| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09066277B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling network access of UE in wireless communication system
A method and an apparatus for controlling network access of a User Equipment (UE) based on the network's load and time tolerance (delay tolerance) are provided. A network access method for a terminal in a wireless communication system includes sending an access request message containing a time-tolerant indicator at a predefined time, determining, when a reject message is received, a cause value and a hold time contained in the reject message, and re-sending the access request message after the hold time elapses. |
| US09066271B2 |
Mobile terminal and method of managing and performing data communication using the same
A mobile terminal and a method of managing and performing data communication using the same are provided. The mobile terminal effectively performs data communication over heterogeneous networks at a low cost and effectively manages communication modules connected to the heterogeneous network, and the method performs and manages data communication using the mobile terminal. |
| US09066270B2 |
GSM channel tracking
A system and method for determining a correspondence between an Abis signaling channel and an air channel frequency designator. A monitoring instrument may be connected to multiple E1 circuits, monitoring messages sent on Abis signaling channels. By repeatedly observing channel activation messages (135) preceding channel assignment messages (145) of interest, or channel assignment messages (145) following channel activation messages (135) of interest, the instrument may infer a correspondence between an Abis signaling channel and an air channel frequency designator. |
| US09066268B2 |
Method and system for controlling network access during HNB handover
The present invention discloses a method and a system for controlling network access during HNB handover. The method comprises the following steps: a core network acquires target HNB information to determine whether to allow access of User Equipment (UE) and sends the target HNB information to an HNB GW to which the target HNB belongs if the access of the UE is allowed and the target HNB is connected with the core network via the HNB GW, and the HNB GW determines whether to allow the access of the UE according to the received target HNB information. The present invention can prevent the occurrence of illegal accesses and improve the security of network access. |
| US09066267B2 |
Device, method and system of establishing a protected time during an allocated time
A wireless communication device and a method to establish a protected time for communication over a direct link between two stations of the same network. The method includes configuring at least one antenna for a direct link establishment, switching to a listening mode and waiting for a channel time allocation (CTA) for transmission. After receiving the CTA a source station sends a first frame to a destination station based on a channel time allocation value and receive a second frame from the destination station to complete an establishment the CTA. |
| US09066260B2 |
System, server and method for calculating data volume of network access
A calculating system is provided, which includes at least one eNB and a core network. The eNB is coupled to two mobile devices. The core network includes two servers. The first mobile device operates as a mobile access point for the second mobile device to access a computer network via the eNB and the core network. The eNB and the core network provide a charging data record (CDR) of access of the computer network of one of the two mobile devices to the second server. The first server provides separation information indicating binding relationship between a network address of the second mobile device and the other one of the two mobile devices. The second server calculates data volumes of the access of the computer network of the two mobile devices separately according to the CDR and the separation information. The second server may further bill the two mobile devices separately. |
| US09066259B2 |
Method for re-balancing load, method for migrating load, device and system using the same
The embodiment of the invention discloses a method for re-balancing a load, a method for migrating a load, a device and a system using the same. The method for re-balancing a load comprises: determining a type of a UE after receiving an access request from the UE by a first network device; determining whether the UE is to be migrated according to the type of the UE; and if yes, migrating the UE to a second network device whose type corresponds to the type of the UE. According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the CN nodes may be balanced according to the type of the UE. |
| US09066256B2 |
Method, device and system for offloading network traffic
A method, a device, and a system for offloading network traffic are provided, which are applied in the field of mobile communications. An offloading device located before a Serving General Packet Radio Service Support Node (SGSN) receives a data stream of a user sent by a base station, obtains an offloading policy of the user from the offloading device and/or obtains the offloading policy of the user from a policy server, and forwards the data stream according to the offloading policy. Accordingly, the offloading device can obtain the corresponding offloading policy according to the data stream sent by a forwarding plane, send a data stream of low value, low real-time performance requirement, or low priority to the Internet or another specific networks, and send a data stream of high value, high real-time performance requirement, or high priority to high-value devices, thereby reducing the networking cost. |
| US09066245B2 |
Wireless communication apparatus and interference detection method
According to one embodiment, a wireless communication apparatus is provided with first and second determination units. The first unit determines based on a first carrier sense threshold whether busy state or not and specifies a first time when busy state is determined with the first threshold, and determines based on a second carrier sense threshold smaller than the first threshold whether busy state or not and specifies a second time when busy state is determined. The second unit determines, if at least busy state is determined based on the second threshold and the second time precedes a reference time equal to or earlier than the first time, to perform processing for avoiding interference. |
| US09066242B2 |
Method and device for distinguishing between relay types
The embodiments herein relate to a method in a target node (501, 520) for handling capabilities of a wireless relay (510) in a communications network (500). The target node (501, 520) receives, from the wireless relay (510), information indicating a capability of the wireless relay (510). The information indicates whether the wireless relay (510) is fixed or movable. Based on the received information, the target node (501, 520) determines a procedure to be executed, which procedure is dependent on whether the wireless relay (510) is fixed or movable. |
| US09066241B2 |
Method, device and system for common channel processing
The embodiments of the present invention provide a method, a device and a system for common channel processing, and the method includes: generating a first set of common channel spectrum candidates according to location information of available sub-carriers and attribute information of the available sub-carriers retrieved from a first database of spectrum statuses; transmitting the first set of the common channel spectrum candidates to a terminal; and determining candidate sub-channels for common channels from a third set of common channel spectrum candidates returned by the terminal, so as to generate and transmit a set of common channel spectrums to the terminal. With the embodiments of the present invention, the base station and the terminal acquire respectively local sub-carriers which are available currently, and perform spectrum negotiation. A set of common channel spectrums is determined by the base station, and a common channel mechanism is enabled in a dynamic spectrum environment. |
| US09066240B2 |
Discontinuous reception (DRX) based mechanisms for connection setup
A user equipment (UE) may detect a potential collision between a discontinuous reception (DRX) pattern of a first radio access technology (RAT) and a reception time of a message from a second RAT of a remote device. The reception time may be unknown. The UE may dynamically reconfigure the DRX pattern to reduce a likelihood of the potential collision. The UE may also configure transmission of a different message by the second RAT during a DRX off-period to reduce a likelihood of the potential collision. |
| US09066225B2 |
Network selection scheme
Technologies are generally described for a network selection scheme for an electronic device. In some examples, a method performed under control of an electronic device may include searching one or more communication networks available for the electronic device; determining types of the searched communication networks; determining a type of data traffic to be transmitted over at least one of the searched communication networks; and determining at least one of the communication networks to be used for the data traffic based at least in part on the determined types of the communication networks and the determined type of the data traffic. |
| US09066222B2 |
Mobile billing operator server programmed for user acquisition within a repeat payment computer system
A repeat payment computer system includes a merchant server and mobile billing operator server that are programmed for user acquisition through carrier billing and subsequent conversion to credit card billing. An advantage of the process is that the user does not have to enter credit card information for the default billing cycles to occur. The user only enters a phone number and password. Fewer barriers are provided for the user to become a regular repeat customer of the merchant server. The fees associated with mobile billing according to the default billing cycles have to be paid by the merchant server and may be too high in the long run. The merchant server can avoid the high fees associated with carrier billing by switching the user to billing according to the credit card information provided. The user is typically switched after the user has already become a regular customer. |
| US09066218B2 |
Method and apparatus for allocating resources in a wireless communication system and system thereof
A method and apparatus for allocating resources in a wireless communication system is provided. A Base Station (BS) allocates persistent resources in a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) region to a Mobile Station (MS), changes a location of the HARQ region, changes location of persistent resources in the HARQ region to location of persistent resources in a new HARQ region, and allocates the persistent resource to the MS. The new HARQ region is the location-changed HARQ region. |
| US09066216B2 |
Methods and apparatus for providing messaging using voicemail
Methods and apparatus for providing voicemail services to callers of wireless devices may include providing customized outgoing messages to callers based upon the caller's identification. A subscriber to the voicemail service may select one or more contacts associated with the subscriber to receive a customized outgoing message while the remaining callers receive a general outgoing message. The methods and apparatus may further include distributing voicemail messages from a subscriber's voicemail accounts to one or more social networking sites. The subscriber to the voicemail services may share one or more received voicemail messages via one or more social networking accounts associated with the subscriber. |
| US09066215B2 |
Speech/multimedia mode switching technique in a wireless communications network
A technique is provided for use by a user terminal or mobile services switching center (MSC) for responding to a request to switch an on-going call from speech mode to multimedia mode within a wireless communication network configured to automatically disconnect a call if a requested mode switch is not confirmed within a predetermined period of time specified by a call drop timer. In one example, the terminal or MSC activates an automatic response timer upon receipt of a request from a user to switch an on-going call from speech to multimedia, with the timer set shorter than the call drop timer. The user receiving the request is then prompted to accept or decline the request. If no response is received before expiration of the automatic response timer, the terminal or MSC automatically declines the request on behalf of the user so that the call drop timer does not expire. |
| US09066214B1 |
System and method for scalable bandwidth allocation in a wireless wide area network
An access point for a wireless wide area network can allocate two or more fundamental channels among wireless devices. In various implementations, the fundamental traffic channels may be for use with incompatible versions of the same air interface protocol (e.g., the 1xRTT and EV-DO versions of code division multiple access (“CDMA)). The access point may additionally have a reserved bandwidth that it can dynamically allocate to wireless devices to supplement the bandwidth allocated to them on the fundamental channels. For example, when sending or receiving large bursts of data, the access point can allocate additional bandwidth to the wireless devices, and after transmission of the large bursts of data, the access point can release the additionally allocated bandwidth. |
| US09066212B2 |
Offloading call processing and call hosting for a small group call to a client device
The disclosure relates to hosting a group call at a wireless user device. An embodiment receives, by the wireless user device, registration information for a plurality of client devices, receives, by the wireless user device, a call request for a call among two or more of the plurality of client devices, sets up, by the wireless user device, the call among the two or more client devices, receives, by the wireless user device, a media stream, and transmits, by the wireless user device, the media stream to at least one of the two or more client devices. |
| US09066208B1 |
Method and system for wayfinding at a venue
A system and method for wayfinding at a venue is disclosed herein. The system includes a mobile communication device and a venue. The mobile communication device includes an application for wayfinding at the venue and a plurality of sensors. The mobile communication device is configured to track a path of the mobile communication device from the first fixed geographical location utilizing a plurality of sensors of the mobile communication device. |
| US09066204B2 |
Method for transmitting and displaying images
Images are transmitted from a server through a cellular network and displayed on a mobile phone. After a predefined time of non-use or via input of a user command, the mobile phone is switched into an inactive mode. When an activating operation is performed, the phone is switched from inactive into locked active mode. An unlocking operation switches the phone from locked active into unlocked active mode. User input is accepted only in unlocked active mode. The server selects a number of images and transmits them to the mobile phone. One of the transmitted images is selected and kept available for display, during locked active mode, the selected image is displayed. A count indicates how many times an image has been displayed, and the count value for each image is transmitted from the mobile phone to the server. |
| US09066200B1 |
User-generated content in a virtual reality environment
The systems and methods allow users of mobile computing devices to generate augmented reality scenarios. Augmented reality content is paired with a real world trigger item to generate the augmented reality scenario. The augmented reality content is overlaid onto frames on a video when a trigger item is detected. Each mobile computing device may have an augmented reality application resident on the mobile computing device to allow a user to generate the augmented reality scenarios. |
| US09066199B2 |
Location-aware mobile device
One or more location-based clients can be activated on a mobile device for providing location-based services. The location-based clients can be provided with information (e.g., presets, defaults) related to the current location and/or mode of the mobile device. The information can be obtained from one or more network resources. In some implementations, a number of location-based clients can run concurrently on the mobile device and share information. |
| US09066197B2 |
Method, apparatus, and computer program product for power save control for tethering connections
Example method, apparatus, and computer program product embodiments are disclosed for configuring a mobile wireless hotspot in a wireless network. Example embodiments of the invention include a method comprising: establishing, by a mobile hotspot device, a control channel with a wireless device, using an out-of-band communications connection in an out-of-band communications medium; and exchanging, by the wireless device over the control channel, with the mobile hotspot device, by at least one of transmitting or receiving in-band communications connectivity configuration information to enable power saving features and optimize activity times in an in-band communications tethering connection with the mobile hotspot device in an in-band communications medium, for relaying by the mobile hotspot device, communications between the wireless device and one or more entities in at least one of a wide area communications network and a wireless local area network provided by the mobile hotspot device. |
| US09066196B2 |
Method and device for saving network resources
The present application provides a method and a device for saving network resources, wherein the method particularly includes: determining that a user equipment has the property of small data amount transfer; and during network attachment, allocating no user plane resources to the user equipment which has the property of small data amount transfer. The present application is used to save network resources in an LTE system during M2M communication. |
| US09066194B2 |
System and method for detecting and controlling transmission devices
A method of detecting, controlling and managing transmission of a transmitting device within a facility is disclosed. The method involves transmitting information to the transmission device, detecting a response transmission from the transmission device by a least one transmission detection facility, extracting identification information associated with the transmission device in response to the transmitted information; and determining a location of the transmission device based on the response transmission received by the at least one received transmission detection facility, wherein the response transmissions are sorted by the identification information, determining an allowability of the located transmission device with the set area and interacting and manipulating transmission of the detected transmitting device. |
| US09066189B2 |
Non-pressure sensitive implantable microphone
An implantable microphone is described for use in hearing prosthesis systems. A cylindrical microphone housing has opposing circular cylinder ends and an interior volume containing an incompressible housing liquid. At least one housing membrane is on one of the cylinder ends and is in contact with the housing liquid and moveable in response to an acoustic signal outside the housing. An acoustic-electric transducer is coupled to the housing membrane for converting movement of the housing membrane into a corresponding electrical microphone signal. |
| US09066188B2 |
Acoustic transmission method and listening device
A listening device having an ear hook adapted for carrying the device behind the ear of a user and magnetically operated compression parts including a subcutaneous part and a device part is provided, where further a vibrator is provided and adapted to vibrationally energize a skin portion through an output coupler, wherein the hook carries the weight of the listening device and the magnetic compression parts ensures compression between the output coupler and the skin portion. |
| US09066187B2 |
Dual transducer with shared diaphragm
The invention relates to a transducer comprising a housing having a first and a second sound input, a first and a second vibration sensors configured to convert vibration to an output, and a diaphragm connected to both the first and second vibration sensor. |
| US09066184B2 |
Acoustic sensor and fabrication method thereof
A method for fabricating an acoustic sensor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure includes: forming an acoustic sensor unit by forming a lower electrode on an upper portion of a substrate, forming etching holes on the lower electrode, forming a sacrifice layer on an upper portion of the lower electrode, and coupling a diaphragm to an upper portion of the sacrifice layer; coupling a lower portion of the substrate of the acoustic sensor unit to a printed circuit board on which a sound pressure input hole is formed so as to expose the lower portion of the substrate of the acoustic sensor unit to the outside through the sound pressure input hole; attaching a cover covering the acoustic sensor unit on the printed circuit board; etching the substrate of the acoustic sensor unit to form an acoustic chamber; and removing the sacrifice layer. |
| US09066174B2 |
Portable audio system with integrated handle
An audio system includes a housing and an acoustic exit that exits the housing, and has a configuration that facilitates the grasping of the housing with a plurality of fingers from a single human hand. The acoustic exit is located adjacent an exterior surface of the housing such that the shape of the exit together with the exterior surface facilitates grasping of the housing with a plurality of fingers and the thumb from the single human hand and the acoustic exit exits a back surface of the housing such that the plurality of fingers can be inserted into the exit while the thumb of the same hand can rest on at least one of the top surface and the front surface of the housing. |
| US09066173B2 |
Method for producing optimum sound field of loudspeaker
A method for producing an optimum sound field of loudspeakers is revealed. Firstly enclose a surface of a human head with a first closed geometric shape. Then enclose the first closed geometric shape with at least one second closed geometric shape. Next set up reference points on the first and second closed geometric shapes respectively. Use signal strength of the reference point on the second closed geometric shape and a gradient of the corresponding reference points on the first and second closed geometric shapes to obtain a transfer function of each point between a virtual loudspeaker/a real loudspeaker and the sound field respectively. Then create a virtual sound field and a real sound field according to the above transfer functions. Finally, get an optimum signal of the real loudspeaker by minimizing an error between the virtual sound field and the real sound field with a boundary condition. |
| US09066170B2 |
Variable beamforming with a mobile platform
A mobile platform includes a microphone array and is capable of implementing beamforming to amplify or suppress audio information from a sound source. The sound source is indicated through a user input, such as pointing the mobile platform in the direction of the sound source or through a touch screen display interface. The mobile platform further includes orientation sensors capable of detecting movement of the mobile platform. When the mobile platform moves with respect to the sound source, the beamforming is adjusted based on the data from the orientation sensors so that beamforming is continuously implemented in the direction of the sound source. The audio information from the sound source may be included or suppressed from a telephone or video-telephony conversation. Images or video from a camera may be likewise controlled based on the data from the orientation sensors. |
| US09066162B2 |
Industrial controller apparatus capable of low error, ultra high-speed serial communication and method for driving same
An industrial controller includes a control unit, a first optical transmission/reception unit, a second optical transmission/reception unit, and a switching unit. The control unit handles a downlink transmission frame depending on whether or not the Protocol Control Information (PCI) of the downlink transmission frame corresponds to an ID of an industrial controller device, and internally generates and outputs an uplink transmission frame. The first optical transmission/reception unit externally sends or receives the uplink or downlink transmission frame. The second optical transmission/reception unit has at least one port, and externally sends or receives the uplink or downlink transmission frame. The switching unit sequentially transfers the downlink and uplink transmission frames, transfers the uplink transmission frame to the first optical transmission/reception unit, and transfers the downlink transmission frame to the second optical transmission/reception unit. |
| US09066161B2 |
Systems and methods for physical link routing
A system for physical link routing includes a link routing block, comprising a volume of solid material, that defines a set of link routing paths; and a first link interface, comprising a set of access points arranged in a pattern, wherein each access point of the set of access points is associated with an endpoint of a link routing path. |
| US09066158B2 |
Adaptive joint source and channel coding scheme for H.264 video multicasting over wireless networks
An invention is described including calculating a real packet loss rate in a time slot at the end of the time slot, estimating average packet loss rate for a subsequent time slot, estimating variance of packet loss rate for the subsequent time slot and estimating the packet loss rate for the subsequent time slot. An invention is also described for dynamically allocating available bandwidth for video multicast including selecting an intra-frame rate, determining a packet loss rate threshold, receiving user topology information, receiving channel conditions for each user, determining an optimal operation point for encoding and transmitting video frames in a subsequent time slot, adapting dynamically quantization parameters and a forward error correction code rate, encoding the video frames using the quantization parameters and applying forward error correction code with the forward error correction code rate to data packets of the video frames to generate forward error correction packets. |
| US09066152B2 |
Distributed access point for IP based communications
An apparatus for Internet-Protocol based communications in a wireless network includes a network interface, a controller, and memory. The interface receives a series of multicast data packets. The controller identifies one or more receiving nodes in the wireless network requesting data corresponding to the series of multicast data packets and determines that the effective unicast rate for one or more unicast data packets exceeds a minimum data rate of the series of multicast data packets using an 802.x protocol. The memory stores instructions that may be executable by a processor. Upon execution of the instructions by a processor, the received series of multicast data packets is converted into one or more unicast packets, the execution and conversion occurring in response to instructions received from the controller. A system for Internet-Protocol based communications in a wireless network implements such an apparatus in the context of an access point. |
| US09066151B2 |
Expanded media content access systems and methods
In one of many possible embodiments, an exemplary method includes an expansion media content processing device receiving media content in a format not supported by a set-top box to which the expansion media content processing device is communicatively connected by a local communication link, converting the media content from the format not supported by the set-top box to a format supported by the set-top box, and providing the media content in the format supported by the set-top box to the set-top box by way of the local communication link. In some examples, the method further includes the set-top box receiving and using the media content in the format supported by the set-top box to provide the media content to an output device for presentation. |
| US09066150B2 |
User interface for entertainment systems
Methods and apparatus for providing a search interface for an electronic device including a tuner configured to tune the electronic device to receive scheduled programming content. A search query is received and one or more data sources including information about media content are searched based, at least in part, on the search query. The results of the search are presented on a user interface using a time-based axis and a time-independent axis. |
| US09066149B2 |
Information processor, information processing method and computer program
Disclosed is a content-view supporting system to recommend to a user a clear result of searched contents, based on a group of similar users' favorite programs, through a user-basis collaborative filtering process. The system selects similar users whose program view history is similar to that of a recommended user, maps the program view history in a collaborative filtering matrix registers, in the collaborative filtering matrix, a virtual user whose program view history includes a group of hit programs obtained based on a search condition served for realizing a predetermined search topic. The system also counts the numbers of reservations or views achieved by each user according to program content based on the program view history, in the collaborative filtering matrix, which counted numbers are set as matching numbers, and outputs a search result representing a recommendation list of the contents arrayed in the descending order of matching number. |
| US09066145B2 |
Commenting correlated to temporal point of video data
Commenting tied to user-selected times during play of audio/video content is enabled by a computer system. An apparatus detects a time that input of user comment data is received during playback of audio/video content on an electronic display device. The apparatus determines a temporal point relative to the playback of the audio/video content correlated to the user comment data, based on the time. The apparatus transmits the user comment data correlated to identifiers for the audio-video content and the temporal point to a computer server. The server may configure the video data for publishing on a website so that the comment data is displayed for a limited period based on the temporal point. Users may thereby conveniently record audio or textual comments that are output during subsequent play of the audio/video content, for sharing with friends and others. |
| US09066144B2 |
Interactive remote participation in live entertainment
A system and method for remote participation in live events are described. The system comprises one or more interactive environments, each hosting a live event and including means for continuously recording the interactive environment; a transmitter coupled to the one or more interactive environments, configured to receive from each interactive environment the respective recording and to transfer each recording to at least some of a plurality of remote viewers; a processing unit configured to receive feedback related to one of said live events from two or more of the remote viewers, wherein, based on the feedback, the processing unit is configured to determine an interactive environment hosting the related live event and to directly update the determined interactive environment based on the feedback. |
| US09066139B2 |
Multi-platform digital television
A multi-platform television comprises at least one television signal interface to receive premium television services from at least two different television service providers. The television further comprises a programmable conditional access system to enable conditional access to the premium television services received by the at least one television signal interface from the at least two different service providers. |
| US09066135B2 |
System and method for generating a second screen experience using video subtitle data
Second screen content for a display of an electronic device is generated and displayed in coordination with video content displayed on a display of another electronic device. The generation of the second screen content includes identifying keywords from subtitle data for the video content and identifying links to media content that relate to one or more of the keywords. |
| US09066133B2 |
Method of tagging multi-media content
A method and system for micro-cloud computing is described. An application serving node, which is a specifically configured piece of customer premises equipment such as a set-top box, is the server for a micro-cloud network. Various user devices that form part of the micro-cloud network, such as television sets and smart phones, communicate with the application serving node. The application serving node is configured with software that allows various heterogeneous types of data to be obtained and streamed to the user devices in multiple ways. The application serving node performs much of the processing necessary for such content streaming itself and thus represents an edge-based network architecture. |
| US09066131B1 |
Advertising spots for fast-forward play
A method for playing previously broadcast commercial spots from cache memory in real-time to provide a smooth and deliberate playback of an advertisement even during trick-mode playback. In one embodiment of the present invention, several versions of specific commercials are delivered to a receiver during an original commercial spot and the appropriate commercial version is displayed depending on the play back speed chosen by the consumer. When the play back speed is normal, the original advertisement version is viewed. When the fast forward trick mode is employed, a version of the advertisement having a reduced duration and a reduced content from the original version, is played at normal speed. In another embodiment of the present invention, the original production video is accompanied by one or more edit decision lists that mark segments of the original video content to be played for a specific trick-mode rate to create a modified version of the advertisement. |
| US09066129B2 |
Video presentation device and method
A computing device may include a video input interface and video output interface to allow insertion into a video system. The device may be configured to perform passthrough operation on the incoming video, allowing the incoming signal to appear at the output interface. When overlay video operations are desired, the device may resize the incoming video, generate one or more additional overlays, and generate a modified version of the incoming video signal, where the modified version contains the one or more additional overlays along with (if desired) the original video. The device may have data network connections, and can thereby serve as an easy way, for example, to upgrade an existing video system with network and/or interactive features. |
| US09066126B2 |
Remote control apparatus, method and user interface system
Apparatus forming part of a home entertainment system includes an electronic device having an input accepting a signal corresponding to an externally-generated first user interface, a control module for internally-generating a signal corresponding to a second user interface, and an output for transmitting a combination of the above referenced signals for display. The control module controls an arrangement of display of the first user interface and the second user interface. The apparatus also includes a remote controller for communicating via a two-way communication link with the control module of the electronic device concerning a selection of one of the first user interface and the second user interface. The remote controller having an emitter for emitting control code signals, and the operation of the emitter is controlled by communications received by the remote controller from the control module of the electronic device. A method is also provided. |
| US09066124B2 |
Video/audio switching in a computing device
Video/audio switching techniques for control of an application running on a computing device. In accordance with an example technique, video and associated audio signals provided from a source for playback at the computing device are processed. It is detected that the application has been placed into the background or a suspend state and the processing of the video signals is terminated without affecting processing of the audio signals. |
| US09066122B1 |
Serving video content segments
A method, executed on a processor, for serving a video content segment at an online resource includes receiving a request for a video content segment having one or more playback features; identifying, by the processor, one or more candidate video content segments responsive to the request; accessing, by the processor, for each of the candidate video content segments, a score based on (i) one or more metrics related to a measure of the probability of the video content segment being played and (ii) a bid; identifying, by the processor, one or more candidate sets of candidate video segments, where, for each set, the candidate video content segments in the set collectively satisfy the one or more playback features; and selecting, by the processor, in response to the request, one of the candidate sets whose cumulative scores are higher than at least one other candidate set. |
| US09066115B1 |
Structuring dynamic advertisement breaks in video manifest files
Methods, systems, and computer readable media can provide for structuring of dynamic advertisement breaks in video manifest files. This can be facilitated by accessing information associated with a recognized advertisement break in a video stream and inserting information into a generic manifest file to create a customized manifest file in order to drive downstream server or equipment decisions. |
| US09066107B2 |
Methods for encoding and decoding sequence implementing a motion compensation, corresponding encoding and decoding devices, signal and computer programs
A method is provided for encoding an image sequence, including the step of dividing a reference image into blocks and a prediction step that includes the following steps: determining monitoring vectors associated with a common image and dividing the same into sub-blocks defining a first partition; determining monitoring vectors associated with an image to be compensated and dividing the same into sub-blocks defining a first partition obtaining a common partitioning into basic sub-blocks; determining first and second sets of monitoring vectors for the basic sub-blocks; movement-compensating a sub-block of the image to be compensated towards a sub-block of the common image. |
| US09066106B2 |
Method to derive at least one motion vector of a bi-predictive block in a current picture
In one embodiment, a method for a moving picture coding system to derive at least one motion vector of a bi-predictive block in a current picture from a motion vector of a first block in a first picture includes selecting, by the moving picture coding system, a list 1 motion vector of the first block in the first picture as a motion vector for deriving list 0 and list 1 motion vectors of the bi-predictive block if the first block only has the list 1 motion vector, the first picture being permitted to be located temporally before the current picture and permitted to be located temporally after the current picture, scaling the selected motion vector and deriving the list 0 and list 1 motion vectors of the bi-predictive block by applying a bit operation to the scaled motion vector. |
| US09066104B2 |
Spatial block merge mode
In one embodiment, a spatial merge mode for a block of video content may be used in merging motion parameters. Spatial merge parameters are considered and do not require utilization of bits or flags or indexing to signal at the encoder or decoder. If the spatial merge mode is determined, the method merges the block of video content with a spatially-located block, where merging shares motion parameters between the spatially-located block and the block of video content. |
| US09066101B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method
An area where a specific object is captured is extracted as a specific area from the image of a frame of interest, and the evaluation value of the specific area is obtained using a predetermined evaluation formula. It is determined whether the evaluation value of the specific area in a frame preceding the frame of interest has exceeded a predetermined threshold. When it is determined that the evaluation value of the specific area has exceeded the predetermined threshold, the frame of interest is encoded to set the code amount of the specific area in the image of the frame of interest to be smaller than that of the specific area in the image of the frame preceding the frame of interest. |
| US09066098B2 |
Method and apparatus for adaptively encoding and decoding a quantization parameter based on a quadtree structure
Disclosed are an apparatus and a method of encoding/decoding a video, particularly a method and an apparatus for storing a quantization parameter differential value in a largest coding unit (LCU) based on quadtree splitting and adaptively predicting a quantization parameter value based on context information on neighboring CUs. Quadtree-based quantization parameter encoding and decoding methods and apparatuses effectively show information on a block having a quantization parameter differential value based on splitting information on a CU and adaptively predict a quantization parameter value using context information including a block size, block partition and a quantization parameter of a neighboring CU. |
| US09066097B2 |
Method to optimize the transforms and/or predictions in a video codec
A joint optimization iterative algorithm determines optimized mode pairs. Each mode pair includes an intra-predictor and a transform pair that are iteratively modified to determine an optimized intra-predictor and an optimized transform that forms the optimized mode pair. A set of training videos and a set of quantization parameters (QPs) are used as the base data for determining the optimized mode pairs. Each video includes a plurality of pixel blocks, herein referred to as blocks. Block statistics associated with each mode pair are accumulated by separately encoding each block using each mode pair, and selecting the best mode pair for each block according to a measured characteristic of each encoding. The accumulated block statistics are used to modify the intra-predictor and the transform within each mode pair. |
| US09066096B2 |
Video encoding method and decoding method, apparatuses therefor, programs therefor, and storage media which store the programs
A video encoding method for generating, based on disparity information between an already-encoded reference camera image and an encoding target camera image corresponding to the reference camera image, a disparity-compensated image by means of inter-camera image prediction; and encoding a differential image between the encoding target camera image and the disparity-compensated image. The method includes selecting, for each predetermined section unit on the differential image, one of a decoded differential image group obtained by decoding a differential image between the already-encoded camera image and the disparity-compensated image and a decoded camera image group obtained by decoding the already-encoded camera image, by determining whether or not there is a disparity-compensated image at the corresponding position, that is, whether or not the corresponding pixel in the disparity-compensated image has an effective value. |
| US09066090B2 |
Stereoscopic image display and method for manufacturing the same
A stereoscopic image display and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The stereoscopic image display comprises: a thin film transistor array substrate; a color filter substrate facing the thin film transistor array substrate, and comprising black matrix; first black stripes formed on the color filter substrate, and formed at positions corresponding to the black matrix; and a patterned retarder film formed on the first black stripes. |
| US09066085B2 |
Stereoscopic camera object detection system and method of aligning the same
A system, controller, and method for aligning a stereo camera of a vehicle mounted object detection system that includes a first camera and a second camera mounted spaced apart on a vehicle. An image from each camera at two different times is used to determine an observed displacement of an object relative to the vehicle. A predicted displacement of the object relative to the vehicle is also determined using either a difference of vehicle position measured based on other vehicle measurements or GPS, or a difference of size of the object in images taken at the two different times. Alignment is provided by determining a triangulation correction based on a difference of the observed displacement and the predicted displacement to correct for misalignment of the cameras. |
| US09066084B2 |
Method and system for object reconstruction
A system and method are presented for use in the object reconstruction. The system comprises an illuminating unit, and an imaging unit (see FIG. 1). The illuminating unit comprises a coherent light source and a generator of a random speckle pattern accommodated in the optical path of illuminating light propagating from the light source towards an object, thereby projecting onto the object a coherent random speckle pattern. The imaging unit is configured for detecting a light response of an illuminated region and generating image data. The image data is indicative of the object with the projected speckles pattern and thus indicative of a shift of the pattern in the image of the object relative to a reference image of said pattern. This enables real-time reconstruction of a three-dimensional map of the object. |
| US09066083B2 |
Single lens 2D/3D digital camera
A single-lens 2D/3D camera has a light valve placed in relationship to a lens module to control the light beam received by the lens module for forming an image on an image sensor. The light valve has a light valve area positioned in a path of the light beam. The light valve has two or more clearable sections such that only one section is made clear to allow part of the light beam to pass through. By separately making clear different sections on the light valve, a number of images as viewed through slightly different angles can be captured. The clearable sections include a right section and a left section so that the captured images can be used to produce 3D pictures or displays. The clearable sections also include a middle section so that the camera can be used as a 2D camera. |
| US09066079B2 |
Method of storing a content of a three-dimensional image
A method of storing a content of a three-dimensional image includes a processor initializing a register and a maximum number; the processor utilizing a stereo comparison algorithm to generate a depth information map corresponding to each frame of a three-dimensional image signal; the processor obtaining a depth value corresponding to each pixel of each pixel row of the depth information map from the depth information map; the processor generating at least one depth vector corresponding to the pixel row according to a depth value corresponding to each pixel of the pixel row; a counter counting a number of the at least one depth vector; the processor storing the number of the at least one depth vector in the register; the processor comparing the number of the at least one depth vector with the maximum number; and the processor executing a corresponding operation on the register according to a comparison result. |
| US09066076B2 |
Video display control method and apparatus
Stereoscopic video content is reproduced to obtain a first pair of images with mutual parallax producing a stereoscopic effect. A first stereoscopic adjustment on the first pair of images is carried out to obtain a second pair of images. A second stereoscopic adjustment on the second pair of images is carried out to obtain a third pair of images, which are displayed on a screen to respective eyes of the viewer. The first stereoscopic adjustment is carried out differently for different video sources. The second stereoscopic adjustment is the same for all sources. The combination of the first and second stereoscopic adjustments enables content from different sources to be displayed with an appropriate stereoscopic adjustment for each source. |
| US09066074B2 |
Camera module testing device
A camera module testing device for detecting light leakage in relation to a camera module includes a base, a first fixing plate, a second fixing plate, a movable element, a stepping motor, a sliding table, a support mechanism, a board and a power supply module, and a processing unit. The movable element includes a first movable plate, a second movable plate, and a third movable plate. The support mechanism and the camera module are driven to rotate to various predetermined angles. The stepping motor drives movable element, the support mechanism and the camera module to swing a predetermined number times for each predetermined angle. The lens captures an image each time. The processing unit compares an image captured each time with a predetermined image and analyze if there is a problem of light leakage for the camera module. |
| US09066070B2 |
Non-linear VDR residual quantizer
In layered VDR coding, inter-layer residuals are quantized by a non-linear quantizer before being coded by a subsequent encoder. Several non-linear quantizers are presented. Such non-linear quantizers may be based on sigmoid-like transfer functions, controlled by one or more free parameters that control their mid-range slope. These functions may also depend on an offset, an output range parameter, and the maximum absolute value of the input data. The quantizer parameters can time-vary and are signaled to a layered decoder. Example non-linear quantizers described herein may be based on the mu-law function, a sigmoid function, and/or a Laplacian distribution. |
| US09066067B2 |
Method and system of diagnosing a video condition experienced at a customer premises
A test controller can be operable to diagnose a video condition experienced at a customer premises. The test controller can include a port coupled to the customer premises. The test controller can also include a processor operable to activate a diagnosis sequence, send a set of questions to equipment at the customer premises, and isolate a cause of the video condition to a portion of the network, in response to receiving test a video access device can include a first port coupled to particular test equipment and a second port coupled to video access devices. The test controller can be part of a system that includes methods used to diagnose the video condition experienced at the customer premises. |
| US09066064B2 |
Conversations on time-shifted content
Techniques for providing conversations on time-shifted contents for social interaction include playing a time-shifted content with a timeline in a window of an application; and displaying one or more comments and respective time points sequentially over the time-shifted content in the window as the time-shifted content is played to the respective time points along the timeline, the one or more comments associated with the respective time points in a database associating respective comments to respective time points of the time-shifted content. |
| US09066063B2 |
Enhanced program viewing method
A user is provided with the capability to view only those segments of TV broadcast programs and/or pre-recorded digital programs that are identified by the user (or other persons, e.g., parents) as acceptable. Preferences for the types of material that is desired for viewing are provided. The provider analyzes a selected program and creates a user specific segmentation file that, when played along with the recorded program, causes the program to automatically skip specific types of material (e.g., commercials, violence, pornography, etc.) and/or jumps to specific material desirable without the user having to intercede during the viewing. The segmentation file is distributed to the user and the user provides a fee to the provider for making and distributing this customized segmentation file. |
| US09066062B2 |
Electronic apparatus for processing moving image data
An electronic apparatus of the present invention includes a reading section which reads moving image data stored in an external storage medium by one of a plurality of reading methods, and a decoding section which decodes the moving image data read by the reading section, in which a decoding speed at which the moving image data is decoded by the decoding section and a reading speed at which the moving image data is read by the reading section are identified, and a reading method that is used when the reading section reads the moving image data is selected based on whether the identified decoding speed and the identified reading speed identified are in a predetermined relationship. |
| US09066055B2 |
Power supply architectures for televisions and other powered devices
A method includes transporting audio/video data using at least one signal line in a cable. The method also includes concurrently transporting at least about 100 W of power for operating an audio/video device using at least one electrical conductor in the cable, the audio/video device coupled to the cable. The cable could include multiple electrical conductors, and the at least one signal line in the cable could include one or more of the electrical conductors in the cable. The data and the power can be transported using at least one common electrical conductor in the cable. The audio/video data could have a data rate of at least about 7 Gbps, and the power could be at least about 200 W of power. |
| US09066051B2 |
Luminous printing
A method and a device are disclosed for luminous printing of an original image using fluorescent ink or other fluorescent display pigments. In some embodiments, the original image is separated into multiple layers, including at least a brightness layer and an inverse brightness (or darkness) layer, by applying extracted brightness data and inverse brightness data, to the original image, respectively. Each of the layers is associated with a set of corresponding printing channels. The sets of printing channels are applied by a printing device to print the original image on a print medium, such as paper, mylar, fabric, and other print surfaces. Multiple visual effects may be realized using the aforementioned process, including fluorescent images that are only visible under UV (Ultra Violet) or black light, images with high-fidelity colors under daylight and dark conditions, and shadow effects such as depth illusion. |
| US09066049B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing scripts
Provided in some embodiments is a computer implemented method that includes providing script data including script words indicative of dialogue words to be spoken, providing recorded dialogue audio data corresponding to at least a portion of the dialogue words to be spoken, wherein the recorded dialogue audio data includes timecodes associated with recorded audio dialogue words, matching at least some of the script words to corresponding recorded audio dialogue words to determine alignment points, determining that a set of unmatched script words are accurate based on the matching of at least some of the script words matched to corresponding recorded audio dialogue words, generating time-aligned script data including the script words and their corresponding timecodes and the set of unmatched script words determined to be accurate based on the matching of at least some of the script words matched to corresponding recorded audio dialogue words. |
| US09066048B2 |
System and method for switching between audio content while navigating through video streams
An electronic device with one or more processors, memory and a display receives a first request to display a first video stream and in response, displays the first video stream on the display in a first video tile and plays first audio content that corresponds to the first video stream. While displaying the first video stream, the device receives a second request to display a second video stream. In response to receiving the second request, the device slides the first video tile off of the display and slides a second video tile that corresponds to second video tile onto the display. The device also starts to play second audio content for the second video stream and increases an amplitude of the second audio content relative to an amplitude of the first audio content in accordance with an amount of the second video tile that is displayed on the display. |
| US09066046B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling play of an audio signal
Apparatus and methods conforming to the present invention comprise a method of controlling playback of an audio signal through analysis of a corresponding close caption signal in conjunction with analysis of the corresponding audio signal. Objection text or other specified text in the close caption signal is identified through comparison with user identified objectionable text. Upon identification of the objectionable text, the audio signal is analyzed to identify the audio portion corresponding to the objectionable text. Upon identification of the audio portion, the audio signal may be controlled to mute the audible objectionable text. |
| US09066042B2 |
Terminal device and control method thereof
A first terminal device and a video display control method are described. The first terminal device includes at least two tuners configured to receive and decode a video; a first display unit configured to display video or image; a first communication unit configured to communicate with a second terminal device; and a first processing unit configured to control the at least two tuners, the first display unit and the first communication unit. The first processing unit chooses one of the at least two tuners as a primary tuner, and displays a first video of the primary tuner on the first display unit, and the first processing unit sets the other tuner of the at least two tuners as slave tuner, and transmits a video of the slave tuner to the second terminal device through the first communication unit so as to be displayed by the second terminal device. |
| US09066041B2 |
System and method for retrieving information while commanding operation of an appliance
Media rendering system including a remote control device and associated docking station. The remote control device interfaces with a remote server to stream media content for local and/or external playback. The remote control device may interface with a docking station to playback rendered media on one or more entertainment appliances. The portable device preferably has standard remote control capability in order to enable advanced features and functions for media playback. |
| US09066040B2 |
Systems and methods for providing video on demand in an intelligent television
An intelligent television can provide various interfaces for providing video-on-demand (VOD). The user interfaces include unique visual representations and organizations that allow the user to utilize the intelligent television more easily and more effectively. Particularly, the user interfaces pertain to the display of VOD content and better organizations thereof. Further, the user interfaces provide unique process of transitioning between the VOD content. |
| US09066039B2 |
Selective booting method and broadcast receiving apparatus using the same
A selective booting method and a broadcast receiving apparatus using the same are provided. The broadcast receiving apparatus including: a broadcast reception unit; a display which displays a broadcast received through the broadcast reception unit; a storage unit which stores a plurality of drivers of hardware provided on the broadcast receiving apparatus; and a controller which selectively loads a first driver, among the stored drivers, of first hardware for executing a first operation selected from among a plurality of operations, and then loads a second driver. Therefore, a user may execute foremost a desired operation. |
| US09066036B2 |
Determining transparent fills based on a reference background colour
Disclosed is a method of generating an electronic document having an enclosed region with a fill color. The method receives a digital representation of a source document, the source document containing an enclosed region and at least one corresponding background region, the enclosed region overlapping at least a portion of the background region. A fill color is determined for the enclosed region from the digital representation as is a reference background color for the enclosed region from the corresponding background region of the digital representation. The method assigns a transparent fill color to the enclosed region based on a comparison of the determined fill color for the enclosed region with the reference background color and stores enclosed region with the transparent fill color to generate an electronic document. |
| US09066035B2 |
Semiconductor device including photosensor and transistor having oxide semiconductor active layer
An object is to achieve low-power consumption by reducing the off-state current of a transistor in a photosensor. A semiconductor device including a photosensor having a photodiode, a first transistor, and a second transistor; and a read control circuit including a read control transistor, in which the photodiode has a function of supplying charge based on incident light to a gate of the first transistor; the first transistor has a function of storing charge supplied to its gate and converting the charge stored into an output signal; the second transistor has a function of controlling reading of the output signal; the read control transistor functions as a resistor converting the output signal into a voltage signal; and semiconductor layers of the first transistor, the second transistor, and the read control transistor are formed using an oxide semiconductor. |
| US09066034B2 |
Image processing apparatus, method and program with different pixel aperture characteristics
When the super-resolution processing is performed, loss of signal occurs due to the aperture effect, and adversely affects the image quality. In order to improve the image quality by suppressing the occurrence of loss of signal, a pixel aperture characteristic provided for some of image capturing units differs from a pixel aperture characteristic provided for the other image capturing units, and a plurality of digital images are captured by these image capturing units and are synthesized thereafter. |
| US09066033B2 |
Defective pixel data correcting apparatus, image capturing apparatus, and method for correcting defective pixel data
Among defective pixels of an image sensor, defective pixels which need to be corrected are determined depending on the type and defect level for individual defective pixels and on image capturing conditions. Depending on the types of the defective pixels, the correspondences between the image capturing conditions and the defect levels of the defective pixels to be corrected are prepared in advance, thereby carrying out appropriate defective pixel correction in view of the fact that the dependence of the abnormal signal output level on the image capturing conditions differs depending on the type of defective pixel. |
| US09066032B2 |
Imaging apparatus comprising image sensor array having shared global shutter circuitry
There is set forth herein in one embodiment an image sensor array including a global shutter shared by first and second pixels. The global shutter can include a charge storage area having an associated shield for reducing charge build up on the charge storage area attributable to incident light rays. There is set forth herein in one embodiment an imaging apparatus having one or more configuration. The one or more configuration can include one or more of a configuration wherein a frame read out from an image sensor array has unbinned pixel values, a configuration wherein a frame read out from an image sensor array has binned pixel values corresponding to an M×N, M>=2, N>=2 arrangement of pixel values, and a configuration wherein a frame read out from an image sensor array has binned pixel values corresponding to a 1×N, N>=2 arrangement of pixel values. |
| US09066030B2 |
Image sensors with column failure correction circuitry
Electronic devices may include image sensors having image pixel arrays with image pixels arranged in pixel rows and pixel columns. Each pixel column may be coupled to column readout circuitry through column randomizing circuitry. The column readout circuitry may include a column circuit associated with each pixel column and at least one reserve column circuit. The column randomizing circuitry may randomize the distribution of image signals from the pixel columns to the column readout circuitry. The column randomizing circuitry may distribute the randomized image signals from at least one of the pixel columns to a reserve column circuit when any of the column circuits associated with the pixel columns has failed. The column randomizing circuitry may include an output column line for each column circuit and first and second transistors coupled in parallel to each output column line. |
| US09066025B2 |
Control of frequency lifting super-resolution with image features
Input image information is received. A processor device is used for determining enhancement information based on frequency characteristics and feature information of the input image information. The enhancement information is mixed with the input image information to generate an enhanced image. |
| US09066023B2 |
Image sensing apparatus, communication apparatus, and control method of these apparatuses
In an image sensing system in which a master camera and a slave camera are communicatably connected, the master camera acquires delay time information of the slave camera, indicative of delay time from the moment of reception of an exposure-start instruction signal to the moment of a start of exposure of the slave camera, and based on the acquired delay time information, controls at least one of the exposure-start timing of the master camera and the transmission timing for transmitting the exposure-start instruction signal to the slave camera. |
| US09066017B2 |
Viewfinder display based on metering images
An image capture device may capture a series of images. The series of images may include a plurality of metering images interleaved with a plurality of preview images. The preview images may be captured using respective total exposure times (TETs) that are based on characteristics of at least one previously-captured metering image. A viewfinder of the image capture device may display a stream of display images. Each display image in the stream of display images may be derived from at least one of the preview images, and at least part of the capturing may occur contemporaneously with at least part of the displaying. |
| US09066011B2 |
Image synthesizing apparatus that synthesizes multiple images to obtain moving image, control method therefor, and storage medium
An image synthesizing apparatus which is capable of, when synthesizing moving images, carrying out an image synthesizing process without bringing about increases in processing time and the amount of transfer to memory irrespective of the number of images to be synthesized. A preset number of frames are synthesized to obtain a first synthesized image. When an image of another frame is to be synthesized with the first synthesized image, an image of a predetermined frame used for the synthesis obtaining the first synthesized image is subtracted from the first synthesized image, and the image of the other frame is added to the first synthesized image to generate a synthesized image. |
| US09066005B2 |
Photographing device for displaying a manual focus guide and method thereof
A photographing device is disclosed. The photographing device includes a display configured to display live view of a subject, a focus adjuster configured to adjust a focus in a manual focus mode according to a user manipulation, a focus calculator configured to automatically calculate a target focus which corresponds to the subject, and a controller configured to display a manual focus guide including a first indicator indicating a current focus and a second indicator indicating the target focus on the display, and in response to the focus being adjusted by the user manipulation, change location of the first indicator within the manual focus guide according to the adjustment state. |
| US09066001B2 |
Focus adjusting device and focus adjusting program with distribution detection of focalized and unfocused state
A focus adjusting device which includes an edge detection unit that detects edges of a subject image for each color component forming an image including the subject image; a distribution detection unit that detects distributions of a focalized state and an unfocused state of the image based on the edges detected by the edge detection unit; and a control unit that moves a lens based on the distributions detected by the distribution detection unit, wherein the subject image is incident from an optical system having the lens, the control unit moves the lens, and thus the subject image is focused on. |
| US09066000B2 |
3D auto-focusing camera module and 3D imaging method using same
A 3D AF camera module includes first and second imaging units, a storage unit, a color separation unit, a main processor unit, an image processing unit, first and second driving units, and an image combining unit. The first and second imaging units each capture an image of a scene from different angles. The color separation unit separates the images into red, green and blue colors. The main processor unit calculates MTF values of the images and determines a shooting mode of the 3D AF camera module. The image processing unit processes the images according to the MTF values to compensate for blurring of the images caused by being out of focus. The first and second driving units drive the first and second imaging units to points of optimum focuses according to MTF values. The image combining unit combines the images into a single 3D image. |
| US09065998B2 |
Photographing apparatus provided with an object detection function
A photographing apparatus is disclosed. The photographing apparatus includes: an imaging unit to photograph a subject to acquire image data; an object detection unit to detect a predetermined object from the image data; and a detection condition setting unit to allow a user to arbitrarily set a detection condition for the object detection unit. |
| US09065996B2 |
Surveillance system
The invention relates to a surveillance system having an image recording means for recording optically distorted images and having a transmission means for transmission of image information from the image recording means to a reproduction means which reproduces, in an undistorted form, image details of the images which have been recorded with optical distortion. In this connection, it is provided that the transmission means is designed for detail transmission of distorted images and for joint transmission of additional information, which allows image detail distortion to be corrected, in order to allow distortion correction in the reproduction means. |
| US09065995B2 |
Television lens apparatus
A television lens apparatus in which circuit boards can be easily mounted or dismounted and can be easily wired is provided. A lens barrel is contained in a housing. A housing opening is formed in the lens barrel to be opened and closed with a rotatable lid. A board holding device is fixed on a rear portion of the lens barrel. In the board holding device, four connectors are mounted on a wiring board and arranged in an axial direction of the lens barrel. Four circuit boards are inserted in the connectors through the housing opening in a direction perpendicular to the lens barrel. |
| US09065992B2 |
Solid-state image sensor and camera including a plurality of pixels for detecting focus
A solid-state image sensor includes a semiconductor region including a plurality of photoelectric converters from which signals are allowed to be independently read out; a first microlens; and a second microlens which is arranged between the first microlens and the semiconductor region, wherein the second microlens includes a central portion and a peripheral portion that surrounds the central portion, and a power of the peripheral portion is a positive value and larger than a power of the central portion. |
| US09065988B2 |
Image pickup apparatus including image pickup element having image pickup pixel and focus detection pixel and signal processing method
An image pickup apparatus 100 includes an image pickup element 101 including a plurality of image pickup pixels that perform a photoelectric conversion for an image formed by a light beam from an image pickup optical system and a plurality of focus detection pixels that perform a photoelectric conversion for an image formed by a divided light beam of the light beam from the image pickup optical system, and a DSP 103 configured to perform a shading correction for a pixel signal from the image pickup element 101, the image pickup element 101 generates a first pixel signal by adding signals from the plurality of image pickup pixels, and generates a second pixel signal without adding a signal from the focus detection pixel, and the DSP 103 performs the shading correction for the first pixel signal and the second pixel signal using correction data different from each other. |
| US09065986B2 |
Imaging apparatus and imaging system
The present invention provides an imaging apparatus capable of monitoring a plurality of monitored sites in a switching manner by a single surveillance camera and an imaging system. Provided are: an imager for imaging an object scene image so as to produce imaging data; a cutout processor for cutting out one portion of the imaging data so as to create a plurality of cutout image data; and an outputter for sequentially outputting the plurality of cutout image data to the external apparatus at a predetermined output interval. |
| US09065981B2 |
Passenger monitoring and directing system for use in an aircraft cabin
A passenger monitoring and directing system for use in an aircraft cabin is provided. This system includes at least one information unit to be arranged in the aircraft cabin and at least one passenger monitoring device. The information unit includes at least one monitoring portion and the passenger monitoring device is assigned to the information unit and arranged relative to its monitoring portion in order to monitor the passengers through the monitoring portion of the information unit. |
| US09065973B2 |
System and method for displaying a videoconference
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for displaying a videoconference includes receiving a first video feed. The first video feed includes a first plurality of video signals, each video signal from at least one source and originating from one or more sites. The method also includes assigning for a videoconference each video signal of the first plurality of video signals to a zone of a plurality of zones of a display window. Each zone of the plurality of zones is able to display one video signal at a time. The method further includes, for each zone of the plurality of zones of the display window to which more than one video signal has been assigned, switching the current video signal to be displayed in the zone to another video signal assigned to the zone based on a switching protocol. |
| US09065970B2 |
Method and system for facilitating communication between wireless communication devices
There is provided a method in a first communications device operable to communicate with a second device using a network supporting first and second different communication methods. The method comprises: allowing the first device to communicate with the second device using the first communication method; registering the first device on a service platform of the network; requesting from the service platform a second device status indicator of the ability of the second device to communicate using the second communication method; receiving the second device status indicator from the service platform; and, allowing the first device to communicate with the second device using the second communication method in dependence on the received second device status indicator. The second device status indicator depends on the current network connectivity of the second device. At least one of the first and second devices is a mobile telecommunications device. Corresponding methods in a second communications device and service platform of a network are also provided as are devices adapted to perform the above method steps. |
| US09065967B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing device angle image correction
An approach for providing device angle image correction. An image (e.g., still or moving) of a subject is captured via a camera of a mobile device. One or more geometrics parameters associated with the subject are determined in relation to the mobile device. One or more camera parameters for the mobile device are also determined. An image correction scheme is applied to the image based on the camera parameters and the geometrics parameters to output a modified image. |
| US09065964B1 |
Reducing four wave mixing ingress
A multi-wavelength CATV transmission system includes transmitters adapted to emit carrier wavelengths on a 12.5 GHz+/−20% ITU grid with a minimum spacing between carriers and/or carriers and their beat product groups of 37.5 GHz+/−20%. |
| US09065959B2 |
Image sensor unit, image reading apparatus, and image forming apparatus
In an image sensor unit, sensor substrates include a plurality of edges arranged on a substrate holder in a longitudinal direction at predetermined intervals, sensor chips at the edges are mounted beyond the edges, and the substrate holder includes positioning portions that position the sensor chips. |
| US09065958B2 |
Server for implementing image processing functions requested by a printing device
An image processing device is configured to provide a service relating to at least one of (1) the image data generated by the function of the image processing device and (2) image data representing the image to be formed, in response to a request from the image processing device. The image processing device may include a parameter designating unit, a service request unit, and a function implementation unit that is adapted to implement the function of the image processing device based on the service providing parameter designated by the parameter designating unit. The service providing device is provided with a service provision executing unit that is adapted to execute a process to provide the service to the image processing device after receiving the request from the service request unit provided to the image processing device. |
| US09065957B2 |
System, server, communication device, and computer readable medium therefor
Computer readable instructions cause the server to generate, in response to receiving a request, first specific data. The first specific data comprises a first location information for location of first web data configured to display a message screen for specifying new setting information including the first setting information for the communication device. The first specific data is configured to be in a format for transmission using the protocol. The computer readable instructions further cause the server to generate, in response to receiving new setting information, a second specific data. The second specific data comprises second location information for location of second web data configured to display one or more instructions for transmitting the new setting information from the terminal device to the communication device using a short-range wireless communication. The second specific data is configured to be in a format for transmission using the protocol. |
| US09065955B2 |
Power supply control apparatus, image processing apparatus, non-transitory computer readable medium, and power supply control method
A power supply control apparatus includes a transition unit, a detector, a first image capturing unit, a command unit, a second image capturing unit, and an identity recognition unit. The transition unit makes a control target enter a power supply state or a power shutoff state. The detector detects a moving object while the control target is in the power shutoff state. The first image capturing unit captures images of a specific area at the time when the detector detects a moving object. The command unit commands the transition unit to make the control target enter the power supply state in a case where it is determined that the moving object is approaching the control target. The second image capturing unit captures a characteristic image of the moving object that is approaching the control target. The identity recognition unit performs identity recognition in accordance with the characteristic image. |
| US09065950B2 |
Counterfeit deterrence using full width array scans
Systems and methods are described that facilitate counterfeit deterrence in a printer or the like. A final image is scanned from a photoreceptor belt before or after transfer of the image to a print medium or from the print medium itself prior to output, and the scanned image data is assessed using a set of stored criteria to detect counterfeit signatures in the scanned image. Upon a determination that the scanned image includes a restricted image, and therefore contains one or more counterfeit image, the printer is shut down, electronically locked until serviced, and/or caused to damage or mark the printed counterfeit image(s). |
| US09065949B2 |
Document reading device and image formation apparatus
A document reading device includes: a reading position at which information on a document is read; a light source that radiates light toward the document passing through the reading position; a light receiving section that receives reflected light generated from the light from the light source; and a background reflection section disposed to reflect the light from the light source so as to be received by the light receiving section through the reading position. When the document is not present, the background reflection section reflects an amount of light that is greater than an amount of document-reflected light reflected by the document which is white. The background reflection section is formed by processing a specular surface so as to reflect an amount of light that is less than an amount of specularly reflected light reflected by a specular surface. |
| US09065941B2 |
Image processing apparatus and method for controlling the same
An information processing apparatus includes a hard disk unit, a control unit configured to output an instruction to retract a head of the hard disk unit, a monitoring unit configured to monitor a state of the control unit and output, in a case where the monitoring unit determines that the control unit cannot issue the instruction, an instruction to retract the head of the hard disk unit, and a hard disk controller configured to receive the instruction from the control unit or the monitoring unit and to issue a command for retracting the head of the hard disk unit to the hard disk unit. The hard disk unit retracts the head of the hard disk unit in a case where the hard disk unit receives the command. |
| US09065940B2 |
Print apparatus including image read apparatus-side communicating section
When a start button of a scanner is operated in a state where a communication connection has been established with the scanner, then image data generated by the scanner by reading a document is acquired, a run mode is set from a plurality of operating modes including a copy mode and a transfer mode, and a process corresponding to the set run mode is executed on the acquired image data. This makes it possible to realize a plurality of functions of a printer in response to a single start button of a scanner. |
| US09065937B2 |
Terminals having a television function and display methods
Disclosed are terminals having a television function and display methods thereof. The terminal comprises a display, a first port, a first hardware system, and a second hardware system, the display is connected with the first hardware system and the second hardware system, the first port is connected with the first hardware system. The first port is adapted to receive a television signal. In a first operation mode, the first hardware system is adapted to generate a first display data to be displayed by the display according to the television signal, and instruct the display to display the first display data. In a second operation mode, the second hardware system is adapted to generate a second display data to be displayed by the display according to the television signal, and instruct the display to display the second display data. A generation procedure of the second display data is different from a generation procedure of the first display data. The display is adapted to display the received first display data or second display data. What is achieved is that the problem of making a television in an all in one device of television & computer operate independently can be addressed, and thereby the stability and utility of the terminals are improved. |
| US09065936B2 |
Cellular traffic monitoring and charging using application detection rules
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 detection output which includes at least one of: a type of an application associated with the cellular traffic of the cellular subscriber device, and a type of the cellular traffic of the cellular subscriber device. The cellular traffic monitoring system further includes a policy charging and enforcement function (PCEF) module to enforce one or more charging rules to the cellular subscriber device, based on the detection output. |
| US09065933B2 |
Arrangement for network interface module
An apparatus used to interface to a communications network is provided. Specifically, the apparatus is for placement in a network interface device (NID). An interface module that may be used as a splitter and balun for telephone and data services is also provided. The interface module may include a housing containing a pivotal rearward extending portion, in which a bottom of the pivotal rearward extending portion is above a bottom of an adjacent portion of the housing providing an open region below the bottom of the pivotal rearward extending portion, at least one wire extending from a front portion of the housing and connecting a balanced pair of telephone wires from the telephone company to the customer premises, and a coaxial connector disposed on a side of the pivotal rearward extending portion. |
| US09065930B2 |
Method and system for presence detection in a communication system
An exemplary method for providing presence detection in a communication system includes associating the identity of a first entity participating in the communication system, with a communication link of the system, and providing access to information regarding the first entity to other entities participating in the communication system. An exemplary method can further include receiving an indication of an incident, including a class or magnitude of the incident, accessing a list of users authorized to participate in the communication system, based on the indication, and denying users absent from the accessed list, access to the communication system. The last communication mechanism or communication address used by each authorized user can also be determined, and displayed. |
| US09065922B2 |
System and method for providing low battery notifications on mobile devices
A system and method are provided for providing notifications related to the battery level of a mobile device. Upon detecting a low battery state, a low battery update may be sent to a presence server to enable the low battery update to be provided to one or more contacts associated with the mobile device. The one or more contacts may then update their UI to reflect a change in presence status and may provided alerts upon detecting that the mobile device has been recharged. |
| US09065921B2 |
Retractable storage system for handheld electronic device
A retractable storage system for handheld electronic device has one or more storage chambers to house a retraction mechanism and/or a battery. At least one accessory station structured on the housing member of the device has an aperture for arresting, dispensing and/or charging at least one accessory item, such as a wireless earbud or e-cigarette. The retraction mechanism retrieves and dispense the stored accessory item through the accessory station. |
| US09065919B2 |
Mixed media conferencing
Multiple users participate in a conference while taking maximum advantage of hardware and bandwidth capabilities of each participant. Each user's system makes known to a directory service its hardware sending and receiving capabilities. The directory service makes this information available to other users who may then wish to join a conference with the user. An initiating user sends invitations via the directory service to the remote users. Each user that accepts an invitation transmits its network address to the initiating user, who then establishes a peer-to-peer connection with each of the remote users. Each participant system exchanges information about hardware capabilities and bandwidth, and a conference manager determines a best model for connecting each of the participants. Depending on the hardware and bandwidth capabilities of the participants, the manager chooses from a duplicate streams model, a multicast model, and a host-among-peers model for connecting the participants. |
| US09065916B2 |
System and method for virtual queuing of calls
The present method and system provides a virtual queuing technique including the method and system providing for receiving a communication request from a user for telephonic communication with a communication agent, wherein the communication request includes user information. The method and system includes receiving a call back request from the user to avoid the on-hold wait time and based on the call back request, placing the communication request and the user information associated therewith into a queuing system. The method and system thereby meters the communication request in the queuing system for a metered wait time based at least on a queuing factor relating to at least one of: the on-hold wait time and the user information and after expiration of the metered wait time, bridges a communication connection with the user and the communication agent based on the communication request. |
| US09065913B2 |
System and method providing multi-modality interaction over voice channel between communication devices
The present disclosure relates generally to interactive response systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for providing multi-modality interaction between communication devices. In one embodiment, a multi-modality interactive system is disclosed, comprising: a processor; and a memory storing processor-executable instructions comprising instructions to: obtain a request to initiate an interactive session with a communication device; obtain interactive session data for communication to the communication device; select a modality for the interactive session data, by analyzing one or more parameters associated with the interactive session data and the communication device; convert a format of the interactive session data according to the selected modality; and transmit the interactive session data in the converted format to the communication device. |
| US09065912B2 |
Conveying textual content from interactive systems to IP clients
A system is disclosed. The system has a client device, an interactive response system, and an Internet Protocol (IP) network enabling IP communication between the client device and the interactive response system. The client device may be configured to place a call to the interactive response system via the IP network, to establish an IP telephonic communication session between the client device and the interactive response system, and to display textual content received from the interactive response system during the IP telephonic communication session. The interactive response system is configured to receive the call from the IP network, to establish the IP telephonic communication session between the client device and the interactive response system, to transmit textual content to the client device during the IP telephonic communication session. |
| US09065908B2 |
Method and system for ensuring user and/or device anonymity for location based services (LBS)
A mobile device may communicate with a location server during location based services (LBS) operations using a secure identifier. The secure identifier abstracts identification information of the mobile device and/or identification information of a user of the mobile device in instances that the mobile device and/or user identification information are deemed protectable from the location server. The location server may be operable to store location data corresponding to the mobile device and/or the user in a location reference database based on the secure identifier. The secure identifier may comprise a unique value, which may be randomly generated. The secure identifier may also be generated based on the mobile device and/or user identification information, by applying, for example, encryption algorithms to the mobile device and/or user identification information. Service providers for the mobile device may retrieve the abstracted mobile device and/or user identification information from the secure identifier. |
| US09065906B2 |
Opportunistic delivery of cacheable content in a communications network
Systems and methods are described for using opportunistically delayed delivery of content to address sub-optimal bandwidth resource usage in network infrastructures that allow subscribers to share forward link resources. According to some embodiments, content is identified as delayable and assigned to a delaycast queue and/or service flow. For example, a server system of a satellite communications system identifies content that can be delayed to exploit future excess link capacity through multicasting and to exploit subscriber-side storage resources. Some implementations attempt to exploit any excess link resources at any time, while others exploit unused bandwidth only during certain times or when a certain threshold of resources is available. Various embodiments also provide content scoring and/or other prioritization techniques for optimizing exploitation of the delaycast queue. |
| US09065905B2 |
Methods and apparatus to provide a network-based caller identification service in a voice over internet protocol network
Methods and apparatus to provide a network-based caller identification (CID) service in a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) network are disclosed. An example method comprises receiving a session initiation protocol (SIP) communication session initiation request message comprising an early-media indicator, disabling a ringtone generator, sending a SIP ringing message containing a session descriptor in response to the early-media indicator, receiving a ringtone based on the session descriptor, and presenting the ringtone to alert a user of a requested communication session. |
| US09065897B2 |
System and method for blocking unauthorized outgoing call on a communication network
The various embodiments herein provide a system and method for blocking unauthorized outgoing calls made by an unauthorized user. The system is programmed by the user to block any attempt made to call an unauthorized number. Incase of a landline system, the system is connected to a telephone line that powers up the unit from the landline and blocks any unauthorized outgoing calls. The system is programmed to inhibit dialing any prefixes or any individual numbers. The system disconnects the phone line from the network and does not allow continuation of dialing when the prefix or the dialing number matches with the unauthorized dialing list/database. |
| US09065896B2 |
Method and system for sampling rate mismatch correction of transmitting and receiving terminals
Disclosed in the invention is a method and system for sampling rate mismatch correction of transmitting and receiving terminals, which can obtain a high-precision sampling rate mismatch in real time, carry out sampling rate correction on transmitting and receiving terminal signals, and send the transmitting terminal signal and the receiving terminal signal that have the same sampling rate after corrected to an echo cancellation system to carry out echo cancellation. The present invention can improve the quality of echo cancellation, simplify the computation and reduce the cost. The method for sampling rate mismatch correction of transmitting and receiving terminals provided in the embodiments of the invention comprises: calculating a transfer function of a receiving terminal signal relative to a transmitting terminal signal at each sampling timing according to the transmitting and receiving terminal signals; obtaining a transmission time delay of the transmitting and receiving terminals at each sampling timing using the transfer function; obtaining a sampling rate mismatch of the transmitting and receiving terminals at each sampling timing by means of parameter fitting using the transmission time delay and the linear relationship between the transmission time delay and the sampling rate mismatch; and adjusting the sampling rate of the transmitting terminal signal or the receiving terminal signal at each sampling timing according to the sampling rate mismatch. |
| US09065893B2 |
Credit card form factor secure mobile computer and methods
A communication device is provided and includes a first major surface including a display and a mixed array. The mixed array includes at least two different types of array units and occupies an area coinciding with, in plan view as viewed perpendicular to the major surface, at least substantially the entire major surface. |
| US09065892B2 |
Receiver and mobile communication terminal including the receiver
A receiver, a mobile terminal including the receiver, and a method of disposing the receiver on the mobile terminal are disclosed. The mobile terminal including: a receiver including: a casing including walls and an inner space defined at least partially by the walls, a diaphragm driving unit disposed in the casing, a diaphragm including a central region disposed in the casing, a projection unit extending from the casing, the projection unit including walls and a receiver hole disposed in one of the walls, and an audio path defined within the casing walls and the projection unit walls; and a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) including a cutout along an edge. The diaphragm may be disposed between the diaphragm driving unit and the inner space, and the audio path extends from the diaphragm central region through the inner space to the receiver hole. The receiver may be disposed in the cutout in the PCB. |
| US09065891B2 |
Radio communication apparatus and current reducing method
A radio communication apparatus includes: a first casing; a second casing; a connection section that connects the first and second casings to each other to be movable; and an antenna device that operates at a predetermined communication frequency. In the radio communication apparatus, first and second states are switched between by relatively moving the first and second casings. The first state is a state in which the first and second casings are opened or closed with respect to one another, and a first conductor (122) installed from the connection section to the first casing and a second conductor (240) installed from the connection section to the second casing are separated and faced each other. In the first state, the first conductor (122) and the second conductor (240) are electrically connected to each other at the communication frequency. The second state is a state in which the first and second casings are closed or opened with respect to one another. |
| US09065889B2 |
Telephone relay apparatus, telephone relay method, and program
A telephone relay apparatus 200 receives a connection request from a first telephone terminal 100 to a second telephone terminal 300. The connection request includes phone numbers of the first telephone terminal 100 and the second telephone terminal 300. The telephone relay apparatus 200 stores phone numbers of a plurality of telephone terminals and codec information that indicates types of audio codecs of the telephone terminals so that the phone numbers and the code: information correspond to each other. When connecting to the first telephone terminal 100, the telephone relay apparatus 200 reads out codec information that corresponds to the phone number of the second telephone terminal, and then transmits the read-out codec information to the first telephone terminal 100. The first telephone terminal 100 performs a call process using an audio codec that corresponds to the codec information transmitted from the telephone relay apparatus 200. |
| US09065887B2 |
Method, apparatus, and system for reducing power consumption on xDSL subscriber board
A method for reducing power consumption on an xDSL subscriber board, includes: obtaining a maximum downlink service bandwidth, a downlink signal-to-noise ratio margin in line connection parameters of the user port, and transmission mode information in a line template bound to the user port; determining whether the downlink signal-to-noise ratio margin is larger than a preset value, if yes, reducing a maximum downlink nominal total transmission power; otherwise, configuring the maximum downlink nominal total transmission power as a downlink transmit power in line connection parameters of the current port; calculating a minimum undistorted power supply voltage required by a corresponding line driver of each registered user port under the current configuration of the bound template, comparing minimum undistorted power supply voltage values, to find the largest value; and controlling an output voltage of a power module of a line driver equaling to the largest value. |
| US09065886B2 |
System and method for the application of an LMS method to updating an echo canceller in a multicarrier transceiver
An echo cancellation device relies on the known characteristics of the sync frame to monitor, update in an off-line fashion and determine the accuracy of an echo canceller in, for example, a modem, such as an ADSL modem. Specifically, time domain samples are read from the transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) paths of the modem. These samples are stored in memory. When the sync frame has received a predetermined number of the same Tx samples and Rx samples, the samples are stored. Running averages, over the sync frames, of the TX and RX samples are maintained. These averages are subtracted from a sync frame of samples, to allow LMS updating of the echo canceller taps, free of extraneous signals. Updating, i.e., tracking of changes in the echo channel, is done for the echo canceller in an off-line fashion. The coefficients for the in-line version are updated, while the off-line version is updated over several sync frames. Periodically, the performance of the off-line version is compared with the in-line version. The coefficients of the in-line version are replaced by those of the off-line version only if it is determined the off-line version, which is tracking echo channel changes, has better performance. After replacement of the in-line coefficients, the off-line tracking is continued in the off-line version. |
| US09065885B2 |
Method and system for detecting slow page load
A method and system for detecting slow page load is provided. An example system comprises a page request detector, a session state information detector, a throughput calculator, a response builder, and a communications module. The page request detector may be configured to receive a request for a web page. The session state information detector may be configured to determine that the request does not include session state information. The throughput calculator may be configured to calculate a throughput value associated with the network connection between the client system and the server. The response builder may be configured to build an updated data packet by including, in the data packet, the throughput value and an instruction to store the throughput value on the client as session state information. The communications module may be configured to communicate the updated data packet to the client system. |
| US09065883B2 |
Apparatus and method for setting network address in packet communication system
An apparatus and method for a connection method of a support sub-layer in a packet communication system are provided. In the method, whether a timeout occurs is determined while communication is performed with a destination node. When the timeout occurs, a first connection to the destination node is tried using a first address set having a highest priority in an address management table. When the first connection fails, a second connection to the destination node is tried in a pipeline manner on the basis of address sets inside the address management table. Valid address sets are generated via the second connection. |
| US09065882B2 |
Processing signaling changes
The disclosure relates to tracking commands and data received from many sources. A device may receive a command from a user and forward the command to a network device. The device may also receive data from the network device and may determine whether the received data indicates that a previously forwarded command was received by the network device. If the received data does not indicate that the command was received, the device may perform one or more actions, such as resending the command. |
| US09065881B2 |
Image relay apparatus and image relay method
According to one embodiment, an image relay apparatus includes a reception unit, a determination unit and a transmission unit. The reception unit receives compressed image data from a relay source apparatus. The determination unit determines whether or not the compressed image data is processable through a first path not involving decompression of the compressed image data, based on data on a relay destination apparatus. The transmission unit transfers, to the relay destination apparatus, either the compressed image data processed through the first path or recompressed image data obtained by processing the compressed image data through a second path involving decompression, drawing, and recompression of the compressed image data. |
| US09065879B2 |
Methods and systems for selecting media content based on technical environment information
The present disclosure includes methods and systems for selecting media content based on technical environment information. A connection over a network between a server and a client is established. The e connection is associated with the technical environment information and the technical environment information is associated with an the ability of the client to playback media content locally. The method includes selecting, at the server, a version of media content appropriate for playback at the client locally based on the ability of the client. |
| US09065878B2 |
System and method for providing a remote virtual screen view
A system for virtual screen view service, comprising a monitored computer platform, a monitoring computer platform, a server installed on the monitored computer platform, a client installed on the monitoring computer platform, and a one-way data link for unidirectional data transfer from the server to the client, wherein the server is configured to periodically collect screen image data from the monitored computer platform and send it to the client via the one-way data link, and the client is configured to process the image data received from the server via the one-way data link and cause it to be displayed on the monitoring computer platform. An alternative configuration is also disclosed for allowing a remote client to securely monitor the screen of a locally monitored computer platform via an intermediary server. |
| US09065875B2 |
Method and apparatus for establishing a PoC session
A Push-to-talk over Cellular (PoC) communication session is established between an inviting PoC client and at least one invited PoC client using an IP Multimedia Subsystem network. Establishment involves using a pre-established session procedure to negotiate media parameters between the inviting PoC client and a participating PoC server for the inviting PoC client. At the inviting PoC client, a Talk Burst Control Protocol (TBCP) or Media Burst Control Protocol (MBCP) message is sent directly to its participating PoC server, the TBCP or MBCP message containing the PoC address of the at least one invited PoC client. At the participating PoC Server, in response to receipt of the TBCP or MBCP message, a SIP INVITE message is generated and sent towards a participating PoC server for the at least one invited PoC client. |
| US09065872B1 |
Sharing service management
Techniques are described for sharing service management on a computing system. The computing system includes a display device and one or more processors. The processors are configured to determine, based on a context associated with an object, a plurality of weighted probabilities including a respective weighted probability for each sharing service from a plurality of sharing services, wherein the context includes at least one of a characteristic of the object and a respective characteristic of at least a portion of sharing services from the plurality of sharing services, select, based on the respective weighted probabilities, a subset of sharing services, output, for display at the display device, an indication of each sharing service from the subset of sharing services, receive an indication of a user input corresponding to a selection of one of the subset of sharing services, and transmit, using the selected sharing service, an indication of the object. |
| US09065867B2 |
Systems and method to discover clients associated with local domain name server using sampling
A system includes an analyzer module, a content request data collection module, and a domain name server. The content request data collection module is configured to receive a content request sent to a tracking address, collect content request information about the content request, and provide the content request information to the analyzer module. The domain name server is configured to receive an address request from a local domain name server for a cache server address, provide a tracking address to the local domain name server, collect address request information about the address request, and provide the address request information to the analyzer module. The analyzer module is configured to receive the address request information and the content request information, and determine properties of clients served by the local domain name server based on the address request information and the content request information. |
| US09065866B2 |
Systems and methods for policy based integration to horizontally deployed WAN optimization appliances
The present disclosure presents systems and methods for policy-based redirection of network traffic, by an intermediary device, to a horizontally deployed WAN device. An intermediary receives a request from a client to access a server. The request was previously modified by a first WAN device to include information in an option field of a transport layer. The intermediary may determine, responsive to a redirection policy, to send the request to a second WAN device deployed horizontally from the intermediary, instead of the server. The intermediary transmits the request to the second WAN device, while maintaining the information from the option field. The intermediary device receives the request including the information identifying the first WAN optimization device to the second WAN device. The intermediary receives a modified request from the second WAN device, the modified request determined by the intermediary to be sent to the destination server. |
| US09065865B2 |
In-server redirection of HTTP requests
A method and system for HTTP request service identify a true URL content regardless of whether the target URL is redirected, and send the true URL content to a client. The requesting and sending of the redirected URL content is done internally in the HTTP server system and do not require the client to have the ability to receive and execute a URL redirection command. The server system receives a URL request from the client and generates within the server a response to the URL request. If the response does not contain any redirection information, the true URL content includes the target URL content; and if the response contains redirection information indicating a redirected URL, the true URL content includes a redirected URL content associated with the redirected URL. The client receives the true URL content in either case by submitting a request for the target URL once. |
| US09065863B1 |
Determining eligibility of a device to auto-enroll in a domain
A method for determining auto-enrollment eligibility for an electronic device with an enterprise domain is provided. The method includes generating a reverse lookup of the IP address of the host through which an electronic device is requesting initialization in order to determine an associated domain name. The method also includes comparing the associated domain name to a list of enterprise domains and determining if the electronic device is eligible to auto-enroll with the an particular enterprise domain. The method also includes determining if the enterprise domain has an available license for the type of electronic device and sending a request to the electronic device to initiate auto-enrollment. Systems and machine-readable media are also provided. |
| US09065861B2 |
Method of interacting with social media post using mobile electronic device
A mobile electronic device presents a social network user interface to the device's user. The social network user interface displays posts from other network members who are connected to the device's user in the social network. A social networking application highlights one of the posts on the display. If the device is shaken while the post is highlighted, the application will cause an expression of the first user's positive reaction to the highlighted post to be displayed via the social network so that the first user's positive reaction can be viewed by at least the member who provided the selected post to the social network. |
| US09065859B1 |
Server side disambiguation of ambiguous statistics
Tracking data communications are received for single properties that include ambiguous event statistics. The event statistics are disambiguated by an analytics processing system by identifying account and visitor identifier pairs from account identifiers and visitor identifiers in the tracking data communications. For each account and visitor identifier pair, ambiguous event statistics are ordered by the corresponding event times and disambiguated. |
| US09065856B2 |
Securing communication over a network using client system authorization and dynamically assigned proxy servers
A method for securing communication over a network is disclosed. A trust broker system receives a request to connect to applications and resources from a client system. The trust broker system determines whether the client system is authorized to connect to the requested applications and resources. In response to determining the client system has authorization to connect to the requested applications and resources, the trust broker system determines, from a plurality of potential proxy servers, a proxy server associated with the requested server system and transmits an identification value for the client system to the requested server system. The trust broker system then transmits the identification value to the client system and transmits contact information for the determined proxy server to the client system, wherein all communication between the client system and the requested server system passes through the proxy server. |
| US09065855B2 |
Systems and methods for automatically providing Whois service to top level domains
Methods and systems are disclosed for quickly providing Whois services to a new top level domain after it is provisioned in a registry. In one embodiment, domain data is received at a first system regarding a top level domain (TLD). The domain data is assigned an authoritative port of a Whois server and is provisioned in a registry database. In certain embodiments, the Whois server provides information relating to domain name registrations of the TLD in the database, according to the authoritative port. The Whois server determines that a Whois query is received at the authoritative port for the queried TLD and responds with the queried information. To the requester, the responses appear as if they are sent from a unique Whois server for each TLD, but the Whois server is actually shared among the TLDs. |
| US09065853B2 |
Method and device for storing online data
A method and device for reserving an online data storage space involving receiving a storage request containing a set of parameters including at least one parameter corresponding to a quality of service for storage, analyzing the set of parameters, creating, and sending to online data storage units, a reservation request corresponding to the set of parameters, receiving at least one reply to the reservation request corning from the online data storage units, selecting, among the replies received, an online storage unit as a function of all the parameters defined in the storage request, creating a reservation key enabling access to the selected storage space, sending the reservation key and the selected storage space address. |
| US09065850B1 |
Phishing detection systems and methods
The present disclosure provides phishing heuristic systems and methods that detect phishing sites. The present invention may be implemented via a server connected to the Internet, via a distributed security system, and the like. Phishing sites may be detected in a single transaction, i.e. client request plus server reply, while knowing as little as possible about the site being masqueraded. In an exemplary embodiment, a phishing site detection system and method utilized three steps—whitelisting, blacklisting, and scoring. For example, if a particular page meets all requirements of blacklisting without any elements of whitelisting and has a score over a particular threshold, that particular site may be designated as a phishing page. |
| US09065847B2 |
Systems and methods for detecting and preventing flooding attacks in a network environment
A method for processing network traffic data includes receiving a packet, and determining whether the packet or a session of the packet is associated with a flooding attack. Some embodiments are implemented on network switching devices. |
| US09065846B2 |
Analyzing data gathered through different protocols
A security analysis of data received on a mobile communications device includes gathering information about the data through at least two of multiple network interfaces, each of the at least two network interfaces having different protocols. Based upon the gathering, a first protocol is assigned to the data received from a first of the at least two network interfaces. A second protocol is assigned to the data received from a second of the at least two network interfaces. A common security analysis is performed on at least a part of the data received from each of the first and second network interfaces to determine whether the data received by the mobile communications device is safe or malicious. |
| US09065844B1 |
Method and apparatus for managing sequential processing of messages
A method and apparatus to help manage sequential processing of messages. When a layer of a protocol stack in a computing device encounters a need to transmit two or more messages in a particular sequence, the layer generates and pass to a next layer of the stack a composite message defining the two or more messages together, rather than sending the messages one by one to the next layer. With this process, the combination of the two or more messages may thus pass between and/or through layers of the stack, and a layer of the stack receiving the combination may then extract the messages individually from the combination and output the extracted messages in sequence as desired. |
| US09065839B2 |
Minimally buffered data transfers between nodes in a data communications network
Methods, apparatus, and products for minimally buffered data transfers between nodes in a data communications network are disclosed that include: receiving, by a messaging module on an origin node, a storage identifier, a origin data type, and a target data type, the storage identifier specifying application storage containing data, the origin data type describing a data subset contained in the origin application storage, the target data type describing an arrangement of the data subset in application storage on a target node; creating, by the messaging module, origin metadata describing the origin data type; selecting, by the messaging module from the origin application storage in dependence upon the origin metadata and the storage identifier, the data subset; and transmitting, by the messaging module to the target node, the selected data subset for storing in the target application storage in dependence upon the target data type without temporarily buffering the data subset. |
| US09065835B2 |
Redirecting web content
A peer group can be established for sharing Web cache data among a set of computing devices through a peer-to-peer network. The Web cache data can be used by each of the computing devices to respond to requests issued over a client-server network from a Web browser running on that computing device. Web cache data can be exchanged among the peers of the peer group via the peer-to-peer network. A client request issued from a Web browser of one of the computing devices can be satisfied using Web cache data obtained from a different one of the computing devices in the peer group. The client request can be a request to one of the Web servers for Web content. The server associated with the request may never provide the Web content responsive to the client request, which is obtained instead from the different one of the computing devices. |
| US09065834B2 |
System and method for performing signaling on behalf of a stateless client
A system for, and method for, performing state-based signaling on behalf of a stateless client. In one embodiment, the system includes a controller, couplable to a state-based terminal, that translates at least one stateless signaling message received from the stateless client to at least one state-based signaling message for presentation to the state-based terminal thereby facilitating a media stream communications session between the stateless client and the state-based terminal over an Internet Protocol (IP)-based network. |
| US09065833B2 |
Outbound IP address reputation control and repair
Embodiments provide IP address partitioning features that can be used to source outbound email communications, but the embodiments are not so limited. In an embodiment, a computer-based method operates to remove blocked or potentially misused IP addresses from a partition and/or move good or reputable IP addresses from other partitions to account for volumetric shortfalls. A method of one embodiment operates to repair removed IP address reputations as part of recycling and reusing IP addresses. A system of an embodiment is configured in part to remove misused IP addresses from one or more partitions, source reputable IP addresses from other partitions, and/or repair and reuse IP addresses as needed. Other embodiments are included. |
| US09065823B2 |
System and method for using a portable security device to cryptograhically sign a document in response to signature requests from a relying party to a digital signature service
(EN)A system, method and computer-readable storage medium with instructions for operating a digital signature server and a portable security device to cooperate to provide digital signature services using a private key stored on the portable security device by delegating to a user's smart card the actual task of digitally signing documents. Other systems and methods are disclosed. |
| US09065822B2 |
Authenticating devices for communications
A controller for a communications device having a memory storing data specifying user instructions; and a communications controller arranged for receiving a request of a preformed format for the data from a second device and in response to the request transmitting the data to the second device. The user instructions are arranged for use by a user on the first device to authenticate the second device with the first device. |
| US09065815B2 |
Computer system, controller, and method of controlling network access policy
A computer system according to the present invention includes a controller, and a switch which carries out a relay operation on a received packet which conforms to a flow entry which is set by the controller, the relay operation being regulated with the flow entry. The switch transmits a received packet which does not conform to the flow entry which is set by the switch to the controller. The controller queries authentication information which is included in the received packet and authenticates the received packet. From among the header information of the received packet which is determined to be valid, the controller sets the switch to the flow entry which regulated the relay operation for the packet which includes information which identifies the transmission source of the received packet. Network access policy control in a computer system of an open flow protocol environment is thus made easy. |
| US09065814B2 |
Translation between telephone device and network client
Call control messages and audio signals between a telephone device and a computer network telephone client on a computing device can be intercepted. For control messages from the computer network telephone client, the control messages can be translated from a first control protocol to a second control protocol and forwarded to the telephone device. For control messages from the telephone device, the control messages can be translated from the second control protocol to the first control protocol and forwarded to the computer network telephone client. For audio signals from the computer network telephone client, the audio signals can be translated from a first audio protocol to a second audio protocol and forwarded to the telephone device. For audio signals from the telephone device, the audio signals can be translated from the second audio protocol to the first audio protocol and forwarded to the computer network telephone client. |
| US09065811B2 |
Methods, apparatus, and computer program products for communicating content files based on destination priority
A method for communicating content files based on destination priority includes processing a content file to determine a plurality of destination sites to which the content file is to be transmitted, assigning priority levels to the plurality of destination sites, allocating a plurality of bandwidth portions on a communication link to the plurality of destination sites, respectively, based on the priority levels assigned to the plurality of destination sites, and transmitting the content file to the plurality of destination sites using the plurality of bandwidth portions allocated to the plurality of destination on the communication link, respectively. |
| US09065810B2 |
Daisy chain distribution in data centers
A method and a system to provide daisy chain distribution in data centers are provided. A node identification module identifies three or more data nodes of a plurality of data nodes. The identification of three or more data nodes indicates that the respective data nodes are to receive a copy of a data file. A connection creation module to, using one or more processors, create communication connections between the three or more data nodes. The communication connections form a daisy chain beginning at a seeder data node of the three or more data nodes and ending at a terminal data node of the three or more data nodes. |
| US09065808B2 |
System and method for information sharing using visual tags
Source data stored on a source device may be shared with one or more devices. Sharing the source data may include facilitating obtaining an image of a visual tag from another device. A visual tag may be obtained via a communication method or optically captured via an optical device. The visual tag may comprise a visually encoded first token associated with the source data. The first token may be a non-public token based on the source data. The visual tag may be decoded to retrieve the first token. The device with the retrieved first token may provide for communication based on a communication protocol to a second device to download the source data using the retrieved first token. A device may be adapted to provide display of the visual tag or communicate or receive the visual tag. |
| US09065805B2 |
Issuing, presenting and challenging mobile device identification documents
Methods and systems of authenticating electronic identification (ID) documents may provide for receiving a decryption key and an encrypted ID document from a certificate authority server at a mobile device, wherein the encrypted ID document includes a read only document having a photograph of an individual. Additionally, the decryption key may be applied to the encrypted ID document to obtain a decryption result in response to a display request. The decryption result can be output via a display of the mobile device, wherein the encrypted ID document can be sent to a challenge terminal if a challenge request is received. |
| US09065801B2 |
System and method to enable external processing device running a cloud application to control a mail processing machine
A network connectivity device that when coupled to a mail processing machine enables a cloud application running on a personal computer or other device to interface with and control the mail processing machine without requiring any software to be installed on the personal computer other than a web browser. The network connectivity device plugs into a standard USB port on the mail processing machine to allow wired or wireless connectivity to a network. There is no software or other code required to run on the personal computer other than a standard web browser running a hosted web application. The network connectivity device allows the mail processing machine to be found and addressed by the hosted web application. This allows a user to control operations of the mail processing machine, as well as giving the mail processing machine network connectivity for outside world communication activities. |
| US09065798B2 |
Personalizing a web page outside of a social networking system with content from the social networking system
A user device requests a web page from a web server of a third-party website, which is separate from a social networking system. The web server from the third-party website sends a markup language document for the requested web page to the user device which includes an instruction for a browser application running on the user device to incorporate information obtained from the social networking system within the web page. Based on the instruction in the received markup language document, the user device requests personalized content from the social networking system, which generates the requested personalized content based on social information about the user. The user device then renders the web page with the personalized content contained in a frame and displays the rendered web page and the frame to the user. |
| US09065795B2 |
Apparatus and method for providing a congestion measurement in a network
Example embodiments of a system and method for providing a congestion measurement in a network are disclosed. In an example embodiment information is received at an information transfer rate, from a source network device. A sample of the information may be taken before the information is transmitted to a destination network device. In an example embodiment, a congestion measurement value is computed that corresponds to the sample and represented with at least two bits. A multi-bit indicator of the congestion measurement value is then transmitted to control the information transfer rate of information arriving in the future. |
| US09065792B2 |
Method of enabling digital music content to be downloaded to and used on a portable wireless computing device
The invention enables digital music content to be downloaded to and used on a portable wireless computing device. An application running on the wireless device has been automatically adapted to parameters associated with the wireless device without end-user input (e.g. the application has been configured in dependence on the device OS and firmware, related bugs, screen size, pixel number, security models, connection handling, memory etc. This application enables an end-user to browse and search music content on a remote server using a wireless network; to download music content from that remote server using the wireless network and to playback and manage that downloaded music content. The application also includes a digital rights management system that enables unlimited legal downloads of different music tracks to the device and also enables any of those tracks stored on the device to be played so long as a subscription service has not terminated. |
| US09065791B2 |
Generating a consolidated social story in a feed of stories for a user of a social networking system
To generate dynamic relationship-based content personalized for members of a social networking system, at least one action of one or more members of the social networking system is associated with relationship data for the one or more members to produce consolidated data. One or more elements associated with the consolidated data is identified and used to aggregate the consolidated data. Further exemplary methods comprise weighting by affinity the aggregated consolidated data to generate dynamic relationship-based content personalized for the members of the web-based social network. |
| US09065784B2 |
Efficient payload reassembly
A communication system comprises one or more transmitters and a receiving station. A transmitter segments a payload to be transmitted into multiple fragments and transmits each fragment of the payload in a different transmission. The receiving station receives the fragments, reassembles the payload from the received fragments and validates the integrity of the payload. Methods are presented for efficiently rebuilding a payload from fragments of the payload and for validating the integrity of the payload. |
| US09065782B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling information element switch
The disclosure discloses a method and apparatus for controlling information element switch. The method comprises the following steps: a switch board determines that it has received a link request information element from each ingress line card, wherein the link request information element carries the request time stamp information; the switch board performs link allocation according to each request time stamp information, wherein the link is the link connecting the switch board with each egress line card; and each ingress line card transmits a data information element according to the result of the link allocation. With the disclosure, the problems of time delay and jitter in an information element switch process are solved, the input end flow of the switch board can also be controlled, and the requirement for the egress line card cache and difficulty in data packet recombination are reduced. |
| US09065781B2 |
Messaging with flexible transmit ordering
In one embodiment, a system includes a packet reception unit. The packet reception unit is configured to receive a packet, create a header indicating scheduling of the packet in a plurality of cores and concatenate the header and the packet. The header is based on the content of the packet. In one embodiment, a system includes a transmit silo configured to store a multiple fragments of a packet, the fragments having been sent to a destination and the transmit silo having not received an acknowledgement of receipt of the fragments from the destination. The system further includes a restriction verifier coupled with the transmit silo. The restriction verifier is configured to receive the fragments and determine whether the fragments can be sent and stored in the transmit silo. |
| US09065779B2 |
Systems and methods for prioritizing and scheduling packets in a communication network
Systems and methods provide a weight-based scheduling system that incorporates end-user application awareness and can be used with scheduling groups that contain data streams from heterogeneous applications. Individual data queues within a scheduling group can be created based on application class, specific application, individual data streams or some combination thereof. Application information and Application Factors (AF) are used to modify scheduler weights to differentiate between data streams assigned to a scheduling group. Dynamic AF settings may adjust relative importance of user applications to maximize user Quality of Experience (QoE) in response to recurring network patterns, one-time events, application characteristics, protocol characteristics, device characteristics, service level agreements, or combinations thereof. Scheduling weights may be dynamic and incorporate the notions of “duration neglect” and “recency effect” in an end-user's perception of video quality in order to optimally manage video traffic during periods of congestion. |
| US09065778B2 |
Dynamic message retrieval by subdividing a message queue into sub-queues
Exemplary embodiments provide methods and systems for dynamically changing a message retrieval scheme during runtime in a client/server electronic messaging system in which the server executes a message retrieval component and incoming messages received from the client is stored in a message queue. Aspects of the exemplary embodiment include accessing messaging business rules from a memory by a message retrieval component at runtime, wherein the messaging business rules define a primary retrieval scheme and a secondary retrieval scheme, and wherein a value provided for each of the primary retrieval scheme and the secondary retrieval scheme are selected from a combination of different message retrieval types including: First In First Out (FIFO), Last In First Out (LIFO), and random. The message retrieval component subdivides the message queue into sub-queues based on at least one of a message quantity limit and a message received time limit specified in the business rules. Each of the sub-queues is then accessed using the value of the secondary retrieval scheme; and messages from each of the sub-queues are retrieved using the value of the primary retrieval scheme. |
| US09065777B2 |
Systems and methods for prioritizing and scheduling packets in a communication network
Systems and methods provide a parameterized scheduling system that incorporates end-user application awareness and can be used with scheduling groups that contain data streams from heterogeneous applications. Individual data queues within a scheduling group can be created based on application class, specific application, individual data streams or some combination thereof. Application information and Application Factors (AF) are used to modify scheduler parameters such as weights and credits to differentiate between data streams assigned to a scheduling group. Dynamic AF settings may adjust relative importance of user applications to maximize user Quality of Experience (QoE) in response to recurring network patterns, one-time events, application characteristics, protocol characteristics, device characteristics, service level agreements, or combinations thereof. Scheduling parameters may be dynamic and incorporate the notions of “duration neglect” and “recency effect” in an end-user's perception of video quality in order to optimally manage video traffic during periods of congestion. |
| US09065775B2 |
Switching apparatus and method based on virtual interfaces
A network device comprises a plurality of physical ports and a packet processing pipeline. The packet processing pipeline is configured to assign a virtual port from a plurality of virtual ports to a packet received via one of the physical ports, wherein a quantity of the virtual ports is larger than a quantity of the physical ports, and wherein, for each of at least some of the physical ports, multiple virtual ports correspond to one physical port. The packet processing pipeline is also configured to assign a virtual domain from a plurality of virtual domains to the packet based on the assigned virtual port, and process the packet based on one or more of i) the assigned virtual port, ii) the assigned virtual domain, and iii) a header field of the packet, including determining zero, one, or more physical ports to which the packet is to be forwarded. |
| US09065772B2 |
Dynamically modifying quality of service levels for resources running in a networked computing environment
Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach for dynamically modifying Quality of Service (QoS) levels for resources (e.g., applications, processes, services, etc.) running in a networked computing environment. Specifically, embodiments of the present invention dynamically adjust transport level networking QoS parameters based on associated service level agreements (SLA) term. In a typical embodiment, a set of service level requirements associated with a resource running in the networked computing environment will first be identified (e.g., in a computer data structure). Then, the set of service level requirements will be mapped to a set of QoS parameters associated with a transport layer of the networked computing environment. A current performance of the resource within the transport layer will then be determined. Once the current performance has been determined, it will be further determined whether the current performance meets the set of service level requirements. Based on this determination/comparison, the set of QoS parameters can be adjusted accordingly. |
| US09065765B2 |
Proxy server associated with a mobile carrier for enhancing mobile traffic management in a mobile network
A proxy server or component associated with or residing on a mobile carrier or mobile operator side for enhancing mobile traffic management in a mobile network and system and methods therefor are disclosed. The proxy server, in some embodiments, can delay, clump, block or otherwise manage incoming traffic initiated by one or more application servers and directed to one or more mobile applications associated with the one or more applications servers installed on a mobile device. The proxy server can manage the incoming traffic based on traffic category, time criticality, priority and/or other criteria. The proxy server can further transfer the traffic that was delayed to the mobile device in response to a trigger such as promotion of a radio state on the mobile device or a start of an interval for transferring incoming to the mobile device and outgoing traffic from the mobile device. |
| US09065763B2 |
Transmission of data over a low-bandwidth communication channel
Disclosed herein are various systems and methods that may improve the transmission of data over low-bandwidth communication channels in an electric power delivery system. Devices communicating across a low-bandwidth communication channel may implement several approaches, according to various embodiments disclosed herein, to reduce the data transmitted across the low-bandwidth communication channel and to prioritize the transmission of time-sensitive and/or more important information with respect to other data. Various embodiments disclosed herein may inspect packets to be transmitted across a low-bandwidth communication channel in order to identify high priority data. High priority data may be time-sensitive information, and accordingly, transmission of such data may be prioritized over other data in order to reduce transmission latency of the higher priority data. |
| US09065761B2 |
Packet reassembly processing
Described embodiments provide for a reassembly system for processing an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) cell of data into an ATM adaptation layer (AAL) packet. A preprocessor module identifies a first conversation identification of one or more minipackets in the ATM cell, and reassembles the one or more minipackets having the first conversation identification into a portion of the AAL packet. A preprocessor determines if a trigger has occurred. In response to a trigger, the preprocessor sends a portion of the reassembled minipackets having the first conversation identification to a destination processor. |
| US09065758B2 |
Ring network protection method, network node and ring network
A ring network protection method is disclosed. When a fault occurs in a ring network, a first node selects a protection tunnel according to a fault condition of a pre-established protection tunnel. Services are switched to the selected protection tunnel. A protection switching request is sent on the selected protection tunnel and another end node is informed of the selected protection tunnel to switch the services to the selected protection tunnel. |
| US09065752B2 |
Dynamic service class upgrades in data networks
A method, program product and system for dynamically offering upgraded services in a network. The method comprising the steps of: selecting users for a possible offer of an upgrade to services within the network, based on user activity at user devices accessing the network; obtaining network context data information regarding the user activity and the network; sequentially ordering the selected users based on a likelihood that the users will purchase the upgrade to services; determining the upgrade to services to be offered based on a service prediction availability within the network; and offering the upgrade to services to the selected users for a specific time period. |
| US09065749B2 |
Hybrid networking path selection and load balancing
System and method for selecting a transmission medium on which to transmit a first stream. At least one of the plurality of transmission media may be substantially dynamic in nature. Path characteristics of each of a plurality of transmission media may be determined. A first transmission medium may be selected from the plurality of transmission media for the first stream based on the determined path characteristics. A first plurality of packets of the first stream may be transmitted on the first transmission medium. |
| US09065748B2 |
Symmetrical latency with TDM circuit emulated service
A method and system are provided for allowing time-alignment of teleprotection measurements of power signals. Teleprotection observations are communicated between teleprotection ends through a packet switched network. At each end of a teleprotection segment, a teleprotection device communicates with the network through a router providing CES and located at the edge of the network. Clocks within the two routers are synchronized using IEEE 1588v2 signals. Using this synchronization, accurate one-way latency of data through the network between the two routers in each direction can be determined. The router at the incoming end of the faster path delays playout of packets by the difference between the two one-way latencies, thereby ensuring time-alignment of observations as they are sent from the routers to the teleprotection devices. |
| US09065742B2 |
Snooping in SAS expander networks
Snooping in SAS expander networks is disclosed. Ports in a SAS expander may include snoop circuitry and a snoop tap which allows snoop data to be diverted for snooping prior to any significant transformation of the traffic by the regular port logic. Furthermore, the snoop circuitry can receive OOB signaling and convert it to K characters for transmission through the SAS network and subsequent analysis by a protocol analyzer. The ports and cascades in the expander network can be configured to create snoop paths to enable snoop data to be passed through the network to locations where a protocol analyzer can be easily attached. With SAS snoop ports, there is no disruption to the system. Because only a copy of the data is routed to the analyzer, there is no change to the original signal path and latency is identical with or without the analyzer. |
| US09065738B2 |
Methods and apparatus for identifying the impact of changes in computer networks
The impact of device configuration changes on operational issues and policy compliance in a computer network can be discerned from a visual data presentation that jointly shows representations of changes, issues, and policy compliance in a common view for a group of network devices. Configuration information is collected from devices in the computer network and processed to determine whether a change has occurred in a configuration of any of the devices, whether any operational issues exist for each of the devices, and whether any of the devices are not in compliance with any applicable operational policies. A display device displays the visual data presentation to allow an operator to see trends and relationships between device configuration changes and operational issues and incidents of policy non-compliance. The visual data presentation can be depicted as a graphical timeline view, a network topology view, or a table view of the information. |
| US09065734B2 |
Network bandwidth allocation in multi-tenancy cloud computing networks
A computing device determines an optimal allocation of network bandwidth on a plurality of communications links for a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) in a multi-tenant cloud network based upon a set of bandwidth requirements for the plurality of VMs. The computing device generates a plurality of spanning tree data structures (TDSs). Edges in the TDSs include computed bandwidth values indicating an amount of bandwidth to be reserved over a communications link represented by that edge for the plurality of VMs. The computing device generates a weighted distance value for each TDS of the plurality of TDSs, and selects a TDS of the plurality of TDSs having a smallest weighted distance value as the TDS having computed bandwidth values representing the optimal allocation of network bandwidth. |
| US09065733B2 |
Method and system for registering a client device in a multi-room digital video recording system
A system and method for registering a client device with a server device includes the server device having a display. The display displays a first identifier in response to entering a registration mode. A client device is in communication with the server device. The client device detects that the server device is in registration mode and communicates a second identifier to the client device. The server device compares the first identifier and the second identifier and, after comparing, registers the client device at the server device. |
| US09065730B2 |
Network capacity planning
Systems, methods and interfaces are provided for the modeling of network data capacity for a network corresponding to a set of nodes interconnected via point-to-point network paths. A network capacity processing system obtains demand estimates for the nodes and network paths of the network. The network capacity processing system then identifies a set of failure scenarios for the network nodes and network paths. The network capacity processing system then generates of a set of processing results corresponding to load estimates for the network paths of the network and based on applying the set of failure scenarios to the model of network data capacity. Utilizing data capacity models, failure scenarios and set of processing results, the network capacity processing system can provide for network capacity planning or contingency planning. |
| US09065729B2 |
Intelligent automatic network operations interface
A network device may receive intelligent operations interface information that may comprise devices, resources, or events that may affect a communication system. The intelligent operations interface information may be processed to isolate network performance problems and effectuate a prioritized resolution of the network performance problems. |
| US09065728B2 |
Failure analysis device, and system and method for same
Systems, methods and devices for failure analysis are provided. Using aggregation flow mining (AFM) or a similar method, an integrated mining of flow (IMF) acquires, from each router to be tested, information relating to each flow. The IMF, in relation to each of the routers, obtains distributions of statistical information such as throughput or difference for each flow; calculates, in relation to each of the distributions, a Mahalanobis distance in relation to the expected value of a reference distribution; and makes a comprehensive assessment of the distributions to perform a fault determination. When the fault determination is performed, a normal value of the distribution used for comparison is acquired from AFM and updated through feedback as needed. After the results of fault determination relating to other routers are assessed, the expected value of the standard deviation and the average value of the reference distribution used for comparison are updated. |
| US09065723B2 |
Unaddressed device communication from within an MPLS network
An unaddressed device installed inline in a path of an MPLS network can communicate a packet from within the MPLS network to an upstream device without knowledge of the necessary MPLS labeling by sending the packet intentionally in the wrong direction: downstream. To communicate to an upstream device, the unaddressed device sends a packet downstream into the MPLS network on the opposite side and through the opposite outgoing port from that which would be used for a packet sent to the same device in a non-MPLS network. This behavior forces the MPLS network, when it next inspects the packet, to re-label it with the correct labeling to route the packet on a path back upstream to the recipient device. In this manner, the MPLS architecture is used to redirect or loop back packets from an unaddressed inline device to the upstream device. |
| US09065722B2 |
Die-stacked device with partitioned multi-hop network
An electronic assembly includes horizontally-stacked die disposed at an interposer, and may also include vertically-stacked die. The stacked die are interconnected via a multi-hop communication network that is partitioned into a link partition and a router partition. The link partition is at least partially implemented in the metal layers of the interposer for horizontally-stacked die. The link partition may also be implemented in part by the intra-die interconnects in a single die and by the inter-die interconnects connecting vertically-stacked sets of die. The router partition is implemented at some or all of the die disposed at the interposer and comprises the logic that supports the functions that route packets among the components of the processing system via the interconnects of the link partition. The router partition may implement fixed routing, or alternatively may be configurable using programmable routing tables or configurable logic blocks. |
| US09065719B2 |
Method, apparatus and communication unit
A method, an apparatus and a communication unit for generating precoding feedback information in a multiple frequency radio transmission system are disclosed. A rank for precoding matrices, wherein the rank is constant over the multiple frequencies, is selected and a plurality of precoding matrices having the selected rank are selected. A different precoding matrix is selected for each frequency subset of the multiple frequencies. |
| US09065717B2 |
Receiver and synchronization correcting method
A receiver includes a transformation part configured to convert a time domain received signal to a frequency domain signal, a known signal extraction part configured to extract a known signal from the frequency domain signal, an estimation part configured to estimate a channel characteristic based upon the extracted known signal, a time direction extraction part configured to extract channel characteristic values of a particular carrier in a time direction from the estimated channel characteristic, a power spectrum acquiring part configured to acquire a power spectrum from the channel characteristic values extracted in the time direction, an error calculation part configured to calculate a carrier frequency error from the power spectrum, and a carrier correction part configured to correct for a carrier frequency of the received signal based upon the carrier frequency error. |
| US09065715B2 |
OFDM communication system with fast frequency hops
A method for operating a radio communication system involves the use of OFDM and involves a first sending station modulating a first OFDM symbol onto a first carrier frequency and sending the first OFDM symbol to a first receiving station via a first transmission channel using an air interface. The first sending station changes the first carrier frequency during a time used for sending the first OFDM symbol, the change in the first carrier frequency being made independently of a change in transmission characteristics of the first transmission channel over time. A fast frequency hopping system is disclosed. |
| US09065714B2 |
Transmission of information using cyclically shifted sequences
Techniques for transmitting information using cyclically shifted sequences are described. In one design, first and second sequences may be generated by cyclically shifting a base sequence by first and second amounts, respectively. The base sequence may be a CAZAC sequence, a PN sequence, or some other sequence having good correlation properties. The cyclic shifts for the first and second sequences may be determined based on a hopping pattern. A first modulated sequence may be generated based on the first sequence and a first modulation symbol and may be sent in a first time interval. A second modulated sequence may be generated based on the second sequence and a second modulation symbol and may be sent in a second time interval. Each modulated sequence may be sent on K consecutive subcarriers using localized frequency division multiplexing (LFDM). |
| US09065712B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting/receiving data in a wireless communication system
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting/receiving data in a wireless communication system. According to one aspect of the present invention, a data receiving method is provided wherein a mobile station in a wireless communication system uses a frame including a first subframe in which a physical downlink shared channel (hereinafter, referred to as “PDSCH”) includes a first cyclic prefix (hereinafter, referred to as “CP”) and a second subframe in which the PDSCH includes a second CP, wherein the data receiving method comprises a step in which the mobile station receives information on the length of the first CP from a base station, receives data from the base station through the first subframe, and removes the CP of the data using the information on the length of the first CP. The first CP and the second CP have different lengths. |
| US09065711B2 |
Transmitters, receivers and methods of transmitting and receiving
The receiver comprises a demodulator configured to detect a signal representing the OFDM symbols and to generate a sampled digital version of the OFDM symbols in the time domain. A Fourier transform processor is configured to receive the time domain digital version of the OFDM symbols and to form a frequency domain version of the OFDM symbols, from which the pilot symbol bearing sub-carriers and the data symbol bearing sub-carriers can be recovered. A detector is configured to recover the data symbols from the data bearing sub-carriers of the OFDM symbols and to recover the pilot symbols from the pilot bearing sub-carriers of the OFDM symbols in accordance with the continuous pilot symbol pattern. The continuous pilot symbols are present at the same sub-carrier locations in first OFDM symbols and as second OFDM symbols. A transmitter is also provided. |
| US09065707B2 |
Polarization-independent LCOS device
Described herein is an optical phase modulator (20) including a liquid crystal element (22), disposed between a pair of opposing electrodes (24) and (26). The electrodes (24, 26) are electrically driven for supplying an electric potential V across the liquid crystal element (22) to drive the liquid crystals within element (22) in a predetermined configuration. Electrode (26) includes a grid of individually drivable pixel regions (28), at least some of which include a sub-wavelength grating structure that provides an anisotropic refractive index profile in orthogonal lateral dimensions, thereby creating an effective material form birefringence. Light incident through liquid crystal element (22) and onto electrode (26) is reflected and experiences a relative phase difference of 180° between its constituent orthogonal polarization components, thereby rotating each polarization component into the orthogonal orientation upon reflection. |
| US09065704B1 |
Parallel adaptation of digital content
Adapting digital content to be provided to a computing device may include a variety of elements. For example, when digital content is requested, a version of the digital content may be split into segments, which are adapted in parallel. The adapted segments may then be provided to the computing device in a recombined version of the digital content or as individual segments. |
| US09065702B2 |
Method and system for a communication session initialization in a telecommunication network
A method, Call Agent (CA), and circuit-switched terminal for setting up a multimedia session from the circuit-switched terminal toward a packet-switched terminal in a telecommunication network. An Instant Messaging (IM) server receives an IM message from the circuit-switched terminal and forwards the contents of the IM message to the CA. The CA generates or retrieves a unique call token that identifies the terminals, and sends the call token to the IM server, which forwards the token to the circuit-switched terminal. In response, the circuit-switched terminal initiates setup of a circuit-switched call to an identified Media Gateway Controller (MGC). The MGC then sets up a packet-switched session with the packet-switched terminal to complete the setup of the multimedia session. |
| US09065700B2 |
Unicast/multicast media edge proxy with fast channel switching
A system, method, and media edge proxy, MEP, for providing media data such as Internet Protocol Television, IPTV, or Internet radio channels to a media client. The MEP obtains the media data from a media server utilizing a temporary unicast connection and provides the media data obtained from the server to the media client for an initial time period. Upon determining that the initial time period has expired, the MEP obtains the media data via multicast from a multicast router, provides the media data obtained from the router to the media client, and releases the temporary unicast connection. The invention reduces channel switching delay and thus improves quality-of-experience for the end-user. The invention also avoids excessive IGMP JOIN/LEAVE signaling when a user switches quickly through channels. |
| US09065699B2 |
Methods and systems for a distributed radio communications network
The present disclosure is directed to methods and systems for providing a distributed radio communications network. Each of a first gateway and a second gateway may separately receive modulated signals comprising at least a portion of data from a first node of a plurality of geographically-dispersed nodes. The modulated signals may be wirelessly transmitted as radio frequency (RF) signals from the first node, the data gathered or generated by the first node at a first location. A server may receive the modulated signals from the first gateway and the second gateway. As configured by software-defined radio (SDR) software, the server may perform processing of the separately received modulated signals to recover the data. The processing may include demodulation of the modulated signals. |
| US09065695B2 |
Method and apparatus of cross-correlation with application to channel estimation and detection
The present disclosure provides for a method and apparatus for efficient cross-correlation between a reference sequence and a received sequence in a wireless communication system. The reference sequence includes a concatenation of sign-adjusted sub-sequences, the sign adjustments determined by a first sign sequence of a set of sign sequences. For example, the reference sequence may be an alternating concatenation of sign-adjusted Golay complementary pair sub-sequences. The received sequence is shifted to provide a plurality of time shifted sequences that are then cross-correlated with the sub-sequences to form a set of partial cross-correlations. The partial cross-correlations are sign-adjusted using the first sign sequence and combined to produce the cross-correlation between the reference sequence and the received sequence. The cross-correlations so produced may be used for channel signature (e.g. PHY-type) identification and/or channel impulse response estimation. |
| US09065691B2 |
Sliced transmitter front-end
An embodiment of the invention provides a sliced transmitter front-end (TX FE). The sliced TX FE includes first TX FE slices and a second TX FE slice that are connected in parallel. As a whole the first TX FE slices contributes a high-gain section to a superimposed gain range of the sliced TX FE. The second TX FE slice has a gain range that constitutes a low-gain section of the superimposed gain range of the sliced TX FE. A minimum gain of the gain range of the second TX FE slice is smaller than a minimum gain of the high-gain section. |
| US09065687B2 |
Cognitive multi-user OFDMA
A computing device operating according to a frequency division multiplexed protocol in which communication occurs over a signal formed from a plurality of sub-channels selected from anywhere in a frequency spectrum. A computing device may select sub-channels cognitively by using information about sub-channels previously deemed suitable or unsuitable by that computing device or other computing devices. A described technique for determining sub-channel suitability includes analyzing radio frequency energy in the sub-channel to detect signals generated by another computing device or high noise levels. Information may also be used to cognitively select sub-channels to be analyzed, such as by first selecting for analysis previously-used sub-channels. |
| US09065686B2 |
Spur detection, cancellation and tracking in a wireless signal receiver
A method and device for processing spur components associated with a received wireless signal are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes first selecting a sub-band of a spectral band of the received signal. The selected sub-band is scanned, and a detection routine is executed to detect a spur within the scanned sub-band having a peak magnitude above a predetermined threshold. The spur frequency is determined, and the spur may be removed by a cancellation unit based on the determined frequency. The method also includes tracking the frequency of the spur to ensure continued suppression over time and under dynamic conditions. |
| US09065684B2 |
IP phone terminal, server, authenticating apparatus, communication system, communication method, and recording medium
A transfer unit transfers a message between a network and an external terminal. An input unit inputs a user ID for identifying a user. A generating unit generates a registration message requesting a registration of address information of the user. A transmitting unit transmits the registration message to a server. A receiving unit receives a response message including registration information and connection information from the server. When the connection information indicates a permission of a connection of the external terminal to the network, a control unit controls the transfer unit to transfer the message between the network and the external terminal. |
| US09065680B2 |
Methods of establishing virtual circuits and of providing a virtual private network service through a shared network, and provider edge device for such network
A virtual private network (VPN) service is provided through a shared network infrastructure comprising interconnected provider edge (PE) devices having customer edge (CE) interfaces. Some of the CE interfaces are allocated to a VPN supporting virtual LANs. A correspondence between a CE interface and a virtual LAN is learnt on the basis of tagged frames received at this CE interface and including an identifier of this virtual LAN. The learning process permits the detection of pairs of CE interfaces which correspond to a common virtual LAN. Upon such detection, a virtual circuit is established in the shared network infrastructure between the PE devices having these CE interfaces, and subsequently used for forwarding frames including the identifier of the common virtual VLAN. |
| US09065677B2 |
Forwarding tables for hybrid communication networks
A hybrid device can apply forwarding tables associated with one or more other hybrid network devices of a hybrid communication network to control the entire transmission route of a frame scheduled for transmission. The hybrid device can use its forwarding table and a forwarding table of a destination hybrid device to determine a source network interface address, a destination network interface address, and a frame transmission route. The destination hybrid device can use forwarding tables associated with one or more hybrid network devices to determine whether to process or drop a received frame, whether the frame was previously received, and/or whether the frame was received on an incorrect network interface. The hybrid device can also use the forwarding tables to ensure that the frame comprises an appropriate link layer address and to select an appropriate transmission route based on analyzing link performance values associated with multiple transmission routes. |
| US09065674B2 |
Multiple slimbus controllers for slimbus components
Methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer-readable media for controlling components connected to and/or otherwise associated with a data bus are presented. According to one or more aspects of the disclosure, a plurality of processing devices having data bus management capability and at least one data bus associated with the plurality of processing devices may be identified. Subsequently, an inter-processor communication (IPC) layer for communication between the plurality of processing devices and the at least one data bus may be established over a messaging layer utilized by the at least one data bus. At least one component associated with the at least one data bus may then be controlled via the IPC layer using at least one of the plurality of processing devices. |
| US09065666B2 |
System and method of multi-media conferencing between universal plug and play (UPnP) enabled telephony devices and wireless area network (WAN) devices
A system and method of multi-media conferencing between Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) telephony devices and Wide Area Network (WAN) devices is provided. The method includes initiating a multi-media conferencing session with WAN devices by at least one telephony control point (TCP) in an UPnP telephony based home network via a session request. The session request includes session information, media capabilities of a telephony client device (TC) associated with the at least one TCP, a list of WAN devices or a conference group identifier associated with one or more WAN devices, and a subject of the multi-media conferencing session. The method further includes establishing the multi-media conferencing session between the TC and the WAN devices by a telephony server (TS) in the UPnP telephony based home network based on the session request. |
| US09065665B1 |
Conferencing system with seamless connection
A conference call system with a plurality of endpoints, a switch and a conference bridge is described. A first endpoint participating in a call authenticates a second endpoint for the call by transmitting to the switch a request to authenticate the second endpoint for the call. The second endpoint is authenticated without the user of second endpoint inputting the authentication data. Additionally, a voice call is upgraded to a collaboration call, i.e. a call with an associated visual presentation, through an upgrade request. The first endpoint transmits the upgrade request and consequently the collaboration bridge creates a visual presentation for the upgraded call. A link to the presentation is then transmitted to a call manager associated with the first endpoint. |
| US09065664B2 |
Providing an announcement for a multiparty communication session
Providing an announcement for a multiparty communication session involves establishing a communication session between at least two endpoints. A request to add an added endpoint to the communication session is received. A procedure to provide an announcement to the endpoints of the communication session is initiated. The announcement is played in response to determining a status of a media path of the added endpoint, and is provided from a rendering of a participant identifier associated with the added endpoint. |
| US09065663B2 |
Method, apparatus and system for forwarding multicast program
The present invention provide a method for forwarding a multicast program includes: receiving a multicast join request message requesting an on-demand program from a user; obtaining forwarding decision information according to the multicast join request message; determining a decision result corresponding to the forwarding decision information according to the forwarding decision information and forwarding relation data, where the decision result is forwarding according to PON replication or forwarding according to user replication, the forwarding relation data includes data elements indicating correspondence between various types of forwarding decision information and various types of forwarding modes, and the various types of forwarding modes include the forwarding according to PON replication and the forwarding according to user replication; and forwarding the on-demand program to the user according to the decision result. |
| US09065662B1 |
Method and apparatus for using a bridge table as a routing table to route an ethernet packet received from a network
A network switch including a controller. The controller is configured to use a bridge table to bridge a first network and a second network. The network switch is configured to communicate with the first network and the second network. The controller is configured to determine whether an Ethernet packet received by the network switch from the first network or the second network is (i) an Internet Protocol (IP) multicast packet, or (ii) a media access control (MAC) multicast packet that does not encapsulate an IP multicast packet. The controller is configured to use the bridge table to route the Ethernet packet received by the network switch from the first network or the second network based on whether the Ethernet packet received by the network switch is (i) an Internet Protocol (IP) multicast packet, or (ii) a media access control (MAC) multicast packet that does not encapsulate an IP multicast packet. |
| US09065659B2 |
Communication device
A communication device includes: a communication unit that is configured to execute communication of data according to one of a plurality of bandwidth guarantees with different communication charges per time unit; and a selection unit that is configured to select a first bandwidth guarantee with the lowest communication charges required for communication of specific data, among the plurality of bandwidth guarantees, using a data size of the specific data when the communication of the specific data is to be executed, wherein the communication of the specific data is executed according to the selected first bandwidth guarantee. |
| US09065657B2 |
Powered device including a detection signature circuit
In a particular embodiment, a method of producing a powered device detection signature includes rectifying a device detection input received from a powered network to produce a rectified detection input at a powered device. The method further includes applying the rectified detection input to a signature resistor and to a variable impedance circuit in parallel with the signature resistor to produce a device signature that is substantially constant over a power range associated with the device detection input. |
| US09065650B2 |
Methods and devices for controlling the deactivation of transmission carriers
In a communication system, activity of a transmitter (10), e.g., a UE, is controlled in response to a deactivation command (401). The transmitter (10) receives data on at least one transmission carrier and, if a received transmission of data is found to be defective, may send a repeat request to trigger a retransmission (404) of the data. In response to receiving the deactivation command (401), the transmitter (10) performs a check whether a retransmission (404) is expected on the at least one transmission carrier. If a retransmission (404) is expected, execution of the deactivation command (401) to deactivate the transmission carrier is delayed until the retransmission (404) is received or a timer has expired. |
| US09065649B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting a reference signal in a wireless communication system
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting a reference signal in a wireless communication system. A terminal generates a base sequence having a length of 12, for a reference signal, and determines a cyclic shift index from among a set of a cyclic shift indices {0, 3, 6, 8, 10}. The terminal cyclically shifts the base sequence on the basis of the determined cyclic shift index to generate a cyclically shifted sequence, and transmits the cyclically shifted sequence to a base station. |
| US09065648B2 |
Method and apparatus for forwarding non-consecutive data blocks in enhanced uplink transmissions
A method and apparatus for forwarding non-consecutive data blocks in enhanced uplink (EU) transmissions. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) and one or more Node-Bs include one or more automatic repeat request (ARQ)/hybrid-ARQ (H-ARQ) processes for supporting an enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH). Data blocks transmitted by the WTRU are re-ordered in a re-ordering entity located in the Node-B(s) or a radio network controller (RNC). Once a missing data block is identified, a data forwarding timer in the Node-B(s) or RNC is initiated and subsequent WTRU transmissions are monitored to determine whether the missing data block has been discarded by the WTRU. Upon recognition of the discard of the missing data block, the non-consecutive data blocks are forwarded to higher layers. |
| US09065646B2 |
ACK/NACK channelization for resource blocks containing both ACK/NACK and CQI
In one exemplary embodiment, a method includes: transmitting a value from an access node towards an apparatus, where the value is indicative of a size of a first portion of an uplink resource block, where the uplink resource block is shared among a plurality of apparatus, where the first portion is specified for transmission of a first type of signaling to the access node, where a second portion of the uplink resource block is specified for transmission of a second type of signaling to the access node; and receiving at least one transmission using at least one of the first portion and the second portion. |
| US09065633B2 |
Wireless communication apparatus for setting frequency band for wireless communications using encryption key information to predetermined frequency band
A controller receives first or second equipment identifier from a first wireless communication apparatus, by using one wireless communication circuit of the third and fourth wireless communication circuit. When the one wireless communication circuit is the fourth wireless communication circuit, the controller sets an encryption key information for wireless communications with the first wireless communication apparatus, to encryption key information including an equipment identifier that does not coincide with a received equipment identifier among the received plurality of encryption key information, and controls the third wireless communication circuit to transmit and receive encrypted transmission data to and from the first wireless communication apparatus by using key data included in set encryption key information. |
| US09065632B2 |
Message authentication using a universal hash function computed with carryless multiplication
A method for authenticating a message by a wireless device is described. The wireless device obtains the input message. The wireless device generates a keystream. The wireless device computes a message authentication code using the keystream and a universal hash function. The universal hash function is computed using carryless multiplication. |
| US09065626B2 |
Bit error rate impact reduction
In an embodiment, a method includes receiving at a data interface a data stream having a plurality of logical communication channels. The data stream includes in succession a first data burst corresponding to one of the plurality of logical communication channels, a burst control word and a second data burst corresponding to the one or an other of the plurality of logical communication channels. The burst control word includes a first error check that protects the first data burst and the burst control word and a second error check that protects only the burst control word. The first error check and the second error check are examined. Only the one logical communication channel is errored out if the first error check is bad and the second error check is good; all open logical communication channels are errored out if the first error check is bad and the second error check is bad. |
| US09065623B1 |
Mixed mapping for rate compatible trellis coded modulation
Systems, methods, apparatus, and techniques are provided for producing encoded trellis coded modulation (TCM) data from user information. Encoding parameters are selected based on a target information rate. The encoding parameters include a first dimensionality value and a second dimensionality value. A first part of the user information is encoded based on the first dimensionality value to produce a first number of coded bits, and a second part of the user information is encoded based on the second dimensionality value to produce a second number of coded bits. |
| US09065621B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting control information in wireless communication system
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, particularly, a method in which a terminal transmits control information in a CA-based wireless communication system and an apparatus for the method, the method comprising: configuring a first cell and a second cell having different subframe configurations, wherein the second cell has any one of UL-DL configuration #0 to #6; receiving a DC) format including a DAI field, for the second cell; and transmitting HARQ-ACK information relating to the downlink DCI format. For HARQ-ACK timing, in cases where a reference UL-DL configuration applied to the second cell is any one of UL-DL configurations #1 to #6, the DAI field is used in a process of transmitting the HARQ-ACK information. For HARQ-ACK timing, in cases where a reference UL-DL configuration applied to the second cell is #0, the DAI field is not used in a process of transmitting the HARQ-ACK information. |
| US09065619B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting control information in a wireless communication system
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for transmitting acknowledgement/negative ACK (ACK/NACK) in a wireless communication system which supports carrier aggregation, and to an apparatus for the method. A method in which a terminal transmits ACK/NACK in a wireless communication system that supports carrier aggregation comprises the following steps: receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); receiving a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) indicated by the PDCCH; and transmitting ACK/NACK for the PDSCH via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). A PUCCH format for transmitting ACK/NACK is selected by taking the number of aggregated carriers into account. |
| US09065613B2 |
Apparatus and method for supporting E-MBS service in multicarrier system
Disclosed is a method for operating a terminal for receiving E-MBS (enhanced-multicast and broadcast service) service in a multicarrier system, the method comprising: establishing E-MBS service connection with a base station; sending, to the base station, a first message including report mode information when the terminal receives E-MBS service from the base station; wherein the report mode information indicates the terminal requests the base station to assign a carrier switching operation start time, receiving, from the base station, a second message including the carrier switching operation start time information requested by the terminal; and starting a carrier switching operation based on the received carrier switching operation start time information. |
| US09065612B2 |
Wireless transmission method, wireless transmission system, and transmission apparatus and reception apparatus of wireless transmission system
In a wireless transmission system that transmits and receives a modulated signal between a transmitter and a receiver that are coupled through a wireless transmission path, the transmitter includes a spectrum division filter bank dividing the modulated signal and generating a plurality of sub-spectrum signals each of which is arranged at a predetermined frequency position, and subjects the plurality of sub-spectrum signals arranged in spectra to a direct spectrum division transmission, and the receiver includes a spectrum combination filter bank extracting the plurality of sub-spectrum signals from the received signals arranged in spectra and subjected to the direct spectrum division transmission to combine the sub-spectrum signals into an original modulated signal. |
| US09065611B2 |
Transmission apparatus and transmission method
An encoding method changes an encoding rate of an erasure correcting code. One cycle is defined as 12k bits (wherein k represents a natural number) which is an encoding output using LDPC-CC with an encoding rate of 1/2, and includes information and parity. From the one cycle, only the information is arranged in the output order of the encoding output to obtain 6k bit information X6i, X6i+1, X6i+2, X6i+3, X6i+4, X6i+5, . . . , X6(i+k−1) X6(i+k−1)+1, X6(i+k−1)+2, X6(i+k−1)+3, X6(i+k−1)+4, and X6(i+k−1)+5. Known information is inserted in 3k pieces of information (Xj) among the 6k bit information, so that when 3k pieces of mutually different j is divided by 3, there is a remainder of 0 regarding k pieces, there is a remainder of 1 regarding k pieces, and there is a remainder of 2 regarding k pieces, to thereby obtain the parity from the information containing the known information. |
| US09065610B2 |
Method and apparatus for smoothing jitter generated by byte stuffing
Systems and methods for smoothing jitter generated by byte stuffing. A frequency synthesizer comprises a smoothing logic coupled with a PLL. The smoothing logic is configured to modify a phase error signal generated by a phase frequency detector into a distributed phase error signal that spread over multiple clock cycles. The distributed phase error signal is used to drive a DCO. The smoothing logic may comprise a ramping logic operable to generate a series of ramping values to substitute a phase difference in the phase error signal. The phase difference may correspond to a stuffing byte. |
| US09065608B2 |
Method of providing a gap indication during a sticky assignment
A method and apparatus are provided to manage the assignment transmission resource of forward and reserve link that is assigned to transmitting entity for a period of time. An indication of a gap is provided whenever the transmitting entity is not transmitting actual data packets (e.g. whole or part of intended data or content), yet the transmitting entity is to maintain the assignment of the allocated resource. For example, an erasure signature packet comprising a first data pattern is transmitted on the assigned resource when there is no actual data to transmit on the assigned resource. |
| US09065604B2 |
Mobile communication system, base station apparatus, and mobile station apparatus
The amount of control information is reduced for specifying the transmission method for simultaneously transmitting uplink data and reception quality information, and uplink data and ACK/NACK. Delay in changing the transmission method is reduced, and the mapping of uplink data and reception quality information and of uplink data and ACK/NACK is realized, in compliance with modulation scheme and coding rate of the uplink data specified by the base station apparatus. In a mobile communication system the base station apparatus allocates, to the mobile station apparatus, resources wherein the base station apparatus transmits, to the mobile station apparatus, control information for specifying a transmission format for the mobile station apparatus to transmit information using the uplink, while the mobile station apparatus simultaneously transmits, to the base station apparatus, uplink data and reception quality information based on the specified transmission format when the control information from the base station apparatus is received. |
| US09065600B2 |
Aggregation for a new carrier type
The specification and drawings present a new method, apparatus and software related product (e.g., a computer readable memory) for aggregation of a new carrier type by configuring PCC (for PCell) and SCC (for SCell) bandwidths to be overlapped or at least partially overlapped and by control signaling, e.g., using PDCCH and/or E-PDCCH, for scheduling of data resources on SCC thus simultaneously serving legacy and non-legacy UEs, e.g., in LTE-A systems. |
| US09065599B2 |
Method and apparatus for allocating sequence to synchronization channel for node identification in wireless communication system
Provided is an apparatus for allocating a sequence to a synchronization channel for a node identification (ID), the apparatus including: a base node sequence generator to generate a base sequence that is a sequence for a node ID of a base node; a relay node sequence generator to generate a relay sequence that is a sequence for a node ID of a relay node by transforming the base sequence; a baseband signal generator to generate a baseband signal by mapping the base sequence or the relay sequence to a frequency domain and a time domain; and a transmitter to transmit the baseband signal. |
| US09065589B2 |
Apparatus and method for operating a wavelength division multiplexing access network
The invention relates in general to a method, an apparatus and a unit for operating a Wavelength Division Multiplexing Access Network 25, and in particular to unbundling wavelengths in the network 25. Embodiments of the invention disclose monitoring a plurality of wavelengths of the Wavelength Division Multiplexing Access Network 25 to determine at least one available wavelength that is free for use. The transmitter then automatically transmits data to at least one user device 22 via at least one available wavelength. |
| US09065586B2 |
Carrier detection and parallel GSM cell search in multimode terminals
A wireless communication apparatus is arranged to detect, among a plurality of modulated carrier signals of different frequencies, at least one of the modulated carrier signals modulated with a tone burst. A receiver provides a composite signal comprising the plurality of modulated carrier signals received simultaneously. An ADC generates samples of the composite signal, and the samples of the composite signal are divided into a plurality of blocks. The samples of each block are transformed into frequency domain components, and the frequency domain components of each block are divided into a plurality of groups, each group corresponding to a range of frequencies occupied by a different one of the modulated carrier signals. Tone burst detection is performed on each group, and it is determined which of the modulated carrier signals is modulated with the tone burst, according to which of the groups the tone burst is detected in. |
| US09065582B2 |
Optical architecture and channel plan employing multi-fiber configurations for data center network switching
Data center network architectures, systems, and methods that can reduce the cost and complexity of data center networks. Such data center network architectures, systems, and methods employ physical optical ring network and multi-dimensional network topologies and optical nodes to efficiently allocate bandwidth within the data center networks, while reducing the physical interconnectivity requirements of the data center networks. The respective optical nodes can be configured to provide various switching topologies, including, but not limited to, chordal ring switching topologies and multi-dimensional chordal ring switching topologies. |
| US09065580B2 |
Clock synchronization
In an example embodiment, a method for synchronizing clocks between a plurality of clocked devices where one of the plurality of clocked devices is not directly synchronized with another of the plurality of clocked devices. Clock offset and a clock drift between a first clock associated with a first device and a second clock associated with a second is directly determined based on signals exchanged between the first and second devices. Clock offset and clock drift between the second clock and a third clock associated with a third device is directly determined based on signals exchanged between the second and third devices. A clock offset and clock drift between the first clock and third clock is determined based on a difference between the clock offset and drift between the first and second clocks and the clock offset and drift between the second and third clocks. |
| US09065579B2 |
Group service with information on group members
Group communication service is becoming more and more popular in communications systems. The users of the group communication would benefit especially from summarized group information. A member of a group comprising at least two members can receive the summarized group information by subscribing to information on other group members; wherein information on the group is summarized at least on the basis of current information on at least one other group member whose information was subscribed to; and by showing the thus obtained summarized group member information to the member. |
| US09065574B2 |
Frequency tracking for a FMR transmitter
A method and device for transmitting audio data and text data to an RDS capable radio receiver by a wireless device is disclosed. The device includes a receiver for scanning a frequency range to detect an available radio frequency based on predetermined criteria. The device also includes a transmitter for transmitting data on a detected frequency that comprises RDS message data. Other systems and methods are also disclosed. |
| US09065569B2 |
Mobile device output test setting
A method and a wireless communication device including a housing, at least one user interface element to receive a user input, a transmitter to transmit a wireless communication signal; and a processor in the housing. The processor being enabled to detect a first signal; switch, in response to detecting the first signal, the transmitter from a first transmission mode to a second transmission mode, at least one of a transmit power and a transmit frequency associated with the second transmission mode being selectively set by a user via the user interface element; receive a second signal, the second signal including an indication of a value selected by the user; and set, in response to receiving the second signal, the at least one of transmit power and transmit frequency associated with the second transmission mode to the value selected by the user. |
| US09065566B1 |
Digitization and transport of return paths employing different frequency spectrums
Systems and methods of this disclosure can operate to provide digitization and optical transport of legacy and extended return path signals in hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) based broadband networks. A common radio frequency (RF) front-end can be used for the digitization of return path signals comprising analog to digital converters (A/Ds) with a precision and sampling rate to meet the SNR requirements of the communication system. Additionally the same digital signal processing logic can also be used through the implementation of digital filter(s) in FPGA technology where different FPGA images can be used to support different digital filtering configurations. |
| US09065558B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving data in human body communication system
An apparatus and a method for reducing wireless data transmission in a personal area network is configured to generate and transmit a packet including information discriminating between a synchronous channel and a data channel. The apparatus and method discriminate between the synchronous channel and data channel when receiving a packet in order to improve data transmission performance of a human body communication system. The apparatus and the method use a transmission channel whose frequency is lower than an antenna frequency as a synchronous channel, and use a transmission channel whose frequency is higher than the antenna frequency as a data channel. |
| US09065555B2 |
Method of channel estimation and a channel estimator
A method includes receiving a signal over a multi-path channel, generating a plurality of observation vectors of the received signal, generating a channel covariance matrix of the plurality of observation vectors, and identifying a first path by projecting a pulse shaping vector on the channel covariance matrix at different time offsets and selecting the maximum thereof as the first path. Thereafter, further paths can be identified. In each case, an n-th path is identified by projecting the pulse shaping vector into a null space of n-1 previously identified paths at different time offsets and the maximum thereof is selected as an n-th path. |
| US09065554B2 |
System and method for analyzing a network
System and methods for analyzing a network are disclosed. One method can comprise determining a parameter for each of a plurality of devices, generating a signature for each of the plurality of devices based upon the determined parameters, comparing the signatures of two or more of the plurality of devices, and grouping the plurality of devices based upon the comparison of the signatures of the two or more of the plurality of devices. |
| US09065546B2 |
Parallel hybrid circuit
A parallel hybrid circuit comprising a transformer, a first matching resistor, a second matching resistor and an echo cancelling circuit. The transformer comprises: a first side, comprising a transmitting coil group and a receiving coil group, wherein the transmitting coil group comprises at least one transmitting coil, wherein the receiving coil group comprises at least one receiving coil; a second side comprising at least one transceiving coil; wherein the transformer receives a transmitting signal and couples the transmitting signal from the first side to the second side via a first turn ratio, and receives a receiving signal from the transceiving line and couples the receiving signal from the second side to the first side via a second turn ratio. The first, second matching resistors are coupled with the transformer in parallel. The echo cancelling circuit is coupled between the transmitting line and the receiving line. |
| US09065541B2 |
Configurable wireless communication device with configurable front-end
A configurable wireless communication device includes a baseband processing module, a transmitter section, a receiver section, an antenna, transmit/receive isolation circuits, high frequency switches, and a configuration module. The baseband processing module converts outbound data into an outbound symbol stream and converts an inbound symbol stream into inbound data. The transmitter section converts the outbound symbol stream into an outbound signal and the receiver section converts an inbound signal into the inbound symbol stream. The configuration module, in a power combining mode, couples, via a set of high frequency switches, the antenna to a set of transmit/receive isolation circuits, wherein a number of the transmit/receive isolation circuits in the set of transmit/receive isolation circuits is based on a desired combined transmit power. |
| US09065540B2 |
Systems and methods for minimizing insertion loss in a multi-mode communications system
Methods and system for using a multifunctional filter to minimize insertion loss in a multi-mode communications system are described. Specifically described is a multifunctional filter that is configurable to operate in a band-pass mode when a first type of signal is propagated through the multifunctional filter, and to operate in a low-pass mode when a second type of signal is propagated through the multifunctional filter. The multifunctional filter presents a lower insertion loss to the second type of signal when operating in the low-pass mode than in the band-pass mode. |
| US09065538B2 |
Transmission-reception device
A transmission-reception device includes a radio frequency section that performs a frequency conversion on a signal which is modulated using a single carrier transmission system, a correction coefficient multiplier that multiplies a frequency domain signal by a distortion correction coefficient in the frequency conversion of the radio frequency section to correct a distortion, a first transformer that converts a time domain signal into a frequency domain signal at a time of reception, and converts the frequency domain signal which is distortion-corrected by the correction coefficient multiplier into a time domain signal at a time of transmission, and a second transformer that converts a time domain signal into a frequency domain signal at a time of transmission, and converts the frequency domain signal which is distortion-corrected by the correction coefficient multiplier into a time domain signal at a time of reception. |
| US09065537B2 |
Method and system for calibrating a multi-mode, multi-standard transmitter and receiver
Methods and systems for calibrating a multi-mode, multi-standard transmitter and receiver are disclosed. Aspects of the method may include configuring calibration paths in a transceiver on a chip including a plurality of Tx and Rx paths. IP2 distortion may be calibrated for the Rx paths utilizing a phase locked loops in the chip and the configurable calibration paths. Local oscillator leakage, Rx path DC offset and RSSI, Tx and Rx I and Q mismatch, and Tx and Rx path filters may be calibrated utilizing the plurality of configurable calibration paths. Cutoff frequency of the filters in the Tx and Rx paths may be calibrated. Blocker signals may be mitigated by calibrating amplifier gains in the Rx paths. The calibration paths may include an envelope detector. Local oscillator leakage and I and Q mismatch may be mitigated utilizing pre-distortion generated by an on-chip digital signal processor in the Tx paths. |
| US09065533B2 |
Optimized signaling in relay-enhanced access networks
Measures for optimized signaling in relay-enhanced access networks exemplarily include receipt of at least one signaling message concerning at least one relay node of a relay-enhanced access network over at least one predetermined signaling interface, concentration of signaling concerning a respective relay node in terms of irrelevancy and/or redundancy from the at least one signaling message, and forwarding of the concentrated signaling in a signaling message over the at least one predetermined signaling interface towards the respective relay node. These measures may exemplarily be applied for optimizing X2 messaging in relay-enhanced LTE access networks. |
| US09065531B2 |
Signal transmitter-receiver apparatus
To provide a signal transmitter-receiver apparatus having simple structure and which can prevent receiving sensitivity reduction of wirelessly transmitted signal using an existing component. A signal transmitter-receiver apparatus includes a first electric wire having one end connected to an electronic device provided at a vehicle sliding seat, a second electric wire wired at a vehicle body side, a signal transmitter connected to another end of the first electric wire, a signal receiver connected to an end of the second electric wire for receiving signal wirelessly transmitted from the signal transmitter, and a protector. The signal transmitter and the signal receiver are disposed in the rail. The signal transmitter is fixed to an upper rail via the protector. The signal receiver is fixed to one end portion of the rail. The signal transmitter and the signal receiver are arranged opposed to each other in a straight line. |
| US09065528B2 |
Insertion of signals by an intermediate device
A method is performed by an intermediate device in a multi-hop wireless network. The method includes receiving a transmission to forward to another device and synchronizing with the transmission based on a format of the transmission. The method further includes selecting a resource portion of the transmission based on information included in the transmission or information previously received, and inserting a signal in the selected resource portion of the transmission. The method also includes forwarding the transmission that includes the signal to the other device. |
| US09065518B2 |
Evolving antenna system based on user habits
A method and system configures an antenna system to enhance communication signal quality within a wireless communication device. An antenna system controller determines a usage state of the wireless communication device based on received sensor data. In addition, the antenna system controller determines whether the usage state matches a pre-identified reference usage state. If the usage state matches a reference usage state, the antenna system controller configures the antenna system using configuration data mapped to the reference usage state. In addition, the antenna system controller tracks occurrences of usage states to generate usage state statistics and uses the generated usage state statistics to predict a timing of future usage states within the wireless communication device. The antenna system controller configures the wireless communication device for the predicted usage state when an associated trigger event is detected. Additionally, the antenna system controller configures the antenna system based on signal quality feedback. |
| US09065515B2 |
Method and system for enhanced transmission in mobile communication networks
Method and system for improving the performance of mobile communication networks. The method and system employs the additional functionality whereby an additional phase offset can be applied to one of the physical paths (one physical antenna) in order to modify and adapt the transmit polarization. In the preferred embodiment, the criterion for selecting the additional phase offset will be to maximize the energy received from the HSPA serving cell by the legacy HSDPA user equipments. |
| US09065509B1 |
Methods and apparatus for envelope tracking system
A communication unit includes a radio frequency, RF, transmitter having: a power amplifier, PA, module; and an envelope tracking system operably coupled to the PA module and having a supply modulator arranged to variably control a supply voltage for the PA module in response to a number of input samples of an envelope signal; wherein the envelope tracking system further includes at least one slew rate module arranged to re-distribute a maximum slew rate across the number of input samples in a provision of a variable power supply to the PA module. |
| US09065508B2 |
Transmitter harmonic cancellation for carrier aggregation/multiband operation
A method and apparatus for cancelling, from signals received by a radio device in a first frequency band, interference generated by the radio device in the first frequency band when the radio device transmits simultaneously radio signals on at least a second frequency band. |
| US09065505B2 |
Optimal switching frequency for envelope tracking power supply
A radio frequency (RF) communications system, which includes an RF power amplifier (PA) and an envelope tracking power supply, is disclosed. The RF communications system processes RF signals associated with at least a first RF communications band, which has a first bandwidth. The RF PA receives and amplifies an RF input signal to provide an RF transmit signal using an envelope power supply signal. The envelope tracking power supply provides the envelope power supply signal, which has switching ripple based on a programmable switching frequency. The programmable switching frequency is selected to be greater that the first bandwidth. |
| US09065503B2 |
Precoding processing method, base station, and communications system
Embodiments of the present invention provide a precoding processing method, a base station, and a communications system. The precoding processing method includes: implementing beamforming on an antenna array according to information about a direction of arrival of a user equipment to obtain a transformation matrix; transforming a channel matrix according to the transformation matrix to obtain an equivalent channel matrix; and obtaining a precoding matrix required for precoding processing according to the equivalent channel matrix. According to the embodiments of the present invention, after a MIMO system is implemented based on a single antenna array, signals transmitted between the UE and the base station are orthogonal in each beam direction, thereby obtaining a degree-of-freedom gain. |
| US09065501B2 |
Method and arrangement in a wireless communication system
The present invention relates to a method for enabling intercell interference coordination in a network node 112, 132, which is comprised in a wireless communications network 100. The network node 112, 132 comprises at least two antennas for multi-antenna transmission and/or reception. According to the method, the network node 112, 132 transmits an indication of an amount of spatially multiplexed streams for at least one block of radio resources to at least one receiving network node 122, which is also comprised in the wireless communications network 100. By indicating the amount of spatially multiplexed streams, it is made possible for the receiving network node 122 to take the intercell interference in the spatial domain into consideration, for instance in a scheduling and/or link adaptation decision. |
| US09065499B2 |
Transmission signal generator, transmission signal generating method, reception signal generator, and reception signal generating method
Modulated signal A is transmitted from a first antenna, and modulated signal B is transmitted from a second antenna. As modulated signal B, modulated symbols S2(i) and S2(i+1) obtained from different data are transmitted at time i and time i+1 respectively. In contrast, as modulated signal A, modulated symbols S1(i) and S1(i)′ obtained by changing the signal point arrangement of the same data are transmitted at time i and time i+1 respectively. As a result the reception quality can be changed intentionally at time i and time i+1, and therefore using the demodulation result of modulated signal A of a time when the reception quality is good enables both modulated signals A and B to be demodulated with good error rate performances. |
| US09065498B1 |
Dynamic assignment of MIMO modes for a wireless communication device
A wireless access node to facilitate dynamic assignment of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) modes comprises a wireless communication transceiver and a processing system. The wireless communication transceiver is configured to receive a scattering coefficient transmitted from a wireless communication device served by the wireless access node. The processing system is configured to compare the scattering coefficient to a scattering threshold, and if the scattering coefficient exceeds the scattering threshold, select a lower order MIMO mode for the wireless communication device and assign the lower order MIMO mode to the wireless communication device. |
| US09065496B2 |
Method and system for switched combined diversity with a modal antenna
A system and method for diversity implementation are provided, where diversity gains are obtained by using a hybrid of the switching technique and the combining technique in conjunction with the use of a modal antenna. The antenna system includes multiple antennas including at least one modal antenna that has multiple modes, and a processor for selecting one or more modes from the multiple modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna, combining modes to form one or more combinations of modes, the modes in each of the one or more combinations including one of the one or more selected modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna, and selecting one of the one or more combinations that optimizes correlation and/or a quality metric for diversity. |
| US09065492B2 |
Probe system and method for operating a probe system
A probe system includes a probe and a transmission/reception element. The probe and the transmission/reception element are configured such that information is transmittable between them in wireless fashion via a radio signal. The transmission/reception element or the probe has two antennas, set apart from each other, for receiving the radio signal, so that the information received by the two antennas via the radio signal is able to be processed concurrently. |
| US09065488B2 |
Method and apparatus for data communication in wireless power transmission
A method and apparatus for data communication in wireless power transmission are provided. A wireless power transmitter includes a resonance antenna configured to wirelessly transmit a power to a wireless power receiver, and receive a signal from the wireless power receiver, the signal including a sub-carrier. The wireless power transmitter further includes a controller configured to receive the signal from the resonance antenna, and receive data from the wireless power receiver based on the sub-carrier. |
| US09065486B2 |
Detection, avoidance and/or correction of problematic puncturing patterns in parity bit streams used when implementing turbo codes
Detecting, avoiding and/or correcting problematic puncturing patterns in parity bit streams used when implementing punctured Turbo codes is achieved without having to avoid desirable code rates. This enables identification/avoidance of regions of relatively poor Turbo code performance. Forward error correction comprising Turbo coding and puncturing achieves a smooth functional relationship between any measure of performance and the effective coding rate resulting from combining the lower rate code generated by the Turbo encoder with puncturing of the parity bits. In one embodiment, methods to correct/avoid degradations due to Turbo coding are implemented by puncturing interactions when two or more stages of rate matching are employed. |
| US09065482B1 |
Circuit for forward error correction encoding of data blocks
Approaches are disclosed for encoding N symbols of a sequence in parallel using an R parity symbol encoding algorithm. A first symbol matrix is added to a first parity matrix over a finite field to produce a first intermediate matrix. The first intermediate matrix is multiplied by at least a first coefficient matrix and a second coefficient matrix over the finite field to produce a second intermediate matrix. A second symbol matrix is multiplied by at least the second coefficient matrix to produce a third intermediate matrix. The second and third intermediate matrices are added to produce a revised parity matrix. |
| US09065481B2 |
Bad wordline/array detection in memory
A technique for error detection is provided. A controller is configured to detect errors by using error correcting code (ECC), and a cache includes independent ECC words for storing data. The controller detects the errors in the ECC words for a wordline that is read. The controller detects a first error in a first ECC word on the wordline and a second error in a second ECC word on the wordline. The controller determines that the wordline is a failing wordline based on detecting the first error in the first ECC word and the second error in the second ECC word. |
| US09065480B1 |
Digital-to-analog converter apparatus having a reconfigurable resistor-capacitor circuit
A digital-to-analog converter apparatus includes a digital-to-analog converter, a resistor-capacitor circuit, a quantizer and a controller. The resistor-capacitor circuit includes an operational amplifier, a first capacitor, a second capacitor, a first resistor, a second resistor, a first switch and a second switch. The digital-to-analog converter may generate a plurality of currents. The quantizer may generate a plurality of offset values. The controller may control coupling of the plurality of currents to the operational amplifier. |
| US09065479B2 |
Digital to analog converter with an intra-string switching network
In an example, a multistring DAC is described and includes at least two DAC stages. Each DAC stage includes a string of impedance elements and a switching network. In one configuration, the multi-string DAC is configured to use the voltage change at terminals of a first string separately to the voltage drop across a first switching network that couples the first and second strings to provide an analog output in response to a digital input to the DAC. |
| US09065476B2 |
Two adjacent bit values switching current source between three paths
A system for processing a signal includes a detector configured to detect a two-level stream of bits; a converter configured to generate a three-level control signal based on two adjacent values within the two-level stream of bits; and a switch configured to determine which of three different paths to couple a current source to based on a value of the three-level control signal. Thus, based on adjacent values of the output stream a three-level control signal is generated which controls coupling of the current source to one of three different paths. This type of three-level digital-to-analog converter can be, for example, part of the feedback loop of an analog-to-digital converter. Similar techniques can also be utilized in a multi-segment digital-to-analog converter in which each segment of the DAC is controlled by a 3-level control signal and the DAC is implement using PMOS devices. The current source for each DAC segment is diverted to ground, the M-node, or the P-node depending on the value of the 3-level control signal. |
| US09065474B2 |
Time-interleaved single input dual output sigma-delta modulator
Systems and methods can detect a relationship between portions of an analog input signal using a single sensing point, and can provide information about the detected relationship in a digital signal. A system can include an input transconductance stage, a gate circuit driven by a first control signal, a phase-select multiplexer circuit driven by a second control signal, and multiple analog-to-digital converter (ADC) channels. The ADC channels can include respective integrator circuits that receive information from the phase-select multiplexer circuit, and the ADC channels can include comparator circuits coupled to respective outputs of the integrator circuits. The outputs of the comparator circuits can be used as control signals for respective feedback multiplexers, or respective feedback current DACs, that selectively couple reference currents to the respective integrator circuit inputs. The feedback current DACs can be configured to continuously provide information to the respective integrator circuits. |
| US09065469B2 |
Compression match enumeration
In embodiments of compression match enumeration, a trie structure can be searched to enumerate data sequence matches after the trie structure is generated. The trie structure can be generated by overwriting a suffix array of data sequences stored in a memory buffer, where the suffix array includes an array of buffer positions sorted alphabetically by a data string that begins a data sequence at a respective buffer position. The trie structure can then be traversed to determine the data sequence matches from nodes in the trie structure. The trie structure can also be updated while being traversed to bypass multiple enumerations of the data sequence matches that have the same match length. |
| US09065463B2 |
Method and apparatus for reducing capacitor induced ISI in DACS
A circuit may include a plurality of primary digital-to-analog (DAC) elements for converting a digital input signal into an analog output signal. A control circuit may control each primary DAC element to switch between a first state and a second state based on the digital input signal to provide the analog output signal at an output representing the digital input signal. A plurality of corrective DAC elements may be coupled in parallel to the plurality of primary DAC elements between the control circuit and the output. The plurality of corrective DAC elements may be controlled to mitigate for intersymbol interference (ISI) due to parasitic capacitance in the primary DAC elements. The plurality of corrective DAC elements may not contribute a direct current to the analog output signal. |
| US09065462B1 |
Digital-to-analog conversion circuit and correction method for digital-to-analog conversion circuit
A digital-to-analog conversion circuit includes first current sources weighted depending on lower-order bits of digital input signals and supplied with a first bias voltage and second current sources weighted depending on higher-order bits of the digital input signals and supplied with a second bias voltage. A reference current source circuit generates the first and second bias voltages based on a first reference current. An output circuit combines currents from the first and second current sources in accordance with the digital input signals to generate an output current, the currents from the first and second current sources being set according to the first reference current. A correction circuit changes the first reference current into a second reference current smaller than the first reference current, and adjusts the first and second bias voltages based on currents from the first and second current sources changed according to the second reference current. |
| US09065461B1 |
Coding and decoding isolation device and method thereof
An isolation device having first and second semiconductor is disclosed. The first semiconductor die may be adapted to transmit a first signal to the second semiconductor die that is electrically isolated. The first semiconductor die may comprise input terminals, a bitstream encoding circuit, a self-synchronizing encoding circuit and a transmitter. The second semiconductor die may comprise a receiver, a self-synchronizing decoder, a bitstream decoding circuit and an optional digital filter. The bitstream encoding and decoding may enable a plurality of signals to be encoded and transmitted through an isolation material. |
| US09065460B1 |
External oscillator detector
The present disclosure describes apparatuses and techniques for detection of an external oscillator. In some aspects, an integrated circuit includes an oscillator detector coupled to an external electrical connection. The oscillator detector may include a transistor having a gate coupled to the external electrical connection that is configured to detect a presence of an external oscillator. |
| US09065458B2 |
Frequency synthesis and noise reduction
A frequency synthesizer and oscillator are disclosed for reducing noise in processed signals. The synthesizer and oscillator comprise an array of frequency dividers adapted to receive an input signal, which is derived from a single signal source having a prescribed frequency. The synthesizer and oscillator further comprise at least one frequency multiplier coupled to at least one of the frequency dividers, such that in use, the dividers and the at least one multiplier are operable to generate a plurality of frequencies which are coherent with the prescribed frequency. A regulated power supply is also disclosed comprising a filter and first and second regulators, for reducing noise in the output voltage of the power supply. |
| US09065457B2 |
Circuits and methods for eliminating reference spurs in fractional-N frequency synthesis
Disclosed are circuits and method for reducing or eliminating reference spurs in frequency synthesizers. In some implementations, a phase-locked loop (PLL) such as a Frac-N PLL of a frequency synthesizer can include a phase frequency detector (PFD) configured to receive a reference signal and a feedback signal. The PFD can be configured to generate a first signal representative of a phase difference between the reference signal and the feedback signal. The PLL can further include a compensation circuit configured to generate a compensation signal based on the first signal. The PLL can further includes a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) configured to generate an output signal based on the compensation signal. The compensation signal can include at least one feature for substantially eliminating one or more reference spurs associated with the PLL. |
| US09065455B2 |
Delay locked loop circuit and semiconductor memory device including the same
A delay locked loop (DLL) circuit having improved noise characteristics. The DLL circuit includes a first divider for generating a first divided signal by dividing an external clock; a second divider for generating a second divided signal by dividing an internal clock; a phase detector for detecting a phase difference between the first divided signal and the second divided signal; and an adjusting unit for synchronizing the internal clock and the external clock, based on the phase difference. |
| US09065450B2 |
Integrated circuit device and method for generating a tuning signal for calibrating a voltage controlled oscillator
An integrated circuit device comprises tuning signal circuitry for generating a tuning signal for calibrating a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). The tuning signal circuitry is arranged to receive a target voltage signal that is representative of a target voltage across at least one passive element within a resonant tank circuit of a VCO that is being calibrated, generate a VCO simulation signal representative of an average voltage difference across at least one active component of the VCO that is being calibrated, and output a tuning signal based at least partly on the received target voltage signal and the generated VCO simulation signal. |
| US09065448B2 |
Capacitive switch having high accuracy
There is provided a capacitive switch including a drive circuit, a detection circuit, a reference circuit and an identification unit. The drive circuit inputs identical drive signals to the detection circuit and the reference circuit. The detection circuit detects a touch according to a capacitance variation. The detection circuit outputs a first signal when the touch is not detected and outputs a second signal when the touch is detected. The reference circuit is a replica of the detection circuit and configured to output the first signal. The identification unit identifies a phase shift between the second signal of the detection circuit and the first signal of the reference circuit. |
| US09065447B2 |
Proximity switch assembly and method having adaptive time delay
A proximity switch assembly and method for detecting activation of the proximity switch assembly is provided. The assembly includes a plurality of proximity switches each providing a sense activation field and control circuitry processing the activation field of each proximity switch to sense activation. The control circuitry monitors the signal responsive to the activation field, determines a rate of change in signal amplitude for each signal, and generates an adaptive time delay based on the control circuitry. The control circuitry further detects a peak amplitude of the signal and determines activation of the switch after expiration of the time delay following the peak amplitude detection. |
| US09065440B2 |
Bypassable clocked storage circuitry for dynamic voltage-frequency scaling
Integrated circuits with sequential logic circuitry are provided. Sequential logic circuitry may include a chain of bypassable clocked storage elements coupled between a speed critical input terminal and a speed critical output terminal. Combinational logic circuits may be interposed between each adjacent pair of bypassable clocked storage elements in the chain. Dynamic voltage-frequency scaling (DVFS) control circuitry may provide an adjustable power supply voltage to the combinational logic circuits and may provide an adjustable clock signal to control the clocked storage elements. The DVFS control circuitry may be used to selectively enable at least some of the bypassable clocked storage elements while disabling other bypassable clocked storage elements so that the power supply voltage can be reduced while maintaining the same operating frequency. The power supply voltage and the frequency of the clock signal can be adjusted to provide the desired voltage-frequency tradeoff. |
| US09065435B1 |
Reduced pin full feature load switch
A four pin integrated circuit MOSFET (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor) load switch is disclosed that provides full features including adjustable ramp time/rate, adjustable discharge time/rate, temperature control, over-current control, and short circuit protection. In some embodiments, the adjustable ramp is based on the voltage or current input into the integrated circuit. |
| US09065434B2 |
Input circuit for industrial control with low heat dissipation
An I/O circuit for use with an industrial controller provides an input circuit with low power dissipation through the use of a series connected substantially nonresistance impedance. An AC waveform input activates a light emitting diode (LED) bridge to provide an optical signal which illuminates a photosensitive solid-state switch thereby providing optical isolation between the industrial controller and the controlled process or machine. By using a series connected substantially nonresistance impedance, reduced current demand by the input circuit may be realized, which allows reduced power dissipation. As a result, the same circuit allows receiving input signals over a greater range, such as 120 volts AC and 240 volts AC, and allows significantly smaller components with closer spacing for a more compact design. |
| US09065433B2 |
Capacitor charging circuit with low sub-threshold transistor leakage current
A capacitor charging circuit has input, output and control nodes, first and second series connected primary FETs, and first and second leakage current reduction FETs. All of the FETs have their gates coupled to the control node. The first primary FET is coupled between the input and output nodes, and the second primary FET is coupled between the output node and a leakage current reduction node. The first leakage current reduction FET is coupled between a supply line and the leakage current reduction node, and the second leakage current reduction FET is coupled between the leakage current reduction node and ground. When a control signal at the control node is low, the first primary FET and the first leakage current reduction FET are conductive, and the second primary FET and the second leakage current reduction FET are non-conductive, which eliminates sub-threshold leakage current flowing through the second primary FET. |
| US09065432B2 |
Device for processing a signal delivered by a radiation detector
A device that processes a signal delivered by a radiation detector includes a circuit that delivers a voltage pulse whose amplitude is proportional to a charge detected by the radiation detector. The device also includes an analog to digital converter to digitize the voltage pulse at a given sampling frequency and delivers a corresponding digital signal to a processing circuit. The processing circuit reads the digital signal, computes a temporal variation rate of the digital signal and captures the digital signal when the temporal variation reaches a threshold. |
| US09065431B2 |
Static signal value storage circuitry using a single clock signal
Signal value storage circuitry 2 is provided which includes a first transistor stack, a second transistor stack and a third transistor stack. The signal value storage circuitry is controlled by a single clock signal. Keeper transistors and isolation transistors serve to permit static operation of the signal value storage circuitry (i.e. the clock signal may be stopped without losing state) and to prevent contention within the circuitry. |
| US09065426B2 |
High frequency solid state switching for impedance matching
In accordance with this invention the above and other problems are solved by a switching apparatus and method that uses a switching circuit having a pair of parallel solid-state diodes (e.g., PN or PIN diodes), one of which is connected to a transistor (e.g., power MOSFET or IGBT), to switch a capacitor (or reactance element) in or out of a variable capacitance element (or variable reactance element) of an impedance matching network. Charging a body capacitance of the transistor reverse biases one of the two diodes so as to isolate the transistor from the RF signal enabling a low-cost high capacitance transistor to be used. Multiple such switching circuits and capacitors (or reactance elements) are connected in parallel to provide variable impedance for the purpose of impedance matching. |
| US09065424B2 |
Acoustic wave device with reduced higher order transverse modes
In an acoustic wave device, a high-order transverse mode wave which is an unnecessary wave is suppressed. The acoustic wave device includes: a piezoelectric substrate; at least one pair of IDT electrodes formed on the piezoelectric substrate; and a dielectric film which covers at least a part of the piezoelectric substrate and the IDT electrodes, and the IDT electrodes each has a plurality of electrode fingers. The dielectric film covers at least an area in which the electrode fingers are arranged interleaved with each other. An acoustic velocity of an acoustic wave in an intersection area, within the region, which is a portion from ends of the electrode fingers to a predetermined length or more inward from the ends, is greater than an acoustic velocity of an acoustic wave in an edge area including end portions of the electrode fingers. |
| US09065421B2 |
Film bulk acoustic resonator with multi-layers of different piezoelectric materials and method of making
A thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) includes a first electrode, a first piezoelectric layer having a first c-axis orientation and on the first electrode, a second piezoelectric layer having a second c-axis orientation over the first piezoelectric layer, and a second electrode on the second piezoelectric layer. The first and second piezoelectric layers are made of respective different piezoelectric materials. The FBAR can be set to have different resonance frequencies by selecting the first and second c-axis orientations to be respectively the same or different. The high and low frequency range of the FBAR can thus be extended. |
| US09065420B2 |
Fabrication method of acoustic wave device
A fabrication method of an acoustic wave device includes: forming acoustic wave elements on a first substrate; forming protrusion electrodes and seal rings on the first substrate simultaneously by an electrolytic plating method, the protrusion electrodes being electrically connected to the acoustic wave elements, each of the seal rings surrounding related acoustic wave elements out of the acoustic wave elements and related protrusion electrodes out of the protrusion electrodes electrically connected to the related acoustic wave elements; and cutting a plating power-supply line used in the electrolytic plating method in a step of dividing the first substrate into pieces each including a corresponding one of the seal rings so as to electrically separate the related acoustic wave elements from the corresponding one of the seal rings. |
| US09065419B2 |
Ladder filter, duplexer and module
A ladder filter includes at least one series resonator connected in series between an input terminal and an output terminal, at least one parallel resonator connected in parallel with the at least one series resonator, and an inductor connected in parallel with the at least one series resonator. The at least one series resonator and the inductor generate a first attenuation pole at a frequency equal to or lower than a frequency band defined by the at least one series resonator and the at least one parallel resonator. The first attenuation pole is located at a frequency that is equal to or higher than a resonance frequency of a parallel resonator that is included in the at least one parallel resonator and has a highest resonance frequency and that is equal to or lower than a high-frequency end of the pass band. |
| US09065415B1 |
Configuring signal boosters
A method of configuring a signal booster may include receiving an indication that a first interface port of a first amplifier is configured such that external signals are not introduced to the first amplifier and measuring thermal noise output by the first amplifier at a second amplifier communicatively coupled to a second interface port of the first amplifier after receiving the indication. The method may further include determining signal loss between the first amplifier and the second amplifier based on the measured thermal noise and setting a gain of the second amplifier based on the signal loss. |
| US09065414B2 |
Automatic volume reduction
Systems and methods of controlling output volume in mobile devices may include an apparatus having logic to detect a limited power delivery condition of a battery of a mobile platform. The logic may also transmit a hardware alert to an audio controller of the mobile platform in response to the limited power delivery condition, wherein the hardware alert is to instruct the audio controller to conduct a speaker volume reduction to an audible level. In one example, the logic enables the use of one or more high power speakers such as stereo integrated hands free speakers in the mobile device. |
| US09065412B2 |
Audio amplifier circuit and method thereof
An audio amplifier circuit and a method of the same are provided. The audio amplifier circuit includes a processor, a pre-processing module, and a post-processing module. The processor controls a pre-gain value of the pre-processing module and a post-gain value of the post-processing module in accordance with a volume adjustment signal so as to process an audio input signal and generate an audio output signal. The pre-gain value and the post-gain value are dynamically adjusted by the audio amplifier circuit and a method thereof by according to the volume adjustment signal so as to generate low distortion, low noise audio output signals and improve audio playback quality of an audio output device. |
| US09065401B2 |
Amplification systems and methods with noise reductions
System and method for amplifying an input signal to generate an output signal. The system includes a current generator, an oscillator, and a comparator. The current generator is configured to receive a first voltage signal, and generate a first current signal based on at least information associated with the first voltage signal and the first reference signal. The oscillator is configured to receive at least the first current signal and a second reference signal, and to generate a second voltage signal based on at least information associated with the first current signal and the second reference signal, the second voltage signal being associated with a modulation frequency. Additionally, the comparator is configured to receive the second voltage signal and a third voltage signal, and to generate a modulation signal related to the modulation frequency based on at least information associated with the second voltage signal and the third voltage signal. |
| US09065399B2 |
Programmable high-speed voltage-mode differential driver
A voltage-mode differential driver is disclosed. The differential driver includes two driver arms, each driver arm including a variable-impedance driver for driving a single-ended output signal. Each variable-impedance driver comprises multiple driver slices, where each driver slice includes a pre-driver circuit and a driver circuit. Advantageously, it has been determined that the disclosed voltage-mode driver design requires less power than conventional current-mode drivers. In one implementation, the disclosed voltage-mode driver design provides the capability of independently programming the delay of the two single-ended outputs so as to compensate for differential skew. Other embodiments and features are also disclosed. |
| US09065398B2 |
Amplifying circuit capable of suppressing spikes of an audio signal
An amplifying circuit capable of suppressing spikes of an audio signal includes an integration module, a comparison module, an output module, a feedback module, and a limiting module. The integration module is used for receiving an input signal and generating a first voltage signal corresponding to the input signal. The comparison module is coupled to the integration module for receiving the first voltage signal and a reference signal, and generating a comparison signal. The output module is coupled to the comparison module for generating an audio signal according to the comparison signal. The feedback module is coupled between the output module and the integration module for feeding back an output signal to the integration module. The limiting module is coupled between the feedback module and the integration module for limiting the comparison signal to be within a predetermined range. |
| US09065390B2 |
Radio frequency front-end circuit for receiver and low noise amplifier thereof
A RF front-end circuit and a low noise amplifier thereof configured for a receiver are provided. The circuit includes a low noise amplifier and a quadrature passive mixer. The low noise amplifier provides two RF output differential signals to the quadrature passive mixer. The RF signals are down-converted to the differential in-phase baseband signals and the differential quadrature-phase baseband signals. The structure of the RF front-end circuit can avoid the signal and noise interfering between in-phase channel and quadrature-phase channel without using a 25% duty cycle local oscillation generator circuit. |
| US09065388B2 |
Optical receiving circuit
Provided is an optical receiving circuit that reduces a distortion of an output pulse width with respect to an input signal by adjusting the division ratio for a voltage applied to resistors in a resistor network. The optical receiving circuit includes: a differential amplifier 2 that converts a current signal converted from an optical input L and outputs a non-inverting voltage V+ and an inverting voltage V− whose amplitudes are regulated; a peak detector 5 that detects a peak voltage Vp of the non-inverting voltage V+ and outputs the peak voltage Vp; a resistor network 4 performing a summation operation based on the peak voltage Vp, the non-inverting voltage V+, and the inverting voltage V− to thereby generate a non-inverting input voltage V1+ and an inverting input voltage V1− whose oscillations cross each other at the middle points of the amplitudes thereof; a discriminator 3 that discriminates a potential at which the oscillations of the non-inverting input voltage V1+ and the inverting input voltage V1− cross each other, and generates a rectangular signal in accordance with the cross potential; and an adjustment circuit 6 that, when the non-inverting voltage V+ or the inverting voltage V− is outputted with the amplitude thereof regulated in the differential circuit, adjusts a relative ratio between the voltages connected respectively to resistors of the resistor network 4, in such a way that the rectangular signal is outputted in the same waveform as the optical input L. |
| US09065387B2 |
Systems and methods for maintaining power amplifier performance
Systems and methods for maintaining power amplifier performance are provided. A system includes a bias supply that generates a bias voltage, and at least one primary power amplifier (PA) that receives the bias voltage and a primary radio frequency (RF) input. The at least one primary PA amplifies the primary RF input based on the bias voltage. The system includes an auxiliary PA that is connected in parallel with the at least one primary PA and receives the bias voltage and an auxiliary RF input, which is a scaled version of the primary RF input. The auxiliary PA amplifies the auxiliary RF input based on the bias voltage. The system includes a detector that measures an output voltage associated with the amplified auxiliary RF input, and a comparator that compares the measured output voltage to a reference voltage. The bias supply adjusts the bias voltage based on the comparison. |
| US09065385B2 |
Spur cancellation in GSM-GPRS-EDGE power amplifiers with DC-DC converters
A radio frequency (RF) power amplifier circuit with spur cancellation for GSM/GPRS/EDGE transceivers is disclosed. There is a power amplifier with an RF input, an RF output, and a voltage supply input. Additionally, there is an adjustable DC-DC converter with an input connected to a battery, an output connected to the voltage supply input of the power amplifier with a DC supply voltage signal generated thereby. A spur compensator generates an error control signal responsive to spurs in the DC supply voltage signal. The error control signal is applied to the RF input of the power amplifier. |
| US09065382B2 |
Circuits and methods for increasing output frequency of an LC oscillator
Disclosed are circuits and methods for increasing an output frequency of an inductance-capacitance (LC) oscillator. In some embodiments, the LC oscillator can be implemented as a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) having differential outputs. When the VCO is implemented on a die, wirebond connections from the outputs to a ground results in an effective inductance that impacts a maximum frequency associated with the VCO. An electrical connection such as a wirebond between the differential outputs yields a reduction in the effective inductance thereby increasing the maximum frequency. In some embodiments, the wirebond between the differential outputs can be configured so that its contribution to mutual inductance is reduced or substantially nil. |
| US09065380B2 |
Method for calculating motor constant of permanent magnet type synchronous motor and motor constant calculating device
A method for calculating a motor constant of a permanent magnet type synchronous motor according to the present invention includes: a voltage applying step of applying a voltage obtained by compositing a DC component and an AC component to a permanent magnet type synchronous motor while varying a frequency of the AC component; a current detecting step of detecting a motor current flowing according to the applied voltage; a phase difference calculating step of calculating a difference in phase between the AC component of the applied voltage and an AC component of the motor current; and a motor constant calculating step of calculating a motor constant of the permanent magnet type synchronous motor. In addition, in the motor constant calculating step, the motor constant is calculated based on the applied voltage and the motor current when the difference in phase becomes nearly 45 degrees. |
| US09065379B2 |
Control device for vehicle generator-motor and control method therefor
Provided are a low-cost control device and the like for a vehicle generator-motor for minimizing the number of current sensors and the like, and estimating an output torque and a current consumption during drive of the generator-motor. The output torque and the current consumption during the drive of the generator-motor are estimated based on a field current, an rpm, a DC voltage, and a phase of an AC voltage to be supplied of the generator-motor, without providing a current sensor for detecting an input current from a power supply to an inverter device of the generator-motor, and a current sensor for detecting an output current from the inverter device to an armature winding of a rotary electric machine. |
| US09065378B2 |
AC motor control apparatus
A motor control circuit calculates an α-axis current iα and a β-axis current iβ in a fixed coordinate system based on a W-phase (sensor phase) of an AC motor. The control circuit calculates the α-axis current iα from a current iw.sns sensed in the W-phase, and the β-axis current iβ from a differentiated value Δiα determined from the variation quantity of the α-axis current based on that the α-axis current iα and the β-axis current iβ are in a relation of a sine wave and a cosine wave. Subsequently, the control circuit calculates a current phase xθ=tan−1(iβ/iα) relative to the W-phase. Subsequently, the control circuit calculates an estimation factor according to the current phase xθ and determines an estimated current iu.est in the U-phase of the AC motor by multiplying the sensed current iw.sns by the calculated estimation factor. |
| US09065373B2 |
Rotating electrical machine control apparatus
A rotating electrical machine control apparatus includes a plurality of rotating electrical machine controllers and a target voltage setting device. Each of the rotating electrical machine controllers includes a rotating electrical machine and a power supply controller configured to perform power supply control on the rotating electrical machine. The rotating electrical machine controllers have different imposed loads. The target voltage setting device is configured to set DC-side voltages of the rotating electrical machine controllers to a target voltage defined as a thermal equilibrium voltage which represents the DC-side voltages obtained when the rotating electrical machine controllers are in a thermal equilibrium condition. |
| US09065368B2 |
Control method for induction motor
In order to cause the residual magnetic flux in an induction motor to decay in a short time without an excessive current flow, an induction motor control apparatus continues an operation in which an inverter apparatus is caused to output a zero voltage to the induction motor for a predetermined time before deactivating an operation of the inverter apparatus. |
| US09065363B2 |
Method for starting a permanent magnet single-phase synchronous electric motor and electronic device for implementing said method
A method for starting a permanent magnet single-phase synchronous electric motor which includes a permanent magnet rotor and a stator with windings, and which is connected to an electrical grid by a switch. The method includes: a first starting attempt in which the windings are fed in current with first starting impulses generated only during the half-periods of a first polarity of the voltage of the electrical grid; a first control step which detects whether a starting condition has been obtained in the first starting attempt; and, if the first control step does not detect that the starting condition has been obtained within the term of the first starting attempt, a second starting attempt in which the windings are fed in current with second starting impulses generated only during the half-periods of a second polarity that is opposite to the first polarity of the voltage of the electrical grid. |
| US09065361B2 |
Hybrid construction machine
In a hybrid construction machine, there is provided a drive control device which realizes in, as a simple a structure as possible, control means of a motor generator, which is capable of preventing rapid decreases in the state of charge. The control means, which calculates a motor torque command value to be output to the motor generator, is characterized by calculating the motor torque command value, based on a difference between an actual state-of-charge and a prescribed target state-of-charge and a torque margin obtained by a difference between a maximum torque of an engine determined based on an actual rotational speed of the engine and an actual torque of the engine. |
| US09065360B2 |
Polymer actuator device system
A polymer actuator device system includes: a polymer actuator which includes an electrolyte layer, a first electrode layer and a second electrode layer provided to oppose each other with the electrolyte layer interposed therebetween in a thickness direction of the electrolyte layer, and deforms in response to a voltage between the first and second electrode layers; and a sealing member which coats an entirety of the polymer actuator to be enclosed therein. The sealing member has two layers of a resin layer and an inorganic layer, a thickness of the sealing member is 1 to 5 microns, and an outer side of the sealing member in the thickness direction has a wear preventing body. |
| US09065357B2 |
Power conversion circuit
A power conversion circuit includes a high side switching device connected at its collector to the high potential side of a power supply, a low side switching device connected at its emitter to the low potential side of the power supply, a first junction to which the emitter of the high side switching device and the collector of the low side switching device are connected, a first diode connected at its cathode to the collector of the high side switching device, a second diode connected at its anode to the emitter of the low side switching device, a second junction to which the anode of the first diode and the cathode of the second diode are connected, an inductance connected between the first and second junctions, and a snubber circuit connected to the first junction and adapted to absorb stored energy in the inductance when a freewheeling current flows. |
| US09065356B2 |
Electric power converter
There is provided a technology for realizing a low-cost electric power converter operating at low noise under a high-temperature environment. The electric power converter is provided with an enclosure, a power module including a switching element, a driver circuit for generating a signal for driving the switching element, a control circuit board for generating an actuating signal to be sent out to the driver circuit, a base plate with the control circuit board mounted thereon, and a connection part for connecting between the enclosure and the control circuit board. The enclosure is provided with two openings adjacent to each other, and the base plate or the opening of the enclosure is provided with the connection part. |
| US09065354B2 |
Multi-stage power inverter for power bus communication
An inverter for converting an input direct current (DC) waveform from a DC source to an output alternating current (AC) waveform for delivery to an AC grid includes an input converter, an output converter, an input controller, and an output controller. The input controller is configured to control the operation of the input converter, and the output controller is configured to control the operation of the output controller. The input and output controllers are electrically isolated from each other and may be incapable of direct communications between each other. In some embodiments, the input and output controllers may communicate with each other via the input and output converters. |
| US09065350B2 |
Resonant converter control based on a voltage difference
Consistent with an example embodiment there is a method of controlling a resonant power converter; the power converter includes first and second series connected switches connected between a supply voltage line and a ground line and a resonance circuit, having a capacitor and an inductor. The resonance circuit is connected to a node connecting the first and second switches. The method comprises repeated sequential steps of closing the first switch to start a conduction interval; sampling a voltage across the capacitor to obtain a sampled voltage level; and opening the first switch to end the conduction interval when a voltage across the capacitor crosses a voltage level determined by addition of the sampled voltage level with a predetermined voltage difference; wherein controlling the predetermined voltage difference determines a power output of the resonant power converter. |
| US09065349B2 |
Control method for bidirectional DC-DC converters
A control method for bidirectional DC-DC converter includes: operating a bidirectional DC-DC converter having a low voltage side including a plurality of low-voltage-side switches, a voltage clamping switch and a voltage clamping capacitor, and a high voltage side including a plurality of high-voltage-side switches in a boost mode; switching the voltage clamping switch with a predetermined duty cycle prior to switching on all of the low-voltage-side switches; adjusting the predetermined duty cycle of the voltage clamping switch to be smaller than a turn-off interval of the low-voltage-side switches to reduce the conduction loss of the low-voltage-side switches and the voltage clamping switch; alternatively, operating the DC-DC converter in a buck mode; and adjusting and extending the duty cycle of the low-voltage-side switches to overlap a turn-off time of the high-voltage-side switches to reduce the conduction loss of the low-voltage-side switches. |
| US09065348B2 |
Isolated switching mode power supply and the method thereof
An isolated switching mode power supply, having: a transformer having a primary winding, a secondary winding and a third winding; a current limit comparator configured to provide a current limit signal based on the current sense signal and the peak current signal; a logic circuit configured to provide a logic control signal based on the frequency control signal and the current limit signal; a startup control circuit configured to generate a startup control signal based on the current sense signal; a load detecting circuit configured to provide a load detecting signal based on the second feedback signal and the switching signal; and a selector configured to provide the logic control signal or the startup control signal based on the load detecting signal. |
| US09065345B2 |
Transformerless inverter comprising a DC/DC converter
A transformerless inverter that serves to feed electricity from a DC current source into an AC power grid, has an inverter bridge and a DC/DC converter connected upstream of the inverter bridge. The DC/DC converter converts an input DC voltage that is present between two input lines of the inverter into a DC link voltage present between two input lines of the inverter bridge. The inverter bridge converts the DC link voltage present at the input lines thereof into an output AC voltage. The DC/DC converter includes at least one resonant circuit that has a resonance inductance and a resonance capacitance and is connected on its input side via at least two clocked switches to one of the two input lines of the inverter or an intermediate potential line carrying a potential in between. The input lines of the inverter and the input lines of the inverter bridge are galvanically isolated from one another by a capacitive method. The resonant circuit may be undivided and is connected alternately to the two input lines of the inverter bridge. |
| US09065344B2 |
Circuit for determining the end of a demagnetization stroke of a switched mode power supply
A circuit for a switched mode power supply having a winding. The circuit comprising: an input configured to receive a winding voltage derived from the winding; a differentiation element configured to differentiate the winding voltage with respect to time in order to determine a derivative signal and compare the derivative signal with a threshold value; a steady state detector configured to set a zero derivative signal when the derivative signal has not exceeded the threshold value for a predetermined period of time, and a logic arrangement configured to identify an end of a demagnetization stroke of the switched mode power supply when the derivative signal crosses a final threshold value after the zero derivative signal has been set. |
| US09065343B2 |
Resonant converter with auxiliary resonant components and holdup time control circuitry
A resonant power converter is provided with auxiliary circuit branches and control circuitry for switchably coupling the auxiliary branches to resonant circuit components during holdup times. Auxiliary branches are coupled in parallel with any one or more of a resonant inductor, a resonant capacitor, and a magnetizing inductive winding via respective switches. When a holdup time condition is detected in accordance with, for example, a drop in the mains line voltage, the switches are controlled to adjust the corresponding inductance or capacitance for the duration of the holdup time condition or otherwise for a predetermined duration. The power converter in normal operation is configured for high efficiency and in a holdup time operation is configured to produce sufficient holdup time. |
| US09065340B2 |
Method and apparatus for implementing a power converter input terminal voltage discharge circuit
A circuit includes a control circuit coupled to detect whether an electrical energy source is coupled to an input of a power converter. A switch is coupled to the control circuit to transfer energy from the input of the power converter to an output of the power converter during a first operating mode. The control circuit is coupled to drive the switch in the first operating mode when the electrical energy source is coupled to the input of the power converter. The control circuit is coupled to drive the switch in a second operating mode when the electrical energy source is uncoupled from the input of the power converter. The control circuit is coupled to discharge a capacitance coupled between input terminals of the power converter through the switch to a threshold voltage in less than a maximum period of time in the second operating mode. |
| US09065338B2 |
Multi-phase DC-DC converter supplying power to load with plural power stages and information processing device including the same
There is provided a DC-DC converter which converts an input voltage into an output voltage for supply to a load, in which an input terminal receives the input voltage, an output terminal outputs the output voltage, power stages each includes: a high side switch, a low side switch and an inductor, the control unit executes a first mode and a second mode wherein the first mode controls the high side switch and the low side switch in each of the power stages so that a ratio of an output current in each of the power stages to a load current flowing through the load becomes a set value and the second mode controls the high side switch and the low side switch in each of the power stages so that duty ratios of the high side switch and the low side switch are equalized among the power stages. |
| US09065332B2 |
Power converter with first and second resonant circuits
A high voltage resonant step-up convertor converts a lower voltage signal to a higher voltage signal. The converter may be used, for example, to supply power via electromagnetic coupling to an implantable medical device. In some embodiments, a power converter comprises a driver circuit and a resonant circuit. The resonant circuit generates a high voltage output signal at a selected frequency. The driver circuit is controlled by a low voltage signal and periodically generates a higher frequency signal (e.g., approximately twice the selected frequency) to drive the resonant circuit. In some embodiments, the driver circuit comprises another resonant circuit and a switching circuit. The switching circuit periodically pumps current to the other resonant circuit and isolates the two resonant circuits. The other resonant circuit periodically pumps current to the output resonant circuit. |
| US09065323B2 |
Systems and methods for detecting islanding conditions in grid-tied inverters
A grid-tie inverter includes a power circuit and a control circuit coupled to the power circuit. The power circuit has an input terminal for coupling to a DC power source and an output terminal for coupling to an AC power grid. The control circuit is configured to perturb an AC output current of the power circuit a first time and detect a first change in an AC output voltage of the power circuit without shutting down the power circuit, perturb the AC output current of the power circuit a second time and detect a second change in the AC output voltage of the power circuit, and shut down the power circuit in response to detecting at least the first change in the AC output voltage and the second change in the AC output voltage. Example embodiments and related methods of controlling grid-tied inverters are also disclosed. |
| US09065321B2 |
Isolated dynamic current converters
Isolated Dynamic-Current (“Dyna-C”) converters are converters that convert incoming 3-phase AC or DC power to a mix of DC and AC power via an isolation link. In various embodiments, the isolation link is a high-frequency isolation transformer. Isolated Dyna-C converters may provide a high-frequency galvanic isolation and are able to convert three-phase AC power to three-phase AC power, or three-phase AC power to DC and vice versa. The topology is minimal and the costs are low. Isolated Dyna-C converters provide fast current responses and keep the losses low by using a simplified two-stage conversion and providing a magnetizing current that is dynamically controllable and tailored to the load. An isolated Dyna-C converter may synthesize currents at its input or output ports with an arbitrary phase that is relative to the grid or load voltages, thereby enabling a full independent control over the active and reactive power at its ports. |
| US09065320B2 |
Passive drive motors and passive fans for use therewith
A passive drive motor is disclosed. A stator assembly is connected to a base. A rotating shaft is rotatably connected to the base. A rotor assembly is connected to the rotating shaft. The rotor assembly interacts with the stator assembly to rotate the rotating shaft. A first metal disk is rotated by the rotating shaft. At least one first magnet pair is disposed on the first metal disk. A second metal disk opposes the first magnet pair. When the rotating shaft rotates to drive the first metal disk to rotate, the first magnet pair disposed on the first metal disk magnetically interacts with the second metal disk, driving the second metal disk to rotate with respect to the first metal disk. |
| US09065319B2 |
Electric motor
A rotor placed inside or outside of a stator in the radius direction includes a fixed rotor fixed in a position along a rotation axis of the rotor, and a movable rotor allowed to approach/separate from the fixed rotor and to move in a direction along the rotation axis. |
| US09065318B2 |
Rotor core and method of manufacturing the same
A method of manufacturing a rotor core includes a first process of punching out punched holes 22, 23 forming outlines of keys 13, 14 in a thin metal strip 18, the holes 22, 23 including inside areas 25 located inside a shaft hole 12 and outside areas 26 continuous from the areas 25 and located outside the hole 12; a second process of punching out the hole 12 including recesses 35, 36 to avoid the keys 13, 14 and communicating with the holes 22, 23; and a third process of punching out an outline of a core sheet 11 having the hole 12 and laminating the sheets 11. Thereby, a shaft hole having keys is formed precisely, a thickness deviation of core sheets is eliminated, and a rotor core having homogeneous magnetism is provided. |
| US09065315B1 |
Motor and disk drive apparatus
A rotating portion of a motor includes a magnet, a yoke including a yoke cylindrical portion, and a hub including a hub cylindrical portion. A first radial gap, which is a radial gap between the magnet and the yoke cylindrical portion, is filled with an adhesive from an upper axial end to an axial middle portion thereof, and includes a tapered gap gradually increasing in radial width with decreasing height. An upper axial end of the tapered gap is located above the axial middle portion of the first radial gap. In addition, no adhesive is provided from a lower axial end to an axial middle portion of a second radial gap, which is a radial gap between the yoke cylindrical portion and the hub cylindrical portion. |
| US09065314B2 |
Rotor of buried magnet-type electric motor, motor and machine tool having the rotor
A rotor (10) of a buried magnet-type electric motor, wherein the magnetic poles thereof are each constituted by two rows of magnets (M1, M2) of the same pole, wherein a core portion (12) between magnet slots of the same pole is arranged between the magnet slots (31, 32) in which the two rows of magnets are arranged, and wherein, of the edges constituting said magnet slots, the portions connecting the edges (31a, 32a) on the inner side in the radial direction to the outer edges of the core portion between the magnet slots of the same pole, have curved portions (41, 42) that connect a curve of a small curvature to a curve of a large curvature starting from the edges on the inner side in the radial direction and heading toward the outer edges of the core portion between the magnet slots of the same pole. |
| US09065312B2 |
Frame having integrated cooling for an electric drive
In a frame having integrated cooling for an electric drive, coolant flows through a width of the frame in an inverse manner. The frame has roughly the form of a cylinder sleeve having a diameter and an axial width, whose outer surface is provided with cooling ducts. A first bundle of cooling ducts, connected in parallel, guides the coolant from a coolant intake around substantially the entire circumference of the frame. A second bundle of cooling ducts, connected in parallel, guides the coolant around substantially the entire circumference of the frame, back to a coolant outlet (8). |
| US09065311B2 |
Linear motor cooling mechanism
A linear motor cooling mechanism includes two cooling sections. Each cooling section is composed of multiple bypass heads, which are serially connected with each other. The cooling sections are additionally fixedly disposed on the linear motor. Each cooling section has a main flow way and multiple bypass flow ways in communication with the main flow way. External air is guided through the main flow way and distributed to the bypass flow ways so as to controllably flow toward the position of the mover of the linear motor for achieving an air-cooling heat dissipation effect. |
| US09065307B2 |
Apparatus for facilitating attachment of fan and flywheel in an internal combustion engine
An apparatus and method for facilitating coupling of a fan and a flywheel, as well as an internal combustion engine and other applications for such apparatus and method are described herein. In one example embodiment, an apparatus for facilitating coupling of a fan and a flywheel includes a plurality of protrusions formed on the fan, wherein each of the protrusions defines a respective hole therewithin, a plurality of receiving structures formed in the flywheel, and a plurality of pins. The receiving structures are positioned so that, when the fan is axially aligned with and adjacent to the flywheel, the protrusions are respectively received by the receiving structures. Further, when the pins are inserted into the holes, portions of the protrusions expand outwardly so that interference is created between surfaces of the protrusions and the receiving structures, whereby due to the interference the fan and flywheel are rotationally coupled. |
| US09065301B2 |
Power control system and electric device
A power control system controls electric devices so as to consume a power generated by a self-generated power facility using a natural energy, which is provided with a surplus power detection unit that detects the surplus portion of power generated by the self-generated power facility, and a device control unit that controls the operation of a plurality of electric devices. When the surplus power detection unit detects the surplus power, the device control unit controls one or more of a plurality of electric devices to perform predetermined operations so as to consume the surplus power. |
| US09065299B2 |
Converter for HVDC transmission and reactive power compensation
A power electronic converter for use in high voltage direct current power transmission and reactive power compensation comprises a plurality of switching elements interconnecting in use a DC network and one or more AC networks, the plurality of switching elements being controllable in use to facilitate power conversion between the AC and DC networks, wherein in use, the plurality of switching elements are controllable to form one or more short circuits within the power electronic converter so as to define one or more primary current flow paths, the or each primary current flow path including a respective one of the AC networks and the power electronic converter and bypassing the DC network. |
| US09065297B2 |
Method and apparatus for charging battery using solar battery
A method and an apparatus for charging a battery using a solar cell are provided. The method includes detecting an output state of the solar cell, searching a mapped charging current amount corresponding to the detected output state of the solar cell, setting a charging current amount of a charging unit for charging the battery based on the found charging current amount, and charging the battery with the set charging current amount. The method may maximize charging efficiency of a battery using the solar cell. Furthermore, the method may prevent output power consumption of a solar cell. Accordingly, the method may improve charging efficiency in comparison with a portable terminal of the related art in the same condition to shorten a charging time. |
| US09065296B2 |
Battery pack, method of measuring voltage of the battery pack, and energy storage system including the battery pack
A battery system including: a battery, which includes at least one battery cell; a division circuit configured to receive a first voltage of the battery, generate a second voltage from the first voltage, and output the second voltage; an isolation circuit coupled between the battery and the division circuit, the isolation circuit being configured to electrically isolate the battery from the division circuit according to a control signal; and a battery management system coupled to the division circuit. The battery management system includes an isolation circuit control unit configured to generate the control signal; and a measuring unit configured to measure the second voltage. |
| US09065294B2 |
Control device, power usage control system and control method
A control device includes a storage device storing reference power, basic device point information showing a control priority representing a degree for determining a control order of a plurality of devices, and room information showing a priority of each room in which the plurality of devices are disposed; an acquisition unit acquiring power usage of the plurality of devices; a changing unit changing the basic device point information based on the room information; a determination unit determining whether or not the acquired power usage has exceeded the reference power; and a transmitting unit transmitting, to a device of the plurality of devices that is relatively high in control priority after change, an instruction to reduce the power usage of this device, based on determination that the acquired power usage has exceeded the reference power. |
| US09065291B2 |
Apparatus for managing secondary battery
Disclosed is a secondary battery management apparatus including a current control switch for opening and closing the flow of charge or discharge current of a secondary battery; a connector for selectively providing a power conducting state and a power cutoff state based on whether the apparatus is connected to a charge/discharge device; a communication terminal for providing a communication interface with the charge/discharge device; a power supply for receiving power from the secondary battery and supplying the received power to a component that requires electrical power; a power supply line including a power supply switch; a switch controller for detecting the reception of a communication request signal through the communication terminal during connection to the charge/discharge device through the connector and transmitting a turn-on signal to the power supply switch; and a controller connected to the power supply and initiating or terminating a management operation for the battery. |
| US09065289B2 |
Activate circuit and electronic device
An activate circuit for an electronic device includes a first node, a first transistor including a source coupled to a ground, a drain coupled to the first node, and a gate coupled to a battery voltage, a first diode including an anode coupled to an activate signal, and a cathode a first resistance coupled between the cathode of the first diode and the first node, a capacitor coupled between the first node and the ground having a logic low level, and a second transistor including a source coupled to the ground, a drain coupled to the activate signal, and a gate coupled to the first node. |
| US09065288B2 |
Current compensation module, charging apparatus, and charging apparatus controlling method
A current compensation module, a charging apparatus, and a charging apparatus controlling method are disclosed. The current compensation module is used for controlling an outputted charging current in order to charge a battery module. The current compensation module includes a transition unit, a proportional controlling unit, and an integral controlling unit. The transition unit allows an internal signal of the current compensation module increasing from a first voltage. When the internal signal attains to a second voltage, the proportional controlling unit will output a proportional controlling signal to adjust the charging current. When the charging current attains to a rated output current, the integral controlling unit incorporates with the proportional controlling unit to output a proportional-integral controlling signal in order to control and adjust the charging current for the battery module, and to suppress the output overshoot current of the charging apparatus. |
| US09065281B2 |
Charge/discharge control circuit and battery device
Provided is a battery device for controlling charge/discharge of a secondary battery by a single bidirectionally conductive field effect transistor, a charge/discharge control circuit with which a leakage current of the bidirectionally conductive field effect transistor is reduced to perform stable operation. The charge/discharge control circuit includes: a switch circuit for controlling a gate of the bidirectionally conductive field effect transistor based on an output of a control circuit for controlling the charge/discharge of the secondary battery; and two MOS transistors for preventing back-flow of a charge current and a discharge current. The first MOS transistor has a drain and a back gate which are connected to each other, and a source connected to a drain of the bidirectionally conductive field effect transistor. The second MOS transistor has a drain and a back gate which are connected to each other, and a source connected to a source of the bidirectionally conductive field effect transistor. |
| US09065280B2 |
System and method of using high energy battery packs
An energy storage system having one or more battery packs and a system controller for controlling the battery packs. Each battery pack has rechargeable storage cells and a battery pack controller in communication with the system controller. Through the operation of the system controller, battery packs with different initial charge states can be operated in parallel during a charge process and a discharge process. Discharging multiple battery packs in parallel offers not only a higher capacity and a longer run time than is available from a single battery pack, but also offers higher peak currents than available from a single battery pack, which are important in motor control applications. A battery pack design including a battery pack connector with both power and control contacts supporting user replacement of the battery packs. |
| US09065275B2 |
Driving circuit for an electric motor
In various embodiments a circuit arrangement is provided, having a bridge circuit including at least two switches connected in series; a bridge node which may provide a phase voltage arranged between the at least two switches; an electric motor having at least one phase winding coupled with the bridge node; a decoupling switch; a controller, wherein in an error case the controller may be configured to switch off the at least two switches, to determine whether a predefined condition is satisfied, and to one of delayed switching off the decoupling switch; and switching off the at least two switches and the decoupling switch simultaneously, depending upon whether the predefined condition is satisfied; wherein the controller may determine that the predefined condition is satisfied when the decoupling switch may be switched off without damage from the current applied to it when the at least two switches are switched off. |
| US09065273B2 |
Power adaptor
A power adaptor for converting an alternating voltage into a direct voltage to a load is disclosed. The power adaptor includes a primary side circuit including a hot line, a neutral line for receiving the alternating voltage, and a return terminal, a secondary side circuit including a positive output terminal and a negative output terminal for outputting the direct voltage, and a protection circuit including a first non-linear resistor coupled to the return terminal of the primary side circuit and the negative output terminal of the secondary side circuit forming an electrostatic discharge path for an electrostatic current generated by the load. |
| US09065272B2 |
Scalable power supply circuit including protection features
A power supply circuit and method for supplying power are provided. The power supply circuit includes a front end circuit, a power factor correction circuit, and a drive circuit. The front end circuit is configured to generate a direct current voltage based on an input voltage. The front end circuit includes a first surge protection circuit. The power factor correction circuit is configured to generate a driving voltage based on the generated direct current voltage. The power factor correction circuit includes a second surge protection circuit and an over-temperature protection circuit. The drive circuit is configured to generate an output voltage for a load based on the driving voltage. The drive circuit includes a third surge protection circuit, a startup circuit, and an open-circuit protection circuit. |
| US09065271B2 |
Protective circuit in a windscreen wiper drive and windscreen wiper drive
The invention relates to a protective circuit (10) in a screen wiper drive (1), consisting of a parallel circuit having two circuit elements (16, 17), wherein one circuit element (16) consists of a capacitor (18) and the other circuit element (17) consists of a series-connection of a diode (19) and a Zener diode (20), wherein the forward direction of the diode (19) and the Zener diode (20) is different and the Zener diode (20) inhibits in the direction of a plus pole. |
| US09065270B2 |
Ground fault protection systems and methods
A ground fault protection system may include a controller that is configured to receive signals representing a ground fault detection voltage and a DC link voltage of the machine. Based on the ground fault detection voltage and the DC link voltage, the controller may determine a ground fault detection percentage value, and a worst case component insulation voltage. The controller may compare an absolute value of the worst case component insulation voltage with a rated insulation voltage of a component of the machine. When the absolute value of the worst case component insulation voltage is higher than the rated insulation voltage, the controller may determine a new DC link voltage based on the rated insulation voltage and the ground fault detection percentage value, and may operate the machine by using the new DC link voltage. |
| US09065267B2 |
Superconductive device with bridge contacts
A superconducting device (1) has an elongated coated conductor (2), with a substrate (3) and a quenchable superconducting film (4), wherein the elongated coated conductor (2) has a width W, and an external shunt system (5), with bridge contacts (6; 6a, 6b), electrically connected to the superconducting film (4), and a resistive member (7), thermally insulated from the coated conductor (2) and electrically connected to the bridge contacts (6; 6a, 6b). The device is is characterized in that the bridge contacts (6; 6a, 6b) along the elongated coated conductor (2) have a spacing SP with SP≦8*W. The device reduces the risk of a burnout of a superconducting device in case of a quench in its superconducting film. |
| US09065265B2 |
Extruded cable structures and systems and methods for making the same
A headset can include a cable structure connecting non-cable components such as jacks and headphones. The cable structure can include several legs connected at a bifurcation. An extrusion process can be used to manufacture legs of a multi-segment cable structure. As material is processed by an extruder, one or more system factors of the extruder can be dynamically adjusted to change a diameter of the resulting leg (e.g., to provide a smooth leg having a changing size). Once the leg is extruded, portions of the leg can be reformed to create undercuts used to connect the legs at a bifurcation region. In some cases, an extrusion process can be used to construct a jointly formed multi-leg cable structure having an integral bifurcation region and split. |
| US09065264B2 |
System for mounting an electrical fixture to an electrical junction box
The invention provides a mount for installing an electrical fixture to an electrical junction box. The mount includes a support configured for independent attachment to said junction box and said electrical fixture respectively for mounting said fixture to said junction box. The mount further includes at least one electrical quick connect member engaged to said support comprising a first connection element for forming an electrical connection with a electrical wire and a second connection element for forming an electrical connection a fixture electrical wires. The first and second connection elements are electrically connected or connectible together to form an electrical connection between the source wires and the fixture wires. |
| US09065263B2 |
Multifunctional and configurable wall plates
Multifunctional and configurable wall plate systems are provided and has a vertical base panel for a first utility, the vertical base panel operable for (i) releasably attaching to a wall surface, and (ii) positioning parallel, or substantially parallel, to the wall surface during a use of the wall plate. The systems also have a second utility, as they include a configurable component for the second utility that is releasably attachable to the at least two side surfaces of the vertical base panel to provide at least two configurations of the wall plate system. And, in some embodiments, the panel can be repositioned radially around the vertical base panel to the at least two side surfaces, such that the position of the configurable component relative to the vertical base panel is adjustable for adding flexibility to placement of the single wall plate design. |
| US09065260B2 |
Modular electric power distribution system
A modular electric power distribution system transmits power between a power source and control modules for power consumers. The system includes a power distribution unit mounted on each module and bridge assemblies which connect adjacent distribution units. |
| US09065257B2 |
Method of manufacturing electrode complex for forming electrode of spark plug, and method of manufacturing spark plug
A method of manufacturing an electrode composite for forming an electrode of a spark plug, the electrode composite being formed by laser-welding a first electrode member and a second electrode member together. |
| US09065246B2 |
Infrared laser
Laser devices are presented in which a graphene saturable absorber and an optical amplifier are disposed in a resonant optical cavity with an optical or electrical pump providing energy to the optical amplifier. |
| US09065241B2 |
Methods, systems, and apparatus for high energy optical-pulse amplification at high average power
An inventive composite optical gain medium capable includes a thin-disk gain layer bonded to an index-matched cap. The gain medium's surface is shaped like a paraboloid frustum or other truncated surface of revolution. The gain medium may be cryogenically cooled and optically pumped to provide optical gain for a pulsed laser beam. Photons emitted spontaneously in the gain layer reflect off or refract through the curved surface and out of the gain medium, reducing amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). This reduces limits on stored energy and gain imposed by ASE, enabling higher average powers (e.g., 100-10,000 Watts). Operating at cryogenic temperatures reduces thermal distortion caused by thermo-mechanical surface deformations and thermo-optic index variations in the gain medium. This facilitates the use of the gain medium in an image-relayed, multi-pass architecture for smoothed extraction and further increases in peak pulse energy (e.g., to 1-100 Joules). |
| US09065235B2 |
Method of assembling VCSEL chips on a sub-mount
The present invention relates to a method of assembling VCSEL chips (1) on a sub-mount (2). A de-wetting layer (13) is deposited on a connecting side of the VCSEL chips (1) which is to be connected to the sub-mount (2). A further de-wetting layer (13) is deposited on a connecting side of the sub-mount (2) which is to be connected to the VCSEL chips (1). The de-wetting layers (13) are deposited with a patterned design or are patterned after depositing to define connecting areas (21) on the sub-mount (2) and the VCSEL chips (1). A solder (15) is applied to the connecting areas (21) of at least one of the two connecting sides. The VCSEL chips (1) are placed on the sub-mount (2) and soldered to the sub-mount (2) to electrically and mechanically connect the VCSEL chips (1) and the sub-mount (2). With the proposed method a high alignment accuracy of the VCSEL chips (1) on the sub-mount (2) is achieved without time consuming measures. |
| US09065234B2 |
Connecting contact
A connecting contact for SM D-components includes a metal material and the metal material at least partially comprises a coating with a different metal material. The connecting contact has a substantially laminar contact area for solderable contact to a board and comprises edge regions. At least one segment of the edge region is at a distance from the laminar contact area, so that a soldered fillet is formed for a soldered contact to a board. Also, a method for producing connecting contacts for SM D-components for solderably contacting a board includes the steps of punching metal strips, bending the metal strips so that a conducting region and a laminar contact area are produced, and forming the edge areas at the laminar contact area. At least one segment of the edge area is at a distance from the laminar contact area. |
| US09065231B2 |
Reversible USB connector
Disclosed herein is a two-way plug which can be inserted into a connection port regardless of the orientation of the plug. The two-way plug includes a rectangular frame, a hard substrate and four connection terminals. The rectangular frame is inserted into a connection port such that the rectangular frame is supported by the connection port. The substrate is disposed in a central portion of the rectangular frame. The four connection terminals are formed on each of the two surfaces of the substrate to form a symmetrical structure. Regardless of the orientation of the rectangular frame inserted into the connection port, the four connection terminals formed on one surface of the substrate are each connected to one of four connection pins provided in the connection port, and the four connection terminals formed on the other surface of the substrate are prevented from coming into contact with a tension pin provided in the connection port. |
| US09065229B2 |
USB plural protocol connector system
A USB device has a substrate on which a plurality of USB 2.0 pads and a plurality of USB 3.0 pads are arranged on a fore side of the substrate, a male connector's fore-end part configured to surround the USB 2.0 pads and the USB 3.0 pads, a housing configured to be joined to a base end of the male connector's fore-end part in order to cover at least a rear side of the substrate, and a plurality of lead wires each configured to have one end fixed to an inner surface of the housing and the other end contacted to the USB 3.0 pad corresponding to the lead wire. |
| US09065228B2 |
Connector
A connector is mateable with a mating connector along an up-down direction under a mounted state where the connector is mounted on a circuit board. The mating connector is mounted on a mating circuit board. The connector comprises a housing, a regulation member and a contact. The regulation member has an insulation portion and a metal portion. The insulation portion is supported by the metal portion. The metal portion is fixed to the housing. The contact is press-fit in the housing from below to be held by the housing. The contact has a connection portion and a resilient portion. The connection portion is fixed to an upper surface of the circuit board under the mounted state. The resilient portion has a lower-end portion. The lower-end portion of the resilient portion is located below the connection portion and located right above the insulation portion. The resilient portion is resiliently deformable downward. |
| US09065221B2 |
Connector with metal plate for electro-static discharge protection
A connector is fixable to an object such as a circuit board. The connector comprises a housing having a land extending long in a lengthwise direction, a power contact, a metal plate for protecting the connector from ESD, a shell (connection member) configured to be fixed and connected to the circuit board, and a coupling member coupling the metal plate and the shell with each other. The metal plate is inserted in and held by the land. The connector is thus configured so that a static electricity is grounded to the circuit board through the metal plate, the coupling member and the shell. Moreover, the power contact is locatable at an end of the land in the lengthwise direction so that it is possible to reduce the size of the connector. |
| US09065209B2 |
Hermaphroditic electrical connector for terminating electrical conductors
An electrical connector provides for terminating an electrical conductor. The connector includes an elongate connector body having an elongate barrel portion for accommodating one end of an electrical conductor. A transition portion extends from the barrel portion. A connection portion extends from the transition portion. The connection portion has an elongate aperture therethrough and an extending projection adjacent the aperture. The projection of one connector body is insertable into the aperture of another identically formed connector body so as to place the one connector body in electrical engagement with the other connector body. |
| US09065208B2 |
Method for unlatching an electronic module
A method for removing an electronic module from a base where the module includes a latch extractor assembly and a stiff shift member with latch arms outside the module body and follower arms inside the module body. An extractor engages the follower arms to move the shift member laterally and move the latch arms out of engagement with the base to free the module for removal from the base. |
| US09065207B2 |
Locking electrical receptacle
Locking electrical receptacles and methods for selectively securing an electrical connection. One or more prongs of an electrical plug may be engaged by a clamping element disposable between a clamping configuration and a release configuration. A release mechanism accessible to a user when the electrical connection between a receptacle and plug is established may dispose the clamping mechanism in the release configuration. The clamping element may include a first and second portion that undergo relative movement to impart a shear force on the one or more prongs retained by the clamping mechanism. Furthermore, a strain relief mechanism may be provided to release the plug at a predetermined level of force by moving the clamping element deflectable portion (188) to a release configuration. |
| US09065206B2 |
Connector and method for the production thereof
A Sub-D connector has a base sheet, to which a plug connector is fastened, and positioning journals for positioning on a printed circuit board and lateral fastening openings for receiving fastening screws or fastening pins, wherein the base sheet comprises lateral tabs which are bent twice essentially at a right angle and surround a plug connector housing at the edges. In the state where the tabs are bent twice, the fastening openings on the front and rear side of the connector are covered by the tabs and the positioning journals are arranged on the part of the tabs which is bent once. |
| US09065205B2 |
Connector insert having a cable crimp portion with protrusions and a receptacle having label in the front
A magnetic connector system having a durable and reliable construction and a reduced height while maintaining sufficient holding strength. A connector insert may utilize a crimping piece to crimp a braiding of a cable. The crimping piece may be fixed to an attraction plate and a board in the insert for mechanical reliability. Retention clips may be used to fix a shell to the attraction plate. A connector receptacle may employ a magnetically conductive label to improve holding strength. |
| US09065202B2 |
Connector assembly
A connector assembly includes a connecting body and a protecting cover mounted to the connecting body. The connecting body includes a first limiting portion and a second limiting portion. The connecting body is configured to accommodate multiple connecting lines. A first limiting hole and a first limiting slot are defined in the first limiting portion. A second limiting hole and a second limiting slot are defined in the second limiting portion. The protecting cover includes two flanges and two limiting brackets. An accommodating space is defined in the protecting cover. The flanges resist against the first limiting portion and the second limiting portion. The limiting brackets are locked in the first limiting hole and the second limiting hole. The flanges are received in the first limiting slot and the second limiting slot. The number of connecting lines extend to an outside of the protecting cover from the accommodating space. |
| US09065200B2 |
Connector, and assembly of cable and connector
The connector includes a housing, a plurality of contacts fixedly disposed in the housing, and a fitting nail disposed at least one side end portion of the housing. The fitting nail includes a base fixedly disposed at a longitudinal section of an internal space of the housing, and an elastic piece upwardly extending from the base and pressed toward the base by an external force. The fitting nail is positioned between the first and second extending members of the elastic piece and further includes a locking piece extending toward the cut-out portion in a state in which it is upwardly inclined from the front end portion of the base. |
| US09065198B2 |
Connector with foreign substance entrance preventing portion
A connector includes a first housing (30) and a second housing (50) with an accommodating portion (52) fittable to a fitting (31) on the first housing (30). Terminals (56) cross first and second connecting surfaces (34, 60) facing in a connecting direction in a connected state of the housings (30, 50). A lock arm (36) on the first housing (30) locks the housings (30, 50) in the connected state. A projection (63) is provided on the second connecting surface (60) at a position of projection of the lock arm (36) and has a second blocking surface (64) facing a first blocking surface (40) of the fitting (31). Foreign substance entrance projecting projections (65) on the second connecting surface (60) cover the intermediate terminals (56) crossing the first and second connecting surfaces (34, 60) and engage in foreign substance entrance preventing recesses (41) of the first connecting surface (34). |
| US09065197B2 |
Protection structure for implantable connector and apparatus for manipulating same
An implantable connector includes: first and second detachable mating parts configured to be implantable in living tissue, to terminate first and second segments of a cable, and have first and second interfacing surfaces, respectively; and a protection structure configured to protect against contaminant intrusion between the first and second interfacing surfaces. And a device for decoupling and re-coupling the detachable mating parts in an environmentally controllable volume is provided. |
| US09065195B2 |
Front plug for a PLC module
A front plug for a PLC module, where the front plug includes a top and bottom contact strip that is connected to the top contact strip by a hinge for moving the top contact strip between an open and closed condition, the contacts of the top and bottom contact strip are in the closed condition arranged electrically insulated laterally mutually offset and enable contact with mating contacts of the PLC module requiring to be connected via the front plug, and contact with the mating contacts is enabled at least partially on a side of the bottom contact strip that side faces away from the top side. |
| US09065191B2 |
Single fastener electrical connector
A one-piece metallic connector is configured to receive a fastener and has features that grip and electrically bond two conductors as they are clamped together when the fastener is tightened. The connector's generally U-shaped body has first and second legs, a bight portion joining the legs and an opening in each leg through which a single mounting fastener can extend. When installed with the outside of one leg abutting one conductor, another conductor is clamped between the legs. At least one outer projection (tooth) on the outer face of one leg engages the conductor to which the connector is mounted. At least one inner projection (tooth) on the same leg engages the conductor clamped between the legs. A recess on the inner face of the distal portion of the other leg is configured to cradle the clamped conductor. |
| US09065187B2 |
LED connector
Connectors for a lighting board are disclosed, adapted for receiving electrical energy from a power source, and via one or more conductive fasteners, both mechanically connecting a lighting board to a lighting frame and transmitting power from a power source into electrical contacts in a lighting board to power a lighting board. |
| US09065185B2 |
Dual-direction connector and method for cable system
A connector for connecting a coaxial cable to a components box is disclosed, the connector is adapted to receive a central conductor of the coaxial cable and to firmly connect it to a central pin in the connector using a seizing force of a springy element, without needing to use a fastening screw or the like and without needing to open the component box. The connector of the invention is further adapted to allow releasing the central conductor from the central pin without needing to unfasten a screw or opening the component box. The connector is further adapted to facilitate the connection of the coaxial cable to the connector in another orientation similarly, without needing to use a fastening screw or the like and without needing to open the component box. |
| US09065178B2 |
Rapid tuning frequency adjustable mobile HF communication antenna
A mobile high-frequency antenna rapidly adjustable to minimize VSWR and maximize transmitting and receiving efficiency includes a conductive whip mounted on a coil housing containing a solenoidal loading coil electrically connected at an upper end to the whip and at a lower end to a conductive mast which supports the coil housing. A coil contactor disk at the upper end of a conductive metal shaft raised or lowered by a stepper motor-driven lead screw has protruding spring loaded balls which rollingly contact inner surfaces of coil turns to thus insert less or more inductance between the shaft and whip to tune the antenna. A pair of RF de-couplers in a coil housing base plug which electrically contacts the mast and the lower end of the coil slidably support and electrically contact the shaft, thus shorting out lower parts of the coil to suppress harmonic currents from being induced therein. |
| US09065176B2 |
Ultra-wideband conformal low-profile four-arm unidirectional traveling-wave antenna with a simple feed
The invention is a class of planar unidirectional traveling-wave (TW) antenna comprising a planar four-arm TW radiator ensemble, such as a 4-arm spiral, which is fed medially with a twin-lead feed connected with only a pair of opposite arms of the TW radiator, with the other two arms parasitically excited. The use of a mode suppressor enhances the purity of single-mode TW propagation and radiation. The twin-lead feed is connected with the balanced side of a balun, and is impedance matched with the TW radiator on one side and the balun on the other side. This simple feed structure using a single balun is generally smaller and much simpler, and thus much less costly than the conventional feed for a 4-arm spiral, which is a complex one-to-four power divider that contains hybrids, power dividers, couplers, matrices, etc. |
| US09065175B2 |
Antenna structures and electrical components with grounding
An electronic device may have a conductive housing with an antenna window. Antenna structures may be mounted adjacent to the antenna window. The antenna structures may have a dielectric carrier. Patterned metal antenna traces may be formed on the surface of the dielectric carrier. A proximity sensor may be formed from a flexible printed circuit mounted on the dielectric carrier. The flexible printed circuit may have a tail that contains a transmission line for feeding the antenna structures. The transmission line may include a positive signal conductor that is maintained at a desired distance from the conductive housing using a polymer sheet. A portion of the antenna structures may protrude between a microphone and a camera module. Plastic camera module housing structures may have an inner surface coated with a shielding metal. A U-shaped conductive fabric layer may be used as a grounding structure. |
| US09065174B2 |
Wireless communication improving sheet body, IC tag for wireless communication and method of manufacturing the same, information transmitting medium and wireless communication system
A first spacer has an arrangement surface on which a wireless IC tag is arranged, and an auxiliary antenna that resonates with electromagnetic wave used for wireless communication is provided on a surface opposite to the arrangement surface of the first spacer. A second spacer is provided opposite to the first spacer with the auxiliary antenna interposed therebetween. The first spacer and the auxiliary antenna are provided with a groove (opening) as an adjuster for resonance frequency so that the second spacer forms a bottom of the groove. Application to a plurality of communication frequencies is made possible by changing an arrangement position of the wireless IC tag with respect to the adjuster. |
| US09065171B2 |
Antenna support bracket
A method and apparatus comprising a planar member and a number of support members. The planar member may be configured to be attached to an airframe of an aircraft. The number of support members may be configured to connect the number of antennas to the planar member. |
| US09065166B2 |
Multi-band planar inverted-F (PIFA) antennas and systems with improved isolation
Exemplary embodiments are provided of multi-band Planar Inverted-F antennas and antenna systems including the same. In an exemplary embodiment, a Planar Inverted-F antenna (PIFA) generally includes a planar radiator or upper radiating patch element having a slot. A lower surface of the PIFA is spaced apart from the upper radiating patch element. First and second shorting elements electrically connect the planar radiator to the lower surface. The PIFA also includes a feeding element electrically connected between the upper radiating patch element and the lower surface. The PIFA may be mounted on a ground plane that is larger than the lower surface of the PIFA. |
| US09065165B2 |
Communication device and reconfigurable antenna element therein
A communication device including a ground element, an antenna element and a switching unit is provided. The antenna element is substantially a loop antenna and includes a first part, a second part and a third part. The second part includes (N−1) bends for forming N connection sections. The third part includes (P−1) bends for forming P ground sections. The N connection sections are connected in series between a first end of a first ground section and the first part. A second end of an ith ground section is electrically connected to a first end of an (i+1)th ground section, i is an integer and 1≦i≦(P−1). A second end of a Pth ground section is electrically connected to the ground element, and a (P−1)th ground section includes at least one ground point. The switching unit is electrically connected between the at least one ground point and the ground element. |
| US09065161B2 |
Baluns, a fine balance and impedance adjustment module, a multi-layer transmission line, and transmission line NMR probes using same
A pseudo-Marchand balun, compound balun and tunable multi-resonant coaxial balun, and NMR probes employing each such balun, and a fine balance and impedance adjustment module and a multi-layer transmission line for use in such NMR probes. |
| US09065159B2 |
System and method of altering temperature of an electrical energy storage device or an electrochemical energy generation device using microchannels
A method is generally described which includes altering temperature. The method includes providing a housing having an external surface and an internal surface. The method also includes coupling at least one component within the housing. At least one component is configured to generate electrical energy in combination with other components, chemicals, or materials residing within the housing. Further, the method includes forming a plurality of microchannels coupled to at least one of the internal surface of the housing or at least one internal components. Further still, the method includes providing a thermal sink coupled to the microchannels. The thermal sink is configured to transfer heat energy to or from the microchannels. Yet further still, the method includes flowing a fluid through the microchannels and the thermal sink. |
| US09065157B2 |
System and method for reducing thermal conditions during wireless charging
A method is provided for reducing unsafe thermal conditions in an inductive charging system within a vehicle. The method includes inductively charging a chargeable device with an inductive charger. The method also includes adjusting an amount of power provided to the chargeable device by the charger based on the detected temperature information. The method further includes storing temperature metrics related to at least one chargeable device in a database. The method also includes shutting off the inductive charger if it detects the device on the inductive charger is also connected to a wired charging source. |
| US09065156B2 |
Photovoltaic capacitor for direct solar energy conversion and storage
A method and device for harvesting and storing solar energy is provided. The device converts solar energy to electrical energy via the photovoltaic effect. The device includes a pair of electrodes, at least one of which is transparent to allow solar energy to pass through. A medium is disposed between the electrodes which exhibits a combination of photovoltaic and ferroelectric properties. When solar energy passes through the transparent electrode and is received by the medium, electron-hole pairs establish a voltage potential between electrodes in the device via the photovoltaic effect. The voltage potential may be retained and the mobile charge may be stored in the absence of solar energy via the ferroelectric effect. |
| US09065155B2 |
Adaptor, assembly of battery pack and adaptor, and electric tool with the same
When a battery pack having an output voltage of 14.4 V that is connectable to an electric tool in a sliding manner is used as a power supply source for the electric tool that is connectable to a battery pack in an insertion manner and has a rated voltage of 12 V, the electric tool and the battery pack are connected to each other with an adaptor interposed therebetween. The adaptor has an FET that is switched at a predetermined duty of a predetermined frequency. The battery pack and the electric tool are connected or disconnected to or from each other by the switching operation, thereby dropping the output voltage of the battery pack. When the detected voltage is out of a predetermined value range, it is judged that the overcurrent or overdischarge has occurred. Then, the FET is turned off to stop the electric tool. |
| US09065151B2 |
Manufacture device of battery cell
Disclosed herein is a battery cell manufacturing device configured to manufacture a battery cell including two or more unit cells. The battery cell manufacturing device includes a unit cell stacking unit into which unit cells are introduced from above and in which the unit cells are sequentially stacked, a wrapping unit to wrap an outside of the unit cell stack discharged from the unit cell stacking unit with a separation film, and a heating unit to thermally shrink the separation film wrapping the outside of the unit cell stack. |
| US09065150B2 |
Electrolyte material, and battery material and secondary battery using said electrolyte material
The present invention provides a stable electrolyte material that provides high safety, exhibits favorable ionic conductivity not only at room temperature but also in the low temperature range at or below room temperature, has excellent reduction resistance, and can be suitably used as a material of a lithium ion cell. The electrolyte material includes, as essential components, a specific polymer having an ether bond in a side chain thereof, and a specific electrolyte salt. |
| US09065148B2 |
Negative electrode active material for lithium ion secondary battery and method for producing the same
A negative electrode active material for a lithium ion secondary battery contains a lithium titanium complex oxide having a composition expressed as Li4Ti5-xMnxO12 (where 0 |
| US09065146B2 |
Nonaqueous electrolyte and lithium secondary battery employing the same
The invention relates to a nonaqueous electrolyte which comprises a nonaqueous organic solvent and a lithium salt dissolved therein, wherein the nonaqueous organic solvent contains at least one compound selected from the group consisting of acid anhydrides and carbonic esters having an unsaturated bond, and at least one compound selected from the group consisting of sulfonic compounds and fluorine-containing aromatic compounds having 9 carbon atoms or less; and a lithium secondary battery employing the same. |
| US09065144B2 |
Electrode including a 3D framework formed of fluorinated carbon
One example includes a battery case sealed to retain electrolyte, an electrode disposed in the battery case, the electrode comprising a framework defining open areas disposed along three axes (“3D framework”) formed of fluorinated carbon including elements that each include a conductive core at least partially surrounded by an electrochemically active portion, wherein a plurality conductive cores form an electrically conductive network, a conductor electrically coupled to the electrode in electrical communication with the conductive network and sealingly extending through the battery case to a terminal disposed on an exterior of the battery case, a further electrode disposed in the battery case, a separator disposed between the electrode and the further electrode and a further terminal disposed on the exterior of the battery case and in electrical communication with the further electrode, with the terminal and the further terminal electrically isolated from one another. |
| US09065138B2 |
Water soluble binder composition, method of producing the same and electrode for rechargeable battery employing the same
In one aspect, a water soluble binder composition, a method of producing the same and an electrode for a rechargeable battery employing the same is provided. |
| US09065137B2 |
Copper fluoride based nanocomposites as electrode materials
The present invention relates to primary and secondary electrochemical energy storage systems, particularly to such systems as battery cells, which use materials that take up and release ions as a means of storing and supplying electrical energy. |
| US09065131B2 |
Electrolyte injection device and electrolyte injection method
A battery case is disposed in a decompression chamber. An electrolyte in an aeration tank is injected into the battery case in the decompression chamber using a liquid injection nozzle. By exposing the electrolyte to an ambient pressure in the decompression chamber within the aeration tank before supplying the electrolyte to the liquid injection nozzle, a pressure of the electrolyte is regulated to a pressure in the decompression chamber, and gas molecules in the electrolyte are separated therefrom. By providing the aeration tank, an efficiency with which the gas molecules are separated from the electrolyte is improved, and as a result, the electrolyte is injected into the battery case smoothly. |
| US09065129B2 |
Rechargeable battery including first and second covers
A rechargeable battery including an electrode assembly including a first electrode and a second electrode; a case having a space in which the electrode assembly is located; a cap plate coupled with the case; a terminal coupled to the electrode assembly through a current collecting tap, and protruding through the cap plate to an outside of the case; a first cover in which a lower portion of the terminal is located; and a second cover in which an upper portion of the current collecting tap is located, the second cover being coupled with the first cover to secure the terminal and the current collecting tap. |
| US09065128B2 |
Rechargeable fuel cell
A device and method of forming a power generator includes a container, a fuel cell stack within the container, a metal hydride hydrogen producing fuel within the container, wherein the fuel cell stack is sandwiched between the container and an anode support surrounding the fuel and in close thermal contact with the fuel. The fuel cell stack has a cathode electrode for exposure to oxygen and an anode electrode for exposure to hydrogen. A cathode is electrically coupled to the cathode electrode of the fuel cell stack and supported by the container such that at least a portion of it is exposed on an outside of the container. An anode is electrically coupled to the anode electrode of the fuel cell stack and supported by the container such that at least a portion of it is exposed on the outside of the container spaced apart from the exposed cathode. |
| US09065119B2 |
Separator for nonaqueous secondary battery, and nonaqueous secondary battery
An object of the invention is to provide a separator for a nonaqueous secondary battery, which has good adhesion to electrodes, is capable of ensuring sufficient ion permeability even after attachment to electrodes, and further includes an adhesive porous layer having dynamic physical properties sufficient to withstand heat pressing and a uniform porous structure. The separator for a nonaqueous secondary battery of the invention includes a porous substrate and an adhesive porous layer that is formed on at least one side of the porous substrate and contains a polyvinylidene-fluoride-based resin. The separator for a nonaqueous secondary battery is characterized in that the adhesive porous layer has a porosity of 30 to 60% and an average pore size of 1 to 100 nm. |
| US09065118B1 |
Thermal battery with polymer-based construction
A thin, flexible, porous polymer composite film useful as a separator for a molten-salt thermal battery having a lower temperature electrolyte melt formulation 150-250° C. typical of molten alkyl nitrate/nitrite comprises 5-50 weight percent of electrically non-conductive ceramic comprising a thermoplastic in the range of 50-95 weight percent. The high-surface-area ceramic is comprised of MgO (preferred), Al2O3, AlSiO2, BN, AlN, or a mixture of two or more of the foregoing; and providing a porous network having a porosity of not less than 30 percent by volume. Likewise, the electrodes can be manufactured with polymer-bonded particulates of porous ceramic such as MgO. Cells for thermal batteries are fabricated in the uncharged state, e.g., Carbon/lithiated metal oxide. Additionally, a polymer-based thermal battery construction can free design from the rigid stacked-pellet battery design. Alternatively, a porous ceramic composite film of MgO coated non-conductive ceramic fibers may be used as a separator. |
| US09065111B2 |
Battery pack
An embodiment of the invention relates to a battery pack having a strength-reinforced housing that accommodates a plurality of battery cells. In one embodiment, the battery pack includes one or more battery cells, a housing accommodating the one or more battery cells, and a reinforcement portion formed in the housing. The housing has a bottom portion and three sidewalls upwardly extending from three-sided perimeters of the bottom portion. The reinforcement portion surrounds surfaces of the three sidewalls. |
| US09065109B2 |
Method for preparing a composite material comprising a polymeric matrix and a filler consisting in ion exchange inorganic particles
The invention relates to a method for preparing a composite material comprising a polymeric matrix and a filler consisting in ion exchange inorganic particles, comprising a step for synthesis in situ of said particles within the polymeric matrix. |
| US09065106B2 |
Battery pack with guide rails for improved terminal alignment
A battery pack may include a battery cell, a cradle, a board and a housing. The cradle may be coupled with the battery cell and may include one or more guide members extending from and integrally formed with a surface of the cradle. The board may be mounted to the cradle and may include a plurality of terminal contacts electrically connected with the battery cell. The one or more guide members may be adapted to guide a device into engagement with the terminal contacts. The housing may at least partially enclose the cradle and the battery cell and may include one or more guide apertures and a plurality of terminal apertures. The one or more guide members may protrude through the one or more guide apertures. Each of the terminal apertures may be aligned with a corresponding one of the plurality of contacts. |
| US09065105B2 |
Battery pack with ribs provided in a corner of the battery case
A battery pack having a case configured to prevent deformation. The battery pack includes a plurality of bare cells, a circuit module electrically connected to the plurality of bare cells, and a case accommodating the plurality of bare cells and the circuit module. The case includes a first case having one side opened to accommodate the plurality of bare cells and the circuit module and a second case covering the opened one side of the first case. The first case has a first planar part that is a bottom surface on which the plurality of bare cells are mounted, and first case side parts bent from the first planar part and extending toward the second case. The first case has corners formed by connecting neighboring first case side parts. A first rib unit is formed at inside of at least one of the corners. |
| US09065104B2 |
Process for manufacturing elementary electrochemical cells for energy- or hydrogen-producing electrochemical systems, in particular of SOFC and HTE type
The invention relates to a process for manufacturing at least one elementary electrochemical cell comprising a first and a second electrode between which an electrolyte is intercalated, said first and second electrodes and said electrolyte being in the form of layers, which process is characterized in that it comprises: a) producing at least one structure comprising a layer of a powder of a first electrode material and a layer of a powder of a second electrode material between which a layer of a powder of an electrolyte material is intercalated; and b) simultaneously sintering all the powder layers by an electric field sintering. Applications: manufacture of energy- or hydrogen-producing electrochemical systems, in particular solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) or high temperature electrolysers cells (HTEs). |
| US09065102B2 |
Rechargeable battery
A rechargeable battery including an electrode assembly including a positive electrode and a negative electrode; a case containing the electrode assembly; a cap plate covering an opening of the case; a terminal electrically connected to the electrode assembly; and a sealing member on the cap plate to seal between the terminal and the cap plate, the sealing member including a connection member arranged therein and electrically connecting the terminal and the cap plate. |
| US09065101B2 |
Fuel injection system and method for injecting hydrocarbon fuel into a fuel reformer
A fuel injection system and method for injecting hydrocarbon fuel into a fuel reformer for generating hydrogen rich gas from hydrocarbon fuel are provided. The hydrocarbon fuel is injected into the fuel reformer as spray having a pulsating pressure. |
| US09065097B2 |
Back-up fuel cell electric generator comprising a compact manifold body, and methods of managing the operation thereof
A fuel cell electric generator designed for back-up in the absence of network electricity supply. The generator comprises a fuel cell stack, means for supplying the stack with a first and a second reagent flow comprising, in turn, pressure reducing means, and a manifold body to communicate with the stack said first and second reagent flows and at least a flow of coolant fluid via a respective coolant loop. The manifold body comprises inside chambers for the mixing of said reagent flows with corresponding re-circulated product flows and a coolant fluid expansion chamber within which said pressure reducing means of said first and second reagent flows are positioned at least partially drowned by said coolant. Method for the start-up and shut-down of the generator, and a method for detecting the flooding of a fuel cell and a method for detecting the presence of gas leakages in the generator are also disclosed. |
| US09065096B2 |
Fuel cell stack
A fuel cell stack includes a plurality of unit cells, bypass resistors, and connective resistors. The unit cells are connected in series and/or in parallel. The connected resistors are disposed between the unit cells connected in series and disconnected by heat due to resistance at a small current value in comparison to an current collector. The bypass resistors are connected in parallel to the unit cells or the unit cells connected in parallel. |
| US09065088B2 |
Modification to stampable flowfields to improve flow distribution in the channels of PEM fuel cells
A fuel cell device includes a plurality of channels that have at least one unrestricted inlet, a conduit for directing a flow having a distribution pattern to the unrestricted inlet, and a gap region between the conduit and the plurality of channels for receiving the flow distribution pattern, the gap region having such dimensions in which the distribution pattern tends to normalize within the gap region so that flow to each of the unrestricted inlets tends to normalize across said gap region. |
| US09065087B2 |
Stable ultralyophobic coating for PEMFC bipolar plate water management
An electrode plate is disclosed. The electrode plate includes a plate having an active area, a feed region in fluid communication with the active region, and a tunnel region in fluid communication with the feed region and a manifold region, an ultralyophobic coating on one or more of at least a portion of the tunnel region, at least a portion of the feed region, and an interface between the tunnel region and the manifold region. Fuel cells using the electrode plate and methods of making electrode plates are also described. |
| US09065086B2 |
Thermoplastic bipolar plate
A method of manufacturing a fuel cell bipolar plate comprising first and second thermoformed plates. The thermoformed plates comprise at least one thermoplastic polymer. The method includes providing film cast resin mixture and forming it into a substantially flat sheet having first and second opposing major surfaces. The sheet may be preheated to a predetermined temperature and thermoformed thereby creating separator plates of a desired size and shape. First and second plates are joined to form an integral bipolar plate. |
| US09065081B2 |
Titanium material for solid polymer fuel cell separator use and method of production of same
The present invention provides titanium material for a separator for solid polymer fuel cell use comprised of titanium which has a surface layer part where conductive compound particles are affixed, which is excellent in contact resistance between the separator surface and carbon paper and in durability, and which is low in cost and superior in recyclability and a method of production of the same. This titanium material for separator use has on the surface of the titanium base material a film comprised of the titanium compound particles made of titanium carbide, titanium nitride, or titanium carbonitride and titanium oxide. The film has a thickness of 0.1 to 1 μm, the coverage rate is an area percentage of 20% or more, and the contents of carbon and nitrogen in the film total 5 to 40 at %. The titanium material for a separator is produced by annealing or shot blasting and pickling. |
| US09065076B2 |
Organic light emitting display device and manufacturing method thereof
An organic light emitting display device includes a substrate, a display unit on the substrate, and an encapsulation layer on the display unit, the encapsulation layer including a plurality of alternating inorganic and organic films, at least one of the organic films being a patterned organic film, and the patterned organic film having a plurality of high refractive index portions in an organic matrix. |
| US09065073B2 |
Organic light-emitting display apparatus and method of manufacturing the same
Provided are an organic light-emitting display device and a method of manufacturing the organic light-emitting display device, the method including operations of forming pattern layers in an active area and a pad area, respectively, on a substrate; and forming an encapsulation thin-film layer that covers the pattern layers on the substrate, wherein the operation of the encapsulation thin-film layer may include an operation of forming the encapsulation thin-film layer on the substrate by using a raw material of the encapsulation thin-film layer that is a single layer comprising an inorganic material. |
| US09065068B2 |
Organic light emitting display device
Disclosed is an organic light emitting display (OLED) device that may include first and second electrodes facing each other on a substrate, at least two light emitting units between the first and second electrodes, and a charge generation layer between the at least two light emitting units, the charge generation layer including an N-type charge generation layer and a P-type charge generation layer, wherein the N-type charge generation layer includes at least two hosts and a dopant, and wherein the at least two hosts have different lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels. |
| US09065066B2 |
Light-emitting element, light-emitting device, electronic device, and lighting device
A light-emitting layer, which is a stack of a first light-emitting layer and a second light-emitting layer, is provided between an anode and a cathode. The first light-emitting layer is formed on the anode side and contains a first light-emitting substance converting triplet excitation energy into light emission, a first organic compound having an electron-transport property, and a second organic compound having a hole-transport property. The second light-emitting layer contains a second light-emitting substance converting triplet excitation energy into light emission, the first organic compound, and a third organic compound having a hole-transport property. The second organic compound has a lower HOMO level than the third organic compound. The first light-emitting substance emits light with a wavelength shorter than that of light emitted from the second light-emitting substance. The first and the second organic compounds form an exciplex. The first and the third organic compounds form an exciplex. |
| US09065054B2 |
Method of forming organic light emitting pattern and apparatus for forming organic light emitting pattern of organic electro-luminescence display using sublimation type thermal transfer method
A method of forming an organic light emitting pattern of an organic electro-luminescence display according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes preparing a display substrate in which a region where a first organic light emitting material is to be formed is defined, preparing a temporal transfer substrate (TTS) that is a transfer subject on which the first organic light emitting material is to be transferred, forming the first organic light emitting material on the temporal transfer substrate, applying heat to a portion other than a first region of the temporal transfer substrate to remove the first organic light emitting material formed on the portion other than the first region, disposing the temporal transfer substrate and the display substrate to closely face each other, and applying heat to the temporal transfer substrate to transfer the organic light emitting material on the display substrate. |
| US09065041B2 |
Magnetic memory cell and method of manufacturing the same
The present invention suppresses short circuits of a magnetic memory cell and a deterioration of the characteristics of a magnetic layer. A magnetic memory cell includes: a data storage layer; a tunnel barrier layer formed on the data storage layer; a reference layer formed on the tunnel barrier layer so as to cover a part of the tunnel barrier layer; and a metallic oxide layer formed on the tunnel barrier layer without covering the reference layer. The metallic oxide layer contains an oxide of a material of a contact part of the reference layer with the tunnel barrier layer. |
| US09065039B2 |
Magnetic tunneling junction devices, memories, electronic systems, and memory systems, and methods of fabricating the same
Provided is a magnetic tunneling junction device including a fixed magnetic structure; a free magnetic structure; and a tunnel barrier between the fixed magnetic structure and the free magnetic structure, at least one of the fixed magnetic structure and the free magnetic structure including a perpendicular magnetization preserving layer, a magnetic layer between the perpendicular magnetization preserving layer and the tunnel barrier, and a perpendicular magnetization inducing layer between the perpendicular magnetization preserving layer and the magnetic layer. |
| US09065037B2 |
Piezoelectric vibrating piece, piezoelectric vibrator, oscillator, electronic device, and radio-controlled timepiece
There is provided a piezoelectric vibrating piece including: a piezoelectric plate that includes a pair of vibrating arm portions, and a base portion which integrally fixes the base end portions of the pair of vibrating arm portions along a length direction; excitation electrodes which are formed on the vibrating arm portions and vibrate the vibrating arm portions; mounting electrodes which are formed on the base portion and mount the piezoelectric plate on external portions using a joining member; and leading-out electrodes which connect the excitation electrodes and the mounting electrodes, in which the leading-out electrodes are formed by folding back several times between the excitation electrodes and the mounting electrodes. |
| US09065036B2 |
Vibration-type driving apparatus and image pickup apparatus
Provided is a vibration-type driving apparatus comprising a vibrating body including an electro-mechanical energy conversion element and an elastic body to which the electro-mechanical energy conversion element is joined; and a flexible printed board connected to the electro-mechanical energy conversion element, wherein the flexible printed board includes a first region bonded to at least the location of an antinode portion of vibration of the vibrating body and a second region that is adjacent to the first region and that is not bonded to the electro-mechanical energy conversion element; the boundary portion between the first region and the second region is located at a node portion of the vibration of the vibrating body; and a gap is present between the second region and the vibrating body. |
| US09065033B2 |
Light emitting device package
The present application relates to a light emitting device package. The light emitting device package includes a package substrate in which a via hole is formed. An electrode layer extends to both surfaces of the package substrate after passing through the via hole. A light emitting device is arranged on the package substrate and is connected to the electrode layer. A fluorescence film includes a first part that fills at least a part of an internal space of the via hole and a second part that covers at least a part of the light emitting device. |
| US09065032B2 |
Method for manufacturing light-emitting element, and light-emitting element
Provided are a method of manufacturing a light-emitting element by which a light-emitting element (80) is manufactured through the following steps and a light-emitting element manufactured by employing the method. A light-emitting element layer (40) is formed on one face (32T) of a monocrystalline substrate (30A) for a light-emitting element. Next, the other face (32B) of the monocrystalline substrate (30A) for a light-emitting element is polished until a state where a vertical hole (34A) penetrates the monocrystalline substrate (30A) for a light-emitting element in its thickness direction is established. Next, a conductive material is filled into the vertical hole (34B) from the side of the vertical hole (34B) closer to an opening (36B) in the other face (32B) to form a conductive portion (50) that is continuous from a side closer to the light-emitting element layer (40) to the opening (36B) in the other face (32B). |
| US09065031B2 |
Light-emitting device with liquid-repellent layer and manufacturing method therefore
A low-cost and productivity-oriented surface mount light-emitting device is provided. The light-emitting device includes an insulating film 2, at least one pair of land portions 3a and 3b comprising metal film pieces formed on the top surface of the insulating film 2, external connection terminal portions 4a and 4b comprising metal film pieces formed on the bottom surface of the insulating film 2, that are opposed to the land portions 3a and 3b across the insulating film 2 in one-to-one correspondence, through-conductors 7a and 7b that connect between the land portions 3a and 3b and the terminal portions 4a and 4b corresponding to each other through the insulating film 2, and a light-emitting element 10 that is electrically connected to the pair of the land portions 3a and 3b and disposed in a unit section which contains the pair of the land portions 3a and 3b. |
| US09065028B2 |
Flip-chip light emitting diode package with moisture barrier layer
An exemplary light emitting diode (LED) package includes a substrate, a first electrode penetrating downward through the substrate, a second electrode penetrating downward through the substrate and spaced from the first electrode, an LED die arranged on the substrate and mounted to the first and second electrodes by flip-chip technology, and an encapsulation layer formed on the substrate to encapsulate the LED die therein. The substrate includes a top surface and a bottom surface at opposite sides thereof. Top ends of the first and second electrodes are exposed at the top surface of the substrate, and bottom ends of the first and second electrodes are exposed at the bottom surface of the substrate. A moisture barrier layer is attached on the bottom of the LED package to cover a joint of the first and/or second electrode and the substrate. |
| US09065027B2 |
Light emitting diode package structure
A LED package structure includes a base portion, a light-emitting chip, a cup portion and an encapsulating glue. The base portion has an upper surface and a lower surface. The upper surface has a die-bonding area. The light-emitting chip emits a light with a first wavelength and is located on the die-bonding area. The cup portion is located on the base portion to surround the die-bonding area to form a recess having an opening. The encapsulating glue is filled into the recess. The encapsulating glue has a wavelength conversion material configured to convert part of the light with the first wavelength into a light with a second wavelength. The cup portion includes an electro chromic layer electrically connected to a first external power and a transmittance of the electro chromic layer is changed in accordance with an input voltage of the first external power to adjust the light-emitting profile of the light-emitting chip. |
| US09065022B2 |
Light emitting apparatus
The present invention relates to a light emitting apparatus comprising at least one light emitting device and a support mechanism. The light emitting device includes a transparent substrate which light can pass through; at least one LED chip emitting light omni-directionally is disposed on one surface of the substrate, and the light emitted by the LED chip will penetrate into the substrate and at least partially emerge from another surface of the substrate. The support mechanism is coupled to the light emitting device; a first angle is formed between the substrate and the support mechanism. According to the present invention, the light emitting apparatus using LED chips can provide sufficient lighting intensity and uniform lighting performance. |
| US09065012B2 |
Composite substrates and functional devices
Protrusions 2 each having a shape of a pyramid or a truncated pyramid are regularly arranged on a growing face 1a of a seed crystal 1 composed of gallium nitride single crystal. It is formed a gallium nitride crystal layer 4 having a thickness of 100 μm or smaller by flux method directly on the growing face 1a of the seed crystal. |
| US09065007B2 |
Process for fabricating a ridge pin junction comprising spaced apart doped regions, application to the fabrication of electro-optical modulators and photodetectors
The invention relates to a process for fabricating a semiconductor ridge pin junction (20, 21). According to the invention, judicious choices are made when defining hard masks and the sequence in which resist masks are formed for implantation (doping) and etching, which choices enable the conventional photolithography technique to be used despite the low precision of mask alignment (±100 nm) relative to underlying regions.By virtue of the process according to the invention, a ridge pin junction is formed, at lower cost and with shorter production times than in the prior art, with doped regions precisely spaced apart from the edge of the ridge. |
| US09065004B2 |
Semiconductor light emitting element
In general, according to one embodiment, a semiconductor light emitting element includes: a first semiconductor layer; a second semiconductor layer; a light emitting layer. The light emitting layer includes a well layer with a thickness of t1 (nanometers). The well layer includes InxGa1-xN having an In composition ratio x higher than 0 and lower than 1. The first semiconductor layer has a tensile strain of not less than 0.02 percent and not more than 0.25 percent in a plane perpendicular to a stacking direction. A peak wavelength λp (nanometers) of light satisfies a relationship of λp=a1+a2×(x+(t1−3.0)×a3). The a1 is not less than 359 and not more than 363. The a2 is not less than 534 and not more than 550. The a3 is not less than 0.0205 and not more than 0.0235. |
| US09065003B2 |
Semiconductor light emitting device and semiconductor wafer
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 and configured to emit a light having a peak wavelength of 440 nanometers or more. Tensile strain is applied to the first semiconductor layer. An edge dislocation density of the first semiconductor layer is 5×109/cm2 or less. A lattice mismatch factor between the first semiconductor layer and the light emitting layer is 0.11 percent or less. |
| US09065002B2 |
Shallow-trench-isolation (STI)-bounded single-photon avalanche photodetectors
Techniques and apparatus for using single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) devices in various applications. |
| US09064998B2 |
Light emitting diode and method for manufacturing the same
A light emitting diode includes a substrate, a first-type semiconductor layer, a nanorod layer and a transparent planar layer. The first-type semiconductor layer is disposed over the substrate. The nanorod layer is formed on the first-type semiconductor layer. The nanorod layer includes a plurality of nanorods and each of the nanorods has a quantum well structure and a second-type semiconductor layer. The quantum well structure is in contact with the first-type semiconductor layer, and the second-type semiconductor layer is formed on the quantum well structure. The transparent planar layer is filled between the nanorods. A surface of the second-type semiconductor layer is exposed out of the transparent planar layer. |
| US09064997B2 |
Semiconductor light emitting device, nitride semiconductor layer growth substrate, and nitride semiconductor wafer
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor light emitting device includes a first semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type and having a major surface, a second semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type, and a light emitting layer provided between the first and second semiconductor layers. The major surface is opposite to the light emitting layer. The first semiconductor layer has structural bodies provided in the major surface. The structural bodies are recess or protrusion. A centroid of a first structural body aligns with a centroid of a second structural body nearest the first structural. hb, rb, and Rb satisfy rb/(2·hb)≦0.7, and rb/Rb<1, where hb is a depth of the recess, rb is a width of a bottom portion of the recess, and Rb is a width of the protrusion. |
| US09064992B1 |
Method of fabricating dual-band type-II superlattice detectors based on p-B-p design
A dual-band infrared detector structure based on Type-II superlattices (T2SL) has been developed and experimentally validated. The structure according to the principles of the present invention is designed for a single Indium bump architecture and utilizes a T2SL barrier design that omits the traditional p-n junction region. The barrier design comprises multiple periods where each period comprises multiple monolayers doped P type. By selecting the composition, number of monolayers per period and number of periods, a transition region is created in the conduction band between a first absorber layer and a second absorber layer that allows operation at low biases (<100 mV for both bands) and exhibits a dark current density in the longer wavelength band comparable to that obtained with single-color detectors. |
| US09064988B2 |
Photoelectric device package
A photoelectric device package and a detachable package structure are provided. The photoelectric device package includes a bottom-plate, a top-plate, at least one photoelectric device, and at least one light-guiding element. The bottom-plate has a first carrying part and a first substrate part on the first carrying part. The first carrying part has first alignment portions. The first substrate part has second alignment portions. The top-plate has a second carrying part and a second substrate part on the second carrying part. The second carrying part has third alignment portions. The second substrate part has fourth alignment portions. The top-plate and the bottom-plate are assembled by the first and third alignment portions. The first and second substrate parts are positioned by the second and fourth alignment portions. Each photoelectric device is disposed on the first substrate part. Each light-guiding element is disposed between the first and second substrate parts. |
| US09064983B2 |
Solid-state imaging device and electronic equipment
A solid-state imaging device includes: a semiconductor substrate having a light receiving surface sectioned for red, green, blue, and white pixels arranged in a matrix with photodiodes formed thereon; color filters formed on the semiconductor substrate in light incident paths to the photodiodes of the respective formation regions of the red, green, and blue pixels and respectively transmitting lights in red, green, and blue wavelength regions; and photochromic films formed on the semiconductor substrate in the light incident path to the photodiodes in the formation regions of at least some of the white pixels, and containing a photochromic material having light transmittance varying in response to incident light intensity in a predetermined wavelength region, wherein a half period of the light transmittance of the photochromic films is shorter than one frame as a period in which pixel signals obtained in the pixels are read out with respect to all pixels. |
| US09064980B2 |
Devices having removed aluminum nitride sections
One or more layers are epitaxially grown on a bulk crystalline AlN substrate. The epitaxial layers include a surface which is the initial surface of epitaxial growth of the epitaxial layers. The AlN substrate is substantially removed over a majority of the initial surface of epitaxial growth. |
| US09064977B2 |
Stacked microelectronic packages having sidewall conductors and methods for the fabrication thereof
Embodiments of a method for fabricating stacked microelectronic packages are provided, as are embodiments of stacked microelectronic packages. In one embodiment, the method includes producing a partially-completed stacked microelectronic package including a package body having a vertical package sidewall, a plurality microelectronic devices embedded within the package body, and package edge conductors electrically coupled to the plurality of microelectronic devices and extending to the vertical package sidewall. A flowable conductive material is applied on the vertical package sidewall and contacts the package edge conductors. Selected portions of the flowable conductive material are then removed to define, at least in part, electrically-isolated sidewall conductors electrically coupled to different ones of the package edge conductors. |
| US09064976B1 |
Modeling charge distribution on FinFET sidewalls
A method is provided for modeling charge distribution on FinFET sidewalls for estimating variability in device performance. The method includes: inputting structure parameters and simulation parameters for a FinFET structure; identifying a semiconductor-oxide interface in the structure, the interface including a plurality of atomic steps and a plurality of trapped charges; distributing charges at the interface; and performing device simulations and current-voltage analysis upon generating all samples of given number of devices. |
| US09064968B2 |
Non-volatile memory device and operation and fabricating methods thereof
Provided is a non-volatile memory device having a zigzag body wiring. First word lines and second word lines are disposed on a substrate, arranged periodically and extended along a first direction. First inter-poly dielectric films are disposed on the substrate and respectively beneath the first word lines. Second inter-poly dielectric films are disposed on the substrate and respectively beneath the second word lines, wherein the first inter-poly dielectric films are thinner than the second inter-poly dielectric films. A floating gate is disposed between the substrate and each of the first and second inter-poly dielectric films. A tunnel oxide film is disposed between the substrate and each of the floating gates. Bit lines are disposed above the first and second word lines and extended along a second direction different from the first direction. |
| US09064966B2 |
Semiconductor device with oxide semiconductor
A highly reliable semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor is provided. Provided is a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor layer, an insulating layer in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer, a gate electrode layer overlapping with the oxide semiconductor layer, and a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer electrically connected to the oxide semiconductor layer. The oxide semiconductor layer includes a first region having a crystal whose size is less than or equal to 10 nm and a second region which overlaps with the insulating layer with the first region provided therebetween and which includes a crystal part whose c-axis is aligned in a direction parallel to a normal vector of the surface of the oxide semiconductor layer. |
| US09064962B2 |
Thin film transistor array substrate
The present invention provides a thin film transistor array substrate that can eliminate short-circuiting between a source electrode and a drain electrode, while ensuring electrical connection between the drain electrode and a pixel electrode. The thin film transistor array substrate has a thin film transistor, a first interlayer insulating film, a lower layer electrode, a second interlayer insulating film, and an upper layer electrode laminated therein in this order. The first interlayer insulating film has a first through hole in a region where the drain electrode of the thin film transistor is disposed, the second interlayer insulating film has a second through hole in a region where the first through hole is disposed, the lower layer electrode has a portion on the first interlayer insulating film and a portion in the first through hole separated from each other, the drain electrode has a portion covered with the first interlayer insulating film, and a portion in contact with a portion of the lower layer electrode in the first through hole, and the portion of the lower layer electrode in the first through hole is in contact with a portion of an upper layer electrode disposed in the second through hole. |
| US09064961B2 |
Integrated circuits including epitaxially grown strain-inducing fills doped with boron for improved robustness from delimination and methods for fabricating the same
Integrated circuits and methods for fabricating integrated circuits are provided. In one example, a method for fabricating an integrated circuit includes forming a cavity in a semiconductor region laterally adjacent to a gate electrode structure. An EPI strain-inducing fill is deposited into the cavity. The EPI strain-inducing fill includes a main SiGe layer and a Si cap that overlies the main SiGe layer. The EPI strain-inducing fill is doped with boron and has a first peak boron content in an upper portion of the EPI strain-inducing fill of about 2.5 times or greater than an average boron content in an intermediate portion of the main SiGe layer. |
| US09064957B2 |
Semiconductor devices and methods of forming the same
Semiconductor devices and methods of forming the same may be provided. The semiconductor devices may include a trench in a substrate. The semiconductor devices may also include a bulk electrode within opposing sidewalls of the trench. The semiconductor devices may further include a liner electrode between the bulk electrode and the opposing sidewalls of the trench. The liner electrode may include a sidewall portion between a sidewall of the bulk electrode and one of the opposing sidewalls of the trench. |
| US09064955B2 |
Split-gate lateral diffused metal oxide semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a source region, a drain region, and a drift region between the source and drain regions. A split gate is disposed over a portion of the drift region, and between the source and drain regions. The split gate includes first and second gate electrodes separated by a gate oxide layer. A self-aligned RESURF region is disposed within the drift region between the gate and the drain region. PI gate structures including an upper polysilicon layer are disposed near the drain region, such that the upper polysilicon layer can serve as a hard mask for the formation of the double RESURF structure, thereby allowing for self-alignment of the double RESURF structure. |
| US09064952B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device 10 includes an element domain 40 and a termination domain 50 that surrounds the element domain 40. The element domain 40 and the termination domain 50 respectively include a second conductive type drift region 18. A gate trench 38 may be provided in the element domain 40. The termination domain 50 may be provided with a termination trench 22 surrounding the element domain. A first conductive type floating region surrounded by the drift region 18 is not provided at a bottom of the gate trench 38, and a first conductive type floating region 20 surrounded by the drift region 18 is provided at a bottom of the termination trench 22. |
| US09064951B2 |
Deep depleted channel MOSFET with minimized dopant fluctuation and diffusion levels
CMOS devices are fabricated with a channel layer having minimized dopant fluctuation and diffusion. Embodiments include forming a dummy gate, on a substrate, between a pair of spacers, forming, in the substrate, a source and drain separated by a ground plane layer, removing the dummy gate from the substrate, forming a cavity between the pair of spacers, forming, after removal of the dummy gate, a channel layer on the substrate, forming a high-k layer on the channel layer and on side surfaces of the cavity, and forming a replacement gate in the cavity. |
| US09064947B2 |
Island matrixed gallium nitride microwave and power switching transistors
A gallium nitride (GaN) device that has greatly superior current handling ability per unit area than previously described GaN devices. The improvement is due to improved layout topology. The layout scheme, which uses island electrodes rather than finger electrodes, is shown to increase the active area density over that of conventional interdigitated structures. Ultra low on resistance transistors can be built using the island topology. Specifically, the present invention, which uses conventional GaN lateral technology and electrode spacing, provides a means to enhance cost/effective performance of all lateral GaN structures. |
| US09064946B1 |
III-V FET device with overlapped extension regions using gate last
A structure and method for fabricating a III-V compound semiconductor-containing heterostructure field-effect transistor (FET) with self-aligned and overlapped extensions using a gate last process is disclosed. The a III-V compound semiconductor-containing heterostructure field-effect transistor (FET) structure may be formed by forming a III-V compound semiconductor-containing heterostructure having at least one layer; forming a doped contact layer on the III-V compound semiconductor-containing heterostructure; and forming a gate structure having a bottom surface substantially below an upper surface of the III-V compound semiconductor-containing heterostructure and an upper surface above the doped contact layer. An undoped region may be formed below the bottom surface of the T-shaped gate structure on a layer of the III-V compound semiconductor-containing heterostructure. |
| US09064945B2 |
Normally off gallium nitride field effect transistors (FET)
A heterostructure field effect transistor (HFET) gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor power device comprises a hetero-junction structure comprises a first semiconductor layer interfacing a second semiconductor layer of two different band gaps thus generating an interface layer as a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) layer. The power device further comprises a source electrode and a drain electrode disposed on two opposite sides of a gate electrode disposed on top of the hetero-junction structure for controlling a current flow between the source and drain electrodes in the 2DEG layer. The power device further includes a floating gate located between the gate electrode and hetero-junction structure, wherein the gate electrode is insulated from the floating gate with an insulation layer and wherein the floating gate is disposed above and padded with a thin insulation layer from the hetero-junction structure and wherein the floating gate is charged for continuously applying a voltage to the 2DEG layer to pinch off the current flowing in the 2DEG layer between the source and drain electrodes whereby the HFET semiconductor power device is a normally off device. |
| US09064944B2 |
Nanowire transistor with underlayer etch stops
A nanowire device of the present description may be produced with the incorporation of at least one underlayer etch stop formed during the fabrication of at least one nanowire transistor in order to assist in protecting source structures and/or drain structures from damage that may result from fabrication processes. The underlayer etch stop may prevent damage to the source structures and/or drain the structures, when the material used in the fabrication of the source structures and/or the drain structures is susceptible to being etched by the processes used in the removal of the sacrificial materials, i.e. low selectively to the source structure and/or the drain structure materials, such that potential shorting between the transistor gate electrodes and contacts formed for the source structures and/or the drain structures may be prevented. |
| US09064942B2 |
Nanowire capacitor for bidirectional operation
A method of fabricating an electronic device includes the following steps. At least one first set and at least one second set of nanowires and pads are etched in an SOI layer of an SOI wafer. A first gate stack is formed that surrounds at least a portion of each of the first set of nanowires that serves as a channel region of a capacitor device. A second gate stack is formed that surrounds at least a portion of each of the second set of nanowires that serves as a channel region of a FET device. Source and drain regions of the FET device are selectively doped. A first silicide is formed on the source and drain regions of the capacitor device that extends at least to an edge of the first gate stack. A second silicide is formed on the source and drain regions of the FET device. |
| US09064939B2 |
Methods of making integrated circuits
A method of making an integrated circuit including forming a seal ring structure around a circuit where the seal ring structure has a first portion and a tilted portion. The first portion of the seal ring structure is substantially parallel with an edge of the circuit. The tilted portion of the seal ring structure forms an obtuse angle with the first portion. The method further includes forming a first pad which is electrically coupled with the seal ring structure. The method further includes disposing a leakage current test structure in an area enclosed by the seal ring where at least one portion of the leakage current test structure is substantially parallel with the tilted portion of the seal ring structure. The method further includes forming a second pad which is electrically coupled with the leakage current test structure. |
| US09064938B2 |
I/O cell ESD system
An integrated circuit including an ESD network including a portion located in ESD subareas of a plurality of I/O cells where the ESD subareas are arranged in a row traversing the plurality of I/O cells. The ESD network includes ESD clamp cells and ESD trigger circuit cells wherein a portion of the network is located in the row. In some examples, the row includes an ESD trigger circuit cell with a portion in one subarea of one ESD subarea of one I/O cell and a second portion in a second ESD subarea of another I/O cell. Also described herein is a method for producing an integrated circuit layout with an ESD network. |
| US09064932B1 |
Methods of forming gate structures by a gate-cut-last process and the resulting structures
One method disclosed includes, among other things, forming an uncut line-type gate structure above first and second spaced-apart active regions of a semiconductor substrate, forming a sidewall spacer around a perimeter of the line-type gate structure, performing at least one etching process to remove an axial portion of a gate cap layer and an axial portion of a gate electrode that are positioned above the isolation region so as to thereby define first and second cut end surfaces of first and second gate electrodes, respectively, and an isolation plug cavity and forming a gate cut isolation plug in the isolation plug cavity. |
| US09064931B2 |
Semiconductor structure having contact plug and metal gate transistor and method of making the same
The present invention provides a semiconductor structure including at least a contact plug. The structure includes a substrate, a transistor, a first ILD layer, a second ILD layer and a first contact plug. The transistor is disposed on the substrate and includes a gate and a source/drain region. The first ILD layer is disposed on the transistor and levels with a top surface of the gate. The second ILD layer is disposed on the first ILD layer. The first contact plug is disposed in the first ILD layer and the second ILD layer and includes a first trench portion and a first via portion, wherein a boundary of the first trench portion and a first via portion is higher than the top surface of the gate. The present invention further provides a method of making the same. |
| US09064930B2 |
Methods for forming semiconductor device structures
The benefits of strained semiconductors are combined with silicon-on-insulator approaches to substrate and device fabrication. |
| US09064925B2 |
Power semiconductor device
A power semiconductor device is disclosed with layers of different conductivity types between an emitter electrode on an emitter side and a collector electrode on a collector side. The device can include a drift layer, a first base layer in direct electrical contact to the emitter electrode, a first source region embedded into the first base layer which contacts the emitter electrode and has a higher doping concentration than the drift layer, a first gate electrode in a same plane and lateral to the first base layer, a second base layer in the same plane and lateral to the first base layer, a second gate electrode on top of the emitter side, and a second source region electrically insulated from the second base layer, the second source region and the drift layer by a second insulating layer. |
| US09064922B2 |
Substrate inspection apparatus and substrate inspection method
A substrate inspection apparatus for detecting a condition of an EBR line at a substrate edge, comprising a turntable for rotating a substrate having a film coated thereon, a light irradiator and a photoelectric converter that receives specularly reflected light from the substrate and outputs a captured image signal. A two-dimensional image is generated by adding detection values of electrical signals corresponding to one radial scan from a center of the substrate for one turn of a rotator, and a changing point is judged using a judgment band set along one direction of the two-dimensional image. |
| US09064919B2 |
Industrial robot
An industrial robot including a first arm which has a first arm portion, and a second arm portion supported by the first arm portion. The industrial robot also includes a second arm which has a third arm portion and a fourth arm portion supported by the third arm portion. The first arm and the second arm can be expanded/retracted independently. A turning center of the first arm portion and a turning center of the third arm portion are placed coaxially. The first arm and the second arm are constructed so as to be almost line-symmetric with respect to an imaginary line under the condition that the first arm and the second arm are retracted. The first arm portion, the third arm portion, the second arm portion, and the fourth arm portion are placed in this order in a vertical direction. |
| US09064913B2 |
Substrate processing apparatus, method of manufacturing semiconductor device, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium
Provided is a substrate processing apparatus including a reaction chamber configured to heat a substrate; a transfer chamber configured to transfer the heated substrate; a refrigerant flow path installed in the reaction chamber; a refrigerant flow path installed in the reaction chamber; a refrigerant supply unit installed in the refrigerant flow path; a refrigerant exhaust unit installed in the refrigerant flow path; a transfer chamber refrigerant supply unit installed in the transfer chamber; a transfer chamber refrigerant exhaust unit installed in the transfer chamber; a heat exchanger connected to the refrigerant exhaust pipe and the transfer chamber refrigerant exhaust unit; a turbine connected to the heat exchanger; a generator connected to the turbine; and a control unit configured to control the refrigerant supply unit and the transfer chamber refrigerant supply unit. |
| US09064912B2 |
Heating device, substrate processing apparatus, and method of manufacturing semiconductor device
A heating device includes: a heating element including a mountain part and a valley part alternately connected in plurality to form a meander shape, and a holding body receiving part an end of the valley part, where a width of the holding body receiving part is greater than that of the valley part; an insulating body installed at an outer circumference of the heating element with both ends of the heating element fixed thereto; and a staple pin penetrating the holding body receiving part and a neighboring holdings body receiving part to fix the heating element to the insulating body, where the staple pin is dislocated with respect to a center of the holding body receiving part and an amount of dislocation of the staple pin varies according to a distance between the holding body receiving part and the both ends. |
| US09064910B2 |
Bonding unit control unit and multi-layer bonding method
A multi-layer bonding method of the present invention includes: forming a first bonded substrate by bonding a first substrate and an intermediate substrate in a bonding chamber; conveying a second substrate inside said bonding chamber when said first bonded substrate is arranged inside said bonding chamber; and forming a second bonded substrate by bonding said first bonded substrate and said second substrate in said bonding chamber. According to such a multi-layer bonding method, the upper-side substrate can be bonded with an intermediate substrate and then a first bonded substrate is bonded with a lower-side substrate without taking out the first bonded substrate from the bonding chamber. For this reason, a second bonded substrate can be produced at high speed and at a low cost. |
| US09064908B2 |
Substrate liquid processing apparatus, liquid processing method, and storage medium
There is provided a liquid processing apparatus capable of efficiently processing a pattern formation surface of a wafer, while preventing diffusion of a chemical-liquid atmosphere which might possibly occurs during a chemical-liquid process. |
| US09064905B2 |
Array substrate and method of fabricating the same
An array substrate includes a substrate; an oxide semiconductor layer on the substrate, the oxide semiconductor layer including an active area and source and drain areas at both sides of the active area; a gate insulating layer and a gate electrode sequentially on the active area of the oxide semiconductor layer; an inter insulating layer on the gate electrode and having first and second semiconductor contact holes that expose the source and drain areas respectively; and source and drain electrodes on the inter insulating layer and contacting the source and drain areas through the first and second semiconductor contact holes, respectively, wherein the first and second semiconductor contact holes are disposed in two regions. |
| US09064903B2 |
Analog floating-gate memory manufacturing process implementing n-channel and p-channel MOS transistors
An analog floating-gate electrode in an integrated circuit, and method of fabricating the same, in which trapped charge can be stored for long durations. The analog floating-gate electrode is formed in a polycrystalline silicon gate level, doped n-type throughout its length, and includes portions serving as gate electrodes of n-channel and p-channel MOS transistors; a plate of a metal-to-poly storage capacitor; and a plate of poly-to-active tunneling capacitors. The p-channel MOS transistor includes a buried channel region, formed by way of ion implantation, disposed between its source and drain regions. Silicide-block silicon dioxide blocks the formation of silicide cladding on the electrode, while other polysilicon structures in the integrated circuit are silicide-clad. |
| US09064900B2 |
FinFET method comprising high-K dielectric
The present disclosure provides for semiconductor device structures and methods for forming semiconductor device structures, wherein a field-inducing structure is provided lower than an active portion of a fin along a height dimension of that fin, the height dimension extending in parallel to a normal direction of a semiconductor substrate surface in which the fin is formed. The field-inducing structure hereby implements a permanent field effect below the active portion. The active portion of the fin is to be understood as a portion of the fin covered by a gate dielectric. |
| US09064899B2 |
Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof
An object is to reduce to reduce variation in threshold voltage to stabilize electric characteristics of thin film transistors each using an oxide semiconductor layer. An object is to reduce an off current. The thin film transistor using an oxide semiconductor layer is formed by stacking an oxide semiconductor layer containing insulating oxide over the oxide semiconductor layer so that the oxide semiconductor layer and source and drain electrode layers are in contact with each other with the oxide semiconductor layer containing insulating oxide interposed therebetween; whereby, variation in threshold voltage of the thin film transistors can be reduced and thus the electric characteristics can be stabilized. Further, an off current can be reduced. |
| US09064898B2 |
Method for manufacturing semiconductor device
In a transistor including an oxide semiconductor film, a metal oxide film for preventing electrification which is in contact with the oxide semiconductor film and covers a source electrode and a drain electrode is formed. Then, oxygen is introduced (added) to the oxide semiconductor film through the metal oxide film and heat treatment is performed. Through these steps of oxygen introduction and heat treatment, impurities such as hydrogen, moisture, a hydroxyl group, or hydride are intentionally removed from the oxide semiconductor film, so that the oxide semiconductor film is highly purified. Further, by providing the metal oxide film, generation of a parasitic channel on a back channel side of the oxide semiconductor film can be prevented in the transistor. |
| US09064897B2 |
Termination design for high voltage device
The present disclosure describes a termination structure for a high voltage semiconductor transistor device. The termination structure is composed of at least two termination zones and an electrical disconnection between the body layer and the edge of the device. A first zone is configured to spread the electric field within the device. A second zone is configured to smoothly bring the electric field back up to the top surface of the device. The electrical disconnection prevents the device from short circuiting the edge of the device. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. |
| US09064891B2 |
Gate encapsulation achieved by single-step deposition
When forming spacer structures enclosing a gate electrode structure of a transistor, a common problem is given by the thickness variation of the spacer structure obtained as a result of a first deposition process performed in a first chamber and a second, subsequent process performed in a second chamber. The present disclosure provides a method for forming spacers of a well-defined thickness. The method relies on a single deposition step performed by means of an atomic layer deposition. The deposition is performed in two stages performed at different temperatures. |
| US09064889B2 |
Semiconductor device with epitaxial semiconductor layer for source/drain on substrate, and method of manufacturing the same
To improve performance of a semiconductor device. Over a semiconductor substrate, a gate electrode is formed via a first insulating film for a gate insulating film, and a second insulating film extends from over a side wall of the gate electrode to over the semiconductor substrate. Over the semiconductor substrate in a part exposed from the second insulating film, a semiconductor layer, which is an epitaxial layer for source/drain, is formed. The second insulating film has a part extending over the side wall of the gate electrode and a part extending over the semiconductor substrate, and a part of the semiconductor layer lies over the second insulating film in the part extending over the semiconductor substrate. |
| US09064888B2 |
Forming tunneling field-effect transistor with stacking fault and resulting device
Methods for forming stacking faults in sources, or sources and drains, of TFETs to improve tunneling efficiency and the resulting devices are disclosed. Embodiments may include designating areas within a substrate that will subsequently correspond to a source region and a drain region, selectively forming a stacking fault within the substrate corresponding to the source region, and forming a tunneling field-effect transistor incorporating the source region and the drain region. |
| US09064887B2 |
Field-effect semiconductor device and manufacturing method therefor
According to an embodiment of a field-effect semiconductor device, the field-effect semiconductor device includes a semiconductor body and a source electrode. The semiconductor body includes a drift region, a gate region and a source region of a first semiconductor material having a first band-gap and an anode region of a second semiconductor material having a second band-gap lower than the first band-gap. The drift region is of a first conductivity type. The gate region forms a pn-junction with the drift region. The source region is of the first conductivity type and in resistive electric connection with the drift region and has a higher maximum doping concentration than the drift region. The anode region is of the second conductivity type, forms a heterojunction with the drift region and is spaced apart from the source region. The source metallization is in resistive electric connection with the source region and the anode region. |
| US09064885B2 |
Electrostatic discharge resistant diodes
A diode and a method for an electrostatic discharge resistant diode. The method includes, for example, receiving a wafer. The wafer includes a silicon layer electrically isolated from a silicon substrate by a buried oxide (BOX) layer. The BOX layer is in physical contact with the silicon layer and the silicon substrate. An N-type well is implanted in the silicon substrate. Furthermore, a vertical column of P+ doped epitaxial silicon and a vertical column of N+ doped epitaxial silicon are formed over the N-type well and extend through the BOX layer and the silicon layer. Both vertical columns may form electrical junctions with the N-type well. |
| US09064884B2 |
Semiconductor device having aligned side surfaces
An object is to provide a semiconductor device having a novel structure with a high degree of integration. A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor layer having a channel formation region, a source electrode and a drain electrode electrically connected to the channel formation region, a gate electrode overlapping with the channel formation region, and a gate insulating layer between the channel formation region and the gate electrode. A portion of a side surface of the semiconductor layer having the channel formation region and a portion of a side surface of the source electrode or the drain electrode are substantially aligned with each other when seen from a planar direction. |
| US09064880B2 |
Zero stand-off bonding system and method
A system and method for a zero stand-off configuration are provided. An embodiment comprises forming a seal layer over a conductive region that is part of a first substrate and breaching the seal with a conductive member of a second substrate in order to bond the first substrate to the second substrate. |
| US09064878B2 |
Wiring board with shielding lid and shielding slots as electromagnetic shields for embedded device
In a preferred embodiment, a wiring board with embedded device and electromagnetic shielding includes a semiconductor device, a core layer, a shielding lid, shielding slots and build-up circuitry. The build-up circuitry covers the semiconductor device and the core layer. The shielding slots and the shielding lid are electrically connected to at least one ground contact pad of the semiconductor device by the build-up circuitry and can respectively serve as effective horizontal and vertical electromagnetic shields for the semiconductor devices. |
| US09064877B2 |
Semiconductor wafer and method of testing the same
The present invention provides a semiconductor wafer characterized by including: a silicon substrate which includes chip regions and scribe regions; multiple-layered films formed on the silicon substrate; and a reference mark formed in at least one film constituting the multiple-layered films. In addition, the semiconductor wafer is also characterized in that the reference mark is located at least one of the vertices of a virtual rectangle covering the plurality of chip regions, and in that the reference mark is longer than one side of each of the chip regions. |
| US09064873B2 |
Singulated semiconductor structure
A singulated semiconductor structure comprises a molding compound; a first conductive post in the molding compound having a first geometric shape in a top view; a second conductive post or an alignment mark in the molding compound having a second geometric shape in a top view, wherein the second geometric shape is different from the first geometric shape. The second conductive post or an alignment mark can be positioned at the corner, the center, the edge, or the periphery of the singulated semiconductor structure. The second geometric shape can be any geometric construct distinguishable from the first geometric shape. The second conductive post or an alignment mark can be placed at an active area or a non-active area of the singulated semiconductor structure. |
| US09064871B2 |
Vertical electronic fuse
An electronic fuse structure including a first Mx metal comprising a conductive cap, an Mx+1 metal located above the Mx metal, wherein the Mx+1 metal does not comprise a conductive cap, and a via, wherein the via electrically connects the Mx metal to the Mx+1 metal in a vertical orientation. |
| US09064868B2 |
Advanced faraday shield for a semiconductor device
One illustrative device disclosed herein includes a transistor comprising a gate electrode and a drain region formed in a semiconducting substrate, an isolation structure formed in the substrate, wherein the isolation structure is laterally positioned between the gate electrode and the drain region, and a Faraday shield that is positioned laterally between the gate electrode and the drain region and above the isolation structure, wherein the Faraday shield has a long axis that is oriented substantially vertically relative to an upper surface of the substrate. |
| US09064867B2 |
Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing same
Disclosed is a semiconductor device provided with: lower-layer wiring formed on a substrate, an interlayer insulating film covering the lower-layer wiring, and a first upper-layer wiring line (18b) and a second upper-layer wiring line (18c) arranged on the interlayer insulating film and intersecting with the lower-layer wiring, and a level-difference adjustment protrusion is provided between the first upper-layer wiring line (18b) and the second upper-layer wiring line (18c) adjacent to a side section of the lower-layer wiring. |
| US09064866B2 |
High-k dielectrics with gold nano-particles
A metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) structure having a high dielectric constant gate insulator layer containing gold (Au) nano-particles is presented with methods for forming the layer with high step coverage of underlying topography, high surface smoothness, and uniform thickness. The transistor may form part of a logic device, a memory device, a persistent memory device, a capacitor, as well as other devices and systems. The insulator layer may be formed using atomic layer deposition (ALD) to reduce the overall device thermal exposure. The insulator layer may be formed of a metal oxide, a metal oxycarbide, a semiconductor oxide, or semiconductor oxide oxycarbide, and the gold nano-particles in insulator layer increase the work function of the insulator layer and affect the tunneling current and the threshold voltage of the transistor. |
| US09064865B2 |
Mechanisms for forming gate dielectric layer
Embodiments of mechanisms for forming a semiconductor device are provided. The semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate and a nitride buffer layer over the semiconductor substrate, and the nitride buffer layer is in an amorphous state. The semiconductor device also includes a crystalline gate dielectric layer over the nitride buffer layer and a gate electrode over the crystalline gate dielectric layer. |
| US09064864B1 |
Semiconductor device
An embodiment of the invention relates to a semiconductor device comprising: first and second electrodes comprising first and second busbars respectively that decrease in cross section in opposite directions; and a plurality of interleaving first and second conducting fingers that extend from the first and second busbars respectively. |
| US09064863B2 |
Method for directly adhering two plates together, including a step of forming a temporary protective nitrogen
To avoid problems of hydrolysis of the silicon oxide formed by PECVD at the surface of at least one wafer, it is proposed to cover, in the vacuum deposition chamber used to deposit the silicon oxide, said oxide with a temporary protective layer containing nitrogen. The protective layer thus protects the silicon oxide against the outer environment and especially against humidity when the wafer provided with the silicon oxide is stored outside of the vacuum deposition chamber. Afterwards, the protective layer is removed, for example, by chemical-mechanical. polishing, just before the two wafers are placed into contact. The protective layer may be formed by a PECVD silicon nitride deposition, by plasma nitriding or nitrogen doping of a superficial portion of the silicon oxide. |
| US09064858B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of forming bump-on-lead interconnection
A semiconductor device has a semiconductor die with a plurality of composite bumps formed over a surface of the semiconductor die. The composite bumps have a fusible portion and non-fusible portion, such as a conductive pillar and bump formed over the conductive pillar. The composite bumps can also be tapered. Conductive traces are formed over a substrate with interconnect sites having edges parallel to the conductive trace from a plan view for increasing escape routing density. The interconnect site can have a width less than 1.2 times a width of the conductive trace. The composite bumps are wider than the interconnect sites. The fusible portion of the composite bumps is bonded to the interconnect sites so that the fusible portion covers a top surface and side surface of the interconnect sites. An encapsulant is deposited around the composite bumps between the semiconductor die and substrate. |
| US09064854B2 |
Semiconductor device with gate stack structure
A semiconductor device includes a first conductive layer, a first intermediate structure over the first conductive layer, a second intermediate structure over the first intermediate structure, and a second conductive layer over the second intermediate structure. The first intermediate structure includes a metal silicide layer and a nitrogen containing metal layer. The second intermediate structure includes at least a nitrogen containing metal silicide layer. |
| US09064853B2 |
Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same
A semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor and including a more excellent gate insulating film is provided. A highly reliable and electrically stable semiconductor device having a small number of changes in the film structure, the process conditions, the manufacturing apparatus, or the like from a mass production technology that has been put into practical use is provided. A method for manufacturing the semiconductor device is provided. The semiconductor device includes a gate electrode, a gate insulating film formed over the gate electrode, and an oxide semiconductor film formed over the gate insulating film. The gate insulating film includes a silicon nitride oxide film, a silicon oxynitride film formed over the silicon nitride oxide film, and a metal oxide film formed over the silicon oxynitride film. The oxide semiconductor film is formed over and in contact with the metal oxide film. |
| US09064844B2 |
Laser reflectometry for substrate processing
Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and apparatus for control of laser devices and safety features related to utilization of laser devices in substrate processing systems. In one embodiment, a system for processing a substrate is provided. The system includes a chamber having a processing volume, a first laser device to emit a beam at a first wavelength into the processing volume, and a second laser device to emit a beam at a second wavelength into the processing volume, wherein the second wavelength is different than the first wavelength, and the second laser device comprises a filter adapted to attenuate one or both of the first wavelength and the second wavelength. |
| US09064843B2 |
Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof
A semiconductor device includes a substrate, and a gate electrode formed on the substrate on a gate insulation film. The semiconductor device also includes a source diffusion layer and a drain diffusion layer which are formed on the substrate where the gate electrode is sandwiched between the source diffusion layer and the drain diffusion layer, one or more source contacts formed on the source diffusion layer; and one or more drain contacts formed on the drain diffusion layer. At least one of the source contacts and the drain contacts includes a first contact region having a first size and a second contact region having a second size larger than the first size on the same source diffusion layer or on the same drain diffusion layer. |
| US09064841B2 |
Metal-oxide-metal capacitor apparatus with a via-hole region
A metal-oxide-metal capacitor comprises a first electrode, a second electrode, a plurality of first fingers and a plurality of second fingers. Each first finger and its corresponding second finger are in parallel and separated by a low k dielectric material. A via-hole region is employed to enclose the metal-oxide-metal capacitor so as to remove the moisture stored in the low k dielectric material. |