| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09332684B2 |
Electronic component mounting system
A substrate standby unit that is capable of keeping only one substrate 4 on standby in a substrate sorting mechanism 40 that moves the substrate 4 from the print inspection device M2 to the component installation device M4, a memory device 60 that stores a substrate ID on the substrate 4 that is on standby in the substrate standby unit, and a substrate ID management unit 46 that updates the substrate ID that is stored in the memory device 60 accompanying the transfer of the substrate 4 from the print inspection device M2 to the substrate standby unit are included. The substrate ID stored in the memory device 60 and the inspection result data associated with this substrate ID and stored in an inspection result data memory unit 45 are transmitted to the component installation device M4. |
| US09332680B2 |
Electrical gasket and electronic module having electrical gasket
An electrical gasket provides an electrical seal between first and second components in an electrical module. The electrical gasket includes an attachment portion for fixedly attaching the electrical gasket to one of the first and second components and a plurality of spring members for engaging the other of the first and second components to make mechanical and electrical contact between the first and second components such that the electrical seal is provided between the first and second electrical components. One of the components of the module can be an EMI shield or printed circuit board of the module, and another of the components can be the module housing. |
| US09332678B2 |
Cold air containment system in a data centre
A system is provided for containing cold air in a corridor created on the side of a computer cabinet, comprising a base mountable on the computer cabinet, and a panel fastened to the base and moveable with respect to the base, the panel being suitable for separating the cold air in the corridor below the panel from the hot air above the panel. |
| US09332670B1 |
Data center module with leveling pad
A system includes a floor, one or more modules, one or more pads between a base of the modules and the floor, and one or more pad compression mechanisms. The data center modules include more electrical systems coupled to the module base. The pads compress to conform to variations in the surface of the floor. The pad compression mechanisms are operable by a user to compress the pads between the modules and the floor. |
| US09332669B1 |
Cable management arm of server rack
A cable management arm of a server rack includes two cable frames, two first connecting bases and two first connecting members. The cable frames are pivotally connected with each other as a whole, and the first connecting bases are installed between a rear end of a slide and the server rack, and the first connecting members are installed at open ends of the cable frames respectively. A first snap portion designed on a first elastic plate of the first connecting member is snapped into the first connecting base by the elasticity of the first elastic plate and provided for accommodating at least one connecting wire. The cable management arm may change its length as the slide is stretched or pushed, and the structural design of the first connecting base and the first connecting member is simplified significantly to lower manufacturing costs and facilitate installation and removal. |
| US09332662B2 |
Ventilation member
The ventilation member of the present invention includes: a support having a through hole serving as a part of an air passage between an interior space and an exterior space of a housing when the support is attached to an opening of the housing; an air-permeable membrane disposed on the support to cover one end of the through hole that opens into the exterior space; and a cover member covering the support over the air-permeable membrane so as to form, between the cover member and the support, a ventilation space serving as a part of the air passage. The support includes a first oil-repellent portion formed around the air-permeable membrane. The first oil-repellent portion is formed by oil-repellent treatment of a part of a first surface of the support. The present invention provides a ventilation member suitable for preventing adhesion of oil to the air-permeable membrane even if the oil enters the inside of the cover member. |
| US09332660B2 |
Display
A display which thickness is allowed to be reduced is provided. A display includes: a display panel; and a back-face member having rigidity and provided on a back face of the display panel, the back-face member covering the back face, or the back face and other part of the display panel. |
| US09332654B2 |
Electronic component mounting device and electronic component mounting method
A bottom reception pin module 22 which is allowed to stand upright on a bottom reception base part 21 having a magnetic member 21a provided on an upper surface to support a board includes a base part 23 having a magnet member 26 built therein so as to be freely lifted and lowered and fixed to the bottom reception base part 21 by a magnetization force under a state that the magnet member 26 is lowered and a hollow shaft member 24 extended upward from the base part 23 and having an upper end of a top member 25 abutting on the lower surface of the board to support the board. By a vacuum suction from a suction hole 25c, the magnet member 26 is lowered and lifted to fix and unfix the base part 23 relative to the bottom reception base part 21. |
| US09332653B2 |
Resin composition for insulating film, and use thereof
The present invention provides a resin composition for an insulating film which resin composition is excellent in tack property after drying and allows a resultant insulating film to be excellent in flexibility and electrical insulation reliability and to be small in warpage after curing, a resin film for an insulating film, an insulating film, and a printed wiring board provided with an insulating film. The resin composition for an insulating film contains at least: a (A) binder polymer; and (B) cross-linked polymer particles, whose polymer has a urethane bond and a carbonate skeleton in its molecule. |
| US09332651B2 |
Process for producing structure with metal film, mother die for use in the process, and structure produced by the process
The invention provides is a process for producing a structure (22) with a metal film, including the steps of preparing a mother die (10) in which a first metal film (16) is formed on the surface of a base (12) on which a concave and convex pattern (14) is formed, forming a second metal film (18) on the first metal film (16), adhering a support member (20) to the second metal film (18), and separating the second metal film (18) to which the concave and convex pattern has been transferred to the second metal film (18) together with the support member from the first metal film (16). Preferably, the first metal film (16) is a film containing Cr and Al, and the second metal film (18) is a film containing at least one metal selected from the group consisting of Au, Ag, Cu, Al, and Pt. |
| US09332649B2 |
Flexible printed circuit board for packaging semiconductor device and method of producing the same
A flexible circuit board, a semiconductor package, and methods of forming the same are provided. The flexible circuit board includes: a base film; an input line pattern, an output line pattern, and a dummy pattern on a first surface of the base film; and a ground pattern on a second surface of the base film and electrically connected with the dummy pattern. |
| US09332648B2 |
Method for producing conductive tracks
The method for producing conductive tracks includes applying continuous metallization layers to a non-conductive substrate, forming a metallization pattern, and applying to the formed tracks a protective barrier layer and a layer for soldering and/or welding elements of parts to the conductive tracks. The continuous metallization layers are applied by consecutively applying an adhesive layer, a conductive layer, and a metal layer, acting as a mask, to the non-conductive substrate. To form the metallization pattern, a mask is formed by laser ablation on sections of the metal layer not occupied by conductive tracks, then selective chemical etching removes the conductive layer and adhesive sublayer from the exposed sections, and selective chemical etching removes the mask, after which the protective barrier layer and layer for soldering and/or welding are applied. |
| US09332644B2 |
High-frequency transmission line and electronic device
A high-frequency transmission line includes a laminate including dielectric layers, a first signal line provided in the laminate, a second signal line provided in the laminate and positioned on a first side in a direction of lamination relative to the first signal line, so as to cross the first signal line when viewed in a plan view in the direction of lamination, a first ground conductor positioned on a second side in the direction of lamination relative to the first signal line, a second ground conductor positioned on the first side in the direction of lamination relative to the second signal line, and an intermediate ground conductor provided between the first and second signal lines in the direction of lamination, so as to overlap with crossing portions of the first and second lines when viewed in a plan view in the direction of lamination. An area of overlap of the first ground conductor with the first signal line is smaller than an area of overlap of the second ground conductor with the first signal line. An area of overlap of the second ground conductor with the second signal line is smaller than an area of overlap of the first ground conductor with the second signal line. |
| US09332643B2 |
Interconnect architecture with stacked flex cable
Stacked flex cable assemblies and their manufacture are described. One assembly includes a first flex cable and a second flex cable electrically coupled to the first flex cable. The assembly also includes a connector electrically coupled to the first flex cable. The first flex cable is positioned between the connector and the second flex cable. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US09332638B2 |
Wiring board and method for manufacturing wiring board
An electrically conductive path is configured from a first copper plate, a second copper plate, and solder. The first copper plate has a first bent section extended from a first joining section joined to an electrically insulative board and bent toward the rear surface of the electrically insulative board. The second copper plate has a second bent section which is extended from a second joining section joined to the electrically insulative board, is bent toward the front surface of the electrically insulative board, and is disposed so as to cover, together with the first bent section, the inner wall surface of a base-material through-hole. Through-holes are provided in the portions of the second copper plate which face the inside of the base-material through-hole. Solder is filled between the first bent section and the second bent section. |
| US09332634B2 |
Electrical device
An electrical device includes a first substrate, a second substrate opposed to a first side of the first substrate, and a functional element between the first side of the first substrate and the second substrate. A first electrode is arranged to a first substrate side of the functional element and overlaps with the functional element. A second electrode is arranged to a second substrate side of the functional element and overlaps with the functional element. An electronic component is arranged between the functional element and the first electrode, overlaps the first and second electrodes, and drives the functional element. A connecting section includes a first wiring, a second wiring, a first contact hole connecting the first electrode to the first wiring, and a second contact hole connecting the first wiring to the second wiring. The first contact hole has a portion that does not overlap with the second contact hole. |
| US09332632B2 |
Graphene-based thermal management cores and systems and methods for constructing printed wiring boards
Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention implement graphene-based thermal management cores and printed wiring boards incorporating graphene-based thermal management cores. In one embodiment, a graphene-based thermal management core includes: a layer including at least one sheet of graphene; a first reinforcement layer; and a second reinforcement layer; where the layer including at least one sheet of graphene is disposed between the first reinforcement layer and the second reinforcement layer. |
| US09332631B2 |
Heat dissipating substrate, and element equipped with same
A main object of the invention is to provide a heat dissipating substrate which is excellent in heat dissipating performance, and undergoes neither peel therein nor short circuit. The invention attains this objet by providing a heat dissipating substrate comprising a support base material, an insulating layer formed directly on the support base material, and a wiring layer formed directly on the insulating layer, wherein the insulating layer is formed by non-thermoplastic polyimide resin, and has a thickness in the range of 1 μm to 20 μm. |
| US09332625B2 |
Extreme ultraviolet light source apparatus
An EUV light source apparatus by which detachment of a chamber or a part of the chamber, movement to a maintenance area, and highly accurate placement relative to projection optics can be performed easily for maintenance of the EUV light source apparatus. The EUV light source apparatus is an apparatus for generating plasma by applying a laser beam to a target material within a chamber and entering EUV light radiated from the plasma into projection optics of exposure equipment, and includes a positioning mechanism for positioning the chamber or a maintenance unit of the chamber in a predetermined location where an optical axis of the collected extreme ultraviolet light and an optical axis of the projection optics of the exposure equipment are aligned, and a movement mechanism for moving the chamber or the maintenance unit of the chamber between the predetermined location and a maintenance area. |
| US09332623B2 |
High-voltage discharge lamp illumination device
A high-voltage discharge lamp illumination device comprises a pulse generation part which generates pulse waves, and a power supply part which receives a DC voltage and converts the DC voltage into the AC current in correspondence to a frequency of the pulse waves so as to supply the AC current to the lamp. The pulse generation part repeats a cycle of outputting a first pulse wave over a first period, and thereafter outputting a second pulse wave having a lower frequency than the first pulse wave over a second period shorter than the first period. The pulse generation part returns to the cycle after outputting a third pulse wave having a frequency which is further lower than the second pulse wave in place of the second pulse wave, at a predetermined timing. |
| US09332617B2 |
Lighting control system
A method for controlling a light, comprising: providing a first sensor device (11) comprising a first transmitter and a first occupancy sensor; providing a lighting controller (1) comprising a receiver and a second sensor; and transmitting an occupancy signal from the first transmitter to the receiver. The occupancy signal comprises a repeated cycle of transmission phases and silent phases, such that during a transmission phase the transmitter transmits and during a silent phase the transmitter does not transmit. The method further comprises activating the light when the second sensor is triggered; and deactivating the light after a period of time, the length of the period being determined at least in part by the occupancy signal transmitted by the first transmitter. |
| US09332615B1 |
Cord dimmer switch
A cord dimmer switch includes a main body, a power cord and a rotating part. The main body includes a circuit device installed in the main body, a through hole formed at the top of the main body, and a rectangular notch formed on a corresponsive adjacent side of the main body. The power cord is connected to both ends of the main body for supplying power to the circuit device and a lamp, and the circuit device has a dimming column. The rotating part is connected to the dimming column to drive the dimming column to rotate synchronously. The rotating part includes a turntable corresponsive to the rectangular notch and a knob corresponsive to the through hole, a part of the periphery of the turntable is protruded out from the rectangular notch, and the top edge of the knob is protruded out from the through hole. |
| US09332614B2 |
LED driver circuit with open load detection
Various examples directed to LED driver circuits capable of detecting the removal of an LED load are disclosed. In one example, the LED driver circuit may include a bleeder and load disconnect detection circuit having a bleeder circuit and a bleeder controller coupled to control the bleeder circuit. The bleeder controller may cause the bleeder circuit to draw a bleeder current that functions to supplement a load current drawn by an LED load to cause an input current of the LED driver circuit to be greater than a minimum holding current of a dimmer circuit. The bleeder controller may be further configured to detect a disconnect of the LED load based on the input current of the LED driver circuit, the bleeder control signal, and/or the bleeder current. In response to detecting a disconnect of the LED load, the bleeder controller may disable operation of the bleeder circuit. |
| US09332607B2 |
LED backlight driving circuit and liquid crystal display device
A LED backlight driving circuit includes a voltage boosting circuit for converting an input voltage into an output voltage for a LED string; a current control module connected to a negative terminal of the LED string and for regulating a working current of the LED string; a driver chip for supplying the voltage boost circuit and current control module respectively with first and second square wave signals; a current detection module for detecting the working current of the LED string to generate detection signal; a control signal module for receiving the detection signal to generate a control signal; and a frequency regulation module for receiving the control signal to thereby generate a resistance. The frequency regulation module connects the driver chip, and the driver chip regulates a driving frequency of the driving circuit according to the resistance. A LCD device using the driving circuit also is provided. |
| US09332603B2 |
Circuit arrangement for operating a low-power lighting unit and method of operating the same
A circuit arrangement (3) is provided for operating at least one low-power lighting unit with a power supply (4) and in particular with a self-oscillating power supply. The circuit arrangement (3) comprises at least an input (12) for receiving an operating voltage (28) from said power supply (4) and an output (11) for connection to one or more low-power lighting units. To allow an efficient operation of said low-power lighting unit with the power supply (4), the circuit (3) comprises a pulse generator (17), connected with said input (12) and adapted to inject at least one trigger pulse (40a, 40b) into said power supply (4) during operation. |
| US09332602B2 |
LED driver with transformerless hysteretic boost
A system and apparatus including a light emitting diode (LED) driver provides an operating DC voltage to a plurality of LEDs connected in series (LED array) for providing illumination. A rectifier circuit and a filter are coupled to an AC power supply and provide a rectified and filtered DC source voltage to a transformerless voltage boost circuit, which provides the operating DC voltage to the LED array. A hysteretic self-oscillating circuit drives the transformerless voltage boost circuit at an oscillation frequency. A tap is connected between two LEDs in the LED array, which provides an auxiliary DC voltage, which is used to power the oscillating circuit and which eliminates the need for the LED driver to have a conventional transformer or auxiliary DC-DC power converter. The transformerless voltage boost circuit includes an inductor, a capacitor, a diode, and a switch wherein the switch is controlled by the oscillating circuit. |
| US09332599B2 |
Circuit board for supporting semiconductor light-emitting device mounted thereon, light-emitting module, lighting apparatus, and lighting system
The present invention provides a technology related to an improvement in the performance of releasing heat generated in a semiconductor light-emitting device. In a light-emitting module including a semiconductor light-emitting device provided with at least a semiconductor light-emitting element and a phosphor, and a circuit board, on the circuit board, at least a semiconductor light-emitting device including a plurality of semiconductor light-emitting elements each having a different path of a drive current to be supplied thereto, or a plurality of semiconductor light-emitting devices each having a different path of a drive current to be supplied to the semiconductor light-emitting elements is mounted. The circuit board is provided with a base material portion formed using a heat-conducting material, and a power supply conductor layer for supplying the drive currents of the semiconductor light-emitting elements to the semiconductor light-emitting device. The power supply conductor layer is planarly formed using a heat-conducting material, so as to cover a planar surface of the base material portion, and the planar region of the power supply conductor layer is planarly divided by an insulator for each drive current path. |
| US09332598B1 |
Interference-resistant compensation for illumination devices having multiple emitter modules
A method and light emitting diode (LED) illumination device comprising multiple emitter modules are provided. In one embodiment, the method includes bringing to a level insufficient to produce illumination the respective drive currents of all except one of multiple emission LED elements within respective first and second emitter modules for the duration of a measurement interval within respective first and second series of measurement intervals. The measurement intervals are interspersed with periods of illumination, and the first and second series of measurement intervals are separated by respective first and second offsets from a timing reference. An embodiment of an illumination device includes multiple emitter modules, where each emitter module includes multiple emission LED elements and one or more photodetectors. The illumination device further includes a lamp control circuit adapted to perform steps of the method. |
| US09332597B2 |
Versatile microwave heating apparatus
A microwave heating apparatus for heating a load by means of microwaves is provided. The microwave heating apparatus has a cavity arranged to receive a piece of food to be heated, a first microwave supply system configured to supply microwaves at the cavity bottom for energizing a browning function in the cavity, a second microwave supply system configured to supply microwaves into the cavity for exciting cavity modes and a control unit configured to control the first and second microwave supply systems based on a food category and/or a cooking program. The first supply system has at least one microwave source and at least one antenna arranged in a lower part of the cavity and the second microwave supply system has at least one microwave source and at least one feeding port arranged in an upper part of the cavity. The present invention is advantageous in that a microwave heating apparatus with an improved crisp function is provided. |
| US09332593B2 |
Heating element, and heatable pane comprising a heating element
A heating element including a current conductor through which electric power is conducted and electricity converted into heat by a voltage drop across an ohmic resistor. The heating element is a planar or a strip-shaped structure and is provided with at least one support layer and an adhesive layer, while the current conductor is designed as an additional, current-conducting layer which is arranged between the support layer and the adhesive layer. The support layer, the current-conducting layer, and the adhesive layer are transparent. |
| US09332589B2 |
Mobile communication device with multiple wireless transceivers and methods for use therewith
A first wireless transceiver communicates pre-association data via a first wireless network, the pre-association data relating to a second wireless network, wherein the first wireless network supports communication via a first wireless protocol and wherein the second wireless network supports communication via a second wireless protocol that is different from the first wireless protocol. A second wireless transceiver communicates the pre-association data with the first wireless transceiver via a transceiver interface and processes the pre-association data to support an association by the second wireless transceiver with the second wireless network. |
| US09332588B2 |
Method, apparatus and system for information transmission
A method, an apparatus and a system for information transmission are provided. The method includes the following steps. A second user equipment receives update information issued by a wireless access point (AP). The second user equipment is located within a coverage area of the wireless AP. After detecting that the second user equipment has the update information, a first user equipment establishes a connection with the second user equipment and obtains the update information from the second user equipment. A wireless AP of the first user equipment is located outside the coverage area of the wireless AP. In the present invention, the user equipment can update the information without additionally increasing the transmit powers of the wireless AP and the user equipment when located outside the coverage area of the wireless AP, and thus the interference to other equipments is not increased. |
| US09332582B2 |
System, apparatus and method for coordinating peer communication in wireless systems
In accordance with aspects of the disclosure, a method, apparatus, and computer program product are provided for wireless communication. The method, apparatus, and computer program product may be configured to provide a first peer connection with a first node, provide a second peer connection with a second node, and coordinate communication between the first and second nodes via the first and second peer connections. |
| US09332578B2 |
Connecting wireless devices using visual image capture and processing
A method facilitates establishment of wireless pairing connections between wireless electronic devices by: initiating, at a first device, a connection utility that enables the first device to establish a wireless connection with at least one second device; capturing an image of a selected second device, representing a second device to which a wireless connection is desired; and scanning for identifying information about each discoverable second device that is within a connection range of the first device. The method further includes: forwarding the captured image and any detected identifying information to a wireless connectivity assist (WCA) service; receiving wireless connection setup and configuration (WCSC) instructions from the WCA service; and establishing the wireless connection with the selected second device utilizing wireless connection setup and configuration (WCSC) instructions received from the WCA service. |
| US09332576B2 |
System and apparatus for adapting operations of a communication device
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, at a base station, communicating with a mobile phone where the base station comprises a premises wireless access point, at the base station, communicating with a mobile communication system by way of a broadband connection, and instructing a landline phone communicatively coupled to the base station to communicate with a remote end user device via the mobile communication system utilizing identification information of the mobile phone and responsive to communications between the base station and the mobile phone. Other embodiments are disclosed. |
| US09332572B2 |
Pre-allocated random access identifiers
Systems and methods of pre-allocating identifiers to wireless devices for use in requesting resources over a random access channel are described. A wireless communication system includes a random access channel over which wireless devices can anonymously send requests for resources. The base stations receiving and processing the anonymous requests reduces the probability of random access channel collisions and conserves the resources needed to support the anonymous requests by pre-allocating one or more identifiers to select wireless devices. The wireless devices having the pre-allocated codes can transmit a particular code over the random access channel as a request for resources that uniquely identifies the requester. |
| US09332571B2 |
Method and system for multi-user transmit opportunity for multi-user multiple-input-multiple-output wireless networks
Wireless communication in a wireless system using a multiple user transmission opportunity is provided. Data blocks at a wireless station are transmitted to multiple wireless receivers over a shared wireless communication medium. The data blocks are organized in order of transmission priority based on access categories. Contention for access to the communication medium during a transmission opportunity period is based on a backoff timer of each access category and the transmission priority. Upon successful contention for a transmission opportunity period, during the transmission opportunity period, a data block of a primary access category is wirelessly transmitted from the wireless station to one or more primary destination wireless receivers. Simultaneously, a data block of a secondary access category is wirelessly transmitted from the wireless station to one or more secondary destination wireless receivers. |
| US09332562B2 |
Radio base station, communication control method of radio base station and computer program
Provided is a radio base station including a terminal detection unit that detects an uplink signal of a first terminal serviced by another base station, a storage unit that stores an allocation priority of a radio resource for a predetermined period, and a resource allocation unit that allocates a radio resource to a second terminal serviced by the radio base station, using the allocation priority of the radio resource stored in the storage unit. When the terminal detection unit detects the uplink signal of the first terminal, the resource allocation unit preferentially allocates a radio resource of an uplink of a high allocation priority to the second terminal while lowering an allocation priority of a radio resource estimated to be used next for the uplink by the first terminal. |
| US09332561B1 |
Hybrid communications system using peer-to-peer and centralized architecture
A hybrid communication system estimates a quality of service (QoS) for a plurality of session channels available to couple a first device on a first network with a second device on a second network. A first session channel is selected, from the plurality of session channels, that has a highest estimated QoS of all the plurality of session channels over a first time interval. The devices are instructed to establish a hybrid media session using the first session channel. During the hybrid media session the estimated QoS for the plurality of session channels is monitored. Responsive to the monitoring, a second session channel is selected, from the plurality of session channels, that has a highest estimated QoS of all the plurality of session channels over a second time interval. Responsive to the selecting, the devices are instructed establish the hybrid media session using the second session channel. |
| US09332557B2 |
High density deployment using transmit or transmit-receive interference suppression with selective channel dimension reduction/attenuation and other parameters
In a wireless local area network, each of multiple access points, in a high density deployment, are configured to suppress co-channel interference. A first access point having a plurality of antennas beamforms a transmission to a wireless client device within a null-space or with the weakest singular eigenmodes of a wireless channel between the first access point and at least one co-channel second access point. Techniques are presented herein for situations in which any given access point has two or more co-channel access points. In addition, an access point may perform receive side suppression with respect to a transmission (made by a co-channel access point to one of its associated wireless client devices) that is received from that co-channel access point. |
| US09332554B1 |
Wireless home network supporting discrete concurrent communication links
A wireless apparatus node supporting wireless communications on a wireless local area network (WLAN). The wireless apparatus node includes: a local link prober, a remote link prober, a cross-link interference estimator, and a concurrent access controller. The local link prober probes a target node for channel information characterizing a communication channel for a local link therewith. The remote link prober probes a pair of device nodes on the WLAN capable of forming a remote link for cross-channel information characterizing communication channels there between. The cross-link interference estimator estimates interference signal levels at each node of the remote link resulting from communication over the local link. The concurrent access controller is responsive to a determination of an active communication on the remote link to allow a concurrent communication on the local link when interference levels at the remote link fall below a threshold level. |
| US09332550B2 |
Controlling fast dormancy
A user equipment, UE, in a radio communication network is given a threshold time value that the UE uses to decide whether it should trigger a fast dormancy request to a network node or not. The determination of the threshold time value can be adapted so that it minimizes UE battery consumption when the load in the network node is low and at other times minimizes the load on the network node. That is, if the UE estimates that a predicted time interval until reception of a data burst is less than threshold time value it will not trigger a fast dormancy request, and if the estimated time interval is larger than the threshold time value it will trigger a fast dormancy request. Since the network typically controls state switching, there is a large benefit for the UE to comply with the scheme, otherwise the network may not obey the UEs wish to be down switched by the fast dormancy request. |
| US09332546B2 |
Radio resource optimizing method, apparatus, and system
Embodiments of the present invention provide a radio resource optimizing method, apparatus, and system. The method includes: performing DPI on received network data, so as to identify a protocol type of the network data; if the network data is a first kind of data stream, identifying a heartbeat in the first kind of data stream, and obtaining heartbeat information of the heartbeat; when the heartbeat interval period of the heartbeat information is greater than a radio resource pre-allocated time slice, determining a radio resource bandwidth allocation parameter according to the heartbeat bandwidth requirement of the heartbeat information; and sending a radio resource allocation parameter including the radio resource bandwidth allocation parameter. In this way, the radio resource allocation parameter is dynamically set when an application runs in the background, thereby improving the utilization rate of an air interface bandwidth and time of a radio base station. |
| US09332544B2 |
Channel switching method in a medical body area network
The disclosure of the present invention provides a method for a Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) to control, through a master, the channel switching of an MBAN terminal that uses a channel of a first frequency band in an MBAN system. The method includes: receiving information related to the use of each channel of a second frequency band from an MBAN controller; and transmitting information on a channel of the second frequency band that the MBAN terminal is to switch on the basis of the received information related to the use of each channel of the second frequency band. The first frequency band and the second frequency band are distinguished from each other based on whether the MBAN terminal uses a corresponding frequency band first. |
| US09332541B2 |
Methods and devices for transmission of signals in a telecommunication system
Transmitter and receiver technologies are provided that allow more than two users in a time-slotted communications system to share the same time slot by creating orthogonal sub-channels, while keeping the receiver complexity low are provided. Moreover, the users can in accordance with some embodiments employ GMSK or other non-linear continuous phase modulation technique. |
| US09332536B1 |
Method and apparatus for managing communication on a wireless channel
A method and apparatus to help manage communication on a wireless channel. When a neighboring node detects on a wireless channel a ready-to-send (RTS) message from a transmitting node to a receiving node, the neighboring node will set itself to avoid transmission on the channel for a time period but will then determine whether it detects in that time period a further transmission from the transmitting node to the receiving node, related to the data transmission. The further transmission may be a confirmation-to-send (CoTS) message that the transmitting node sends to the receiving node in response to a clear-to-send (CTS) from the receiving node. If the determination is affirmative, then the neighboring node will continue avoiding use of the channel. But if the determination is negative, then the neighboring node will discontinue avoiding use of the channel. |
| US09332533B2 |
ACK/NACK/SR resource mapping method and apparatus
Examples of the present disclosure provide an ACK/NACK/SR resource mapping method and an apparatus. According to the technical solution provided by the examples of the present disclosure, in a system including a terminal utilizing a first type protocol and a terminal utilizing a second type protocol, the base station allocates the ACK/NACK/SR resources corresponding to the second type protocol in an area outside of the ACK/NACK/SR resource area reserved for the terminal utilizing the first type protocol, and informs the terminal utilizing the second type protocol of the allocation information of the corresponding ACK/NACK/SR resources. Thus, the terminal utilizing the second type protocol may transmit feedback information via the corresponding ACK/NACK/SR resources. |
| US09332529B2 |
Physical downlink shared channel transmission method
A Physical Downlink Shared CHannel (PDSCH) transmission data method is provided. A User Equipment (UE) receives cross-carrier scheduling information in a PDCCH of a cell for scheduling. The cross-carrier scheduling information carries scheduling information indicating at least one PDSCH in at least one sub-frame of a cell being scheduled in cross-carrier scheduling. The UE processes data of PDSCH corresponding to the instruction according to received cross-carrier scheduling information. The UE sends a HARQ-ACK message to a base station according to the processed result. The peak rate of the UE is increased, and the requirement for higher throughput of the UE is satisfied. |
| US09332528B2 |
Method and device for feeding back precoding matrix indicator using interpolation
The present invention relates to a method and a device for feeding back a channel through precoding matrix indicator (PMI) interpolation. As one embodiment of the present invention, a method for feeding back a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) in a CoMP environment comprises the steps of: allowing a terminal to perform PMI interpolation by using PMIs that are included in the PMI window; allowing the terminal to select an optimum PMI by comparing the interpolated PMIs with a channel state of a current channel; and allowing the terminal to feed back the optimum PMI to a base station. |
| US09332525B2 |
Intelligent repeat of notifications
An aspect provides a method, including: detecting, at an information handling device, an event that causes a notification to occur; providing, using a notification modality of the information handling device, the notification of the event; sensing, using at least one sensor of the information handling device, a condition existing while the notification is provided; determining, using a processor, that the condition conflicts with the notification modality used to provide the notification; and thereafter providing an additional notification of the event. Other aspects are described and claimed. |
| US09332521B2 |
Storage medium having stored therein communication program, information processing apparatus, communication terminal apparatus, communication system, and communication method
Access from a communication terminal apparatus is received, and identification information that enables identification of a position of a communication terminal apparatus from which the access has been received and transmission data are acquired from the communication terminal apparatus, and are stored in a storage unit. Then, if access has been received from a communication terminal apparatus next and thereafter, the transmission data stored in the storage unit is transmitted to the communication terminal apparatus on the basis of identification information that enables identification of a position of the communication terminal apparatus. |
| US09332519B2 |
System and method for selective registration in a multi-beam system
A system and method for selective registration of a user equipment (UE) to one of a plurality of access points (APs). An indication may be received that each of a plurality of APs have received a signal from a UE. The UE may be registered to the first one of the plurality of APs to satisfy registration requirements associated with the UE. Information may be reported to a controller related to the signal strength of communication received at each AP from the UE. If the signal strength received at the registered AP is less than the signal strength received at one or more of the non-registered APs by more than a threshold amount, the registration of the UE to the registered AP may be rejected. |
| US09332509B2 |
Transmit power control systems, devices, and methods
Methods, systems, and devices are provided that may address problems pertaining to effective transmit power control of a communications device operating in a wireless communications system. Some embodiments utilize mechanisms or techniques with dynamically adaptive steps sizes for transmit power control based on one or more trends. Some of these techniques may identify a trend in the transmit power control (TPC) commands and may adapt a TPC step size as a result. Other techniques may be utilized in which transmit power control is based on multiple interference estimates in a frame slot. Having multiple interference estimates at sub-slot intervals may provide additional transmit power control by allowing more transmit power adjustments, or more appropriate adjustments, for each slot. Metric calculations may be performed on one or more techniques to determine appropriate TPC operations. |
| US09332506B2 |
Method, apparatus and computer program for a mobile transceiver and for a base station transceiver
The following relates to a method, apparatus and computer program for a mobile transceiver 200 and a base station transceiver 300 of a cellular mobile communication network communicating with the mobile transceiver 200 using packet switched data, the mobile communication network comprising a plurality of base station transceivers 300, 301. A base station transceiver 300, 301 operating one or more cells 300a, 301a. The mobile station is associated with a first cell 300a. Interference reduction information is received from a second cell 301a, the interference reduction information comprising an indication on a request of the second cell 301a to reduce the transmission power of the mobile transceiver 200 to reduce the interference power received at the second cell 301a. A transmission power of the mobile transceiver 200 is reduced based on the interference reduction information from the second cell 301a and based on a reduction criterion. |
| US09332503B2 |
Method for controlling power of uplink multiple-input multiple-output channel, and user equipment
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for controlling power of an uplink multiple-input multiple-output channel, and a user equipment that are used to support an uplink MIMO application scenario and implement control of transmit power of a UE. The method in the embodiments of the present invention includes: when total transmit power of a user equipment UE is greater than maximum allowed transmit power, performing, by the UE, power reduction for an uplink multiple-input multiple-output MIMO channel on which a main data transmission block and a secondary data transmission block are sent, so that the total transmit power of the UE after the reduction is less than or equal to the maximum allowed transmit power. |
| US09332502B2 |
Channel estimation in wireless communication systems
A method for uplink channel estimation comprises providing of a channel state model in a channel estimator. An uplink radio signal of a present time slot is obtained in the channel estimator as well as a series of transmit power control commands issued for controlling a transmit power of the uplink radio signal. A delay between the time a transmit power control command is issued and the time that the transmit power control command is applied is estimated based on measurements of the particular received uplink radio signal. Channel states are adapted based on a transmit power control command compatible with the estimated delay. After the adaptation, channel states of the present time slot are estimated in the channel estimator, by tracking the demodulated uplink radio signal with the channel state model. A channel estimator performing such method is also described. |
| US09332497B2 |
Automatic delivery traffic indication message interval control for better mobile power save performance
The present disclosure discloses a method and network device for automatic delivery traffic indication message (DTIM) interval control for better mobile power save performance. The disclosed network device determines one or more characteristics for at least one client device connected to an Access Point (AP). The network device then dynamically selects a DTIM interval for the AP based on the characteristics for the at least one client device, and configures the AP to transmit a DTIM beacon frame at a frequency based on the dynamically selected DTIM interval. Alternatively, the network device can determine one or more characteristics for a client device, and dynamically select a Virtual Access Point (VAP) for providing network access to the client device based on the characteristics for the client device and a DTIM interval configured for the VAP, and then cause the client device to connect to the VAP. |
| US09332492B2 |
Rapid acknowledgement of radio transmissions for energy minimization
The disclosure relates to a transmission scheme for nodes in a network. More specifically, the disclosure relates to an acknowledgment scheme that minimizes energy requirements for an acknowledgment of a transmission between nodes. The disclosure describes that an energy constrained node may transmit to other nodes in a network and may only require that an acknowledgment of that transmission is received from at least one of the proximal recipients, which may or may not be the ultimate target. In order to minimize the complexity of the receiver in a node and its energy requirements, the acknowledgment scheme may employ simple on-off keying (OOK) irrespective of the modulation technique of the sending transmission. The acknowledgment comprises a series of OOK pulses sent at a specified time after receipt of the transmission. In addition, simultaneously received acknowledgments can be processed and verified without confusion. |
| US09332491B2 |
Apparatus and method for optimizing performance of a radio device
An apparatus (1600) and method (200) determine an instance quality set of an access system while the access system is used by an application package of a radio device. The access system comprises a radio system (110, 115) and an access network (140, 145). The application package has communicated information using a networked service (150) of the access network. The apparatus and method determine additional information that comprises at least one of a location of the device and an acquisition time, the instance quality set, and a radio system identifier of the radio system used. The apparatus and method perform at least one of storing within the radio device and transmitting from the radio device an application identifier of the application package in association with the additional information. The apparatus and method selects at least one of a preferred radio system and a preferred application package based on the instance quality set. |
| US09332489B2 |
Method and system for optimizing power consumption in multi-SIM mobile device
A method and system for operating a multi-Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) mobile device are provided. The method includes determining whether at least one Registered Public Land Mobile Network (RPLMN) among a first RPLMN of a first SIM and a second RPLMN of a second SIM of the multi-SIM mobile device is unavailable to the multi-SIM mobile device when the multi-SIM mobile device triggers a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) search, identifying a common PLMN, from a first PLMN set associated with the first SIM and a second PLMN set associated with the second SIM, in response to determining that the at least one RPLMN among the first RPLMN and the second RPLMN is unavailable, and camping on the common PLMN by the first SIM and the second SIM after acquiring camping information of the common PLMN. |
| US09332488B2 |
Pre-association discovery
The present disclosure describes techniques for pre-association discovery. In some aspects a frame having information useful to identify a service provided by a wireless device is received, the service provided by the wireless device is identified based on the information of the frame and known service identification information, and the identified service is associated with the wireless device effective to enable use of the identified service. |
| US09332485B1 |
Method and integrated circuit for discovering peers in a peer-to-peer network
An integrated circuit includes a control module and a physical layer device. The control module (i) during each of multiple beacon intervals, operates a mobile device in a sleep mode or a listen mode, and (ii) for each of the beacon intervals, selects a length of the sleep mode or the listen mode such that resulting lengths of the sleep mode or the listen mode vary randomly. The control module partially or fully powers down the mobile device during the sleep mode. The physical layer device (i) wirelessly transmits, while the control module operates the mobile device in an active mode, a signal to discover one or more peers in a peer-to-peer network, and (ii) while the control module is operating the mobile device in the listen mode, receives responses to the signal. The control module determines which of the peers are discoverable based on the responses. |
| US09332484B2 |
Method and apparatus for operating within white space band using message indicating whether available channel information is valid in wireless system
A method and apparatus for operating within a white space band using a message indicating whether an available channel information is valid in the wireless system are disclosed. In a method for a first station (STA) to operate as an unlicensed device which is permitted to operate on an available channel within a White Space (WS) band of a wireless system, comprises: receiving a message indicating whether an available channel information of the first STA is valid from a second STA, wherein the available channel is a channel not used by a licensed device, wherein the message includes a Map ID of a current valid available channel information; and determining whether an existing available channel information of the first STA is valid by comparing a Map ID of the existing available channel information of the first STA with the Map ID included in the received message. |
| US09332478B2 |
System, method, and device for routing calls using a distributed mobile architecture
A method includes transmitting communications information from a first DMA gateway of a DMA gateway communication network to a second DMA gateway of the DMA gateway communication network. The communications information is associated with a communication network that is accessible to the first DMA gateway. The method includes receiving a communication from the second DMA gateway via the DMA gateway communication network. The communication network and the DMA communication network are different. The communication is associated with a destination device that is indicated by the communications information to be served by the communication network that is accessible to the first DMA gateway. The method includes routing the communication to the destination device. |
| US09332477B2 |
Location driven association of client devices to access points
A method may determine the location and/or motion of a client device. Based on these determinations, the method may 1) delay a potential move of the client device to a new access point until the client device reaches a non-transitional or less dense area or is stationary, 2) delay a potential move of the client device to a new access point while the client device is on the edge of the network environment, 3) compute a probable destination of the client device and wait until this destination is reached before triggering movement to a new access point, 4) reduce the effects caused by shadowing, 5) guide the client device to more proximate access points, and 6) guide the client device to dedicated proximate access points when client devices are relatively motionless. Accordingly, the method dynamically leverages client device location and motion to intelligently assign client devices to access points. |
| US09332472B2 |
Method and apparatus to postpone UE from handover to an overloaded radio network from another radio network
A node of a secondary RAT that is in communication with a primary node of a primary RAT and UEs that are able to communicate by way of the primary and secondary RATs. The node includes a network interface unit of the node which receives a message from the primary node that indicates that the primary RAT is in an overload condition. The node includes a processing unit of the node which forms UE messages for the UEs not to try to communicate with the primary RAT, the network interface unit of the node sending the messages to the UEs. A method of a node of a secondary RAT that is in communication with a primary node of a primary RAT and UEs that are able to communicate by way of the primary and secondary RATs. |
| US09332468B2 |
Handling of downlink IP packet transmission switching on dual SIM UE
An apparatus and process is provided for handling downlink transmissions to a user equipment (UE) from a service provider wherein the UE is adapted to be associated with two subscriber identity modules (SIMs). The two SIMs are associated with a first communication network and a second communication network such that the UE can request a switch of downlink data via the first communication network to the second communication network. |
| US09332466B2 |
Uplink timing advance adjustment
A user equipment (UE) determines an uplink timing advance of a target NodeB, such as an uplink dedicated physical channel (DPCH) transmit timing, during handover transition when the UE receives a handover command without a random access configuration. In one instance, the UE modifies a current timing advance of a source eNodeB based on a difference between an uplink timing of the source eNodeB and a downlink timing of the source eNodeB and a difference between an uplink timing of the target NodeB and a downlink timing of the target NodeB. In another instance, the UE determines the uplink timing advance of the target NodeB based on the modified current uplink timing advance of the source eNodeB. |
| US09332457B2 |
Method and system for using a minimum sensitivity threshold for receiving wireless signals
A method includes computing a minimum sensitivity threshold value for a particular wireless device, configuring the particular wireless device to receive wireless signals with a signal strength higher than the minimum sensitivity threshold value, distributing the minimum sensitivity threshold value to other wireless devices, and configuring the other wireless devices based on the minimum sensitivity threshold value for the particular wireless device. |
| US09332448B2 |
Effecting change to transmit duty cycle of WLAN transceiver
An apparatus has a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver and one or more sensors. The sensors are monitored. From time to time, a mitigation level applicable to the apparatus is determined as a function of output from the one or more sensors. The mitigation level is one of multiple mitigation levels, each mitigation level corresponding to a set of configuration changes for a Media Access Control (MAC) layer of the WLAN transceiver. Responsive to determining that the applicable mitigation level has increased from a most recent previously determined mitigation level, the MAC layer is configured to effect a decrease in a transmit duty cycle of the WLAN transceiver. Responsive to determining that the applicable mitigation level has decreased from a most recent previously determined mitigation level, the MAC layer is configured to effect an increase in the transmit duty cycle of the WLAN transceiver. |
| US09332446B2 |
Self-configuration of a physical cell identity (PCI) at a cell
The present disclosure presents a method and an apparatus for self-configuring a physical cell identify (PCI) at a cell upon detecting a PCI confusion at a neighbor cell. For example, the method may include detecting that a PCI confusion exists at a second cell based on a message (e.g., configuration update message or a X2 setup response message) received from the second cell. The first cell may initiate a timer that is selected from a first timer and a second timer, the first timer longer in duration than the second timer. The first cell then configures a new PCI for the first cell when the timer expires or maintains a current PCI for the first cell when the timer is reset prior to expiration. As such, self-configuration of PCI at a cell may be achieved. |
| US09332441B2 |
Closed loop heterogeneous network for automatic cell planning
A system and methodology that can utilize measurement data collected by a set of femto access points (FAPs), during a network listen procedure, to detect one or more areas with weak macro network coverage and/or high interference. Moreover, an automatic cell planning (ACP) component can be employed to analyze the measurement data and update a transmission parameter(s) associated with a macro access point. After the update is implemented, the ACP component can trigger another network listen procedure at the set of FAPs and receive new measurement data. The ACP component can evaluate the new measurement data to dynamically verify that the implementation of the update resulted in an improvement of macro network coverage and/or interference within the one or more areas. |
| US09332440B2 |
Method of frequency channel assignment using effective spectrum sensing in multiple frequency assignment system
A method of assigning a frequency channel using efficient spectrum sensing in a multiple Frequency Assignment system includes a channel sensing process, wherein a base station of a secondary user classifies multiple frequency channels licensed to a primary user into a plurality of channel state sets according to usage states, periodically senses channel states by changing a sensing period according to the types of classified channel state sets, and manages the sensed channel states as frequency channel state set information; a channel state set broadcasting process; and a channel assigning process. Accordingly, a frequency channel can be assigned to a secondary user requesting channel assignment using frequency channel state set information without a primary user experiencing interference noise. |
| US09332437B2 |
Security configuration alignment
A wireless communications device is disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the wireless communication device includes: a transceiver configured to facilitate communications with a radio access network; and a processing unit configured to: determine that a cell update message is to be transmitted to the network; determine if a security mode configuration procedure is in progress at the device; and if a security mode configuration procedure is not in progress, transmit a second type of cell update message to the network entity, the second type of cell update message not including an indicator indicating that the device has not had to abort an on-going security procedure and in place of said indicator including information not pertaining to a security procedure. |
| US09332434B1 |
Policy based location collection for authentication
Improved techniques are directed to a method performed by a computing device of authenticating a mobile client device to a resource using location services. The method includes (a) receiving authentication requests from the mobile client device, the authentication requests each including a location freshness value indicating a respective amount of time that has passed since the mobile client device last determined its location, (b) testing the location freshness value received in each authentication request against a location freshness policy to generate a freshness result indicating whether the location freshness value complies with the location freshness policy, (c) generating an authentication response for each authentication request based at least in part on the location freshness result for that authentication request, and (d) directing the authentication response to be sent to the resource. A computerized apparatus and a computer program product for performing methods similar to that described above are also provided. |
| US09332431B2 |
Method of and system for authenticating and operating personal communication devices over public safety networks
A public safety (PS) person having a PS communications device is able to authenticate and authorize operation of a non-PS, personal communications device over a PS network. The PS device issues a challenge, and the personal device responds to the challenge, when the devices are in close proximity. A conditional token having specified conditions is sent to the personal device, which captures information at an incident scene. The personal device attaches the conditional token to the captured information, and uploads the captured information with the attached token to the PS device to permit distribution of the captured information in accordance with the specified conditions of the attached conditional token. |
| US09332430B2 |
Method of identifying and authenticating a radio tag by a reader
A method and apparatus are provided for identifying and authenticating a radio tag by a radio reader. The tag forms part of a set of tags in a radio range of the reader and has selected a time slot from a set of available time slots. The method includes: a step of the reader sending a query message during the selected time slot; and a step of the reader receiving a reply message from the tag that selected the time slot. The reply message includes a random value selected by the tag. The tag stores authentication coupons and the reply from the tag received by the reader during the time slot contains, as a random value selected by the tag, a value that is a function of one of the coupons. |
| US09332429B2 |
Systems/methods of adaptively varying a spectral content of communications
A spectral content of a baseband waveform is varied and a measure of the baseband waveform whose spectral content has been varied is used by a transmitter in order to convey information. According to embodiments of inventive concepts, a set of frequencies that is used to provide spectral content to the baseband waveform is varied. In some embodiments, the spectral content comprises non-contiguous first and second frequency intervals wherein a third frequency interval that is between the first and second frequency intervals remains substantially devoid of providing spectral content in order to reduce or avoid interference. In other embodiments, the spectral content that is varied comprises a bandwidth that is varied. The inventive concepts are relevant to 4G LTE carrier aggregation systems/methods and/or other aspects of 4G LTE. Various transmitter/receiver embodiments are disclosed including direct synthesis transmitter/receiver embodiments. |
| US09332425B2 |
System and method for provision of a second line service to a telecommunications device using mixed protocols
A method for routing calls between a third party telecommunications device (“TD”) and a subscriber TD associated with a primary service and a second line service (“SLS”) involves associating the SLS number of the subscriber, the primary number of the subscriber and the primary number of a third party via a common relationship number. Calls directed from a third party to the SLS number of a subscriber are routed to an SLS platform and redirected to the subscriber TD. Calls directed from the subscriber TD to the third party use the relationship number to route the call to the SLS platform. The combination of the primary service number and the relationship number identifies the third party number for call completion. Calls can be directed to and from an SLS number of a subscriber TD using a combination of protocols such as ISUP, CAP and SIP. |
| US09332421B2 |
Method and apparatus for random access to multimedia content in wireless communication system
A multimedia contents random access method for a wireless communication system is provided. The live content access method of a client in a wireless communication system according to the present invention includes receiving a request for playing a content, receiving content structure information on the content from a content transfer server, receiving content segments and random access informations of the content segments from a content provision server using the content structure information, and performing, when a random access request is received, random access to the content segments using the random access information. The content random access method of the present invention is capable of accessing the content in unit of content segment such that it is possible to access a past time point in the content even before all of the content segments are received completely. |
| US09332413B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing services to a geographic area
A method and apparatus for providing a service at an incident scene is provided herein. During operation, a device will enter a geographic area (e.g., an incident scene), join a local-area network (LAN), and determine what services are presently being offered by other devices on the LAN. From a list of services deployed on the device, a determination is then made as to what services the device will run, and those services are then offered to all devices on the LAN. |
| US09332412B2 |
Intelligent network access control
A method for controlling wireless communication access by wireless devices to a wireless communications network includes establishing, using an intelligent network access controller (INAC), one or more targeted coverage areas overlaying portions of the wireless communications network. The INAC begins by determining a location of a wireless device relative to a targeted coverage area and locking the wireless device to the INAC when the wireless device is located in or near the targeted coverage area. The INAC then determines an access category for the wireless device. The INAC prevents wireless communication access for a first category of wireless devices by maintaining the first category wireless devices locked to the INAC and allows unlimited wireless communications for a second category of wireless devices by directing the second category wireless devices to attempt registration with the wireless communications network. |
| US09332409B1 |
System and method for emulating call center screen-pop application
A system and method establish interactive communications between a merchant and a customer via a third party. A merchant computer provides a link to a customer computer via a computer network for accessing a data entry element on the customer computer. The data entry element facilitates entry of customer information for sending to a third-party server at a contact time to initiate merchant communications. The merchant computer receives from the third party server, generally at the contact time, customer information comprising at least one of calling history, the customer information entered into the data entry element, customer information from a data source, and demographic information. The merchant computer accesses the customer information for determining whether to engage in interactive communications with the customer generally at the contact time. The merchant engages in interactive communications with the customer generally at the contact time when it is determined to do so. |
| US09332406B2 |
Method, apparatus, and system for updating contact information
A communication connection is established with an information sending terminal. A short message sent from the information sending terminal is received. The short message is displayed on a display page. The short message is analyzed to identify whether a contact information field is in the short message by using a contact information determination condition. The contact information field is extracted from the short message when an identification result shows that the contact information field is in the short message. A box is displayed on the display page on which the short message is displayed to prompt a user to make a selection from function items to process the contact information field. The address book of the terminal device is updated by using the contact information field based on a function item selected by the user. |
| US09332404B2 |
Server abstracted messaging system
A server abstracted messaging system interfaces to networking services such as SMS, UDP and IP, using internally implemented protocols or third-party tools. All connections, disconnections, errors or intricacies in service decoding are abstracted by the messaging system. To interface to an LBS device, the messaging system uses a special language to communicate with that device, leaving the actual translation of the command to the device until the very end, thereby abstracting the communication to the device by any application. All new commands for the LBS device are implemented in the abstracted language. |
| US09332401B2 |
Providing dynamically-translated public address system announcements to mobile devices
A method for providing dynamically translated public address announcements can begin with a multi-lingual module maintaining a listing of mobile devices that are currently active within a specified geographic area serviced by a public address system. The native language used by a mobile device that is different than a language used by the public address system can be noted. Content for an announcement broadcast by the public address system can be converted into a format capable of being transmitted via a wireless communications message. The converted content can be translated to the native languages noted in the listing. The wireless communications message containing the translated content can be pushed to corresponding mobile devices in the listing and the wireless communications message containing the converted content can be pushed to a remainder of the mobile devices in the listing via a non-cellular wireless network local to the specified geographic area. |
| US09332397B2 |
Method of communicating voice and data transmissions for telematics applications
A method of establishing an alternate communication channel between a telematics unit and a central facility that includes determining that a vehicle telematics unit is unable to communicate data over a voice call using a voice channel; initiating a data call from the vehicle telematics unit to a central facility based on that determination; sending information identifying the vehicle telematics unit to the central facility over the data call; establishing a voice call from the central facility to verbally communicate with the vehicle telematics unit based on the information identifying the vehicle telematics unit; and communicating data between the central facility and vehicle telematics unit via short messaging services (SMS) messages using the voice call from the central facility. |
| US09332393B2 |
Computational systems and methods for locating a mobile device
Systems and methods are described relating to accepting an indication of an inertial impact associated with at least one mobile device; and presenting an indication of location of the at least one mobile device at least partially based on accepting the indication of the inertial impact associated with the at least one mobile device. Additionally, systems and methods are described relating to means for accepting an indication of an inertial impact associated with at least one mobile device; and means for presenting an indication of location of the at least one mobile device at least partially based on accepting the indication of the inertial impact associated with the at least one mobile device. |
| US09332392B1 |
Remotely activating a combination of mobile device functions
A method of remotely activating a combination of mobile device functions using a network application includes receiving, using the network application at a server, a client command from a client computer and sending an instruction to activate a combination of mobile device functions on the mobile device based on the client command. The method further includes receiving, at the server, information from the mobile device based on the activated combination of mobile device functions and sending client information to the client computer based on the received information from the mobile device. |
| US09332382B1 |
System and method of location estimation based on intersections and range estimation
Systems and methods are provided for estimating the locations and coverage ranges of wireless transmission stations based on the existing location and coverage range data. The system divides the transmitting stations into a plurality of pairs and estimates new coverage range and location for each transmitting station in each pair based on confidence level, distance to another transmitting station in the same pair and coverage range overlap with other transmitting stations. Systems and methods are provided to estimate the location and accuracy range of the location of a client device based on the intersections of the coverage ranges of wireless transmission stations detected by the client device. The system repeatedly removes the transmission station with fewer number of intersections from further process if the number of intersections for each remaining transmission station is not the same. |
| US09332378B2 |
Wireless communication device for performing different wireless communications
A wireless communication device includes a memory unit that stores a communication setting information, and a communication control unit that controls a wireless communication in accordance with the communication setting information. When the first wireless communication switches to the second wireless communication, the communication control unit keeps the communication setting information of the first wireless communication being stored. After that, when the second wireless communication is turned off, the communication control unit controls the first wireless communication in accordance with the communication setting information of the first wireless communication. |
| US09332377B2 |
Device and method for control of data transfer in local area network
The present invention concerns devices and methods for control of data transfer in a personal area network. The data transfer being performed by body coupled communication (BCC) and short-range wireless communication between a first portable electronic communication device (10) and a second portable electronic communication device (20, 30). The devices being adapted to be in close proximity to a body of a user and the first portable electronic communication device (10) is configured to initiate and perform execution of predefined actions by means of the method to cooperate with the second portable electronic communication device (20, 30) in a system/personal area network. |
| US09332373B2 |
Audio depth dynamic range enhancement
An audio depth dynamic range enhancement system and method for enhancing the dynamic range of depth in audio sound systems as perceived by a human listener. Embodiments of the system and method process an input audio signal by applying a gain function to at least one of a plurality of sub-signals of the audio signal having different values of a spatial depth parameter. The sub-signals are combined to produce a reconstructed audio signal carrying modified audio information. The reconstructed audio signal is output from the system and method for reproduction by the audio sound system. The gain function alters the gain of the at least one of the plurality of sub-signals such that the reconstructed audio signal, when reproduced by the audio sound system, results in modified depth dynamic range of the audio sound system with respect to the spatial depth parameter. |
| US09332370B2 |
Method and apparatus for using spatial audio rendering for a parallel playback of call audio and multimedia content
Dynamic audio rendering can be achieved by modifying the amplitude, phase, and frequency of audio signal components by varying degrees based on characteristics of the audio signal. A rendered audio signal can be produced by scaling the amplitude of an audio signal component by an amount that is dynamically selected according to the audio signal characteristics. A rendered audio signal can also be produced by adjusting/shifting a phase and/or frequency of an audio signal component by an amount that is dynamically selected according to the audio signal characteristics. The audio signal characteristics may correspond to any metric or quality associated with the audio signal, such as an energy ratio of the audio signal in the time domain, a bit-depth, or sampling rate. |
| US09332369B2 |
System and method for automatic calibration of a transducer
In accordance with an embodiment, an interface circuit includes a variable voltage bias generator coupled to a transducer, and a measurement circuit coupled to an output of the transducer. The measurement circuit is configured to measure an output amplitude of the transducer. The interface circuit further includes a calibration controller coupled to the bias generator and the measurement circuit, and is configured to set a sensitivity of the transducer and interface circuit during an auto-calibration sequence. |
| US09332366B2 |
Loudspeaker noise inspection method, loudspeaker noise inspection device and recording medium for recording a loudspeaker noise inspection program
A loudspeaker noise inspection method is to be implemented by an electronic device and includes the steps of: obtaining a frequency sweeping audio signal from an audio output generated by a loudspeaker in response to a frequency sweeping input signal; performing differentiation upon the frequency sweeping audio signal so as to generate a differentiated frequency sweeping audio signal; and dividing the differentiated frequency sweeping audio signal by a constant which is greater than 2π times a maximum frequency of the frequency sweeping audio signal, so as to obtain an attenuated frequency sweeping audio signal for inspection of a noise pulse in the frequency sweeping audio signal. |
| US09332364B2 |
Method and device for personalized hearing
An electronic audio device for use with at least one earpiece or a pair of earpieces, or a pair of earpieces in a headphone, each earpiece having a microphone and a speaker located therein, including circuitry operatively coupled to the microphone and speaker, and a processor operatively coupled to evaluate a seal quality of the earpiece to a user's ear based on seal quality measurements made while driving or exciting a signal into the speaker located in the earpiece and then to adjust the circuitry coupled to the microphone and speaker according to the evaluated seal quality. |
| US09332363B2 |
System and method for determining meter presence utilizing ambient fingerprints
Systems and methods are disclosed for providing portable device presence utilizing environmental ambient audio fingerprints. Portable devices provide media exposure data and environmental ambient fingerprints to a processing device, where the environmental ambient signatures provide at least one characteristic of the ambient audio surrounding each portable device. The environmental ambient signatures are then processed to determine if they match. Portable devices associated with matching signatures are identified. Ambient fingerprints may also be used to establish a logical location where media exposure took place. The ambient signatures are alternately combined with monitored data to provide more robust data sets for contextual processing. |
| US09332359B2 |
Customization of adaptive directionality for hearing aids using a portable device
A hearing assistance system provides a hearing-aid wearer with one or more hearing aids and a portable device allowing for a wearer-driven directionality customization of the one or more hearing aids. The wearer indicates the locations of sound(s) of interest and/or noise source(s) using the portable device. The one or more hearing aids adjust the directionality of sound reception based on these wearer-indicated locations. |
| US09332356B2 |
Hearing aid
A hearing aid of the present invention is convenient to repair and replace. The hearing aid includes: (i) an out-of-canal assembly comprising a power source (e.g., a battery) and a processor, and (ii) an in-canal assembly comprising a microphone and a receiver. The out-of-canal assembly is selectively, removably, electrically coupled to the in-canal assembly. Sound perceived by the in-canal assembly is processed by the out-of-canal assembly and transmitted to the user's eardrum. The in-canal assembly is conveniently, selectively decoupled from the out-of-canal assembly for convenient replacement or repair. |
| US09332352B2 |
Audio speaker with sandwich-structured composite diaphragm
A diaphragm for an audio speaker includes an outer shell and an inner shell. Each shell has a face portion and an edge portion that is formed to be substantially perpendicular to the face portion. The inner shell is inserted into the outer shell such that at least a part of the edge portion of each shell is in contact with at least a part of the edge portion of the other shell and a space is formed between the face portions of each shell. A cellular core fills the space formed between the face portions of each shell and is bonded to the face portion of each shell. The outer and inner shells may have identical sizes and shapes such that there is an interference fit between the contacting edge portions. A voice coil may be supported by the edge portions. |
| US09332350B2 |
Earphone pulling and plugging detection circuit
Earphone plugging and unplugging detection circuits are disclosed in the present invention, wherein one of the circuits includes a left sound channel (L) pin, a first pin which can be connected and disconnected with the L pin, a right sound channel (R) pin, and a second pin which can be connected and disconnected with the R pin; the circuit also includes a left detection signal line which is connected with the first pin, the left detection signal line is connected or configured with a pull-up resistor, the first pin is electrically connected with the second pin, and the L pin and the R pin are connected with a pull-down resistor respectively. The present invention not only has the advantages of having simple circuit, small area occupied by PCB and low hardware cost, but also can effectively improve the reliability of the earphone plugging and unplugging detection. |
| US09332341B2 |
Audio signal processing system and recording method
A processing apparatus communicatively connected with a mixer apparatus and having an audio recording function is capable of recording in real time audio signals of one or more channels output from the mixer apparatus. When a snapshot change is to be made for collectively changing a state of a set of signal-processing setting data, the mixer apparatus transmits, to the processing apparatus, a command for setting a given parameter. Upon receipt of the command, the processing sets and records the given parameter, instructed by the received command, into a project that is recording in real time the audio signals of one or more channels. |
| US09332339B2 |
Multi-pin audio plug with retractable nub
Flexible connectors that can be mated into specially designed electronic receptacles are described. In some embodiments, additional connections on the connector can make contact with the receptacle. However, the additional connections are also provided in a manner wherein if the connector is plugged into a legacy, conventional receptacle, the additional connectors become disengaged and slide away from, back from, or inside the jack so that the connector can still be used on legacy devices. |
| US09332335B2 |
Cable collector
The present invention relates to a cable collector for collecting and managing a cable, for connecting an audio device to user equipment, by means of a connection plug fixed to one end of the cable. The cable collector comprises: a) a main body having a first end portion to which the connection plug is intended to be attached, protruding from a surface thereof; b) a second end portion having a through passage with inner dimensions smaller than a largest outer diameter of the connection plug, enabling secure retaining of the latter therein in an active cable collecting state; c) a foldable middle portion joining the two end portions; and d) a cable passage formed within the first and second end portions as well as the middle portion of the main body, said passage being adapted to at least partially accommodate a portion of a cable nearest to the connection plug. The present invention also relates to a cable and cable collector unit. |
| US09332332B2 |
Packaged microphone with frame having die mounting concavity
A packaged microphone has a lid structure with an inner surface having a concavity, and a microphone die secured within the concavity. The packaged microphone also has a substrate coupled with the lid structure to form a package having an interior volume containing the microphone die. The substrate is electrically connected with the microphone die. In addition, the packaged microphone also has aperture formed through the package, and a seal proximate to the microphone die. The seal acoustically seals the microphone and the aperture to form a front volume and a back volume within the interior volume. The aperture is in acoustic communication with the front volume. |
| US09332331B2 |
Data processing method and an electronic apparatus
A data processing method and an electronic apparatus are described. The hand-held electronic apparatus has a microphone array that includes at least two kinds of usage modes. The microphone array is in a first usage mode of the at least two kinds of usage modes when the hand-held electronic apparatus is in a first usage status. The method includes receiving an adjustment signal to adjust the hand-held electronic apparatus from the first usage status to a second usage status, wherein, the second usage status is different from the first usage status; obtaining a control command when the hand-held electronic apparatus is adjusted to the second usage status; adjusting the microphone array from the first usage mode to the second usage mode according to, wherein, the second usage mode is different from the first usage mode and corresponds to the second usage status. |
| US09332330B2 |
Surface mountable microphone package, a microphone arrangement, a mobile phone and a method for recording microphone signals
A surface mountable microphone package includes a first microphone and a second microphone. Furthermore, the surface mountable microphone package includes a first opening for the first microphone and a second opening for the second microphone. The first opening and the second opening are arranged on opposite sides of the surface mountable microphone package. |
| US09332327B2 |
Systems and methods for scaling DSLAM deployments
A system for scaling vectored DSLAM deployments has a DSLAM interfaced with a cross-connect apparatus. The DSLAM receives POTS signals from at least one bridge connection assembly. When a DSLAM is added at the cross-connect facility, at least one connector of the bridge connection assembly is disconnected from an existing DSLAM and is interfaced with the newly-added DSLAM. By moving the connector to the newly-added DSLAM, a batch of downstream distribution pairs (which are preferably bound by a single distribution cable) are effectively moved from the existing DSLAM to the new DSLAM without having to reconfigure the jumpers of the cross-connect apparatus. Accordingly, it is possible to scale the cross-connect facility to any number of vectored DSLAMs while limiting vector group sizes, thereby reducing the complexity of vectoring operations, without having to perform complex reconfigurations of the cross-connect apparatus. |
| US09332326B2 |
Optical transmission device and monitoring method of optical signal
An optical transmission device includes: a reception unit configured to receive a plurality of light beams and wavelength allocation information of optical signals included in each of the light beams; a demultiplexing unit configured to demultiplex the plurality of light beams received; a plurality of switches configured to switch between transmitting or blocking with respect to the demultiplexed plurality of light beams; a multiplexing unit configured to multiplex light beams transmitted from the plurality of switches; a monitoring unit configured to monitor an intensity of the multiplexed light beams; and a controller configured to, based on the wavelength allocation information, obtain a combination of the light beams not including the optical signals having overlapping wavelengths, and control the plurality of switches in accordance with the combination. |
| US09332325B2 |
Optical switch
An optical switch includes: a first birefringent element; a first Faraday rotator; a first half-wave plate; a second birefringent element; a second half-wave plate; a second Faraday rotator; and a third birefringent element, which are arranged in a forward direction from the front, wherein the first birefringent element splits light in the forward direction from a first optical port into ordinary and extraordinary lights emitted onto first and second optical paths, respectively, the first and second half-wave plates are arranged on the first and second optical paths, respectively, and in the first and second Faraday rotators, a permanent magnetic field in a left-right direction and an external magnetic field in a front-back direction in an on state are applied to a Faraday element, a bidirectional optical path is formed between the first and second optical ports in an off state, and the optical path is interrupted in the on state. |
| US09332321B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating uncompressed video data packet
Provided are a method and apparatus for generating a packet including uncompressed video data. The method includes: generating color component bit information indicating the number of bits of each color component of pixels of the uncompressed video data; and generating a packet including the color component bit information and the uncompressed video data. |
| US09332312B2 |
Video display device and method of controlling the same
A video display device performing wireless communication with a plurality of external devices is provided. The video display device includes a display unit, a memory formed according to driving of an external device and configured to store state information of the external device, a tuner configured to receive advertisement data including a plurality of content items selectively outputtable to the display unit, in real time; and a controller configured to control the display unit to output a content item matched to state information of the external device. |
| US09332309B2 |
Sync frame recovery in real time video transmission system
An error recovery method may be engaged by an encoder to recover from misalignment between reference picture caches at the encoder and decoder. When a communication error is detected between a coder and a decoder, a number of non-acknowledged reference frames present in the decoder's reference picture cache may be estimated. Thereafter, frames may be coded as reference frames in a number greater or equal to the number of non-acknowledged reference frames that are estimated to be present in the decoder's reference picture cache. Thereafter, ordinary coding operations may resume. Typically, a final reference frame that is coded in the error recovery mode will be coded as a synchronization frame that has high coding quality. The coded reference frames that precede it may be coded at low quality (or may be coded as SKIP-coded frames). On reception and decoding, the preceding frames may cause the decoder to flush from its reference picture cache any non-acknowledged reference frames that otherwise might collide with the new synchronization frame. In this manner, alignment between the encoder and decoder may be restored. |
| US09332306B2 |
Methods and systems for reducing spillover by detecting signal distortion
Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for reducing spillover in a media monitoring system are disclosed. An example method includes determining an actual frequency spectrum of the media monitored by a meter, and determining absolute values of differences between amplitudes of corresponding frequency components of the actual frequency spectrum and an expected frequency spectrum, the expected frequency spectrum stored in a database in association with a media identifier corresponding to the media. An example method also includes determining whether spillover occurred based on a summation of the absolute values satisfying a threshold, crediting the media with a media exposure if spillover did not occur. |
| US09332305B1 |
Methods and apparatus to generate threshold values for state detection
Methods and apparatus to generate threshold values for state detection are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a collection of audio data elements each representative of a sound level present in an environment at a time of an ON-indication, an oldest one of the audio data elements to be replaced in response to detection of an ON-indication in the environment; and a selector to select, for a value of a threshold condition of a state detection analysis, one of the audio data elements corresponding to a quietest sound level. |
| US09332304B2 |
Set-top box, system and method for providing awareness in a hospitality environment
A system and method for providing awareness in a hospitality environment are presented. In one embodiment, a vertical and horizontal array of set-top boxes is provided and each set-top box includes an identification corresponding to the room in which the set-top box is placed. Each set-top box includes a wireless transceiver that periodically transmits an identification beacon that is received by a proximate wireless-enabled interactive device. The proximate wireless-enabled interactive device, in turn, broadcasts data packets including an indication of the strength of set-top box identification signals received. The broadcasts are received by a server via an array of wireless routers. The location of the proximate wireless-enabled interactive device is determined based on the signal strength information in the data packets. |
| US09332303B2 |
System and method for delivering companion content
A system and method for providing companion content on a device that downloads content associated with a media presentation playing on a media player and displays the downloaded content at times synchronized to time-offsets (from the start of the program) of the presentation by signals from the media player. |
| US09332296B2 |
Content processing for personal over-the-top network video recorder
Live streaming video content is processed and stored for real-time delivery of the content, future VoD viewing of the content, and time-shifted viewing of the content, by manipulating a common manifest or playlist. Previously stored content may be reordered and/or recombined in order to provide a personalized content viewing experience. |
| US09332294B2 |
Timing of displayed objects
Systems and methods for displaying an object determine a display time of a first object, wherein the display time of the first object is determined based on one or more attributes of objects in a collection of objects, generate a display that includes at least part of the first object in a first portion of the display for the display time of the first object, wherein the display is configured for rendering on a display device, and remove the first object from the first portion of the display after the display time of the first object has elapsed. |
| US09332289B2 |
Image viewing system, receiver mobile terminal, image server, and image viewing method
An image viewing system includes: a first mobile terminal having an image transmitting unit which transmits image data; an ID transmitting unit which transmits, to an image server, a viewing-allowed-terminal ID that identifies a mobile terminal allowed for viewing of the image data; the image server having an obtaining unit which obtains the viewing-allowed-terminal ID and viewing allowance information indicating whether a state of the image data transmitted by the transmitter mobile terminal is a viewing-available state or a viewing-unavailable state and a server memory unit which stores the viewing allowance information and the viewing-allowed-terminal ID; and a second mobile terminal having a first receiving unit which receives the image data and an inquiry unit which makes an inquiry, to the image server, as to whether or not the image data is available for viewing. |
| US09332287B2 |
System and method for session management of streaming media
A system and method for session management of streaming media are provided. The system and method authenticate and validate any request for live or streaming video and manage the streaming session in a manner that continues to verify the validity of existing video streams with respect to new requests. The system and method provide for receiving a first request for a first video stream from a client, generating a token based on the first request and at least one parameter associated with the client, validating the token based on at least one predetermined rule associated with the client, and upon validation, providing the first video stream to the client. Upon receiving a subsequent second request for a second video stream, the system and method validate a second token based on the first video stream, terminate the first video stream and provide the second video stream to the client. |
| US09332284B1 |
Personalized advertisement content
Disclosed are various embodiments for selecting personalized advertisements to be transmitted to a user device during the streaming of advertisement-supported media item content. A primary user and a secondary user may be associated with the consumption of media item content being streaming to a user device. Based on the identification of both the primary user and secondary user, presence metadata may be generated. Using at least the presence metadata, advertisements that are appropriate for and target both the primary and any secondary users may be selected and transmitted to the client device. |
| US09332283B2 |
Signaling of prediction size unit in accordance with video coding
Signaling of prediction size unit in accordance with video coding. In accordance with video coding, various binarization may be performed. In accordance with coding related to different types of slices (e.g., I, P, B slices), one or more binary trees may be employed for performing various respective operations (e.g., coding unit (CU) prediction and prediction unit (PU) partition mode operations). In one implementation, a common or singular binary tree is employed to encode jointly CU prediction and PU partition mode in a single syntax element for both P slices and B slices. That is to say, in such an implementation, instead of employing different respective binary trees for at least these different respective processes/operations, a common or single binary tree may be employed for them both. Appropriate coordination between and encoder/transmitter device and a decoder/receiver device may be performed to ensure appropriate handling of different respective phases of video coding. |
| US09332279B2 |
Method and digital video encoder system for encoding digital video data
A method is used for encoding digital video data corresponding to a sequence of original input video frames. The method comprises: encoding a first original input video frame into an INTER-frame; decoding and reconstructing said INTER-frame into a reference frame; creating an INTRA input frame comprising information from both a second original input video frame and said reference frame; and encoding said INTRA input frame into an INTRA-frame. A digital video encoder system is used for encoding digital video data corresponding to a sequence of original input video frames by encoding the sequence of original input video frames using INTRA- and INTER-mode. |
| US09332277B2 |
Transform space difference compression
An invention is disclosed for performing differencing of graphical data in post-transform space for a remote presentation session. Graphical data is transformed from a first representation to a second representation (e.g. with a DWT), and then a difference is taken of the post-transform data and the post-transform data of the frame that preceded the current frame. This difference is then encoded and transmitted to a client, which decodes it, and creates a representation of the graphical data using the delta, and a previously determined representation of the previous frame. By performing differencing in post-transform space, fidelity of the remote presentation session is retained while it may decrease bandwidth. This may occur because the entropy of the delta representation is usually lower than a non-delta representation while the scheme retains the identical data of the final decoded image of the non-delta version of the same compression scheme. |
| US09332276B1 |
Variable-sized super block based direct prediction mode
Coding a video stream having a plurality of frames is disclosed. A frame of a video stream is processed to determine if direct motion prediction can be applied to the macroblocks of the frame. Macroblocks to which direct motion can be applied are grouped into superblocks. The distribution of superblock size and configuration is analyzed to determine variable-length codes that can vary for each frame or segment encoded using direct prediction superblocks, thereby reducing the number of bits used to indicate superblock encoding in the encoded video stream. |
| US09332274B2 |
Spatially scalable video coding
Video data for a high resolution image unit is coded with regard to both a low resolution reference image unit and a high resolution reference image unit. In an example encoding implementation, both low pass information and high pass information of residue data for a current image are generated. In an example decoding implementation, a current image is reconstructed by synthesizing both low pass information and high pass information for the reconstructed image. |
| US09332270B2 |
Apparatus capable of performing both block-matching motion compensation and global motion compensation and method thereof
An interpolation unit receives an incoming video bit stream comprising a plurality of frames including first macroblocks encoded using block-matching motion compensation and second macroblocks encoded using global motion compensation. A translation unit converts global motion parameters included in a current frame of the incoming video bit stream into a global motion vector. The interpolation unit performs luminance and chrominance interpolation operations on each macroblock contained in each frame of the incoming video bit stream. When processing a current macroblock, if the current macroblock is encoded using global motion compensation, the interpolation unit performs the luminance interpolation operations according to the global motion vector at half-pel resolution, and performs the chrominance interpolation operations at quarter-pel resolution. If the current macroblock is encoded using block-matching motion compensation, the interpolation unit performs the luminance and chrominance interpolation operations according to the macroblock motion vector contained in the current macroblock at half-pel resolution. |
| US09332266B2 |
Method for prediction in image encoding and image encoding apparatus applying the same
A method for prediction in image encoding and an image encoding apparatus applying the same are disclosed. The method includes steps of receiving a plurality of candidates with respect to a current prediction target of an image; calculating a distortion-based cost of a first candidate in the plurality of candidates; and for each of the other candidates, computing a data access availability and a data access requirement for calculating a distortion-based cost of a current candidate in the other candidates of the plurality of candidates; and if the data access requirement does not exceed the data access availability, calculating the distortion-based cost of the current candidate; otherwise, selecting the candidate with the minimum calculated distortion-based cost as a matched candidate for the current prediction target. Therefore, coding performance setback due to external memory data access is improved. |
| US09332263B2 |
Method of generating quantized block
Provided is a method that derives an intra prediction mode of a prediction unit, selects an inverse scan pattern of a current transform unit among a diagonal scan, a vertical scan and a horizontal scan based on the intra prediction mode and a size of the transform unit, and generates a quantized block by inversely scanning significant flags, coefficients signs and coefficient levels according to the selected inverse scan pattern. If the transform unit is larger than a predetermined size, multiple subsets are generated and inversely scanned. Therefore, the amount of coding bits of the residual block is reduced by determining the scan pattern based on the size of the transform unit and the intra prediction mode, and by applying the scan pattern to each subset. Also, the signaling bits decreases by generating MPM group adaptively according to the neighboring intra prediction modes. |
| US09332258B2 |
Method and device for display stream compression
A method and a device compress a display stream wherein coefficients are grouped, for each group, the greatest coded line index (GCLI) is determined and only the GCLI lowest weight bits of the coefficients are copied into the output stream together with the value of the GCLI. The method and device provide a good compression efficiency together with a simple hardware. |
| US09332254B2 |
Coding, storage and signalling of scalability information
A method and device for encoding, decoding, storage and transmission of a scalable data stream to include layers having different coding properties including: producing one or more layers of the scalable data stream, wherein the coding properties include at least one of the following: Fine granularity scalability information; Region-of-interest scalability information; Sub-sample scalable layer information; Decoding dependency information; and Initial parameter sets, and signaling the layers with the characterized coding property such that they are readable by a decoder without the need to decode the entire layers. A corresponding method of encoding, decoding, storage, and transmission of a scalable bit stream is also disclosed, wherein at least two scalability layers are present and each layer has a set of at least one property, such as those above identified. |
| US09332246B2 |
Time of flight camera unit and optical surveillance system
A time of flight, TOF, camera unit for an optical surveillance system and an optical surveillance system comprising such a TOF camera is disclosed. The TOF camera unit comprises a radiation emitting unit for illuminating a surveillance area defined by a first plane, a radiation detecting unit for receiving radiation reflected from said surveillance area and for generating a three-dimensional image from said detected radiation, and at least one mirror for at least partly deflecting said emitted radiation into at least one second plane extending across to said first plane and for deflecting the radiation reflected from said second plane to the radiation detecting unit. The TOF camera and the at least one mirror may be arranged on a common carrier element. |
| US09332241B2 |
Video map responsive to a video release
An apparatus for and a method of obtaining, responsive to a user video preference and from a remote video provider, a particular one of a plurality of video releases of a video; obtaining a release ID identifying the particular one of the plurality of video releases of the video; obtaining, responsive to the release ID and from a remote information provider, segment information defining a begin video frame and an end video frame of each of a plurality of video segments within the identified particular one of the plurality of video releases of the video; obtaining a presentation preference of the user; applying the presentation preference to the segment information to selectively retrieve video segments within the video; and playing the selectively retrieved video segments as a seamless presentation less in length than the length of the video. |
| US09332239B2 |
Systems and methods for RGB image processing
Systems and methods for processing image data in RGB format are provided. In one example, an electronic device includes memory to store image data in raw or RGB format, or both, and an RGB image processing pipeline to process the image data. Specifically, the RGB image processing pipeline may process the image data regardless of whether the image data is of raw or RGB format. The RGB image processing pipeline may include receiving logic to receive the image data in raw or RGB format and demosaicing logic to, when the receiving logic receives the image data in raw format, convert the image data into RGB format. The logic may include local tone mapping logic configured to apply spatially varying tone curves to the image data, a color correction matrix configured to correct color in the image data, and gamma logic configured to transform the image data into gamma space. |
| US09332237B2 |
Projector and method of controlling projector
A projector includes a projection section adapted to project light, a human detection section adapted to detect a human existing in a predetermined region, and a mode switching section adapted to switch an operation mode to one of a content mode for projecting light of an image related to a content by the projection section, and an illumination mode for projecting light for illumination by the projection section in accordance with a detection result of the human detection section. |
| US09332232B2 |
Display device, transmitting terminal, receiving terminal and wireless communication system
A display device may include: an acquisition unit acquiring transmitting terminal identification information that is identification information of a transmitting terminal transmitting image data by wireless communication, and receiving terminal identification information that is identification information of a receiving terminal receiving the image data by wireless communication; and an information display unit displaying the transmitting terminal identification information and the receiving terminal identification information. |
| US09332231B2 |
Vehicle and method for monitoring safe driving
In a method for monitoring safe driving of a vehicle, the method obtains a current image captured by an image capturing device positioned on an outside sideview mirror of the vehicle, determines a horizontal distance and a vertical distance between each pixel point in the current image and the lens of image capturing device, and selects a reference point from first specified pixel points whose horizontal distances are less than a first preset value. The method further determines second specified pixel points whose vertical distances are less than or equal to a second preset value based on the reference point, to obtains a processed image based on the second specified pixel points, and displays the processed image on an inside rearview mirror of the vehicle. |
| US09332228B2 |
Content provision apparatus and method
Provided are a content provision apparatus and method. The content provision apparatus includes a message reception module receiving a service request message from a display apparatus which displays first content; a content extraction module analyzing the received service request message and extracting second content associated with the first content; and a communication module transmitting the extracted second content. |
| US09332226B2 |
Video session manager and method for enabling a video communication session across geographically disparate domains
A video session manager and method for enabling, optimizing, and managing inter-domain video communication sessions, including telepresence and videoconferencing sessions. The video session manager is configured to receive and analyze a video communication session request from one or more endpoints; to determine the viability of a communication session based on one or more attributes of the session; and to connect the one or more requesting endpoints to start the session. The video session manager is further configured to connect the one or more requesting endpoints via a bridging resource, such as a multipoint control unit, based on one or more considerations such as geography and transmission channel utilization. |
| US09332216B2 |
Video frame rate compensation through adjustment of vertical blanking
Aspects of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods configured to adjust the timing of frame scanout in response to fluctuations in the source frame rate of graphics content rendered by a processing unit. In certain implementations, a vertical blanking interval generated during scanout of frames from a frame buffer may be adjusted in response to detected changes in the frame rate at which the source content is generated. In certain implementations, rendered graphics may be streamed over a network for display in real-time on a remote device, and the scanout out of frames may be adjusted in order to better match the rate of compression and streaming to a variable frame rate of the source content. |
| US09332209B2 |
Backing up compressed data at the source before transmitting over a network
An image and/or audio data processing and storage system includes a monitoring system and a plurality of cameras connected thereto. The image and/or audio data processing and storage system contains n units that are independent of each other, with each of the units having a data processing device containing a first segment that compresses digital image and/or audio data as well as a first storage device and a second storage device that are fed the same image and/or audio data compressed by the data processing device for storage. |
| US09332208B2 |
Imaging apparatus having a projector with automatic photography activation based on superimposition
An imaging apparatus having a projector, includes: an imaging unit that photographs a subject; a mirror image converting unit that converts a live view image photographed by the imaging unit into a mirror image; a projector that projects the mirror image of the live view image in a direction opposite to a photographing direction of the imaging unit; a control unit that initiates actual photography for recording the subject by the imaging unit when a posture of a main subject satisfies a predetermined condition; and a pose image superimposing unit that superimpose a pose image on a projected image, in which the control unit determines that the predetermined condition is satisfied and performs the actual photography when a superimposition degree of the main subject in the projected image and the pose image is a threshold value or more. |
| US09332207B2 |
Vehicular display device
A vehicular display device includes an information display portion disposed on a housing provided forwardly of a driver's seat. The information display portion has a display screen disposed in opposed relationship to the driver's seat. The display device further includes a holder unit disposed rearwardly of the housing in opposed relationship with the information display portion, and a mobile terminal detachably retained between the holder unit and the housing. |
| US09332206B2 |
Frame sharing
A method including providing television content (TC) to a user; receiving a TC capture request; capturing TC frames based on the TC capture request; displaying to the user one or more TC frames included in the captured TC frames; receiving a user selection of one or more TC frames included in the displayed one or more TC frames; receiving a user selection of one or more destinations to send the selected one or more TC frames; and sending the selected one or more TC frames to the one or more destinations. |
| US09332203B2 |
Photoelectric conversion apparatus and imaging system
A photoelectric conversion apparatus includes a photoelectric-conversion element configured to output electric charges generated by photoelectric conversion to a first node, and an accumulation circuit having an input terminal connected to the first node and being capable of changing an integral capacitance value. The number of drain or source of a MOS transistor in an OFF state connected to the first node is one. |
| US09332202B2 |
Solid-state imaging apparatus and imaging system
A solid-state imaging apparatus, wherein an analog to digital conversion unit converts an analog signal from the pixel, a first memory holds the digital signal from the analog to digital conversion unit, and thereafter, a second memory holds the digital signal held by the first memory. The analog to digital conversion unit converts an analog signal from the pixel based on a photoelectric conversion of the pixel, and the first memory holds the digital signal from the analog to digital conversion unit. The first memory includes a first latch circuit holding a digital signal from the analog to digital conversion unit and a second latch circuit holding a signal held by the first latch circuit. The second memory includes a third latch circuit holding a signal held in the first latch circuit and a fourth latch circuit holding a signal held in the third latch circuit. |
| US09332200B1 |
Pixel readout architecture for full well capacity extension
Certain aspects relate to systems and techniques for full well capacity extension. For example, a storage capacitor included in the pixel readout architecture can enable multiple charge dumps from a pixel in the analog domain, extending the full well capacity of the pixel. Further, multiple reads can be integrated in the digital domain using a memory, for example DRAM, in communication with the pixel readout architecture. This also can effectively multiply a small pixel's full well capacity. In some examples, multiple reads in the digital domain can be used to reduce, eliminate, or compensate for kTC noise in the pixel readout architecture. |
| US09332199B2 |
Imaging device, image processing device, and image processing method
An imaging device includes a photography optical system, and a single plate-type imaging element in which a plurality of pixels including two-dimensionally arranged photoelectric conversion elements and having a different underlayer layout are repeatedly arranged in a predetermined pattern, and color filters on the plurality of pixels, determination unit determines that a ghost is generated when an output level of one of the plurality of pixels and an output level of the same color pixel in the vicinity of the one pixel, which is the other pixel having a different underlayer layout from the one pixel, are different within a range in which the output levels do not exceed a predetermined threshold, and correction unit reducing a difference of the output level between the one pixel and the same color pixel in the vicinity when the determination unit determines that the ghost is generated. |
| US09332197B2 |
Infrared sensor control architecture
A system and method for optimizing fixed and temporal noise in an infrared imaging system. The system may use correction tables with correction factors, each correction factor indexed to a plurality of system parameters. |
| US09332193B2 |
Synchronization of image acquisition in multiple image sensors with a synchronization clock signal
A multiple image sensor image acquisition system includes a clock control unit to generate a synchronization clock signal. The synchronization clock signal has a prolonged constant cycle during which the synchronization clock signal is held at a constant level for a period of time corresponding to multiple clock cycles. A first image sensor is coupled with the clock control unit to receive the synchronization clock signal and has a first synchronization unit that is operable to synchronize operation for the first image sensor based on detection of an end of the prolonged constant cycle. A second image sensor is coupled with the clock control unit to receive the synchronization clock signal and has a second synchronization unit that is operable to synchronize operation for the second image sensor based on detection of the end of the prolonged constant cycle. The image sensors are synchronized operationally. |
| US09332192B2 |
Image generating device and exposure start timing adjustment method
An image generating device includes an exposure timing control unit for controlling an electronic front curtain so as to adjust to a running characteristics of a mechanical rear curtain based on a plurality of the image data. |
| US09332189B2 |
User-guided object identification
A user attempting to obtain information about an object can capture image information including a view of that object, and the image information can be used with a matching or identification process to provide information about that type of object to the user. In order to narrow the search space to a specific category, and thus improve the accuracy of the results and the speed at which results can be obtained, the user can be guided to capture image information with an appropriate orientation. An outline or other graphical guide can be displayed over image information captured by a computing device, in order to guide the user in capturing the object from an appropriate direction and with an appropriate scale for the type of matching and/or information used for the matching. Such an approach enables three-dimensional objects to be analyzed using conventional two-dimensional identification algorithms, among other such processes. |
| US09332188B2 |
Optical unit with shake correcting function
The purpose of the present invention is to provide an optical unit with camera-shake correction function capable of minimizing the load applied to a movable element from a flexible wiring substrate even when the movable element is oscillated, in order to correct camera shake. In an optical unit provided with a camera-shake correction function, a movable element can be oscillated about an oscillation support point by actuating a drive mechanism for camera-shake correction, and camera shake can therefore be corrected. In a flexible wiring substrate drawn out from the movable element, a folded part folded along the rear end portion of the movable element in the optical axis direction is formed in a drawn-out portion from the movable element, and in the optical axis direction, the oscillation support point is positioned between the surface of the folded part that faces the end part on the other side −Y in the Y-axis direction of the rear end portion of the movable element in the optical axis direction, and the surface that faces toward the rear in the optical axis direction at a fixed part of the flexible wiring substrate with respect to a fixed body. |
| US09332186B2 |
Method for compensating motion blur in connection with vibrations
The invention relates to a method for compensating motion blur in connection with vibrations in an image recording apparatus (1), such as a camera, for stabilization of recorded images, wherein use is made of a reference image. According to the invention, a frame (2) of a recorded image is selected for image stabilization and the degree of sharpness (3) in the selected frame is evaluated and compared (5) with a previously saved reference value (4) for the degree of sharpness for a previously selected frame. The last chosen frame is used to update (6) a video sequence and the degree of the sharpness for the last chosen frame is saved (7) as a new reference value if the degree of sharpness for the last chosen frame is deemed to be better (5) than or equally as good as the reference value for the degree of sharpness for a previously selected frame. The reference value (4) for the degree of sharpness for a previously selected frame is saved with reduction (8) of the value of sharpness and the previously selected frame is used in the video sequence if the degree of sharpness for the last chosen frame is deemed to be worse (5) than the reference value for the degree of sharpness for the previously selected frame. As a result of the invention, a method which, by relatively simple action, can effectively compensate for motion blur in connection with vibrations is provided. |
| US09332185B2 |
Method and apparatus for reducing jitters of video frames
A method for reducing the jitters of video frames is provided, which includes the steps of dividing a frame into multiple blocks, selecting at least one block according to a variance of each block, determining a global motion vector of the frame in a direction according to the selected block(s), and performing motion compensation on the frame in the direction according to the global motion vector. |
| US09332181B1 |
Low distortion wide angle lens for dynamic perspective
An f-theta lens system for a camera that provides a wide field-of-view, relatively low distortion, and a compact footprint. The lens system comprises four molded plastic elements with seven aspheric surfaces. Within a total thickness of 2.5 millimeters, the system is able to provide an image that is 1.2 millimeters across with a horizontal field of view of 127 degrees. The images produced by the system are well-suited for use with conventional face tracking algorithms designed to process rectilinear images produced by cameras with a narrower field of view. |
| US09332180B2 |
Image capture apparatus
An image capture apparatus includes an image capture unit, an image processing unit, an image quality adjusting unit, and an output unit. The image capture unit generates first image data using an image capture device. The image processing unit generates second image data from the first image data so that an image quality of the second image data corresponds to a flat image quality. The image quality adjusting unit converts the second image data into third image data by adjusting the image quality of the second image data to be a predetermined image quality. The output unit outputs the third image data instead of the second image data to an external apparatus if a predetermined condition is satisfied. |
| US09332179B2 |
Flash collision detection, compensation, and prevention
Certain aspects relate to systems and techniques for flash collision detection, compensation, and prevention. For example, the flash of another camera or other sudden increases in ambient lighting of an image scene can introduce unwanted quality degradations into captured images, for example over-exposure of part or all of the captured image. Flash collision can be detected through a row sum calculation and comparison process in some examples. In some examples, flash collision can be compensated for by analysis of row sum data from a number of preview frames. In other examples, flash collision can be mitigated or prevented through use of a flash traffic control protocol. |
| US09332173B2 |
Imaging device having motion detector and in-focus position estimating unit, and imaging method
An imaging device is configured to include an imaging lens, an imaging unit which acquires image data based on an optical image of a subject received via the imaging lens, a motion detector which detects a motion of the subject based on image data sequentially obtained from the imaging unit, a focus detector which calculates focus position data based on the image data obtained from the imaging lens when the motion detector detects a motion of the subject, and an in-focus position estimating unit which estimates an in-focus position based on the calculated focus position data. |
| US09332170B1 |
Telescoping extension
A telescoping extension for a portable electronic device of the type having a camera and a wireless communication circuit comprises a telescoping arm that has a handle at a proximal end thereof and an attachment head at a distal end thereof. The attachment head telescopingly extends away from the handle with a telescoping mechanism. A device support has an attachment mechanism for slidably and pivotally fixing with the attachment head of the telescoping arm. The device support is adapted for fixing with the portable electronic device. A remote control is selectively and detachably fixed with the telescoping arm is adapted for wireless communication with the wireless communication circuit of the portable electronic device. The remote control includes a switch for communicating a command to the portable electronic device, such as a command to take a photograph, or to start or stop a video recording. |
| US09332168B2 |
Photographing device having multiple video capturing units
A photographing device includes a main body, a first video capturing unit, a second video capturing unit and a rotatable electrical connection portion. The first video capturing unit is disposed on the main body, a center of a first video capturing range of the first video capturing unit is located on a first axis. The second video capturing unit is rotatable about the first axis to be pivoted on the main body, the second video capturing unit and the first axis are separated by a distance. A second video capturing range of the second video capturing unit overlaps the first axis. The rotatable electrical connection portion includes a first and a second connection component pivoted and connected to each other. The second video capturing unit is disposed on and connected to the first connection component. The second connection component is disposed on and connected to the main body. |
| US09332167B1 |
Multi-directional camera module for an electronic device
Approaches are described for selectively managing imaging elements on a computing device. A portable computing device can include a camera module that can manage the capture and/or processing of image data. The module can include a first imaging element attached to a first surface of a substrate and a second imaging element attached to a second surface of the substrate, the first surface being opposite the second surface. The image module can also include an image signal processor (ISP) or other dedicated imaging processing circuitry attached to or otherwise in connection with the substrate. The circuitry can be shared between the imaging elements, and can be configured to receive a selection of one of the imaging elements and process (e.g., depth pixel correction, etc.) captured image data based on the selected imaging element. |
| US09332164B2 |
Molded semiconductor package with snap lid
An image sensor package includes an image sensor, a window, and a molding, where the molding includes a lens holder extension portion extending upwards from the window. The lens holder extension portion includes a female threaded aperture extending from the window such that the window is exposed through the aperture. A lens is supported in a threaded lens support. The threaded lens support is threaded into the aperture of the lens holder extension portion. The lens is readily adjusted relative to the image sensor by rotating the lens support. |
| US09332160B1 |
Method of synchronizing audio-visual assets
A system and method of synchronizing the processing and distribution of audio-visual assets in a distributed production studio are presented. The method addresses the processing of broadcast television, including match moving computer graphics technology, in such an environment. Audio-visual sources provide the assets while processing nodes interact with them to produce a composite output. Synchronization of the communication between, and the processing by, the sources and nodes is managed by a master controller and delay buffers located on the nodes. Assets are tagged with updatable reference-to-zero values indicative of a current transmission delay between their last source and the controller. These reference-to-zero values are used by processing nodes to determine where in their local buffer to place each asset so they emerge from the buffer to a local digital signal processor in synchronicity and that assets originally produced at a common time are executed locally at a common time. |
| US09332157B2 |
Print control apparatus and print control program for printing with special color ink
A print control apparatus includes an image data acquisition unit for acquiring at least first image data of a raster format that defines color information and second image data of a raster format that defines an amount of recording with a special color ink different from the color that is indicated by the color information, a PDL data generation unit for generating PDL data with which an instruction for printing a document comprising at least an image represented by the first image data and the second image data is described by a page description language, and a transfer unit for transferring the generated PDL data to a print unit, wherein the PDL data generation unit generating a command for designating a method of printing for the special color ink represented by the second image data and generating PDL data that includes the generated command. |
| US09332156B2 |
Glare and shadow mitigation by fusing multiple frames
In one example, a method for glare and shadow mitigation by fusing multiple frames includes illuminating the target with light from a first illumination direction and capturing a first frame of the target with a camera while the target is illuminated in the first illumination direction. The method also includes illuminating the target with light from a second illumination direction and capturing a second frame of the target with the camera while the target is illuminated in the second illumination direction. The first frame and second frame are fused together to form a composite image that simultaneously mitigates glare and shadow areas. |
| US09332149B2 |
Image processing apparatus capable of generating image including arranged images
An image processing apparatus includes a processor and a memory storing instructions, the instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the image processing apparatus to perform: receiving first image data representing a first image; specifying a partial image included in the first image; specifying an internal area included in the partial image; and generating a second image in which more than two of the partial image are continuously arranged as first partial image and a second partial image, wherein the second partial image is arranged continuously to the first partial image and overlaps with the internal area of the first partial image. |
| US09332146B2 |
Lid position detector for an image scanner
An image scanner includes a main body and a lid. The main body includes a scan window. The scan window is covered by the lid when the lid is closed and is exposed when the lid is open. A lid position detector detects whether the lid is open or closed. |
| US09332141B2 |
Image processing apparatus, method of controlling the same and storage medium thereof
An image processing apparatus capable of communicating with a server that provides a microblogging function detects a registration of a first message to the server, acquires image data indicated by the first message whose registration is detected, outputs the acquired image data and registers to the server a second message on the first message registered to the server, in a case where the image data is not output within a predetermined time period. |
| US09332137B2 |
Method for form filling an address on a mobile computing device based on zip code lookup
A system for creating image and or text-based projects from a computing appliance includes a server connected to a network, the server having access to a processor, a data repository, and a non-transitory physical medium. Software running from the non-transitory physical medium provides a first function for establishing a client server connection between the server and a computing appliance connected to the network, a second function for initiating an active data session between the computing appliance and a data server, a third function for storing a database of zip codes with the relevant cities and states on the user-operated computing appliance, a fourth function for detecting when a user enters a zip code onto a form field, a fifth function for looking up the entered zip code, and a sixth function for retrieving the associated city and state information and auto-populating the text fields associated with the zip code. |
| US09332133B2 |
System, device, and method of traffic detection
A cellular traffic monitoring system includes: a Traffic Detection Function (TDF) module to monitor cellular traffic associated with a cellular subscriber device, and to generate application detection output indicative of an application used by the cellular subscriber device; an application-based charging module to generate, based on the application detection output of said TDF module, application-based charging data related to said cellular subscriber device; a Policy Charging and Enforcement Function (PCEF) module to enforce one or more charging rules that are Service Data Flow (SDF) based and are related to said cellular subscriber device; an SDF-based charging module to generate SDF-based charging data related to said cellular subscriber device; and a charging correlator module to identify a potential over-charging due to an overlap between the application-based charging data and the SDF-based charging data. |
| US09332132B1 |
System and method for reclaiming obligated network resources
A system and method for reducing obligated network resources may include establishing network resources obligated to serve a user for use of a networked electronic device on a communications network. Network usage data of the networked electronic device of the user operating on the communications network over a time period may be collected in a data repository. A determination may be made by the computing device as to whether the network usage data exceeds a minimum usage threshold level over the time period. In response to the computing device determining that the network usage data exceeds the usage threshold level over the time period, the network resources obligated to serve the user may be maintained. Otherwise, the network resources obligated to serve the user may be caused to be released, thereby reducing obligated network resources. |
| US09332130B2 |
Universal SMDR buffer
The present invention provides a highly flexible system that can receive SMDR messages in many different formats and process these messages to produce useful reports and control information. The system can collect data via a LAN/WAN connection from PBX systems with internal data storage, PBX systems without internal data storage and legacy PBX systems that are connected to a buffer for storage of SMDR records. |
| US09332129B2 |
Methods and apparatus for automated communications forwarding
Methods and apparatus for the automated updating of forwarding preferences for communications in a telecommunications network. In one embodiment, the network includes a wireless (e.g., cellular) network with user mobile user devices configured to detect a change to their configuration (such as a user changing out SIM cards or virtual access clients). In response, the device causes an update to its associated communication forwarding preferences to reflect the change. If the configuration alteration meets certain criteria (e.g., changes the phone number at which the device may be reached), the device sends a forwarding message instructing a network entity (e.g., routing server) to direct communications addressed to the old phone number to the new phone number. Thus, a user with two or more user profiles (such as two different carrier accounts) may be reached at any number associated with any of the profiles, even if only one profile is currently active. |
| US09332128B2 |
System and method for provision of a second line service to a telecommunications device using mixed relationship numbers
A method and system are described for servicing a second line service (“SLS”) based communication request originating from a subscriber's telecommunications device (“TD”) even if the call signal does not include sufficient information to identify the phone number from which the subscriber initiated the call. The method involves associating the SLS phone number of the subscriber, the primary number of the subscriber and the primary number of a third party via a special relationship number. |
| US09332124B2 |
Call routing to subject matter specialist for network page topic
Disclosed are various embodiments for location based call routing to a subject matter specialist. A call request is received from a computing device which includes an identifier of a network page. A topic specialist for the network page is identified from the contents of the network page. The call request is completed by establishing a call between the computing device and another computing device which is operated by the topic specialist. |
| US09332121B2 |
Method for implementing user-specific calling preferences
A method and system of establishing calling preferences for a user are provided. The method includes: defining a user profile containing an association between the user and two or more communication devices, each device having an associated device type; assigning the user to at least one group; obtaining group preferences associated with one or more of the user's groups; determining user preferences for the user based on the group preferences and the device types of the communication devices associated with the user; and storing the user specific preferences in a user profile associated with the user. |
| US09332118B2 |
System and method for call distribution
A computer-implemented method for distributing phone calls includes the steps of receiving or initiating a telephone call from or with a caller associated with caller identification information, generating masked caller identification information by masking a portion of the caller identification information, transmitting the masked caller identification information to a plurality of potential call-buyers, determining a call-buyer of the plurality of potential call-buyers to receive the incoming phone call, and storing the caller identification information with the masked caller identification information. A system and computer-readable medium are also disclosed. |
| US09332117B2 |
Information processing device, information processing method, and program
Provided is an information processing device including a retrieval unit configured to retrieve a data record in which a marker detected in an image acquired by a terminal device is associated with a function of the terminal device, and a calling function determination unit configured to determine the function to be called in the terminal device based on the data record found through the retrieval. The data record includes information generated based on a calling history of the function in which the marker in the terminal device is used. |
| US09332116B1 |
Limiting device operation without third party permission
Embodiments of the invention include a set of rules established by a third-party to control the execution of various functions offered by a device. The set of rules can block a function outright, or can specify particular combinations of days and times when the function can be executed and when it is blocked. Then, when the user of the device requests an instance of the function to be executed, the set of rules can be accessed to determine whether the requested function instance is permitted, after which the device can either block or execute the requested function instance. |
| US09332115B2 |
Communication apparatus and method for controlling the same
An operator is prevented from accidently operating a communication apparatus during short range communication, even if there is an incoming call/mail. A communication apparatus has at least a first communication unit that performs wireless communication for a call or a mail, and a second communication unit that is different from the first communication unit. The communication apparatus changes a notification function that notifies a user of an incoming call/mail received by the first communication unit to a prohibited status in accordance with a start of communication by the second communication unit, and cancels the prohibited status of the notification function in accordance with an end of communication by the second communication unit. |
| US09332103B2 |
User protection in a multimode personal communication device
Portable communication device (100) generates a telephony audio stream and at least a second audio stream. Responsive to the occurrence of a telephony session, the second audio stream is re-routed from a loudspeaker (234) to a handset speaker (230) in the PCD (100) having a low capacity audio output capability. Upon termination of the telephony session, the second audio stream is re-routed from the handset speaker (230) to the loudspeaker (234). Subsequent to such re-routing, an audio output drive level of the second audio stream is caused to gradually increase over a period of time in accordance with a predetermined ramp function. A series of warning tones are reproduced to warn the user of the potential for high volume audio. |
| US09332090B1 |
Communication data padding
Sending padding data is disclosed. Uncompressed communication data in a first data grouping is prepared using a data compression algorithm. A header of the first data grouping identifies that the first data grouping includes uncompressed contents. A second data grouping is selected. The second data grouping includes compressed padding data configured to fill a buffer of a receiver to at least a predetermined size. The first data grouping and the second data grouping are sent. |
| US09332084B2 |
Sandboxing content optimization at the network edge
Some embodiments provide systems and methods for sandboxing content optimization to occur entirely within a network edge or PoP of a CDN. Some embodiments pass a first request for a first URL to a first back-end at the network edge that is configured to cache an optimized instance of the particular object. When the optimized instance of the particular object is not cached at the first back-end, a second request is issued for a second URL identifying a non-optimized instance of the particular object. The second request resolves internally within the network edge to a second back-end that is configured to cache the non-optimized object. The non-optimized object from the second back-end is optimized and passed to the first back-end. The first back-end caches the optimized instance of the non-optimized object and serves the optimized instance to a requesting end user. |
| US09332081B2 |
Anonymous cross-device linking using temporal identifiers
Methods, systems, and apparatus include computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium, including a method for providing content. Login credentials provided by a user are received when communicating through a first user device, and a temporal identifier is created for the user and provided to the first user device. Prior to expiration of the temporary key, login credentials provided by the user on a second different user device are received. The temporal identifier is re-created for the user and provided to the second different user device. A first request is received from the first or second different user device. The temporal identifier is stored and an identifier associated with the device. A second request is received from the other device. A device identifier for the first and second different user device are linked in association with the temporal identifier. The linking is used to respond to the second request. |
| US09332078B2 |
Locality based content distribution
A system and method for content distribution are provided. A content provider generates a network topology having one or more subnetworks made up of content sources. The content provider segments content, such as applications, into segments for distribution. The content provider then distributes the content such that for each identified subnetwork, each content segment is distributed to a content source. Subsequent, client computing device requests for content can be serviced by selecting a content source in a particular subnetwork selected for delivering the requested content to the client computing device to minimize traffic flow of the requested content through the nodes of the distribution network. |
| US09332077B2 |
Gathering information about connections in a social networking service
To enhance information about connections in a social networking service, embodiments of the invention enable users to reference nodes while posting content to a communication channel. To identify connections within content in the social networking service, users of the social networking service are provided an interface to post content items in communication channels of the social networking service. A trigger received in the interface indicates that a user wishes to identify a connection in the posted content item. Selectable links enable the user to mention another node in the social networking service when posting a content item. As users reference nodes in content items, information about the connections with the referenced nodes is gathered and stored in a database that is indexable and searchable in real-time. |
| US09332076B2 |
Method and apparatus for setting a language of a remote device
A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and apparatus for setting a language of a remote device are disclosed. For example, the method determines connectivity information for interacting with the remote device, assesses a language setting of the mobile endpoint device, and sets the language of the remote device by sending the language setting of the mobile endpoint device to the remote device using the connectivity information. |
| US09332075B2 |
Distributed network firewall and flow-based forwarding system
A method performed by a network appliance having a plurality of application processing units, includes: receiving a first packet at the network appliance; calculating a first value using a mathematical algorithm based on one or more information regarding the first packet; and using the calculated first value to identify a first application processing unit of the plurality of application processing units in the network appliance. A network appliance includes: a plurality of processing units that are communicatively connected to each other; wherein a first processing unit of the plurality of processing units is configured for: calculating a first value using a mathematical algorithm based on one or more information regarding a first packet; and using the calculated first value to identify a second processing unit of the plurality of processing units. |
| US09332069B2 |
Methods, devices and systems for initiating, forming and joining memberships in distributed computing systems
A computer-implemented method of deploying a membership of nodes in a distributed computing system may comprise selecting nodes to be part of a membership of nodes; creating a membership task identifying a membership creator node as the node that is creating the membership and comprising a membership target identifying at least one node of the distributed computing system that is to become a member of the membership; and creating a beacon configured to send a create membership message to each identified node, the create membership message comprising at least an identity of the membership task and an identification of the membership. Upon receiving a response from a node in the membership target, the node from which the response was received may be removed from the beacon. The membership may be deployed when a response has been received from each of the nodes identified in the membership target. |
| US09332065B2 |
Methods and apparatus for identifying browser use on a mobile device
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for in obtrusively determining previous actions and information associated with a user and generating web page content based upon previous actions and stored information. |
| US09332063B2 |
Versatile application configuration for deployable computing environments
Within a computing environment, an application may run in a variety of contexts, e.g., as a natively executable application, as a client-side interpretable application embedded in a web browser, or as a server-side application that communicates with the user through a web interface presented on a device. The application may also access resources of the computing environment stored on multiple devices. The configuration of the application to operate equivalently in these diverse environments may be facilitated by representing the application within an object hierarchy representing the computing environment. The application may be configured to operate on the objects of the object hierarchy regardless of the location of the stored objects, to execute on any device, and to execute upon a standard set of application programming interfaces. The configuration of the application in this manner promotes the versatility of the application in operating equivalently in different programming contexts. |
| US09332062B2 |
Method and arrangement for providing documents
A method and arrangement for handling document requests in a communication services network. When a first document server (200) receives (2:1) a request for a first service document from a requesting party (200), the requested first service document (Doc 1) is retrieved (2:2), which comprises a reference (ref) to service related information in a second service document (Doc 2). The first document server (200) then fetches (2:3) said service related information (list) in the second service document using the information reference, and aggregates (2:4) the fetched service related information with the first service document. The first document server (200) finally returns (2:5) the first service document together with the aggregated service related information (Doc 1′) to the requesting party in response to the received document request. Thereby, the requesting party is not forced to request for more documents than the first service document to obtain the needed information. |
| US09332056B2 |
Methods and apparatus to distinguish between parent and child webpage accesses and/or browser tabs in focus
Methods and apparatus to distinguish between parent and child webpage accesses and/or browser tabs in focus are disclosed. An example implementation includes identifying an HTTP request; retrieving Page Info data from a browser; electronically detecting if the Page Info data and the HTTP request identify a same Internet resource; electronically classifying the HTTP request as a parent call when the Page Info data and the HTTP request identify the same Internet resource; and electronically classifying the HTTP request as a child call when the Page Info data and the HTTP request identify different Internet resources. |
| US09332052B2 |
Remotely sited execution of a software application within a network
A method of controlling an execution of a software application. The method includes, within a control device designed for driving at least one multimedia contents restitution device: a step of obtaining, from an execution device configured to trigger an execution of the software application, first connection data to be used by a restitution device to establish a first communication link across a network with the execution device and receiving, during the execution, via the first communication link a multimedia stream resulting from the execution; a step of transmitting to the restitution device parameters for restitution of a multimedia content comprising the first connection data; and a step of dispatching to the restitution device a command for restitution of the multimedia content, intended for triggering a restitution by the restitution device of the multimedia stream. |
| US09332051B2 |
Media manifest file generation for adaptive streaming cost management
Methods and systems for adaptive streaming cost management are described. A processing device can receive a request over a network from a media player executing on a client device to adaptively stream media content. The media content can include a plurality of media slices. The processing device can identify a geographical location of the client device from the request. The processing device can generate a media manifest file based on the geographical location of the client device. The media manifest file can indicate one or more media sources at which a copy of the plurality of media slices is geographically located and a cost associated with delivery of the plurality of media slices from the respective one of the one or more media sources. The processing device can transmit the media manifest file to the client device over the network. |
| US09332049B1 |
Media compression for tunneled real-time communications
A system performs compression of real-time communications (“RTC”). The system establishes a tunnel with a user equipment (“UE”) by a tunneling server, and communicates encapsulated media with the UE over the tunnel. Subsequently, the system receives a request from a tunneling client at the UE to enable compression for the encapsulated media, determines a codec for transcoding the encapsulated media at the tunneling client and at the tunneling server, and sends a response back to the UE to indicate that compression is enabled for the encapsulated media. The system then communicates compressed encapsulated media with the UE over the tunnel. |
| US09332045B2 |
Automatic initiation of a collaborative session
A method includes a conference facilitation server to determine whether a conference initiator has defined a set of conference parameters, storing the set of conference parameters in a database. The server communicates a conference invitation to each of the proposed participants using contact identifiers and designates the proposed participants as a confirmed participants when the proposed participants send conference acknowledgements to the conference server, responsive to the conference invitation to participate in a collaborative session. The server automatically initiates a first attempt to establish communications with each of the confirmed participants at the conference time on the conference date through a conference medium using contact identifiers. If the first attempt to establish communication fails then the server automatically initiates an additional attempt to establish communications with a particular confirmed participant with whom the first attempt has failed. |
| US09332039B2 |
Method, apparatus, and system for establishing voice communication
Methods, apparatus and systems for establishing voice communication are provided herein. An exemplary method can be implemented by an electronic device. A request initiated by a user can be received. The request can include one of a voice-communication request, a voice-communication-invitation request, a temporary-voice-communication request, a temporary-voice-communication-invitation request, an exclusive-voice-communication request, and an exclusive-voice-communication-invitation request. According to the request, a voice-room number can be obtained from a first server or a second server, without using third-party communication software. The method further includes starting a voice client and entering a voice room directly using the voice client, according to the voice-room number. |
| US09332037B2 |
Method and apparatus for redundant signaling links
According to at least one embodiment of the invention, a protocol for managing redundant signaling links to form a reliable signaling connection is provided. The protocol has an initialization phase, in which the availability of signaling links is determined and an available signaling link is selected and activated, followed by an operational phase in which the activated link is used for sending signaling messages for a higher-level protocol. During the operational phase both links are monitored for availability using a query and reply technique. Should either link fail, a status message is sent to the remaining available link along with an activity switchover being performed, as required, depending on whether the failed link was the active link. The higher-level protocol process running on the media gateway performs management of the links, and the media gateway controller operates as a slave, whereby it need not initiate nor control any of the activities for management of the signaling links, thereby reducing the processing burden placed upon it. However, optionally, a media gateway controller may request a link switchover, which may be used to support link maintenance activities or link congestion avoidance measures. |
| US09332034B2 |
System and methods for automatic designation of encryption policies for user devices
Disclosed are system, methods, and computer program product for designation of encryption policies for user devices. An example method includes determining one or more criteria for the user device related to encryption requirements of the user device; determining numeric values for each of the one of more criteria; determining a coefficient for the device based on the numeric values; determining an encryption policy for the device based on the coefficient; and applying the determined encryption policy to the device. |
| US09332032B2 |
Implementing security in a social application
Implementing security in social applications includes inferring a closeness level of a connection to a user's profile of a social application based on a closeness policy and implementing a security level individualized to the connection based on the closeness level. |
| US09332030B1 |
Systems and methods for thwarting illegitimate initialization attempts
The disclosed computer-implemented method for thwarting illegitimate initialization attempts may include (1) receiving an initialization packet designed to initiate communication between a source port on a source computing device and a destination port on a destination computing device, (2) thwarting potential illegitimate initialization attempts by intentionally dropping the initialization packet, (3) receiving an additional initialization packet, (4) determining that the additional initialization packet is from the same source port on the same source computing device and is directed to the same destination port on the same destination computing device as the original initialization packet, and (5) sending an acknowledgement packet that initiates communication between the source computing device and the destination computing device. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed. |
| US09332029B1 |
System and method for malware detection in a distributed network of computer nodes
Disclosed are system and method of distributed detection of malware. An example system includes a security client deployed on a computer node. The security client is operable to identify and communicate with similar security clients deployed on other computer nodes located in a local or remote computer networks. The security client is configured to: perform a malware analysis of files on the computer node; identify unknown files; collect information and statistics data about the unknown file; transmit to other computer nodes a request for identification about the unknown file; receive from at least one other computer node a response containing the identification of the unknown file as a malicious file and a malware remediation tool, wherein the remediation tool includes information, statistics data and malware repair or removal instructions for the malicious file; and use the received malware remediation tool to repair or remove the malicious file. |
| US09332028B2 |
System, method, and apparatus for providing network security
Methods, systems, and apparatuses for proactively protecting a computing network are disclosed. A proactive security mechanism is disclosed, among other things, with the ability to monitor a protected domain in real-time and safely identify inoculation procedures for responding to threats introduced to the protected domain via malware. The proactive security mechanism includes an Artificial Neural Network Interface (ANNI) configured to execute at least some features of the proactive security mechanism. |
| US09332023B1 |
Uploading signatures to gateway level unified threat management devices after endpoint level behavior based detection of zero day threats
Zero day threats are detected at gateway level and blocked from entering a network. A database containing signatures identifying malware is maintained at the gateway. Inbound network traffic is scanned using the signatures, and files containing malware are detected and blocked by the gateway. When a file is received by a given endpoint in the network, behavior based malware detection is used to determine whether the file contains a zero day threat. Whenever a file is adjudicated by an endpoint as containing a zero day threat, the endpoint generates an identifying signature, and transmits the signature to the gateway in real time. The gateway thus receives signatures identifying multiple zero day threats from multiple endpoints, and subsequently scans inbound network traffic for the received signatures. From that point, the gateway detects files containing the zero day threats, and blocks them from being routed to endpoints in the network. |
| US09332019B2 |
Establishment of a trust index to enable connections from unknown devices
A method of controlling access to a remote system includes granting a connecting device full access to the system upon determining the device is registered to a user, upon determining the device is not registered, determining whether the device has connected to the system before, granting the device full access to the system if the device has connected before and a trust index based on a trust level for the device and a trust level of a location the device is currently connecting from exceeds a threshold, and granting the device limited access to the system otherwise. |
| US09332017B2 |
Monitoring remote access to an enterprise network
Techniques to provide an improved representation of remote network access for a network administrator managing and controlling access to resources on an enterprise network. The representation indicates resources accessed by a remote computer or by a user of that computer and provides associated information useful for managing remote network access. To create the representation, multiple security associations formed between a remote client computer and resources on the enterprise network are associated with entity sessions, based on identical session identifiers generated for each security association within an entity session. The entity sessions may be aggregated into a DirectAccess “connection” between the remote client computer and the enterprise network, based on an identity of the remote client computer. Resources accessed over the connection may be identified using a session identifier of each entity session so that security associations in that entity session may be matched with the resources. |
| US09332015B1 |
System and method for providing error handling in an untrusted network environment
An example method is provided and may include receiving a DIAMETER-based error over an SWm interface by a first evolved packet data gateway (ePDG) for a user equipment (UE) attempting to connect to the first ePDG; determining an Internet Key Exchange version two (IKEv2) error type corresponding to the DIAMETER-based error; and communicating the IKEv2 error type to the UE over an SWu interface. In some cases, the IKEv2 error type can be included in a notify payload or in a vendor ID payload for an IKE authentication response (IKE_AUTH_RESP) message. By distinguishing the IKEv2 error type, the UE can determine whether the error is a temporary or a permanent type and can determine whether to attempt to connect again to the first ePDG after a period of time or attempt to connect to another ePDG, which can help to reduce unnecessary signaling and provide better connectivity and user experience. |
| US09332012B2 |
Apparatus and methods for storing electronic access clients
Apparatus and methods for storing and controlling access control clients. In one embodiment, transmitting and receiving devices ensure that only one copy of an eSIM is active at any time. Specifically, each transferred eSIM is encrypted for the destination device; the eSIM from the source device is deleted, deactivated, or otherwise rendered unusable. Various aspects of network infrastructure are also described, including electronic Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC) appliances, and mobile devices. Various scenarios for transfer of eSIMs are also disclosed. |
| US09332006B2 |
Service account access
A computer system detects an external media device and determines the external media device contains authentication data for the computer system. In response, a first password is generated based on an identifier unique to the computer system. A prompt is displayed for a second password obtained from a service provider. The second password is received through an input device. The computer system provides access to the service account if the second password matches the first password. |
| US09332004B2 |
Digital content acquisition system and techniques
A network- and/or client-side digital content acquisition system facilitates automatic and simplified transactions, between a user of a consumer electronic device (“CED”) and a digital content source, for authorizing access to digital content items (“DCIs”). Computer-readable visual symbols are associated with DCIs. A particular computer-readable visual symbol has a visual symbology, presented on a surface, which encodes information regarding DCIs, sources responsible for authorizing access to the DCIs, and consideration (if any) due from a user. A user of a particular CED identifies, and uses the CED to reproduce and decode, a particular computer-readable visual symbol. Upon reproduction and/or decoding, the CED automatically requests access to the DCI, and provides a security token that links the user and the CED, and automatically authorizes transfer of consideration (if any) due from the user. Upon authentication of the security token, the user automatically receives access to the DCI. |
| US09331991B2 |
Authenticating a client using linked authentication credentials
Techniques are provided for improving security in a single-sign-on context by providing, to a user's client system, two linked authentication credentials in separate logical communication sessions and requiring that both credentials be presented to a host system. Only after presentation of both credentials is the user authenticated and permitted to access applications on the host system. |
| US09331986B2 |
Encryption communication method, apparatus and system
An encrypted communication method relating to communication technologies includes allocating a same encryption key for a first application and a terminal that is only bound to the first application. The method also includes transparently transmitting information communicated between the terminal and the first application when determining that the terminal communicates with the first application by using the same encryption key. |
| US09331985B2 |
Portable device, a stationary device, a digital device and a method for performing secure communication using thereof
A method includes sensing an image of a portable device by using a camera unit, acquiring an orientation information estimation value of the portable device by using the sensed image, extracting key generation information for secure communication by using the orientation information estimation value, generating a secret key by using the extracted key generation information, and performing secure communication with the portable device by using the secret key. |
| US09331984B2 |
Secret sharing method and system
In a secret sharing process based on an improved threshold scheme, secret data is shared as shared data parts equal to or greater than a threshold value in number such that the secret data cannot be reconstructed from shared data parts less than the threshold value in number. Each of the shared data pieces is created essentially from a different combination of the secret data pieces and the data pieces for secret sharing computation. The secret sharing process allows an algorithm desired by the user to be freely incorporated, and can prevent the secret data to be easily reconstructed even when more shared data parts than the threshold value are acquired by a third party. |
| US09331976B2 |
Method of request routing re-direction with loop detection and prevention
A method of request routing redirection includes: receiving, by a first content delivery network (CDN) among a plurality of CDNs connected by CDN interconnection (CDNi), a domain name system (DNS) request including a list of CDN-provider-identifications (IDs) of higher CDNs, from a client; determining whether the client's request is processable; and when the client's request is not processable, redirecting the request, while preventing a loop of the request routing on the basis of the list of the CDN-provider-IDs. |
| US09331975B2 |
Systems, methods, and apparatus to identify media presentation devices
Systems, methods, and apparatus to identify media presentation devices are disclosed. An example method includes receiving a domain name service query from a first device at a server, the first device and a second device being associated with a same public Internet protocol address. The first device is identified as originating the domain name service query based on an identity of the server. The first device is credited with accessing content associated with a domain name identified in the domain name service query. |
| US09331972B2 |
Automatic expiration of messages communicated to an end user communication device
An exemplary method is implemented by an electronic device for transmitting a data message to at least a first end-user communication device. Data that forms a user message for conveyance to a first end-user communication device and a first value are received under the control of an enhanced services application program. A digital packet is formed with a header segment and a user data segment. The user data segment is formed under the control of the enhanced services application program and contains a first command and the user message, the first command representing that the user message is to be automatically deleted by the recipient first end-user communication device. The first command includes the first value that represents how long until the user message will be automatically deleted by the first end-user communication device. The digital packet is transmitted to the first end-user communication device. |
| US09331969B2 |
Occasionally-connected computing interface
Described are computer-based methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for allowing a user to switch between interfacing with a service through a network or through short message service (SMS). A chat service is executed through which a first user at a first computer can communicate directly with a second user at a second computer. A request is received from the first computer to enable the first user to interface with the chat service through a mobile device of the first user using SMS instead of through the network using the first computer. The chat service is configured to interface with the mobile device through SMS, including communicating chat information through SMS to the first user's mobile device, and communicating control information through SMS to the first user's mobile device such that the first user can control a full functionality of the chat service using SMS. |
| US09331964B2 |
System, method, and apparatus for using a virtual bucket to transfer electronic data
A method for transferring data between a first and a second computer system by way of a storage location in a third computer system. When needed for a transfer, the third computer system creates the storage location associated with the first computer system. Using the association, the first computer is able to access the storage location. The second computer system reads access information from a close proximity identification medium, where the information is associated with the storage location. Using the information, the second computer system is able to access the storage location. In a data transfer, one of the first and second computer system stores information in the storage location and the other of the first and second computer systems reads the data from the storage location. Once the data has been transferred from the storage location, the storage location is deleted. |
| US09331962B2 |
Methods and systems for time sensitive networks
A packet based switched multimedia network which consolidates networking of high throughput, time sensitive data, and control streams, with Ethernet data networking over home span. The multimedia network may support in parallel, over the same home span cabling infrastructure, high quality networking including time sensitive data streams, such as HDMI, USB, and Ethernet, transparent network attachment for legacy devices, multi stream, and low power modes. |
| US09331960B2 |
Communication system, communication device, storage medium, and communication method
An example communication system, including: a plurality of devices that form a mesh-type network, each of the plurality of devices performing communication from a source device to a destination device, directly or by relaying via one or more other devices, and at least one of the plurality of devices including a selecting unit, that selects a communication route from the source device to the destination device according to a first restriction with regard to a relay value indicative of the number of communication routes that each device is able to relay. |
| US09331959B2 |
Transmission apparatus and transmission method
A transmission apparatus includes a detector to receive a multiplexed signal including a plurality of signals having different frame periods and detect switching information included in the multiplexed signal; a sorter to sort a plurality of pieces of detected switching information into one or more groups according to types of corresponding signals; an adjuster to adjust an order of transferring the switching information sorted, according to a period with which the switching information is received; a transfer unit to transfer the plurality of pieces of switching information sorted, based on a result of the adjustment performed by the adjuster; a controller to generate path setting information to set transmission paths of the signals based on the plurality of pieces of switching information transferred from the transfer unit; and a switch unit to set the transmission paths based on the path setting information generated by the controller. |
| US09331950B2 |
Apparatus and method for VoIP traffic flow identification
A data exchange device that identifies VoIP traffic flow. When a type of data flow is received by the data exchange device, the data exchange device determines whether the type of data flow is bidirectional traffic flow. If the type of data flow is bidirectional traffic flow, the data exchange calculates a first data size of downstream data of the type of data flow and a second data size of upstream data of the type of data flow. Then, the data exchange device identifies whether the type of data flow is the VoIP traffic flow according to the first data size and the second data size. If the type of data flow is the VoIP traffic flow, the type of data flow is processed according to a high priority. |
| US09331949B2 |
Control network management system
A control network management system for relaying first and second wireless communications comprises a first repeater having a packet control means for writing priority information in a header of communication packet data of the first wireless communication, as received and transmitting the communication packet data with a hash value of the header, added thereto, a second repeater having a packet control means for zero-clearing priority information in a header of communication packet data of the second wireless communication, as received, or changing the priority information to a predetermined value before transmitting the communication packet data with a hash value of the header, added thereto, and a third repeater having a priority control means for applying priority control to the header of the communication packet data received from the first repeater or the second repeater, on the basis of priority information, thereby transmitting the communication packet data to a control system. |
| US09331943B2 |
Asynchronous scheduling informed by job characteristics and anticipatory provisioning of data for real-time, parallel processing
Systems and methods are disclosed for scheduling jobs processed in a distributed fashion to realize unharnessed efficiencies latent in the characteristics of the jobs and distributed processing technologies. A job store may be communicatively coupled to a job analyzer. The job analyzer may be operable to read information characterizing a job to identify multiple data blocks to be processed during the job at multiple locations in a cluster of nodes. A scheduling module may use information about the multiple data blocks, their storage locations, their status with respect to being provisioned to processing logic, data blocks to be processed by other jobs, data blocks in cache that have been pre-fetched for a prior job, quality-of-services parameters, and/or job characteristics, such as job size, to schedule the job in relation to other jobs. |
| US09331941B2 |
Traffic flow redirection between border routers using routing encapsulation
In response to receiving one or more packets from an interface, an anchoring border router classifies the traffic flow and either transmits the packets based upon the routing control table as usual, or determines that the packets of the traffic flow are to be forwarded to a forwarding border router. Upon determining that the packets are to be forwarded, the packets are encapsulated with a routing encapsulation key corresponding to a routing path and are forwarded from the anchoring border router to the forwarding border router via a routing encapsulation tunnel. When a forwarding border router receives the redirected packets over the routing encapsulation tunnel, the forwarding border router removes the routing encapsulation key from the packets of the traffic flow and transmits the packets via a routing path corresponding to the routing encapsulation key. |
| US09331940B2 |
System and method providing distributed virtual routing and switching (DVRS)
Systems, methods, architectures and/or apparatus for providing a distributed Virtual Routing and Switching (dVRS) solution at a data center (DC) by logically representing the networking resources of the data center as a plurality virtual nodes, each virtual node comprising an IP infrastructure based on a physical network node and a plurality of virtual switches, each virtual switch including a VRS instance linked to one or more VRS instances at other virtual switches via a VLAN to provide thereby a virtual service, wherein the physical network node performs control plane processing and provides to each virtual switch the specific routing information associated with the local services of that virtual switch. Thus, from a data plane perspective the virtual switches route and/or switch traffic directly to tunnels pointing to remote VRS instances without involving the Controller in the forwarding of the packets. |
| US09331934B2 |
Packet distribution system, control device and control method for controlling distribution of content packet
A packet distribution system includes: a first transfer device that is placed on a boundary of a core network and near first and second terminal devices; a second transfer device that is placed on the boundary of the core network and near a content distribution device; and a control device that, when a first content packet is distributed to the first terminal device, a distribution request packet is transmitted from the second terminal device, and a second content packet newly distributed from a content distribution device to the second terminal device is detected by the second transfer device, causes the second transfer device to abandon the second content packet based on control information included in the second content packet, and causes the first transfer device to copy the first content packet distributed to the first terminal device, to the second terminal device. |
| US09331930B1 |
Systems and methods for forwarding network packets in a network using network domain topology information
A controller may be used to control client switches in a network that includes non-client switches. The controller may form client domains from groups of client switches that are separated by intervening non-client domains formed from non-client switches. The controller may determine a network domain topology from the client domains and non-client domains. The controller may determine a spanning tree that interconnects the nodes of the network domain topology. The controller may control client switches of the client domains to allow only network traffic between the client domains and the non-client domains along the spanning tree. The controller may use the network domain topology to generate inter-domain forwarding maps. The inter-domain forwarding maps may be used to determine network forwarding paths between end hosts in the network. |
| US09331929B1 |
Methods and apparatus for randomly distributing traffic in a multi-path switch fabric
At a first time, a schedule module is configured to access a list of status indicators associated with a group of egress port indicators. The list of status indicators includes a set of status indicators each of which has a value greater than a threshold. The schedule module is configured to randomly select a status indicator from the set of status indicators and configured to reduce the value of the selected status indicator. The schedule module is then configured to send the egress port indicator associated with the selected status indicator such that a data cell is sent from an egress port associated with that egress port indicator. At a second time, when the value of every status indicator from the list of status indicators is not greater than the threshold, the schedule module is configured to increase the value of every status indicator above the threshold. |
| US09331927B2 |
Communication system, communication device, and communication method
A communication system includes a first communication device configured to transmit input data to a transmission path, detects a first accumulated amount of the input data, and transmit notifying data to the transmission path when the detected first accumulated amount has reached a threshold value, and a second communication device configured to receive data transmitted to the transmission path by the first communication device, detect a second accumulated amount of the received data, and output measurement information based on the detected second accumulated amount and the threshold value when having received the notifying data. |
| US09331925B2 |
Multiple test site bandwidth limit measurement
In one embodiment, methods are described to measure bandwidth limits through multiple test sites. A testing quantity of network packets is generated, the network packets are sent through a service provider network to a plurality of receivers at a testing transmission rate that exceeds an upstream transmission rate limit of the service provider network, a report indicating a received number of packets is received from each of the plurality of receivers, and an upstream transmission rate limit of the service provider network is determined based on the testing transmission and the reports. By using multiple test sites, potential bottlenecks at any one test site are reduced. A similar method can be used to calculate a downstream transmission rate limit. Once measured, the bandwidth limits may be used to adjust quality of service on an edge router or compared against a known service level agreement of the service provider network. |
| US09331924B2 |
Distribution route construction method and terminal device
A distribution route construction method includes: transmitting, in a data distribution system, at least one check packet to a plurality of terminals within a network from a check packet transmission terminal; checking a reply packet from the plurality of terminals; grouping the plurality of terminals into a first terminal group including a first terminal whose reply packet reaches the check packet transmission terminal and a second terminal group including a second terminal whose reply packet does not reach the check packet transmission terminal; changing a designation terminal for data communication to reduce communication data traffic between the first terminal group and the second terminal group; and reconstructing distribution routes based on the checking and the changing. |
| US09331918B2 |
Link usage
A method, performed by a computer system, of providing usage data for a plurality of hyperlinks in a resource is disclosed. In one aspect, the method includes maintaining hyperlink usage data for each of the hyperlinks within the resource and adjusting a copy of the resource to incorporate the hyperlink usage data associated with each hyperlink, wherein the hyperlink usage data represents the number of times users have selected a hyperlink of the resource. The method also includes sending the adjusted copy of the resource to a networked device to provide a display representing the hyperlink usage data with each associated hyperlink. The hyperlink usage data is incorporated into the copy of the resource so as to be displayed adjacent to the corresponding hyperlinks of the resource. |
| US09331917B2 |
Integrated production support
Embodiments for integrating production support features are included in systems for receiving modules from a client application associated with an operator device. The embodiments include selecting at least one client module from the received modules, identifying a trace objective for the at least one client module, selecting a data collection level based on the trace objective, and collecting, by a processor, data associated with the at least one client module in response to the selected data collection level. The systems are combinable with additional production support features including event monitoring. |
| US09331916B1 |
Data-driven detection of servers and clients
An improved technique involves processing network traffic data to automatically establish whether a device on the network satisfies a particular set of constraints. Along these lines, a SIEM server observes and processes incoming and outgoing traffic data corresponding to a particular device at an address of the network. The SIEM server then analyzes this traffic data in order to determine whether the data satisfies a set of constraints satisfied by a client, or another set of constraints satisfied by a server. The SIEM server then applies the label of “client” or “server” to the device according to which set of constraints the SIEM server determines the data to have satisfied. |
| US09331915B1 |
Dynamic network traffic mirroring
Data packets may be mirrored or replicated to network ports and/or listening stations. Additionally, the data packets may include characteristics. Based at least in part on the characteristics of the data packets, dynamic capture lengths may be determined. A portion of the data packets may be transmitted to the network ports and/or listening station based at least in part on determined capture lengths. |
| US09331911B2 |
Resizing resource allocation in a computing environment
Resizing resource allocation in a computing environment, including: displaying, within a graphical user interface, a graphical element representing allocation parameters, the allocation parameters indicating a user's current allocation of one or more resources of the computing environment; displaying, within the graphical user interface, a graphical element representing utilization parameters, the utilization parameters indicating the user's current utilization of the one or more resources of the computing environment; receiving, within the graphical user interface, user input to manipulate the graphical element representing the allocation parameters; and changing, based on the user input received within the graphical user interface, the allocation parameters. |
| US09331899B2 |
Scalable BMC management stacks using virtual networks on single physical network device
Certain aspects of the present disclosure are directed to a baseboard management controller (BMC) managing a computer system including N computer nodes. The BMC has: (a) a processor, (b) a physical network interface controller, (c) a first communication interface controller, (d) a memory having firmware stored. The firmware can: (a) initiate N virtual BMC stacks each managing at least one health or performance related aspect of a respective one of the N computer nodes, and (b) initiate N virtual network interface controllers each communicating with the physical network interface controller. Each of the virtual BMC stacks has a network interface configured to communicate with a respective virtual network interface controller, and each of the N virtual BMC stacks is configured to communicate with a network connected to the physical network interface controller through a virtual network interface controller. |
| US09331891B2 |
Virtual consolidated appliance
Techniques for managing network traffic in a virtual consolidated appliance so as to avoid interruptions in existing network connections during reconfiguration of the virtual consolidated appliance are provided. In one aspect, a method for operating a virtual consolidated appliance having a plurality of servers is provided. The method includes the following steps. An assignment for load balancing is computed based on a status of the virtual consolidated appliance. A reconfiguration of the virtual consolidated appliance is discovered. A new assignment is computed for load balancing based on a new status of the virtual consolidated appliance based on the reconfiguration of the virtual consolidated appliance. Existing network connections are redirected according to the assignment during the reconfiguration of the virtual consolidated appliance. New network connections are served according to the new assignment. |
| US09331889B2 |
Providing access to information of multiple types via coordination of distinct information services
Techniques are described for providing users of client devices with coordinated access to Information and/or functionality of multiple types, such as by using multiple types of connections to multiple information services of distinct types that exchange context information related to activities of the users and/or clients. The client devices can be, for example, wireless devices with multiple distinct modes (e.g., voice and data modes) for different types of connections with different types of servers (e.g., voice servers and data servers). In some situations, coordination between different servers allows multiple distinct interaction sessions of different types with different servers to remain synchronized or otherwise coordinated over time as the user performs interactions via the different sessions. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract, and is not intended to be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. |
| US09331888B1 |
Methods and systems for bridging communications between an IP network and a voice communication service at a subscriber premises
In one of many possible embodiments, a system includes a gateway located at a subscriber premises. The gateway is configured to bridge, at the subscriber premises, a voice communication between an Internet Protocol (“IP”) network and a voice communication service available at the subscriber premises. In certain embodiments, the gateway is configured to bridge the voice communication from the IP network to at least one of a Public-Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”) service, a Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) service, and a video phone service at the subscriber premises. In certain embodiments, a registration server communicatively coupled to the gateway by the IP network is configured to maintain registration information associated with the gateway. |
| US09331885B2 |
Modulation with fundamental group
Embodiments of a system and method for providing fundamental group modulation are generally described herein. In some embodiments, a trajectory mapper is arranged to receive a modulation symbol sequence. A signal trajectory sample memory is arranged to store a representation of signal trajectories for a topological space having a set of predetermined removed regions therein. The trajectory mapper accesses the signal trajectory sample memory to select a signal trajectory relative to the set of predetermined removed regions in the topological space based on the received modulation symbol sequence and produces a sequence of in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) sample values at a specified sample rate in response to the selected signal trajectory, the I and Q sample values serving as a basis for an amplified radio frequency signal. |
| US09331878B2 |
Frequency shift keying transmitter
According to embodiments of the present invention, a frequency shift keying transmitter is provided. The frequency shift keying transmitter includes a logic gate arrangement that produces an output signal having a frequency that depends on input signals to the logic gate arrangement, a clock generator coupled to the logic gate arrangement, the clock generator adapted to produce a clock signal, and a sampling arrangement coupled to the logic gate arrangement, the sampling arrangement adapted to receive a data signal, wherein the sampling arrangement is configured to sample the clock signal to generate periodic waveforms delayed from each other by an interval determined by the point the clock signal is sampled, wherein the sampling arrangement is configured to be controlled by the data signal to have the logic gate arrangement select periodic waveforms that are delayed from each other by one of a set of intervals associated with the data signal, to be used as the input signals to the logic gate arrangement to produce the output signal. |
| US09331871B2 |
E-commerce messaging using SMS
The invention provides a method for generating an SMS business message for processing by a software application comprising the steps of: a data collection interface accepting outgoing instructions and outgoing data from said software application; a message encoding engine encoding said outgoing instructions and outgoing data from said software application using an encoding template to generate the SMS business message as a categorized SMS message formatted for processing by a data processing system; and a dispatcher runtime processor processing said SMS business message for transmission over a network to a recipient. |
| US09331867B2 |
Virtual networks in a communication system architecture
One or more I/O channels are assigned masks of message types that may pass through the channels, and one or more fields of an outbound message are set to one or more message type. A channel mask of an I/O channel is applied to a type of the outbound message, and if the channel mask matches the type of the outbound message, the outbound message is allowed to pass through the I/O channel to a switch. The outbound message is switched to an output port, and if the channel mask does not match the type of the outbound message, the outbound message is rejected from passing through the I/O channel and the channel mask of a next I/O channel is applied to the type of the outbound message. |
| US09331866B2 |
Network communications apparatus, system, and method
In one embodiment, a communication circuit is configured for automated addressing in a network of series connected communication circuits. The communication circuit includes a voltage source and a switch connected in parallel between first and second data ports of the circuit. While operating in an addressing mode, a first voltage is sampled from a first data port while the switch is closed. The switch is opened to provide a voltage potential between the first and second data port and a second voltage is sampled from the second data port. An address of the communication circuit in the network is determined based on a difference of the first and second voltages. |
| US09331865B2 |
Comparator circuit
Various aspects are directed to communications, as may be implemented in an automotive network. An input transistor has a gate coupled to an input port and to a voltage-limiting circuit, connected between the gate and a power rail. The voltage-limiting circuit presents a voltage to the gate corresponding to a voltage on the input port and less than the supply voltage level, and clamps a gate-source voltage of the transistor. In a power-saving mode, current is blocked on the current path when the input port is at the supply or ground voltage levels. When the input port transitions away from the threshold voltage, the apparatus transitions to a wake-up mode in which current is no longer blocked in the current path and in which a wake-up signal is provided based on the voltage at the input port and a bias voltage. |
| US09331864B2 |
Audio video distribution system using multiple network speaker nodes in a multi speaker session
This disclosure describes an audio video distribution system that uses a local area network to distribute a digital audio signal and that uses multiple network speaker nodes to broadcast the digital audio in a multi speaker session. The system includes a local area network that distributes the digital audio signal for the audio video distribution system. In addition, the system includes a first network speaker node participating in a multi speaker session and performing in a master mode, and where the first network speaker node calculates, originates, and controls a distributed multi session clock that is distributed over the network. The system further includes one or more additional network speaker nodes participating in the multi speaker session and perform in a slave mode, and where the additional network speaker nodes receive the distributed multi session clock from the first speaker node. |
| US09331863B2 |
Home network, method for sharing device information among home networks and home network system
In the field of communications technologies, a home network, a method for sharing device information among home networks and a home network system are provided. The home network system includes a first home network, and a second home network having a first secure channel established with the first home network, so as to obtain an access policy and device information of the first home network through the first secure channel and provide the device information for a third home network having a second secure channel established with the second home network according to the access policy. Therefore, the device information is shared among the home networks, and the number of the secure channels to be established is reduced, and thereby the amount of information required to be stored and maintained is reduced. |
| US09331861B2 |
Ethernet ring node with improved recovery time after a link failure
The invention relates to an Ethernet ring node (100) comprising a plurality of ports including at least two ring ports and at least one non-ring port. The Ethernet ring node comprises a multicast list including information on which port multicast traffic belonging to a multicast group should be sent. A control unit is provided configured to control a traffic distribution of multicast traffic to the different ports of the Ethernet ring node based on the information provided in the multicast list. Furthermore, a detector is provided detecting a topology change of the Ethernet ring in which the Ethernet ring node is provided. When such a topology change is detected, all multicast traffic is transmitted to the at least two ring ports for a predefined period of time, and multicast traffic transmitted to the non-ring ports is transmitted in accordance with the information provided in the multicast list. |
| US09331859B2 |
Method and system for establishing a combined local area network (CLAN) in a conference network (CN)
A method including: receiving, at a conference unit, a command to establish a conference call between the conference unit and another conference unit, the conference unit being connected to at least one access point and the access point being accessible by a terminal; utilizing, by the conference unit, an internet telephony protocol to setup at least one media line between the conference unit and the other conference unit; establishing at least one data channel that transmits LAN traffic between the conference unit and the other conference unit utilizing the internet telephony protocol; establishing, by the conference unit, a connection with the terminal, the terminal being part of a combined local area network; and receiving, at the conference unit, an input from the terminal via the connection to access the combined local area network. |
| US09331857B2 |
Application charging method, device, and system
The present invention discloses an application charging method. The method includes receiving, by a CTF device, a charging rule of an application from a PCRF device, wherein the charging rule of the application carries an application identifier and charging rule parameters of the application, executing the charging rule of the application, and detecting, according to an application identifier, a flow of the application transmitted on one or more bearers, sending, by the CTF device according to charging rule parameters of the application, a charging session establishment request to a charging system and establishing a charging session of the application, collecting charging information about the detected flow of the application, and sending the collected charging information about the flow of the application to the charging system by using the charging session of the application. |
| US09331853B2 |
Method and apparatus for increasing the output of a cryptographic system
The rate at which packets are provided to a cryptographic engine of a cryptographic system is adjusted using a feedback mechanism to increase the output of the cryptographic system. Data is classified and queued on a per class/flow basis and stored in input queues prior to being processed. A class based queue scheduler is implemented to select data from the input queues to be transmitted to the cryptographic engine. The cryptographic engine operates in processing cycles. At each cycle, an amount of data is transferred from the input queues to a cryptographic engine input queue. A cryptographic accelerator in the cryptographic engine processes the data on the cryptographic engine input queue during the cycle. The output rate of the cryptographic accelerator is measured during the cycle and this value is used as feedback to determine how much data should be passed to the cryptographic engine for a subsequent cycle. |
| US09331852B2 |
System and method for securing data transaction
A secure messaging channel is necessary especially when the message involves confidential transactions, for example a bank transaction which involves funds transfer and other additional information. The present disclosure describes securing message. The method of securing a message comprises providing a personal identification number by the user, wherein the personal identification number is associated to a unique number of a user. The unique number can be a mobile number. The correct personal identification number invokes the one-time password generator. The one time password generator accesses a metadata which comprises a value stored. The value stored in the metadata is retrieved to generate a dynamic key. The dynamic key is converted to a symmetric encryption key to encrypt the data. The dynamic key can also be converted to a symmetric decryption key to decrypt the data. |
| US09331851B2 |
Apparatus and method for giving the compressed encryption functionality to integer-based homomorphic encryption schemes
The present invention relates to a compressed encryption and decryption apparatus comprising: an interface receiving a public key, a secret key and a compression ratio; a memory storing instructions for encryption and decryption of plaintexts; and a processor encrypting and decrypting plaintexts according to the instruction, wherein the instruction comprises instructions performing; generating an extended public key and an extended secret key by revising the public key and the secret key according to the compression ratio; outputting the extended public key; receiving compressed ciphertext; and decrypting the compressed ciphertext using modulo operation for multiplication of the extended secret key and the compressed ciphertext. |
| US09331845B2 |
System and method for chip system timing compensation
A system and method is disclosed for adjusting for timing variations between a data signal and an associated data read signal being transmitted from a first chip and received on a second chip. |
| US09331840B2 |
Aligning the upstream DMT symbols of multiple lines in a TDD DSL system
A method comprising transmitting a delay value to each of a plurality of digital subscriber line (DSL) transceivers, by a distribution point unit (DPU), and receiving a plurality of signals at substantially the same time, wherein each of the plurality of signals is from a different DSL transceiver in the plurality of DSL transceivers and transmitted at different times based on the delay value and a corresponding propagation delay. |
| US09331839B2 |
Receivers and semiconductor systems including the same
The receiver includes a first buffer configured to buffer a data to generate a first internal data, a first delay unit configured to retard the first internal clock signal by a first delay period to generate a first delayed internal clock signal, and a second buffer configured to buffer the first internal data to generate a first input data. |
| US09331838B2 |
Method for synchronizing clocks in nodes of a vehicle network and node designed to perform the method
A method for synchronizing clocks in nodes of a vehicle network of a motor vehicle corrects a time difference between a master clock and a slave clock, taking into account transmission delay for a message between a master node and a slave node. At least for a first synchronization of the master clock to a slave clock after the nodes of the vehicle network are started up, a default transmission delay in the slave node is used to correct the time difference, and/or the slave node sending out a Delay Request message, and recording in the master node the time at which Delay Request message is received and the master node sending the time, as a Delay Response message, back to the slave node. In the slave node, the transmission delay for a message between the master node and the slave node is determined. |
| US09331837B2 |
Method and device for detecting 1588 time error between network elements
A method and a device for detecting a 1588 time error between network elements are disclosed. The method includes: a 1588 time network is established for an entire network; when it is required to detect a 1588 time error between a network element and its opposite network element, the network elements transmit, probe packets, each including a local timestamp to each other; and the network element receiving a probe packet calculates, according to a preset time difference algorithm, a time difference between the local timestamp and the timestamp in the probe packet, determines, according to the time difference, whether there is a failure in a detection path, and reports an alarm when there is a failure in the detection path. The disclosure prevents erroneous time transmission due to the time error, thus ensuring the network stability. |
| US09331836B2 |
De-multiplexing a radio frequency input signal using output transformer circuitry
The present disclosure relates to de-multiplexing at least one RF input signal feeding RF power amplifier circuitry to create multiple de-multiplexed RF output signals, which may be used to provide RF transmit signals in an RF communications system. Output transformer circuitry is coupled to outputs from the RF power amplifier circuitry to provide the de-multiplexed RF output signals, which may support multiple modes, multiple frequency bands, or both. The de-multiplexed RF output signals may be used in place of RF switching elements in certain embodiments. As a result, RF front-end switching circuitry in the RF communications system may be simplified, thereby reducing insertion losses, reducing costs, reducing size, or any combination thereof. Additionally, the output transformer circuitry may provide load line transformation, output transistor biasing, or both to the RF power amplifier circuitry. |
| US09331833B2 |
Method and apparatus for carrier management
A method for a user equipment (UE) of a wireless communication system performing carrier management is disclosed. The wireless communication system supports Carrier Aggregation (CA), which enables the UE to perform transmission through multiple carriers. The method includes steps of configuring a plurality of carriers, and activating or deactivating a carrier group of the plurality of carriers according to Medium Access Control (MAC) signaling. |
| US09331832B2 |
Methods and arrangements in a wireless communication system
An object of some embodiments is to enable more dynamic and flexible transmission of reduced-power subframes. Particular embodiments provide a method in a network node. The method comprises transmitting a downlink scheduling assignment for a subframe to a wireless terminal. The scheduling assignment is comprised in control information. The control information further comprises an indication of a power offset that is or will be used for data transmission in the subframe relative to reference signal transmission. |
| US09331831B2 |
Method for receiving or transmitting downlink signals and apparatus therefor
Disclosed is a method for receiving downlink signals in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving downlink signal from a base station and detecting the downlink signal, wherein the detecting the downlink signal includes, if the number of resource elements (REs) to which channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) in a downlink subframe is mapped is smaller than the number of the enhanced control channel elements (eCCEs) for an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) in the downlink subframe, assuming REs, the number of which corresponds to a difference value between the number of eCCEs and the number of REs, which are included in the EPDCCH, as a zero-power CSI-RS, wherein the REs assumed as the zero-power CSI-RS is included in an eCCE that does not comprise the REs to which the CSI-RS is mapped. |
| US09331828B2 |
Bundling scheduling method in wireless access system and apparatus therefor
The present invention relates to a bundling scheduling method in a wireless access system and an apparatus therefor. Specifically, the bundling scheduling method in the wireless access system comprises the steps of: transmitting the bundled downlink control information including a plurality of downlink control information through one physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to a terminal; transmitting the downlink data, to the terminal, through a plurality of physical downlink shared channels (PDSCH) scheduled by the bundled downlink control information; and receiving acknowledgement/negative-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) information for the plurality of PDSCHs from the terminal. |
| US09331825B2 |
Method for transmitting and receiving additional control signals
A method for transmitting/receiving an additional control signal without any loss of bandwidth and power in an original Tx signal is disclosed. If the additional control signal is transmitted via the Tx signal composed of at least one of data and control signals, at least one of the amplitude and phase of the Tx signal of the time- and frequency-resource domain is modulated according to the additional control signal to be transmitted. The modulated Tx signal is transmitted to the receiver, so that the additional control signal can be transmitted irrespective of the original Tx signal. According to a modulation status of at least one of an amplitude and a phase of the Rx signal contained in the time- and frequency-resource domain, the additional control signal can be acquired. |
| US09331824B2 |
Scheduling a transmission of data
Transmission of data is scheduled via a first communication channel within a first cell of a cellular network. A first base station is assigned to the first cell. A user equipment is served by the first base station, and the first communication channel is divided into subframes. The cellular network includes a second base station assigned to a second cell, wherein the second base station uses a second communication channel divided into subframes, and a part of the subframes is unscheduled by the second base station due to a predefined muting pattern. The first base station determines a first subframes of the first communication channel related in time with the unscheduled subframes of the second communication channel, and schedules transmission of data between the first base station and the user equipment via the first communication channel so that the data is transmitted in the determined first subframes. |
| US09331813B2 |
Transmitting and receiving method, and radio apparatus utilizing the same
A processing unit transmits, from at least one of a plurality of antennas, data corresponding respectively to the plurality of antennas. A control unit generates request signals with which to let a second radio apparatus supply information on rates at the second radio apparatus. When transmitting the request signal, the processing unit also transmits, from a plurality of antennas which includes antennas other than the antennas that transmit the data, known signals corresponding respectively to the plurality of antennas. |
| US09331812B2 |
Round trip time aware dynamic bandwidth allocation for ethernet passive optical network over coaxial network
An apparatus comprising a receiver configured to receive a plurality of transmission requests from a plurality of end nodes via an optical network and an electrical network, a processor coupled to the receiver and configured to dynamically allocate optical transmission time slots to the end nodes according to measured RTTs of the end nodes, and a transmitter coupled to the processor and configured to transmit the allocated transmission time slots to the end nodes. Also disclosed is a method performed by an OLT comprising receiving a plurality of transmission requests from a plurality of network units via a PON and an electrical network, and allocating optical transmission time slots to the network units dynamically according to measured RTTs of the network units. |
| US09331807B2 |
Service edge hub device and methods in an optical network node
The present invention relates to a node of an optical network, methods and service edge hub devices attachable to an optical network carrying data traffic comprising data information on a number of optical wavelength channels in one or more optical fibers. said hub device comprising one or more optical ports connectable to one or more service equipment arrangements for digital processing the received data information, the hub comprising a wavelength switching means configured to connect each channel to the ports, wherein the wavelength switching means comprises an optical splitter arrangement for spreading and directing the channels to the different ports, in one direction, and network ports, in the other direction. |
| US09331804B2 |
Using multiple oscillators across a sub-network for improved holdover
A method and system are provided for improving maintenance of timing information when a node enters holdover due to a lost connection between a sub-network and a reference clock. Each node within the sub-network sends information concerning the drift of its local oscillator to a single node, and the single node uses this information to determine timing information for the entire sub-network. The single node may also use knowledge of the characteristics of the local oscillators. In this way, drift from the reference clock can be minimized without incurring significant added hardware costs. |
| US09331803B2 |
System and method of synchronization among a control apparatus and a plurality of terminals
Disclosed is a synchronization system including a control apparatus and a plurality of terminals connected via a network. The control apparatus includes a transmitting unit that transmits first waiting time information to each of the terminals, where the first waiting time information is synchronization waiting time for a predetermined signal transmitted from the control apparatus to the terminals. Each of the terminals receives the first waiting time information from the control apparatus and receives second waiting time information from another of the terminals. The second waiting time information has been calculated by the other terminal based on the first waiting time information as received by the other terminal. Each terminal calculates a synchronization time for the predetermined signal based on both of the first waiting time information from the control apparatus and the second waiting time information from the other terminal. |
| US09331800B2 |
Virtual home channel for mobile broadcast networks
Methods and systems simplify discovery and handoff for multi-frequency broadcast receiver devices, such as mobile TV devices, by providing a virtual home channel that is not dependent on a single frequency network upper layer. The methods and systems may be used in conjunction with a single frequency network upper layer to support areas without upper layer available, or to off load some portion of the common data bandwidth in the single frequency network. For example, the single frequency network may only carry frequency data for the multiple frequency network or only the frequency data for networks with comprehensive market metadata. |
| US09331798B2 |
System and method for mobile location by proximity detection
A system and method for determining the location of a mobile device in a communications network having one or more proximity sensors. A request to locate the mobile device may be received and at least one of the proximity sensors tasked to receive a signal transmission from the mobile device. One or more signal characteristics of the signal transmission from the mobile device may be measured by each tasked proximity sensor, and a location of the mobile device determined as a function of the measured characteristics. This may be accomplished by associating a fixed location with each tasked proximity sensor, and then determining the location of the mobile device as a function of one of the associated fixed locations. |
| US09331789B2 |
Transmitter optical module implemented with thermo-electric controller
A transmitter optical module is disclosed. The optical module includes a plurality of LDs each emitting light with specific wavelengths different from others, a TEC including a post in bottom plate thereof through which currents to driver the TEC is supplied, and a body portion including an electrical plug made of multi-layered ceramics. The multi-layered ceramic in a lowermost ceramic layer thereof provides electrical pads to supply current to the TEC through the post. The post and the pads are configured in side-by-side arrangement such that the post in the TEC is put between two pads in the lowermost ceramic layer. |
| US09331781B2 |
Two way burst mode digital optical cable communication system
A digital burst mode communication system operates at a fixed wavelength for transmission and reception of burst mode signals using a pair of transceivers and a single optical cable. The stray noise level in the system is significantly reduced by use of angled plate absorbers that receive scattered transmission burst signal from a 45 degree partially reflecting mirror. Use of transparent glass ferrule with or without a front surface anti-reflection coating instead of an opaque ceramic ferrule to support optical fiber at a selected location within the transreceiver reduces optical detector signal noise. Isolation of received burst signal from transmitted burst signal is increased to better than 30 dB. The system operates by sending only data bits across the single optical cable without scrambling or encoding preambles, significantly improving the efficiency of high speed communication. |
| US09331780B1 |
Systems and methods for adaptive energy utilization of optical interconnection networks
This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus for an energy efficient communication system. The communication system can include a transmitter, a receiver and a communication link for communicating data between the transmitter and the receiver. In some implementations, the receiver determines a signal quality parameter (SQP) value of the received data, and communicates the SQP value to the transmitter. In some implementations, the transmitter adjusts one or more operational parameters of the transmitter to reduce power based on the received SQP value being less than a threshold value. In some implementations, the receiver also adjusts one or more operational parameters of the receiver based on the SQP value being less than a threshold value. In some implementations, the receiver can communicate the SQP value to the transmitter over out-of-band communication links. |
| US09331772B2 |
Quick re-connect diversity radio system for communicating patient data out of a shielded MR room
An RF shielded room (14) which houses a magnetic resonance scanner (12) also houses a patient monitor (20) which includes a plurality of sensors (18) which collect physiological data about a patient undergoing a magnetic resonance examination. The monitor includes a transmitter (46) which transmits the physiological data on at least two frequency channels of a broadband frequency spectrum. A communication unit (26) located outside the RF shielded room includes first and second receivers (54, 58) which receive the physiological data from the monitor on the first and second frequency channels, respectively. A processor (62) combines physiological data received by the first and second receivers to. A display (32) displays the combined physiological data. A switch (56) switches antenna connections of the receivers (54, 58) responsive to detection of multipath fade. |
| US09331769B2 |
Wireless communications apparatus and method
According to one embodiment, antenna allocation or selection in a multi-antenna wireless communications device can be performed at a receiver or an emitter of a wireless communications signal. Selection takes place on the basis of antenna and frequency. Antenna selection in a disclosed embodiment involves a combination of bulk and per tone antenna selection. |
| US09331768B2 |
Mitigation of transmission errors of quantized channel state information feedback in multi antenna systems
Methods are disclosed for improving communications on feedback transmission channels, in which there is a possibility of bit errors. The basic solutions to counter those errors are: proper design of the CSI vector quantizer indexing (i.e., the bit representation of centroid indices) in order to minimize impact of index errors, use of error detection techniques to expurgate the erroneous indices and use of other methods to recover correct indices. |
| US09331765B2 |
Mixed rank downlink multi-user interference alignment scheme
A method, system and device are provided for using an indexed list of linearly independent, predetermined vectors Vref={vref1,. . . , vrefM} and channel knowledge H, G from each transmitter to compute and feedback equivalent channel matrix information Hi,jeq to its affiliated transmitter based on the assigned/determined rank of the receiver. With this information, each transmitter selects Li receivers and constructs a transmitted signal by applying a selected precoding matrix to the mixed rank data, thereby eliminating interference to the rest of the receivers in the network. |
| US09331759B2 |
HARQ timing design for a TDD system
Disclosed are methods and apparatuses related to receiving one or more indications of time division duplex (TDD) uplink/downlink (UL/DL) configurations for two consecutive radio frames. Based on the indications of the TDD UL/DL configurations, a reference TDD UL/DL configuration may be identified for one or more Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) processes. |
| US09331757B2 |
Open loop spatial processing
Methods and apparatus for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmissions are disclosed. A base station may precode wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU)-specific reference signals and data that are transmitted to a WTRU using a randomly selected precoder. The precoder may be selected based on a predefined precoder selection sequence or by the base station. A different precoder may be applied to different resource blocks (RBs). In addition, a large delay cyclic delay diversity (CDD) or discrete Fourier transform (DFT) spreading may be applied on the WTRU-specific reference signals and the data. For heterogeneous deployed antennas, spatial diversity gain is achieved by dynamically scheduling resources between transmission points. A hopping scheme may be applied across the transmission points as the resources are dynamically partitioned between the transmission points. A different randomly selected precoder may be applied to each RB transmitted from a different transmission point. |
| US09331750B2 |
Wireless power receiver and host control interface thereof
A wireless power receiver, configured to receive power from a wireless power outlet and to communicate with a host for providing electrical power thereto, is provided comprising a secondary inductive coil configured to receive power from a primary coil of the wireless power outlet, and a host control interface configured to facilitate communication between the wireless power receiver and the host. The host control interface comprises contacts, one or more information-carrying contacts configured to conduct at least one of a clock and a data signal between the wireless power receiver and the host, supply input and power supply ground contacts configured to cooperate to provide current between the wireless power receiver and the host, an interrupt-signal contact configured to carry an INTERRUPT signal from the wireless power receiver and the host, and an enable-signal contact configured to carry an ENABLE signal from the host to the wireless power receiver. |
| US09331747B2 |
Enhanced device configuration
Systems, devices and methods described herein provide or possess functionality that enables providing enhanced device configuration. In one implementation, one or more communication stations are provided. A wireless communication device in close proximity may be configured to communicate with the one or more communication stations. Once a communication session is established between the wireless communication device and the one or more communication stations, configuration particulars, such as configuration data, may be provided to the wireless communication device via the one or more communication stations. |
| US09331746B2 |
System and method for providing information to and/or obtaining information from a component of an electrical distribution system
An electrical distribution system wherein information is communicated to and/or from an electrical component of the electrical distribution system using near-field communications. The information may be communicated to and/or from the electrical component using an electronic device such as a dedicated near-field device, a smartphone or a configuration card device. Also, a method of obtaining information from an electrical component of an electrical distribution system, such as a circuit interrupter, includes generating a machine readable element that comprises first information in encoded form, the first information relating to the operation and/or status of the circuit interrupter, displaying the machine readable element on the circuit interrupter, capturing an image of the machine readable element, obtaining the first information based on the image, and displaying second information based on the obtained first information. |
| US09331744B2 |
Methods and apparatus for improving collision resolution among multiple NFC-A devices
Aspects disclosed herein relate to providing an improved collision resolution mechanism for handling multiple NFC-A devices where one or more of the NFC-A devices may not support SDD. In one example, a communications device is equipped to determine that a remote NFC device of two or more remote NFC devices supports SDD, resolve the remote NFC device of the two or more remote NFC devices using SDD, and determine whether a remaining remote NFC device of the two or more remote NFC devices supports SDD. In an aspect in which the remaining remote NFC device does not support SDD, the communications device may be equipped to set a flag indicating that unresolved remote NFC devices are present and/or send a read identifier (RID) message to the remaining remote NFC device. |
| US09331743B2 |
Biological entity communication channel
Biological entity communication channel techniques are described. In one or more implementations, an apparatus includes a signal conductor having a side that is configured to be disposed proximal to a surface of a biological entity to use at least a part of the biological entity as a transmission channel to transmit a signal received by the signal conductor from an electrical device. The apparatus also includes a ground layer configured to be disposed on an opposing side of the signal conductor from the side of the signal conductor that is configured to be disposed against the surface of the biological entity. |
| US09331741B2 |
Power line communication system and control method thereof
A power line communication system includes a power distribution device connected to two power lines, a plurality of power line communication devices and a first coupler device electrically connected between the first power line and the second power line. The first coupler device is configured at the last end of the power line communication system. Before a transmitting device transmits data to a receiving device, the first coupler device determines whether to couple the power lines with each other according a first signal quality between the transmitting and the receiving device when the power lines are not coupled with each other and a second signal quality between the transmitting and the receiving device when the power lines are coupled with each other. |
| US09331740B2 |
Device suppressing common-mode radiation
The present invention provides a device for suppressing common-mode radiation comprising: at least one resonator embedded into a plate, wherein the at least one resonator defines a plane having a normal direction parallel and perpendicular, respectively, to a longitudinal direction and a thickness direction of the plate. The embedment of the resonator into the plate enables a magnetic field, which is generated by a cable conductor when the device for suppressing common-mode radiation wraps the cable conductor therein, to perpendicularly pass through the plane so that the magnetic field and the resonator resonate together to generate a strong diamagnetism and thereby to suppress the common-mode radiation. |
| US09331733B2 |
Wireless communication terminal device
A wireless communication terminal device according to the present invention comprises a main body which has a built-in electronic component, a casing which houses the main body, a cover body which is detachably attached to the casing, an antenna for wireless communication which is mounted on the cover body, a pair of electrodes which are disposed on the inner face of the cover body and connected to the antenna, a pair of terminals which are disposed on the main body and make contact with the pair of electrodes, and at least two projection pieces which are formed on the inner face of the cover body near the pair of electrodes as well as on both sides with the pair of electrodes interposed therebetween and project higher than the surfaces of the pair of electrodes. |
| US09331728B2 |
Power dissipation reduction in wireless transceivers
Methods and circuits for reducing power dissipation in wireless transceivers and other electronic circuits and systems. Embodiments of the present invention use bias current reduction, impedance scaling, and gain changes either separately or in combination to reduce power dissipation. For example, bias currents are reduced in response to a need for reduced signal handling capability, impedances are scaled thus reducing required drive and other bias currents in response to a strong received signal, or gain is increased and impedances are scaled in response to a low received signal in the presence of no or weak interfering signals. |
| US09331715B2 |
Reception apparatus and associated method of receiving encoded data
A transmission apparatus includes an encoder that codes a data sequence with a parity check matrix, wherein the data sequence includes a final information bit sequence and virtual information bits, and outputs the final information bit sequence and a parity sequence, as LDPC codes, and a transmitter that transmits the LDPC codes as a transmission data. A column length of the parity check matrix is longer than a total length of the final information bit sequence and the parity sequence, by a length of the virtual information bits that are set to “0” and are not transmitted. The total length of the final information bit sequence and the parity sequence has a sequence length corresponding to a length from a first column to a predetermined column of the parity check matrix. The encoder generates the LDPC codes by using the first column to the predetermined column among one or more column(s) of the parity check matrix. |
| US09331710B1 |
Method and apparatus for encoding digital data into an oversampling digital to analog converter
A method for an oversampling digital-to-analog converter (DAC) includes oversampling M-bit binary data to provide N-bit oversampled binary data, wherein M and N are integers and N is greater than M, encoding the N-bit oversampled binary data to provide 2(N-1)-bit thermometer code data and a sign bit, shuffling the 2(N-1)-bit thermometer code data to provide 2(N-1)-bit shuffled data, converting the 2(N-1)-bit shuffled data and the sign bit to an analog output signal, and smoothing the analog signal to provide a smoothed analog output signal. |
| US09331707B1 |
Programmable temperature compensated voltage generator
A programmable temperature compensated voltage reference is disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus includes a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that uses a reference voltage and a code to generate a DAC output voltage. The apparatus also includes a temperature compensator that uses a temperature measurement (T) and the DAC code to generate a temperature compensation signal. The temperature compensation signal is represented by a third order polynomial equation. The apparatus also includes a signal combiner that combines the DAC output voltage and the temperature compensation signal to generate a temperature compensated programmable reference voltage. |
| US09331704B2 |
Apparatus and method for generating an oscillating output signal
An apparatus for generating an oscillating output signal includes an inductive-capacitive (LC) circuit and a current tuning circuit. The LC circuit includes a primary inductor and a varactor coupled to the primary inductor. A capacitance of the varactor is responsive to a voltage at a control input of the varactor. The current tuning circuit includes a secondary inductor and a current driving circuit coupled to the secondary inductor. The current driving circuit is responsive to a current at a control input of the current driving circuit. An effective inductance of the primary inductor is adjustable via magnetic coupling to the secondary inductor, and a frequency of the oscillating output signal is responsive to the effective inductance of the primary inductor and to the capacitance of the varactor. |
| US09331698B2 |
Level shifter circuit
A level shifter circuit for level shifting voltages of signals crossing multiple circuit domains includes an input stage and a driver stage. The input stage receives an oscillating signal generated by a ring oscillator and generates an inverted oscillating signal. The differential oscillating signals are provided to the driver stage, which level shifts a voltage level of the oscillating signal to a level of a supply voltage of the ring oscillator. |
| US09331690B2 |
Switching circuit and RF switch including the same
A switching circuit may include a switching circuit unit; a reference voltage unit connected between the switching circuit unit and a signal input terminal and providing a preset reference voltage; and a voltage generating unit dividing a first control voltage provided to the switching circuit unit by a preset magnitude to generate a second control voltage corresponding to the reference voltage, and providing the second control voltage to bodies of the plurality of respective switching devices. |
| US09331688B2 |
Modular electronic detection device
A modular electronic detection device comprises a mechanical actuator connected to a target through a front surface of a panel. The device further comprises a plurality of sensors for detecting the position of the target, which are connected to a printed circuit board. The modular detection device of the present invention can be incorporated into an aircraft and can be used in aircraft assembly. |
| US09331683B2 |
Ramp signal generator with noise canceling function
A ramp signal generator includes a reset control block suitable for generating a switch control signal according to a reset control signal from a control unit; a ramp signal generation block suitable for generating differential ramp signals, which include a power noise or a ground noise as well as a ramp noise; and a common noise canceling unit suitable for being initialized according to the switch control signal, and suitable for canceling common noise through a differential operation between the differential ramp signals. |
| US09331681B2 |
System and method for gaussian random noise generation
In accordance with an embodiment, a method of generating noise includes generating, using a hardware-based noise generator, a plurality of periodic waveforms having different frequencies, weighting, using the hardware-based noise generator, amplitudes of the plurality of periodic waveforms based on a predetermined spectral shape to form a plurality of weighted waveforms, and summing the plurality of plurality of weighted waveforms to form an output random noise signal. |
| US09331680B2 |
Low power clock gated flip-flops
A flip-flop that includes a multiplexer configured to generate a multiplexer output. The multiplexer output is generated in response to an input and a scan enable, and is given to a transmission gate. A master latch is coupled to the transmission gate and to a tri-state inverter. The master latch is configured to receive an output of the transmission gate. A slave latch is configured to receive an output of the tri-state inverter and the multiplexer output. A data inverter is coupled to the slave latch. The data inverter is configured to generate a flip-flop output. A half clock gating inverter is configured to generate an inverted clock input in response to a clock input and the multiplexer output. |
| US09331676B2 |
Pulse signal generation circuit and operating method thereof
The present invention relates to a pulse signal generation circuit for changing a pulse width of an input pulse signal and outputting an output pulse signal having the changed pulse width. In an aspect, the pulse signal generation circuit may include a control signal generator configured to generate at least one control signal according to a pulse width of a input pulse signal and a pulse signal generator configured to control a pulse width of an input pulse signal in response to a control signal and to generate an output pulse signal with the controlled pulse width. The control signal controls the pulse width of the output pulse signal. |
| US09331674B2 |
Multi-phase signal generator and multi-phase signal generating method thereof
A multi-phase signal generator and a multi-phase signal generating method thereof. The multi-phase signal generator includes a signal generator, a first comparator, a second comparator and a logic operation circuit. The signal generator generates a periodic signal. The first comparator receives the periodic signal and respectively compares the periodic signal with a first reference voltage and a second reference voltage to generate a first output signal. The second comparator receives the periodic signal and compares the periodic signal with a first threshold voltage to generate a second output signal. The logic operation circuit performs logic operations on the first output signal and the second output signal so as to generate a plurality of first phase output signals. |
| US09331672B2 |
Driver circuit with gate clamp supporting stress testing
A generator circuit is coupled to apply a control signal the gate terminal of a power transistor driving an output node. A reference voltage is generated having a first voltage value as the reference for the control signal and having a second, higher, voltage value for use in stress testing. A clamping circuit is provided between the reference voltage and the power transistor gate to function in two modes. In one mode, the clamping circuit applies a first clamp voltage to clamp the voltage at the gate of the power transistor when the generator circuit is applying the control signal. In another mode, the clamping circuit applies a second, higher, clamp voltage to clamp the gate of the power transistor during gate stress testing. |
| US09331668B2 |
Vibrator with a beam-shaped portion above a recess in a substrate, and oscillator using same
A method for manufacturing a vibrator according to the present invention includes: forming a coating layer that covers a silicon substrate; patterning the coating layer; forming a semiconductor layer that covers the silicon substrate and the coating layer; forming a vibrating portion having a beam shape on the coating layer and a support portion that supports the vibrating portion by patterning the semiconductor layer; forming an opening that exposes the silicon substrate; forming a recess portion by removing the silicon substrate through the opening; and removing the coating layer. In the step of forming the vibrating portion and the support portion, the support portion having a first portion that is located on the silicon substrate, and a second portion that connects the first portion and the vibrating portion and is located on the coating layer is formed. |
| US09331663B2 |
Impedance matching device and control method
In an impedance matching device, a storage unit stores a control value representing a load value and a value equivalent to input impedance in advance. The control value identifies inductance and capacitance values matching a predetermined impedance value by use of either a first or second matching circuit. An impedance estimation unit estimates input impedance of the power transmission antenna. The load value estimation unit estimates load value of a circuit connected to a power reception antenna and consuming transmitted electric power. A circuit selection unit electrically connects the first matching circuit, the second matching circuit, or a through circuit per the load value and the input impedance equivalent value. A control value output unit reads out the control value stored in the storage unit based on the load value and the input impedance equivalent value, and outputs the control value to the circuit selected by the circuit selection unit. |
| US09331660B2 |
Noise filter device
A noise filter device has a coil formed by winding a conductive wire on a magnetic core. The noise filter device further has a bracket formed of a magnetic material and grounded. The bracket has a bottom plate and two end plates that project from the bottom plate. The end plates face opposite end surfaces of the magnetic core with predetermined gaps defined between the end plates and the end surfaces. The noise filter device further has capacitors that form part of a noise filter circuit together with the coil and that are connected to the bracket. A housing houses the coil, the capacitors and the bracket in an at least partly exposed state, and input and output terminals are provided for the noise filter circuit. |
| US09331658B2 |
Filter circuit
A filter circuit includes an antenna-side circuit, a transmission-side circuit, a reception-side circuit, and an external connection capacitor. The antenna-side circuit is connected to an antenna-side terminal. The transmission-side circuit is connected to a transmission-side terminal and the antenna-side circuit. The reception-side circuit is connected to a reception-side terminal, the antenna-side circuit, and ground. The external connection capacitor is connected between an external control terminal and a connection point between the antenna-side circuit and the reception-side circuit. The antenna-side circuit and the transmission-side circuit constitute a low pass filter. The antenna-side circuit and the reception-side circuit constitute a band pass filter. The reception-side circuit includes an LC parallel resonant circuit. |
| US09331657B2 |
Bus bar with noise filter
A bus bar device with a noise filter includes a magnetic body, a bus bar and first to third capacitors. The bus bar has input and output ends and extends through the magnetic body. The capacitors are disposed on an electrical path between the bus bar and a ground conductor surface. The first capacitor is located at the input end side of the bus bar and the second and third capacitors are located at the output end side. The first capacitor has one end connected to the bus bar and the other end connected to the ground conductor surface in one of two regions divided by the bus bar. Each one of the second and third capacitors has one end connected to the bus bar and the other end connected to the ground conductor surface in the same region as the first capacitor or in the other region. |
| US09331656B1 |
Audio systems and methods employing an array of transducers optimized for particular sound frequencies
Systems and methods for generating sound, detecting sound, and generating and detecting sound are provided. An array of audio transducers can be provided whereby each audio transducer in the array can be optimized for a narrow range of sound frequencies. When operating at or close to its resonant frequency, a transducer can generate (and/or detect) sound with a higher efficiency and less distortion as compared to other frequencies. Accordingly, sound may be divided into component signals such that each transducer is only responsible for generating (and/or detection) sound close to its resonant frequency. This sound reproduction (and/or detection) technique can increase efficiency, and therefore, can increase the total output volume that an array can generate using a given amount of input power when generating sound (and/or increase the total output power that an array can generate using a given amount of input volume when detecting sound). |
| US09331655B2 |
Pop-click noise grounding switch design with deep sub-micron CMOS technology
A device for grounding pop-click noise may include an output block configured to generate an output signal at an output node. A switch circuit coupled to the output node may be configured to be operable to couple the output node to a ground potential. The switch circuit may include a first and a second transistor. A drain, a source, and a gate node of the first transistor may be coupled to the output node, a drain node of the second transistor, and a first control signal, respectively. A drain, a source, and a gate node of the second transistor may be coupled to a source node of the first transistor, the ground potential, and a second control signal, respectively. The first and the second control signals may operate the switch circuit to couple the output node to the ground potential during a pre-determined period associated with the pop-click noise. |
| US09331654B2 |
Dual squelch detectors and methods for low power states
An apparatus includes a first squelch circuit and a second squelch circuit. The first squelch circuit is configured to detect possible squelch signals in a communication signal. The second squelch circuit is configured to selectively detect the possible squelch signals in the same communication signal. The second squelch circuit is further configured to operate in a low-power state responsive to the first squelch circuit detecting none of the possible squelch signals in the communication signal. The second squelch circuit is further configured to operate in a high-power state responsive to the first squelch circuit detecting one of the possible squelch signals in the communication signal. |
| US09331651B1 |
Method and apparatus for automatic gain control in a current mode RF receiver
A current mode receiver front end for a radio device converts a received signal into a current mode signal and applies automatic gain control by both shunting current of the current mode signal and providing an adjustable series resistance that further adjust the current level of the current mode signal that is output by the receiver front end. The shunt and series circuits can be controlled by a digital control word whose value represent a decibel value of adjustment, and which is used to drive the shunt and series circuits to achieve both coarse and fine adjustment of the current mode signal. |
| US09331648B2 |
Amplifier circuit with improved slew rate
An amplifier circuit for improved slew rate consists of three main sections, which are the common mode rejection stage, primary gain stage and the output stage. The main circuit is a modified version of the fully differential operational amplifier circuit. The modifications done to this said circuit, enhances impedance which results in improved slew rate. In addition to the modifications in the primary gain stage, there's a cascade configuration to prevent systematic offset. The common mode rejection stage is primarily used due to the narrow common mode input range resulting from the cascade configuration. Additionally, another primary gain stage is included in the design prior to the output, since the output from the primary gain stage is narrow. This structure results in producing an improved slew rate. |
| US09331646B2 |
Input buffer apparatuses and methods
Apparatuses and methods are disclosed, including an apparatus with a first differential amplifier to amplify an input signal into a first output signal, a second differential amplifier to amplify the input signal into a second output signal that is complementary to the first output signal, and a feedback resistance coupled between the first output signal and the second output signal. Additional apparatuses and methods are described. |
| US09331644B2 |
Input clamping structure for sound quality improvement in car-radio class-AB power amplifier design
A clamping circuit for a class AB amplifier includes a reference voltage circuit, four NPN Darlington transistors having inputs coupled to the reference voltage circuit, and outputs for providing four clamped voltages and a split NPN Darlington transistor having an input coupled to the reference voltage circuit, and four separate outputs for providing four AC ground voltages. |
| US09331641B2 |
Circuit structure for achieving adaptive function in class-D audio power amplifier circuit
Disclosed is a circuit structure for implementing an adaptive function in a class-D audio power amplifier circuit, comprising an operation amplifier, a pulse width modulator and a driver stage that are sequentially and serially connected, an input terminal of the operation amplifier being connected to an external audio signal output terminal, and an output terminal of the driver stage being connected to a loudspeaker and connected to the input terminal of the operation amplifier via a feedback loop. The circuit structure further comprises: one or a plurality of a carrier adaptive circuit, a frequency adaptive circuit, a driver adaptive circuit, a temperature adaptive circuit. |
| US09331637B2 |
Hybrid DC-DC converters for power amplifiers
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for hybrid DC-DC converters. In one aspect, there is provided a method. The method may include tracking, by an envelope detector, an envelope of a signal being amplified by an amplifier. The method may further include supplying, by a first direct-current to direct-current converter, power to the amplifier, the power supplied by the first direct-current to direct-current converter including one or more high-frequency components of the envelope tracked by the envelope detector. The method may further include supplying, by a second direct-current to direct-current converter, power to the amplifier, the power supplied by the second direct-current to direct-current converter including one or more low-frequency components of the envelope tracked by the envelope detector. Related systems, apparatuses, and computer program products are also disclosed. |
| US09331634B2 |
Frequency down-conversion
Apparatus and methods concern down-converting a radio frequency (RF) signal. As an example, one apparatus includes a first mixer and a second mixer. The first mixer down-converts an RF signal to produce a first intermediate frequency (IF) signal. The second mixer down-converts the first IF signal to produce a second IF signal having a plurality of phase components. The down-converter also includes a plurality of summing circuits. Each of the summing circuits is configured to combine various ones of the phase components of the second IF signal to produce a respective phase component of a third IF signal. The number of phase components in the third IF signal is different from the number of phase components in the second IF signal. |
| US09331633B1 |
System and method for eliminating intermodulation
A system for adaptively eliminating intermods from a spectrum generated by combining two or more signals in a component or circuit includes a sampler for sampling an output signal of the component or circuit, a signal source for generating a conversion signal having a frequency matched to a target intermod of the spectrum, and a cancellation circuit to generate a cancellation phasor. The cancellation circuit is configured to receive the generated conversion signal and the sampled output signal and generate a cancellation phasor therefrom having a phase and amplitude configured to cancel the target intermod. A combining network can combine the cancellation phasor into the component or circuit to cancel the target intermod from the spectrum. |
| US09331632B2 |
Integrated circuit for mixing millimeter-wavelength signals
An integrated circuit is described. The integrated circuit includes millimeter-wavelength transceiver circuitry. The millimeter-wavelength transceiver circuitry includes a local oscillator that generates a millimeter-wavelength oscillator signal. The millimeter-wavelength transceiver circuitry also includes mixers coupled to the local oscillator. The mixers are within an area without millimeter-wavelength structures. The mixers convert signals based on the millimeter-wavelength oscillator signal. |
| US09331623B2 |
Brushless motor, external AC voltage source, and electric power steering device
The present invention provides a brushless motor in which the voltage utilization ratio can be increased and the torque and output of the motor can thereby be increased, and also provides a drive method for a brushless motor. The brushless motor includes an armature constituted by an armature core having armature windings of a plurality of phases, and a field pole constituted by a field pole core having a plurality of permanent magnets. A voltage, in which at least a 5th order harmonic component is superimposed on a 1st order fundamental wave of a voltage under predetermined phase difference condition and amplitude condition in order to increase a 1st order fundamental wave peak of the applied voltage over an applied voltage peak, is applied to the armature windings. |
| US09331621B2 |
Electric power saving device for motor of pump jacks apparatus
An electric power saving device for motor of pump jack apparatus. The electric power saving device preferably detects current and voltage generated from a motor of the pump jack during the up stroke and down stroke and preferably converts the real-time load torque obtained using an AC amplifier and voltage converter. The electric power saving device preferably minimizes the counter electromotive force (Back-EMF) and preferably reduces consumption of electrical energy by automatically reducing speed in a heavy-load during an up stroke, while automatically increasing speed in un-load, during a down stroke. This is preferably done by converting real-time load torque obtained by torque formula and through the output value according to load torque in order to minimize Back-EMF. |
| US09331616B2 |
Integrated circuit for motor drive controller applications
An integrated circuit is configured for controlling automobile door lock motors. The circuit includes half-bridge driver circuits, with each half-bridge driver circuit having an output node configured to be coupled to a door lock motor. A control circuit is configured to control driver operation of the half-bridge driver circuits. A current regulator circuit senses current sourced by or sunk by at least one of the half-bridge circuits. The control circuit responds to the current regulator circuit and the sensed current by controlling the driver operation to provide for a regulated current to be sourced by or sunk by said half-bridge circuit. The control circuit further controls the half-bridge driver circuits to enter a tri-state mode in order to support the making of BEMF measurements on the motor. |
| US09331614B2 |
Systems and methods for controlling electric machines
A motor controller is provided that includes an inverter configured to drive an electric motor, a rectifier configured to rectify an alternating current (AC) input current and to output the rectified AC input current to the inverter, and a controller coupled to the inverter. The controller is configured to improve a power factor of the motor controller by controlling the AC input current based on a direct current (DC) link voltage measurement. |
| US09331612B2 |
Motor control apparatus
A motor control apparatus has an inverter circuit having a plurality of pairs of upper and lower arms provided so as to correspond to a number of phases, and switching elements provided on each of the upper arms and the lower arms of each phase that drive a motor on the basis of ON or OFF operations of the respective switching elements, a single current detector that detects a current of the motor flowing through the inverter circuit, and a duty calculator that calculates duties of PWM signals for turning the switching elements ON or OFF on the basis of a deviation between a current value of the current detected by the current detector and a target current value. |
| US09331605B2 |
Lower electrode for piezoelectric element, and piezoelectric element provided with lower electrode
In the present invention, a half-value width of a rocking curve, an average roughness of a surface, and an average grain diameter are all specified at one time with respect to a Pt layer that constitutes a lower electrode for a piezoelectric element, thereby stably film-forming the Pt layer having excellent characteristics, and stably forming, on the Pt layer, a piezoelectric thin film having excellent characteristics. |
| US09331604B2 |
Piezoelectric driving circuit and piezoelectric driving method
A piezoelectric driving circuit and a driving method thereof are provided. The piezoelectric driving circuit drives a piezoelectric circuit by using a first driving switch connected to one end of a piezoelectric circuit, a second driving switch corresponding to the first driving switch and connected to the other end of the piezoelectric circuit, and a sensing resistor for sensing a current flowing in the piezoelectric circuit. A fire angle and a duty cycle of an upper switch are adjusted such that a peak of a sense voltage generated in the sensing resistor at a timing at which the first driving switch is turned on, in a state in which the second driving switch is turned on. |
| US09331603B2 |
Energy collection
An energy collection system may collect and use the energy generated by an electric field. Collection fibers are suspended from a support system. The support system is electrically connected to a load by a connecting wire. The collection fibers may be made of any conducting material, but graphene, carbon and graphite are preferred. Diodes may be used to restrict the backflow or loss of energy. |
| US09331596B2 |
Composite AC-to-DC power converter with boosting capabilities using T configuration
A boosting AC-to-DC converter An AC-to-DC converter may include a main rectifier, a first auxiliary rectifier, a second auxiliary rectifiers and a transformer assembly. The transformer assembly may include a set of primary windings arranged in a first multiphase configuration and connected to the main rectifier, a first set of secondary windings arranged in a second multiphase relationship and connected to the first auxiliary rectifier and a second set of secondary windings arranged in a third multiphase configuration and connected to the second auxiliary rectifier. The second multiphase configuration of the first set of secondary windings and the third multiphase configuration of the second set of secondary windings may be in phase shifting relationships relative to the first multiphase configuration of the set of primary windings. |
| US09331591B2 |
Primary-side burst mode control scheme for LLC converters
An LLC converter having a primary side burst control circuit, and a secondary side regulator circuit. The primary side burst control circuit has an inner feedback loop circuit for adjusting the LLC operating frequency to control the power drawn by the LLC converter proportional to an optical feedback signal. |
| US09331590B2 |
Device and method for detecting an average output current of a power converter
A device for detecting an average output current of a power converter includes a current generation unit, a first voltage generation unit, a first current mirror unit, and a second current mirror unit. The current generation unit generates a first charge current according to an intermediate voltage. The first voltage generation unit generates a first node voltage according to the first charge current, a first discharge current, a turning-on time, and an inverse turning-on time. The first current mirror unit generates a first current according to the first node voltage, and generates a second voltage corresponding to the average output current of a secondary side of the power converter according to the first current. The second current mirror unit generates the first discharge current according to the first current. |
| US09331588B2 |
Control circuits and control methods for flyback converters and AC-DC power converters thereof
The present invention relates to control circuits and methods for a flyback converter and AC-DC power converters thereof. In one embodiment, a control circuit can include: (i) a turn-on signal generating circuit that is configured, in each switching cycle, to receive a drain-source voltage of a power switch of the flyback converter, and to activate a turn-on signal to turn on the power switch when the drain-source voltage reaches a valley value; (ii) a turn-off signal generating circuit that is configured, in each switching cycle, to activate a turn-off signal to turn off the power switch based on a power switch feedback error signal after a power switch conducting time interval has elapsed; and (iii) where input current and voltages of the flyback converter can be maintained as substantially in phase, and an output electrical signal of the flyback converter can be maintained as substantially constant. |
| US09331587B2 |
Power converter controller with multiple power sources
A controller includes a bypass terminal, a first power circuit, a second power circuit, and a charging control circuit. The bypass terminal is to be coupled to a bypass capacitor coupled to a secondary side of an isolated power converter. The first power circuit is coupled to the bypass terminal and a first terminal to be coupled to a first node of the secondary side. The first power circuit transfers charge from the first terminal to the bypass terminal for storage on the bypass capacitor. The second power circuit is coupled to the bypass terminal and a second terminal to be coupled to a second node of the secondary side. The second power circuit transfers charge from the second terminal to the bypass terminal for storage on the bypass capacitor. The charging control circuit controls which of the first and second power circuits transfers charge to the bypass terminal. |
| US09331585B1 |
Power control apparatus with dynamic adjustment of driving capability
A power control apparatus with dynamical adjustment of driving capability for converting an input power into an output power includes a transformer, a switch transistor connected to the transformer, a pulsed width modulation (PWM) driving controller generating a PWM signal and connected to the switch transistor, an isolation element, an output diode and an output capacitor. The first side coil of the transformer and the switch transistor are connected to the input power, the second side coil of the transformer is connected to the output diode and further connected to the output capacitor and an external load. The isolation element converts the output power into a feedback signal providing the PWM driving controller to dynamically control the PWM driving signal through adjustment so as to implement the optimal turn-on current for the switch transistor. Therefore, electrical performance and conversion efficiency are greatly improved by reducing the switching loss. |
| US09331577B2 |
Slab inductor device providing efficient on-chip supply voltage conversion and regulation
A method is disclosed to operate a voltage conversion circuit such as a buck regulator circuit that has a plurality of switches coupled to a voltage source; a slab inductor having a length, a width and a thickness, where the slab inductor is coupled between the plurality of switches and a load and carries a load current during operation of the plurality of switches; and a means to reduce or cancel the detrimental effect of other wires on same chip, such as a power grid, potentially conducting return current and thereby degrading the functionality of this slab inductor. In one embodiment the wires can be moved further away from the slab inductor and in another embodiment magnetic materials can be used to shield the slab inductor from at least one such interfering conductor. |
| US09331574B2 |
Controller of the power inverter circuit and a control method
A highly accurate control is achieved in such a way that a timing value is generated from a differential control amount calculation result and a filter calculation result at iteration intervals not exceeding the iteration intervals of the filter calculation and then the timing set value of a driving signal generation circuit is updated by this timing value. A device for controlling a power conversion circuit comprises an AD conversion circuit (22), a driving timing value generation circuit (23), and a driving signal generation circuit (24). The driving timing value generation circuit (23) includes a control amount calculation circuit (231) and a digital-digital addition circuit (232). The digital-digital addition circuit (232) generates a driving timing value for a switch of a power conversion circuit. The driving signal generation circuit (24) receives the driving timing value and generates a driving signal for the switch (11) of the power conversion circuit (1). |
| US09331573B2 |
Circuit and method for controlling a switching transistor of a switching regulator
A control circuit for controlling a switching transistor of a switching regulator includes a hysteresis comparator circuit comparing a feedback voltage according to an output signal of the switching regulator with a reference voltage and a threshold voltage and outputting a pulse width modulation signal as an output signal of the hysteresis comparator circuit, where the threshold voltage has a hysteresis according to the pulse width modulation signal. The control circuit further includes a driver driving the switching transistor based on the pulse width modulation signal, a phase comparator generating a phase difference signal based on a phase difference between a reference clock signal and a pulse signal corresponding to the pulse width modulation signal, and a loop filter generating a control voltage by filtering the phase difference signal. The hysteresis comparator circuit is further configured to control a response speed thereof depending on the control voltage. |
| US09331570B2 |
Switching circuit including DC-DC converter cooperating with a high voltage supply and related methods
A switching circuit may include a first series diode, a second series diode, a first shunt diode coupled to the first series diode at a first control node, and a second shunt diode coupled to the second series diode at a second control node. A high voltage supply may generate a high voltage signal to be selectively applied to either the first or second control node. A dc-dc converter may cooperate with the high voltage supply to generate an intermediate bias voltage on the first and second shunt diodes so that the first series diode is reversed biased and the first shunt diode is forward biased when the high voltage control signal is applied to the first control node, and so that the second series diode is reversed biased and the second shunt diode is forward biased when the high voltage control signal is applied to the second control node. |
| US09331568B2 |
Method and apparatus for load switch controller with tracking to support DDR termination
A power control device can generate control signals to control operation of power sources. At least one of the control signals may be referenced to an internally provided reference voltage or an externally provided reference voltage. Additional control signals control operation of load switches that can be connected to the power sources to provide secondary sources of power. The load switches can be turned in a gradual manner at rates that depend on the power sources to which they are connected. The outputs of the load switches can be monitored for overvoltage and undervoltage conditions relative to the power sources to which they are connected. |
| US09331566B1 |
Adaptive AC power exchanger
An adaptive AC power exchanger generates stable 120 VAC 60 Hz power from variable grid input power nominally at 220 VAC and 50 Hz. The exchanger includes an AC-DC circuit stage coupled to receive the input AC current and generate a VDC output, and a DC-AC circuit stage to generate power for a load. The AC-DC stage includes an EMI filter and surge protection circuit, a 50 Hz rectifier and a power factor correction (PFC) circuit controlled by a PFC controller to yield a 400 VDC output coupled through a bulk capacitor stack to a common connection to generate a 200 VDC voltage node. The 200 VDC and 400 VDC voltages are coupled to the DC-AC circuit including a pulse width modulator; current load limiter; an LC filter having a capacitor, dual inductors and an inductor by-pass relay; and a load disconnect relay all controlled by an AC bridge controller. |
| US09331565B2 |
Switching power conversion circuit and power supply using same
A switching power conversion circuit having a two-stage power circuit topology and capable of performing power factor correction is disclosed. In a case that the electrical energy of the switching power conversion circuit needs not to be provided to the system circuit, for example the load and the electronic device fails to be operated, the switching power conversion circuit will be adaptively disabled. As a consequence, the switching power conversion circuit could achieve a power-saving purpose. Moreover, the switching power conversion circuit could be applied to a power supply. When the electronic device is not in use, the power supply has reduced power consumption, thereby achieving a power-saving purpose. |
| US09331563B2 |
Active snubber topology
Exemplary embodiments are directed to an snubber circuit and a power converter having an active circuit. The snubber circuit includes a series connection of a first diode and a first inductor connected between a first interfacing point and a first connection point, a second diode connected between a second connection point and a second interfacing point, a series connection of a third diode and a second inductor between a third interfacing point and the second connection point, a switching device connected between the first connection point and the third interfacing point, and a first capacitor connected between the first connection point and the second connection point. The first, the second, and the third diode are forward-biased along a path between the first interfacing point and the second interfacing point and through the third interfacing point. |
| US09331558B2 |
Vibration transducer and actuator
Disclosed herein are multiple embodiments of a vibration transducer and actuator which combine an upper piece, a lower piece, a permanent magnet, an electromagnet coil, and, in some embodiments, a spring spacer. |
| US09331553B2 |
Systems and methods for direct winding cooling of electric machines
A system and method for cooling electric machines using direct winding heat exchangers (DWHX) is disclosed. The system can comprise a plurality of DWHXs disposed in thermal communication with a plurality of copper windings in the stator of an electric machine for cooling the plurality of copper windings. The plurality of DWHXs can also be in fluid communication with one or more fluid manifolds for providing coolant to the plurality of DWHXs. The one or more manifolds can be in fluid communication with one or more heat reservoirs for rejecting the heat absorbed by the plurality of DWHXs. The heat reservoir can be an internal system radiator or an infinite reservoir such as a cooling pond. The method can comprise a design tool for optimizing a DWHX cooling system utilizing the internal system radiator or an infinite reservoir, among other things. |
| US09331552B2 |
Rotor assembly with heat pipe cooling system
An electric motor cooling system is provided in which at least one heat pipe is captured within at least one hollow region within the motor's rotor shaft. An end of the heat pipe that extends out and away from the end of the rotor shaft is coupled to a heat exchanger, for example a heat sink in which the fins of the heat sink are shaped as fan blades. During motor operation, as the rotor heats up thermal energy is absorbed by the heat pipe within the rotor shaft and transferred to the heat sink for efficient removal. |
| US09331551B2 |
Case of electric rotating machine
A case of an electric rotating machine, includes: a cooling passage which is provided inside the case along a circumferential direction of the case and through which a cooling fluid is able to flow; a cooling fluid inlet and a cooling fluid outlet which communicate with the cooling passage; and a rib which is provided inside the cooling passage, connect a wall portion on an inside in a radial direction of the case and a wall portion on an outside in the radial direction of the cooling passage along the circumferential direction, are arranged to be separated from each other in an axial direction of the case, and partition the cooling passage into a plurality of cooling passages. |
| US09331547B2 |
Hybrid geothermal power plant
The present invention provides a hybrid geothermal power plant, comprising a photovoltaic module for generating direct current electrical power, a geothermal unit for utilizing heat content of a geothermal fluid extracted from a production well to produce power, and a controller for coordinating operation of the photovoltaic module and the geothermal unit such that the power plant generates a substantially uniform electrical output. |
| US09331544B2 |
Brushless motor and method of manufacturing thereof
A brushless motor includes a stator having a stator core, a rotor, a circuit board, a board holder for holding the circuit board, a motor housing having a notch at an opening, and a housing cover. The motor housing accommodates the stator, the rotor, and the board holder to which the circuit board is mounted, and the motor housing is sealed with the housing cover. The board holder includes a board mount section, a lead-wire holder for holding lead-wires. The lead-wire holder is placed at the notch of the motor housing. The lead-wires extend from the circuit board mounted to the board mount section to the outside of the motor housing via the lead-wire holder. |
| US09331543B2 |
Electric machine module cooling system and method
Some embodiments of the invention provide an electric machine module including a housing that defines a machine cavity. A coolant jacket can be at least partially defined by the housing. In some embodiments, a plurality of coolant apertures can be disposed through portions of the housing to fluidly connect the coolant jacket and the machine cavity. One or more solenoid assemblies can be at least partially supported by the housing and positioned substantially adjacent to at least some of the coolant apertures. The solenoid assemblies can be configured to regulate passage of a coolant into the machine cavity from the coolant jacket. |
| US09331541B2 |
Motor structure
A motor structure includes a first silicon steel seat, at least one insulation support and a second silicon steel seat. The first silicon steel seat has a receiving space. The insulation support is disposed in the receiving space. The insulating support has a winding section. A first protection wall section and a second protection wall section are respectively formed on two sides of the winding section. The second protection wall section is formed with multiple through holes. Two ends of the second protection wall section are respectively formed with a first channel and a second channel. The second silicon steel seat is assembled and connected with the second protection wall section. The manufacturing cost of the motor structure is lowered and the manufacturing process of the motor structure is simplified. |
| US09331536B2 |
Rotator coil and method of manufacturing the same
A rotator coil is provided that includes a coil conductor and a mica tape wound a plurality of times around an outer periphery of the coil conductor. The mica tape includes mica paper and a reinforcing member, and has an adhesive resin layer containing an acryloyl-based component and a cyanate ester-based component between the mica paper and the reinforcing members. The reinforcing member, the mica paper, or both, are impregnated with a thermosetting resin composition, and hardened. |
| US09331532B2 |
Permanent magnet rotor brushless motor
A rotor for a permanent magnet brushless motor includes a shaft, a rotor core fixed to the shaft, and magnets embedded in the rotor core. The rotor core defines a plurality of spaced first slots arranged in a circumferential direction thereof, and a plurality of spaced second slots, each second slot being located between two adjacent first slots and each first slot being located between two adjacent second slots. First permanent magnets are received in the first slots and second permanent magnets are received in the second slots. Each second magnet is located between two adjacent first magnets and each first magnet is located between two adjacent second magnets in the circumferential direction, and the first magnets are magnetized in radial directions of the rotor core and the second magnets are magnetized in the circumferential direction. |
| US09331531B2 |
Method of manufacturing a transverse flux electrical machine rotor
A method of assembling a rotor portion adapted to be used in a rotatable transverse flux electrical machine (TFEM) is presented, the method comprising assembling at least one concentrator to a concentrator-receiving jig, applying bonding material between the concentrator and a magnet-and-concentrator supporting frame, assembling the concentrator-receiving jig to the magnet-and-concentrator supporting frame wherein a radial reference portion of the concentrator-receiving jig is material to set a distance between the concentrator assembled to the concentrator-receiving jig and the magnet-and-concentrator supporting frame, curing the bonding material to secure the concentrators to the magnet-and-concentrator supporting frame, and removing the concentrator-receiving jig without the at least one concentrator that remains secured to the magnet-and-concentrator supporting frame. A tool thereof is also encompassed by the present application. |
| US09331529B2 |
Actuator
An actuator includes: a coil; a permanent magnet rotor secured to and rotatably supported by an output shaft inside the coil; a bobbin made of a non-magnetic material and around which the coil is wound; a first stator inserted into and secured to the bobbin in one direction, and including an inner magnetic pole portion and an outer magnetic pole portion extending inside and outside the coil in an axial direction of the rotor, respectively; and a second stator inserted into and secured to the bobbin in a direction opposite to the one direction, and including an inner magnetic pole portion and an outer magnetic pole portion extending inside and outside the coil in the axial direction of the rotor, respectively. |
| US09331526B2 |
Controlling inductive power transfer system
An inductive power transfer system comprises a primary unit operable to generate an electromagnetic field and at least one secondary device, separable from the primary unit, and adapted to couple with the field when the secondary device is in proximity to the primary unit so that power can be received inductively by the secondary device from the primary unit without direct electrical conductive contacts therebetween. The system detects if there is a substantial difference between, on the one hand, a power drawn from the primary unit and, on the other hand, a power required by the secondary device or, if there is more than one secondary device, a combined power required by the secondary devices. Following such detection, the system restricts or stops the inductive power supply from the primary unit. Such a system can detect the presence of unwanted parasitic loads in the vicinity of the primary unit reliably. |
| US09331521B2 |
Energy storage apparatus
An energy storage apparatus includes an input unit connected to a solar cell to receive a DC power, a sensing unit for sensing and outputting a voltage of the solar cell, a signal generating unit for generating a periodic signal whose magnitude is periodically changed, a voltage generating unit for variously generating a reference voltage corresponding to the periodic signal, a control signal generating unit for generating a duty control signal by using regions in which the periodic signal has a magnitude lower than or higher than the reference voltage, a charging unit for performing a charging operation by means of an on/off switching operation according to the duty control signal, a battery unit for charging an energy by means of the charging operation of the charging unit, and a main control unit configured to control so that the charging operation is initiated with a reference voltage. |
| US09331510B2 |
Protective circuit, battery charger, and power storage device
A low-power protective circuit includes a detection unit that intermittently detects a voltage across a secondary battery; a battery management unit that includes a buffer memory device and a processor and determines, based on a value of the voltage, whether the secondary battery needs to be charged; a switch circuit that establishes or breaks electrical continuity between a host system and the secondary battery; a switch control unit that turns on or off the switch circuit in accordance with the judgment made by the battery management unit; a switch that controls supply of power supply voltage from the secondary battery to the battery management unit; and a power controller that intermittently stops supply of the power supply voltage to the battery management unit by turning off the switch. |
| US09331506B1 |
Battery recharger and heating apparatus
A battery recharger and heating apparatus, which is positioned within an insulated and weather proof chest, is disclosed. Electrical power is supplied to the apparatus to enable batteries to be charged in the insulated and weather proof chest and to remain in the insulated and weather proof chest until time of use. The interior of the insulated and weather proof chest is heated with a heating element such as a light bulb or heating pad. |
| US09331505B2 |
Charging system
A charging system for regulating the temperature of an electronic device. The charging system includes a base having a top surface configured to support the electronic device. The base is configured to draw heat away from the electronic device. The base may include at least one channel disposed along the top surface. A charger is operable to electrically charge the electronic device and a blower is configured to blow air along the channel so as to facilitate cooling of the electronic device during charging operations. |
| US09331503B2 |
Systems and methods of controlling battery deterioration by controlling battery state-of-health during power exchange
A power exchange controller adjusts a power exchange rate between a plurality of batteries and an upper authority to modify a state-of-health of each of the plurality of batteries over time. The power exchange controller is operable to receive a total power demand from an upper authority and each of the plurality of batteries connected to a charging station and adjust the power exchange between the upper authority and each of the plurality of batteries by detecting a battery state-of-health of each of the plurality of batteries, determining the target state-of-health for the plurality of batteries based on the state-of-health of each of the plurality of batteries and determining a power exchange with each of the plurality of batteries based on the total power demand and a difference between the target state-of-health and the state-of-health of each battery. |
| US09331501B2 |
Multi-cell thin film microbattery array
A rechargeable thin film microbattery cell array of at least four thin film microbattery cells is electrically connected together in parallel to provide power as a single battery power source. The array further comprises testing logic to determine if a microbattery cell has a microbattery cell voltage that is more than a predetermined percentage different from the voltage of the overall microbattery cell array or has an absolute voltage below a predetermined cutoff threshold, and logic to disconnect any microbattery cell from the microbattery cell array if the microbattery cell has a microbattery cell voltage that is more than a predetermined percentage different from the voltage of the overall microbattery cell array or has an absolute voltage below a predetermined cutoff threshold. Embodiments also comprise a Switch Capacitor DC-DC downconverter component that reduces the voltage potential to operate some or all functionalities located on the integrated circuit. |
| US09331499B2 |
System, method, module, and energy exchanger for optimizing output of series-connected photovoltaic and electrochemical devices
An energy transfer device for solar power systems operates to draw power from high-producing photovoltaic devices and apply that power across low-producing photovoltaic devices. An embodiment is a self-regulating energy exchanger using bidirectional DC-DC converters that operates to maintain uniform voltage across each series-connected photovoltaic device. An alternative embodiment is an energy exchanger that is controlled to maintain each of several series-connected photovoltaic devices at a maximum power point by drawing power from high-performing devices and applying that power across low-performing devices to provide uniform current among series-connected photovoltaic devices. |
| US09331492B2 |
Detection control device and method thereof
The present invention provides an auto-detection control apparatus, which receives an electric power from one of a system power source signal and an external device and performs a detection when coupled to the external device. The apparatus comprises a detection module, a power management module and a control module. The detection module generates a first result based on whether a first power signal from the external device exists, wherein the first result is related to whether the external device provides an electricity to itself. The power management module prevents a conflict between the system power source signal and the first power signal. The control module determines whether the electric power is supplied to the external device by the power management module based on the first result. |
| US09331491B2 |
Systems configured to transmit optical power signals transdermally out of a living subject, and devices and methods
In an embodiment, a system includes an internal optical power transmitter configured to be disposed within a living subject. The internal optical power transmitter includes a power source configured to provide electrical energy and an electrical-optical converter operably coupled to the power source. The electrical-optical converter may be configured to convert at least a portion of the electrical energy into one or more optical power signals transdermally transmittable out of the living subject. The system further includes an external optical-electrical converter configured to convert the one or more optical power signals into one or more electrical power signals and at least one external device configured to be operably coupled to the external optical-electrical converter and powered by the one or more electrical power signals. Embodiments of methods, biocompatible electrical-optical converters, and internal optical power transmitters are also disclosed. |
| US09331489B2 |
Maximizing power production at low sunlight by solar power mini-inverters
A method and apparatus is disclosed for maximizing power production for solar power systems when there is low sunlight during sunrise, sunset, clouding, partial shading, and other low irradiance conditions. A multiple-channel solar power Mini-Inverter can work in the low power mode when there is low sunlight, take power from one solar panel to supply DC power to its internal electronic circuits, and also invert the DC power from the remaining connected solar panels to single-phase or three-phase AC power feeding to the electrical grid or powering AC loads. This invention can significantly reduce the required startup and shutdown irradiance and DC power for the solar power inverter, avoid undesirable shutdowns due to partial shading, and allow the inverter to run in power generation mode for a few more hours each day. |
| US09331487B2 |
Method and apparatus for islanding detection for grid tie converters
Methods and apparatus are presented for unintentional islanding detection for grid tie converters in which the phase angle disturbance is introduced by modification of grid side converter switching control signals and a mismatch of reactive power between generation and the grid load is formed upon the occurrence of unintentional islanding, where the applied phase disturbance is determined according to two pre-defined curves to form an equivalent positive feedback at different frequencies to prevent the converter from forming an island at a new stable frequency after the grid is disconnected. |
| US09331486B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting islanding conditions of a distributed grid
An exemplary method and apparatus for detecting islanding conditions of a distributed grid are disclosed, wherein transfer of power through a power electrical unit is controlled on the basis of a control reference. The apparatus includes a first stage and a second stage performing a respective portion of the method. The first stage injects a reactive component to the control reference, and, for at least one electrical quantity of the grid, determines a change in the quantity induced by the injected component, and determines, on the basis of the change in the electrical quantity, whether to move to the second stage of the method. The second stage, for at least one electrical quantity of the grid, determines a value of the electrical quantity, forms a positive feedback term using at the determined value adding a positive feedback term to the control reference, determines a change in an electrical quantity induced by the feedback term, and determines islanding condition on the basis of the change in the quantity induced by the feedback term. |
| US09331485B2 |
HVDC valve tower
Disclosed is a HVDC valve tower. The HVDC valve tower includes cylindrical valve module loading part, a valve module loaded on the valve module loading part, and a crane disposed at a center of the valve module loading part to be rotatable. |
| US09331484B2 |
Systems and methods of controlling battery deterioration by controlling battery temperature during power exchange
A power exchange controller adjusts a power exchange between a plurality of batteries and an upper authority to control deterioration of a state-of-health of each of the plurality of batteries at an equivalent rate. The power exchange controller is operable to receive a total power demand from the upper authority and each of the plurality of batteries connected to a charging station and adjust the power exchange between the upper authority and each of the plurality of batteries by detecting a battery temperature of each of the plurality of batteries and determining the power exchange with each of the plurality of batteries based on the total power demand and an equalized temperature determined from each battery temperature. Each power exchange is determined so that the battery temperature of each of the plurality of batteries during the power exchange is adjusted to the equalized temperature. |
| US09331480B2 |
Variable topology distributed intelligence for utility grid control operation services
In one embodiment, a grid service controller receives advertisements from one or more grid service devices that indicate one or more grid control operations for which a corresponding grid service device is capable, and also maintains state and locality of the grid service devices. In response to receiving a request from a grid device for a particular grid control operation, the grid service controller may then direct the grid device to a particular grid service device capable of providing the particular grid control operation for the grid device based on the state and locality of the grid service devices, accordingly. |
| US09331478B2 |
Methods and circuits for reverse battery protection
A circuit is configured for providing reverse battery protection. The circuit includes a load driver circuit having at least a first half-bridge circuit with topside and bottomside transistors coupled at a midpoint node by a first current terminal of both the topside and bottomside transistors. A second current terminal of the bottomside transistor is coupled to a voltage common node. The circuit also includes: a reverse battery protection transistor having a first current terminal coupled to a battery supply node and a second current terminal coupled to a second current terminal of the topside transistor; a bootstrap capacitor having a first terminal coupled to a the midpoint node between the topside and bottomside transistors of the first half-bridge circuit; and a diode having an anode coupled to a second terminal of the bootstrap capacitor and a cathode coupled to a control terminal of the reverse battery protection transistor. |
| US09331474B1 |
Over-voltage protection circuit for a drive transistor
A drive transistor is connected to a resonant load in a low-side drive configuration. The voltage across the conduction terminals of the drive transistor is sensed and compared to an over-voltage threshold. An over-voltage signal is asserted in response to the comparison. The drive transistor is controlled by a PWM control signal in normal mode. In response to the assertion of the over-voltage signal, the drive transistor is forced to turn on (irrespective of the PWM control signal) to relieve the over-voltage condition. Operation of the circuit may be disabled or forced into soft start mode in response to the assertion of the over-voltage signal. Additionally, the pulse width of the PWM control signal may be reduced in response to the assertion of the over-voltage signal. |
| US09331471B2 |
Arrangement for forming a thermal isolation point
The invention relates to an arrangement for forming a thermal isolation point, consisting of an isolation strip to which a prestressing force can be applied, an electrical means which produces thermal energy and has a contact surface, in particular in the form of an overvoltage protection element or a component of such an element, as well as an integral connection means, which changes when heated in a defined manner in the aggregate state, in particular a solder. According to the invention, an adapter part is provided between the isolation strip and the contact surface of the electrical means, wherein the adapter part can on the one hand be connected to the contact surface in a purely interlocking and/or force-fitting manner, and on the other hand is connected in a manner which can provide thermal isolation integrally to the isolation strip. |
| US09331470B1 |
Line side circuit protection system
A line-side circuit interrupter protection system monitors the current flowing in a circuit in order to determine whether any current is flowing outside of the circuit upstream of the point at which a power supply is connected to a plurality of circuits. The system is located between the power supply and the main circuit panel, which is advantageous in certain applications in which an auxiliary power supply is used when a utility power supply is unavailable. In the event that the system detects current flowing outside of the circuit, the circuit will be broken to eliminate any potentially unsafe conditions. |
| US09331469B2 |
Ground fault circuit interrupter and method
A method and circuit for determining a circuit element parameter in a ground fault circuit interrupter circuit. An electrical signal provided to a first node is used to generate another electrical signal at a second node. The electrical signal at the second node is multiplexed with a modulation signal to generate a modulated signal that is then filtered and converted into a digital representation of a portion of the circuit element parameter. The electrical signal at the second node is multiplexed with the modulation signal after it has been phase shifted to produce a modulated signal that is filter and converted into a digital representation of another portion of the circuit element parameter. In another aspect, a slope based solenoid self-test method is used for self-testing in a GFCI circuit. Alternatively, a method for determining a wiring fault is provided using a digital filter. |
| US09331468B2 |
Termination unit
Cable end section comprises end-parts of N electrical phases/neutral, and a thermally-insulation envelope comprising cooling fluid. The end-parts each comprises a conductor and are arranged with phase 1 innermost, N outermost surrounded by the neutral, electrical insulation being between phases and N and neutral. The end-parts comprise contacting surfaces located sequentially along the longitudinal extension of the end-section. A termination unit has an insulating envelope connected to a cryostat, special parts at both ends comprising an adapter piece at the cable interface and a closing end-piece terminating the envelope in the end-section. The special parts houses an inlet and/or outlet for cooling fluid. The space between an inner wall of the envelope and a central opening of the cable is filled with cooling fluid. The special part at the end connecting to the cryostat houses an inlet or outlet, splitting cooling flow into cable annular flow and termination annular flow. |
| US09331467B2 |
Lightning protection and grounding device for vehicle
The present invention relates to a lightning protection and grounding device for a vehicle including: a dipole lightning rod mounted on the vehicle to in advance remove the focusing of an electric field of a lightning strike and to induce the discharge of lightning current when the lightning strike is induced thereto; grounding means disposed on earth to allow the lightning current of the lightning strike induced to the dipole lightning rod to flow to the earth, the ground means being formed of a flat plate disposed behind the rear wheels of the vehicle in such a manner as to be fixed compressedly to earth by means of the driving pressure of the rear wheels; and a connection terminal box adapted to connect the dipole lightning rod and the grounding means with each other. |
| US09331464B2 |
Power entry unit electrical power distribution system
An electrical power system including a first power entry unit, at least one receptacle, and a second power entry unit. The at least one receptacle is electrically connected to the first power entry unit. The second power entry unit is electrically connectable to the at least one receptacle. The first power entry unit and the second power entry unit include at least one detection device. Either the first power entry unit or the second power entry unit is a selected power entry unit and the remaining one is another power entry unit. The detection device is configured to preclude an electrical power connection of both the selected power entry unit and the other power entry unit to the at least one receptacle. |
| US09331459B2 |
Generator coupling kit and methods thereof
A generator coupling kit is provided. In exemplary embodiments, the generator coupling kit may comprise a wire adapted to couple with a generator on a first end, the wire adapted to couple with an outdoor box on a second end; the outdoor box adapted to couple with the wire; an indoor electrical panel adapted to couple with the outdoor box via a generator breaker; and the generator breaker adapted to couple with indoor electrical panel, the generator breaker adapted to couple with the outdoor box via internal wiring, the generator breaker comprising a circuit breaker. |
| US09331454B2 |
External resonator type light emitting system
An external resonator type light emitting system includes a light source oscillating a semiconductor laser light and a grating device providing an external resonator with the light source. The light source includes an active layer oscillating the semiconductor laser light. The grating device includes an optical waveguide having an incident face to which the semiconductor laser is incident and an emitting face of emitting an emitting light of a desired wavelength, a Bragg grating formed in the optical waveguide, and a propagating portion provided between the incident face and the Bragg grating. Formulas (1) to (4) are satisfied. |
| US09331453B2 |
Laser diode device
A laser diode device has a housing with a mounting part and a laser diode chip, which is based on a nitride compound semi-conductor material, in the housing on the mounting part. The laser diode chip is mounted directly on the mounting part by means of a solder layer and the solder layer has a thickness of greater than or equal to 3 μm. |
| US09331452B2 |
Method and system for homogenizing diode laser pump arrays
An optical amplifier system includes a diode pump array including a plurality of semiconductor diode laser bars disposed in an array configuration and characterized by a periodic distance between adjacent semiconductor diode laser bars. The periodic distance is measured in a first direction perpendicular to each of the plurality of semiconductor diode laser bars. The diode pump array provides a pump output propagating along an optical path and characterized by a first intensity profile measured as a function of the first direction and having a variation greater than 10%. The optical amplifier system also includes a diffractive optic disposed along the optical path. The diffractive optic includes a photo-thermo-refractive glass member. The optical amplifier system further includes an amplifier slab having an input face and position along the optical path and separated from the diffractive optic by a predetermined distance. A second intensity profile measured at the input face of the amplifier slab as a function of the first direction has a variation less than 10%. |
| US09331448B2 |
Electrical connector having primary and secondary leadframes
An electrical connector includes a contact module including a leadframe assembly and a dielectric frame overmolded on the leadframe assembly. The leadframe assembly includes a primary leadframe having signal conductors with transition contacts encased in the dielectric frame. At least some of the signal conductors have mating contacts extending from corresponding transition contacts configured to be electrically connected to corresponding signal contacts of a mating connector. The leadframe assembly includes a secondary leadframe is mechanically and electrically connected to the primary leadframe. The secondary leadframe has mounting segments connected to corresponding signal conductors of the primary leadframe. The secondary leadframe has mating contacts extending from corresponding mounting segments configured to be electrically connected to corresponding signal contacts of the mating connector. The secondary leadframe may be welded to the primary leadframe. |
| US09331445B1 |
Epidermal friendly twist-on wire connector method
An epidermal friendly twist-on wire connector and a method of applying an epidermal twist-on wire connector having a resilient gripping region including a set of low profile, resilient ribs that are circumferentially spaced so that a users thumb and fingers can compressively and sequentially engage and compress at least a portion of a plurality of ribs as well as the valley between the ribs during application of a wire securement torque to the twist-on wire connector while at the same time inhibiting or preventing epidermal trauma in a users thumb and fingers. |
| US09331435B2 |
Connector with electronic component
A connector includes a holder (20) and an electronic component (60) with a cylindrical main body (61). Lead wires (62) project axially from one axial end (61A) of the main body (61). An electronic component holding portion (35) is in the holder (20) and includes an insertion opening (39) into which the electronic component (60) is inserted. Projecting portions (64) are formed on the lead wires (62) and project radially out beyond an outer peripheral surface of the main body (61). The electronic component holding portion (35) includes a main body accommodating portion (36) for accommodating the main body (61) and guides (37) that communicate with the main body accommodating portion (36). The guides (37) are located radially outward of the main body (61) and guide the projecting portions (64) toward back sides in an inserting direction while suppressing circumferential movements of the projecting portions (64). |
| US09331431B2 |
Method and system for improving crosstalk attenuation within a plug/jack connection and between nearby plug/jack combinations
An RJ45 Communication jack has a housing with a top, bottom, front, and back. A foil is immediately adhered to and partially covers the housing. A top or bottom of the housing is covered by a first portion and a second portion of the foil wherein the first portion and the second portion are separated by a nonconductive gap. The gap extends from the front of the housing to the rear of the housing. |
| US09331429B2 |
Shield and locking type board to board connector
A shield and locking type board to board connector functioning to connect a first board and a second board to each other, the connector including: a first connector unit having both a first base and a first terminal; a second connector unit having a second base and a second terminal; two shield members each having a shell shape, the shield members respectively provided on front and rear bases facing the second base such that the shield members arrest EMI (electromagnetic interference) noise; and a locking member provided in the second connector unit so as to prevent the first connector unit from being removed outward by an outward movement thereof after the first connector unit is combined with the second connector unit in a close contact state. |
| US09331424B2 |
Electrical connector with a mating port for different transporting interfaces
An electric device assembly defines a first direction and a second direction perpendicular to each other. The electric device assembly includes a first electric device and a second device connecting each other. The first device includes a first electrical connector and a first securing element. The first connector defines a first mating port. The second device includes a second electrical connector defining a second mating port to be plugged and mated to the first mating port. The second device further includes a second securing element able to be separate from the second electrical connector. The second securing element is assembled to the second electrical connector and locked to the first securing element for electrically and mechanically connecting the first and second devices. |
| US09331422B2 |
Electronic device with hidden connector
An electronic device has a self-healing elastomer applied over one or more external electronic connectors. The self-healing elastomer may obscure the electronic connectors from the user as well as provide environmental protection for the connector and the electronic device. Electronic probes may temporarily penetrate the self-healing elastomer to mate with the electronic connector. After removal of the probes the self-healing elastomer may elastically reform and self-heal. |
| US09331420B2 |
Compressor having terminal plug assembly
A compressor may include a shell, a compression mechanism supported within the shell, a motor drivingly engaged with the compression mechanism, and a terminal assembly. The terminal assembly may include a cover secured relative to the shell, a terminal block fixed to the shell and in electrical communication with the motor, and a plug. The plug may be engaged with the terminal block and may provide electrical communication between the terminal block and a wire. The plug may include a first side facing the terminal block and a second side facing a wall of the cover. The second side may include a protrusion extending toward the wall and spaced a distance therefrom. |
| US09331416B2 |
Touch proof end cap for a leading end of a conducting connector
A touch proof connector is contemplated. The connector may be comprised of a conducting body with a non-conducting end cap. The touch-proof connector may be included within a charging receptacle of a vehicle to facilitate establishing electrical connection with a connector assembly of a plug-in charging system. The non-conducting end cap may be configured to facilitate insulating a tip of the touch-proof connector from human contact. |
| US09331411B2 |
Connector terminal
A connector terminal to be inserted into a connector and to electrically connect with a terminal portion formed at a marginal area of a surface of a board inserted into the connector, includes an inclined portion inclining relative to the board inserted into the connector, the inclined portion being resiliently deformable when compressed by the board, a contact portion formed on the inclined portion and making contact with the terminal portion, and a projecting portion formed on the inclined portion and making contact with the board prior to the contact portion when the board is inserted into the connector, the projecting portion, when the board is inserted into the connector, making contact with an edge of the board, then riding onto the terminal portion, and then, rising away from the terminal portion when the contact portion makes contact with the terminal portion. |
| US09331410B2 |
Electrical connector
A plug connector 1 includes a plug-side housing 5 and plug-side power supply contact 5A which is held by the plug-side housing 5 and in which a power supply current flows, the plug-side power supply contact 5A comprises at least a pair of integrally formed spring contact portions 15A and 15B each having a bent-plate shape, and the pair of contact portions 15A and 15B are provided so that their flat surfaces face each other. |
| US09331404B2 |
DIN rail latching arrangement
A latching arrangement for detachably mounting a device on a DIN rail. A support member configured to be mounted on the DIN rail. A guiding slot configured on a same side of the device on which the support member is configured. An engaging lug received in the guiding slot and adapted to move between an engaging, extended configuration and a retracted, disengaging configuration. An urging element cooperating with the engaging lug and the device, the urging element adapted to be configured between a first operative configuration in which the urging element urges the engagement lug towards the support member and a second operative configuration in which said urging element is moved to facilitate moving of the engaging lug away from said support member. |
| US09331400B1 |
Male contact assembly
A male contact assembly includes a contact body having a mating end and a wire end opposite the mating end. The wire end has a wire barrel configured to receive and be terminated to a wire conductor. The male contact assembly includes a spring body having a front end and a rear end. The rear end is coupled to the mating end of the contact body such that the rear end of the spring body and the mating end of the contact body are coaxially aligned for a mating length. The front end of the spring body includes a male connector comprising at least one compliant beam. The at least one compliant beam of the male connector is resiliently deflected when connected to an external female connector. |
| US09331396B2 |
Antenna structure having orthogonal polarizations
An antenna structure is disclosed that includes a dipole antenna and a slot antenna extending along a first axis. The dipole antenna and the slot antenna each have a radiation pattern that is omni-directional in an azimuth plane of the Earth. The dipole antenna radiates vertically polarized electric field, and the slot antenna radiates a horizontally polarized electric field. |
| US09331391B2 |
Mobile device
A mobile device includes a substrate, a ground element, and a radiation branch. The ground element includes a ground branch, wherein an edge of the ground element has a notch extending into an interior of the ground element so as to form a slot region, and the ground branch partially surrounds the slot region. The radiation branch is substantially inside the slot region, and is coupled to the ground branch of the ground element. The ground branch and the radiation branch form an antenna structure. |
| US09331389B2 |
Wireless handheld devices, radiation systems and manufacturing methods
A radiating system for transmitting and receiving signals in first and second frequency regions includes a radiating structure, a radiofrequency system, and an external port. The radiating structure has first and second isolated radiation boosters coupled to a ground plane layer. A first internal port of the radiating structure is between the first radiation booster and the ground plane layer, and a second internal port is between the second radiation booster and the ground plane layer. A distance between the two internal ports is less than 0.06 times a wavelength of the lowest frequency. The maximum size of the first and second radiation boosters is smaller than 1/30 times the wavelength of the lowest frequency. The radiofrequency system includes two ports connected respectively to the first and the second internal ports of the radiating structure, and a port connected to the external port of the radiating system. |
| US09331388B2 |
Emitter for vertically polarized wireless signals
An electric emitter for vertically polarised wireless signals for a communication service with a narrow frequency bandwidth around a frequency fo with free-space wavelength λo in the gigahertz range, comprising at least one substantially horizontally oriented conductor loop arranged above a conductive base area, with an emitter infeed point for electromagnetic excitation of the loop relative to the base area. The loop is formed by a circularly closed ring conductor running in a substantially horizontal plane with a height h of less than λo/6 over the base area. Distributed over the periphery of the ring conductor are at least three vertical emitters electromagnetically coupled to the ring conductor coupling points and running to the base area, wherein at least two of the emitters are electromagnetically coupled to the base area at earth terminal points, and a vertical emitter is excited via the emitter infeed point at the lower end thereof. |
| US09331385B2 |
Portable terminal
Apparatus for improving the reception sensitivity of a portable terminal includes: a peripheral body combined with a main body; a main circuit board mounted to the peripheral body and providing a connection terminal; an antenna formed on the main circuit board; a module arranged to be adjacent to the antenna; and a ground portion installed between the module and the peripheral body, for conducting noise which has been induced into the antenna, into the peripheral body by conducting current through the module and the peripheral body. |
| US09331380B2 |
Tunable antenna and wireless communication device employing same
A tunable antenna including a dielectric substrate, a main antenna, and a resonating antenna is disclosed. The dielectric substrate is made of dielectric constant-tunable material. The main antenna is positioned on the dielectric substrate, the main antenna includes a feeding arm and a first grounding arm. The main antenna generates a low-frequency mode and at least one high-frequency mode. The resonating antenna is positioned on the dielectric substrate. The resonating antenna resonates with the main antenna to generate another high-frequency mode. The central frequencies of the low-frequency mode and the high-frequency modes of the tunable antenna are adjusted by adjusting a dielectric constant of the dielectric substrate. |
| US09331377B2 |
Top-pivoting underwater RFID antenna assembly
An underwater top-pivoting antenna assembly (or array thereof) suitable for subsurface RFID tag interrogation in flowing water such as a river. In preferred embodiments, the antenna interrogates RFID tags implanted in aquatic species. The antenna resides in an elongate antenna housing whose cross-sectional shape is preferably a symmetric hydrodynamic teardrop shape. When the assembly is deployed in water with an upper end thereof suspended above a lower end, the upper end of the housing is linked to a pivot/swivel mechanism such that when the pivot/swivel mechanism is held substantially stationary with respect to the water flow, the lower end of the housing is free to rotate generally about the first end, including in a substantially vertical plane parallel to the water flow direction. The length of the antenna housing is advantageously selected to enable the antenna to monitor for signals across substantially the entire water depth. |
| US09331372B2 |
Directional coupler
A directional coupler includes a first conductive track, a second conductive track, and a conductive structure. The conductive structure includes a first partial region that is arranged nearer to the first conductive track than the first conductive track is to the second conductive track. The conductive structure also includes a second partial region that is arranged nearer to the second conductive track than the first conductive track is to the second conductive track. |
| US09331371B2 |
Waveguide connecting structure, antenna device and radar device
There is provided a waveguide connecting structure, including first, second, third and fourth waveguides. A first coupling window at one of magnetic field planes of the third waveguide couples the first and third waveguides in such a manner that the electric field planes of both are in parallel. A second coupling window formed at one of the electric field planes of the third waveguide couples the second and third waveguides in such a manner that the electric field planes of the second waveguide is in parallel with the magnetic field planes of the first waveguide. A third coupling window formed at the other one of the electric field planes couples the fourth and third waveguides in such a manner that the electric field planes of the fourth waveguide is in parallel with the magnetic field planes of the first waveguide. |
| US09331369B2 |
Rechargeable metal nitric oxide gas battery
A metal-nitric oxide electrochemical cell is provided. Also provided is a rechargeable battery containing the metal-nitric oxide electrochemical cell. A vehicle system wherein NO from a combustion engine exhaust is fed to a metal-nitric oxide battery is additionally provided. |
| US09331359B2 |
Lithium electrochemical accumulator having a specific bipolar architecture
The invention relates to an electrochemical lithium accumulator comprising at least one first electrochemical cell and at least one second electrochemical cell separated from each other by a current-collecting substrate, which substrate supports on a first face, an electrode of said first electrochemical cell, and on its second face opposite to said first face, an electrode of opposite sign of said second electrochemical cell, each cell comprising a positive electrode and a negative electrode separated by an electrolyte, characterized inter alia in that said current-collecting substrate is in copper or in copper alloy. |
| US09331356B2 |
Electrolyte for redox flow battery and redox flow battery
Provided are an electrolyte for a redox flow battery, the electrolyte allowing suppression of generation of precipitate and suppression of generation of hydrogen during a battery reaction; and a redox flow battery including the electrolyte. In the electrolyte for a redox flow battery, the total concentration of impurity element ions contributing to generation of precipitate during a battery reaction is 220 mass ppm or less, and the total concentration of platinum-group element ions is 4.5 mass ppm or less. In a case where the impurity element ions contributing to generation of precipitate include metal element ions, the total concentration of the metal element ions may be 195 mass ppm or less. |
| US09331355B2 |
Electrolyte sheet including a peripheral region having a surface roughness different from a surface roughness in a region other than the peripheral region, method of producing the same, and solid oxide fuel cell including the same
The electrolyte sheet for solid oxide fuel cell of the present invention has different surface roughnesses between the peripheral region and the region other than the peripheral region at least on one side. The surface roughness Ra(b) in the peripheral region is at least 0.05 μm and less than 0.3 μm. The surface roughness Ra(i) in the region other than the peripheral region is at least 0.2 μm and at most 1.2 μm. And, the ratio of Ra(i) to Ra(b) (Ra(i)/Ra(b)) is more than 1 and at most 4. Here, the surface roughness Ra(b) and the surface roughness Ra(i) are arithmetic mean roughness values and determined by an optical and laser-based non-contact three-dimensional profile measuring device in accordance with a German standard ‘DIN-4768’. |
| US09331354B2 |
Liquid composition, process for its production, and process for producing membrane-electrode assembly for polymer electrolyte fuel cells
An electrolyte membrane is prepared from a liquid composition comprising at least one member selected from the group consisting of trivalent cerium, tetravalent cerium, bivalent manganese and trivalent manganese; and a polymer with a cation-exchange group. The liquid composition is preferably one containing water, a carbonate of cerium or manganese, and a polymer with a cation-exchange group, and a cast film thereof is used as an electrolyte membrane to prepare a membrane-electrode assembly. The present invention successfully provides a membrane-electrode assembly for polymer electrolyte fuel cells being capable of generating the electric power in high energy efficiency, having high power generation performance regardless of the dew point of the feed gas, and being capable of stably generating the electric power over a long period of time. |
| US09331351B2 |
Solid oxide fuel cell device
To provide a solid oxide fuel cell device capable of smooth transition from a startup state to an electrical generating state. The present invention is a solid oxide fuel cell device (1) for generating electricity, having a fuel cell module (2); a reformer (20), a fuel supply device (38); a water supply device (28), a generating oxidant gas supply device (45), and a controller (110) for controlling the fuel supply device and water supply device at the time of startup when the fuel cell module solid oxide fuel cell unit is raised to a temperature at which electrical generation is possible; whereby the controller controls the fuel supply device during the SR operation such that electrical generation is started after reducing the fuel supply flow rate prior to starting electrical generation. |
| US09331350B2 |
Fuel cell system including diagnostic technique for unbalanced compressor
A diagnostic system for determining whether a rotor shaft of a compressor is unbalanced. The compressor includes a displacement sensor that measures the displacement of the rotor shaft as it is rotating. The sensor dynamic frequency signal is sent to a bandpass filter that filters out an eigen-frequency frequency that is a function of shaft elasticity and rotor dynamics. The filtered frequency signal is then rectified by a rectifier to make the filtered frequency signal positive. The rectified signal is then passed through a low pass filter that converts the rectified signal to a DC signal. The DC signal is then sent to a controller that determines if the amplitude of the signal is above a predetermined threshold, which indicates a problem with the balance of the compressor. |
| US09331348B2 |
Solid oxide fuel cell device
To provide a fuel cell device capable of extending the years of service life of a reformer by suppressing thermal runaways. The present invention is a solid oxide fuel cell device, including a fuel cell module having multiple fuel cell units; a reformer disposed above the fuel cell units, for producing hydrogen by a partial oxidation reforming reaction and a steam reforming reaction; a vaporizing chamber disposed adjacent to the reformer; a combustion chamber for heating the vaporization chamber; a water supply device; a supply device for oxidant gas for electrical generation; and a controller for raising the fuel cell unit to a temperature at which electrical generation is possible; wherein fuel electrodes in each individual fuel cell unit are constituted to act as catalysts for a shift reaction, and the controller executes only the ATR step and SR step in the reformer. |
| US09331344B2 |
Fuel cell
A power generation unit of a fuel cell stack includes a first metal separator, a first membrane electrode assembly, a second metal separator, a second membrane electrode assembly, and a third metal separator. A first oxygen-containing gas flow field includes a plurality of wavy flow grooves. An outlet merging area is provided at the end of the wavy flow grooves on the outlet side. The outlet merging area is connected to a plurality of straight connection flow grooves. The groove depth of the straight connection flow grooves is smaller than the groove depth of the wavy flow grooves. |
| US09331343B2 |
Stainless separator for fuel cell and method of manufacturing the same
A stainless steel separator for fuel cells and a method of manufacturing the same are disclosed. The method includes preparing a stainless steel sheet as a matrix, performing surface modification on a surface of the stainless steel sheet to form a Cr-rich passive film having a comparatively increased amount of Cr in a superficial layer of the stainless steel sheet by decreasing an amount of Fe in the superficial layer of the stainless steel sheet, and forming a coating layer on the surface of the surface-modified stainless steel sheet. The coating layer is one selected from a metal nitride layer (MNx), a metal/metal nitride layer (M/MNx), a metal carbide layer (MCy), and a metal boride layer (MBz) (where 0.5≦x≦1, 0.42≦y≦1, 0.5≦z≦2). |
| US09331338B2 |
Polymer composition for lithium secondary battery, electrode for lithium secondary battery including the same, and lithium secondary battery including the electrode
A polymer including a first repeating unit represented by Formula 1, a polymer composition for a lithium battery including the polymer, an electrode for a lithium battery including the polymer composition, and a lithium battery including the electrode: wherein, in Formula 1, R, R′, A, A′, Y, and Y′ are as defined in the specification. |
| US09331333B2 |
Active substance for electrode for a sodium ion battery
The present invention relates to a negative electrode material for a sodium ion battery, and to a method for producing it.The active material of the electrode material is composed of an oxide with a structure corresponding to the layered structure of the compound Na2Ti3O7, said oxide conforming to the formula NaxTi(IV)aTi(III)bMcO7 (A), in which x denotes the number of Na+ ions inserted between the layers, per Ti3O7 structural unit, with 0 |
| US09331329B2 |
Carbon-coated lithium iron phosphate of olivine crystal structure and lithium secondary battery using the same
Disclosed is a lithium iron phosphate with an olivine crystal structure wherein the lithium iron phosphate has a composition represented by the following Formula 1 and carbon (C) is coated on the surface of the lithium iron phosphate by chemical bonding via a heterogeneous element other than carbon. Li1+aFe1−xMx(PO4−b)Xb (1) (wherein M, X, a, x, and b are the same as defined in the specification). |
| US09331326B2 |
Battery pack
A battery pack includes a plurality of battery cells including an electrode portion; a holder case accommodating the plurality of battery cells; and a printed circuit module (PCM) mounted to an outer surface of the holder case, the holder case including a fastening portion fixing the PCM to the holder case, the fastening portion being at a region of the holder case corresponding to an edge portion of the PCM. |
| US09331323B2 |
Cross-linked multilayer porous polymer membrane battery separators
A cross-linkable polyolefin composition (polyethylene, polypropylene or an ethylene-propylene copolymer) is coextruded with ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene to form two-layer separator membranes, or three-layer separator membranes, for lithium-ion battery cells. In three-layer separator membranes, the cross-linkable polyolefin is formed as the outer faces of the separator for placement against facing surfaces of cell electrodes. The polymer materials initially contain plasticizer oil, which is removed from the extruded membranes, and the extruded membranes are also stretched to obtain a suitable open pore structure in the layered membranes to provide for suitable infiltration with a liquid electrolyte. The cross-linked polyolefin layer provides strength at elevated temperatures and the lower-melting, ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene layer provides the separator membrane with a thermal shutdown capability. |
| US09331322B2 |
Vent cap for battery
The present invention relates to a storage-battery vent cap which adjusts an internal pressure of a storage battery by exhausting a gas generated inside the storage battery to the outside and blocking inflow of external air. The vent cap includes a cylindrical body installed in a vent hole of the battery and formed with an exhaust hole; a cylindrical insert coupled to the body, a partition being formed inside the insert and a coupling hole and a air vent being formed in the partition; and a valve fixed to the coupling hole and elastically deformed by an internal pressure of the battery to open the air vent. The valve has an umbrella-like shape including a valve body having a larger diameter than that of the coupling hole, a cover formed on an outer circumferential surface of the valve body, and a fixing portion downwardly protruded from the valve body. |
| US09331321B2 |
Fabric composite support or enclosure for an automotive battery pack
A battery enclosure comprising a support and a cover fabricated from a thermoset or thermoplastic polymer reinforced by at least a woven fabric reinforcement is described. In an embodiment the reinforcement is a woven glass fabric. |
| US09331319B2 |
Battery connector with a plurality of voltage detection terminals
A battery connector includes: a plurality of terminals, each of which is to be connected to each electrode of a plurality of batteries; a plurality of voltage detection terminals, each of which is connected to respective one of the terminals, and includes a wire connection part to be connected to an electric wire; and a case which contains the plurality of terminals and the plurality of voltage detection terminals therein. Adjacent terminals of the terminals are fixed in the case to be spaced from each other, and an individual wire path of a wire routing part is provided between the adjacent terminals. Each of the voltage detection terminals is fixed so as to incline the wire connection part with respect to the individual wire path and to locate the wire connection part more interiorly than an edge of the case. |
| US09331317B2 |
Battery device and electronic apparatus
A battery apparatus including a case, a battery cell, a battery-side terminal, and an engaging piece. The case has a width, a thickness, and a length. The battery cell is housed in an inside of the case. The battery-side terminal is disposed on a side surface at one end of the case in a length direction and electrically connected to the battery cell. The engaging piece is disposed at the one end of the case at which the battery-side terminal is positioned such that the engaging piece extends in a length direction a same distance as the case at the one end portion. The engaging piece is at an edge of the case in a width direction. |
| US09331310B2 |
Method for manufacturing light-emitting device
A method for exposing an electrode terminal covered with an organic film in a light-emitting device without damaging the electrode terminal is provided. In a region of the electrode terminal to which electric power from an external power supply or an external signal is input, an island-shaped organic compound-containing layer is formed and the organic film is formed thereover. The organic film is removed by utilizing low adhesion of an interface between the organic compound-containing layer and the electrode terminal, whereby the electrode terminal can be exposed without damage to the electrode terminal. |
| US09331308B2 |
Organic light emitting display apparatus and method of manufacturing the same
An organic light emitting display apparatus and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The apparatus includes a substrate, a first electrode formed on the substrate, an intermediate layer formed on the first electrode. The intermediate layer includes an organic emission layer. A second electrode is formed on the intermediate layer, and a capping layer is formed on the second electrode in a first region. The capping layer includes a first edge portion and at least two layers. A third electrode is formed on the second electrode in a second region. The second region is not overlapped with the first region, and the third electrode includes a second edge portion having a side portion facing a side portion of the first edge portion of the capping layer. Electric properties and image quality may be improved. |
| US09331301B2 |
Active matrix organic light-emitting display and display apparatus
An AMOLED comprises a plurality of pixel structures arranged in a matrix and one layer of power supply signal electrode configured to provide a power supply voltage signal for the pixel structures, and the power supply signal electrode has a planar structure. The planar power supply signal electrode can greatly reduce its resistance and hence can reduce the IR drop of power supply voltage signals that are transmitted over the power supply signal electrode, effectively reduce the impact of the IR drop on the display effect, and remarkably reduce the power consumption of a panel. |
| US09331299B2 |
Efficient white organic light emitting diodes with high color quality
Organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) are provided that include two red emissive dopants. The two dopants may be disposed within a common organic emissive layer in an OLED, or each may be disposed in a separate layer. Configurations including multiple layers having multiple dopants are also provided, in which a first red dopant is disposed in a separate organic layer from a second red dopant, and a common dopant of another color, such as green, is disposed in each organic layer. Devices as disclosed herein are capable of providing an R9 value of at least 80, and of providing white light with a CRI of at least 80. |
| US09331298B2 |
Nanocluster based light emitting device
A luminescent device including an emission layer having luminescent nanoclusters is provided. The luminescent nanoclusters can be phosphorescent metal halides. The luminescent device can emit IR, NIR, colored, or white light and be pumped electrically or optically. A method for manufacturing a luminescent device including an emission layer having luminescent nanoclusters is also provided. |
| US09331297B2 |
Organic EL display device and method for manufacturing same
An organic EL display device comprising: an anode; a cathode that is a metal film; a light-emitting layer between the anode and the cathode; and a sealing layer that covers a side of the cathode opposite a side on which the light-emitting layer is provided. An oxidation inhibiting layer and a cathode protecting layer are stacked between the cathode and the sealing layer. The oxidation inhibiting layer is closer to the light-emitting layer than the cathode protecting layer is. |
| US09331295B2 |
Film-forming ink, film-forming method, method of manufacturing light emitting element, light emitting element, light emitting device, and electronic apparatus
A film-forming ink according to an embodiment of the invention includes a film-forming material; and a liquid medium which dissolves or disperses the film-forming material, in which the liquid medium contains an ether compound represented by Formula (I). |
| US09331294B2 |
Vertical electro-optical component and method of fabricating the same
A vertical electro-optical component and a method for forming the same are provided. The vertical electro-optical component includes a substrate, a first electrode layer formed on the substrate, a patterned insulating layer formed on the first electrode layer, a metal layer formed on the patterned insulating layer, a semiconductor layer formed on the first electrode layer, and a second electrode layer formed on the semiconductor layer, wherein the semiconductor layer encapsulates the patterned insulating layer and the metal layer. The vertical electro-optical component thus has a low operational voltage of a vertical transistor and a high reaction speed of a photo diode, and may be used to form light-emitting transistors. |
| US09331291B2 |
Non-volatile memory device and method of manufacturing the same
A non-volatile memory device includes a gate electrode, a data storage layer provided on the gate electrode, and a source electrode and a drain electrode provided on the data storage layer and spaced apart from each other. The data storage layer comprises three layers that form hetero-interfaces and have different permittivities from one another. |
| US09331288B2 |
Compound for organic electric element, organic electric element comprising the same and electronic device thereof
A compound represented by Formula 1. An organic electric element includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and an organic material layer between the first electrode and the second electrode. The organic material layer includes the compound represented by Formula 1. When the organic electric element includes the compound in the organic material layer, driving voltage, luminous efficiency, color purity, stability, and life span can be improved. |
| US09331283B2 |
Nanoparticles, method of manufacturing nanoparticles, and electronics device including the same
The method of manufacturing nanoparticles of a target material includes mixing graphene oxide with an aqueous solvent to prepare an aqueous solution, mixing the target material with an organic solvent to prepare an organic solution, mixing the aqueous solution with the organic solution, and preparing nanoparticles of the target material by the graphene oxide. |
| US09331279B2 |
Creating an embedded ReRAM memory from a high-k metal gate transistor structure
An embodiment of the present invention sets forth an embedded resistive memory cell that includes a first stack of deposited layers, a second stack of deposited layers, a first electrode disposed under a first portion of the first stack, and a second electrode disposed under a second portion of the first stack and extending from under the second portion of the first stack to under the second stack. The second electrode is disposed proximate to the first electrode within the embedded resistive memory cell. The first stack of deposited layers includes a dielectric layer, a high-k dielectric layer disposed above the dielectric layer, and a metal layer disposed above the high-k dielectric layer. The second stack of deposited layers includes a high-k dielectric layer formed simultaneously with the high-k dielectric layer included in the first stack, and a metal layer disposed above the high-k dielectric layer. |
| US09331278B2 |
Forming memristors on imaging devices
Forming memristors on imaging devices can include forming a printhead body comprising a first conductive material, forming a memory on the printhead body by performing an oxidation process to form a switching oxide material on the first conductive material, and forming a second conductive material on the switching oxide material. |
| US09331274B2 |
Memristive element and electronic memory based on such elements
The invention relates to a memristive element (M) formed by: a first electrode (10); a second electrode (30); and an active region (20) making direct electrical contact with said first and second electrodes, characterized in that said active region essentially consists of a thin film of an insertion compound containing at least one alkali metal, said compound being an oxide or chalcogenide of at least one transition metal and being able to conduct both electrons and ions. Non-volatile electronic memory formed from a plurality of such memristive elements. |
| US09331273B2 |
Memory cell array and variable resistive memory device including the same
A memory cell array includes a semiconductor substrate, a first word line formed on the semiconductor substrate, a second word line formed on the semiconductor substrate and extending substantially parallel to the first word line, a first inter-pattern insulating layer interposed between the first and second word lines, first active pillars formed within the first word line and arranged along the first word line at a first interval, and second active pillars formed within the second word lines, and arranged along the second word line to face the first active pillars, respectively, with the first inter-pattern insulating layer interposed therebetween. |
| US09331272B2 |
3-dimensional (3D) non-volatile memory device and method of fabricating the same
Provided are 3D non-volatile memory devices and methods of fabricating the same. A 3D non-volatile memory device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of conductive lines, which are separated from one another in parallel; a plurality of conductive planes, which extend across the plurality of conductive lines and are separated from one another in parallel; and non-volatile data storage layer patterns, which are respectively arranged at regions of intersection at which the plurality of conductive lines and the plurality of conductive planes cross each others. |
| US09331271B2 |
Structure and method to fabricate high performance MTJ devices for spin-transfer torque (STT)-RAM application
A STT-RAM MTJ is disclosed with a MgO tunnel barrier formed by natural oxidation and containing an oxygen surfactant layer to form a more uniform MgO layer and lower breakdown distribution percent. A CoFeB/NCC/CoFeB composite free layer with a middle nanocurrent channel layer minimizes Jc0 while enabling thermal stability, write voltage, read voltage, and Hc values that satisfy 64 Mb design requirements. The NCC layer has RM grains in an insulator matrix where R is Co, Fe, or Ni, and M is a metal such as Si or Al. NCC thickness is maintained around the minimum RM grain size to avoid RM granules not having sufficient diameter to bridge the distance between upper and lower CoFeB layers. A second NCC layer and third CoFeB layer may be included in the free layer or a second NCC layer may be inserted below the Ru capping layer. |
| US09331270B2 |
Magnetic memory element and memory apparatus having multiple magnetization directions
A memory element includes a layered structure: a memory layer having a magnetization direction changed depending on information, the magnetization direction being changed by applying a current in a lamination direction of the layered structure to record the information in the memory layer, including a first ferromagnetic layer having a magnetization direction that is inclined from a direction perpendicular to a film face, a bonding layer laminated on the first ferromagnetic layer, and a second ferromagnetic layer laminated on the bonding layer and bonded to the first ferromagnetic layer via the bonding layer, having a magnetization direction that is inclined from the direction perpendicular to the film face, a magnetization-fixed layer having a fixed magnetization direction, an intermediate layer that is provided between the memory layer and the magnetization-fixed layer, and is contacted with the first ferromagnetic layer, and a cap layer that is contacted with the second ferromagnetic layer. |
| US09331268B2 |
MRAM element having improved data retention and low writing temperature
A thermally assisted switching MRAM element including a magnetic tunnel junction including a reference layer having a reference magnetization; a storage layer having a storage magnetization; a tunnel barrier layer included between the storage layer and the reference layer; and a storage antiferromagnetic layer exchange-coupling the storage layer such as to pin the storage magnetization at a low temperature threshold and to free it at a high temperature threshold. The antiferromagnetic layer includes: at least one first antiferromagnetic layer having a first storage blocking temperature, and at least one second antiferromagnetic layer having a second storage blocking temperature; wherein the first storage blocking temperature is below 200° C. and the second storage blocking temperature is above 250° C. The MRAM element combines better data retention compared with known MRAM elements with low writing mode operating temperature. |
| US09331266B2 |
Magnetic field controlled reconfigurable semiconductor logic device and method for controlling the same
A non-volatile reconfigurable logic device executing logical operations and a memory function and controlled by a magnetic field is provided. The reconfigurable logic device includes i) at least one semiconductor device; and ii) a pair of magnetic field controlled devices respectively spaced apart from both sides of the semiconductor device and that are adapted to generate magnetic field leakage to control the semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes i) a first semiconductor layer; and ii) a second semiconductor layer located on the first semiconductor layer. One of the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer is a p-type semiconductor layer and the other is an n-type semiconductor layer. |
| US09331261B2 |
Piezoelectric element
A piezoelectric element includes, in sequence, a substrate containing metallic material; a first intermediate layer; a lower electrode layer; a piezoelectric layer; and an upper electrode layer. The first intermediate layer contains, as a main component, a nitrogen-containing silicon oxide having a silicon-nitrogen bond. The lower electrode layer contains a perovskite-type oxide in (100) preferential orientation. The piezoelectric layer contains a perovskite-type oxide in (001) or (100) preferential orientation. |
| US09331260B2 |
Piezoelectric mechanism having electrodes within thin film sheet that are substantially perpendicular to substrate
A piezoelectric actuator is formed by forming first and second electrodes on a substrate, and depositing a material on the substrate and between side surfaces of adjacent first and second electrodes to form a thin film sheet within which the first and the second electrodes extend from a first surface of the thin film sheet towards a second surface of the thin film sheet opposite the first surface. The second electrode is interdigitated in relation to the first electrode. The side surfaces of the first and the second electrodes are at least substantially perpendicular to the substrate. The thin film sheet is to physically deform in response to an electric field induced within the thin film sheet via application of a voltage across the first and the second electrodes. |
| US09331257B2 |
Thermoelectric module with a heat conducting layer and method of manufacturing a thermoelectric module
A thermoelectric module includes a cold side, a hot side and thermoelectric elements disposed between the two sides. At least one heat conducting layer is disposed between the thermoelectric elements and at least the cold side or the hot side and the heat conducting layer can be compressed. A method for producing a thermoelectric module having at least one heat conducting layer is also provided. |
| US09331256B2 |
Semiconductor structure with sensor chip and landing pads
A manufacturing method of a semiconductor structure includes the following steps. A patterned photoresist layer is formed on a wafer of the wafer structure. The wafer is etched, such that channels are formed in the wafer, and a protection layer of the wafer structure is exposed through the channels. The protection layer is etched, such that openings aligned with the channels are formed in the protection layer. Landing pads in the protection layer are respectively exposed through the openings and the channels, and the caliber of each of the openings is gradually increased toward the corresponding channel. Side surfaces of the wafer surrounding the channels are etched, such that the channels are expanded to respectively form hollow regions. The caliber of the hollow region is gradually decreased toward the opening, and the caliber of the opening is smaller than that of the hollow region. |
| US09331252B2 |
Wavelength converters, including polarization-enhanced carrier capture converters, for solid state lighting devices, and associated systems and methods
Wavelength converters, including polarization-enhanced carrier capture converters, for solid state lighting devices, and associated systems and methods are disclosed. A solid state radiative semiconductor structure in accordance with a particular embodiment includes a first region having a first value of a material characteristic and being positioned to receive radiation at a first wavelength. The structure can further include a second region positioned adjacent to the first region to emit radiation at a second wavelength different than the first wavelength. The second region has a second value of the material characteristic that is different than the first value, with the first and second values of the characteristic forming a potential gradient to drive electrons, holes, or both electrons and holes in the radiative structure from the first region to the second region. In a further particular embodiment, the material characteristic includes material polarization. Accordingly, the first region has a first material polarization value and the second region has a second material polarization value different than the first material polarization value, with the differences between the first and second material polarization values forming an electric field at an interface between the first and second regions. |
| US09331249B2 |
Light-emitting device and manufacturing method thereof
The present disclosure provides a light-emitting device and manufacturing method thereof. The light-emitting device comprises: a metal connecting structure; a barrier layer on the metal connecting structure, the barrier layer comprising a first metal multilayer on the metal connecting structure and a second metal multilayer on the first metal multilayer; a metal reflective layer on the barrier layer; and a light-emitting stack electrically coupled to the metal reflective layer, wherein the first metal multilayer comprises a first metal layer comprising a first metal material and a second metal layer comprising a second metal material, and the second metal multilayer comprises a third metal layer comprising a third metal material and a fourth metal layer comprising a fourth metal material. |
| US09331248B2 |
Semiconductor light emitting device and method for manufacturing the same
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor light emitting device includes a first semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type, a second semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type and a light emitting layer provided between the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer. The device also includes a first electrode layer having electrical continuity with the first semiconductor layer and a second electrode layer provided on the second semiconductor layer, the second electrode layer including a metal portion having a thickness not less than 10 nanometers and not more than 100 nanometers along a direction from the first semiconductor layer to the second semiconductor layer. A plurality of apertures penetrates the metal portion along the direction, each of the apertures viewed along the direction having equivalent circle diameters of not less than 10 nanometers and not more than 5 micrometers, and a Schottky barrier is provided between the second semiconductor layer and the metal portion. |
| US09331246B2 |
P-contact and light-emitting diode for the ultraviolet spectral range
The present invention relates to a p-doped contact for use in a light-emitting diode for the ultraviolet spectral range, comprising a p-contact layer having a first surface for contacting a radiation zone and a second surface comprising, on the side facing away from the first surface: a) a coating, which directly contacts 5%-99.99% of the second surface of the p-contact layer and contains or consists of a material having a maximum reflectivity of at least 60% for light with a wavelength of 200 nm to 400 nm; b) a plurality of p-injectors, which are disposed directly on the second surface of the p-contact layer. |
| US09331245B2 |
Nitride semiconductor light-emitting element and method for producing same
Disclosed is a nitride semiconductor light-emitting element comprising a p-type nitride semiconductor layer 1, a p-type nitride semiconductor layer 2, and a p-type nitride semiconductor layer 3 placed in order above a nitride semiconductor active layer, wherein the p-type nitride semiconductor layer 1 and p-type nitride semiconductor layer 2 each contain A1, the average A1 composition of the p-type nitride semiconductor layer 1 is equivalent to the average A1 composition of the p-type nitride semiconductor layer 2, the p-type nitride semiconductor layer 3 has a smaller band gap than the p-type nitride semiconductor layer 2, the p-type impurity concentration of the p-type nitride semiconductor layer 2 and the p-type impurity concentration of the p-type nitride semiconductor layer 3 are both lower than the p-type impurity concentration of the p-type nitride semiconductor layer 1, and a method for producing same. |
| US09331244B2 |
Semiconductor structure with inhomogeneous regions
A semiconductor layer including a plurality of inhomogeneous regions is provided. Each inhomogeneous region has one or more attributes that differ from a material forming the semiconductor layer. The inhomogeneous regions can include one or more regions configured based on radiation having a target wavelength. These regions can include transparent and/or reflective regions. The inhomogeneous regions also can include one or more regions having a higher conductivity than a conductivity of the radiation-based regions, e.g., at least ten percent higher. |
| US09331243B2 |
Producing a light-emitting semiconductor component by connecting first and second semiconductor bodies
The invention relates to a light-emitting semiconductor component, comprising—a first semiconductor body (1), which comprises an active zone (11) in which during the operation of the light-emitting semiconductor component electromagnetic radiation is generated, at least some of which leaves the first semiconductor body (1) through a radiation exit surface (1a), and—a second semiconductor body (2), which is suitable for converting the electromagnetic radiation into converted electromagnetic radiation having a longer wavelength, wherein—the first semiconductor body (1) and the second semiconductor body (2) are produced separately from each other, —the second semiconductor body (2) is electrically inactive, and—the second semiconductor body (2) is in direct contact with the radiation exit surface (1a) and is attached there to the first semiconductor body (1) without connecting means. |
| US09331233B2 |
Method for manufacturing a semiconductor micro- or nano-wire, semiconductor structure comprising such a micro- or nano-wire, and method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure
A method of manufacturing at least one semiconducting micro- or nano-wire used for formation of an optoelectric structure, optoelectronic structures including the micro- or nano-wires, and a method enabling manufacture of the photoelectronic structures. The method includes providing a semiconducting substrate, forming a crystalline buffer layer on the substrate, the buffer layer having a first zone over at least part of its thickness composed mainly of magnesium nitride in a form MgxNy, and forming at least one semiconducting micro- or nano-wire on the buffer layer. |
| US09331231B2 |
Process for continuous deposition of a sublimated source material to form a thin film layer on a substrate
A method for vapor deposition of a sublimated source material, such as CdTe, onto substrates in a continuous, non-stop manner through the apparatus is provided. The sublimated source material moves through a distribution plate and deposits onto the upper surface of the substrates as they are conveyed through the deposition area. The substrates move into and out of the deposition area through entry and exit slots that are defined by transversely extending entrance and exit seals. The seals are disposed at a gap distance above the upper surface of the substrates that is less than the distance or spacing between the upper surface of the substrates and the distribution plate. The seals have a ratio of longitudinal length (in the direction of conveyance of the substrates) to gap distance of from about 10:1 to about 100:1. |
| US09331229B2 |
Heterojunction III-V solar cell performance
An InxGa1-xAs interlayer is provided between a III-V base and an intrinsic amorphous semiconductor layer of a heterojunction III-V solar cell structure. Improved surface passivation and open circuit voltage may be obtained through the incorporation of the interlayer within the structure. |
| US09331223B2 |
Solar cell module and photovoltaic power generation system including the same
A solar cell module is disclosed. The solar cell module includes a solar cell panel, and a frame disposed at a periphery of the solar cell panel. A fixing hole is formed at the frame. A first fastening member is coupled to the fixing hole. |
| US09331221B2 |
Lift-off layer for separation and disposal of energy conversion devices
Separation layers, usable in devices for converting radiation energy to electrical energy, allow at least some of the components of the devices to be separated from one another for disposal thereof. A separation layer may be interposed between and bonded to adjoining layers, and when acted upon by application of an external source, may be degraded to release the layers from one another. Once released, the layers may be disposed of more efficiently and economically, including proper disposal of hazardous waste, and recycling of materials which may be re-usable. |
| US09331220B2 |
Three-dimensional conductive electrode for solar cell
A photovoltaic device and method include forming a plurality of pillar structures in a substrate, forming a first electrode layer on the pillar structures and forming a continuous photovoltaic stack including an N-type layer, a P-type layer and an intrinsic layer on the first electrode. A second electrode layer is deposited over the photovoltaic stack such that gaps or fissures occur in the second electrode layer between the pillar structures. The second electrode layer is wet etched to open up the gaps or fissures and reduce the second electrode layer to form a three-dimensional electrode of substantially uniform thickness over the photovoltaic stack. |
| US09331219B2 |
Integrated circuit with directional light sensor, device including such an IC and method of manufacturing such an IC
Disclosed is an integrated circuit comprising a substrate having a major surface; a directional light sensor, the directional light sensor comprising a plurality of photodetectors on a region of said major surface, said plurality of photodetectors comprising a set of first photodetectors for detecting light from a first direction and a set of second photodetectors for detecting light from a second direction, wherein a first photodetector is located adjacent to a second photodetector; and a light blocking structure comprising a first portion extending from said major surface in between the first photodetector and the second photodetector; and a second portion extending from the first portion and at least partially overhanging at least one of the first photodetector and the second photodetector. A device including such an IC and a method of manufacturing such an IC are also disclosed. |
| US09331217B2 |
Electronic gate enhancement of Schottky junction solar cells
Various systems and methods are provided for Schottky junction solar cells. In one embodiment, a solar cell includes a mesh layer formed on a semiconductor layer and an ionic layer formed on the mesh layer. The ionic layer seeps through the mesh layer and directly contacts the semiconductor layer. In another embodiment, a solar cell includes a first mesh layer formed on a semiconductor layer, a first metallization layer coupled to the first mesh layer, a second high surface area electrically conducting electrode coupled to the first metallization layer by a gate voltage, and an ionic layer in electrical communication with the first mesh layer and the second high surface area electrically conducting electrode. In another embodiment, a solar cell includes a grid layer formed on a semiconductor layer and an ionic layer in electrical communication with the grid layer and the semiconductor layer. |
| US09331215B2 |
Halogen-free, fireproof, transparent thermoplastic compositions having high thermomechanical strength, in particular for encapsulation in photovoltaic modules
A transparent, fireproof thermoplastic composition which is free from halogen compounds and includes a polyamide-block graft copolymer formed by a polyolefin backbone and, on average, at least one polyamide graft. The grafts are attached to the backbone by the radicals of an unsaturated monomer (X) that has a function capable of reacting with a polyamide, and the radicals of the unsaturated monomer (X) are attached to the backbone by grafting or co-polymerisation from the double bond thereof. The composition includes, as a weight percentage of the total composition: 90 to 99 wt % of the polyamide-block graft copolymer, and 1 to 10 wt % of metal salts of phosphoric acid. |
| US09331214B2 |
Diode cell modules
Diode cell modules for use within photovoltaic systems, including lead frames including first leads extending from the first outlet terminal, second leads spaced from the first leads, second outlet terminals extending from the second leads, and diodes. In some examples, first leads define base portions connected to the first outlet terminal and diode portions extending from the base portions transverse to the first outlet terminal. In some examples, second leads may define a base portion and diode portions extending from the base portion substantially parallel to the diode portion of the first lead. In some examples, diodes may be in electrical contact with the diode portion of the first lead and with the diode portion of the second lead. In some examples, the first leads and second leads may be thermally conductive. In some examples, diodes may define die interfaces that are substantially fully engaged with diode portions of leads. |
| US09331213B2 |
Integrated power connectors for PV modules and their methods of manufacture
Photovoltaic devices are provided that include a thin film stack (of a plurality of photovoltaic cells connected in series to each other) on a transparent substrate, a first busbar electrically connected to the first terminal cell, and a second busbar electrically connected to the second terminal cell. An encapsulation substrate is on the plurality of thin film layers and defines a first connection aperture positioned over the first busbar and a second connection aperture positioned over the second bus bar. A first electrical connector is positioned on the encapsulation substrate and is electrically connected to the first busbar through the first connection aperture, and a second electrical connector is positioned on the encapsulation substrate and is electrically connected to the second busbar through the second connection aperture. Solar arrays and kits are also provided that include such photovoltaic devices and a connection cable. |
| US09331207B2 |
Oxide semiconductor device and manufacturing method therof
A semiconductor device includes a gate electrode; a gate insulating film over the gate electrode; an oxide semiconductor film in contact with the gate insulating film and including a channel formation region which overlaps with the gate electrode; a source electrode and a drain electrode over the oxide semiconductor film; and an oxide insulating film over the oxide semiconductor film, the source electrode, and the drain electrode. The source electrode and the drain electrode each include a first metal film having an end portion at the end of the channel formation region, a second metal film over the first metal film and containing copper, and a third metal film over the second metal film. The second metal film is formed on the inner side than the end portion of the first metal film. |
| US09331206B2 |
Oxide material and semiconductor device
Stable electrical characteristics are given to a transistor and a highly reliable semiconductor device is provided. In addition, an oxide material which enables manufacture of such a semiconductor device is provided. An oxide film is used in which two or more kinds of crystalline portions which are different from each other in a direction of an a-axis or a direction of a b-axis in an a-b plane (or the top surface, or the formation surface) are included, and each of the crystalline portions is c-axis aligned, has at least one of triangular atomic arrangement and hexagonal atomic arrangement when seen from a direction perpendicular to the a-b plane, a top surface, or a formation surface, includes metal atoms arranged in a layered manner, or metal atoms and oxygen atoms arranged in a layered manner along the c-axis, and is expressed as In2SnZn2O7(ZnO)m (m is 0 or a natural number). |
| US09331205B2 |
VTFT with post, cap, and aligned gate
A thin film transistor includes a post on a substrate. The post has a height dimension extending away from the substrate to a top, and an edge along the height dimension. A cap covers the top of the post and extends to a distance beyond the edge of the post to define a reentrant profile. A conformal conductive gate layer is located on the edge of the post in the reentrant profile and not over the cap, and includes a portion that extends along the substrate. A conformal insulating layer is on the gate layer in the reentrant profile. A conformal semiconductor layer is on the insulating layer in the reentrant profile. First and second electrodes are located in contact with a first portion of the semiconductor layer over the cap and a second portion of the semiconductor layer not over the post, respectively. |
| US09331185B2 |
Non-volatile memory device with undercut ONO trapping structure and manufacturing method thereof
A method for manufacturing a non-volatile memory structure includes providing a substrate having a gate structure, performing a first oxidation process to form a first SiO layer at least covering a bottom corner of the conductive layer, performing a first etching process to remove the first SiO layer and a portion of the dielectric layer to form a cavity, performing a second oxidation process to form a second SiO layer covering sidewalls of the cavity and a third SiO layer covering a surface of the substrate, forming a first SiN layer filling in the cavity and covering the gate structure on the substrate, and removing a portion of the first SiN layer to form a SiN structure including a foot portion filling in the cavity and an erection portion upwardly extended from the foot portion, and the erection portion covering sidewalls of the gate structure. |
| US09331183B2 |
Semiconductor device and fabrication method thereof
A semiconductor device including a first gate structure and a second gate structure immediately adjacent to each other with a spacer therebetween. Line width of the top of the second gate structure is not less than that of the bottom thereof. A fabrication method thereof is also disclosed. A transient first gate structure and a temporary gate structure are formed by etching through a first hard mask. A second gate structure is formed between a first spacer and a second spacer opposite to each other and disposed respectively on the transient first gate structure and temporary gate structure. The second gate structure is covered with a second hard mask. An etch process is performed through a patterned photoresist layer to remove exposed first hard mask and temporary gate structure and to partially remove exposed portion of first hard mask and transient first gate structure to form the first gate structure. |
| US09331181B2 |
Nanodot enhanced hybrid floating gate for non-volatile memory devices
A memory device and a method of making a memory device that includes a semiconductor channel, a tunnel dielectric layer located over the semiconductor channel, a floating gate located over the tunnel dielectric layer, the floating gate comprising a continuous layer of an electrically conductive material and at least one protrusion of an electrically conductive material facing the tunnel dielectric layer and electrically shorted to the continuous layer, a blocking dielectric region located over the floating gate, and a control gate located over the blocking dielectric layer. |
| US09331178B2 |
Method for manufacturing non-planar field effect transistor having a semiconductor fin
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming two isolation structures in a substrate to define a fin structure between the two isolation structures in the substrate. A dummy gate and spacers are formed bridging the two isolation structures and over the fin structure. The two isolation structures are etched with the dummy gate and the spacers as a mask to form a plurality of slopes under the spacers in the two isolation structures. A gate etch stop layer is formed overlying the plurality of slopes. The dummy gate and the two isolation structures beneath the dummy gate are removed to create a cavity confined by the spacers and the gate etch stop layer. A gate is then formed in the cavity. |
| US09331175B2 |
Method of locally stressing a semiconductor layer
The disclosure concerns a method of stressing a semiconductor layer comprising: depositing, over a semiconductor on insulator (SOI) structure having a semiconductor layer in contact with an insulating layer, a stress layer; locally stressing said semiconductor layer by forming one or more openings in said stress layer, said openings being aligned with first regions of said semiconductor layer in which transistor channels are to be formed; and deforming second regions of said insulating layer adjacent to said first regions by temporally decreasing, by annealing, the viscosity of said insulator layer. |
| US09331174B2 |
Method for improving device performance using epitaxially grown silicon carbon (SiC) or silicon-germanium (SiGe)
A semiconductor substrate including a field effect transistor (FET) and a method of producing the same wherein a stressor is provided in a recess before the source/drain region is formed. The device has an increased carrier mobility in the channel region adjacent to the gate electrode. |
| US09331172B2 |
Method for making HKMG dummy gate structure with amorphous/ONO masking structure and procedure
A method for manufacturing a dummy gate structure. The method may include: forming a dummy gate oxide layer and a dummy gate material layer on a semiconductor substrate sequentially; forming an ONO structure on the dummy gate material layer; forming a top amorphous silicon layer on the ONO structure; forming a patterned photoresist layer on the top amorphous silicon layer; etching the top amorphous silicon layer with the patterned photoresist layer as a mask, the etching being stopped on the ONO structure; etching the ONO structure with the patterned photoresist layer and a remaining portion of the top amorphous silicon layer as a mask, the etching being stopped on the dummy gate material layer; removing the patterned photoresist layer; and etching the dummy gate material layer, the etching being stopped at the dummy gate oxide layer to form a dummy gate structure. |
| US09331160B2 |
Split-gate non-volatile memory cells having gap protection zones
Split-gate non-volatile memory (NVM) cells having gap protection zones are disclosed along with related manufacturing methods. After formation of a gate for a split-gate NVM cell over a substrate, a doped region is formed adjacent the gate. A first portion of the doped region is then removed to leave a second portion of the doped region that forms a gap protection zone adjacent the gate. For some disclosed embodiments, a select gate is formed before a control gate. For other disclosed embodiments, the control gate is formed before the select gate. The gap protection zones can be formed, for example, using an etch processing step to remove the desired portions of the doped region, and a spacer can also be used to protect the gap protection zone during this etch processing step. Related NVM systems are also disclosed. |
| US09331157B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes: a p-type semiconductor layer; an n-type semiconductor layer connected with the p-type semiconductor layer; a first electrode layer formed on the n-type semiconductor layer; and a second electrode layer formed on the p-type semiconductor layer. The first electrode layer and the second electrode layer are electrically connected such as to each operate at an identical potential. The first electrode layer is connected with a connection line which is a part of a peripheral line of a joint interface between the p-type semiconductor layer and the n-type semiconductor layer on an interface side between the second electrode layer and the p-type semiconductor layer, with a surface of the p-type semiconductor layer and with at least a part of a surface of the second electrode layer which is opposite to a surface of the second electrode layer that is in contact with the p-type semiconductor layer. |
| US09331155B2 |
Semiconductor device and manufacturing method
Disclosed is a semiconductor device comprising at least one active layer (14, 16) on a substrate (10) and a first contact (24, 26, 28) to the at least one active layer, the first contact comprising a metal in contact with the at least one active layer and a titanium tungsten nitride (TiW(N)) layer (30) on the metal. A method of manufacturing such a semiconductor device is also disclosed. |
| US09331154B2 |
High electron mobility transistor
A high electron mobility transistor comprises a substrate, an epitaxial stack arranged above the substrate and having a first region and a second region surrounding the first region, a matrix electrode structure arranged in the first region, and a plurality of first bridges electrically connecting the plurality of second electrodes. The matrix electrode structure comprises a plurality of first electrodes arranged on the epitaxial stack and a plurality of second electrodes arranged on the epitaxial stack and adjacent to the plurality of first electrodes. One of the bridges is arranged between two of the second electrodes and crossed over one of the first electrodes. |
| US09331152B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same
A semiconductor device includes: a gate oxide film formed on a surface of a semiconductor substrate; a gate electrode formed on the gate oxide film; and a high concentration impurity layer connected to a main electrode and formed on the surface of the semiconductor substrate, wherein an impurity species doped in the high concentration impurity layer comprises a first impurity species of phosphorous and a second impurity species of at least one of argon and nitrogen, a concentration of the second impurity species is higher than a concentration of the first impurity species in a surface of the high concentration impurity layer, and a peak position of a concentration distribution of the first impurity species in a depth direction in the high concentration impurity layer is deeper than a peak position of a concentration distribution of the second impurity species in the depth direction. |
| US09331148B1 |
FinFET device with channel strain
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device, the method comprises forming a fin on a substrate, forming a dummy gate stack on the fin and the substrate, removing a portion of an exposed portion of the fin, forming a source/drain region on an exposed portion of the fin, forming a conductive contact on the source/drain region, removing the dummy gate stack to expose a channel region of the fin, implanting ions in the channel region of the fin, performing an annealing process, and forming a gate stack on the channel region of the fin. |
| US09331147B1 |
Methods and systems for using conformal filling layers to improve device surface uniformity
The invention discloses a treatment process for a semiconductor, comprising providing a substrate; defining a trench opening region of the substrate; performing plasma etching to form a trench region at the trench opening region; subjecting the substrate to a first epitaxial process with a first plurality of gaseous species to form a protective layer overlaying at least the first sidewall and the bottom of the trench region; and subjecting the substrate and the protective layer to a second epitaxial process with a second plurality of gaseous species to form a filling material overlaying the protective layer and being positioned at least partially within the trench region. The invention further provides a semiconductor processing technique used to eliminate or reduce dislocation defect on the semiconductor device and improve device performance. In the treatment process, at least one epitaxial process to form the protective layer overlaying at least the first sidewall and the bottom of the trench region corresponds to form a filling material overlaying the protective layer and being positioned at least partially within the trench region. |
| US09331146B2 |
Silicon nanowire formation in replacement metal gate process
Techniques for a semiconductor device are provided. Techniques are directed to forming a semiconductor device by: forming a fin structure in a substrate, forming a protective layer over an upper portion of the fin structure, the protective layer having an etch selectivity with respect to a material of the fin structure, and performing an undercut etch so as to remove a lower portion of the fin structure below the protective layer, thereby defining a nanowire structure from the fin structure. |
| US09331144B2 |
Semiconductor device and method for producing the same
A semiconductor device includes, on one semiconductor substrate: a first element isolation region having a first width, wherein a liner oxide film, a liner nitride film and a silicon dioxide film are provided in succession from an outer peripheral side of an upper surface of the first element isolation region; and a second element isolation region having a second width that is larger than the first width, wherein a liner oxide film and a silicon dioxide film are provided in succession from an outer peripheral side of an upper surface of the second element isolation region. |
| US09331141B2 |
CMOS structure on replacement substrate
CMOS structures with a replacement substrate and methods of manufacture are disclosed herein. The method includes forming a device on a temporary substrate. The method further includes removing the temporary substrate. The method further includes bonding a permanent electrically insulative substrate to the device with a bonding structure. |
| US09331139B2 |
Ruthenium film formation method and storage medium
A ruthenium film formation method including: forming a ruthenium oxide film on a substrate; and reducing the ruthenium oxide film into a ruthenium film, wherein the reducing the ruthenium oxide film comprises at least supplying a ruthenium compound gas containing hydrogen as a reducing agent. |
| US09331138B2 |
Semiconductor device having storage electrode and manufacturing method thereof
A semiconductor device includes a first storage electrode, a second storage electrode that is arranged above the first storage electrode, a first landing pad that is arranged between a top surface of the first storage electrode and a bottom surface of the second storage electrode, the first landing pad connecting the first storage electrode and the second storage electrode, the first landing pad having a first landing surface, the first landing surface being larger than the bottom surface of the second storage electrode, and the second storage electrode being placed on the first landing surface, a capacitive insulating film that is laminated on the first and second storage electrodes and on an outer circumferential surface of the first landing pad, and a plate electrode that contacts the capacitive insulating film. |
| US09331134B2 |
Organic electroluminescence display device
An organic EL display device has a pixel electrode and a common electrode, a first insulating layer that covers a thin-film transistor, a first wire provided on the first insulating layer to electrically connect the thin-film transistor and the pixel electrode, a second wire provided on the first insulating layer to be connected to a gate electrode of the thin-film transistor, and a conducting film formed on the first wire and the second wire from a material on which an oxide film is harder to be formed than those of the first wire and the second wire. At least one of the pixel electrode, the first wire, and the second wire and the conducting film are located to overlap above the first insulating layer in electrical insulation so that a capacitor that retains a control signal is formed between the first wire and the second wire. |
| US09331132B2 |
Multiple conductive layer TFT
A multiple layer pixel architecture for an active matrix display is provided in which a common bus line is formed on a metal level which is separate from that on which the gate electrodes of the thin-film transistors (TFTS) are formed. A multilayer electronic structure adapted to solution deposition, the structure includes a TFT for driving a pixel of an active matrix optoelectronic device and a capacitor for storing charge to maintain an electrical state of said active matrix pixel, wherein the structure includes a substrate bearing at least four conducting layers separeted by at least three dielectric layers, first and second ones of said conducting layers defining drain/source electrodes and a gate electrode of said transistor respectively, and third and fourth ones of said conducting layers defining respective first and second plates of said capacitor, and wherein said capacitor and said transistor are laterally positioned such that they overlap in a vertical direction. |
| US09331128B2 |
Display device and manufacturing method thereof
A display device, includes: a first substrate; an organic planarizing film that is made of an organic insulating material, and arranged on the first substrate; an electrode that comes in contact with a part of a surface of the organic planarizing film opposite to the first substrate side; an inorganic bank that is made of an inorganic insulating material, covers an end of the electrode, and comes in contact with a part of a surface of the organic planarizing film opposite to the first substrate side; an OLED layer that covers a side of the electrode and the inorganic bank opposite to a side that comes in contact with the organic planarizing film, and partially comes in contact with the organic planarizing film; and a sealing film that is configured to cover a side of the OLED layer opposite to the organic planarizing film side. |
| US09331126B2 |
Method for fabricating flexible display using a shape memory alloy film
Provided is a method for fabricating a flexible display device. The method includes attaching a shape memory alloy film memorizing a shape thereof as a curved shape at a shape memory temperature or lower to a flexible substrate at a temperature higher than the shape memory temperature, forming a display device on the flexible substrate, and returning the shape memory alloy to the curved shape to remove the shape memory alloy film from the flexible substrate. |
| US09331121B2 |
Method of manufacturing photoelectric conversion apparatus including pixel well contact
A method of manufacturing a photoelectric conversion apparatus which includes a pixel circuit section having a well where a photoelectric conversion element and an amplification element configured to generate a signal based on an amount of charge generated in the photoelectric conversion element are arranged, and a peripheral circuit section having a MOS transistor. The method includes forming a dielectric film for covering the photoelectric conversion element, the amplification element, and a gate electrode of the MOS transistor and forming, by etching the dielectric film, a side spacer by remaining a portion of the dielectric film on a side surface of the gate electrode while protecting by a resist, wherein an opening is formed in the dielectric film of the pixel circuit section with the etching, and a contact for defining a potential of the well is formed through the opening. |
| US09331119B2 |
Detection apparatus having interlayer insulating layer composed of organic material and covering layer composed of inorganic material, detection system, and method for producing detection apparatus
A detection apparatus includes a plurality of conversion elements, an interlayer insulating layer, and a covering layer. Each of the plurality of conversion elements includes an electrode electrically connected to a corresponding one of a plurality of switching elements and a semiconductor layer disposed on the electrode. The interlayer insulating layer is disposed so as to cover the plurality of switching elements and composed of an organic material, and has a surface including a first region and a second region located outside the first region. The electrodes are disposed on the surface of the interlayer insulating layer in the first region. The covering layer is disposed on the surface of the interlayer insulating layer in the second region and composed of an inorganic material. |