| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08447078B2 |
X-ray diagnostic device
There is described an X-ray diagnostic device for performing cephalometric, dental or orthopedic examinations on a patient who is seated or standing. The X-ray diagnostic device comprises an X-ray emitter and an image detector embodied as a flat-panel detector that are arranged situated opposite each other on an orbitally moveable mount. The X-ray diagnostic device further comprises means for adjusting the height of the X-ray emitter and the image detector, a digital image system for recording a projection image using rotation angiography, a device for image processing for reconstructing the projection image into a 3D volume image; and a device for correcting physical effects or artifacts for representing soft tissue in the projection image and in the 3D volume image reconstructed therefrom. |
| US08447071B2 |
Method of automatically tracking and photographing celestial objects and photographic apparatus employing this method
A method of automatically tracking and photographing a celestial object, includes inputting latitude information, photographing azimuth angle information and photographing elevation angle information of a photographic apparatus; inputting star map data of a certain range including data on a location of a celestial object from the latitude information, the photographing azimuth angle information and the photographing elevation angle information; calculating a deviation amount between a location of the celestial object that is imaged in a preliminary image obtained by the photographic apparatus and the location of the celestial object which is defined in the input star map data; correcting at least one of the photographing azimuth angle information and the photographing elevation angle information using the deviation amount; and performing a celestial-object auto-tracking photographing operation based on the corrected at least one of the photographing azimuth angle information and the photographing elevation angle information. |
| US08447062B2 |
Earphone assembly
An exemplary earphone assembly includes an electrical connector, two earphones, and two cords electrically connecting the electrical connector with the earphones. Each of the cords includes two wires connecting the electrical connector with a corresponding earphone and a zip chain containing the wires. The zip chain of each cord includes an elongated main body, and a first latching part and a second latching part protruding from the main body towards the other cord. A receiving groove is defined between the first and second latching parts for receiving the second latching part of the other cord when the two cords are engaged with each other in such a manner that the first and second latching parts of one cord block the second latching part of the other cord from escaping from the receiving groove. |
| US08447061B2 |
Dual earphone using both bone conduction and air conduction
Disclosed is an earphone set using both bone conduction and air conduction. The earphone set includes: a dual earphone which allows a user to selectively hear sounds from the front or rear side of the earphone set; a case cover provided at an end of the dual earphone; a cylindrical reinforcing frame assembled on one side of the case cover; a finishing ring mounted on the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical reinforcing frame; a top cover assembled on one side of the cylindrical reinforcing frame and the finishing ring and having an extension projection at one side thereof; a rubber ear cap assembled at a front end of the extension projection to be inserted into an ear hole of a user; and a bone conduction vibrator provided inside the dual earphone. |
| US08447060B2 |
Earphone
An earphone comprises a trumpet unit, a hollow shield, and a guide sound tube: the shield is hollow to receive the trumpet, has a sound chamber and an opening, and the opening inclines an acute angle from the trumpet unit; the guide sound tube is disposed at the opening with an end communicating with the sound chamber and another end extending to the opening. The earphone is capable of presenting the high and low pitches completely and providing a better sound quality by way of the acute angle between the opening and the trumpet unit. |
| US08447059B2 |
Earphone device
An earphone device comprises an inner casing enclosing one or more miniature drive units, and a movable cap or outer casing that moves relative to the inner casing. The inner casing has an extension member, such as a hollow post, terminating in an acoustic output port. A compressible foam bulb at least partially surrounds the extension member, and is decompressed and compressed by actuation of an adjustable member. The adjustable member may take the form, for example, of a pivoting lever, a helical cam, or a push-rod mechanism, among other things. A flange may be disposed around the periphery of the movable cap, in order to provide a seal surrounding the ear canal region. The compressible material may be gripped by the hollow extension member, and abut the movable cap or flange. Through actuation of the adjustable member, the compressible material may be decompressed and thus elongated for insertion into the wearer's ear, and may be compressed and thus widened or expanded to form an adequate seal with the wearer's ear canal region. |
| US08447058B1 |
Headphone with acoustic modulator
A headphone having a headband and two acoustic transducers disposed at two ends of the headband is disclosed. Each acoustic transducer includes a baffle plate installed with a speaker, a spacer, a vent and an acoustic modulator. The baffle plate and speaker divide the acoustic transducer into a front and a back chamber. The front chamber is configured for communicating with a user's ear. The spacer is disposed behind the speaker to divide the back chamber into a first back chamber and a second back communicated with each other. The vent is disposed in a back wall of the acoustic transducer to communicate the first back chamber with outside. The first acoustic modulator is disposed between the front and second back chambers. The headphone modulates resonance frequency at low frequency bands through the acoustic modulator. |
| US08447057B2 |
Packages and methods for packaging MEMS microphone devices
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphone devices and methods for packaging the same include a package substrate having an acoustic pathway therethrough that opens to an interior of the device. A MEMS microphone die having an integrated filter and a movable membrane is positioned within the interior of the device. The package substrate includes a conductive layer facing the interior of the device, and a package filter formed from the conductive layer is provided along the acoustic pathway, resulting in increased packaged MEMS microphone device yield. |
| US08447056B2 |
Dynamic microphone
A dynamic microphone includes a vibration pickup that detects vibration of a dynamic microphone unit, and outputs a signal for cancelling vibration noise; and a microphone case that supports the microphone unit and the vibration pickup, wherein the vibration pickup includes a laminated ceramic piezoelectric element that detects vibration of a microphone unit case and outputs a signal corresponding to the detected vibration, the laminated ceramic piezoelectric element has a capacitance that defines a resonance circuit in conjunction with an inductance of an inductor, the resonance circuit producing a response signal to acceleration corresponding to that of the vibration noise, and the resonance circuit is connected such that the response signal is output in an opposite direction to the vibration noise signal. |
| US08447047B2 |
Information processing apparatus and information processing method
An information processing apparatus includes a jack, a noise-canceling adjustment section, a signal superposition section, an inter-device universal communication bus, and a control section. The jack is connectable with a plug of a headphone including a microphone, outputs a first signal to the headphone, and inputs a second signal from the microphone. The noise-canceling adjustment section generates and outputs, based on the second signal input from the jack, a third signal that cancels a noise component around the headphone. The signal superposition section superposes the third signal on the first signal output from the jack. The control section controls the noise-canceling adjustment section via the inter-device universal communication bus. |
| US08447045B1 |
Multi-microphone active noise cancellation system
The present technology provides systems and methods for robust feedforward active noise cancellation which can overcome or substantially alleviate problems associated with the diverse and dynamic nature of the surrounding acoustic environment. A multi-faceted analysis decouples the background noise within the earpiece from the acoustic wave (e.g. the anti-noise and desired audio) generated by an audio transducer within the earpiece. A difference signal is formed utilizing monitoring signals captured by array of monitoring microphones within the earpiece. The difference signal is formed such that contributions due to the acoustic wave generated by the audio transducer are selectively attenuated. As a result, the difference signal indicates an acoustic energy level of the background noise within the earpiece. |
| US08447044B2 |
Adaptive LPC noise reduction system
A noise suppression system reduces low-frequency noise in a speech signal using linear predictive coefficients in an adaptive filter. A digital filter may update or adapt a limited set of linear predictive coefficients on a sample-by-sample basis. The linear predictive coefficients may be used to provide an error signal based on a difference between the speech signal and a delayed speech signal. The error signal represents an enhanced speech signal having attenuated and normalized low-frequency noise components. |
| US08447042B2 |
System and method for audiometric assessment and user-specific audio enhancement
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a system for audiometric assessment and user-specific acoustic enhancement, comprising an audiometry management module, a tone generator coupled to the audiometry management module and adapted to generate streams of acoustical output, and a hearing profile data file, is disclosed. According to the embodiment, the audiometry management module, in a plurality of sessions, instructs the tone generator to send a series of streams of acoustical output of varying acoustical intensity, and, on receiving a series of user responses responsive to audible perception of sounds generated from the streams of acoustical data, the audiometric management module determines, for each of a plurality of frequencies, a hearing threshold, and stores at least that threshold in the hearing profile data file. |
| US08447037B2 |
Key tree construction and key distribution method for hierarchical role-based access control
A key tree construction and key distribution method for hierarchical role-based access control, includes: constructing a key tree including relationships between a hierarchical structure of role groups and data; performing encryption and decryption of data keys and role keys; and generating a key table, in which the data keys required to decrypt encrypted data and the role keys required to decrypt encrypted data keys are stored, with reference to the key tree. Further, the key tree construction and key distribution method for hierarchical role-based access control includes performing management such that a specific role group can obtain a data key by performing decryption based on its own role key by using both the key tree and the key table. |
| US08447034B2 |
Method and system making it possible to protect after compression the confidentiality of the data of a video stream during its transmission
A method is provided for visually encrypting at least one part of an at least partially compressed video stream or video sequence, it being possible for said stream to be decomposed into a first type of objects and a second type of objects, the method being applied on each of the images contained in a video sequence, including at least the following steps: analyzing the sequence in the compressed domain so as to define for a given image N at least one first group of objects to be protected by visual encryption and a second group of objects, the transformed coefficients and the motion estimation vectors being transmitted directly to step d) of compression, predicting on the basis of the data arising from the analysis in the previous step of the compressed image N, the position of the objects for a following image N+1, determining the splitting into slices or into groups of slices of the image N+1, compressing the first group of objects of the image N+1 and ciphering at least one part thereof, transmitting the other types of groups of objects for the image N+1 to a compression step. |
| US08447032B1 |
Generation of min-hash signatures
A computer-implemented method is disclosed for generating a signature representing an input bit vector. A signature generator generates a primary min-hash value based on a primary permutation from a sequence of permutation blocks. If the primary min-hash value is lower than a threshold value, a secondary min-hash value is generated based on a secondary permutation from the same permutation block. The signature generator then determines one or more signature values based on the primary min-hash value, the secondary min-hash value or both. The one or more signature values are stored as elements of the signature. |
| US08447031B2 |
Method and earpiece for visual operational status indication
An earpiece can include an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM), an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR), a transceiver, an illumination element, and a processor to provide visual operational mode indication via the illumination element. The operational mode can correspond to an active phone call, an incoming phone call, a terminated phone, a caller-on-hold condition, a recording mode, a voice mail mode, a mute mode, an audible transparency mode or an ear-plug mode. The intensity, frequency, amplitude, color or duration of the lighting can be adjusted according to the operational mode. |
| US08447028B2 |
Systems and methods for self-learning and building web contents via a rich call center service
Systems and methods provide for providing a plurality of information to a caller associated with a call to a service provider. The method includes: receiving, from the caller, the voice call to the service provider; determining that the voice call cannot be answered; responsive to the determination that the voice call cannot be answered, retrieving a first information from a web service associated with the service provider; and transmitting the first information to the caller. |
| US08447026B2 |
Data driven configuration of call management applications
A call manager uses a call management application in conjunction with a live dial database to control routing of calls for managed devices. To generate the live dial database, the call management application accesses configured route patterns and enters these patterns into the live dial database. Upon identifying an expansion indicator in a configured route pattern, the call management application accesses dial plan data that includes multiple route pattern definitions that each define a pattern using one or more sub-strings and, for each sub-string, an associated tag. The call management application then enters patterns defined by the route pattern definitions into the live dial database based on various other criteria established for the configured route pattern having the expansion indicator. |
| US08447025B2 |
One number, intelligent call processing system
Systems and methods for retrieving household data based on an origination identifier. In an embodiment, an origination identifier of a communication is captured. The origination identifier is indexed into a master table comprising a plurality of records. Each of the records comprises an association between an origination identifier and a universal database linkage key, and each universal database linkage key comprises an index into one or more databases. A universal database linkage key associated with the captured origination identifier is retrieved and indexed into one or more databases. Household data associated with the captured origination identifier is retrieved from the one or more databases and communicated to at least one recipient. |
| US08447024B2 |
Systems and methods for providing ENUM in an LNP environment
A system, computer-readable medium system, and method which provide a ENUM specification in an LNP environment where an originating device of a first service provider dials a dialed call for forwarding to a terminating device of a second service provider. There is provided a combined LNP and ENUM database having a central location which is in communication with both an originating office and a terminating office. Both the originating office and the terminating office can look up and use LNP and ENUM information from the combined database. |
| US08447013B2 |
Multibeam x-ray source with intelligent electronic control systems and related methods
Multibeam field emission x-ray systems and related methods can include cathode elements, an anode assembly spaced from the plurality of cathode elements, and an extraction gate positioned between the plurality of cathode elements and the anode assembly. A potential difference can be applied between the extraction gate and at least one of the cathode elements to cause an emission of electrons from the respective cathode elements. Emission characteristics of the cathode elements can be measured, and the potential difference between the extraction gate and at least one of the cathode elements can be adjusted based on the emission characteristics measured. |
| US08447011B2 |
Radiographic image capturing system and radiographic image capturing method
In a radiographic image capturing system and radiographic image capturing method, in a case that at least two radiation sources are housed in a radiation output device, weighting of doses of respective radiation emitted from the at least two radiation sources is carried out. Thereafter, respective radiation is applied to a subject from the at least two radiation sources in accordance with the weighting. Then, the radiation detecting device detects the respective radiation that has passed through the subject and converts the detected radiation into a radiographic image. |
| US08447010B2 |
Device for data transfer, computed tomography apparatus and method for data transfer
In a device and a method for data transfer between a rotatable part and stationary part of a gantry of a computed tomography apparatus a broadband transmission link is used for data between the rotatable part and the stationary part of the gantry, via which both measurement data and operating data of the computed tomography apparatus are transferred. An arrangement also is provided for narrowband transmission of data of the computed tomography apparatus via the broadband transmission link. The data of the computed tomography apparatus are transmitted using a frequency spread method via the broadband transmission link. |
| US08447009B2 |
Method and computed tomography scanner for carrying out an angiographic examination
A method and a computed tomography scanner are disclosed for carrying out an angiographic examination of a patient, wherein the utilized computed tomography scanner includes at least one recording system mounted on a gantry such that it can rotate about a z-axis. Projection data is acquired from at least one prescribed angular position of the gantry for at least two different energies of X-ray radiation. The projection data is subsequently combined to form a resulting projection image by evaluating the projection data corresponding to the respective angular position, in which projection image at least one substance, which should be displayed selectively, is imaged with a high image contrast compared to the respective individual projection data. This procedure extends the field of application of the computed tomography scanner to projection-based angiography examinations, which were previously restricted to C-arm systems. 3D image reconstruction methods and projection methods can be carried out on opposite sides and with great flexibility during an examination, without the need for an additional modality. By using a multispectral technique, it is possible to contrast agent. The projection data at dispense with recording a native projection data record without the different energies are moreover acquired with no or little time offset, and so a computationally expensive and error-prone registration of the data records can be dispensed with. |
| US08447007B2 |
Multi-clock real-time counter
A shared real-time counter is configured to provide an accurate counter output based on a fast clock period when driven by a fast clock signal or by a slow clock signal. Combinational logic circuitry provides glitch free switching between a fast clock signal input to the counter and a slow clock input to the counter. The counter is always on and increases its count by an appropriate rational number of counts representing fast clock cycles for every cycle of the fast clock while in a fast clock mode, and by an appropriate rational number of fast clock periods for every cycle of the slow clock signal while in a slow clock mode. |
| US08447001B2 |
Apparatus for performing channel estimation in a receiving device
An apparatus for performing channel estimation includes a time-domain estimating circuit to perform a channel estimation on a time-domain received signal to output a time-domain estimated signal, a second frequency-domain converting circuit to convert the time-domain estimated signal into a frequency-domain estimated signal, an error computing circuit to produce an error signal based on the frequency-domain estimated signal and a frequency-domain received signal, and a compensation circuit to compensate the frequency-domain estimated signal using the error signal so as to produce a final channel estimation signal. The apparatus is located in a receiving device that includes a first frequency-domain converting circuit to convert the time-domain received signal into the frequency-domain received signal, and an equalizer to generate a frequency-domain recovered signal based on the frequency-domain received signal and the final channel estimation signal. |
| US08446996B1 |
Sampling resolution and gain controller for a wireless receiver
A gain controller for a wireless communication system sets the receiver gain during the initial time duration of a preamble, and for each subsequent symbol computes a new gain value, which is applied at the end of each symbol. An analog to digital converter resolution controller sets the resolution of the ADC to a high resolution during a preamble interval and a first symbol interval, and to a comparatively lower resolution thereafter until the end of the frame. When a new zone is entered, the first symbol of the new zone is sampled at a higher resolution than the subsequent symbols. |
| US08446989B2 |
Signal separating device and signal separating method
A signal demultiplexing method and apparatus are provided, for determining a likelihood of each bit included in a second signal, which is spatially multiplexed with and received with a first signal, based on a maximum likelihood detection (MLD) method using QR decomposition, wherein the first signal excludes the second signal to be calculated only in a final stage of the MLD method. |
| US08446988B2 |
System and method for selectively performing single-ended and differential signaling
In a communication system, data is selectively transmitted using single-ended or differential signaling. The data is transmitted in relation to a plurality of clock signals having different relative phases. When the data is transmitted using single-ended signaling, data on adjacent signal lines undergo logic transitions at different times in relation to the plurality of clock signals. |
| US08446987B2 |
Downstream transmitter and cable modem receiver for 1024 QAM
A headend transmitter that transmits 1024 QAM including a 256 QAM modulator which has been modified to have more aggressive forward error correction processing. The 256 QAM modulator outputs 256 QAM points to a summer. Another data modulator receives additional data to be transmitted in a separate, substantially less complex constellation. This modulator processes the additional data to do forward error correction thereon and then maps the encoded data into a less complex constellation such as QPSK, 16 QAM etc. The additional data constellation points are then amplified in a variable gain amplifier and fed to a summer where each additional data point is added by vector summation to one 256 QAM point. The output 1024 QAM point is filtered and shifted to the desired transmission frequency. Legacy cable modem receivers can still receive the 256 QAM point since the addition of the new data just appears to be noise which they can overcome using the parity bits encoded in the transmitted symbols. 1024 QAM cable modem receivers receive both the 256 QAM points and the new data points and output both. |
| US08446984B2 |
Method and system for identification of portable antenna modules
Antenna identification data is transferred over a regular channel that is normally used for transferring navigation signals. Modulation of the received signal is used for transferring the portable antenna parameter data. Antenna identifications and parameters are written into a portable antenna module. The antenna module is attached to a radio receiver. The antenna module and the receiver are powered up. The portable antenna module receives radio signals that are amplified in a low-noise amplifier. Then, a level of the output signal is discretely modulated in the amplitude modulator and the signal is transferred to the radio receiver. The discrete fluctuations of the level of the signal are determined in the amplitude demodulator. The fluctuation of the level of the signal carries the information about the identification parameters of the portable antenna module. An analog-to-digital conversion of the determine signal fluctuation is performed in an analog-to-digital converter. The converted digital signal is used for receiving data related to the type and parameters of the portable antenna module. |
| US08446977B2 |
Method for transmitting discrete electric signals
The invention relates to information transmission methods, in particular to the communication interfaces of electronic devices. The inventive method makes it possible to increase the communication range and reliability by improving noise protection through the compensation of a noise signal during the transmission and reading of the signal in both wires of a communication line. The inventive method involves connecting the first pole of a voltage supply source to the first wire of a two-wire transmission line via a first resistor and connecting the second pole of said voltage supply source to the second wire of the two-wire transmission line via a second resistor. Moreover, the first and second resistors have the equal resistance values, and a receiver is connected to the two-wire transmission line between a transmitter and the voltage supply source and is provided with two current sensors. A reading signal is defined as the sum of absolute values of the measured currents. |
| US08446968B2 |
OFDM receiving apparatus and mode detecting method thereof
Provided are an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) receiving apparatus and a mode detecting method thereof. The mode detecting method includes: detecting a first mode of a received signal by using first delay signals obtained by delaying the received signal, and first correlation values of the received signal; and detecting a second mode of the received signal by using second delay signals obtained by delaying a first correlation value corresponding to the first mode from among the first correlation values, and the first correlation value corresponding to the first mode. According to the OFDM receiving apparatus and the mode detecting method, a fast Fourier transform (FFT) mode is detected first and then a guard interval (GI) mode is detected based on a result of detecting the FFT mode from the same signal, and thus mode detection is accurately and quickly performed and the OFDM receiving apparatus has a reduced chip size. |
| US08446964B2 |
Method and system for noise reduction with a motion compensated temporal filter
Described herein is a method and system for the reduction of noise in a video sequence. When motion is present in the video sequence, this system and method identifies motion data. With the motion data, a Motion Compensated Temporal Filter (MCTF) can apply motion compensation prior to filtering in the time domain. Temporal filtering can be performed to reduce visible noise and other detrimental artifacts. |
| US08446960B2 |
Picture coding using adaptive color space transformation
The present invention is based on the finding that pictures or a picture stream can be encoded highly efficient when a representation of pictures is chosen that is having different picture blocks, wherein each picture block is carrying picture information for picture areas smaller than the full area of the picture and when the different picture blocks are carrying the picture information either in a first color-space representation or in a second color-space-representation. Since different color-space-representations have individual inherent properties with respect to their describing parameters, choosing an appropriate color-space-representation individually for the picture blocks results in an encoded representation of pictures that is having a better quality at a given size or bit rate. |
| US08446959B2 |
Method and apparatus for encoding video by motion prediction using arbitrary partition, and method and apparatus for decoding video by motion prediction using arbitrary partition
Disclosed is a method and apparatus of encoding a video, the method including: splitting video data into a maximum coding unit; encoding the video data of the maximum coding unit based on deeper coding units of hierarchical structures in which a coding unit of an upper depth is split as a depth deepens, according to at least one split region of the maximum coding unit, and determining a coding depth at which an encoding result is to be output, including inter prediction using partitions obtained by splitting the coding unit according to arbitrary ratios; and outputting a bitstream including the encoded video data corresponding to a coding depth for the at least one split region according to maximum coding units and information regarding the coding depth and encoding modes. |
| US08446955B2 |
Speculative motion prediction cache
A method and apparatus to improve motion prediction in video processing systems is introduced. When a motion prediction cache completes requesting data for a current macroblock and enters an into idle state, data comprising one or more reference frames is speculatively requested, with the hope that the requested data are will be needed in a subsequent macroblock. If the speculative data is needed, then it is consumed. However, if the speculative data is not needed, then the correct data must be requested and a price is paid for an extra memory read bandwidth. In case the speculative data is the correct data for the subsequent macroblock, the effective memory read latency is reduced and the decode performance increases. The video decoder becomes more immune to memory read latency. |
| US08446952B2 |
Method of effectively predicting multi-layer based video frame, and video coding method and apparatus using the same
A method and apparatus are provided for effectively predicting a video frame that use all of the advantages of an intra mode and an intra BL mode in multi-layer structure based-video coding. The method includes reconstructing the intra block of a lower layer using the previously reconstructed first neighboring blocks of the intra block; subtracting the first neighboring blocks from previously stored the second neighboring blocks of an upper layer corresponding to the first neighboring blocks; creating a differential predicted block based on a predetermined intra prediction mode by performing intra prediction using virtual differential neighboring blocks that are created as a result of the subtraction; adding the differential predicted block and the reconstructed intra block; and subtracting a predicted block, which is created as a result of the addition, from a block of the upper layer corresponding to the intra block. |
| US08446949B2 |
Distributed coded video decoding apparatus and method capable of successively improving side information on the basis of reliability of reconstructed data
A distributed coded video decoding apparatus includes a key picture decoding unit for reconstructing a key picture, a side information generation unit for generating side information using the key picture and/or previously reconstructed WZ pictures, a side information update unit for updating the side information using the side information and corrected reconstructed video, a channel code decoding unit for decoding quantization symbols, a video reconstruction unit for reconstructing a current WZ picture using the quantization symbols and the side information, and a video correction unit for calculating the reconstructed data reliability using channel code decoded data reliability of the decoded data and/or the reconstructed video reliability determining whether to correct the reconstructed video and determining a correction value based on the calculated the reconstructed data reliability and then correcting the reconstructed video. |
| US08446947B2 |
Method for encoding a digital signal into a scalable bitstream; method for decoding a scalable bitstream
A method for encoding a digital signal into a scalable bitstream comprising quantizing the digital signal, and encoding the quantized signal to form a core-layer bitstream, performing an error mapping based on the digital signal and the core-layer bitstream to remove information that has been encoded into the core-layer bitstream, resulting in an error signal, bit-plane coding the error signal based on perceptual information of the digital signal, resulting in an enhancement-layer bitstream, wherein the perceptual information of the digital signal is determined using a perceptual model, and multiplexing the core-layer bitstream and the enhancement-layer bitstream, thereby generating the scalable bitstream. A method for decoding a scalable bitstream into a digital signal comprising de-multiplexing the scalable bitstream into a core-layer bitstream and an enhancement-layer bitstream, decoding and de-quantizing the core-layer bitstream to generate a core-layer signal, bit-plane decoding the enhancement-layer bitstream based on perceptual information of the digital signal, and performing an error mapping based on the bit-plane decoded enhancement-layer bitstream and the de-quantized core-layer signal, resulting in an reconstructed transformed signal, wherein the reconstructed transformed signal is the digital signal. |
| US08446946B2 |
Video processing method and system
A video processing method is implemented by transmitting and receiving devices, and includes: obtaining a standard resolution source image frame from an image sequence, and detecting a network bandwidth; when an encoding bit rate of the source image frame exceeds the network bandwidth, decreasing a resolution thereof to obtain reduced image frame content and generating a relay image frame containing the same and having an encoding bit rate not exceeding the network bandwidth; generating an encoded image frame by encoding the source or the relay image frame, and sending the encoded image frame to the receiving device; and decoding the encoded image frame to obtain the source or the relay image frame, and recovering from the relay image frame, when obtained, a restored image frame corresponding to the reduced image frame content and having the standard resolution. A video processing system is also disclosed. |
| US08446941B2 |
Equalizer employing adaptive algorithm for high speed data transmissions and equalization method thereof
Disclosed are an equalizer and an equalization method employing an adaptive algorithm for high speed data transmissions. The equalizer includes: a subtraction unit subtracting a feedback signal from an input signal to generate a subtraction signal; a timing signal generation unit generating a sampling timing signal; an equalization signal generation unit equalizing the subtraction signal according to the sampling timing signal to generate an equalization signal; and a feedback signal generation unit calculating a filter coefficient value by using the subtraction signal and the equalization signal, delaying the equalization signal, and weighting the delayed equalization signal according to the filter coefficient value to generate a feedback signal. |
| US08446940B2 |
Adaptive receive-side equalization
An adaptive receiver equalizes incoming data expressed as a series of symbols, the degree of equalization being adjusted by some adaptive control logic. An amplitude detector samples the amplitude of the eye openings of incoming symbols and conveys the resulting measures of eye amplitude to the adaptive control logic. The control logic experiments with different equalization settings while monitoring the resulting eye amplitude to find the equalization setting that provides incoming data eyes of the highest amplitude. A data filter may be included to enable the amplitude detector only in response to particular incoming data patterns. |
| US08446935B2 |
Method and circuit for fractional rate pulse shaping
A method and system for fractionally converting sample rates. Fractional rate conversion for a transmit path of a transceiver is achieved by upsampling an input signal having a first sample rate by a first integer factor, removing aliasing resulting from the upconversion process, and then downsampling the intermediate signal by a second integer factor to provide a final signal having a second sample rate. The first factor and the second factor are selected to obtain a desired output sample rate that is a fraction of the sample rate of the input signal. |
| US08446934B2 |
Frequency diversity and phase rotation
An integrated circuit includes logic configured to encode one or more first data symbols in one or more first sub-carriers as one or more second data symbols in one or more second sub-carriers of a smart-utility-network communication. |
| US08446931B1 |
Chip timing synchronization for link that transitions between clear and spread modes
Synchronization of a primary link which transitions between clear mode and spread mode is achieved and maintained using a secondary link. When transitioning from clear mode to spread mode, a primary transmission delta phase is adjusted by the difference between a secondary reception delta phase and the primary transmission delta phase; and a primary reception delta phase is adjusted to be equal to a secondary transmission delta phase. |
| US08446925B2 |
Reduction of timing jitter in a passive Q-switched solid state laser
A method and device for reducing the timing jitter in a passive Q-switched Nd:YAG solid state laser by spatially selective bleaching a thin sheet of a saturable absorber of Cr+4:YAG from a direction orthogonal to the direction of laser emission where the Cr+4:YAG transmission increases 18% when the bleaching probe beam is a single laser diode bar. For steady state operation of a passive Q-switched laser, the pulse-to-pulse timing jitter showed a −12× reduction in standard deviation from 241 nsec for free running operation to 20 nsec with optical triggering. |
| US08446924B2 |
Laser annealing method and apparatus
In the case of a lens array type homogenizer optical system, the incident angle and intensity of a laser beam 1 entering a large-sized lens (long-axis condenser lens 22) of a long-axis condensing optical system, which is provided on the rear side, are changed for every shot by performing laser irradiation while long-axis lens arrays 20a and 20b are reciprocated in a direction corresponding to a long axial direction of a linear beam (X-direction). Therefore, vertical stripes are significantly reduced. Further, the incident angle and intensity of a laser beam 1 entering a large-sized lens (projection lens 30) of a short-axis condensing optical system, which is provided on the rear side, are changed for every shot by performing laser irradiation while short-axis lens arrays 26a and 26b are reciprocated in a direction corresponding to a short axial direction of a linear beam (Y-direction). Therefore, horizontal stripes are significantly reduced. |
| US08446920B2 |
Providing resilient digital telephony services for wireless device
A system and method for providing resilient digital telephony services for wireless communication devices are disclosed. The system comprises a plurality of wireless communication devices and a border gateway serving a communications network that is configured to communicate with the wireless communication devices. At least two telephony servers are located in the communications network. The servers are configured to communicate with at least a portion of the wireless communication devices. A heartbeat module is configured to communicate heartbeat signals between the border gateway and the telephony servers and redirect service in the event of a server failure. |
| US08446919B2 |
Service switching method, system, and device
A service switching method, system, and device are provided. The method includes: receiving a control message for switching between a unicast service and a multicast service; and reusing access line resources of the multicast service when the multicast service is switched to the unicast service, or reusing access line resources of the unicast service when the unicast service is switched to the multicast service according to the control message. |
| US08446913B2 |
Multifabric zone device import and export
A Fibre Channel router used to join fabrics. EX_ports are used to connect to the fabrics. The EX_port joins the fabric but the router will not merge into the fabric. Ports in the Fibre Channel router can be in a fabric, but other ports can be connected to other fabrics. Fibre Channel routers can be interconnected using a backbone fabric. Global, interfabric and encapsulation headers are developed to allow routing by conventional Fibre Channel switch devices in the backbone fabric and simplify Fibre Channel router routing. Phantom domains and devices must be developed for each of the fabrics being interconnected. Front phantom domains are present at each port directly connected to a fabric. Each of these is then connected to at least one translate phantom domain. Zoning is accomplished by use of a special LSAN zoning naming convention. This allows each administrator to independently define devices are accessible. |
| US08446910B2 |
Methods for even hash distribution for port channel with a large number of ports
Embodiments described herein achieve even traffic load-balancing among physical ports in a port channel with 2N ports of a networking switch. Embodiments may derive an upper limit of hash values given all the possible number of ports within a port channel. Based on the determined upper limit of hash values, embodiments provide the steps to evenly distribute hash values among ports in a port channel when adding or deleting a port to achieve even traffic load-balancing among ports in a port channel all the time. |
| US08446908B2 |
Apparatus and method for reordering data packets in communication system
An apparatus and method for reordering data packets in a communication system are provided. The method includes detecting that a first time value of a timer used for reordering data packets needs to be set when a missing data packet occurs in receiving data packets, and, when the timer restarts, setting the first time value to a time value determined by compensating for a second time value which is used when the timer starts. The timer starts when a first Transmission Sequence Number (TSN) of a received data packet is greater than a TSN of a data packet which is expected to be received immediately after data packets received already and when the timer is not in an active state. The timer expires at a point of time when the second time value lapses. The timer stops when a data packet with the same TSN as the first TSN is sent as a reassembly entity before the expiring of the timer. The timer restarts when a received data packet which cannot be sent as the reassembly entity is buffered in a buffer after the stopping or the expiring of the timer. |
| US08446903B1 |
Providing a load/store communication protocol with a low power physical unit
In one embodiment, a converged protocol stack can be used to unify communications from a first communication protocol to a second communication protocol to provide for data transfer across a physical interconnect. This stack can be incorporated in an apparatus that includes a protocol stack for a first communication protocol including transaction and link layers, and a physical (PHY) unit coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between the apparatus and a device coupled to the apparatus via a physical link. This PHY unit may include a physical unit circuit according to the second communication protocol. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08446899B2 |
Method and means for route selection of a session
In the present invention, it is provided a method and means for selecting a route for a session requested by a calling user equipment in a session manager, and correspondingly, it is provided a method and means for selecting a route for a session requested by a calling user equipment in a media gateway control function, it is characterized as selecting an MGW having relative lighter load to bear the session on a basis of load related information of MGWs. By applying the methods and means of the present invention, load of every MGW is balanced; performance degradation, caused by heavy load, of a certain MGW is avoided; MGW having stopped working is bypassed; a success ratio of session setup is increased; session performance is improved; and benefit is brought to multi-network integration, such as inter-working between a packet switching network and a circuit switching network in an IMS network. |
| US08446897B2 |
System and method for providing multimedia tone/announcement over wireless network
A system and method for providing a multimedia tone/announcement over circuit switched wireless networks are provided. The system and method enable processing of a multiple call leg function based on H.324M over a circuit switched wireless network by relaying an end-to-end H.324M initialization over the circuit switched wireless network. Therefore, a variety of multimedia services (for example, multimedia RBT/announcement service, video conferencing, etc.) together with video phone service based on H.324M in the circuit switched wireless network can be provided, which may be conducive to popularization of video phone service and realization of profits based on the provision of a variety of additional multimedia services. |
| US08446896B2 |
Time synchronization using packet-layer and physical-layer protocols
In certain embodiments, a slave node in a packet network achieves time synchronization with a master node by implementing a packet-layer synchronization procedure, such as the IEEE1588 precision timing protocol (PTP), to set the slave's local time based on the master's time. The slave's local time is then maintained by implementing a physical-layer syntonization procedure, such as synchronous Ethernet, without relying on the packet-layer synchronization procedure. The packet-layer synchronization procedure may be selectively employed to adjust the slave's local time (if needed) after significant periods of time (e.g., substantially greater than one second). Both the packet-layer synchronization procedure and the physical-layer syntonization procedure are traceable to a common reference timescale (e.g., UTC). Depending on the implementation, the packet-layer synchronization procedure can be, but does not have to be, terminated when not being employed to adjust the slave's local time. |
| US08446894B2 |
Systems and methods for performing initial synchronization in wireless communications systems
A method is described for performing frame synchronization that comprises performing a first synchronization to determine approximate timing of a frame boundary associated with a received signal. The method further comprises estimating frequency offset and symbol boundaries within the frame boundary based on the approximate timing and performing a second synchronization based on the frame boundary and the symbol boundary. |
| US08446892B2 |
Channel structures for a quasi-orthogonal multiple-access communication system
A channel structure has at least two channel sets. Each channel set contains multiple channels and is associated with a specific mapping of the channels to the system resources available for data transmission. Each channel set may be defined based on a channel tree having a hierarchical structure. To achieve intra-cell interference diversity, the channel-to-resource mapping for each channel set is pseudo-random with respect to the mapping for each remaining channel set. In each scheduling interval, terminals are scheduled for transmission on the forward and/or reverse link. The scheduled terminals are assigned channels from the channel sets. Multiple terminals may use the same system resources and their overlapping transmissions may be separated in the spatial domain. For example, beamforming may be performed to send multiple overlapping transmissions on the forward link, and receiver spatial processing may be performed to separate out multiple overlapping transmissions received on the reverse link. |
| US08446891B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating, transmitting, and receiving a data frame in a wireless communication system
The present invention relates to a technique relating to a method and apparatus for generating, transmitting, and receiving a data frame having a newly proposed format in a wireless communication system. According to the technique, the method for generating a data frame in a wireless communication system comprises the following steps: generating at least one first subframe; generating at least one second subframe; and generating a data frame including the first and second subframes, wherein the first and second subframes include length information of a MAC protocol data unit (MPDU) contained in the first and second subframes, and the length information of the MPDU contained in the second subframe is zero. |
| US08446890B2 |
Load balancing
A technique for associating clients with APs in an advantageous manner may involve local balancing of clients across APs. This may involve providing instructions to APs to disable client association. Alternatively, this technique may involve load balancing across controllers. |
| US08446887B2 |
Methods and devices for scheduling transmissions in a wireless network based on contention and channel conditions
Methods and systems for assigning time-division multiplexed (TDM) slots in a multi-channel TDM system are presented. Preferably, a radio access network (RAN) assigns forward link and reverse link transmissions between the RAN and one or more wireless communication devices (WCDs) to TDM slots on various wireless channels. When making these assignments, the RAN may take into account (i) the priority of data that the RAN queues for the WCDs, and (ii) the signal quality at which the WCDs can receive the various wireless channels. |
| US08446885B2 |
Method and apparatus of fast system selection in the TD-SCDMA and GSM multimode terminal
Certain aspects of the present disclosure propose techniques and apparatus of fast system selection for a multimode terminal that can support both Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) technology and Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) technology. |
| US08446884B2 |
Dual-mode communication devices, methods and systems
Dual-mode communication devices, methods, and systems are provided. Embodiments of the present invention include devices, method, and systems enabling communication in a spread-spectrum communication protocol, comprising: receiving a first portion of a communication frame at a first frequency channel, wherein the first portion of the communication frame comprises a data channel index that indicates a second frequency channel for receiving a second portion of the communication frame; switching to the second frequency channel; and receiving the second portion of the communication frame at the second frequency channel. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are claimed and disclosed. |
| US08446881B2 |
Base station device, and mobile station device
Provided are a base station device and a mobile station device, which can lighten a cell-search processing. The base station device (100) includes a frame constitution unit (130) for forming a frame, in which a pilot symbol multiplied by a base station scrambling code assigned to that device and a plurality of sequences contained in the corresponding sequence set is arranged in at least the head or tail, and a radio transmission unit (155) for sending the formed frame. On the receiving side of the frame, the frame timing can be detected from the position of a pilot symbol contained in that frame. Since the base station scrambling code and the sequence set containing the sequences are made to correspond to each other, candidates can be narrowed to at most the base station scrambling codes of the number of the combinations of the sequences contained in the sequence set, by detecting the sequences multiplied by the pilot symbol, so that the cell search processing can be lightened. |
| US08446880B2 |
Method of performing cell re-selection in a wireless communication system
A method of performing cell re-selection in a wireless communication system considering mobility of a user equipment comprises detecting cells having signal strength greater than a certain level for a first time interval and a second time interval, determining mobility of the user equipment using at least one of a change level in the number of cells detected for the first time interval and the second time interval and information related to variation of a signal characteristics value of at least one cell commonly detected for the first time interval and the second time interval, and performing cell re-selection considering mobility of the user equipment. |
| US08446879B2 |
Soft handoff in OFDMA system
Soft handoff in an OFDMA system is disclosed. If the pilot signal strength for a base station exceeds the defined threshold, the base station is added to an active set list. Subcarriers in a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols are divided and allocated into subchannels. The OFDM symbols are divided and multiplexed. A soft handoff zone with a first dimension of the subchannels and a second dimension of the divided and multiplexed OFDM symbols is defined. The soft handoff zone has subcarriers with a subchannel definition, for example, an identical permutation. |
| US08446878B2 |
Method for performing zone switching in broadband wireless access system
A method and mobile stations for performing a zone switch, are discussed. According to an embodiment, the method includes: receiving, at the mobile station and from a target base station configured to operate in accordance with a first and a second protocol, a ranging response message of the first protocol including zone switch parameters used to perform zone switch from a first zone of the target base station corresponding to the first protocol to a second zone of the target base station corresponding to the second protocol; and performing, at the mobile station, the zone switch from the first zone to the second zone using the zone switch parameters. |
| US08446877B2 |
Limiting redirections in an unlicensed mobile access network
A method and system for limiting redirections of a mobile station (MS) in an unlicensed radio access network having a plurality of unlicensed network controllers (UNCs). The MS includes a redirection counter set to zero within a registration request sent to one of the UNCs. Each time the MS receives a redirection response from a UNC, the MS increments the redirection counter and sends it in another registration request. Once the redirection counter has exceeded a defined value for the MS, the UNC rejects any registration request from that MS. |
| US08446875B2 |
Media independent pre-authentication supporting fast-handoff in proxy MIPv6 environment
This document describes a proactive mechanism to provide fast-handover involving PMIPv6. In particular, it describes how one can achieve fast handoff for PMIPv6 using Media-independent Pre-Authentication (MPA) technique. It discusses the need for a fast-handoff for PMIPv6 environment. It then describes how MPA techniques could be used during different steps involving both intra-domain and inter-domain handoff for PMIPv6. MPA-based fast-handover takes advantage of the pre-authentication mechanism so that the mobile can perform the access authentication while in the previous local mobility (PMA) domain and thus would be able to complete many of the handoff related operations while still in the previous network. |
| US08446871B2 |
Method for transmitting and receiving data in wireless communication system
The present invention relates to a method for transmitting and receiving data in a wireless communication system. The method for transmitting data in a wireless communication system, according to one aspect of the present invention, comprises a step in which a base station transmits downlink data to a first terminal which supports a first system via a first region of a frame, and transmits downlink data to a second terminal which supports a second system via a second region which follows the first region corresponding to a frame offset on a time axis, wherein the frame offset is an offset of the start point of the frame for the first system and the start point of the frame for the second system, and the first region includes 3+6 (the frame offset-1) OFDM symbols. Each independent claim uniquely identifies the distinct claimed features. |
| US08446869B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting system information block in a broadband wireless communication system
An operation method of the femto BS includes configuring a subframe set including at least two types of subframes among subframes having predefined different structures, and, if a duration of a subframe carrying the subframe set arrives, transmitting one of the subframes included in the subframe set according to predefined order. The subframes having the predefined different structures include a first type subframe including a synchronization signal and a Master Information Block (MIB), a second type subframe including the synchronization signal, a third type subframe including the synchronization signal and system information, a fourth type subframe including the synchronization signal, the MIB, and the system information, and a fifth type subframe including the system information. |
| US08446863B2 |
Ubiquitous access to femto-connected network
A system and method of enabling a mobile device to communicate with a local IP network host and an external IP network host using a femto cellular access point on a femto cellular access network. A local gateway is coupled to the femto cellular access network for receiving data packets transmitted on the femto cellular access network and for routing the data packets to one of a local IP network and an external IP network, based on a destination address associated with the data packets. The femto cellular access network includes an LTE network, an EVDO network connected to an EPC, or a WiMax 802.16e/m network connected to the EPC. |
| US08446855B2 |
Access point, wireless communication station, wireless communication system and wireless communication method
An access point for establishing wireless connection with one or more wireless communication stations which can perform intermittent reception operation, based on a packet transmission system which allocates wireless bands by CSMA/CA, has: unit for describing, in a same packet or in respective packets, buffering information on a downlink packet addressed to a subordinate wireless communication station currently in an intermittent reception state, and transmission prohibition period information indicating a period where transmission from the subordinate wireless communication station is prohibited; unit for transmitting the instruction described packet, in which the description has been made, to the subordinate wireless communication station; unit for making a state of the access point transit to a Doze state immediately after the instruction described packet is transmitted, or when a predetermined number of downlink packets are transmitted; and unit for making a state of the access point transit to an Awake state when the transmission prohibition period elapses from the time of transmission of the packet in which the prohibition period information is described. |
| US08446844B1 |
Handover in multicarrier wireless networks
A serving base station transmits at least one message to configure at least one backward compatible carrier and at least one non-backward compatible carrier in a wireless device. The serving base station transmits, in response to the serving base station making a handover decision, a second message to a target base station. The second message comprises parameters indicating whether the wireless device supports configuration of non-backward compatible carriers, configuration information of at least one backward compatible carrier and/or configuration information of at least one non-backward compatible carrier. |
| US08446838B2 |
Wireless communication device and computer program
A wireless communication device is provided. The device is connectable to a first wireless network including an access point and a second wireless network including a terminal having an access point function. The device includes a setting section which stores setup data in a volatile storage area, a communication section which performs wireless communication using the setup data stored in the volatile storage area, and a determination section which determines which wireless networks the device is to be connected to. If the device is to be connected to the first wireless network, the setting section stores first setup data from the access point into the volatile storage area and a non-volatile storage area. If the device is to be connected to the second wireless network, the setting section stores second setup data from the terminal into the volatile storage area without storing it into the non-volatile storage area. |
| US08446834B2 |
Traceback packet transport protocol
Tokens identifying all of the physical routing devices, i.e., network nodes, through which a packet travels are recorded in a limited amount of space reserved in the header of the packet for such tokens. When insufficient space remains in the header of the packet for all tokens required to identify all physical routing devices through which the packet travels, sequences of multiple tokens are replaced with an abbreviation token representing the sequence. The sequence of tokens represented by an abbreviation token can also be abbreviation tokens, supporting recursive abbreviation of the token sequence in the header of the packet as needed to record the entire route of the packet through the network regardless of the limited space in the header for tracking the route of the packet. |
| US08446832B2 |
Dynamic control of air interface throughput
A method and network node for dynamically controlling throughput over an air interface between a mobile terminal and a radio telecommunication system. The method detects a type of service being utilized by the mobile terminal, and dynamically selects a target delay for the traffic between a base station and the mobile terminal. The detecting may be done by a Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) engine implemented in a core network node such as a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN). When the mobile terminal activates a delay-sensitive service, the target delay is dynamically changed to a smaller value to reduce latency. When the mobile terminal deactivates all delay-sensitive services, the target delay is dynamically changed to a larger value to increase throughput. |
| US08446826B2 |
Congestion handling in a packet switched network domain
A system and a method are described herein which provide for congestion handling in a packet switched network domain. In case of congestion, overload is measured by a core node, the data packets in proportion to the overload are marked and the signaled overload is stored. At least one egress node receives marked and not marked packets, decodes and counts the overload from the marked packets in a counting interval. Congestion report messages are sent to ingress nodes where flows are terminated. |
| US08446823B2 |
Method of managing the flow of time-sensitive data over packet networks
A method is disclosed for managing multiple data streams transported over a common communications resource in a packet network, wherein data flowing through the resource travels in both directions, and wherein each stream is subject to data peaks. The round trip delay is determined for each data stream, and the transmission of data peaks in one or more of the data streams is delayed to at least reduce the degree of coincidence in the data peaks of different streams without increasing the maximum round trip delay for the data streams. |
| US08446820B2 |
Changes to access procedure for ASC 0 for UMTS
According to one aspect, a method that includes some of the teachings of the present subject technology reduces congestion in a communications network. The method includes, inter alia, letting a persistence value be a function of N, even when ASC=0, and also a function of a constant the emergency services access parameter W, such that the persistence value P0(N) ranges between P1(N) and 1 when the emergency services access parameter W ranges from a first value (e.g. 0) to a second value (e.g. 1), where P(N)=2−(N−1) and where N is transmitted in a system information message. A comparator allows a user to access the communications network only if a random/pseudorandom number is less than the persistence value. Other aspects, such as a computer program product, also reduce congestion in a communications network. |
| US08446819B2 |
System and method for detecting and isolating a remote loop
A system and method are provided for enabling a first network to detect a loop in a second network connected thereto. The first network runs a first instance of a Spanning Tree Protocol and the second network runs either a different instance or no instance. The method includes sending a Remote Loop Detection Packet (“RLDP”) from the ports in bridges of the first network which are connected to the second network. The RLDP includes identifiers such as the source bridge, port and VLAN. The system and method further includes checking for receipt of the RLDP on the same bridge which sent the RLDP. If such a receipt occurs, a loop is detected and one of the ports of the receiving/sending bridge is blocked. |
| US08446818B2 |
Routed split multi-link trunking resiliency for wireless local area network split-plane environments
A method, apparatus and computer program product for performing Routed Split Multi-Link Trunking Resiliency for Wireless Local Area Network split-plane environments is presented. A first network switch learns first data associated with a second network switch and the first network switch terminates an Access Tunnel (AT). The said second network switch learns second data associated with said first network switch. The first and second data are synchronized between the first network switch and the second network switch. The first network switch and the second network load sharing tunnel data packets. The second network switch forwards tunnel control packets received by the second network switch to the first network. A failure relating to said first network switch is detected and a new AT is established with the second network switch. |
| US08446805B2 |
Method of recording information on a recording medium including the recordation of a test signal thereon
A disc-shaped information recording medium includes a laminate of recording layers on and from which an information signal can be optically recorded and reproduced from one side of the medium. Data areas are provided in the recording layers, respectively. The information signal can be recorded on and reproduced from the data areas while a laser beam emitted from an optical pickup is applied to the data areas. Optical recording test areas are provided in the recording layers, respectively. A test signal can be recorded on and reproduced from the optical recording test areas to decide optimum power values of the laser beam for signal recording. The test areas are out of overlap as viewed in a direction of propagation of the laser beam. |
| US08446804B2 |
Disc inspecting method and disc inspecting device
A disc inspecting method includes: forming recording marks on a disc; scanning the recording marks from inside to outside or from outside to inside of the disc by a pickup unit to read a reproduction signal while rotating a spindle to move a slider by each predetermined width; acquiring reproduction data from the reproduction signal in a signal acquiring unit; and determining whether or not the reproduction data is proper in a calculation unit, and optimizing a formation condition of the recording marks when it is determined that the reproduction data is not proper. |
| US08446802B2 |
Optical drive device and focus servo control method
An optical drive device includes first and second light sources, an objective lens configured to receive a first light emitted from the first light source and a second light emitted from the second light source and to irradiate both the first light and the second light to an optical disc recording medium, a first focus mechanism configured to drive the objective lens in a focus direction, a second focus mechanism configured to change collimation of the second light incident to the objective lens and changing the focusing position of the second light independently of the first light, a first focus servo control unit configured to drive the first focus mechanism, an error signal subtraction unit configured to subtract the first focus error signal from a second focus error signal, and a second focus servo control unit configured to drive the second focus mechanism. |
| US08446801B2 |
Reading apparatus, reading method, program, and program recording medium
A reading apparatus and method for reading data from a digital versatile disc includes a specification section configured to specify a predetermined position of content. A controller generates information indicating a predetermined portion from a position specified by the specification section. A storage section reads the predetermined portion from the digital versatile disc on the basis of the information generated by the generation section and stores the predetermined portion on a storage medium. A reading controller controls reading of data from the storage medium and the digital versatile disc. |
| US08446798B2 |
Marine acoustic vibrator having enhanced low-frequency amplitude
A seismic source includes a flextensional shell defining a longer axis and a shorter axis and at least one driver coupled to the flextensional shell proximate an end of the shorter axis. The seismic source may be a component of a marine seismic survey system. The marine seismic survey system may be utilized in a method of marine seismic surveying. |
| US08446797B2 |
Ocean bottom cable and sensor unit
An underwater ocean bottom cable constructed of a series of axially aligned cable segments alternately arranged with sensor units. The sensor units include an outer housing with an interior cavity in which a sensor module is suspended by a cradle. Vanes on the sensor module protrude through axially elongated openings in the outer housing to dig into the seabed to provide good seismic coupling between the seabed and pressure sensors and motion sensors housed in the sensor module. The outer sensor housing is split into complementary portions that clamp firmly onto the ends of adjacent cable segments. Stress members, such as high modulus fiber ropes, extend out the ends of adjacent cable segments. Axial channels formed in the intervening outer sensor housing on opposite sides of the sensor module receive the stress members, which, along with the cradle, provide seismic isolation between the cable segments and the sensor modules. |
| US08446795B2 |
Device and method for protecting data in non-volatile memory
Disclosed is a non-volatile memory data protecting device and method. The non-volatile memory data protecting device (200) that is used for protecting non-volatile memory data when a power is shut down in a system, may include a signal delay unit (230) to delay a drop in voltage of an input/output line, a power shutdown sensor (210) to sense power shutdown of a system, and a controller (220) to control the signal delay unit in response to whether the system is shut down. |
| US08446784B2 |
Level shifting circuit
A level shifting circuit having an input and an output where the level shifting circuit is configured to receive a logical high level having a first voltage level at the input and to output a logical high level having a second voltage level at the output where the second voltage level is higher than the first voltage level. Level shifting circuit embodiments having two or more parallel coupled depletion mode transistors coupled to a high voltage source and further coupled to the output by an enhancement mode transistor, and an additional transistor coupled between a first signal and the output of the level shifting circuit where the first signal has the same logic level of the input are disclosed. |
| US08446783B2 |
Digit line comparison circuits
A DRAM includes a register storing subsets of row addresses corresponding to rows containing at least one memory cell that is unable to store a data bit during a normal refresh cycle. Each subset includes all but the most significant bit of a corresponding row address. A refresh counter in the DRAM generates refresh row addresses that are used to refresh rows of memory cells. The refresh row addresses are compared to the subsets of row addresses that are stored in the register. In the event of a match, the row of memory cells corresponding to the matching subset of bits is refreshed. The number of refreshes occurring each refresh cycle will depend upon the number of bits in the subset that are omitted from the row address. The memory cells that are unable to retain data bits are identified by a modified sense amplifier. |
| US08446782B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
A semiconductor memory device comprises a plurality of memory layers arranged in multilayer, each memory layer including a cell array, the cell array containing a plurality of first parallel lines, a plurality of second parallel lines arranged crossing the first lines, and a plurality of memory cells connected at intersections of the first lines and the second lines; a pulse generator operative to generate pulses required for data access to the memory cell; and a control means operative to control the pulse generator such that the pulse output from the pulse generator has energy in accordance with the memory layer to which the access target memory cell belongs. |
| US08446779B2 |
Non-volatile memory using pyramidal nanocrystals as electron storage elements
A non-volatile memory device includes a floating gate with pyramidal-shaped silicon nanocrystals as electron storage elements. Electrons tunnel from the pyramidal-shaped silicon nanocrystals through a gate oxide layer to a control gate of the non-volatile memory device. The pyramidal shape of each silicon nanocrystal concentrates an electrical field at its peak to facilitate electron tunneling. This allows an erase process to occur at a lower tunneling voltage and shorter tunneling time than that of prior art devices. |
| US08446777B2 |
Non-volatile semiconductor memory device
A non-volatile semiconductor memory device according to one embodiment of the present invention includes a memory cell array and a control unit. The control unit is configured to control a repeat of an erase operation, an erase verify operation, and a step-up operation. The control unit is configured to perform a soft-programming operation of setting the memory cells from an over-erased state to a first threshold voltage distribution state when, in a series of erase operations, the number of erase voltage applications is more than a first number and less than a second number (the first number |
| US08446773B2 |
Memory system and programming method thereof
Provided are a non-volatile memory system and a programming method thereof. The programming method of the non-volatile memory system includes adjusting a program-verify-voltage of a selected memory cell referring to program data to be written in an interfering cell configured to provide interference for the selected memory cell and programming the selected memory cell depending on the adjusted program-verify-voltage. |
| US08446772B2 |
Memory die self-disable if programmable element is not trusted
Techniques are disclosed herein for automatically self-disabling a memory die in the event that a programmable element on the memory die for indicating whether the memory die is defective cannot be trusted. Memory die are provided with chip enable circuitry to allow particular memory die to be disabled. If the programmable element can be trusted, the state of the programmable element is provided to the chip enable circuitry to enable/disable the memory die based on the state. However, if the programmable element cannot be trusted, then the chip enable circuitry may automatically disable the memory die. This provides a greater yield for multi-chip memory packages because packages having memory die with a programmable element that cannot be trusted can still be used. |
| US08446771B2 |
NAND nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and write method for NAND nonvolatile semiconductor memory device
According to one embodiment, a NAND nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprises memory cell transistors and a write circuit. The memory cell transistors are arranged in a matrix in a column direction and in a row direction. Each of the memory cell transistors comprises a charge accumulation layer and a control gate electrode configured to control the charge accumulation state of the charge accumulation layer. The write circuit carries out write on the memory cell transistors. The memory cell transistors arranged in the same line include first memory cell transistors and second memory cell transistors that are smaller than the first memory cell transistors in the column direction. The write circuit carries out write on a predetermined first memory cell transistor and then on another first memory cell transistor. After the write on the another first memory cell transistor, the write circuit carries out write on the second memory cell transistor. |
| US08446770B2 |
Methods for programming nonvolatile memory devices
Provided is a method for programming a nonvolatile memory device. The nonvolatile memory device includes a local word line to divide a memory cell string into a first area including a selected word line and a second area not including the selected word line. In the method, word lines of the first area are driven by a first pass voltage and word lines of the second area driven by a second pass voltage higher than the first pass voltage. A cell transistor corresponding to the local word line is turned off after the first pass voltage and the second pass voltage are applied. The selected word line is driven by a program voltage after the cell transistor is turned off. |
| US08446767B2 |
Memories and their formation
Memories and their formation are disclosed. One such memory has first and second memory cells at a first vertical level of the memory, first and second memory cells at a second vertical level of the memory, a first data line is selectively coupled to the first memory cells at the first and second vertical levels, and a second data line over the first data line is selectively coupled to the second memory cells at the first and second vertical levels. |
| US08446760B2 |
Multilevel programming of phase change memory
A method and device for performing a program operation of a phase change memory (PCM) cell. The method includes the steps of applying one or more programming pulses according to a predefined programming scheme to achieve a target resistance level of the PCM cell, wherein the programming scheme is operable to perform in a first programming mode one or more annealing steps to approach the target resistance, wherein the programming scheme is operable to perform in a second programming mode one or more melting steps, wherein the programming scheme is operable to start in the first programming mode and to switch to the second programming mode if the target resistance level of the PCM cell has been undershot in the first programming mode. |
| US08446758B2 |
Variable resistance memory programming
Some embodiments include a device having memory elements and methods of storing information into the memory elements. Such methods can include increasing a temperature of a portion of a memory element for a time interval during an operation to change a resistance state of the memory element. After the time interval, the methods can include decreasing the temperature of the portion of the memory element. Decreasing the temperature can be performed using a signal having a first negative slope and a second negative slope. Other embodiments are described. |
| US08446756B2 |
Method of stabilizing data hold operations of a storage device
Provided is a method of driving a storage device capable of improving reliability of data write in the storage device including a variable resistance element. At the time of data write operation, a plurality of write pulses having shapes different from each other are applied between electrodes 21 and 24 in a variable resistance element 2. Diffusion loss of a conductive path caused by self-heat generation (generation of Joule heat) of the variable resistance element 2 may be prevented, and thus data hold operation after write is stabilized. Also, the variable resistance element 2 may be prevented from being destructed when the write operation is sufficiently performed, and thus the data write operation is stabilized. |
| US08446754B2 |
Semiconductor memory apparatus and method of driving the same
A semiconductor memory apparatus includes a resistive memory cell configured to be applied with a command voltage pulse with a different voltage level, depending upon an input command, and a feedback unit coupled between one end and the other end of the resistive memory cell, and configured to detect whether an amount of current which passes through the resistive memory cell reaches a target level and selectively form a pull-down current path for limiting an amount of current which the resistive memory cell passes, wherein the feedback unit controls the target level according to the command voltage pulse. |
| US08446753B2 |
Reference cell write operations at a memory
A method of selecting a reference circuit for a write operation is disclosed. The method comprises selecting a reference circuit for a write operation based on an output of a row decode circuit and a column decode circuit. The reference circuit is programmed concurrently with a write operation of at least one of a plurality of memory cells in a memory array without requiring an external reference circuit write command. |
| US08446748B2 |
Content addressable memories with wireline compensation
What is disclosed is a novel memory array and process for creating a memory array to reduce wireline variability. The method includes accessing a routing design of a memory array with a plurality of memory cells. Each memory cell in the array includes one or more access devices, and a group of wires electrically connected between one or more of the memory cells and peripheral circuitry (PC). The group of the group of wires is divided into at least one subgroup (N). Next, a capacitance (C1, C2 . . . CN) of each wire in the subgroup (N) is calculated. Continuing further, a maximum capacitance (CMAX) of wires in the subgroup (N) is determined. An add-on capacitance to be added to a number (NA) of the wires in the subgroup (N) is calculated. |
| US08446745B1 |
Power transfer devices, methods, and systems with crowbar switch shunting energy-transfer reactance
The present application discloses methods, circuits and systems for power conversion, using a universal multiport architecture. When a transient appears on the power input (which can be, for example, polyphase AC), the input and output switches are opened, and a crowbar switch shunts the inductance which is used for energy transfer. This prevents this inductance from creating an overvoltage when it is disconnected from outside lines. |
| US08446743B2 |
Soft switching power electronic transformer
This patent document discloses power electronic transformers having a high-frequency link. An example apparatus include a transformer having a primary winding and a secondary winding, the transformer is configured to receive a primary power signal having a first frequency, a primary converter configured to selectively oscillate polarity of the primary windings with respect to the secondary windings at a second frequency, the second frequency substantially substantially higher than the first frequency, a secondary converter coupled to the secondary winding, the secondary converter configured to provide a load power signal using a high frequency power signal generated using the secondary winding. The secondary converter can be configured to reduce current flow in the primary winding when the polarity of the primary winding is switched, the reduced current follow is configured to reduce disturbances resulting from leakage inductance of the transformer. |
| US08446737B1 |
In-wall mounted housing for electronic components
An in-wall mounted housing or enclosure for an electronic apparatus, such as used as part of a wireless sound system, is configured with a relatively large volume chamber which requires a limited size cut-out for installation. With such a configuration, the enclosure can be mounted within a wall, ceiling, or floor structure while having a sufficient volume to contain all of the required electrical components for a particular application, such as in a wireless sound system. In one arrangement, the housing is configured with two or more chambers where each chamber contains a distinct electrical component. Separation of certain electrical components into distinct chambers can minimize electrical interference between the components during operation. In one arrangement, the housing is further configured to carry both low voltage and high voltage components within the separate chambers while minimizing electrical interference among the components. |
| US08446735B2 |
Semiconductor package
Embodiments of the present invention provide a semiconductor package which includes: a semiconductor chip to which one end of each of a plurality of wires is connected; and a board on which the semiconductor chip is fixed, and a plurality of board wires to which the plurality of corresponding wires are connected are disposed, wherein the board includes: a first wiring pair that includes a first pair of wires in parallel with each other and first two board wires connected to the corresponding wires, one of the wires connected to one of the board wires crossing the other board wire without contact with the other board wire, and a second wiring pair that is provided adjacent to the first wiring pair and includes a second pair of wires in parallel with each other and second two board wires connected to the corresponding wires without a crossing. |
| US08446734B2 |
Circuit board and mounting structure
The invention relates to a circuit board having high density circuit and excellent connection reliability and lamination reliability. A resin fabric cloth (4) is provided by arranging single fibers (4a) or fiber bundles composed of a plurality of single fibers, which single fiber has a linear thermal expansion coefficient smaller than that of silicon, at least in two directions and alternately weaving them. In the board, the resin fabric cloth is covered with a resin portion (5) made of a resin material having a linear thermal expansion coefficient larger than that of silicon. |
| US08446733B2 |
Printed circuit board connection assembly
In at least one embodiment, a vehicle power module comprises a first printed circuit board (PCB) including a first plurality of electrical components for providing a first voltage and a second voltage. The vehicle power module further comprises a second PCB including a second plurality of electrical components, the second PCB being spaced away from the first printed circuit board and a first connector assembly being coupled to the first PCB and to the second PCB for providing the first voltage to the second PCB. The vehicle power module further comprises a second connector assembly being coupled to the first PCB and to the second PCB for providing the second voltage to the second PCB. The first connector assembly provides the first voltage of up to 14V and the second connector assembly provides the second voltage of 200V or greater. |
| US08446732B2 |
Circuit module
In a circuit module, a chip element is mounted on a mount electrode, with an outer electrode interposed therebetween. The chip element is arranged such that a cut surface thereof is oriented toward a side of a circuit module that is adjacent to the mount electrode. A gap that is observable from outside of the circuit module is provided between a bottom surface of a base of the chip element and a top surface of a circuit board. |
| US08446726B2 |
Semiconductor module having an insert and method for producing a semiconductor module having an insert
A power semiconductor module includes a module housing with a sealing ring on its top side. The sealing ring, in co-operation with the module housing and a printed circuit board attached to the power semiconductor module, hermetically seals feed-through locations at the top side of the module housing for feeding through electric terminals of the power semiconductor module. On the bottom side of the module housing a sealing ring hermetically seals the bottom side of the module housing. |
| US08446725B2 |
Airflow control in an electronic chassis
An electronic equipment cabinet includes a chassis and a fan coupled thereto. The fan is configured to move an airstream through the chassis. A plenum is coupled to the chassis and has a first opening in a first side located to receive the airstream, and a second opening in an adjacent second side. An airflow diverter is located within the plenum. The airflow diverter has a surface oriented to redirect the airstream between the first opening and the second opening. |
| US08446724B2 |
Electric connection box
In an electric connection box, a heat insulation wall is vertically extended in a case. This forms, between the heat insulation wall and the inner wall of the case, an ascending flow path where air can ascend and a descending flow path where air can descend. An upper communication opening and a lower communication opening that connect between the ascending flow path and the descending flow path are arranged at the upper end and the lower end, respectively, of the heat insulation wall. A relay is placed in the ascending flow path. Among the regions of the case, a region forming the descending flow path is provided with a heat radiation wall section for releasing heat of air in the descending flow path to the outside of the case. |
| US08446722B2 |
Circuit board chassis and method including sidewall aperture and backplane insertion slots for side assembled backplane
A circuit board chassis and a method for assembling a backplane and a circuit board into the circuit board chassis include an aperture within at least one sidewall of the circuit board chassis. The backplane is inserted and assembled into the circuit board chassis through the aperture (that may include a counter-opposed pair of backplane insertion and assembly slots) in a first direction, and a circuit board is inserted and assembled into the circuit board chassis and the backplane in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. By inserting and assembling the backplane into the aperture and slots, rather than assembling the backplane as an external surface component of the circuit board chassis, the embodiments provide for ease of replacement of the backplane and circuit board under space constrained limitations. The resulting embodiments also provide enhanced rigidity and enhanced thermal dissipation within the circuit board chassis. |
| US08446721B2 |
Latch mechanism for latching a monitor of a portable computer and portable computer thereof
A latch mechanism includes a housing pivoted to a screen. A transparent portion is formed on the housing. The latch mechanism further includes a light source installed inside the housing for emitting light into the transparent portion of the housing, a waterproof unit installed inside the housing for covering the light source so as to provide waterproof function for the light source, a conductive wire connected to the light source for providing electricity to the light source, and a frame installed inside the housing and connected to the waterproof unit for supporting the conductive wire. |
| US08446720B2 |
Mounting apparatus for expansion card
A mounting apparatus for mounting an expansion card to a rear panel of an electronic device includes a latching member, an operation member, and two connection members. The latching member includes four drive plates, a connection plate, and four latching portions. Each of the drive plates defines a rail therein. The operation member includes four pins, a handle, and a resilient portion. The resilient portion includes a latch block. The two connection members pass through the latching member and the rear panel. Each of the four pins is slidably received in the rail to rotate the latching member, each of the four latching portions is received in a first block plate of the expansion card, the latch block of the operation member is received in a latch of the rear panel, thereby mounting the expansion card to the rear panel. |
| US08446719B2 |
Shock-absorbing device, storage medium holding device, and system for enclosing storage medium
A shock-absorbing device is provided. The shock-absorbing device that absorbs shock to an object includes a shock-absorbing member that surrounds the object and is elastically deformable and a switching mechanism that switches the shock-absorbing member to a flat state where a gap between the shock-absorbing member and the object is small and the shock-absorbing member is flat, or a bent state where the shock-absorbing member is bent toward the outside of the object so that the gap increases. |
| US08446717B2 |
Folding electronic equipment
A laptop computer includes a first chassis accommodating a display section; a second chassis accommodating an operation control section; and a hinge mechanism coupling the first and second chassis. The hinge mechanism includes a hinge bracket inside an escutcheon part of the first chassis and having a base end side coupled with a hinge axle. A slanted extension part is provided to a side edge portion of the escutcheon part from a side corresponding to a tip of the hinge bracket to a side corresponding to the base end of the hinge bracket. A slanted part which corresponds to the slant of the extension part is provided to a side edge portion of the one side of the second chassis. The hinge bracket is fixed to the first chassis with a tip portion of the hinge bracket abutting a slanted back surface of the extension part. |
| US08446715B2 |
Portable electronic device having a pop-up keyboard cross-reference to related application
A portable electronic device includes a housing formed with a first receiving space, and a second receiving space communicating spatially with the first receiving space. A keyboard is disposed within the second receiving space. A pop-up mechanism is disposed within the first receiving space, and includes a hollow post body disposed within the first receiving space, and an ejecting member disposed movably within the hollow post body and abutting against a bottom side of the keyboard. The ejecting member is movable between first and second height positions when the keyboard is pressed downwardly. When the ejecting member is in the first height position, the keyboard is in a horizontal position within the second receiving space. When the ejecting member is in the second height position, the keyboard is in a tilted position tilting outwardly from the second receiving space. |
| US08446714B2 |
Electronic device having connecting mechanism
An electronic device includes a front cover, a rear cover engaging with the front cover, and a connecting mechanism fixed to the front cover. The front cover is secured to the rear cover to cooperatively define a receiving space for receiving a part of the connecting mechanism. The front cover includes a first panel defining two limiting members and a first sidewall extending from a rim of the first panel and defining two latching members. The rear cover includes a second panel defining two protrusions and a second sidewall extending from a rim of the second panel and defining two hook members. The protrusions correspond to the limiting members and are fixed thereto, and the hook members correspond to the latching members and engage therewith. |
| US08446707B1 |
Circuitized substrate with low loss capacitive material and method of making same
A low loss capacitance and low loss insulating dielectric material consisting of a thermosetting resin, thermoplastic resin, a cross-linker, and containing a quantity of ferroelectric ceramic nano-particles of barium titanate within. The combined low loss insulating dielectric layer and a low loss capacitive layer resulting from the material allows one continuous layer that can form internal capacitors and permit the modifying the dielectric thickness between signal layers for impedance matching within a layer of substrate. More significantly, the applied layer of low loss capacitive materials can simultaneously act as a capacitor as well as a dielectric for separation of signal layers. |
| US08446705B2 |
Ultra broadband capacitor
Disclosed are apparatus and methodology for inexpensive realization of one or more secondary capacitors within a monolithic body that already includes a first, larger capacitor to provide ultra wideband structures. Alternating layers of electrodes are provided with arm portions that embrace portions of adjacent electrode layers so as to create additional coupling effects within the capacitor structure thereby producing multiple additional equivalent capacitor structures within the device. |
| US08446704B2 |
Timing device without neutral line
A timing device without a neutral line is disclosed, comprising a hot line (L line) input, a hot line (L line) output, a second filter module, a triac, a current limiting module, a current rectifying module, a SCR, a first filter module, a MCU, a display module, an operation interface module, and a power input module provides the power required for entire operations. And, the operation interface module can input the control signal into the MCU and further output a signal to the second filter module for filtering to conduct the SCR and finally through the current rectifying module and the current limiting module to conduct the triac. Therefore, the current can enter into the AC output for providing electronic power. |
| US08446690B2 |
Perpendicular magnetic recording write head with spin torque oscillator for fast switching of write pole magnetization
A perpendicular magnetic recording write head that a write pole, an electrically conductive coil coupled to the write pole for generating magnetic flux in the write pole in the presence of electrical write current, and a spin torque oscillator (STO) that injects auxiliary magnetic flux to the write pole in a direction generally orthogonal to the write pole to facilitate magnetization switching of the write pole. The STO comprises a stack of layers including electrodes, a pinned ferromagnetic layer having a fixed, a free ferromagnetic layer having a magnetization free to rotate, and a nonmagnetic spacer layer between the pinned and free layers. The free layer may be oriented either substantially orthogonal to the write pole or substantially parallel to the write pole, in which latter embodiment a flux guide may be located between the free layer and the write pole for directing the auxiliary magnetic flux from the free layer to the write pole. |
| US08446687B2 |
Magnetic disk drive and method for controlling microactuator in magnetic disk drive
According to one embodiment, a magnetic disk drive includes a detector and a servo controller. The detector detects, as actual timestamps, time intervals at which a head reads servo sync marks recorded on a disk at predetermined intervals. The servo controller controls a VCM actuator and a microactuator with feedback control in order to position the head at a target position. The servo controller comprises a feedforward controller configured to compensate for disturbance. The feedforward controller comprises a difference detector and an integrator. The difference detector detects a deviation of the actual timestamps from target timestamps as a timestamp difference. The integrator configured to convert the detected timestamp difference into displacement of the microactuator by integrating the detected timestamp difference. The feedforward controller provides a manipulating variable corresponding to the converted displacement, to a feedback control loop for the microactuator as a feedforward manipulating variable. |
| US08446686B2 |
Information storage apparatus, servo pattern formation control apparatus, and recording medium
According to one embodiment, an information storage apparatus, includes: a recording medium with a first servo pattern having absolute position information and a second servo pattern having relative position information; a record reproducing head; a standard position detector calculating a standard position of the second servo pattern where an absolute position on the recording medium is specified, from a positional relationship between the first servo pattern and the second servo pattern; a head position controller positioning the record reproducing head in a target position on the recording medium, using the absolute position information of the first servo pattern, the standard position, and the relative position information of the second servo pattern; and a record signal generator generating a record signal to record a third servo pattern having absolute position information on the recording medium in the target position by the record reproducing head. |
| US08446684B2 |
Magnetic tape servo format allowing for increased linear tape density and systems thereof
According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording tape includes a plurality of servo tracks, each servo track comprising a series of magnetically defined bars having an average height of between about 80 microns and about 120 microns, wherein an average stripe angle of the bars is between about 10° and about 25°. A stripe angle is measured between a longitudinal axis of each respective bar and a line oriented perpendicular to a direction of tape travel and parallel to a plane of the tape, wherein an average stripe width of the bars is between about 1.0 micron and about 2.2 microns and an average servo frame length of groups of the bars comprising a servo frame is between about 120 microns and about 180 microns. In more embodiments, a servo format and a system including a servo format are disclosed, along with other embodiments of magnetic tapes. |
| US08446679B2 |
Zoom lens system and electronic imaging apparatus using the same
A zoom lens system includes a negative first lens group, a positive second lens group, and a negative third lens group, in that order from the object side, wherein upon zooming from the short focal length extremity to the long focal length extremity, the distance between the first lens group and the second lens group decreases, wherein the following condition (1) is satisfied: −2.45 |
| US08446677B2 |
Valve device for a variable focus lens
A valve device for a variable lens comprises: an inlet for receiving fluid from a reservoir; an outlet for passing fluid to a lens cavity; and a valve member, the valve member comprising a passageway for fluid communication between the inlet and outlet and a valve for closing the passageway; wherein the valve is actuated by turning the valve member about an axis of rotation and the passageway extends along the valve member in the axial direction. |
| US08446667B2 |
Contact microscope using point source illumination
An apparatus and a method of locating a specimen with a microscope, the microscope including two point light sources, a transparent specimen holder, a digital imaging device, a processor, and a display. The method includes sequentially illuminating the two point light sources through the specimen holder, across the specimen, and onto the digital imaging device to create shadows associated with each of the two point light sources. Optical images of the specimen are received on the digital imaging device associated with each shadow from the light sources, and a disparity signal is output containing a horizontal, vertical, and depth position of the specimen relative to the digital imaging device. Location of the specimen is determined based on the disparity signal. The specimen is allowed to move freely throughout the transparent specimen holder. |
| US08446664B2 |
Electrophoretic media, and materials for use therein
An electrophoretic medium comprises a continuous phase and a discontinuous phase. The discontinuous phase comprises a plurality of droplets, each of which comprises a fluid and at least one charged particle disposed within the fluid and capable of moving through the fluid upon application of an electric field to the electrophoretic medium. The continuous phase surrounds and encapsulates the discontinuous phase and comprising a polymeric binder and a salt, the salt having an anion containing at least one fluorine atom and having a water solubility of at least about 0.25 per cent by weight at 25° C. |
| US08446663B2 |
Electronic paper display device and method for manufacturing the same
There are provided an electronic paper display device and a method for manufacturing the same. The electronic paper display device includes a first substrate having a first electrode made of transparent material and formed thereon; a second substrate arranged opposite to the first substrate with a predetermined space and having a second electrode formed thereon; a display element layer formed between the first substrate and the second substrate and having a plurality of display elements arranged thereon, the display elements having optical characteristics changed by voltage applied to the first and second electrodes; and vibration parts formed on the first substrate or the second substrate and configured to apply vibrations to the display elements by the voltage applied to the first and second electrodes. |
| US08446661B2 |
Tunable nanowire resonant cavity for optical modulation
A resonant cavity with tunable nanowire. The resonant cavity includes a substrate. The substrate is coupleable to an optical resonator structure. The resonant cavity also includes a plurality of nanowires formed on the substrate. The plurality of nanowires is actuated in response to an application of energy. |
| US08446658B2 |
Apparatus and method for optical switching in metamaterials
An optical switch combining a Pockels cell and a metamaterial, wherein polarization of an incident light is controlled by a voltage on the Pockels cell to block or pass the incident light. The optical switch has advantages of small size, fast switching, simple structure, and high stability. A plasmonic-EIT kind of optical switch is based on plasmonic hybridization and a plasmonic interaction is controlled by altering a polarization state of the incident light. Therefore, the incident light can be selectively allowed to pass through or blocked according to the polarization thereof. |
| US08446655B2 |
Actuation system for mobile elements with dynamically compensated and opposite relative motions
An actuation system for at least two mobile elements with dynamically compensated and opposite relative motions, without disturbance of the elements fixed in the same rigid structure as it, and resistant to exterior loadings, in the case of a translational motion of the mobile elements, includes, in a rigid structure, at least one linear actuator linked to a motion transmission device with four rigid arms, articulated at their ends and forming a lozenge, of which each of two first opposite vertices is linked to a corresponding mobile element, and whose other two opposite vertices have a single translational degree of freedom. |
| US08446653B2 |
Image forming apparatus and image forming method which prevent toner from peeling from a secondary color area of a multicolor image while the image is on the photosensitive member of the apparatus
An image forming apparatus comprising an exposure device for exposing an image bearing member to light in accordance with monochromatic image data provided by color separation of inputted multi-color image data to form an electrostatic latent image; a control device for calculating an exposure amount of each pixel of the monochromatic image data to expose the image bearing member with the calculated exposure amount; wherein the control device includes a monochromatic correcting device for calculating a correction amount in accordance with a pixel value of a pixel around a target pixel of the monochromatic image data to correct an exposure amount of the target pixel on the basis of the calculated amount; wherein the control device includes a multi-color correcting device for providing a coefficient for correction of the exposure amount on the basis of the multi-color image data; wherein the monochromatic correcting device controls the exposure amount using the coefficient and the correction amount provided by the multi-color correcting device. |
| US08446652B2 |
Image quality monitoring and tagging at scan time
A method of processing a plurality of source documents into scanned images of the source documents includes evaluating the plurality of source documents to thereby assign one or more source document quality metrics indicative of source document image quality. The plurality of source documents are comprised by a project and the source documents of the project are from a common source document type. The source document types include, for example, book pages, paper documents, microfilm documents, machine-printed documents, handwritten documents, print media documents, public records, microfiche documents, and/or the like. The method also includes scanning each of the plurality of source documents to thereby create one or more electronic image files comprising the scanned images and coupling the source document quality metrics to the electronic image files such that the source document quality metrics are thereafter accessible for post-production activities. |
| US08446647B2 |
Image reading device
An image reading device includes: a line illuminator for irradiating a document G; an erecting equal-magnification lens array operative to condense light reflected by the document G and including a stack of a first lens array plate and a second lens array plate each provided with an arrangement of a plurality of lenses on both sides thereof; a line image sensor operative to receive the light condensed by the erecting equal-magnification lens array; a housing for securing the line illuminator, the erecting equal-magnification lens array, and the line image sensor in their places; and a first light shielding member, a second light shielding member, and a third light shielding member operative to prevent light not contributing to imaging from entering the lenses. The first light shielding member, the second light shielding member, and the third light shielding member are formed as one piece with the main part of the housing. |
| US08446640B2 |
Setting of imaging parameters using a scanner
A recording head (16) is operated to form a regular pattern of image swaths on a recording media (17). The regular pattern of image features comprises a first set of image features (60A) that is formed with an imaging parameter set to a first predetermined value and a second set of image features (60B) is formed with an imaging parameter set to a second predetermined value, different from the first predetermined value. Image features in the first set and the second set are arranged on the recording media with a sub-scan spatial frequency equal to a non-integer multiple of a sub-scan spatial frequency of the image swaths. A scanner (40) generates data (47) of the scanned pattern, wherein a first integer multiple of a sampling spatial frequency employed by the scanner is equal to a second integer multiple of the sub-scan spatial frequency of the first set and the second set of image features. The data is analyzed to determine a quantified value representative of banding between the first set of and the second set of image features are adjusted. |
| US08446638B2 |
Estimation of ink/toner coverage when printing
In summary, the present invention provides a method, apparatus and program product for calculating an estimate of the amount of toner coverage required for printing print data defined in a compressed data stream. The estimate is obtained with reduced processing by obtaining coverage data from a partially decompressed formed of the data stream and using this to obtain the coverage estimate, thus removing the need to do a full de-compression of the data stream. For example the coverage data is a count of toned pixels for at least one intensity level. |
| US08446637B2 |
Estimation of ink/toner coverage when printing
In summary, the present invention provides a method, apparatus and program product for calculating an estimate of the amount of toner coverage required for printing print data defined in a compressed data stream. The estimate is obtained with reduced processing by obtaining coverage data from a partially decompressed formed of the data stream and using this to obtain the coverage estimate, thus removing the need to do a full de-compression of the data stream. For example the coverage data is a count of toned pixels for at least one intensity level. |
| US08446634B2 |
Color conversion apparatus, and color conversion method and computer program product
A first color conversion unit converts RGB signals from a line input unit to L*a*b* signals. A lightness range compression unit matches the lightness range of the input color signals with that of an output gamut. If the maximum saturation point on an input line is outside the output gamut, an input line correction unit corrects the point in such a manner that it is mapped onto the surface of the output gamut. If a near-surface determination unit determines that the corrected line is not located on the surface of the output gamut, an out-of-gamut mapping unit maps it onto the surface of the output gamut, whereas if it determines that the corrected line is located near the surface of the output gamut, the surface mapping unit maps all points on the surface of the output gamut. A second color conversion unit converts the mapped L*a*b* signals to CMYK signals. |
| US08446624B2 |
Method of setting driver program of image processing device and image processing system with transparent function
A method of setting a user interface of a driver program of an image processing device includes applying a transparent setting to display the driver program in a transparent state on a display device to the driver program, and displaying the driver program with the applied transparent function on the display device when an application program operates the driver program. The driver program does not block an acquired result of the application program, and a user is able to perform a scanning operation at an optimum environment by adjusting a transparency level of the driver program displayed over the application program. |
| US08446623B2 |
Image forming apparatus, method, and computer-readable storage medium storing a program
Finishing settings to be applied to a new subset are selected from finishing settings applied to existing subsets in a file, and when the new subset is set to be inserted into the file, the selected finishing settings are applied to the new subset and the new subset is inserted. When an existing subset in the file is to be replaced with the new subset, the selected finishing settings are applied to the new subset, and the existing subset in the file is replaced with the new subset. |
| US08446618B2 |
Information management device, method of managing information, and program
An information management device that manages the processing result of a print job processed by a print device through a network includes an information acquisition unit, an information output unit, a time setting unit, and a polling unit that performs an acquisition polling process in which the information acquisition unit acquires information on the print job that has been completed from the print device at a time when the information acquisition unit acquires the information on the print completion from the print device before the set waiting time elapses after the information output unit outputs the print job to the print device, and performs a checking polling process in which the information acquisition unit checks the print device for completion information at a time when the set waiting time elapses in a state that the information acquisition unit does not acquire the completion information from the print device. |
| US08446613B2 |
Information processing apparatus and method and program of controlling the same
An information processing apparatus capable of communicating with a printing device includes an input unit for inputting a search condition for searching for a desired printing device, a display unit for displaying at least one printing device that satisfies the search condition, a selection unit for selecting a printing device from the at least one printing device displayed by the display unit, and a setting unit for setting the search condition input by the input unit as a printing setting for the printing device selected by the selection unit in accordance with selection of the printing device by the selection unit. |
| US08446612B2 |
Image forming apparatus comprising pattern adding function
An image forming apparatus includes: a storage unit including unique information identify to an apparatus main unit; a setting unit including setting information of the apparatus main unit instead of the unique information; a pattern addition unit that adds an addition pattern based on a unique pattern generated from the unique information or a setting pattern generated from the setting information to image data that is input to the apparatus main unit; an image formation unit that forms a visual image of the image data and an addition image of the addition pattern which is hardly recognized by eyes on a recording medium; and a control unit that changes the addition pattern formed by the image formation unit from the unique pattern to the setting pattern when an error depending on the unique information occurs. |
| US08446604B2 |
Application management system, application management method, program, and storage medium
In an application management system for managing a plurality of applications that are installed in an image processing device, in the case where an instruction of execution start is received, if an application execution unit has already executed an incompatible application that would cause an unintended operation of the application whose execution is to be started if concurrently executed with another application, and a warning screen about the application execution start is output. |
| US08446597B2 |
Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and computer program product including a secondary-transfer control unit that transfers a single-color image onto the intermediate transfer medium
An image forming apparatus includes a direct-transfer control unit that causes a direct-transfer medium and a first image forming unit that forms a single-color image to transfer the single-color image onto either the direct-transfer medium or a transfer sheet; an indirect-transfer control unit that causes an intermediate transfer medium and a second image forming unit that forms a multi-color image to transfer the multi-color image onto the intermediate transfer medium; a secondary-transfer control unit that transfers the single-color image onto the intermediate transfer medium; a sensor that detects an image on the intermediate transfer medium; and a positional-alignment control unit that calculates, using the sensor, an amount of misalignment of the image and corrects, using a position of an image formed by the first image forming unit as a reference position, positions of images to be formed by the second image forming unit based on the calculated amount of misalignment. |
| US08446594B2 |
Position detection device
A position detection device in which 2nd-order or higher order diffracted light as well as stray light is suppressed from being generated to improve the S/N ratio of a position detection signal as well as to improve detection accuracy. With a pitch d of a diffraction grating 11, whose grating surface 11a is covered with a protective layer 12 of a refractive index n, and with a wavelength λ0 in vacuum of coherent light illuminated, d<2λ0/n is set. An angle of incidence θ0 of the coherent light on the diffraction grating 11 is set to satisfy the following relationship: |sin θ0|<(2λ0/dn)−1. The 1st order diffracted light is used for position detection. |
| US08446593B1 |
Optical coherence tomography system and method therefor
A method for increasing the imaging rate for an optical coherence tomography system is disclosed. The method comprises generating an interferometric signal by interrogating each of M image points on a sample with a plurality of wavelength bands that are collectively spectrally interleaved, time encoding the interferometric signal, and sampling the time-encoded interferometric signal at a single detector. |
| US08446592B1 |
Scanning phase intracavity nanoscope
A Scanning Phase Intracavity Nanoscope as a measurement system can be realized with a reference laser cavity and a sample laser cavity superimposed upon each other to operatively propagate two laser beams. The sample laser cavity is operatively formed by the sample to be measured. A measurement of the sample is based on differences in the reference laser cavity and the sample laser cavity determined from difference in the two laser beams. |
| US08446590B2 |
Optical filtering for resonator-fiber-optic gyroscopes
An optical-fiber filter is provided. The optical-fiber filter includes an optical fiber having a first end-face and an opposing second end-face. The first end-face and the second end-face set a fiber length. The first end-face and the second end-face are coated with reflective coatings. When an optical beam emitted from a laser is coupled into one of the first end-face or the second end-face, an optical beam output from the opposing end-face has a narrow linewidth and low frequency noise fluctuations. |
| US08446586B2 |
Method and apparatus for increasing adipose vascular fraction
A method and device for processing mammalian adipose tissue such that the vascular rich fraction is separated from the vascular poor fraction, Mammalian adipose tissue in the form of morselated surgical biopsies and/or lipoaspirate from liposuction is placed within a novel syringe attached to a detection device measuring either color, light saturation, infra-red light, heme, iron or oxygen saturation. This process involves no label and minimal manipulation and handling of the tissue. This process and device may also be used intra-operatively under sterile conditions for immediate use within the same individual receiving liposuction or surgery. |
| US08446584B2 |
Reconfigurable spectroscopic ellipsometer
A Mueller ellipsometer of the type having a first rotating element on an incident beam side of a sample and a second rotating element on a reflected beam side of the sample and a detector having an integration time, having a controller for selectively and separately adjusting (1) a first angular frequency of the first rotating element and (2) a second angular frequency of the second rotating element. |
| US08446579B2 |
Inspection device and inspecting method for spatial light modulator, illumination optical system, method for adjusting the illumination optical system, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method
An inspection device is for inspecting a spatial light modulator having a plurality of optical elements arrayed two-dimensionally and controlled individually. The inspection device includes a Fourier transform optical system which is arranged optically downstream the spatial light modulator and which forms a Fourier transform plane optically in a Fourier transform relation with an array plane where the plurality of optical elements are arrayed, a photodetector having a detection surface arranged on or near the Fourier transform plane, and an inspection unit which inspects optical characteristics of the plurality of optical elements, based on a result of detection by the photodetector. |
| US08446578B2 |
Defect inspection apparatus, defect inspection method and method of inspecting hole pattern
A defect inspection apparatus for inspecting a defect of a substrate as an object to be inspected comprises an illumination optical system for illuminating the substrate, a receiving optical system for receiving diffracted light from the substrate and a polarizing element provided in either one of the illumination optical system or the receiving optical system. |
| US08446575B1 |
Imaging doppler velocimeter with downward heterodyning in the optical domain
In a Doppler velocimeter, the incoming Doppler-shifted beams are heterodyned to reduce their frequencies into the bandwidth of a digital camera. This permits the digital camera to produce at every sampling interval a complete two-dimensional array of pixel values. This sequence of pixel value arrays provides a velocity image of the target. |
| US08446573B1 |
Focusing methods and optical systems and assemblies using the same
A method for controlling focus of an optical system. The method includes providing a pair of incident light beams to a conjugate lens. The incident light beams are directed by the lens to converge toward a focal region. The method also includes reflecting the incident light beams with an object positioned proximate to the focal region. The reflected light beams return to and propagate through the lens. The method also includes detecting a phase of each of the reflected light beams and determining a degree-of-focus of the optical system with respect to the object by comparing the phases of the reflected light beams. |
| US08446572B2 |
Sensing system
Described herein is an improved sensing system (30) and its method of operation. The system (30) includes a camera (16) for viewing an external scene, the camera comprising one or more detector(s) and has a field of view (40) which overlaps with the path (32) of a pulsed laser (12). The laser path (32) and radiation from the scene viewed (40) share a beamsplitter (36) and a window (38). In order to substantially reduce back-scattered radiation from the laser path (32) affecting operation of the detector(s) of the camera (16), the detector(s) is (are) switched in accordance with the operation of the laser (12) to be “off” or non-receiving when the laser (12) is “on” or firing. |
| US08446569B2 |
Exposure apparatus, exposure method and device manufacturing method
Positional information of wafer stages is measured by a plurality of encoder heads, Z heads and the like that a measurement bar placed below surface has, using gratings placed on the lower surface of fine movement stages. Consequently, high-precision measurement of the positional information of the wafer stages can be performed. Further, since a guide surface of the wafer stages is formed by the two guide surface forming members placed side by side via a predetermined clearance, each guide surface forming member is easier to handle and also maintenance of the vicinity of the guide surface forming member is easier to perform, compared with the case where the guide surface forming members are integrated. |
| US08446567B2 |
Stage system calibration method, stage system and lithographic apparatus comprising an encoder measurement system to measure position of stage system
A calibration method to calibrate an encoder position measurement system of a stage, the encoder position measurement system including an encoder grid and at least two sensor heads cooperating with the encoder grid, each sensor head providing a sensor head output signal showing a position sensitivity in a horizontal and a vertical direction, the method including a) moving the stage such that the sensor heads are moved with respect to the encoder grid, or vice versa; b) during the moving, measuring the position of the stage with respect to the encoder grid by the two sensor heads; c) determining a vertical position data map from the sensor head output signals of the dual sensor heads; d) calculating a horizontal position data map from the vertical position data map; and e) calibrating the encoder position measurement system applying the calculated horizontal position data map. |
| US08446566B2 |
Method of loading a substrate on a substrate table and lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method
The invention relates to a method of loading a first object on a second object in a lithographic apparatus. The method includes: a) loading the first object on the second object, b) waiting a predetermined time interval and c) performing a relaxation action. The first object may be a substrate and the second object a substrate table. The first object may also be a substrate table and the second object a support structure, supporting the substrate table. |
| US08446565B2 |
Methods of optical proximity correction in manufacturing semiconductor devices
A method of optical proximity correction for a photolithographic progress in manufacturing semiconductor devices is disclosed. The method includes providing an illumination source in an optical system, dividing the illumination source into a number of segments in the form of concentric rings, and assigning a first intensity level to a first ring of a first radius and assigning a second intensity level to a second ring of a second radius, wherein the first intensity level is smaller than or equal to the second intensity level when the first radius is smaller than or equal to the second radius. |
| US08446563B2 |
Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method
A porous member is used in a liquid removal system of an immersion lithographic projection apparatus to smooth uneven flows. A pressure differential across the porous member may be maintained at below the bubble point of the porous member so that a single-phase liquid flow is obtained. Alternatively, the porous member may be used to reduce unevenness in a two-phase flow. |
| US08446561B2 |
Lithographic apparatus and a method of measuring flow rate in a two phase flow
A lithographic apparatus is disclosed that includes a conduit for two phase flow therethrough. A flow separator is provided to separate the two phase flow into a gas flow and a liquid flow. A flow meter measures the flow rate of fluid in the gas flow or the liquid flow. |
| US08446560B2 |
Lithographic apparatus comprising a magnet, method for the protection of a magnet in a lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method
A lithographic apparatus includes a magnet being contained in a protective enclosure, the protective enclosure being arranged to protect the magnet from contact with a H2-containing or H-atom containing gas. The enclosure may further contain a hydrogen getter, such as a magnet-surface modifying gas, or a non-hydrogen containing gas. A non-hydrogen containing gas flow may be provided or a non-hydrogen getter gas flow may be provided through at least part of the protective enclosure. |
| US08446558B2 |
Liquid crystal display panel and method for fabricating the same
A liquid crystal display panel includes a column spacer formed on an upper substrate, a thin film transistor formed on a lower substrate to face the upper substrate connected to a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines, a pixel electrode formed at a pixel region provided as the gate line and the data line cross, the pixel electrode connected to the thin film transistor, and a projection pattern portion formed on the gate line matched to the pixel region to have a projection formed to be in contact with the column spacer for reducing a friction area between the column spacer and the lower substrate, and a projection support pattern for preventing the column spacer from being stuck in at the time of an physical impact or vibration. |
| US08446555B2 |
Flat panel display device
A flat panel display device is capable of reducing a resistance difference according to the lengths of signal lines and has a stably designed resistance value of the signal lines arranged in edges of wire groups diverging from a driving circuit unit. The flat panel display device includes a display unit including a plurality of pixels arranged in intersecting regions of signal lines; a driving circuit unit to supply drive signals to the signal lines; and a divergence region having the signal lines diverge into at least two wire groups to connect the driving circuit unit to the pixels, wherein a resistance difference per unit length between the signal lines arranged in a boundary of two wire groups is set to a value that is intermediate of average resistance differences between the adjacent signal lines in the two wire groups. |
| US08446553B2 |
In-plane switching mode liquid crystal display device and method of manufacturing the same
The present invention relates to an in-plane switching mode LCD, in which data electrodes and common electrodes in a unit pixel have the same light transmitting area to reduce the luminance difference according to positive or negative polarity of an applied DC voltage. The in-plane switching mode LCD comprises a first substrate; a plurality of data lines on the first substrate; data electrodes and common electrodes alternately formed in an unit pixel area, the data electrodes having a first transmittance area and the common electrodes having a second transmittance area, wherein the first transmittance area equals the second transmittance area; and a shielding layer formed under outer most ones of the common electrodes, and wherein at least one of the data electrodes has a first width, and at least one of the common electrodes has a second width, the second width being greater than the first width. |
| US08446552B2 |
Pixel array of fringe field switching liquid crystal display panel and driving method thereof
A pixel array of a fringe field switching (FFS) liquid crystal display panel includes a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data line, a plurality of pixel electrodes, and a plurality of common lines. The gate lines are disposed parallel to each other along a first direction. The data lines are disposed parallel to each other along a second direction. A plurality of sub-pixel regions is defined by the gate lines and the data lines. The common lines are disposed along the first direction and electrically isolated from each other. Each of the common lines includes a plurality of common electrodes extending along the second direction. The two adjacent common electrodes of each common line are respectively disposed in the two adjacent sub-pixel regions which are located in different rows. |
| US08446546B2 |
Backlight module with bent reflector sheet and display panel device
A backlight module and a display panel device using the same are provided. The backlight module includes a light source module, an open frame, and a reflector sheet. The open frame is disposed around the light source module and has a first free-end and a second free-end. A space interval exists between the first and second free-ends. The reflector sheet is disposed on a rear side of the light source module and has a body and a sidewall. The sidewall corresponds to the space interval between the first and second free-ends and extends over the light source module. The display panel further includes a liquid crystal display panel (LCD panel) on the light source module and a front frame which is disposed on the LCD panel enclosing a lateral side of the LCD panel. The sidewall of the reflector sheet extends between the lateral side of the LCD panel and the front frame to provide insulation. |
| US08446539B2 |
Display panel and display apparatus
Each of spare lines (EL1 through ELn) is provided, for a corresponding one of source lines (SL1 through SLn), at one end of a pixel (PIX) on the side facing a source line SL of the pixel (PIX). A source line (SLi) and a spare line (ELi) are connected via a connection line (61). This makes it possible to realize a display panel in which a data signal line and a corresponding spare line are unlikely to have a breaking that causes their electrical connections not to be kept up to their ends, in an arrangement in which spare lines are provided for respective data signal lines. |
| US08446536B2 |
Pixels having extra-planar fringe field amplifiers for multi-domain vertical alignment liquid crystal displays
A multi-domain vertical alignment liquid crystal display that does not require physical features on the substrate (such as protrusions and ITO slits) is disclosed. Each pixel of the MVA LCD is subdivided into color components, which are further divided into color dots. Each pixel also contains extra-planar fringe field amplifiers that separate the color dots of a pixel. The voltage polarity of the color dots and extra-planar fringe field amplifiers are arranged so that fringe fields in each color dot causes multiple liquid crystal domains in each color dot. Specifically, the color dots and fringe field amplifying regions of the display are arranged so that neighboring polarized elements have opposite polarities. |
| US08446534B2 |
Multidimensional display apparatus
A multidimensional display apparatus includes a main display screen divided into at least three display areas including a first centre display area and at least two surrounded display areas, at least two reflective elements, and at least three display surfaces. The reflective elements are arranged above and inclined with respect to the second display areas, and a reflection surface of each of the reflective elements faces the corresponding second display area. One of the display surfaces is above the first display area, and the other two are corresponding to the second display areas, facing the reflection surfaces of the reflective elements. The contents displayed on the first display area is viewable on the display surface above, and the contents displayed on the second display areas are reflected by the corresponding reflection surfaces of the reflective elements and viewable on the other two display surfaces. |
| US08446531B2 |
System and method for clock offset detection
A system and method for detecting a sampling clock offset of an analog-to-digital converter used to digitize an analog image signal. A method comprises buffering samples of an analog image signal, computing a value of an autocorrelation function using the buffered samples and a delayed version of the buffered samples, and repeating the computing a value for delays in a range of delays. The method also comprises computing a sampling frequency offset from the values of the autocorrelation function and changing a sampling frequency using the sampling frequency offset. |
| US08446523B2 |
Image processing method and circuit
An image processing circuit includes a de-interlace circuit, a motion interpolation circuit and a frame processing circuit. The image processing circuit receives a first field and a second field respectively from two successive film frames. A plurality of block motion vectors are calculated according to the first field and the second field. A plurality of interpolated frames are calculated according to the first field, the second field and the plurality of motion vectors. |
| US08446521B2 |
Distributed agile illumination system and method
A distributed agile illumination system and method associated with multiple coordinated illumination sources for projecting a large amount of illumination on a subject at a distance and with an eye safe level of illumination at a close range. An entire scene may be imaged via an image capturing device and a targeted subject with respect to the scene may be detected and prioritized. An initial calibration may be performed to determine a relative geometric location of the illumination sources and the image capturing device with respect to each other. The subject's predicted location and the geometric location may be employed to determine an offset position for each of the independent illumination sources. A pan/tilt device and optional mirror associated with each illumination source utilizes the offset position to point each illumination source towards the subject to acquire better imagery at varying subject distances. |
| US08446515B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method
It is determined whether or not there is inconsistency between image sensing mode data, which is set by an operator with respect to a scene including an object of shooting, and attribute data, e.g., focal length data or the like, that accompanies an obtained image. When it is determined that there is inconsistency between the image sensing mode data and attribute data, a caution is given to the operator that it is necessary to maintain consistency. |
| US08446514B2 |
Capturing images using a switchable imaging apparatus
A method for capturing an image, comprising: providing a switchable imaging apparatus including a display screen having a first display state and a second transparent state, an optical beam deflector switchable between a first non-deflecting state and a second deflecting state, a camera positioned in a location peripheral to the display screen, and a controller; setting the switchable imaging apparatus to the image capture mode by using the controller to set the display screen to the second transparent state and the optical beam deflector to the second deflecting state; using the camera to capture an image of the scene; setting the switchable imaging apparatus to the image display mode by using the controller to set the display screen to the first display state and the optical beam deflector to the first non-deflecting state; and displaying an image on the display screen. |
| US08446511B2 |
Image forming optical system and electronic image pickup apparatus using the same
In an image forming optical system which includes in order from an object side, a first lens group G1 having a positive refractive power, a second lens group G2 having a negative refractive power, an aperture stop, a third lens group G3 having a positive refractive power, and a fourth lens group G4 having a negative refractive power, and in which, at the time of zooming, air distances between lens groups are variable, and an air lens nearest to an image side in the third lens group G3 has a shape of a convex lens, the fourth lens group G4 includes one lens component, and is movable even at the time of focusing, and satisfies the following conditional expressions 0.5<(R4F+R4R)/(R4F−R4R)<8.0 (1) −12.0<(R4LAF+R4LAR)/(R4LAF−R4LAR)<−2.0 (2). |
| US08446509B2 |
Methods of creating a virtual window
The systems and methods for real time transmission of an image from an image sensor having a field of view to a processor for selectively adjusting a resolution of the image as a function of a viewer's focus point. |
| US08446506B2 |
Solid-state imaging device
According to one embodiment, the data transfer circuit outputs n bits for each N columns (n≧2) in the pixel array among digital data of a predetermined number of bits digitally converted in accordance with the column selection signal which collectively and sequentially selects N columns (N≧2) in the pixel array by using one data line. One data line is commonly and correspondingly connected to one differential input terminals of 2n−1 differential amplifier circuits arranged in the column direction in an input stage of the signal processing circuit, and corresponding one of 2n−1 reference voltage lines is connected to the other differential input terminals. |
| US08446503B1 |
Imaging system
An imaging system may include: at least one photon sensing pixel; at least one digital counting circuit; and at least one processing core programmed to apply at least one image processing algorithm to at least one pixel sample of the at least one digital counting circuit. |
| US08446500B2 |
Solid-state imaging device having photoelectric converting portions and first and second transfer portions
A solid-state imaging device 1 is provided with a plurality of photoelectric converting portions 3 and first and second shift registers 9, 13. Each photoelectric converting portion 3 has a photosensitive region 15 which generates a charge according to incidence of light and which has a planar shape of a nearly rectangular shape composed of two long sides and two short sides, and a potential gradient forming region 17 which forms a potential gradient increasing along a predetermined direction parallel to the long sides forming the planar shape of the photosensitive region 15, in the photosensitive region, 15. The plurality of photoelectric converting portions 3 are juxtaposed along a direction intersecting with the predetermined direction. The first and second shift registers 9, 13 acquire charges transferred from the respective photoelectric converting portions 3 and transfer them in the direction intersecting with the predetermined direction to output them. This achieves the solid-state imaging device capable of quickly reading out the charge generated in the photosensitive region, without complicating image processing. |
| US08446497B2 |
Multi-spectrum sensing device and manufacturing methods thereof
A multi-spectrum sensing device comprises a top layer and a bottom layer. The top layer comprises sensing pixels for sensing a first group of colors. The bottom layer comprises sensing pixels for sensing a second group of colors. At least one of the layers comprises sensing pixels having at least two or more than two spectra. |
| US08446488B2 |
Method and system for focal length-specific color enhancement
A method of controlling a digital photographing device, the method including analyzing the color distribution of an input image, determining an enhancement color from the input image according to a predetermined criterion based on the analyzed color distribution, and enhancing the enhancement color in the input image. The predetermined criterion may be that a color distributed at a ratio higher than a predetermined ratio is determined as the enhancement color. The predetermined enhancement color may further depend on the focal length of the image. |
| US08446487B2 |
White balance adjustment apparatus, white balance adjustment method, recording medium storing white balance adjustment program and imaging apparatus
A white balance adjustment apparatus comprises an area estimation unit that estimates at least one light, source color estimation area for estimating a light source color in a photographed image, a distance calculation unit that calculates a distance of the light source color estimation area in a depth direction of the photographed image as the distance of the light source color estimation area, a chromaticity calculation unit that calculates a chromaticity of the light source color estimation area, and a white balance adjustment value calculation unit that calculates a white balance adjustment value on the basis of the distance of the light source color estimation area and the chromaticity of the light source color estimation area. |
| US08446468B1 |
Moving object detection using a mobile infrared camera
Systems and methods for moving object detection using a mobile infrared camera are described. The methods include receiving multiple frames, each frame including an image of at least a portion of a planar surface, stabilizing two consecutive frames of the plurality of frames, the stabilizing comprising determining a transformation mapping a succeeding frame of the two consecutive frames to a preceding frame of the two consecutive frames and based on the transformation, warping the two consecutive frames to a reference frame of the plurality of frames, and detecting a movement of an object in the two consecutive frames, the movement based on a change in positions of the object in the preceding frame and the successive frame. |
| US08446466B2 |
Component mounting method and component mounter
A component mounting method includes: identifying, by image processing, a dark color region from image data obtained by imaging a two-dimensional region including a pickup face of a component to be picked up; deriving position data indicating a position of the identified dark color region; and deriving, based on the derived position data, a pickup position indicating a position at which a nozzle picks up the component. The imaging is performed by an imaging unit, and the dark color region indicates a dark color portion between electrodes of the component. |
| US08446462B2 |
Method and system for time-multiplexed shared display
A method is provided for sharing a display. The method includes displaying periodically a first image sequence on the display in synchronicity with a first signal, and displaying periodically a second image sequence on the display in synchronicity with a second signal. The method also includes selecting by a user the first image sequence for viewing, and shuttering periodically a set of goggles for the user in synchronicity with the first signal. A method is provided for sharing a display. The method includes displaying periodically a private image sequence on the display in synchronicity with a first signal, and displaying periodically a non-private image sequence on the display. In the method, the private image sequence and the non-private image sequence combine to form a public image sequence on the display. A system is provided for sharing a display. |
| US08446458B2 |
Miniaturized all-reflective holographic fourier transform imaging spectrometer based on a new all-reflective interferometer
A miniaturized Holographic Fourier transform imaging spectrometer HFTIS, made from simple all-reflective components and with no moving parts, is provided. This HFTIS includes an all-reflective two beam interferometer, which provides two interfering beams; a two-dimensional detector array to detect the interference pattern created by the beams; a computing machine for correcting the distortions in the pattern and calculating the spectrum from the corrected interferogram. The same principle can be used to build spot spectrometers, line-scan imaging spectrometers (also called array spectrometers or line-scan hyperspectral cameras) as well as two-dimensional instantaneous imaging spectrometers (also called staring hyperspectral cameras). In all variants of HFTIS that can be built using this invention, the wave-signal collecting element can also be built of all-reflective components. Digital correction can be utilized to straighten the interference fringes and to compensate for the impact of used lenses and other refractive components, to produce correct spectra after Fourier Transformation. |
| US08446455B2 |
System and method for exchanging information in a video conference environment
A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes monitoring a plurality of inputs associated with end users involved in a video session in which a plurality of displays are used. At least one of the inputs is associated with a frequency of speech of the end users. The method also includes determining a participation level for each of the end users based on the inputs, and determining which image data associated with the end users is to be rendered on a selected one of the plurality of displays based on the participation levels. |
| US08446450B2 |
Method of lighting
In one embodiment, a method of lighting is disclosed which includes apportioning a video display screen into a content portion and at least one light portion. The content portion displays video content and the light portion provides auxiliary lighting when energized to illuminate a subject adjacent the video display screen. |
| US08446449B1 |
Restaurant videoconferencing system and method
The invention is a system and a method which combines restaurant services with video-conferencing and multi-media access for diverse customer appeal. The system and method employ a number of booths in a number of restaurants whereby each booth can video-conference with each other booth, particularly in different time zones, while also providing multi-media access such as satellite TV, cable, broadcast TV, computer programs and gaming, interne access. Each booth is linked to a local area network and is equipped with a display screen and video and audio controls. The local area network of each restaurant is linked to the local area network of each other restaurant forming a network that allows media uses and various management capabilities such s scheduling, accounting, security, training and the like. |
| US08446448B2 |
Optical scanning unit and image forming apparatus provided with the same
With a configuration for adhering and fixing a laser diode holder to a holding portion, sufficient supporting strength of the laser diode holder is given without unnecessarily increasing an amount of an adhesive agent and a solidification time of the adhesive agent. The adhesive agent is applied so as to couple an outer circumferential surface of the laser diode holder and a wall surface of an opening provided in a housing. Here, one or both of the outer circumferential surface of the laser diode holder and the wall surface of the opening of the housing has a recess at a portion to which the adhesive agent is applied. The recess has such a shape that an inner side of an outer edge is concaved, and the outer edge at least partially has a shape extending toward a coupling portion between the laser diode holder and the housing. |
| US08446447B2 |
Optical scanner
An optical scanner includes a frame, a light source, an optical member, and a spacer. The light source emits a light beam. The optical member is mounted on the frame to guide the light beam to a scanning target. The spacer maintains the optical member at a predetermined position with respect to the frame. The spacer is formed of a photocurable resin that is cured in response to a predetermined light having a wavelength within a prescribed range. |
| US08446446B2 |
Optical device, optical scanning apparatus and image forming apparatus
An optical device includes at least one surface emitting laser device having a dielectric film for causing a central portion of a light emitting region to have a comparatively higher reflectivity than a peripheral portion; a light receiving element disposed, with respect to a first direction, on one side to the surface emitting laser device; and a transparent member disposed in a path of light emitted from the surface emitting laser device and configured to reflect a portion of the light toward the light receiving element as monitoring light. The central portion has shape anisotropy in which a width measured on a line extending in the first direction and passing through the center of the light emitting region is smaller than a width measured on a line extending in a second direction, which is perpendicular to the first direction, and passing through the center of the light emitting region. |
| US08446441B2 |
Print head, printer, and control method of printer
A printer is provided. A platen roller is configured to transport a recording medium. A print head has a head body portion having a printing portion which performs printing on a recording medium and facing the platen roller. An urging unit urges the print head toward the platen roller. A supporting mechanism supports the print head, presses the print head against the platen roller and allows the platen roller to move the head body portion in such a direction that a contact position of the head body portion with respect to the platen roller is shifted while maintaining the head body portion pressed against the platen roller. |
| US08446431B2 |
DLP edge blending artefact reduction
A method of reducing visual artifacts in a blend zone of at least two projector images is provided. The method comprises determining a maximum intensity variance for each pixel group within a blend curve of the blend zone, the maximum intensity variance being based on a blend multiplier selected to achieve a net light intensity specific to the location of the pixel group within the blend curve. For each pixel group, a first adjusted blend multiplier is determined, wherein the blend multiplier is increased by at least a portion of the maximum intensity variance. For each pixel group, a second adjusted blend multiplier is also determined, wherein the blend multiplier is decreased by at least a portion of the maximum intensity variance. The light intensity of each pixel in each pixel group is adjusted using the first and second adjusted blend multipliers specific to each pixel group. The average pixel intensity of each pixel group after application of the first and second adjusted blend multipliers remains equal to the net light intensity of the pixel group within the blend curve. |
| US08446430B2 |
Efficient layout of components on a user-interface
Disclosed are apparatus and methods for generating displays based on a layout. A layout is received that specifies a set of rectangular components within a container rectangle. Each rectangular component has at least one size. The computing device determines a plurality of grid lines from the layout. Each rectangular component of the set of rectangular components is associated with at least two grid lines. The at least two grid lines are based on the at least one size of the rectangular component. The computing device generates a system of constraints, where each constraint is related to at least two grid lines of the plurality of grid lines. The computing device solves the system of constraints to determine a location for each grid line in the plurality of grid lines. The computing device generates a display of the rectangular components based on the locations of the grid lines. |
| US08446429B2 |
Layer structure providing method for converting and displaying background screen based on data storage information and background screen converting method therefor, and mobile terminal for the same
Disclosed herein are a layer structure providing method for converting and displaying a background screen based on data storage information and a background screen converting method therefor, and a mobile terminal for the same. The providing method includes providing and configuring a background layer to match to one region on an application-by-application basis within the mobile terminal, and displaying and providing the data storage information on the application-by-application basis, as background, to the region; and providing and matching a visual item layer to each region provided from the background layer, and displaying and providing a value based on the data storage information of the region matching to each application. |
| US08446421B2 |
Allocation and efficient use of display memory bandwidth
A method includes fetching first synthesized pixels from an update buffer of a memory and fetching data pixels from an image buffer of the memory during the first drive frame period. Respective data pixels are fetched synchronously with the fetching of corresponding first synthesized pixels. Respective data pixels fetched from the image buffer are synthesized with corresponding first synthesized pixels to generate second synthesized pixels. The second synthesized pixels are stored in the update buffer during the first drive frame period. The storing of second synthesized pixels may be paused based on a prediction that the fetching of first synthesized pixels will not complete within the first drive frame period. The fetching of data pixels from the image buffer of the memory may also be paused based on the prediction that the fetching of first synthesized pixels will not complete within the first drive frame period. |
| US08446419B2 |
Image processing system and method
A system and method of performing a high speed filtering of data by using a GPU is disclosed. According to embodiments of the present invention, the system and method of processing data by using a graphic processing unit (GPU) including a video memory comprising multiple blocks, comprises: acquiring an image frame including a plurality of pixels representative of a target object; receiving a user input for processing the image frame; grouping each predetermined number of the pixels of the image frame into a group; uploading each of the groups to a respective block of the video memory; and performing operations on the groups uploaded to the video memory based on the user input. |
| US08446416B2 |
System for optimizing graphics operations
Disclosed is a system for producing images including techniques for reducing the memory and processing power required for such operations. The system provides techniques for programmatically representing a graphics problem. The system further provides techniques for reducing and optimizing graphics problems for rendering with consideration of the system resources, such as the availability of a compatible GPU. |
| US08446411B2 |
Adaptive image rendering and use of imposter
Images and/or collections of images may be rendered in a way that adapts to ambient circumstances, and that may enhance a user's perception of experience quality. When an image is requested for display, it is determined whether a rendered version of the image exists. If no rendered version of the image exists, then an imposter image is displayed. The imposter image may include arbitrary colors and/or patterns. If an appropriate rendered version of the image exists, then the rendered version may be displayed in place of the imposter version. While the imposter or rendered image is being displayed, the image may be retrieved, and may be rendered at other resolutions (e.g., successively higher resolutions). The choice of resolutions may be adapted to available transmission bandwidth, display speed, or other considerations. |
| US08446409B2 |
Method and apparatus for rendering computer graphic images of translucent and opaque objects
A method and an apparatus provided for rendering three-dimensional computer graphic images which include both translucent and opaque objects. A list of objects which may be visible in the images is determined and for each pixel in the list a determination is made as to whether or not the object in the list may be visible at that pixel. A data tag is stored for a transparent object determined to be visible at the pixel, and the data tag and object data are passed to a texturing and shading unit when the translucent object is determined to be overwriting the location in a tag buffer already occupied by another data tag. |
| US08446408B2 |
3D-2D adaptive shape model supported motion compensated reconstruction
A method for generating or reconstruction of three-dimensional (3D) images corresponding to a structure of interest (60) including: acquiring a plurality of image projections corresponding to a structure of interest (60); applying a shape model (66) at a selected 3D seed point (64); and adapting the shape model (66) to represent the structure of interest (60), yielding an adapted shape model. A system for generation and reconstruction of three-dimensional (3D) images. The system (10) includes: an imaging system (12) configured to provide projection data corresponding to a structure of interest (60); and a controller (50) in operable communication with the imaging system (50). The controller (50) is configured to: receive the projection data, (64); apply a shape model (66) at a selected 3D seed point (64); and adapt the shape model (66) to represent the structure of interest (60), thereby yielding an adapted shape model. |
| US08446404B2 |
Display apparatus
A display apparatus of the present invention includes display sections (100) and sensor circuit sections (200). A driver line RW for supplying power to a charge storage element (202) in the sensor circuit section (200) is provided so as to overlap, via an interlayer insulating film, a gate line G connected with a gate electrode (102) of a display-drive TFT element (101) in the display section (100). This makes it possible to realize a display apparatus having pixels in which optical sensors are provided which display apparatus makes it possible to suppress a decrease in aperture ratio which is caused by the provision of the sensor circuit sections, and reduce a parasitic capacitance between lines so as to increase a sensitivity of the optical sensors. |
| US08446402B2 |
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display is disclosed. The liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal display panel on which a plurality of data lines and a plurality of gate lines are positioned to cross one another and a plurality of liquid crystal cells driven according to a voltage difference between a data voltage and a common voltage are positioned in a matrix format, a side printed circuit board (PCB) connected to the side of the liquid crystal display panel, and a DC to DC converter that is mounted on the side PCB to produce a driving voltage of the liquid crystal display panel. |
| US08446400B2 |
Driving apparatus for driving a display panel and source driver thereof
A driving apparatus for driving a display panel includes a timing controller and a plurality of source drivers. The timing controller has a first output port and a second output port. The first output port is employed to output a first clock signal and plural first data signals. The second output port is employed to output a second clock signal and plural second data signals. Each source driver includes at least two operation mode control ends for receiving an operation mode control signal having at least two bits for setting at least first to third operation modes. If the operation mode control signal sets the source driver to operate in the first operation mode, the source driver is electrically connected to both the first and second output ports, for driving the display panel according to the first data signals, the second data signals, the first clock and the second clock. |
| US08446393B2 |
Stylus
A stylus includes a housing, a stylus body including a tip, a pen including a head, a first rotating member and a second rotating member. The first rotating member is coupled between the housing and the stylus body so the stylus body rotatably engages with the housing. The second rotating member is coupled between the housing and the pen so the pen rotatably engages with the housing. When the stylus body rotates relative to the housing, the tip moves from a first side of the first rotating member to a second side of the first rotating member opposite to the first side of the first rotating member; when the pen rotates relative to the housing, the head moves from a first side of the second rotating member to a second side of the second rotating member opposite to the first side of the second rotating member. |
| US08446391B2 |
Optical touch display having a plurality of light sources and a plurality of light sensing components
An optical touch display includes a display panel, a light source module, and a sensing module. The display panel has a first edge, a second edge, a third edge and a fourth edge. The light source module is disposed beside the first edge and the second edge of the display panel. The light source module is configure for providing a first parallel light and a second parallel light passing through above a display surface of the display panel. The first parallel light passes from the first edge of the display panel through the third edge of the display panel, and the second parallel light passes from the second edge of the display panel through the fourth edge of the display panel. The sensing module is disposed beside the third edge and the fourth edge of the display panel for sensing the first parallel light and the second parallel light. The optical touch display has advantageous of high reliability and low cost. |
| US08446389B2 |
Techniques for creating a virtual touchscreen
A technique for creating a virtual touchscreen includes capturing, with a first infrared camera, a first reflection from an object that is at a known position adjacent a surface associated with a device. A second reflection from the object (at the known position) is captured with a second infrared camera. The first and second reflections are correlated with the known position to provide a two-dimensional position for the object that is calibrated with respect to the surface. |
| US08446386B2 |
Double-sided touch sensitive panel and flex circuit bonding
A multi-touch sensor panel can be created using a substrate with column and row traces formed on either side. Metal traces running along the border of the substrate can be used to bring the row traces to the same edge as the column traces. A single flex circuit can be fabricated to connect to the rows and columns on directly opposing sides. Flex printed circuits can be bonded to directly opposing attachment areas of a substrate by cooling one side of the substrate while bonding the other. In addition, “coverlay” material extending over right-angled traces on the flex circuit ensure that those traces do not get shorted should conductive bonding material get squeezed out during bonding. Furthermore, a spacer is placed at the distal end of the flex circuit to apply even bonding pressure over the entire flex circuit attachment area during bonding. |
| US08446385B2 |
Electronic device having touch panel and operating control method
An electronic device includes a touch panel, a position detecting portion, an operating control portion and a detection sensitivity control portion. The position detecting portion detects a close coordinate when sensing that a pointing means comes close to a position on a close plane away from the touch panel by a first distance, and detects a contact coordinate when sensing that the pointing means comes close to a position on a contact plane lying closer to the touch panel than the position on the close plane. The operating control portion controls an operation of a controlled unit based on the close coordinate and the contact coordinate. The detection sensitivity control portion switches detection sensitivity of the position detecting portion from close detection sensitivity to contact detection sensitivity when the position detecting portion senses that the pointing means comes close to the position on the close plane. |
| US08446384B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method and program
There is provided an information processing apparatus including a detecting unit detecting a pressing force applied by an operating body that presses a surface of a display unit displaying a plurality of input regions operated by the operating body, and a region control unit operable when it has been determined from a detection result of the detecting unit that the operating body has pressed one of the input regions with a pressing force that is equal to or above a predetermined value, to enlarge the input region being pressed by the operating body and to move at least one of the input regions so that adjacent input regions do not overlap one another. |
| US08446374B2 |
Detecting a palm touch on a surface
The detection of a palm touch on a touch surface, such as a mouse surface, is disclosed. A palm touch can be determined as the touch on the touch surface that has a radius exceeding a predetermined palm touch radius. Alternatively, a palm touch can be determined as the touch on the touch surface located beyond the expected distance between finger touches. |
| US08446370B2 |
Touch pad for handheld device
A media device for storing and playing media such as audio, video or images, includes a memory device configured to store a plurality of media items in a digital format. The media device also includes a display configured to present a group of media items from the plurality of stored media items and to present a visual indicator that is capable of scrolling through the displayed group of media items in order to designate a specific media item from the group of media items. The media device further includes a touch pad configured to receive input from a sliding motion or a tapping motion of a finger. The sliding motion of the finger controls the movement of the visual indicator through the group of media items. The tapping motion of the finger selects the specific media item that is designated by the visual indicator. |
| US08446368B2 |
Input apparatus
An input apparatus 10 includes an input unit 11, a display unit 12, an input mode determination unit 13 for determining whether an input is in a first input mode or a second input mode and an input control unit for controlling, when the input to a key is determined as the first input mode, so that a plurality of characters assigned to the key are changed and displayed in sequence as input character candidates in response to the input, and when the input to the is determined as the second input mode, for searching characters corresponding to the characters assigned to the key among the inputted character strings as correction character candidates and controlling, to the searched correction character candidates, movement of the cursor displayed on the display unit 12 in response to the input. |
| US08446366B2 |
Multi-function roller apparatus and method for a control device
A roller for a mouse includes a roller wheel having an outer portion formed of metal and a corrugated surface; a pivot arm configured to pivot in a first direction to contact the corrugated surface and to pivot in a second direction to move away from the corrugated surface; and user operable device configured to be translated to pivot the pivot arm. |
| US08446365B2 |
Joystick with a sensor device
A joystick (1) comprising a substantially stationary part (4) and a movable part (3) adapted to be manipulated by an operator. The joystick further comprises a sensor device adapted to detect a position of the movable part (3) relatively to the substantially stationary part (4), the sensor device comprising a magnet arrangement comprising one or more magnets (9) and defining a predetermined magnetic field, and a magnetic detector being adapted to detect a magnetic flux and to generate a corresponding output. The magnet arrangement or the magnetic detector is arranged on the substantially stationary part (4), while the magnetic detector or the magnet arrangement is arranged on the movable part (3). Thereby relative movements between the parts (3, 4) result in relative movements between the magnet arrangement and the magnetic detector. The magnet(s) (9) of the magnet arrangement is/are shaped in such a manner that an outer contour of the magnet(s) (9) substantially follows a relative angular movement between the magnet(s) (9) and the magnetic detector during manipulation of the movable part (3). Thereby a substantially linear change in output from the magnetic detector is obtained in response to a linear change in the relative position between the parts (3, 4). The magnetic detector preferably is or comprises a Hall effect sensor (10). The magnet(s) (9) may have a curved shape, e.g. a ‘banana like’ shape. |
| US08446363B1 |
Enhanced input using touch screen
Provided are methods and systems for enhanced input using a touch screen, as well as computer programs encoded on computer storage devices and configured to perform the actions of the methods. One or more applications executing on a mobile device receive a user input through the touch screen of the mobile device, without displaying information identifying a command associated with the user input on the touch screen. The one or more applications then determine the command associated with the received user input and display a result of applying the command on an external display that is connected to the mobile device. |
| US08446362B2 |
Hand-shaped mouse
A mouse is disclosed that comprises a main body, at least one function key, a position sensor and a data transmission line. The main body has a hand-shaped groove, a first surface disposed at a bottom of the hand-shaped groove, and a reverse surface to the first surface. The at least one function key is disposed on the first surface for producing at least one function signal. The position sensor is disposed on the reverse surface for sensing movement of the main body to produce a position signal. And the data transmission line is coupled to the main body for transmitting the function signal and the position signal to an electronic system or apparatus for operating the electronic system or apparatus. |
| US08446347B2 |
Organic electroluminescent light emitting display device
In an organic electroluminescent light emitting display device comprising a plurality of pixels each of which includes an organic electroluminescent element emitting light by a current supplied thereto, a plurality of active elements including a first active element which acquires a data signal and a second active element which regulates the current supplied to the organic electroluminescent element in accordance with the data signal, and a capacitive element storing the data signal, the present invention utilizes a part of the capacitive element arranged in one of the pixels for a light shielding member which shields the plurality of active elements arranged the one of the pixels from light emitted by the organic electroluminescent element arranged therein or another pixel adjacent thereto so as to suppress image quality deterioration and smear appearing in an image display area of the organic electroluminescent light emitting display device. |
| US08446345B2 |
Organic light emitting diode display
An organic light emitting diode (OLED) display is disclosed. The OLED display includes a display panel including a plurality of pairs of data lines, a plurality of gate line groups crossing the pairs of data lines, and a plurality of pixels each having a drive thin film transistor (TFT) and an organic light emitting diode at each of crossings of the pairs of data lines and the gate line groups, a timing controller generating a non-overlap signal, and a sample and hold block that removes an overlap period between adjacently generated first holding clocks using the non-overlap signal to generate second holding clocks that do not overlap each other, applies sampled threshold voltages of the drive TFTs of the pixels to an output node in response to the second holding clocks, and discharges the output node in the overlap period in response to the non-overlap signal. |
| US08446343B2 |
Image display apparatus
An image display apparatus capable of effecting displays high in both reliability and luminance. With the image display apparatus, a transistor switch is provided between a light emitting device and a drive transistor, and a voltage value expressed by formula (a gate voltage at an on-time of the transistor switch)—(the threshold voltage Vth of the drive transistor) is rendered smaller than a value of a voltage applied to a common electrode of the light emitting device. |
| US08446340B2 |
Device and method for alignment of binocular personal display
There is provided a binocular device, including a rigid mechanical body supporting two image sources (2, 4), one for each eye (6, 8) and two lensing devices (12, 14), one for each eye, the lensing devices having a first surface adjacent to the image sources and an opposite, second surface, each of the lensing devices projecting an image (16, 18) of one image source onto an infinite focal plane, and electronic means permitting modification of an image generated to an eye for adjusting the binocular alignment of the images. A method for aligning a binocular device is also provided. |
| US08446339B2 |
Image display device
In an image display device, a floating image display unit focuses light left from an image screen on an image plane in a space to display a floating image. The space is located on one side of an image transfer panel opposite to the other side thereof facing a display unit. A direct-view image display unit includes a display unit having an image screen on a plane orthogonal or oblique to the image plane from a periphery of the image plane and outputs, in a first direction far from the image transfer panel and in a second direction close thereto, two-dimensional images, respectively. A reflection and pass unit reflects part of the light left from the display unit in the second direction toward a direction far from the image transfer panel, and allows part of the light left from the display unit to pass therethrough. |
| US08446333B2 |
Mobile wireless communications device with reduced interfering RF energy into RF metal shield secured on circuit board
A mobile wireless communications device includes a housing and circuit board carried by the housing and having RF circuitry comprising at least one RF component and plurality of other components mounted on the circuit board. An RF metal shield is secured to the circuit board and surrounds and isolates the at least one RF component and plurality of other components within the RF metal shield. An RF absorber is positioned adjacent an area of the RF component that radiates energy to aid in reducing energy radiated from the RF component into the RF metal shield. |
| US08446332B2 |
Antenna apparatus
An antenna apparatus includes: first and second receiving antennas disposed on a plane at equal distances from a reference point and face each other with the reference point therebetween; third and fourth receiving antennas disposed on the plane, a gravity center of the third and fourth receiving antennas being an equal distance from the reference point, a straight line connecting the gravity centers of the third and fourth receiving antennas is at 90 degrees with respect to a straight line connecting gravity centers of the first and second receiving antennas; fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth receiving antennas disposed on the plane, having gravity centers on straight lines different from each other and rotated by an angle of 45 degrees from the straight line connecting the gravity centers of the first and second receiving antennas and the straight line connecting the gravity centers of the third and fourth receiving antennas, respectively. |
| US08446323B2 |
Radar antenna array
The invention is directed to a radar antenna array, preferably based on microstrip conductor technology, particularly for a medium to long range radar sensor, comprising at least one first antenna group having a plurality of individual, mutually coupled antenna elements and at least one second antenna group having a plurality of individual, mutually coupled antenna elements, wherein the antenna elements of different antenna groups are not galvanically connected to one another, but are arranged in a common, preferably planar area and in a mutually interlaced manner and can be operated simultaneously. |
| US08446322B2 |
Patch antenna with capacitive elements
Disclosed is a micropatch antenna comprising a radiating element and a ground plane separated by an air gap. Small size, light weight, wide bandwidth, and wide directional pattern are achieved without the introduction of a high-permittivity dielectric substrate. Capacitive elements are configured along the perimeter of at least one of the radiating element and ground plane. Capacitive elements may comprise extended continuous structures or a series of localized structures. The geometry of the radiating element, ground plane, and capacitive elements may be varied to suit specific applications, such as linearly-polarized or circularly-polarized electromagnetic radiation. |
| US08446318B2 |
Controlling a beamforming antenna using reconfigurable parasitic elements
Methods, devices, and systems for controlling a beamforming antenna with reconfigurable parasitic elements is provided. In one embodiment, a method of controlling a beamforming antenna in a wireless device comprises calculating the input impedance of the beamforming antenna using an adaptive matching network, wherein said beamforming antenna includes a primary radiating element and one or more reconfigurable parasitic elements, and said primary radiating element and said reconfigurable parasitic elements cooperatively receive, transmit, or both a radio frequency signal; determining the input impedance of the beamforming antenna is outside a tolerance; recognizing the environment of the wireless device; selecting a portion of said reconfigurable parasitic elements using the input impedance of the beamforming antenna, a predetermined input impedance observation table, said recognized environment, or any combination thereof; and updating the beamforming antenna by electrically connecting, electrically coupling, or both said selected portion of said reconfigurable parasitic elements to said primary radiating element. |
| US08446310B2 |
Method and system for locating signal jammers
In a method embodiment, a method includes receiving data generated at one or more monitor systems capable of monitoring for electromagnetic signals. The data is related to characteristics of a signal. The characteristics may include at least two of a respective power of the signal, a respective frequency of the signal, a time of arrival of the signal, and an angle of arrival the signal. A computing system automatically selects at least a subset of the received data. The selection is based at least partially on a physical condition at a location proximate to the monitor systems. The computing system calculates a location of a source of the signal at least in part by processing the subset of the received data. The method further includes determining that the first signal is jamming a second signal. The determination is based at least in part on the calculated location. |
| US08446302B2 |
Time to digital converter and all digital phase-locked-loop
According to one embodiment, a multiphase circuit, a flip-flop, and a decoder are provided. The multiphase circuit generates multiphase signals of which phases are different from each other by 180/M degrees by dividing a differential oscillation signal by M (M is an integral number not smaller than 2). The flip-flop captures the multiphase signal in synchronization with an input of a reference signal. The decoder decodes an output signal of the flip-flop. |
| US08446301B2 |
Methods and devices for coding and decoding the position of the last significant coefficient
Methods and devices are described for entropy coding data using an entropy coder to encode quantized transform domain coefficient data. Last significant coefficient information is signaled in the bitstream using two-dimensional coordinates for the last significant coefficient. The context for bins of one of the coordinates is based, in part, upon the value of the other of the coordinates. In one case, instead of signaling last significant coefficient information, the number of non-zero coefficients is binarized and entropy encoded. |
| US08446297B2 |
Grouping variable media inputs to reflect a user session
Embodiments of the invention present a system and method for identifying relationships between different types of data captured by a pen-based computing system, such as a smart pen. The pen-based computing system generates one or more sessions including different types of data that are associated with each other. In one embodiment, the pen-based computing system generates an index file including captured audio data and written data, where the written data is associated with a temporal location of the audio data corresponding to the time the written data was captured. For example, the pen-based computing system applies one or more heuristic processes to the received data to identify relationships between various types of the received data, used to associated different types of data with each other. |
| US08446295B2 |
Method and device for preventing an anti-collision system on board an airplane from emitting alarms, during an altitude capture maneuver
According to the invention, the device (1) comprises means (4) for adapting the altitude capture maneuver, means (5) for first detecting the emission of a first type alarm, means (6) for determining a first alarm threshold and means (7) for establishing an activation height threshold from said first alarm threshold and airplane vertical speed at the time of the alarm emission, so that, when the height separating said aircraft (AC) from the altitude set level is strictly higher than said height threshold at the time of the alarm emission, said adaptation means (4) are disabled. |
| US08446294B2 |
System and method for determining aircraft hard landing events from inertial and aircraft reference frame data
This invention allows for the precise determination of an aircraft's landing conditions and whether an aircraft has experienced a hard landing that exceeds the allowable design loads of the aircraft's landing gear. The system comprises a computer that measures signals from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) at high data rates (e.g. 100 Hz) and also records signals from the aircraft avionics data bus. The computer compares the output from the inertial measurement unit's accelerometers against at least one predetermined threshold parameter to determine whether the aircraft's three dimensional landing deceleration is safely within the design allowances or other regulatory limitations, or whether the landing event needs further investigation. |
| US08446290B2 |
Self contained device for displaying electronic information
A thin flexible electronic display includes a flexible membrane, control circuitry, and self-contained power source, which may be a thin flexible battery. A display may be affixed to an associated device for use in displaying dynamic information or video. |
| US08446289B2 |
In-vehicle image display apparatus
An in-vehicle image display apparatus for use in a vehicle is provided which includes a state detecting device that detects a state of surroundings of the vehicle; a display device that is provided at least in an entire front window section of the vehicle and capable of displaying information over the entire window section; an image generating device that generates image data for displaying a image of surroundings of the vehicle on the display device based on detection results from the state detecting device; and a display control device that makes the display device display an image represented by the image data generated by the image generating device. |
| US08446284B2 |
Low oil indication
A method of indicating low oil level of lubrication oil for a gas turbine engine automatically eliminates false low oil readings due to temperature-induced lubrication oil shrinkage and operation-induced changes in lubrication oil level. |
| US08446283B2 |
Device for monitoring a beverage consumption level
A device which detects or senses liquid level in a beverage containment vessel, and produces either light, audio or a data output based on the liquid level being equal to or less than a predetermined level. The device, in practice, preferably retains the shape of the beverage containment vessel (e.g., cylindrical), and have an outer housing of opaque or semi-translucent material. The device is either integrated into a new beverage containment vessel, or retrofitted to existing vessels. The device is powered by battery, and can be switched on, off, or into various operating modes by internal switching mechanism. |
| US08446282B1 |
Animal tracking transmitter anchor assembly including a breakable arm
An animal tracking transmitter anchor assembly includes a mount that is positionable on an arrow. An arm is attached to and extends away from the mount. A casing is mounted to the arm and a hook is attached to the casing. The hook has a point that is directed toward the mount and is embeddable into an animal when the arrowhead goes into the animal. The hook halts the penetration of the casing when an arrowhead of the arrow enters the animal. The stopping of the casing breaks the arm to allow the arrowhead to further penetrate the animal. A transmitter is mounted in the casing and remains with the animal. The transmitter emits a wireless signal detectable by a receiver to determine a direction of the transmitter by the receiver. |
| US08446280B2 |
Systems and methods for managing information relating to medical fluids and syringes therefor
An apparatus and method of operation is provided for a contrast media injector having a powered drive ram. The drive ram is designed to interface with a plunger of a syringe in order to move the plunger forward and backward relative to a barrel of the syringe. The syringe, having an RF data tag associated therewith, is mounted on to the contrast media injector. Electromagnetic signals are transmitted from an electromagnetic device of the injector in response to mounting the syringe. Data is electromagnetically read from the RF data tag of the syringe using the electromagnetic device of the injector. The transmitting is terminated after the electromagnetically reading. Medical fluid is then dispensed from the syringe. Electromagnetic signals are transmitted from the electromagnetic device in response to initiation of the dispensing. Data is electromagnetically written to the RF data tag of the syringe using the electromagnetic device of the injector. |
| US08446270B2 |
Alert signal control using receiver velocity
An electronic communication system provides text or voice messages to remote receiving devices, such as cell phones or PDA's. The remote receiving devices are equipped with velocity sensors, or position sensors from which velocity may be inferred. The remote receiving devices periodically report a velocity or current position to an alert signal control node of the communication system. The alert signal control node determines a most recent-determinable velocity for each receiving device before transmitting a message alert signal. If the velocity exceeds a predetermined threshold, the alert signal may be delayed until the velocity drops below the threshold. The system may be operated as a safety measure to prevent reception of distracting alert signals while driving, thereby silencing messaging devices at appropriate times. |
| US08446268B2 |
System for displaying views of vehicle and its surroundings
The present invention provides a system for displaying views of a vehicle and its surroundings. Preferably, the system for displaying views of a vehicle and its surroundings includes one or more cameras for photographing a vehicle and its surroundings, obstacle detection means for detecting an obstacle outside the vehicle, a memory unit for previously storing alternative views corresponding to the obstacle, and a view processing unit for creating a bird's eye view from a virtual viewpoint outside the vehicle based on views acquired by the cameras. When the obstacle detection means detects the obstacle, the view processing unit secures the obstacle, selects an alternative view corresponding to the secured obstacle, reads the alternative view from the memory unit, changes a direction and inclination of the selected alternative view in line with the virtual viewpoint, and then overlaps the changed alternative view on the bird's eye view. |
| US08446267B2 |
Vehicle-mounted transducer
A communication system, including an apparatus, method and program, is provided for communicating a message from a vehicle to a location. The communication system detects a distance to an object that is located at the location and a speed of the vehicle. A target distance is then calculated on the basis of the detected distance to the object and the detected speed of the vehicle. A determination is made as to whether the object is configured for communication with the vehicle. According to the determination, a message is communicated to the object from the vehicle. |
| US08446264B2 |
Portable electronic device having a waterproof keypad
A portable electronic device having a waterproof keypad and a keypad assembly for the waterproof keypad are described. In one embodiment, the keypad assembly comprises: an embossed keypad having a top and bottom surface, the embossed keypad having a plurality of embossed keys on the top surface; a capacitive sensor layer located below the bottom surface of the embossed keypad; and an actuator located below the capacitive sensor layer moveable between a first position in an unactuated state to a second position in an actuated state. |
| US08446262B2 |
Remote control system and method
A remote control system includes a receiver equipped in a device and a remote controller. The receiver includes a positioning unit to acquire current position information of the receiver. The controller includes a positioning unit to acquire current position information of the remote controller. The current position information of the remote controller and a control signal is transmitted to the receiver. The receiver further includes a processor to control the device to execute an operation corresponding to the control signal based on the current position information of the remote controller and the receiver. |
| US08446261B2 |
Wireless ID management apparatus, wireless ID management method, and wireless ID recorder
The RFID reader reads out an RFID stored in an RFID tag in the vicinity through wireless communication. The clock acquires an RFID readout time. The location sensor acquires an RFID readout location. The memory stores the RFID in association with the readout time and the readout location. The communication I/F acquires RFID-related information from a server asynchronously with readout of the RFID. The processor generates in the memory an RFID aggregate structure, which is a data structure of RFID aggregates constructed by classifying a plurality of RFIDs stored in the memory based on the readout time and the readout location and in which RFID-related information is stored in association with the constructed RFIDs. |
| US08446257B2 |
Radio frequency charging system
A radio frequency (RF) charging system is capable of charging an RF device on a display panel to increase charging efficiency. The RF device generates a response signal upon receiving an RF signal. The RF charging system includes an antenna set having a plurality of antennas, a switch unit, an RF module and a microcontroller unit (MCU). The MCU controls the switch unit to select one antenna from the antenna set. The antenna is able to receive the response signal and is used for transmitting the RF signal, thereby charging the RF device. |
| US08446253B2 |
Localization using virtual antenna arrays in modulated backscatter RFID systems
A localization method for use in a tag communication system includes associating a supertag having a plurality of tags with an item, reading backscatter signals from the tags of the plurality of tags to provide a plurality of backscatter signals, estimating a signal parameter of the backscatter signals of the plurality of backscatter signals to provide a plurality of derived signal parameters, and localizing the item in accordance with the plurality of derived signal parameters. The backscatter signals are read by a tag reader having a single antenna and the item is localized in accordance with an antenna array technique performed upon the plurality of derived signal parameters. The backscatter signals are read with an antenna array to provide a further plurality of derived signal parameters for each tag of the plurality of tags, and the item is localized in accordance with the further pluralities of derived signal parameters. |
| US08446247B2 |
Safety system
A safety system for detecting the presence of an undesired object in a safety area may include a first pair of distance measuring sensors disposed on opposed sides of the conveying path, the pair of distance measuring sensors defining a sensor field between said pair of distance measuring sensors, and an electronic control device operatively coupled to the sensors. The electronic control device may be configured to initiate a machine-stopping sequence based at least in part on signals received from the distance measuring sensors. |
| US08446242B2 |
Switchable permanent magnet and related methods
A mechanical linkage exerts a mechanical force on a permanent magnet to substantially counterbalance the magnetic force attracting the permanent magnet to a ferrous target surface. |
| US08446241B2 |
Device for breaking/making an electric circuit
The invention relates to a device for switching on and off an electric circuit comprising: a charge (5) which can be ignited, the combustion of which brings about the switching on or off of the electric circuit, ignition means for the pyrotechnic charge (5), characterized in that: the ignition means are connected to the electric circuit and the ignition means comprise a microswitch (M, M′) with magnetic action for controlling the ignition of the pyrotechnic charge (5). |
| US08446238B2 |
Double contact electromagnetic contactor and starter for thermal engine incorporating it
A contactor including a plunger core (100), a pull-in winding (La), a holding winding (Lm), a moving contact plate (CM) and three contacts (PC+, PC1, PC2). The contactor has three operating states: a first state with no electrical contact between the contacts, a second state with electrical contact between first and second contacts and a third state with electrical contact between the first, second and third contact. The contactor also includes an electrically controllable micro-actuator (MS) to allow or prohibit, depending on the electric current which is applied thereto, commutation between the second and third operating states, the commutation being prohibited by the micro-actuator due to a force counteracting a thrust of the moving contact plate when the micro-actuator is electrically excited. Preferably, the micro-actuator is a micro-solenoid. |
| US08446237B1 |
MEMS relay and method of forming the MEMS relay
A micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) relay includes a switch with a first contact region and a second contact region that are vertically separated from each other by a gap. The MEMS relay requires a small vertical movement to close the gap and therefore is mechanically robust. In addition, the MEMS relay has a small footprint and, therefore, can be formed on top of small integrated circuits. |
| US08446236B2 |
Printed circuit board embedded relay
According to one exemplary embodiment, an electromechanical relay may be described. The relay can be constructed using printed circuit board (PCB) construction, and can have at least a pair of coils, for example one on the top of or above the PCB, the other on the bottom of or below the PCB, at least two ferromagnetic cores, one of which can be set at the center of each coil, at least a set of contacts which can be on the surface of the printed circuit board, a spacer which can be set between the coils, and a magnet which can be set within the spacer. |
| US08446234B2 |
Protection device with a sandwiched cantilever breaker mechanism
The present invention is directed to a protective electrical wiring device that includes a circuit assembly that has a fault detection circuit coupled to the plurality of line terminals, the fault detection circuit being configured to detect perturbations corresponding to a fault condition or a simulated fault condition, the fault detection circuit being configured to provide a fault detection signal in response to detecting the perturbations corresponding to the fault condition or the simulated fault condition. An interrupting contact assembly is coupled to the fault detection circuit, the interrupting contact assembly including a contact assembly configured to provide electrical continuity between the plurality of line terminals, the plurality of feed-through load terminals, and the plurality of receptacle load terminals in a reset state, and interrupt the electrical continuity in a tripped state in response to the fault detection signal. |
| US08446233B2 |
Waveguide, antenna and vehicular radar apparatus
A waveguide, that is improved in size, costs, manufacturing and in durability, has a base having a mounting surface, and a plate member held on the mounting surface of the base for defining a waveguide in cooperation with the base. The mounting surface of the base is a curved surface defined by a sweep of a flexure curve of the plate member when it is loaded along a straight line. The plate member is attached to the base in such a manner that the plate member is pressed against and curved along the mounting surface, and that the plate member has a curvature direction edge portion extending in a curvature direction which is a general extension of the flexure curve and a sweep direction edge portion extending in a direction of the sweep of the curve. |
| US08446232B2 |
Ultra-wideband tunable filters based on multi-resolution band-selection
Devices and methods for tunable RF filtering. Multiple bimodal filter stages are used within a filter device to provide for tunable frequency response of the filter device. The use of M sequential bimodal filter stages, each having different frequency resolutions, may allow for 2M possible modes of operation. |
| US08446229B2 |
System and method for reduced area tunable capacitors
Embodiments of a capacitive tuning system implementing a tunable capacitive array are presented herein. The tunable capacitive array includes both scaled coarse capacitors and one or more fine capacitors. The one or more fine capacitors advantageously reduce a differential nonlinearity associated with the scaled coarse capacitors. The use of fine capacitors limits additional area requirements in an integrated circuit implementation, while improving the accuracy of the capacitive tuning system. |
| US08446227B2 |
Methods and apparatus for tuning devices having mechanical resonators
Methods and apparatus for tuning devices having mechanical resonators are described. In one implementation, a mechanical resonator and a phase shifter are configured in a feedback loop, so that the phase shifter shifts the phase of the resonator output signal. The amount of phase shift induced by the phase shifter may be variable. In another implementation, an LC tuning subcircuit is coupled to a mechanical resonator. In some implementations, the LC tuning subcircuit has a variable capacitance. One or more of the apparatus described herein may be implemented as part, or all, of a microelectromechanical system (MEMS). |
| US08446223B2 |
Systems and methods for calibrating real time clock
Systems and methods for calibrating real time clock are provided. A representative receiver includes a GPS device comprising a real time clock (RTC) circuitry that generates RTC clock signals and a temperature compensated crystal oscillator (TCXO) that generates TCXO clock signals. A ratio counter circuitry receives both the RTC clock signals and the TCXO clock signals and determines a frequency ratio by comparing the RTC clock signals and the TCXO clock signals. A computing device receives the frequency ratio and estimates a current RTC frequency based on the received frequency ratio. The computing device is configured to calibrate an estimated RTC time being maintained at the RTC circuitry based on an estimated RTC frequency from a prior estimation, the current RTC frequency and an elapsed time of the RTC circuitry. |
| US08446220B2 |
Method and apparatus for increasing the effective resolution of a sensor
Methods and devices for increasing a sensor resolution are disclosed. In one example, a two measurement process is used. A first measurement is used to effectively measure across a full range (e.g. 0 to 5 VDC) of the sensor. This first measurement may identify the current operating point of the sensor (e.g. 3.5 VDC). A second measurement may then be made to effectively measure across a sub-range of the sensor that encompasses the current operating point of the sensor (e.g. across a sub-range of 3.0 to 4.0 VDC for a current operating point of 3.5 VDC). The gain of the amplifier may be raised during the second measurement to produce a higher resolution measurement. In some cases, the first measurement may be used to determine an appropriate offset that may be applied so as to scale the amplifier to the desired sub-range of sensor that includes the current operating point of the sensor. In some cases, the two measurements may be used together to compute an effectively higher resolution measurement signal. In some cases, this may allow for a smaller and/or cheaper sensor to be used, while still achieving good results. |
| US08446214B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of controlling the same
A semiconductor device includes a regulator including an operational amplifier configured of a current mirror and generating the second voltage V2 from a first voltage V1; and a control circuit that generates the current control signal OVDR, makes a current that is flowed by the current mirror increase by a first transition of the current control signal OVDR, and makes the current that is flowed by the current mirror decrease by a second transition of the current control signal OVDR. The control circuit includes a slew-rate processing unit that makes a second slew rate of the current control signal OVDR related to the second transition be smaller than a first slew rate of the current control signal OVDR related to the first transition. |
| US08446209B1 |
Semiconductor device and method of forming same for temperature compensating active resistance
In an embodiment a circuit provides an active resistance that is adjusted with temperature, the active resistance has a magnitude and temperature coefficient that is selected by the values of external resistors. The active resistance is controlled by an active resistance controller that uses a temperature dependent source and a temperature stable source to control adjustment of a first adjustable resistance to maintain correspondence between a temperature dependent parameter and a temperature stable parameter, and adjusts a second adjustable resistance that is part of the active resistance in correspondence with adjustment of the first adjustable resistance. |
| US08446205B2 |
Mixer circuit and method for adjusting common voltage of mixer circuit
A mixer circuit includes: a mixer circuit including a first transistor pair to output a first differential input signal and a second transistor pair to output a second differential input signal by inversing the first differential signal; a local signal supply circuit to supply a pair of local signals to gates of the first transistor pair and the second transistor pair; an operational amplifier including an input pair coupled to an output pair of the mixer circuit and an output pair coupled to the input pair via feedback resistors, the operational amplifier to amplify the first differential input signal and output a differential output signal; a common mode feedback circuit to control a center voltage of the differential output signal so that the center voltage maintains a common voltage; and a common voltage generator circuit to generate the common voltage according to an amplitude of the local signal. |
| US08446201B2 |
High speed rail to rail phase splitter for providing a symmetrical differential output signal having low skew
A novel high-speed phase splitter circuit (100) and method of operation are disclosed. This high-speed phase splitter (100) creates a differential rail-to-rail output signal from a single ended input signal, with an inherent low skew and symmetrical output. The circuit (100) uses a phase splitting input stage (110, 130) followed by several amplification stages (150, 170) that are symmetrical and balanced in nature. |
| US08446194B2 |
Spread spectrum clock generating circuit
Provided is a spread spectrum clock generating circuit. The spread spectrum clock generating circuit includes: a phase detector receiving a reference frequency signal from the external and detecting a phase difference between the reference frequency signal and a frequency-divided signal; a voltage controlled oscillator outputting an oscillation signal corresponding to a detection result of the phase detector; a main divider generating the frequency-divided signal by dividing a frequency of the oscillation signal by a main dividing ratio; and a dividing ratio controller generating a variable count value, generating a sub dividing ratio by performing delta-sigma modulation according to the count value, and adjusting the main dividing ratio according to the sub dividing ratio. |
| US08446192B2 |
PLL circuit
A PLL circuit which can obtain a VCO output having satisfactory spurious output characteristics with respect to all channels and which can suppress the fluctuation of the characteristics due to a temperature change is disclosed. A control circuit 3 provides a frequency division ratio table 32 where frequency division ratios to improve spurious output characteristics in the output of a VCO for each channel number at temperatures are stored, and the control circuit reads, from the table 32, the frequency division ratio corresponding to the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 31 and an input channel number, to set the frequency division ratio in a PLL IC 2 and to set the channel number and the frequency division ratio in a DDS circuit 4. The DDS circuit 4 calculates the value of a reference frequency based on the channel number and the frequency division ratio to generate the reference frequency. |
| US08446190B2 |
Frequency divider, frequency synthesizer and application circuit
A frequency divider includes a prescaler and multiple modulus dividers commonly coupled to the prescaler. The prescaler generates intermediate frequency signals having a same phase difference with respect to one another in response to an oscillation frequency signal. The prescaler operates at a first frequency. The modulus dividers respectively divide the intermediate frequency signals with respective ratio to provide a plurality of division frequency signals in response to a control signal. The modulus dividers operate at a second frequency less than the first frequency. |
| US08446187B1 |
Apparatus and method for power-on reset circuit with current comparison
A power-on reset (POR) circuit is provided. The POR circuit includes a first current source, a second current source, and a current comparator. The first current source is arranged to provide a relatively supply-independent circuit. The second current source is arranged to provide a supply-dependent current. The current comparator is arranged to compare the relatively supply-independent circuit with the relatively supply-dependent current to provide a POR signal. |
| US08446182B2 |
TX output combining method between different bands
An output buffer includes a first output transistor, a first switch, a second switch and a third switch. The first output transistor is connected to a first operational voltage for outputting the first operational voltage as the data signal. The first switch is connected to a bulk of the first output transistor for receiving an enable signal. The second switch is connected to the first switch and a second operational voltage for receiving the enable signal, wherein the second operational voltage is lower than the first operational voltage. The third switch includes a first terminal connected to the bulk of the first output transistor, a control terminal connected to the first switch, and a second terminal connected to the first operational voltage. |
| US08446180B2 |
Semiconductor device
A disclosed semiconductor device includes an input terminal, a power line, a pnp-bipolar transistor connected to the power line, a first resistor connecting an emitter of the transistor to the input terminal, a second resistor connecting a collector of the transistor to ground, an operation circuit operable when the input voltage is a predetermined voltage or higher, the predetermined voltage being set within a first voltage region in which the input voltage cannot turn on the transistor, a comparator comparing an internal voltage with a reference voltage, the internal voltage being changed from a voltage value in a non-conductive state in which the transistor is not turned on, and an output terminal configured to output an output voltage which changes in response to a result of comparing the internal voltage with the reference voltage. |
| US08446173B1 |
Scalable high-swing transmitter with rise and/or fall time mismatch compensation
Disclosed is a high-swing voltage-mode transmitter or line driver. The transmitter can operate over a wide range of supply voltages. Increasing the available output swing merely involves increasing the supply voltage; the circuit adapts to maintain the desired output impedance. This allows for a tradeoff between output amplitude and power consumption. Another advantage of the proposed architecture is that it compensates for process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) and mismatch variations so as to keep rise and fall times matched. This feature reduces common-mode noise and hence EMI in systems in which the transmitter is used. |
| US08446167B2 |
On-die system and method for controlling termination impedance of memory device data bus terminals
A system for controlling the termination impedance of memory device data bus terminals is fabricated on the same die as the memory device. The system includes a termination resistor connected to each data bus terminal, which is connected in parallel with several transistors that are selectively turned on to adjust the termination impedance. The transistors are controlled by a circuit that determines the resistance of the termination resistor and turns on the correct number of transistor to properly set the termination impedance. In one example, the resistance of the termination resistor is determined by directly measuring a resistor of the same type as the termination resistor. In another example, the resistance of the termination resistor is determined indirectly by measuring parameters that affect the resistance of the termination resistor. In either case, the system can maintain the termination impedance of the data bus terminals constant despite changes in the termination resistor. |
| US08446159B2 |
Current sensor using leadframe as sensing element
A current sensor is disclosed. The current sensor includes a leadframe having a die paddle, a portion of the die paddle being configured as a resistive element through which current can flow, and an integrated circuit (IC) die attached and thermally coupled to the die paddle. The IC die includes a current sensing module configured to measure a voltage drop across the resistive element and convert the voltage drop measurement to a current measurement signal and a temperature compensation module electrically coupled to the current sensing module. The temperature compensation module is configured to adjust the current measurement signal to compensate for temperature-dependent changes in the resistive element. The temperature compensation module includes a temperature-sensitive element, with a portion of the temperature-sensitive element located directly over a portion of the resistive element. |
| US08446155B2 |
Analog circuit test device
The invention relates to a test device for an analog circuit to be mounted on a mixed circuit including said analog circuit and a synchronous digital circuit. The test device includes a disturbance emulator connected to a first supply source (UrefD) capable of disturbing a second supply source (UrefA) of the analog circuit, the first and second supply sources being optionally merged, the emulator being adapted for receiving data representative of the evolution, during a given duration, of the average (μI) and the typical deviation (σI) of a first inrush current (I) that would be applied to the first supply source by the digital circuit, and being adapted for applying to the first supply source during successive intervals, each successive interval having said duration, a second inrush current (Irep) equal to the sum of the average and of the product of the typical deviation and of a pseudo-random signal varying according to a Gaussian law. |
| US08446154B2 |
Methods and systems for quantifying degradation of wiring insulation
A system for the measurement of degradation of electrical wire insulation quality is described. The system includes a clamping device for engaging the electrical wire to be tested for insulation degradation, the clamping device comprising a channel formed therein for placement of the electrical wire, a plurality of plates placed proximate the channel, the plates electrically connected to generate a capacitance and placed proximate the channel such that the wire insulation provides a portion of a dielectric for the generated capacitance, and a measurement device operatively attached to the plurality of plates such that the measurement device is configured to indicate an amount of degradation associated with the wire insulation based on at least one of the measured capacitance and dissipation factor. |
| US08446153B2 |
Adaptor failure tolerance test device
An adaptor failure tolerance test device includes a first connection module, a second connection module, a teaming control module, and a connection control module. The first connection module includes eight first interfaces configured for connecting to a plurality of respective adaptors of a network server. The second connection module includes eight second interfaces configured for connecting to a switch. The teaming control module includes eight first switches, each of which is connected to a corresponding first interface. The connection control module includes eight second switches and a control unit. Each of the second switches is interposed between a corresponding first switch and a corresponding second interface. The control unit is configured for detecting which first switches are turned on and turning on the second switches corresponding to the first switches which are turned on for a predetermined time period. |
| US08446150B2 |
Apparatus and method for logging in boreholes with a non-circular section
An apparatus for logging in a borehole comprises a longitudinal body. A pad is coupled to and radially extendable from the longitudinal body toward a wall of the borehole. The radially extendable pad comprises a sensor. The radially extendable pad is rotatable about a longitudinal axis by a predetermined angle. A method for logging a borehole comprises extending a longitudinal body into the borehole; disposing a sensor in a radially extendable pad; coupling the radially extendable pad to the longitudinal body such that the radially extendable pad is rotatable about a longitudinal axis by a predetermined angle; and extending the radially extendable and rotatable pad toward a wall of the borehole. |
| US08446148B2 |
Long T1 artifact suppression techniques for magnetic resonance imaging
A method of suppressing artifacts arising from tissue, fluids, or other long-T1 species when acquiring magnetic resonance data with a segmented pulse sequence that assumes that magnetization is at steady state, said method including suppressing artifacts by producing an artifact suppression module (ASM) before the segmented sequence, the artifact suppression module comprising at least one selective, non-selective, or volume-selective suppression pulse and a time delay. |
| US08446147B2 |
Position detecting device having opposite-phase magnetic-field generating coil, medical device guiding system, position detecting method, and medical device guiding method
Provided is a position detecting device including a first magnetic-field generating unit including at least one magnetic-field generating coil and that generates a first magnetic field in a detection space where a detected object provided with a circuit including at least one built-in coil is disposed; a magnetic-field detecting unit having a plurality of detecting coils arrayed to detect an induced magnetic field generated from the built-in coil by the generated first magnetic field; and a second magnetic-field generating unit including at least one magnetic-field generating coil, that generates a second magnetic field, and including a magnetic-field component having a phase substantially opposite to the first magnetic field and entering the detecting coils, wherein the first magnetic-field generating unit and the detecting coils are disposed so that a generating direction of the first magnetic field and a detecting direction of the induced magnetic field intersect each other. |
| US08446145B2 |
Method for measuring I-V characteristics of solar cell, and solar cell
An aspect of the invention provides a method for measuring I-V characteristics of a solar cell, the solar cell comprising a plurality of fine line-shaped electrodes formed on a first surface in a predetermined direction; and a coupling line formed on the first surface that electrically couples at least two fine line-shaped electrodes among the plurality of fine line-shaped electrodes, the coupling line having a line width larger than a line width of the fine line-shaped electrodes. The method includes: contacting a probe pin for voltage measurement with the coupling line; contacting two or more probe pins for current measurement electrically connected to each other with two or more fine line-shaped electrodes including the fine line-shaped electrodes coupled to each other by the coupling line among the plurality of fine line-shaped electrodes; and measuring I-V characteristics while irradiating the first surface with light. |
| US08446139B2 |
Current source, electronic apparatus, and integrated circuit
Disclosed herein is a current source, including: a current control oscillator configured to output an oscillation signal of a frequency dependent on an input current; a comparator configured to compare the oscillation signal with a reference signal; a charge pump configured to output a current dependent on a comparison result by the comparator; a low-pass filter configured to include a smoothing capacitor charged and discharged by an output current of the charge pump; a loop converter configured to be connected to the smoothing capacitor and generate a current dependent on a voltage generated by the smoothing capacitor to supply the current as the input current to the current control oscillator; and an output converter configured to be connected to the low-pass filter and generate a current dependent on a voltage generated in the low-pass filter to output the current as an output current. |
| US08446131B2 |
Method and device for regulating a polyphase rotating electrical machine operating as a generator, and polyphase rotating electrical machine using them
The regulating method is employed in a polyphase rotating electrical machine operating as a generator and having an excitation coil (10). The method is of the type in which a DC voltage (B+) is slaved to a predetermined setpoint, the voltage being produced by rectifying an AC voltage generated by the machine by controlling the duty cycle of a periodic excitation current (+EXC,−EXC) by means of a microcontroller (11), or the like, as a function of sampled values of the DC voltage (B+). The duty cycle is determined by the microcontroller (11) twice during an excitation current cycle (+EXC, −EXC). |
| US08446130B2 |
Charging circuit
A charging circuit for charging a battery includes a processor, a switching circuit, a voltage converter, and a power voltage detecting circuit. A first terminal of the switching circuit is connected to a power source. A second terminal of the switching circuit is connected to a first output of the processor. A first terminal of the voltage converter is connected to a third terminal of the switching circuit. A second terminal of the voltage converter is connected to the battery. The power voltage detecting circuit is connected to the power source, and a first input and a second output of the processor. |
| US08446127B2 |
Methods for thermodynamic evaluation of battery state of health
Described are systems and methods for accurately characterizing thermodynamic and materials properties of electrodes and battery systems and for characterizing the state of health of electrodes and battery systems. Measurement of physical attributes of electrodes and batteries corresponding to thermodynamically stabilized electrode conditions permit determination of thermodynamic parameters, including state functions such as the Gibbs free energy, enthalpy and entropy of electrode/electrochemical cell reactions, that enable prediction of important performance attributes of electrode materials and battery systems, such as energy, power density, current rate, cycle life and state of health. Also provided are systems and methods for charging a battery according to its state of health. |
| US08446126B2 |
Power bank apparatus with speaker
A power bank apparatus with speaker combines the function of power bank and the function of speaker. The power bank apparatus not only charges the portable electronic apparatuses but also supplies power to the internal speaker. The voice or music of the portable electronic apparatus is amplified by the speaker of the power bank apparatus to improve the quality of the voice or music. |
| US08446125B2 |
Vehicle power charger
A vehicle power charger includes a generally cylindrically-shaped body portion suitable for plugging into a vehicle cigarette lighter receptacle, a spring-loaded metal contact pin for engagement with electrical contacts inside the receptacle, and an oblong end portion formed at an angle to the cylindrically-shaped body portion including a cavity that holds and protects one or more USB ports, and a cavity cover that slides, rotates or flips between open and closed positions. |
| US08446124B2 |
Method for recharging electric vehicles in geographically distributed recharging stations
A method for recharging an electric vehicle in a recharging station of a network of geographically distributed recharging stations. The method includes: communicating availability of a recharging station to a control center of the network; transmitting a recharge request from an onboard unit of the electric vehicle via communication devices of a road toll system to the control center; assigning the onboard unit to an available recharging station in the control center; notifying the onboard unit of the assigned recharging station via the communication devices of the road toll system and notifying the recharging station of the onboard unit; and activating the recharging station to recharge the electric vehicle, when the assigned onboard unit is detected therein. The recharging in the recharging station is monitored and an image of the vehicle is recorded in the recharging station in an event of an interruption, interference or deviation in the recharging process from a given course. |
| US08446123B2 |
State monitoring unit for monitoring a state of an assembled battery
A state monitoring unit monitors a state of an assembled battery in which a plurality of unit cells are connected in series. The state monitoring unit includes: a plurality of voltage monitoring devices provided in a high voltage side and a controller provided in a low voltage side electrically isolated with the high voltage side. The controller transmits a common voltage measurement command to the respective voltage monitoring devices connected via a communication channel in a daisy-chain scheme. The controller includes a storage for storing latency time determined based on a required time for each of the voltage monitoring devices elapsing from transmission of the common voltage measurement command with respect to the communication channel to voltage measurement of the unit cells, and measures charging/discharging current of the assembled battery when the latency time has elapsed from the transmission of the common voltage measurement command with respect to the communication channel. |
| US08446121B1 |
High performance actuator motor
An actuator motor described herein has fast dynamic response capability, high torque density, high efficiency, and improved thermal and mechanical stability at high speed while minimizing weight. According to one aspect of the disclosure provided herein, an actuator motor has a rotor shaft with an array of permanent magnets attached according to a Halbach array configuration. A stator includes windings that induce a torque on the rotor shaft when rotating magnetic fields interact with the optimized magnetic flux distributions of the magnets of the Halbach array. According to various embodiments, the rotor shaft is hollow, reducing weight and rotational inertia, while improving ambient cooling characteristics of the motor. |
| US08446120B2 |
Electronic switching module for a power tool
A power tool includes a tool housing, an electric motor inside the housing, and a power interface facilitating a connection to a power source. At least four actively-controlled power components are configured as an H-bridge to modulate a supply of power from the power interface to the electric motor. A user-actuated input unit outputs a first signal indicative of a desired power output level to the electric motor and a second signal indicative of a desired direction of current flow to the electric motor. A control unit controls the supply of power to the electric motor using two of said power components with synchronous rectification for pulse-width modulation (PWM) of the supply of power based on the first signal, and to control the direction of current flow to the electric motor using the other two of said power components based on the second signal. |
| US08446117B2 |
Methods, systems and apparatus for adjusting duty cycle of pulse width modulated (PWM) waveforms
Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods, systems and apparatus for controlling operation of a multi-phase machine in a vector controlled motor drive system when the multi-phase machine operates in an overmodulation region. The disclosed embodiments provide a mechanism for adjusting a duty cycle of PWM waveforms so that the correct phase voltage command signals are applied at the angle transitions. This can reduce variations/errors in the phase voltage command signals applied to the multi-phase machine so that phase current may be properly regulated thus reducing current/torque oscillation, which can in turn improve machine efficiency and performance, as well as utilization of the DC voltage source. |
| US08446116B2 |
Discharge control device for power conversion system
The discharge control device for a power conversion system performs discharge control to discharge a capacitor parallel-connected to the input side of the power conversion system including a plurality of pairs of high-side and low-side switching elements connected in series and each controlled by a drive unit, by turning on the high-side and low-side switching elements of one of the pairs at the same time. At this time, the discharge control device inhibits an ON command from being inputted to the drive units for the high-side and low side switching elements of the other pairs. |
| US08446115B2 |
Motor drive device
A motor drive device has a drive circuit for driving a motor, and a control section for controlling the drive circuit. The control section has a current command value calculating portion for calculating a current command value, a rotation calculating portion for calculating a rotation angle and an angular speed of the motor, a current command value correcting portion for correcting the current command value based on the rotation angle, a voltage command value calculating portion for calculating a voltage command value based on the current command value, a voltage command value correcting portion for correcting the voltage command value based on the current command value and the rotation angle and the angular speed, and a drive signal generating portion for generating a drive signal based on the voltage command value. |
| US08446113B2 |
Vehicular electrical system and method for controlling an inverter during motor deceleration
Methods and systems for operating an inverter having a plurality of high switches and a plurality of low switches coupled to an electric motor are provided. An event indicative of deceleration of the electric motor is detected. The inverter is alternated between a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation during the deceleration of the electric motor. In the first mode of operation, each of the plurality of high switches is activated and each of the plurality of low switches is deactivated or each of the plurality of low switches is activated and each of the plurality of high switches is deactivated. In the second mode of operation, each of the plurality of high switches is deactivated and each of the plurality of low switches is deactivated. |
| US08446112B2 |
Magnetically powered reciprocating engine and electromagnet control system
The instant invention provides a magnetically controlled reciprocating engine having a unique electromagnet control system. The engine is constructed and arranged to operate from a stored power source such as batteries to provide extended run times by controlling the power supplied to the electromagnets in a manner that controls heat generation within the electromagnetic coils, thereby increasing coil life. The control system is also capable of controlling engine speed and/or torque outputs to make the engine versatile for a wide variety of uses. The system is constructed and arranged to be utilized on new or pre-existing engines of various configurations and may be utilized in other industries or devices that benefit from the use of electromagnets. |
| US08446107B2 |
Smart clamp
In a circuit that turns off a fluorescent lamp, clamping circuitry is provided to dissipate energy stored in a ballast when the lamp is being turned off. In a normal state in which the lamp is on, or in a normal state in which the lamp is off, clamping is not performed as long the VDS of a power switch is below a voltage A. In a lamp turn off operation, the switch is turned on for a time period to extinguish the lamp, and is then made to operate as a clamp (operate in its linear region) for a second period of time to dissipate energy that was stored in the ballast. Clamping in the linear region continues for VDS voltages down to B as ballast energy is dissipated, where B is smaller than A. By clamping down to the lower voltage B, re-ignition of the lamp is prevented. |
| US08446105B2 |
Display apparatus
A display apparatus displays a character or a graphic formed by a first light-emitting element group (first group) and a background of the character or the graphic formed by a second light-emitting element group (second group) on a display unit. The ratio of the electric current flowing through the light-emitting elements (elements) in the second group to the elements in the first group with respect to the elements of a same color as the elements whose electric current per unit light-emitting area is the largest among the elements of different colors when the display unit displays white, is closer to 1 than the ratio of the electric current flowing through each of the elements in the second group to the elements in the first group with respect to the elements of different colors from the elements whose electric current per unit light-emitting area is the largest when the display unit displays white. |
| US08446100B2 |
Interconnected arrangement of individual modules having at least one light-emitting diode chip
An interconnected arrangement of a light-emitting diode chip arrangement having individual modules as luminous elements in a parallel circuit. Each module is provided with at least one light-emitting diode chip, and the modules are arranged in a parallel circuit. A respective linear constant current circuit connects each light-emitting diode chip arrangement to a common, current-carrying voltage source. At the start of an operation, the voltage source continuously increases the supply voltage over an operating range assigned to it. When a constant total current flowing over the parallel circuit is reached, the current-carrying voltage source fixes the associated supply voltage and maintains it unaltered. |
| US08446099B2 |
Power conversion and control systems and methods for solid-state lighting
A solid-state lighting system comprises a plurality of light-emitting devices (e.g., light-emitting diodes) and an alternating current to direct current (AC-DC) converter that converts AC power to DC power for powering the plurality of light-emitting devices. The AC-DC converter is configured to perform AC-DC conversion directly, without the need for or use of a bridge rectifier or step-down transformer. According to one aspect of the invention, the light-emitting devices of the solid-state lighting system are autonomous and individually powered by a plurality of DC power supplies generated from the DC power produced by the AC-DC converter. According to another aspect, a plurality of phase-offset dimmer control signals are generated based on waveform distortions in a dimming signal produced by a conventional dimmer switch. The phase-offset dimmer control signals are used to individually control the dimming of the light-emitting devices. |
| US08446098B2 |
LED driving circuit
An LED driving circuit includes a first and a second LED modules, a first and a second switching converters, an extreme voltage detecting and selecting circuit, a current balance circuit and a controller. The first switching converter transforms electric power of an input power supply into a first output voltage for lighting the first LED module. The second switching converter transforms electric power of the input power supply into a second output voltage for lighting the second LED module. The current balance circuit balances the currents flowing through the first and the second LED modules. The extreme voltage detecting and selecting circuit detects the first and the second LED modules and selects to output one of detecting results. The controller controls the transforming of the first switching converter and the second switching converter to light the first and the second LED modules in response to the outputted detecting result. |
| US08446096B1 |
Terahertz (THz) reverse micromagnetron
A THz reverse micromagnetron includes a MEMS-based reverse magnetron configuration in which the anode is located at the center of the magnetron surrounded by a cathode ring. Electrons move radially inward in the combined electric and magnetic cross-fields and can reach orbiting angular frequencies in the THz region, even with a magnetic field of the order of 1 T or less. The THz reverse micromagnetron is portable, operates at room temperature, and can be bright. |
| US08446094B2 |
Photocathode, electron tube, field assist type photocathode, field assist type photocathode array, and field assist type electron tube
When light is incident to an antenna layer AA6 of a photocathode AA1, light of a specific wavelength included in the incident light couples with surface plasmons in the antenna layer AA6 whereupon near-field light is outputted from a through hole AA14. The intensity of the output near-field light is proportional to and greater than the intensity of the light of the specific wavelength. The output near-field light has a wavelength that can be absorbed in a photoelectric conversion layer AA4. The photoelectric conversion layer AA4 receives the near-field light outputted from the through hole AA14. A region of the photoelectric conversion layer AA4 around the through hole AA14 absorbs the near-field light and generates photoelectrons (e−) in an amount according to the intensity of the near-field light. The photoelectrons (e−) generated in the photoelectric conversion layer AA4 are outputted to the outside. |
| US08446082B2 |
Light-emitting device and illumination device
According to one embodiment, a light-emitting device includes a substrate, a light reflection layer, a plurality of light-emitting elements, and a sealing member. The substrate includes an insulating layer constituted of epoxy resin using an acid anhydride as a hardening agent or one of a polyimide resin, a polyethylene terephthalate resin, and a fluororesin. The light reflection layer is formed on the insulating layer. The light reflection layer includes a metallic light-reflecting surface higher in optical reflectance than the insulating layer. The light-emitting elements are mounted on the light-reflecting surface. The sealing member is constituted of a material having gas permeability and translucency, and is formed on the insulating layer to seal the light reflection layer and the light-emitting elements. |
| US08446081B2 |
Heat dissipation device for LED lamp
The heat dissipation device for a LED lamp contains an upper piece, at least a lower piece, and a number of heat dissipation elements. The upper piece has a number of first, second, and third plug holes. The second plug holes are aligned with some first plug holes, and they are connected by conductive layers. The other first plug holes are connected by separate conductive layers. The third plug holes are configured on individual conductive layers. A number of LEDs have their leads threaded through the first plug holes, respectively. The heat dissipation elements have their two ends threaded through a second plug hole and a third plug hole, respectively. The leads and the heat dissipation elements are then soldered to their respective conductive layers. A number of tubular sleeves are sandwiched between the upper and lower pieces and the leads of the LEDs are threaded through the tubular sleeves. |
| US08446078B2 |
Mechanical resonating structures and methods
Apparatus and methods of connecting mechanical resonating structures to a body are described. Multi-element anchors may include a flexible portion that flexes when the mechanical resonating structure vibrates. The flexible portion may have a length related to the resonance frequency of the mechanical resonating structures. Some of the multi-element anchors include elements that are oriented perpendicularly to each other. MEMS incorporating such structures are also described. |
| US08446077B2 |
3-D woven active fiber composite
A three-dimensional woven active fiber composite is disclosed. The composite includes a plurality of actuating fibers configured in a three-dimensional arrangement. The composite further includes a plurality of conductive wire electrodes that are woven through the plurality of actuating fibers. The electrodes may be configured into two dimensional electrode mats that are spaced apart along the length of the composite. Filler fibers may be used between adjacent electrode mats to help reinforce the composite. A sleeve member can also be used to help provide compressive containment for the actuating fibers and conductive wire electrodes. |
| US08446076B2 |
Piezoelectric assembly
A piezoelectric assembly and portable electronic device having a piezoelectric assembly are described. The piezoelectric assembly comprises a first electrode for electrical communication to a current or voltage source, a second electrode for electrical communication to a reference source, a piezoelectric material in electrical communication with each one of the first and second electrodes and between the first and second electrodes, a signal electrical connector in electrical communication with the first electrode and configured to be connected to the current or voltage source, and a reference electrical connector in electrical communication with the second electrode and configured to be connected to the reference source so as to provide electrical communication between the second electrode and the reference source. |
| US08446070B2 |
Micro-electro-mechanical device with a piezoelectric actuator
A micro-electro-mechanical device includes a substrate; a piezoelectric actuator disposed on the substrate; and an elastic member affixed to the substrate at a first end thereof, and mechanically coupled to the piezoelectric actuator; wherein the elastic member comprises at least one of: a notch, a groove, and a recess. |
| US08446061B2 |
Rotating electric machine having stator core with slot insulation encircling first and second coils
A rotating electric machine comprises a stator and a rotor. In the rotor, numerous slots are formed along a circumferential direction. In the each of slots, a first stator coil and a second stator coil are inserted and insulated by an insulator inserted before inserting the coils in the slots. The insulator encircles the first and second stator coils so as to be formed into an S shape. The center portion thereof extends over the area between the first and second stator coils. One end of the insulator is held between one surface of the center portion of the insulator and the first stator coil. Other end of the insulator is held between another surface of the center portion of the insulator and the second stator coil. |
| US08446059B2 |
Spindle motor and storage disk drive apparatus
A spindle motor includes a stator unit and a rotor unit supported to be rotatable with respect to the stator unit. The stator unit includes a stator, a base portion including a through hole, and a circuit board. The circuit board includes a connection portion to which a conductive wire from the stator is connected after passing through the through hole. A lower surface of the base portion includes a central region, a peripheral region, a recess portion, and a protrusion. A position of a distal portion of the protrusion is provided at a level higher than a level of a lowermost surface region of the central region and lower than a level of a bottom surface of the recess portion in a direction parallel or substantially parallel to a central axis. |
| US08446054B2 |
Periodic magnetic field generation device, and linear motor and rotary motor using the same
A periodic magnetic field generation device is provided with a field pole of a Halbach array structure in which main pole permanent magnets magnetized in a direction of a generated field and sub pole permanent magnets magnetized in a direction opposite to the direction of magnetic poles of the main pole permanent magnets are alternately disposed linearly or circularly so as to be adjacent to each other. A part of each of the main pole permanent magnets on a side on which the magnetic field is generated is replaced by a soft magnetic member, and a relation between a length A of the soft magnetic member on the side of the generated field along a moving direction and a length B of each main pole permanent magnet on a side of a back yoke along the moving direction is A |
| US08446050B2 |
Solid-state alternating current (AC) switch
A solid-state alternating current (AC) switch provides for the sequential turn-on of the associated solid-state switches to reduce the generation of electromagnetic interference (EMI). The solid-state AC switch includes at least first and second solid-state switches connected in series between an AC input and an AC load. A zero-cross detector circuit monitors the AC input to determine zero-crossings associated with the monitored AC input. A controller turns on the first solid-state switch and the second solid-state switch according to a turn-on sequence in which the first transistor is turned ON during a detected zero-crossing window associated with the first transistor and the second transistor is subsequently turned ON during a detected zero-crossing associated with the second transistor. |
| US08446049B2 |
Electronic apparatus and method for conditionally power supplying
An electronic apparatus for conditionally power supplying is provided. In the electronic apparatus, an external connection port is embedded on a surface of a case for electrically connecting to an external device, and includes plural exposed terminals including one power pin. First and second detection electrodes are disposed on the surface of the case and normally maintain in broken-circuit. When the first and the second detection electrodes are in a wetting condition, the first and the second detection electrodes are in short-circuit. A switch is electrically connected to a power module and the power pin. A control module detects that the first and the second detection electrodes are in short-circuit or in broken-circuit, and drives the switch to make the power module output power to the power pin when the first detection electrode and the second detection electrode are in broken-circuit. |
| US08446048B2 |
Controller for a safety shut-off system
A controller for a safety shut-off system is taught. The controller is for a system that interrupts a supply of electricity to an electrical appliance upon detecting a trigger. The controller includes a housing having a cover with an electrical socket, which is configured to receive an electrical plug electrically coupled to the appliance. The controller also includes interrupter circuitry contained within the housing, which is electrically coupled to a power supply and to the socket, and which is configured to decouple the power supply from the socket upon receiving a trigger signal. The trigger signal is generated in response to a safety hazard associated with the electrical appliance. |
| US08446046B2 |
Power system
The present invention provides methods and apparatus for reducing power consumption. One method includes detecting the presence of an object, identifying whether the object is a valid device and restricting power if its not a valid device. Another method includes temporarily applying a low amount of power to the primary unit to detect a load, supplying more power to determine if its a valid secondary device, and restricting power if its not. An apparatus for reducing power consumption includes two power inputs, where the lower power input powers a sense circuit. A switch selectively decouples the higher power input from the primary subcircuit during detection mode and couples the higher power input to the primary subcircuit during power supply mode. |
| US08446044B2 |
Power conversion and distribution scheme for electronic equipment racks
A system is provided for powering electronic system modules in an equipment rack. A circuit breaker is mounted to the rack and configured to receive a rack AC power feed. An AC-DC converter module is mounted to the rack and configured to receive the rack AC power feed from the circuit breaker and to convert it to a first DC voltage at an output. A set of switching DC-DC output converters is provided. Each is disposed physically proximate to or within one of the electronic system modules and is configured to convert the first DC voltage to a second DC voltage suitable for consumption by the proximate electronic system module. A bus is configured to distribute the first DC voltage from the output to each of the switching DC-DC output converters. |
| US08446043B1 |
Photovoltaic array systems, methods, and devices and improved diagnostics and monitoring
Devices, systems and methods for operating, monitoring and diagnosing photovoltaic arrays used for solar energy collection. The system preferably includes capabilities for monitoring or diagnosing an array by automatically disconnecting portions of the array during normal service (when load is not maximum, and observing the resulting change in electrical characteristics. More intensive diagnostic procedures can be launched if needed. One embodiment provides for performing monitoring or diagnostic operations on the array in daylight or at night. Another embodiment allows monitoring or diagnostic operations to be performed on a portion of the array while other parts of the array continue to collect energy. Yet another embodiment provides a safety mode for an array for maintenance or during emergencies. |
| US08446042B2 |
Photovoltaic array systems, methods, and devices with improved diagnostics and monitoring
Devices, systems and methods for operating, monitoring and diagnosing photovoltaic arrays used for solar energy collection. The system preferably includes capabilities for monitoring or diagnosing an array by automatically disconnecting portions of the array during normal service (when load is not maximum, and observing the resulting change in electrical characteristics. More intensive diagnostic procedures can be launched if needed. One embodiment provides for performing monitoring or diagnostic operations on the array in daylight or at night. Another embodiment allows monitoring or diagnostic operations to be performed on a portion of the array while other parts of the array continue to collect energy. Yet another embodiment provides a safety mode for an array for maintenance or during emergencies. |
| US08446040B2 |
System and method for allocating power to loads
A system and method for adaptive control of power among a plurality of loads based on a categorization of the loads as either delayable or non-delayable, wherein the non-delayable loads are preferably supplied power over the delayable loads. In one aspect, the system may be used to allocate limited power from a backup power source. |
| US08446036B2 |
Multi-output power supply device
A method of controlling a plurality of output voltages in a multi-output power supply device for generating a plurality of output powers by using a transformer. The method includes, if a system to which power is supplied from the multi-output power supply device is in a standby mode, blocking any one of at least two output powers of a secondary side of the transformer, wherein the blocked power is supplied to the system; and compensating for a resistance of a feedback circuit connected to a switching controller of a power switch of a primary side of the transformer in relation to one or more unblocked output powers of the transformer and maintaining the output of the unblocked output power to be constant. |
| US08446035B2 |
Power supply device and vehicle
A power supply device to be mounted on a vehicle includes a battery module, a power storage casing for accommodating the battery module, a DC/DC converter stepping down an output voltage of the battery module to a first voltage and a DC/DC converter stepping down the output voltage of the battery module into a second voltage. The battery module, DC/DC converter and DC/DC converter are fixed to the power storage casing. This structure provides the power supply device of small sizes capable of supplying electricity of three or more kinds of voltages. |
| US08446034B1 |
Electric power generation using a wind chute
This device will generate electric power using wind current as long as the wind is sufficient to inflate and move a chute to a predetermined point. The chute is then inverted and retrieved by the device to start the cycle of inflation over again. The device will enable the generation of power that is reusable and clean and environmentally friendly. |
| US08446029B2 |
Turbomachinery device for both compression and expansion
A turbomachinery device operable in either a compressor mode or a turbine mode. The device includes an impeller that rotates in the same direction in both modes, and the general flow direction remains the same in both modes. An inlet flow-guiding device may be included to direct fluid into the impeller. The impeller is coupled to a motor/generator, which operates as a motor to add power to the impeller in the compressor mode, and as a generator in the turbine mode to extract mechanical power from the impeller and convert it into electrical power. An outlet flow-guiding device may also be included. The inlet and outlet flow-guiding devices can be inlet and outlet guide vanes that are variable in setting angle or are extendable and retractable into and out of the flow path, or can be other types of flow-guiding devices. |
| US08446028B2 |
Apparatus for generating electric power using wind energy
An apparatus for generating electric power from wind energy includes a blade device rotatable relative to a base to convert wind energy into a mechanical rotary power output, and having an upright rod connected with upright blades and coupled to a generator in the base to convert the mechanical rotary power output into electric power. Each blade has spaced wind-collecting ribs extending vertically from a first side surface thereof, thereby defining a wind-collecting space between any two adjacent wind-collecting ribs. A wind-collecting unit includes upright plates mounted on the base, angularly equidistant and disposed around the blade device. Any two adjacent plates define an inwardly converging wind-guiding channel therebetween. The plates are non-flat so that wind is guided by the plates to blow onto the first side surfaces of the blades via the wind-guiding channels. |
| US08446020B2 |
Multi-chip module
A multi-chip module includes: a board; a wiring board disposed on the board and including a wiring pattern; and a plurality of chips disposed on the wiring board. Each of the plurality of chips is connected with at least one of the other chips, and the plurality of chips and the board are electrically connected with each other via a portion other than the wiring pattern of the wiring board. |
| US08446019B2 |
Solder bump interconnect
A semiconductor package includes a device pad on a substrate. A first polymer layer overlies the substrate, and the first polymer layer has an opening to expose the device pad. In one embodiment, a redistribution layer (RDL) comprises a landing pad, and the RDL is positioned on the first polymer layer and conductively coupled to the device pad. A second polymer layer is on the RDL, and an under bump metal pad (UBM) is on the landing pad and extends onto a top surface of the second polymer layer. In one embodiment, a shortest distance from a center of the landing pad to an outer edge of the landing pad, and a shortest distance from a center of the UBM to an outer edge of the UBM are in a ratio that ranges from 0.5:1 up to 0.95:1. |
| US08446016B2 |
Chip stack package
A chip stack package includes a plurality of chips that are stacked by using adhesive layers as intermediary media, and a through via electrode formed through the chips to electrically couple the chips. The through via electrode is classified as a power supply through via electrode, a ground through via electrode, or a signal transfer through via electrode. The power supply through via electrode and the ground through via electrode are formed of a first material such as copper, and the signal transfer through via electrode is formed of second material such as polycrystalline silicon doped with impurities. The signal transfer through via electrode may have a diametrically smaller cross section than that of each of the power supply through via electrode and the ground through via electrode regardless of their resistivities. |
| US08446015B2 |
Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing thereof
A semiconductor device has a first semiconductor chip 10 molded with a resin 12, a first metal 14 provided in the resin 12 in a circumference of the first semiconductor chip 10, and being exposed on a lower surface of the resin 12, a second metal 16 provided in the resin 12 over the first metal 14, and being exposed on an upper surface of the resin 12, and a first wire 18 coupling the first semiconductor chip 10 to the first metal 14 and the second metal 16. The first wire 18 is coupled to the first metal 14 and the second metal 16 so as to be sandwiched therebetween. |
| US08446011B2 |
Devices and memory arrays including bit lines and bit line contacts
Each of the first bit lines of a device has an upper surface and a lower surface, with the upper surface being more outwardly located over a semiconductor surface than the lower surface. A second bit line of the device has an upper surface and a lower surface, with the upper surface thereof being more outwardly located over the semiconductor surface than the lower surface. The upper surface of the second bit line is more outwardly located over the semiconductor surface than the upper surfaces of the first bit lines. The first bit lines are each adjacent to the second bit line and the second bit line is configured to be selectively coupled to a memory cell other than memory cells to which the first bit lines are configured to be selectively coupled. The second bit line does not overlap any of the first bit lines. |
| US08446006B2 |
Structures and methods to reduce maximum current density in a solder ball
Structures and methods to reduce maximum current density in a solder ball are disclosed. A method includes forming a contact pad in a last wiring level and forming a plurality of wires of the contact pad extending from side edges of the contact pad to respective ones of a plurality of vias. Each one of the plurality of wires has substantially the same electrical resistance. |
| US08446004B2 |
Power light emitting die package with reflecting lens and the method of making the same
A light emitting die package and a method of manufacturing the die package are disclosed. The die package includes a leadframe, at least one light emitting device (LED), a molded body, and a lens. The leadframe includes a plurality of leads and has a top side and a bottom side. A portion of the leadframe defines a mounting pad. The LED device is mounted on the mounting pad. The molded body is integrated with portions of the leadframe and defines an opening on the top side of the leadframe, the opening surrounding the mounting pad. The molded body further includes latches on the bottom side of the leadframe. The lens is coupled to the molded body. A composite lens is used as both reflector and imaging tool to collect and direct light emitted by LED(s) for desired spectral and luminous performance. |
| US08445996B2 |
Semiconductor package
A semiconductor package includes a main substrate, a semiconductor chip having a first side and a second side, the first side of the semiconductor chip disposed on the main substrate and electrically connected to the main substrate, and a conductive network formed on the second side of the semiconductor chip. |
| US08445995B2 |
Semiconductor structure with conductive plug in an oxide layer
A manufacturing method of a semiconductor structure includes providing a substrate having an upper surface and a bottom surface. First openings are formed in the substrate. An oxidization process is performed to oxidize the substrate having the first openings therein to form an oxide-containing material layer, and the oxide-containing material layer has second openings therein. A conductive material is filled into the second openings to form conductive plugs. A first device layer is formed a first surface of the oxide-containing material layer, and is partially or fully electrically connected to the conductive plugs. A second device layer is formed on a second surface of the oxide-containing material layer, and is partially or fully electrically connected to the conductive plugs. |
| US08445993B2 |
Semiconductor component with marginal region
A semiconductor wafer is disclosed. One embodiment provides at least two semiconductor components each having an active region, and wherein at least one zone composed of porous material is arranged between the active regions of the semiconductor components. |
| US08445991B2 |
Semiconductor device with MIM capacitor and method for manufacturing the same
A semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device are provided. The semiconductor device includes a lower electrode formed on a substrate, a dielectric layer including an etched dielectric region and an as-grown dielectric region formed on the lower electrode, an upper electrode formed on the as-grown dielectric region, a hardmask formed on the upper electrode, a spacer formed at a side surface of the hardmask and the upper electrode and over a surface of the etched dielectric region, and a buffer insulation layer formed on the hardmask and the spacer. |
| US08445983B2 |
Semiconductor device for performing photoelectric conversion
A semiconductor device for performing photoelectric conversion of incident light includes a substrate and a well region having different conductivity types. A depletion layer is generated in a vicinity of a junction interface between the substrate and the well region. A first trench has a depth equal to a height up to a top portion of the depletion layer generated on a bottom side of the well region and a width extending to a heavily doped region formed in the well region. A second trench has a depth larger than that of a portion of the depletion layer generated on the bottom side of the well region and a width larger than that of portions of the depletion layer generated on the sides of the well region. The second trench surrounds the first trench so as to confine the depletion layer under the first trench except for a region thereof under the heavily doped region. An insulator is buried into each the first trench and the second trench. |
| US08445979B2 |
Magnetic memory devices including magnetic layers separated by tunnel barriers
A magnetic memory device may include a first vertical magnetic layer, a non-magnetic layer on the first vertical magnetic layer, and a first junction magnetic layer on the non-magnetic layer, with the non-magnetic layer being between the first vertical magnetic layer and the first junction magnetic layer. A tunnel barrier may be on the first junction magnetic layer, with the first junction magnetic layer being between the non-magnetic layer and the tunnel barrier. A second junction magnetic layer may be on the tunnel barrier with the tunnel barrier being between the first and second junction magnetic layers, and a second vertical magnetic layer may be on the second junction magnetic layer with the second junction magnetic layer being between the tunnel barrier and the second vertical magnetic layer. |
| US08445977B2 |
Vibration transducer
Vibration beams are provided on a substrate in parallel with the substrate and in parallel with each other, and provided in vacuum chambers formed by a shell and the substrate. Each of vibration beams has a sectional shape with a longer sectional thickness in a direction perpendicular to a surface of the substrate than a sectional thickness in a direction parallel to the surface of the substrate. A first electrode plate is provided in parallel with the surface of the substrate and connected to one end of each of the vibration beams. A second electrode plate is provided in parallel with the surface of the substrate and between the vibration beams. Third and fourth electrode plates are provided on opposite sides of the vibration beams. Asperities are provided in opposed side wall portion surfaces of the vibration beams and the second, third and fourth electrode plates. |
| US08445976B2 |
Micro movable device
A micro movable device according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a signal line formed on a support substrate, a ground line formed on the support substrate and arranged side by side with the signal line, a first driving electrode formed above the signal line, a second driving electrode formed above the ground line, a first auxiliary driving electrode arranged side by side with the first driving electrode, a second auxiliary driving electrode arranged side by side with the second driving electrode, and a movable electrode which is formed above the first driving electrode, the second driving electrode, the first auxiliary driving electrode and the second auxiliary driving electrode with a space therebetween, and which is supported on the support substrate. |
| US08445971B2 |
Field effect transistor device with raised active regions
A method for fabricating a field effect transistor device includes forming a gate stack on a substrate, forming a spacer on the substrate, adjacent to the gate stack, forming a first portion of an active region on the substrate, the first portion of the active region having a first facet surface adjacent to the gate stack, forming a second portion of the active region on a portion of the first portion of the active region, the second portion of the active region having a second facet surface adjacent to the gate stack, the first facet surface and the second facet surface partially defining a cavity adjacent to the gate stack. |
| US08445966B2 |
Method and apparatus for protection against process-induced charging
A semiconductor device (400) for improved charge dissipation protection includes a substrate (426), a layer of semiconductive or conductive material (406), one or more thin film devices (408) and a charge passage device (414). The thin film devices (408) are connected to the semiconductive or conductive layer (406) and the charge passage device (414) is coupled to the thin film devices (408) and to the substrate (426) and provides a connection from the thin film devices (408) to the substrate (426) to dissipate charge from the semiconductive/conductive layer (406) to the substrate (426). |
| US08445965B2 |
Strained semiconductor devices and methods of fabricating strained semiconductor devices
A structure and method of fabricating the structure. The structure includes a first region of a semiconductor substrate separated from a second region of the semiconductor substrate by trench isolation formed in the substrate; a first stressed layer over the first region; a second stressed layer over second region; the first stressed layer and second stressed layer separated by a gap; and a passivation layer on the first and second stressed layers, the passivation layer extending over and sealing the gap. |
| US08445964B2 |
Fabrication of semiconductors with high-K/metal gate electrodes
Semiconductor devices with high-K/metal gates are formed with spacers that are substantially resistant to subsequent etching to remove an overlying spacer, thereby avoiding replacement and increasing manufacturing throughput. Embodiments include forming a high-K/metal gate, having an upper surface and side surfaces, over a substrate, e.g., a SOI substrate, and sequentially forming, on the side surfaces of the high-K/metal gate, a first spacer of a non-oxide material, a second spacer, of a material different from that of the first spacer, and a third spacer, of a material different from that of the second spacer. After formation of source and drain regions, e.g., epitaxially grown silicon-germanium, the third spacer is etched with an etchant, such as hot phosphoric acid, to which the second spacer is substantially resistant, thereby avoiding replacement. |
| US08445960B2 |
Self-aligned body fully isolated device
A device having a self-aligned body on a first side of a gate is disclosed. The self-aligned body helps to achieve very low channel length for low Rdson. The self-aligned body is isolated, enabling to bias the body at different bias potentials. The device may be configured into a finger architecture having a plurality of transistors with commonly coupled, sources, commonly coupled gates, and commonly coupled drains to achieve high drive current outputs. |
| US08445956B2 |
Method for manufacturing a semiconductor device and semiconductor device
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device and semiconductor device. One embodiment provides a semiconductor substrate with an active region and a margin region bordering on the active region. The spacer layer in the margin region is broken through at a selected location and at least part of the spacer layer is removed in the active region using a common process. The location is selected such that at least part of the semiconductor mesa structure is exposed and the spacer layer in the margin region is broken through to the conductive layer and not to the semiconductor substrate. |
| US08445955B2 |
Quasi-vertical structure for high voltage MOS device
A semiconductor device provides a high breakdown voltage and a low turn-on resistance. The device includes: a substrate; a buried n+ layer disposed in the substrate; an n-epi layer disposed over the buried n+ layer; a p-well disposed in the n-epi layer; a source n+ region disposed in the p-well and connected to a source contact on one side; a first insulation layer disposed on top of the p-well and the n-epi layer; a gate disposed on top of the first insulation layer; and a metal electrode extending from the buried n+ layer to a drain contact, wherein the metal electrode is insulated from the n-epi layer and the p-well using by a second insulation layer. |
| US08445948B2 |
Gate patterning of nano-channel devices
Methodologies and gate etching processes are presented to enable the fabrication of gate conductors of semiconductor devices, such as NFETs and/or PFETs, which are equipped with nano-channels. In one embodiment, a sacrificial spacer of equivalent thickness to the diameter of the gate nano-channel is employed and is deposited after patterning the gate conductor down to the gate dielectric. The residue gate material that is beneath the nano-channel is removed utilizing a medium to high density, bias-free, fluorine-containing or fluorine-and chlorine-containing isotropic etch process without compromising the integrity of the gate. In another embodiment, an encapsulation/passivation layer is utilized. In yet further embodiment, no sacrificial spacer or encapsulation/passivation layer is used and gate etching is performed in an oxygen and nitrogen-free ambient. |
| US08445947B2 |
Electronic circuit having a diode-connected MOS transistor with an improved efficiency
An integrated circuit including a semiconductor layer; and a MOS transistor including first and second power terminals and a bulk insulated from the semiconductor layer, the first power terminal being intended to receive an oscillating signal, the transistor gate and the bulk being connected to the first power terminal. |
| US08445945B2 |
Low noise chemically-sensitive field effect transistors
Methods and apparatus relating to very large scale FET arrays for analyte measurements. ChemFET (e.g., ISFET) arrays may be fabricated using conventional CMOS processing techniques based on improved FET pixel and array designs that increase measurement sensitivity and accuracy, and at the same time facilitate significantly small pixel sizes and dense arrays. Improved array control techniques provide for rapid data acquisition from large and dense arrays. Such arrays may be employed to detect a presence and/or concentration changes of various analyte types in a wide variety of chemical and/or biological processes. In one example, chemFET arrays facilitate DNA sequencing techniques based on monitoring changes in hydrogen ion concentration (pH), changes in other analyte concentration, and/or binding events associated with chemical processes relating to DNA synthesis. |
| US08445944B2 |
Solid-state image pickup device
A solid-state image pickup device 1 according to the present invention includes a semiconductor substrate 2 on which a pixel 20 composed of a photodiode 3 and a transistor is formed. The transistor comprising the pixel 20 is formed on the surface of the semiconductor substrate, a pn junction portion formed between high concentration regions of the photodiode 3 is provided within the semiconductor substrate 2 and a part of the pn junction portion of the photodiode 3 is extended to a lower portion of the transistor formed on the surface of the semiconductor substrate 2. According to the present invention, there is provided a solid-state image pickup device in which a pixel size can be microminiaturized without lowering a saturated electric charge amount (Qs) and sensitivity. |
| US08445942B2 |
Semiconductor device having metal oxide film
A semiconductor device includes: a nitride group semiconductor functional layer including a second nitride group semiconductor region on a first nitride group semiconductor region where a two-dimensional carrier gas layer is made, the second nitride group semiconductor region functioning as a barrier layer; a first main electrode electrically connected to one end of the two-dimensional carrier gas layer; a second main electrode electrically connected to the other end of the two-dimensional carrier gas layer; and a metal oxide film placed between the first and second main electrodes, electrically connected to the first main electrode, the first main electrode extends over an upper surface of the metal oxide film. |
| US08445941B2 |
Asymmetrically recessed high-power and high-gain ultra-short gate HEMT device
A high-power and high-gain ultra-short gate HEMT device has exceptional gain and an exceptionally high breakdown voltage provided by an increased width asymmetric recess for the gate electrode, by a composite channel layer including a thin indium arsenide layer embedded in the indium gallium arsenide channel layer and by double doping through the use of an additional silicon doping spike. The improved transistor has an exceptional 14 dB gain at 110 GHz and exhibits an exceptionally high 3.5-4 V breakdown voltage, thus to provide high gain, high-power and ultra-high frequency in an ultra-short gate device. |
| US08445938B2 |
Nitride semi-conductive light emitting device
The nitride semi-conductive light emitting layer in this invention comprises a single crystal substrate 1 for epitaxial growth, a first buffer layer 2, an n-type nitride semi-conductive layer 3, a second buffer layer 4, a third buffer layer 5, a light emitting layer 6, and a p-type nitride semi-conductive layer 7. The first buffer layer 2 is laminated to a top side of the single crystal substrate 1. The n-type nitride semi-conductive layer 3 is laminated to a top side of the first buffer layer 2. The third buffer layer 5 is laminated to a top side of the n-type nitride semi-conductive layer 3 with the second buffer layer 4 being interposed therebetween. The light emitting layer 6 is laminated to a top side of the third buffer layer 5. The p-type nitride semi-conductive layer 7 is laminated to a top side of the light emitting layer 6. The third buffer layer 5 serves as a planarized base for growth of the light emitting layer 6 so as to reduce a threading dislocation and a residual distortion in the light emitting layer 6. This nitride semi-conductive light emitting device reduces a piezoelectric field in the light emitting layer by exploiting carriers generated in the third buffer layer 5. The third buffer layer 5 is doped with an Si impurity serving as a donor. |
| US08445936B1 |
Integrally formed high-efficient multi-layer light-emitting device
An integrally formed high-efficient multi-layer light-emitting device is provided, which includes a heat dissipation seat, a plurality of light-emitting dies, and a lead frame. The heat dissipation seat includes a chamber having an accommodating space, and a groove having two inclined inner sidewalls is formed around the periphery of a bottom of the chamber, The groove is very fine so that only very small amounts of the phosphor and silicone are used for filling the groove and covering the light-emitting dies, and thereby the material cost and the manufacturing cost are greatly reduced. The light can be reflected out of the chamber so that the brightness and the evenness of the light output will be improved. |
| US08445933B2 |
LED package having an array of light emitting cells coupled in series
Disclosed is a light emitting diode (LED) package having an array of light emitting cells coupled in series. The LED package comprises a package body and an LED chip mounted on the package body. The LED chip has an array of light emitting cells coupled in series. Since the LED chip having the array of light emitting cells coupled in series is mounted on the LED package, it can be driven directly using an AC power source. |
| US08445927B2 |
Light emitting diode package and manufacturing method thereof
The present invention relates to a light emitting diode package and a manufacturing method thereof.The light emitting diode package includes a substrate, an LED chip mounted on an upper part of a substrate, a molding material coated at the upper part of the substrate including an external surface of the LED chip, and an encapsulant coated at a lower part of the substrate and can improve luminous efficiency, minimize a package failure, and reduce a manufacture cost by facilitating the manufacturing process. |
| US08445923B2 |
Organic light emitting diode display and method for manufacturing the same
An organic light emitting diode display comprises a display substrate including an organic light emitting element, an encapsulation substrate disposed to face the display substrate, a sealant disposed between edges of the display substrate and the encapsulation substrate for bonding and sealing the display substrate and the encapsulation substrate together, a filler filling in a space between the display substrate and the encapsulation substrate, first spacers formed on one surface of the display substrate contacting the filler, and second spacers formed on one surface of the encapsulation substrate contacting the filler. The display substrate and the encapsulation substrate are divided into a dropping area and a spreading area surrounding the dropping area and positioned relatively close to the sealant, and either or both of the first spacers and the second spacers have different shapes in the dropping area and in the spreading area. |
| US08445911B2 |
Active device array substrate
An active device array substrate including a substrate, scan lines, data lines, active devices, a first dielectric layer, a common line, a second dielectric layer, a patterned conductive layer, a third dielectric layer, and pixel electrodes is provided. At least a part of the active devices are electrically connected to the scan lines and the data lines. The first dielectric layer covers the scan lines, the data lines and the active devices. The common line is disposed on the first dielectric layer. The second dielectric layer covers the common line and the first dielectric layer. The patterned conductive layer is disposed on the second dielectric layer. The third dielectric layer covers the patterned conductive layer and the second dielectric layer. The pixel electrodes are disposed on the third dielectric layer and electrically connected to the patterned conductive layer and the active devices. |
| US08445906B2 |
Method for sorting and acquiring semiconductor element, method for producing semiconductor device, and semiconductor device
A method for sorting and acquiring a semiconductor element, including: disposing a plurality of semiconductor elements in an effective section in a semiconductor substrate; disposing a standard semiconductor element outside of the effective section in the semiconductor substrate; forming a bump in each of the plurality of the semiconductor elements and in the standard semiconductor element; performing a test on the plurality of the semiconductor elements in the effective section; forming a location map using the standard semiconductor element as a base point; and picking up the semiconductor elements determined as non-defective in the test from the plurality of the semiconductor elements based on the location map. |
| US08445905B2 |
Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same
An object is to increase an aperture ratio of a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes a driver circuit portion and a display portion (also referred to as a pixel portion) over one substrate. The driver circuit portion includes a channel-etched thin film transistor for a driver circuit, in which a source electrode and a drain electrode are formed using metal and a channel layer is formed of an oxide semiconductor, and a driver circuit wiring formed using metal. The display portion includes a channel protection thin film transistor for a pixel, in which a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer are formed using an oxide conductor and a semiconductor layer is formed of an oxide semiconductor, and a display portion wiring formed using an oxide conductor. |
| US08445902B2 |
Thin film transistor and method of manufacturing the same
Provided are a coplanar structure thin film transistor that allows a threshold voltage to change only a little under electric stress, and a method of manufacturing the same. The thin film transistor includes on a substrate at least: a gate electrode; a gate insulating layer; an oxide semiconductor layer including a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a channel region; a channel protection layer; and an interlayer insulating layer. The channel protection layer includes one or more layers, the layer in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer among the one or more layers being made of an insulating material containing oxygen, ends of the channel protection layer are thinner than a central part of the channel protection layer, the interlayer insulating layer contains hydrogen, and regions of the oxide semiconductor layer that are in direct contact with the interlayer insulating layer form the source electrode and the drain electrode. |
| US08445897B2 |
Method for manufacturing a multi-layer stack structure with improved WVTR barrier property
A method and apparatus for manufacturing a multi-layer stack structure (12), the structure (12) comprising in order: a substrate (6a) a barrier layer (14) an adhesive layer (15) a barrier layer (14) a substrate (6b). The method comprises: a) providing two substrates (6a, 6b) in a single treatment space (5), the treatment space (5) comprising at least two electrodes (2, 3) for generating an atmospheric pressure glow discharge plasma in the treatment space (5); b) treating the facing surfaces of the two substrates (6a, 6b) simultaneously in the single treatment space (5); c) laminating the two treated substrates (6a, 6b) with an adhesive layer (15) in between the facing surfaces to obtain the multi-layer stack structure (12). |
| US08445895B2 |
Organic electroluminescence element
An organic electroluminescence element having a cathode as a top electrode, and excelling in luminance efficiency, drive voltage, and operational life is provided. The organic electroluminescence element includes an anode over a substrate and a luminescent layer over the anode. The luminescent layer comprises an organic material. An electron injection layer is over the luminescent layer for injecting electrons into the luminescent layer. The electron injection layer is a metal including at least one of an alkaline metal and an alkaline earth metal. A fullerene layer is over the electron injection layer and includes fullerenes and at least one of an alkaline metal and an alkaline earth metal. The at least one of the alkaline metal and the alkaline earth metal included in the fullerene layer has a lower work function than a lowest unoccupied molecular orbit energy level of the fullerenes. A cathode is over the fullerene layer. |
| US08445889B2 |
Method of patterning of nanostructures
A method of patterning nanostructures comprising printing an ink comprising the nanostructures onto a solvent-extracting first surface such that a pattern of nanostructures is formed on the first surface. |
| US08445886B2 |
Nonvolatile memory element, nonvolatile memory device, nonvolatile semiconductor device, and method of manufacturing nonvolatile memory element
A nonvolatile memory element comprises a first electrode (103); a second electrode (105); and a resistance variable layer (104) disposed between the first electrode (103) and the second electrode (105), resistance values of the resistance variable layer reversibly changing in response to electric signals applied between the electrodes (103, 105); the resistance variable layer (104) including a first tantalum oxide layer (107) comprising a first tantalum oxide and a second tantalum oxide layer (108) comprising a second tantalum oxide which is different in oxygen content from the first tantalum oxide, the first tantalum oxide layer and the second tantalum oxide layer being stacked together, and being configured such that 0 |
| US08445881B2 |
Nonvolatile variable resistive element and nonvolatile semiconductor memory device
A large-capacity and inexpensive nonvolatile semiconductor memory device that prevents a leak current and is operated at high speed is implemented with a nonvolatile variable resistive element. A memory cell array includes the nonvolatile variable resistive elements each including a variable resistor composed of a metal oxide film to cause a resistance change according to an oxygen concentration in the film, an insulation film formed on the variable resistor, first and second electrodes to sandwich the variable resistor, and a third electrode opposite to the variable resistor across the insulation film. A writing operation is performed by applying a voltage to the third electrode to induce an electric field having a threshold value or more, in a direction perpendicular to an interface between the variable resistor and the insulation film, and a resistance state of the variable resistor is read by applying a voltage between the first and second electrodes. |
| US08445880B2 |
Phase change memory device having bit-line discharge block and method of fabricating the same
A phase change memory device capable of fully discharging bit lines, even while occupying a relatively small area, and a fabricating method thereof are presented. The phase change memory device includes a semiconductor substrate, a word line area, a discharge line area, a switching PN diode, a dummy PN diode, a phase change structure, and a bit line. The word line area is formed in a memory cell area of the semiconductor substrate. The discharge line area is formed in the bit-line discharge area of the semiconductor substrate. The switching PN diode is formed on the word line area. The dummy PN diode is formed on the discharge line area. The phase change structure is formed on the switching PN diode and is electrically connected to the switching diode. The bit line is electrically connected to the phase change structure and the dummy PN diode. |
| US08445878B2 |
Radiation control and minimization system and method
A radiation control system and method are provided in which radiation delivered to a patient and/or the operator of the equipment is minimized. The radiation control system may be used in a large variety of applications including applications in which radiation source is used to inspect an object, such as, for example, medical imaging, diagnosis and therapy, in manufacturing operation using radiation, in airports scanning systems, in different security setups, and in nuclear reactors automation and process control. The radiation control system and method may also be used with 3D imaging. |
| US08445872B2 |
System and method for layer-wise proton beam current variation
Systems and methods are provided to perform efficient, automatic adjustment of cyclotron beam currents within a wide range for multiple treatment layers within the same patient and treatment session. In one embodiment, efficient adjustment is achieved by using beam current attenuation by an electrostatic vertical deflector installed in the inner center of the cyclotron. The beam current may, for example, be adjusted by the high voltage applied to the electrostatic vertical deflector. In front of each treatment the attenuation curve of the vertical deflector is recorded. Based on this attenuation curve, the vertical deflector voltage for the needed beam current of each irradiation layer is interpolated. With this procedure the beam current could be automatically adjusted in minimal time over a wide range while maintaining a high level of precision. |
| US08445870B2 |
Charged particle beam system having multiple user-selectable operating modes
A method for performing milling and imaging in a focused ion beam (FIB) system employing an inductively-coupled plasma ion source, wherein two sets of FIB system operating parameters are utilized: a first set representing optimized parameters for operating the FIB system in a milling mode, and a second set representing optimized parameters for operating in an imaging mode. These operating parameters may comprise the gas pressure in the ICP source, the RF power to the ICP source, the ion extraction voltage, and in some embodiments, various parameters within the FIB system ion column, including lens voltages and the beam-defining aperture diameter. An optimized milling process provides a maximum milling rate for bulk (low spatial resolution) rapid material removal from the surface of a substrate. An optimized imaging process provides minimized material removal and higher spatial resolutions for improved imaging of the substrate area being milled. |
| US08445868B2 |
Oligofluoranthenes and methods and apparatuses for detecting nitroaromatics using the same
The present application relates to compositions having at least one oligofluoranthene. The compositions may, for example, emit blue or green light when exposed to a blue or ultraviolet radiation. Methods of making the compositions are also disclosed, as well as methods and apparatuses for producing light and detecting nitroaromatics using the compositions. |
| US08445861B2 |
Neutron detection based on induced charges
Neutrons can be detected using first information derived from a first charge induced on an input electrode of a microchannel plate and second information derived from a second charge induced on an output electrode of the microchannel plate. For example, a ratio between the first charge and the second charge is calculated, a sum of the first and second charges is calculated, and whether a neutron has been detected can be determined based on the ratio and the sum. |
| US08445859B2 |
Neutron detectors comprising boron powder
High-efficiency neutron detector substrate assemblies comprising a first conductive substrate, wherein a first side of the substrate is in direct contact with a first layer of a powder material comprising 10boron, 10boron carbide or combinations thereof, and wherein a conductive material is in proximity to the first layer of powder material; and processes of making said neutron detector substrate assemblies. |
| US08445858B2 |
Neutron detection and collimation
A device includes a neutron-sensitive composition. The composition includes, in weight percent, a non-zero amount of aluminum oxide (e.g., approximately 1% to approximately 3.5% aluminum oxide), greater than 12% (e.g., approximately 12% to approximately 17%) boron oxide, greater than approximately 60% silicon oxide (e.g., approximately 62% to approximately 68% silicon oxide), and a non-zero amount of sodium oxide (e.g., approximately 10% to approximately 14% sodium oxide). The device is capable of interacting with neutrons to form an electron cascade. |
| US08445857B2 |
Flame sensor
A flame sensor is provided with a focusing member. Ultraviolet light emitted from a light source is reflected by an inner surface of the focusing member to be focused on an electrode of an electrode pair, to increase the sensitivity. |
| US08445856B2 |
Multi-element X-ray detector, its rear-earth luminescent materials, production of multi-element scintillator and detector in general
A multi-element X-ray radiation detector consists of a flat multi-element scintillator in the form of a discrete set of hetero-phase luminescent elements which are arranged in the cells of a mesh made from a metal which absorbs X-ray radiation and reflects light, the increment size of which mesh corresponds to the increment size of the photo receiver matrix. The metallic mesh that forms the multi-element luminescent scintillator is made from elements having an atomic number from N=26 (iron) to N=74 (tungsten), has silver-plated coils, and separates the scintillator elements optically from one another. The process of synthesis is carried out in two stages. Oxyhalides of elements making up a cationic subgroup are formed by reacting an initial coprecipitated oxides of rare earth elements, Bi and Re, with ammonium halides. The resulting product is then subjected to repeated thermal treatment in an alkali chalcogenide melt. |
| US08445853B2 |
Method of making a radiation-sensitive substrate
A method of making a radiation-sensitive apparatus includes providing a first substrate, forming a radiation-sensitive layer over the first substrate, providing a plurality of spatially separated integrated circuits, each integrated circuit having: a second substrate, one or more electronic circuit(s) formed in or on the second substrate, and one or more electrode connection pads formed in or on the second substrate, each electrode connection pad electrically connected to at least one of the electronic circuit(s). A plurality of pixel electrodes is formed over the first substrate separate from the integrated circuit, each pixel electrode electrically connected to an electrode connection pad. An electronic control circuit is electrically connected to each electronic circuit in each integrated circuit. The electronic circuits are responsive to electrical signals formed by the interaction of electromagnetic radiation and the radiation-sensitive layer, the electrical signals conducted by the pixel electrodes and electrode connection pads. |
| US08445851B2 |
Radioimaging
Radioimaging methods, devices and radiopharmaceuticals therefor. |
| US08445849B2 |
IR sensing device
An Infrared Radiation (IR) sensing device comprises a lens module, an IR pass filter, and an optical sensor. The lens module is utilized for focusing light. The IR pass filter comprises an optical coating, and a Color Filter Array (CFA) module. The optical coating is utilized for blocking light with wavelength around a predetermined range. The CFA module is utilized for blocking light with wavelength around 400 nm to 780 nm. The optical sensor for absorbing photons of light after being blocked by the IR pass filter on the optical path and accordingly generating an electrical signal. With the help of the CFAs, the range of the wavelength that the optical coating has to block becomes smaller, which greatly reduces the required number of layers of the optical coating. |
| US08445846B2 |
Beam optical component having a charged particle lens
The present invention relates to a beam optical component including a charged particle lens for focusing a charged particle beam, the charged particle lens comprising a first element having a first opening for focusing the charged particle beam; a second element having a second opening for focusing the charged particle beam and first driving means connected with at least one of the first element and the second element for aligning the first opening with respect to the second opening. With the first driving means, the first opening and the second opening can be aligned with respect to each other during beam operation to provide a superior alignment of the beam optical component for a better beam focusing. The present invention also relates to a charged particle beam device that uses said beam optical component for focusing the charged particle beam, and a method to align first opening and second opening with respect to each other. |
| US08445842B2 |
Mechanical holder for surface analysis
A mechanical holder that provides for a confined sampling region for extraction and removal of chemical substances contained in a dried blood spot or other spot of sample is described herein. |
| US08445838B1 |
System and method for generating a deselect mapping for a focal plane array
A method for generating a deselect mapping for a focal plane array according to one embodiment includes gathering a data set for a focal plane array when exposed to light or radiation from a first known target; analyzing the data set for determining which pixels or subpixels of the focal plane array to add to a deselect mapping; adding the pixels or subpixels to the deselect mapping based on the analysis; and storing the deselect mapping. A method for gathering data using a focal plane array according to another embodiment includes deselecting pixels or subpixels based on a deselect mapping; gathering a data set using pixels or subpixels in a focal plane array that are not deselected upon exposure thereof to light or radiation from a target of interest; and outputting the data set. |
| US08445835B2 |
Encoder, servo unit and encoder manufacturing method
An encoder includes a disk including a first track and a second track each being ring-shaped and provided with a rotary grating, and a first detector and a second detector that are fixedly disposed so as to respectively face the first track and the second track each provided with a fixed grating that detects diffracted interfering light. A plurality of slits of the first track are formed as curved slits. The first detector facing the first track is disposed at a position where a tangent of each of the slits included in the diffraction grating of the first track becomes parallel to a tangent of each of the slits included in the diffraction grating of the second track at a position where the second detector faces the second track. |
| US08445834B2 |
Touch sensing apparatus having a simplified structure and reduced manufacturing cost
A touch sensing apparatus includes a light source generating a light. The light travels though a light distribution part. A light guide part guides the light to the light distribution part. A light sensing part outputs an output signal corresponding to an intensity of the light incident through the light guide part and the light distribution part when a touch occurs. A light reflection part reflects the light provided to the light distribution part, and a coordinate generating part calculates a coordinate value of the touch using the output signal from the light sensing part. |
| US08445830B2 |
Correction information calculating device, image processing apparatus, image display system, and image correcting method including detection of positional relationship of diagrams inside photographed images
A correction information calculating device includes: a position information acquiring unit that acquires position information representing a position corresponding to a first diagram located inside a first photographed image; a second diagram position detecting unit that detects a position of a second diagram, that is different from the first diagram in at least one of a shape and a size, inside a second photographed image; and a correction information calculating unit that calculates correction information representing a correspondence relationship between a position of a pixel on the projection surface and a position of a pixel of an image forming element of a projector by comparing the position of the second diagram inside the second photographed image that is detected by the second diagram position detecting unit and the position of the second diagram on an original data of the second measurement image. |
| US08445828B2 |
High dynamic range image sensor with in pixel memory
A high dynamic range CMOS image sensor is disclosed. The pixels of the image sensor incorporate in-pixel memory. Further, the pixels may have varying integration periods. The integration periods are determined, in part, by the signal stored in the in-pixel memory from previous integration periods. |
| US08445824B2 |
Lighting device
There is provided a lighting device, comprising at least one light emitter, at least one reflector and at least one sensor. The sensor is positioned within a region which receives direct light from the light emitter when the light emitter is emitting light. In some embodiments, the light emitter comprises one or more light emitting diode. In some embodiments, the sensor is positioned between the light emitter and a power supply. In some embodiments, the reflector comprises at least one opening, and light emitted by the light emitter passes through the opening to the sensor. In some embodiments, the sensor is sensitive to only some wavelengths of visible light. Some embodiments are back-reflecting lamps, and some are forward-reflecting lamps. |
| US08445821B2 |
Built-in cooking device
The invention provides a built-in cooking device comprising a door 2a having a size large enough to cover the front side of a cooking device body including a lower portion thereof, and on an inner lower surface of the door 2a facing the lower portion of the cooking device body is formed an air inlet portion 15a and an air outlet portion 15b composed of an air guide portion having a recessed portion for the air inlet and outlet portions, by which directions of the inlet air and outlet air moving in forward and rearward directions along the recessed portion of the door 2a are changed to the perpendicular direction. The present device has eliminated the front-side air inlet and outlet using an air inlet and outlet grill using an inlet and outlet air blow duct layer structure disposed on the bottom side of the device, and the rear side of a duct constituting the present air inlet and outlet portion is disposed along a warm wall surface of the heating chamber. |
| US08445819B2 |
Functional therapeutic heater element
A breathable electrical heater element for a topical application device such as a wound dressing or a therapeutic heating pad is disclosed. The heater element is formed by photochemically etching a track pattern onto a porous metallised fabric (e.g. nickel coated woven polyester). The heater element has a skin or wound contact layer laminated to the front face of the heater element. An adhesive layer is laminated to the back face of the heater element. The adhesive layer forms an overhang to provide an adhesive border around the wound contact layer to adhere the device to the skin of a patient. Therapeutically active drugs (optionally microencapsulated) may be incorporated into the skin or wound contact layer. Operation of the heater element causes the skin or wound contact layer to release the active drugs to the skin or wound of the patient. |
| US08445813B2 |
Method of breaching a barrier
A portable cutting device and related method of use are disclosed. The method may include the steps of providing a laser source and a battery power supply, and housing the laser source and the battery power supply in at least one storage container carried by a user. The method may further include the step of cutting a barrier with optical energy produced by the laser source and delivered by a handheld laser directing device. |
| US08445811B2 |
Device for the weld joining of sheet metal strips
A device for the laser weld joining of sheet metal strips includes the following elements: a main frame, a laser welding unit including a laser beam generator for welding the sheet metal strips to be joined and a welding head, a clamping jaw unit supported by the frame and used to clamp the sheet metal strips, and a shearing unit for shearing the head and tails of the sheet metal strips to be joined. The shearing unit includes upper blades mounted to a blade holder and lower blades which can move in relation to the upper blades and which are designed to shear a strip, as well as a blade connecting structure fixed to the frame, the above-mentioned welding head being mobile between the blade holder and the lower blades. |
| US08445809B2 |
Method and apparatus for resistance spot welding
A welding method and apparatus are disclosed wherein a plurality of stacks of metal sheets are clamped together in sequence at a welding site between a pair of electrode caps across which welding current is supplied to spot weld together the sheets in each of the stacks in a series of welding operations in a production run. The electrode caps are pressed against the sheets in each of the stacks when each of the stacks is at the welding site with an applied force that includes a closing force to clamp the sheets together in a surface-to-surface interface fit plus a predetermined interjoint force that is increased progressively throughout the production run. |
| US08445806B2 |
Drive device for erosion tools
A drive device for erosion tools, having a drive shaft, an electrode holder connected to the drive shaft, an axial drive which works on the drive shaft, a rotational drive which works on the drive shaft as a direct drive in a contactless manner, and a radial bearing. The radial bearing is constructed as a ball track. |
| US08445804B2 |
Vacuum cartridge for an electrical protection apparatus such as a switch or a circuit breaker
A cartridge having at least three shields including a mid-potential shield between two contacts and at least one partial shield between a mid-potential shield and one of the contacts, the distance between the mid-potential shield and the contacts being such that the electric field present at the edge of the contact extends from the contact to the partial shield surrounding it, or vice-versa from the partial shield to the contact, depending on the polarity of the voltage. |
| US08445792B2 |
Load detection device which determines load on a vehicle seat taking into account vehicle longitudinal inclination angle
A load detection device includes a load sensor provided at a support portion that is positioned at a rear portion of a seat for a vehicle, the seat including a seatback at the rear portion of the seat, the load sensor detecting a load applied to the support portion that is a part of a plurality of support portions, a load detecting portion detecting a portion of a load of a seat occupancy of the seat based on an output from the load sensor and outputting a detected load value, a longitudinal inclination angle detecting portion detecting a longitudinal inclination angle of the vehicle, and a load correcting portion correcting, depending on the longitudinal inclination angle, the detected load value of the portion of the load of the seat occupancy based on a relationship between the detected load value of the seat occupancy and the longitudinal inclination angle. |
| US08445790B2 |
Coreless substrate having filled via pad and method of manufacturing the same
Disclosed herein is a coreless substrate having filled via pads and a method of manufacturing the same. Insulating layers are formed on both sides of a build-up layer, and via-pads are embedded in the insulating layers such that the via-pads are flush with the insulating layers. The via pads are not separated from a substrate, and thus reliability of the pads is increased. Flatness of bumps is increased, and thus bonding of flip chips becomes easy. |
| US08445788B1 |
Carbon nanotube-enhanced, metallic wire
A conductive wire includes a metallic wire substrate having a diameter and a surface, and a coating material having a plurality of carbon nanotubes dispersed therein. The coating material is operable to adhere a portion of the carbon nanotubes to the surface of the wire. The coating material has higher specific conductivity than the metallic wire substrate and also has a low contact resistance with the metallic wire substrate. |
| US08445783B2 |
Splice assembly with shield sock
An assembly is provided that includes a tubular support core, a splice body configured to circumferentially surround the support core, a conductive shield sock comprising at least two overlapping layers and configured to circumferentially surround the splice body and a cold shrink jacket circumferentially surrounding the shield sock. The ends of the shield sock are located beneath the cold shrink jacket and the shield sock extends beyond both ends of the splice body. In some embodiments the shield sock includes folded portions that extend beyond the ends of the splice body. |
| US08445780B1 |
Electrical device concealing system
The apparatus includes a mount plate secured to a wall or ceiling panel and leading to an electrical device, a frame secured thereto, a plurality of magnetic or mechanical push-touch latches secured to the frame and adapted for inward/outward movement, and a cover magnetically or mechanically, such as a pin and socket attachment assembly, connected to the latches and movable with the latches, such as to be substantially flush with the frame in the inward position and extend outwardly from the frame in the outward position such as to permit removal for access to the electrical device. Various finishing materials may be applied over any exposed portions of the apparatus, such as the mount plate, portions of the frame, and cover to match the surrounding wall panel so that the invention is substantially unnoticeable along the wall panel. The cover may also include an opening for a daily use embodiment. |
| US08445779B1 |
Two gang electrical box for rapid mounting using hole saw
A two gang electrical box that greatly reduces the time and effort required to mount one or two electrical components to a wall or similar surface. Wall preparation requires only the use of a standard hole saw thereby greatly minimizing installation time. The two gang electrical box includes a plate with an opening therein and a substantially circular sidewall extending from the plate at the periphery of the opening and terminating in a rear wall. Mounting fasteners extending through the plate include clamp arms thereon for securing the electrical box to a wall. The clamp arms can be rotated to either an inward position or an outward position. The sidewall is provided with open areas or recesses to fully accommodate the clamp arms when rotated to the inward position thereby enabling the peripheral wall and clamp arms to pass easily within the wall opening created by the standard size hole-saw. |
| US08445777B2 |
Gas insulated bus system configuration
Gas insulated bus (GIB) systems and methods are provided that facilitate efficient cost control and resource utilization. A GIB system assembly includes one or more GIB runs which include a maximum number of a first GIB section components having a predetermined length and a second GIB section component having a custom or variable length coupled to one of the one or more first GIB section components at their flanged ends, and first and second tee-shaped connectors coupled to one of the one or more first GIB section components and the second GIB section component and used to couple the GIB runs together and orient the bus runs at a desired bus routing angle. |
| US08445776B2 |
Solar cell module having a low haze encapsulant layer
A solar cell module comprising a solar cell layer and a sheet comprising at least one layer of a sodium ionomer composition, wherein the sodium ionomer composition consists essentially of a sodium ionomer that is an ionic, neutralized derivative of a precursor α-olefin carboxylic acid copolymer, wherein about 10% to about 35% of the total content of the carboxylic acid groups present in the precursor α-olefin carboxylic acid copolymer have been neutralized with sodium ions, and wherein the precursor α-olefin carboxylic acid copolymer comprises (i) copolymerized units of an α-olefin having 2 to 10 carbons and (ii) about 20 to about 25 wt %, based on the total weight of the α-olefin carboxylic acid copolymer, of copolymerized units of an α,β-ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid having 3 to 8. |
| US08445766B2 |
Electronic display of sheet music
This disclosure relates to techniques, devices, and systems for displaying sheet music on one or more electronic devices. One example method of displaying sheet music on an electronic device includes receiving a first electronic input that indicates timing information for a musical composition. The method also includes determining, by an electronic device, a timing parameter for the musical composition using the received first electronic input indicating the timing information, and displaying, on the electronic device, sheet music for a first portion of a plurality of portions of the musical composition. The method further includes determining a time duration associated with the first portion based on the timing parameter, and displaying, on the electronic device, sheet music for a second portion of the plurality of portions of the musical composition following an expiration of the time duration. |
| US08445765B2 |
Keyboard device
A keyboard device capable of reconstructing a unique clicking sense of an acoustic piano is provided. A first incline portion (a plane or curved surface) of a sliding surface is inclined towards a direction gradually departing from a base portion of a protrusion along a displacement direction of the protrusion in a key-pressing operation for reducing a resistance exerted on the protrusion and suppressing a gradual increase of a sense of resistance. Moreover, a bump portion located at where the protrusion reaches after sliding through the first incline portion is used to increase the resistance exerted on the protrusion for increasing the sense of resistance. When the protrusion crosses over the bump portion, the sense of resistance is reduced. Accordingly, variation in the sense of resistance before and after the bump portion is increased, and the unique clicking sense of the acoustic piano is reproduced. |
| US08445758B1 |
Soybean variety XBP11003
A novel soybean variety, designated XBP11003 is provided. Also provided are the seeds of soybean variety XBP11003, cells from soybean variety XBP11003, plants of soybean XBP11003, and plant parts of soybean variety XBP11003. Methods provided include producing a soybean plant by crossing soybean variety XBP11003 with another soybean plant, methods for introgressing a transgenic trait, a mutant trait, and/or a native trait into soybean variety XBP11003, methods for producing other soybean varieties or plant parts derived from soybean variety XBP11003, and methods of characterizing soybean variety XBP11003. Soybean seed, cells, plants, germplasm, breeding lines, varieties, and plant parts produced by these methods and/or derived from soybean variety XBP11003 are further provided. |
| US08445757B1 |
Soybean variety XB55W11
A novel soybean variety, designated XB55W11 is provided. Also provided are the seeds of soybean variety XB55W11, cells from soybean variety XB55W11, plants of soybean XB55W11, and plant parts of soybean variety XB55W11. Methods provided include producing a soybean plant by crossing soybean variety XB55W11 with another soybean plant, methods for introgressing a transgenic trait, a mutant trait, and/or a native trait into soybean variety XB55W11, methods for producing other soybean varieties or plant parts derived from soybean variety XB55W11, and methods of characterizing soybean variety XB55W11. Soybean seed, cells, plants, germplasm, breeding lines, varieties, and plant parts produced by these methods and/or derived from soybean variety XB55W11 are further provided. |
| US08445754B2 |
Soybean variety A1024705
The invention relates to the soybean variety designated A1024705. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety A1024705. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety A1024705 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety A1024705 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods. |
| US08445740B2 |
Absorber demethanizer for FCC process
A process for recovering ethylene is disclosed, the process including: recovering a ethylene-containing stream comprising methane, ethylene, and nitrogen oxides from at least one of an ethylene production process and an ethylene recovery process; separating the ethylene-containing stream via extractive distillation using at least one C2+ hydrocarbon absorbent to produce an overheads fraction comprising methane and nitrogen oxides and a bottoms fraction comprising the at least one C2+ hydrocarbon absorbent and ethylene; wherein the separating comprises operating the extractive distillation at temperatures and pressures sufficient to prevent any substantial conversion of nitrogen oxides to N2O3. |
| US08445739B2 |
Process for the conversion of natural gas to acetylene and liquid fuels with externally derived hydrogen
A process for converting natural gas from which contaminants have been sufficiently removed to acetylene includes heating the purified gas through a selected range of temperature for adequate time or combustion of the purified gas at adequate temperature within a suitable environment during an adequate reaction time to convert a fraction of the gas stream to acetylene, wherein the acetylene is directed for other processes, reactions, and uses. A process for converting natural gas to liquid hydrocarbons by combusting externally derived hydrogen for heating natural gas to a selected range of temperature. A process for converting natural gas to liquid hydrocarbons by reacting conversion products with externally derived hydrogen to form olefins comprising ethylene, and catalytically forming liquid hydrocarbons from the olefins comprising ethylene. |
| US08445734B2 |
Photolabile protective groups for improved processes to prepare oligonucleotide arrays
The present invention discloses novel and improved nucleosidic and nucleotidic compounds that are useful in the light-directed synthesis of oligonucleotides, as well as, methods and reagents for their preparation. These compounds are characterized by novel photolabile protective groups that are attached to either the 5′- or the 3′-hydroxyl group of a nucleoside moiety. The photolabile protective group is comprised of a 2-(2-nitrophenyl)-ethyoxycarbonyl skeleton with at least one substituent on the aromatic ring that is either an aryl, an aroyl, a heteroaryl or an alkoxycarbonyl group. The present invention includes the use of the aforementioned compounds in light-directed oligonucleotide synthesis, the respective assembly of nucleic acid microarrays and their application. |
| US08445732B2 |
Organic compounds
The present invention refers to the use as flavor or fragrance of a compound of formula (I) wherein R4 is hydrogen and the bond between C-3 and C-4 is a single bond or the dotted line together with the bond between C-3 and C-4 represents a double bond; or R4 is methylene, forming with C-3 and C-4 a cyclopropane ring; R3 is hydrogen, C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6 alkyl, or C2, C3, C4, C5, C6 alkenyl; and I) R1 and R2 together with the carbon atom to which they are attached form a carbonyl group; or II) R1 is hydroxyl and R2 is selected from C1, C2, C3 alkyl, and C2, C3, C4 alkenyl. |
| US08445731B2 |
Process for producing bisphenol compound
Provided is a process for producing a bisphenol compound stably at a high conversion and with high selectivity over a long period. A process for producing a bisphenol compound by feeding a phenol compound and a carbonyl compound continuously to a reactor packed with an acid catalyst, characterized in that the acid catalyst is a sulfonic-acid-form cation-exchange resin in which part of the sulfo groups have been modified with at least any one of 2-pyridylalkanethiol compounds and 3-pyridylalkanethiol compounds. |
| US08445726B2 |
Process for preparing unsymmetric secondary tert-butylamines in the liquid phase
The present application relates to a process for preparing unsymmetric secondary tert-butylamines which, as well as the tert-butyl radical, also comprise an alkyl, cycloalkyl or benzyl radical. They are prepared by reacting corresponding aldehydes with tert-butylamine and hydrogen in the presence of hydrogenation catalysts (reductive amination) in the liquid phase. |
| US08445724B2 |
Preparation of iodixanol
A process for the manufacture of iodixanol by performing a purification process of the crude product in a solvent comprising 1-methoxy-2-propanol. The crude product may be obtained in aqueous solution from dimerization of 5-acetamido-N,N′-bis(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-2,4,6-triiodo-isophthalamide (“Compound A”). |
| US08445719B2 |
Method of stabilizing heme protein and storage solution therefor
A method of stabilizing a hem protein which is effective against the denaturation and degradation of a hem protein typified by hemoglobin and a storage solution therefor. A method of stabilizing a hem protein and a storage solution therefor characterized in that an iminocarboxylic acid or its salt is made to coexist in a sample containing the hem protein, wherein the above-described iminocarboxylic acid is a compound represented by the following general formula (1) wherein R represents a hydrogen atom or a hydroxyl group; and X's represent each a hydrogen atom, an alkali metal or an ammonium group. |
| US08445717B2 |
α-Keto alkylperacids and methods for producing and using the same
The present invention provides α-keto alkylperacids and methods for producing and using the same. In particular, α-keto alkylperacids are useful as antimicrobial agents. |
| US08445715B2 |
Method of synthesizing fenofibrate
A novel process for the synthesis of fenofibrate, includes reacting a metal salt of fenofibric acid with an isopropyl halide, in a solvent system composed of a mixture of dimethyl sulfoxide and a C2-C4 alkyl acetate. The process can be used on an industrial scale and makes it possible to obtain a fenofibrate of a quality in accordance with the Pharmacopoeia without the need for purification by recrystallization. |
| US08445713B2 |
Catalyst for the synthesis of organic carbonates, process for preparing the same and application thereof
The present invention relates to a catalyst for the synthesis of organic carbonates, the preparation of the catalyst and the application of this catalyst in the synthesis of organic carbonates from reacting urea and hydroxyl group containing compounds. The catalyst provided in this invention is a calcinate of hydrous salt containing rare earth element at a moderate calcining temperature. |
| US08445708B2 |
Process for preparing chiral octenoic acid derivatives
The invention relates to a process for preparing chiral octenoic acid derivatives, which constitute important intermediates in the preparation of medicament active ingredients, and also to novel intermediates which are used in the process for preparing the octenoic acid derivatives mentioned. |
| US08445706B2 |
Unnatural amino acids capable of covalently modifying protein phosphatases and their use as general and specific inhibitors and probes
An unnatural amino acid including a phosphate mimicking group for mimicking a phosphate group in phosphoamino acids and a protein phosphatase modifying group for covalently binding protein phosphatases. A probe for detecting disease including a phosphate mimicking group for mimicking a phosphate group in phosphoamino acids and a protein phosphatase modifying group for covalently binding protein phosphatases. A method for detecting the presence of disease by administering the unnatural amino acid, binding the unnatural amino acid with a phosphatase, detecting a signal, and detecting the presence of disease. A method of identifying a known protein phosphatase, and a method of identifying an unknown protein phosphatase. A method of making the unnatural amino acid. |
| US08445705B2 |
Production of 5-membered and 6-membered cyclic esters of polyols
Described herein are improved methods for the preparation of 5- and 6-membered cyclic mono and diesters of sugar alcohols and anhydrosugar alcohols by reaction with an organic acid RCOOH over a solid acidic substrate. The process is adaptable to a continuous process for simultaneously making and separating the cyclic esters from the sugar alcohols and anhydrosugar alcohols under mild conditions using the solid acid substrate as both the catalyst and a chromatographic bed for separation. The reactions are performed at mild temperatures of 70° C. to 100° C. and the formation of the cyclic esters is nearly quantitative. Also described is a method for making 5- and 6-membered cyclic mono and diesters of sugar alcohols and anhydrosugar alcohols using microwave irradiation in the presence of the organic acid. |
| US08445700B2 |
Process for the preparation of optically active N-benzyl-3 hydroxypyrrolidines
The present invention relates to a facile, highly efficient and economical process for the preparation of optically active N-benzyl-3-hydroxypyrrolidine in high yield from a naturally occurring alkaloid vasicine. The natural alkaloid vasicine is used as a precursor of (S)—N-benzyl-3-hydroxypyrrolidine and (R)—N-benzyl-3-hydroxypyrrolidines which can easily be sourced from the medicinal plant Adatoda vasica by the method known in the art and transformed to optical isomers (R) and (S)—N-benzyl-3-hydroxypyrrolidine by the method described in the present invention. |
| US08445695B2 |
Synthesis of phosphono-substituted porphyrin compounds for attachment to metal oxide surfaces
A method of making a phosphono-substituted dipyrromethane comprises reacting an aldehyde or acetal having at least one phosphono group substituted thereon with pyrrole to produce a phosphono-substituted dipyrromethane; and wherein the phosphono is selected from the group consisting of dialkyl phosphono, diaryl phosphono, and dialkylaryl phosphono. Additional methods, intermediates and products are also described. |
| US08445694B2 |
Hydrazonopyrazole derivatives and their use as therapeutics
Pharmaceutical compositions and compounds are provided. The compounds of the invention demonstrate anti-proliferative activity, and may promote apoptosis in cells lacking normal regulation of cell cycle and death. In one embodiment of the invention, pharmaceutical compositions of the compounds in combination with a physiologically acceptable carrier are provided. The pharmaceutical compositions are useful in the treatment of hyperproliferative disorders, which disorders include tumor growth, lymphoproliferative diseases, angiogenesis. The compounds of the invention are substituted pyrazoles and pyrazolines. |
| US08445693B2 |
Catalyzed carbonylation in the synthesis of angiotensin II antagonists
One embodiment disclosed in the invention is the efficient synthesis of halogenated biaryl starting material via Grignard chemistry and the use thereof. Another embodiment of the invention is the reaction of catalyzed carbonylation of the 3′-(2′-halo-biphenyl-4-ylmethyl)-1,7′-dimethyl-2′-propyl-1H,3′H-[2,5′]bibenzoimidazolyl (TLMH) using either gaseous carbon monoxide in a solvent mixture containing water; or formic acid salts optionally together with acetic acid in anhydrous solvent. |
| US08445690B2 |
Aminothiazolones as estrogen related receptor-alpha modulators
The present invention relates to compounds of Formula (I), methods for preparing these compounds, compositions, intermediates and derivatives thereof and for treating a condition including but not limited to ankylosing spondylitis, artherosclerosis, arthritis (such as rheumatoid arthritis, infectious arthritis, childhood arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis), bone-related diseases (including those related to bone formation), breast cancer (including those unresponsive to anti-estrogen therapy), cardiovascular disorders, cartilage-related disease (such as cartilage injury/loss, cartilage degeneration, and those related to cartilage formation), chondrodysplasia, chondrosarcoma, chronic back injury, chronic bronchitis, chronic inflammatory airway disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, disorders of energy homeostasis, gout, pseudogout, lipid disorders, metabolic syndrome, multiple myeloma, obesity, osteoarthritis, osteogenesis imperfecta, osteolytic bone metastasis, osteomalacia, osteoporosis, Paget's disease, periodontal disease, polymyalgia rheumatica, Reiter's syndrome, repetitive stress injury, hyperglycemia, elevated blood glucose level, and insulin resistance. |
| US08445687B2 |
Process for the preparation of a RAF kinase inhibitor and intermediates for use in the process
There is provided a process for preparing sorafenib or a salt thereof comprising the use of a compound of formula (A) wherein R′ is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, —C(O)OA, —C(O)CX3, —C(O)NH2, —C(O)—NHOH or There is also provided intermediate compounds of general formula (A), N-methyl-4-(4-ureidophenoxy)picolinamide, 4-(2-(methylcarbamoyl)pyridin-4-yloxy)phenylcarbamate derivative and N-methyl-4-(4-(2,2,2-trihaloacetamido)phenoxy)picolinamide, processes for their preparation and their use in the preparation of sorafenib. |
| US08445683B2 |
Porphyrin compounds comprising one or more pyridone moieties
Various porphyrin compounds comprising one or more pyridone moieties, intermediates thereof, compositions thereof, and, methods of making and using thereof. |
| US08445682B2 |
Preparation of 3,4-dihydroisoquinolines from an acid and an amine
The present invention is directed to processes for the synthesis of morphinans. In particular, a process for coupling a carboxylic acid compound with an amine compound to form an amide product that can then be isolated or the crude amide product can be cyclized to form a 3,4-dihydroisoquinoline. In one embodiment, the carboxylic acid contains a phenol moiety protected with a labile protecting group. The protected phenol reduces reaction times, simplifies work-up of the product, and reduces the amount of cyclizing agent, POCl3 that is necessary to form the 3,4-dihydroisoquinoline. |
| US08445677B2 |
Substituted pyrimidyl guanidine derivatives having anticancer activity
Disclosed are pyrimidyl guanidine derivatives having anticancer activity. The pyimidyl guanidine derivatives have the structure: R1 is a cyclic (1-7 member) or acyclic (1-7 member) aliphatic, aromatic, heterocyclic groups optionally substituted, R2 is a cyclic (3-7 member) aliphatic, aromatic, heterocyclic groups optionally substituted by functional groups and R3 is a cyclic (3-7 member) aliphatic, aromatic, heterocyclic groups. |
| US08445675B2 |
Storage stable perfusion solution for dihydropteridinones
Disclosed are storage stable aqueous infusible or injectable solutions containing an active substance of general formula (I) wherein the groups L, R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 have the meanings given in the claims and in the specification, and an amount of a physiologically acceptable acid or mixture of acids sufficient to dissolve the active substance and act as a stabilizer, optionally together with other formulating excipients suitable for parenteral administration, and a process for preparing the infusible or injectable solutions according to the invention. |
| US08445671B2 |
Method for preparing polyanhydroglucuronic acid and/or salts thereof
A method for preparing polyanhydroglucuronic acid and/or salts thereof is described. A polyanhydroglucuronic acid-containing material obtained by oxidation is subjected to partial or complete hydrolysis to form a homogeneous system, subsequent ion exchange in the homogeneous system; and supplemental oxidation in the presence of any one or more of organic and inorganic peroxides. |
| US08445669B2 |
Production process of ethynylthymidine compounds from 5-methyluridine as a starting material
The present invention provides a process for producing 2′,3′-didehydro-3′-deoxy-4′-ethynylthymidine, which is useful as a medicine, in an efficient and industrially advantageous manner, and more specifically, provides a process for producing 2′,3′-didehydro-3′-deoxy-4′-ethynylthymidine as shown below. (wherein R1 and R2 independently represent a protective group for a hydroxy group, or R1 and R2 together form a protective group for two hydroxy groups, R3 and R4 independently represent a protective group for a hydroxy group, R5 represents a protective group for a hydroxy group, R6 represents a protective group for a hydroxy group, X represents a leaving group, and Y represents a halogen atom.) |
| US08445667B2 |
SiRNA targeting cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1B (p27, Kip1) (CDKN1B)
Efficient sequence specific gene silencing is possible through the use of siRNA technology. By selecting particular siRNAs by rational design, one can maximize the generation of an effective gene silencing reagent, as well as methods for silencing genes. Methods, compositions, and kits generated through rational design of siRNAs are disclosed including those directed to nucleotide sequences for CDKN1B. |
| US08445659B2 |
B12-dependent dehydratases with improved reaction kinetics
Sequences of B12-dependent dehydratases with improved reaction kinetics are presented. Use of these B12-dependent dehydratases reduce the rate of the enzyme's suicide inactivation in the presence of glycerol and 1,3-propanediol. The enzymes were created using error-prone PCR and oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis to target the DhaB1 gene, which encodes the α-subunit of glycerol dehydratase. Mutants with improved reaction kinetics were rapidly identified using high throughput assays. |
| US08445657B2 |
Multiplex compositions and methods for quantification of human nuclear DNA and human male DNA and detection of PCR inhibitors
The invention relates to a method for simultaneous quantification of human nuclear DNA and human male DNA in a biological sample while also detecting the presence of PCR inhibitors in a single reaction. The multiplex quantification method also provides a ratio of human nuclear and male DNA present in a biological sample. Such sample characterization is useful for achieving efficient and accurate results in downstream molecular techniques such as genotyping. |
| US08445655B2 |
Functional nucleic acid ligands to fluorescent proteins
The present invention relates to a nucleic acid aptamer having a first domain that binds to a fluorescent protein. The nucleic acid aptamer forms a molecular complex whereby the aptamer binds a fluorescent protein at the first domain. A constructed DNA molecule, expression systems, and host cells containing the molecular complex are also disclosed. The invention also relates to a system containing a first DNA molecule encoding the nucleic acid aptamer of the present invention and a second DNA molecule encoding a fluorescent protein capable of being bound by the first domain. Methods of detecting a molecular target and determining location of a molecular target using the nucleic acid aptamer of the invention are also disclosed. |
| US08445647B2 |
Modified exendins and exendin agonists
Novel modified exendins and exendin agonists having an exendin or exendin agonist linked to one or more polyethylene glycol polymers, for example, and related formulations and dosages and methods of administration thereof are provided. These modified exendins and exendin agonists, compositions and methods are useful in treating diabetes and conditions that would be benefited by lowering plasma glucose or delaying and/or slowing gastric emptying or inhibiting food intake. |
| US08445643B2 |
Anti-IRC85 monoclonal antibody; and composition comprising the same for preventing and treating tuberculosis or enteritis disease; and the use thereof
The present invention provides the novel anti-IRC85 monoclonal antibody specifically binding with IRC85 and it showed potent effect in removing the infected/phagocytosed bacteria from THP-I, a monocytic cell that expresses human IRC85 and is infected with Listeria monocytogenes or WR-tubercle bacillus. Accordingly, it can be useful as a medicament and health care food in the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis disease and enteritis disease. |
| US08445641B2 |
Nanocomposites of repeat sequence proteins and phyllosilicate clays and their preparation
Nanocomposites of repeat sequence protein polymers and phyllosilicates demonstrated improved material properties, for example, improved elasticity, and are useful as suture, tissue scaffolding, and biodegradable composite materials. |
| US08445636B2 |
Antimicrobial and anticancer lipopeptides
The invention provides lipophilic conjugates comprising a peptide coupled to a fatty acid, the peptide comprising at least two positively charged amino acid residues, said peptide after conjugation to the fatty acid possessing antibacterial, antifungal, and/or anticancer activity higher than prior to conjugation. The lipophilic conjugates are suitable for treatment of infections caused by pathogenic organisms such as bacteria and fungi. The lipophilic conjugates are also suitable for sanitation, as disinfectants, or for food preservation. |
| US08445632B2 |
Selective poly-N-substituted glycine antibiotics
Antimicrobial peptoid compounds and related compositions as can be used against bacteria effectively and selectively. |
| US08445631B2 |
Metal-neutralized sulfonated block copolymers, process for making them and their use
The present disclosure relates to a process for neutralizing a sulfonated block copolymer with a metal compound, to metal-neutralized block copolymers, and to various articles comprising the metal-neutralized block copolymers, e.g., in form of a water vapor permeable membrane which comprises the metal-neutralized block copolymers. The present disclosure further relates to a means and a method for storing and stabilizing a polar component such as a metal compound in a non-polar liquid phase by immuring the polar component in micelles of the sulfonated block copolymer in the non-polar liquid phase. |
| US08445630B2 |
Polymers
The present invention relates to polymers comprising a repeating unit of the formula (I), and their use in electronic devices. The polymers according to the invention have excellent 5 solubility in organic solvents and excellent film-forming properties. In addition, high charge carrier mobilities and high temperature stability of the emission color are observed, if the polymers according to the invention are used in polymer light emitting diodes (PLEDs). |
| US08445624B2 |
Processes for producing polycarbonate
A subject for the invention is to provide a polycarbonate having excellent mechanical strength, heat resistance, a low refractive index, a large Abbe number, reduced birefringence, and excellent transparency. The invention relates to a polycarbonate characterized by being obtained by subjecting one or more dihydroxy compounds including a dihydroxy compound having at least one linking group —CH2—O— in the molecule thereof to melt polycondensation with a carbonic acid diester, and by having a reduced viscosity of from 0.40 dL/g to 1.70 dL/g and a formic acid content lower than 5 ppm by weight. |
| US08445622B2 |
Process for preparing polyisocyanates
The present invention relates to a process for preparing polyisocyanates by oligomerization of isocyanates. |
| US08445621B2 |
Polyimide resin and photosensitive polyimide resin composition
A novel polyimide resin is formed by imidizing a diamine component including an amide group-containing siloxane diamine compound represented by the following formula (1) and an acid dianhydride component including an aromatic acid dianhydride such as 3,3′,4,4′-diphenylsulfone tetracarboxylic dianhydride. This novel polyimide resin utilizes a novel polyimide resin into which a reaction group capable of reacting with a crosslinking agent to form a crosslinking point is pre-introduced before imidization. The novel polyimide resin can confer a comparatively low elastic modulus and heat resistance to a dry film or a photosensitive cover film formed from a photosensitive polyimide resin composition containing the novel polyimide resin. In the formula (1), R1 and R2 are each independently an optionally-substituted alkylene group, m denotes an integer of 1 to 30, and n denotes an integer of 0 to 20. |
| US08445620B2 |
Elastic propylene-alpha-olefin copolymer compositions and processes to produce them
Provided are elastic propylene-alpha olefin blocky copolymers. In one form, the elastic propylene-alpha olefin blocky copolymer includes an α-olefin content from 12 to 25 wt % and having a propylene crystallinity less than 30 J/g, a Tm <100° C. and a Tg >−45° C., wherein said copolymer has blocky propylene segments with r1r2 greater than 1.5, and a process for producing such copolymer. |
| US08445619B2 |
Polyolefin powder
Process for making a film or pipe by compounding an uncompounded polyolefin powder having a particle size distribution such that D95 is less than 355 μm and (D90−D10)/D50 is less than 1.2, where D95, D90, D50 and D10 are defined such that 95 wt %, 90 wt %, 50 wt % or 10 wtl % of the polymer particles have a diameter of less than D95, D90, D50 and D10 respectively, to form pellets; and then forming the pellets into a film or pipe. |
| US08445616B2 |
Polymers, compositions and methods of use for foams, laundry detergents, shower rinses and coagulants
The present invention relates to a polymeric material comprising units capable of having a cationic charge at a pH of from about 4 to about 12; provided that said polymeric material has an average cationic charge density from about 2.75 or less units per 100 daltons molecular weight at a pH of from about 4 to about 12. The polymeric material is a suds enhancer and a suds volume extender for hand dishwashing compositions and personal care products such as soaps, shaving cream foam, foaming shaving gel, foam dephiliatories and shampoos. The polymers are also effective as a soil release agent in fabric cleaning compositions. The polymers are also useful in agrochemical foam, fire-fighting foam, hard surface cleaner foam, and coagulant for titanium dioxide in paper making. |
| US08445614B2 |
Dimensionally stable silicone hydrogel contact lenses
Dimensionally stable silicone hydrogel contact lenses are described. The lenses are derived from a polymerizable composition including a first siloxane monomer represented by formula (1): wherein m of formula (1) represents one integer from 3 to 10, n of formula (1) represents one integer from 1 to 10, R1 of formula (1) is an alkyl group having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms, and each R2 of formula (1) is independently either a hydrogen atom or a methyl group; the lenses also include units derived from a second siloxane monomer represented by formula (2): wherein R1 of formula (2) is selected from either hydrogen atom or a methyl group; R2 of formula (2) is selected from either of hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms; m of formula (2) represents an integer of from 0 to 10; n of formula (2) represents an integer of from 4 to 100; a and b represent integers of 1 or more; a+b is equal to 20-500; b/(a+b) is equal to 0.01-0.22; the configuration of siloxane units includes a random configuration, the second siloxane monomer having a number average molecular weight of at least 3,000 daltons that is present in the polymerizable composition in an amount such that ratio of the first siloxane monomer to the second siloxane monomer is at least 2:1 based on unit parts by weight. Batches of silicone hydrogel contact lenses and methods of making silicone hydrogel contact lenses are also described. |
| US08445613B2 |
Polymer and surface-treating agent containing the polymer
A polymer and a treating agent (such as a surface-treating agent) are provided that have excellent characteristics in such properties as water repellency, oil repellency, antifouling property and charge controlling property. The polymer contains a structural unit derived from fluorosilsesquioxane having an addition polymerizable group, or contains a structural unit derived from fluorosilsesquioxane having an addition polymerizable group and a structural unit derived from organopolysiloxane having an addition polymerizable group. The treating agent contains the polymer. An article treated with the treating agent is also provided. |
| US08445609B2 |
Method for producing olefin polymer
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing an olefin polymer, with which an olefin polymer having good particle properties can be produced in high activity, fouling inside the polymerization vessel, such as a vessel wall or an impeller, can be effectively prevented, and a long-term stable operation is achieved.A method for producing an olefin polymer according to the present invention is characterized by including (co)polymerizing at least one olefin selected from the group consisting of ethylene and α-olefins having 3 to 20 carbon atoms in a polymerization vessel in the presence of (A) a solid catalyst component for olefin polymerization, (B) an aliphatic amide, and (C) an organoaluminum compound. |
| US08445604B2 |
Thermoformed article made from polybutylene succinate (PBS) and modified polybutylene succinate (MPBS)
The present invention relates to articles made of a thermoformable resin comprising a biodegradable polymer having polybutylene succinate (PBS) via extrusion using an extruder which comprise: a biodegradable polymer having: (a) a Ts value of up to about 160° C. (e.g., in the range of from about 50° to about 150° C.); (b) a heat distortion index of up to about 150° C. (for example, up to about 120° C.); and (c) optionally, a Tm in the range of from about 70° to about 160° C. (e.g., in the range of from about 80° to about 150° C.). Thermoformed article such as a food or beverage cup, lid, cutlery item, foodservice item, molded tray, food storage container, etc provide the ability to resist deformation during higher temperature conditions that may occur during storage and distribution. |
| US08445601B2 |
Polymeric compositions and method of making and articles thereof
Described herein are substantially linear copolymeric compositions having at least two azide groups and at least two non-activated acetylene groups. The azide groups and the non-activated acetylene groups are reacted to cure the substantially linear copolymer composition. Also, described are methods of making and using such substantially linear copolymeric compositions. |
| US08445597B2 |
Pressure-sensitive adhesive composition for PDP front filter and use thereof
A pressure-sensitive adhesive composition for PDP front filters includes 100 parts by weight of a high molecular weight acrylic polymer A having a COOH or OH group, a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 400,000 to less than 800,000, a molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn) of not more than 5 and a glass transition temperature (Tg-A) of −40 to −10° C., and 5 to 20 parts by weight of a low molecular weight acrylic polymer B having a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 10,000 to 50,000, a molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn) of not more than 5 and a glass transition temperature (Tg-B) of 40 to 120° C.; and is crosslinked to a gel fraction of 50 to 90% and has a 90° peel strength of 5 to 15 N/25 mm. The pressure-sensitive adhesive composition does not cause bonding failures such as lifting even when exposed to thermal cycles. |
| US08445596B2 |
Powdery, cross-linked absorbent polymers, method for the production thereof, and their use
The invention relates to crosslinked polymerizates which are capable of absorbing, which are based on partially neutralized, monoethylenically unsaturated monomers that carry acidic groups, which exhibit improved properties, in particular, with regard to their ability to transport liquids when in a swollen state, and which have been subsequently crosslinked on the surface thereof with a combination consisting of an organic crosslinker compound, with the exception of polyols, and of a cation provided in the form of a salt in an aqueous solution. |
| US08445589B2 |
Lung volume reduction therapy using crosslinked non-natural polymers
One aspect of the invention relates to a hydrogel comprising a non-natural polymer comprising a plurality of pendant nucleophilic groups and a crosslinker comprising at least two pendant electrophilic groups. Another aspect of the invention relates to a hydrogel comprising a non-natural polymer comprising a plurality of pendant electrophilic groups and a crosslinker comprising at least two pendant nucleophilic groups. Yet another aspect of the invention relates to a method for reducing lung volume in a patient comprising the step of administering a hydrogel composition as described herein. Further, hydrogels of the invention may be used to achieve pleurodesis, seal brochopleural fistulas, seal an air leak in a lung, achieve hemostasis, tissue sealing (e.g., blood vessels, internal organs), or any combination thereof. In certain embodiments, the compositions and methods described herein are intended for use in the treatment of patients with emphysema. |
| US08445587B2 |
Method for making reinforced polymer matrix composites
Improved mechanical properties of either clay or carbon nanotube (CNT)-reinforced polymer matrix nanocomposites are obtained by pre-treating nanoparticles and polymer pellets prior to a melt compounding process. The clay or CNTs are coated onto the surfaces of the polymer pellets by a milling process. The introduction of moisture into the mixture of the nanoparticles and the polymer pellets results in the nanoparticles more easily, firmly, and thoroughly coating onto the surfaces of the polymer pellets. |
| US08445585B2 |
Aqueous coating binders for corrosion protection, wood and concrete
This invention relates to binder mixtures comprising mass fractions of from 70% to 98% of chain-extended epoxy amine adducts A and from 2% to 30% of carboxy functional polyesters B that contain a limited amount of aromatic constituents in mass fractions of up to 15% and have an acid number of from 4 mg/g to 50 mg/g, a method of making these binder mixtures, and a method of use thereof in coatings for metals, wood, cardboard, plaster, and concrete. |
| US08445584B2 |
Aqueous polyurethane resin
An aqueous polyurethane resin having a Si atom content of 0.05 to 1.5% by weight in a polyurethane resin is produced by at least reacting an isocyanate group-terminated prepolymer which contains 1 to 15% by weight of a polyoxyethylene group in a side chain branched from the main chain and has two or more isocyanate groups at an end of the main chain, with a chain extender which contains at least a compound having two or more active hydrogen groups reactive with the isocyanate group and an alkoxysilyl group. |
| US08445583B2 |
Conjugated diene polymer, conjugated diene polymer composition, and method for producing conjugated diene polymer
A conjugated diene polymer is provided that comprises a conjugated diene-based constituent unit and a constituent unit of formula (I) below, at least one terminus of the polymer being modified by a compound having a linkage of formula (II) below. wherein X1, X2, and X3 independently denote a group as defined in the specification. |
| US08445578B2 |
Compositions for forming reflecting layer having organic silver complexes, and method for preparing reflecting layer using same
The present invention relates to compositions for forming reflecting layer having organic silver complexes, and method for preparing reflecting layer using the same. More specifically, it relates to compositions for forming reflecting layer including silver complexes that have distinct structures and the method for preparing reflecting layer, where primary coating is applied to promote the adhesive force to materials such as plastic, ceramic, metal, etc. and then a high-reflecting layer is formed by using the silver coating fluid, followed by transparent coating for protection. |
| US08445576B2 |
Continuous process for preparing polyalkylene arylates with hyperbranched polyesters and/or polycarbonates
Continuous process for preparation of polyalkylene arylates A) comprising highly branched or hyperbranched polymers B) and, if appropriate, comprising lubricants C), by esterifying or transesterifying an aromatic dicarboxylic acid or its ester or ester-forming derivatives, with a molar excess of an aliphatic dihydroxy compound, and polycondensing the resultant transesterification or esterification product, which comprises, on achievement of at least 80% of the desired viscosity number, adding component B) and also, if appropriate, C) to the polymer melt, and, if appropriate, post-condensing the melt and then discharging, cooling, and pelletizing it, and also using, as component B), at least one highly branched or hyperbranched polycarbonate B1) with an OH number of from 1 to 600 mg KOH/g of polycarbonate (to DIN 53240, Part 2), or at least one highly branched or hyperbranched polyester B2) of AxBy type, where x is at least 1.1 and y is at least 2.1, or a mixture of these. |
| US08445575B2 |
Thermoplastic articles including polyhydroxy polymers
Disclosed is a molded or extruded thermoplastic article having high heat stability, including a thermoplastic polyamide composition including (a) a polvamide resin; (b) 0.25 to 20 weight percent of one or more polyhydroxy polymer(s) having a number average molecular weight of at least 2000; (c) 0.1 to 3 weight percent of one or more co-stabilizer(s) selected from the group consisting of secondary aryl amines, hindered amine light stabilizers, hindered phenols, and mixtures thereof; (d) 0 to less than 10 weight percent of one or more reinforcement agents; and (f) 0 to 20 weight percent of a polymeric toughener; wherein the composition has an air oven aging retention of elongation at break of at least 50 percent, as compared to that of an unexposed control of identical composition and shape. |
| US08445573B2 |
Polyphenylene ether resin composition having narrow molecular weight distribution
A polyphenylene ether resin composition obtainable by melt-mixing a polyphenylene ether (A) comprising a structural unit (a) represented by formula (1): (wherein R1 and R2 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an optionally substituted alkyl group, and the like), and/or a structural unit (b) represented by formula (2): (wherein R3 and R4 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an optionally substituted alkyl group, and the like), with a nitrogen compound (B) comprising at least one group selected from the group consisting of primary amino groups, secondary amino groups and tertiary amino groups in a single molecule thereof, wherein the polyphenylene ether (A) comprises 0.1% by mass or more and 1.5% by mass or less of at least one type of aromatic hydrocarbon (C) containing 7 or 8 carbon atoms. |
| US08445571B2 |
Processing agent for polyurethane elastomer fibers
A processing agent for polyurethane elastomer fibers contains a specified type of dispersion medium having a mineral oil as its essential component in an amount of 80-99.99 mass % and a dispersoid of a specified type made of urethane compound in an amount of 0.01-20 mass % for a total of 100 mass %, having its average particle diameter adjusted to 0.01-500 μm as measured by a specified method such that packages with superior roll shape and unwinding property can be obtained. |
| US08445570B2 |
Method for forming an insert injection-molded article exhibiting improved resistance to heat shock utilizing a specifically defined polybutylene terephthalate composition
The present invention provides a polybutylene terephthalate resin composition, having performance of high durability and the like in a cold cycle environment, and having high strength. Specifically, relative to 100 parts by weight of a polybutylene terephthalate resin (A) having 30 meq/kg or less of the amount of terminal carboxyl groups, there are added a carbodiimide compound (B) in an amount of 0.3 to 1.5 equivalents of the carbodiimide functional group when the amount of carboxyl terminal group in the polybutylene terephthalate resin (A) is set as 1, 20 to 100 parts by weight of a fibrous filler (C), and 5 to 15 parts by weight of an elastomer (D). |
| US08445569B2 |
Salt resistant polyamide compositions
Disclosed is a thermoplastic composition including: a) 20 to 35 weight percent poly(decamethylene decanediamide), b) 50 to 65 weight percent poly(hexamethylene decanediamide), and c) 8 to 15 weight percent of sulfonamide plasticizer. wherein the sulfonamide plasticizer is one or more sulfonamides selected from the group consisting of N-butylbenzenesulfonamide, N-(2-hydroxypropyl)benzenesulfonamide, N-ethyl-o-toluenesulfonamide, N-ethyl-p-toluenesulfonamide, o-toluenesulfonamide, and p-toluenesulfonamideone. |
| US08445565B2 |
Flame retardant agents and flame retardant materials comprising the same
Disclosed is a flame retardant agent, including a nitrogen-based lignin formed by reacting 1 part by weight of lignin, 0.8 to 2.4 parts by weight of a nitrogen-containing compound, and 0.3 to 0.9 parts by weight of an aldehyde under an alkaline condition. The flame retardant agent can be added to thermoplastic or thermosetting resins to form flame retardant materials. |
| US08445563B2 |
Utilization of kraft lignin in phenol/formaldehyde bonding resins for OSB
A resin for OSB comprising an aqueous resole reaction product of phenol, formaldehyde, alkaline metal hydroxide or carbonate, urea and a degraded lignin polymer having 35-65% solids, a pH of 8-13 and a viscosity 50-1000 centipoises. The phenol and formaldehyde are present in a molar ratio of 1.5 to 3.4 moles formaldehyde to 1 mole phenol and are 40 to 85% of the total solids added to the mixture. In one embodiment they are 50 to 75% of the total solids added to the mixture. The alkaline metal hydroxide or carbonate are 5 to 20% of the total solids added to the mixture. Urea is 5 to 35% of the total solids added to the mixture. The degraded lignin is 5 to 20% of the total solids added to the mixture.A method for making the resin and a product using the resin. |
| US08445562B2 |
Derivatives of native lignin
One aspect of the invention relates to lignin derivatives having an aliphatic hydroxyl content of 2.35 mmol/g lignin or less, and the preparation method thereof. The lignin derivatives have a desired antioxidant activity characterized by the normalized radical scavenging index (RSI). Another aspect of the invention relates to compositions comprising the lignin derivative. Another aspect of the invention relates to a use of the lignin derivatives comprising incorporating the lignin derivatives into polymer compositions. |
| US08445560B2 |
Cementitious materials
The present invention relates to cementitious materials, which exhibit a hydrophobic character, and to a process for making cementitious materials hydrophobic, and to a granulated additive for rendering cementitious material hydrophobic. An emulsifier for the organosilicon component is deposited on the particulate carrier together with the organosilicon component and the binder. The hydrophobing agent permits to impart instantaneous hydrophobicity to cementitious materials. |
| US08445559B2 |
Core-shell polymeric particles
A polymeric particle including a core, a first shell, and a second shell is provided: the core including, when dry, at least one void; the first shell polymer having a calculated glass transition temperature (“Tg”) greater than 50° C. and including, as polymerized units, from 15% to 60%, by weight based on the weight of the first shell, monomer selected from the group consisting of acrylonitrile, methacrylonitrile, acrylamide, methacrylamide, and mixtures thereof; and from 0.3% to 10%, by weight based on the weight of the first shell polymer, multiethylenically unsaturated monomer; and the second shell polymer having a Tg of from −60° C. to 50° C.; wherein the weight ratio of the second shell polymer to the total of all other structures of the polymeric particle is from 0.5:1 to 3:1. The particle provides binding functionality and, when dry, opacity and energy savings. A method for providing a polymeric particle and a method for providing opacity to a dry coating are also provided. |
| US08445556B2 |
Cellular elastomer compositions
The present invention provides a process to preparing a polyurethane or polyurethane/urea closed cell foam. This foam, when compared to neoprene foam, exhibits a low water absorption and an additional quality of chlorine content of not greater than 0.5% based on the total weight of the closed cell foam. |
| US08445546B2 |
Electrokinetically-altered fluids comprising charge-stabilized gas-containing nanostructures
Provided are electrokinetically-altered fluids (e.g., gas-enriched (e.g., oxygen-enriched) electrokinetic fluids) comprising an ionic aqueous solution of charge-stabilized gas-containing nanostructures in an amount sufficient to provide, upon contact with a cell, modulation of at least one of cellular membrane potential and cellular membrane conductivity. Further provided are the methods of making the electrokinetically-altered ionic aqueous fluid compositions. Particular aspects provide for regulating or modulating intracellular signal transduction associated by modulation of at least one of cellular membranes, membrane potential, membrane proteins such as membrane receptors, including but not limited to G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCR), and intercellular junctions (e.g., tight junctions, gap junctions, zona adherins and desmasomes). Other embodiments include particular methods of producing the electrokinetically-altered fluids. The electrokinetically-altered fluid compositions and methods of producing the fluid include electrokinetically-altered ionic aqueous fluids optionally in the form of solvated electrons stabilized, at least in part, with molecular gas (e.g., oxygen). |
| US08445545B2 |
Pharmaceutical composition, method of preparation and methods of treating aches/pains
Provided are methods and compositions useful for treating/aches and/or pains. The compositions comprise an herbal therapeutic agent and an analgesic agent, wherein the composition is effective when delivered to the mucosal membrane. |
| US08445543B2 |
Combinations of adapalene and benzoyl peroxide for treating acne lesions
Adapalene or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof formulated into a pharmaceutical composition is useful for reducing the number of acne lesions, via daily topical application, in combination or in association with benzoyl peroxide (BPO); such treatment may be via administration of a pharmaceutical composition combining adapalene and BPO or by a concomitant application of two pharmaceutical compositions, one containing adapalene and the other containing BPO. |
| US08445542B2 |
Methods of accelerating muscle growth, decreasing fat deposits and improving feed efficiency in livestock animals
A method of promoting or improving the feed efficiency and the muscle to fat ratio in animals by administering to the animals a therapeutically effective amount of a pure or substantially pure RR-isomer of ractopamine is disclosed. Also disclosed are animal feed preparations and compositions and pharmaceutical preparations capable of increasing lean meat deposition in an animal or decreasing body fat, or promoting or improving the growth of an animal or improving the feed efficiency of an animal. Feed preparation, compositions and pharmaceutical preparations including therapeutically effective amounts of a pure or substantially pure RR-isomer of ractopamine are disclosed. |
| US08445536B2 |
Arginine-containing compositions and methods for increasing blood flow using same
A composition for increasing blood flow is provided, wherein side effects such as lowering of blood pressure are reduced and blood flow is effectively increased in the capillaries. A composition containing arginine in an amount from 25 mg/kg body weight to 150 mg/kg body weight is also provided. A food composition or a feeding stuff containing the composition is also provided. Method of using the above compositions to increase blood flow is also provided. |
| US08445534B2 |
Treating androgen decline in aging male (ADAM)-associated conditions with SARMs
This invention provides methods for treatment and inhibition of a male subject having an Androgen Decline in Aging Male (ADAM)-associated condition, for example sexual dysfunction, decreased sexual libido, erectile dysfunction, hypogonadism, sarcopenia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, an alteration in cognition and mood, depression, anemia, hair loss, obesity, muscle loss, dry eye, memory loss, benign prostate hyperplasia and/or prostate cancer, by administering to the subject a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) compound and/or its analog, derivative, isomer, metabolite, pharmaceutically acceptable salt, pharmaceutical product, hydrate, N-oxide, pro-drug, polymorph, crystal, or any combination thereof. |
| US08445532B2 |
Use of phthalide derivatives
Phthalide derivatives and the use of which to manufacture the sensitizer or reverser of the antineoplastic agent are described. The phthalide derivatives can enhance the sensitivity of drug-resistance tumor cells against chemotherapy and decrease the drug-resistance of tumor cells 5-30 folder and enhance notably several chemotherapy agents-induced apoptosis of tumor cells. |
| US08445527B2 |
Organic compounds and their uses
The present invention provides a method of treating a HCV infection in a subject in need thereof by administering a compound of Formula I: or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof or stereoisomers thereof. |
| US08445525B2 |
Carboxylic acid amides, the preparation thereof and their use as medicaments
The present invention relates to new substituted carboxylic acid amides of general formula wherein A, B and R1 to R5 are defined as in claim 1, the tautomers, the enantiomers, the diastereomers, the mixtures thereof and the salts thereof, particularly the physiologically acceptable salts thereof with inorganic or organic acids or bases, which have valuable properties. |
| US08445522B2 |
Substituted 2-(4-pyridyl)benzoxazoles, and compositions thereof, for use in arthropod pest control
Disclosed is a harmful arthropod control composition comprising, as an active ingredient, a fused heterocyclic compound represented by formula (1) [wherein A1 and A2 independently represent a nitrogen atom or the like; R1 and R4 independently represent a halogen atom or the like; R2 and R3 independently represent a halogen atom or the like; R5 and R6 independently represent a linear C1-C6 hydrocarbon group which may be substituted, or the like (provided that both R5 and R6 cannot represent a hydrogen atom simultaneously); and n represents 0 or 1]. The harmful arthropod control composition has an excellent efficacy to control harmful arthropods. |
| US08445518B2 |
Triazolyl pyridyl benzenesulfonamides
Compounds are provided that act as potent antagonists of the CCR2 or CCR9 receptor. Animal testing demonstrates that these compounds are useful for treating inflammation, a hallmark disease for CCR2 and CCR9. The compounds are generally aryl sulfonamide derivatives and are useful in pharmaceutical compositions, methods for the treatment of CCR2-mediated diseases, CCR9-mediated diseases, as controls in assays for the identification of CCR2 antagonists and as controls in assays for the identification of CCR9 antagonists. |
| US08445515B2 |
C5aR antagonists
Compounds are provided that are modulators of the C5a receptor. The compounds are substituted piperidines and are useful in pharmaceutical compositions, methods for the treatment of diseases and disorders involving the pathologic activation of C5a receptors. |
| US08445514B2 |
Urotensin II receptor antagonists
This invention is directed to a compound of Formula (I): and forms thereof, wherein A, B, E, G, X and L2 are as defined herein and their use as urotensin II receptor antagonists. |
| US08445513B2 |
α-Aminoamide derivatives useful in the treatment of restless legs syndrome
The invention relates to the use of certain alpha-aminoamide derivatives in the treatment of RLS and addictive disorders. The compounds of this invention are able to reduce or even stop the symptoms of RLS and addictive disorders substantially without side effects. |