最新美国发明专利第2016-01-12期 - 专利汇|PatentHub专利检索|专利查询网|发明专利查询分析

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US09236532B2	Light emitting diode having electrode pads The present invention relates to light-emitting diodes. A light-emitting diode according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a first group including a plurality of first light emitting cells connected in parallel to each other, and a second group including a plurality of second light emitting cells connected in parallel to each other. Each first light emitting cell and second light emitting cell has a semiconductor stack that includes a first conductivity-type semiconductor layer, a second conductivity-type semiconductor layer, and an active layer disposed between the first conductivity-type semiconductor layer and the second conductivity-type semiconductor layer. At least two light emitting cells of the first light emitting cells share the first conductivity-type semiconductor layer, and at least two light emitting cells of the second light emitting cells share the first conductivity-type semiconductor layer. The first light emitting cells are connected in series to the second light emitting cells.
US09236530B2	Miscut bulk substrates A method for providing (Al,Ga,In)N thin films on Ga-face c-plane (Al,Ga,In)N substrates using c-plane surfaces with a miscut greater than at least 0.35 degrees toward the m-direction. Light emitting devices are formed on the smooth (Al,Ga,In)N thin films. Devices fabricated on the smooth surfaces exhibit improved performance.
US09236529B2	Semiconductor light emitting element having semiconductor structure with protrusions and/or recesses A semiconductor light emitting element in which changes in light distribution characteristics due to inclination angle of side surfaces are suppressed. The semiconductor light emitting element includes a semiconductor structure having a light extracting surface as its upper surface; a reflecting layer disposed on side surfaces of the semiconductor structure; and a positive electrode and a negative electrode disposed on a lower surface of the semiconductor structure. Side surfaces of the semiconductor structure are inclined, expanding upward from the lower surface to the upper surface. At least a portion of each side surface includes a plurality of protrusions, a plurality of recesses, or a combination thereof.
US09236526B2	Light emitting device and light emitting device array A light emitting structure includes lower and upper semiconductor layers having different conductive types, and an active layer disposed between the lower and upper semiconductor layers. The light emitting structure is provided on the substrate. A first electrode layer provided on the upper semiconductor layer includes a first adhesive layer and a first bonding layer overlapping each other. A reflective layer is not provided between the first adhesive layer and the first bonding layer.
US09236525B2	Semiconductor light emitting device and fabrication method thereof A semiconductor light emitting device includes a substrate having first and second electrode patterns on at least one surface thereof, a light emitting structure on a surface of the substrate, a first electrode structure, a second electrode structure, an insulating layer, a first connection portion connecting the first electrode structure and the first electrode pattern, and a second connection portion connecting the second electrode structure extending outwardly from the light emitting structure and the second electrode pattern.
US09236521B2	Optocoupler having lens layer An optocoupler having optical lens layer is disclosed. The optocoupler may comprise an optical emitter, an optical receiver, an isolation layer, a lens layer and a substantially transparent encapsulant. The lens layer may be integrally formed within the optical receiver. Alternatively, the lens layer may be formed integrally with the isolation layer, or the lens layer may be an optical film attached on the optical receiver. The substantially transparent encapsulant may encapsulate at least partially the optical emitter, the optical receiver and the isolation layer. The isolation layer may be inserted to the substantially transparent encapsulant, making the substantially transparent encapsulant into two compartments. In another embodiment, an electronic system having optocoupler is disclosed.
US09236517B2	Solar concentrator assembly having a converging element to converge the multiple light beams with different wavelengths from a sunlight splitting element A solar concentrator assembly includes a light splitting element, a light converging element, an optical fiber unit and a photoelectric unit. The light converging element is located between the light splitting element and the optical fiber unit. The optical fiber unit is located between the light converging element and the photoelectric unit. The light splitting element splits sunlight into light of different wavelengths. The light converging element converges the split light onto different focal points. The optical fiber unit transmits the converged light to the photoelectric unit. The photoelectric unit converts the light into electrical energy.
US09236516B2	Solar energy collector apparatus A solar energy collector includes a generally tubular housing or multiple tubular housings each having an open end for receipt of solar rays which are then reflected from a generally conical mirror within the housing onto solar cells lining the inside surface of the housing. Various mechanisms are utilized to favorably orient the housing or otherwise direct the solar rays and to maximize the incidence of reflected solar rays onto solar cells.
US09236515B2	Hybrid solar panel The invention relates to a hybrid solar panel comprising: photovoltaic elements (1) having a front face and a rear face; a heat exchanger (E) arranged opposite the rear face of said photovoltaic elements (1); and a cooling fluid circulating in said exchanger (E) in such a way as to cool the photovoltaic elements (1), said exchanger (E) comprising a heat exchange region (ZE) through which said fluid flows, arranged beneath said photovoltaic elements (1), said exchange region comprising elements (20) that enable the flow of the fluid to be disrupted in such a way as to stimulate the heat exchanges in the exchange region (ZE). The invention is characterized in that said exchange region (ZE) is formed by a lower exchange plate (2) designed in such a way as to form built-in obstruction elements (20) extending over the entire thickness of the strand of cooling fluid flowing through the exchange region, and in that the upper end of the obstruction elements (20) is in contact with the rear face of the photovoltaic elements (1) in such a way that said photovoltaic elements are cooled mainly at these contact points.
US09236512B2	Collector grid and interconnect structures for photovoltaic arrays and modules An interconnected arrangement of photovoltaic cells is achieved using laminating current collector electrodes. The electrodes comprise a pattern of conductive material extending over a first surface of sheetlike substrate material. The first surface comprises material having adhesive affinity for a selected conductive surface. Application of the electrode to the selected conductive surface brings the first surface of the sheetlike substrate into adhesive contact with the conductive surface and simultaneously brings the conductive surface into firm contact with the conductive material extending over first surface of the sheetlike substrate. Use of the laminating current collector electrodes allows facile and continuous production of expansive area interconnected photovoltaic arrays.
US09236510B2	Patterning of silicon oxide layers using pulsed laser ablation A method for making an ablated electrically insulating layer on a semiconductor substrate. A first relatively thin layer of at least an undoped glass or undoped oxide is deposited on a surface of a semiconductor substrate having n-type doping. A first relatively thin semiconductor layer having at least one substance chosen from amorphous semiconductor, nanocrystalline semiconductor, microcrystalline semiconductor, or polycrystalline semiconductor is deposited on the relatively thin layer of at least an undoped glass or undoped oxide. At least a layer of borosilicate glass or borosilicate/undoped glass stack is deposited on the relatively thin semiconductor layer. The at least borosilicate glass or borosilicate/undoped glass stack is selectively ablated with a pulsed laser, and the relatively thin semiconductor layer substantially protects the semiconductor substrate from the pulsed laser.
US09236507B2	Photoelectric conversion element and method for manufacturing same The photoelectric conversion element includes a semiconductor substrate, a first amorphous film of a first conductivity type disposed on an entire surface of one surface of the semiconductor substrate, a first conductive oxide layer disposed on the first amorphous film, a second amorphous film of the first conductivity type disposed on a part of the other surface of the semiconductor substrate, a second conductive oxide layer disposed on the second amorphous film, a third amorphous film of a second conductivity type disposed on the other part of the other surface of the semiconductor substrate, and a third conductive oxide layer disposed on the third amorphous film. Electric conductivity of the first conductive oxide layer is lower than electric conductivities of the second and the third conductive oxide layer. Transmittance of the first conductive oxide layer is higher than transmittances of the second and the third conductive oxide layer.
US09236506B2	Conductive silver paste for a metal-wrap-through silicon solar cell A conductive silver via paste comprising particulate conductive silver, a vanadium-phosphorus-antimony-zinc-based-oxide, a tellurium-boron-phosphorus-based-oxide or a tellurium-molybdenum-cerium-based-oxide and an organic vehicle is particularly useful in providing the metallization of the holes in the silicon wafers of MWT solar cells. The result is a metallic electrically conductive via between the collector lines on the front side and the emitter electrode on the back-side of the solar cell. The paste can also be used to form the collector lines on the front-side of the solar cell and the emitter electrode on the back-side of the solar cell. Also disclosed are metal-wrap-through silicon solar cells comprising the fired conductive silver paste.
US09236505B2	Solar cell and method for manufacturing the same A solar cell and a method for manufacturing the same are discussed. The solar cell includes a semiconductor substrate, a first doped region of a first conductive type, a second doped region of a second conductive type opposite the first conductive type, a back passivation layer having contact holes exposing a portion of each of the first and second doped regions, a first electrode formed on the first doped region exposed through the contact holes, a second electrode formed on the second doped region exposed through the contact holes, an alignment mark formed at one surface of the semiconductor substrate, and a textured surface that is formed at a light receiving surface of the semiconductor substrate opposite the one surface of the semiconductor substrate in which the first and second doped regions are formed.
US09236504B2	System and method for controlling a group of photovoltaic generators A method for controlling a group of photovoltaic energy generators, the method includes providing, to a junction that is coupled to a component of a first photovoltaic energy generator (PEG), power generated by at least a second PEG such as to increase the power that is generated from the group of photovoltaic energy generators (PEGs); wherein the group of PEGs comprises the first PEG and the second PEG.
US09236501B2	Dummy bit line MOS capacitor and device using the same A MOS capacitor, a method of fabricating the same, and a semiconductor device using the same are provided. The MOS capacitor is arranged in an outermost cell block of the semiconductor device employing an open bit line structure. The MOS capacitor includes a first electrode arranged in a semiconductor substrate, a dielectric layer arranged on a semiconductor substrate, and a second electrode arranged on the dielectric layer and including a dummy bit line.
US09236498B1	Low resistance polysilicon strap A low resistance polysilicon (poly) structure includes a first poly coupled to a substrate and having a sidewall. A second poly is separated from the sidewall of the first poly and the substrate by a programming oxide. The first poly and the second poly have substantially a same planarized height above the substrate. The first poly extends from a device region to a strap region, and extends substantially parallel to a first length of the second poly. A second length of the second poly extends away from the first poly in the strap region and includes a salicide. A first diffusion region crosses the first poly and the second poly in the device region. A masked width of the first length of the second poly is defined by an etched spacer. A low resistance contact is coupled to the second length of the second poly in the strap region.
US09236491B2	High mobility field effect transistor with ZN containing active layer, display device, sensor, and method of manufacturing field effect transistor A field effect transistor including: a gate insulating film; an oxide semiconductor layer that serves as an active layer and whose main structural elements are Sn, Zn and O, or Sn, Ga, Zn and O; and an oxide intermediate layer that is disposed between the gate insulating film and the oxide semiconductor layer, and whose resistivity is higher than that of the oxide semiconductor layer.
US09236490B2	Transistor including oxide semiconductor film having regions of different thickness A transistor including an oxide semiconductor film, in which the threshold voltage is prevented from being a negative value, is provided. A high quality semiconductor device having the transistor including an oxide semiconductor film is provided. A transistor includes an oxide semiconductor film having first to third regions. The top surface of the oxide semiconductor film in the first region is in contact with a source electrode or a drain electrode. The top surface of the oxide semiconductor film in the second region is in contact with a protective insulating film. The thickness of the second region is substantially uniform and smaller than the maximum thickness of the first region. The top surface and a side surface of the oxide semiconductor film in the third region are in contact with the protective insulating film.
US09236489B2	Logic circuit and semiconductor device A logic circuit includes a thin film transistor having a channel formation region formed using an oxide semiconductor, and a capacitor having terminals one of which is brought into a floating state by turning off the thin film transistor. The oxide semiconductor has a hydrogen concentration of 5×1019 (atoms/cm3) or less and thus substantially serves as an insulator in a state where an electric field is not generated. Therefore, off-state current of a thin film transistor can be reduced, leading to suppressing the leakage of electric charge stored in a capacitor, through the thin film transistor. Accordingly, a malfunction of the logic circuit can be prevented. Further, the excessive amount of current which flows in the logic circuit can be reduced through the reduction of off-state current of the thin film transistor, resulting in low power consumption of the logic circuit.
US09236488B2	Thin film transistor and method for producing same A thin film transistor is equipped with a silicon substrate, a channel layer, a source electrode and a drain electrode. The channel layer, the source electrode and the drain electrode are arranged on the main surface of the silicon substrate. The channel layer is composed of multiple carbon nanowall thin films, wherein the multiple carbon nanowall thin films are arranged in parallel to each other between the source electrode and the drain electrode, one end of each of the multiple carbon nanowall thin films is in contact with the source electrode, and the other end of each of the multiple carbon nanowall thin films is in contact with the drain electrode. An insulating film and a gate electrode are arranged on the rear surface side of the silicon substrate.
US09236484B2	Thin film transistor, and pixel and organic light emitting display device having the same A thin film transistor, a pixel, and an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display including the same are disclosed. The thin film transistor includes a connection to the channel region separate from connections to the source and drain.
US09236483B2	FinFET with backgate, without punchthrough, and with reduced fin height variation A FinFET having a backgate and a barrier layer beneath the fin channel of the FinFET, where the barrier layer has a bandgap greater than that of the backgate. The barrier layer serves as an etch stop layer under the fin channel, resulting in reduced fin channel height variation. The backgate provides improved current control. There is less punchthrough due to the higher bandgap barrier layer. The FinFET may also include deeply embedded stressors adjacent to the source/drain diffusions through the high bandgap barrier layer.
US09236481B1	Semiconductor device and methods of forming fins and gates with ultraviolet curing Semiconductor devices and methods for forming devices with ultraviolet curing. One method includes, for instance: obtaining a wafer; forming at least one mandrel; forming spacers adjacent to the at least one mandrel; performing an ultraviolet treatment to at least one set of spacers; and etching to form hard mask regions below at least the spacers. An intermediate semiconductor device includes, for instance: a substrate; a stop layer over the substrate; a first barrier layer over the stop layer; at least one first mandrel and at least one second mandrel on the first barrier layer; at least one first set of spacers positioned adjacent to the first mandrel; at least one second set of spacers positioned adjacent to the second mandrel; and a second barrier layer over the at least one first mandrel and the at least one first set of spacers.
US09236480B2	Methods of forming finFET semiconductor devices using a replacement gate technique and the resulting devices One method disclosed includes, among other things, forming a raised isolation post structure between first and second fins, wherein the raised isolation post structure partially defines first and second spaces between the first and second fins, respectively, and forming a gate structure around the first and second fins and the raised isolation post structure, wherein at least portions of the gate structure are positioned in the first and second spaces. One illustrative device includes, among other things, first and second fins, a raised isolation post structure positioned between the first and second fins, first and second spaces defined by the fins and the raised isolation post structure, and a gate structure positioned around a portion of the fins and the isolation post structure.
US09236479B2	Methods of forming replacement gate structures and fins on FinFET devices and the resulting devices One method disclosed includes, among other things, removing a sacrificial gate structure to thereby define a replacement gate cavity, performing an etching process through the replacement gate cavity to define a fin structure in a layer of semiconductor material using a patterned hard mask exposed within the replacement gate cavity as an etch mask and forming a replacement gate structure in the replacement gate cavity around at least a portion of the fin structure.
US09236467B2	Atomic layer deposition of hafnium or zirconium alloy films Provided are methods of depositing hafnium or zirconium containing metal alloy films. Certain methods comprise sequentially exposing a substrate surface to alternating flows of an organometallic precursor and a reductant comprising M(BH4)4 to produce a metal alloy film on the substrate surface, wherein M is selected from hafnium and zirconium, and the organometallic precursor contains a metal N. Gate stacks are described comprising a copper barrier layer comprising boron, a first metal M selected from Hf and Zr, and a second metal N selected from tantalum, tungsten, copper, ruthenium, rhodium, cobalt and nickel; and a copper layer overlying the copper barrier seed layer.
US09236465B2	High electron mobility transistor and method of forming the same A semiconductor structure includes a first III-V compound layer. A second III-V compound layer is disposed on the first III-V compound layer and is different from the first III-V compound layer in composition. A carrier channel is located between the first III-V compound layer and the second III-V compound layer. A source feature and a drain feature are disposed on the second III-V compound layer. A gate electrode is disposed over the second III-V compound layer between the source feature and the drain feature. A fluorine region is embedded in the second III-V compound layer under the gate electrode. A diffusion barrier layer is disposed on top of the second III-V compound layer. A gate dielectric layer is disposed over the second III-V compound layer. The gate dielectric layer has a fluorine segment on the fluorine region and under at least a portion of the gate electrode.
US09236462B2	Programmable gate III-nitride power transistor A III-nitride semiconductor device which includes a charged floating gate electrode.
US09236461B2	Semiconductor device A semiconductor device includes: an FET structure that is formed next to a looped trench on a semiconductor substrate and that has an n+ emitter region and an n− drain region facing each other in the depth direction of the looped trench across a p-type base region; a p-type floating region formed on the side of the looped trench opposite to the FET structure; and an emitter connecting part that is electrically connected to the n+ emitter region and a trench gate provided in the same trench, the emitter connecting part and the trench gate being insulated from each other by the looped trench. The trench gate faces the FET structure, and the emitter connecting part faces the p-type floating region, across an insulating film.
US09236459B2	Insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection devices Insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection devices are presented. An IGBT-ESD device includes a semiconductor substrate and patterned insulation regions disposed on the semiconductor substrate defining a first active region and a second active region. A high-V N-well is formed in the first active region of the semiconductor substrate. A P-body doped region is formed in the second active region of the semiconductor substrate, wherein the high-V N-well and the P-body doped region are separated with a predetermined distance exposing the semiconductor substrate. A P+ doped drain region is disposed in the high-V N-well. A P+ diffused region and an N+ doped source region are disposed in the P-body doped region. A gate structure is disposed on the semiconductor substrate with one end adjacent to the N+ doped source region and the other end extending over the insulation region.
US09236458B2	Bipolar transistor and a method for manufacturing a bipolar transistor A bipolar transistor includes a semiconductor structure including an emitter area, a base area and a collector area. The emitter area is electrically connected to an emitter contact of the bipolar transistor. Further, the emitter area has a first conductivity type. The base area is electrically connected to a base contact of the bipolar transistor. Further, the base area has at least mainly a second conductivity type. The collector area is electrically connected to a collector contact of the bipolar transistor and has at least mainly the first conductivity type. Further, the collector area includes a plurality of enclosed sub areas having the second conductivity type or the base area includes a plurality of enclosed sub areas having the first conductivity type.
US09236455B2	Thin film transistor substrate and method of manufacturing the same A thin film transistor substrate includes an active pattern which is disposed on a base substrate and includes a channel, a source electrode and a drain electrode, the channel which includes an oxide semiconductor, the source electrode and the drain electrode connected the channel, a gate electrode overlapped with the channel, a passivation layer which covers the source electrode, the drain electrode and the gate electrode and a fluorine deposition layer disposed between the active pattern and the passivation layer.
US09236454B2	Method of manufacturing thin-film transistor, thin-film transistor, display apparatus, sensor, and digital X-ray image-capturing apparatus A method of fabricating a thin-film transistor, the method including: film-forming an active layer, that contains as a main component thereof an oxide semiconductor structured by O and at least two elements among In, Ga and Zn, in a film formation chamber into which at least oxygen is introduced, and b) heat treating the active layer at less than 300° C. in a dry atmosphere, wherein the film-forming a) and the heat treating are carried out such that, given that an oxygen partial pressure with respect to an entire pressure of an atmosphere within the film formation chamber in the film-forming is PO2depo (%), and an oxygen partial pressure with respect to an entire pressure of an atmosphere during the heat treating is PO2anneal (%), the oxygen partial pressure PO2anneal (%) at the time of the heat treating b) satisfies a relationship: −20/3PO2depo+40/3≦PO2anneal≦−800/43PO2depo+5900/43.
US09236452B2	Raised source/drain EPI with suppressed lateral EPI overgrowth A method of forming raised S/D regions by partial EPI growth with a partial EPI liner therebetween and the resulting device are provided. Embodiments include forming groups of fins extending above a STI layer; forming a gate over the groups of fins; forming a gate spacer on each side of the gate; forming a raised S/D region proximate to each spacer on each fin of the groups of fins, each raised S/D region having a top surface, vertical sidewalls, and an undersurface; forming a liner over and between each raised S/D region; removing the liner from the top surface of each raised S/D region and from in between a group of fins; forming an overgrowth region on the top surface of each raised S/D region; forming an ILD over and between the raised S/D regions; and forming a contact through the ILD, down to the raised S/D regions.
US09236450B2	Fabrication of MOS device with schottky barrier controlling layer Fabricating a semiconductor device includes: forming a gate trench in an epitaxial layer overlaying a semiconductor substrate; depositing gate material in the gate trench; forming a body; forming a source; forming an active region contact trench that extends through the source and the body into a drain; forming a Schottky barrier controlling layer in the epitaxial layer in bottom region of the active region contact trench; and disposing a contact electrode within the active region contact trench. The Schottky barrier controlling layer controls Schottky barrier height of a Schottky diode formed by the contact electrode and the drain.
US09236449B2	High voltage laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor A high-voltage LDMOS device with voltage linearizing field plates and methods of manufacture are disclosed. The method includes forming a continuous gate structure over a deep well region and a body of a substrate. The method further includes forming oppositely doped, alternating segments in the continuous gate structure. The method further includes forming a contact in electrical connection with a tip of the continuous gate structure and a drain region formed in the substrate. The method further includes forming metal regions in direct electrical contact with segments of at least one species of the oppositely doped, alternating segments.
US09236447B2	Asymmetric spacers A semiconductor device having asymmetric spacers and steps for forming the same are disclosed. The spacers have difference capacitances, with the spacer having a higher capacitance formed over a source region of the device and the spacer having a lower capacitance formed over a drain region of the device. Embodiments of the disclosed invention include spacers made from different materials, having different or substantially equal thicknesses.
US09236446B2	Barc-assisted process for planar recessing or removing of variable-height layers An IC device manufacturing process effectuates a planar recessing of material that initially varies in height across a substrate. The method includes forming a bottom anti-reflective coating (BARC), baking to induce cross-linking in the BARC, CMP to remove a first portion of the BARC and form a planar surface, then plasma etching to effectuate a planar recessing of the BARC. The plasma etching can have a low selectivity between the BARC and the material being recessed, whereby the BARC and the material are recessed simultaneously. Any of the material above a certain height is removed. Structures that are substantially below that certain height can be protected from contamination and left intact. The method can be particularly effective when an abrasive used during CMP forms ester linkages with the BARC.
US09236443B2	High electron mobility transistors having improved reliability High electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) having improved I-V characteristics and reliability are provided. According to one embodiment, a selective implantation is performed to form a damage region in a gate-to-drain region of, for example, an IηAΓN/GaN HEMT. The selective implantation can be performed by irradiating some or all of a gate-to-drain region of an InAlN/GaN HEMT on a substrate with protons or other ions such as Ge ions, He ions, N ions, or O ions. The damage region can extend in a region below a 2DEG interface of the HEMT.
US09236442B2	Integration of chips and silicon-based trench capacitors using low parasitic silicon-level connections Methods and apparatuses are described for integration of integrated circuit die and silicon-based trench capacitors using silicon-level connections to reduce connection lengths, parasitics and necessary capacitance magnitudes and volumes. A trench capacitor can be fabricated on silicon and mounted on or embedded in a chip or one or more sides of a through silicon interposer (TSI) for silicon-level connections to chip circuitry. Aspect ratio dependent, as opposed to trench diameter or trench depth dependent, trench capacitors formed by a dense array of high aspect ratio trenches with thin, high permittivity dielectric increase capacitance per unit area and volume, resulting in thin, high capacitance trench capacitors having thickness equal to or less than chip thickness.
US09236441B2	Nitride-based semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same A method for manufacturing a nitride-based semiconductor device includes: preparing a substrate; forming a buffer layer on the substrate, the buffer layer preventing dislocation with the substrate; forming a spacer on the buffer layer; forming a barrier layer on the spacer, the barrier layer forming a hetero-structure with the spacer; forming a protecting layer on the barrier layer; and forming an HfO2 layer the protecting layer through RF sputtering.
US09236440B2	Sandwich silicidation for fully silicided gate formation When forming field effect transistors, a common problem is the formation of a Schottky barrier at the interface between a metal thin film in the gate electrode and a semiconductor material, typically polysilicon, formed thereupon. Fully silicided gates are known in the state of the art which may overcome this problem. The claimed method proposes an improved fully silicided gate achieved by forming a gate structure including an additional metal layer between the metal gate layer and the gate semiconductor material. A silicidation process can then be optimized so as to form a lower metal silicide layer comprising the metal of the additional metal layer and an upper metal silicide layer forming an interface with the lower metal silicide layer.
US09236437B2	Method for creating self-aligned transistor contacts Embodiments of the present invention provide improved methods of contact formation. A self aligned contact scheme with reduced lithography requirements is disclosed. This reduces the risk of shorts between source/drains and gates, while providing improved circuit density. Cavities are formed adjacent to the gates, and a fill metal is deposited in the cavities to form contact strips. A patterning mask is then used to form smaller contacts by performing a partial metal recess of the contact strips.
US09236433B2	Semiconductor devices in SiC using vias through N-type substrate for backside contact to P-type layer A Silicon Carbide (SiC) semiconductor device having back-side contacts to a P-type region and methods of fabrication thereof are disclosed. In one embodiment, an SiC semiconductor device includes an N-type substrate and an epitaxial structure on a front-side of the N-type substrate. The epitaxial substrate includes a P-type layer adjacent to the N-type substrate and one or more additional SiC layers on the P-type layer opposite the N-type substrate. The semiconductor device also includes one or more openings through the N-type substrate that extend from a back-side of the N-type substrate to the P-type layer and a back-side contact on the back-side of the N-type substrate and within the one or more openings such that the back-side contact is in physical and electrical contact with the P-type layer. The semiconductor device further includes front-side contacts on the epitaxial structure opposite the N-type substrate.
US09236429B2	Semiconductor structure and manufacturing method thereof A semiconductor structure includes a substrate, a dam element, a first isolation layer, a second isolation layer, and a conductive layer. The substrate has a conductive pad, a trench, a sidewall, a first surface, and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The conductive pad is located on the second surface. The trench has a first opening at the first surface, and has a second opening at the second surface. The dam element is located on the second surface and covers the second opening. The dam element has a concave portion that is at the second opening. The first isolation layer is located on a portion of the sidewall. The second isolation layer is located on the first surface and the sidewall that is not covered by the first isolation layer, such that an interface is formed between the first and second isolation layers.
US09236425B2	Light emitting apparatus and electronic device with compact overlapping connection region There is provided a light emitting apparatus provided with a pixel circuit which is provided with a plurality of transistors including a first transistor and a light emitting element in which a current is supplied by the first transistor, in which, in at least one of the plurality of transistors, a wiring is connected to a gate electrode at a position overlapping a channel region in plan view.
US09236423B2	Organic light-emitting display device and method of manufacturing the same In an organic light-emitting display device and a method of manufacturing the same, the organic light-emitting display device includes: a first insulating layer, a transparent conductive layer, and a second insulating layer which are sequentially formed on a substrate; a thin film transistor including an active layer formed under the first insulating layer, a gate electrode including a part of the transparent conductive layer as a lower electrode layer, and source and drain electrodes connected to both sides of the active layer; an organic light-emitting device including a sequentially stacked structure comprising a part of the transparent conductive layer as a pixel electrode, an intermediate layer which includes an emission layer, and an opposite electrode; and a capacitor including a first electrode and a second electrode, which includes a part of the transparent conductive layer as a lower electrode layer; wherein the transparent conductive layer and the second insulating layer include a hole.
US09236420B2	Flexible organic light-emitting display device and method for manufacturing the same A flexible organic light-emitting display device and a method of manufacturing the flexible organic light-emitting display device are provided. The flexible organic light-emitting display device comprises a lower flexible substrate assembly and an upper flexible substrate assembly that are bonded by a bonding layer. The lower flexible substrate assembly includes a first flexible substrate, a thin film transistor formed on the first flexible substrate, a white organic light-emitting element formed on the thin film transistor, and an encapsulation layer formed on the white organic light-emitting element. The upper flexible substrate assembly comprises a second flexible substrate, an interlayer and a touch sensing unit formed on the interlayer layer. The interlayer may be at least one of a color filter layer, a transparent resin layer, an insulating film layer and a second flexible substrate.
US09236418B2	Light emitting device A light emitting device having a high definition, a high aperture ratio and a high reliability is provided. The present invention realizes a high definition and a high aperture ratio for a flat panel display of full colors using luminescent colors of red, green and blue without being dependent upon the film formation method and deposition precision of an organic compound layer by forming the laminated sections 21, 22 by means of intentionally and partially overlapping different organic compound layers of adjacent light emitting elements. Moreover, the protective film 32a containing hydrogen is formed and the drawback in the organic compound layer is terminated with hydrogen, thereby realizing the enhancement of the brightness and the reliability.
US09236406B2	Photoelectric conversion apparatus with gate control lines and wiring at same height A photoelectric conversion apparatus in which each of a plurality of pixels includes a photoelectric conversion element configured to generate an electric charge by a photoelectric conversion, an impurity diffusion region, and a gate electrode configured to transfer the electric charge from the photoelectric conversion element to the impurity diffusion region. The photoelectric conversion apparatus includes a gate control line composed of a metal wiring extending in a first direction and being connected electrically to the gate electrode. Some or all of the impurity diffusion regions of the plurality of pixels are mutually connected. A read out circuit region is arranged in an outside in a second direction from a pixel arranged at a most outside among all of the plurality of pixels. A metal wiring layer arranged in a pixel array region is composed of only a single wiring layer including a plurality of wirings in the same height.
US09236404B2	Display device and semiconductor device An object is to provide a display device with a high aperture ratio or a semiconductor device in which the area of an element is large. A channel formation region of a TFT with a multi-gate structure is provided under a wiring that is provided between adjacent pixel electrodes (or electrodes of an element). In addition, a channel width direction of each of a plurality of channel formation regions is parallel to a longitudinal direction of the pixel electrode. In addition, when a channel width is longer than a channel length, the area of the channel formation region can be increased.
US09236402B2	Voltage regulator circuit A voltage regulator circuit includes a transistor and a capacitor. The transistor includes a gate, a source, and a drain, a first signal is inputted to one of the source and the drain, a second signal which is a clock signal is inputted to the gate, an oxide semiconductor layer is used for a channel formation layer, and an off-state current is less than or equal to 10 aA/μm. The capacitor includes a first electrode and a second electrode, the first electrode is electrically connected to the other of the source and the drain of the transistor, and a high power source voltage and a low power source voltage are alternately applied to the second electrode.
US09236400B2	Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof A p channel TFT of a driving circuit has a single drain structure and its n channel TFT, a GOLD structure or an LDD structure. A pixel TFT has the LDD structure. A pixel electrode disposed in a pixel portion is connected to the pixel TFT through a hole bored in at least a protective insulation film formed of an inorganic insulating material and formed above a gate electrode of the pixel TFT, and in an interlayer insulating film disposed on the insulation film in close contact therewith. These process steps use 6 to 8 photo-masks.
US09236398B2	Passive devices for FinFET integrated circuit technologies Device structures and design structures for passive devices that may be used as electrostatic discharge protection devices in fin-type field-effect transistor integrated circuit technologies. A device region is formed in a trench and is coupled with a handle wafer of a semiconductor-on-insulator substrate. The device region extends through a buried insulator layer of the semiconductor-on-insulator substrate toward a top surface of a device layer of the semiconductor-on-insulator substrate. The device region is comprised of lightly-doped semiconductor material. The device structure further includes a doped region formed in the device region and that defines a junction. A portion of the device region is laterally positioned between the doped region and the buried insulator layer of the semiconductor-on-insulator substrate. Another region of the device layer may be patterned to form fins for fin-type field-effect transistors.
US09236396B1	Three dimensional NAND device and method of making thereof A monolithic three dimensional NAND string includes a semiconductor channel, at least one end part of the semiconductor channel extending substantially perpendicular to a major surface of a substrate and a plurality of control gate electrodes extending substantially parallel to the major surface of the substrate. The NAND string also includes a memory film located between the semiconductor channel and the plurality of control gate electrodes and a blocking dielectric containing a plurality of clam-shaped portions each having two horizontal portions connected by a vertical portion. The NAND string also includes a plurality of discrete cover silicon oxide segments located between the memory film and each respective clam-shaped portion of the blocking dielectric containing a respective control gate electrode. Each of the plurality of cover silicon oxide segments has curved upper and lower sides and substantially straight vertical sidewalls.
US09236395B1	Semiconductor memory device and method for manufacturing same According to one embodiment, the stacked body includes a plurality of stacked units and a first intermediate layer. Each of the stacked units includes a plurality of electrode layers and a plurality of insulating layers. Each of the insulating layers is provided between the electrode layers. The first intermediate layer is provided between the stacked units. The first intermediate layer is made of a material different from the electrode layers and the insulating layers. The plurality of columnar portions includes a channel body extending in a stacking direction of the stacked body to pierce the stacked body, and a charge storage film provided between the channel body and the electrode layers.
US09236394B2	Three dimensional nonvolatile memory cell structure with upper body connection A three-dimensional integrated circuit non-volatile memory array includes a memory array of vertical channel NAND flash strings connected between a substrate source line and upper layer connection lines which each include n-type drain regions and p-type body line contact regions alternately disposed on each side of undoped or lightly doped string body regions so that each NAND flash string includes a vertical string body portion connected to a horizontal string body portion formed from the string body regions of the upper body connection lines.
US09236391B2	Method of forming split-gate cell for non-volative memory devices Fabrication of a slim split gate cell and the resulting device are disclosed. Embodiments include forming a first gate on a substrate, the first gate having an upper surface and a hard-mask covering the upper surface, forming an interpoly isolation layer on side surfaces of the first gate and the hard-mask, forming a second gate on one side of the first gate, with an uppermost point of the second gate below the upper surface of the first gate, removing the hard-mask, forming spacers on exposed vertical surfaces, and forming a salicide on exposed surfaces of the first and second gates.
US09236390B2	Semiconductor device and method for producing the same A semiconductor device includes a pillar-shaped silicon layer including a first diffusion layer, a channel region, and a second diffusion layer formed in that order from the silicon substrate side, floating gates respectively disposed in two symmetrical directions so as to sandwich the pillar-shaped silicon layer, and a control gate line disposed in two symmetrical directions other than the two directions so as to sandwich the pillar-shaped silicon layer. A tunnel insulating film is formed between the pillar-shaped silicon layer and each of the floating gates. The control gate line is disposed so as to surround the floating gates and the pillar-shaped silicon layer with an inter-polysilicon insulating film interposed therebetween.
US09236389B1	Embedded flash memory fabricated in standard CMOS process with self-aligned contact After forming a plurality of gate structures over a substrate having a plurality of active regions separated from each other by at least one shallow trench isolation (STI) regions, inter-gate dielectric contact structures extending through an interlevel dielectric (ILD) layer that surrounds the gate structures are formed. Each inter-gate dielectric contact structure encloses a corresponding gate structure and is in contact with a dielectric gate cap and a dielectric gate spacer of the corresponding gate structure and a portion of the at least one STI region abutting the dielectric gate spacer of the corresponding gate structure. The inter-gate dielectric contact structure is electrically insulated from a gate conductor in the corresponding gate structure by the dielectric gate cap and the dielectric gate spacer and serves as a control gate in a memory cell of a flash memory array.
US09236378B2	Integrated switch devices Various aspects of the technology include an integrated circuit device comprising a compound semiconductor layer and a plurality of input, switch, and ground ohmic metal fingers fabricated on the compound semiconductor layer in a repeating sequence. A control gate may be disposed between each input finger and adjacent switch finger, and a sync gate may be disposed between each ground finger and adjacent switch finger. A sync gate and a control gate may be disposed adjacent each switch finger. The device further includes a plurality of control gate pads, each control gate pad at an end of two control gates, and a control gate pad at opposite ends of each control gate, and a plurality of sync gate pads, each sync gate pad at an end of two sync gates, and a sync gate pad at opposite ends of each sync gate.
US09236371B2	Integrated circuit for controlling an inductive boost converter An integrated circuit for controlling a boost converter. The integrated circuit includes a gate pin, a source pin, a feedback pin, a current mirror sub-circuit, and a control sub-circuit. The current mirror sub-circuit is connected to the source pin to produce an output current from a reference current flowing between the source pin and ground, the reference current being larger than the output current. The control sub-circuit is connected to the current mirror sub-circuit, the gate pin and the feedback pin to control a gate voltage provided to the gate pin based on the output current and a feedback voltage at the feedback pin.
US09236369B2	Bonded semiconductor structures A method is disclosed that includes the steps outlined below. A first oxide layer is formed to divide a first semiconductor substrate into a first part and a second part. A second oxide layer is formed on the first part of the first semiconductor substrate. The first oxide layer is bonded to a third oxide layer of a second semiconductor substrate. The second part of first semiconductor substrate and the first oxide layer are removed to expose the first part of the first semiconductor substrate.
US09236365B2	Methods of forming 3-D circuits with integrated passive devices Methods of forming 3-D ICs with integrated passive devices (IPDs) include stacking separately prefabricated substrates coupled by through-substrate-vias (TSVs). An active device (AD) substrate has contacts on its upper portion. An isolator substrate is bonded to the AD substrate so that TSVs in the isolator substrate are coupled to the contacts on the AD substrate. An IPD substrate is bonded to the isolator substrate so that TSVs therein are coupled to an interconnect zone on the isolator substrate and/or TSVs therein. The IPDs of the IPD substrate are coupled by TSVs in the IPD and isolator substrates to devices in the AD substrate. The isolator substrate provides superior IPD to AD cross-talk attenuation while permitting each substrate to have small high aspect ratio TSVs, thus facilitating high circuit packing density and efficient manufacturing.
US09236364B2	Package carrier and manufacturing method thereof A manufacturing method of a package carrier includes the following steps. Firstly, two base metal layers are bonded together. Then, two supporting layers are laminated onto the base metal layers respectively. Next, two release metal films are disposed on the supporting layers respectively, wherein each of the release metal films includes a first metal film and a second metal film separable from each other. Next, two patterned metal layers are formed on the release metal films respectively, wherein each of the patterned metal layers is suitable for carrying and electrically connected to a chip. Then, the base metal layers are separated from each other to form two package carriers independent from each other. A package carrier formed by the manufacturing method described above is also provided.
US09236361B2	Millimeter wave wafer level chip scale packaging (WLCSP) device Various embodiments include wafer level chip scale package (WLCSP) structures and methods of tuning such structures. In some embodiments, the WLCSP structure includes: a printed circuit board (PCB) trace connection including at least one PCB ground connection connected with a PCB ground plane; a set of ground solder balls each contacting the printed circuit board trace connection; a set of chip pads contacting each of the ground solder balls in the set of ground solder balls; a chip ground plane connecting the set of chip pads; and a signal interconnect interposed between two of the set of ground solder balls, the signal interconnect including: a signal trace connection electrically isolated from the PCB ground plane; a signal ball contacting the signal PCB trace connection; a chip pad contacting the signal ball, and a signal trace connection on a chip contacting the chip pad.
US09236357B2	Mounting substrate and light emitting device External connection conductors are arranged on a back surface of a base material, and wiring conductors are arranged on a front surface. An insulating layer is provided on surfaces of the wiring conductors. Component mounting conductors are provided on a surface of the insulating layer. The component mounting conductor and the wiring conductor are electrically coupled to each other, and the component mounting conductor and the wiring conductor are electrically coupled to each other. The wiring conductor and the external connection conductor are electrically coupled by a conductor film on an inner wall surface of a hole provided between forming areas of the component mounting conductors. The wiring conductor and the external connection conductor are electrically coupled by a conductor film on an inner wall surface of a hole provided between the forming areas of the component mounting conductors.
US09236347B2	Operating and manufacturing a DC-DC converter Manufacturing a DC-DC converter on a chip includes: providing a die having a p-type top side and an n-type bottom side; removing an interior portion, creating a hole; flipping the interior portion; inserting the interior portion into the hole; fabricating high-side switch cells in the interior portion's top side and low-side switch cells in the exterior portion's top side; sputtering a magnetic material on the entire top side; burrowing tunnels into the magnetic material; and applying conductive material on the magnetic material and within the tunnels, electrically coupling pairs of high-side and low-side switches, with each pair forming a micro-power-switching phase, where the conductive material forms an output node of the phase, and the conductive material in the burrowed tunnels forms, in each phase, a torodial inductor with a single loop coil and, for the plurality of phases, a directly coupled inductor.
US09236345B2	Oxide mediated epitaxial nickel disilicide alloy contact formation Contact openings are formed into a dielectric material exposing a surface portion of a semiconductor substrate. An interfacial oxide layer is then formed in each contact opening and on an exposed surface portion of the interfacial oxide layer. A NiPt alloy layer is formed within each opening and on the exposed surface portion of each interfacial oxide layer. An anneal is then performed that forms a contact structure of, from bottom to top, a nickel disilicide alloy body having an inverted pyramidal shape, a Pt rich silicide cap region and an oxygen rich region. A metal contact is then formed within each contact opening and atop the oxygen rich region of each contact structure.
US09236343B2	Architecture of spare wiring structures for improved engineering change orders An integrated circuit includes a substrate having a plurality of electronic devices, a plurality of interconnect layers disposed on one or both sides of the substrate, and a plurality of active electrically conductive interconnect layer structures. The plurality of interconnect layers include horizontal interconnect and vertical-interconnect-access (VIA) layers. The plurality of active electrically conductive interconnect layer structures are disposed on at least one of the plurality of interconnect layers and electrically coupled with at least one of the plurality of electronic devices. The integrated circuit also includes a plurality of spare electrically conductive interconnect layer structures disposed on at least one of the plurality of interconnect layers and electrically isolated from the plurality of active electrically conductive interconnect layer structures.
US09236342B2	Self-aligned via and plug patterning with photobuckets for back end of line (BEOL) interconnects Self-aligned via and plug patterning with photobuckets for back end of line (BEOL) interconnects is described. In an example, an interconnect structure for an integrated circuit includes a first layer of the interconnect structure disposed above a substrate, the first layer having a first grating of alternating metal lines and dielectric lines in a first direction. The dielectric lines have an uppermost surface higher than an uppermost surface of the metal lines. The integrated circuit also includes a second layer of the interconnect structure disposed above the first layer of the interconnect structure. The second layer includes a second grating of alternating metal lines and dielectric lines in a second direction, perpendicular to the first direction. The dielectric lines have a lowermost surface lower than a lowermost surface of the metal lines of the second grating. The dielectric lines of the second grating overlap and contact, but are distinct from, the dielectric lines of the first grating. The integrated circuit also includes a region of dielectric material disposed between the metal lines of the first grating and the metal lines of the second grating, and in a same plane as upper portions of the dielectric lines of the first grating and lower portions of the dielectric lines of the second grating. The region of dielectric material is composed of a cross-linked photolyzable material.
US09236341B1	Through-silicon vias with metal system fill A silicon interposer includes a plurality of patterned metal layers formed on a silicon wafer portion and a plurality of through-silicon vias extending through the silicon wafer portion. The through-silicon vias have an interdiffusion conductive element.
US09236340B2	String selection structure of three-dimensional semiconductor device A three-dimensional semiconductor device includes first and second selection lines stacked one on the other. An upper line horizontally crosses over the first and second selection lines. First and second vertical patterns vertically cross the first and second selection lines. The first and second vertical patterns are connected in common to the upper line. Each of the first and second vertical patterns constitutes first and second selection transistors that are connected in series to each other. The first selection transistors of the first and second vertical patterns are controlled by the first and second selection lines, respectively.
US09236339B2	Plug via stacked structure, stacked substrate having via stacked structure and manufacturing method thereof Disclosed herein is a plug via stacked structure including: a through hole plating layer plated on a through hole inner wall and around top and bottom of a through hole at thickness t; a via plug filled in an inner space of the through hole plating layer; a circuit pattern formed over the top and bottom of the through hole plating layer and the via plug and making a thickness t′ formed on the through hole plating layer thicker than a thickness t; and a stacked conductive via filled in a via hole formed on the top of the through hole and formed at thickness α from a top of the circuit pattern, wherein T≦t″+α is satisfied, T represents a sum of the thicknesses t and t′ and t″ is a thickness of a portion of the circuit pattern formed on the via plug.
US09236337B2	Semiconductor package including a substrate having a vent hole A semiconductor package includes a substrate having a vent hole extending through the substrate, a semiconductor chip mounted on an upper surface of the substrate, a plurality of solder ball pads formed on a lower surface of the substrate, and an encapsulant covering the upper surface of the substrate, the semiconductor chip, and an entirety of the lower surface of the substrate except for regions in which the solder ball pads are formed.
US09236336B2	Systems and methods for mitigation of mechanical degradation in high performance electrical circuit packages Systems and methods are provided for an integrated circuit package. A plurality of electrical contacts are configured to provide a structure for electrically connecting the integrated circuit package to a printed circuit board. A package substrate includes at least one patterned metallic layer formed to electrically interconnect I/O contacts of an integrated circuit to the plurality of electrical contacts, and at least one generally uniform metallic layer having a plurality of voids that are respectively situated in axial alignment with corresponding ones of the electrical contacts, and one or more dielectric layers disposed between the plurality of electrical contacts and the metallic layers. Further, the package substrate includes a plurality of metallic elements disposed within the plurality of voids and electrically isolated from the generally uniform metallic layer, the metallic elements configured to reduce a physical size of respective voids without electrically contacting the generally uniform metallic layer.
US09236335B2	Semiconductor device including stacked semiconductor chips without occurring of crack A device includes first and second semiconductor chips. The first semiconductor chip includes an edge defining a periphery of the first semiconductor chip. The second semiconductor chip is greater in size than the first semiconductor chip. The second semiconductor chip is stacked over the first semiconductor chip so that the second semiconductor chip hangs over from the edge of the first semiconductor chip. The second semiconductor chip includes a plurality of wiring patterns including a first wiring pattern that positions over the edge of the first semiconductor chip, an insulating film which covers the wiring patterns and which includes on or more holes that expose one or more the wiring patterns, and one or more bump electrodes formed on the one or more the wiring patterns. Remaining one or ones of the wiring patterns is kept covered by the insulating layer and includes the first wiring pattern.
US09236328B1	Electrical and optical through-silicon-via (TSV) A through-silicon-via structure formed within a semiconductor device is provided. The TSV structure may include a trench located within a substrate of the semiconductor device, an insulator layer located on at least one side wall of the trench, an electrically conductive layer located on the insulator layer, a first dielectric layer located on the electrically conductive layer, and a second dielectric layer located on the first dielectric layer and filling the trench. The second dielectric layer includes a higher refractive index relative to the first dielectric layer, such that the first and the second dielectric layer create an optical waveguide. The electrically conductive layer provides electrical coupling between the semiconductor device and another semiconductor device, while the optical waveguide provides optical coupling between the semiconductor device and the another semiconductor device, whereby the another semiconductor device has another substrate that is separate from the substrate of the semiconductor device.
US09236327B2	Semiconductor device with buried bit line and method for fabricating the same A semiconductor device includes: a punch stop region formed in a substrate; a plurality of buried bit lines formed over the substrate; a plurality of pillar structures formed over the buried bit lines; a plurality of word lines extending to intersect the buried bit lines and being in contact with the pillar structures; and an isolation layer isolating the word lines from the buried bit lines.
US09236326B2	Semiconductor structure and fabricating method thereof A semiconductor structure and a method for fabricating the same are provided. The semiconductor structure includes a wafer substrate having a top surface and a bottom surface, and a conductive pillar in the wafer substrate defined by a deep trench insulator through the top surface and the bottom surface of the wafer substrate. The method for fabricating the semiconductor structure includes following steps. A deep trench is formed from a top surface of a wafer substrate to define a conductive region in the wafer substrate. The conductive region is doped with a dopant. The deep trench is filled with an insulation material to form a deep trench insulator. And the wafer substrate is thinned from a bottom surface of the wafer substrate to expose the deep trench insulator and isolate the conductive region to form a conductive pillar.
US09236325B2	Through-vias for wiring layers of semicondutor devices Through-via structures and methods of their formation are disclosed. One such structure includes a conductor structure, a dielectric via lining and a stress-abating dielectric material. The conductor structure is formed of conducting material extending through a wiring layer of a semiconductor device and through a semiconductor layer below the wiring layer. Here, the wiring layer of the semiconductor device includes a first dielectric material. The dielectric via lining extends along the conductor structure at least in the semiconductor layer. Further, the stress-abating dielectric material is disposed between the conductor structure and the first dielectric material in at least the wiring layer, where the stress-abating dielectric material is disposed over portions of the semiconductor layer that are outside outer boundaries of the via lining.
US09236322B2	Methods and apparatus for heat spreader on silicon Apparatus and methods for forming a heat spreader on a substrate to release heat for a semi-conductor package are disclosed. The apparatus comprises a substrate. A dielectric layer is formed next to the substrate and in contact with a surface of the substrate. A heat spreader is formed next to the substrate and in contact with another surface of the substrate. A passivation layer is formed next to the dielectric layer. A connection pad is placed on top of the passivation layer. The substrate may comprise additional through-silicon-vias. The contact surface between the substrate and the heat spreader may be a scraggy surface. The packaging method further proceeds to connect a chip to the connection pad by way of a connection device such as a solder ball or a bump.
US09236321B2	Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof A conventional semiconductor device used for a power supply circuit such as a DC/DC converter has problems of heat dissipation and downsizing, in particular has the problems of heat dissipation and others in the event of downsizing.A semiconductor device has a structure formed by covering a principal surface of a semiconductor chip having the principal surface and a plurality of MIS type FETs formed over the principal surface with a plurality of metal plate wires having pectinate shapes; allocating the pectinate parts alternately in a planar view over the principal surface; and further electrically coupling the plural metal plate wires to a plurality of terminals.
US09236318B1	Glass composition for protecting semiconductor junction, method of manufacturing semiconductor device and semiconductor device A glass composition for protecting a semiconductor junction is made of fine glass particles prepared from a material in a molten state obtained by melting a glass raw material which contains at least ZnO, SiO2, B2O3, Al2O3 and at least two oxides of alkaline earth metals selected from a group consisting of BaO, CaO and MgO and substantially contains none of Pb, As, Sb, Li, Na and K, the glass composition for protecting a semiconductor junction containing no filler.
US09236316B2	Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same The present invention has a tray corresponding to a heat sink, a circuit part is accommodated in an accommodating part of the tray, and the circuit part is potting-sealed with a sealing resin such that external electrodes are exposed. The sealing resin covers and seals a top part of the tray.
US09236315B2	Electrical test structure for devices employing high-k dielectrics or metal gates A test structure includes an active region formed in a semiconducting substrate, a first line formed above and extending over an upper surface of the active region, and a first isolation region formed in the semiconducting substrate, wherein the active region surrounds the first isolation region. The test structure further includes a first extension formed above the active region and on and in contact with an upper surface of the first isolation region, wherein the first extension extends laterally over the upper surface of the active region from a first side of the first line. Additionally, the first line and the first extension are comprised of at least one of a high-k layer of insulating material and a metal layer.
US09236312B2	Preventing EPI damage for cap nitride strip scheme in a Fin-shaped field effect transistor (FinFET) device Approaches for forming an oxide cap to protect a semiconductor device (e.g., a fin field effect transistor device (FinFET)) are provided. Specifically, approaches are provided for forming an oxide cap over a subset (e.g., SiP regions) of raised source drain (RSD) structures on the set of fins of the FinFET device to mitigate damage during subsequent processing. The oxide spacer is deposited before the removal of a nitride capping layer from the FinFET device (e.g., by a hot phosphorus wash). The oxide cap on top of the RSD structures will be preserved throughout the removal of the nitride capping layer to provide hardmask protection during this process.
US09236307B2	Methods of forming transistors with broken up active regions Some embodiments include integrated circuits having first and second transistors. The first transistor is wider than the second transistor. The first and second transistors have first and second active regions, respectively. Dielectric features are associated with the first active region and break up the first active region. The second active region is not broken up to the same extent as the first active region. Some embodiments include methods of forming transistors. Active areas of first and second transistors are formed. The active area of the first transistor is wider than the active area of the second transistor. Dielectric features are formed in the active area of the first transistor. The active area of the first transistor is broken up to a different extent than the active area of the second transistor. The active areas of the first and second transistors are simultaneously doped.
US09236306B2	Method for manufacturing semiconductor device A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to this specification solves the problem in the prior art that the silicon on the edge of an oxide layer in an LDMOS drift region is easily exposed and causes breakdown of an LDMOS device. The method includes: providing a semiconductor substrate comprising an LDMOS region and a CMOS region; forming a sacrificial oxide layer on the semiconductor substrate; removing the sacrificial oxide layer; forming a masking layer on the semiconductor substrate after the sacrificial oxidation treatment; using the masking layer as a mask to form an LDMOS drift region, and forming a drift region oxide layer above the drift region; and removing the masking layer. The method is applicable to a BCD process and the like.
US09236303B2	Substrate film and method of manufacturing the same Provided are a substrate film and a method of manufacturing the substrate film. The substrate film may have excellent thermal resistance and dimensional stability, has excellent stress relaxation to prevent damage of a wafer caused by remaining stress, inhibits damage to or flying-off of the wafer caused by application of a non-uniform pressure during the processing of the wafer, and has excellent cuttability. Accordingly, the substrate film of the present invention can be effectively used as a processing sheet in a process of processing various kinds of wafers including dicing, back-grinding or picking-up.
US09236301B2	Customized alleviation of stresses generated by through-substrate via(S) Fabrication of through-substrate via (TSV) structures is facilitated by: forming at least one stress buffer within a substrate; forming a through-substrate via contact within the substrate, wherein the through-substrate via structure and the stress buffer(s) are disposed adjacent to or in contact with each other; and where the stress buffer(s) includes a configuration or is disposed at a location relative to the through-substrate via conductor, at least in part, according to whether the TSV structure is an isolated TSV structure, a chained TSV structure, or an arrayed TSV structure, to customize stress alleviation by the stress buffer(s) about the through-substrate via conductor based, at least in part, on the type of TSV structure.
US09236299B2	Methods of forming a metal cap layer on copper-based conductive structures on an integrated circuit device One method includes forming a barrier layer in a trench/opening in an insulating material, forming a first region of a copper material above the barrier layer, forming a metal layer in the trench/opening on the first region of copper material, forming a second region of copper material on the metal layer, performing at least one CMP process to remove any materials positioned above a planarized upper surface of the layer of insulating material outside of the trench/opening so as to thereby define a structure comprised of the metal layer positioned between the first and second regions of copper material, forming a dielectric cap layer above the layer of insulating material and above the structure, and performing a metal diffusion anneal process to form a metal cap layer adjacent at least the upper surface of a conductive copper structure.
US09236297B2	Low tempature tungsten film deposition for small critical dimension contacts and interconnects Provided are methods of void-free tungsten fill of high aspect ratio features. According to various embodiments, the methods involve a reduced temperature chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process to fill the features with tungsten. In certain embodiments, the process temperature is maintained at less than about 350° C. during the chemical vapor deposition to fill the feature. The reduced-temperature CVD tungsten fill provides improved tungsten fill in high aspect ratio features, provides improved barriers to fluorine migration into underlying layers, while achieving similar thin film resistivity as standard CVD fill. Also provided are methods of depositing thin tungsten films having low-resistivity. According to various embodiments, the methods involve performing a reduced temperature low resistivity treatment on a deposited nucleation layer prior to depositing a tungsten bulk layer and/or depositing a bulk layer via a reduced temperature CVD process followed by a high temperature CVD process.
US09236296B2	Fabrication method for MIM capacitor Various embodiments provide an MIM capacitor and fabrication method thereof. An exemplary MIM capacitor can include a dielectric layer disposed over a substrate containing a conductive layer. The dielectric layer can include a groove to expose the conductive layer in the substrate. A first metal layer can be disposed on a bottom surface and a bottom portion of a sidewall surface of the groove. A top surface of the first metal layer on the sidewall surface of the groove can be lower than a top surface of the dielectric layer. A dielectric material layer can be disposed on the first metal layer and on a top portion of the sidewall surface of the groove. A second metal layer can be disposed on the dielectric material layer; and a third metal layer can be disposed on the second metal layer to fill the groove.
US09236295B2	Semiconductor chip, semiconductor apparatus having the same and method of arranging the same Provided is a semiconductor apparatus in which a plurality of semiconductor chips stacked in a vertical direction. Each of the semiconductor chips comprises: a bank area comprising a plurality of banks configured to store data; and a peripheral area including a pad area in which a plurality of pads configured to receive signals for controlling the bank area and a plurality of TSV for electrically connecting the plurality of pads, respectively.
US09236293B2	Magnetic trap for cylindrical diamagnetic materials A system for self-aligning diamagnetic materials includes first and second magnets contacting each other along a contact line and having a diametric magnetization perpendicular to the contact line and a diamagnetic rod positioned to levitate above the contact line of the first and second magnets.
US09236289B1	Shallow trench isolation structures in semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same Shallow trench isolation structures in a semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing the same. The method include steps hereinafter. A substrate is provided with a pad oxide layer and a first patterned photoresist layer thereon. A first trench is formed in the substrate corresponding to the first patterned photoresist layer. A first dielectric layer is deposited in the first trench and on the substrate. A second patterned photoresist layer is provided to form an opening in the first dielectric layer and a second trench in the substrate corresponding to the second patterned photoresist layer. A second dielectric layer is deposited covering the first trench and the second trench in the substrate and the first dielectric layer on the substrate. The second dielectric layer is removing by chemical-mechanical polishing until the first dielectric layer is exposed. The first dielectric layer on the substrate selectively is removed.
US09236277B2	Integrated circuit with a thermally conductive underfill and methods of forming same An integrated circuit includes a substrate and at least one chip. Each chip is disposed over the substrate or the other chip. Solder bumps are disposed between the substrate and the at least one chip. An insulating film is disposed around the solder bumps and provides electrical insulation for the solder bumps except areas for interconnections. A thermally conductive underfill is disposed between the substrate, the at least one chip, and the solder bumps.
US09236276B2	Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same In a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device, a semiconductor chip is sealed with a resin, and then a laser is applied to remove the resin so that a part of the semiconductor chip is exposed. The semiconductor chip is made of a material that has a lower absorptivity of the laser than the resin and is not melted by the laser. The laser has a wavelength that passes through the semiconductor chip and has a lower absorptivity in the semiconductor chip than in the resin. The laser is applied to the resin from a side adjacent to one of plate surfaces of the semiconductor chip, so that the resin sealing the one of the plate surfaces is sublimated and removed and at least a part of the resin sealing the other of the plate surfaces is subsequently sublimated and removed by the laser having passed through the semiconductor chip.
US09236274B1	Filling materials and methods of filling through holes for improved adhesion and hermeticity in glass substrates and other electronic components A method of processing a glass substrate for use in semi-conductor packaging applications. Through holes are created in a glass substrate and subsequently filled with a metallized paste material. The glass substrate is planarized after metallization to clean and flatten a surface of the glass substrate. The surface of the glass substrate is coated with at least one redistribution layer of a metal, a metal oxide, an alloy, a polymer, or a combination thereof. The paste material has improved adhesion to the through-holes. The filled through-holes are hermetic and have a low resistivity.
US09236265B2	Silicon germanium processing Methods of selectively etching silicon germanium relative to silicon are described. The methods include a remote plasma etch using plasma effluents formed from a fluorine-containing precursor. Plasma effluents from the remote plasma are flowed into a substrate processing region where the plasma effluents react with the silicon germanium. The plasmas effluents react with exposed surfaces and selectively remove silicon germanium while very slowly removing other exposed materials. Generally speaking, the methods are useful for removing Si(1-X)GeX (including germanium i.e. X=1) faster than Si(1-Y)GeY, for all X>Y. In some embodiments, the silicon germanium etch selectivity results partly from the presence of an ion suppression element positioned between the remote plasma and the substrate processing region.
US09236264B2	Wafer processing method A wafer processing method including a mask forming step of forming a mask for covering a region corresponding to each device on a functional layer formed on the front side of a substrate constituting a wafer, a groove forming step of spraying a fluid containing abrasive grains against the front side of the wafer to thereby form a groove for dividing the functional layer along each street, and an etching step of performing dry etching from the front side of the wafer to thereby form an etched groove along each street. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent that the functional layer may be separated to cause damage to each device. Furthermore, a wide area of the wafer can be processed at a time, so that the productivity can be improved.
US09236263B2	Method for fabricating semiconductor device including silicon-containing layer and metal-containing layer, and conductive structure of the same A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a silicon-containing layer; forming a metal-containing layer over the silicon-containing layer; forming an undercut prevention layer between the silicon containing layer and the metal containing layer; etching the metal-containing layer; and forming a conductive structure by etching the undercut prevention layer and the silicon-containing layer.
US09236262B2	Process for producing a double-gate field-effect device having independent gates A substrate of SOI type is covered by an etching mask defining three distinct semiconductor patterns. A lateral spacer is formed around the three patterns and performs the connection between two adjacent patterns. The buried insulating layer is eliminated so as to define a cavity which suspends a part of a first pattern. The first etching mask is eliminated. A gate dielectric is formed on two opposite main surfaces of the first pattern. The resist is deposited in the cavity and on the first pattern and is then exposed to form two patterns defining the bottom and top gates. An electrically conducting material is deposited in the cavity and on the first pattern so as to form the bottom gate and the top gate on each side of the first semiconductor material pattern.
US09236261B2	Deposition of titanium-aluminum layers Transistors having a work function layer and methods of fabricating thereof are disclosed herein. The work function layer includes aluminum and titanium layers which are deposited in separate atomic layer deposition (ALD) operations. The depositions of the titanium layers and the aluminum layers may be separated by a purge operation or even performed in different ALD chambers. The work function layer may include alternating sets of titanium layers and sets of aluminum layers, thereby forming a nanolaminate structure. As such, a ratio of titanium to aluminum may be controlled and varied as needed throughout the thickness of the work function layer. For example, the work function layer may be titanium rich at the surface facing the gate dielectric in order to reduce or prevent diffusion of aluminum into the gate dielectric.
US09236260B2	System, method and apparatus for seedless electroplated structure on a semiconductor substrate An integrated circuit has a doped silicon semiconductor with regions of insulators and bare silicon. The bare silicon regions are isolated from other bare silicon regions. A semiconductor device on the doped silicon semiconductor has at least two electrical connections to form regions of patterned metal. A metal is electroplated directly on each of the regions of patterned metal to form plated connections without a seed layer. A self-aligned silicide is located under each plated connection, formed by annealing, for the regions of plated metal on bare silicon.
US09236259B2	Method of manufacturing semiconductor device having doped layer A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device having a doped layer may be provided. The method includes providing a substrate having a first region and a second region, forming a gate dielectric layer on the substrate, forming a first gate electrode layer on the gate dielectric layer, forming a first doped layer on the first gate electrode layer, forming a first capping layer on the first doped layer, forming a mask pattern on the first capping layer in the first region, the mask pattern exposing the first capping layer in the second region, removing the first capping layer and the first doped layer in the second region, removing the mask pattern, and forming a second doped layer on the first capping layer in the first region and the first gate electrode layer in the second region.
US09236250B2	Formation of a graphene layer on a large substrate A single crystalline silicon carbide layer can be grown on a single crystalline sapphire substrate. Subsequently, a graphene layer can be formed by conversion of a surface layer of the single crystalline silicon layer during an anneal at an elevated temperature in an ultrahigh vacuum environment. Alternately, a graphene layer can be deposited on an exposed surface of the single crystalline silicon carbide layer. A graphene layer can also be formed directly on a surface of a sapphire substrate or directly on a surface of a silicon carbide substrate. Still alternately, a graphene layer can be formed on a silicon carbide layer on a semiconductor substrate. The commercial availability of sapphire substrates and semiconductor substrates with a diameter of six inches or more allows formation of a graphene layer on a commercially scalable substrate for low cost manufacturing of devices employing a graphene layer.
US09236248B2	Fabrication method of silicon carbide semiconductor element A (000-1) C-plane of an n− type silicon carbide substrate having an off-angle θ in a <11-20> direction is defined as a principal plane, and a periphery of a portion of this principal surface layer defined as an alignment mark is selectively removed to leave the convex-shaped alignment mark. The alignment mark has a cross-like plane shape such that two rectangles having longitudinal dimensions tilted by 45 degrees relative to the <11-20> direction are orthogonal to each other. When a film thickness of a p− type epitaxial layer is Y; a width of the alignment mark parallel to the principal surface of the n− type silicon carbide substrate is X; and an off-angle of the n− type silicon carbide substrate is θ, an epitaxial layer is formed on an upper surface of the alignment mark such that Y≧X·tan θ is satisfied.
US09236247B2	Silane and borane treatments for titanium carbide films Methods of treating metal-containing thin films, such as films comprising titanium carbide, with a silane or a borane agent are provided. In some embodiments a film comprising titanium carbide is deposited on a substrate by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. The process may include a plurality of deposition cycles involving alternating and sequential pulses of a first source chemical that comprises titanium and at least one halide ligand, a second source chemical comprising metal and carbon, wherein the metal and the carbon from the second source chemical are incorporated into the thin film, and a third source chemical, wherein the third source chemical is a silane or borane that at least partially reduces oxidized portions of the titanium carbide layer formed by the first and second source chemicals. In some embodiments treatment forms a capping layer on the metal carbide film.
US09236245B2	ZrA1ON films Atomic layer deposition (ALD) can be used to form a dielectric layer of zirconium aluminum oxynitride (ZrAlON) for use in a variety of electronic devices. Forming the dielectric layer may include depositing zirconium oxide using atomic layer deposition and precursor chemicals, followed by depositing aluminum nitride using precursor chemicals, and repeating. The dielectric layer may be used as the gate insulator of a MOSFET, a capacitor dielectric, and a tunnel gate insulator in flash memories.
US09236243B2	Method for making semiconductor devices including reactant treatment of residual surface portion A method for making semiconductor devices may include forming a phosphosilicate glass (PSG) layer on a semiconductor wafer, with the PSG layer having a phosphine residual surface portion. The method may further include exposing the phosphine residual surface portion to a reactant plasma to integrate at least some of the phosphine residual surface portion into the PSG layer. The method may additionally include forming a mask layer on the PSG layer after the exposing.
US09236242B2	Substrate processing method and substrate processing apparatus A substrate can be appropriately oxidized, while oxidation of the substrate can be suppressed.The present invention includes a step of generating mixed plasma by causing a mixed gas of hydrogen (H2) gas and oxygen (O2) or oxygen-containing gas supplied to a processing chamber to form a plasma discharge, and processing the starting substrate by the mixed plasma; and a step of generating hydrogen plasma by causing hydrogen (H2) gas supplied to the processing chamber to form a plasma discharge, and processing the substrate by the hydrogen plasma.
US09236240B2	Wafer edge protection A semiconductor device and a method for forming a device are presented. A wafer substrate having first and second regions is provided. The second region includes an inner region of the substrate while the first region includes an outer peripheral region from an edge of the substrate towards the inner region. A protection unit is provided above the substrate. The protection unit includes a region having a total width WT defined by outer and inner rings of the protection unit. The substrate is etched to form at least a trench in the second region of the substrate. The WT of the protection unit is sufficiently wide to protect the first region of the wafer substrate such that the first region is devoid of trench.
US09236236B2	System layout for an automated system for sample preparation and analysis A sample preparation and analysis system. The system includes a housing with a sample preparation station and a sample analysis station positioned within the housing. The sample analysis station is spaced away from the sample preparation station. A transport assembly is configured to move at least one sample within the housing and between the sample preparation station and the sample analysis station.
US09236229B2	Gas supply member, plasma treatment method, and method of forming yttria-containing film According to one embodiment, a gas supply member is provided with a gas supply passage including a gas flow channel with a first diameter, and an exhaust port connected to one end portion of the gas flow channel and provided to a surface of a downstream side of the gas supply member. An yttria-containing film is formed on a surface constituting the exhaust port and the surface of the downstream side of the gas supply member. At least a part of the surface constituting the exhaust port is formed with a curved surface.
US09236222B2	Ion implantation apparatus and ion implantation method An ion implantation apparatus includes a beam scanning unit and a beam parallelizing unit arranged downstream thereof. The beam scanning unit has a scan origin in a central part of the scanning unit on a central axis of an incident ion beam. The beam parallelizing unit has a focal point of a parallelizing lens at the scan origin. The ion implantation apparatus is configured such that a focal position of the incident beam into the scanning unit is located upstream of the scan origin along the central axis of the incident beam. The focal position of the incident beam into the scanning unit is adjusted to be at a position upstream of the scan origin along the central axis of the incident beam such that a divergence phenomenon caused by the space charge effect in an exiting ion beam from the parallelizing unit is compensated.
US09236219B2	Measurement of line-edge-roughness and line-width-roughness on pre-layered structures Measurements of line roughness are separated into groups depending upon pre-layers. Image data collected from similar pre-layer types are considered together in order to separate effects of line roughness from distortion of measurements caused by the pre-layers. The resulting line roughness measurements are used to estimate an aspect of line quality.
US09236218B2	Defect inspection apparatus and method using a plurality of detectors to generate a subtracted image that may be used to form a subtraction profile There is provided a defect inspection apparatus including: an electron scanning unit configured to scan a surface of a sample with an electron beam; a plurality of detectors arranged around an optical axis of the electron beam and configured to detect electrons emitted from the surface of the sample by scanning the electron beam; a signal processing unit configured to generate image data of the surface of the sample based on detection signals from the detectors; an analysis unit configured to detect a defect due to irregularities of the surface of the sample based on the image data; and a control unit configured to control a scanning speed of the electron beam depending on the type of the sample.
US09236213B2	Glass welding method and glass layer fixing method At the time of temporary firing for fixing a glass layer 3 to a glass member 4, the glass layer 3 is irradiated with laser light L2 through the glass member 4 from the glass member 4 side. This fully heats a part of the glass layer 3 on the glass member 4 side and thus can improve the adhesion of the glass layer 3 to the glass member 4. Further, even when irradiated with the laser light L2 at such a laser power as to melt both edge parts of the glass layer 3, the part of the glass layer 3 on the side opposite from the glass member 4 (i.e., the part of the glass layer 3 fused to the other glass member) is prevented from being crystallized by excess heat input, whereby the fusing state of the glass layer 3 with respect to the other glass member can be made uniform.
US09236209B2	Relay failure detection system A relay fault detection and correction system includes a signal detector structured to measure primary and secondary signals, and generates a fault output signal if the signals appear to be unterminated due to a relay not connecting the signals to the loads. A cycle circuit is structured to cause a relay controller to cycle a potentially under-performing relay between its states a number of times after the signal detector generates the fault output.
US09236205B2	Keyswitch and keyboard thereof A keyswitch includes a cap, a board, first and second support members rotatably connected to the cap and the board, a seesaw member, and a magnetic member. The seesaw member movably supports at least one of the cap and the first and second support members. The magnetic member is disposed on the board corresponding to the seesaw member. When the cap is pressed, the at least one of the cap and the first and second support members drives the seesaw member to raise and the cap moves from a non-pressed position to a pressed position. When the cap is released, a magnetic attraction force between the magnetic member and the seesaw member drives the seesaw member to raise for lifting the at least one of the cap and the first and second support members, so as to move the cap back to the non-pressed position.
US09236203B2	Pushbutton pullstring adapter for hearing aid A pushbutton pullstring adaptor includes a pullstring and a housing enclosing a pushbutton. The pullstring includes an engagement portion and elongate string portion. The engagement portion, which is disposed within the housing, moves with respect to the housing to engage the pushbutton when a pushing force is applied and to engage the end of the housing when a pulling force is applied. One end of the string portion is securely attached to the engagement portion. The other end of the string portion passes through an aperture in the housing. The string portion moves freely through the aperture when a pushing force or pulling force is applied. When a pushing force is applied to the string portion, the engagement portion engages the pushbutton to control the hearing aid. When a pulling force is applied, the engagement portion engages the housing to remove the hearing aid from a user's ear.
US09236196B2	Electric double-layer capacitor, and current collector for electric double-layer capacitor The electric double-layer capacitor of the present invention comprises an electrolyte solution comprising γ-butyrolactone as the solvent and a coated electrode. The coated electrode is produced by using water as the solvent, and prepared by coating a slurry onto a current collector, wherein the slurry consists of an electrode material which is the solute, an electrically conductive auxiliary agent, and an elastomer having an expansion rate of 50% or less in γ-butyrolactone at 85° C. after 100 hours as the binding agent. For example, a styrene-butadiene elastomer is employed as the elastomer. Because expansion rate in γ-butyrolactone is low, deterioration of internal resistance does not occur. Styrene-butadiene elastomer is easy to handle since water can be used as the solvent for the slurry.
US09236195B2	Dye-sensitized solar cell A dye-sensitized solar cell having a transparent conductive film at the inner surface of a tube-shaped transparent glass vessel, a semiconductor film photoelectrode to which a dye has been adsorbed formed on this transparent conductive film, and a counter electrode provided in the tube-shaped vessel spaced from this photoelectrode and an electrolytic solution enclosed in the tube-shaped vessel. Both ends of the tube-shaped vessel are tightly sealed by formation of sealing portions melting and compress the glass of the vessel; the transparent conductive film extends into the sealing portion at one end of the tube and an external lead is connected electrically to said transparent conductive film and is led out from the sealing portion to the outside of the tube-shaped vessel; and a lead connected electrically to the counter electrode is led out from the sealing portion at the other end to the outside of the tube-shaped vessel.
US09236190B2	Capacitor circuit for a quasi-broadband doherty amplifier An amplifier provides a first amplifier circuit, a second amplifier circuit, a first hybrid-coupler circuit and a termination. The hybrid-coupler circuit provides an output terminal and an insulation terminal. In this context, the termination is connected to the insulation terminal of the hybrid-coupler circuit. The termination comprises a first capacitor and/or an inductance, which is disposed directly at the insulation terminal of the hybrid-coupler circuit.
US09236186B2	Multi-layered ceramic capacitor There is provided a multi-layered ceramic capacitor including: a ceramic body formed by multi-layering a plurality of dielectric layers; a plurality of first and second internal electrodes including at least one side exposed through edges of the dielectric layer; upper and lower cover layers formed at upper and lower portions of the ceramic body, respectively; first and second external electrodes formed to be spaced apart from each other at a lower surface of the lower cover layer; first and second connecting electrodes contacting outer peripheral surfaces of a plurality of second and first margin to connect exposed portions of the plurality of first and second internal electrodes, respectively; and an insulating side part formed so as to cover lateral surfaces at which the first and second internal electrodes are exposed.
US09236179B1	Magnetic component apparatus with interconnectable bobbins An interconnectable bobbin has first and second end flanges and a fastener on the first end flange positioned to engage a second bobbin on an adjacent leg of a multiple leg magnetic core. A magnetic component apparatus includes one or more of the interconnectable bobbins, the magnetic component apparatus including a magnetic core with first and second legs, the first leg extending into a first bobbin, and the second leg extending into a second bobbin, wherein the first and second bobbins are fastened together.
US09236177B2	Common mode filter A common mode filter is disclosed. The common mode filter in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes: a magnetic substrate; a coil pattern formed on the magnetic substrate; a dielectric layer formed on the magnetic substrate so as to cover an upper part, a lower part and a side surface of the coil pattern; and a first coupling agent interposed between the magnetic substrate and the dielectric layer so as to prevent the magnetic substrate and the dielectric layer from being separated.
US09236175B2	Electromagnetic actuation device An electromagnetic actuating apparatus having an armature unit, which can be moved through a movement distance in an axial direction relative to a stationary core unit and in reaction to an operating current being passed through a coil unit, which armature unit magnetically interacts axially at one end with the core unit over a control range which at least partially overlaps axially along the movement distance, which, as a section of the armature unit, has a first profile section and, as a section of the core unit, has a second profile section, with an air gap formed between them and forms an extent at right angles to the axial direction.
US09236170B2	ZnO multilayer chip varistor with base metal inner electrodes and preparation method thereof Provided are a multilayer chip ZnO varistor with base metal inner electrodes and a preparation method thereof. The varistor is formed by ceramic sheets and inner electrodes which were alternately laminated. Wherein the main material of inner electrodes is the base metal nickel(Ni), both ends of the varistor are coated with silver electrodes. The present invention has the following beneficial effects: (1) the material formula of ZnO varistor is suitable for the preparation process of reduction and reoxidation; (2) the base metal Ni is used as inner electrodes which can sharply reduce the preparation cost of a multilayer chip ZnO varistor; (3) using a conventional solid-phase sintering method, it can complete the burning of silver and the oxidation of the ceramic simultaneously which is suitable for mass production; (4) the nonlinear coefficient of the ZnO multilayer chip varistor produced by the method of this invention can reach 30 or more, the varistor breakdown voltage is less than 20V and the size can be standard chip package size 0805,0603,0402 and 0201.
US09236169B2	Electromagnetic wave shielding structure and method for fabricating the same Provided is an electromagnetic wave shielding structure, including: a substrate; and a porous composite film formed on the substrate, wherein the porous composite film includes a continuous phase network fused from a plurality of metal nanoparticles, a first resin composition coated on a surface of the continuous phase network and a plurality of holes which are void spaces in the continuous phase network coated with the first resin composition.
US09236166B2	Core-jacket bonding wire A bonding wire is provided containing a wire core made of a first material containing a metal and a wire jacket that envelopes the wire core and is made of a second material containing a metal. The wire core and the wire jacket are made of different metals and the bonding wire has an aspect ratio of no more than 0.8. The bonding wire efficiently prevents damage to bonding surfaces during the bonding process and short-circuiting during the use of corresponding sub-assemblies.
US09236165B2	Electric cable To provide an electric cable that can satisfy flame retardancy and battery fluid resistance in the CHFUS region provided in ISO 6722 and also satisfy low-temperature resistance, wear resistance, and peelability by using a halogen-containing flame retardant. An electric cable in which a coat layer is formed of a non-crosslinked resin composition that includes (A) 40 to 84 parts by mass of a polypropylene homopolymer, (B) 1 to 10 parts by mass of a polypropylene-based modified resin, (C) 10 to 30 parts by mass of a polyolefin-based copolymer, and (D) 5 to 20 parts by mass of an olefin-based elastomer and further includes 1 to 45 parts by mass of a metal hydroxide and 10 to 80 parts by mass of a halogen-containing flame retardant based on 100 parts by mass of the resins (A), (B), (C), and (D) in total.
US09236164B2	Method for producing composite insulators by UV-crosslinking silicone rubber Composite insulators having a silicone rubber shield are economically produced by coating at least a portion of a support with a crosslinkable silicone rubber composition containing a light activated hydrosilation catalyst, and irradiating the crosslinkable silicone rubber composition to activate a crosslinking reaction.
US09236160B2	Polymer film-producing methods and devices produced therefrom Described herein are improved methods of forming polymer films, the polymer films formed thereby, and electronic devices formed form the polymer films. The methods generally include contacting a polymer with a solvent to at least partially solvate the polymer in the solvent, exposing the at least partially solvated polymer and solvent to ultrasonic energy for a duration effective to form a plurality of ordered assemblies of the polymer in the solvent, and forming a solid film of the polymer, wherein the solid film comprises the plurality of ordered assemblies of the polymer.
US09236154B2	Charged-particle beam drawing method, computer-readable recording media, and charged-particle beam drawing apparatus A charged-particle beam drawing method includes: storing a plurality of time interval patterns defining time intervals for performing a diagnosis of a drift amount of charged-particle beam; drawing a predetermined drawing pattern on a sample by irradiating the beam on the sample; receiving first event information including occurrence of event and type of event; acquiring region information specifying a region being drawn by the beam; selecting a specific time interval pattern from the plurality of time interval patterns based on the type of the event of the first event information and the region information; diagnosing the drift amount of the beam based on the specific time interval pattern, until second event information is received, the second event information includes occurrence of event and type of event; and drawing a predetermined drawing pattern on the sample while performing a drift correction of the charged-particle beam, based on the diagnosing.
US09236153B2	Method of recovering enriched radioactive technetium and system therefor To use 99mTc as a raw material for a radioactive medicine, a very small amount of 99mTc in the high concentration Mo(99Mo) solution is purified and recovered with high yield without contamination of 99Mo. 99mTc with high purity is recovered by forming a high concentration Mo(99Mo) solution which contains radionuclides 99Mo which is the parent nuclide of 99mTc used for the radioactive medicine and the raw material for its labeled compound, forming a high concentration Mo(99Mo) solution which contains radionuclides 99Mo and 99mTc by generating 99mTc to a radioactive-equilibrium state, getting 99mTc in the high concentration Mo(99Mo) solution adsorbed to activated carbon selectively by feeding the solution to an adsorption column which has activated carbon, and undergoing desorption and purification treatment of 99mTc with a desorbent from the activated carbon to which 99mTc is adsorbed.
US09236151B2	Process for fabrication of a part with tubular geometry made from a ceramic matrix composite material A device for tensioning a preform made from interlaced fibers is applied to tension the preform used in a process for fabricating a part made from a ceramic matrix composite material. During this process, the preform is tensioned before and during its densification using the tensioning device (100), which comprises a main body (2), a first assembly element (3) and a second assembly element (4) and a control rod, rotation of the control rod causing translation of the second assembly element, separation of the first and second assembly elements from each other and tensioning of the preform along the longitudinal direction.
US09236150B2	Standing wave nuclear fission reactor and methods Disclosed embodiments include nuclear fission reactor cores, nuclear fission reactors, methods of operating a nuclear fission reactor, and methods of managing excess reactivity in a nuclear fission reactor.
US09236143B2	Generic address scrambler for memory circuit test engine A generic address scrambler for a memory circuit test engine. An embodiment of a memory device includes a memory stack having one or more of coupled memory elements, a built-in self-test circuit including a generic programmable address scrambler for the mapping of logical addresses to physical addresses for the memory elements, and one or more registers to hold programming values for the generic programmable address scrambler.
US09236141B2	Circuit and system of using junction diode of MOS as program selector for programmable resistive devices A programmable resistive device cell using at least one MOS device as selector can be programmed or read by turning on a source junction diode of the MOS or a channel of the MOS. A programmable resistive device cell can include at least one programmable resistive element and at least one MOS device. The programmable resistive element can be coupled to a first supply voltage line. The MOS can have a source coupled to the programmable resistive element, a bulk coupled to a drain, a drain coupled to a second supply voltage line, and a gate coupled to a third supply voltage line. The programmable resistive element can be configured to be programmable or readable by applying voltages to the first, second, and/or third supply voltage lines to turn on the source junction of the MOS and/or to turn on the channel of the MOS.
US09236138B2	Semiconductor memory device A semiconductor memory device includes at least one cell string to include a plurality of dummy memory cells and a plurality of memory cells connected in series between the plurality of dummy memory cells; and the peripheral circuit to control the at least one cell string so that a first type of data represented by a first number of bits is stored in at least one of the dummy memory cells and a second type of data represented by a second number of bits, the second number smaller than the first number, is stored in at least two of the plurality of memory cells.
US09236136B2	Lower page read for multi-level cell memory An electronic memory or controller may use a first type of read command, addressed to a first page of memory of an electronic memory that includes information to indicate that a second page of memory of the electronic memory has not been programmed and a second type of read command, addressed to the first page of memory, that includes information to indicate that the second page of memory has been programmed. The first page of memory may include a lower page of a multi-level cell (MLC), and the second page of memory may include an upper page of the same MLC. The second page of memory is enabled during a period of time that the first type of read command is used.
US09236135B2	Semiconductor storage device having a voltage generator According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor storage device includes a memory cell, a voltage generator configured to output a first voltage and a second voltage, and a controller. The controller executes a write operation, which includes a first read operation, a program operation, and a verify operation. The controller executes the first read operation before the program operation and the verify operation. The controller executes the first read operation by applying the first voltage to a gate of the memory cell. The controller executes an erase verify operation by applying the second voltage to the gate of the memory cell. The first voltage is higher than the second voltage.
US09236129B2	Flash memory integrated circuit with compression/decompression CODEC Provided is a flash memory integrated circuit with a compression codec. The flash memory integrated circuit may simultaneously include a memory block and a compression codec circuit. The compression codec circuit may compress input data. A controller circuit may store the compressed input data in at least one page that is included in the memory block. Through this, it is possible to enhance a usage efficiency of a flash memory.
US09236128B1	Voltage kick to non-selected word line during programming When applying a programming voltage at one end of a word line of a non-volatile memory circuit, if the word line has a large RC constant the far end of the word line will not rise as fast as the driven end, which can adversely affect device performance. To more quickly raise the voltage on the selected word line, a voltage kick is applied to non-selected word lines, such as dummy word lines, by way of a non-selected sub-block of the selected block. The channel of NAND strings in the non-selected sub-block is used to transfer the kick to the far end of the selected word line of the selected sub-block.
US09236126B2	Simplified nonvolatile memory cell string and NAND flash memory array using the same A nonvolatile memory cell string includes two or more cell devices formed in series on a wall type semiconductor protruded from a semiconductor substrate with a predetermined length along one direction to form the cell string. One end of the cell string is electrically connected to outside through a string selection transistor formed on one end of the wall type semiconductor. The other end of the cell string is floated and not electrically connected to outside.
US09236123B2	Semiconductor device and write method A semiconductor device includes a memory cell array including a plurality of first and second memory cells each comprising a variable resistance element that establishes an electrical resistance that changes in response to an application of a write voltage after a forming voltage has been applied, the first memory cell to which the forming voltage is applied, and the second memory cell to which the forming voltage is not applied, and the second memory cell being configured to store one of first and second logic values constituting first information, the first and second logic values being different from each other.
US09236121B2	Semiconductor memory apparatus and temperature control method thereof A semiconductor memory apparatus and a temperature control method thereof are provided. The semiconductor memory apparatus includes a temperature adjustment unit suitable for adjusting a temperature of a memory cell, and a temperature control unit suitable for sensing a temperature of the temperature adjustment unit, comparing a sensed temperature with a reference temperature range, and controlling the temperature adjustment unit to adjust the temperature thereof within the reference temperature range based on a comparison result.
US09236119B2	Diode/superionic conductor/polymer memory structure A conjugated polymer layer with a built-in diode is formed by providing a first metal-chalcogenide layer over a bottom electrode. Subsequently, a second metal-chalcogenide layer is provided over and in contact with the first metal-chalcogenide layer. The first metal-chalcogenide layer has a first conductivity type and the second metal-chalcogenide layer has a second conductivity type. The plane of contact between the first and second metal-chalcogenide layers creates the p-n junction of the built-in diode. Then a polymer layer is selectively deposited on the second metal-chalcogenide layer. The second metal-chalcogenide layer provides ions to the polymer layer to change its resistivity. A top electrode is then provided over the polymer layer. An exemplary memory cell may have the following stacked structure: first electrode/n-type semiconductor/p-type semiconductor/conjugated polymer/second electrode.
US09236115B2	Circuit for enhancing robustness of sub-threshold SRAM memory cell A circuit for improving process robustness of sub-threshold SRAM memory cells serves as an auxiliary circuit for a sub-threshold SRAM memory cell. The output of the circuit is connected to PMOS transistors of the sub-threshold SRAM memory cell and substrate of PMOS transistors in the circuit. The circuit includes a detection circuit for threshold voltages of the PMOS transistors and a differential input and single-ended output amplifier. The circuit changes the substrate voltage of the PMOS transistors in the sub-threshold SRAM memory cell and the PMOS transistors in the circuit in a self-adapting manner by detecting threshold voltage fluctuations of PMOS and NMOS transistor resulted from process fluctuations and thereby regulates the threshold voltages of the PMOS transistors, so that the threshold voltages of the PMOS and NMOS transistors match. The circuit improves the noise margin of sub-threshold SRAM memory cells and the process robustness of sub-threshold SRAM memory cells.
US09236112B1	Apparatuses and methods for reducing cycle times in successive memory accesses Methods and apparatuses are disclosed including an apparatus that includes a controller circuit configured to access a first subarray of a memory and to access a second subarray of the memory subsequent to accessing the first subarray but contemporaneous with precharging a portion of the first subarray by a precharge circuit associated with the first subarray.
US09236106B2	Magnetic domain wall motion memory and write method for the same A magnetic domain wall motion memory according to an embodiment includes: a magnetic memory nanowire; a write magnetic wire intersecting with the magnetic memory nanowire; an intermediate joining portion provided in an intersection region between the write magnetic wire and the magnetic memory nanowire; adjacent pinning portions placed on one of the same side and the opposite side of the write magnetic wire as and from the magnetic memory nanowire; a read unit attached to the magnetic memory nanowire; a pair of first electrodes that applies a write current to the write magnetic wire; and a pair of second electrodes that applies a current for causing the magnetic memory nanowire to move a magnetic domain wall, wherein contact faces of the write magnetic wire in contact with the adjacent pinning portions have magnetization configurations antiparallel to each other.
US09236105B2	Magnetic memory devices and methods of writing data to the same Magnetic memory devices include a magnetoresistive cell including a free layer having a variable magnetization direction and a pinned layer having a fixed magnetization direction, a bit line on the magnetoresistive cell and including a spin Hall effect material layer exhibiting a spin Hall effect and contacting the free layer; and a lower electrode under the magnetoresistive cell. A voltage is applied between the bit line and the lower electrode so that current passes through the magnetoresistive cell.
US09236103B2	Bipolar spin-transfer switching A magnetic device includes a magnetized polarizing layer, a free magnetic layer, and a reference layer. The free magnetic layer forms a first electrode and is separated from the magnetized polarizing layer by a first non-magnetic metal layer. The free magnetic layer has a magnetization vector having a first and second stable state. The reference layer forms a second electrode and is separated from the free-magnetic layer by a second non-magnetic layer. Unipolar current is sourced through the polarizing, free magnetic and reference layers. Switching of the magnetization vector of the free magnetic layer from the first stable state to the second state is initiated by application of a first unipolar current pulse, and switching of the magnetization vector of the free magnetic layer from the second stable state to the first stable state is initiated by application of a second unipolar current pulse.
US09236102B2	Apparatuses, circuits, and methods for biasing signal lines Apparatuses, circuits, and methods are disclosed for biasing signal lines in a memory array. In one such example the memory array includes a signal line coupled to a plurality of memory cells and is configured to provide access to the plurality of memory cells responsive to a biasing condition of the signal line. The memory array also includes a signal line driver coupled to the signal line, the signal line driver configured to provide a biasing signal to the signal line and to provide a preemphasis in the biasing signal responsive to a control signal. The control signal is responsive to an operating condition.
US09236098B2	Semiconductor device having transistor and semiconductor memory device using the same Semiconductor device capable of preventing off-leakage of the transistor may include a pulse voltage generator configured to generate a pulse voltage, and a transistor configured to have a gate provided with the pulse voltage. The transistor is in an off state in response to the pulse voltage.
US09236096B2	Initializing dummy bits of an SRAM tracking circuit An embodiment of the invention discloses a method for writing concurrently a binary logical value to one or more dummy memory cells in a dummy bit line pair. A diode is electrically connected between a power supply and the positive power supply line connected to the dummy memory cells. The binary logical value is then driven on to the dummy bit line pair. Next, one or more dummy word lines are driven to a logical high allowing selected dummy memory cells to be written with the binary logical value. After the selected dummy memory cells have been written to, the one or more dummy word lines are driven to a logical low. Next the diode is disabled by turning on a PFET connected between the power supply and the positive power supply line. Turning on the PFET also electrically connects the power supply to the positive power supply line.
US09236095B2	Method and apparatus for sharing internal power supplies in integrated circuit devices A method, system and apparatus for sharing internal power supplies in integrated circuit devices is described. A multiple device integrated circuit 200 including multiple integrated circuits 202-205 each having internal power supplies is contained in an enclosure 201. Integrated circuits 202-205 are described showing how to make external connection to internal power supplies. Connections 208-212 are provided to the internal power supplies of each of devices 202-205. Another embodiment 500 of the system provides for disablement of regulators in multiple integrated circuits 502, 503, and 504 by another integrated circuit 501 for power consumption reduction. The method FIG. 6 includes providing devices and connecting the internal power supplies together. An integrated circuit 501 with a power supply 400 adapted to the system and method with additional circuitry 308, 404 and 402 for disabling a regulator 306 is described.
US09236092B2	System, method, and apparatus for embedding personal video recording functions at picture level Described herein are system(s), method(s), and apparatus for embedding personal video recorder functions at the picture level. In one embodiment, there is presented a computer readable medium for storing a data structure. The data structure comprises a picture header and at least one command following the picture header.
US09236090B2	Video generating apparatus and video generating method A video generating apparatus includes: a segmentation unit dividing each of pictures included in an input video sequence into multiple regions as divided regions, and generating partial video sequences each having a set of the divided regions associated with one another between the pictures; a removal region determining unit determining, as a removal region, a region of at least one of the objects included in the input video sequence; an occluded region completing unit generating a completed video sequence by completing an image in an occluded region for each of the partial video sequences, thereby completing the partial video sequences and by superimposing the completed partial video sequences over one another, the occluded region being a region of an other object occluded in the removal region by the at least one object; and a video outputting unit outputting the completed video sequence.
US09236089B2	Content information processing device and method for displaying identified object images within video content An information processing apparatus comprising that includes a reproduction unit to reproduce video content comprising a plurality of frames; a memory to store a table including object identification information identifying an object image, and frame identification information identifying a frame of the plurality of frames that includes the object image; and a processor to extract the frame including the object image from the video content and generate display data of a reduced image corresponding to the frame for display.
US09236086B1	Methods for reducing operational latency of data storage systems Systems and methods for reducing operational latency of data storage systems are disclosed. More particularly, a data storage device can perform conditioning operations on inactive zones while the data storage device is idle. When an active zone is the target of a write command, the data storage device can exchange a conditioned inactive zone for the unconditioned target zone. The write operation can be performed immediately on the previously-inactive already-conditioned zone. At a later time, the target zone can be conditioned.
US09236082B2	Near-field light generator including a waveguide and a plasmon generator A plasmon generator includes a first portion and a second portion that are adjacent in a first direction orthogonal to the direction of travel of light propagating through a core. The second portion includes a front end face located in a medium facing surface of a magnetic head. The core has a concave portion recessed from the top surface of the core. At least part of the first portion is received in the concave portion. The concave portion has a surface including an evanescent light generating portion. The first portion includes a plasmon exciting portion opposed to the evanescent light generating portion. The evanescent light generating portion is inclined relative to a first surface.
US09236079B2	System and method for storing redundant information A method and system for reducing storage requirements and speeding up storage operations by reducing the storage of redundant data includes receiving a request that identifies one or more data objects to which to apply a storage operation. For each data object, the storage system determines if the data object contains data that matches another data object to which the storage operation was previously applied. If the data objects do not match, then the storage system performs the storage operation in a usual manner. However, if the data objects do match, then the storage system may avoid performing the storage operation.
US09236077B2	Glass for use as substrate for information recording medium, substrate for information recording medium and information recording medium, and their production methods According to one aspect of the present invention, provided is glass for use in substrate for information recording medium, which comprises, denoted as molar percentages, a total of 70 to 85 percent of SiO2 and Al2O3, where SiO2 content is equal to or greater than 50 percent and Al2O3 content is equal to or greater than 3 percent; a total of equal to or greater than 10 percent of Li2O, Na2O and K2O; a total of 1 to 6 percent of CaO and MgO, where CaO content is greater than MgO content; a total of greater than 0 percent but equal to or lower than 4 percent of ZrO2, HfO2, Nb2O5, Ta2O5, La2O3 Y2O3 and TiO2; with the molar ratio of the total content of Li2O, Na2O and K2O to the total content of SiO2, Al2O3, ZrO2, HfO2, Nb2O5, Ta2O5, La2O3, Y2O3 and TiO2 ((Li2O+Na2O+K2O)/(SiO2+Al2O3+ZrO2+HfO2+Nb2O5+Ta2O5+La2O3+Y2O3+TiO2)) being equal to or less than 0.28. Further provided are the substrate for information recording medium, information recording medium and their manufacturing methods according to the present invention.
US09236075B2	Crystallized glass and crystallized glass substrate for information recording medium It is an object of the present invention to provide a crystallized glass which has various properties required for employing the substrate for information recording medium of the next generation, and also has significantly low specific gravity; and a crystallized glass substrate for information recording medium. A crystallized glass containing, as a crystal phase, one or more selected from RAl2O4 and R2TiO4 (wherein R is one or more selected from Mg and Fe), the crystallized glass comprising the components of SiO2 of 50% to 70%, Al2O3 of 10% to 26%, TiO2 of 1 to 15%, MgO of 2.5% to 25%, FeO of 0% to 8%, and ZnO of 0% to less than 2%, expressed in terms of mass percentage on an oxide basis, wherein the value of (Al2O3+MgO)/SiO2 is 0.30 or more and 0.65 or less, and a specific gravity is less than 2.63.
US09236073B1	Write fault threshold for a set of tracks Systems and methods are disclosed having a write fault threshold for a set of tracks. A set of tracks may have a shared write fault threshold budget, and a write fault threshold for the second track may be selected based on the shared budget reduced by an off-track position error signal value of the first track. In certain embodiments, an apparatus may comprise a processor configured to determine a position error signal value for a first data track, set a write fault threshold for a second data track adjacent to the first data track based on the position error signal, and write data to the second data track based on the write fault threshold.
US09236071B1	Etching continuous periodic pattern on a suspension to adjust pitch and roll static attitude A method of manufacturing a suspension for a head of a data storage device is disclosed, the method comprising etching at least one continuous cycle of a periodic pattern on the suspension, wherein a first part of the continuous cycle adjusts a pitch static attitude (PSA) of the suspension and a second part of the continuous cycle adjusts a roll static attitude (RSA) of the suspension.
US09236069B2	Method for making a current-perpendicular-to-the-plane (CPP) magnetoresistive (MR) sensor with reduced-width self-aligned top electrode A method for making a current-perpendicular-to-the-plane magnetoresistive sensor structure produces a top electrode that is “self-aligned” on the top of the sensor and with a width less than the sensor trackwidth. A pair of walls of ion-milling resistant material are fabricated to a predetermined height above the biasing layers at the sensor side edges. A layer of electrode material is then deposited onto the top of the sensor between the two walls. The walls serve as a mask during angled ion milling to remove outer portions of the electrode layer. The height of the walls and the angle of ion milling determines the width of the resulting top electrode. This leaves the reduced-width top electrode located on the sensor. Because of the directional ion milling using walls that are aligned with the sensor side edges, the reduced-width top electrode is self-aligned in the center of the sensor.
US09236066B1	Atomic write-in-place for hard disk drives In general, techniques are described for writing data to a storage device that comprises an interface and a controller. The interface may receive a request to sequentially write data stored in a first group of tracks to an I-region, where the first group of tracks was also previously written. The controller may move data stored in a second group of consecutive tracks different than the first group of tracks from the I-region to an E-region, the second group having cardinality equal to the tracks that must be moved for the first group to be written sequentially in the I-region. The E-region comprises a portion of the storage device reserved for temporary storage. The controller may determine a position of the I-region where data from one of the second group was previously stored, and write data from the first group of tracks sequentially to the I-region, starting at the position.
US09236057B2	Noise filling and audio decoding A noise filling method is provided that includes detecting a frequency band including a part encoded to 0 from a spectrum obtained by decoding a bitstream; generating a noise component for the detected frequency band; and adjusting energy of the frequency band in which the noise component is generated and filled by using energy of the noise component and energy of the frequency band including the part encoded to 0.
US09236056B1	Variable length local sensitivity hash index Implementations are provided herein relating to audio matching. A variable length local sensitivity hash (“LSH”) index can be created through a careful examination of existing LSH bands in the LSH index. LSH bands with offset lists that meet a band size threshold can be lengthened repeatedly until a maximum length threshold is reached or an offset list associated with a lengthened LSH band fails to meet the band size threshold. The LSH index can be further tuned by down-sampling or discarding LSH bands that reach a maximum length threshold and still lack discriminate properties.
US09236055B2	Method for inter-channel difference estimation and spatial audio coding device Methods and devices for a low complex inter-channel difference estimation are provided. A method for the estimation of inter-channel differences (ICDs), comprises applying a transformation from a time domain to a frequency domain to a plurality of audio channel signals, calculating a plurality of ICD values for the ICDs between at least one of the plurality of audio channel signals and a reference audio channel signal over a predetermined frequency range, each ICD value being calculated over a portion of the predetermined frequency range, calculating, for each of the plurality of ICD values, a weighted ICD value by multiplying each of the plurality of ICD values with a corresponding frequency-dependent weighting factor, and calculating an ICD range value for the predetermined frequency range by adding the plurality of weighted ICD values.
US09236053B2	Encoding and decoding system, decoding apparatus, encoding apparatus, encoding and decoding method An encoding and decoding system includes: a characteristic determining unit which determines whether a sound signal is a speech signal or an audio signal; an encoder which encodes the sound signal into an encoded signal, based on a determination by the characteristic determining unit; a transmitting unit which transmits the encoded signal; a receiving unit which receives the encoded signal; a decoder which decodes the encoded signal; and a packet loss detecting unit which detects a loss of data of the encoded signal and transmits a notification indicating the loss of the data to the characteristic determining unit. Upon receiving the notification indicating the loss of the data, the characteristic determining unit causes the encoder to encode the sound signal portion into a signal portion composed of independently decodable frames.
US09236050B2	System and method for improving speech recognition accuracy in a work environment Apparatus and method that improves speech recognition accuracy, by monitoring the position of a user's headset-mounted speech microphone, and prompting the user to reconfigure the speech microphone's orientation if required. A microprocessor or other application specific integrated circuit provides a mechanism for comparing the relative transit times between a user's voice, a primary speech microphone, and a secondary compliance microphone. The difference in transit times may be used to determine if the speech microphone is placed in an appropriate proximity to the user's mouth. If required, the user is automatically prompted to reposition the speech microphone.
US09236046B2	Systems and methods for identifying patient distress based on a sound signal A sound signal from a patient may include information that may be used to determine multiple patient parameters. A patient monitor may determine respiration information such as respiration rate from the sound signal, for example based on modulations of the sound signal due to patient breathing. The patient monitor may also determine indications of patient distress based on a trained classifier, speech commands, or sound patterns.
US09236045B2	Methods and apparatus for proofing of a text input Techniques for presenting data input as a plurality of data chunks including a first data chunk and a second data chunk. The techniques include converting the plurality of data chunks to a textual representation comprising a plurality of text chunks including a first text chunk corresponding to the first data chunk and a second text chunk corresponding to the second data chunk, respectively, and providing a presentation of at least part of the textual representation such that the first text chunk is presented differently than the second text chunk to, when presented, assist a user in proofing the textual representation.
US09236041B2	Filter circuit for noise cancellation, noise reduction signal production method and noise canceling system There is provided a filter circuit for producing a noise reduction signal for reducing a noise signal collected by a microphone, including: a digital section including an analog/digital conversion section configured to convert the noise signal into a digital noise signal, a digital filter section configured to produce a digital noise reduction signal based on the digital noise signal, and a digital/analog conversion section configured to convert the digital noise reduction signal into an analog noise reduction signal; an analog path connected in parallel to said digital section and configured to output the noise signal as it is or after processed by an analog filter; and a synthesis section configured to synthesize the analog noise reduction signal outputted from said digital/analog conversion section of said digital section and the analog signal outputted from said analog path to produce a noise reduction signal to be used for noise reduction.
US09236038B1	Pedal device for drum A drum pedal includes a unit body, a pedal, a chain belt, a shaft, a beater, and a tension coil spring. The tension coil spring has a lower end coupled through a bolt, an adjusting nut, and a locking nut to a bracket fixed to a column. The tension coil spring pivots together with the bolt and the adjusting and locking nuts relative to the bracket. A pivot fulcrum of the tension coil spring is provided on the lower surface of the bracket contacting the adjusting nut.
US09236037B1	Piccolo A piccolo comprising a conical-bore headjoint, and a cylindrical-bore main body having toneholes of particular size disposed at particular intervals along the length of the body.
US09236034B2	Display method, user terminal, and system for transmitting and receiving data using the same A display method, and a user terminal and a system for transmitting and receiving data using the same, are disclosed. The display method includes sequentially receiving first data from an external server, and displaying the received first data in the order of receiving the first data; discontinuing to receive un-received data among the first data, receiving the second data from the external server, and displaying the received second data on a screen; and continuing to receive the discontinued data from the external server.
US09236029B2	Histogram generation and evaluation for dynamic pixel and backlight control Systems, methods, and devices are provided for histogram generation and evaluation used in adjusting the power consumed by a backlight of an electronic display. One such method involves generating a pixel brightness histogram of an image frame passing through a pixel pipeline in a nonlinear space. One or more pixel brightness values from the histogram may be selected before being converted from the nonlinear space into a linear space. A tone mapping function and backlight intensity are determined based at least in part on the one or more pixel brightness values in the linear space. The resulting tone mapping function is converted to the nonlinear space and applied to the image frame or a subsequent image frame in the pixel pipeline. The pixels of the image frame to which the nondistorting portion of the tone mapping function is applied may appear substantially undistorted despite a reduction in backlight intensity.
US09236027B2	Display system and computer-readable medium The present invention provides a display system capable of efficiently calibrating image content even when the image is displayed and thereby capable of reducing the time and cost required for calibration, and also provides a computer-readable recording medium. The control device thereof processes an image to be displayed on a display section beforehand so as to be usable for calibration. While the image is actually being displayed on the display section, the control device captures an image displayed on the display section using a capturing device at the timing at which a calibration image is displayed, compares the luminance or color in the calibration image with the luminance or color in the image obtained by capturing the calibration image, and creates correction information for correcting an image signal to be output to the display section on the basis of the result of the comparison.
US09236026B2	Color temperature tuning method, color temperature tuning apparatus and display apparatus Embodiments of the present invention relate to a color temperature tuning method, a color temperature tuning apparatus, and a display apparatus. The color temperature tuning method includes the steps of: matching an input color temperature signal with a color temperature value in the color temperature lookup table, and extracting a current signal corresponding to the color temperature value matching with the input color temperature signal from the color temperature lookup table; and controlling a light emitting device to emit light according to the current signal. According to embodiments of the present invention, intermediate calculation process is omitted and time for tuning the color temperature is shorten. Currents flowing through the blue and green light emitting elements are controlled to emit lights to excite red fluorescent powder, so that the LED emits lights having various color temperatures, and tuning accuracy of the color temperature and user experience are improved.
US09236020B2	Display device and method thereof for displaying images A display device includes a display panel and a lens plate covering the display panel. The display panel includes pixel units, and each pixel unit includes a first pixel portion and a second pixel portion. The first pixel portion includes a first switch and a slit indium tin oxide (ITO) connected to the first switch. The second pixel portion includes a second switch and a full ITO connected to the second switch.
US09236012B2	Sensing apparatus of display panel The sensing apparatus includes a sensor and a sampling amplifier. The sensor includes switches, capacitors and gain amplifiers. Second terminals of first and second switches respectively coupled to first and second terminals of third switch. First and second terminals of the first capacitor respectively coupled to a reference voltage and the second terminal of the first switch. Input terminals of the first and the second gain amplifiers respectively coupled to the second terminals of the first and the second switches, and output terminals of the first and the second gain amplifiers respectively coupled to the first and the second input terminals of the sampling amplifier. The first terminal of the second switch coupled to a common mode voltage. The first terminal of the first switch coupled to the pixel circuit via the data line of the display panel.
US09236004B2	Liquid crystal display device In a liquid crystal display device adopting a time-division scheme to improve viewing angle characteristics, the occurrence of horizontal lines on a screen is suppressed. When first output gray scales are obtained for one-line data, the sum total of differences between “source voltages for a horizontal scanning period immediately before a horizontal scanning period during which a processing target line is placed in a selected state” and “source voltages determined based on the first output gray scales obtained by a gray scale value obtaining unit” for all source bus lines is determined (step S110). Then, based on the amount of CS ripple corresponding to the sum total determined at step S110, correction addition/subtraction values are obtained from a polarity-by-polarity background look-up table, for the respective picture elements included in the processing target line (step S120). Then, second output gray scales are determined in an addition/subtraction process of the first output gray scales and the correction addition/subtraction values (step S130).
US09236003B2	Display apparatus, user terminal apparatus, external apparatus, display method, data receiving method and data transmitting method A user terminal apparatus is disclosed. A user terminal apparatus according to various exemplary embodiments includes a communication unit which communicates with an external apparatus, an image sensor unit which photographs an image being displayed on the display apparatus at a photographing speed above a frame rate of the display apparatus, and a control unit which controls to identify pattern information based on a placement of a pattern frame included in the image photographed by the image sensor unit, and to receive data related to the display apparatus from the external apparatus based on the identified pattern information.
US09236002B2	Stereoscopic image display and driving method thereof A stereoscopic image display and a driving method thereof are discussed. The stereoscopic image display includes a data driving circuit that supplies a data voltage to data lines of a display panel; a gate driving circuit that supplies a gate pulse to gate lines of the display panel; and a timing controller that controls operation timings of the data driving circuit and gate driving circuit. The gate driving circuit delays a rising timing of the gate pulse to a point in time after a rising edge time of the data voltage in a 3D mode for displaying a 3D image on the display panel, under a control of the timing controller.
US09235998B2	Circularly foldable daisy display stand A circularly folding display stand that includes a plurality of sector-like partitioned, that can be compressed into storage mode by folding the partitions together to minimize sector area, and can be opened into a display mode by opening the partitions to maximize sector area.
US09235989B2	Adjustment of a traffic signal control plan based on local environmental conditions Embodiments include a method for adjusting a signal control plan for a traffic signal at an intersection based on local environmental conditions is provided. The method includes operating the traffic signal based on a standard signal control plan, receiving an indication of an adverse environmental condition, and determining if the standard signal control plan should be adjusted based on the indication of the adverse environmental condition. Based on determining that the standard signal control plan should be adjusted based on the indication of the adverse environmental condition, the method includes creating a modified signal control plan based on the adverse environmental condition and the standard signal control plan and operating the traffic signal based on the modified signal control plan.
US09235983B2	Apparatus and methods for group-based reactive service discovery Apparatus and methods for, among other things, a group-based reactive service discovery protocol are discussed. In an example, a method can include broadcasting a first group beacon at a group interval using a first station belonging to a first group of stations and broadcasting a service request to the second group during a query interval of the second group. In an example, the first group beacon can include a service update alert configured to alert other members of the first group of an anticipated service request and response event to learn services available from a second group. In an example, the service update alert can include a beginning time for the anticipated service request and response event.
US09235981B2	Broadcast communication system and method for providing users with information associated with a geographical area A method is presented for providing information associated with a geographical area to users of broadcast communication receivers. The information, as well as an indication of the geographical area associated with the information, are transmitted to, and received by, each of the broadcast communication receivers. In each of the receivers, the indication of the geographical area is compared with a geographic code associated with, and stored within, the receiver. Each of the receivers transfers the information in a video format to the user of the receiver if the geographic code indicates that the receiver is located within the geographical area.
US09235979B2	User station for healthcare communication system A user station configurable for use in a healthcare communication system, such as a nurse call system, is provided.
US09235977B2	Systems and methods for monitoring caregiver and patient protocol compliance A system and methods is provided for facilitating, monitoring and recording caregiver and patient compliance with established hospital hand hygiene protocols. The system comprises a 3-D imaging and monitoring assembly and an optional intelligent programmable monitor/sanitizer. Three dimensional imagery tracks a caregiver's movements and location while generating a representative image value. Information acquired by the imaging system determines the proximity of a caregiver to the patient and/or contamination source and determines if the sanitizers provided have been utilized and if so, at an appropriate time and distance from the patient per hospital protocol. While being monitored, a representative Avatar based on physical characteristics derived from three dimensional images of the caregiver and patient may be generated so as to maintain anonymity of both unless a violation of institutional protocol occurs which may be forensically recorded in real-time for analysis.
US09235975B2	Electronic device with environmental monitoring A mounting system for an electronic device is described. This mounting system includes a base that can be rigidly mounted on or underneath a wall. Moreover, the base can be remateably coupled to the electronic device. The remateable coupling may involve pins that are inserted into corresponding holes and rotated into a lock position. Alternatively, the remateable coupling may involve magnets that mechanically couple to each other so long as the electronic device and the base are within a predefined distance. The electronic device may receive power via the remateable coupling or via inductive charging. In addition, the electronic device may monitor a spatial parameter, such as: a location of the electronic device, a velocity of the electronic device and/or an acceleration of the electronic device. If this spatial parameter changes without the electronic device first receiving a security code, the electronic device provides an alert.
US09235969B2	System and method for providing complex haptic stimulation during input of control gestures, and relating to control of virtual equipment A system is configured to provide haptic stimulation to a user. In one embodiment, the haptic stimulation is provided to the user in conjunction with the performance of one or more control gestures through which the user controls, for example, a game, a real world component or piece of equipment, and/or other entity. In one embodiment, the haptic stimulation is provided to the user in conjunction with control of virtual equipment by the user.
US09235968B2	Tactile elements for a wearable eye piece A wearable computing device comprises one or more one eye pieces each of which further comprises a flexible frame surrounding a display screen and tactile elements arranged on the perimeter of the display screen. The tactile elements provide tactile feedback to the user that is synchronous with the display on the display screen. A detection system is also included in the flexible frame to monitor the movements of a wearer's eyes and the eye sockets and to execute various tasks in response to the detected movements. A visual cortex thought detector also coupled to the wearable computing device obtains information regarding the wearer's thoughts and manipulates a display on the display screen based on the obtained information.
US09235967B1	Banking system controlled responsive to data bearing records An apparatus that operates to cause financial transfers responsive to data read from data bearing records, includes at least one processor that is in operative connection with a card reader, a check acceptor, a cash dispenser and a display. The at least one processor causes the machine to operate to read card data from a user card, and to cause a determination to be made that the read card data corresponds to an authorized financial account. The at least one processor is operative to cause data to be read from a check and/or cash to be dispensed, and a financial transfer to or from the account corresponding to the value thereof. Machine instructions are output and user transaction inputs can be received through either a primary or an auxiliary touch screen display.
US09235964B2	Providing exclusive gaming features for mobile gaming A wagering game system and its operations are described herein. In some embodiments, the operations can include determining that a mobile device is activated to receive secondary wagering game content during a wagering game session conducted via a wagering game machine. In some embodiments, the wagering game machine is configured to present primary wagering game content during the wagering game session. In some embodiments, the operations further include selecting secondary wagering game content in response to determining that the mobile device is activated to receive the secondary wagering game content. In some embodiments, the secondary wagering game content provides a wagering game feature that is not available via the primary wagering game content. In some embodiments, the operations further include providing the secondary wagering game content for presentation via the mobile device during the wagering game session.
US09235961B2	Methods and apparatus for managing network linked gambling video games Methods and apparatus for playing video games in a network environment are provided. One method includes receiving a request to initiate a game for a player of a first network connected device and enabling a second player from a second networked connected device to play the game. The method also enables transfer of currency between the first and second players using the network for playing the game. The method debits an account of a player that transferred the currency and credits an account of a player that that received the currency. The method then enables purchases in the game using the credited currency and displays an avatar of the first player on a display of the second networked connected device, and displays an avatar of the second player on a display of the first networked connected device.
US09235958B2	Method and apparatus for providing a bonus to a player based on a credit balance An apparatus and method allow a value of a credit balance on a gaming device to be determined. If the value is not less than a predetermined threshold, a benefit is provided to the player of the gaming device. In various embodiments, the benefit may be, e.g., an increase in the player's credit balance.
US09235957B2	Event based publishing/subscribing in a wagering game network A publisher-subscriber architecture with standardized and/or dynamic event/message look up can be implemented on wagering game establishment networks to establish a robust and flexible reporting and reacting mechanism. Processes that operate in accordance with the publisher-subscriber architecture can coordinate operations across multiple devices in a wagering game establishment, and even across multiple wagering game establishments, in response to an event occurring. Processes can operate as publishers and/or subscribers, and can reside on a WGM (e.g., standalone, portable, etc.) or a server. Processes operating as publishers on a WGM can publish information about events that occur on the WGM. Processes operating as subscribers can interpret published event information from different vendors and use published event information in a number of different ways.
US09235956B2	Group games and rewards in wagering systems Described herein are processes and devices that determine and assign rewards as a group in a wagering game system utilizing social contacts. One of the devices described herein, a wagering game system, determines a first player account associated with a wagering game and looks at the first player account to determine a second player account associated with the first player account as a social network contact. The first player account and the second player account comprise a group of members in a group game or challenge. The wagering game system determines a reward that can be assigned to the group members. The wagering game system determines one or more tasks that must be performed before assigning the reward. The wagering game system presents the one or more tasks to the group members. The wagering game system detects when the tasks are completed and assigns the reward to the group members.
US09235955B2	Universal game monitoring unit and system An embedded user interface incorporated into a gaming device, the gaming device including a gaming presentation of a base game and a gaming processor for controlling the base game. The embedded user interface includes: a player tracking interface and an embedded processor. The player tracking interface includes (or is associated with) a display screen and enables display of a system game to a user, presentation of information to the user, and reception of information from the user. The embedded processor employs an internal operating system and communicates with the gaming processor, enables control of the system game, control of player tracking information, and control of non-gaming information. In one embodiment, the embedded user interface enables control of a system game of which at least a portion of the system game is presented physically external to the embedded user interface. In another embodiment, the embedded user interface enables control of a system gaming indicator that is physically external to the embedded user interface. In still another embodiment, communication between a game processor and an embedded user interface is only enabled through the gaming network and is not direct enabled via a direct connection.
US09235952B2	Peripheral management device for virtual game interaction In one embodiment, a peripheral management device may have a controller configured to communicate with a gaming machine and a portable electronic device. The controller may be configured to: (i) receive a peripheral data packet from a gaming machine processor, the peripheral data packet including at least one command; (ii) determine whether to process the peripheral data packet on at least one peripheral device of the gaming machine or at least one virtual peripheral device of the portable electronic device; (iii) generate an instructional data packet for the at least one virtual peripheral device if the peripheral data packet is determined to be processed on the at least one virtual peripheral device; and (iv) transmit the instructional data packet to the portable electronic device.
US09235951B2	Electronic gaming device with additional reel functionality Examples disclosed herein relate to systems and methods, which may receive wagers on one or more paylines. The systems and methods may utilize one or more additional reel game functionality. The systems and methods may determine one or more payouts based on the one or more additional reel game functionality. The systems and methods may display one or more presentations based on the one or more additional reel game functionality.
US09235950B2	Class of feature event games suitable for linking to multiple gaming machines A gaming method, apparatus and system for playing a game of chance is disclosed in which a plurality of gaming machines may be linked together for mutually competitive play. According to one embodiment, two or more gaming machines are linked to a centrally located display exhibiting a game board comprising one or more groups of earmarkable cells in one or more groups. Players on the gaming machines wager and attempt to achieve winning outcomes which earmark cells in the group with designators of their respective gaming machines. When a predetermined number or configuration of cells of a group are earmarked, an award may be distributed to those gaming machines having earmarked cells according to the number of designators within that group associated with each gaming machine. The game of chance may be configured for play on an individual gaming machine.
US09235948B2	Method and device for checking a secured document A device for checking a secured object provided with at least one security element for generating sequential or dynamic optical effects according to the orientation thereof and/or the movements applied thereto, has a display screen, a position and/or motion sensor and a device for generating and displaying on the screen a simulation of the nominal security element associated with the secured object, the display depending on the orientation of the device as determined by the position and/or motion sensor, so as to be able to compare the security element of the object to be checked and the simulation according to the respective orientations or movements thereof. A method for checking the secured object is by means of such a device.
US09235943B2	Remote identity verification of lodging guests A doorbell can be used to detect a visitor and take a picture of the visitor. The doorbell can then send the picture to a remote computing device to enable a property owner to verify the identity of the visitor before remotely giving the visitor an electronic key to the property. The electronic key can expire after a rental period to preclude unauthorized future access to the property.
US09235941B2	Simultaneous video streaming across multiple channels Methods and systems for a media controller subsystem that can provide video streaming using a distributed network control server, media server, and virtual network console on a common processing or circuit board and filter and apply restrictions to media content based on one or more of the identity of the vehicle occupant requesting media content, the identity of a portable computational device associated with the vehicle occupant, and the spatial location of the vehicle occupant and/or remote computational device.
US09235940B2	In-vehicle charger An in-vehicle charger includes a charger that charges a device to be charged including a wireless key of a keyless entry device, a controller connected to the charger, and a detection unit connected to the controller and that detects an installation state of the device to be charged relative to the charger. The controller turns on power supply to the charger and controls the keyless entry device to perform first communication verification when the installation state of the device to be charged relative to the charger is detected by the detection unit. The controller turns on the power supply to the charger when it is determined that the communication verification of the keyless entry device has been performed.
US09235936B2	Partitioned compliance application for reporting hours of service A base unit installed in a vehicle including a vehicle communication module for communicating with a controller, the controller monitoring at least one operating parameter of the vehicle. The base unit also includes a transceiver and a processor configured to receive the at least one operating parameter of the vehicle from the vehicle communication module and process the at least one operating parameter to detect an event, wherein the event is used for driver compliance logging. The transceiver is configured to transmit the event to at least one external device.
US09235934B2	Computer interface employing a wearable article with an absolute pose detection component A wearable article, such as glasses for a virtual reality program or glasses for an augmented reality application, using light sources and a photodetector that detects their light and outputs data indicative of the detected light. The wearable article uses one or more controllers to determine its position and/or orientation in the environment based on the data output by the photodetector. Data from one or more auxiliary motion sensing devices, e.g., a relative motion sensor such as an inertial device or other auxiliary motion device relying on acoustics, optics or electromagnetic waves within or outside the visible spectrum, can be used to supplement the position and/or orientation data from the photodetector.
US09235933B2	Wearable display system that displays previous runners as virtual objects on a current runner's path There is provided a display control device including an action information acquisition unit that acquires, at an action position of one actor, action information regarding a past action of another actor, an object generation unit that generates a virtual object for virtually indicating a position of the other actor during an action of the one actor based on the acquired action information, and a display control unit that causes a display unit displaying a surrounding scene to superimpose and display the generated virtual object during the action of the one actor.
US09235930B2	Generating just noticeable depth difference (JNDD) model of three-dimensional (3D) display, method and system for enhancing depth image using JNDD model A method for generating a just noticeable depth difference (JNDD) model including controlling a real size of an object to maintain a perceived size of the object for a plurality of depth testing levels, measuring a JNDD of a three-dimensional (3D) display for the plurality of depth testing levels by increasing or decreasing the real size of the object, and generating a JNDD model of the 3D display based on the measurement result.
US09235926B2	Techniques for improving MSAA rendering efficiency Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques for causing the storage of a color data value of a clear color to be deferred as rendered color data values are stored for samples. A device comprises a processor circuit and a storage to store instructions that cause the processor circuit to render a pixel from multiple samples taken of a three-dimensional model of an object, the pixel corresponding to a pixel sample data which comprises multiple color storage locations that are each identified by a numeric identifier, and which comprises multiple sample color indices that each correspond to a sample to point to at least one color storage location; and allocate color storage locations in an order selected to define a subset of possible combinations of binary index values among all of the sample color indices as invalid combinations. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09235923B1	Systems and methods for providing a visualization of satellite sightline obstructions Systems and methods for providing a visualization of satellite sightline obstructions are provided. An example method includes identifying an approximate position of a receiver antenna. The method further includes providing a rendering of a physical environment surrounding the receiver antenna for display within a user interface. The user interface can be provided on a display. Satellite positional data associated with the position of a satellite is accessed and a sightline between the approximate position of the receiver antenna and the position of the satellite is determined. The method further includes presenting the sightline within the user interface in association with the rendering. An example system includes a data capture system and a computing device to provide a visualization of satellite sightline obstructions.
US09235922B2	Method for modelling a 3D scene and corresponding device The invention relates to a method for modeling a scene from a plurality of maps representative of depth, each map representative of depth being associated with a view of the said scene according to a particular viewpoint, To optimize the fidelity and precision of the scene modeling, the method comprises the following steps: generating, for each map representative of depth, a surface representative of the said depth map in world space; estimating a volume bounding all surfaces generated, the said bounding volume being discretised into a plurality of voxels; associating attributes representative of transparency with the said voxels of the bounding volume; and generating a resulting surface according to the attributes representative of transparency associated with the said voxels. The invention also relates to a device for processing the data representative of the corresponding depth.
US09235921B2	Profiling ray tracing renderers A profiler for a ray tracing renderer interfaces with the renderer to collect rendering information, such as ray definition information, a pixel origin, objects hit, shader invocation, and related rays. In an interface, an artist views a simplified 3-D scene model and a rendered 2-D image. A pixel in the 2-D image is selectable; the profiler responds by populating the simplified 3-D scene with rays that contributed to that pixel. Rays can be displayed in the simplified 3-D scene to visually convey information about characteristics of each ray, such as whether the ray intersected an object, portions of the scene where it is occluded, and a direction. Statistics can be produced by the profiler that convey information such as relative computational complexity to render particular pixels. The profiler can step through multiple passes (e.g., multiple frames and passes of a multipass rendering), and the UI can allow pausing and stepping.
US09235920B2	Method and processor for 3D scene representation The present invention relates to three dimension (3D) scene representations and in particular to a method and a processor for providing improved 3D scene representations. An objective of the embodiments of the present invention is to improve the determination of consistency among a plurality of projections at a virtual view denoted vF. When determining the consistency, entries of a distance matrix, indicative of distance differences of 3D components between different views for a corresponding segment k when projected to the predefined view (vF) for each segment k, are compared with entries of a threshold matrix. The objective is achieved by assigning each segment k of a 3D component to a cluster based on individual rules for each cluster and one threshold matrix and by determining one threshold matrix for each cluster based on the segments of that cluster.
US09235916B2	Image processing device, imaging device, computer-readable storage medium, and image processing method A transformed image, that is transformed by making a position of an image of a same subject correspond to a reference image, is generated for a non-reference image, and noise reduction is carried out on the reference image so as to generate a noise reduced image, and a weighting coefficient of the reference image with respect to the transformed image is set, and combining processing of the reference image and the transformed image is carried out so as to generate an intermediate composite image, and a weighting coefficient of the noise reduced image with respect to the intermediate composite image is set and combining processing of the intermediate composite image and the noise reduced image is carried out so as to generate a final image.
US09235913B2	Methods and systems for generating and joining shared experience According to an example, a computer may receive characteristics information of an object in a video stream captured by a first computing device, generate a signature based on the characteristics information, identify an augmented reality information associated with the signature, transmit the augmented reality information to the first computing device, receive, from a second computing device, a set of characteristics information of the object in an image captured by the second computing device, determine that the set of characteristics information from the second computing device has a second signature that matches the signature generated based on the characteristics information received form the first computing device, and transmit the identified augmented reality information to the second computing device.
US09235907B2	System and method for partial scan artifact reduction in myocardial CT perfusion A system and method is provided for reducing partial scan reconstruction artifacts in sinogram data acquired as a series of sets of partial-scan projection views, each set of projection views extending over an angular range of less than 360 degrees. A full-scan sinogram matrix for each of the sets of projection views in the series is created and each set of partial-scan projection views is stored in a respective full-scan sinogram matrix to create an array of full-scan matrices having respective empty spaces not filled by partial-scan projection view data stored therein. The empty spaces are filled in each of the full-scan sinogram matrices using the partial-scan projection view data stored therein and an image of the subject is reconstructed from the full-scan sinogram matrices having the empty spaces filled using the partial-scan projection view data stored therein.
US09235905B2	Efficient screen image transfer A system including a source display, externally updatable, an image compression algorithm database, a network connection, and a frame transfer engine. The algorithm database comprises a plurality of image compression algorithms. The frame transfer engine is configured to receive a plurality of updates made to the source display, store at least some of the updates in a queue, and select, based on a bandwidth of the network connection, a size of the update, and sizes and times of updates currently present in the queue, an image compression algorithm in the algorithm database for current transfer over the network connection.
US09235904B1	Object detection with Regionlets re-localization An object detector includes a bottom-up object hypotheses generation unit; a top-down object search with supervised descent unit; and an object re-localization unit with a localization model.
US09235896B2	Sonar imaging A method for recognizing a target in a sonar image, the method comprising: normalizing a sonar image; using/defining multiple test objects; rotating each test object between multiple positions; using a projection of each test object in each position as a template, so that multiple templates are provided for each test object, each template corresponding to a different rotational position; applying the multiple templates for the multiple test objects to the normalized image; and creating at least one feature vector for the image for use in target recognition.
US09235892B2	Method and device for comparing radiographic images The present disclosure provides a method of standardizing a digital radiographic medical image, including obtaining a digital radiographic image of a variable attenuation plate to provide at least one reference value of at least one image characteristic, such as optical density and contrast, and standardizing the digital radiographic medical image against the reference values. Also provided are methods for comparing two or more radiographic images including standardizing the images against at least one reference value of at least one image characteristic obtained from a digital radiographic image of a variable attenuation plate.
US09235883B2	Inspection system and method A mask has an inspection region virtually divided by a plurality of stripes. A position error-correcting unit is disposed on a stage in a region different from the mask, formed with patterns divided virtually by the plurality of stripes. A first deviation amount acquiring circuit acquires a first deviation amount from the optical image and the reference image of the position error correction unit. A second deviation amount acquiring circuit acquires a second deviation amount. A position correcting circuit corrects a positional relationship between the mask and the position error correction unit based on the first deviation amount, and obtains a fluctuation value of position coordinates of each pattern in the inspection region of the mask based on the second deviation amount and corrects the position coordinates.
US09235882B2	Method for detecting existence of dust spots in digital images based on locally adaptive thresholding A method for detecting a dust spot (16) in a digital image (10) includes the steps of determining (226) an expected dust spot configuration (344) of the dust spot (16) in the image (10); applying (228) a statistic order filter to a value channel of an HSV color space of the image to generate a filtered value for each pixel being evaluated (349), the filtered value being based upon the expected dust spot configuration (344); and comparing (230) the filtered value to an actual color space value of a plurality of pixels (348) in the digital image (10) to generate (232) a binary image (350). In one embodiment, the method can also include the step of comparing (234) the binary image (350) to the expected dust spot configuration (344) to determine a probability of the presence of the dust spot (16) in the digital image (10).
US09235878B1	Method for retaining edges in an enlarged digital image The invention described here provides a novel method of preventing the loss of focus and range of colors when digital image files are expanded to a larger size. Unlike interpolation algorithms and algorithms using Fourier analysis to create new pixels, the present system uses a combination of pseudo-randomizing functions and user controlled edge detection to enhance edges initially softened by expansion using interpolation algorithms. The resulting images can be optimized to provide a superior approximation to what would be an accurate photographic representation at the larger image size. Furthermore, the flexibility in edge detection sensitivity allows the operator to strongly mitigate the structural artifacts produced by lossy compression algorithms such as the jpeg system and sampling errors widespread in very small images. As a result files as small as 200 kilobytes can be effectively expanded to 250 or even 500 megabytes in many cases.
US09235877B2	Method for directional adaptive image interpolation and an electronic device thereof A method of operating an electronic device for image interpolation is provided. The method includes estimating a direction of pixels using a plurality of filters respectively corresponding to a plurality of angles, correcting the direction of the pixels using a direction of neighboring pixels, determining whether the direction estimation has an error according to a direction distribution of the neighboring pixels, and when the direction estimation is determined to have error, correcting the error in the direction estimation.
US09235863B2	Display showing intersection between users of a social networking system A social networking system generates a friendship page that displays social graph data common to two or more social networking system users. A user requests the page by identifying two or more social networking system. The social networking system obtains social graph data common to the identified social networking system users and generates a friendship page containing that social graph data. The obtained social graph data may include interactions between each of the identified user and/or social networking system objects with which each of the identified users has interacted. Examples of the types of social graph data may include photos, videos, communications, content items, events, locations, friends, family members, biographical data, and location data. The friendship page may be displayed to the requesting user in a web browser or in a native application.
US09235862B1	Corporate board management system Methods and systems for providing financial and/or board member information in a secured manner to members of boards of directors of companies and others through a publicly-available widely disseminated network.
US09235861B2	System and method for managing wireless point-of-sale transactions A system that enables a wireless point-of-sale transaction. In one embodiment the system comprises an account module, an account selection module, a display, an input interface, and a wireless transmitter. The account module stores account information corresponding to a plurality of payment accounts. The account selection module selects a payment account from the plurality of payment accounts as a default payment account for a wireless point-of-sale transaction based on one or more predetermined criteria. The display displays the default payment account to a user. The input interface enables the user to accept the default payment account by the account selection module. The wireless transmitter that wirelessly transmits payment information to a point-of-sale device, wherein the payment information comprises account information associated with the default account when the default payment account is accepted via the input interface.
US09235859B2	Extraction of image feature data from images An apparatus and method for obtaining image feature data of an image are disclosed herein. A color histogram of the image is extracted from the image, the extraction of the color histogram including performing one-dimensional sampling of pixels comprising the image in each of a first dimension of a color space, a second dimension of the color space, and a third dimension of the color space. An edge map corresponding to the image is analyzed to detect a pattern included in the image. In response to a confidence level of the pattern detection being below a pre-defined threshold, extracting from the image an orientation histogram of the image. And identify a dominant color of the image.
US09235858B1	Local search of network content Disclosed are various embodiments for locally searching a search string in network content. A user accesses network content through a client device and enters a search string through the client device. Once the local search is performed on the network content by a client application or a search application through a network, the result would be encoded and displayed for the user to view. Furthermore, a content modifying application modifies the content of one or more network contents or pages based on the stored local search data. The content modifying application may also make recommendations as to what information should be included in the network content.
US09235857B2	Confirming local marketplace transaction consummation for online payment consummation Exemplary embodiment of the present invention would provide systems, including Internet-based systems, and computer-implemented methods, for providing online Buyers and Sellers who physically transact an exchange of an item at a local meeting place, indicia of confirmation of the exchange on which to base a background online payment. In particular, exemplary embodiments of the present invention would provide a way for Buyers and/or Sellers to input an identifier for online authentication to confirm that a physical exchange of an item sold had been transacted and that would accordingly provide an online system with a basis to charge the relevant Buyer's account for a sale amount and pay the Seller for the item sold.
US09235854B1	Automatically generating a review rating the performance of a pattern based on pattern deployment, service history and operation of pattern A method, system and computer program product for generating a review rating the performance of a pattern. The deployment of a pattern, the service history of the pattern and the operation of the pattern are monitored and information pertaining to the monitored pattern deployment, the monitored service history and the monitored pattern operation is collected, where a pattern is an abstract model of a topology and application environment that encapsulates installation, configuration and management of middleware and applications. The collected information is analyzed to automatically generate a review that contains a score and a comment rating the performance, such as the success or lack of success, in deploying, servicing and operating the pattern. In this manner, a review of a pattern, including a score and a suggested comment, may be automatically generated without requiring the user, such as a system administrator, to spend time writing the review.
US09235850B1	Adaptation of web-based text ads to mobile devices Systems and methods for adaptation of content to mobile devices. A mobile device type can be identified based upon a request originating from the mobile device. Content can also be identified based upon the request. The content can be converted based upon the mobile device type and the converted content can be served to the mobile device.
US09235845B2	Intelligent remote control system An apparatus may include a processor and a device state management module. The device state management module may be operative on the processor to receive a trigger signal from a motion sensor in a remote control, to determine the device state of one or more controlled devices and send state management instructions to be transmitted to the one or more controlled devices. The state management instructions may control a set of initial default operations that comprises altering one or more device states in the one or more controlled devices. The apparatus may further include a memory that is arranged to store the determined device state of one or more controlled devices. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09235841B2	Transaction security apparatus and method An apparatus, including an input device or receiver for inputting or receiving transaction information regarding a transaction on or involving an account and involving an individual, a camera for obtaining a photograph or a picture of the individual, a processing device for processing information regarding the transaction and or generating a notification message containing information regarding the transaction, and a transmitter for transmitting the notification message to a communication device associated with an individual account holder. The notification message is transmitted to the communication device independently of any processing of the transaction by a transaction authorization processing computer. The apparatus transmits the photograph or the picture to the communication device independently of any processing of the transaction by a transaction authorization processing computer.
US09235836B2	Point-of-sale scanner A method of verifying the authenticity of an identification card, including capturing, with a point-of-sale scanner, a first image of the identification card, configuring an ultraviolet filter mounted within the point-of-sale scanner to allow the passage of ultraviolet light within, illuminating the identification card with ultraviolet light, capturing, with the point-of-sale scanner, a second image of the identification card, and determining if the identification card is authentic by analyzing the first and second images.
US09235835B2	Systems and methods for providing manufacturer-based financial service accounts The disclosed embodiments include a mobile client device for providing real-time manufacturer-based financing. In one embodiment, the mobile device is configured to receive a product code associated with a manufacturer product offered for sale at a merchant location. The mobile device may further provide the product code to a financial service provider system configured to create a manufacturer-based financial service account associated with the product manufacturer. Further, the mobile device may provide, to the financial service provider system, information associated with a received account application, where the financial service provider system may create the manufacturer-based financial service account based on the received information and the product code. The mobile device may also receive a purchase code for purchasing the product using the manufacturer-based financial service account, provide it at the merchant POS location, and receive a confirmation of product purchase.
US09235832B1	Systems and methods for detecting transactions originating from an unauthenticated ATM device A system, method, and computer-usable medium are disclosed for authenticating a financial transaction terminal, such as an automated teller machine. A user provides financial account data, such as an account number, which is then combined with a unique identifier of the financial transaction terminal to generate terminal authentication data. The terminal authentication data is provided to a terminal authentication system, which extracts the financial account data and the unique identifier of the financial transaction terminal. The unique identifier of the financial transaction terminal is compared to a list of authentic financial transaction terminal identifiers. If its authenticity is confirmed, then a shared secret corresponding to the user's financial account data is provided to the authenticated financial transaction terminal. The user is queried as to the authenticity of the shared secret. If the response is affirmative, then the user is prompted to provide user authentication information, such as a Personal Identification Number (PIN), and the transaction proceeds. Otherwise, the transaction is discontinued.
US09235829B2	Hierarchical publish/subscribe system A method for publishing a message includes receiving, at a first relay, a subscription request from a first client, wherein the subscription request includes a target. The method also includes: recording, at the first relay, subscription information of the first client based on the subscription request; receiving, at the first relay, a publication request from a second client, wherein the publication request includes a message string characterized by a pattern; determining, by the first relay, that the target matches at least a portion of the pattern; determining, by the first relay, if the publication request is a local publication request based on a predetermined policy rule; and transmitting the message string to the first client if the publication request is determined to be a local publication request.
US09235825B2	Processing load profiles for consumption management systems Methods and systems using aggregated electrical system load profiles in determining additional load profiles, and determining consumption management system characteristics, features, and operating requirements at a site are disclosed, along with methods of generating and maintaining databases of load profile information and consumption management system requirements. By using some embodiments of the methods and systems described herein, it is faster and easier to design and implement effective consumption management systems, to determine problematic electrical systems at a site, and to diminish anomalous consumption patterns in an aggregate unprofiled electrical system load profile.
US09235824B2	Cord and cable identification and tracking system A system for identifying and tracking components, including but not limited to cords, cables and connectors, that are associated with an electronic device or apparatus or that are part of a “set.” Devices include TVs, DVD players, VCRs, DVRs, computers, printers, camera, and the like. A plurality of self-adhesive stickers marked with a scannable code, each with a unique code in that set, are affixed to a device and its accessories. The codes are scanned by a mobile computing device for entry into the system. Subsequent identification of a particular accessory can be performed by using the system to scan the coded sticker on that accessory.
US09235822B2	Optimization of packaging sizes Various systems, methods, and programs embodied in computer-readable mediums are provided for determining sizes of packaging in a packaging suite employed in a materials handling environment. The packaging may be used, for example, in the shipping of items from the materials handling environment to various destinations. The sizes of the packaging in the packaging suite are determined based at least in part upon the three-dimensional bounding boxes associated with packages or shipments shipped or planned to be shipped from the materials handling environment.
US09235820B2	Systems and methods for modifying an operating parameter of a coking system and adding a coke drum Systems for analyzing a benefit or detriment of (1) changing an operational condition or parameter, or (2) adding a coke drum to an existing coking system are disclosed. Contemplated systems can increase the cost effectiveness of coking systems by providing valuable analysis data.
US09235813B1	General framework for cross-validation of machine learning algorithms using SQL on distributed systems A general framework for cross-validation of any supervised learning algorithm on a distributed database comprises a multi-layer software architecture that implements training, prediction and metric functions in a C++ layer and iterates processing of different subsets of a data set with a plurality of different models in a Python layer. The best model is determined to be the one with the smallest average prediction error across all database segments.
US09235809B2	Particle methods for nonlinear control Aspects herein describe new methods of determining optimal actions to achieve high-level goals with minimum total future cost. At least one high-level goal is inputted into a user device along with various observational data about the world, and a computational unit determines, through particle methods, an optimal course of action as well as emotions. The particle method comprises alternating backward and forward sweeps and tests for convergence to determine said optimal course of action. In one embodiment a user inputs a high-level goal into a cell phone which senses observational data. The cell phone communicates with a server that provides instructions. The server determines an optimal course of action via the particle method, and the cell phone then displays the instructions and emotions to the user.
US09235804B1	System and method for selecting and serving content items based on sensor data from mobile devices Sensor data having values received from several sensors of a mobile device and response data associated with the sensor data may be used in the determination or training of a predictive model. Received sensor data may be input into the predictive model, and the output of the predictive model may be used in the selection and serving of content items to the mobile device. Data to effect presentation of the selected content item may be outputted to the mobile device to effect presentation. In some instances, the predictive model may be updated using the received plurality of values. The updated predictive model may be used in the selection of a subsequent content item for the mobile device. In other implementations, historical sensor data may be used with the set of received sensor data as input for the predictive model.
US09235802B1	Automated defect and optimization discovery A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for identifying defects and resolutions is discussed. Computer systems may be grouped into clusters, and their health may be determined based on these groupings. System optimizations or defect solutions may be distributed to systems in unhealthy clusters, bringing them into a healthy cluster.
US09235798B2	Methods and systems for handling data received by a state machine engine A data analysis system to analyze data. The data analysis system includes a data buffer configured to receive data to be analyzed. The data analysis system also includes a state machine lattice. The state machine lattice includes multiple data analysis elements and each data analysis element includes multiple memory cells configured to analyze at least a portion of the data and to output a result of the analysis. The data analysis system includes a buffer interface configured to receive the data from the data buffer and to provide the data to the state machine lattice.
US09235797B2	Enhanced IC card An IC card may include a substrate having opposing first and second surfaces, and a circuit carried by the substrate adjacent the first surface of the substrate. The substrate may include a first area defining a first sector of the substrate carrying the circuit and configured to be separated from the IC card, the first sector having a form and size based upon a first IC card format, the first area having a first line delimiting the first sector to the first IC card format. The substrate may include a second area defining a second sector around the first sector and configured to be separated from the IC card based upon a second line. The second sector may have a form and size based upon at least one of a second IC card format and a third IC card format.
US09235796B2	System for authenticating an item A system of authenticating an item with a security mark includes a substrate (100); wherein the security mark is printed on the substrate with invisible ultraviolet (UV) absorbing ink (102); a coating comprised of UV fluorescent varnish (104) applied over the security mark and substrate; wherein an area comprising the security mark and coating with is illuminated with UV light; wherein a reduced fluorescence image of the security mark is identified; wherein the reduced fluorescence image is compared with the security mark; and wherein the item is authenticated if the reduced fluorescence image matches the security mark.
US09235794B2	Information processing device, non-transitory computer readable medium, and information processing method An information processing device includes a security level determining unit that determines a security level, the security level indicating a level of security related to leakage of information in an image processing device, and an instructing unit that changes an output method to an output method having a high security level and gives at least one of two instructions, in a case where the security level does not satisfy a predetermined condition, the two instructions including an instruction for outputting information notifying the output method that has been changed, and an instruction for outputting information prompting for change of the security level in the image processing device.
US09235790B2	Image inspecting system and recording material processing device A recording material processing device, includes: an accumulation unit that is accumulated with a plurality of recording materials each of which is a recording material formed with an image by an image forming unit and inspected by an inspection unit, where the image forming unit that forms the image on the recording material based on original image data; and a processing unit that removes the recording material which was determined to have a defect which occurred in the image by the inspecting unit, among the plurality of recording materials and adds a new recording material on which a same image is formed by the image forming unit, to the plurality of recording materials, the same image being based on the original image data of the image formed on the defective recording material.
US09235788B2	Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and print system Disclosed is an image forming apparatus including a command receiving unit that receives a print command, a detector that detects a state of the operation unit, and a controller. When the detector detects that the state of the operation unit is a predetermined state subsequent to receiving the print command by the command receiving unit and prior to completion of printing based on the print command, the controller causes the printing to be terminated. When the detector detects that the state of the operation unit is not the predetermined state subsequent to receiving the print command by the command receiving unit and prior to the completion of the printing based on the print command, the controller causes the printing to be executed.
US09235787B2	Updating a print job ticket using a print configuration file and a difference file The present invention aims to temporarily change print configuration information easily. To achieve such an object, an information processing apparatus of the present invention comprises: a monitoring unit configured to monitor that job data composed of print configuration information data and content data, and a difference file for temporarily changing the print configuration information of the print configuration information data to different print configuration information are put in a hot folder; and a correcting unit configured to, in a case where the job data and the difference file are put in the hot folder, correct the print configuration information data included in the job data on the basis of the difference file.
US09235784B2	Media processing device and method of controlling a media processing device A media processing device enables continuous high-speed processing of recording media. A media processing device has a magnetic head 21 that reads information recorded on checks 4 in the check 4 conveyance path 10, a magnetic recognition unit 20b that acquires the result of a verification based on information read by the magnetic head 21, and a conveyance control unit 20a that starts conveying the check 4 to be processed next. The conveyance control unit 20a selectively operates in an individual processing mode that starts conveying the check 4 to be read next after the results of verifying the read data are acquired by the magnetic recognition unit 20b, and a continuous processing mode that starts conveying the check 4 to be read next after the magnetic head 21 reads at least part of the information without waiting for the magnetic head 21 to acquire the complete verification result.
US09235778B2	Human detection apparatus The knowledge that “the color of a vehicle body or guard rail is uniform” applies to the detection of a human, improving the detection performance of the human of which a part of the body is hidden. That is, it is determined whether or not a human candidate area specified based on the ordinary human recognition model has a specific part, e.g., an area corresponding to a lower body, exhibiting the high degree of color uniformity. When affirmed, the human candidate area is understood to be “a human of which a part of the body is hidden by a hood or a trunk” and recognized as a human, same as in the case where the body is not hidden.
US09235777B2	Code conversion device for image information, a code conversion method for the image information, a system for providing image related information using an image, and a non-transitory computer readable medium for the image information A code conversion device for image information for generating an image code which is unique to the image information from the image information, the code conversion device for image information includes a processor and a memory, wherein the memory contains instructions for causing the processor to perform operations of: converting acquired raw image information into a plurality of pieces of developed image information; extracting each piece of feature information, from each of the plurality of pieces of developed image information by performing a self-organization processing using a probability scale on each of the plurality of pieces of developed image information; and quantifying a plurality of pieces of feature information and generating an image code.
US09235776B2	Person detection apparatus A person detection apparatus determines a weather condition such as rain and solar radiation based on a variety of information from a weather information input portion. Then, based on a determination result of the weather condition, the umbrella ratio showing the ratio of persons with umbrellas is calculated. The person detection apparatus uses a no-umbrella recognition model describing a person with no umbrella and an umbrella-hold recognition model describing a person with umbrella in order to perform pattern recognition to an input image to derive recognition scores based on the respective recognition models. Then, the umbrella ratio depending on the weather condition is used to correct the respective recognition scores based on the pattern recognition using the no-umbrella model and the recognition score based on the pattern recognition using the umbrella-hold model; the corrected recognition scores are output as a final detection result.
US09235771B2	Extracting card data with wear patterns Embodiments herein provide computer-implemented techniques for allowing a user computing device to extract financial card information using optical character recognition (“OCR”). Extracting financial card information may be improved by applying various classifiers and other transformations to the image data. For example, applying a linear classifier to the image to determine digit locations before applying the OCR algorithm allows the user computing device to use less processing capacity to extract accurate card data. The OCR application may train a classifier to use the wear patterns of a card to improve OCR algorithm performance. The OCR application may apply a linear classifier and then a nonlinear classifier to improve the performance and the accuracy of the OCR algorithm. The OCR application uses the known digit patterns used by typical credit and debit cards to improve the accuracy of the OCR algorithm.
US09235768B1	Custom drawings as content access identifiers Providing access to digitally published data includes creating a note having at least a portion that is handwritten by a first user, converting handwriting of the note into a content access identifier that varies according to the portion that is handwritten by the first user, associating the content access identifier with the digitally published data, and making the digitally published data available to a second user by making the note available to the second user. The digitally published data may be written to a public database and/or a private database. A portion of the note may be pre-printed. A pre-printed distinguishing pattern on the note may indicate that handwritten content corresponds to a content access identifier. The pre-printed portion may be a regular dotted pattern. The note may have a known identifiable color and size.
US09235764B2	Commodity recognition apparatus and commodity recognition method A candidate output element configured to output recognition target commodities as candidates of a recognized commodity in a descending order of the similarity degrees calculated by the similarity degree calculation element, a distance measurement element configured to measure the distance from the image capturing section to a commodity photographed by the image capturing section, and a changing element configured to change the number of candidates of a recognized commodity output by the candidate output element according to the distance measured by the distance measurement element.
US09235762B2	Iris data extraction A process for extracting iris data for biometric identification includes a thresholding method where the thresholds are selected according to a nonparametric approach that considers the grey scale and does not require classifying pixels as edge or non-edge pixels. An eye image is first acquired, where the eye image has component images including an iris image with an inner boundary and an outer boundary. The eye image has a distribution of grey levels. Component images, such as an iris image or a pupil image, from the eye image are segmented according to the distribution of grey levels. The inner boundary and outer boundary of the iris image are determined from the component images. The iris image within the inner boundary and outer boundary is processed for biometric identification. The component images may be segmented by creating an eye histogram of pixel intensities from the distribution of grey levels.
US09235752B2	Semantic representation module of a machine-learning engine in a video analysis system A machine-learning engine is disclosed that is configured to recognize and learn behaviors, as well as to identify and distinguish between normal and abnormal behavior within a scene, by analyzing movements and/or activities (or absence of such) over time. The machine-learning engine may be configured to evaluate a sequence of primitive events and associated kinematic data generated for an object depicted in a sequence of video frames and a related vector representation. The vector representation is generated from a primitive event symbol stream and a phase space symbol stream, and the streams describe actions of the objects depicted in the sequence of video frames.
US09235748B2	Dynamic handwriting verification and handwriting-based user authentication Handwriting verification methods and related computer systems, and handwriting-based user authentication methods and related computer systems are disclosed. A handwriting verification method comprises obtaining a handwriting test sample containing a plurality of available parameters, extracting geometric parameters, deriving geometric features comprising an x-position value and a y-position value for each of a plurality of feature points in the test sample, performing feature matching between geometric features of the test sample and a reference sample, determining a handwriting verification result based at least in part on the feature matching, and outputting the handwriting verification result. The geometric features may further comprise values derived from the geometric parameters, such as direction and curvature values. The handwriting verification result can be further based on a count of unlinked feature points. Handwriting-based user authentication methods can employ such handwriting verification methods, or other handwriting verification methods.
US09235746B2	Electronic device including fingerprint identification sensor, methods for performing user authentication and registering user's fingerprint in electronic device including fingerprint identification sensor, and recording medium recording program for executing the methods A method for performing user authentication by using a fingerprint in an electronic device is provided. The method includes obtaining fingerprint image and fingerprint position information corresponding to an area of the user's finger, comparing the fingerprint image obtained by using fingerprint position information with a pre-registered fingerprint image corresponding to the position of the area to thereby perform the user authentication, and pairing the fingerprint image corresponding to the area of the user's finger with the fingerprint position information to be thereby stored in the memory.
US09235741B2	Indicia reading terminals and methods employing light field imaging A terminal for decoding decodable indicia includes a plenoptic imaging subsystem comprising an image sensor array and plenoptic imaging optics operable to project a plenoptic image of a space containing the decodable indicia onto the image sensor array, a hand held housing encapsulating a least a portion of the plenoptic imaging subsystem, a trigger for initiating operation of the plenoptic imaging subsystem to obtain plenoptic image data of the decodable indicia, and an illumination source for projecting illumination onto the decodable indicia; an aimer for projecting an aimer pattern onto the decodable indicia. The terminal is operable, responsive to detecting that the trigger has been actuated by an operator, to obtain plenoptic image data from the image sensor array, to obtain first rendered image data based on at least a portion of the plenoptic image data, and to attempt to decode the decodable indicia represented in the rendered image data.
US09235740B1	Automatic drawer state detection An inventory system can include radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and RFID tuners that can be brought into interacting proximity with one another to provide input or other information about the location or other condition of movable elements within the inventory system. For example, a closed or at least partially open state of a drawer can be determined based on signals from an RFID tag when the RFID tag and a corresponding RFID tuner are mounted on opposing faces of the drawer and a compartment that receives the drawer.
US09235739B2	Communication device of a system for monitoring the wheels of a vehicle and communication method Disclosed is a communication device of a system for monitoring wheels of a vehicle (C), the wheels (R) being equipped with a tire comprising an electronic chip (200), the tire comprising a metal structure (S), remarkable in that it comprises an electronic module (110) housed in the wheel (R) of the vehicle (C), the electronic module (110) transmitting waves (O) over a frequency range established so as to enable the waves to be reflected on the metal structure (S), so that the waves (O) can reach the chip (200) whatever the position thereof with respect to the module (110) so that the module (110) can correspond with the chip (200) for the purposes of activation and/or transmission of data for writing and/or reading. Also disclosed is a communication method.Applications: monitoring of tires.
US09235737B2	System having an improved user interface for reading code symbols A system for reading code symbols includes a camera, a user interface system, and a processor communicatively coupled to the camera and the user interface system. The user interface system includes a visual display. The processor is configured for (i) capturing an image including a code symbol, (ii) displaying the image on the visual display, (iii) determining whether the code symbol in the image is readable by the processor, and (iv) displaying on the visual display a positive indicator overlaying the code symbol in the image when the processor determines that the code symbol in the image is readable by the processor. The processor is further configured for reading the code symbol in the image in response to a selection input received from the user interface system.
US09235735B2	Card reader device for contactless readable cards and method for operating said card reader device A card reader device is configured to carry out communication with a contactless readable card according to standard ISO/IEC 14443 type B. In order to provide that a modulation index, which self-adjusts in close range in a presence of a contactless readable card, corresponds to a desired specified modulation index, the magnetic field is received and evaluated via a reception antenna of the card reader device. The modulation index is controlled or regulated accordingly in case of deviations between a measured modulation index and a specified value for the modulation index in order to approximate the measured modulation index to the specified value.
US09235733B2	Mobile biometrics information collection and identification A biometric mobile device is capable of interacting with existing cellular, wireless, and wired telecommunication and other communication networks to support intelligence gathering, human body identification, special operations and other applications. A method of collecting biometric data at an accident or crime scene may comprise, for example, utilizing a camera to photograph the accident scene, collecting key entered data that may not be otherwise obtainable, using a fingerprint scanner to collect, digitize and store fingerprint data, using a lab-on-a-chip DNA profile device for collecting and analyzing a DNA specimen and generating identification and DNA profile data for bar code entry and other means for collecting any known form of biometric data including, but not limited to, vascular facial structure, dental structure, cornea, iris or other data which may be unique or limiting for identification purposes.
US09235729B2	Context analysis at an information handling system to manage authentication cycles Context captured with sensors of an information handling system is applied to selectively lock access to currently unlocked information, with conditions for locking access based upon the context. Nervous states enforce locking of selected information based upon the confidence of the security of the information under sensed external conditions. Increased sensitivity for locking access includes reduced timeouts to a lock command, increased response to sensed conditions, and more rapid response where unlocked access is to sensitive information.
US09235728B2	System and methods for identifying compromised personally identifiable information on the internet In one embodiment, a method includes generating, by a computer system, a search-engine query from stored identity-theft nomenclature. The method also includes querying, by the computer system, at least one search engine via the search-engine query. Further, the method includes crawling, by the computer system, at least one computer-network resource identified via the querying. In addition, the method includes collecting, by the computer system, identity-theft information from the at least one computer-network resource. Additionally, the method includes processing, by the computer system, the identity-theft information for compromised personally-identifying information (PII).
US09235727B2	Functional architecture pattern for safety applications A process for decomposing safety software involves the steps of providing a first software module associated with a first logical unit, providing a second software module associated with a second logical unit, instructing the first software module to implement a first safety goal based on a quality management level, and instructing the second software module to implement a second safety goal based on a safety integrity level, where the second software module uses at least one input and at least one output of the second logical unit to determine if the second safety goal is satisfied. Consequently, the second software module uses a result of the first software module to determine if the first safety goal has been completed, and the second software module uses at least one algorithm to verify an operational status of the first logical unit.
US09235726B2	Systems and methods for preventing data remanence in memory A system for preventing data remanence in memory is provided. The system includes a computing device, a memory chip coupled to the computing device and including memory, and a heater, the heater configured to prevent data remanence in a memory by providing heat to at least a portion of the memory. The memory includes a plurality of bits configured to electronically store data.
US09235725B2	Client computer for querying a database stored on a server via a network The invention relates to a client computer for querying a database stored on a server via a network, the server being coupled to the client computer via the network, wherein the database comprises first data items and suffix items, wherein each suffix item describes a suffix of at least one first data item of the first data items, wherein for each suffix item a first referential connection exists in the database assigning said suffix item to the at least one first data item comprising the suffix of said suffix item, wherein each suffix item is encrypted with a suffix cryptographic key in the database, wherein each first data item is encrypted with a first cryptographic key in the database, wherein the client computer has installed thereon an application program, the application program being operational to: receiving a search request, the search request specifying an infix search expression, said expression comprising a first wildcard term on the left side of a search criterion and a second wildcard term on the right side of the search criterion, transforming the infix search expression into a prefix search expression by disregarding in the search request the first wildcard term and maintaining the search criterion and the second wildcard term, determine a search interval by transforming the prefix search into a corresponding search interval, performing a prefix search by determining all the encrypted suffix items lying within the search interval, providing to the database a request for providing the one or more encrypted first data items being assigned via the first referential connection to the determined encrypted suffix items, receiving from the database the requested encrypted first data items and decrypting said received first data items.
US09235724B2	Systems, methods, and computer medium to securely transfer backup data between physically isolated networks having different levels of network protection Embodiments of computer-implemented methods, systems, and non-transitory computer-readable medium having one or more computer programs stored therein are provided to transfer data between two or more networks configured to have different levels of network security protection. Large data backup files to be transmitted between the two or more networks can be partitioned into smaller partitioned files, contents of which can be encoded as data barcodes. Generated data barcodes can then be decoded to produce contents of the partitioned files. Decoded contents of the partitioned files can then be securely communicated back to the sender for comparison by generating validation barcodes to be decoded by the sender. Generated verification barcodes can then be decoded to confirm success of the transmission of contents of the partitioned files from the sender. Decoded contents of the partitioned files can be merged and stored responsive to an indication of successful transmission.
US09235718B2	Printing apparatus and printing system There is provided a printing apparatus including: a storage section configured to store printing data; an accepting section configured to accept an issuance instruction to issue a password corresponding to the printing data; a password generating section configured to generate a password; an obtaining section configured to obtain a destination corresponding to the printing data; a transmission section configured to transmit the generated password to the destination, on condition that the accepting section accepts the issuance instruction; an input section configured to accept an input of a password by a user; a judgment section configured to judge as to whether or not a password accepted by the input section is coincident with the transmitted password; and a printing section configured to start printing in a case that the judgment section judges that the accepted password is coincident with the transmitted password.
US09235714B1	Preventing persistent storage of cryptographic information using signaling Organizations maintain and generate large amounts of sensitive information using computer hardware resources and services of a service provider. Furthermore, there is a need to be able to delete large amounts of data securely and quickly by encrypting the data with a key and destroying the key. To ensure that information stored remotely is secured and capable of secure deletion, cryptographic keys used by the organization should be prevented from being persistently stored during serialization operations. Signaling methods are used to notify virtual machine instances of serialization events in order to prevent keying material from being stored persistently.
US09235708B2	System and method for supporting full volume encryption devices in a client hosted virtualization system A client hosted virtualization system includes a full volume encryption (FVE) storage device, a processor, and non-volatile memory with BIOS code and virtualization manager code. The virtualization manager initializes the client hosted virtualization system, authenticates a virtual machine image, launches the virtual machine based on the image, receives a transaction from the virtual machine targeted to the FVE storage device, sends the transaction to the FVE storage device, receives a response from the FVE storage device, and sends the first response to the first virtual machine. The client hosted virtualization system is configurable to execute the BIOS or the virtualization manager.
US09235707B2	Methods and arrangements to launch trusted, coexisting environments Methods and arrangements to launch trusted, distinct, co-existing environments are disclosed. Embodiments may launch trusted, distinct, co-existing environments in pre-OS space with high assurance. A hardware-enforced isolation scheme may isolate the partitions to facilitate storage and execution of code and data. In many embodiments, the system may launch a partition manager to establish embedded and main partitions. Embedded partitions may not be visible to the main OS and may host critical operations. A main partition may host a general-purpose OS and user applications, and may manage resources that are not assigned to the embedded partitions. Trustworthiness in the launch of the embedded partition is established by comparing integrity metrics for the runtime environment against integrity measurements of a trusted runtime environment for the embedded partition, e.g., by sealing a cryptographic key with the integrity metrics in a trusted platform module. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09235700B1	Hybrid device having a personal digital key and receiver-decoder circuit and methods of use A hybrid device includes a personal digital key (PDK) and a receiver-decoder circuit (RDC). The PDK and RDC of the hybrid device are coupled for communication with each other. In one embodiment, the hybrid device also provides a physical interconnect for connecting to other devices to send and receive control signals and data, and receive power. The hybrid device operates in one of several modes including, PDK only, RDC only, or PDK and RDC. This allows a variety of system configurations for mixed operation including: PDK/RDC, RDC/RDC or PDK/PDK. The present invention also includes a number of system configurations for use of the hybrid device including: use of the hybrid device in a cell phone; simultaneous use of the PDK and the RDC functionality of hybrid device; use of multiple links of hybrid device to generate an authorization signal, use of multiple PDK links to the hybrid device to generate an authorization signal; and use of the hybrid device for authorization inheritance.
US09235699B2	Computer system and method of controlling computer A computer system includes a first communication unit which communicates with an authentication module storing preset first authentication information, a second communication unit which is connected with a server through a network, the server storing preset second authentication information, a main board unit which implements a preset first operation of a computer, and a controller which receives the first authentication information from the authentication module through the first communication unit, receives the second authentication information corresponding to the first authentication information from the server through the second communication unit, and controls the main board unit to block implementation of the first operation when at least one of the first authentication information and the second authentication information is not received.
US09235698B2	Data encryption and smartcard storing encrypted data A data encryption and decryption process, particularly for use in smart cards, in which the data is encrypted using an encryption key derived from a fingerprint template. The fingerprint template is stored, in unencrypted form, in a memory which, apart from the fingerprint template, is filled or substantially filled with random data values thereby to conceal the fingerprint template. The template may be broken up into components stored in disparate locations in the memory to further increase security. Decryption is performed by, firstly, carrying out scanning a fingerprint to obtain a new template, comparing the new template with the previously stored template and, if there is a match, regenerating the encryption key from the previously stored template. The regenerated encryption key is then used to decrypt the data.
US09235696B1	User authentication using a portable mobile device User authentication is performed using a system that includes a service provider system, a device provisioning system, a user computer, and a portable mobile device. The user computer requests the service provider system for access to a remote online service. The user computer receives sign-in information from the device provisioning system. The sign-in information is transferred from the user computer to the portable mobile device, which provides the sign-in information and a unique device identifier of the portable mobile device to the device provisioning system. The device provisioning system identifies a user associated with the portable mobile device, and informs the service provider system the identity of the user. The service provider system allows the user computer to access the remote online service based on the identity of the user provided by the device provisioning system.
US09235694B2	Recording medium, authentication device, and authentication method An electronic device includes a touch panel, a time information obtaining section, and an authentication section. The time information obtaining section obtains time information for user authentication. The authentication section executes user authentication based on the time information obtained by the time information obtaining section. The time information obtaining section changes the time information according to a user's touch duration on the touch panel and changes an amount of change in time that the time information indicates according to a user's manner of touching the touch panel.
US09235690B2	Medication dispenser with integrated monitoring system Devices, systems, and methods are provided for remote visualization of the storage compartments in a medication dispenser device, to monitor a patient's compliance with a medication dosage schedule and for verifying the proper loading of medication into the patient's medication dispenser device. The device may include a plurality of storage compartments, each having an interior space for storing at least one medication or medication reminder marker; an image capturing device (e.g., a camera) positionable to capture an image of the interior space of each storage compartment; and a communications module for electronically transmitting the captured image to a central monitoring station.
US09235689B2	Method, system and apparatus for controlling patient access to medicaments Systems and methods for detecting a likely misuse of a medicament by a user. The system includes a computer communicatively coupled with a dispensing device. The computer receives a usage pattern of a medicament by the user as indicated by the dispensing device and a result of a test correlating with an actual consumption of the medicament by the user. Based on the usage pattern, the computer computes an estimated result of a test corresponding to the at least one predetermined test. Based on a comparison between the estimated result and the test result, a determination is made as to whether the user has likely misused the medicament.
US09235688B2	Apparatus, method and computer-readable storage mediums for acknowledging receipt of a higher-priority multimedia object An apparatus is provided that includes a processor and a memory storing executable instructions that in response to execution by the processor cause the apparatus to direct presentation of a user interface having a list that presents information regarding elements of a plurality of patient exams. The apparatus is also caused to receive an indication of acknowledgment of receipt of a higher-priority one of the exams or information regarding the respective exam. This includes the apparatus being caused to receive an indication of long selection of first information indicating the respective exam's designation as being higher priority, direct presentation of a dialog that includes a user interface element for the acknowledgment, receive an indication of selection of the user interface element, and receive an indication of selection of the first information, without first receiving an indication of user interaction with any other area of the user interface.
US09235685B2	Brain stimulation models, systems, devices, and methods This document discusses, among other things, brain stimulation models, systems, devices, and methods, such as for deep brain stimulation (DBS) or other electrical stimulation. In an example, a target volume of activation (VOA) can be received, a test VOA can be simulated, and at least one of a target electrode location or parameter can be provide using a relationship between the target VOA and the test VOA.
US09235681B2	System and method for intersystem device exchange A device exchange transports messages between autonomous devices in a medical environment. The autonomous devices perform various tasks in the medical environment, such as surgical device control, drug infusion, video recordation, and user interfaces, for example. Each autonomous device has a device specification, published and stored by the device exchange and available to other autonomous devices. The device specification indicates, for each autonomous device, an identifier, a set of outputs and a set of inputs, or commands. Devices interoperate by messages including the device identifier and an output or command without translation or transformation mechanisms such as scripts, protocol translations, drivers or interface modules because each message is based on the published device specification available to all the devices connected to the exchange. Interconnected medical devices therefore interoperate without the need for reconfiguration because each device has internal logic for understanding the messages it sends and receives via the exchange.
US09235675B2	Multidimensional monte-carlo simulation for yield prediction An embodiment includes a computer program product for providing a yield prediction. The computer program product has a non-transitory computer readable medium with a computer program embodied thereon. The computer program comprises computer program code for obtaining a representation of a circuit. The circuit comprises a common path and a critical path, and the critical path represents multiple parallel paths. The computer program further comprises computer program code for obtaining a first table representing the common path and a second table representing the multiple parallel paths and computer program code for performing a variable based simulation based on the representation of the circuit, the first table, and the second table. The computer program also comprises computer program code for determining a result indication of each of the multiple parallel paths based on the variable based simulation compared with a predetermined specification.
US09235672B2	High-level synthesis data generation apparatus, high-level synthesis apparatus, and high-level synthesis data generation method An analysis unit analyzes a source code representing design data of a semiconductor device, and generates information (CDFG information) indicating the data and control flow of the semiconductor device. A high-level synthesis data generation unit acquires intermediate data (an object file), which is obtained by compiling the source code, generates intermediate data (an object file) by incorporating the CDFG information generated by the analysis unit into the acquired intermediate data, and outputs the generated intermediate data as high-level synthesis data.
US09235665B2	System, method and apparatus for handling power limit restrictions in flash memory devices A system, method and apparatus for dynamic power management including creating a model for each task of multiple tasks performed by a circuit, the model including a corresponding power requirement value for each task, selecting each task for execution, executing the selected task when the corresponding power requirement value does not exceed an average power consumption cap of an execution window, determining an actual power consumption of the selected task during execution of the selected task and storing the actual power consumption corresponding to the selected task as the corresponding power requirement value for the selected task. A memory system can include a memory die, a data bus coupled to the memory die, a power supply coupled to the memory die, a power monitor coupled to the memory die and the power supply and a controller coupled to the data bus and the memory die.
US09235663B2	Method for computing the quantity of light received by a participating media, and corresponding device A method for estimating the quantity of light received by a point M of a heterogeneous participating media, the light being emitted by a light environment. Thereafter, the method comprises estimating, for each point of a first set of points, first values representative of the light attenuation between the considered point and a first surface bounding the media along a plurality of particular directions of light emission, estimating first coefficients of projection by projection of the first values of reduction of light intensity in an orthonormal basis of spherical functions, estimating second values representative of the light attenuation between the point and a second surface along directions, the second surface comprising some of the points of the neighborhood of the point, and estimating the quantity of light received by the point using first coefficients of projection and second values of reduction of light intensity.
US09235662B2	Lithography model for 3D resist profile simulations Described herein is a method for simulating a three-dimensional spatial intensity distribution of radiation formed within a resist layer on a substrate resulting from an incident radiation, the method comprising: calculating an incoherent sum of forward propagating radiation in the resist layer and backward propagating radiation in the resist layer; calculating an interference of the forward propagating radiation in the resist layer and the backward propagating radiation in the resist layer; and calculating the three-dimensional spatial intensity distribution of radiation from the incoherent sum and the interference.
US09235657B1	System identification and model development Methods for system identification are presented using model predictive control to frame a gray-box parameterized state space model. System parameters are identified using an optimization procedure to minimize a first error cost function within a range of filtered training data. Disturbances are accounted for using an implicit integrator within the system model, as well as a parameterized Kalman gain. Kalman gain parameters are identified using an optimization procedure to minimize a second error cost function within a range of non-filtered training data. Recursive identification methods are presented to provide model adaptability using an extended Kalman filter to estimate model parameters and a Kalman gain to estimate system states.
US09235647B1	Systems and methods for predictive responses to internet object queries A computer-implemented method for predictive responses to internet object queries may include receiving a query from a client to evaluate a first internet object. The computer-implemented method may also include analyzing the query to predict a set of additional internet objects for which the client may subsequently request an evaluation. The computer-implemented method may further include transmitting an evaluation of the first internet object and of each additional internet object in the set of additional internet objects to the client. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09235646B2	Method and system for a search engine for user generated content (UGC) A method and system for a search engine for user generated content have been disclosed. According to one embodiment, a computer implemented method comprises receiving a search request from a client, the search request directed to user generated content. Relevant user generated content is retrieved, wherein retrieving comprises searching processed user generated content, and wherein processing user generated content comprises receiving first input data including text, creating a substring of text from the first input data and categorizing the substring to produce a concept associated with the substring, wherein the substring is categorized according to one of dictionaries or pattern analysis. An indication of sentiment is assigned to the concept associated with the substring and an indication of influence is assigned to the concept associated with the substring. The relevant user generated content is displayed.
US09235645B1	Systems and methods for managing the execution of processing jobs The illustrative embodiments described herein provide systems and methods for managing the execution of processing jobs. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a processing job associated with a set of processing job parameters. The processing job is sent from a user interfacing device associated with a user. The method also includes determining a processing job priority for the processing job using the set of processing job parameters, identifying a destination processing device capable of executing the processing job using the set of processing job parameters, and initiating execution of the processing job at the destination processing device to form processed data in response to determining to execute the processing job based on the processing job priority.
US09235644B2	Operator, device and platform independent aggregation, cross-platform translation, enablement and distribution of user activity catalogs Implementations relate to generating an operator, device, and platform-independent aggregation, cross-platform translation, enablement, and distribution of user activity catalogs. Users of a cellular telephone, a personal computer, or other devices or services can register to a database that collects transaction and other activity for the user. The user can designate one or more groups of users with whom to share collective activity data. The activity feeds can include recommendations, transactions, and other information generated when group members conduct retail or other activity. In one example, the activity feeds transmitted can be automatically translated and configured based on service operator and/or recipient device type. In another example, a user visiting a Website can be presented with a context-sensitive drop-down list of transactions conducted at that site by members of user's designated group(s) in the past. The platform permits users to mutually and transparently suggest products, services, or content to each other.
US09235642B1	System and method for conducting searches and displaying search results The various embodiments of systems described comprising of interfacing with at least one third-party search engine for the at least one third-party search engine to conduct the search using the at least one search query and to retrieve at least one search result from the third-party search engine's search; simultaneously searching the index code database using the at least one search query to retrieve electronically, query hits identifying one or a plurality of companies previously registered with the index code database identifiable as being responsive to the at least one search query; displaying concurrently on a search results page, the search results from the third party search engine's search and the query hits from the index code database search and indexing the search results in paginated format of predetermined length with a predefined number of search results viewable as a preview by a mouseover of at least one page number as displayed on the search results page.
US09235639B2	Filter regular expression Example embodiments disclosed herein relate to determining a regular expression from a passing set of strings and a blocked set of strings. A regular expression is determined based on the passing set. The regular expression is compared to the blocked set. The passing set is divided into subsets based on the comparison. Regular expressions are determined for the subsets and are ORed together to determine a filter regular expression.
US09235636B2	Presenting data in response to an incomplete query Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for executing a database query based on an incomplete query. An example system configured to practice the method receives a web request, wherein a uniform resource locator (URL) of the web request provides an argument, and extracts the argument from the URL as a parameter for a database query. The system identifies an unspecified parameter in the database query, and selects a likely value for the unspecified parameter. Then the system executes the database query using the parameter and the likely value, and incorporates at least part of the query result in a web page served in response to the web request. The system can cache the web request and the likely value for the unspecified parameter for later use.
US09235635B2	System and method for discovering story trends in real time from user generated content A method for identifying story trends includes identifying a set of words in a fixed size data stream based on a subword cache, and electronically determining at least one story trend associated with the set of words and electronically generating a story hash associated with the set of words. The method also includes storing the story hash in a story trend cache and updating the story trend cache according to the story hash, and retrieving one or more popular story topics according to the story trend cache. Machine readable media including program code that causes execution of a method for generating search results also are described.
US09235634B2	Method and server for media classification The embodiments of the present invention relates to a method and system for classifying media. The classification is achieved by using annotation ontolgies and by associating bottom level concepts of the annotation ontology tree with explanatory representation data of a selected representation domain and then comparing the explanatory representation data with transformation of the media in the selected representation domain. In this way tags can be generated which corresponds to bottom level concepts of the ontology tree which corresponds to explanatory representation data which can be found in the transformed media.
US09235633B2	Processing data in a data warehouse Data of a database environment, which includes hierarchy information and a matrix of values, is processed. The hierarchy information includes at least two sets of identification codes and defines at least two groups of identification codes. The matrix of values includes at least two columns of identification values. At least one simple filter object is generated based on a user input. Each simple filter object defines an ad hoc group of identification codes selected from a respective one of the sets of identification codes. A filtered operation object that specifies an operation and at least one of the simple filter objects is generated based on a user input. Each of the ad hoc groups differs from each of the groups defined by the hierarchy information.
US09235632B1	Synchronization of replication A computer implemented method, computer program product, and system for data replication comprising directing Input/Outputs (I/Os) intercepted by a splitter to a synchronizer, directing initialization data to the synchronizer from an initialization process, determining, at the synchronizer, whether the data arrived from the initialization process has been overwritten by the splitter, based on a determination that the data has been overwritten, discarding the data and based on a determination that the data has not been overwritten, sending the data to a Logical Unit.
US09235629B1	Method and apparatus for automatically correlating related incidents of policy violations A method and apparatus for automatically correlating policy violation incidents. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving user input identifying one of policy violation incidents stored in a data repository, where each policy violation incident is associated with one or more attributes. The method further includes automatically correlating the identified policy violation incident with other policy violation incidents that have in common at least one attribute with the identified policy violation incident, and presenting the resulting correlation information to a user.
US09235623B2	Policy-based storage structure distribution Policy-based storage and retrieval combined with a distribution algorithm results in automatic and even distribution of policy-based storage structures across a set of nodes and dynamic, automated homing or ownership of policy-based storage structures. Large numbers of policy-based storage structures may be distributed without manual administration, allowing for rapid creation and destruction of storage structures. The overall load may be distributed and balanced across the server pool. Multiple entries having the same key value in a database- or table-like structure allow for distribution of policy-based storage and retrieval by key value and for queue semantics to be utilized for microqueues in the large database- or table-like structure.
US09235621B2	Data-aware scalable parallel execution of rollup operations According to one aspect of the invention, for a database statement that specifies rollup operations, a data distribution key may be selected among a plurality of candidate keys. Numbers of distinct values of the candidate keys may be monitored with respect to a particular set of rows. Hash values may also be generated by column values in the candidate keys. The data distribution key may be determined based on results of monitoring the numbers of distinct values of the candidate keys as well as the frequencies of hash values computed based on column values of the candidate keys. Rollup operations may be shared between different stages of parallel executing processes and data may be distributed between the different stages of parallel executing processes based on the selected data distribution key.
US09235617B1	Securing date data fields A method facilitating searching of data containing protected date information includes generating one or more randomly escalating dateID values for each date during a time period and storing such generated dateID values in a lookup table together with an encrypted, associated date value. Such generated dateID values can be stored in a datasource in place of protected dates in order to safeguard protected health information. In one or more preferred implementations, a de-identified date is stored in the lookup table in association with a dateID, and utilized for searching operations.
US09235610B2	Short string compression Systems and techniques are disclosed to express sequences of codes, and in particular sequences of ASCII characters, in a lossless compressed format. The techniques may include dividing a universe of expressible codes into smaller subsets, called code sets, such that every code exists within one code set, but no code exists within two code sets. The code sets are then utilized for compression based on the heuristic that it is more likely that a next code in the sequences of codes is in the same code set as a previous code in the sequences of codes, rather than that the next code in sequences of codes being in any other code set (sentence structure).
US09235609B1	Local emulation of distributed key-value data store A local data store may also be configured to process updates using a common API with reference to a common schema. The common API and common schema may also be employed by hosted applications utilizing a remote distributed data store. Behavior of the remote distributed data store may be emulated by the local data store. Behaviors of the distributed data store that may be simulated include eventual consistency, provisioned throughput and latency based on horizontal partitioning.
US09235604B2	Method, apparatus and system for obtaining location information A method for obtaining location information is provided. The method includes obtaining street-view image information corresponding to location information and storing correspondingly the street-view image information and the corresponding location information. The method also includes generating a two-dimensional (2D) bar code containing at least one of the street-view image information and the corresponding location information. Further, the method includes scanning the 2D bar code to obtain the at least one of the street-view image information and the location information, where searching the location information based on the street-view image information when the scanning of the 2D bar code obtains the street-view image information and searching the street-view image information based on the location information when the scanning of the 2D bar code obtains the location information.
US09235601B2	Data mining shape based data Embodiments of the disclosure include a method for data mining shape based data, the method includes receiving shape data for each of a plurality of data entries and creating a first abstract from the shape data for each of the plurality of data entries. The method also includes organizing the first abstracts into a plurality of groups based on a criterion and creating a second abstract for each data entry in the plurality of groups based on the criterion and information derived from the first abstract.
US09235597B2	System and method for dynamically retrieving data specific to a region of a layer A system may provide for retrieving data within a selected region of a map is provided. The system may include mobile devices configured to display a map and to receive a user selection of a region of the map. An application server may receive data from the mobile device, representing the user selected region of the map and a search criterion. A database may be in operative communication with the application server and executes a query using the data representing the selected region of the map and the search criterion and to return data results corresponding to a plurality of locations within the selected region and related to the search criterion. The mobile device may further be configured to display the data results corresponding to the plurality of locations on the selected region of the map and the displayed data results are automatically updated when the user moves the selected region of the map.
US09235594B2	Synchronizing updates across cluster filesystems Embodiments of the invention relate to synchronization of data in a shared pool of configurable computer resources. An image of the filesystem changes, including data and metadata, is captured in the form of a consistency point. Sequential consistency points are created, with changes to data and metadata in the filesystem between sequential consistency captured and placed in a queue for communication to a target filesystem at a target site. The changes are communicated as a filesystem operation, with the communication limited to the changes captured and reflected in the consistency point.
US09235591B2	Contextual data compression for geo-tracking applications Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method of compressing location data. The method may include: receiving original location data; selecting a contextual profile based at least in part on the original location data; selecting a compression method based on the contextual profile; and converting the original location data to a compressed format based on the compression method. Various exemplary embodiments relate to a system for compressing location data. The system may include: a location receiver configured to generate original location data based at least on signals from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) satellites; a location engine configured to select a contextual profile based at least in part on the original location data; and a contextual compression filter configured to generate compressed location data in a compressed format based on the selected contextual profile.
US09235590B1	Selective data compression in a database system A database system may implement compression management of tables in the database system. The compression management may include determination of a pattern of usage of various database tables in the database system. Based on this pattern of usage, the database tables may be selected as candidates for compression or decompression at the appropriate time. In one example, the pattern of usage may be based on the contents of a query log of the database system. The compression management may also include evaluation of various compression strategies to apply to a candidate database table. Each compression strategy may be evaluated to determine if application to a database table or a portion of the database table would be beneficial based on various conditions. The compression management may also include consideration of each available compression strategy to be applied solely or in combination with one another.
US09235584B2	Self-removal of enterprise app data Self-removal of enterprise application data (e.g., managed application data) is disclosed. It may be determined that a data removal condition has been satisfied. Based at least in part on the determination, data removal information may be generated for a plurality of applications including a managed set of mobile applications. The data removal information may be provided to at least a first application included in the plurality of applications. The first application may provide the data removal information to a data storage location accessible to at least a second application upon a data removal-related event.
US09235583B2	Virtual media with folder-mount function A virtual media (VM) method for mounting one or more folders in one or more storage devices of a client for accessed by a server as a virtual drive. The client assigns virtual cluster indices to each file, and creates a file-cluster index table to store the assigned virtual cluster indices. The client also creates a VM file system complying with the FAT file system standard except that only subdirectories and no data files are stored in the VM FAT file system. The VM FAT table uses virtual cluster indices rather than actual cluster indices. Data written by the server are stored in a temporary data area without modifying the actual file systems of the storage devices. The virtual sectors requested to be written are “dirty”, and the dirty sector numbers and corresponding temporary sector numbers are stored in a dirty sector index table for use in a write-back step.
US09235578B2	Data partitioning apparatus and data partitioning method A data partitioning apparatus receives stream data and stores with previous-and-subsequent information that specifies data previous and subsequent to the data. Then, for groups, each of which contains the data that are stored and that are partitioned into the number of the groups, the data partitioning apparatus stores top information specifying data located at the top in a corresponding group and end information specifying data located at the end in the corresponding group. Then, when new data is stored, the data partitioning apparatus specifies data previous and subsequent to the new data and stores the new data by associating it with the previous-and-subsequent information that specifies the data previous and subsequent to the new data. Then, when data is inserted, the data partitioning apparatus updates information for each group such that the difference between the number of data belonging to each group is equal to or less than one.
US09235571B2	Systems and methods for scanning a user environment and evaluating data of interest According to various embodiments, a mobile device continuously and/or automatically scans a user environment for tags containing non-human-readable data. The mobile device may continuously and/or automatically scan the environment for tags without being specifically directed at a particular tag. The mobile device may be adapted to scan for audio tags, radio frequency tags, and/or image tags. The mobile device may be configured to scan for and identify tags within the user environment that satisfy a user preference. The mobile device may perform an action in response to identifying a tag that satisfies a user preference. The mobile device may be configured to scan for a wide variety of tags, including tags in the form of quick response codes, steganographic content, audio watermarks, audio outside of a human audible range, radio frequency identification tags, long wavelength identification tags, near field communication tags, and/or a Memory Spot device.
US09235566B2	System and method for enhanced lookup in an online dictionary A system and method predictively generates words based on a user input, according to a frequency of lookup of each of the generated words. The system and method also allows for a user to add predictively generated words to a word list that assists in the facilitation of word and vocabulary comprehension for a user. Words in the online dictionary are grouped in word families where a user can navigate between different forms of a root word.
US09235565B2	Blending customized user dictionaries Techniques for constructing a set of customized dictionaries for a particular user are described. Each of the customized dictionaries in the set may include a different blending of one or more frequently used words collected from texts submitted by one or more users. A copy of the set of customized dictionaries may be sent to each of a plurality of electronic devices associated with the particular user to be stored on the electronic device and to aid the particular user in inputting text to the electronic device.
US09235564B2	Offloading projection of fixed and variable length database columns In an exemplary embodiment of this disclosure, a computer-implemented method includes determining that a database query warrants a first projection operation to project a plurality of input rows to a plurality of projected rows, where each of the plurality of input rows has one or more variable-length columns. A first projection control block is constructed, by a computer processor, to describe the first projection operation. The first projection operation is offloaded to a hardware accelerator. The first projection control block is provided to the hardware accelerator, and the first projection control block enables the hardware accelerator to perform the first projection operation at streaming rate.
US09235563B2	Systems and processes for identifying features and determining feature associations in groups of documents Systems and computer-implemented processes for identification of features and determination of feature associations in a group of documents can involve providing a plurality of keywords identified among the terms of at least some of the documents. A value measure can be calculated for each keyword. High-value keywords are defined as those keywords having value measures that exceed a threshold. For each high-value keyword, term-document associations (TDA) are accessed. The TDA characterize measures of association between each term and at least some documents in the group. A processor quantifies similarities between unique pairs of high-value keywords based on the TDA for each respective high-value keyword and generates a similarity matrix that indicates one or more sets that each comprise highly associated high-value keywords.
US09235556B2	Adaptive baseline based on metric values Values of a metric are provided at irregular intervals. A forgetting factor is calculated based on a difference between the intervals, and a statistical parameter is computed using the forgetting factor that causes different weights to be placed on the corresponding values of the metric, where the statistical parameter is part of an adaptive baseline.
US09235554B2	Method and system of improved Galois multiplication Embodiments of the invention include an apparatus for performing Galois multiplication using an enhanced Galois table. Galois multiplication may include converting a first and second multiplicand to exponential forms using a Galois table, adding the exponential forms of the first and second multiplicands, and converting the added exponential forms of the first and second multiplicands to a decimal equivalent binary form using the Galois table to decimal equivalent binary result of the Galois multiplication.
US09235553B2	Vehicle computer system with transparent display The invention relates to a vehicle computer system. The vehicle computer system gathers data from a safety sensor to determine whether the proper safety conditions are present for the vehicle operator to interact with the vehicle computer system. A safety controller receives safety condition data gathered from the safety sensor and instructs the display manager to disable the display of information to the vehicle operator during unsafe operating conditions. The vehicle computer system advantageously employs a transparent display screen to provide greater field of vision of the vehicle operator than could be provided by a traditional display screen.
US09235552B1	Collaborative audio recording of an event by multiple mobile devices Techniques are disclosed for producing a collaborative recording of an audio event. An online server or service identifies participating mobile devices with recording capabilities that are available for recording at least a portion of the audio event. The online server or service determines the locations of the potential participating mobile devices, and identifies ranges of frequencies to be recorded by each of the participating mobile devices. The individual recordings are then compiled into a final collaborative recording.
US09235551B2	Method and system for simulating a mill reline Machine-implemented methods, systems, processing devices and machine-readable media are provided for simulating a mill reline, which involve collecting mill relining data and processing the relining data as simulation parameters using a mill relining model. The relining data generally include variables treated as discrete time/frequency distributions. Simulated events for the mill reline may be generated based on the relining data. Additional relining data relating to a specific existing site may be included as simulation parameters. The simulation may be used in determining an optimal work flow for carrying out the mill reline at a specific existing site, e.g., where time to carry out the mill reline is minimized. The simulation may also be employed for benchmarking. The additional relining data may be provided in video format, and analysis of the video format data may be undertaken, e.g., by an operator for refining and/or verifying the additional relining data, prior to utilizing the additional relining data as simulation parameters in the simulation model. The mill relining data may also include additional parameters, such as the size and quantity of the liners, the reline planning process and relining crew proficiency, the relining equipment and plant design surrounding the mill being relined, and the like.
US09235546B2	System and method for data read of a synchronous serial interface NAND A method and system is disclosed for operating a NAND memory device. The NAND memory device is operated by transmitting serial peripheral interface signals from a host to a NAND memory device, whereby the signals are communicated to a NAND memory in the NAND memory device without modifying the signals into a standard NAND memory format. Similarly, a method and system is disclosed for receiving signals from the NAND memory device without modifying the signals from a standard NAND format into a serial format. The system also incorporates error detection and correction techniques to detect and correct errors in data stored in the NAND memory device.
US09235543B2	Systems for signal detection A system for detecting one or more signals at a PCI Express interface includes a receiver configured to receive a signal at the PCI Express interface, and a peak detector configured to detect one or more signals based on level sensing, and identify one or more data sampling points to set an amplitude threshold. A comparator is configured to compare an amplitude of the received signal with the amplitude threshold, and a processor is configured to confirm that the received signal is a valid signal when the amplitude of the signal is at least one of greater than or equal to the amplitude threshold over a predefined period of time. The processor is also configured to disable a signal detector that can detect one or more low frequency signals. The system also includes a tester configured to test whether the detected signal is correct.
US09235537B2	Drift detection in timing signal forwarded from memory controller to memory device A memory system in which a timing drift that would occur in distribution of a first timing signal for data transport in a memory device is determined by measuring the actual phase delays occurring in a second timing signal that has a frequency lower than that of the first timing signal and is distributed in one or more circuits mimicking the drift characteristics of at least a portion of distribution of the first timing signal. The actual phase delays are determined in the memory device and provided to a memory controller so that the phases of the timing signals used for data transport may be adjusted based on the determined timing drift.
US09235532B2	Secure storage of full disk encryption keys Data is securely stored on a storage device by encoding a data block into multiple encoded blocks, any number of which can be recombined to recover the data block. The encoded blocks are stored at known logical locations corresponding to physical locations on a storage device that change over time. When the data needs to be destroyed, at least one of the encoded blocks is overwritten with arbitrary data. In one aspect, the encoded blocks include at least one random block that is used to encode the data block. In another aspect, the known logical locations are stored in metadata.
US09235531B2	Multi-level buffer pool extensions A buffer manager that manages blocks of memory amongst multiple levels of buffer pools. For instance, there may be a first level buffer pool for blocks in first level memory, and a second level buffer pool for blocks in second level memory. The first level buffer pool evicts blocks to the second level buffer pool if the blocks are not used above a first threshold level. The second level buffer pool evicts blocks to a yet lower level if they have not used above a second threshold level. The first level memory may be dynamic random access memory, whereas the second level memory may be storage class memory, such as a solid state disk. By using such a storage class memory, the working block set of the buffer manager may be increased without resorting to lower efficiency random block access from yet lower level memory such as disk.
US09235529B2	Using broadcast-based TLB sharing to reduce address-translation latency in a shared-memory system with optical interconnect The disclosed embodiments provide a system that uses broadcast-based TLB sharing to reduce address-translation latency in a shared-memory multiprocessor system with two or more nodes that are connected by an optical interconnect. During operation, a first node receives a memory operation that includes a virtual address. Upon determining that one or more TLB levels of the first node will miss for the virtual address, the first node uses the optical interconnect to broadcast a TLB request to one or more additional nodes of the shared-memory multiprocessor in parallel with scheduling a speculative page-table walk for the virtual address. If the first node receives a TLB entry from another node of the shared-memory multiprocessor via the optical interconnect in response to the TLB request, the first node cancels the speculative page-table walk. Otherwise, if no response is received, the first node instead waits for the completion of the page-table walk.
US09235528B2	Write endurance management techniques in the logic layer of a stacked memory A system, method, and memory device embodying some aspects of the present invention for remapping external memory addresses and internal memory locations in stacked memory are provided. The stacked memory includes one or more memory layers configured to store data. The stacked memory also includes a logic layer connected to the memory layer. The logic layer has an Input/Output (I/O) port configured to receive read and write commands from external devices, a memory map configured to maintain an association between external memory addresses and internal memory locations, and a controller coupled to the I/O port, memory map, and memory layers, configured to store data received from external devices to internal memory locations.
US09235527B2	Multiple-cache parallel reduction and applications In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method and system for parallel computing is provided, that reduces the time necessary for the execution of program function. In order to reduce the time needed to execute aspects of a program, multiple program threads are executed simultaneously, while thread 0 of the program is also executed. These threads are executed simultaneously with the aid of at least one cache of the computing device on which the program is being run. Such a framework reduces wasted computing power and the time necessary to execute aspects of a program.
US09235525B2	Performing asynchronous discard scans with staging and destaging operations A controller receives a request to perform staging or destaging operations with respect to an area of a cache. A determination is made as to whether one or more discard scans are being performed or queued for the area of the cache. In response to determining that one or more discard scans are being performed or queued for the area of the cache, the controller avoids satisfying the request to perform the staging or the destaging operations or a read hit with respect to the area of the cache.
US09235521B2	Cache system for managing various cache line conditions A cache controller configured to detect a wait type (i.e., a wait event) associated with an imprecise collision and/or contention event is disclosed. The cache controller is configured to operatively connect to a cache memory device, which is configured to store a plurality of cache lines. The cache controller is configured to detect a wait type due to an imprecise collision and/or collision event associated with a cache line. The cache controller is configured to cause transmission of a broadcast to one or more transaction sources (e.g., broadcast to the transaction sources internal to the cache controller) requesting the cache line indicating the transaction source can employ the cache line.
US09235520B2	Protocol for conflicting memory transactions Embodiments of the invention describe a cache coherency protocol that eliminates the need for ordering between message classes and also eliminates home tracker preallocation. Embodiments of the invention describe a less complex conflict detection and resolution mechanism (at the home agent) without any performance degradation in form of bandwidth or latency compared to prior art solutions.Embodiments of the invention describe a home agent that may receive request messages, e.g., data ownership request messages and data request messages, which include issuance data indicating an order of the respective message issued. Said home agent may determine whether an early or late conflict exists based, at least in part, on a received conflict response message and the issuance data of a most recent completed transaction.
US09235516B1	Techniques using cacheless read and deferred caching Described are techniques for processing data operations. A read request for first data is received at a data storage system. It is determined whether the read request results in a cache hit whereby the first data is stored in a cache of the data storage system, or whether the read request otherwise results in a cache miss. If the read request results in a cache miss, processing is performed to determine determining whether to perform cacheless read processing or deferred caching processing to service the read request. Determining whether to perform cacheless read processing or deferred caching processing is performed in accordance with criteria including a measurement indicating a level of busyness of a back-end component used to retrieve from physical storage any portion of the first data not currently stored in the cache.
US09235514B2	Predicting outcomes for memory requests in a cache memory The described embodiments include a cache controller with a prediction mechanism in a cache. In the described embodiments, the prediction mechanism is configured to perform a lookup in each table in a hierarchy of lookup tables in parallel to determine if a memory request is predicted to be a hit in the cache, each table in the hierarchy comprising predictions whether memory requests to corresponding regions of a main memory will hit the cache, the corresponding regions of the main memory being smaller for tables lower in the hierarchy.
US09235512B2	System, method, and computer program product for graphics processing unit (GPU) demand paging A system, method, and computer program product are provided for GPU demand paging. In operation, input data is addressed in terms of a virtual address space. Additionally, the input data is organized into one or more pages of data. Further, the input data organized as the one or more pages of data is at least temporarily stored in a physical cache. In addition, access to the input data in the physical cache is facilitated.
US09235511B2	Software performance by identifying and pre-loading data pages Embodiments relate to methods, computer systems and computer program products for improving software performance by identifying and preloading data pages. Embodiments include executing an instruction that requests a data page from the one or more auxiliary storage devices. Based on determining that the instruction is present in the long-running instruction list, embodiments include examining one or more characteristics of a plurality of data pages that will be requested by the instruction. Based on determining that the plurality of data pages are located on a single auxiliary storage device and that the plurality of data pages can be efficiently retrieved by the single auxiliary storage device, embodiments include initiating a pre-load operation to move the plurality of data pages to the main memory.
US09235510B2	Processor with kernel mode access to user space virtual addresses A computer includes a memory and a processor connected to the memory. The processor includes memory segment configuration registers to store defined memory address segments and defined memory address segment attributes such that the processor operates in accordance with the defined memory address segments and defined memory address segment attributes to allow kernel mode access to user space virtual addresses for enhanced kernel mode memory capacity.
US09235498B1	Circuits for and methods of enabling the modification of an input data stream A circuit for enabling a modification of an input data stream is described. The circuit comprises a first plurality of registers coupled in series; an input register of the first plurality of registers coupled to receive the input data stream; an output register of the first plurality of registers positioned at an end of the first plurality of registers; and a control circuit enabling a data value which is independent of the input data stream to be generated as an output of the circuit at a predetermined time.
US09235497B2	Method and system for detecting concurrency programming errors in kernel modules and device drivers The existence of errors and bugs in device drivers and other software operating in kernel space may be difficult to find and eliminate. A system and method for debugging computer programs may involve the use of several different modules. Running in the kernel space is an event monitor. Running in the user space is an event collector, an event player, and a concurrency error detector. This setup allows one to debug device driver software and other software that executes in kernel space using existing user space error detectors.
US09235495B2	Method and system that provides an interactive debugging session A computer program product is disclosed. The computer program product includes a computer useable medium having a computer readable program. The computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to receive user specific data for a debugging session. The user specific data includes a location for an input/output device. Further, the computer readable program when executed on the computer causes the computer to initiate a debugging session at the input/output device specified at the location in the user specific data.
US09235492B2	Control policy adjusting apparatus, method of adjusting control policy, and program A load information acquiring unit (230) sets load information based on the history that is acquired by a process history acquiring unit (220). A test period determining unit (240) sets a test period based on the load information. The test period is a period during which a test policy can be used. The test policy is a policy for a test out of control policies used by an information processing system (100). A system control unit (260) measures performance capability of the information processing system (100) under the test policy as a test result by testing the test policy under a production environment of the information processing system (100) by using the test policy instead of a practical policy that is actually used in the test period. A policy changing unit (270) changes the practical policy based on the test policy in a range in which the test result satisfies a reference.
US09235487B2	Integrated circuit and memory device A memory device includes a boot-up control unit configured to control a start of boot-up operation by starting the boot-up operation when an initialization signal is activated, and ignore the initialization signal after a complete signal is activated, a nonvolatile memory unit configured to store repair data, and output the stored repair data during the boot-up operation, a plurality of registers configured to store the repair data outputted from the nonvolatile memory unit, a plurality of memory banks configured to replace a normal cell with a redundant cell, using the repair data stored in the corresponding registers among the plurality of resistors, and a verification unit configured to generate the complete signal to notify that the boot-up operation is completed.
US09235486B1	Techniques for spare storage pool management Techniques for spare storage pool management are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for spare storage pool management comprising receiving spare storage configuration information for a storage drive pool comprising a plurality of storage drives, maintaining spare storage mapping information to spare storage within the storage drive pool based at least in part on the spare storage configuration information, monitoring spare storage within the storage drive pool for detecting block failures within the storage drive pool, detecting a failure of a block in a first storage drive of the plurality of storage drives, and updating the spare storage mapping information associated with the failed block in the first storage drive to map to a spare block in a second storage drive of the plurality of storage drives.
US09235483B2	Substitution of a target volume of a secondary storage controller for a source volume of a primary storage controller for executing a write operation A secondary storage controller receives metadata that uniquely identifies a source volume of a primary storage controller. Data stored in the source volume of the primary storage controller is synchronously copied to a target volume of the secondary storage controller. The secondary storage controller receives a command from a primary host to write selected data to the source volume. In response to receiving the command at the secondary storage controller, the selected data is written to the target volume of the secondary storage controller.
US09235482B2	Consistent data retrieval in a multi-site computing infrastructure Embodiments of the invention relate to dynamic application migration in a shared pool of configurable computer resources with disaster recovery support. Data from an application is replicated from local data storage to remote data storage. A consistency point of the data is created in both the local data storage and the remote data storage. The application may be migrated to a second data site with separate local data storage. The migration may be planned or unplanned. Based upon the created consistency point, a consistent set of application data may be requested to support a read operation from the migrated application.
US09235481B1	Continuous data replication In a first embodiment, a method and computer program product for use in a storage system comprising quiescing IO commands the sites of an ACTIVE/ACTIVE storage system, the active/active storage system having at least two storage sites communicatively coupled via a virtualization layer, creating a change set, unquiescing IO commands by the virtualization layers, transferring data of a change set to the other sites of the active/active storage system by the virtualization layer, and flushing the data by the virtualization layer.In a second embodiment, a method and computer program product for use in a storage system comprising fracturing a cluster of an active/active storage system; wherein the cluster includes at least two sites, stopping IO on a first site of the cluster; and rolling to a point in time on the first site.
US09235477B1	Virtualized backup solution A virtualized backup storage application and a method for providing data protection are implemented by running a backup storage application on a virtualization layer of a computer platform. The virtualization layer presents to the backup storage application a normalized representation of a hardware subsystem of the computer platform, shielding the backup storage application from actual hardware devices of the computer platform. A storage device of the computer platform is used to store a raw data set and the backup storage application generates a backup data set of the raw data set. The backup storage application can replicate the backup data set to a virtualized archive of the computer platform and can also restore and recover the raw data set in the event it is lost, corrupted or otherwise destroyed.
US09235469B2	Systems and methods for inter-cell interference mitigation in a flash memory The present inventions are related to systems and methods for accessing data from a flash memory, and more particularly to systems and methods for inter-cell interference handling in a flash memory. The systems and methods include receiving soft information corresponding to a series of voltage levels accessed from a block of flash memory cells, calculating corrected soft information based upon the received soft information and a variance of the soft information, and applying a data decoding algorithm to the corrected soft information to yield a data output.
US09235467B2	System and method with reference voltage partitioning for low density parity check decoding A nonvolatile memory storage controller for delivering log likelihood ratios (LLRs) to a low-density parity check (LDPC) decoder for use in the decoding of an LDPC encoded codeword. The controller includes partitioning circuitry for identifying a set of soft-decision reference voltages having the smallest calculated introduced error value based upon the estimated BER of the nonvolatile memory. The controller further includes read circuitry for reading an LDPC encoded codeword stored in a nonvolatile memory storage module using the set of soft-decision reference voltages having the smallest calculated LLR introduced error value to provide a plurality of soft-decision bits representative of the codeword. The controller further includes an LLR look-up table accessible by the read circuitry to provide LLRs to the LDPC decoder for the subsequent decoding of the codeword.
US09235466B2	Memory devices with selective error correction code An error correction apparatus includes an error correction circuit configured to selectively perform error correction on a portion of data that is at least one of written to and read from a plurality of memory cells of a memory device. The portion of data is at least one of written to and read from a subset of the plurality of memory cells, and the subset includes only fail cells among the plurality of memory cells. The error correction apparatus further includes a fail address storage circuit configured to store address information for the fail cells.
US09235464B2	Smart error recovery for database applications A database server includes logic that is operable to monitor and analyze at least events occurring within an environment of the database server and/or execution errors generated by the database server in order to detect whether a problem condition exists. The database server further includes logic that is operable to send one or more commands to a database driver of a client that is communicatively connected to the database server, the one or more commands specifying one or more actions to be taken by the database driver in response to the existence of the problem condition. The database driver includes logic that is operable to receive the one or more commands from the database server and logic that is operable to cause the one or more commands to be executed.
US09235462B2	Tunnel management method, tunnel management apparatus, and communications system Embodiments of the present invention relate to communications technologies and disclose a tunnel management method, a tunnel management apparatus, and a communications system so that a node that causes failure of a tunnel management request can be determined. According to the present invention, a response returned by a tunnel management node to an initiating node includes not only a cause value of tunnel management request failure but also information of the node that causes failure of the tunnel management request, so that the initiating node can find the node that causes failure of the tunnel management request and determine the error checking direction. The present invention is applicable to network devices in a communications network.
US09235460B2	Methods and apparatus for automatic fault detection Techniques and mechanisms are provided to monitor signals including critical signals at the endpoints, or leaves, of one or more signal trees in an integrated circuit device. Sensors or layers of sensors may be configured in fault detection circuitry to monitor signals and compare them to static or dynamically varying values. The fault detection circuits may include OR-gate daisy chains that output a fault detection signal to control circuitry if any signal at a particular leaf deviates from an expected signal. Fault detection circuits may also be configured to identify instances where two or more or N or more signals deviate from an expected signal. Mechanisms may also be provided to assure the reliability of fault detection circuitry itself.
US09235459B2	Failure recovery memory devices and methods Memory devices and methods are described that include serially chained memory devices. In one or more of the configurations shown, a serial chain of memory devices includes a number of memory devices, and an error recovery device at an end of the chain. In one configuration shown, the serial chain of memory devices includes a chain of devices where each device is a stacked die memory device. Methods are described that show using the error recovery device in write operations and data recovery operations.
US09235455B2	Multi-core distributed processing using shared memory and communication link Embodiments of an apparatus including a first processor core having a local agent running thereon, the agent comprising a local process and a proxy agent and a second processor core having a remote agent running thereon, the remote agent being an instance of the local agent. A shared memory wherein coupled to the first processor core and the second processor core, wherein the local agent and the remote agent communicate via the shared memory. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.
US09235452B2	Graphics remoting using augmentation data Methods and systems are disclosed in which bitmap data transmission is improved by using some of the advantages of primitive remoting, thus allowing for the reduction of the bandwidth and processing needed to remote a virtual desktop experience. In an embodiment, rendering is performed and bitmaps are remoted, but metadata comprising shortcuts or hints are provided to assist in the rendering of the bitmap data.
US09235450B2	Method and apparatus for reducing slow or stuck SCSI commands in a multi-service environment at a SCSI target A computer-implemented method to reduce slow or stuck SCSI commands at a SCSI target is disclosed. The method starts with initiating a first request to acquire an exclusive lock for a first service daemon of a SCSI target to shut down a first service, where the SCSI target offers a plurality of services, and where each service corresponds to a service daemon. The first service daemon receives a first rejection of the exclusive lock for the first request as the exclusive lock is currently held by a second service daemon corresponding to a second service. Then the first service daemon initiates a second request to acquire the exclusive lock in an attempt to shut down the first service again after a delay period. In response to a second rejection, execution of SCSI commands associated with the second service currently possessing the exclusive lock is terminated.
US09235440B2	Managing job execution This disclosure describes monitoring the execution of jobs in a work plan. In an embodiment, a system maintains a risk level associated with the critical job to represent whether the execution of a job preceding the critical job has a problem, and it maintains the list associated with the critical job so as to quickly identify the preceding job which may cause a delay to the critical job execution.
US09235439B2	Management server, patch scheduling method, and recording medium A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium has stored therein a patch scheduling program that causes a computer to execute a process. The process includes managing, aggregating, determining, and scheduling. The managing includes managing a system including a plurality of software that control a plurality of virtual machines. The aggregating includes aggregating virtual machines including a similar trend regarding a predetermined index thereof with a mutually-same virtual software. The determining includes determining a time period during which the virtual machines are to be moved, based on the trends of the virtual machines aggregated with the mutually-same virtual software and based on moving time of the move of the virtual machines to a different virtual software included in the plurality of virtual software. The scheduling includes scheduling applying a patch to each of the plurality of virtual software at the determined time periods.
US09235436B2	Method and apparatus of accessing data of virtual machine A methods and device for accessing virtual machine (VM) data are described. A computing device for accessing virtual machine comprises an access request process module, a data transfer proxy module and a virtual disk. The access request process module receives a data access request sent by a VM and adds the data access request to a request array. The data transfer proxy module obtains the data access request from the request array, maps the obtained data access request to a corresponding virtual storage unit, and maps the virtual storage unit to a corresponding physical storage unit of a distributed storage system. A corresponding data access operation may be performed based on a type of the data access request.
US09235430B2	Information processing apparatus, information processing method, program and information processing system An information processing apparatus is provided which includes a storage unit to store reference parameter information made up of a plurality of pieces of parameter information and associated with each program, an acquisition unit to acquire the plurality of pieces of parameter information of current time, a specifying unit to specify a program associated with a reference parameter similar to the plurality of pieces of parameter information of current time, and a display control unit to create a startup menu screen containing a startup display of a program according to a specified result by the specifying unit.
US09235429B1	Dynamic user interface rendering Clickstream data describes a pathway or sequence taken by a user while accessing webpages or other user interfaces. The clickstream data may be parsed or processed to identify the time the user spent viewing each webpage, the number of elements on each webpage, the user's access bandwidth, and other data defining respective user access metrics. The user access metrics may be applied toward the generation of more effective user interfaces having idealized element counts, element placements or counts targeted to a particular user, elements based on estimated user access times, and so on.
US09235427B2	Operating system load device resource selection A method for booting is provided. A devices manager disables resources of one or more bootable devices of a list of bootable devices having resource conflicts with a selected one of the list of bootable devices. The devices manager attempts to boot the selected one of the list of bootable devices. If the selected one of the list of bootable devices fails to boot, then the devices manager selects a next bootable device of the list of bootable devices for booting and repeats disabling resources and attempting to boot the selected next bootable device until one of the list of bootable devices boots or all bootable devices of the list of bootable devices fail to boot.
US09235423B2	Availability evaluation device and availability evaluation method Workload is mitigated when customizing adding a state transition resulting from a datacenter operation procedure, to an availability evaluation model of a server infrastructure, provided as a standard library. This involves: storing in a state transition storage unit (STSU) definitions of a plurality of state transitions corresponding to system configurations; storing in an additional STSU definitions of state transitions used in system operation, which are different from the plurality of state transitions; receiving definitions of state transitions and registering the definitions in the additional STSU; analyzing system availability based on the definitions of the state transitions stored in the STSU and the definitions of the state transitions stored in the additional STSU; analyzing common state transition patterns in at least part of definitions of the plurality of state transitions used when operating the system, and stored in the additional STSU; and outputting analysis results on the common state transition patterns.
US09235419B2	Branch target buffer preload table Embodiments relate to using a branch target buffer preload table. An aspect includes receiving a search request to locate branch prediction information associated with a branch instruction. Searching is performed for an entry corresponding to the search request in a branch target buffer and a branch target buffer preload table in parallel. Based on locating a matching entry in the branch target buffer preload table corresponding to the search request and failing to locate the matching entry in the branch target buffer, a victim entry is selected to overwrite in the branch target buffer. Branch prediction information of the matching entry is received from the branch target buffer preload table at the branch target buffer. The victim entry in the branch target buffer is overwritten with the branch prediction information of the matching entry.
US09235417B2	Real time instruction tracing compression of RET instructions In accordance with embodiments disclosed herein, there are provided methods, systems, mechanisms, techniques, and apparatuses for implementing Real Time Instruction Tracing compression of RET instructions For example, in one embodiment, such means may include an integrated circuit having means for initiating instruction tracing for instructions of a traced application, mode, or code region, as the instructions are executed by the integrated circuit; means for generating a plurality of packets describing the instruction tracing; and means for compressing a multi-bit RET instruction (RETurn instruction) to a single bit RET instruction.
US09235415B2	Permute operations with flexible zero control In one embodiment, the present invention includes logic to receive a permute instruction, first and second source operands, and control values, and to perform a permute operation based on an operation between at least two of the control values so that selected portions of the first and second source operands or a predetermined value can be stored into elements of a destination. Multiple permute instructions may be combined to perform efficient table lookups. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09235414B2	SIMD integer multiply-accumulate instruction for multi-precision arithmetic A multiply-and-accumulate (MAC) instruction allows efficient execution of unsigned integer multiplications. The MAC instruction indicates a first vector register as a first operand, a second vector register as a second operand, and a third vector register as a destination. The first vector register stores a first factor, and the second vector register stores a partial sum. The MAC instruction is executed to multiply the first factor with an implicit second factor to generate a product, and to add the partial sum to the product to generate a result. The first factor, the implicit second factor and the partial sum have a same data width and the product has twice the data width. The most significant half of the result is stored in the third vector register, and the least significant half of the result is stored in the second vector register.
US09235413B1	Automated control of semiconductor wafer manufacturing based on electrical test results In semiconductor wafer manufacturing, processes such as analyzing test data associated with semiconductor wafers, interpreting the test data analysis, and acting on the test data interpretation and analysis are automated. Such automation can eliminate delays that were previously imposed by the action of test analysis engineers and wafer fabrication personnel, thereby reducing the amount of useless material that is produced before a process defect can be detected.
US09235412B1	Identifying dependencies between configuration elements and transactions Identifying dependencies between configuration elements and transactions involves executing the following: receiving activity data obtained by monitoring activity of users, belonging to different organizations running software systems in which the transactions and the configuration elements are identifiable and can be connected via code elements; generating, based on the activity data, a first set of links between the transactions and code elements associated with the transactions; receiving the configuration elements; receiving code of a software system which includes at least one of the following: procedure invocations, user interface statements, and database access statements; generating, based on static analysis of the code, a second set of links between the configuration elements and code elements influenced by the configuration elements; and identifying dependencies between the transactions and the configuration elements by utilizing the first set of links and the second set of links.
US09235411B2	Automated application generation A modification method and system. The method includes retrieving by a computer processor of a computing system a list of features and plug-ins associated with an application. The features include features version metadata and the plug-ins include plug-ins version metadata. The computer processor compares features source code associated with the features with previous versions of associated source code. The computer processor generates modified features version metadata associated with the features version metadata. The modified features version metadata includes updated version labels differing from previous version labels of the previous versions of associated source code. The features are assembled into an application.
US09235405B2	Apparatus, system and method for upgrading firmware of energy metering device An apparatus, system, and method for upgrading firmware of an energy metering device are provided. A method for upgrading firmware of an energy metering device which receives firmware from a server via a network and upgrade firmware includes: transmitting a size of a firmware segment to the server, initializing firmware upgrade, receiving a firmware segment from the server, and controlling the energy metering device to operate with received firmware in response to a request for activating firmware from the server. The server communicates with the energy metering device by using an object model obtained by object-modeling the size of a firmware segment, the firmware segment download, and the activation request.
US09235399B2	System and method for manufacturing and personalizing computing devices A system, method, and computer-readable medium are disclosed for separating the installation of an operating system from the fulfillment, installation, and entitlement of other digital assets. Information associated with the purchase of a system and digital assets to be processed by the system is received, including the system's unique system identifier. The unique system identifier is associated with the digital assets to generate digital assets entitlement data. A personalization agent installed on the system determines the system's unique system identifier and automatically downloads the purchased digital assets, which comprises an operating system (OS), and their associated digital assets entitlement data. Once downloaded, the personalization agent uses the digital assets entitlement data to first install the OS according to any restrictions imposed by the OS manufacturer, and then the remaining digital assets, on the system, which is then entitled to process the installed digital assets.
US09235395B2	Graphical development and deployment of parallel floating-point math functionality on a system with heterogeneous hardware components System and method for configuring a system of heterogeneous hardware components, including at least one: programmable hardware element (PHE), digital signal processor (DSP) core, and programmable communication element (PCE). A program, e.g., a graphical program (GP), which includes floating point math functionality and which is targeted for distributed deployment on the system is created. Respective portions of the program for deployment to respective ones of the hardware components are automatically determined. Program code implementing communication functionality between the at least one PHE and the at least one DSP core and targeted for deployment to the at least one PCE is automatically generated. At least one hardware configuration program (HCP) is generated from the program and the code, including compiling the respective portions of the program and the program code for deployment to respective hardware components. The HCP is deployable to the system for concurrent execution of the program.
US09235392B2	System, method, and computer program product for improved power efficiency during program code execution A system, method, and computer program product are provided for compiling a computer program comprising arithmetic operations having different requirements with respect to numeric dynamic range, numeric resolution, or any combination thereof. The method comprises generating a transformed graph representation of the computer program by applying propagation rules that provide for relaxed numeric requirements, where applicable, and generating output code based on the transformed graph representation. Relaxing numeric requirements, such as dynamic range and resolution requirements, may advantageously lower power consumption during execution of the computer program.
US09235391B2	Optimization of software symbol tables A method, apparatus, and computer program product for optimizing software are provided. The software includes a plurality of modules which include at least one controllable module, the method comprises: determining a shared symbol defined by the at least one controllable module, the shared symbol being a symbol used by two or more modules of the software; generating a symbol use file indicating the shared symbol defined by the at least one controllable module; and rebuilding the software based on the symbol use file, so that a symbol table in a controllable module of the rebuilt software only contains the shared symbol indicated in the symbol use file. A number of symbols in the symbol table can be reduced accurately and effectively, thereby time needed for loading the symbol table can be reduced and software execution efficiency can be improved.
US09235390B1	Application optimization for use based on feature popularity The popularity of various application features is tracked, and applications are compiled or otherwise configured for optimization based on the use of the more popular features. More specifically, application features are mapped to corresponding sections of underlying code, and compiler directives are generated to direct a compiler to optimize the application for the performance of specific, application features, based on their popularity. This way, the application is compiled for use at an application feature level, rather than for size or speed generally. In another embodiment, the optimization is performed after compile time, by rearranging object code pages of an executable image, based on corresponding application feature popularity.
US09235385B1	Dynamic software assembly An improved system and method for providing software is described. The system, upon receiving a software request from a user device, obtains metadata about the user device. Based on the metadata and the software requested, a template of the software is obtained. The template specifies a list of categories, where each category is associated with component(s) in a component database. Based on the metadata and eligibility attributes of the respective components, one component from each category is selected for inclusion in the software. From the selected components and the template, the requested software is constructed and sent to the user device. In some embodiments, for popular user devices, a previously stored selection of components can be accessed. In some embodiments, an updated version of the software is provided if the metadata of the user device changes or if there is a change in the available components or software templates.
US09235384B2	Language notification generator Computer-implemented methods relating to interactive graphical designs are provided. One method includes adding a widget to a graphical instantiation of a web page design that is being displayed in a graphical design environment. The method also includes generating an encoded instantiation of the web page design using a compiler and the graphical instantiation. The method also includes rendering the encoded instantiation in a player. A portion of the encoded instantiation is used by the player for an aspect of an interaction between a viewer of the web page design and the widget. The method also includes generating a notification to describe that aspect of the interaction. The notification is a more cogent description of that aspect of the interaction than the portion of the encoded instantiation.
US09235382B2	Input filters and filter-driven input processing Input filters correlate to target components. For a given target component, the input filter defines input validation information. The input filter might also define conversions or transformations to be applied to valid input prior to being provided to the target component. At build time, code is accessed that contains the input validation, conversion and transformation and that identifies the associated target component. The information is then used to construct an input filter. At run time, when an input processing component receives an input, the input processing component identifies the target component, accesses the associated input filter, and uses the information contained in the input filter to determine whether the input is valid, and whether and how to convert and transform the value.
US09235377B2	Multiple, per sensor configurable FIFOs in a single static random access memory (SRAM) structure A device includes one or more sensors, one or more processors, one or more sensors, and a memory. The memory has a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion. The first portion is allocated to storing instructions for execution by the one or more processors. The second portion is allocated to storing data generated by the one or more processor, and the third portion is allocated to storing data from the one or more sensors. The third portion being a first-in-first-out (FIFO) having one or more FIFO portions, The device further includes a control logic operable to allocate the first, second and third portions of the memory, wherein each of one or more FIFO portions is allocated to each of the one or more sensors. The size each of the FIFO portions depends on the bandwidth of the sensors and the number of sensors.
US09235375B2	Retail digital signage In one embodiment, a plurality of digital displays is connected to a control computer having a processor and a memory. The memory is configured to communicate with the processor and has instructions that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to prepare graphics information containing an identification of a retail product and a price for the retail product. The graphics information is sent to the plurality of digital displays and the digital displays display a product description and a product price based on the graphics information.
US09235371B2	Processing print requests A request to print a file at a printer is received at a first computer system over a public network. Responsive to receiving the request, an indication of the request is exposed to the printer to enable fulfillment, by the printer, of the request to print the file.
US09235368B2	Information processing device, information processing method, and computer-readable medium bearing program for controlling information processing device An information processing device includes a communication unit, a memory and a controller. The controller is configured to store information in a first region of the memory as a first default device corresponding to a first job mode and to store information in a second region of the memory as a second default device corresponding to a second job mode. The controller is configured to read out the first default device from the first region of the memory when receiving a first job mode processing, and transmit command data to the read out first default device. The controller is further configured to read out the second default device from the second region of the memory when receiving a second job mode processing, and transmit command data to the read out second default device.
US09235361B2	Printer including display for displaying paper registration screen A printer includes a printing unit, a paper feeding unit, a display unit and a control unit. The printing unit is configured and arranged to execute printing. The paper feeding unit is configured and arranged to hold paper. The display unit is configured and arranged to display a paper registration screen for registering or confirming attributes of the paper according to an operation on the paper feeding unit. The control unit is configured not to display the paper registration screen when non-display conditions have been satisfied even when the operation is performed.
US09235357B2	Information processing apparatus, control method thereof, and computer-readable medium An information processing apparatus which transfers a print job to a lower apparatus that is included in a print system and located at a lower level in print processing, comprises: a determination unit configured to determine whether to cancel the print job; and a cancel command issuing unit configured, when the determination unit determines to cancel processing for the print job, to issue, to the lower apparatus for the print job, a cancel command to which information about a cancel reason is added.
US09235354B2	Storage network system and its control method A storage network system that prevents waste of a core's resources and is thereby operated efficiently, and a method for controlling such a storage network system are provided.Policy differences between a core and a plurality of edges are buffered by enabling hierarchical control of data storage on the side of the plurality of edges in cooperation with hierarchical control of data storage on the core side, and the buffered policy is applied to the hierarchical control of the data storage on the core side.
US09235352B2	Datastore for non-overwriting storage devices The invention pertains to a method and information handling system (IHS) for writing data to non-overwriting storage devices. A set of bands are determined per non-overwriting storage device. Then multiple pools of storage space, to which data can be written, commensurate with the determined bands are provided. A file system configured to manage the determined multiple pools of storage space and be non-WIP is provided, where the provided file system writes data to the multiple pools of storage space. The IHS includes: a non-overwriting storage device, a module for determining a set of bands per non-overwriting storage device, multiple pools of storage space commensurate with the determined set of bands and a file system configured to be non-WIP and configured to manage the multiple pools of storage space. The file system writes data to the multiple pools of storage space.
US09235349B2	Data duplication system, data duplication method, and program thereof To directly and smoothly execute data update on a duplication volume while suppressing a load on a master volume, when performing backup by employing the snapshot system. The duplication system includes: duplication volumes for a master volume; a shared volume for storing duplication data of the duplication volumes; and a main control unit which manages data accesses made from a host computer to the duplication volumes and manages data storing places. The main control unit includes a data duplication control module having a function which duplicates data of the master volume to the duplication volumes when updating the master volume, and directly performs data update to each of the duplication volumes when updating the duplication volumes.
US09235343B2	State change in systems having devices coupled in a chained configuration The present disclosure includes methods, devices, and systems for state change in systems having devices coupled in a chained configuration. A number of embodiments include a host and a number of devices coupled to the host in a chained configuration. The chained configuration includes at least one device that is not directly coupled to the host. The at least one device that is not directly coupled to the host is configured to change from a first communication state to a second communication state responsive to receipt of a command from the host.
US09235342B2	Selective sharing of displayed content in a view presented on a touchscreen of a processing system Arrangements described herein relate to sharing a view presented on a touchscreen of a processing system. Whether a show gesture state is enabled on the processing system and whether a gesture event gate is open on the processing system are determined. The show gesture state determines whether a gesture detected by the touchscreen is depicted onto a version of the view shared with another processing system. The gesture event gate determines whether a corresponding gesture event is passed to an application that is active in the view.
US09235341B2	User input Apparatus, a method and a computer program are provided. The apparatus includes: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing computer program instructions, the at least one processor being configured to execute the computer program instructions to cause the apparatus at least to perform: controlling a touch sensitive display to display a first graphical item at a first position and a second graphical item at a second position, the second graphical item being separated from the first graphical item by a first distance; detecting a first user digit at the first position and a second user digit at the second position; reducing the first distance by moving at least one of the first and second graphical items across the touch sensitive display, in response to detecting movement, across the touch sensitive display, of at least one of the first and second user digits; and controlling the touch sensitive display to display a third graphical item, after determining the first distance has been reduced such that the first graphical item is proximate the second graphical item.
US09235337B2	System, GUI and method for editing step and repeat operation instructions in a machine vision inspection system A system, a GUI and a method are provided that allow intuitive, flexible and robust editing of individually editable instructions generated by conversion operations applied to a defined step-and-repeat programming element in a machine vision inspection system. The method includes: a) Converting a defined step-and-repeat programming element to generate N independently-editable code blocks including an independently-editable substantial replication of a repeated operation block of the step-and-repeat element, each of code blocks executed at a respective location corresponding to a step and repeat location; b) Representing the code blocks in an editing GUI; and c) Eliminating the defined step-and-repeat programming element as an editable element. The defined step-and-repeat programming element may be represented in the editing GUI. The conversion operations may be initiated by a user activating a step and repeat conversion command directed to the defined step-and-repeat programming element.
US09235335B2	Touch interactions with a drawing application Concepts and technologies are described herein for touch interactions with a drawing application. In accordance with the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, user devices can obtain drawing data generated by a web-based drawing application and can display a drawing by rendering the data in one or more UIs. The user device can interpret touch gestures at a touch sensitive display used to present the UIs and can interpret the touch gestures as corresponding to one or more commands for modifying the UIs. According to various embodiments, the user device can interpret the touch gestures by determining if the touch gestures intersect an object in the drawing and other behavior associated with the touch gesture such as movement, subsequent touches, and whether or not an object intersected was selected when the touch gesture was commenced.
US09235332B2	Interfaces for predictive models User interfaces for tools for estimating a probability that a future event will occur based on user input are described. One set of interfaces include rating, trend, cohort record and source controls each of which when selected provide corresponding data from one predictive model that produces predictions of the likelihood of an event occurring in the future based on analysis of data in a database. The system further displays a process of content produced by a model builder that populates the interfaces, and outputs thereof.
US09235328B1	Big data selector system and method A graphical user interface (GUI) is disclosed that allows user to quickly find and select (assign) specific items from a large data source that is housed in the cloud. The GUI includes a first and second grid that display unassigned and assigned items, respectively. Each of the first and second grids allows the user to filter each grid by typing in the search criteria and forwarding the criteria to the server. Items in each of the first and second grids may be moved between the two grids to quickly change the assigned state of moved items.
US09235326B2	Manipulation of user interface controls A computer program product is described. The computer program product includes a computer useable storage medium including a computer readable program. The computer readable program includes instructions that, when executed by a processing device within a computer, cause the computer to perform operations. The operations include displaying an attraction icon on a display device, moving the attraction icon relative to a user interface control on the display device. The operations further include moving the user interface control from a first position on the display device to a second position to facilitate manipulation of the user interface control by a user, and restoring the user interface control to the first position in response to completion of the manipulation of the user interface control by the user.
US09235322B1	Systems, methods and computer program products for a cloud application editor A graphic visualization layer in an interactive development environment is displayed and used to create an application on a node of a computer network. The graphic visualization layer includes graphical shapes manipulated by a user to generate program language code for lifecycle stages of the application. The graphical shapes include an application graphical shape representing the application, a resource graphical shape representing a resource for the application, an action graphical shape representing an action for the application and a task graphical shape representing a task of the action. A selection of the application graphical shape is received. An application value for the application is received in an entry field of the application graphical shape. Program language code is generated based on the selection of the application graphical shape and the application value. The program language code is executable to install the application on a node of the computer network.
US09235319B2	Geometric and texture modifications of objects in a virtual universe based on real world user characteristics A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program product modify objects in a virtual universe. The virtual universe includes a viewable field, a detection area that is adjacent to the viewable field, and an outside area that is outside the viewable field and the detection area. Each avatar in a set of avatars is incapable of viewing the objects while the avatar is within either the detection area or the outside area. In response to an entrance of a first particular avatar of the set of avatars into the detection area, one of the objects is prepared for display to the first particular avatar of the set of avatars, without displaying, by buffering content associated with the one of the objects. If a particular one of the objects is determined to be adjacent to an obstructing one of the objects, a focal point of the viewable field is set at a location that is a different location than a location of the particular one of the objects.
US09235318B2	Transitions among hierarchical user-interface layers In one embodiment, one or more components of a user interface are arranged in a hierarchy of layers and displayed to a user. The user interface is presented according to the structure of the hierarchy. In response to a first user interaction with a component that has a parent, the display transitions from a first layer at which the component is presented to a second layer at which the parent of the component is presented, with the second layer being beneath the first layer. In response to a second user interaction with a component that has a child, the display transitions from the first layer at which the component is presented to a third layer at which the child of the component is presented, with the third layer being above the first layer.
US09235317B2	Summary and navigation of hierarchical levels In one embodiment, one or more components of a user interface are arranged in a hierarchy of layers. The user interface is presented according to the structure of the hierarchy, with a first component of the user interface presented at a first layer. One or more second component are presented at a second layer, the second components being one or more children of the first component and the second layer being one layer above the first layer.
US09235316B2	Analytic process design Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method and system for developing an analytic process. The method includes displaying, within an electronic system, a plurality of components operable to be used for designing a data analysis process. A user makes a selection of a data access component from the plurality of components. The data access component is operable for configuring access to a data source. The method further includes the user making a selection of a data selection component from the plurality of components and a data display component. The data selection component is operable for selecting data accessed via the data access component. The data display component is operable for configuring display of data based on the data selection component. Configuration data corresponding to the data access component, the data selection component, and the data display component can then be stored.
US09235315B2	Method and system to display a pop-up window when a user leaves a website A method and system to display a pop-up window when a user leaves a website are disclosed. A user accesses a website with a web browser. When a web page from the website is loaded into the user's browser, a client-side variable is set to a particular value, such as the current time. When the web page from the website is unloaded from the browser, a hidden pop-up window is loaded. The hidden pop-up window is programmed to sleep and then check the value of the client-side variable. A change in the value of the client-side variable indicates a new web page from the same web server has been loaded into the web browser and the user has not left the website. However, if a web page from a different web server is loaded into the browser, then the value of the client-side variable remains unchanged. Consequently, when the hidden pop-up window awakes and checks the value of the client-side variable, the pop-up window can determine whether the user has left the original website. If the user has left the original website, the pop-up window is displayed. If not, the pop-up window is unloaded before ever being displayed to the user.
US09235312B2	Synchronized panel technology Synchronized panel technology is provided. A method illustratively includes receiving indications of a first form factor and a second form factor. Content that is to be shared is identified. A first user interface is generated that includes the content and that is configured to be displayed on a computing device screen having the first form factor. A second user interface is generated that includes the content and that is configured to be displayed on a computing device screen having the second form factor. Indications of a first and second resolution are optionally received and utilized in generating the first and second user interfaces.
US09235311B2	Method of initializing touchscreen panel A method of initializing a touchscreen panel including a first resistive film having a first electrode and a second electrode provided at corresponding ends thereof in a first direction, a second resistive film having a third electrode and a fourth electrode provided at corresponding ends thereof in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, a first resistor having a first end connected to the first electrode, and a second resistor having a first end connected to the third electrode, includes (a) measuring a potential with the touchscreen panel being contacted at two points with a predetermined potential being applied to the touchscreen panel; and (b) calculating a relational expression between the potential and a distance between the two points based on the measured potential.
US09235308B2	Embedded touch control display device configured to minimize parasitic capacitance An embedded touch control display device is disclosed. The embedded touch control display device includes a first substrate and a second substrate which are set oppositely; an in-plane switching (IPS) or fringe field switching (FFS) display mode display structure and a capacitance touch structure which are set between the first substrate and the second substrate, and the IPS or FFS display mode display structure is located on the first substrate and comprises a pixel electrode layer, a first medium layer, a public electrode layer and a crystal layer, and the capacitance touch structure is located on the second substrate and comprises touch electrode and a second medium layer; an planarization layer which is located between the second medium layer and the crystal layer; the distance between the touch electrode and the crystal layer is 4 micrometers to 7 micrometers.
US09235307B2	Fast multi-touch stylus and sensor A stylus and touch sensitive device are disclosed. The stylus includes a stylus transmitter for transmitting a stylus signal. The touch sensitive device includes row conductors, each of which is associated with a row transmitter and a row receiver. The row transmitter is adapted to simultaneously transmit row signals, each on its associated row conductor, each of the row signals being orthogonal to each other of the plurality of row signals transmitted on each other of the row conductors. The row receiver is adapted to detect the stylus signal. Column conductors are provided, each associated with a column receiver that is adapted to detect the presence of each of the row signals transmitted by the row transmitter and the stylus signal.
US09235304B2	Display device for improving detection resolution Disclosed is a touch panel-equipped display device capable of suppressing an increase in the number of wires and improving detection resolution. A touch panel-equipped display device includes scanning lines and detection lines. The detection lines include first main detection lines, second main detection lines, first one-side sub-detection lines, and first other-side sub-detection lines. Each of the second main detection lines is arranged between adjacent first main detection lines. The first one-side sub-detection lines are connected together, and each first one-side sub-detection lines is arranged between the corresponding first main detection line and the second main detection line adjacent to one side of the corresponding first main detection line. The first other-side sub-detection lines are connected together, and each first other-side sub-detection lines is arranged between the corresponding first main detection lines and the second main detection line adjacent to the other side of the corresponding first main detection line.
US09235303B2	Micro deflectors on touch sensor In various embodiments, a touch surface may comprise multiple individual sensors, each of which is capable of mechanical deflection in a direction parallel to the surface, with the device using the touch surface being able to detect such deflection in each sensor. With this capability, the device may be able to detect intended movement of a touch over the touch surface even if no additional sensors are activated by that movement. Such sensors may be useful for detecting very small motions, and may be especially useful for motions in which the shape of the user's thumb results in the same touch area being in contact with the thumb even though the thumb is executing an extension or retraction movement.
US09235300B2	Analog accumulator Accumulators that operate to fully or partially remove noise from a signal, including removing noise inserted into the signal by the accumulator itself. In some embodiments, an accumulator may be operated in a sampling phase and a transfer phase each time the accumulator samples an input signal. In some such embodiments, an op-amp of an accumulation circuit of the accumulator may be auto-zeroed during some or all of the sampling phases of an accumulation period. In some embodiments in which the op-amp is auto-zeroed during some or all of the sampling phases, the accumulation circuit may include a holding capacitor that, during an auto-zeroing process, holds a value output by the op-amp during a prior transfer phase. Including such a holding capacitor in an accumulator may reduce a voltage that the op-amp output rises following the auto-zero process, which may reduce a bandwidth and noise of the accumulation circuit.
US09235299B2	Touch sensitive surface for an electronic device with false touch protection A touch sensitive surface (401) for an electronic device (200) includes a capacitive touchpad (409). A grille (413) of non-conductive material (515) is disposed along at least a portion of the touch sensitive surface. A predefined threshold of a normal force component (804) applied by a user's finger or other conductive object overcomes the grille (413) to allow the finger or other conductive object to interact with the capacitive touchpad. The touch sensitive surface reduces false touch activation occurrences and can simulate the tactility of a mechanical switch.
US09235290B2	Method and apparatus for controlling imaging area of flexible display device Provided are a method and apparatus for controlling an imaging area of a flexible display device. A method of controlling an imaging area in a display area of a flexible display device including a display unit for receiving a touch, and a display area overlapping the display unit and for displaying an image includes obtaining at least two input signals input to the display unit in response to a continuous touch in the form of a closed loop, setting an internal area of the closed loop as an imaging area based on the obtained at least two input signals, and controlling the image displayed on the display area to be moved and displayed onto the set imaging area. An area for displaying an image may be controlled appropriately for the shape of a flexible display device by using an input signal generated by a user's touch.
US09235289B2	Touch motion detection method, circuit, and system A touch controller includes a touch frame processing (TFP) component that receives sensor signals containing information about a touch point on a touch screen. The TFP component processes the sensor signals to generate touch information associated with each touch point. The touch information includes a location and the association of one of a touch-in, touch-out, and touch-motion event. A touch coordinate processing (TCP) component receives touch information from the TFP component and determines whether to report the touch information associated with a current touch point. The TCP component determines a difference between the location of the current touch point and a previously detected touch point and assigns a motion status to each touch event and reports the touch information when the difference is greater than a motion tolerance and when less than the motion tolerance selectively blocks or reports the touch information as a function of the corresponding motion status.
US09235288B2	Pointer detection apparatus and pointer detection method A pointer detection apparatus includes a conductor pattern formed of intersecting first and second conductors. A signal supplying circuit generates transmission signals each comprised of a first code and a second code having an equal code length and having a predetermined relationship to each other, and supplies the generated transmission signals to the first conductors. A signal detection circuit is connected to the second conductors and detects reception signals, at least one of which corresponds to a variation of capacitance between the conductor pattern and a pointer. A correlation arithmetic operation circuit calculates, for each of the reception signals, first and second correlation values between the reception signal and first and second correlation value arithmetic operation signals corresponding to the first and second codes, respectively. A synthesis circuit calculates, for each pair of the first and second correlation values, a synthesis correlation value, based on which the pointer is detected.
US09235286B2	Touch sensor built-in display device and terminal connection structure A terminal connection structure includes plural first connection terminals which are arranged side by side in one direction on a first circuit substrate, and plural second connection terminals which are arranged side by side in the one direction on a second resin circuit substrate overlappingly connected to the first circuit substrate and are respectively connected to the plural first connection terminals. Each of the plural second connection terminals includes plural first wirings extending in a direction crossing the one direction, and a second wiring connected to the plural first wirings and extending in the one direction. The second wiring is provided in a region where the second circuit substrate is overlapped and connected to the first circuit substrate.
US09235283B2	Electronic device including blurred finger image deblurring circuitry and related methods An electronic device may include a finger biometric sensor that may include an array of electric field sensing pixels and image data output circuitry coupled thereto. The electronic device may also include a dielectric layer over the array of electric field sensing pixels and causing electric field diffusion so that the image data output circuitry generates image data corresponding to a blurred finger image. The electronic device may also include deblurring circuitry coupled to the image data output circuitry and capable of processing the image data to produce processed image data representative of a deblurred finger image.
US09235282B2	Proximity detection device, method of detecting proximity and electronic apparatus A proximity detection device includes a display unit which has a display image surface in which a plurality of pixel electrodes are arranged in a matrix shape and a proximity operation detecting unit in which a transparent electrode for proximity operation detection is arranged to form an operation surface at a position superposed on the display image surface and a conductive film pattern forming the transparent electrode has a pitch of a linear pattern which is equal to or smaller than an arrangement pitch in one direction of the pixel electrodes.
US09235278B1	Machine-learning based tap detection An electronic device can be configured to enable a user to provide input via a tap of the device without the use of touch sensors (e.g., resistive, capacitive, ultrasonic or other acoustic, infrared or other optical, or piezoelectric touch technologies) and/or mechanical switches. Such a device can include other sensors, including inertial sensors (e.g., accelerometers, gyroscopes, or a combination thereof), microphones, proximity sensors, ambient light sensors, and/or cameras, among others, that can be used to capture respective sensor data. Feature values with respect to the respective sensor data can be extracted, and the feature values can be analyzed using machine learning to determine when the user has tapped on the electronic device. Detection of a single tap or multiple taps performed on the electronic device can be utilized to control the device.
US09235276B1	Transaction automation and archival system using electronic contract disclosure units A transaction automation and archival system is provided for controlling, real-time logging, and archiving complex commercial transactions such as the purchase and financing of an automobile. An electronic contract disclosure unit or ECDU includes a digitizing video display for imaging the various documents involved in the transaction and a digitizer for allowing participants to sign, indicate choices, and otherwise interact directly on documents and images presented on the display. A computer controls the progress of the transaction, controlling, for example, the order of presentation of documents to a vehicle purchaser, receiving signatures on the displayed documents, offering choices of various packages to the purchaser, and insuring that the transaction is carried out properly. The transaction is logged for future review which may include a video record. One or more fingerprint readers allow participants to select between options while simultaneously verifying the identity of the individual making the selection.
US09235273B2	User interface device and method A user interface device including a non-flexible part; at least one flexible part coupled to the non-flexible part; and at least one sensor, for detecting bending of a respective flexible part with respect to the non-flexible part, and for producing a command in response to sensing bending of the respective flexible part.
US09235271B2	Keyboard arrangement in four groups An input device includes a small footprint keyboard with touch pad functionality. By disposing the touchpad and the mouse keys in the lower part and surrounded by the first and the second groups, one achieves a substantial ergonomic advantage in that the frequently used QWERTY keys are accessible, while at the same time the touch pad is within reach of any finger.
US09235266B2	Electronic apparatus including vibrating section which vibrates depending on reproduction position An electronic device includes: a reproduction section for reproducing a content item; a touch panel for detecting a user operation for changing a reproduction position of the content item; and a vibrating section for vibrating the touch panel. The vibrating section varies the vibration of the touch panel depending on whether or not the reproduction position which has been changed through the user operation detected by the touch panel is a specified reproduction position.
US09235265B2	Touch-screen device including tactile feedback actuator A tactile feedback actuator includes a first electrode and a second electrode separated by a gap, and a surface layer above the first and second electrodes. The first electrode receives a first stimulus voltage at a first frequency and the second electrode receives a second stimulus voltage at a second frequency, and the first and second electrodes superimpose the first and second stimulus voltages to generate a total voltage that has a beat frequency less than a perception threshold frequency. An object in contact with a portion of the surface layer is caused to vibrate at the beat frequency. The first electrode and the second electrode may constitute an electrode array including a plurality of column electrode segments, and a plurality of row electrode segments. An object in contact with a portion of the surface layer above one or more electrode segments is caused to vibrate at the beat frequency.
US09235263B2	Information processing device, determination method, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium An information processing device includes a collecting unit that collects biological information of a first user and a second user. The information processing device includes a specifying unit that specifies an emotion of the first user toward the second user and an emotion of the second user toward the first user using the biological information acquired by the collecting unit. The information processing device includes a determining unit that determines whether or not to provide information on the second user to the first user based on respective emotions specified by the specifying unit.
US09235260B2	Camera command set host command translation The present disclosure provides techniques for translating input camera commands to device-specific commands. Camera commands may be translated by a translation engine located separately from the camera and then transferred to the camera. The translated commands may be less complex than input commands. By translating the commands, older cameras may be capable of supporting newer commands which are not natively supported.
US09235258B2	Method and apparatus for a zero voltage processor Embodiments of the invention relate to a method and apparatus for a zero voltage processor sleep state. A processor may include a dedicated cache memory. A voltage regulator may be coupled to the processor to provide an operating voltage to the processor. During a transition to a zero voltage power management state for the processor, the operational voltage applied to the processor by the voltage regulator may be reduced to approximately zero and the state variables associated with the processor may be saved to the dedicated cache memory.
US09235255B2	Semiconductor integrated circuit and information processing apparatus In a semiconductor integrated circuit having a power domain and a mechanism for a power supply shutoff, when a power supply to the power domain is started, if a clock for an initialization operation is supplied in a state where a voltage to the power domain is unstable, power consumption during the initialization operation increases. Thus, the clock for the initialization operation of the power domain is supplied after detecting that the voltage supplied to the power domain is stabilized.
US09235254B2	Controlling temperature of multiple domains of a multi-domain processor using a cross-domain margin In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for determining, in a controller of a multi-domain processor, whether a temperature of a second domain of the multi-domain processor is greater than a sum of a throttle threshold and a cross-domain margin, and if so, reducing a frequency of a first domain of the multi-domain processor by a selected amount. In this way, a temperature of the second domain can be allowed to reduce, given a thermal coupling of the domains. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09235252B2	Dynamic balancing of power across a plurality of processor domains according to power policy control bias In an embodiment, a processor includes multiple domains including a core domain having at least one core to execute instructions and a graphics domain including at least one graphics engine to perform graphics operations and a power controller to control power consumption of the processor. The power controller may include a logic to receive an indication of a priority domain of the domains and to dynamically allocate power to the domains based on a power limit, one or more maximum domain frequency requests, and the priority domain indication. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09235249B2	Power control for serial bus peripheral device There is disclosed a method and a device connected to a serial bus, said method comprising transmitting a message that indicates a power requirement for a suspended mode of said serial bus; in response to a received authorization message, setting a first or a second operating state; entering said suspended mode; drawing a current in accordance with said indicated power requirement that may exceed a predetermined current limit if said operating state is said first state, and drawing a current at or below said predetermined current limit if said operating state is said second state.
US09235245B2	Startup performance and power isolation The various implementations described herein include systems, methods and/or devices used to protect data in a storage device. In one aspect, a method includes (1) powering a power control processor (PCP) (also sometimes called a storage-level microcontroller) using a first input voltage, (2) while the PCP is powered using the first input voltage: (a) operating the PCP in a first mode, and (b) enabling charging of an energy storage device, (3) after achieving a predefined internal state, which includes the energy storage device charged to a predefined level, powering the PCP using a power supply voltage distinct from the first input voltage, and (4) while the PCP is powered using the power supply voltage, operating the PCP in a second mode, where the PCP operates at a higher performance level in the second mode than in the first mode.
US09235242B2	Heat dissipating module having enhanced heat dissipating efficiency A heat dissipating module having enhanced heat dissipating efficiency is disclosed. The heat dissipating module includes a heat dissipating member, a base and an air guiding member. The heat dissipating member is installed on a first electronic component for dissipating heat generated by the first electronic component. The base is installed on a side of the heat dissipating member, and the air guiding member is connected to the base. The air guiding member and the base cooperatively guide an air flow passing through the heat dissipating member to a second electronic component located on a side of the first electronic component.
US09235241B2	Anatomical gestures detection system using radio signals A system for detecting anatomical gestures based on the interpretation of radio signal transmissions. A user may place wireless devices on his/her head and wrist(s) that communicate through short-range radio signals. The wireless devices may collect information regarding signal exchanges which may be analyzed by a computing device to determine positional information about the user's hands. The computing device may compile the positional information into sequences and evaluate the sequences against predefined patterns of movement data. The computing device may interpret recognized movements as computer input commands. In an embodiment, multiple wireless devices may be placed on the user's wrists to enable multi-touch input commands. In an embodiment, data from motion sensors, such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, may be combined with movement data based on radio signal information.
US09235238B2	Mobile electronic device with dual touch displays and multitasking function, control method, and storage medium storing control program According to an aspect, a mobile electronic device includes a first and a second display unit, a first and a second operation detection unit, and a control unit. The first and the second display unit display a first and second operation screen respectively. The first and the second operation detection unit detect an operation for the first and second display unit respectively. The control unit performs a switching control to switch between a first state and a second state. In the first state, a display of the second display unit is deactivated and an operation detected by the second operation detection unit is processed as an operation for the first operation screen. In the second state in, a display of the first display unit is deactivated and an operation detected by the first operation detection unit is processed as an operation for the second operation screen.
US09235236B2	Cover for portable terminal A cover for a portable terminal having a fixing part for fixing the portable terminal and a folder rotating at the fixing part to open and close the portable terminal. The cover includes an input unit and/or a display unit, and a charging unit. The input unit inputs data to the portable terminal. The display unit displays data from the portable terminal. The input unit and display unit are constructed in the folder. The charging unit is constructed in at least one of the fixing part and folder, and supplies power to the portable terminal generated using a solar cell.
US09235230B1	Magnetic stand, mount and cord wrap for mobile devices and accessories A mobile device accessory can function as a cord organizer, a case for accessories and a stand for the device. The accessory is sized to conform to the size and perimeter of the mobile device. The accessory has a case frame and a foldable flat panel that can form a triangular tube having a triangular profile. The panel includes outer layers of material and a central layer of panel members that is constructed with magnets along the perimeter. The outer material is a natural, synthetic or composite elastomeric polymer and can be provided with a textured finish. In other embodiments, the tube describes a square or other polygonal shape in profile. The triangular tube can be used to store and/or organize mobile device cords. The triangular tube can become a support prop to hold the mobile device upright.
US09235227B2	Apparatus and method for mitigating perturbations in a power converter A power converter includes a plurality of switches that interconnect first and second input terminals of the power converter with first and second output terminals of the power converter. The switches are switched to convert power from the input terminals to the output terminals. During the switching, voltage spikes are mitigated by a first RLC branch connected from the first input terminal to the first output terminal and by a second RLC branch connected from the second input terminal to the second output terminal.
US09235226B2	Method for determining a maximum power point of photovoltaic generators A method for determining a maximum power point (MPP) of a photovoltaic generator (PV) by variation of at least one parameter of search voltage and search current, within a maximally searchable search area on a power/voltage curve is disclosed. The method includes initializing by defining a start point with a start voltage and a start current, searching for the maximum power point (MPP) in at least one search direction by repeated variation of the search voltage or search current in the search area taking account of at least two limiting conditions for limiting the search area, wherein at least one of the limiting conditions for limiting the search area are is determined with evaluation of parameters provided in an operating state already attained during the search, and ending the search if one of the at least two limiting conditions for limiting the search area is met.
US09235225B2	Method and apparatus reduced switch-on rate low dropout regulator (LDO) bias and compensation A switchable bias current biases, in an operational state, a differential amplifier with a full-slew bias current. A system on/off signal transitions from an operational state to a power-down state. The transition disables the differential amplifier and switches the switchable bias current to a reduced slew bias current. The system on/off signal transitions from the power-down state to the operational state, the differential amplifier is enabled, and the switchable bias current is delayed, by a reduced slew duration, from switching to the full-slew bias current. The enabled differential amplifier slews toward a reference voltage at a reduced slew rate caused by the reduced slew bias current. The switchable bias current, after the reduced slew duration, switches to the full-slew bias current. Optionally, a regulated pass gate is disabled in response to the system on/off signal transitioning from the operational state to the power-down state.
US09235219B2	Microvalve with integrated flow sensing capability A system for controlling the flow of a fluid from a source to a load includes a source. An on/off type of control valve communicates with the source. A micro-electric mechanical system communicates with the on/off type of control valve. A consuming device communicates with the micro-electric mechanical system. An electronic controller that communicates with the consuming device and the source. The electronic controller measures a change in a parameter of the micro-electric mechanical system that results from the flow of fluid through the micro-electric mechanical system to sense a flow of fluid through a micro-electric mechanical system.
US09235217B2	Automatic dual rotor speed control for helicopters A flight control system for a helicopter having a main rotor and a tail rotor is provided. The flight control system includes an automatic rotor speed control being configured to transition the main rotor and the tail rotor between a high speed and a low speed based upon a plurality of received information without requiring any pilot action, the plurality of received information comprising height above ground level, knot indicated air speed, outside air temperature, barometric altitude, pressure altitude, density altitude, and an engine operational status.
US09235215B2	Feature set optimization in vision-based positioning In one embodiment, a method for optimizing a set of matched features is provided. The method includes matching features between an optical image and a geo-referenced orthoimage to produce an initial set of matched features. An initial position solution is then determined for the optical image using the initial set of N matched features. The initial set of N matched features are then optimized based on a set of N sub-solutions and the initial position solution, wherein each of the N sub-solutions is a position solution using a different set of (N−1) matched features. A refined position solution is then calculated for the optical image using the optimized set of matched features.
US09235213B2	Automated delivery vehicle, systems and methods for automated delivery Provided is a delivery vehicle and methods and systems for automated delivery using the delivery vehicle. The automated delivery method comprises receiving, by a processing device, an order from a buyer. The order specifies one or more products to be delivered to the buyer and itinerary information. The processing device transmits the order to a placer robot. The placer robot positions the one or more products to a delivery vehicle. Then, the delivery vehicle may transport the products to a delivery destination based on the order. The delivery vehicle may be driverless and lightweight and move automatically. The delivery vehicle may move on a flat track using itinerary information of the order. Additionally, the delivery vehicle may use a Global Positioning System to determine own location and compare it to the itinerary information.
US09235210B2	Remote-controlled mobile warning sign A remote-controlled mobile triangle sign includes a triangle sign having at least one surface with a reflective area; a remote controller configured to transmit control signals; and a remote-controlled car. The remote-controlled car includes a power supply module; a drive motor powered by the power supply module; and a remote control receiving and execution module for receiving the control signals. The triangle sign is mounted on top of the remote-controlled car, and the remote control receiving and execution module is electrically connected to the drive motor and provides output signals.
US09235206B2	Apparatus for finding a machine tool origin An apparatus for finding a machine tool origin includes a probe, a base, and a sensor positioned on a first side of the base. Probe engagement components are configured for movable engagement with a probe of the machine tool to produce electronic signals processed by electronic circuitry to provide a signal indicative of the machine tool origin. Mechanical positioning components are positioned on a second side of the base. The mechanical positioning components include a pedestal with a first tab (301) and a second tab (302) aligned to be operable as a mechanical stop with the first tab (301) corresponding to a position of a left-hand origin (107) for the machine tool and the first tab (301) and a third tab (303) aligned to be operable as a mechanical stop with the first tab (301) corresponding to a position of a right-hand origin (108) for the machine tool.
US09235205B2	Method for producing a measurement probe path on a numerically controlled machine tool A method for producing a measurement probe 30 inspection path on a machine tool is disclosed which includes the step of running a program e.g. a modified CAM editor program 44 which allows the selection of geometric features of a workpiece 34 to be inspected. Once selected the program will generate a measurement probe path which is included in software for loading into the numeric controller (NC) of the machine tool. The software can have cutting commands together with inspection path instructions either readable by the NC or written as unreadable instructions for use with a p.c. 20 connected to the NC controller and preferably operating at the same time as the NC.
US09235200B2	Imaging lens and imaging apparatus equipped with the imaging lens An imaging lens substantially includes six lenses, constituted by: a first lens having a negative refractive power, which is of a meniscus shape having a concave surface toward an image side; a second lens; a third lens; a fourth lens; a fifth lens having a positive refractive power; and a sixth lens having a negative refractive power, a concave surface toward the image side, and at least one inflection point in the surface toward the image side; provided in this order from an object side. The imaging lens satisfies a predetermined conditional formula.
US09235199B2	Warm-up control device for machine tool Prior to machining a workpiece, a warm-up control device for a machine tool is activated to perform a warm-up in which a main shaft rotary drive part and axes drive parts are driven. The amount of displacement of heat that is generated upon starting of the warm-up and changes with time is calculated every predetermined time period. Whether to end the warm-up is determined based on the thermal displacement amount. Whether to restart the warm-up after the end of the warm-up is determined based on the thermal displacement amount. When it is determined to restart the warm-up, the warm-up is restarted.
US09235196B2	Constant voltage circuit and analog electronic clock There are provided a constant voltage circuit that features low current consumption and stable operation, and an analog electronic clock provided with the constant voltage circuit. The constant voltage circuit includes a differential amplifier circuit which is turned on/off by a predetermined signal and which controls the voltage of a gate of an output transistor on the basis of a reference voltage and a feedback voltage that are received, a switch circuit which is connected to an output terminal of the differential amplifier circuit and which is turned on/off by a predetermined signal, and a voltage holding circuit which is connected between the gate of the output transistor and a power supply terminal and which has a resistor and a capacitor connected in series. An analog electronic clock provided with the foregoing constant voltage circuit that supplies a voltage to at least an oscillation circuit and a frequency division circuit.
US09235195B2	Watch display using light sources with a translucent cover A display assembly includes a display selectively displaying human-readable indicia on a face thereof and a cover disposed over the display. The cover has a homogeneous surface over the entire face of the display. The display assembly is controllable between an inactive state and an active state. In the inactive state, the face of the display is not viewable through the cover, and in the active state, the indicia are viewable through the cover.
US09235192B2	Method of adjusting the oscillation frequency of a timepiece sub-assembly A method of adjusting oscillation frequency of a timepiece regulating assembly with no index assembly, to a predetermined oscillation frequency, including: randomly taking a particular balance spring assembly from a production of toleranced products; measuring return torque of the balance spring assembly; randomly taking a balance from a production of toleranced products; calculating theoretical inertia of the particular balance required to achieve the predetermined oscillation frequency, according to the measured return torque of the balance spring; measuring real inertia of the particular balance; and by direct action on the particular balance, correcting the inertia of the particular balance to the calculated theoretical inertia value to obtain the predetermined oscillation frequency for the regulating assembly formed by the particular balance, and by the particular balance spring assembly.
US09235189B2	Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus, including an image forming unit, a body accommodating the image forming unit, and a cover configured to form a part of an exterior covering of the body, is provided. The cover includes a first rib formed to protrude from an inner surface of the cover and extend longitudinally along the inner surface of the cover. The first rib extends to incline with respect to a horizontal plane to be higher at one end on a first side of the image forming apparatus and lower at the other end on a second side of the image forming apparatus. An upper surface of the first rib extends continuously from the one end to the other end and is discontinued at the other end, the other end of the upper surface of the first rib being separated from the exterior covering.
US09235188B2	Cartridge and electrophotographic image forming apparatus using the same A cartridge is attached to or detached from a main body of an image forming apparatus that has an opening portion and a door that opens or closes the opening portion. The cartridge includes: a memory unit with a contact portion via which the cartridge is connected to the main body to transmit information of the cartridge to the main body; and a moving member on which the contact portion is mounted, wherein the moving member is moved to a first position where the contact portion is hidden inside the cartridge and a second position where the contact portion protrudes out of the cartridge to be connected to a connection portion provided in the main body, the moving member being moved to the second position in connection with closing of the door.
US09235186B2	Electrophotographic image forming apparatus An electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes: a rotatable member; a web; a mechanism; a contact portion; a plurality of displacing portions; a detecting portion; a notifying portion; a first counting portion; a prohibiting portion; and a second counting portion. The prohibiting portion prohibits an image forming process when the detecting portion detects displacement of the contact portion when the number of times of the image forming process counted by the second counting portion is less than a predetermined number. The notifying portion prompts an exchange of the web when the detecting portion detects the displacement of the contact portion when the number of times is not less than the predetermined number.
US09235185B2	Image forming apparatus including a shield case in which a circuit board mounted with an electric circuit is contained An image forming apparatus includes a shield case in which a circuit board mounted with an electric circuit is contained. The shield case has an electrical conductive case main body and an electrical conductive lid member. The case main body has an aperture formed in a part of one face. The lid member has one end turnably supported by the case main body and the other end fastened to the case main body by a screw when the aperture is closed. The case main body and lid member have an engaged part and an engaging part engaged with each other when the aperture is closed. The engaging part is formed so as to clamp the engaged part. The shield case is configured so that contact force between the engaging part and engaged part is increased, if the screw is rotated in a fastening direction when the aperture is closed.
US09235182B2	Fixing device capable of detecting wrap jam of recording sheet and image forming apparatus A fixing device capable of easily detecting a wrap jam of a recording sheet without increasing costs. A fixing roller fixes a toner image on a recording medium under heating control. A central thermistor and an end thermistor detect first and second temperatures of the fixing roller in respective sheet-passing and non-sheet-passing areas. A first temperature difference-detecting circuit compares a temperature difference between the first and second detected temperatures and a first threshold and outputs a first comparison result. A second temperature difference-detecting circuit compares the temperature difference and a second threshold larger than the first threshold and outputs a second comparison result. A switching circuit selects one of the first or second comparison results according to a switching signal from a CPU, and the CPU controls heating of the fixing roller based on the selected comparison result.
US09235180B2	Image forming apparatus A fixing device thermally fixes an unfixed toner image onto a recording sheet and includes: a rotatable heating element that is endless and includes a resistive heating layer that generates heat upon application of voltage; a power source for placing voltage across the resistive heating layer; an ammeter for measuring the electric current flowing through the resistive heating layer, and a controller for determining whether the resistive heating layer has a scratch by monitoring an amount of change between a value of electric current that flows through the resistive heating in absence of a scratch and a value of electric current actually measured by the ammeter. The resistive heating layer exhibits resistivity anisotropy satisfying R1
US09235179B2	Image forming apparatus for forming, detecting, and correcting sandwiched toner pattern In an image forming apparatus, a control unit causes an image forming unit to form a positional deviation correction pattern, to sandwich a black developer image between two color developer images of a same color, and to superpose the black developer image on one of the two color developer images of the same color in a state where color deviation occurs between developer images of a plurality of different colors.
US09235172B2	Image fixing apparatus A fixing device for fixing a toner image formed on a sheet includes a cylindrical film; a heater having a first surface contacting an inner surface of the film; an opposed member forming a press-contact portion with the film therebetween; a supporting member for supporting a second surface of the heater opposite the first surface; and a heat conduction member contacting the second surface. In a generatrix direction of the film, an end portion of a contact region between the heat conduction member and the second surface is at or inside an end portion of the press-contact portion. In a region from an end portion of the contact region to an outside of an end portion of the press-contact portion with respect to the direction, the supporting member includes a first region not contacting the second surface and a second region contacting the second surface outside the first region.
US09235169B2	Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus is provided in which an application of air for separating a sheet from a fixing section can be performed in a stable manner with an appropriate air quantity and air velocity. In the image forming apparatus, a control section sets, on the basis of an individual difference of a separation fan motor, a fan motor drive condition for a sheet passing period in which the sheet passes through a nip portion N, and the control section maintains the fan motor drive condition thus set throughout the sheet passing period.
US09235167B2	Image heating apparatus An image heating apparatus includes: a rotating mechanism for rotating a belt unit in a direction for returning a belt into a predetermined zone; a displacing mechanism for permitting a first supporting member to be displaced in a direction for substantially equalizing forces, from the first supporting member, urging the belt toward a rotatable heating member at opposite end portions of the first supporting member with respect to a belt widthwise direction and to permit a second supporting member to be displaced in a direction for substantially equalizing forces, from the second supporting member, urging the belt toward the rotatable heating member at opposite end portions of the second supporting member; and a limiting mechanism for limiting the amount of the displacement permitted by the displacing mechanism within a predetermined amount.
US09235165B2	Image forming apparatus with electrostatic cleaning members An image forming apparatus includes: an image bearing member; a transfer portion; a first electrostatic cleaning portion including a first electroconductive member; a second electrostatic cleaning portion including a second electroconductive member; a first detecting portion for outputting first information corresponding to a first current passing through the first electroconductive member; a second detecting portion for outputting second information corresponding to a second current passing through the second electroconductive member; and a controller for controlling, based on the first information and the second information, a transfer voltage so that the voltage is decreased when a decrease amount of the first current is larger than that of the second current and so that the voltage is increased when the decrease amount of the second current is larger than that of the first current.
US09235164B2	Transfer device and image forming apparatus including same A transfer device includes a nip forming member to contact a surface of an image bearing member to form a transfer nip therebetween, a pressing device, and a nip pressure changing device. The pressing device includes a plurality of elastic members, to produce a contact pressure between the nip forming member and the image bearing member according to a restoring force of at least one of the elastic members upon deformation of the elastic member. The nip pressure changing device changes an amount of elastic deformation of the elastic member between at least two stages to change a nip pressure of the transfer nip. While the contact pressure is produced by one of the elastic members, the nip pressure changing device changes the amount of elastic deformation of a different elastic member, different from the one that produces the contact pressure, to change the nip pressure of the transfer nip.
US09235163B2	Development device and image forming apparatus A development device includes a development case, a first agitating/conveying member and a second agitating/conveying member. The first agitating/conveying member is arranged below the second agitating/conveying member to convey the developer in a first direction. The second agitating/conveying member conveys the developer in a second direction as an opposite direction to the first direction to supply the developer to the developer carrier. The development case includes a first conveyance chamber, a second conveyance chamber, a first communicating portion communicating end parts of the first conveyance chamber and second conveyance chamber in the first direction, and a second communicating portion communicating end parts of the first conveyance chamber and second conveyance chamber in the second direction. The developer carrier has a first ferromagnetic area having magnetic force stronger than another area of the developer carrier, in which the first ferromagnetic area corresponds to the first communicating portion.
US09235162B2	Developer storage container and image forming apparatus with same A developer storage container includes a container main body, a tubular portion projecting from the container main body, and a rotary member extending from the container main body to the tubular portion. The rotary member includes a first section located in the container main body and a second section located in the tubular portion. A first conveying member for conveying developer in a first conveying direction is arranged on the second section of a rotary shaft, and a second conveying member for conveying the developer in a second conveying direction is arranged radially outwardly of the first conveying member around the first section. A first flexible member radially extending to a side outward of the second conveying member and a second flexible member radially extending to a side outward of the second conveying member and having a shorter length than the first flexible member are mounted on the rotary shaft.
US09235158B2	Developing device A developing device includes a developing sleeve having a plurality of grooves, and a magnetic field generating portion configured to be disposed on an inner side of the developing sleeve and including at least a drawing-up pole and a cut pole. The magnetic field generating portion is configured to form. a Fr attenuation area and a Fθ reverse area between a peak of a magnetic flux density of the drawing-up pole and a peak of a magnetic flux density of the cut pole. Fr attenuates toward the cut pole side from the drawing-up pole side in the Fr attenuation area and Fθ is oriented towards an opposite direction to a direction of rotation of the developing sleeve in the Fθ reverse area. A pitch interval of the plurality of grooves is shorter than a length of the Fθ reverse area in the direction of rotation of the developing sleeve.
US09235149B2	Toner to develop electrostatic latent images A toner T1 develops an electrostatic latent image, the toner T1 having relieved charge-up characteristics, improved development characteristics, and improved transfer characteristics. The toner T1 may ensure high charge stability against environmental condition changes, and an appropriate amount of charges at a high printing speed, may reduce background contamination on a photoreceptor, may prevent undesirable fusing onto a blade even after prolonged printing, and may have high transfer efficiency and high image uniformity. The toner T1 may have effective flowability and transportability, and may have good storage stability, so as to be unlikely to cause blocking when stored for an extended time.
US09235146B2	Photoconductor A photoconductor, which contains an electrically conductive support, and at least a photoconductive layer provided over the electrically conductive support, wherein the photoconductive layer contains a compound represented by the following general formula (1): where R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 and R6 are each independently a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl group, an aralkyl group, an alkoxy group, or an aralkyloxy group; n, a, b, c, and d are each independently an integer of 1 to 4 and m is 1 or 2; and a plurality of R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 or R6 may be the same or different when n, m, a, b, c, or d is an integer of 2 or greater.
US09235144B2	Electrophotographic photosensitive member, process cartridge and electrophotographic apparatus A charge-transporting layer includes a matrix-domain structure. The domain contains a polyester resin A. The matrix contains a charge-transporting substance and at least one of a polyester resin C and a polycarbonate resin D.
US09235142B2	Projection exposure system for microlithography and method of monitoring a lateral imaging stability A projection exposure system (10) for microlithography. The system includes projection optics (12) configured to image mask structures into a substrate plane (16), an input diffraction element (28) which is configured to convert irradiated measurement radiation (21) into at least two test waves (30) directed onto the projection optics (12) with differing propagation directions, a detection diffraction element (34; 28) which is disposed in the optical path of the test waves (30) after the latter have passed through the projection optics (12) and is configured to produce a detection beam (36) from the test waves (30) which has a mixture of radiation portions of both test waves (30), a photo detector (38) disposed in the optical path of the detection beam (36) which is configured to record the radiation intensity of the detection beam (36), time resolved, and an evaluation unit which is configured to determine the lateral imaging stability of the projection optics (12) from the radiation intensity recorded.
US09235140B2	Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method A lithographic apparatus having an optical column capable of projecting a beam on a target portion on a substrate held by the substrate support. The optical column may have a self-emissive contrast device to emit the beam. The optical column may include a projection system to project the beam onto the target portion. The target portion has a height in a scanning direction of the substrate and a tangential width mainly perpendicular to the scanning direction, wherein a scanning speed of the substrate in the scanning direction divided by the height substantially corresponds with a rotating speed of the optical column or a part thereof divided by the tangential width of the target portion.
US09235134B2	Lens heating compensation in photolithography Photolithographic apparatus and methods are disclosed. One such apparatus includes an optical path configured to provide a first diffraction pattern in a portion of an optical system and to provide a second diffraction pattern to the portion of the optical system after providing the first diffraction pattern. Meanwhile, one such method includes providing a first diffraction pattern onto a portion of an optical system, wherein a semiconductor article is imaged using the first diffraction pattern. A second diffraction pattern is also provided onto the portion of the optical system, but the second diffraction pattern is not used to image the semiconductor article.
US09235133B2	Lighting optical device, regulation method for lighting optical device, exposure system, and exposure method An illumination optical apparatus is able to adjust each of pupil luminance distributions at respective points on a surface to be illuminated to being almost uniform, while maintaining or adjusting an illuminance distribution on the surface to be illuminated to being almost uniform. The illumination optical apparatus illuminates the surface to be illuminated (M, W), with a light beam from a light source (1). The apparatus is provided with a pupil distribution forming device (1-4) for forming a pupil luminance distribution with a predetermined luminance distribution on an illumination pupil plane; and an adjuster (8, 9) for independently adjusting each of pupil luminance distributions about respective points on the surface to be illuminated. The adjuster has a plurality of adjustment surfaces each of which is disposed in an optical path between the pupil distribution forming device and the surface to be illuminated and has a predetermined transmittance distribution or reflectance distribution.
US09235126B1	Flexographic surface patterns A method for forming a flexographic plate includes providing a halftone image; detecting an edge region of image features and an interior region of image features; applying fine pixel mask pattern to the edge regions; applying coarse pixel mask pattern to the interior regions; combining the fine patterned edge and the coarse patterned interior into a patterned image; and imaging the flexographic plate.
US09235124B2	Planarization over topography with molecular glass materials Molecular glass based planarizing compositions for lithographic processing are disclosed. The processes generally include casting the planarizing composition onto a surface comprised of lithographic features, the planarizing composition comprising at least one molecular glass and at least one solvent; and heating the planarizing composition to a temperature greater than a glass transition temperature of the at least one molecular glass. Exemplary molecular glasses include polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane derivatives, calixarenes, cyclodextrin derivatives, and other non-polymeric large molecules.
US09235122B2	Monomer, polymer, resist composition, and patterning process A polymer for resist use is obtainable from a monomer having formula (1) wherein R1 is H, CH3 or CF3 and R2 is H or an acid labile group. A resist composition comprising the polymer displays a high sensitivity and a high dissolution contrast during both alkaline development and organic solvent development.
US09235119B2	Exposure photolithography methods A method that forms a film of photoresist composition on a substrate and exposes a first and second region of the film to radiation through a first and second mask having a first and second image pattern, respectively. The photoresist composition includes a polymer comprising at least one acid labile group, a photosensitive acid generator capable of generating a first amount of acid upon exposure to a first dose of radiation and of generating a second amount of acid upon exposure to a second dose of radiation, and a photosensitive base generator capable of generating a first amount of base upon exposure to the first dose of radiation and of generating a second amount of base upon exposure to the second dose of radiation. The photosensitive acid generator includes (trifluoro-methylsulfonyloxy)-bicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene-2,3-dicarboximide (MDT), N-hydroxy-naphthalimide dodecane sulfonate (DDSN), or a combination thereof. The photosensitive base generator includes a quaternary ammonium salt.
US09235117B2	Pattern forming method, actinic ray-sensitive or radiation-sensitive resin composition, resist film, manufacturing method of electronic device, and electronic device There is provided a pattern forming method comprising (i) a step of forming a film by an actinic ray-sensitive or radiation-sensitive resin composition; (ii) a step of exposing the film; and (iii) a step of performing development by using a developer containing an organic solvent to form a negative pattern, wherein the actinic ray-sensitive or radiation-sensitive resin composition contains (A) a resin capable of increasing the polarity by an action of an acid to decrease the solubility in a developer containing an organic solvent, (B) a compound capable of generating an acid upon irradiation with an actinic ray or radiation, (C) a solvent, and (D) a resin having a repeating unit having a fluorine atom and not having a CF3 partial structure.

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