, and lower barrier height with a concomitant reduction in band gap of the electronically insulating layer. The memory cell can include a memory element that comprises the conductive oxide layer and the electronically insulating layer and can optionally include a non-ohmic device (NOD). The memory cell can be positioned in a two-terminal cross-point array between a pair of conductive array lines across which voltages for data operations are applied. The memory cell and array can be fabricated BEOL. |
| US08264861B2 |
Device and method for limiting drain-source voltage of transformer-coupled push pull power conversion circuit
A circuit is proposed for limiting maximum switching FET drain-source voltage (VDS) of a transformer-coupled push pull power converter with maximum DC supply voltage VIN—MAX. Maximum VDS is accentuated by leakage inductances of the push pull transformer and the power converter circuit traces. The limiting circuit bridges the drains of the switching FETs and it includes two serially connected opposing Zener diodes each having a Zener voltage Vzx. The invention is applicable to both N-channel and P-channel FETs. In a specific embodiment, Vzx is selected to be slightly ≧2*VIN—MAX with the maximum VDS clamped to about VIN—MAX+½Vzx. In another embodiment, a proposed power switching device with integrated VDS clamping includes:In another embodiment, a proposed power switching device with integrated VDS-clamping includes a switching FET; and a Zener diode having a first terminal and a second terminal, the second terminal of the Zener diode is connected to the drain terminal of the switching FET. |
| US08264857B2 |
System and method for a power converter having a resonant circuit
A direct current-direct current (DC/DC) converter operated in the resonant mode of operation for converting a direct input voltage into a direct output voltage with a bridge circuit located on the input side and incorporating switching elements, with a resonance circuit incorporating a resonance inductance and a resonance capacitance as well as with a high-frequency transformer for galvanic separation is disclosed, the transformer incorporates at least one primary winding and at least one secondary winding with at least two winding terminals each. The alternating current (AC) output of the bridge circuit is connected to the primary winding and a rectifier bridge with diodes to the secondary winding. A voltage boosting circuit array is connected downstream of the resonant circuit in such a manner that at least one additionally controllable switching element is contained, which is connected in parallel or in series to at least one additional diode or to at least one diode of the rectifier bridge on the secondary side, this array being connected in parallel to the high-frequency transformer so that the additional switching element short-circuits the resonance circuit in a triggered condition so that energy is stored in the resonance inductance and is delivered in the non-triggered condition. |
| US08264852B2 |
Pluggable bases with different levels of redundancy and method for same
Apparatus includes a plurality of terminal base assemblies each having at least one module, at least some of the plurality of terminal base assemblies having varying levels of redundancy in the at least one module, the plurality of terminal base assemblies being connected together by circuitry within each of the plurality of terminal base assemblies. |
| US08264848B2 |
Electrical assembly having impedance controlled signal traces
An electrical assembly having controlled impedance signal traces and a portable electronic device comprising an electrical assembly having controlled impedance signal traces are provided. In accordance with one embodiment, there is provided an electrical assembly, comprising: a chassis for mounting electronic components, the chassis being made from a conductive material and forming a first ground plane; a first dielectric layer overlaying the chassis; a first signal trace overlaying the first dielectric layer; and a second dielectric layer overlaying the first signal trace. |
| US08264847B2 |
Electronic circuit module and method of making the same
An electronic circuit module and a method of manufacturing the electronic circuit module are disclosed. In one embodiment, the electronic circuit module includes i) a substrate on which a circuit is formed, ii) a plurality of electrical devices electrically connected to the circuit and iii) a first molding unit coated on the substrate to cover at least the electrical devices. The module further includes i) a test terminal unit comprising a plurality of test wires and configured to inspect the circuit, wherein each of the test wires comprises a first end electrically connected to the circuit and a second end exposed from the first molding unit, and wherein the second ends of the test wires form an inspection unit and are adjacent to each other on the substrate and ii) a second molding unit coated on the substrate to cover the second ends of the test wires. |
| US08264842B2 |
Data processing device and motherboard module thereof
The present invention discloses a data processing device and a motherboard thereof. The feature of the present invention is separating the motherboard thereof into two daughter boards. The first daughter board is fixed to the data processing device, and the second daughter board is connected to the first daughter board through a connector. The units that frequently be changed, such as a data processing component and data storing component, are disposed on the second daughter board. Besides, a hard disk signal bus of the data processing device, an optical disk drive signal bus, or a screen signal bus may be electrically connected to the first daughter board. As a result, when the data processing device is under maintenance or upgrade, the second daughter board can be removed without removing the casing, and also the plug-in and plug-out frequency of the connectors can be lower. |
| US08264840B2 |
Modular data center and associated methods
A number of structural modules are configured to be secured together and to be secured to a foundation. Each of the structural modules is without one or more sidewalls, such that when the structural modules are secured together they form a building structure that encloses an open region which continuously extends through interiors of the structural modules. Each of the number of structural modules is structurally formed to be independently transported. A power module is configured to be secured to one of the structural modules and to the foundation. The power module is defined as an enclosed structure and is structurally formed to be independently transported. The power module is equipped with electrical components for supplying and distributing electrical power to a pre-defined layout of data equipment to be deployed within the open region of the building structure formed by the number of structural modules. |
| US08264839B2 |
Pad for portable electronics
A pad for portable electronics mounted on a housing of portable electronics is revealed. The pad includes a lower fastener, a buffer member arranged above the lower fastener, an upper fastener connected with the buffer member and mounted onto the housing, and a gripping member disposed above the upper fastener. The housing is arranged with an insertion hole. The gripping member penetrates the insertion hole and clips to a side wall of the housing. Thus there is no need to arrange the pad by adhesives or thermal fusion. Moreover, the height of the pad disposed is adjusted automatically by the buffer member. Therefore, the convenience of use of the pad is increased. |
| US08264834B2 |
Removable module for a console
A housing, which may contain a hard disk drive, is configured to removably mount to a recessed surface of a console. The housing includes a lip and a biased latch arm so that the lip can be inserted into a corresponding feature in the recessed surface and the housing can be rotatably mounted to the recessed surface. The biased latch arm is retained by a latch arm retainer so that the housing is held in place. A cable connector extends from the bottom of the housing and is configured to connect to a receptor on the console when the housing is installed. When desired, a latch on the housing can be translated where the translation cause the biased latch arm to translate so as to clear the latch arm retainer. Thus the housing can be readily removed from the console. Preferably a portion of the housing extends beyond a wall of the recessed surface so that when installed, the housing alters the profile of the console. |
| US08264833B2 |
Anti-vibration hard disk drive assembly
An exemplary of an anti-vibration hard disk drive assembly includes a hard disk drive, a bracket containing the hard disk drive, a rack supporting the hard disk drive and the bracket, and an elastic structure disposed between the bracket and the rack. The rack includes a pair of rails supporting the bracket thereon. The elastic structure is disposed between the bracket and the pair of rails of the rack, whereby a vibration caused operation of the hard disk drive can be absorbed by the elastic structure. |
| US08264827B2 |
Liquid crystal display having fastening device
A fastening device is provided for fastening at least one article on a carrier. The fastening device includes at least one positioning component, a fixed plate fixed on the carrier, and a pressing plate positioned on the fixed plate by the positioning component. The pressing plate has at least one positioned portion and a retaining plate corresponding to the fixed plate. The retaining plate abuts against a side edge of the article for preventing the article from moving along a first direction. The positioning component movably passes through the positioned portion to allow the pressing plate to selectively move along the first direction and be positioned on the fixed plate for adjusting the distance between the retaining plate and the fixed plate. |
| US08264823B2 |
Foldable mobile terminal
A portable terminal includes a first body having a first touch screen on an outer surface of the first body, a second body having a second touch screen on an outer surface of the second body, and a hinge unit configured to rotatably connect the first body and the second body. The first touch screen and the second touch screen face the same direction in an unfolded configuration, and the first touch screen and the second touch screen face each other in a folded configuration. The portable terminal further includes a rotation preventing unit configured to prevent relative rotation of the first body and the second body in the absence of an action for relative rotation when the portable terminal is in the unfolded configuration. |
| US08264819B2 |
Polymer based solid state capacitors and a method of manufacturing them
The present invention relates to a solid state capacitor having a conductive polymer cathode layer counter electrode that includes an acrylate binder and a method for its manufacture. In particular the present invention relates to a solid state capacitor comprising: providing a porous anode body of valve action material; forming a dielectric layer on said porous body; forming a cathode layer in contact with the dielectric layer, which cathode layer comprises a conductive polymer and an acrylic binder; and providing an anode terminal in electrical connection with the porous body anode and a cathode terminal in electrical connection with the cathode layer and a method for its manufacture. |
| US08264813B2 |
Electrostatic chuck device
An electrostatic chuck device which enables to perform a plasma process having high in-plane uniformity to a plane-like sample by improving the in-plane uniformity of the electric field intensity in a plasma when applied to a plasma processing apparatus. Specifically disclosed is an electrostatic chuck device (21) including an electrostatic chuck section (22), a metal base section (23) serving as a high-frequency generating electrode, and an insulating plate (24). The electrostatic chuck section (22) is composed of a dielectric plate (31) whose top surface (31a) serves as a mounting surface on which a plate-like sample (W) is placed, a supporting plate (32), an electrostatic-adsorption inner electrode (25), and an insulating layer (33). The electrostatic-adsorption inner electrode (25) is made of a composite sintered body containing an insulating ceramic and silicon carbide, while having a volumetric resistance of not less than 1.0×10−1 Ωcm but not more than 1.0×108 Ωcm. |
| US08264812B2 |
Substrate-chucking electrostatic chuck, and substrate bonding apparatus and method for liquid crystal display panel using the same
A substrate-chucking electrostatic chuck (ESC) is disclosed which is sub-divided into at least three groups of electrostatic blocks, to uniformly chuck the substrate. A substrate bonding apparatus and method for a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel using the electrostatic chuck is also disclosed. The ESC includes at least three groups of electrostatic blocks which chuck the substrate using electrostatic chucking forces respectively generated by different voltages applied to the electrostatic blocks in association with the electrostatic block groups, and release the chucked substrate when the voltages are cut off. |
| US08264808B2 |
Module apparatus for solar cell
A solar cell unit is disclosed, wherein the solar cell module includes a solar cell unit converting light from the sun to a DC voltage and outputting the converted DC voltage; an inverting unit inverting the outputted DC voltage to an AC voltage; and an inverting outdoor unit protecting the inverting unit from outdoor space, wherein the inverting outdoor unit includes: a heat emitting unit emitting heat generated from the inverting outdoor unit or the inverting unit; and a thermal expansion protecting unit keeping temperature equilibrium between the inverting unit and the inverting outdoor unit. |
| US08264807B2 |
Start-up in-rush current protection circuit for DCDC converter
A protection circuit for protecting DCDC converter with a power MOS transistor from start-up in-rush current includes a coupling capacitor and a voltage clamping circuit. By using the coupling capacitor to turn-off the power MOS transistor, there is no current consumed during the normal operation of the circuit. Enable signal or leakage current circuit is used to discharge the capacitor so that the circuitry can work in another turning-on of power supply. |
| US08264806B2 |
Electronic device including a protection circuit for a light-emitting device
An electronic device is provided that includes a protection circuit for a light-emitting device. The protection circuit comprises a first node adapted to be coupled to an anode of the light-emitting device and a second node adapted to be coupled to a cathode of the light-emitting device. A voltage detection stage is coupled between the first and second nodes. The voltage detection stage is adapted to detect an overvoltage condition between the first and second nodes. Furthermore, the protection circuit comprises a thyristor coupled with its anode to the first node, its cathode to the second node to the voltage detection stage. When the overvoltage condition is detected in normal operation the thyristor is controlled to open so that the current can flow through the thyristor. |
| US08264803B2 |
Alternator circuit-breaker with an inserted resistance
An alternator disconnector circuit-breaker of the invention presents a resistance (30) in series with the circuit-breaker switch (20′); the resistance (30) is of fixed ohmic value that is about 104 times greater than the value of the resistance of the main circuit of the circuit-breaker. By means of this configuration, it is possible to use a vacuum chamber as the circuit-breaker switch (20′), and to dimension the main switch (10), which, de facto, breaks the current even for very high short-circuit currents, under more advantageous conditions. |
| US08264797B2 |
Head gimbal assembly having a radial rotary piezoelectric microactuator between a read head and a flexure tongue
A novel head gimbal assembly (HGA) includes a piezoelectric microactuator having a first side and an opposing second side. The first side includes a plurality of anchor regions that extend radially from a center point and are bonded to the gimbal tongue. The first side also includes a first plurality of non-bonded regions lying between the anchor regions. The second side includes a plurality of link regions that extend radially from the center point and are bonded to a top surface of the read head. The second side also includes a second plurality of non-bonded regions lying between the link regions. Each of the plurality of link regions is angularly spaced between two of the plurality of anchor regions. |
| US08264792B2 |
PMR writer device with multi-level tapered write pole
A perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) head is fabricated with a multi-level tapered write pole for efficient channeling of magnetic flux. The write pole comprises a main pole with a tapered tip on which is formed at least one yoke that has a tapered edge. The edge of the yoke is recessed from the ABS of the tapered tip, giving the write pole a stepped profile. The tapered tip can be two sloped surfaces that are symmetric about a mid-plane of the main pole or a single sloped edge on the leading side or the trailing side of the pole. The yoke structure can consist of a single yoke formed on one side of the main pole or it can consist of two yokes formed symmetrically on both the leading and trailing sides of the main pole. |
| US08264787B2 |
Fixing device and voice coil motor using same
A fixing device includes a stationary frame and a number of elongated resilient tabs. The stationary frame defines a central axis and includes four sidewalls for receiving a number of magnets. Each sidewall includes a receiving hole and at least one protrusion formed on each sidewall at a lower portion thereof. A slot is defined in each protrusion. The tabs correspond to the magnets. Each tab includes an engagement portion, an angled portion, and a contact portion. The angled portion is interconnected between the engagement portion and the contact portion. The engagement portions engage in the respective slots. The contact portions resiliently abut against the corresponding magnets. Each tab is configured to apply a force on the corresponding magnet in a direction toward the central axis. |
| US08264785B2 |
Imaging lens
An imaging lens includes, sequentially from an object side, a first lens (L11) configured by a negative meniscus lens disposed with the convex surface on the object side; a second lens (L12) configured by a positive biconvex lens; a negative third lens (L13); and a fourth lens group (L14) configured by a positive meniscus lens disposed with the convex surface on the image plane IMG side. By satisfying given conditions, the imaging lens is able to control ghosting occurring between the last lens surface and the imaging element and ghosting caused by light reflected by the lens surface nearest the object, without sacrifice to the compact-size of the optical system or high optical performance. |
| US08264781B2 |
Zoom lens, information device, and imaging apparatus
A zoom lens includes a first lens group having a positive refracting power, a second lens group having a negative refracting power, a third lens group having a positive refracting power, and a fourth lens group having a positive refracting power, being disposed in order from an object side, and an aperture stop disposed at an object side of the third lens group. When changing the magnification from a wide angle end to a telephoto end, an interval between the first and second lens groups increases, an interval between the second and third lens groups decreases, and an interval between the third and fourth lens groups changes. |
| US08264771B2 |
Tripod-connecting adapter
A tripod-connecting adapter for connecting a pair of binoculars to a tripod comprising: a base portion that has a width in which a left and a right lens barrels of the pair of binoculars to be placed thereon come into contact therewith, and restricts rotation of the pair of binoculars around a joint shaft that connects the pair of lens barrels of the pair of binoculars; and a holding device that is provided on the base portion and is connected to the joint shaft to support the pair of lens barrels so that said pair of lens barrels may be placed on an upper surface of the base portion to come in contact therewith, and restricts movement of the pair of binoculars in an optical axis direction of the pair of binoculars. |
| US08264770B2 |
Multi-purpose periscope with display and overlay capabilities
A collimated periscope that is switchable between a normal optical view of the outside, a display view, and an overlay view in which the outside view and display view are combined. The switching element is an electronically switchable mirror with primarily reflective, primarily transparent, and intermediate states, depending on the application of electrical potentials. |
| US08264769B2 |
Light stimulus apparatus and observing apparatus with light controlling unit
A proposition is to reduce a waiting time during a light stimulus observation. In order to achieve the proposition, a light stimulus apparatus is characterized in that it includes a light path controlling unit that controls an irradiating position of light for stimulus on a specimen, and a controlling unit that generates a selected position signal of a selected position and an executive instruction signal for irradiation of the light for stimulus onto the specimen in conjunction with a confirm operation regarding the selected position performed by a pointing device on an image of the specimen displayed on a displaying unit, controls the light path controlling unit based on the selected position signal, and controls a light source which emits the light for stimulus based on the executive instruction signal. |
| US08264765B2 |
Stabilized light source
A light source including a light emitting unit, a nonlinear medium, and a resonant grating. The light emitting unit is arranged to emit a first light into the nonlinear medium. The nonlinear medium is arranged to generate a second light such that an optical frequency of the second light is higher than an optical frequency of the first light. The resonant grating is arranged to stabilize an optical frequency of the first light by providing optical feedback to the light emitting unit. |
| US08264763B2 |
Controller and driver features for bi-stable display
An interference modulator (Imod) incorporates anti-reflection coatings and/or micro-fabricated supplemental lighting sources. An efficient drive scheme is provided for matrix addressed arrays of IMods or other micromechanical devices. An improved color scheme provides greater flexibility. Electronic hardware can be field reconfigured to accommodate different display formats and/or application functions. An IMod's electromechanical behavior can be decoupled from its optical behavior. An improved actuation means is provided, some one of which may be hidden from view. An IMod or IMod array is fabricated and used in conjunction with a MEMS switch or switch array. An IMod can be used for optical switching and modulation. Some IMods incorporate 2-D and 3-D photonic structures. A variety of applications for the modulation of light are discussed. A MEMS manufacturing and packaging approach is provided based on a continuous web fed process. IMods can be used as test structures for the evaluation of residual stress in deposited materials. |
| US08264758B2 |
Spring, mirror device, mirror array, and optical switch
A total length of members (11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25) formed in an X-axis direction of a spring (1) is larger than a spring length of the spring (1) and larger than a total length of members (12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24) formed in a Y-axis direction. With this arrangement, spring constants of respective axes can be increased, and a spring constant in a direction R can be set appropriately and freely within a wider range. |
| US08264757B2 |
Method and system for producing multiple images in a single image plane using diffraction
Methods create images viewable under different selected angles on optical storage devices and other photosensitive surfaces and optical storage devices with super-imposed images. Generally, a photosensitive surface is exposed with multiple diffraction patterns creating super-imposed images. These diffraction patterns create super-imposed images on the photosensitive surfaces, which can be read by either a human or a computer. |
| US08264752B2 |
Image reading system and program for reading electronic paper, and image forming apparatus including the image reading system
An image reading system includable in an image forming apparatus includes a document feed tray to contain original documents including either or both of a non-electronic recording medium and an electronic paper that includes a memory and a first communication element, a primary sensor to read the electronic data from the memory of each electronic paper before transfer of the original documents starts, a secondary sensor to sequentially detect the original documents during the transfer thereof and determine a media type of each original document, a transfer unit to transfer the non-electronic recording medium to a scanning position, a transfer controller to control the transfer unit based on the determination result of the secondary sensor, and an optical image reader to optically read an image formed on each non-electronic recording medium at the scanning position. |
| US08264751B2 |
Image processing apparatus and method for determining a method of cropping a document in accordance with a result of comparison of coordinates of vertices of two rectangular regions detected in a first and second detection
Disclosed is an image processing method for processing an image obtained by reading a document plate on which at least one document is placed. The method includes a first detecting step of specifying a first rectangular region including all of objects included in the image to detect the coordinates of each vertex thereof, an identifying step of identifying on each object whether it is a document item, an eliminating step of eliminating the object which is not a document item from the image, a second detecting step of specifying a second rectangular region to detect the coordinates of each vertex thereof, the region including all of the objects after elimination and having a minimum area, a comparing step of comparing the coordinates of the vertices detected in the first and second detecting steps, and a determining step of determining a method of cropping the document based on the comparison result. |
| US08264746B2 |
Image sensor
An image sensor includes: a light transmissive member extending in a direction orthogonal to a direction of conveying the document; a reference portion provided outside the conveying region where a document is conveyed with respect to the orthogonal direction and having a transmittance lower than a transmittance of in the conveying region of the light transmissive member; and a light source unit. The image sensor further includes: a lens unit converging the light transmitting through the document and the reference portion; a light receiving unit that receives the light transmitted through the lens unit and outputs an electric signal; an amplifying unit that amplifies the electric signal of the document corresponding to the conveying region and outputs an image signal of the document; and a controlling unit configured to control an amplification factor of the amplifying unit based on the electric signal corresponding to the reference portion. |
| US08264745B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and storage medium
An image processing apparatus capable of preventing image processing from being performed on data for which an appropriate image processing cannot be carried out and improving the reliability of equipment signature. An MFP as the image processing apparatus reads an original, creates and stores electronic data, and stores electronic data created by an external unit. The electronic data created by the MFP is stored in association with MFP identification information. Electronic data created by the MFP among the stored electronic data is determined based on the MFP identification information. Execution of a function of the MFP on electronic data created by the external unit is restricted. |
| US08264738B2 |
Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and computer-readable storage medium for image forming program
An image forming apparatus is provided with a scanner that reads a document and generates image data thereof, an information detecting portion that detects, from the image data generated by the scanner, attribute information about areas divided in accordance with a type of an image, a resolution converting portion that modifies the image data for each of the areas by performing a resolution converting process on the image in accordance with instructions that are provided by a user based on the attribute information detected by the information detecting portion, an image replacement processing portion, and a printer that prints an image based on the image data thus modified on a recording medium. |
| US08264730B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image forming apparatus
An image processing apparatus includes n line buffer circuits and a delay adjustment section. In a case of a filter process, (i) image data corresponding to n lines stored in the n line buffer circuits and (ii) image data corresponding to one line supplied to the delay adjustment section are outputted to a spatial filter process section in synchronization with each other. In a case of a dilation process, (i) image data corresponding to m lines stored in m line buffer circuits of the n line buffer circuits and (ii) image data corresponding to one line supplied to the delay adjustment section are outputted to a dilation process section in synchronization with each other. This reduces the size of a circuit of an image processing device including a plurality of types of image process sections for carrying out image processes by using image data with different numbers of lines. |
| US08264729B2 |
Image forming apparatus performing function related to external apparatus
A USB memory stores, as function information, a function of processing a document and a place where the document is registered. An MFP includes a read unit for reading function information from the USB memory inserted into the MFP, a specifying unit for specifying required information from among the function information, an acquisition unit for accessing a server with the use of the specified information to acquire a target document to be processed, a setting unit for making a setting for performing a PullPrint function, which corresponds to the aforementioned function, with the use of the information, and a print control unit for executing a process for printing the acquired document on the basis of the setting made by the setting unit. |
| US08264727B2 |
Data processing apparatus, method, program, and storage medium for setting identification information based on metadata, and advantageously displaying print data
Disclosed herein is a data processing apparatus that sets identification information for identifying each of a plurality of contents based on metadata added to each of the contents. The apparatus includes: title information acquisition means for acquiring title information of each of the contents, the title information concerning a title of the content and being included in the metadata; information extraction means for comparing the title information of each of the contents to extract a part of the title information that is common to all of the contents; and identification information setting means for setting the identification information of each of the contents based on the other part of the title information than the part of the title information that is common to all of the contents. |
| US08264722B2 |
Building dynamic user interfaces based on interactive query of device and workflow capabilities
The subject application is directed to a document processing device user interface system and method having functional controls specified by device attribute querying. A plurality of components associated with a document processing device is queried, and device information data corresponding to operational characteristics of each component is received in accordance with the query. Device operation data corresponding to a selected document processing operation is then received via an associated user interface and is compared relative to the device operation data. Indicia is generated on the user interface display corresponding to controls of a subset of the components based upon the comparison output. Secondary selection data corresponding to selected indicia on the display is received, and the selected document processing operation is commenced in accordance with the received secondary selection data. |
| US08264719B2 |
Image processing system and image processing method in which specific information including information concerning the own apparatus is added to image data after each processing by each component/step thereof
The output history of image data is made traceable when image data is processed while it is transmitted between an image processing apparatus and an external apparatus. The image processing apparatus adds specific information including information concerning the own apparatus to image data from a document. When specific information is added, either the form of writing specific information in header information of image data or the form of combining with an original image a specific image corresponding to specific information is selected. The image processing apparatus sends image data having added specific information to a management server, and the management server stores inputted image data. The management server adds information concerning the own apparatus to image data as specific information, and sends the image data to the image processing apparatus. The image processing apparatus adds information concerning the own apparatus to image data as specific information, and prints the image data. The added specific information includes information concerning the image processing apparatus and management server which have treated the image data. |
| US08264717B2 |
Image forming apparatus, information processing apparatus, information processing method, information processing program and storage medium
An image forming apparatus has a plurality of application execution environments, and includes a control part in each of the application execution environments, configured to control an application executed in a corresponding application execution environment. The control part in an application execution environment controls an application executed in an other application execution environment via the control part of the other application execution environment. |
| US08264716B2 |
Ringtone, voice, and sound notification of printer status
A method for ringtone, voice, and sound notification of printer status, comprising obtaining status information of a printer, converting it into an audible report, and delivering the audible report. The method is especially useful for visually-impaired users and for shared printers in crowded situations where it is difficult for each user to see the panel or monitor display. The methods also include detection by the events controller, UI manager instructing an audio manager, codec decoding an audio file in firmware and hardware organization; job owner identification information embedded into a print job with a unique tag; user identification sound data embedded in a print job; audible report for multiple jobs in a job queue, with positional information; text-to-speech conversion; unique ringtone melody for each user, comprising department prefix, higher pitch modulation for higher priority, and automatically converting an alphanumeric character into the corresponding note. |
| US08264715B2 |
Approach for implementing locked printing with remote unlock on printing devices
An approach is provided for implementing locked printing on a printing device with remote unlock. The printing device includes a locked print process that is configured to examine print data received by the printing device and determine whether locked printing is to be used for the print data. Print data designated for locked printing is stored on the printing device. The printing device also includes a Web application configured to generate Web pages that define a Web-based graphical user interface. When processed at a client device, the Web pages allow a user to enter authorization data that is transmitted to the Web application on the printing device. The locked print process verifies the authorization data and if the authorization data is successfully verified, allows the user access to locked print data on the printing device. The approach may also be implemented using a common repository to store print data. |
| US08264711B2 |
Image forming apparatus, image processing system, including the image forming apparatus connectable via a network to at least one service provider that provides a plurality of processing functions method of processing a job, method of controlling a job, and computer readable storage medium including computer-executable instructions
In an image processing system including an image forming apparatus and one or more service providers connected to the Internet, functions available in the image forming apparatus of a user and functions provided by the service providers on the Internet are displayed on an operation control screen such that the user can select an arbitrary function and specify operation conditions of the selected function via the operation unit. A controller of the image forming apparatus acquires information indicating the functions provided by the service providers, and selectively displays first-type functions indicated by the acquired information and/or second-type functions executable by the image forming apparatus. |
| US08264710B2 |
Printing preparation
In an exemplary device implementation, the device includes: a scanner capable of scanning a scanning target to produce an electronic image of the scanning target; and a printer capable of printing an image of the scanning target on a media, the printer including a print engine; wherein the device is adapted to overlap the scanning of the scanning target with preparation of the print engine for printing. |
| US08264709B2 |
Lock printing based on distance from client to printer
A method, apparatus, system, and computer-readable storage medium for setting a print mode of a printing device. The method includes receiving, from a client device, a request to print a print job at the printing device, and determining a distance between the client device and the printing device. A print mode is corresponding to the print job is set to one of a locked print mode or an unlocked print mode based on the determined distance between the client device and the printing device. The method further includes sending the print job and the corresponding print mode setting to the printing device. |
| US08264705B2 |
Image reading apparatus, image forming apparatus and computer readable information recording medium
A first part calculates corrected image data for each pixel in the range in which the reading parts of the adjacent image sensors overlaps in the main scan direction, for correcting the image data for a position shift less than an amount corresponding to one pixel in the main scan direction of the image sensors. A correcting method is determined in such a manner that a position shift amount to be corrected increases in a step-by-step manner as moving from a base portion to an end portion in the range in which the adjacent image sensors overlap in the main scan direction. A second part multiplies the image data corrected by the thus-determined correcting method by a weighting factor determined according to a position in the main scan direction in the adjacent image sensors. |
| US08264703B2 |
Information processing method and apparatus thereof
An access rights control system can set permission/inhibition of print processing for respective users and files, but it cannot set permission/inhibition of print processing for respective printer devices. Hence, a first identifier required to identify a printer device is obtained from data, a second identifier required to identify an available printer device is obtained from a memory, and a printer device which is permitted to print the data is determined based on the relationship between the first identifier and the second identifier. |
| US08264701B2 |
Printing graphics with transparency on a postscript enabled image forming device
What is disclosed is a novel system and method for emulating transparency in a PostScript-enabled image forming device, such as a PostScript-enabled print device. The present system and method uses Adobe's DeviceN color space to support transparency printing on PostScript-enabled devices. The present method uses abstract data represented by a color plane in DeviceN space to indicate the existence of a transparency layer in the image to be printed. An emulation procedure is then called to perform a color space transformation and to perform color blending of the first image into the second image. A transparency value is used as one of the colorant channels to define the blending. Advantageously, the present method is backward compatible as there is no update required to the printer's driver or firmware. The present method has been demonstrated to work with Adobe Reader and PostScript Level-3. |
| US08264698B2 |
Device for thermal isolation of a laser tracker
In one advantageous embodiment, an apparatus may comprise a first plate, a second plate, and an isolation plate. The first plate may be capable of receiving a mounting member for a tool requiring an operating temperature that remains substantially constant for operation of the tool. The second plate may be capable of being secured to an object. The isolation plate may be located between the first plate and the second plate. The first plate, the second plate, and the isolation plate may be secured to each other. The insulating plate may be capable of thermally isolating the tool from the object. |
| US08264697B2 |
Object detection device
An object detecting device for detecting the existence and general placement of an object residing upon a surface. A preferred embodiment of the invention uses a laser measuring scanner operated positioned by a servo motor to allow the laser measuring scanner to generate signals related to the placement of an object on a surface. Those placement signals are then processed by a computer to make a two or three dimensional determination of the object in coordinates that show the object's location in relation to another device such as a robotic depalletizer that can then be moved into position near the object to allow removal of the object by the robotic depalletizer. |
| US08264691B2 |
Surface plasmon resonance spectrometer with an actuator driven angle scanning mechanism
Instruments and methods relating to surface plasmon imaging are described. An instrument comprises a semi-circular rail and a driving mechanism. The driving mechanism is attached to a light source mount and a detector mount, and both the light source mount and the detector mount are attached to the semi-circular rail with connectors. Each connector allows the light source mount and detector mount to slide along the rail. The synchronous movement of the light source mount and the detector mount changes the angle of incidence of a light beam from the light source with respect to the plane of the sample surface on the sample stage. |
| US08264688B1 |
Method and apparatus for enhancing the accuracy of CRDS measurements
A method and apparatus for enhancing the accuracy of spectroscopic measurements using a cavity ringdown spectrometer (CRDS) is provided. A first aspect of the invention consists of a novel algorithm for the processing of ring-down data that significantly reduces the amplitude of an exponential fitting artifact, and thereby gives a better estimate of the actual loss. The primary cause of the artifact is the presence of an unwanted backwards-traveling wave that counter-propagates within the ringdown cavity. Scattering due to small imperfections at the cavity mirrors produces this wave and its intensity may be minimized by adjustment of the mirror positions during cavity construction. A second aspect of the invention consists of an apparatus for measuring the backscattered wave within a cavity to allow such cavity mirror adjustments to be made. |
| US08264687B2 |
Methods and systems for simultaneous real-time monitoring of optical signals from multiple sources
Methods and systems for real-time monitoring of optical signals from arrays of signal sources, and particularly optical signal sources that have spectrally different signal components. Systems include signal source arrays in optical communication with optical trains that direct excitation radiation to and emitted signals from such arrays and image the signals onto detector arrays, from which such signals may be subjected to additional processing. |
| US08264679B2 |
Inspection apparatus
An inspection apparatus and method for detecting defects and haze on a surface of a sample includes illumination optics which emit light to illuminate an inspection region on the surface of the sample from an oblique direction relative to the inspection region, first detection optics which detect first scattered light from the inspection region and having a beam analyzer through an optical path, second detection optics which detect second scattered light from the inspection region, the second scattered light being scattered from a direction different than a direction of the first scattered light, and a signal-processing unit which treats different processings for a first signal of the detected first scattered light and for a second signal of the detected second scattered light and detecting defects and haze on the surface of the sample on the basis of at least one of the first signal and the second signal. |
| US08264678B2 |
Light sensor with intensity and direction detection
A light sensor and light sensing system to detect an intensity of incident light and an angle of incidence of the incident light. The light sensor includes a dielectric layer, a plurality of photo detectors coupled relative to the dielectric layer, and a plurality of stacks of opaque slats embedded within the dielectric layer. The dielectric layer is substantially transparent to the incident light. The photo detectors detect the incident light through the dielectric layer. The stacks of opaque slats are approximately parallel to an interface between the dielectric layer and the photo detectors. The stacks of opaque slats define light apertures between adjacent stacks of opaque slats. At least some of the stacks of opaque slats are arranged at a non-zero angle relative to other stacks of the opaque slats. |
| US08264675B1 |
Polariscope stress measurement tool and method of use
The present invention provides a tool for and method of using an infrared transmission technique to extract the full stress components of the in-plane residual stresses in thin, multi crystalline silicon wafers including in situ measurement of residual stress for large cast wafers. The shear difference method is used to obtain full stress components by integrating the shear stress map from the boundaries. System ambiguity at the boundaries is resolved completely by introducing a new analytical function. A new anisotropic stress optic law is provided, and stress optic coefficients are calibrated for different crystal grain orientations and stress orientations. |
| US08264663B2 |
System for accumulating exposure energy information of wafer and management method of mask for exposure utilizing exposure energy information of wafer accumulated with the system
Disclosed is a management method of a mask for exposure utilizing exposure energy information of a wafer. According to the present invention, in case of exposing wafers in exposure apparatuses, information on masks loaded on exposure apparatuses are calculated from the exposure apparatuses, the light energy values applied during the exposure of wafers by the corresponding masks are calculated, the calculated light energy values are stored in the data server, the same data are collected from all wafer exposure processes performed at plural exposure apparatuses within the semiconductor FAB and the exposure information about the exposure energy relating to plural masks used by plural exposure apparatuses are accumulated and managed. Accordingly, the exposure degree of a mask about the exposure energy, as a direct cause of the contamination of masks such as the crystal growth and haze, is directly calculated and then defects of masks are predicted together with measures according that, so that deterioration of the yield of the semiconductor is prevented and the yield of the semiconductor is increased. |
| US08264658B2 |
Liquid crystal display device and method of manufacturing color filter substrate
A liquid crystal display device includes an array substrate, a color filter substrate, and a liquid crystal layer provided between the array substrate and the color filter substrate. The color filter substrate includes a substrate, a plurality of color filter units provided on the substrate in the form of matrix, and a black matrix pattern including a lateral structure and a longitudinal structure. The black matrix pattern is provided between the array substrate and the color filter substrate and partially contacts with the array substrate to block light and maintain a cell thickness between the array substrate and the color filter substrate. |
| US08264656B2 |
Liquid crystal display and manufacturing method thereof
A liquid crystal display (LCD) includes a first substrate including a display area displaying images and a peripheral area surrounding the display area, a common pad formed in the peripheral area of the first substrate, an insulating layer formed on the common pad and having a common contact hole exposing the common pad, an assistance common pad formed on the insulating layer of the peripheral area and contacting the common pad through the common contact hole, a second substrate corresponding to the first substrate, and a common electrode formed on the second substrate, and a conductive sealant disposed between the assistance common pad and the common electrode of the peripheral area, the conductive sealant electrically connecting the assistance common pad and the common electrode, wherein the common contact hole is disposed between the conductive sealant and the display area. |
| US08264654B2 |
Liquid crystal display and display apparatus set having the same
A liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal panel including short sides and long sides, a gate wire extending substantially parallel with the short sides of the liquid crystal panel, a data wire extending substantially parallel with the long sides of the liquid crystal panel and insulated from the gate wire with crossing the gate wire, a first printed circuit board disposed adjacent to a long side of the liquid crystal panel facing a same direction as the liquid crystal panel is and supplying an image signal to the liquid crystal panel, a circuit film electrically connecting the data wire and the first printed circuit board with each other to carry the image signal. |
| US08264652B2 |
Liquid crystal display device with a data link connecting a data pad and data line
A fringe field switching thin film transistor substrate includes a gate electrode connected to the gate line, a source electrode connected to the data line, a drain electrode opposed to the pixel electrode and a semiconductor layer defining a channel between the source electrode and the drain electrode. A common electrode extends from the common line into the pixel area. A pixel electrode extends from the drain electrode into the pixel area overlapping the common electrode with the gate insulating film. The gate line and the common line are formed from a first conductive layer group having double conductive layers, and the common electrode is formed by an extension of the lowermost layer of the common line. The data line, the source electrode and the drain electrode are formed of a second conductive layer group having double conductive layers. |
| US08264649B2 |
Liquid crystal device and method of manufacturing liquid crystal device having surface grooves and alignment film with improved thickness uniformity
A liquid crystal device includes a pair of substrates, liquid crystal sandwiched between the pair of substrates, and a plurality of sub-pixels. Each sub-pixel has a transmissive display region and a reflective display region. One of the substrates has a color filter and a transparent insulating film disposed on the color filter. The transparent insulating film has a thin-walled portion provided in the transmissive display region and a region along a boundary between the adjacent sub-pixels. At least a portion of a region in which the thin-walled portion of the transparent insulating film is not provided overlaps the reflective display region. The layer thickness of the liquid crystal in the reflective display region is smaller than the layer thickness of the liquid crystal in the transmissive display region in consideration of the thin-walled portion. |
| US08264644B2 |
Color filter substrate for in-plane switching mode liquid crystal display device and method of fabricating the same
A color filter substrate for an in-plane switching mode liquid crystal display device includes a first rear side electrode on a first surface of a substrate and formed of a first transparent conductive material including zinc oxide (ZnO) and at least two compounds having second or fourth valence, the first rear side electrode having a first thickness; a black matrix having a lattice shape and a plurality of openings in the lattice shape, the black matrix disposed on a second surface, which is opposite to the first surface, of the substrate; a color filter layer in the plurality of openings; and an overcoat layer on the black matrix and the color filter layer. |
| US08264639B2 |
Polymer enhanced cholesteric electro-optical devices
The present invention provides liquid crystal devices comprised of a composite of an internal polymer network localized on the substrate surfaces and short-pitch dual-frequency switchable cholesteric liquid crystal that operate in two different modes including in-plane switching (amplitude modulation) and out-of-plane switching (phase modulation). The invention further provides a method of making a liquid crystal device demonstrating uniform lying helical axis where the device comprises a composite of an internal spatially ordered polymer network localized by in-situ photo-polymerization at the surface of the substrate. The invention can be used for flat panel displays, as well as spatial light modulators for applications such as optical waveguides, optical beam scanners, computer-generated holograms, and adaptive optics. |
| US08264635B2 |
Liquid crystal display having a top case with first and second frame members that are physically separated
A liquid crystal display is provided to improve workability for fastening and reduce production costs. The liquid crystal display includes: a liquid crystal panel; a film member having a source IC for driving the liquid crystal panel mounted therein; a source PCB electrically connected to the liquid crystal panel through the film member; lamps for generating light; a panel guide having a guide space where the source PCB is positioned provided on an upper outer surface thereof; a bottom cover; and a top case having a first frame member surrounding both of the film member and the source PCB and fixing the liquid crystal panel at a portion of the upper side of the liquid crystal panel and a plurality of frame members physically separated from the first frame member and fixing the liquid crystal panel at a portion of the lower side of the liquid crystal panel. |
| US08264634B2 |
Backlight unit and liquid crystal display device having the same
A backlight unit that is designed to fix a light guide plate without using separate pads is provided. The backlight unit includes at least one light source, a light guide plate provided in parallel to the light source, a support main enclosing the light guide plate, and a plurality of fixing protrusions that are formed on an inner edge of the support main to fix the light guide plate. |
| US08264627B2 |
Liquid crystal display panel and driving method thereof and liquid crystal display device using the same
A liquid crystal display panel including a data line, a first, a second and a third scan line, a first, a second and a third switch, and a first, a second and a third pixel electrode is provided. These scan lines are sequentially disposed next to each other. Each switch has a control end, an input end and an output end. These control ends are respectively coupled to these scan lines. These input ends are coupled to the data line. These output ends are respectively coupled to the pixel electrodes. A first extending electrode of the first pixel electrode is near the second pixel electrode, a second extending electrode of the second pixel electrode is near the third pixel electrode, and a third extending electrode of the third pixel electrode is near the first extending electrode. |
| US08264626B2 |
Stereoscopic image display device
A stereoscopic image display device includes a display panel configured to display an image, a barrier placed over the display panel and configured to include a plurality of liquid crystal cells each of which is selectively driven to become a transparent cell or an opaque cell, a polarizing plate placed between the display panel and the barrier, and a phase retarder placed between the internal polarizing plate and the display panel. |
| US08264624B2 |
Digitizer function-equipped liquid crystal display device information processing electronic device, and game device
Provided is a digitizer function-equipped liquid crystal display device capable of preventing the wire shadows of a loop antenna from being projected on a liquid crystal panel and capable of being applied to a large size liquid crystal panel. It is also possible to provide an information processing electronic device and a game device provided with the digitizer function-equipped liquid crystal display device. Here, the digitizer function-equipped liquid crystal display device includes: a liquid crystal panel 1; a light diffusion member 2 which is disposed between the liquid crystal panel 1 and a backlight 5 irradiating the liquid crystal panel 1 with light; an electromagnetic induction type loop antenna which is disposed at a portion apart from the light diffusion member 2 in the direction toward the backlight 5 by a predetermined spacing so as to detect a position on the plane of the liquid crystal panel 1 in one coordinate axis direction and another coordinate axis direction that intersects the one coordinate axis direction; and a spacing retaining means for retaining the spacing between the light diffusion member 2 and loop antenna at a predetermined spacing value. As the spacing retaining means, a first light transmitting member 3 formed of a plate material having a light transmitting property is used. |
| US08264622B2 |
Light guides
This invention relates to film layer which is suitable for use in a light guide plate and methods of forming said film layer and light guide plate. The invention also relates to the light guide plate and light guide devices made therefrom. The film and light guide plate are suitable for use in a range of applications, particularly in connection with the backlighting of displays, for example, liquid crystal displays. |
| US08264619B2 |
Remote control system and method for controlling television
A remote control system and method comprising a television and a light pointing apparatus adapted, in a first embodiment, to transmit a first narrow beam having a first frequency corresponding to visible light, which is used to give an indication of where the pointer is pointed, and a second expanded beam surrounding the first beam and comprising a second frequency corresponding to infrared light. In a second embodiment, the pointer transmits a single frequency modulated light beam. In operation, the beam of light is shown on the television screen to activate an on screen menu based user interface via a photo sensor, microprocessor and onscreen display controller. Screen menu items appear on the screen positioned around the periphery of the screen. The user then moves the beam of light on the screen to the periphery of the screen to optically engage one of the plurality of photo conductors, which triggers an appropriate menu sequence or the performance of a television function such as, e.g., channel up. |
| US08264616B2 |
Scene classification apparatus of video
The present invention provides a scene classification apparatus for classifying uncompressed or compressed video into various types of scenes at low cost and with high accuracy using characteristics of a video and audio characteristics accompanied by the video. When video are compressed data, their motion intensity, spatial distribution of motion and histogram of motion direction are detected by using values of motion vectors of predictive coding images existing in respective shots, and the respective shots of the video are classified into a dynamic scene, a static scene, a slow scene, a highlight scene, a zooming scene, a panning scene, a commercial scene and the like based on the motion intensity, the spatial distribution of motion, the histogram of motion direction and shot density. |
| US08264614B2 |
Systems and methods for video processing based on motion-aligned spatio-temporal steering kernel regression
A method for video processing based on motion-aligned spatio-temporal steering kernel regression may include estimating local spatio-temporal steering parameters at pixels in input video data. The method may also include using the local spatio-temporal steering parameters to apply motion-aligned spatio-temporal steering kernel regression to the input video data to perform at least one of upscaling and noise smoothing. |
| US08264613B2 |
Methods and systems for correcting streaming video signals
The present disclosure is directed to methods, systems, and apparatuses for modifying streaming video signals to be shown on a visual display. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a streaming video signal with multiple display components. The method also includes isolating and transmitting the display components to a multiplier according to an associated clock signal for each of the display components. The method further includes fetching correction coefficients from a storage circuit. The correction coefficients correspond to individual display components. The method also includes presenting the correction coefficients to the multiplier along with the display components according to the associated clock signals, and adjusting the display components with the corresponding correction coefficients to form corrected display components of the streaming video signal. The method also includes collecting the adjusted display components into a corrected streaming video signal. |
| US08264611B2 |
System and method for video downscaling
A system and method for downscaling signal data, where the system includes an antenna receiving video signal data; an analog-to-digital converter coupled to the antenna and converting the received analog signal data to digital signal data; a memory component storing video downscaling instructions; and a video downscaling processor, coupled to the memory component and the analog-to-digital converter, wherein the video downscaling processor, upon reading the video downscaling instructions from the memory component and executing the downscaling instructions: divides the digital video signal data into a plurality of blocks, wherein each block comprises a plurality of pixel elements; and cycles through the plurality of blocks, and for every block in the plurality of blocks, generates a new block, wherein the new block comprises a plurality of new pixels evenly spaced within the new block. |
| US08264610B2 |
Shared memory multi video channel display apparatus and methods
The invention includes a system and the associated method for decoding multiple video signals. The video signals may be component video, composite video or s-video signals each having multiple portions using a multimode video decoder. A selection stage may combine the multiple video signals and select some of their video signal portions for processing. The selection stage may time-multiplex some of the video signal portions. An analog to digital conversion stage may be shared by the time-multiplexing of the video signals. A decoder stage may decode the various signal portions and provide decoded output video signals. These feature may reduce the overall cost of the system. Various clock signals may be used to operate various stages of a multimode video decoder. Some of the clock signals may run at different frequencies and others may operate at a different phase. |
| US08264608B2 |
Television-signal receiver and receiving method
A television-signal receiver includes: a tuner receiving a television signal; a video demodulation unit for an analog broadcast received by the tuner; an audio demodulation unit for the analog broadcast received by the tuner; a data demodulation unit for a digital broadcast received by the tuner; a channel-selection controller that controls a channel received by the tuner and is capable of presetting the receive channel; and a determination unit that determine a country or region where the tuner receives the broadcasts, based on a receive result by each channel-selection frequency in the tuner, an analysis result of a blanking signal included in a video signal demodulated in the video demodulation unit, an analysis result of data demodulated in the data demodulation unit, and a demodulation result in the audio demodulation unit. |
| US08264605B2 |
Deinterlacer that adapts to irregular video cadence
A method and system are provided in which a processor may detect one or more changes in video cadence in a video signal and may adjust a counter value based on each detected change in video cadence. The processor may increase the counter value by a determined amount for each detected change in video cadence. When the counter value becomes larger than a first threshold value, the processor may filter the video signal. The video signal may be filtered utilizing a vertical Nyquist notch filter. Moreover, after each increase, the processor may decrease the counter value based on a decay parameter. When the counter value is less than a second threshold value, where such second threshold value is less than the first threshold value, the processor may disable the filtering of the video signal. |
| US08264603B2 |
Film-mode video stream handling method and system
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method for detecting a bad edit. The method includes receiving a 3:2 film-mode video signal comprising a sequence of video fields, for each of the sequence of video fields, determining a state for the each video field based on a first moving-pixel count for the each video field with respect to a previous same-parity video field for the each video field and a second moving-pixel count for a first immediately preceding field for the each video field with respect to a second previous same-parity field for the first immediately preceding field, and identifying the 3:2 film-mode video signal as a bad edit if a predetermined state transition has been detected in the sequence of video fields. |
| US08264599B2 |
Laptop with pivotal camera and micro-projector and screen as a replacement of display
A laptop includes a housing; a keyboard mounted on the housing; a rectangular frame element pivotably secured to a front end of the housing and being adapted to open or close onto the keyboard; a screen enclosed by the frame element; an inverted U-shaped frame member pivotably secured to front corners of the housing and being adapted to open or close onto the frame element; a micro-projector pivotably mounted on a transverse part of the frame member; and a camera pivotably mounted on the transverse part of the frame member besides the micro-projector. |
| US08264598B2 |
Multiposition handheld electronic magnifier
Disclosed is a magnifier for use by blind or low vision users. The magnifier includes a camera, such as a CMOS image sensor, that displays enlarged images upon a screen for easy viewing. The magnifier further includes a handle that is pivotally interconnected to a housing to allow for handheld use in a variety of different configurations. |
| US08264597B2 |
Image pickup apparatus that enables shooting with light emission device, and control method therefor
An image pickup apparatus that enables shooting with a light emission device. An image pickup unit accumulates electric charge corresponding to an incident light. A mechanical shutter runs from an impervious position that blocks the incident light to the image pickup unit to a pervious position. An accumulation control unit controls a start timing of the accumulation of electric charge by the image pickup unit. A determination unit determines whether a communication with the light emission device is possible. A control unit controls the mechanical shutter to start running from the impervious position to the pervious position before the determination unit determines that the communication with the light emission device is possible, and controls the accumulation control unit to start accumulation of electric charge after the determination unit determines that the communication with the light emission device is possible, when shooting with the light emission device. |
| US08264591B2 |
Method and system for generating focus signal
An auto focus image system that includes an image sensor coupled to a controller. The image sensor captures an image that has at least one edge with a width. The controller generates a focus signal that is a function of the edge width. A lens receives the focus signal and adjust a focus. The edge width can be determined by various techniques including the use of gradients. A histogram of edge widths can be used to determine whether a particular image is focused or unfocused. A histogram with a large population of thin edge widths is indicative of a focused image. |
| US08264589B2 |
Display control apparatus, method of controlling display apparatus, and storage medium
A display control apparatus comprises a display unit configured to display a captured image; an acquisition unit configured to acquire image captured direction information indicating a direction in which the image was captured; a conversion unit configured to convert a shape of the image in accordance with the image captured direction information; and a control unit configured to control to display the shape-converted image on the display unit. |
| US08264586B2 |
Imaging apparatus
An imaging apparatus that can output images with a plurality of resolutions is provided. The imaging apparatus comprises an imaging section (101) for imaging a subject using an imaging device (103) to generate an image signal and a resolution conversion section (110) for converting a resolution of the image signal captured by the imaging section (101) and outputting it. The resolution conversion section (110) reduces the image inputted from the imaging section (101) to a plurality of images of different sizes and outputs an embedded image in which the size-reduced images of different sizes are embedded in the input image size from the imaging section (101). Thereby, images of a plurality of image sizes can be outputted at the same time. |
| US08264577B2 |
Image pickup device, spatial information detecting apparatus using the same device and method for taking out received-light output from the same device
A compact image pickup device with high sensitivity is provided, which is suitable for a spatial information detecting apparatus. The image pickup device has a plurality of image pickup units arranged on a semiconductor substrate. Each of the image pickup units has a light receiving array of photoelectric conversion elements for generating electric charges corresponding to a received-light amount, a transfer array of charge transfer elements, an accumulation array of charge accumulation elements each having a greater charge storage capacity than a saturation charge amount of the photoelectric conversion element, and a charge-amount adjusting portion configured to determine an amount of undesired electric charges to be separated from the electric charges generated by each of the photoelectric conversion elements. The transfer array and the light receiving array are arranged in a line in a vertical direction. The accumulation array is disposed adjacent to the transfer array in a horizontal direction. |
| US08264576B2 |
RGBW sensor array
A color filter enhancement method for a portable digital image acquisition device includes digitally exposing color pixels of a color sensor array for a first digital exposure duration and digitally exposing white pixels of a color sensor array for a second digital exposure time shorter than the first digital exposure duration. A color filter enhanced digital image is generated using data from both the color pixels exposed for the first digital exposure duration and the white pixels exposed for the second digital exposure duration. |
| US08264570B2 |
Location name registration apparatus and location name registration method
A location name registration apparatus includes a reception unit configured to receive, from a picture-taking apparatus, picture data of a picture of an object taken by the picture-taking apparatus, picture-taking location information corresponding to the latitude and longitude of a picture-taking location acquired when the picture was taken, and object location information corresponding to the latitude and longitude of an object location of a target of picture-taking; a location name acquisition unit configured to acquire, from a location name storage unit, a picture-taking location name of the picture-taking location and to acquire, from the location name storage unit, an object location name of the object location; and a location name registration unit configured to register the picture-taking location name, the object location name, and the picture data in association with each other in a predetermined storage unit. |
| US08264569B2 |
Data transfer apparatus and data transfer method
The data transfer apparatus according to the present invention includes a transfer portion that reads out image data stored in a first storage medium, and transfers the image data to a second storage medium; an identification portion that identifies image data stored in the first storage medium and image data stored in the second storage medium; a specification portion that, when transfer of image data by the transfer portion is terminated partway, determines the presence or absence of untransferred image data to the second storage medium among interrelated image data based on the identification result by the identification portion, and that, when the presence of untransferred image data is determined, specifies image data related to the untransferred image data among image data stored in the second storage medium; and a deletion portion that deletes the image data specified by the specification portion from the second storage medium. |
| US08264568B2 |
Image pickup device
This invention is an image pickup device that realizes a wide dynamic range while minimizing circuit area using a pixel array that can pick up a low-sensitivity image and a high-sensitivity image. This invention obtains information (S1/S2) needed for generating a correction coefficient using one more than the number of pixels readout circuits (RC1 to RCn+1). This significantly reduces the circuit area compared with the case of using twice as many readout circuits as pixels for generating the correction coefficient. |
| US08264565B2 |
Image processing device and image processing method
An image processing device (200) according to the present invention includes: a shooting period obtaining unit (205) configured to obtain a shooting period; an imaging unit (202) which includes a plurality of pixels each converting light into an electrical signal, and which has a first mode in which a low-resolution image signal is outputted and a second mode in which a high-resolution image signal is outputted, the low-resolution image signal including electrical signals converted by a first number of pixels among the plurality of pixels, the high-resolution image signal including electrical signals converted by a second number of pixels among the plurality of pixels, and the second number being greater than the first number; a control unit (210) configured to cause the imaging unit (202) to operate in the first mode during the shooting period, and to operate in the second mode during a period other than the shooting period; and a super-resolution unit (203) configured to generate a super-resolution image signal by performing a resolution up-converting process on the low-resolution image signal outputted by the imaging unit (202) during the shooting period, using the high-resolution image signal outputted by the imaging unit (202) during the period other than the shooting period. |
| US08264564B2 |
Image pick-up apparatus, method of producing file of obtained image, and recording medium
Digital camera is provided with an image pick-up unit 24 and a best shot data memory, which stores plural sorts of shooting scenes each associated with one of a first file format and a second file format, wherein the first file format is used for an image file of a single image and the second file format is used for an image file of plural images, when the image file of images obtained in the shooting scenes is produced. When one of the shooting scenes is set, a shooting operation is performed in the set shooting scene to obtain image(s) and an image file of the image or an image file of the images is produced, wherein the image file has the file format corresponding to the set shooting scene. |
| US08264562B2 |
Image distortion correcting method and device
Device and method of correcting a distortion occurring at the time of displaying a high-resolution image on a low-resolution display unit are provided. The image distortion correcting method includes the steps of: analyzing color levels of all pixels of an input original image; determining a variation of the color levels depending on positions of the pixels; adjusting the variation of the color levels in a region where the variation departs from a predetermined threshold value; correcting the color levels of the pixels in accordance with the adjusted variation; and outputting the corrected image. Accordingly, it is possible to correct the image distortion occurring at the time of displaying an image input from an image sensor on a display module. |
| US08264558B2 |
Video display apparatus, remote controller for reproduction apparatus, and reproduction apparatus
Video display apparatus, remote controller for reproduction apparatus, and reproduction apparatus meeting user's usage conditions with high operability have structure including: remote controller for video display apparatus, the remote controller having connection section connected to video display section, operation members receiving operations by user to the video display section, and control section having at least two action modes for operating the video display section responding to operations to the operation members; attachment member attaching the remote controller for video display apparatus to user's clothes etc.; and determination section determining whether the remote controller for video display apparatus is attached to the clothes by the attachment member, wherein the control section selects action mode according to result of the determination to operate video display section through the connection section based on the selected action mode and making video display section display images of the operation members corresponding to selected action mode. |
| US08264557B2 |
Image acquisition system and method of authenticating image acquisition device in the image acquisition system
An image acquisition system includes a camera as an image acquisition device and a commanding device configured as a member separate from the camera to transmit a command for controlling the camera to the camera so that the camera can perform the operation corresponding to the command. The ability to transmit/receive the command between the commanding device and the image acquisition device is switchable. |
| US08264556B2 |
Lens barrel unit
A lens barrel unit includes gyro sensors that detect vibration. The gyro sensors are disposed around a CCD mounting portion within a range over which the lens barrel unit is projected along the optical axis of a photographic optical system. This positional arrangement allows the lens barrel unit to be provided as a compact retractable unit, and ultimately achieves miniaturization of the camera. |
| US08264552B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and recording medium
An image processing apparatus includes a still/motion determining unit and a motion blur adder. The still/motion determining unit makes a still/motion determination for each region of respective unit images constituting motion image data. The motion blur adder then adds motion blur to the motion image data on the basis of the still/motion determination and imaging information expressing parameters whereby the motion image data was generated as a result of imaging by an imaging apparatus. |
| US08264549B2 |
Image stabilizer for optical instrument
An image stabilizer has a base block, a CCD holder, an intermediate member, a rectangular frame-shaped first sheet metal member, a rectangular frame-shaped second sheet metal member, and voice coil motors (VCMs). The first sheet metal member has a pair of mutually-parallel horizontal leaf springs that is formed by bending upper and lower sides of the first sheet metal member. The second sheet metal member has a pair of mutually-parallel vertical leaf springs that is formed by bending right and left sides of the second sheet metal member. The horizontal leaf springs are flexible along a Y-axis, and the vertical leaf springs are flexible along an X-axis in a plane orthogonal to an optical axis. The VCMs shift a CCD through the CCD holder, while bending the horizontal or vertical leaf springs, to counteract a camera shake in an X-axis or Y-axis direction. |
| US08264547B1 |
Display calibration method and apparatus for exposing errors in gamma mapping and image scaling
Test patterns and associated techniques for testing the fidelity of intensity reproduction are disclosed. One set of embodiments provide test patterns that incorporate anti-aliased features such as anti-aliased edges or lines. In various embodiments, these anti-aliased features expose undesirable, nonlinear transformations of the test patterns by one or more devices in an image output system or chain. Using these test patterns, users may more easily evaluate the end-to-end gamma response of the system, and may more easily calibrate gamma controls accordingly. Additionally, users may more easily identify nonlinear image resampling performed in gamma, rather than linear, space. |
| US08264546B2 |
Image processing system for estimating camera parameters
An image processing system includes a camera, an image processor and a calibration surface including a calibration pattern, comprising plural alternately colored elements which provide a corresponding plurality of corners at locations at which more than two of the colored elements adjoin. The image processor detects from the video signal at least some of the corner locations and identifies a first and second group of lines of the calibration pattern, extrapolate the lines from each group and determine a on a plane of the scene as viewed by the camera, the presence and location of a first and second intersection points on where the extrapolated lines from the first and second groups, respectively, intersect to estimate one or more of a roll pitch and yaw angle of the camera relative to the calibration surface and extimates a likelihood that a corner is located at each of identified potential corner locations. |
| US08264542B2 |
Methods and systems for image processing in a multiview video system
A system for image processing is provided. The system includes a region of interest (ROI) module receiving video from a camera and detects a ROI(s) in a first image. A lookup table generates a value responsive to block type for a first vanishing point (VP). A labeling module identifies a point “p” most close to the first VP, a point “q” most remote to the first VP and a length “h” between “p” and “q” in each ROI(s), and generates information on p, q and h. Another lookup table generates information on p′, q′ and h′, wherein p′ is a point most close to a second VP, q′ is a point most remote to the second VP and h′ is a length between p′ and q′ in ROI(s) in the second image. A transforming module transforms ROI(s) in the first image into an ROI in the second image. |
| US08264541B2 |
Compound camera and methods for implementing auto-focus, depth-of-field and high-resolution functions
A compound camera system for generating an enhanced virtual image having a large depth-of-field. The compound camera system comprises a plurality of component cameras for generating image data of an object and a data processor for generating the enhanced virtual image from the image data. The data processor generates the enhanced virtual image by generating a first component virtual image at a first depth plane, generating a second component virtual image at a second depth plane, and inserting first selected pixels from the first component virtual image into enhanced the virtual image and inserting second selected pixels from the second component virtual image into the enhanced virtual image. |
| US08264540B2 |
Bidirectional wireless transmission and communication system
A bidirectional wireless transmission and communication system is disclosed, including a base station, a wireless microphone and an external control device. A bidirectional wireless transmission and communication may be performed between the wireless microphone and the base station. The external control device is connected to the wireless microphone wirelessly or via a cable for controlling the wireless microphone via at least one push button on the external control device. The external control device is also provided with at least one light-emitting element to show the function operating state of the wireless microphone. The wireless microphone is internally provided with a global positioning system and a G-sensor for locating the coordinates of the wireless microphone under different situations. When the wireless microphone is located beyond the wireless communication range, the wireless microphone emits a high-power pulsed radio frequency signal for the base station to locate the position of the wireless microphone. |
| US08264539B2 |
Video-recording and transfer apparatus, and video-recording and transfer method
An apparatus being mounted on a car of a train, video-recording video data from an internet protocol (IP) camera, and transferring the video data outside the car, comprises a network digital recorder (NDR) performing video-recording of the video data from the IP camera in a full-time, an archive-type NDR (A-NDR) reading the video-recorded video data from the NDR to record it, a communication device determining priority of a communication to and from the outside of the car to establish a communication path to and from a partner communication device in a communicable state, and a control device reading the recorded video data from the A-NDR to transfer the video data to the partner communication device via the communication path. The A-NDR ranks each item of the video data with importance, and the control device controls the video data so as to read it in descending order of ranking. |
| US08264537B2 |
Photogrammetric networks for positional accuracy
The present invention involves a surveying system and method which determines the position of a object point using two images. First, at least two reference points appearing on the two images are correlated. Then the position of the object point is determined based on the two images and the two reference points. |
| US08264536B2 |
Depth-sensitive imaging via polarization-state mapping
A depth-sensitive imager for imaging a scene in three dimensions. The depth-sensitive imager comprises a light source configured to project a polarized illumination onto a surface of the scene, and a detector configured to capture an image of the scene by detecting light from the scene, in which image a polarization state of the light is encoded. The detected light includes a portion of the polarized illumination reflected from the surface. The depth-sensitive imager further comprises an analyzer configured to generate output responsive to a distance between the light source and the surface based on the image. |
| US08264533B2 |
Video conversion device, video conversion method, and program
Disclosed herein is a video conversion device including a color characteristic memory, a color characteristic correction processor, a selector, and a controller. |
| US08264532B2 |
Through-mill wellbore optical inspection and remediation apparatus and methodology
An optical inspection instrument includes a housing configured to move along the interior of a pipe string in a wellbore. The pipe has a cutting structure at its bottom end. The instrument includes a probe extending from a bottom end of the housing. The probe has an output from a light source and a light input to a video camera. The probe has a diameter selected to enable extension through an opening in the cutting structure. A method for inspecting a wellbore includes moving an instrument through an interior of a pipe string in the wellbore. The pipe has a cutting tool at its lower end. At least part of the instrument is moved outside the bottom end of the pipe through a port in the cutting tool. Optically transparent fluid is moved into the wellbore proximate an end of the instrument outside the pipe string. Objects proximate the fluid are inspected. |
| US08264527B2 |
Stereoscopic video display apparatus, stereoscopic glasses, and stereoscopic video display system
According to one embodiment, a stereoscopic video display apparatus includes a planar video display module, a stereoscopic video display module, an eyeglass control module, an operation control module, a determining module, and a switching module. The planar video display module outputs two-dimensional video. The stereoscopic video display module outputs video for left and right eyes. The eyeglass control module projects the video for left eye the left-eye portion of stereoscopic glasses and that for right eye on the right-eye portion. The operation control module receives operation information from a remote controller. The determining module determines whether a user wearing the stereoscopic glasses is operating the remote controller. The switching module selects video output from the planar video display module or from the stereoscopic video display module. When the user wearing the stereoscopic glasses is operating the remote controller, the video output from the stereoscopic video display module is displayed. |
| US08264526B2 |
Method for front matching stereo vision
The present invention provides a method, system, and apparatus for solving the stereo vision matching problem. The invention implements a method for solving image correspondence problems so that each front region between consecutive extremal pixels in one image is matched to a corresponding front region between consecutive extremal pixels in another image. |
| US08264523B2 |
Device for a videoconference communication and associated communication method
The invention relates to a device (1) for a videoconference communication between a local user (5) and at least one remote user (6), which reduces the eye deflection and provides a better eye contact between the local user and the remote user. The device includes a screen (4) capable of restoring, for the local user, an image of the remote user, and an image sensor (3) capable of sensing an image of the local user for the remote user. It further comprises a light source (2) arranged, relative to the image sensor, so as to lighten the eyes of the local user watching the screen during a communication with the remote user, so that the image sensor can detect an image of the local user including a reflection of the light source on a portion at least of each eye of the local user, including the pupil. The device further includes communication means (7) capable of transmitting the detected image to the remote user (6). |
| US08264521B2 |
Media detection and packet distribution in a multipoint conference
A method for distributing media packets in a multipoint conference includes receiving a plurality of audio signals. Each of the plurality of audio signals includes audio packets, wherein one or more audio packets from each of the plurality of audio signals is coded with an audiometric, the audiometric including an acoustic measurement from a conference site. The method further includes, for each of the plurality of audio signals, extracting an audiometric from one or more audio packets and selecting an active audio signal based on the extracted audiometrics. In addition, the method includes determining a change in the active audio signal and in response to determining a change in the active audio signal, updating a media forwarding table, the media forwarding table including a directory for routing one or more of the plurality of audio signals. The method further includes distributing audio packets to one or more conference sites in accordance with the media forwarding table. |
| US08264517B2 |
Method and a device for controlling the movement of a line of sight, a videoconferencing system, a terminal and a program for implementing said method
A method of controlling movement of a line of sight of a video camera mounted on a mobile videoconferencing terminal includes: a) a step (72) of using at least two microphones spaced apart from each other in three dimensions and attached to the mobile terminal to pick up a sound uttered by a user of the mobile terminal, b) a step (74) of responding to the signals from the microphones to establish a direction in which the mouth of the user is located, and c) a step (76) of controlling movement of the line of sight as a function of the direction established during step b). |
| US08264515B2 |
Optical scanning device and image forming apparatus
An optical scanning device includes: a light source; an optical deflecting unit that deflects a light beam emitted from the light source to scan on a scanning surface in main-scanning direction; and a scanning optical system that includes a first scanning lens and a second scanning lens that converge the light beam that is deflected onto the scanning surface. Distance between an exit surface of the first scanning lens and an incident surface of the second scanning lens is shorter than distance between a deflection facet of the optical deflecting unit and an incident surface of the first scanning lens, an exit surface of the second scanning lens is nearer to the deflection facet than a midpoint between the deflection facet and the scanning surface, and an image-surface-side principal point of the scanning optical system in sub-scanning direction is nearer to the scanning surface than the midpoint. |
| US08264512B2 |
Method of controlling electric conduction through thermal head
A thermal printer detects an environmental temperature, and directly or indirectly detects a change in tension of an ink ribbon R. A correction value is read or calculated according to at least one of the detected environmental temperature and the detected change in the tension of the ink ribbon R. Thermal energy of each heating element in the thermal head is controlled based on the correction value so as to adjustably increase or reduce number of print lines on a print medium in a sub-scanning direction. |
| US08264511B2 |
Printing apparatus and thermal transfer printing method
Provided is a printing apparatus including: a medium transporting unit configured to transport a printing target medium; a sheet traveling unit configured to allow a thermal transfer sheet, in which a color material layer and a protection layer are formed on a sheet in a line along a travel direction, to travel; a printing unit configured to sequentially and thermally transfer the color material layer and the protection layer onto the printing target medium by applying thermal energy to the printing target medium and the thermal transfer sheet which are sandwiched by the printing unit; and a pressure changing mechanism configured to change the sandwiching force acting on the printing target medium and the thermal transfer sheet so as to have a relationship of force P1 |
| US08264505B2 |
Augmented reality and filtering
A system (and corresponding method) that can enhance a user experience by augmenting real-world experiences with virtual world data to is provided. The augmented reality system discloses various techniques to personalize real-world experiences by overlaying or interspersing virtual capabilities (and data) with real world situations. The innovation can also filter, rank, modify or ignore virtual-world information based upon a particular real-world class, user identity or context. |
| US08264504B2 |
Seamlessly overlaying 2D images in 3D model
The present disclosure provides techniques that can enable a community of users to upload arbitrary images of particular locations and integrate them into a 3D model of that location in such a way that they appear as correctly aligned overlays with the model. Users can estimate rough location, orientation, and field of view, for one or more images and then add metadata such as keyword “tags” including time parameters. From the user estimates, a computer system determines the pose of the image relative to the 3D model and stores the metadata. A display system enables a community of users to freely navigate through the 3D model with visual indicators of all of the posed images, filterable via the metadata. Users also have control over a “snap-to-view” feature as they approach any of the posed images as well as a transparency feature for the degree of visibility of the overlaid image. |
| US08264499B1 |
Enhancing viewability of information presented on a mobile device
A method, system, and media are provided for enhancing viewability of information presented on a mobile device. The media includes presenting a user interface on a mobile device that includes foreground information that overlaps a background image. The background image may be converted into a first set of color values and the foreground information into a second set of color values. A dominant color may be determined for the background image and foreground information. The dominant colors may be used to calculate a contrast ratio that may be compared to a threshold value. At least a portion of the color values may be modified when the contrast ratio is less than the threshold value. A set of modified color values may then be derived and a modified presentation may be presented to the user that includes the modified color values. |
| US08264498B1 |
System, apparatus, and method for presenting a monochrome image of terrain on a head-up display unit
A present novel and non-trivial system, apparatus, and method for presenting a monochrome, three-dimensional image of terrain on a Head-Up Display (“HUD”) unit is disclosed. Based upon aircraft navigation and terrain data, an image data set representative of a lighted solid image of terrain comprised of a plurality of intensities of one color may be generated. The image data set may be determined as a function of terrain data and color intensity data, where the color intensity data could be comprised of one or more shading effects, one or more texturing effects, or a combination of both. Based upon the image data set, a three-dimensional perspective of a terrain scene outside the aircraft may be presented to the pilot. |
| US08264496B2 |
Data management for image processing
An image processing system includes a memory for storing data associated with pixels of images, with the pixels having spatial coordinates in an image coordinate system having first and second axes; a processing device including a processor which processes the associated data; and an interface device which accesses in memory addresses associated with pixels of a block of pixels. In the interface device, access information is received indicating a base memory address, information regarding the dimensions of the block along the axes of the image coordinate system, and a storage method. At least one access rule is selected from multiple rules as a function of the storage method. The memory is accessed at the addresses associated with the pixels in the block, by applying the selected rule starting from the base address and taking into account the dimensions of the block. |
| US08264494B2 |
Remote graphics rendering across a network
A method for remotely displaying 3D information on a remote machine is disclosed. An application graphics command is generated, corresponding to a first 3D API from an application on a first machine. The application graphics command are translated to a remote graphics command corresponding to a second 3D API wherein the remote graphics command is compatible with a transport mechanism and a graphics driver on a second machine. The remote graphics command is transported over a network to a second machine. |
| US08264493B2 |
Method and system for optimized streaming game server
Exemplary embodiments include an interception mechanism for rendering commands generated by interactive applications, and a feed-forward control mechanism based on the processing of the commands on a rendering engine, on a pre-filtering module, and on a visual encoder. Also a feed-back control mechanism from the encoder is described. The mechanism is compression-quality optimized subject to some constraints on streaming bandwidth and system delay. The mechanisms allow controllable levels of detail for different rendered objects, controllable post filtering of rendered images, and controllable compression quality of each object in compressed images. |
| US08264491B1 |
System, method, and computer program product for controlling a shader to gather statistics
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for controlling a shader to gather statistics. In use, instructions are received utilizing a programmable interface. A shader is then controlled to gather statistics based on the instructions. Such statistics are further output to memory utilizing the shader. |
| US08264484B1 |
System, method, and computer program product for organizing a plurality of rays utilizing a bounding volume
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for organizing a plurality of rays. In operation, a plurality of rays is identified. Additionally, the rays are organized, utilizing a bounding volume. |
| US08264483B2 |
Approximation of ordered sets of points by geometric elements via overlapping polytopes
An ordered set of physical points, each comprising a nominal point and an associated allowable deviation, is approximated by a sequence of geometric elements determined by a method of intersecting polytopes in a parametric space. A first bundle of geometric elements connecting a first subgroup of physical points is generated and mapped to a first polytope. A second bundle of geometric elements connecting a second subgroup of physical points is generated and mapped to a second polytope. If the intersection between the first polytope and the second polytope is not null, the points in the intersection region correspond to geometric elements which approximate the physical points in the combined two subgroups. The process is repeated iteratively for additional subgroups. The center point of the final intersection region corresponds to an approximate best-fit geometric element. |
| US08264474B2 |
Multi-touch positioning method for capacitive touch panel
A multi-touch positioning method for a capacitive touch panel includes following steps. A candidate touching position array including a first and a second candidate position groups is generated when the capacitive touch panel is touched by three objects. The first, the second and the third candidate position groups include three candidate positions, respectively. The signal magnitude sensed by a sensing element and respectively corresponding to the first, the second and the third candidate position groups are compared. One of the three first, the three second and the three third candidate positions are respectively determined as a first, a second and a third actual touching positions according to the compared result. |
| US08264468B1 |
Touch system for blue screen
A touch input system comprising a chroma-key/matte display system with a calibrated touch input near or on a matte. |
| US08264467B2 |
Handheld electronic apparatus and touch panel thereof
A handheld electronic apparatus comprises a touch panel, a front cover and a display panel. The front cover has a support portion with a first opening. The touch panel is placed on the support portion and covers the first opening. The touch panel comprises a touch panel body and a flexible printed circuit (FPC). The touch panel body has a first substrate having a notch configured to accommodate one end of the flexible printed circuit connected to the touch panel body. When the touch panel is assembled with the front cover, the flexible printed circuit will not be too-sharply bent due to the notch design. |
| US08264461B2 |
Apparatus for controlling the position of a screen pointer with low sensitivity to particle contamination
An apparatus for controlling the position of a screen pointer includes an at least partially coherent light source for illuminating an imaging surface, thereby generating reflected images. The apparatus includes a navigation sensor for generating digital images based on the reflected images, performing a movement computation based on the digital images, generating movement data based on the movement computation that is indicative of relative motion between the imaging surface and the apparatus, wherein the movement computation has a low sensitivity to effects in the digital images caused by particle contamination. |
| US08264456B2 |
Portable electronic apparatus, user interface controlling method, and program
An electronic apparatus is disclosed which includes: a main body motion determination device configured to determine whether a predetermined accelerated motion is exerted on a main body of the electronic apparatus in a predetermined axial direction; and a control device configured to control the electronic apparatus to perform a predetermined action based on a pattern of the predetermined accelerated motion determined to occur by the main body motion determination device. |
| US08264454B2 |
Electrophoretic display and driving method thereof
An electrophoretic display device sequentially driven during a data updating period when a data is updated and a sleep-mode period when a data is maintained includes an electrophoretic display panel including a plurality of data lines crossing a plurality of gate lines to form a plurality of cells, a plurality of pixel electrodes, a common electrode for driving each of the plurality of cells, and a TFT at a crossing of one of the data lines and one of the gate lines to supply a data voltage from the one of the data lines to a corresponding one of the pixel electrodes; a data driving circuit supplying the data voltage to the data lines during the data updating period; a gate driving circuit supplying a scanning pulse to the gate lines during the data updating period; and a controller sequentially raising an impedance of each of the data lines, the common electrode, and the gate lines during the sleep-mode period. |
| US08264453B2 |
Backlight control device and method for controlling a driving current of an LED
A backlight control device for controlling a driving current of an LED is disclosed. By controlling current outputs from current sources of a plurality of current output units, a display will be able to generate desirable backlight. Then by adjusting currents output by the plurality of current output units, brightness of a plurality of pixels can be dynamically adjusted. The brightness of pixels with higher gray levels can be increased while the brightness of pixels with lower gray levels can be decreased, thereby improving the contrast of image and saving power consumption. |
| US08264452B2 |
Display device, display method, and electronic device
There is provided a display device, including a display panel; a first light emitting unit for inputting a first input light to the display panel based on a first light emitting signal; a second light emitting unit for inputting second input light to the display panel based on a second light emitting signal; and light emitting control unit for outputting the first light emitting signal, the second light emitting signal, the image signal corresponding to the first input light, and the image signal corresponding to the second input light; where the light emitting control unit performs output of the first light emitting signal and the image signal of the color corresponding to the first input light in synchronization in a first sub-frame, and performs output of the second light emitting signal and the image signal of the color corresponding to the second input light in synchronization in a second sub-frame. |
| US08264450B2 |
Illuminating apparatus and display apparatus
The present invention provides an illuminating apparatus locally reducing light intensity without depending on the configuration of a light source itself. An illuminating apparatus used as a backlight of a display apparatus having a liquid crystal display panel with a pair of first polarizers, including a light source and a liquid crystal light control panel. The liquid crystal light control panel has a pair of second polarizers and suppresses amount of transmission of light from the light source, thereby allows the light from the light source to have such a light intensity distribution along a plane that light intensity is locally reduced. The polarization degree in the second polarizers is optimized so that transmission light amount ratio of the second polarizers is lower than that of the first polarizers. |
| US08264447B2 |
Display apparatus and method for controlling a backlight with multiple light sources of a display unit
A display apparatus includes a display unit having a display screen divided into a plurality of regions and controlled using a transmittance ratio on a pixel-by-pixel basis, a backlight including a plurality of sets of light sources, each set being disposed so as to correspond to one of the regions, and a control unit for identifying display luminance in each region, computing the emission luminance of each light source on the basis of the identified display luminance while taking into account an effect on the region of the other light sources not corresponding to the region, and computing a correction value for each pixel on the basis of a shift amount between the set emission luminance and an optimal display luminance for one of the regions, and delivering a display driving signal generated on the basis of the correction value to each pixel so as to control the luminance of the pixel. |
| US08264446B2 |
Driving apparatus for display device
A driving apparatus for a display device includes a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix, and each pixel includes first and second sub-pixels. The driving apparatus includes a memory for storing digital data, a controller for calling the digital data to output the digital data together with a clock signal and at least one selection signal, and a gray voltage generator formed of an integrated circuit to receive the digital data from the controller and to generate gray reference voltage sets. The gray voltage generator includes first and second registers for storing the digital data, a selector including a plurality of multiplexers for receiving the outputs of the first and second registers, and a converter including a plurality of digital-analog converters connected to the multiplexers. As described above, the gray voltage generator is provided in the form of a chip so that it is possible to reduce the area occupied on a printed circuit board (PCB) and to reduce the cost of the gray voltage generator. |
| US08264443B2 |
Ripple preventing gate driving circuit and display apparatus having the same
A gate driving circuit includes stages, the stages being cascaded and each including: a pull-up part which pulls up a gate voltage to a clock signal during a horizontal scanning period (1H); a carry part which pulls up a carry voltage to the clock signal during the horizontal scanning period (1H); a pull-up driving part connected to a control terminal (Q-node) common to the carry part and the pull-up part and which receives a previous carry voltage from a first previous stage to turn on the pull-up part and the carry part; and a ripple preventing part which prevents a ripple generated at a previous Q-node of a second previous stage based on a ripple generated at the Q-node of the carry part and the pull-up part. |
| US08264440B2 |
Display device, electronic apparatus and electronic system
Disclosed is a display device having a pixel electrode and a pixel driving transistor. The display device comprises a capacitor, a gate voltage control transistor and a source driving circuit. The capacitor, coupled to the gate of the pixel driving transistor, holds the applied voltage to the aforesaid gate. The gate voltage control transistor has a drain coupled to a connection point between the gate of the pixel driving transistor and the capacitor, a source coupled to the source bus line and a gate coupled to the gate line, for controlling the applied voltage of the capacitor. The source driving circuit utilizes the adjacent source bus lines to alternately switch the voltage held by the capacitor among several different high voltages and several different low voltages to drive the source. |
| US08264438B2 |
Liquid crystal display device, mobile electronic apparatus, in-vehicle electronic apparatus
A liquid crystal display device has a vertical alignment type liquid crystal panel. The vertical alignment type liquid crystal panel is provided with an active matrix substrate whereupon a light reflection pixel electrode for reflecting light and a light transmission pixel electrode for transmitting light are provided in each pixel section; a counter electrode substrate; and a liquid crystal layer made of a liquid crystal material having negative dielectric anisotropy. The counter electrode substrate includes a convex section so that the liquid crystal layer in the light reflection section has the thickness thinner than that in the liquid crystal layer of the light transmission section. A liquid crystal panel driving device carries out gray scale transition enhancement processing in which the input gray scale is corrected in accordance with gray scale transition. |
| US08264436B2 |
Gray scale voltage decoder and digital-to-analog converter including the same
A gray scale voltage decoder includes a first decoding unit and a second decoding unit, in which the first decoding unit includes row blocks. Each of the row blocks receives one of a number of gray scale voltages and determines whether to output the received gray scale voltage in response to first bits of digital image data provided through data input lines formed along a column direction. Row blocks outputting the received gray scale voltage according to the same values of the first bits are arranged adjacently. The first decoding unit selects part of the gray scale voltages to output the selected gray scale voltages. The second decoding unit selects one of the gray scale voltages selected by the first decoding unit in response to second bits of the digital image data and outputs the selected gray scale voltage. |
| US08264432B2 |
Display device
An image display device comprises a unit which divides one line into a plurality of blocks (blocks A, B, and C) in a horizontal direction and detects in parallel, a unit which collectively detects a plurality of lines (lines A and B) in a vertical direction in parallel. The unit detects a pixel state of a pixel of the block (for example, block A) and a pixel state of the same pixel as an adjacent block (for example, block B), and corrects a variation between the detection result of the block and the detection result of the adjacent block. The unit detects a pixel state of a pixel through the line (for example, line A) and a pixel state of the same pixel through a different line (for example, line B), and corrects a variation between the detection result of the line and the detection result of the different line. |
| US08264431B2 |
LED array with photodetector
Embodiments of the present invention provide for an array, and corresponding method of forming an array, that includes a plurality of light emitting devices. The light emitting devices are disposed over a substrate, and a photodetector detects light emitted through the substrate from the light emitting devices. Further, a substantially constant brightness may be maintained in a plurality of light emitting devices disposed over the upper surface of a substrate in an array. Light emitted through the substrate from each of the light emitting devices is measured, and the voltage level applied to each of the light emitting devices is varied to maintain a substantially constant brightness level of light emitted from the light emitting devices. |
| US08264430B2 |
Semiconductor device, display device, and electronic device
A display device includes a load, a transistor for controlling a current value supplied to the load, a capacitor, a first wiring, a second wiring, and first to fourth switches. Variations in the current value caused by variations in the threshold voltage of the transistor can be suppressed through the steps of: (1) holding the threshold voltage of the transistor in the storage capacitor, (2) inputting a potential in accordance with a video signal, and (3) holding a voltage that is the sum of the threshold voltage and the potential in accordance with the video signal, in the storage capacitor. Accordingly, a desired current can be supplied to the load such as a light emitting element. |
| US08264428B2 |
Pixel driving method and apparatus for organic light emitting device
A pixel driving method for an organic light emitting device includes charging a data voltage supplied through a data line to a storage capacitor and driving an N-channel switching transistor while cutting off supply of an upper power supply voltage to an organic light emitting diode; and powering the organic light emitting diode emit light by driving the N-channel driving transistor by the data voltage charged onto the storage capacitor while supplying the upper power supply voltage to the light emitting diode. |
| US08264421B2 |
Multi-screen video playback system
Exemplary embodiments of the invention provide a multi-screen video playback system which enables synchronized video playback, and at the same time enables irregular playback such as color processing, contents change. According to exemplary embodiments, a multi-screen video playback system includes a plurality of rendering units RU1 through RU4 which are connected to LAN as a network and output video data to a plurality of display devices D1 through D4; a function which is connected to LAN and distributes timing information to the rendering units RU1 through RU4 by simultaneous transmission; a timing server TS which generates the irregular playback control information to enable irregular playback, such as color correction and contents change to the video data, in a plurality of rendering units RU1 through RU4 which output video data to each corresponding display device of the plurality of display devices D1 through D4; and video data storage devices S1 through S4 to store video data to be reproduced. |
| US08264419B2 |
Locating technique and apparatus using an approximated dipole signal
Location determination is performed using a transmitter including an elongated generally planar loop antenna defining an elongation axis. The elongation axis is positioned along at least a portion of a path. A magnetic field is then generated which approximates a dipole field. Certain characteristics of the magnetic field are then determined at a receiving position radially displaced from the antenna elongation axis. Using the determined certain characteristics, at least one orientation parameter is established which characterizes a positional relationship between the receiving position and the antenna on the path. The magnetic field may be transmitted as a monotone single phase signal. The orientation parameter may be a radial offset and/or an angular orientation between the receiving position and the antenna on the path. The antenna of the transmitter may be inserted into a first borehole to transmit the magnetic field to a receiver inserted into a second borehole. |
| US08264417B2 |
Aperture antenna with shaped dielectric loading
An antenna structure and a method of propagating an electromagnetic (EM) wave with the antenna structure. The antenna structure comprises a first aperture antenna element and a second element inside the first element adapted to strengthen the directivity of the wave. |
| US08264413B2 |
Single band antenna and antenna module
A single band antenna includes a radiating part, a feeding part and a grounding part. The feeding part is connected with the radiating part. A first separating slot exists between the radiating part and the feeding part. The grounding part is connected with the feeding part. A second separating slot exists between the feeding part and the grounding part. Each of the first separating slot and second separating slot has at least one bend. |
| US08264410B1 |
Planar broadband traveling-wave beam-scan array antennas
A planar broadband beam-steering phased array antenna with approximately 10:1 bandwidth is comprised of planar broadband traveling wave antenna elements positioned parallel to a conducting ground plane and spaced less than 0.5 wavelength at the highest operating frequency and more than 0.01 wavelengths at the lowest operating frequency. Each planar traveling wave antenna element is a planar frequency-independent antenna or planar self-complementary antenna, and is truncated to fit a unit cell of the phased array. Adjacent antenna elements are arranged to be tightly coupled together or connected with each other and spaced less than 0.5 wavelength apart between their centers throughout its operating frequency range. One or more layers of dielectric or magneto-dielectric substrates/superstrates can be added to enhance specific performances. |
| US08264409B2 |
Electromagnetic radiation source locating system
An electromagnetic radiation source locating system including an electromagnetic radiation sensor including an antenna configured to detect a radiant energy transmission. A position detector is in communication with the controller and is configured to detect the position of the antenna relative to a reference coordinate system, while an orientation sensor is in communication with the controller and is configured to detect the orientation of the antenna and provide an orientation signal to the controller. A range sensor is configured to detect the distance to an aligned object in the path of a directional vector and provide a distance signal indicative thereof to the controller. An aerial vehicle may be in communication with the controller and configured to drop a marker for guiding navigators to the source of the radiant energy transmission. |
| US08264403B2 |
Optimizing performance of multiple location based service applications that are running either alone or simultaneously on a wireless device
Requests for location fix for a mobile device, received from one or more Location Based Service (LBS) applications are queued in a queue in the mobile device. Based on information in a first queued request, the mobile device runs a location engine in a first fix mode to obtain a location fix for the mobile device, for a response to the first request. While the location engine is running to obtain the fix for the response to the first request, the mobile device analyzes information in a second queued request, to determine a second fix mode for response to the second request. Based on a comparison of the first and second fix modes, the mobile device may change the information in the second request to correspond to the first fix mode, before output of the second request from the queue to the location engine. |
| US08264401B1 |
Micro-radar, micro-radar sensor nodes, networks and systems
A micro-radar is disclosed that is operated based upon two Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) outputs that control its internal timing and Intermediate Frequency (IF) signal frequency. Calibration and temperature compensation is done through estimating the duty cycle of the transmit signal and possibly the reception signal that stimulate a pulse generator to create the transmit pulse and the reception pulse and adjusting one or both DAC outputs. Sensor processors, wireless sensor nodes and wireline sensor nodes are disclosed for operating the micro-radar. An integrated circuit is disclosed implementing all or portions of the micro-radar. Access points, servers as well as systems that include but are not limited to a traffic monitoring system, a traffic control system, a parking management system and/or a production management system are also disclosed. |
| US08264399B2 |
Radar device
In a radar device including: a transmission antenna group having a plurality of transmission antennas; a reception antenna group having a plurality of reception antennas; and transmission switchover means to transmit transmission waves in a way that sequentially switches over the transmission antennas of the transmission antenna group, the reception antenna group receiving reflected waves, reflected from a target, of transmission waves of the transmission antennas when sequentially transmitting the transmission waves, is made to function as a virtual sub-array corresponding to the transmission antennas. The target is thus detected by executing a space averaging process based on a relative position, to the reception antenna group, of each of the transmission antennas undergoing the transmission switchover with respect to the virtual correlation values corresponding to the plurality of virtual sub-arrays. |
| US08264393B2 |
Current reduction in a single stage cyclic analog to digital converter with variable resolution
A converter (200) adapted to convert an analog input signal into a digital output signal includes an analog input terminal (205) for receiving the analog input signal, a Redundant Signed Digit (RSD) stage (210) coupled to the analog input terminal, and a digital section (220). The RSD stage is configured to receive the analog input signal at the analog input terminal, produce a first number of bits at a digital output from the analog input signal during a first half of a first clock cycle, provide a residual feedback signal of the analog input signal at the analog input terminal during a second half of the first clock cycle, and produce a second number of bits at the digital output from the residual feedback signal during a first half of a second clock cycle, the second number of bits less than the first number of bits. |
| US08264389B2 |
Successive approximation analog-to-digital converter
An analog-to-digital converter has a self-test capability that provides not only an indication of failure or performance degradation but also identifies the failed or degraded component or components. The converter includes a first generator configured to generate a first analog value, a digital-to-analog converter configured to generate a second analog value, a second generator configured to generate a digital value from the comparison of the first analog value with respect to the second analog value, a controller configured to receive a signal indicating a test mode and to generate a configuration signal to the first generator, to receive the digital value and generate a control signal to control the generation of the second analog value, and to generate from the digital value an alarm signal indicating a failure within the analog-to-digital converter or indicating a degradation of the performance of the analog-to-digital converter. |
| US08264384B2 |
Keyboard control circuit
A keyboard control circuit for a keyboard having P keys includes an array module that includes P key switches, and a key-matrix having N scan lines that intersect M return lines to form N×M intersections, where P |
| US08264383B2 |
Group keypads in compliance with standard keyboard installation
A group keypad structure in compliance with a standard keyboard installation includes group keypads corresponding to characters of a standard keyboard input method; for example, the structure includes ten group keypads installed from left to right on a base, and the ten group keypads include characters of “Q, A, Z”, “W, S, X”, “E, D, C”, “R, F, V”, “T, G, B”, “Y, H, N”, “U, J, M”, “I, K, ,”, “O, L, .” and “P, ;, /” respectively, and further includes ten numeric characters “1˜0”, so as to achieve the effects of reducing the area of a keyboard, shortening the moving distance of a user's fingers, providing an easy and convenient carry, complying with the user's using habit, and improving the input speed. |
| US08264381B2 |
Continuous automatic key control
Architecture for enabling continuous operation of a control command issued by a control input (e.g., a control key on a computer keyboard or game controller). For example, for a user of a software application (e.g., a gaming application), an activation modifier is used for enabling continuous operation of the control command. The activation modifier can be a lock key or other type of input used in combination with the control key. During continuous operation of the control command, one or more alternate control inputs (e.g., from alternate control keys) are enabled to concurrently issue alternate control commands to the software application. |
| US08264373B2 |
Gauging system having wireless capability
The present invention relates to a gauging system, comprising a gauge configured to sense a process variable and to provide process data representative of the process variable, a processing unit connected to the gauge, the processing unit comprising power supply circuitry configured to receive power from a remote external power source and to provide regulated power, and first circuitry configured to receive process data from the gauge and to superimpose the process data onto the regulated power forming a power signal, and a wireless communication unit electrically connected to the processing unit by means of a two-wire control loop, the wireless communication unit comprising second circuitry configured to receive the power signal and to separate the process data from the regulated power, an antenna, and radio frequency (RF) communication circuitry being powered by means of the regulated power from the second circuitry, configured to receive process data from the second circuitry, and to transmit RF signals representative of the process data using the antenna, wherein the power signal is capable of delivering enough regulated power to the wireless communication unit for allowing transmission of RF signals at any given moment. |
| US08264372B2 |
Communication device
A communication device is disclosed for communicating telemetry data relating to a fluid, which is passed through a group of concatenated containers such as pipes, tanks and the like in a process installation, to a data processing device. The communication device includes a measuring sensor which can be spatially separated from the data processing device, the measuring sensor having a transponder and a converter for converting a physical variable of the fluid into an electrical variable. The measuring sensor can communicate with a reading device assigned to the data processing device, the measuring sensor being concomitantly loosely guided in the fluid. |
| US08264369B2 |
Intelligent electrical power distribution system
A downhole tool assembly with electrical connectors disposed proximate an upper end and a lower end of the tool intelligently distributes electrical power. Switches are disposed between the electrical connectors and selectively allow or disallow electrical continuity between the electrical connectors. A microprocessor is in electrical communication with the electrical connectors and the switches. The microprocessor causes the switches to open or close based on the present of a current at the electrical connectors. |
| US08264367B2 |
In-vehicle image display apparatus
An in-vehicle image display apparatus comprising a state detecting device that detects a state of vehicle surroundings; a display device provided in at least in a window section of the vehicle and capable of displaying information; an image generating device that generates image data representing an image of the vehicle surroundings based on detection results; a display control device that makes the display device display the image represented by the image data generated by the image generating device; and a storage device that previously stores data representing an object to be detected which is detected by the state detecting device in the vehicle surroundings. The image generating device compares the image data and the data stored in the storage device, and uses data of an object to be detected that is determined to be similar to the object to be detected which is represented by the image data generated by the image generating device itself to thereby generate image data representing the image of the surroundings of the vehicle. |
| US08264364B2 |
Psychophysiological touch screen stress analyzer
The Psychophysiological Touch Screen Stress Analyzer is capable of capturing information on how a person emotionally reacts to a series of verbal, visual, or written stimulus when the person touches the touch screen computer monitor in response to the stimulus. |
| US08264363B2 |
System and method for detecting occlusion using flow sensor output
A method of detecting an occlusion for an infusion therapy in one embodiment includes: monitoring an output signal from a flowrate sensor for a pulsatile fluid flow having a frequency range, the pulsatile flow being through a fluid pathway to a patient; acquiring a data set that includes the output signal as a function of time; filtering the data set with a noise rejection filter to produce a filtered data set; performing spectra analysis on the filtered data set to determine a strength of the output signal in a frequency domain; calculating a signal strength for the frequency range using the strength of the output signal in the frequency domain; and comparing the signal strength of the range to at least one threshold level to determine if an occlusion is present during the infusion therapy. |
| US08264362B2 |
Embedded antenna for sensing article
Disclosed is an insult-sensing absorbent article including an absorbent assembly, an insult-sensing means coupled to the absorbent assembly, and a tuned antenna system coupled to the insult-sensing means. Also disclosed is a method for indicating an insult to an absorbent article to be worn by a wearer, the method including providing an absorbent article including a conductive element; providing an antenna system associated with the absorbent article, the antenna system including a signal generator and an antenna, wherein the antenna includes the conductive element, and wherein the antenna system is adapted to transmit a signal; and maximizing the receivability of the signal by optimizing an aspect of the antenna system. |
| US08264359B2 |
High reliability surveillance and/or identification tag/devices and methods of making and using the same
The present invention relates to methods of making capacitors for use in surveillance/identification tags or devices, and methods of using such surveillance/identification devices. The capacitors manufactured according to the methods of the present invention and used in the surveillance/identification devices described herein comprise printed conductive and dielectric layers. The methods and devices of the present invention improve the manufacturing tolerances associated with conventional metal-plastic-metal capacitor, as well as the deactivation reliability of the capacitor used in a surveillance/identification tag or device. |
| US08264358B2 |
Electromagnetic enhancement and decoupling
Apparatus and methods for providing a substantially surface independent tagging system are disclosed. A resonant dielectric cavity is defined between upper and lower conducting layers, and closed at one end by a conducting base portion. Incident radiation couples into the cavity and is resonantly enhanced. An electronic device or tag paced at the edge of the cavity experiences a high electric field strength on account of this enhancement and is driven into operation. |
| US08264357B2 |
Wireless IC device
A wireless IC device includes an electromagnetic coupler module including a wireless IC chip processing transmission and reception signals, and a feeder circuit board. In the wireless IC device, a first coupler defining a feeder circuit arranged on the feeder circuit board is electromagnetically coupled with a first mount of a first radiation plate, and a second coupler is electromagnetically coupled with a second mount of a second radiation plate. The couplers are respectively defined by line electrodes. Input and output terminal electrodes of the wireless IC chip are electrically connected to the line electrodes. The wireless IC chip is operated by the first and second couplers in response to a signal received by first and second radiation plates. A response signal from the wireless IC chip is radiated to the outside from the first and second radiation plates via the first and second couplers. |
| US08264356B2 |
EAS alarming tag with RFID features
An alarming electronic article surveillance (“EAS”) tag for securing an item of merchandise includes an EAS sensor, a radio frequency identification (“RFID”) logic block, an alarm transducer, and an alarming tag processor. The RFID logic block includes a transceiver, a memory and a processor. The transceiver operates to receive a first interrogation signal. The memory includes a first identifier associated with the alarming EAS tag and a second identifier associated with the item of merchandise. The processor is operable to send a first trigger signal responsive to the transceiver receiving the first interrogation signal. The alarming tag processor is electrically coupled to the RFID logic block and the EAS sensor. The alarm transducer is operable to produce at least one of a visual indicator and an audible indicator based on the EAS sensor and the alarming tag processor. |
| US08264352B2 |
System and methods for locating mobile devices using location and presence information
A location based service and method configured to provide recovery assistance for a misplaced or stolen mobile device. The location based system and method is configured to locate (recover) high value mobile devices using location, presence and other IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) based telecommunications network assets. The method includes leveraging location dips performed for other services to drive a recovery process for a mobile device to thereby reduce resource overhead on a location platform; locating the mobile device using the location dips performed for other services; and sending a notification to a subscriber of the location of the mobile device for recovery of the mobile device. |
| US08264345B2 |
System and method of providing real-time site specific information
A weather alert manager is used to provide real-time, site specific information to a user regarding weather and possibly other hazards. The weather alert manager compares meteorological data, a user profile including information on points of interest to the user, and geographical data to determine if weather will impact one or more of the user's points of interest. The user's points of interest include at least one mobile point of interest, which periodically transmits its location. The weather alert manager transmits a user alert message if one is needed, and a remote receiver notifies the user that a message has been received. |
| US08264341B2 |
Broadcast signal retransmission system and method using illuminating visible-light communication
Disclosed herein are a broadcast signal retransmission system and method using illuminating visible-light communication. The broadcast signal retransmission system comprises one or more light-emitting diode (LED) lighting fixtures, one or more smart communicators, and a home server. The home server receives and demodulates a multi-channel broadcast signal and, in reply to a signal request message from a smart communicator, transmits a demodulated broadcast channel signal through a power line to an LED lighting fixture indicated by the signal request message. The LED lighting fixture converts the broadcast channel signal into a light signal. The smart communicator receives the light signal from the LED lighting fixture and decodes the light signal into a broadcast signal. As a result, the user can selectively receive a broadcast signal of a desired channel using a smart communicator via a nearby LED lighting fixture. |
| US08264339B2 |
Alarm management apparatus
The invention relates to an alarm management apparatus for managing an alarm occurring in a plant. The alarm management apparatus includes an alarm collection unit for collecting an alarm; a process data collection unit for collecting process data; an alarm suppression determination unit for determining whether or not suppressing an alarm from an alarm suppression target is adequate using the process data upon reception of an alarm suppression command; and an alarm processing unit for suppressing the alarm from the alarm suppression target if the alarm suppression determination unit determines that the alarm suppressing is adequate. |
| US08264338B2 |
Control knob assembly, system and control method
A combination shifter and engine start apparatus for a vehicle includes a control knob rotatable to a plurality of positions to instruct operation of an associated transmission of the vehicle and actuatable for at least one of starting and stopping of an associated engine of the vehicle. A display is disposed on the control knob for alternately displaying first indicia on the control knob relating to at least one of starting and stopping of the associated engine and displaying second indicia on the control knob relating to a selected one of the plurality of positions. A controller is operatively connected to the control knob and to the display. The controller has a first mode wherein the controller commands the display to display the first indicia and a second mode wherein the controller commands the display to display the second indicia. |
| US08264333B2 |
Trainable remote controller and method for determining the frequency of a learned control signal
A trainable transceiver for learning signal characteristics of an RF control signal received from a remote control transmitter used to remotely actuate a device and for subsequently transmitting a modulated RF signal having the learned signal characteristics includes an antenna, a wideband receiver and a control circuit. The wideband receiver is coupled to the antenna and is configured to receive an RF control signal from the remote control transmitter. The RF control signal includes a control code, a set of data characteristics and an RF carrier frequency. The control circuit is coupled to the wideband receiver and has a training mode in which the control circuit is configured to identify and store the control code of the RF control signal, to identify at least one data characteristic from the set of data characteristics and to identify at least one RF frequency associated with the RF control signal based on the at least one data characteristic. |
| US08264321B2 |
System and method for enhanced RFID instrument security
A system and method for using an RFID read/write device to secure an RFID-operable instrument or an RF communication is provided. The invention includes security databases in communication with a processor for storing and communicating security protocols to the RFID read/write device. The invention includes a method for restricting the unauthorized use of an RFID read/write device. The invention includes a subscription service for communicating user credentials to a certificate authority to obtain a counter security protocol. The invention also includes decrypting information stored on an RF-operable device or transmitted via radio-frequency using counter security protocols. |
| US08264316B2 |
Coil component and method for manufacturing coil component
To provide a coil component that can adequately ensure component accuracy even when miniaturization is pursued. A coil component includes a main body portion structured with green compact containing magnetic material, a coil arranged inside the main body portion, a pair of lead wires each drawn out from the coil to outside of the main body portion, terminal fittings electrically connected to the lead wires at the outside of the main body portion, and welding portions connecting the lead wires and the terminal fittings. The pair of lead wires is both drawn out towards a first direction that is orthogonal to an axis direction of the coil. Drawing surfaces of the main body portion are disposed towards the coil side from a first side surface that is an end of the main body portion in the first direction. The drawing surfaces perpendicularly intersect the lead wires. |
| US08264312B2 |
Linear solenoid
A linear solenoid includes a shaft to reciprocate in an axis direction, a movable member fixed to the shaft, a front stator, a rear stator, a coil, a front housing, and a rear housing. The front housing is made of metal, and covers the front stator and the coil in the axis direction. The rear housing is made of metal, and is connected to the front housing so as to define a space to accommodate the movable member, the front stator, the rear stator and the coil. The rear housing covers the rear stator and the coil in the axis direction. |
| US08264308B2 |
Detection of the onset of switch actuation via magnetic field
A magnet is affixed to a shaft or other pivoting or rotating member of a switch mechanism, on the axis of rotation. The radial position of the resulting magnetic field is monitored. A change in the magnetic field radial position, optionally in excess of a threshold, indicates the onset of switch actuation, prior to operative actuation of the switch mechanism. The radial position of the magnetic field is sensed by a magnetic rotary encoder. The detection of switch actuation onset may be used to remove current from a circuit prior to operative switch actuation. Because the magnet is rigidly affixed to the shaft, there is no lost motion. Because the shaft position and encoder are magnetically coupled, the detection mechanism contains no moving parts and no mechanical linkage or coupling, and its performance does not degrade due to shock, thermal effects, vibration, or wear. |
| US08264301B2 |
Modeling circuit of high-frequency device and modeling method thereof
There are provided a modeling circuit of a high-frequency device capable of providing a more accurate modeling circuit having a higher-order resonance by dividedly modeling an overlap zone and a non-overlap zone of the high-frequency device, and a modeling method thereof. The modeling circuit of a high-frequency device, which comprises an overlap zone where the two electrodes are overlapped with each other, a non-overlap zone where the overlap zone is absent between the two electrodes, the overlap and non-overlap zones being formed by stacking two or more electrodes on top of each other in a constant distance, and terminations electrically coupled with some parts of the two electrodes, comprises a first circuit block comprising a first capacitor and a first conductor that model the overlap zone of the high-frequency device on the basis of coupled transmission line theory; and a second circuit block comprising a first inductor and a first register that model the overlap zone of the high-frequency device on the basis of coupled transmission line theory and model the non-overlap zone and the terminations of the high-frequency device on the basis of a Series RL model. |
| US08264296B2 |
Voltage controlled oscillator
A voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) securing a wide range of variable amount of oscillatory frequency is provided. In the VCO, a resistor R1 and a capacitor C1 are connected in series on a line of a crystal resonator and a control voltage supply terminal, a cathode of a variable-capacitance diode VD1 is connected between the R1 and the C1, and an anode of the VD1 is grounded. A parallel-connected circuit is disposed between the C1 and a port connected with the crystal resonator, the parallel-connected circuit including a variable-capacitance diode VD2 and a capacitor C3 connected in series, an expansion coil L1, and a Q dump resistor R6 which are connected in parallel. The parallel-connected circuit on an input side is grounded via a resistor R4, and a point between the R1 and the C1 and a point between the VD2 and the C3 are connected via a resistor R5. |
| US08264294B2 |
Semiconductor device having on-chip oscillator for producing clock signal
A semiconductor device contrived to prevent a reference voltage and a reference current which are supplied to a high speed OCO from varying with a change in ambient temperature and/or a change in an external power supply voltage and to reduce the circuit area of a power supply module. The high speed OCO outputs a high speed clock whose magnitude is determined by the reference current and the reference voltage. A logic unit adjusts the values of the reference current and reference voltage, according to the reference voltage and reference current trimming codes related to detected ambient temperature and operating voltage. |
| US08264293B2 |
Oscillator
Provided is a transformer-based oscillator which is suited to oscillate frequencies in multiple bands. An oscillator includes a transformer resonance unit and a plurality of complementary transistors. The transformer resonance unit includes a primary coil and a secondary coil corresponding to the primary coil. The plurality of complementary transistors have gates and drains between which both ends of the transformer resonance unit are respectively connected. Thus, the oscillator may operate in a differential mode or common mode according to the phase of the transformer resonance unit. Also, a complementary transistor constituting a multiband oscillation loop may be independently connected to both ends of the transformer resonance unit, and an oscillation loop of at least one band may be selected out of a multiband oscillation loop using a switch unit. Thus, the oscillator may be suited to oscillate resonance frequencies in multiple bands. |
| US08264291B2 |
Resonator and a method of manufacturing the same, and oscillator and electronic apparatus including the same
Disclosed herein is a resonator including, a vibrating portion having a conductor portion, and three or more insulating portions provided so as to electrically separate the conductor portion into a plurality of blocks, wherein when a potential difference is caused across both ends in each of the three or more insulating portions, the vibrating portion carries out a resonance vibration based on a longitudinal vibration in accordance with a frequency of an A.C. signal inputted to each of corresponding ones of the plurality of blocks in the conductor portion. |
| US08264289B2 |
Nth-order arbitrary-phase-shift sinusoidal oscillator structure and analytical synthesis method of making the same
Nth-order voltage- and current-mode arbitrary phase shift oscillator structures are synthesized using n operational trans-conductance amplifiers (OTAs) or second-generation current controlled conveyors (CCCIIs) and n grounded capacitors. Linking up the I/O characteristics of the OTA and the CCCII and the reactance of grounded capacitor, the step of synthesis is first based on the algebraic analysis to oscillatory characteristic equations, resulting in a quadrature oscillator structure. Secondly, instead of the quadrature characteristic, to control each output signal with one another by a desired phase difference > or <90°, selectively superposing any of two fundamental OTA/CCCII-C sub-circuitries benefits the transformation of quadrature to arbitrary-phase-shift characteristic for the sinusoidal oscillator structure. Furthermore, several compensation schemes are presented for reducing the output parameter deviation due to the non-ideal effects. |
| US08264287B2 |
Method, apparatus, and system for measuring analog voltages on die
An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) suitable for measuring on-die DC or low frequency analog voltages may include a ring oscillator having a group of circuit cells successively and circularly coupled. Under certain circumstances, the ring oscillator may produce an output frequency that corresponds substantially linear to the input voltage. Other embodiments may be disclosed or claimed. |
| US08264283B1 |
Single side band mixer
A single side band mixer is composed of standard digital logic elements and field effect transistors, forming a pair of quadrature generators coupled with a mixer-splitter circuit. This design results in a single side band mixer with a bandwidth from DC to at least 100 MHz when realized with CMOS digital logic circuitry. This design allows the single side band mixer to bring particular improvement to circuits including frequency synthesizers, quadrature demodulators and up-converters. |
| US08264276B2 |
Low-noise amplifier
Traditionally, low-noise amplifiers or LNAs have been used in high frequency applications, but for very high frequency ranges (i.e., 60 GHz), building an LNA to meet performance needs has been difficult. Here, however, an LNA has been provided that operates well around 60 GHz. In particularly, this LNA is generally unconditionally stable, has a generally low noise factor or NF, and has a generally high gain around 60 GHz. |
| US08264269B2 |
Level shift circuit
A level shift circuit includes a level shift voltage generation circuit that receives an input signal having an amplitude between a first voltage system power supply voltage and a ground potential and outputs an output signal voltage having an amplitude between a second voltage system power supply voltage and the ground potential, a replica circuit configured to be a replica of the level shift voltage generation circuit, the replica circuit monitoring a threshold voltage of a first voltage system and a threshold voltage of a second voltage system, and enabling the level shift voltage generation circuit to generate of the output voltage synchronized in such a manner that, when the input voltage crosses the logic threshold of the first voltage system, the output voltage crosses the logic threshold of the second voltage system, and a bias generation circuit that generates a bias for adjusting variations of the output voltages of the level shift voltage generation circuit and the replica circuit, and supplies the bias to the level shift voltage generation circuit and the replica circuit. |
| US08264267B2 |
Clock pulse generating circuit
A clock pulse generating circuit includes a pulse generator, a clock regulator, and a pre-driver. The pulse generator is configured to vary pulse widths of a rising clock signal and a falling clock signal. The clock regulator is configured to regulate output signals of the pulse generator to prevent an overlap and a duty drop of the output signals of the pulse generator. The pre-driver is configured to output data driving signals according to output signals of the clock regulator. |
| US08264265B2 |
Automatic darkening filter (ADF) eye protection device with improved drive circuitry
An apparatus and methodology for operating an automatic darkening filter (ADF) eye protection device alternately applies an operating voltage to a pair of control terminals of an ADF device circuit in a continuing sequence, where a first polarity voltage is applied to the pair of terminals and then reversed. A delay period is provided between application of the alternating polarities. In some embodiments ground potential is applied to both terminals of the pair of terminals during the delay period. |
| US08264261B2 |
Method and apparatus for the controlled delay of an input signal
An apparatus for the controlled delay of an input signal includes a signal input for receiving an input signal. The input signal is supplied to a delay line with a multiplicity of delay elements. Outputs of the delay elements allow respective differently delayed phase signals to be tapped off. Furthermore, a register line with a multiplicity of register elements is provided. The register elements are each associated with one of the delay elements. Each of the register elements has a reset input and a clock input. The reset inputs are coupled to the signal input. The outputs of the delay elements are each coupled to the clock input of the register element associated therewith. |
| US08264255B2 |
Radio frequency (RF) power detector suitable for use in automatic gain control (AGC)
In one form, a power detector includes first and third transistors of a first conductivity type, and second and fourth transistors of a second conductivity type. A control electrode of the first transistor receives a first bias voltage plus a positive component of a differential input signal. The second transistor is coupled in series with the first transistor and has a control electrode receiving a second bias voltage plus a negative component of the differential input signal. The third transistor is biased using the first bias voltage plus the negative component. The fourth transistor is coupled in series with the third transistor and is biased using the second bias voltage plus the positive component. A common interconnection point of the first and third transistors forms an output node. In another form, a power detector compares an output of a power detector core to multiple threshold voltages in corresponding comparators. |
| US08264253B2 |
Transmitter swing control circuit and method
Disclosed herein are embodiments of a swing compensation scheme for compensating errors in a transmitter driver. |
| US08264249B2 |
Vertical probe card
The present invention provides on IC test substrate for testing various signals, a combined flexible and rigid PCB included in the structure is applicable to perform a mission including for example: stabilizing power input/output, signal transfer by a connector; general, power, and high frequency signal transmission in preserved integrity state. |
| US08264244B2 |
Capacitance difference detecting circuit and capacitance difference detecting method
A capacitance difference detecting circuit includes a control circuit, for generating a control signal according to a first voltage and a second voltage; a first capacitor to be detected; a second capacitor to be detected; a first constant capacitor, having a terminal coupled to the first terminal of the first capacitor to be detected and the first input terminal; a second constant capacitor, having a terminal coupled to the first terminal of the second capacitor to be detected and the second input terminal; a voltage control unit, cooperating with the first capacitor to be detected, the second capacitor to be detected, the first constant capacitor and the second constant capacitor to control the first voltage and the second voltage. The voltage control unit is an adjustable capacitor and a capacitance value of the adjustable capacitor is controlled by the control signal. |
| US08264240B2 |
Physical property sensor with active electronic circuit and wireless power and data transmission
Wireless sensors configured to record and transmit data as well as sense and, optionally, actuate to monitor physical properties of an environment and, optionally, effect changes within that environment. In one aspect, the wireless sensor can have a power harvesting unit; a voltage regulation unit, a transducing oscillator unit, and a transmitting coil. The voltage regulation unit is electrically coupled to the power harvesting unit and is configured to actuate at a minimum voltage level. The transducing oscillator unit is electrically coupled to the voltage regulation unit and is configured to convert a sensed physical property into an electrical signal. Also, the transmitting coil is configured to receive the electrical signal and to transmit the electrical signal to an external antenna. |
| US08264239B2 |
Guided wave cutoff spectroscopy using a cylindrical measurement cell
A cylindrical waveguide (1) used for analyzing a flowing stream of corn masa (18) using a guided microwave spectroscopy (GMS) process. The waveguide (1) includes opposed spaced apart plates (2, 5) that each define a plane within the waveguide housing (3) that is parallel to the direction (47) of corn masa flow through the waveguide. The housing (1) includes two opposed frames (7, 19) that each surround an aperture (6) that permits access to the region between the waveguide plates (2, 5). A microwave probe assembly (81) is mounted at each frame (7, 19) to permit the radiation and reception of electromagnetic waves within the housing (1) as required to perform the GMS process. A temperature probe (51) is inserted into the interior of the housing (1) at a fitting (13). In an actual installation a y-shaped assembly (89) can be used to divide the corn masa flow into two separate paths with one path containing the waveguide (1). A diverter vane (93) within the y-shaped assembly permits flow to be equalized within the two separate flow paths. |
| US08264237B2 |
Application of wideband sampling for arc detection with a probabilistic model for quantitatively measuring arc events
An arc detection system for a plasma generation system includes a radio frequency (RF) sensor that generates first and second signals based on a respective electrical properties of (RF) power that is in communication with a plasma chamber. A correlation module generates an arc detect signal based on the first and second signals. The arc detect signal indicates whether an arc is occurring in the plasma chamber and is employed to vary an aspect of the RF power to extinguish the arc. |
| US08264234B2 |
Electric vehicle with ground fault detecting system
An electric vehicle incorporates a ground fault detecting system and has first and second ungrounded power supplies. The ground fault detecting system includes a first insulation resistance detector for detecting a first insulation resistance of the first ungrounded power supply with respect to a grounded region of the electric vehicle, and a second insulation resistance detector for detecting a second insulation resistance of the second ungrounded power supply with respect to the grounded region. The first insulation resistance detector and the second insulation resistance detector detect the first insulation resistance and the second insulation resistance at different times, respectively. |
| US08264232B2 |
Evaluation of the integrity of depressed contacts by variation of the rotation of the pole-shaft
A device for measuring the wear of the contacts of a switchgear device is described. The switchgear device is of the open circuit breaker type with offset pole-shaft, and the movable contact is mounted on a sliding support. Measurement of the wear of the contacts is based on evaluation of the over-travel of the movable contact in the closed position when the latter slides in its support. This over-travel is determined by measuring the residual rotation of the pole-shaft, preferably by a contact-less magnetic rotation sensor. |
| US08264230B2 |
Method and device for carrying out marine electrical exploration during a ship travel
In order to increase result accuracy the noise effect during vessel motion is reduced, wherefore direct current pulses are excited the parameters of which are set basing on section conductivity and deposit depth, the electric field is measured simultaneously on pairs of receiving electrodes basing on the spatial averaging of potential of double electric layer that is generated on the boundary of electrode and water during the pulses and pauses between them, and geoelectrical parameters are determined.The device consists of an exciting field generating unit where a switchboard generates pulses on feeding electrodes, a generator consists of two parallel cable lines with emitting electrodes, a non-emitting ballast device that is a pair of alternating electric dipoles with equal moments, and a measuring unit with pairs of sectional receiving electrodes, the total length of an electrode section does not exceed 5% of the distance between the electrodes, and the connection between the electrode elements that are connected to the receiver line through a common input/output provides composition of the EMF that are generated in them. |
| US08264228B2 |
Method and apparatus for building a tilted antenna
Logging tools having protected tilted antennas are disclosed, along with construction methods therefor. In one method embodiment, a tilted antenna on a retrievable segment of a downhole tool is constructed by: forming an elliptical recess on the segment; forming an antenna within the elliptical recess; and forming an elliptical pattern of windows over and perpendicular to the axis of the elliptical antenna. Some tool embodiments comprise a retrievable segment of a downhole tool having an elliptical recess; an elliptical antenna disposed within the elliptical recess; and an elliptical pattern of windows formed over and perpendicular to the plane of the elliptical antenna. |
| US08264227B2 |
Marine EM exploration
A method for estimating the effects of an airwave in marine electromagnetic data measured using a source and at least one receiver. The method involves measuring the electromagnetic response at two different under water source-receiver separations and using measurements at the larger separation to estimate the airwave response at that separation. The airwave effect in the response measured at the shorter separation can then be determined using the estimated airwave response at the larger separation. |
| US08264223B2 |
Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes a scan execution unit configured to execute a regular scan in which a navigator sequence for generating a magnetic resonance signal in a navigator area containing a region of interest moving with a biological movement of a subject and an imaging sequence for generating a magnetic resonance signal in an imaging area of the subject are carried out, and a signal processing unit configured to detect a position of a region of interest based on a magnetic resonance signal generated by a navigator sequence in the regular scan and to generate an image based on the detected position and the magnetic resonance signal generated by the imaging sequence. The signal processing unit is configured to generate an intensity profile with respect to the magnetic resonance signal generated by a navigator sequence in the pre-scan and received at each of the coil elements, determine the gradient polarity of the profile line corresponding to the high-signal substance in the predetermined direction in the generated intensity profile, and to select a coil element that received a magnetic resonance signal of the intensity profile highest in maximum signal intensity among the intensity profiles the gradient polarity of which was determined to face upward. The position of the region of interest is detected based on a magnetic resonance signal generated by a navigator sequence in the regular scan and received at the selected coil element. |
| US08264214B1 |
Very low voltage reference circuit
A low-voltage reference circuit may have a pair of semiconductor devices. Each semiconductor device may have an n-type semiconductor region, an n+ region in the n-type semiconductor region, a metal gate, and a gate insulator interposed between the metal gate and the n-type semiconductor region through which carriers tunnel. The metal gate may have a work function matching that of p-type polysilicon. The gate insulator may have a thickness of less than about 25 angstroms. The metal gate may form a first terminal for the semiconductor device and the n+ region and n-type semiconductor region may form a second terminal for the semiconductor device. The second terminals may be coupled to ground. A biasing circuit may use the first terminals to supply different currents to the semiconductor devices and may provide a corresponding reference output voltage at a value that is less than one volt. |
| US08264211B2 |
Programmable power limiting for power transistor system
Various systems, methods and apparatuses are provided herein for limiting power dissipation in a switch. As one example, a method for limiting power dissipation is disclosed. The method includes monitoring current through the switch, and based at least in part on detecting that the current is at least as great as a predetermined current limit, regulating the current to the predetermined current limit. The method also includes measuring an amount of power dissipated in the switch while the current is being regulated, and opening the switch when the amount of power has reached a predetermined power limit. |
| US08264208B2 |
Systems and methods of charging super-capacitors
Systems and methods for charging a super-capacitor are disclosed. An exemplary method may include outputting a controllable signal, such as a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal, to control a charging circuit. The method may also include determining system voltage. The method may also include reducing a duty cycle of the controllable signal if the system voltage is in regulation, and increasing the duty cycle of the controllable signal if the system voltage is out of regulation to reduce brown-outs during charging of the super-capacitor. |
| US08264207B2 |
Method and system for pulse charging an automotive battery
A pulse charging profile for a vehicle battery is synchronized with driver or vehicle demanded current disturbances by phase tracking the fundamental frequency of the desired pulse charging profile to those driver or vehicle demanded current disturbances. When these driver or vehicle demanded disturbances are not active, the tracked charging profile is honored. |
| US08264205B2 |
Circuit for charge and/or discharge protection in an energy-storage device
A method and apparatus for protecting an energy-storage device (ESD), such as a rechargeable battery, is provided. A protective circuit protects an ESD from adverse charging and loading conditions including overcharging, overdischarging, charging at an excessive rate and discharging at an excessive rate. The protective circuit selectively disables charging and discharging based on the present terminal conditions. A plurality of ESDs and protective circuits can be interconnected to protect a multi-cell ESD device. Embodiments of the protective circuit are adapted to protect a lithium cell operating around 2 volts. The protective circuit may also protect the ESD from adverse temperature conditions. |
| US08264203B2 |
Monitoring state of charge of a battery
Methods, apparatus, and computer program products are disclosed for determining a reported state of charge (“SOC”) of a battery system, the methods, apparatus, and computer program products including determining the reported SOC according to a first determining method when a previous SOC is greater than a first SOC threshold percentage and less than or equal to 100%; determining the reported SOC according to a second determining method when the previous SOC is greater than a second threshold percentage and less than or equal to the first SOC threshold percentage; and determining the reported SOC according to a third determining method when the previous SOC is greater than or equal to 0% and less than or equal to the second SOC threshold percentage. |
| US08264200B2 |
Multi-cell power system controller
Various apparatuses and methods for detecting cell connection status of a multi-cell battery are disclosed herein. For example, some embodiments provide an apparatus for detecting cell connection status of a multi-cell battery. The apparatus includes a battery cell input for each cell, a cell connection status detector for each cell, and at least one comparator. Each of the cell connection status detectors is connected to a battery cell input and has a current-based status indicator output. The at least one comparator is connected to the current-based status indicator outputs. Each of the plurality of cell connection status detectors floats in a different supply voltage range. The at least one comparator is referenced to a lower voltage potential than at least one of the plurality of cell connection status detectors. |
| US08264199B2 |
Interchangeable accumulator unit
Provision is made for an interchangeable accumulator unit comprising a housing (10, 20) and a lithium accumulator cell (40) arranged in the housing. Provision is further made in the housing of the accumulator unit for a charging circuit (50) for controlling the charging process of the lithium accumulator cell (40). Provision is made on the housing (10, 20) for at least one first charging contact unit (100, 200). |
| US08264196B2 |
Charge control apparatus, battery pack, and vehicle
A charge control apparatus for controlling how to charge a battery unit having a plurality of batteries connected in series, includes a connection control section that divides the batteries into a plurality of groups of batteries by switching connections between the batteries, according to a received current amount indicative of an amount of a current that can be received from one or more external power sources, and a charge control section that charges the groups of batteries in parallel with power received from the external power sources. |
| US08264190B2 |
Control apparatus for multi-phase rotary machine and electric power steering system
A control apparatus for a multi-phase rotary machine includes a control unit and a plurality of power supply systems including respective inverter units. When a short-circuiting failure occurs in one of the systems due to an ON-failure in any one of FETs in an inverter unit of the failure system, the control unit stops driving of the rotary machine by bringing all the FETs in the failure system into the OFF state. The control unit controls FETs of the non-failure system such that a brake torque generated in the failure system is cancelled or the influence of the brake torque exerted on the driving of the motor is reduced. |
| US08264184B2 |
Low-pin count fan speed control system and a method thereof
A low-pin count fan speed control system and a method thereof include primarily an activation unit to drive a fan to operate. When the fan starts completely, the fan slows down to a pre-determined rotation speed through an idle speed regulation unit. After achieving a pre-determined temperature through a temperature transition unit, the fan speed beings to increase from the idle speed. When the fan is operating, the rotation speed is properly increased in proportion to the temperature, using a positive temperature regulation slope unit. Therefore, through this method, the rotation speed will not be decreased by foreign objects when the fan is operating and a computer host can be provided with proper heat dissipation. |
| US08264181B2 |
Controller for motor drive control system
In a control of an AC motor that uses a PWM control and a rectangular-wave control, when switching is conducted from the rectangular-wave control to the PWM control, a current command generated in a current command generation unit is corrected so as to smooth the variations in a time axis direction on the basis of a target torque command value by taking the final current state in the rectangular-wave control immediately prior to switching as an initial value, thereby generating a current command after the correction. An inverter is current feedback-controlled based on the current command after the correction. As a result, the continuity from the current state immediately prior to switching of the rectangular-wave control can be ensured for the current command in the PWM control. |
| US08264180B2 |
Adjustment drive of a motor vehicle
The invention relates to an adjustment drive of a motor vehicle, wherein the adjustment drive includes a drive motor having a motor magnet that generates a magnetic exciter main field and having a motor armature that is rotatably arranged between a plurality of magnet poles of said motor magnet. The adjustment drive also includes a magneto-sensitive sensor positioned in such a way that during a rotation of the motor armature it senses a change in a magnetic flux density of the exciter main field. |
| US08264179B2 |
Method for control of synchronous electrical motors
Method for control of synchronous electrical motors with application for stepper and Brush-Less Direct Current motors for which there is an explicit relation between the active electrical power supplied to the motor and the mechanical power that the motor delivers to the load. The active electrical power Pel consumed by the motor is measured and according to FIG. 3 the mechanical power Pmech and the maximum available mechanical power Pmech max are determined. The ratio between Pmech and Pmech max is calculated and is compared to the set value of the same ratio. If it is greater than the set one either the operating currents are increased either the operating speed is decreased or both operations are executed. But if it is smaller—either the operating currents are decreased either the operating speed is increased or both operations are executed. |
| US08264175B2 |
Method for forming a capacitor module circuit in an inverter using impedance matching
The present invention is directed to methods for forming an inverter circuit for operating a drive motor of an electric vehicle, which can more effectively reduce the switching noise generated by a power module during the operation of an inverter. |
| US08264174B2 |
Laser acceleration system for generating monoenergetic protons
A proton acceleration system is provided for accelerating protons within a target. The system includes a laser source generating a laser beam having a wavelength λL and intensity and a target formed of foil having a selected thickness. The target is irradiated by the laser beam and transformed into a plasma that has a target density. This causes a treatment energy to be emitted from the foil due to the irradiation. The thickness of the foil of the target is selected so that the foil has a thickness within a range of optimal thickness Δs to 2×Δs, wherein Δs is less than the laser wavelength and is a function of the laser intensity, laser wavelength, and target density sufficient to achieve radiation pressure acceleration (RPA). |
| US08264171B1 |
In-situ LED junction temperature monitoring using LED as temperature sensor
LED junction temperature is determined in real time using the LED itself as the temperature sensor for directly measuring the LED junction temperature. In addition, temperature measurements from a silicon diode placed in proximity to the LED are also used to complement the temperature measurements from the LED itself. Arbitration is performed among temperature measurements from the LED and temperature measurements from the silicon diode to determine a temperature of the LED junction. The determined LED junction temperature may be used to make adjustments to the LED drive current. Temperature measurements from the LED are made in real time during actual operation by applying snooping currents to the LED during off-times of the PWM cycles of the LED, without interrupting normal operation of the LED. |
| US08264169B2 |
Time division modulation with average current regulation for independent control of arrays of light emitting diodes
Representative method and computer-readable medium embodiments provide for sourcing current to a series of light emitting diodes in a plurality of series of light emitting diodes. A representative method comprises generating a current, sequentially and separately switching the current to each of the series of light emitting diodes in the plurality of series of light emitting diodes for a corresponding period of time, and predicting an output voltage across a selected series of light emitting diodes using a plurality of parameters stored in a memory. |
| US08264165B2 |
Method and system for dimming an offline LED driver
An apparatus and method for dimming a light emitting diode (LED) driver. The apparatus includes a triode alternating current (TRIAC) dimmer and an LED driver receiving an input voltage from an output of the TRIAC dimmer so that the state of the LED driver is controlled by the TRIAC dimmer. The LED driver includes an active damping circuit configured for damping, upon detecting a rising edge of a bridge rectified input voltage, resonance caused by the TRIAC dimmer and the LED driver for a fixed period of time. |
| US08264164B2 |
Method of driving discharge lamp, driving device, and projector
A method for driving a discharge lamp having a first electrode and a second electrode includes the steps of, in a situation where a tip portion of the first electrode becomes higher than a tip portion of the second electrode in temperature when power of the same amount is fed to the first and second electrodes during a steady operation, changing a difference between the absolute values of average current values for two polarities during one cycle of the AC current in accordance with a predetermined pattern, and setting an operation time ratio of the first electrode as an anode during one cycle so as to be smaller than an operation time ratio of the second electrode as an anode during one cycle. |
| US08264162B2 |
Inverter apparatus
A switching circuit includes multiple transistors connected to the primary winding of a transformer, and alternately applies an input voltage and a ground voltage to the primary winding according to the ON/OFF operations of the transistors. Multiple ballast capacitors are respectively provided to multiple fluorescent lamps. One terminal of each ballast capacitor is connected to the secondary winding so as to form a common terminal. The other terminal thereof is connected to the fluorescent lamp. A first capacitor and a second capacitor are arranged in this order in series between an connection node that connects the fluorescent lamp to be monitored and the corresponding ballast capacitor and the ground terminal. An abnormal state judging unit compares the voltage at the connection node that connects the first capacitor and the second capacitor with a predetermined threshold voltage. |
| US08264161B2 |
Lighting apparatus for high-voltage discharge lamp
In a lighting apparatus for a high-voltage discharge lamp, a control circuit controls a switching element of a step-down chopper circuit and that of an igniter circuit such that the switching elements are synchronously turned on/off, and controls the switching of the switching element of the step-down chopper circuit in accordance with an amount of a drop in the output voltage of the step-down chopper circuit when lighting of a high-voltage discharge lamp is started such that inrush current flowing when the high-voltage discharge lamp breaks down is suppressed. With this, when a lighting apparatus starts lighting the high-voltage discharge lamp, the inrush current flowing when the lamp breaks down can be minimized in response to variations in the load of the high-voltage discharge lamp. In addition, the lifetime of the high-voltage discharge lamp can be increased since inrush current during glow discharge can be suppressed. |
| US08264160B2 |
Advanced electronic ballasts
An electronic ballast includes a rectifier circuit, having two output terminals coupled to a first node and a second node; a first capacitor having two ends coupled to the first node and the second node; an inverter, having a first terminal coupled to the first node, a second terminal coupled to the second node and a third terminal; an inductor, having a first end coupled to the third terminal of the inverter and a second end for coupling a first terminal of a lamp; a second capacitor, having two ends for coupling a second terminal and a third terminal of the lamp; a third capacitor, having two ends coupled to the first node and a third node, wherein the third node is further for coupling a fourth terminal of the lamp; and a diode, having two ends coupled to the third node and the second node. |
| US08264159B2 |
Circuit arrangement and method for operating at least one LED and at least one fluorescent lamp
A circuit arrangement for operating an LED and an fluorescent lamp may include a main rectifier; an auxiliary rectifier; an inverter, the output of said inverter having a terminal for connecting the fluorescent lamp; a starting device, wherein its first terminal is coupled to a control electrode of one of the switches of the inverter; a pull-down circuit; and a starting capacitor; wherein the second terminal of the starting device and the second terminal of the pull-down circuit are coupled to the first output terminal of the auxiliary rectifier; wherein the starting capacitor is coupled between the first and the second output terminal of the auxiliary rectifier; and wherein there is arranged in parallel with the starting capacitor a series circuit including a first and a second terminal for the LED and an LED switch, wherein the LED switch has a control electrode, an operating electrode and a reference electrode. |
| US08264158B2 |
Protection circuit for alternating current light emitting diode
The present invention relates to a protection circuit for an alternating current light emitting diode which mainly comprises light emitting diodes placed in series and parallel with loads in a light emitting diode lamp device. When one of the light emitting diodes has been damaged, the current flows through the load in parallel with the light emitting diode and flows to the next light emitting diode. Only the damaged light emitting diode is off to keep from causing an open circuit in the overall circuitry and to prevent the overall lamp device from turning off and not emitting light. In addition to the device being easier to use, finding the damaged light emitting diode for replacement is faster, easier and more convenient when repairing the damaged light emitting diode, thereby greatly enhancing the usefulness and practicability of the protection circuit for an alternating current light emitting diode. |
| US08264150B2 |
Modular magnetron
A modular magnetron for use in UV curing lamp assembly is disclosed. The modular magnetron includes a vacuum tube having a vacuum tube body, a top assembly, and a bottom assembly. The top assembly is configured to substantially overlay the vacuum tube. The bottom assembly is configured to substantially extend about the vacuum tube, the vacuum tube being positioned to partially protrude from the bottom assembly, the bottom assembly including a cooling assembly configured to employ a flexible clamp-type fitting about the vacuum tube body for substantially maintaining thermal and electrical conductivity. The top assembly is configured to be releasably fastened to the bottom assembly about the vacuum tube with removable fasteners. |
| US08264149B2 |
Lamp assembly with LED and fluorescent lamp
A lamp assembly includes a lamp base having power input terminals, a fluorescent lamp connected to the terminals through a manually operated switch that is on an exterior of the lamp base so that when power is supplied to the terminals the fluorescent lamp is selectively powered by manual operation of the switch, and a light emitting diode (LED) inseparably connected to the terminals so that when power is supplied to the terminals the LED is always powered. This arrangement allows the LED to be ON regardless of the operating status of the fluorescent lamp and allows the fluorescent lamp to be turned OFF while the LED remains ON. |
| US08264146B2 |
Plasma display panel and method for producing the same
A plasma display panel includes a front panel wherein an electrode, a dielectric layer and a protective layer are formed on a substrate of the front panel; and a rear panel wherein an electrode, a dielectric layer and a barrier rib and a phosphor layer are formed on a substrate of the rear panel. The front panel and the rear panel are oppositely disposed to each other. The electrode of the front panel is composed of a transparent electrode and a bus electrode, and the bus electrode comprises a melted-solidified portion obtained by a melting and subsequent solidifying of electrically-conductive particles. |
| US08264142B2 |
Illumination apparatus and method of producing a planar light output
There is described an illumination apparatus with an organic light-emitting device with a first light exit face and an organic light-emitting device with a second light exit face larger than the first light exit face. The inorganic light-emitting device and the organic light-emitting device are arranged so that a planar light output in which light of the inorganic light-emitting device and light of the organic light-emitting device superimpose each other results. |
| US08264141B2 |
Organic light emitting display and method of manufacturing the same
An organic light emitting display is provided. The organic light emitting display comprises: a substrate; an anode that is positioned on the substrate; a sub-anode that is positioned on the anode and that is formed with a metallic oxide and nickel (Ni); an organic light emitting layer that is positioned on the sub-anode; and a cathode that is positioned on the organic light emitting layer. |
| US08264140B2 |
Organic electroluminescence element and display device
An organic electroluminescence element includes a pair of electrodes composed of an anode and a cathode, at least one of which is transparent or semitransparent, and one or more organic compound layers disposed between the pair of electrodes, wherein at least one of the organic compound layers comprises at least one charge-transporting polyester consisting of repeating units containing, as a partial structure, at least one structure represented by the following formula (I-1). |
| US08264133B2 |
Incandescence lamp with a reinforcement rib
An incandescence lamp comprises an arc tube where both ends form sealing portions, a filament that extends in the arc tube in a tube axis direction, and a reinforcement rib that extends along the arc tube in the tube axis direction. |
| US08264132B2 |
Plasma jet ignition plug
An ignition plug that maintains excellent ignition performance over a long period of time through effective prevention of channeling. The ignition plug includes an insulator having an axial bore, a center electrode inserted into the axial bore, a metallic shell disposed externally of the outer circumference of the insulator, and a ground electrode fixed to a front end portion of the metallic shell. A cavity is defined by the wall surface of the axial bore and the front end surface of the center electrode. The ground electrode includes a body whose distal end portion is disposed away from the front end of the insulator, and a protrusion protruding from the body. |
| US08264129B2 |
Device and system for measuring material thickness
A piezoelectric sensing device is described for measuring material thickness of target such as pipes, tubes, and other conduits that carry fluids. The piezoelectric sensing device comprises a substrate such as a flexible circuit material, a piezoceramic element, and a solder layer disposed therebetween. These features are arranged in manner that provides a low-profile measurement device suitable for high-temperature applications such as those applications in which the temperature exceeds 120° C. Embodiments of the piezoelectric sensing device can be configured for use as stand-alone units separately located on the target or for use as a string of sensing elements coupled together by way of the flexible circuit material. |
| US08264128B2 |
Piezoelectric component and manufacturing method thereof
An object of the present invention is to economically manufacture a piezoelectric component having superior molding pressure resistance and reduced height. The present invention comprising: a piezoelectric substrate with piezoelectric devices formed on a principle surface; a device wiring section formed on the principle surface; protective film having a terminal electrode connected to the wiring section formed on its upper surface; a rewiring layer on an upper surface of the protective film and connected to a wiring section of another electrode; an inorganic material-buffer layer covers an entire upper surface of the rewiring layer excluding the piezoelectric devices; a photosensitive film-outer periphery wall, formed on an upper surface of the buffer layer; a photosensitive film-first ceiling layer, having mica filler added thereto is formed on an upper surface of the outer periphery wall; an insulating material mesh-shaped member, installed on an upper surface of the first ceiling layer; a photosensitive resin film-second ceiling layer with mica filler added thereto covers an upper surface of the mesh-shaped member; and through electrodes that pass through the first and second ceiling layers, the outer periphery wall, and the mesh-shaped member, thus between the outer periphery wall, the first ceiling layer, and the principle surface of the piezoelectric substrate, there is a hollow that accommodates the piezoelectric devices. |
| US08264121B2 |
Electrostatic generator/motor configurations
Electrostatic generators/motors designs are provided that include a stator fixedly connected to a first central support centered about a central axis. The stator elements are attached to the first central support. Similarly, a second stator is connected to a central support centered about the central axis, and the second stator has stator elements attached to the second central support. A rotor is located between the first stator and the second stator and includes an outer support, where the rotor is rotatably centered about the central axis, the rotor having elements in contact with the outer support, each rotor element having an extending rotor portion that extends radially from the outer support toward the axis of rotation. |
| US08264119B2 |
Rotor for rotary electric machine comprising magnet element between two adjacent teeth
A rotor (10) for a rotary electric machine which comprises: two field spiders (12) each of which runs more or less radially with respect to the main axis of the rotor (10) and comprises a series of axial arms (20) in which each arm (20) runs axially inwards from the associated field spider (12), towards the other field spider (12) in such a way that each arm (20) of a field spider (12) lies in the space there is between two consecutive arms (20) of the other field spider (12); and at least one magnetic element (24) the main orientation of which is longitudinal position transversely between two adjacent arms (20) belonging one to each field spider (12) and which comprises at least one magnet (28), characterized in that the magnetic element (24) comprises at least one support shim (30) made of a non-magnetic material and mounted on a transverse end face of the magnet (28), and means of connecting the shim (30) to the magnet (28). |
| US08264113B2 |
Brushless motor
A brushless motor including a stator having teeth and a rotor having magnetic pole portions is disclosed. The magnetic pole portions are arranged to have the same polarities as each other. The rotor includes gaps that function as magnetic resistance at circumferential ends of each of the magnetic pole portions so that an iron core portion is formed between the circumferentially adjacent magnetic pole portions. Magnetic flux of the magnetic pole portions passes through the iron core portion along the radial direction. The gaps include a first gap located on the leading end of the magnetic pole portion in the rotation direction of the rotor and a second gap located on the trailing end of the magnetic pole portion in the rotation direction of the rotor. The circumferential width of the first gap is set to be greater than the circumferential width of the second gap. |
| US08264112B2 |
Motor
A small DC motor includes a motor frame having a cylindrical portion, the cylindrical portion having a constant thickness and having a cross section in a shape that comprises four sides and connecting portions, each of the connecting portions connecting adjacent two of the four sides and being located inward from a corresponding corner in a quadrangle comprising the four sides; and a magnet having a circumferential surface on an inside thereof and having conformable contact with the motor frame on an outside thereof. |
| US08264109B2 |
Stator for external rotor motor
A stator for an external rotor motor, containing at least a stator core (1) having multiple teeth (4) and a shaft (3), a stator winding (2), multiple slots (5), a pair of end plates (6), a patch board (7) having a first through hole (8), a power wire (11), and a fastening device (9). The shaft (3) is disposed at the center of the stator core (1). The slot (5) is formed between adjacent teeth (4) of the stator core (1). The stator winding (2) is received in the slot (5) and wrapped around the teeth (4). The patch board (7) is disposed above one of the end plates (6). The shaft (3) passes through the first through hole (8) of the patch board (7). The fastening device (9) is disposed at the top of the patch board (7) and operates to fix the weld-connecting portion (10). |
| US08264107B2 |
AFPM coreless multi-generator and motor
The present invention relates to an AFPM coreless multi-generator and motor. The present invention is characterized in that the stator includes coils arranged between upper and lower jig plates made of a non-magnetic material, cooling insulating oil is filled in a space where the coils are mounted between the upper and lower jig plates and is sealed by both lateral plates, and one of the both lateral plates is fixedly coupled to the housing of the generator so as to allow the housing to perform thermal conduction. Also, the rotor includes magnets arranged on a rotor disc in a circular arc shape and a yoke element formed integrally with the rotor disc near a central portion thereof in such a fashion as to vertically protrude by a predetermined height. The rotor disc is fixedly mounted to the rotary shaft, and the yoke element is engaged with a yoke element of another rotor correspondingly adjacent to the rotor so as to allow the engaged yoke elements to serve as a passageway of a magnetic field. The rotor and stator are configured in a multi-structure. The present invention can be applied to a motor having the same structure as that of the generator. |
| US08264102B2 |
Device for flexible power transmission and deicing of a high-voltage power line by means of direct current
In order to provide an apparatus (1) for flexible power transmission and for deicing of a high-voltage line, which has a plurality of phases, by means of direct current, with an AC voltage connection of the high-voltage line which has a number of phases corresponding to the phases of the high-voltage line, each phase having at least one inductance (6) and a valve circuit (10) connected in series with each inductance (6), with the valve circuit (10) being connected by means of a junction point (11) to the AC voltage connection, and having a first current path (14) with a first power semiconductor valve (12) and a second current path (15) with a second power semiconductor valve (13), with the power semiconductor valves (12, 13) being connected in opposite senses with respect to one another with reference to the junction point (11) and in which case the first and the second current path (15) can be connected to a TCR star point by means of at least one star point switch (16, 17), whose design is simple and at the same time costs little, it is proposed that the TCR star point (18) is connected via a connecting line to a star point of a zero phase-sequence system suppression means (2, 21). |
| US08264099B2 |
Portable display for adaptive power strip
A portable display module for a power strip. The power strip having a power rail having a power bus and a communications bus. The power entry module and one or more receptacle modules mounted on the power rail. The portable display module includes a plurality of selectable views for displaying information on the display screen that the portable display modules receives from the power entry module and the one or more receptacle modules. |
| US08264098B2 |
Load driving device including first and second electric power lines between power supply and electric power conversion device
In a hybrid vehicle, rocker outer reinforcements serving as vehicle side frame members in a vehicle width direction extend in a vehicle front-rear direction. An electric power cable is provided such that a portion thereof along the vehicle front-rear direction is placed along an inner side surface of the rocker outer reinforcement in the vehicle width direction. An electric power cable is provided such that a portion thereof along the vehicle front-rear direction is placed along an inner side surface of the rocker outer reinforcement in the vehicle width direction. Further, each of the electric power cables is placed in a space portion formed between the rocker outer reinforcement and a center body pillar serving as an energy absorbing member absorbing energy in the event of a side collision of the vehicle. |
| US08264090B2 |
Semiconductor device including offset bonding pad and inspection method therefor
A semiconductor device includes a circuit block formed in a peripheral edge portion of a semiconductor chip, a circuit block pad formed on the circuit block providing an electrical connection for said circuit block, and a bonding pad laterally offset from the circuit block and the circuit block pad, the bonding pad being electrically connected to the circuit block pad and electrically connected to a lead frame by a bonding wire, the laterally offset bonding pad thereby functioning as a substitute wire bonding pad for the circuit block. |
| US08264089B2 |
Enhanced WLP for superior temp cycling, drop test and high current applications
A WLP device is provided with a flange shaped UBM or an embedded partial solder ball UBM on top of a copper post style circuit connection. |
| US08264087B2 |
Semiconductor package for discharging heat and method for fabricating the same
A semiconductor package for quickly discharging heat and a method for fabricating the same are disclosed. The semiconductor package includes a semiconductor package module having a first insulation member and at least one fluid passage passing through the insulation member. Circuit patterns are formed on a first face of the first insulation member. Semiconductor chips are then disposed on the first face and are electrically connected with the circuit patterns respectively. A second insulation member is formed so as to surround the side faces of the semiconductor chips, the first insulation member, and the circuit patterns. Finally, a through electrode is formed passing through the second insulation member of the semiconductor package module and electrically connecting to the circuit patterns. |
| US08264084B2 |
Solder-top enhanced semiconductor device for low parasitic impedance packaging
A solder-top enhanced semiconductor device is proposed for packaging. The solder-top device includes a device die with a top metal layer patterned into contact zones and contact enhancement zones. At least one contact zone is electrically connected to at least one contact enhancement zone. Atop each contact enhancement zone is a solder layer for an increased composite thickness thus lowered parasitic impedance. Where the top metal material can not form a uniform good electrical bond with the solder material, the device die further includes an intermediary layer sandwiched between and forming a uniform electrical bond with the top metal layer and the solder layer. A method for making the solder-top device includes: a) Lithographically patterning the top metal layer into the contact zones and the contact enhancement zones. b) Forming a solder layer atop each of the contact enhancement zones using a stencil process for an increased composite thickness. |
| US08264083B2 |
Semiconductor device and semiconductor device manufacturing method
A first impurity diffusion layer in a memory cell portion and a second impurity diffusion layer in a peripheral circuit portion are provided in a surface of a semiconductor substrate and having upper faces substantially flush with each other. First and second insulating films are formed to cover the upper faces of the impurity diffusion layers, and having substantially uniform film thicknesses. A first metal plug is formed in the insulating films, and connected to the first impurity diffusion layer. A second metal plug is formed in the first insulating film, to have a lower height than the first metal plug, and is connected to the second impurity diffusion layer. A first metal interconnection is connected to an upper end portion of the first metal plug, and having an upper face embedded in and flush with the second insulating film. A second metal interconnection is connected to an upper end portion of the second metal plug, and having an upper face embedded in and flush with the second insulating film. |
| US08264082B2 |
Semiconductor devices with low resistance back-side coupling
Electronic elements with very low resistance back-side coupling are provided by forming one or more narrow trenches or pipes, preferably dielectric lined, in front sides of substrates, filling the trenches or pipes with a conductor having a coefficient of expansion not too different from that of the substrate but of higher conductivity, forming an epitaxial SC layer over the front side of the substrate in Ohmic contact with the conductor the trenches or pipes, forming various semiconductor (SC) devices in the epi-layer, back grinding the substrate to expose bottoms of the conductor filled trenches or pipes, and providing a back-side conductor contacting the conductor in the trenches or pipes. For silicon SCs, tungsten is a suitable conductor for filling the trenches or pipes to minimize substrate stress. Series ON-resistance of the elements due to the substrate resistance is substantially reduced. |
| US08264080B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of dual-molding die formed on opposite sides of build-up interconnect structure
A semiconductor device has a first interconnect structure. A first semiconductor die has an active surface oriented towards and mounted to a first surface of the first interconnect structure. A first encapsulant is deposited over the first interconnect structure and first semiconductor die. A second semiconductor die has an active surface oriented towards and mounted to a second surface of the first interconnect structure opposite the first surface. A plurality of first conductive pillars is formed over the second surface of the first interconnect structure and around the second semiconductor die. A second encapsulant is deposited over the second semiconductor die and around the plurality of first conductive pillars. A second interconnect structure including a conductive layer and bumps is formed over the second encapsulant and electrically connects to the plurality of first conductive pillars and the first and second semiconductor die. |
| US08264077B2 |
Backside metal of redistribution line with silicide layer on through-silicon via of semiconductor chips
An integrated circuit structure includes a semiconductor substrate having a front side and a backside. A through-silicon via (TSV) penetrates the semiconductor substrate. The TSV has a back end extending to the backside of the semiconductor substrate. A redistribution line (RDL) is over the backside of the semiconductor substrate and connected to the back end of the TSV. A silicide layer is over and contacting the RDL. |
| US08264073B2 |
Multi-phase voltage regulation module
A voltage regulator module that includes components for a multi-phase converter, the converter including a plurality of power stage elements on one circuit board, a control element, driver elements, and elements for the output stages of the power stage elements on another circuit board. |
| US08264072B2 |
Electronic device
An electronic device is disclosed. In one embodiment, the electronic device includes a substrate, a plurality of conducting lines formed on a first conducting material that is disposed on the substrate, and a layer of a second conducting material disposed on the plurality of conducting lines. The conducting lines include a top face and a side face. The layer of the second conducting material includes a first thickness disposed on each of the top faces and a second thickness disposed on each of the side faces. To this end, the first thickness is greater than the second thickness. |
| US08264068B2 |
Multi-chip stack package structure
A multi-chip stack package structure comprises a substrate, which has a chip placement area defined on its upper surface and a plurality of contacts disposed outside the chip placement area; a first chip is disposed in the chip placement area with the rear surface, a plurality of first pads being disposed on the active surface and a plurality of first bumps each being formed on one of the first pads; a plurality of metal wires connect the first bumps to the contacts; a second chip with a plurality of second pads being disposed on the active surface and a plurality of second bumps each being formed on one of the second pads, the second chip being mounted to the first chip with its active surface facing the active surface of the first chip, wherein the second bumps correspondingly connect the metal wires and the first bumps respectively. |
| US08264064B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate on which an internal circuit is formed in a central position an insulating layer formed over the semiconductor substrate, and a moisture-resistant ring formed by a metal plug embedded in the insulating layer, the moisture-resistant ring surrounding the internal circuit, the moisture-resistant ring extending over the semiconductor substrate in a shape, the moisture-resistant ring including a first extending portion linearly extending in a first direction in parallel to the surface of the semiconductor substrate, a vertical portion connected to the first extending portion extending in a second direction orthogonal to the first extending portion, and a second extending portion orthogonal to the vertical portion and parallel to the surface of the semiconductor substrate, the second extending portion spaced apart from the first extending portion, the second extending portion crossing the vertical portion. |
| US08264062B2 |
Semiconductor device having capacitor capable of reducing additional processes and its manufacture method
A first capacitor recess and a wiring trench are formed through an interlayer insulating film. A lower electrode fills the first capacitor recess, and a first wiring fills the wiring trench. An etching stopper film and a via layer insulating film are disposed over the interlayer insulating film. A first via hole extends through the via layer insulating film and etching stopper film and reaches the first wiring, and a first plug fills the first via hole. A second capacitor recess is formed through the via layer insulating film, the second capacitor recess at least partially overlapping the lower electrode, as viewed in plan. The upper electrode covers the bottom and side surfaces of the second capacitor recess. A capacitor is constituted of the upper electrode, etching stopper film and lower electrode. A second wring connected to the first plug is formed over the via layer insulating film. |
| US08264059B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of forming holes in substrate to interconnect top shield and ground shield
A semiconductor device includes a multi-layer substrate. A ground shield is disposed between layers of the substrate and electrically connected to a ground point. A plurality of semiconductor die is mounted to the substrate over the ground shield. The ground shield extends beyond a footprint of the plurality of semiconductor die. An encapsulant is formed over the plurality of semiconductor die and substrate. Dicing channels are formed in the encapsulant, between the plurality of semiconductor die, and over the ground shield. A plurality of metal-filled holes is formed along the dicing channels, and extends into the substrate and through the ground shield. A top shield is formed over the plurality of semiconductor die and electrically and mechanically connects to the ground shield through the metal-filled holes. The top and ground shields are configured to block electromagnetic interference generated with respect to an integrated passive device disposed in the semiconductor die. |
| US08264058B2 |
MOS-driver compatible JFET structure with enhanced gate source characteristics
A MOSFET driver compatible JFET device is disclosed. The JFET device can include a gate contact, a drain contact, and a source contact. The JFET device can further include a first gate region of semiconductor material adjacent the gate contact and a second region of semiconductor material adjacent the first gate region. The first gate region and the second gate region can form a first p-n junction between the first gate region and the second gate region. The JFET device can further include a channel region of semiconductor material adjacent the source contact. The channel region and the second gate region can form a second p-n junction between the second gate region and the channel region. |
| US08264057B2 |
Semiconductor device driving bridge-connected power transistor
A semiconductor device includes a low-side circuit, high-side circuit, a virtual ground potential pad, a common ground potential pad and a diode, formed on a semiconductor substrate. The low-side circuit drives a low-side power transistor. The high-side circuit is provided at a high potential region, and drives a high-side power transistor. The virtual ground potential pad is arranged at the high potential region, and coupled to a connection node of both power transistors to supply a virtual ground potential to the high-side circuit. The common ground potential pad supplies a common ground potential to the low-side circuit and high-side circuit. The diode has its cathode connected to the virtual ground potential pad and its anode connected to the common ground potential pad. |
| US08264056B2 |
Schottky diode
A Schottky diode comprises an ohmic layer that can serve as a cathode and a metal layer that can serve as an anode, and a drift channel formed of semiconductor material that extends between the ohmic and metal layers. The drift channel includes a heavily doped region adjacent to the ohmic contact layer. The drift channel forms a Schottky barrier with the metal layer. A pinch-off mechanism is provided for pinching off the drift channel while the Schottky diode is reverse-biased. As a result, the level of saturation or leakage current between the metal layer and the ohmic contact layer under a reverse bias condition of the Schottky diode is reduced. |
| US08264054B2 |
MEMS device having electrothermal actuation and release and method for fabricating
MEMS Device having Electrothermal Actuation and Release and Method for Fabricating. According to one embodiment, a microscale switch is provided and can include a substrate and a stationary electrode and stationary contact formed on the substrate. The switch can further include a movable microcomponent suspended above the substrate. The microcomponent can include a structural layer including at least one end fixed with respect to the substrate. The microcomponent can further include a movable electrode spaced from the stationary electrode and a movable contact spaced from the stationary electrode. The microcomponent can include an electrothermal component attached to the structural layer and operable to produce heating for generating force for moving the structural layer. |
| US08264052B2 |
Symmetric STT-MRAM bit cell design
A symmetric Spin Transfer Torque Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM) bit cell and STT-MRAM bit cell array are disclosed. The STT-MRAM bit cell includes a poly silicon layer, a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) storage element, and a bottom electrode (BE) plate. The storage element and bottom electrode (BE) plate are symmetric along a center line of the poly silicon layer. |
| US08264042B2 |
Hybrid orientation accumulation mode GAA CMOSFET
A hybrid orientation accumulation mode GAA (Gate-All-Around) CMOSFET includes a PMOS region having a first channel, an NMOS region having a second channel and a gate region. The first channel and the second channel have a racetrack-shaped cross section and are formed of p-type Si(110) and n-type Si(100), respectively; the surfaces of the first channel and the second channel are substantially surrounded by the gate region; a buried oxide layer is disposed between the PMOS region and the NMOS region and between the PMOS or NMOS region and the Si substrate to isolate them from one another. The device structure according to the prevent invention is quite simple, compact and highly integrated. In an accumulation mode, current flows through the overall racetrack-shaped channel. The disclosed device results in high carrier mobility. Meanwhile polysilicon gate depletion and short channel effects are prevented, and threshold voltage is increased. |
| US08264040B2 |
Lateral power transistor and method for producing same
A power transistor includes a semiconductor layer an electrode layer. The semiconductor layer having a source zone, a drain zone spaced apart from the source zone in a lateral direction, a drift zone adjacent to the drain zone, and a body zone. The body zone is interposed between the drift zone and the source zone. The electrode layer is dielectrically insulated from the semiconductor layer, and includes a gate electrode divided into at least two sections and a field plate. The field plate is arranged at a first height level relative to the semiconductor layer. A first gate electrode section is arranged at least partially at a second height level, which is lower than the first height level relative to the semiconductor layer. A second gate electrode section, which is laterally displaced from the first gate electrode section, is disposed at a first intermediate level arranged between the first and second height levels. |
| US08264039B2 |
High-voltage LDMOSFET and applications therefor in standard CMOS
A high-voltage LDMOSFET includes a semiconductor substrate, in which a gate well is formed. A source well and a drain well are formed on either side of the gate well, and include insulating regions within them that do not reach the full depth. An insulating layer is disposed on the substrate, covering the gate well and a portion of the source well and the drain well. A conductive gate is disposed on the insulating layer. Biasing wells are formed adjacent the source well and the drain well. A deep well is formed in the substrate such that it communicates with the biasing wells and the gate well, while extending under the source well and the drain well, such as to avoid them. Biasing contacts at the top of the biasing wells bias the deep well, and therefore also the gate well. |
| US08264038B2 |
Buried floating layer structure for improved breakdown
A buried layer architecture which includes a floating buried layer structure adjacent to a high voltage buried layer connected to a deep well of the same conductivity type for components in an IC is disclosed. The floating buried layer structure surrounds the high voltage buried layer and extends a depletion region of the buried layer to reduce a peak electric field at lateral edges of the buried layer. When the size and spacing of the floating buried layer structure are optimized, the well connected to the buried layer may be biased to 100 volts without breakdown. Adding a second floating buried layer structure surrounding the first floating buried layer structure allows operation of the buried layer up to 140 volts. The buried layer architecture with the floating buried layer structure may be incorporated into a DEPMOS transistor, an LDMOS transistor, a buried collector npn bipolar transistor and an isolated CMOS circuit. |
| US08264033B2 |
Semiconductor device having a floating semiconductor zone
A semiconductor device includes a first trench and a second trench extending into a semiconductor body from a surface. A body region of a first conductivity type adjoins a first sidewall of the first trench and a first sidewall of the second trench, the body region including a channel portion adjoining to a source structure and being configured to be controlled in its conductivity by a gate structure. The channel portion is formed at the first sidewall of the second trench and is not formed at the first sidewall of the first trench. An electrically floating semiconductor zone of the first conductivity type adjoins the first trench and has a bottom side located deeper within the semiconductor body than the bottom side of the body region. |
| US08264032B2 |
Accumulation type FinFET, circuits and fabrication method thereof
A FinFET includes a substrate and a fin structure on the substrate. The fin structure includes a channel between a source and a drain, wherein the source, the drain, and the channel have the first type dopant. The channel includes a Ge, SiGe, or III-V semiconductor. A gate dielectric layer is located over the channel and a gate is located over the gate dielectric layer. |
| US08264030B2 |
Flash memory device and manufacturing method of the same
A flash memory device and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The flash memory device can include first and second memory gates on a substrate, an oxide layer on sides of and on the substrate outside of the first and second memory gates, a source poly contact between the first and second memory gates, first and second select gates outside the first and second memory gates, a drain region outside the first and second select gates, and a metal contact on the drain region and the source poly contact. |
| US08264019B2 |
Multiplexed output two terminal photodiode array for imaging applications and related fabrication process
A detector array for an imaging system may exploit the different sensitivities of array pixels to an incident flux of low energy photons with a wavelength falling near the high end of the range of sensitivity of the semiconductor. The detector array may provide the de-multiplexable spatial information. The detector array may include a two-terminal multi-pixel array of Schottky photodiodes electrically connected in parallel. |
| US08264005B2 |
Compound semiconductor device including AIN layer of controlled skewness
A semiconductor epitaxial substrate includes: a single crystal substrate; an AlN layer epitaxially grown on the single crystal substrate; and a nitride semiconductor layer epitaxially grown on the AlN layer, wherein an interface between the AlN layer and nitride semiconductor layer has a larger roughness than an interface between the single crystal substrate and AlN layer, and a skewness of the upper surface of the AlN layer is positive. |
| US08264002B2 |
Field-effect transistor
An AlN buffer layer, an undoped GaN layer, an undoped AlGaN layer, a p-type GaN layer and a heavily doped p-type GaN layer are formed in this order. A gate electrode forms an Ohmic contact with the heavily doped p-type GaN layer. A source electrode and a drain electrode are provided on the undoped AlGaN layer. A pn junction is formed in a gate region by a two dimensional electron gas generated at an interface between the undoped AlGaN layer and the undoped GaN layer and the p-type GaN layer, so that a gate voltage can be increased. |
| US08264001B2 |
Semiconductor wafer having multi-layered buffer region formed from compound semiconductor materials
A semiconductor wafer includes a substrate, a buffer region formed on one main surface of the substrate and formed from a compound semiconductor, and a main semiconductor region formed in the buffer region and formed from a compound semiconductor, wherein the buffer region includes a first multi-layer structured buffer region and a second multi-layer structured buffer region stacked with a plurality of alternating first layers and second layers, and a single layer structured buffer region arranged between the first multi-layer structured buffer region and the second multi-layer structured buffer region, the first layer is formed from a compound semiconductor which has a lattice constant smaller than a lattice constant of a material which forms the substrate, the second layer is formed from a compound semiconductor which has a lattice constant between a lattice constant of a material which forms the substrate and a lattice constant of a material which forms the first layer, and wherein the single layer structured buffer region is thicker than the first layer and the second layer, and is formed from a compound semiconductor which has a lattice constant between a lattice constant of a material which forms the first layer and a lattice constant of a material which forms the second layer. |
| US08263997B2 |
Method for forming ohmic electrode and semiconductor light emitting element
The present invention relates to a method of forming an ohmic electrode in a semiconductor light emitting element, comprising: forming a semiconductor layer having a light emitting structure on a substrate, sequentially laminating a bonding layer, a reflective layer and a protective layer on the semiconductor layer, and forming an ohmic electrode by performing a heat treatment process to form ohmic bonding between the semiconductor layer and the bonding layer and to form an oxide film on at least a portion of the protective layer; and a semiconductor light emitting element using the ohmic electrode. According to the present invention, since a reflective layer is formed of Ag, Al and an alloy thereof with excellent light reflectivity, the light availability is enhanced. Further, since contact resistance between a semiconductor layer and a bonding layer is small, it is easy to apply large current for high power. |
| US08263994B2 |
LED package
A LED package includes a substrate, at least one LED chip, a transparent adhesive and a lens. The at least one LED chip is mounted on the substrate. The transparent adhesive is filled between the LED chip and the lens. A number of through holes is regularly defined in an optical non-effective portion of the lens. The through holes are configured for increasing the air convection between inside and outside of the lens. |
| US08263992B2 |
Light emitting unit
A light emitting unit includes a substrate, a first reflecting element, a light-emitting diode (LED), and a second reflecting element. At least one part of the substrate is light permeable. The LED is disposed between the substrate and the first reflecting element, and the first and second reflecting elements are disposed on two opposite sides of the substrate, respectively. |
| US08263991B2 |
Light-emitting gallium nitride-based III-V group compound semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof
A light-emitting gallium nitride-based III-V group compound semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof are disclosed. The light emitting device includes a substrate, a n-type semiconductor layer over the substrate, an active layer over the n-type semiconductor layer, a p-type semiconductor layer over the active layer, a conductive layer over the p-type semiconductor layer, a first electrode disposed on the conductive layer and a second electrode arranged on exposed part of the n-type semiconductor layer. A resistant reflective layer or a contact window is disposed on the p-type semiconductor layer, corresponding to the first electrode so that current passes beside the resistant reflective layer or by the contact window to the active layer for generating light. When the light is transmitted to the conductive layer for being emitted, it is not absorbed or shielded by the first electrode. Thus the current is distributed efficiently over the conductive layer. Therefore, both LED brightness and efficiency are improved. Moreover, adhesion between the conductive layer and the p-type semiconductor layer is improved so that metal peel-off problem during manufacturing processes can be improved. |
| US08263990B2 |
Compound semiconductor light-emitting element and illumination device using the same, and method for manufacturing compound semiconductor light-emitting element
A compound semiconductor light-emitting element includes: a substrate; a first electrode provided on one face of the substrate; a plurality of nanoscale columnar crystalline structures in which an n-type semiconductor layer, a light-emitting layer and a p-type semiconductor layer are stacked in order on the other face of the substrate; a second electrode connected to top portions of the plurality of columnar crystalline structures; and a foundation layer, provided on the side of the other face, in a first region being a partial region of the substrate; wherein a level difference is provided, on the other face, between the first region and a second region being at least part of a remaining region of the substrate excluding the first region. |
| US08263989B2 |
Semiconductor light emitting device
A semiconductor light emitting device comprises a first nitride semiconductor layer comprising a plurality of concave portions, a reflector in at least one of the concave portions of the first nitride semiconductor layer, and a second nitride semiconductor layer on the first nitride semiconductor layer. |
| US08263977B2 |
TFT substrate and TFT substrate manufacturing method
An object of the invention is to provide a TFT substrate and a method for producing a TFT substrate which is capable of drastically reducing the production cost by decreasing the number of steps in the production process and improving production yield. A TFT substrate comprises: a substrate; a first oxide layer formed above the substrate; a second oxide layer formed above the first oxide layer with a channel part interposed therebetween; a gate insulating film formed above the substrate, the first oxide layer and the second oxide layer; a gate electrode and a gate wire formed above the gate insulating film. |
| US08263976B2 |
Semiconductor structure with coincident lattice interlayer
A semiconductor structure consistent with certain implementations has a crystalline substrate oriented with a {111} plane surface that is within 10 degrees of surface normal. An epitaxially grown electrically insulating interlayer overlays the crystalline substrate and establishes a coincident lattice that mates with the surface symmetry of the {111} plane surface. An atomically stable two dimensional crystalline film resides on the epitaxial insulating layer with a coincident lattice match to the insulating interlayer. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract. |
| US08263972B2 |
Organic electroluminescent device and display medium
An organic electroluminescent device includes: a pair of electrodes including a positive electrode and a negative electrode, at least one of the electrodes being transparent or semi-transparent; and an organic compound layer including one or more layers interposed between the pair of electrodes, at least one layer included in the organic compound layer containing one or more compounds represented by the following formula (I): in formula (I), R1s each independently representing a linear alkyl, linear alkoxy, branched alkyl, or branched alkoxy group having from 3 to 20 carbon atoms; and R2s each independently representing a hydrogen atom, a linear alkyl group having from 1 to 20 carbon atoms, a linear alkoxy group having from 1 to 20 carbon atoms, a branched alkyl group having from 3 to 20 carbon atoms, or a branched alkoxy group having from 3 to 20 carbon atoms. |
| US08263971B2 |
Organic light emitting diode display device
The OLED display device includes a first stack and a second stack that are separated from each other between an anode electrode and a cathode electrode, with a charge generation layer sandwiched between the first stack and the second stack, each of the first stack and the second stack having an emission layer. The first stack includes a blue emission layer formed between the anode electrode and the CGL. The second stack includes a fluorescent green emission layer and a phosphorescent red emission layer formed between the cathode electrode and the CGL. The blue emission layer includes one of a fluorescent blue emission layer and a phosphorescent blue emission layer. |
| US08263969B2 |
Laminated structure and image display device
A laminated structure includes a wettability variable layer formed on a substrate, including a material whose critical surface tension varies by receiving energy so that high and low surface energy regions are formed; a conductive layer formed in one of the high surface energy regions; and an insulating layer formed in such a manner as to cover the conductive layer, wherein another one of the high surface energy regions is formed in such a manner as to surround a periphery of a circuit formation region in which a plurality of the conductive layers are formed; and the insulating layer is formed in such a manner as to also cover the another one of the high surface energy regions so that an adhesive guard ring region is formed between the wettability variable layer and the insulating layer. |
| US08263967B1 |
Bi-layer pseudo-spin field-effect transistor
A bi-layer pseudo-spin field-effect transistor (BiSFET) is disclosed. The BiSFET includes a first and second conduction layers separated by a tunnel dielectric. The BiSFET transistor also includes a first gate separated from the first conduction layer by an insulating dielectric layer, and a second gate separated from the second conduction layer by an insulating layer. These conduction layers may be composed of graphene. The voltages applied to the first and/or second gates can control the peak current and associated voltage value for current flow between top and bottom conduction channels, and interlayer current voltage characteristic exhibiting negative differential resistance. BiSFETs may be used to make a variety of logic gates. A clocked power supply scheme may be used to facilitate BiSFET-based logic. |
| US08263962B2 |
Inverted variable resistance memory cell and method of making the same
An inverted variable resistance memory cell and a method of fabricating the same. The memory cell is fabricated by forming an opening in an insulating layer deposited over a semiconductor substrate, etching the top portion of the opening to have a substantially hemispherical-shape, forming a metal layer in the opening, and overlying a variable resistance material over the metal layer. |
| US08263955B2 |
Causing relative motion
Sensors can be used to obtain encoded sensing results from objects that have nonuniform relative motion. A photosensor or impedance-based sensor, for example, can obtain sensing results from objects that have relative motion within a sensing region relative to the sensor, with the relative motion being, for example, periodically varying, randomly varying, chirp-varying, or modulated relative motion that completes at least one modulation cycle within the sensing region. Relative motion can be caused by varying objects' speed and/or direction or by controlling flow of fluid carrying objects, movement of a channel, movement of a support structure, movement of a sensor, and/or pattern movement. A fluidic implementation can include shaped channel wall parts and/or a displacement component causing time-varying lateral displacement. A support structure implementation can include a scanner device and a rotary device that respectively control scanning and rotating movement of a movable support structure or of a sensor. |
| US08263952B1 |
Lead free barium sulfate electrical insulator and method of manufacture
A high voltage insulator and radiation shield made of barium sulfate composite comprising a polymer matrix and at least about 20 percent barium sulfate therein. The device may be made by casting. By means of use of various combinations of barium sulfate, other radiologically resistant materials, polymers, and third components, the physical, radiological and electrical properties of the finished products may be tailored to achieve desired properties. In addition, the invention teaches that radiation shielding, insulators, and combined radiation shield/insulators may be fashioned from the composite. A wide range of production methods may be employed, including but not limited to liquid resin casting. |
| US08263951B2 |
System and method for fabricating macroscopic objects, and nano-assembled objects obtained therewith
A method and a system for fabricating a macroscopic object, comprising, in an environment at least one energy source; at least one hollow cathode separated from an anode by a bias potential; and a support; a flow of gas through the hollow cathode generating a hollow cathode discharge, particles emitted by the hollow cathode being assembled on the support under action of energy from the energy source. |
| US08263949B2 |
Lighting design of high quality biomedical devices
The invention relates to a plurality of light sources to power a variety of applications including microarray readers, microplate scanners, microfluidic analyzers, sensors, sequencers, Q-PCR and a host of other bioanalytical tools that drive today's commercial, academic and clinical biotech labs. |
| US08263948B2 |
Authentication apparatus for moving value documents
An authentication apparatus used to authenticate a moving value document with uniform or non-uniform distribution of a pre-selected covert composition that includes an active ion that emits optical radiation at a pre-selected wavelength when excited by exciting incident light. The optical radiation is imaged onto at least one photodetector having first and second detector elements. The imaged intensities are captured at pre-determined times relating to the velocity of the value document. The ratio between the second detector element and the first detector element measured at the same image location or different image locations represents the characteristic decay time intensity data of the pre-selected wavelength emission. The authenticity of the value document is rejected when the pre-selected wavelength emission is not received by the at least one photodetector or when the output electronic signal ratio does not meet expected value. |
| US08263945B2 |
Optical wavelength demultiplexing detector for fluorescence analysis and fluorescence detection system
An optical wavelength demultiplexing detector for fluorescence analysis that is compact, has a small number of components, and is easy to assemble. An excitation light received via a first optical transmission path is outputted to a second optical transmission path, and a fluorescence arising from the excitation light outputted from the second optical transmission path is received via the second optical transmission path and detected. The excitation light having propagated through the first optical transmission path and the fluorescence having propagated through the second optical transmission path are received by the same surface of a first lens. An optical wavelength selection member comprised of a dielectric multilayer film receives the excitation light and the fluorescence passed through the first lens, and reflects the excitation light and passes the fluorescence. A photoelectric conversion element directly receives the fluorescence passed through the first optical wavelength selection member. |
| US08263943B2 |
Ion beam device
Provided is an ion beam device provided with a gas electric field ionization ion source which can prevent an emitter tip from vibrating in a non-contact manner. The gas electric field ionization ion source is comprised of an emitter tip (21) for generating ions; an emitter base mount (64) for supporting the emitter tip; an ionizing chamber which has an extraction electrode (24) opposed to the emitter tip and which is configured so as to surround the emitter tip (21); and a gas supply tube (25) for supplying gas to the vicinity of the emitter tip. The emitter base mount and a vacuum container magnetically interact with each other. |
| US08263940B2 |
Neutron detector with neutron converter, method for manufacturing the neutron detector and neutron imaging apparatus
A detector for detecting neutrons includes a neutron reactive material interacting with neutrons to be detected and releasing ionizing radiation reaction products in relation to the interactions. It also includes a first semiconductor element being coupled with the neutron reactive material and adapted to interact with the ionizing radiation reaction products and provide electrical charges proportional to the energy of the ionizing radiation reaction products. In addition electrodes are arranged in connection with the first semiconductor element for providing charge collecting areas for collecting the electrical charges and to provide electrically readable signal proportional to the collected electrical charges. In the detector the neutron reactive material is arranged so that the incident neutrons to be detected interact with the neutron reactive material essentially in the portion nearest to the charge collecting areas provided by the electrodes in the first semiconductor element to which the neutron reactive material is coupled with. |
| US08263939B2 |
Compressive millimeter wave imaging
An apparatus comprising a mirror array having a plurality of mirrors and a control system. The plurality of mirrors is capable of receiving a signal for an image. The control system is capable of controlling a first portion of the plurality of mirrors in the mirror array to direct a first portion of the signal to a detector. The control system is also capable of controlling a second portion of the plurality of mirrors in the mirror array to direct a second portion of the signal away from the detector. |
| US08263937B2 |
Apparatus and method for acquiring time waveform of terahertz waves
A method for acquiring an accurate time waveform of terahertz waves includes: acquiring a first time waveform by using a first delay portion with a first difference in length of the optical paths in the second delay portion, using a second delay portion to change the first difference in length of the optical paths to a second difference in length of the optical paths that is different from the first difference in length of the optical paths, acquiring a second time waveform by using the first delay portion with the second difference in length of the optical paths, adjusting the acquired first and second time waveforms in accordance with a predetermined differences in length of the optical paths based on the first and second differences in length of the optical paths, and averaging the first and second time waveforms according to the predetermined difference in length of the optical paths. |
| US08263928B1 |
High speed photonic analog to digital quantizer
An input analog signal is applied to electrodes bracketing electro-optically responsive waveguides being driven by a continuous wave or pulsed laser. The waveguides have reflection elements installed with transmission spectra sized, located and designed to transmit the laser light to photodetectors. The transmission of the laser light depends on the shift in transmission spectra caused by the applied analog voltage. The reflection element transmits laser light according to a digital encoding design. The second embodiment describes a device and method for converting high frequency analog signals greater than approximately 10 GHz into digital signals. The high frequency quantizer relies on reflectors reflecting the laser light as a high frequency RF pulse propagates along electrodes bracketing the electro-optically responsive material in the opposite direction of the laser light. |
| US08263927B2 |
Circuit and method for temperature and process independent transimpedance amplifier arrangement
An integrated circuit transimpedance amplifier arrangement constituted of: a plurality of internal matched resistors; a current multiplier arranged to output a signal whose value is a function of an input current signal, an external resistor and a first set of the plurality of internal matched resistors; and an output transimpedance amplifier coupled to the output of the current multiplier, the output transimpedance amplifier exhibiting a gain whose value is a function of a second set of the plurality of internal matched resistors, wherein the output of the output transimpedance amplifier is a function of the input current signal, the external resistor, the first set of the plurality of internal matched resistors and the second set of the plurality of internal matched resistors, wherein the variations with temperature of the first set of the plurality of internal matched resistors and the second set of the plurality of internal matched resistors cancel. |
| US08263926B2 |
Photoelectric conversion device and manufacturing method thereof
It is an object to provide a photoelectric conversion device which detects light ranging from weak light to strong light. The present invention relates to a photoelectric conversion device having a photodiode having a photoelectric conversion layer, an amplifier circuit including a thin film transistor and a bias switching means, where a bias which is connected to the photodiode and the amplifier circuit is switched by the bias switching means when intensity of incident light exceeds predetermined intensity, and accordingly, light which is less than the predetermined intensity is detected by the photodiode and light which is more than the predetermined intensity is detected by the thin film transistor of the amplifier circuit. By the present invention, light ranging from weak light to strong light can be detected. |
| US08263921B2 |
Processing methods for speckle-based motion sensing
One embodiment relates to a method of tracking motion using a speckle-based motion sensor. A distance moved is determined by a first signal processing procedure, and a distance moved is determined by a second signal processing procedure. Selection between said distances is made based on whether the distance determined by the first signal processing procedure exceeds a predetermined threshold distance. According to a preferred embodiment, the first signal processing procedure makes a more accurate determination of distance for slower speeds, while the second signal processing procedure makes a more accurate determination of distance for higher speeds. Other embodiments, aspects and features are also disclosed. |
| US08263920B2 |
Diodeless terrestrial photovoltaic solar power array
A method and device are disclosed for diodeless terrestrial photovoltaic solar power arrays. In one or more embodiments, the method and device involve a solar power array device without blocking diodes and/or without bypass diodes. The method comprises providing a solar module, a solar array tracker, a power bus, a controller, and an inverter. In one or more embodiments, the method further comprises providing a circuit breaker and/or a bi-position switch. When the controller senses that the solar module power is below a threshold level, the controller commands the solar tracker to vary the solar module's pointing until the solar module is operating at its maximum power point for the solar module's level of illumination. In some embodiments, when the controller senses that the solar module power is less than a minimum bypass threshold level, the controller commands a bi-position switch to bypass current around the solar module. |
| US08263916B2 |
Induction heating body and induction heating container
In an induction heating body 1 in which heat is generated by eddy current induced by a high-frequency magnetic field, when forming a radially-directed separation section 31 separated from the center to the outer periphery, one of end brim parts 31a1 is superimposed on the other end brim parts 31a2 or they are close to each other with the end surfaces thereof 31b1 and 31b2 being abutted. |
| US08263914B2 |
Cartridge heater and method of use
This invention relates to an electric cartridge heater and a method of operation, suitable for use in producing high purity silicon in solar cells or solar modules. The apparatus includes a single-piece elongated heater bar having a length, a first end, and a second end. The apparatus also includes a slot beginning at the first end and running a portion of the length, and the slot dividing the heater bar into a first arm and a second arm. An elbow at the second end joins the first arm and the second arm together. The apparatus also includes a first electrode in electrical communication with the first arm, and a second electrode in electrical communication with the second arm. |
| US08263912B2 |
Noise reduced PWM driver
A PWM driver for driving an electric device by a PWM signal includes an ECU that provides a command signal, first circuit that provides a carrier signal of a triangular shape having a preset frequency, a second circuit that forms a PWM signal having a duty ratio formed based on the carrier signal and the command signal and an output circuit that drives an output device. The second circuit includes a duty ratio limiting circuit that limits the duty ratio of the PWM signal to a range between a first duty ratio and a second duty ratio to prevent the wave shape of the PWM signal from becoming a shape of an impulse. |
| US08263910B2 |
Heater
A heater has an outer casing and at least one core assembly. An air inlet is formed through a rear surface of the outer casing. Two air outlets are formed respectively through two sides of the outer casing. Each core assembly is mounted in the outer casing and has at least one fan and two heating assemblies. Each fan draws air axially from the air inlet and blows air radially towards the air outlets. The heating assemblies are mounted respectively in the sides of the outer casing and correspond respectively to the air outlets. With such positioning of the air inlet and the air outlets of the outer casing, and with the fan drawing air axially and blowing air radially, the warm air blows out from both sides of the outer casing. Thus, convection speed is increased and ambient air temperature is warmed more effectively. |
| US08263902B2 |
Laser-scribing system for structuring substrates for thin layer solar modules
The invention relates to a laser scribing system (10) for structuring substrates, said system being characterized in that the planar rotor (56) together with the laser device (60) has a mass that is essentially less than the mass of the table (20) and the substrate (30) such that the machining speed is increased, and the substrate arranged on the table (20) is still during the machining, or moves in a direction at a constant speed vSubstrat such that vibrations are reduced and the precision of the scribing traces increased. Furthermore, other planar rotors (56) can be mounted with a laser device (60) without changing the structure of the machine such that the productivity is easily increased. The laser light (65) is also guided, by means of optical fibers, as close as possible to the machining point, reducing the free length of the light beam (65) such that the adjustment requirements for the optical-mechanical components are reduced and the system is more robust. |
| US08263901B2 |
Method for laser micromachining
A method of laser micro-machining, by means of a laser, a work piece (31) of the type described comprising the steps of: locating the workpiece on a carrier forming a part of a transport system whereby the carrier can be displaced along a path (P) parallel to an X-axis of the workpiece, a Y-axis lying transverse the path, and a Z-axis lying transverse the path; focusing an image generated by means of an output beam from the laser at a working datum position (A) defined relative to the path which path is established by means of the transport system to traverse the first datum position; a plane defined by the X- and Y-Axis lying substantially perpendicular to the output beam; and displacing the workpiece along the path by way of the transport system so as to enable the work-piece to be subject to micro-machining by way of the laser characterized by the steps of: maintaining distance between the datum position and a current first surface position of the work-piece in the vicinity of the datum position; and varying the working datum position to accord with local variations in thickness of the workpiece so that the working datum position is maintained at a fixed distance relative to a surface of the workpiece apparatus therefor. |
| US08263899B2 |
High throughput solar cell ablation system
A solar cell is formed using a solar cell ablation system. The ablation system includes a single laser source and several laser scanners. The laser scanners include a master laser scanner, with the rest of the laser scanners being slaved to the master laser scanner. A laser beam from the laser source is split into several laser beams, with the laser beams being scanned onto corresponding wafers using the laser scanners in accordance with one or more patterns. The laser beams may be scanned on the wafers using the same or different power levels of the laser source. |
| US08263896B2 |
Automated determination of plasma torch operating mode
A system for automatically controlling an operating mode of a plasma torch includes a plasma torch that is connected to a power source and a controller. The controller is configured to automatically determine a desired operating mode of the plasma torch and deliver a power signal to the plasma torch based on the desired operating mode. |
| US08263894B2 |
Electrode for vacuum interrupter
Disclosed is an electrode for a vacuum interrupter, capable of reducing damage of contacts due to heat concentration to the center of the contacts, by reducing magnetic flux concentration to the center of the electrode, and capable of rapidly extinguishing an arc by diffusing the arc by forming a wide range of magnetic flux.The electrode for a vacuum interrupter comprises: a contact electrode plate configured to provide contacts; an inner coil electrode formed of one electric conductor having an open loop shape, and through which a current flows in a first rotation direction; an outer coil electrode formed of one electric conductor having an open loop shape, concentrically arranged with the inner coil electrode at an outer side of the inner coil electrode in a radius direction, and through which a current flows in a second rotation direction opposite to the first rotation direction parallel to the current flowing to the inner coil electrode; a first conductive pin formed of a conductive material, and configured to provide an electric current path by connecting the contact electrode plate and the inner coil electrode with each other; and a second conductive pin formed of a conductive material, and configured to provide an electric current path by connecting the contact electrode plate and the outer coil electrode with each other. |
| US08263892B2 |
Gas-insulated high-voltage switch
A high-voltage switch contains two contact members, which can be moved relative to one another along an axis, a nozzle for blowing out a switching arc with quenching gas, and a stationary direction-changing transmission, which is connected to the nozzle and to the second contact member. The nozzle has a hollow insulating body, and a metallic annular body which is arranged at a blowing-out end of the nozzle, is connected in a formfitting manner to the insulating body, and supports an input or output drive element of the direction-changing transmission. This switch can be manufactured easily and at low cost, and provides good mechanical and electrical characteristics. The annular body has a concentrically arranged intermediate ring, which causes the form fit with the insulating body, and a ring, which is pushed onto the intermediate ring and is attached to the intermediate ring, for supporting the input-drive or output-drive element. |
| US08263890B2 |
Switch
A switch includes a blade-type moving contact that extends in a radial direction from a turning center and reciprocates such that its free end draws a turning locus, and a fixed contact that moves toward and away from the moving contact in a turning range of the moving contact. The blade-type moving contact and the fixed contact are accommodated a tank. The moving contact is supported by the movable-side support conductor. The fixed contact is supported by the fixed-side support conductor. An opening through which the moving contact enters is arranged to be opposed to a turning center of the moving contact. The movable-side support conductor and the fixed-side support conductor are arranged substantially on a same straight line extending along a center axis of the tank. |
| US08263887B2 |
Backlit key assembly having a reduced thickness
A backlit key assembly having a reduced thickness for an electronic device, and an electronic device having such a backlit key assembly are provided. The key assembly utilizes a local sink (recess) in a backing plate of the key assembly to lower the light source (e.g. LED) and flexible printed circuit board relative to the backing plate. The key assembly described herein provides a suitable leading space for the light source while permitting the overall thickness of the key assembly to be reduced compared with conventional backlit key designs. |
| US08263886B2 |
Key mechanism with waterproofing function and related electronic device
A key mechanism for actuating a circuit board includes a housing whereon an opening is formed, a key button installed inside the opening of the housing, and a waterproof structure installed between the key button and the circuit board for preventing fluid from leaking into the circuit board via an interface of the housing and the key button. A space is formed between the waterproof structure and the key button for containing the fluid leaking from the interface of the housing and the key button. The space is lower than the interface of the housing and the key button. |
| US08263883B2 |
Mechanical delay timer
A mechanical delay timer for operating either a toggle or a rocker-type wall switch to change the position of the switch after a preset interval includes a spring powered timer that drives a cam which, in turn, causes movement of an actuator that is arranged to engage either the toggle lever of a toggle wall switch or the rocker member of a rocker-type wall switch to move the switch from one position to another. The timer mechanism is contained within a housing that attaches to a timer base which, in turn, mounts over the existing cover plate of a conventional wall switch. |
| US08263882B2 |
Electrical control device
The subject of the present invention is an electric control or control-by-wire device comprising a control lever (11) that can be moved in a pivoting movement in a plane perpendicular to the lever in a position of rest, and that can be moved in a translational movement in a direction parallel to the lever in a position of rest, a rotary control member (13) that can be moved in a rotational movement and in a pivoting movement in a plane perpendicular to the lever in a position of rest, and an electrical circuit (15) for converting the various movements of the lever (11) and the rotary member (13) into control signals. The device comprises a lever base (19) that can move over a predefined travel parallel to the lever in a position of rest and which keeps the control lever fixed in terms of rotation and comprises a universal joint connection supporting the rotary control member in such a way as to connect it pivotally to the control lever (11). |
| US08263881B2 |
Weighing scale that automatically switches between a display mode or a communications mode based on whether communications is established with another scale
A weighing scale has a display unit for displaying the weight of an object loaded on a platform measured by a weight measurer, a communication unit for transmitting weight data to, or receiving from, another weighing scale, a determiner that determines whether the weighing scale is capable of communicating via the communication unit with another weighing scale, and a controller that, in a case in which a result of the determination by the determiner shows that the weighing scale is not capable of communicating with another weighing scale, controls the display unit to display weight data output by the weight measurer, and in a case in which a result of the determination by the determiner shows that the weighing scale is capable of communicating with another weighing scale, that transmits weight data to, or receives from, another weighing scale. |
| US08263875B2 |
Surface mounting structure for a surface mounting electronic component
A surface mounting structure for a surface mounting electronic component has an electronic component, a land, a wiring, and an electrical connection pattern. The electronic component has electrodes at opposite ends thereof. The land is connected to each electrode through a solder. The wiring is connected to the land and has a width which is smaller than a width of the electronic component in a width direction thereof. The wiring is connected to the electrical connection pattern. The electrical connection pattern has on a side on which the wiring is connected to the electrical connection pattern a width which is larger than the width of the electronic component in the width direction thereof. |
| US08263867B2 |
Cable management accessories
A vertical cable manager includes a pair of side members, one or more midsection members connected between the pair of side members, and a lashing bar assembly connected to the one or more midsection members. The lashing bar assembly includes a base and a lashing bar mountable relative to the base, thereby forming at least one loop for cable management. |
| US08263865B2 |
Wire connection unit
A wire connection unit includes a connector, a first case, and a second case. The connector electrically connects a first wire and a second wire. The second case is joined with the first case, and has an inner face opposing the first case. The inner face is formed with a groove and a concave portion. The groove holds the first wire and the second wire. The concave portion is disposed at the groove and accommodates the connector. A projection is provided in the groove. The projection protrudes toward the first case from a bottom of the groove. |
| US08263862B2 |
Hermetic electrical ports in liquid crystal polymer packages
A packaging system having a housing for providing a hermetically sealed interior space for receiving and supporting optoelectronic components. The housing has at least one section of wall comprising a layer of liquid crystal polymer (LCP). At least one hermetically sealed electrical port is formed in the LCP wall section over a predetermined area and comprises a layer of metal adhered to and overlying the predetermined area on the of the LCP wall section. An electrode passes through the metal from the exterior of the system to the interior space to provide an electrical communication path between the optoelectronic components and the exterior of said packaging system. A solder joint is formed between the electrode and the layer of metal to provide a hermetic connection between the layer of metal and the electrode to assure that the hermeticity of the housing remains unchanged with the electrical port present. |
| US08263861B2 |
Fiber distribution hub with outside accessible grounding terminals
The present disclosure relates to a telecommunications distribution hub having a cabinet that defines a primary compartment. The cabinet also includes one or more main doors for accessing the primary compartment. Telecommunications equipment is mounted within the primary compartment. The distribution hub further includes a secondary compartment that can be accessed from an exterior of the cabinet without accessing the primary compartment. A grounding interface is accessible from within the secondary compartment. |
| US08263860B2 |
Silicon photovoltaic device with carbon nanotube cable electrode
A photovoltaic device includes a silicon substrate, a doped silicon layer, a first electrode and a second electrode. The silicon substrate has a plurality of cavities defined therein. The doped silicon layer is formed in contact the silicon substrate. The first electrode including a plurality of carbon nanotube cables is adjacent to the silicon substrate. The second electrode is attached to the silicon substrate. |
| US08263857B2 |
Solar cell
A solar cell includes a substrate of a first conductive type having at least one via hole; an emitter layer of a second conductive type opposite to the first conductive type; and at least one first electrode positioned from a first surface of the substrate to the at least one via hole, and at least one first electrode current collector positioned from the at least one via hole to a second surface of the substrate, wherein the at least one via hole has a radius of about 10 μm to about 40 μm, and at least one of a portion of the at least one first electrode and a portion of the at least one electrode current collector, in the at least one via hole, includes at least one cavity. |
| US08263855B2 |
Multijunction solar cell with a bypass diode
Apparatus and Method for Optimizing the Efficiency of a Bypass Diode in Solar Cells. In a preferred embodiment, a layer of TiAu is placed in an etch in a solar cell with a contact at a doped layer of GaAs. Electric current is conducted through a diode and away from the main cell by passing through the contact point at the GaAs and traversing a lateral conduction layer. These means of activating, or “turning on” the diode, and passing the current through the circuit results in greater efficiencies than in prior art devices. The diode is created during the manufacture of the other layers of the cell and does not require additional manufacturing. |
| US08263851B2 |
Transducer saddle for stringed instrument
A saddle for a multi-stringed instrument efficiently couples to transducer elements, vibrations from plucked musical instruments strings includes a unitary saddle body and a top surface that support tensioned strings and receive vibratory energy therefrom. The body portion includes a plurality of integral cavities, each integral cavity in correspondence with a respective string defining a vertically compliant area of sensitivity beneath each string that couple the string vibrations to a flexurally responsive transducer element mounted within and mechanically coupled to a respective integral cavity for converting vibratory energy from the respective string to an electric signal. A first conductor element and a second conductor element are embedded within the saddle body and configured in communication with each transducer at electrical coupling points for electrically connecting the transducer element to the first and second conductors at each respective the integral cavity structure. |
| US08263846B1 |
Internal virtual extender tube for marimba resonator tube
An improved percussive instrument such as a marimba employs a resonator comprising an external tube (100), an inner or virtual extender tube (115), and a bottom stop (105) and a plug (110) within the outer tube. The region between the external tube and the virtual extender tube defines a volume of air (116). The size, shape, and length of the virtual extender tube enhances performance of the resonator and thereby also the instrument. A key (800) of the instrument is suspended by pivots (805) above the plug and the opening (120) of the resonator. When struck by a mallet (810), the key vibrates and air driven by the key enters the resonator through the opening. When the resonator and key are tuned to the same frequency, or a harmonic thereof, air will enter and leave the resonator in a resonant fashion, creating louder and richer sounds than just the key alone. Numerous variations on shape and location of the various components are possible. |
| US08263845B2 |
Finger-mounted striking devices for activating musical instrument strings
The finger-mounted striking devices described herein are for use on stringed musical instruments, in particular for but not limited to electric or acoustic bass instruments. The paired devices consist of elongated cylindrical wooden shafts of differing length. The offset in length allows the striking tips to be effectively even when worn as intended on the index and middle fingers. The striking tip of each shaft contains a permanently embedded weight to accelerate the transfer of finger movement to the shaft tip. The mechanism for attaching the elongated shaft to each finger is an adjustable metal ring permanently attached to the shaft end opposite the striking tip. An upward-sloped fingertip rest is provided forward of the ring. The entire body of each elongated shaft and the integral metal ring are encased in an elastomeric coating that prevents scratching of the instrument surface during use by the devices and seals the metal ring against corrosion from moisture. Additional layers of elastomer coating are added to the sinking tip to eliminate impact damage to the outer windings of instrument strings. |
| US08263843B2 |
Graphene nanoplatelet metal matrix
A metal matrix composite is disclosed that includes graphene nanoplatelets dispersed in a metal matrix. The composite provides for improved thermal conductivity. The composite may be formed into heat spreaders or other thermal management devices to provide improved cooling to electronic and electrical equipment and semiconductor devices. |
| US08263839B2 |
Plants and seeds of hybrid corn variety CH247148
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH247148. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH247148, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH247148 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH247148. |
| US08263838B2 |
Plants and seeds of hybrid corn variety CH374777
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH374777. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH374777, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH374777 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH374777. |
| US08263836B2 |
Plants and seeds of hybrid corn variety CH571775
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH571775. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH571775, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH571775 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH571775. |
| US08263828B2 |
Soybean cultivar S070141
A soybean cultivar designated S070141 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of soybean cultivar S070141, to the plants of soybean S070141, to plant parts of soybean cultivar S070141, and to methods for producing a soybean plant produced by crossing soybean cultivar S070141 with itself or with another soybean variety. The invention also relates to methods for producing a soybean plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic soybean plants and plant parts produced by those methods. This invention also relates to soybean cultivars, or breeding cultivars, and plant parts derived from soybean variety S070141, to methods for producing other soybean cultivars, lines or plant parts derived from soybean cultivar S070141, and to the soybean plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid soybean seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing the cultivar S070141 with another soybean cultivar. |
| US08263827B2 |
Sclerotinia-resistant Brassica
The invention provides Brassica plants and lines having an improved Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Disease Incidence (SSDI %) score and represented by, or descended from, ATCC accession number PTA-6779 or PTA-6778. |
| US08263825B1 |
Maize variety hybrid X7N819
A novel maize variety designated X7N819 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 hybrid maize variety X7N819 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X7N819 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X7N819, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X7N819. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X7N819. |
| US08263822B2 |
TREM-2 gene and protein as inhibitors of expression of GA733-2, and transgenic animals comprising the same and uses thereof
Disclosed are a composition for inhibiting the expression of GA733-2 or for detecting GA733-2, which comprises TREM-2 gene or protein, a transgenic animal containing same, and a method using the same. |
| US08263819B2 |
Method for manufacturing a metallic hydroxide and oxide powder which is self-dispersing in water, powder and aqueous dispersion obtained, uses thereof
The invention resides in a method for manufacturing a metallic hydroxide-based and metallic oxide-based powder, which is self-dispersing in water, characterized in that a metallic oxide powder is partially treated with a polymer in the form of an aqueous emulsion and/or solution, in such a way that the level of metallic hydroxide by dry weight within said treated powder is less than 99% of its total weight, and in that said polymer is a water-soluble homopolymer or copolymer containing at least one vinylic monomer. In one particular variant, the polymer is a water-soluble copolymer containing a vinylic monomer and a non-ionic monomer, and the metal is calcium and/or magnesium. The invention also pertains to the powders obtained, their uses in aqueous suspensions, in treating waste, as a chemical additive, or as a soil amendment. |
| US08263814B2 |
Energy efficient separation of ethanol from aqueous solution
The present invention provides methods and systems for extracting ethanol from an ethanol-water solution comprising (1) extracting ethanol from an ethanol-water solution with a first solvent comprising an esterified fatty acid, wherein the esterified fatty acid comprises a hydroxylated fatty acid component and an alcohol component such that the alcohol component is a C3-6 alcohol, such that the distribution coefficient for ethanol in the mixture of the ethanol-water solution and the first solvent is at least 0.02 favoring the transfer of ethanol from the ethanol-water solution to the first solvent, thereby extracting the ethanol from the ethanol-water solution into the first solvent, and (2) extracting the ethanol-enriched first solvent with carbon dioxide, such that the carbon dioxide is at a liquid or near supercritical phase, wherein the distribution coefficient for ethanol in a mixture of the first solvent and the carbon dioxide is at least 0.1 favoring the transfer of ethanol from the first solvent to the carbon dioxide. |
| US08263813B2 |
Method for isomerizing olefinically unsaturated alcohols
A process for isomerizing olefinically unsaturated alcohols over supported noble metal catalysts with a support based on carbon in an oxygenous atmosphere. |
| US08263809B2 |
Preparation of 3-[(1R,2R)-3-(dimethylamino)-1ethyl-2-methylpropyl]phenol
The present invention relates to an improved process for the preparation of 3-[(1R,2R)-3-(dimethylamino)-1-ethyl-2-methylpropyl]phenol monohydrochloride. |
| US08263808B2 |
Method for deprotecting aryl or alkyl sulfonamides of primary or secondary amines
The invention relates to a method for removing an alkyl sulfonyl or aryl sulfonyl protecting group from a primary or secondary amine by contacting an alkyl sulfonamide or an aryl sulfonamide with a Stage 0 or Stage I alkali metal-silica gel material in the presence of a solid proton source under conditions sufficient to form the corresponding amine. The invention also relates to a method for removing an alkyl sulfonyl or aryl sulfonyl protecting group from a primary or secondary amine by a) reacting an alkyl sulfonamide or an aryl sulfonamide with a Stage 0 or Stage I alkali metal-silica gel material, and b) subsequently reacting the reaction product from step a) with an electrophile or a proton source. Preferred Stage 0 or Stage I alkali metal-silica gel materials include Na, K2Na, and Na2K. |
| US08263805B2 |
Process and plant for urea production
A process for producing urea is disclosed, wherein liquid ammonia and carbon dioxide are reacted in a high-pressure synthesis section (100), and at least part of the carbon dioxide is fed to said synthesis section (100) in liquid phase. A plant operating according to said process and a method for modernizing existing plants accordingly are also disclosed. |
| US08263804B2 |
Conversion of nitrile compounds into corresponding carboxylic acids and esters
Hydrocarbon compounds having at least one nitrile function are converted into compounds having at least one carboxylic function by hydrating the nitrile functions into amide functions by reaction with water in the presence of a strong inorganic acid, and then hydrolyzing the amide functions into carboxylic functions by reaction with water and a strong inorganic acid; the carboxylic compounds thus obtained can be esterified into diesters, advantageously diester solvents. |
| US08263800B2 |
Partially fluorinated sulfonated surfactants
The present invention comprises a compound comprising Formula 1A, 1B, or 1C (Ra—O—CO—)2X Formula 1A Ra—O—CO—X—CO—O—(CH2CH2)Rf Formula 1B Ra—O—CO—X—CO—O—R Formula 1C wherein Ra is the group Rf(CH2CF2)d—(CgH2g)—; RfOCF2CF2—(CgH2g)—; RfOCFHCF2O(CH2CH2O)v—(CgH2g)—; RfOCFHCF2O(CwH2w); RfOCF(CF3)CONH—(CgH2g); or Rf(CH2)h[(CF2CF2)i(CH2CH2)j]k; Rf is CcF(2c+1); d is 1 to about 3; g is 1 to 4; v is 1 to about 4; w is from about 3 to about 12; h is 1 to about 6; i, j, and k are each independently 1, 2, or 3, or a mixture thereof; provided that the total number of carbon atoms in group (vi) is from about 8 to about 22; X is a linear or branched difunctional alkyl sulfonate group —CeH(2e−1)(SO3M)-, wherein e is 2 or 3; M is a monovalent cation selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, ammonium, alkali metal, or alkaline earth metal; R is H or a linear or branched alkyl group CbH(2b+1)—; and b is from 1 to about 18. |
| US08263798B2 |
Optically active quaternary ammonium salt having axial asymmetry, and method for producing alpha-amino acid and derivative thereof by using the same
The present invention discloses an optically active quarternary ammonium salt having axial asymmetry and a method for producing an α-amino acid and a derivative thereof using the same. The optically active quarternary ammonium salt having axial asymmetry of the present invention is a chiral phase-transfer catalyst that has a simple structure and that can be produced in a smaller number of process steps. The compound of the present invention is very useful as a phase-transfer catalyst in the synthesis of an α-alkyl-α-amino acid and a derivative thereof as well as an α,α-dialkyl-α-amino acid and a derivative thereof. Therefore, the compound of the present invention can be used in the development of novel foods and pharmaceuticals. |
| US08263793B2 |
Preparation of taxanes from 9-dihydro-13-acetylbaccatin III
The present invention relates to a new process for the preparation of 9-dihydrobaccatin III intermediates as useful precursors for the preparation of paclitaxel, 1, docetaxel, 2, and analogues thereof. More particularly, the process comprises the steps of (i) concomitantly deacetylating esters at the 10-position and 13-position of 9-dihydro-13-acetylbaccatin III to form 9-dihydro-10-deacetylbaccatin III; (ii) protecting a hydroxy group at the 7-position of 9-dihydro-10-deacetylbaccatin III; and (iii) acylating a hydroxy group at the 10-position to form a compound of formula II. |
| US08263791B2 |
Method and reagent for protein analysis
A convenient, rapid, and highly sensitive protein detection method is provided. According to the present invention, an easily water-soluble compound of formula I is provided: [wherein, R1 and R2 are same or different, each of which is an aryl or heteroaryl group substituted with one or more anionic substituents]. |
| US08263790B2 |
Method for enantioselective hydrogenation of chromenes
A method for preparing an enantiomeric chromane, by asymmetrically hydrogenating a chromene compound in the presence of an Ir catalyst having a chiral ligand. The method includes the enantioselective preparation of enantiomeric equol. A preferred Ir catalyst has a chiral phosphineoxazoline ligand. Enantiomeric chromanes of high stereoselective purity can be obtained. |
| US08263788B2 |
Method for the production of 1,3-dioxolane-2-ones and carboxylic acid esters by means of transacylation in basic reaction conditions
The invention relates to a method for producing 1,3-dioxolane-2-ones of general formula (3) in basic reaction conditions by reesterifying the respective ester of general formula (1) in which R1 to R5 have the meanings indicated in the claims and the description. The invention further relates to a method for producing 2-hydroxy carboxylic acid esters of general formula (5) with or without isolation of the intermediate in the form of a derivative of the 1,3-dioxolane-2-one of general formula (3) in basic reaction conditions by reesterifying the respective ester of general formula (1) in which R1, R2, and R6 have the meanings indicated in the claims and the description. The method according to the invention allows the reaction to take place in very gentle basic conditions, causing fewer secondary reactions and providing a greater yield than reactions in highly polar aprotic solvents. Acid-sensitive and/or temperature-sensitive compounds can be synthesized. |
| US08263782B2 |
Azabicyclo (3.1.0) hexane derivatives useful as modulators of dopamine D3 receptors
The present invention relates to novel compounds of formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof: wherein G is selected from a group consisting of: phenyl, pyridyl, benzothiazolyl, indazolyl; p is an integer ranging from 0 to 5; R1 is independently selected from a group consisting of: halogen, hydroxy, cyano, C1-4alkyl, haloC1-4alkyl, C1-4alkoxy, haloC1-4alkoxy, C1-4alkanoyl; or corresponds to a group R5; R2 is hydrogen or C1-4alkyl; R3 is C1-4alkyl; R4 is hydrogen, or a phenyl group, a heterocyclyl group, a 5- or 6-membered heteroaromatic group, or a 8- to 11-membered bicyclic group, any of which groups is optionally substituted by 1, 2, 3 or 4 substituents selected from the group consisting of: halogen, cyano, C1-4alkyl, haloC1-4alkyl, C1-4alkoxy, C1-4alkanoyl; R5 is a moiety selected from the group consisting of: isoxazolyl, —CH2—N-pyrrolyl, 1,1-dioxido-2-isothiazolidinyl, thienyl, thiazolyl, pyridyl, 2-pyrrolidinonyl, and such a group is optionally substituted by one or two substituents selected from: halogen, cyano, C1-4alkyl, haloC1-4alkyl, C1-4alkoxy, C1-4alkanoyl; and when R1 is chlorine and p is 1, such R1 is not present in the ortho position with respect to the linking bond to the rest of the molecule; and when R1 corresponds to R5, p is 1; processes for their preparation, intermediates used in these processes, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use in therapy, as modulators of dopamine D3 receptors, e.g. to treat drug dependency or as antipsychotic agents. |
| US08263779B2 |
Method for separating and purifying α-unsaturated amine compound
A method for purifying an α-unsaturated amine compound represented by Formula (1), the method comprising a step of extracting with water the compound of Formula (1) from a crude product of the α-unsaturated amine compound represented by Formula (1), and a step of extracting with a pyridine solvent the α-unsaturated amine compound of Formula (1) from the aqueous solution containing the compound of Formula (1) obtained in the previous step to obtain a pyridine solvent solution of the compound of Formula (1): wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom, a C1-4 alkyl group, a halo C1-4 alkyl group, a C1-4 alkoxy-C1-4 alkyl group, a C7-9 aralkyl group, or an optionally substituted phenyl group, R2 represents a hydrogen atom, a C1-4 alkyl group, or a C7-9 aralkyl group, and R3 represents a hydrogen atom, a C1-5 alkyl group, a halo C1-4 alkyl group, a hydroxy C1-4 alkyl group, a C1-4 alkoxy-C1-4 alkyl group, C2-4 alkenyl group, or a C7-9 aralkyl group. |
| US08263777B2 |
Aminopyrazole triazolothiadiazole inhibitor of c-Met protein kinase
The present invention relates to anhydrous and hydrated forms of Compound 1, which are useful in the inhibition of c-Met protein kinase. The invention also provides pharmaceutically acceptable compositions comprising compounds of formula I and methods of using the compositions in the treatment of proliferative disorders. |
| US08263776B2 |
Inhibitors of c-Met protein kinase
The present invention relates to compounds of formula I, which is useful in the inhibition of c-Met protein kinase. The invention also provides pharmaceutically acceptable compositions comprising compounds of formula I and methods of using the compositions in the treatment of proliferative disorders. |
| US08263775B2 |
Insulin-regulated aminopeptidase (IRAP) inhibitors and uses thereof
The present invention relates to inhibitors of insulin-regulated aminopeptidase (IRAP) and methods for inhibiting same, as well as compositions comprising said inhibitors. In particular, the inhibitors of the present invention may be useful in therapeutic applications including enhancing memory and learning functions. |
| US08263771B2 |
Method for manufacturing dispersion of quinoline derivative
A method for manufacturing a dispersion of a quinoline derivative that is dispersed at a high concentration and has a small particle size. The method includes the steps of preparing a solution by dissolving an N-arylanthranilic acid derivative in an organosulfonic acid, heating the solution and obtaining a reaction liquid in which a quinoline derivative has been produced by a condensation ring-closing reaction, and obtaining a dispersion of the quinoline derivative by mixing the reaction liquid with an aqueous solution. The step of mixing the reaction liquid with an aqueous solution may be performed in a mixing field having a micro-channel. |
| US08263769B2 |
Process for preparing voriconazole
Optically pure voriconazole can be prepared in a high yield by a) subjecting 1-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-2(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)ethanone to Reformatsky-type coupling reaction with a substituted thiopyrimidine derivative to obtain a desired (2R,3S)/(2S,3R)-enantiomeric pair; b) removing the thiol derivative from the enantiomer to obtain racemic voriconazole; and c) isolating the racemic voriconazole by way of optical resolution using an optically active acid. |
| US08263768B2 |
Process for the stereoselective preparation of bicyclic heterocycles
The present invention relates to a process for the stereoselective preparation of compounds of general formula (I) and the salts thereof, particularly the physiologically acceptable salts thereof with inorganic or organic acids and bases, which have valuable pharmacological properties, particularly an inhibitory effect on signal transduction mediated by tyrosine kinases, the use thereof for the treatment of diseases, particularly tumoral diseases as well as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), diseases of the lungs and airways. |
| US08263751B2 |
Method for removing a protein from a metal chelate resin
The methods disclosed herein are useful for achieving higher protein concentrations in reverse micelle solutions by extracting a protein from a metal chelate resin using a reverse micelle solution comprising a polyamine that competitively binds to the metal chelate resin, allowing the protein to elute from the resin. The extracted protein in the reverse micelle solution can then be effectively analyzed, for example using NMR spectroscopy. |
| US08263747B2 |
Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies that neutralize botulinum neurotoxins
This invention provides antibodies that specifically bind to and neutralize botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT/A) and the epitopes bound by those antibodies. The antibodies and derivatives thereof and/or other antibodies that specifically bind to the neutralizing epitopes provided herein can be used to neutralize botulinum neurotoxin and are therefore also useful in the treatment of botulism. |
| US08263743B2 |
Humanized antibodies against TL1A
Disclosed are humanized antibodies that bind specifically to the receptor TNF superfamily member 15 (TNFSF15), also known as TL1A. Methods of making and using the anti-TL1A antibodies are also described. The humanized antibodies may be antagonists and may used to treat or diagnose conditions associated with TL1A function. |
| US08263731B2 |
Optical film comprising birefringent naphthalate copolyester having branched or cyclic C4-C10 alkyl units
The present invention relates to multilayer optical films and birefringent copolyester films. The birefringent copolyester optical layer or birefringent copolyester film comprises a major amount of naphthalate units, ethylene units, and a minor amount of branched or cyclic C4 to C10 alkyl units. Also described are certain copolyester polymeric materials further comprising subunits of a phthalate ionomer such as dimethyl sulfosodium isophthalate ionomer. |
| US08263726B2 |
Cardanol based dimers and uses therefor
Cardanol based dimers are provided. The cardanol dimers are formed by hydrosylylation with silanes. Cardanol based dimers may be further reacted to form epoxy curing agents and epoxies which can be used as anti-fouling coatings on ship hulls and marine structures. The cardanol dimers may also be used to produce friction particles or phenolic resins. Methods of synthesizing the cardanol based dimers, the epoxy curing agents and the epoxies are also provided. |
| US08263725B2 |
Curable composition
Cured products constituted with conventional epoxy compounds have been disadvantageous in heat-resistant and light-resistant transparency, and crack resistance. An object of the present invention is to provide: a modified polyorganosiloxane compound having an epoxy group and/or an oxetanyl group which provides a cured product that is excellent in heat-resistant and light-resistant transparency, and crack resistance; a curable composition thereof; and a cured product obtained by curing the same. Disclosed is a modified polyorganosiloxane compound having two or more epoxy group and/or oxetanyl group in a molecule, the compound being a hydrosilylation reaction product of the following compounds: (α1) an organic compound having 2 to 6 carbon-carbon double bonds reactive with a SiH group in a molecule; (β1) a linear and/or cyclic polyorganosiloxane compound having at least two SiH groups in a molecule; and (γ1) an organic compound having at least one epoxy group or oxetanyl group and one carbon-carbon double bond reactive with a SiH group in a molecule. |
| US08263722B2 |
Process for making ethylene interpolymers and interpolymers made thereby; compositions and electrical devices containing such interpolymers
The invention relates to a continuous polymerization process for preparing a random ethylene interpolymer with propylene and/or 1-butene which comprises: (A) polymerizing ethylene, and as an α-olefin comonomer propylene and/or 1-butene under continuous random polymerization conditions in the presence of single site catalyst system employing an ionic activator having cyclic ligands shielding a central charge bearing atom, at a temperature of 140° C. to 250° C. at a conversion of ethylene of 80 to 99% and a comonomer conversion of from at least 30% and (B) devolatilizing the polymer to provide an ethylene copolymer having a density of from 0.85 to 0.92 g/cm3, an MI of from 0.01 to 100 g/10 min, preferably from 0.1 to 20, and an I21/I2 of from 30 to 400. The invention also relates to polymers made by such processes containing as α-olefin comonomer propylene and/or 1-butene, having a density of from 0.85 to 0.92 g/cm3, an MI of from 0.01 to 100 g/10 min and an I21/I2 of from 30 to 400 obtained by solution polymerization using a transition metal complex as a catalyst and a non-coordinating anion to provide a level of NCA derived residue, as determined by boron content, less than 0.5 ppm. as determined by ICP, preferably undetectable by ICP. The polymers may be blended with EP rubber elastomers and be used for electrical cable insulation. |
| US08263721B2 |
Ophthalmic and otorhinolaryngological device materials
Disclosed are soft, high refractive index device materials having improved strength. The materials contain a polystyrene macromer. |
| US08263719B2 |
Copolymers of tetrafluoroethylene
A polymerization process for producing a tetra-fluoroethylene copolymer, and the copolymer produced thereby, are provided. The copolymer is of the dispersion/fine powder type and contains polymerized tetrafluoroethylene monomer units and co-polymerized higher homologous comonomer units having the formula (CnF(2n+1))CH═CH2, wherein 6≦n<10, in which the primary particles are believed to have a core and shell structure and the polymerized comonomer units are present in an amount from 0.01 mol % to 0.3 mol %, based upon total copolymer composition. The copolymer has a raw dispersion primary particle size (RDPS) of less than 0.210 microns coupled with a standard specific gravity (SSG) of less than 2.143. Preferably the copolymer has comonomer units present in an amount from 0.05 mol % and 0.25 mol % and the RDPS is within the range between 0.178 microns and 0.200 microns, coupled with a SSG of less than 2.140. Copolymers produced according to the invention, (perfluorohexyl)ethylene (PFHE) and (perfluorooctyl)ethylene (PFOE), may be shaped into the form of 0.1 inch diameter expanded beading, which expanded beading can have a break strength of at least 10.0 lbs, and which may exceed 13.0 lbs. |
| US08263717B2 |
Polysilazane-containing composition capable of forming a dense siliceous film
The present invention provides a polysilazane-containing composition capable of forming a dense siliceous film more rapidly and at a lower temperature than known polysilazane-containing composition. In a process for forming the siliceous film, the composition comprising a polysilazane compound, a particular amine compound and a solvent is coated on a substrate and converted into a siliceous substance. The particular amine compound preferably contains two amine groups separated from each other at the distance corresponding to five C—C bonds or more, and the amine groups preferably have hydrocarbon substituent groups. |
| US08263716B2 |
Fluid polyester molding masses
Thermoplastic molding compositions comprising A) from 10 to 99.99% by weight of at least one thermoplastic polyester B) from 0.01 to 50% by weight of a highly branched or hyperbranched polyester of AxBy type where x is at least 1.1 and y is at least 2.1 C) from 0 to 60% by weight of other additives, where the total of the percentages by weight of components A) to C) is 100%. |
| US08263715B2 |
Hydrogel compositions and methods of preparation thereof
A block copolymer includes a hydrophobic block and a hydrophilic block, wherein the hydrophobic block and the hydrophilic block include repeating units derived from ring opening polymerization of one or more cyclic carbonate monomers. The one or more cyclic carbonate monomers are independently selected from compounds of the general formula (II): wherein each Q′ and Qa group independently represents a hydrogen, an alkyl group, a halide, a carboxy group, an ester group, an amide group, an aryl group, an alkoxy group, or a foregoing Q′ or Qa group substituted with a carboxy group or an ester group, at least one Q′ and Qa group includes an ester group; each Y independently represents O, S, NH, or NQ″; n is an integer from 0 to 6, wherein when n is 0, carbons labeled 4 and 6 are linked together by a single bond; each Q″ group independently represents an alkyl group, an aryl group, or a foregoing Q″ group substituted with a carboxy group, or an ester group. |
| US08263713B2 |
Amine neutralized sulfonated block copolymers and method for making same
An Amine neutralized sulfonated block copolymer and a method for neutralizing a sulfonated block copolymer, the process including providing a solution comprising an organic solvent and the non-neutralized block copolymer in micellar form, and adding at least one amine to the solution. |
| US08263712B2 |
Production of elastomeric functionalized olefin polymers
In a process for producing a functionalized polyalkenamer, at least one monomer comprising a monocyclic olefin having at least one pendant alkyl group bonded thereto, wherein the pendant alkyl group has at least two carbon atoms and is substituted with a polar moiety spaced by at least one carbon atom from the monocyclic olefin, is contacted with a polymerization catalyst under conditions effective to effect ring opening polymerization of the monocyclic olefin and produce the functionalized polyalkenamer. |
| US08263710B2 |
Solid polymer electrolyte material, liquid composition, solid polymer fuel cell and fluoropolymer
A solid polymer electrolyte material made of a copolymer comprising a repeating unit based on a fluoromonomer A which gives a polymer having an alicyclic structure in its main chain by radical polymerization, and a repeating unit based on a fluoromonomer B of the following formula (1): CF2═CF(Rf)jSO2X (1) wherein j is 0 or 1, X is a fluorine atom, a chlorine atom or OM {wherein M is a hydrogen atom, an alkali metal atom or a group of NR1R2R3R4 (wherein each of R1, R2, R3 and R4 which may be the same or different, is a hydrogen atom or a monovalent organic group)}, and Rf is a C1-20 polyfluoroalkylene group having a straight chain or branched structure which may contain ether oxygen atoms. |
| US08263709B2 |
Crystal nucleating agents, crystalline polymer composition, methods of manufacture thereof, and articles thereof
A polymer composition, including: a first copolymer, including a first monomer unit derived from a monomer of Formula A: (R1SiO1.5)x(R2SiO1.5)y Formula A wherein R1 is a polymerizable functional group, R2 is a non-polymerizable group, x is a positive integer, and y is a positive integer, provided that x+y=2n, wherein n is an integer greater than or equal to 3; a second monomer unit copolymerizable with the first monomer unit; and a second polymer having no monomer units derived from a monomer of Formula A; wherein the content of the monomer unit of Formula A is 4 wt % or less, based on the total weight of the polymer components of the polymer composition. |
| US08263708B2 |
Vulcanized (per) fluoroelastomer sealing articles
This invention pertains to sealing articles of vulcanized (per)fluoroelastomer compositions incorporating particles of a vinylidene fluoride (VDF) polymers having a Shore A hardness of at least 85 when determined according to ASTM D 2240 Type A Durometer method, and a compression set of less than 30%, when determined according to ASTM D395 at 200° C. for 70 h on O-ring according to ASTM D1414, and to a process for their manufacture by vulcanizing-molding and thermal post-treating at a temperature above the melting point of the VDF polymer. |
| US08263694B1 |
Polyurethane-containing grouts
Grout compositions having a binder including water-borne polyurethane and a filler are described herein. An accelerator component is provided to control the rate of grout curing, thereby decreasing the time required between grout application and grout use. This result is achieved while providing sufficient time for grout application. Grout may be light-transmissive and include light-transmissive binder and filler. |
| US08263691B2 |
Release agent for transparent polyimide blends
Compositions made from a polyarylate or polyester carbonate containing greater than about 50 mole % resorcinol based ester linkages give miscible blends with polyimide resins, addition of alkyl amide compounds improves mold release and melt flow while maintaining transparency. The blends also have high refractive index and low haze. |
| US08263685B2 |
Nano-engineered inks, methods for their manufacture and their applications
Nanoparticle dispersions, inks, pastes, lotions and methods of their manufacture are disclosed. Multifunctional, nanocomposite, hollow nanoparticles, and coated nanoparticle dispersions are also discussed. |
| US08263683B2 |
Ink for printing on low energy substrates
The invention provides an aqueous inkjet ink composition comprises a polymeric compound comprising discrete particles responsive to an external stimulus, and a functional material, wherein the functional material may be incorporated as part of the polymeric particles, the particles causing the composition to have a first rheological state and a different second rheological state in response to a stimulated change in conditions, the first rheological state being associated with a first lower viscosity of the composition, wherein the particles have a first lower volume, enabling the composition to pass through an inkjet printhead orifice and the second rheological state being associated with a second higher viscosity of the composition, wherein the particles have a second higher volume, enabling immobilisation of droplets of the composition on a substrate. The inkjet composition is particularly useful in a continuous inkjet printing system for printing onto a wide range of surfaces including impermeable surfaces. |