| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09386529B2 |
Power management in a network of stationary battery powered control, automation, monitoring and protection devices
A faulted circuit indicator periodically joins a network to report information and receive commands. The faulted circuit indicator optimizes the transmit power used to join the network so that an acceptable network acquisition time and/or robust routing through multiple nodes are obtained. |
| US09386526B2 |
Methods and apparatus for determining and entering power saving mode in a wireless network
Certain aspects of the present disclosure present methods and apparatus for selecting a power saving mode for a mobile station (MS) in a wireless network. The power saving mode may be selected based on the traffic that is observed at the MS in a predefined duration. Once low overall data traffic is observed, the device may enter a first low power state. If data traffic of a particular type (e.g., not for management or maintenance purposes) is not observed for a predetermined duration, the device may enter a second low power state (deeper than the first low power state). |
| US09386523B2 |
Power-saving data scheduling system in LTE and method thereof
A power-saving data scheduling system includes a period decision module for selecting a cycle having a shortest delay time as a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle for each user from quality of service (QoS) requirements related to network services and channel conditions, and a start offset decision module for calculating the number of users in each of periods of the DRX cycle. In addition, a DRX-aware scheduling module is provided for extending the on period by increasing priority of the user and resetting an inactivity timer if a period required by the user's load is shorter than an off period. Optimal DRX parameters and DRX-aware scheduling are used to resolve the existing issues that the channel conditions, system load and QoS are not taken into consideration when the DRX parameters are determined. Moreover, a power-saving data scheduling method is also provided. |
| US09386521B2 |
Clock structure for reducing power consumption on wireless mobile devices
A mobile device (300) includes an oscillator (310) to generate a reference clock signal, a phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit (320) to generate a PLL output clock signal, a transceiver (330), a system-on-a-chip (SOC) (340) including a processor (342) and a number of other modules, and a control logic (350). The transceiver (330) generates a status control signal that indicates whether the transceiver (330) is in an active state or in an idle state. The control logic (350) receives the status control signal, and in response thereto, selectively enables/disables the PLL circuit (320), selectively routes either the reference clock signal or the PLL output clock signal to the processor (342) and/or the other modules of the SOC (340), and/or selectively routes either an idle clock signal or the PLL output clock signal to the transceiver (330). |
| US09386518B2 |
Cell site power generation
A system, apparatus, method, and manufacture for generating backup power in a wireless communications system such as a wireless communications service base station. The system includes a communications interface, a primary power interface, a generator, rectifiers, and a battery circuit. During normal operation, the communications interface is powered from the primary power interface. During a power outage, the communications interface is powered from either the generator or the battery circuit. The generator is cycled on and off during power outages to charge the battery circuit while conserving fuel. To decrease rectification loss, rectifiers are run near full load while rectifying the generator output. |
| US09386517B2 |
Energy efficient network communication device and method
The present invention discloses an energy efficient network communication device comprising: a media-access-controller for outputting a transmission-end low power idle (LPI) indication and receiving a reception-end LPI indication; a media-independent-interface for generating a transmission-end LPI signal according to the transmission-end LPI indication, and generating the reception-end LPI indication according to a reception-end LPI signal; and a physical-layer-circuit, coupled to several pairs of transmission lines, for converting the transmission-end LPI signal into a transmission signal to send it to a reception end for requesting an LPI mode and receiving a reception signal from the reception end to convert it into the reception-end LPI signal. Said physical-layer-circuit uses some of the several pairs of transmission lines for transmission and reception when keeping the other pairs of transmission lines unused to save power; furthermore, the physical-layer-circuit can enter the LPI mode from an idle mode for additional power saving. |
| US09386514B2 |
Hybrid communication system for smartphone/tablet network
A communication network and method of communication is disclosed. A server is coupled to a hybrid communication network that includes a radio frequency communication network and at least one other communication network. A communication device is configured for communication over the hybrid communication network. A mode of communication between the communication device and the server is selected. A message is then communicated over the hybrid communication network using the selected mode of communication. The communication device may be a smartphone coupled to a radio frequency transceiver and configured to drive the radio frequency transceiver. |
| US09386513B2 |
Method for joint use of a radio access network by several mobile radio providers
A method for mobile radio suppliers to provide or share or jointly use a mobile radio access network is provided. Said method is characterized in that a single radio access network (9; 12), which is operated according to UMTS standard, cdma2000 standard, or GSM standard, for example, is jointly used by several mobile radio suppliers. In order to do so, the mobile radio networks comprise a common radio access network but separate core networks. Preferably several PLMN IDs are transmitted by the common radio access network and are made available to the user terminal for selection. The inventive method allows a joint radio access network to be made accessible to different mobile radio suppliers, a mobile radio user selecting one of several transmitted preferably PLMN IDs and using services (CS or PS) via the associated core network of the selected mobile radio operator. |
| US09386511B2 |
Method and an apparatus for access network selection in visited network in a wireless communication system
A wireless communication system is disclosed. More particularly, access network selection scheme in visited network in a wireless communication system are disclosed. A method for selecting a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access network by a user equipment (UE) in a visited network may comprise: determining, by the UE, if a selected WLAN access network in the visited network is available; updating, by the UE, a WLAN selection policy with a list of excluded WLAN access network, if the selected WLAN access network in the visited network is not available; and re-determining, by the UE, if there is an available WLAN access network in the visited network based on the updated WLAN selection policy. |
| US09386509B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling communication between communication devices
A wireless network includes a base transceiver station configured to transmit signals over a wireless connection to a plurality of terminals and receive signals over a wireless connection from a plurality of terminals. The terminal may transmit a connection request message including an identifier and a request to identify the new terminal to the network when the new terminal tries to access the wireless network. A base station or access point may receive or maintain information or a list regarding one or more new terminals attempting to access the wireless network. The base station or access point may receive a control command indicative of a selection of at least one terminal from the list. The base station or access point may connect the at least one terminal to the access point or network. |
| US09386506B2 |
Method for providing connection type information and method for controlling radio resource of home (e)NodeB
A method for providing connection type information in a network entity comprises: receiving, by the network entity, a connection request message including access mode information indicating at least one of an open access mode, a closed access mode, and a hybrid access mode, from a Home (e)NodeB having received a request from a terminal; determining, by the network entity, a connection type of the terminal based on the access mode information and the terminal's subscriber information; and transmitting, by the network entity, a connection accept message including information about the determined connection type, to the Home (e)NodeB, such that the Home (e) NodeB performs a radio resource control function with respect to the connection with the terminal. |
| US09386500B2 |
Inter-network handover system and method
A method includes receiving, from a user device, a global cell identifier of a cell in the second communications network, wherein information for forming a Location Area Identification ‘LAI’ can be obtained from the global cell identifier, and a Routing Area Code ‘RAC’ for use in identifying a target gateway component operating within a location area represented by the Location Area Identification ‘LAI’ and associated with the neighbor base station component, generating a handover request message in the first communications network, for handing over to the neighbor base station component operating as the target base station component, the handover request message incorporating the Routing Area Code ‘RAC’ and the Location Area Identification ‘LAI’, and transmitting the handover request message to facilitate the handover to the second communications network. |
| US09386498B2 |
Detection of early inter-radio access technology (IRAT) handover triggering
A device detects poor coverage associated with a source radio access technology (RAT) with which the device is connected, and connects to a target RAT. The device also measures the source RAT for a time period after connecting to the target RAT, and sends, based on the measurements, one or more measurement reports to the target RAT, where the target RAT forwards the one or more measurement reports to the source RAT. Alternatively, or additionally, the target RAT may detect that the handover was triggered too early and may inform the source RAT or command the UE to return to the source RAT. The device further stops the measuring and the sending when the time period expires. In this way, IRAT handover parameters may be automatically or manually tuned to minimize the number of handovers triggered too early, which may result in a more efficient cell configuration. |
| US09386494B2 |
Apparatus and methods for performing handover of user equipment between different radio access networks
Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to a user equipment, an RNC, or an application operable in a wireless communications network and methods in which an apparatus for wireless communication is configured to transfer data for a user equipment via a first user plane connection in a first radio access network. If the data transferred via the first user plane connection satisfies a trigger condition, the apparatus is configured to initiate a handover procedure of transferring the user equipment to a second user plane connection in a second radio access network. |
| US09386485B2 |
Adaptive re-establishment of data sessions
A method includes, in a mobile communication terminal, holding a definition of multiple re-establishment modes, each re-establishment mode defining a respective criterion for selecting a base station with which to re-establish a failed data session. Success statistics of one or more of the re-establishment modes in a given geographical region are collected in the terminal. In response to a failure in a data session occurring while the terminal is in the given geographical region, a re-establishment mode is selected from among the multiple re-establishment modes based on the success statistics, and the data session is re-established using the selected re-establishment mode. |
| US09386484B2 |
Method and apparatus for selecting cell in mobile communication network
Methods and apparatuses are provided for selecting a cell in a mobile communication network for a network access of a terminal and a position update. A method includes receiving a first message from a network; determining whether a cell, which the terminal accesses, supports Circuit Switched FallBack (CSFB), based on the first message; and determining whether to select the cell, based on whether the cell supports the CSFB. |
| US09386481B2 |
Method, apparatus and system of managing an encoder output rate based upon wireless communication link feedback
Machine-readable media, methods, apparatus and system for managing an encoder output rate at least partially based upon wireless communication link feedback are described. In some embodiments, a device driver of the system may generate link information indicating quality of a wireless communication link between the system and another system, wherein the link information is generated at least partially based upon at least one of media access layer (MAC) information and physical layer information of the system. A system managing entity of the system may manage an output rate of an encoder of the system at least partially based upon the link information. |
| US09386478B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling access to machine-type communication device having dual priority application
A method for controlling access to a machine-type communication (MTC) device having a dual priority application in a mobile communication network. More particularly, a signaling method executed in a terminal configured to perform non-access stratum (NAS) signaling including low access priority indication in a mobile communication network and configured such that the low access priority is negligible. The signaling method may include performing one of a procedure of mobility management and a session management including the low access priority, receiving a back-off timer due to one of mobility management congestion control and session management congestion control and operating the back-off timer, and performing one of the mobility management procedure and the session management procedure without including the low access priority. |
| US09386477B2 |
Method for QoS guarantees in a multilayer structure
A method in which a user equipment processes data in a wireless mobile communication system is provided. The method includes the steps of receiving a first data block from an upper layer, transferring a second data block including the first data block to a lower layer at a particular protocol layer, discarding the first and second data blocks present in the particular protocol layer if a certain period of time has passed, and transferring information associated with the discard of the second data block to the lower layer. |
| US09386471B2 |
Methods for requesting parallel uplink wireless signal measurements
Systems, methods, and apparatuses are presented for requesting parallel uplink wireless signal measurements (UL measurements), in which a measurement management apparatus determines information on UL measurements being performed or to be performed by a signal measuring apparatus over a predetermined measurement period. The measurement management apparatus further determines a capability of the signal measuring apparatus to perform parallel measurements. The measurement management apparatus determines an adjustment to a measurement configuration for the measuring apparatus. The measurement configuration relates to, for example, a number of parallel measurements to perform. The adjustment is based on a comparison of UL measurements being performed or to be performed by the measuring apparatus over a predetermined measurement period and the capability of the measuring apparatus to perform parallel measurements. |
| US09386466B2 |
Mobile device, network node and methods of operating the same in a mobile communications network
There is provided a method of operating a mobile device in a heterogeneous communications network, the heterogeneous communications network comprising first and second base stations, the first base station having a lower transmission power than the second base station and being within the coverage area of the second base station, the method comprising obtaining measurements of the quality of signals transmitted between the first base station and the mobile device and/or the second base station and the mobile device; and analyzing the measurements of the quality to determine whether the mobile device is located in an imbalanced region or part of an imbalanced region between the first and second base stations. |
| US09386464B2 |
Automatic neighbour relation
A mobile device operable to perform automatic neighbor relation functions in a wireless telecommunications network, a radio network controller, methods and a computer program product are disclosed. The mobile device is operable to perform automatic neighbor relation functions in a wireless telecommunications network in which neighbor relations derived by the mobile device are provided to a network node of the wireless telecommunications network and comprises: measurement logic operable, in an automatic neighbor relation mode, to measure characteristics of a neighboring cell; and determination logic operable to determine, from the characteristics and from an indication of previously provided neighbor relations, whether a neighbor relation based on the characteristics has been provided previously to the network node and, if not, to generate a new neighbor relation to be provided to the network node. Hence, only neighbor relations which are not indicated as having been provided previously need be generated. |
| US09386463B1 |
Application risk analysis
A method of managing the risk of a monitored application installed on a mobile communication device comprises determining a risk profile of the monitored application based on at least one of: comparison of performance of the mobile communication device before and after installation of the monitored application on the mobile communication device, comparison of permission requests of the monitored application versus a type of the monitored application, community feedback of the monitored application, an amount of time elapsed since release of the monitored application, and a risk profile of a publisher of the monitored application; and performing a first action if the risk profile of the monitored application meets or exceeds a predefined first threshold. |
| US09386462B2 |
Methods and apparatus for determining and planning wireless network deployment sufficiency when utilizing vehicle-based relay nodes
A method of planning communication network infrastructure includes calculating a potential capacity of a plurality of vehicular relay nodes in an area, wherein the plurality of vehicular relay nodes relay data between a plurality of portable devices and at least one base station. The method also includes calculating a potential data demand in the area for transferring data between the plurality of portable devices and the at least one base station. The method further includes determining whether the number of base stations serving the area is sufficient by utilizing the potential capacity of the plurality of vehicular relay nodes in the area and the potential data demand in the area. |
| US09386461B2 |
Location aware self-locating access point
A location aware, self-locating access point can provide a wireless link through a wireless network to a wireless device. If the wireless link bandwidth is less than a target bandwidth for the wireless device, then the location aware, self-locating access point can move itself to a new operating location that provides an increased wireless link bandwidth. If a second wireless device is added to the wireless network, then the new operating location is selected to provide an increased link bandwidth for both wireless devices. In one embodiment, the wireless devices in the wireless network can be prioritized so that the new operating location increases the wireless link bandwidth for the wireless device with a higher priority. |
| US09386459B2 |
Spectrum allocation system and method
Spectrum asset class determination is dynamically assessed so that a radio device may use a more preferred one of licensed spectrum or unlicensed spectrum for the specific wireless communications application of the radio device. Licensed spectrum, in addition to unlicensed spectrum, may be made available to preferred radio devices by validating that the radio system has an equipment ID and a secondary ID that authorizes the use of the licensed spectrum by the radio system. |
| US09386457B2 |
Mobile communication system, base station, and user terminal
A mobile communication system having a plurality of predefined cells that are mutually adjacent, comprises a spare cell that covers a boundary region of the plurality of predefined cells. The plurality of predefined cells use a predetermined frequency band and a first radio frame. The spare cell uses a second radio frame having a configuration different from the first radio frame so as to share the predetermined frequency band with the plurality of predefined cells through a time division. |
| US09386455B2 |
Self-organizing network switching matrix
A self-organizing network switching matrix is provided. The self-organizing network switching matrix can receive a first set of communications data from a set of base transceiver stations wherein the communications data includes a radio simulcast. It can send the first set of communications data to a subset of remote transceiver units in a set of remote transceiver units. A second set of communications data can be received from the first subset of remote transceiver units. A set of network activity data can be generated based on monitoring the receiving of the second set of communications data from the first subset of remote transceiver units for a defined network activity. The subset of remote transceiver units can be adjusted based on the network activity data. In this regard, the self-organizing network switching matrix facilitates automated capacity management providing just in time network dimensioning. |
| US09386452B2 |
Access control method and apparatus for user equipment
An access control method and apparatus for a user equipment relate to the field of communications technologies. The method includes sending a first message to a CSG server; receiving a second message that is sent by the CSG server and includes access control information of a user equipment; and performing access control on the user equipment according to the access control information of the user equipment. |
| US09386451B2 |
Managing application access to certificates and keys
Plural modes of operation, each associated with a class attribute, may be established on a mobile device. The present application discloses a method of handling an application launch request, a computing device for carrying out the method and a computer readable medium for adapting a processor to carry out the method. The method includes receiving a launch request identifying an application that is to be launched, acquiring an identity for the application, acquiring a class for the application, labeling the application with the identity and the class and launching the application. |
| US09386450B1 |
System and method for authentication utilizing a physical break in an electronic pathway
A system and method for authentication utilizing a physical break in an electronic pathway is disclosed herein. The system includes a primary device, a secondary device and an authentication server. The authentication server transmits a key and a solution to the primary device and a key cylinder to the secondary device The secondary device requires a physical action to close a circuit in order to send the key cylinder to the primary device, which when matched to the key and solved, authenticates the primary device. |
| US09386448B2 |
Method for updating air interface key, core network node and user equipment
The disclosure provides a method for updating an air interface key, a core network node and user equipment. The update method comprises: a core network node receives a relocation indication message, wherein the relocation indication message is configured to indicate that the User Equipment (UE) is about to relocate to a target Radio Network Controller (RNC) from a source RNC (Step S602); the core network node uses the key parameter to calculate a next hop enhanced key (Step S604); and then the core network node sends the next hop enhanced key to the target RNC (Step S606). Through the disclosure, the forward security of the user is guaranteed, and thus the communication security of the radio access system is improved. |
| US09386444B2 |
Method of signalling information
The present invention relates to a method for transmission of control information from a primary station to at least one secondary station, comprising the step of transmitting with a first set of control information parameters control information corresponding to data transmission with a first set of data parameters and transmitting with a second set of control information parameters control information corresponding to data transmission with a second set of data parameters, wherein at least one control information parameter has a difference in value between the two sets of control information parameters, said difference in value having a dependency on the difference between the value of a data parameter in the first set of data parameters and the value of the data parameter in the second set of data parameters, said data parameter being a different parameter from the at least one control information parameter. |
| US09386442B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing membership verification or access control in wireless communication system
A method and apparatus for performing a membership verification or an access control in a wireless communication system is provided. A mobility management entity (MME) performs the membership verification or the access control of a user equipment (UE), and transmits verified UE membership information to a target HeNB. |
| US09386441B2 |
Femtocell message delivery and network planning
Techniques for femtocell message delivery and network planning are described herein. A mobile device sends a registration request to an access point, such as a femtocell access point. If denied registration, the mobile device may return to service by a macro cell access point. A network entity, such as a femtocell gateway serving the access point, may determine an identification of the mobile device. The network entity may send the identification of mobile device and an identifier of the access point to an application server. The application server may create and send a targeted message to the mobile device based on the identification of mobile device and the identifier of the access point. The application server may determine a user count for the access point and facilitate network planning based on the user count. |
| US09386437B2 |
Determination of order of transmission destination
A memory unit stores a plurality of transmission destinations. A control unit determines an order of priority of transmission destinations based on states of the plurality of transmission destinations that are stored by the memory unit, and then, upon receiving predetermined input, originates a call to the transmission destination having the highest order of priority of transmission destinations that was determined. |
| US09386435B2 |
Information transmission method, device and server
An information transmission method is provided to improve efficiency of data transmission between a cell phone and a computer. The method includes: acquiring a first operation; moving, in response to the first operation, a first object of at least one object displayed in a display module from the display module to a touch control module; acquiring current first time parameter when it is detected that the first object reaches a first edge of the display module; uploading the first time parameter to a server, so that the server determines, according to the first time parameter and second time parameter uploaded by a second device, whether to allow a first device to transmit the first object to the second device; and transmitting the first object to the second device according to a first operational instruction sent from the server. |
| US09386428B2 |
Call forwarding apparatus and method
According to one embodiment, a method for performing a user call forwarding operation through near field communication between a fixed terminal and a portable terminal includes determining that a distance between a first fixed terminal and the portable terminal is within a specified distance, detecting a movement within the specified distance, determining that the detected movement is the same as a specified movement, and requesting call forwarding to the first fixed terminal when the detected movement is the same as the specified movement. |
| US09386427B1 |
Communication management based on communication events
A wireless device management environment may include various systems, methods and computer-readable media for managing communications based on a determination of communication events. The communication events correspond to the anticipated unavailability for a wireless device to exchange information via a wireless communication network. Wireless devices collect wireless device information and user event information that can include performance metrics, location information, user interaction information and/or additional information. A data processing component, on the wireless device and/or on a network-based communication management system, processes the wireless device information and user event information to determine communication events. Based on a determination of a communication event, the wireless device can exchange information with the communication management system, which can include the transmission of a set of data to the wireless device, in advance of the anticipated wireless device communication unavailability. |
| US09386425B2 |
Group communication over LTE eMBMS
A method of supporting group communication over LTE MBMS is provided. A UE first establishes a unicast Evolved Packet Service (EPS) bearer in an LTE network for group communication. The UE belongs to a communication group having a communication group ID. The UE receives access information from the network for monitoring downlink (DL) multicast traffic of the DL group communication based on a multicast decision. The UE is then ready for monitoring a multicast Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) bearer for receiving the DL multicast traffic. The multicast MBMS bearer is associated with a Temporary Mobile Group Identifier (TMGI), and wherein the TMGI is associated with the communication group ID. In one embodiment, the access information comprises mapping information between the TMGI and the communication group ID. |
| US09386424B2 |
Method for multicast mobility
A method for supporting proxy mobile internet protocol (PMIP) in a local mobility anchor (LMA) is described. The method includes receiving a request for multicast information corresponding to a request for multicast services from at least one of a plurality of wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) which require multicast services associated with a multicast group. The method also includes transmitting, to a mobile access gateway (MAG) via an aggregated multicast tunnel, multicast information for distribution to at least one of the plurality of WTRUs in the multicast group. The multicast information comprises an IP address corresponding to the multicast group. |
| US09386420B2 |
Information delivery system for sending reminder times based on event and travel times
There is provided an information delivery apparatus including a receiving portion to receive location information of a mobile communication terminal at a given time and acquired date and time of the location information from the terminal, an event information storage portion to store event information including an event place, date and time, a delivery terminal selecting portion to select the mobile communication terminal to which the event information is to be delivered based on the location information and the acquired date and time of the location information and on the event place, date and time, and an event information delivery portion to deliver the event information to the selected mobile communication terminal. The delivery terminal selecting portion selects the mobile communication terminal whose location indicated by location information is within a predetermined range and whose acquired date and time of the location information are before the event date and time. |
| US09386417B1 |
Two-pass copresence
The disclosure includes a system and method for detecting fine grain copresence between users. The system includes a processor and a memory storing instructions that when executed cause the system to: process one or more signals to determine coarse grain location information of a first device and a second device; determine whether the first device and the second device are copresent based on the coarse grain location information; in response to determining that the first device and the second device are copresent based on the coarse grain location information, transmit a signal to the second device to alert the second device to listen for a fine grain copresence token from the first device; and refine copresence based on receiving an indication that the second device has received the fine grain copresence token. |
| US09386416B1 |
Mobile customer presence detection
A computer-implemented method, including detecting, by a first client device, a presence of a mobile customer in a particular geographic location, with detecting being through a direct device communication between the first client device and a second client device that is associated with the mobile customer; in response to the mobile customer presence detection, updating a local registry of the first client device with a customer identifier of the mobile customer; and retrieving, from a server device, customer information about the mobile customer; generating, based on contents of the local registry, a list of customers who are presently located in the particular geographic location; and rendering on a display device of the first client device at least one of the list of customers or the retrieved customer information. |
| US09386404B1 |
DHCP services including location data
In some embodiments, techniques comprise receiving a request for an allocation of a network address; determining a location; encoding the location within a response to the request for the allocation of the network address, wherein the response to the request for the allocation of the network address also includes the network address; and providing the response to the request for the allocation of the network address, wherein the response to the request for the allocation of the network address includes the encoded location and the encoded network address. |
| US09386403B2 |
Selection process for an application in a terminal using local information obtained from a secure module
The process according to various aspects can be executed by a terminal for selecting an application executable at least in part by a secure module incorporated into the terminal, and may include a step for obtaining location information of the terminal, from a memory of the secure module, and a selection step of an application from the obtained location information. |
| US09386402B2 |
Proximity and tap detection using a wireless system
A method for detecting the proximity of a signal source using wireless systems is contemplated in which a wireless mobile device wirelessly receives packets from a signal source and determines a received signal strength for each packet. The wireless mobile device may store information based upon the received signal strength for each packet, and calculate from the information stored for all the packets, a current path loss value corresponding to a current distance from the wireless mobile device to the signal source. The wireless mobile device may then determine whether the current distance is sufficient to be an enabling condition such as tap, for example, for a data transfer or a transaction between the wireless mobile device and the signal source. |
| US09386401B2 |
Proximity-based sensing, communicating, and processing of user physiologic information
The present invention relates to systems and methods that sense, communicate and process one or more of a user's physiologic parameters, such as during a time when the user is in proximity with an object of interest. Objects may be products, locations and other people. One embodiment of the present invention enables users, designers, manufacturers, marketers and sellers to secure valuable information about how an object is (or many object are) perceived and used by a user (or many users). Various embodiments of the present invention may be used in conjunction with smart objects (e.g., Internet-connected objects) and dumb objects (e.g., objects having no Internet or other network connection). |
| US09386394B2 |
Mobile communication terminal and terminal control method
Execution of an application that functions when a mobile communication terminal is performing communication in a particular mobile communication network. A mobile communication terminal includes an application execution unit for executing one or more applications, a mobile communication unit for performing location registration in a mobile communication network for establishing a communication state, a communication network specifying unit for specifying the mobile communication network in which location registration is made, and an application control unit for performing control on the application execution unit so as to start an application corresponding to the specified mobile communication network. |
| US09386388B2 |
Method of manufacturing stacked thin film piezoelectric filter
A method of manufacturing a stacked thin film piezoelectric filter includes the steps of forming a lower thin film piezoelectric resonator on a substrate, measuring and adjusting a frequency of the lower thin film piezoelectric resonator, forming an acoustic coupling layer on the lower thin film piezoelectric resonator where the frequency of the lower thin film piezoelectric resonator has been adjusted, forming an upper thin film piezoelectric resonator on the acoustic coupling layer, and measuring and adjusting a frequency of the stacked thin film piezoelectric filter. |
| US09386384B2 |
Hearing instrument transduction apparatus using ferroelectret polymer foam
The present subject matter provides method and apparatus for hearing assistance devices, and more particularly to hearing assistance devices using ferroelectret (also referred to as piezoelectret) polymer foam. Various embodiments include ferroelectret polymer foam on or in the hearing instrument as a microphone. Various embodiments include ferroelectret polymer foam on or in the hearing instrument as a momentary switch sensor. |
| US09386383B2 |
Hearing aid receiver and a hearing aid comprising such a receiver
A receiver for a hearing aid includes: a receiver housing having a side face with a sound opening; and a filter holder with a filter, wherein the filter holder is fastened to the receiver housing; wherein the filter holder has a bottom face, a first opening at the bottom face, a second opening configured for releasably mounting the filter to the filter holder, and a sound channel located between the first and second openings and aligned with the first opening; and wherein the bottom face of the filter holder abuts the side face of the receiver housing. |
| US09386380B2 |
Method for the integration of a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphone device with a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) device
A microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) package includes a MEMS device and an integrated circuit (IC) device connected by a through silicon via (TSV). A conductive MEMS structure is arranged in a dielectric layer and includes a membrane region extending across a first volume arranged in the dielectric layer. A first substrate is bonded to a second substrate through the dielectric layer, where the MEMS device includes the second substrate. The TSV extends through the second substrate to electrically couple the MEMS device to the IC device. A third substrate is bonded to the second substrate to define a second volume between the second substrate and the third substrate, where the IC device includes the first or third substrate. A method for manufacturing the MEMS package is also provided. |
| US09386379B2 |
MEMS microphone
Mechanical resonating structures, as well as related devices and methods of manufacture. The mechanical resonating structures can be microphones, each including a diaphragm and a piezoelectric stack. The diaphragm can have one or more openings formed therethrough to enable the determination of an acoustic pressure being applied to the diaphragm through signals emitted by the piezoelectric stack. |
| US09386377B2 |
Magnetic assembly and electro-acoustic transducer using same
An magnetic assembly and an electro-acoustic transducer using the same are disclosed. The magnetic assembly includes a lower plate, a main magnet positioned on a central portion of the lower plate, an auxiliary magnet positioned on a periphery portion of the lower plate, surrounding the main magnet with space, and having an inner surface facing the main magnet and an outer surface opposite to the inner surface, and a first pole plate. The first pole plate includes a base body attached on the auxiliary magnet, and a magnetic conduction member connected with the base body and overlapping the outer surface of the auxiliary magnet for forming a loop of magnetic flux together with the base body and the lower plate as well as the auxiliary magnet. |
| US09386375B2 |
Miniature speaker
A miniature speaker is disclosed. The miniature speaker includes a frame, a magnetic circuit unit positioned by the frame and forming a magnetic gap, and a vibration unit. The vibration unit includes a vibration plate having a diaphragm including a central portion, a periphery suspending the diaphragm, a suspension surrounding the central portion with an edge connecting to the periphery, a stiffener located on the central portion, a border located on the central portion and surrounding the stiffener, and a voice coil including an inner side and an outer side opposed to the inner side. The border and the stiffener cooperatively form an interval therebetween. The stiffener controls the high frequency vibrations, and the border controls the low frequency vibrations. |
| US09386368B2 |
Remote speaker microphone
A remote speaker microphone having a directional microphone, a speaker, and a housing. The housing has a first portion sized to contain the speaker and a second portion sized to contain the directional microphone. The second portion defines a front port positioned adjacent the front surface of the directional microphone and a rear port positioned adjacent the rear surface of the directional microphone. The housing is configured to minimize the distance that sound waves travel within the housing before impacting on the sound receiving surfaces of the microphone. |
| US09386367B2 |
Electronic apparatus with detachable speakers, a body unit and a control unit
An electronic apparatus (100) includes a first detachable speaker unit (120) including a first speaker having a relatively high directivity, and a second detachable speaker unit (130) including a second speaker having a relatively low directivity. The electronic apparatus (100) further includes a body unit (an electronic apparatus body (110)) provided with a slot (113) in which any one of the first detachable speaker unit (120) and the second detachable speaker unit (130) is detachably installed therein in an alternative way, and a control unit that is provided in the body unit and controls the first and second speakers. |
| US09386365B2 |
Earphone
An earphone adapted to be worn in a user's ear has a body having a front face. There is a speaker in the front face of the body. A radially projecting brim surrounds the front face, the brim having an elongated shape configured fit in the concha of the user's ear, with portions of the rearward face of the brim engaged by the tragus and the antitragus of the user's ear. |
| US09386363B2 |
Speaker apparatus suitable for use with a computer
A speaker apparatus suitable for use with a computer operable for communicating audio signals to the speaker apparatus. The speaker apparatus includes a housing having a top portion and a body portion adjacent the top portion. The housing can be configured for carrying a coupling module and a speaker driver array. The coupling module can be configured for coupling the speaker apparatus and the computer. The speaker driver array can include a first speaker driver and a second speaker driver. The first and second speaker drivers can be arranged in a stacked arrangement. The stacked arrangement can be such that the first speaker driver can be positioned atop the second speaker and such that the first and second speaker drivers face different directions. |
| US09386362B2 |
Speaker clip
Certain embodiments may take the form of an electronic device having a main housing encapsulating operative circuitry for the device. The electronic device includes an attachment member moveably coupled to the metal housing. The attachment member has an acoustical device located therein that is communicatively coupled to the operative circuitry in the main housing. The attachment member includes a recessed portion for positioning the acoustical device within the attachment member. |
| US09386351B1 |
Dynamic popularity-based advertisement selection for video on demand
In a method and system for selecting an advertisement for video on demand, a video player is connected to a video content provider over a network via an access gateway. The video content provider receives a request for a video content from the video player, determines a popularity count for the video content and a geographical area for the video player, selects the advertisement based on the popularity count and the geographical area, and sends the video content combined with the advertisement to the video player. In one embodiment, the advertisement has a corresponding advertisement rule with an advertising condition which specifies a required popularity count and geographical area. If the advertisement condition is satisfied, then the advertisement is selected. In this manner, an advertisement for video on demand is selected based upon both demographics information and location of the video player increasing the effectiveness of the advertisement. |
| US09386350B2 |
Systems and methods for acquiring, categorizing and delivering media in interactive media guidance applications
Systems and methods are discussed for providing guidance for Internet-delivered media. In some embodiments, information on available media on the Internet is gathered. The information is associated with existing media guidance data. The associations enable a media guidance application to identify relevant online media and to display listings in a user-friendly way. A user interface for an online media guidance application is also provided. The user interface allows a user to narrow down the large amount of Internet-delivered media in a systematic way according to criteria that interests a user. |
| US09386349B2 |
Asset conflict resolution for content on demand asset insertion
Systems and methods presented herein provide for conflict resolution of assets selected for insertion into COD content. In one embodiment, the system includes an interface operable to process a request for asset insertion into the COD content selection. The system also includes an asset conflict resolution module operable to identify asset timeslots within the COD content selection from the request, to evaluate the assets to determine conflicts among the assets, to remove conflicting assets, and to select at least a portion of the remaining assets for insertion in the asset timeslots of the COD content selection. For example, the asset conflict resolution module may determine that conflicts exist between certain assets based on various identifiers associated with the assets and/or content such that the conflicts between the assets may be resolved with the removal of one or more of the assets from potential asset insertion selection. |
| US09386347B1 |
Burst efficient fast program acquisition
Various methods, systems, and apparatuses can be used to perform burst efficient fast program acquisition. In some implementations, a burst efficient fast program acquisition system can operate to remove unused B-frame thereby reducing the bandwidth required for a fast burst. In other implementations, the burst efficient fast program acquisition system can decode the fast burst, identify the video frames needed for reassembly, and encode a truncated group of frames for fast burst transmission. A burst efficient fast program acquisition system can also use pre-calculated streamlined burst fast burst in conjunction with program prediction methods such as adjacent program and frequently viewed program thereby further reducing the latency associated with IPTV program acquisitions. |
| US09386344B2 |
Method of transmitting digital services over a network and device implementing the method
Within the context of the broadcasting of DVB services over an IP network, the trend is to separate the signalling information describing the network and the services offered from the services themselves. The signalling is made available to the terminals via XML files available on HTTP servers. In contrast to this approach, the invention consists of a method of recognition, by a receiver connected to a bidirectional network, of digital services on the bidirectional network, which comprises a step in which the receiver connects to a first stream, a step in which the receiver extracts from said stream information on the location on the network, on the one hand, of streams conveying the content of these services and, on the other hand, of separate streams conveying information describing these services, a step in which the receiver connects to at least some of the streams conveying service description information to obtain information on these services and a step in which the receiver uses this information to construct a list, possibly unitary, of the services available on the network. |
| US09386339B2 |
Tagging product information
A system for enabling the tagging of items appearing in a moving or paused image includes the use of an identification device on or within said item to be tagged. The method includes capturing moving image footage containing the image of said item to be tagged, detecting the presence and the position of the identification means within each frame of the moving image footage and hence determining the position of the item to be tagged in each frame of the moving image. By automatically determining the position of the identification device, a suitable tag can then be automatically associated with the item which has the identification device provided thereon or therein when saving or transmitting the moving image. |
| US09386335B2 |
Vehicle display with automatic positioning system
A display system mounted within a vehicle is provided, where the system monitors the user's position within the vehicle's seat and automatically adjusts the location of the display to compensate for variations in the size or seating position of the user, thereby helping to alleviate the eye strain, fatigue, neck and back pain that often accompany the improper use of a monitor for an extended period of time. |
| US09386333B2 |
System and method for monitoring whole home digital video recorder usage for internet protocol television
The subject disclosure describes identifying a table associated with a set-top box that receives services from equipment of a video head-end office, where the table indicates that the set-top box has requested a video stream that would exceed a first number of video streams allocated to the set-top box and would exceed a bandwidth configuration, detecting a conflicting event according to information in the table, reconfiguring the bandwidth configuration allocated to the plurality of set-top boxes to resolve the conflicting event, determining a second number of video streams requested by the plurality of set-top boxes when the conflicting event occurred, determining a third number of video streams to resolve the conflicting event based on a difference between the first number of video streams and the second number of video streams, and instructing the equipment to provide the third number of video streams to the set-top box. Other embodiments are disclosed. |
| US09386332B2 |
Multi-screen video
One or more network devices receive, from a third-party system, catalog metadata for physical media assets available to order and combine the catalog metadata with catalog entries for digital content to form a unified catalog file. The one or more devices receive, from a user device, a request to view a directory of available video content and send, to the user device, the unified catalog file for presentation to a user. The one or more devices receive, from the user device, a selection of an item in the unified catalog file. The one or more devices provide, to the user device, video content corresponding to the selection when the selection corresponds to one of the catalog entries for digital content and provide, to the third-party system and via a billing gateway, user payment information when the selection corresponds to the catalog metadata for one of the physical media assets. |
| US09386326B2 |
Video decoding error concealment techniques
Techniques for synchronizing error concealment during video decoding include determining a decoding error. A recovery point within a current frame is determined for each decoding error. The determined recovery point may be the start of the next good slice of a frame after the current frame containing the error. The number of macroblock to be concealed is also determined. The determined number of macroblocks from the recovery point may then be concealed in hardware or software. The techniques for concealing errors may also include determining available macroblocks for use in concealing the error. The techniques for concealing errors may further include selecting a given concealment mode. |
| US09386325B2 |
Method and apparatus for encoding and decoding image by using large transformation unit
An image decoding apparatus in which a size of at least one transformation unit in a coding unit is determined independently from a size of at least one prediction unit in the coding unit. |
| US09386315B2 |
Area-based encoding/decoding device and method
Region-based encoding apparatus and decoding apparatus. The encoding apparatus selects an optimum region division mode from region division modes with respect to regions divided from an image frame, and transmits, to the decoding apparatus, an optimum image filtering method and an optimum filter coefficient of regions divided, according to the optimum region division mode. |
| US09386311B2 |
Motion estimation methods for residual prediction
Systems, apparatus and methods are described including determining a first value by reducing a bit-length of a reference pixel value and adding a first predetermined value to the result and determining a second value by subtracting a residual pixel value from a current pixel value to generate a difference value, reducing a bit-length of the difference value and adding the first predetermined value to the result. The range of the second value may then be clipped by setting the second value to zero when the second value is equal to or less than a second predetermined value and setting the second value to a third predetermined value when the second value is equal to or greater than a fourth predetermined value. The first value and the second value may then be used for inter-layer residual prediction in Scalable Video Coding (SVC) systems. |
| US09386310B2 |
Image reproducing method, image reproducing device, image reproducing program, imaging system, and reproducing system
A image reproducing device decodes a moving picture stream having been subjected to inter-picture prediction encoding with a reference image memory accessed. A decoding processor performs variable length decoding of the moving picture stream on a picture-by-picture basis, and outputs an encoding parameter. A traffic analyzer estimates traffic to the reference image memory on the picture-by-picture basis based on the output encoding parameters. A reference image compression controller determines a compression mode in storing a reference image in the reference image memory based on the estimated traffic. |
| US09386306B2 |
Enhancement layer scan order derivation for scalable video coding
An apparatus for coding video information includes a memory unit configured to store video information associated with a reference block; and a processor in communication with the memory unit, wherein the processor is configured to determine a value of a current video unit associated with the reference block based on, at least in part, a classification of the reference block and a scan order selected by the processor based upon the classification. The scan order indicates an order in which values within the reference block are processed to at least partially determine the value of the current video unit. |
| US09386303B2 |
Transmitting video and sharing content via a network using multiple encoding techniques
Embodiments disclose systems and methods for transmitting user-extracted video and content more efficiently by recognizing that user-extracted video provides the potential to treat parts of a single frame of a user-extracted video differently. An alpha mask of the image part of the user-extracted video is used when encoding the image part so that it retains a higher quality upon transmission than the remainder of the user-extracted video. |
| US09386302B2 |
Automatic calibration of extrinsic and intrinsic camera parameters for surround-view camera system
A method of calibrating multiple vehicle-based image capture devices of a vehicle. An image is captured by at least one image capture device. A reference object is identified in the captured image. The reference object has known world coordinates. Known features of the vehicle are extracted in the captured image. A relative location and orientation of the vehicle in world coordinates is determined relative to the reference object. Each of the multiple image capture devices is calibrated utilizing intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the at least one image capture device as a function of the relative location and orientation of the vehicle in world coordinates. |
| US09386301B2 |
Stereoscopic display system
The present invention discloses a stereoscopic display system, which includes a phase retarder, a display panel, a detector unit, and a processing unit. The phase retarder has a plurality of first strip shapes and a plurality of second strip shapes. The first strip shapes and the second strip shapes are alternately arranged. The display panel has a plurality of pixels. The pixels are arranged into a plurality of pixel rows corresponding to the first strip shapes and the second strip shapes. The detector unit utilized to detect a position of an observer's eyes relative to the display panel. The processing unit is electrically coupled to the display panel and the detector unit, and is utilized to adjust a position of the images displayed on the plurality of pixel rows, thereby reducing a crosstalk phenomenon. |
| US09386297B2 |
Image generating apparatus generating reconstructed image, method, and computer-readable recording medium
A reconstructed image which further reflects the photo shooting information of a main object is generated. A layer determiner defines a layer of a reconstructed image. A layer image generator reconstructs an image of an object included in the allocated depth range from a light field image and the depth map of the light field image for each layer. A conversion pixel extractor extracts corresponding pixels on a conversion layer which corresponds to an object to be modified. The object to be modified is designated by an operation acquired by a modification operation acquirer. A reconstructed image generator converts layer images using a conversion matrix defined by a conversion matrix determiner and generates an image whose composition has been modified by superimposing the layer images. |
| US09386296B2 |
Method and apparatus for coded focal stack photographing
A method and an apparatus for coded focal stack photographing are provided. The method includes: changing a focal surface within a single exposure time and per-pixel coding a sensor readout for each focal surface to obtain a modulation function M(y,z), where y⊂{y1,y2} is a two-dimensional spatial coordinate and z is a depth coordinate of a latent three-dimensional focal stack F(y,z); coding the latent three-dimensional focal stack F(y,z) into a two-dimensional sensor image I(y) by using the modulation function M(y,z); and achieving one or more of a programmable non-planar focal surface imaging, an interleaved focal stack imaging, and a compressive focal stack imaging, based on the modulation functions M(y,z) and the two-dimensional sensor image I(y). |
| US09386295B2 |
Digital receiver and method for processing 3D content in the digital receiver
A digital receiver that processes 3D video data having a receiving unit for receiving a first broadcast signal, including a first 3D service and first signaling data for the first 3D service, via a first channel, and a second broadcast signal, including a second 3D service related to the first 3D service and second signaling data for the second 3D service, via a second channel. The digital receiver further having a demultiplexer for demultiplexing 3D service data and signaling data from the first broadcast signal and second broadcast signal, respectively, a control unit for acquiring information on the channel for receiving the second broadcast signal on the basis of the demultiplexed first signaling data, a decoder for decoding each datum of the 3D service data, and a formatter for formatting each datum of the decoded 3D service data in accordance with an output format of the display screen. |
| US09386294B2 |
Method and apparatus for 3DTV image adjustment
A method (300) and apparatus (400) for three-dimensional television (3DTV) image adjustment includes loading (342, 344) default 2D-to-3D image setting values from a default settings memory to a user adjustment settings memory, annunciating (346) the default 2D-to-3D image setting values, receiving (361, 362) a 2D-to-3D image settings value adjustment, saving (370) the 2D-to-3D image settings value adjustment in the user adjustment settings memory, and applying (390) the 2D-to-3D image settings value adjustment to a 2D-to-3D converted image. These methods and apparatuses allow individual users to set 3DTV image settings to their personal preferences to compensate for brightness reductions caused by 3DTV glasses, depth perception sensitivities, and other image quality factors. |
| US09386292B2 |
Stereoscopic video processing apparatus and stereoscopic video processing method
A stereoscopic video processing apparatus includes: a switch operation detection unit which detects a switch operation, made by a user, that is an operation to select a channel of a three-dimensional (3D) video or an operation for a fast-forward playback, a rewind playback, skipping, or locating a cue point of a 3D video; a frequency determination unit which determines a detection frequency indicating the number of switch operations per unit of time detected by the switch operation detection unit; and a video processing unit which performs processing to reduce a difference in depth between 3D videos before and after switching of the 3D videos when the detection frequency per unit of time determined by the frequency determination unit is higher than or equal to a predetermined frequency. |
| US09386290B2 |
Playback device and method for providing functionality based on event information retrieved from a playlist
A playback device for retrieving a data stream having video data includes a java processor for processing a Java application; and a memory operably coupled to the java processor. The Java processor includes an input for receiving an event information associated with playback of a video section of the data stream. The event information is received from a playlist for the data stream and activates functionality provided by the Java application, the functionality being activated concurrently with the playback of the associated video section. The playlist includes a mark for controlling playback of the video section, the mark includes a presentation time. The event information is information indicating that the playback device has reached the mark presentation time during playback. |
| US09386289B2 |
Automatic white balancing with chromaticity measure of raw image data
An apparatus and methods for estimating a chromaticity of illumination from raw image data. In an embodiment, one or more image chromaticity weight is determined based on a distance between the raw image data in a sensor chromaticity space and a nearest point within a locus of sensor illumination chromaticities. In a further embodiment, one or more image chromaticity weight is determined based on a disparity among normalized color channel values. In certain embodiments, image chromaticity estimates are utilized to determine a white point estimate for the raw image data. In embodiments, an electronic device including a camera estimates the chromaticity value of raw image data captured by the camera as part of an AWB pipeline. The electronic device may further determine, for example as part of the AWB pipeline, a white point estimate based, at least in part, on the raw image data chromaticity value estimate(s). |
| US09386288B2 |
Compensating for sensor saturation and microlens modulation during light-field image processing
According to various embodiments, the system and method of the present invention process light-field image data so as to reduce color artifacts, reduce projection artifacts, and/or increase dynamic range. These techniques operate, for example, on image data affected by sensor saturation and/or microlens modulation. Flat-field images are captured and converted to modulation images, and then applied on a per-pixel basis, according to techniques described herein. |
| US09386287B2 |
Image processor which rearranges color information, image processing method, and digital camera
An image processor includes: a reduction (resizing) processor 102 that reduces an original image obtained from a single-sensor color imaging device to an image conforming to a display size of a display monitor; and a rearranged color array display data generation processor 103 that generates one or more types of color array images conforming to a color pixel array of the display monitor, based on the reduced image. With this configuration, one or more types of display reduced-size image having color information of the original image are generated. Thus, a small-size image for display generated from a large-size original image output from an imaging device can be displayed at high speed with a minimum frame delay. |
| US09386286B2 |
Sparse source array for display pixel array illumination with rotated far field plane
A pixel array display system including an illumination source of discrete emitters with uniform emitting areas, a separate collimator in front of each emitter, and a condenser in front of said collimators which focuses collimated light from the emitters onto the pixel array. The pixel array display system does not include a light homogenizing optical element such as a light pipe. Each emitter is focused onto at least 75 percent of the pixels. A portion of the emitters which provide collimated light cones proximate to a modulated light optical cone from the pixel array may be provided reduced power in a high contrast operating mode. |
| US09386285B2 |
Imaging element and imaging device with microlenses and color pixels
An imaging element having a plurality of pixel cells which is arranged in a row direction and a column direction which is perpendicular to the row direction in a lattice, in which two adjacent pixel cells which include photoelectric convening units which detect the same color light form a pair and the pairs are periodically arranged, in each of pixel cell rows in which pixel cells are arranged in the row direction, the micro lenses are arranged such that the micro lenses in odd-numbered pixel cell rows is off-centered in the row direction from the micro lenses in even-numbered pixel cell rows by a half of an arrangement pitch of the micro lenses, and each micro lens which is provided in at least one of the odd-numbered row and the even-numbered row is disposed over two photoelectric converting units which detect different color light. |
| US09386281B2 |
Image surveillance and reporting technology
Image surveillance and reporting technology, in which an event that is indicative of potential physical activity within an area corresponding to a location of a camera unit is detected. In response to detection of the event, the camera unit is controlled to capture one or more images of the area corresponding to the location of the camera unit. The one or more images captured by the camera unit are analyzed to determine whether the one or more images include image data that is indicative of relevant physical activity within the area corresponding to the location of the camera unit. The one or more images are handled based on the determination of whether the one or more images include image data that is indicative of relevant physical activity within the area corresponding to the location of the camera unit. |
| US09386280B2 |
Method for setting up a monitoring camera
A method for setting up a monitoring camera includes tilting a camera head of the camera to a tilting position in which an optical axis of the camera substantially coincides with a rotational axis that the camera head is turning around when panning, and in which the camera head is able to capture images through a wide angle lens arranged in a fixed position in relation to a base of the camera. The camera head is turned around the optical axis of the camera and captures images until wide angle images captured through the wide angle lens present the desired orientation. A home position value for a pan motor of the camera is stored, wherein the position value represents the position value for the pan motor when the captured wide angle image presents the desired orientation. |
| US09386275B2 |
Interactive video conferencing
Technology for operating a video conferencing application at a local user equipment (UE) that supports an interactive zooming feature is disclosed. A local UE can define a region of interest (ROI) within a field of view at a remote UE. The local UE can communicate the ROI to the remote UE via a real-time transport control protocol (RTCP) feedback message, wherein the RTCP feedback message directs the remote UE to capture video within the ROI and encode the video within the ROI. The local UE can receive the encoded video within the ROI from the remote UE, the encoded video including regions within the ROI and excluding regions outside the ROI. The local UE can receive actual transmitted ROI corresponding to the encoded video from the remote UE via an RTP header extension. The encoded video within the ROI can be rendered for display at the local UE. |
| US09386273B1 |
Video multicast engine
Introduction of one or more multicast engines to a video conferencing system permits an improvement of overall network bandwidth used for a video conference. Video streams are received at a multicast engine from each of at least two participants in the video conference. The multicast engine transmits only the first of the two video streams based on a determination that only the first video stream is a candidate for a conference video stream to be transmitted to at least some of a plurality of conference participants from the server station. The conference video stream is received at the multicast engine from the server station, and the stream is transmitted from the multicast engine to each of the participants in the video conference that are connected to the multicast engine. |
| US09386272B2 |
Technologies for audiovisual communication using interestingness algorithms
Technologies for audiovisual communication include an audiovisual server and a number of audiovisual client devices, including a presenter device and a number of audience devices. Each audience device captures an audiovisual stream and transmits the audiovisual stream to the audiovisual server. Each audience device also captures sensor input data such as eye tracking data or facial expression data and transmits abstracted sensor input data to the audiovisual server. The abstracted sensor input data may be based on the captured audiovisual stream. The audiovisual server determines an interestingness rating associated with each audience device based on the sensor input data, and selects one or more audiovisual streams based on the interestingness ratings. The audiovisual server transmits the selected audiovisual streams to the presenter device. The audiovisual server may update the interestingness rating algorithm based on feedback from the presenter device or the audience devices. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US09386266B2 |
Method and apparatus for increasing frame rate of an image stream using at least one higher frame rate image stream
An image processing system comprises an image processor configured to obtain a first image stream having a first frame rate and a second image stream having a second frame rate lower than the first frame rate, to recover additional frames for the second image stream based on existing frames of the first and second image streams, and to utilize the additional frames to provide an increased frame rate for the second image stream. Recovering additional frames for the second image stream based on existing frames of the first and second image streams illustratively comprises determining sets of one or more additional frames for insertion between respective pairs of consecutive existing frames in the second image stream in respective iterations. |
| US09386264B2 |
Augmenting capabilities of a host device
A system, computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program, and a computer-implemented method for augmenting capabilities of a host device is presented. A first application on the host device is executed, where the first application is configured to execute on a second device and is configured to use a capability that is available on the second device, and where the capability is not included in the host device. A request is received from the first application to use the capability that is available the second device, where the first application does not have knowledge of the capabilities of the second device. A connection is established to the second device through at least one network. Communications are facilitated between the first application and the second device though the at least one network to provide the capability that is available on the second device to the first application. |
| US09386263B2 |
Imaging apparatus including function for performing imaging in accordance with sets of imaging parameters corresponding to pre-registered imaging scenes, and method and recording medium having program stored thereon for the same
When a continuous imaging mode is set, a screen is displayed for allowing input of a number of images to shoot and the imaging parameters for each of the images, a determination is made as to whether the number of images to shoot and the imaging parameters for each of the images have been input by the user. When the number of images to shoot and the imaging parameters for each of the images have been input, the input number of images and the imaging parameters are stored, and a direct image display is started. Moreover, when there is an imaging instruction, a continuous imaging process is started in which still imaging is performed continuously based on the stored number of images and the imaging parameters. When the continuous imaging process has been completed, the plurality of still image data, obtained with differing imaging parameters, is recorded. |
| US09386259B2 |
Projection display apparatus and method of controlling the same
A projection display apparatus includes an image projecting unit projecting an image, an operation unit as an operation device whose output value changes depending on the amount of operation, a correction amount setting unit changing a keystone correction amount in accordance with an output value of the operation unit, and a keystone correcting unit performing keystone correction on an image to be projected in accordance with the keystone correction amount. A zero reference position in which the keystone correction amount is zero is set in an operation range of the operation unit. The correction amount setting unit sets a dead zone in the operation range such that the dead zone includes the zero reference position and an area surrounding this position, and sets the keystone correction amount to zero in accordance with the output value corresponding to the inside of the dead zone. |
| US09386258B2 |
Display device, television receiver and electronic device
Provided are a mounting member which may be fixed to a substrate with a simple structure without using a solder, and easily mount the substrate to another member having a simple structure, while maintaining stable fixation to the substrate, a display device including the mounting member, and a television receiver including the display device. The mounting member includes a first abutting plate part formed in a square flat shape, a side abutting plate part connected to the first abutting plate part at a right angle, and a second abutting plate part connected to the side abutting plate part at a right angle. The mounting member is mounted so as to pinch a portion of an edge part of the substrate. The other member abuts the first abutting plate part, and a screw is inserted into a screw insertion hole of the other member, the screw insertion hole of the first abutting plate part, and the screw insertion hole of the substrate, and screwed to a female thread such that the substrate is mounted to the other member. |
| US09386257B2 |
Apparatus, system and method of controlling wireless transmission of video streams
Some demonstrative embodiments include apparatuses, systems and/or methods of controlling wireless transmission of video streams. For example, an apparatus may include a controller to control one or more windows to be displayed by a display device, the one or more windows to display video of one or more wireless video streams of a plurality of wireless video streams transmitted by a plurality of video sources, the controller is to request at least one video source of the plurality of video sources to set one or more attributes of a video stream transmitted by the video source based on at least one predefined criterion. |
| US09386256B1 |
Systems and methods for identifying a set of characters in a media file
The illustrative embodiments described herein provide systems and methods for notifying a user when a set of characters are identified in a media file. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a set of characters inputted by the user of a computing device, playing the media file, transcribing the media file to form a transcription, and determining whether the transcription of the media file includes the set of characters. The method also includes initiating a notification prompt on a graphical user interface of the computing device in response to determining that the media file includes the set of characters. |
| US09386253B2 |
Electronic television comprising mobile phone apparatus
A LCD television, LED television, Plasma television or other television system comprising a mobile phone having one or plurality of simsocket containing a plurality of pins, wherein Input/Output pin, clock pin, reset pin, vcc pin, ground pin are several respective pins of the said simsocket, and the said pins of one or plurality of simsocket are connected in parallel and the said plurality of simsockets for accepting plurality of simcards in order to operate the simcards selectively and/or simultaneously. The said plurality of simsocket are connected to the CPU (Central Processing Unit) (14) in parallel and the said CPU (14) has a switching circuit and the said CPU (14) is connected to the one or plurality of simsocket through the switching circuit and the function of one or plurality of simsocket is operated by the CPU (14), switching circuit, and transreceivers (15). The function of the television and the mobile phone is operated selectively and/or simultaneously by the CPU (14), switching circuit, and transreceivers (15), and the said CPU (14) is connected to the transreceivers (15) through antenna (16) in the LCD television, LED television, Plasma television and other television system. |
| US09386252B2 |
Systems and methods for triggering the transmission of recovery video frames to a video-receiving device over a half-duplex air interface
An embodiment takes the form of a process that includes transmitting video frames to a receiving device during a first transmission period of one or more time slots of a half-duplex air interface, and receiving feedback messaging from the receiving device during a feedback period of one or more time slots of the half-duplex air interface. The process further includes suspending, after the first transmission period, transmission of video frames for a suspension period of one or more time slots of the half-duplex air interface, and after the feedback period and after the suspension period, transmitting one or more recovery frames to the receiving device during a recovery period of one or more time slots of the half-duplex air interface. The one or more recovery frames collectively include inter-coded macroblock data and/or intra-coded macroblock data. |
| US09386251B2 |
Image pickup device, image pickup system, and method of driving image pickup device in which comparison start times are controlled
Provided are an image pickup device, a method of driving the image pickup device, and an image pickup system, in which timings of starting operations in a plurality of comparison units to which power supply voltage is applied through a common line are controlled to be different. |
| US09386249B2 |
Image pickup apparatus
An image pickup apparatus includes: first and second photoelectric conversion units that are disposed in a semiconductor substrate, are configured to accumulate charges, and are of a first conductivity type; an electrode that is disposed on a region between the first and second photoelectric conversion units and is configured to control an electrical conduction between the first and second photoelectric conversion units; a first semiconductor region that is formed under the electrode and between the first and second photoelectric conversion units, is continuous from the first photoelectric conversion unit to the second photoelectric conversion unit, and is of the first conductivity type; and a second semiconductor region that is formed under the electrode and between the first and second photoelectric conversion units, is provided at a depth different from that of the first semiconductor region, and is of a second conductivity type. |
| US09386242B2 |
Imaging device and method having a control circuit to shift charges of the photodiode of each pixel simultaneously to a first storage node or a second storage node for capturing a moving object without distortion and achieving a wide dynamic range
An imaging device and a method of driving the imaging device including a plurality of pixels and a control circuit to apply a signal to the pixels, wherein the pixels include a photodiode, a floating diffusion node, a first storage node and a second storage node connected in parallel between the photodiode and the floating diffusion node, a first shift switching unit to selectively shift charges integrated in the photodiode to the first storage node, a second shift switching node to selectively shift the charges integrated in the photodiode to the second storage node, a first transfer switching unit to selectively transfer charges integrated in the first storage node to the floating diffusion node, a second transfer switching unit to selectively transfer charges integrated in the second storage node to the floating diffusion node, and a reset switching unit. |
| US09386241B2 |
Apparatus and method for enhancing dynamic range of charge coupled device-based spectrograph
The present invention is directed to an apparatus, method and software product for enhancing the dynamic range of a CCD sensor without substantially increasing the noise. Initially, the area of a N×M pixel CCD sensor array is subdivided into two regions, a large region having (M−a) pixels in each column for outputting large-amplitude signals with low noise and a smaller region having a pixels in each column for outputting small-amplitude signals with improved dynamic range. At integration time, the CCD is read out one region's rows at a time into the horizontal shift registers by shifting the pixel charges in either a or M−a vertical shifts. The charges in the horizontal shift registers are then shifted out of the horizontal shift registers in N horizontal shifts. Next, the remaining pixels in the region of the CCD are read out into the horizontal shift registers by shifting the pixel charges in the other of a or M−a vertical shifts. Those charges are then shifted out of the horizontal shift registers in N horizontal shifts. In a spectrographic application, the data from the two regions is read out in the form of a large-amplitude channel from the larger region's rows and a small-amplitude channel from the smaller region's rows. |
| US09386240B1 |
Compensation for dual conversion gain high dynamic range sensor
An image sensor, readout circuitry for an image sensor, and a method of operating readout circuitry are disclosed. Readout circuitry includes an analog-to-digital-converter (“ADC”) including input stage circuitry with a first selectable input and a second selectable input. The ADC is coupled to sequentially receive a first reset signal, a second reset signal, a high gain image signal, and a low gain image signal, in that order. The input stage circuitry is configured to select the first selectable input when receiving the first reset signal and the low gain image signal and select the second selectable input when receiving the second reset signal and the high gain image signal. |
| US09386239B2 |
Thermal isolation device for infrared surveillance camera
A thermal imaging system includes a mounting structure characterized by a first thermal conductivity and a focal plane array mounted to the mounting structure. The thermal imaging system also includes an optical system coupled to the mounting structure and a heating element coupled to the mounting structure. The thermal imaging system further includes a thermal isolator coupled to the mounting structure and characterized by a second thermal conductivity lower than the first thermal conductivity. |
| US09386236B2 |
Periodic fringe imaging with structured pattern illumination and electronic rolling shutter detection
The present invention relates to a method of obtaining multiple images with a spatially varying periodic fringe pattern produced by a digital light projector that is spatially and temporally synchronized to the rolling shutter exposure of a two-dimensional pixel array detector. Two or more images obtained with phase-shifted spatial fringe patterns are combined to form a composite image with the spatial fringes and other unwanted scattered light removed. |
| US09386232B2 |
Image processing apparatus which composes a plurality of images shot under different exposure conditions and image processing method
An image processing apparatus which composes a plurality of images shot under different exposure conditions, comprises a detection unit which detects an exposure error according to a position on a screen using, out of the plurality of images shot under different exposure conditions, an image whose exposure amount is smaller than a predetermined value as a detection target image, a calculation unit which calculates correction information to correct the exposure error detected by the detection unit in accordance with the position on the screen, an adjustment unit which performs level adjustment according to the exposure amount of the detection target image in accordance with the correction information and position information on the screen, and an image composition unit which generates a composite image by composing the plurality of images including the image that has undergone the level adjustment. |
| US09386226B2 |
Camera drive device
A camera driving apparatus according to the present invention includes: a camera section with an imaging plane; a movable unit which houses the camera section inside and includes an attracting magnet and a convex partial sphere on its outer surface; a fixed unit which has a depressed portion in which a magnetic body and the movable unit are loosely fit, which brings the convex partial sphere of the movable unit into a point or line contact with the depressed portion under magnetic attractive force of the attracting magnet to the magnetic body, and which allows the movable unit to rotate freely on the spherical centroid of the first convex partial sphere; a panning driving section; a tilting driving section; a rolling driving section; a lens driving section; an image sensor driving section; a first detector which detects the tilt angles of the camera section in the panning and tilting directions with respect to the fixed unit; a second detector which detects the angle of rotation of the camera section that is rotating in the rolling direction; and a third detector which detects the magnitudes of shift of the image sensor along the panning rotation axis and the tilting rotation axis. |
| US09386225B2 |
Shaking amount detecting apparatus, image pickup apparatus, and shaking amount detecting method
A shaking amount detecting apparatus includes an angular velocity sensor that detects yaw, pitch, and roll-angular-velocities, an acceleration sensor that detects X and Y-accelerations in X and Y-axis directions, radius calculating sections that respectively calculate a yaw-radius and an XZ-roll-radius on the basis of a yaw-angular-velocity, a roll-angular-velocity, and an X-acceleration at different times, a velocity calculating section that multiplies the yaw-angular-velocity with the yaw-radius to calculate a first component of an X-velocity, a velocity calculating section that multiplies the roll-angular-velocity with the XZ-roll-radius to calculate a second component of the X-velocity, an adding section that adds up the first component of the X-velocity and the second component of the X-velocity to acquire the X-velocity, and an integrating section that integrates the X-velocity with respect to a time period to thereby calculate a movement amount in the X-axis direction. |
| US09386223B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method and storage medium for acquiring an omnifocal image by combining multiple images with a specific order
An imaging apparatus includes a captured image acquisition unit, a combination sequence determination unit, and an image combination unit. The captured image acquisition unit acquires data of multiple captured images that have been imaged at multiple focus positions. The combination sequence determination unit determines a sequence of the images imaged by an imaging unit, the sequence being different from both a progressive sequence of focus distances and a sequence of imaging, to be a sequence for combining the data of the multiple captured images acquired by the captured image acquisition unit. The image combination unit combines the multiple captured images imaged by the imaging unit, in the order determined by the combination sequence determination unit, creating data of an omnifocal image. |
| US09386222B2 |
Multi-camera system using folded optics free from parallax artifacts
Aspects relate to an array camera exhibiting little or no parallax artifacts in captured images. For example, the planes of the central mirror surfaces of the array camera can be located at a midpoint along, and orthogonally to, a line between the corresponding camera location and the virtual camera location. Accordingly, the cones of all of the cameras in the array appear as if coming from the virtual camera location after folding by the mirrors. Each sensor in the array “sees” a portion of the image scene using a corresponding facet of the central mirror prism, and accordingly each individual sensor/mirror pair represents only a sub-aperture of the total array camera. The complete array camera has a synthetic aperture generated based on the sum of all individual aperture rays. |
| US09386221B2 |
Portable lateral test reader
A portable lateral test reader apparatus includes a processing arrangement, a digital camera, a user interface. The digital camera captures at least one image of locations of at least one test line, at least one control line and at least one reference of a test structure. The processing arrangement measures an intensity associated with the at least one test line, an intensity associated with the at least control line and an intensity of the at least one reference in the at least one image, forms a test result as a function of measured intensities associated with the at least on test line, the at least control line and the at least one reference, and outputs the test result using the user interface. |
| US09386218B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program
An information processing apparatus includes a first optical system, a second optical system, and a casing. The first optical system is configured to input light into a first imaging device. The second optical system is configured to input light into a second imaging device. The casing includes one surface long in a specific direction with the first optical system and the second optical system being arranged in the one surface in an orthogonal direction almost orthogonal to the specific direction. The first optical system and the second optical system are arranged such that an optical axis of the first optical system and an optical axis of the second optical system form an angle in the specific direction. |
| US09386206B2 |
Imaging element and imaging device
An imaging element includes: a semiconductor substrate in which a plurality of pixels is arranged in a two-dimensional array; a color filter layer which is laminated in a position corresponding to the pixel on an upper layer of the semiconductor substrate; a plurality of micro lenses which is laminated on an upper layer of the color filter layer to condense light which is incident onto the pixel; and an isolated columnar reflective wall which is vertically provided in an intermediate layer between the semiconductor substrate and the micro lens at every position of a gap enclosed by the plurality of adjacent micro lenses and reflects the light which is incident onto the color filter from the gap to a direction facing the pixel corresponding to the color filter. |
| US09386205B2 |
Optical apparatus
An optical apparatus includes a heat sink radiating the image sensor, a cooling fan unit configured to cool the heat sink, and a first lens barrel including a hollow portion configured to guide light to the image sensor. The first lens barrel holds the cooling fan unit and house the holder unit movably in the hollow portion in an optical axis direction of the image pickup optical system. The holder unit includes a first inlet and a first outlet. The first lens barrel includes a second inlet for taking in external air and a second outlet for exhausting the external air taken in through the second inlet. The first inlet is connected to the second inlet and the first outlet is connected to the second outlet when the holder unit is positioned in the hollow portion of the first lens barrel. |
| US09386202B2 |
Camera module
Exemplary embodiments of a camera module are proposed, the camera module being such that a terminal formed at a holder is inserted into a through hole or a groove of a substrate in a case the substrate and the holder are coupled, to allow the terminal and the holder to be electrically connected. |
| US09386201B2 |
Electronic apparatus and camera device thereof
The present disclosure relates to a camera device and an electronic device. The camera device comprises a rigid circuit board, an image sensor, and a heat dissipation member. The rigid circuit board comprises an extension portion extending laterally and a plurality of electrical contact pads. The extension portion comprises a board edge. The plurality of electrical contact pads are provided on the board edge. The image sensor comprises an image capture chip. The image capture chip may be directly fixed on the rigid circuit board, a heat dissipation space is left at a position which is below the rigid circuit board and corresponds to the image sensor when the board edge of the rigid circuit board is mated to a board edge connector of laterally connected type provided at one side of a main circuit board. The heat dissipation member may be provided in the heat dissipation space. |
| US09386200B2 |
Camera module and electronic device for cooling image sensor
There is provided a camera module including an image sensor unit that is configured to include an image sensor and a mounting board, a sheet-shaped heat radiation member that comes into contact with a part of the image sensor unit and a component other than the image sensor unit and is elastically deformed so that an imaging surface of the image sensor unit is moved, and an actuator that elastically deforms the sheet-shaped heat radiation member so that the imaging surface of the image sensor unit is moved. |
| US09386199B2 |
Camera module
Disclosed is a camera module, the module including an IR filter for filtering infrared rays, an image sensor located under the IR filter to convert an incident optic image into an electric signal, a first PCB having a window to permit passage of the optic image and a cavity extending downwards from the window to accommodate the image sensor, a predetermined portion of an upper portion of the cavity being electrically connected to a predetermined portion of an upper surface of the image sensor, and a first through hole taking a shape of a pipe that is connected at one end thereof to the window and connected at the other end to the cavity, the first through hole serving as a path for discharging air between the IR filter and the image sensor. |
| US09386196B1 |
Holding assembly for a picture taking device
A holding assembly for a picture taking device such as a smartphone or camera, which holding assembly may be hung from various surfaces to position the picture taking device at eye level, the holding assembly including variable length rigid support having first and second ends, which variable length rigid support may be readily locked in various positions of length adjustment, the one end of the variable length rigid support being provided with a griping surface which may act as a handle, a C-shaped hook which extends upwardly from the first end of the variable length rigid support, and a removable ball joint assembly carried by the second end of the variable length rigid support, which ball joint assembly may receive the picture taking device. |
| US09386193B2 |
Signal transmitting device, signal transmitting/receiving device, and image display device
The signal transmitting device of a signal transmitting/receiving device according to the present disclosure includes a signal processing unit that outputs a video signal as parallel data together with the first clock (the pixel clock); a first buffer memory to which the parallel data is written based on the first clock from the signal processing unit, and from which the written parallel data is read based on the second clock having a constant frequency equal to or higher than that of the first clock; and a transmitting unit. The transmitting unit receives the parallel data read from the first buffer memory and the second clock, converts the parallel data into serial data, and outputs the serial data to the signal line based on the second clock. The first buffer memory and the transmitting unit are formed of an FPGA (field-programmable gate array). |
| US09386192B2 |
AV timing measurement and correction for digital television
An invention for measuring, maintaining and correcting synchronization between signals which suffer varying relative delays during transmission and/or storage is shown. The present invention teaches measuring the relative delay between a plurality of signals which have suffered differing delays due to transmission, storage or other processing. The preferred embodiment of the invention includes the use of a marker which is generated in response to a second signal and combined with a first signal in a manner which ensures that the marker will not be lost in the expected processing of the first signal. Subsequently a first delayed marker is generated in response to the marker associated with or recovered from the first signal, and a second delayed marker is generated from the second signal. The first delayed marker and second delayed marker are compared to determine a measure of the relative timing or delay between said first signal and said second signal at said subsequent time. |
| US09386187B2 |
Image processing apparatus and operations of selecting compression scheme to generate compressed file
An image processing apparatus includes: a processor configured to receive selection of one of options including a first-kind option and a second-kind option, and receive designation of a saving format and a compression level; acquire scan data generated; and generate a compressed file by compressing the scan data, wherein in a case where the first-kind option is selected and where a specific saving format is designated as the saving format, the processor configured to generate the compressed file by using a first compression scheme, regardless of the designated compression level. In a case where the second-kind option is selected and where the specific saving format is designated as the saving format, the processor configured to select one compression scheme from the first compression scheme and the second compression scheme, according to the designated compression level, and generate the compressed file by using the selected compression scheme. |
| US09386180B2 |
Image processing device, image processing method, image processing system, and computer-readable non-transitory recording medium
An image processing device is capable of communicating with an information processing terminal and performing image processing on a scanned image together with the information processing terminal in a distributed manner. The image processing device includes: a document feeder that automatically feeds pages of a document continuously one by one; an image reader that generates a scanned image of one page by reading the document; an image processor that generates a processed image by performing image processing on the scanned image generated by the image reader; a halt processor that makes the image processor halt the image processing; and a transmission processor that transmits the processed image generated as a result of the image processing to the information processing terminal and transmits a scanned image not to be subjected to the image processing to the information processing terminal during the image processing or after halt of the image processing. |
| US09386177B2 |
Information processing apparatus and original reading apparatus
In the original reading apparatus configured to store the image data in the image storing unit such as temporary storage memory, time required to complete the overwriting for erasure is reduced. The image data read by the image reading unit is stored in the image data storing unit and the stored image data is output. To hold data stored in the image data storing unit, refresh processing, which is to perform processing intermittently required to hold the data stored in the image data storing unit, is performed at a predetermined execution frequency. After the image data is output, frequency to execute the refresh processing is reduced as compared to a predetermined execution frequency to perform writing of the dummy data. |
| US09386175B2 |
Image forming apparatus and computer-readable recording medium with group display instruction area
An image forming apparatus includes a switching operation unit switching a display mode of a setting screen between first and second display modes. A first display screen in a first display mode includes an icon display area displaying icons arranged in a predetermined direction and corresponding to function buttons for setting each function, and a first function button display area displaying some of the function buttons corresponding to some of the icons specified by a range specification unit. The function buttons are classified into groups according to their function attribute. A second display screen in the second display mode includes a group display instruction area provided with group specification buttons for receiving input of a group display instruction to display function buttons belonging to a specific group among the groups, and a second function button display area displaying the function buttons belonging to the specific group among the function buttons. |
| US09386174B2 |
Image forming apparatus, method for guidance on operation method by image forming apparatus, and system
An image forming apparatus includes a touch panel connected to a network, for displaying an icon accepting an inquiry about an operation and a control unit for controlling an operation. The control unit is configured to transmit an inquiry about an operation to a terminal through the network, to receive an answer based on the inquiry from the terminal, and to display on the touch panel, an operation instruction based on operation method instruction information indicating the answer. |
| US09386172B2 |
Image forming system that performs authentication of a consumable member
An image forming system includes an image forming apparatus configured to form an image and a server coupled to the image forming apparatus so as to be communicable with the image forming apparatus. The server includes a server storage unit configured to store a list of the identification symbol given to the consumable member, a server reception unit configured to receive the data regarding the identification symbol transmitted from the image forming apparatus transmission unit, a determination unit configured to determine whether or not there is an identification symbol corresponding to the data regarding the identification symbol received by the server reception unit in the list of the identification symbol stored in the server storage unit, and a control unit configured to, if the determination unit determines that there is the identification symbol, perform control to make the consumable member usable. |
| US09386170B2 |
Operation performing system capable of grasping performance status
An operation performing system, comprising: a device; a service providing server for providing a service that causes the device to perform an operation; and a relay server for relaying between the service providing server and the device, wherein the device and the relay server are connected in a server-push enabled state, wherein the service providing server executes a first command-transmission processing for transmitting performance command for commanding performance of the operation, wherein the relay server executes a second command-transmission processing for transmitting, in the server-push enabled state, the performance command to the device, wherein the device executes a first status-transmission processing for transmitting, to the relay server, status information indicative of a status of the operation under performance, and wherein the relay server executes a second storage processing for storing in, the first storage, the status information in association with the service identifying information. |
| US09386168B2 |
Printed media reuse determination apparatus and media reuse determination program
According to one embodiment, the media reuse determination apparatus has a decoding section, a reusability determination section, and an output section. The decoding section decodes information related to management of a print media attached to the print media obtained by using a reading apparatus to read the object having the information recorded thereon, and it carries out error correction during decoding of the information. On the basis of the result of the error correction carried out during decoding of the information by the decoding section, the reusability determination section determines whether or not the print media can be reused. The output section outputs the result of the determination made by the reusability determination section. |
| US09386163B2 |
Method and arrangement in a digital subscriber line system
Transmitting and receiving arrangements and methods in a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) system having a plurality of modems and vectored transmission capability. A first part of an available frequency band is reserved for vectored DSL transmission and reception using modems operating in the first part of the frequency band. The remaining, second, part of the available frequency band is reserved for both vectored and non-vectored transmission using modems operating in the second part of the frequency band. |
| US09386160B2 |
Call setup from a circuit switched network to a terminal residing within a packet switched network
A user with a terminal residing in a Circuit Switched (CS) telecommunication network calls a party having a terminal residing at a Packet Switched (PS) telecommunication network, the CS and PS networks connected to each other by gateway entity. The party to be called at the PS network is addressed by means of a Session Initiation Protocol Universal Resource Identifier (SIP-URI). The call setup is performed in a two step process. In a first step, the terminal sends a the SIP-URI in a message together with the address of this terminal to a network entity which stores said message. In a second step, the terminal calls the network entity, wherein the network entity selects the stored SIP-URI and resolves the SIP-URI into an address of the terminal at the PS network and instructs the gateway entity to connect the calling terminal to the terminal. |
| US09386153B1 |
Identifying information resources for contact center agents based on analytics
Various embodiments of the invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for determining a pattern for communications conducted between agents at a contact center and contact parties. In particular embodiments, the pattern is based on a utilization of one or more information resources by the agents during the communications. Depending on the embodiment, the communications may comprise one or more of telephone calls, text messages, emails, and Web chats. In addition, in various embodiments, a particular information resource from among the one or more information resources is identified based on the pattern and is associated with a keyphrase found in at least two of the communications. Accordingly, as a result of the association, the particular information resource is made available to at least one agent at the contact center during a time the agent is fielding a subsequent communication in which the keyphrase is detected. |
| US09386146B2 |
Multi-party conversation analyzer and logger
In one aspect, the present invention facilitates the investigation of networks of criminals, by gathering associations between phone numbers, the names of persons reached at those phone numbers, and voice print data. In another aspect the invention automatically detects phone calls from a prison where the voiceprint of the person called matches the voiceprint of a past inmate. In another aspect the invention detects identity scams in prisons, by monitoring for known voice characteristics of likely imposters on phone calls made by prisoners. In another aspect, the invention automatically does speech-to-text conversion of phone numbers spoken within a predetermined time of detecting data indicative of a three-way call event while monitoring a phone call from a prison inmate. In another aspect, the invention automatically thwarts attempts of prison inmates to use re-dialing services. In another aspect, the invention automatically tags audio data retrieved from a database, by steganographically encoding into the audio data the identity of the official retrieving the audio data. |
| US09386144B2 |
Real-time customer feedback
Described are embodiments for providing real time feedback during communication between a customer and a contact center agent to allow a bad customer experience to be mitigated. Embodiments include a system that can identify and mitigate issues that may arise during the communication between the customer and the customer agent including a customer agent's performance, escalation to a supervisor, materials shared with the customer, wait time experience and/or other aspects of the communication. The feedback is provided while the customer and agent are still communicating. The feedback is linked to the specific session and agent. If an issue is identified, steps are taken to mitigate the issue. |
| US09386142B2 |
Driver electronic device automatic deactivation system and method
A system and method of automatically prevents a cellular telephone operated by a driver from receiving or transmitting text and email messages while driving a motor vehicle. The system includes a first Bluetooth transceiver located inside a motor vehicle configured to create a link, such as a piconet, with a compatible second Bluetooth receiver located in the cellular telephone that has text and email messaging capabilities. The cellular telephone includes a software program loaded into its memory designed to automatically disable the device's text and mail messaging capabilities when the link is created. Upon entering and starting the motor vehicle, the link is established, which automatically blocks or deactivates the telephone's transmission and receiving message capabilities. In one embodiment, the software program provides a menu page that allows the driver to selectively turn ON or OFF different features when the two transceivers are linked. Access to the menu page may be controlled by passwords. |
| US09386137B1 |
Identifying recorded call data segments of interest
A method and apparatus of processing a voice call are disclosed. One example method of operation may include recording at least a portion of a voice call, and storing the portion of the voice call in memory. The method may also include processing the portion of the voice call to identify at least one segment of interest, and forwarding the at least one segment of interest to a new call party responsive to a call transfer action. |
| US09386135B2 |
Ergonomic tubular anechoic chambers for use with a communication device and related methods
Disclosed, in general, are devices that provide a substantially sound-tight chamber over a sound source while absorbing fields of sounds from the sound source. In general, the devices feature: an anechoic chamber that is configured to receive a sound source in a substantially sound-tight manner; an active noise canceling means in the anechoic chamber; and an anechoic channel that is in fluid communication with the ambient atmosphere. |
| US09386134B2 |
Speaker back cavity
An apparatus including a sound transducer; and a housing having the sound transducer connected thereto. The housing forms a substantially sealed air space back cavity acoustically coupled to the sound transducer. The housing includes a housing member having a first dividing structure located in the back cavity to connect two adjacent air mass sections of the back cavity, where the dividing structure includes at least one aperture to permit travel of sound waves through the at lease one aperture between the air mass sections. |
| US09386133B2 |
Voice control module for mobile instruments
A mobile device includes a pressure sensor, a light sensor, a microphone, and a microphone cover. The mobile device is configured to power on upon one or more of an activation of the pressure sensor and a decrease in the intensity of light sensed by the light sensor. The microphone cover is configured to retract and expose the microphone upon one or more of the activation of the pressure sensor and the decrease in the intensity of light sensed by the light sensor. |
| US09386132B2 |
Wireless communication device
A wireless communication device includes a base board, a display module, and a metal member. The display module is located on the base board. The metal member includes a frame and a metal body. The frame surrounds the display module. The metal body extends from the frame, and is spaced from the display module to reduce electromagnetic interference between the at least one metal body and the display module. |
| US09386124B2 |
Method and apparatus for collecting and disseminating information over a computer network
The apparatus comprises at least one database for storing digital information associated with at least a first user and a second user, at least one links module for the first user and for the second user, at least one manipulations module and at least one display device for respectively displaying at least said linked digital information wherein said linked digital information associated with said first user is automatically updated on at least said display device of said second user when that information is manipulated, and wherein said linked digital information associated with said second user is automatically updated on at least said display device of said first user when that information is manipulated. |
| US09386123B2 |
Distributed audio playback and recording
Techniques are disclosed for providing distributed audio playback and recording functionality according to certain embodiments. In such embodiments one or more client audio devices can be connected to a server computing device via a network connection, thereby providing distributed audio playback and recording functionality to the server computing device. For example, audio tracks may be recorded at the server computing device based on audio signals collected from one or more remotely-located smartphones. In certain embodiments a transmission control protocol (TCP) network connection is used to transmit audio signals between the server computing device and the one or more remotely located client audio devices, thereby eliminating the need to provide physical cable connections between the devices. Distributing audio data over a network connection also reduces compatibility issues between audio software used by the server computing device and audio hardware provided by the one or more client audio devices. |
| US09386116B2 |
System, apparatus for content delivery for internet traffic and methods thereof
In one embodiment, a method of serving media includes receiving user profiles from a layer3 node in an access network, and receiving a request to serve media content to a user equipment. The user profiles include information relating to user account and/or network characteristics of the user equipment. The method further includes using an user equipment information from the user profiles, assigning a first media server from a hierarchical set of media servers to serve the user equipment if the media content to be served is cacheable. The hierarchical set of media servers include a plurality of first type of media servers deployed in a plurality of layer2 (L2) access networks. The user equipment is coupled to a content delivery network through a layer2 access network of the plurality of layer2 access networks. |
| US09386114B2 |
Systems and methods for accessing an update server
Systems and methods for accessing an update server to receive one or more updates for data are provided. In some aspects, a system includes an auto-update module configured to determine whether to access the update server directly or by proxy. If the auto-update module determines to access the update server by proxy, the auto-update module is configured to: transmit a request to a proxy manager module for proxy server data that identifies one or more proxy servers; receive the proxy server data from the proxy manager module in response to the request; and access the update server based on the proxy server data to receive one or more updates for the data. The auto-update module is subject to fewer restrictions in modifying the data than is the proxy manager module. |
| US09386113B1 |
System-initiated interactions and notifications in a chat information system on mobile devices
A method for push interaction with a mobile device using a chat interface includes establishing a chat protocol connection between a server and the mobile device, wherein the chat protocol format is used as a part of the push protocol; generating an event on the server; sending a push protocol command relating to the event from the server to the mobile device using the chat protocol connection; in the background, processing the chat protocol request that was packaged within the push protocol command; receiving the response from the mobile device through the chat protocol connection using the pull protocol mode; sending media contents from the server to the client using pull protocol mode; and displaying the media contents on the mobile device. |
| US09386110B2 |
Communications responsive to recipient sentiment
A computer program product includes a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method including receiving input from a first communication device of a first user identifying a target sentiment associated with a second user, monitoring current online activity of the second user to determine a current sentiment for the second user, and initiating communication between the first communication device of the first user and a second communication device of the second user in response to the current sentiment of the second user meeting the target sentiment input by the first user. |
| US09386108B1 |
Automated rare species and new species discovery alerts via crowdsourcing
This invention provides a social network for wildlife species observers, e.g. birders, to verify accuracy of observations made of wildlife in the field, and includes issuance of automatic rare species alerts when a sighting is determined to be rare, all via a web site. |
| US09386106B1 |
Community-based detection of a missing device
A computer-implemented method of community detection of a missing device is described. The method includes receiving a missing device report having identifying information of a missing device, sending a search command to an agent including the missing device report, and receiving a search report from the agent comprising whether or not the identifying information of the missing device is detected in a network to which the agent is connected. Also a method of community detection of a missing device through receiving a search command having identifying information of a missing device is described. The method includes monitoring network activity of a network for the identifying information of the missing device connected to the network, and sending a search report comprising whether or not the identifying information of the missing device is detected in the network. |
| US09386093B2 |
Price-aware neighborhood selection for peer-to-peer networks
A method and apparatus for peer-to-peer file sharing is provided. In some embodiments, the method includes receiving a request for a list of neighbor peers, where the request is made by a requesting peer device, and where the requesting peer device has a local internet service provider (ISP). The method may also include employing a server device to rank each neighbor peer in a plurality of neighbor peers based on whether the respective neighbor peer is external to the local ISP, and if the respective neighbor peer is external to the ISP, further based on a cost metric associated with a next ISP hop from the requesting peer device to the respective neighbor peer. The method may also include generating the list of neighbor peers based on the ranking of the neighbor peers, and enabling transmission of the list of neighbor peers to the requesting peer device. |
| US09386091B2 |
Self-adapting direct peer to peer communication and messaging system
A system and method for communication and messaging among self-adapting peer nodes is disclosed, where each node maintains a list of authorized peer nodes. The nodes exchange requests directly with other nodes over networks, providing information identifying the requesting node and the type of request. The receiving node authenticates the requesting node, authenticates the type of request, and determines method of response to the request. If the request is authenticated and the type of request is valid, the receiving node also validates the incoming request and originating node and adapts its peer node database, applying any required changes. The types of requests exchanged between nodes include: status and location change, message, audio, voice, video, text, and data. The types of responses include: authorized, unauthorized, or ignore. The nodes may periodically send and receive requests for status, messages, and data updates from an optional central server. |
| US09386086B2 |
Dynamic scaling for multi-tiered distributed systems using payoff optimization of application classes
In one embodiment, a method is described. The method includes: monitoring workloads of a plurality of application classes, each of the application classes describing services provided by one or more applications in a multi-tiered system and comprising a plurality of instantiated execution resources; estimating, for each of the application classes, a number of execution resources able to handle the monitored workloads, to simultaneously maintain a multi-tiered system response time below a determined value and minimize a cost per execution resource; and dynamically adjusting the plurality of instantiated execution resources for each of the application classes based on the estimated number of execution resources. |
| US09386085B2 |
Techniques for providing scalable application delivery controller services
A method for managing an application delivery controller (ADC) cluster operable in a software defined networking (SDN)-based network and including a plurality of ADC virtual appliances (VAs). The method comprises creating, by a central controller, a hash table including a plurality of buckets allocated to active VAs out of the plurality of VAs, each bucket is assigned to a range of a source internet protocol (IP) addresses of a client; and programming by the central controller at least one ingress network element connected to the ADC cluster and receive incoming traffic from clients to perform a balanced incoming traffic distribution among the plurality of VAs, wherein the traffic distribution is based in part on the allocation of the buckets to the plurality of VAs and the SIP addresses of the clients originating the incoming traffic. The plurality of VAs are virtual ADC instances operable i the plurality of physical devices. |
| US09386084B1 |
Selective processing of medical images
Systems and methods that allow transfer criteria to be defined based on one or more of several attributes, such as a particular user, site, or device, as well as whether individual images and/or image series are classified as thin slices, and applied to medical images in order to determine which images are downloaded, viewed, stored, and/or any number of other actions that might be performed with respect to particular images. |
| US09386083B2 |
Managed services platform
A managed services platform. An applications management server is provided for managing relationships with application service providers and others over a wide area network such as the Internet. The applications management server interfaces with a master database server and the servers of one or more application service providers, or other entities, to facilitate selection and deselection of applications, services, and capabilities that may be available for use by the information technology network of a company. |
| US09386082B2 |
Information processing apparatus, and control method and storage medium therefor
An information processing apparatus configured to notify information on processing in a notification method different depending on whether the processing to be executed by a processing unit is one executed in response to a request from a web application accessed by the apparatus. The information processing apparatus registers identification information for the web application accessed by the apparatus, and determines whether a job to be executed by the apparatus is one requested by a web application corresponding to any of registered identification information. When it is determined that the job is one requested by a web application corresponding to any of the registered identification information, the progress of the job is displayed in detail. When it is determined that the job is not one requested by a web application corresponding to any of the registered identification information, the progress of the job is briefly displayed or is not displayed. |
| US09386081B2 |
Scalable content distribution for sparse publish-subscribe systems using the object management group real-time publish-subscribe protocol
Publisher-side content based filtering methods and systems are provided to select which subscribers shall receive each data-message sent by a publisher using an Object Management Group (OMG) Real-Time Publish-Subscribe (RTPS) protocol. Methods and systems are provided for writer-side content based filtering and data distribution from a publisher to a plurality of subscribers using an Object Management Group (OMG) Real-Time Publish-Subscribe (RTPS) protocol. Methods and systems are provided for performing scalable content-based filtering and distribution from a publisher to a plurality of subscribers using the Object Management Group (OMG) Real-Time Publish-Subscribe (RTPS) protocol. |
| US09386079B2 |
Method and system of virtual desktop infrastructure deployment studio
Aspects of the present disclosure relates to a virtual desktop deployment system configured to deploy a virtual desktop infrastructure. In certain embodiments, the virtual desktop deployment system includes: (a) virtual desktop servers, for hosting the virtual desktop infrastructure, (b) a computer server for deploying virtual desktop infrastructure by a system administrator, and a deployment database for storing virtual desktop infrastructure configuration and system settings, and (c) a virtual desktop deployment entity configured to perform following operations: (a) receiving configuration and system settings of the virtual desktop infrastructure, (b) discovering and scanning the virtual desktop servers to obtain system information, (c) establishing deployment rules and deployment dependencies, (d) reading the virtual desktop infrastructure configuration and system settings, (e) deploying the virtual desktop infrastructure to the virtual desktop servers, and (f) generating and storing the status, the reports, and the logs of the virtual desktop infrastructure deployment. |
| US09386078B2 |
Controlling application programming interface transactions based on content of earlier transactions
Some aspects of the present disclosure operate an application programming interface (API) risk assessment equipment. An API transaction request is received from an application processed by a source node. A risk assessment score is generated based on comparison of content of the API transaction request to content of earlier API transaction requests. The risk assessment score indicates trustworthiness of the API transaction request. Deliverability of the API transaction request to a destination node for processing is controlled based on the risk assessment score. |
| US09386071B2 |
System for communicating media to users over a network
A system of selectively providing media as audio or video or combined media to users in a categorized highly segmented manner. Employing communications and operative software adapted to the task running on a networked computer or server, the system stores media browsers which use media files related to the products and services of one subscribing client. The media browser is forwardable from one user to another. Electronic sales leads are provided to the subscribing clients through the employment of a database configured to discern potential user customers based on matching of media browser identifiers of media browsers requested by users. |
| US09386070B2 |
Delay system, delay device and communication device constituting delay system
A delay system which has a communications device connected to a communications network and a relay device which is connected between the communications network ad an external device. The relay device is configured to divide data received from the external device into a plurality of data fragments each containing divided data, and send a sequence of messages, the messages corresponding to the respective divided data and dummy messages being included in the sequence of messages according to a communications rule. The communications device is configured to reconstitute the data from the external device on the basis of the message group from the relay device according to the communications rule. |
| US09386042B1 |
Methods, systems, and computer readable mediums for utilizing geographical location information to manage applications in a computer network system
Methods, systems, and computer readable mediums for utilizing geographical location information to manage applications in a computer network system are disclosed. According to one example, a method includes receiving, by a global positioning system (GPS) service entity, a request for geographical location information associated with an infrastructure enclosure device from a location request entity, wherein the location request entity is hosted by the infrastructure enclosure device. The method further includes acquiring, by the GPS service entity, the geographical location information from a location enablement device included in the infrastructure enclosure device and sending, by the GPS service module, the acquired geographical location information to the location request entity, wherein the location request entity enforces a policy based on the acquired geographical location information. |
| US09386037B1 |
Using hash signatures of DOM objects to identify website similarity
Embodiments are directed to using a hash signature of a rendered DOM object of a website to find similar content and behavior on other websites. Embodiments break a DOM into a large number of data portions (i.e., “shingles”), apply a hashing algorithm to the shingles, select a predetermined number of hashes from the hashed shingles according to a selection criteria to create a hash signature, and compare the hash signature to that of a reference page to determine similarity of website DOM object content. Embodiments can be used to identify phishing websites, defaced websites, spam websites, significant changes in the content of a webpage, copyright infringement, and any other suitable purposes related to the similarity between website DOM object content. |
| US09386030B2 |
System and method for correlating historical attacks with diverse indicators to generate indicator profiles for detecting and predicting future network attacks
An apparatus and method predict and detect network attacks by using a diverse set of indicators to measure aspects of the traffic and by encoding traffic characteristics using these indicators of potential attacks or anomalous behavior. The set of indicators is analyzed by supervised learning to automatically learn a decision rule which examines the temporal patterns in the coded values of the set of indicators to accurately detect and predict network attacks. The rules automatically evolve in response to new attacks as the system updates its rules periodically by analyzing new data and feedback signals about attacks associated with that data. To assist human operators, the system also provides human interpretable explanations of detection and prediction rules by pointing to indicators whose values contribute to a decision that there is an existing network attack or an imminent network attack. When such indictors are detected, an operator can take remediation actions. |
| US09386026B2 |
System and method for scheduling and executing secure electronic correspondence operations
A secure electronic correspondence method and system based on a principle relating to the uniqueness of the originals of the correspondences. The archiving thereof is certified by a certification service provider and performed by an archive operator in an electronic safe box. The main steps of the processes for processing said correspondences are the subject of a report confirming the correct execution thereof, including the return of a certification token by the operator responsible for the step to the managers of the trust chain. In a variant, correspondences belonging to a document management series can only be sent if they meet management rules set for the series. In a privileged mode, functions of the electronic correspondence operators that do not necessarily have to meet user proximity requirements can be grouped together into shared service centers within which the communications are reduced without negatively affecting the reliability of the process. |
| US09386025B2 |
Modulation analysis and distortion identification
An apparatus, method, computer readable medium, and system are provided to generate a symbol placement associated with a transmission scheme by transforming a retrieved set of equalization coefficients. Symbols included in the symbol placement may be analyzed and quantified in terms of their distance from a decision boundary. Symbols may be synthesized on an iterative basis in order to obtain visibility into the underlying performance of the transmission scheme over time. If equalization is unable to reduce a signal impairment below a threshold value within a predetermined amount of time, then a determination may be made that a non-linear distortion source is present in a network or communication system. Signals received from a plurality of user terminals may be compared with one another in order to determine a probable location or cause of the non-linear distortion. |
| US09386024B1 |
System and method for detecting modified or corrupted external devices
Disclosed are systems and methods for detecting modified or corrupted external devices connected to a computer system. An exemplary method includes storing in a database, data that relates to devices previously connected to the computer system and rules that specify conditions that indicate when the device should be further analyzed as being possibly corrupted. The method further includes receiving from the device data that relates to the device or to a connection between the device and the computer system; performing an analysis of the received data by comparing the received data and the stored data relating to devices previously connected to the computer system; and applying results of the analysis of the received data to the rules to determine whether the at least one condition is satisfied that indicates that the device is possibly modified or corrupted and should be further analyzed for presence of malware. |
| US09386023B2 |
Method, apparatus and system for managing packet delivery
Portable electronic devices typically have reduced computing resources, including reduced available bandwidth to receive communications. A method, apparatus and system is provided to manage packet delivery to electronic devices to mitigate some of these problems. |
| US09386022B2 |
Systems and methods of virtual worlds access
Systems and methods of virtual world interaction, operation, implementation, instantiation, creation, and other functions related to virtual worlds (note that where the term “virtual world” is used herein, it is to be understood as referring to virtual world systems, virtual environments reflecting real, simulated, fantasy, or other structures, and includes information systems that utilize interaction within a 3D environment). Various embodiments facilitate interoperation between and within virtual worlds, and may provide consistent structures for operating virtual worlds. The disclosed embodiments may further enable individuals to build new virtual worlds within a framework, and allow third party users to better interact with those worlds. |
| US09386021B1 |
Restricting network access to untrusted virtual machines
Approaches for providing operating environments selective access to network resources. A guest operating system, executing on a device, may issue a request to a network device for access to a set of network resources. Once the guest operating system authenticates itself to the network device, the network device provides, to the guest operating system, access to the set of network resources. Note that the host operating system, executing on the device, does not have access to the set of network resources. A guest operating system may be provided access to an untrusted network in a manner that denies the host operating system access to the untrusted network. In this way, any malicious code inadvertently introduced into the host operating system cannot access the untrusted network for unscrupulous purposes. |
| US09386017B2 |
Authentication device, system and method
An authentication device includes: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to: when a registration request including authentication information to be used during authentication is received from a terminal device, generate registration information using the authentication information and key information and store the registration information in the memory, and when an authentication request including input information to be handled as the target of the authentication is received from the terminal device, generate a result of the authentication based on the input information, the registration information, and the key information, and transmit the result of the authentication to the terminal device. |
| US09386016B2 |
System and device for authentication
An authentication device receives each authentication context including an output information block, an input information block, and an authenticator block. The output information block includes a process result and process result identification information. The input information block includes a process result and process result identification information. The authentication device verifies each authenticator block. The authentication device searches for the output information block having the same value of process result identification information as the value of process result identification information in the input information block from other authentication contexts based on process result identification information in the input information block included in each authentication context. The authentication device verifies whether or not the process result in the input information block is equal to the process result in the searched output information block, and authenticates that all the authentication contexts have validity when all the verification results are valid. |
| US09386014B2 |
Soft token system
Systems and methods for a secure soft token solution applicable to multiple platforms and usage scenarios are provided. According to one embodiment a unique device ID of a mobile device is obtained by a soft token application via an API of an operating system of the mobile device. A seed for generating an OTP for accessing a secure network resource is requested from a provisioning server by the application via an IP-based network. The seed is received by the mobile device via a first out-of-band channel in encrypted form based on a secret key, the unique device ID and a hardcoded-pre-shared key. The received encrypted seed is decrypted and installed within the application. The OTP is generated by the application based on the seed. The OTP is bound to the mobile device by the application by encrypting the seed with the unique device ID and the hardcoded pre-shared key. |
| US09386010B2 |
Abstracted authenticated client connectivity application programming interface (API)
A request to establish a connection to a server application executed by a server device is received at a client-side authenticated-connection application programming interface (API) from a client application executed by a client device. The connection request is sent from the client device to a server-side authenticated-connection API executed by the server device. The connection request includes user identification information usable to authenticate a user of the client application with the server-side authenticated-connection API to access the server application. A connection establishment acknowledgement is received from the server-side authenticated-connection API. A handler that represents an established connection to the server application is returned to the client application as a connection establishment acknowledgement. The client application is configured to communicate with the server application using the handler over the established connection with the separate application-specific read/write API. |
| US09386009B1 |
Secure identification string
Providing secure access to a mobile or other device using a network-assisted PIN or other short password is disclosed. In various embodiments, upon entry by a user of a personal identification number (PIN) or other short password, the password and a unique identifier, such as a user and/or device identifier, and/or other data, are sent to a remote server. The remote server returns to the mobile or other device a cryptographic key and/or other data, such as a more secure (e.g., more characters and/or including characters drawn from a larger set of characters) password usable at the mobile device to access encrypted data. |
| US09386008B2 |
Secure installation of encryption enabling software onto electronic devices
A process/method is provided, which authenticates electronic devices allowing the installation and utilization of encryption enabling software capable of facilitating a public key infrastructure in combination with electronic devices without need for such encryption enabling software capable of facilitating a public key infrastructure to be installed at the same time as manufacture of the electronic device. The disclosed process/method may then provide a system for monitoring various metrics and statuses of the electronic devices through the manufacturing chain, distribution chain and product lifecycle. The process/method can be utilized to create electronic devices secured with encryption enabling software capable of facilitating a public key infrastructure, free from the security risks inherent with the current method of installing encryption enabling software onto electronic devices, which will render such secured electronic devices suitable for tasks requiring such enhanced security or encryption. Moreover, electronic devices utilizing the disclosed process/method to install encryption enabling software capable of facilitating a public key infrastructure will be enabled to benefit from and facilitate public key infrastructure functionality, including, but not limited to, the renew encryption enabling software on a defined renewal interval. |
| US09386007B2 |
Multi-domain applications with authorization and authentication in cloud environment
A multi-domain application requiring SSO and SLO operations in cloud environment is presented. The computing system of the multi-domain application includes a multi-domain service (MDS) to redirect the calls for the multi-domain application to an identity provider to authenticate the user or to invoke the single logout services (SLOs) on the domains of the multi-domain application and to invalidate the user sessions on the domains. A cookie that includes the multi-domain application URL is generated to reach the assertion consumer service (ACS) and the single logout service (SLO) that receive an identity assertion response from the identity provider. Domain specific SLOs are provided. A trust between these domain specific SLOs and the SLO is provided based on service provider keys. The SAML mechanism for a logout scenario is reused for communication between the SLO and the domain specific SLOs, where the SLO plays a role of a local IDP. |
| US09385998B2 |
Signaling and carriage of protection and usage information for dynamic adaptive streaming
A Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transport Protocol (DASH) server component is disclosed. The DASH server component may comprise a memory, a processor coupled to the memory, and a transmitter coupled to the processor. The processor may be configured to generate one or more keys containing content protection information for media content, associate the keys with one or more segments of media content, store the keys in a DASH metadata track in the memory, and generate a media presentation description (MPD) specifying an association between the keys and the segments of media content. The transmitter may be configured to transmit the keys to at least one client independently of transmitting the media content and transmit the MPD to the at least one client. |
| US09385996B2 |
Method of operating a computing device, computing device and computer program
Data is stored on a computing device in an encrypted form using a control application. A data access application requests access to the data. It is determined whether the data access application has available a shared encryption key that is available to the control application. If a shared encryption key is available, the shared encryption key is used to encrypt a request for access to the data. If a shared encryption key is not available, a shared encryption key is negotiated with the control application, and the negotiated shared encryption key is used to encrypt the request for access to the data. The control application receives the encrypted request, decrypts the encrypted request using the shared encryption key, and makes the data stored on the computing device in encrypted form available to the data access application in response to the decrypted request. |
| US09385995B2 |
Anonymous authentication
A method and system for anonymous purchase by a first user device, is described, the method and system including sending R from the first user device to a second user device, where R is a result of a one-way function performed on a random number r selected by the first user device, the second user device being operative to send R to a service provider, which stores R with a data string T and the service provider returns a digitally signed R and T to the second user device, thereby providing the a data string T to the second user device, receiving R and T at the first user device from the second device, thereby ensuring that the identity of the first user device remains unknown to the service provider, opening a communication channel between the first user device and the service provider, sending the service provider r and T from the first user device via the communication channel along with a request for the service provider to provide a service, and receiving the requested service from the service provider. Related methods, systems and apparatus are also described. |
| US09385989B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing MAC address generation for virtualized environments
MAC addresses are flexibly and dynamically allocated across groups of devices that need MAC addresses. MAC address pools are defined for the groups by non-overlapping ranges of MAC addresses. The range of MAC addresses defined for any pool may be shrunk to support an expansion of the range of MAC addresses of another pool. The maximum number of universally-administered MAC addresses that can be defined for any MAC address pool is greater than 216, and the maximum number of locally-administered MAC addresses that can be defined for any MAC address pool is greater than 238. |
| US09385981B2 |
System and method for providing multi-modal asynchronous communication
Embodiments include receiving a first synchronous communication message in a first modality from a first user device. The method may further include generating a first asynchronous communication message in a second modality, based at least in part on the first synchronous communication message in the first modality, wherein the first modality differs from the second modality. The method may also include receiving a second asynchronous communication message in the second modality from a second user device. The method may further include generating a second asynchronous communication message in the first modality based at least in part on the second synchronous communication message in the second modality. The method may also include providing for display to the first user device, the second asynchronous message in the first modality. The method may further include providing for display to the second user device, the first asynchronous message in the second modality. |
| US09385978B2 |
Generating and/or providing access to a message based on portions of the message indicated by a sending user
Message processing is disclosed that includes detecting an action by a sending user selecting at least one portion of a message. An indication of the selected portion of the message is stored in the message, and the message transmitted to at least one message recipient. Contextually related content from the message for the selected portion may also be indicated in the message. The selected portion or portions of the message may be displayed to a recipient user, and selection by the recipient user of a portion of the message selected by said sending user may be detected. Contextually related content may be retrieved from the message in response detecting the recipient user's selection of the portion of the message selected by said sending user, and the contextually related content displayed to the recipient together with the portion of the message selected by said sending user. |
| US09385977B2 |
Remote control of medical devices using instant messaging infrastructure
Systems and methods for remote control and management of medical workstations using an instant messaging infrastructure. A remote client, such as a mobile phone, laptop, tablet, or other computing device, is used to generate instructions or information requests in one or more data packets. The remote client sends the one or more data packets using the instant messaging infrastructure to a medical workstation at another location. A service application in communication with the medical workstation receives the data packets and causes the medical workstation to retrieve the requested information or execute the instruction. The communications between the remote client and the service application are encrypted and signed to ensure secure communications. |
| US09385970B2 |
Method and apparatus for assigning resources in a network node
Achieving resource management within a network processing unit (NPU) can be challenging due to the NPU's fixed and limited instruction set. In the case of large mobile networks, contexts are dynamic, and each subscriber in the network consumes multiple hardware resources, where a central processing unit (CPU) is typically employed to program individual resources even though generally impractical in high-session rates. To avoid programming individual resources, an example embodiment of the present invention creates a group of resources depending on a category, the group being shared dynamically among subscribers when a subscriber is active in the network. The example embodiment may include a network service processor (NSP) located in a forwarding path, such that the NPU may operate in connection with the NSP to allocate NPU resources using a packetized interface. The example embodiment achieves resource management within the NPU without a host CPU's involvement and without statically delaying resources. |
| US09385967B1 |
Resource allocation for a storage area network
Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for resource allocation in accordance with one embodiment of the present description, in which a resource allocation such as a buffer credit allocation for a port in a storage area network is initialized as a function of a measurement of a length of a communication link for the port of the storage area network. In one embodiment, the length measurement is a function of a minimum command response time of a command issued over the communication link. Other aspects of resource allocation in accordance with the present description are described. |
| US09385966B2 |
Managing communications over a shared medium
Systems and methods for allocating network bandwidth between a plurality of networks. Requests for bandwidth allocation from other networks can be received. A coexistence frame requesting an allocation of bandwidth for a local network can be generated based upon the bandwidth allocation requests received from other networks. The coexistence frame can be transmitted, and utilization of the requested allocation can be delayed by a reservation period. |
| US09385963B1 |
System and method for allocating resources for heterogeneous service requests
A system for allocating constrained resources (e.g., downstream services, execution threads, database connections, input/output channels, computational resources, and/or memory) to requested services that are dependent on those resources may include multiple resource queues, each of which maintains a queue of requests for a respective constrained resource, and multiple service request queues, from which requests may be subsequently serviced. As each request reaches the head of a resource queue, it may receive a resource token for a respective constrained resource. Once the request has collected resource tokens for each of the constrained resources on which it depends, the request may be passed to a service request queue that maintains a queue of requests of a particular type. Requests in the multiple service request queues may be serviced on a round-robin or weighted round-robin basis. The number of tokens available for each constrained resource may be modified based on observed system performance. |
| US09385960B2 |
TCP congestion control for heterogeneous networks
A congestion control mechanism for TCP communication sessions is described. The congestion control mechanism adjusts the size of the congestion window based on a number, N, of parallel virtual connections. The number N of parallel virtual connections used to determine the congestion window is dynamically adjusted based on an estimation of the network condition. |
| US09385954B2 |
Hashing techniques for use in a network environment
Some embodiments provide a physical forwarding element that hashes portions of packet headers using several novel hashing techniques. The techniques include a novel set of finishing operations that improve the quality of resulting hashes by increasing their distribution and improving their apparent-randomness. In addition, the finishing operations virtually guarantee that different length inputs will hash to different results, even when padded to be the same initial values. The techniques also include efficient handling of remainder sections when distributing sections of a hash input across multiple processing units. The remainders are hashed into various previously generated hashes based on how many remainders result. These hashing techniques are useful for many network applications. |
| US09385950B2 |
Configurable service proxy local identifier mapping
Presented herein are techniques in which a service proxy in a service node is configured to receive a packet encapsulated in a service header that includes a variable set of context headers. The service proxy is configured to use the context headers in the service header to map data in the packet to a local identifier that is associated with one of a plurality of service-functions hosted by the service node. The service proxy is further configured to forward the data in the packet to the service-function associated with the local identifier. |
| US09385945B2 |
Identifying, translating and filtering shared risk groups in communications networks
A method, apparatus, and computer-readable storage medium are disclosed for processing shared risk group (SRG) information in communications networks. The method includes obtaining at least one SRG identifier by processing SRG information included in network information received at a first network layer from a second network layer, and processing the at least one SRG identifier using one or more operations configured to ensure that the SRG identifier is unique among a plurality of SRG identifiers. The apparatus includes a network interface adapted to receive network information comprising SRG information, a processor coupled to the network interface, and a memory coupled to the processor and adapted to obtain at least one SRG identifier by processing the SRG information and to process the at least one SRG identifier. The computer-readable storage medium is configured to store program instructions that when executed are configured to cause a processor to perform the method. |
| US09385938B2 |
Information distribution in a wireless communication system
Methods, devices, and systems for information distribution in a wireless communication system is provided. In one embodiment, a method of information distribution in a wireless communication system comprises receiving an information advertisement signal by a propagator node, wherein said information advertisement signal identifies information available from a distributor node; storing said information advertisement signal by said propagator node in a distributor routing table; and forwarding said information advertisement signal by said propagator node to another propagator node, a selector node, or both. |
| US09385935B2 |
Transparent message modification for diagnostics or testing
The modification of a network message so that a supplemental action is performed in transit at a designated intermediary node. The modification is performed in a manner that is transparent to the source computing entity that caused the network message to be generated. Upon acquiring the network message, a message modification component modifies the network message so that the network message is routed through an intermediary node, and further so that the intermediary node performs supplemental action(s). For instance, the modification might cause routing components to route the network message to the intermediary node, and the modification might also include instructions that the intermediary node interprets as being an instruction to perform the supplemental action. |
| US09385933B2 |
Remote probing for remote quality of service monitoring
In one embodiment, a targeted node in a computer network receives a probe generation request (PGR), and in response, generates a link-local multicast PGR (PGR-Local) carrying instructions for generating probes based on the PGR. The targeted node then transmits the PGR-Local to neighbors of the targeted node to cause one or more of the neighbors to generate and transmit probes to a collection device in the computer network according to the PGR-Local instructions. In another embodiment, a particular node in a computer network receives a link-local multicast probe generation request (PGR-Local) from a targeted node in the computer network, the targeted node having received the PGR-Local from a remote device, and determines how to generate probes based on instructions carried within the PGR-Local before sending one or more probes to a collection device in the computer network according to the PGR-Local instructions. |
| US09385931B1 |
Determining a reordering timer
In systems and method of determining a reordering timer in a wireless communication network, it is determined that a packet reordering of a plurality of data packets meets a reordering threshold, and the plurality of data packets is examined to determine a reordering severity of the plurality of data packets. Based on the determined reordering severity and an application requirement associated with the plurality of data packets, a reordering timer is determined. |
| US09385929B2 |
Methods and devices for performing dynamic droop compensation
Provided herein are systems, methods and devices for performing droop compensation. In particular, systems, methods and devices for performing droop compensation by modifying transmit and/or receive characteristics of a magnetic device based on changing conditions are described. For example, a plurality of operating parameters or characteristics can be measured, a droop compensation capability of a link partner can be determined and transmit and/or receive characteristics of the magnetic device can be modified based on the measured operating parameters or characteristics and the determined droop compensation capability. |
| US09385924B2 |
Assistance system
Provided is a design assistance system that enables even a user having no expert knowledge to easily design a network system taking into consideration the types of port connection interfaces. The design assistance system has a storage section for storing slave information data in which unique information of the slave device is described; an acquisition section for acquiring information of a connection interface of a port of the slave device from the slave information data; and a generation section for generating a device component serving as a GUI component representing the slave device based on the slave information data, generates a line component serving as a GUI component representing connection of the ports of the slave devices in different aspects in accordance with different types of the connection interface, and generates a design assisting GUI having a topology display screen configured to display the topology of the network system. |
| US09385919B2 |
Information processing apparatus and setting information management method
A setting information management method comprises: receiving a command related to setting information stored in a storage from a network, changing the setting information based on the command, changing the setting information based on an input from a user using a setting screen displayed by a display unit when the change of the setting information based on the command is invalid, and displaying, by using the display unit, the setting screen in a mode that the user is unable to change the setting information displayed on the setting screen when a change of the setting information based on the command is valid. |
| US09385918B2 |
System and method for secure provisioning of virtualized images in a network environment
An example method includes setting up a secure channel between a blade and a provisioning server in a network environment, downloading an image of a virtual machine monitor (VMM) from the provisioning server to the blade through the secure channel, and booting the image to instantiate the VMM on the blade. The blade and the provisioning server are mutually authenticated and authorized with a plurality of parameters. Booting the image may include loading the image on a memory element of the blade and transferring control to the image. In some embodiments, booting the image includes modifying a root file system of the image by adding the daemon such that an agent is included in the root file system. The agent can download another image corresponding to an operating system of a virtual machine. |
| US09385915B2 |
Dynamic caching technique for adaptively controlling data block copies in a distributed data processing system
A dynamic caching technique adaptively controls copies of data blocks stored within caches (“cached copies”) of a caching layer distributed among servers of a distributed data processing system. A cache coordinator of the distributed system implements the dynamic caching technique to increase the cached copies of the data blocks to improve processing performance of the servers. Alternatively, the technique may decrease the cached copies to reduce storage capacity of the servers. The technique may increase the cached copies when it detects local and/or remote cache bottleneck conditions at the servers, a data popularity condition at the servers, or a shared storage bottleneck condition at the storage system. Otherwise, the technique may decrease the cached copies at the servers. |
| US09385914B1 |
Application state client-side cache for a state-based client-server application
A client updates a display of a user interface associated with a state-based client-server application in accordance with a client-side cache. The server supplies data for a new state and additional data for one or more subsequent states that possibly follow the new state if appropriate one or more operations are performed. When a client request is generated that indicates an operation that causes the application to transition to the new state, the client updates the display in accordance with the data that corresponds to the new state from the client-side cache, if available from the client-side cache. The new state data is available since the server has previously supplied the new state data. |
| US09385904B2 |
Method and apparatus for pilot power allocation in a multi antenna communication system
The embodiments herein relate to a method in a base station (301) for determining adjustment of common pilot power in a four-way transmit antenna, 4Tx, communications system (300). The base station (301) comprises a first transmit antenna (1201), a second transmit antenna (1202), a third transmit antenna (1203) and a fourth transmit antenna (1204). The base station (301) identifies a set of scheduled user equipments (310) in the communications system (300). The base station (301) determines that the common pilot power should be adjusted based on a criterion associated with the set of scheduled user equipments (310). |
| US09385900B2 |
Signal transmission system
A signal transmission system has a modulation signal converter 1 that generates a modulation signal using a Manchester code with a duty ratio of 50% in accordance with transmission data; a clock generator 6 that generates a clock with the amount of delay with respect to the rising or falling edge of the modulation signal; and a data detector 5 that generates received data by sampling the modulation signal in synchronization with the clock. Since the modulation signal converter 1 generates the modulation signal by combining the Manchester code with the duty ratio of 50%, its duty ratio is always 50% independently of the transmission data, thereby preventing the DC offset of the modulation signal on the receiving side. Accordingly, it offers an advantage of achieving good communication quality with a simple circuit configuration without producing the DC offset in the modulation signal on the receiving side. |
| US09385896B1 |
Method and apparatus for low-complexity quasi-reduced state soft-output equalizer
Quasi-reduced state trellis equalization techniques achieve low-latency inter-symbol interference (ISI) equalization by selecting a subset of accumulated path metrics (APMs) for a leading symbol to propagate over a trellis to candidate states of a trailing symbol. This simplifies the computation of APMs for candidate states of the trailing symbol. Thereafter, APMs for candidate states of the trailing symbol are computed based on the subset of APMs for the leading symbol that were propagated over the trellis. Propagating fewer than all APMs for the leading symbol to the trailing symbol reduces the complexity of APM computation at the trailing symbol. |
| US09385895B2 |
Radio receiver in a wireless communications system
Techniques are described for optimizing the processing facilities of a receiver in a wireless communication environment, taking into account processing performance set against the computing resources and/or power consumption required to obtain that processing performance. A radio receiver for a wireless communications system can include channel equalization means arranged to receive samples of an incoming signal and to generate an equalized output, said channel equalization means including means for processing said digital samples in accordance with an equalizer algorithm. The receiver includes means for estimating parameters of a channel over which the incoming signal has been transmitted. The receiver can also include means for selecting from a plurality of equalizer algorithms an equalizer algorithm for execution by the processing means based on at least one said estimated channel parameter. Related methods and algorithms are described. Related computer program products are also described. |
| US09385894B2 |
Receiving circuit and data decision method
A receiving circuit includes: a first decision circuit to output boundary data obtained by performing a binary-decision on input data in synchronization with a first clock; a first decision feedback equalizer to output center data obtained by performing equalization and a binary-decision on the input data using a first equalization coefficient in synchronization with a second clock; a phase detection circuit to detect phase information of the input data based on the boundary data and the center data; a phase control circuit to output phase difference information of the center data based on an opening of an eye pattern formed by overlaying data transition patterns; a first phase adjustment circuit to adjust a phase of the first clock based on the phase information; and a second phase adjustment circuit to adjust a phase of the second clock based on the phase information and the phase difference information. |
| US09385890B2 |
Methods and systems for programmable digital down-conversion
A radio communication apparatus operable over a wide range of frequencies including a signal processing device is provided. The device performs an analog to digital conversion at a predetermined sample rate independent of a selected frequency band within the wide range of frequencies to generate a digital signal, and digitally processes the digital signal to output a data signal at baseband associated with the selected frequency band. |
| US09385888B2 |
System and method for identifying communication between virtual servers
A server, including a virtual machine identifier assigning section to assign an identifier of a virtual machine operating on the server; and a network interface to transmit a packet including a Layer 2 header information which includes the identifier of the virtual machine, wherein the network interface transmits the packet to a packet encapsulate section which encapsulates a packet field including the Layer 2 header information with a virtual network identifier, wherein the virtual network identifier represents a virtual tenant network corresponding to the virtual machine in multiple tenants network. |
| US09385885B2 |
Network node for a communication network having a first subnetwork using a spanning tree protocol and a second subnetwork connected to the first subnetwork
A network node for a communication network comprising a first subnetwork and a second subnetwork connected to the first subnetwork, wherein the first subnetwork uses a spanning tree protocol and the second subnetwork uses a second protocol differing from the protocol of the first subnetwork, and the network node is configured as an element for the second subnetwork and is configured for communication within the second subnetwork. In addition, the network node configured by a spanning tree functionality as a spanning tree master node for checking and controlling the second subnetwork in such a way that the second subnetwork is handled or is able to be handled by the spanning tree protocol of the first subnetwork as a virtual network node. |
| US09385882B2 |
Method and apparatus for phone communication using home network
A method of providing a home network telephony service, in which a first mobile communication terminal having a phone call connection with a second mobile communication terminal provides a phone communication service by using a first electronic device connected to a home network of the first mobile communication terminal is provided. The method includes transmitting a call initiation request message, including an address of the first electronic device, and making a request for a phone call connection using the first electronic device in response to the phone call to the second mobile communication terminal; receiving a response message in response to the call initiation request message from the second mobile communication terminal; and transmitting a call initiation request message including the address of the second electronic device and making a request to the first electronic device to originate a call to the second electronic device. |
| US09385881B2 |
Media access control protocol data unit aggregation in a time division multiple access media access control layer
A method and apparatus are described for creating a multi-media stream (e.g., video, voice, audio, etc. . . . ) Super-MAC frame in a physical protocol data unit, including inserting a physical layer header into a channel time allocation and generating the multi-media stream SuperMAC frame further including, appending a media access control header after the physical layer header, calculating a header correction code, appending the header correction code after the media access control header, appending a media access control multi-media stream payload from a transmit queue, calculating a frame check sequence, appending the frame check sequence after the media access control multi-media stream payload and repeating the above acts, after inserting the physical layer header, until one of the channel time allocation is full or all transmit queues are empty. |
| US09385879B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving multicast data in wireless communication system
An apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving multicast data in a wireless communication system are disclosed. The method of receiving multicast data at a machine-to-machine (M2M) device in a wireless communication system includes: receiving, from a base station (BS), an M2M multicast connection identifier for an M2M multicast service, assigned to the M2M device; receiving a message including control information about transmission of the multicast data and multicast data including an M2M multicast connection identifier from the BS; and determining whether the M2M multicast connection identifier included in the multicast data corresponds to the M2M multicast connection identifier assigned by the BS. |
| US09385878B1 |
Communication with network devices
A system for communicating with a network of devices is disclosed. The system can include a control device configured to send a first digital communication using a network protocol. The system can also include a number of network devices communicably coupled to the control device, where each of the plurality of network devices is configured to receive the first digital communication using the network protocol. The system can further include a first communication channel communicably coupled to the control device and the plurality of network devices. The first digital communication sent by the control device can be sent to all of the network devices using the first communication channel. The first digital communication can be addressed to a number of recipient devices of the network devices. |
| US09385875B2 |
Scalable transport with cluster-consensus rendezvous
Embodiments disclosed herein provide advantageous methods and systems that use multicast communications via unreliable datagrams sent on a protected traffic class. These methods and systems provide effectively reliable multicast delivery while avoiding the overhead associated with point-to-point protocols. Rather than an exponential scaling of point-to-point connections (with expensive setup and teardown of the connections), the traffic from one server is bounded by linear scaling of multicast groups. In addition, the multicast rendezvous disclosed herein creates an edge-managed flow control that accounts for the dynamic state of the storage servers in the cluster, without needing centralized control, management or maintenance of state. This traffic shaping avoids the loss of data due to congestion during sustained oversubscription. Other embodiments, aspects and features are also disclosed. |
| US09385873B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer readable media for user activated policy enhancement
According to one aspect, the subject matter described herein includes a method for subscriber activated policy enhancement. The method may include receiving a policy enhancement code from a user device at a policy enhancement server (PES). The method may further include obtaining at least one policy enhancement corresponding to the policy enhancement code in response to receiving the policy enhancement code from the user device. The method may further include enhancing at least one policy aspect of a policy for the user device based on the policy enhancement. |
| US09385871B2 |
Method and apparatus for authenticating a non-volatile memory device
An apparatus and method for authenticating a Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) device are provided. A host device that authenticates the NVM device transmits challenge information for authentication to the NVM device, receives pieces of authentication information in response to the challenge information from the NVM device, and authenticates the NVM device using the pieces of authentication information by the host device. The pieces of authentication information are generated based on the challenge information and secret key information stored in the NVM device. |
| US09385866B2 |
System and method for replacing software components with corresponding known-good software components without regard to whether the software components have been compromised or potentially compromised
Approaches for replacing software components executing in a runtime environment with corresponding known-good software components are disclosed. In some implementations, at least a first event indicating that at least a first software component executing in the runtime environment should be replaced may be determined. The first event may be determined without respect to whether the first software component has been compromised or potentially compromised. At least a second software component corresponding to the first software component may be obtained from a component repository that is separate from the runtime environment. The first software component may be replaced with the second software component based on the first event such that the second software component is available for use in the runtime environment after the first event and the first software component is no longer available for use in the runtime environment after the first event. |
| US09385859B2 |
Multi-lane serial data link receiver and method thereof
A serial data link receiver and method are provided. In one implementation, the receiver includes a first equalizer for receiving a first received signal and outputting a first equalized signal, and a second equalizer for receiving a second received signal and outputting a second equalized signal. The receiver further includes an analog CDR (clock-data recovery) circuit for receiving the first equalized signal and outputting a first recovered bit stream and a first recovered clock generated in accordance with an analog control voltage, and a digital CDR circuit for receiving the second equalized signal and the first recovered clock and outputting a second recovered bit stream and a second recovered clock based on selecting a phase of the first recovered clock in accordance with a digital phase selection signal. |
| US09385858B2 |
Timing phase estimation for clock and data recovery
In order to initialize the phase of the recovered clock signal used in clock-and-data recovery (CDR) circuitry, the normal, on-line CDR processing is disabled. The sum of the absolute values of analog-to-digital converter (ADC) samples are generated for different clock phases over each unit interval (UI) of the analog signal sampled by the ADC for a specified period of time. The phase corresponding to the maximum sum is selected as the initial phase for the recovered clock signal for enabled, on-line CDR processing, which among other things, automatically updates the clock phase to ensure that the ADC samples the analog signal near the center of each UI. |
| US09385856B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving frame configuration information in TDD wireless communication system
A method and apparatus for transmitting Time Division Duplexing (TDD) configuration information by an evolved Node B (eNB) in a TDD wireless communication system are provided. The method includes determining a changed TDD configuration indicating a transmission direction of a plurality of sub-frames constituting a frame; generating a system information element including dynamic TDD configuration information indicating the changed TDD configuration; transmitting a system information block including the dynamic TDD configuration information; and sending a Media Access Control (MAC) message including information indicating whether a change in TDD configuration is activated. |
| US09385853B2 |
Method and apparatus for coordinated multi-node transmission
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for coordinated multi-node transmission The method includes: acquiring, by a user equipment, channel state indicator information of each coordinating node; feeding back, by the user equipment, all information or a part of information in the acquired channel state indicator information to a base station, so that each coordinating node performs, according to the channel state indicator information that has been fed back, scheduling on the user equipment and/or one or more other user equipments served by each coordinating node; and if the user equipment is scheduled, receiving, by the user equipment, scheduling result notification information sent by the base station, and receiving, by the user equipment according to the scheduling result notification information, data transmitted by a base station that corresponds to a coordinating node serving the user equipment. The present invention is applicable to a radio communications system. |
| US09385852B2 |
Methods and arrangements for CSI reporting
A method in a wireless device for reporting Channel State Information (CSI). The wireless device is comprised in a wireless communications system. The method includes receiving a CSI process configuration and a request for CSI information from a network node. The method further includes reporting CSI for one or more CSI processes. The CSI reflects the state of the channel for a CSI reference resource. According to the method, the CSI reference resource is determined based on the number of configured CSI processes. Related devices are also disclosed. |
| US09385848B2 |
Short-range nodes with adaptive preambles for coexistence
Wireless protocols in the unlicensed spectrum are developed for different requirements in terms of transmit range and power, which makes it difficult for multiple nodes having disparate transmit ranges to coexist in the same unlicensed spectrum. A short-range wireless node uses adaptive preambles to signal presence to long-range wireless nodes outside of its transmit range. In addition, a long-range wireless node detects an adapter preamble and backs-off transmissions for reservation period dedicated to short-range nodes. |
| US09385846B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting data packets and method and apparatus for receiving data packets
A data packet structure conveys data of service data units (SDU) using protocol data units (PDU). The data packet structure includes a data packet payload having at least one protocol data unit (PDU). A protocol data unit (PDU) includes a service data unit (SDU) or a fragment of a service data unit and a data packet header including an indicator indicating whether or not the data packet payload begins with a protocol data unit (PDU) being a fragment of a service data unit and whether or not the data packet payload ends with a protocol data unit (PDU) being a fragment of a service data unit. |
| US09385838B2 |
Encoding method and encoding apparatus in a wireless communications system
Provided are an encoding method and an encoding apparatus in a wireless communications system. The encoding apparatus generates an error detection code for a first UCI (uplink control information), and adds the error detection code to a second UCI. The encoding apparatus encodes the first UCI, and then the second UCI added with the error detection code. |
| US09385837B2 |
Cascaded viterbi bitstream generator
A bitstream generator includes at least first and second bitstream generator stages connected in a cascaded arrangement. The first bitstream generator stage includes a first adder which receives an input signal and generates a first error signal indicative of a difference between the input signal and a first bitstream candidate representing a closest approximation to the input signal among multiple bitstream candidates generated by the first bitstream generator stage. The second bitstream generator stage includes a second adder which receives the first error signal and generates a second error signal indicative of a difference between the first error signal and a second bitstream candidate representing a closest approximation to the input signal among multiple bitstream candidates generated by the second bitstream generator stage. A third adder in the bitstream generator receives the first and second bitstream candidates and generates an output signal more closely approximating the input signal. |
| US09385835B2 |
System and method for adaptive frame size management in a wireless multihop network
A system and method for adaptively managing frame size in a wireless multihop network is disclosed. In one embodiment, a packet is transmitted from a source to a destination. A acknowledgement packet is received and a successful acknowledgement packet counter is incremented if the acknowledgement packet arrives prior to a time-out of a timer. A frame size is increased if the successful acknowledgement packet counter reaches a specified value. If the acknowledgement packet arrives after the time-out of the timer, the successful acknowledgement packet counter is reset and the frame size is decreased. These procedures can be repeated until the frame size is greater than or equal to a maximum frame size or less than or equal to a minimum frame size. |
| US09385834B2 |
Method for interference alignment using multiple antennas in overlapped multi-cell overlapped environment
An interference alignment method using multiple antennas in a multi-cell overlapped environment, includes: when at least one transmission and reception ends having at least one or more antennas communicate with each other, establishing at least one or more channels from the transmission end to the reception end. Further, the interference alignment method includes designing a processing filter for a transmission signal transmitted from the transmission end to the reception ends; and designing a processing filter for a reception signal that is received by the reception end. |
| US09385832B2 |
Methodology and method and apparatus for signaling with capacity optimized constellations
Design Methodology and Method and Apparatus for Signaling with Capacity Optimized Constellation Abstract Communication systems are described that use geometrically PSK shaped constellations that have increased capacity compared to conventional PSK constellations operating within a similar SNR band. The geometrically shaped PSK constellation is optimized based upon parallel decoding capacity. In many embodiments, a capacity optimized geometrically shaped constellation can be used to replace a conventional constellation as part of a firmware upgrade to transmitters and receivers within a communication system. In a number of embodiments, the geometrically shaped constellation is optimized for an Additive White Gaussian Noise channel or a fading channel. In numerous embodiments, the communication uses adaptive rate encoding and the location of points within the geometrically shaped constellation changes as the code rate changes. |
| US09385830B2 |
Transmitter module outputting wavelength multiplexed light
A transmitter module having a plurality of semiconductor laser diodes (LDs) as optical signal sources that emit optical respective optical beams with specific wavelengths different from other is disclosed. The transmitter module includes, in addition to the LDs, a driver to drive LDs in the shunt-driving configuration. Inductors through which the bias currents for the LDs are provided are mounted on the driver as interposing a spacer and a top carrier. |
| US09385827B2 |
Transmission apparatus and method
A transmission apparatus includes an acquisition device that acquires a switch request for plural types of transmission sections overlapping with one another at least at apart of the sections, a selection device that selects one of the switch requests for plural types of transmission sections according to priority level information about a priority level corresponding to each of the plural types of transmission sections, and a switch device that switches the transmission paths depending on the selected switch request. |
| US09385825B2 |
Sensor web
A Sensor Web formed of a number of different sensor pods. Each of the sensor pods include a clock which is synchronized with a master clock so that all of the sensor pods in the Web have a synchronized clock. The synchronization is carried out by first using a coarse synchronization which takes less power, and subsequently carrying out a fine synchronization to make a fine sync of all the pods on the Web. After the synchronization, the pods ping their neighbors to determine which pods are listening and responded, and then only listen during time slots corresponding to those pods which respond. |
| US09385822B2 |
Wideband calibration method and wideband calibration apparatus for calibrating mismatch between first signal path and second signal path of transmitter/receiver
A method for calibrating mismatches of an in-phase signal path and a quadrature signal path of a transmitter, including: utilizing the receiver to receive at least a test signal via the first signal path and the second signal path, wherein each test signal possesses a specific frequency within a specific frequency band; calculating at least a calibration coefficient for each test signal respectively, so as to calibrate mismatch between the first signal path and the second signal path of the receiver with respect to the specific frequency corresponding to each test signal; deriving a tap coefficient of a calibration filter of a calibration filter unit according to the at least a calibration coefficient of each test signal; and utilizing the calibration filter unit to calibrate a received signal. |
| US09385819B2 |
Terminal device, base station device, communication system, reception method, transmission method, and communication method
A terminal device according to an aspect of the present invention includes a reception module that receives a control channel and a spatially multiplexed data signal channel, a control signal detection module that extracts, from an output from the reception module, a demodulation control information which is a transmission parameter of a signal that is transmitted to the terminal device, in a data signal channel that is output from the reception module, and assistance control information which is a transmission parameter of a signal that is transmitted to a different terminal device, in the data signal channel that is output from the reception module, a channel estimator that obtains a channel estimate by using a reference signal, a signal detection module that demultiplexes the data signal channel by using the demodulation control information, the assistance control information, and the channel estimate, and a decoding module that decodes a signal that is output by the signal detection module, in which information indicating a rank is included in the assistance control information. |
| US09385816B2 |
Methods and arrangements for frequency shift communications by undersampling
Embodiments may provide a way of communicating via an electromagnetic radiator, or light source, that can be amplitude modulated such as light emitting diode (LED) lighting and receivers or detectors that can determine data from light received from the amplitude modulated electromagnetic radiator. Some embodiments may provide a method of transmitting/encoding data via modulated LED lighting and other embodiments may provide receiving/decoding data from the modulated LED lighting by means of a device with a low sampling frequency such as a relatively inexpensive camera (as might be found in a smart phone). Some embodiments are intended for indoor navigation via photogrammetry (i.e., image processing) using self-identifying LED light anchors. In many embodiments, the data signal may be communicated via the light source at amplitude modulating frequencies such that the resulting flicker is not perceivable to the human eye. |
| US09385803B2 |
Provision of broadband access to airborne platforms
An air to ground (ATG) broadband access system is described. The system includes: a plurality of cell sites that together form a service coverage area, each cell site adapted to generate a local coverage area, each sell site including: multiple antenna fixtures situated at a lower corner of the local coverage area, where the local coverage area includes multiple sectors and each antenna fixture is associated with a different sector than each other antenna fixture; and a radio sub-system connected to each antenna fixture, the radio sub-system including a transmitter capable of modulating and transmitting signals through the antenna fixture and a receiver capable of demodulating and decoding signals received through the antenna fixture; and at least one aerial platform including: at least one antenna fixture capable of forming beams toward the cell site; and a radio sub-system capable of modulating and transmitting signals and demodulating and decoding signals. |
| US09385802B2 |
Multi-hop relay maritime communication apparatus
A multi-hop relay maritime communication apparatus installed in a ship is disclosed. The maritime communication apparatus includes a first access module configured to comprise a plurality of directional antennas integrally formed; a second access module configured to comprise an omni-directional antenna; and a bridge configured to be connected to the first access module and the second access module via an Ethernet interface. |
| US09385797B2 |
Flexible, reconfigurable multipoint-to-multipoint digital radio frequency transport architecture
A distributed antenna system includes network interfaces configured to receive signals from devices external to distributed antenna system and to convert signals to downlink serialized data streams; distributed antenna switch communicatively coupled to network interfaces by digital communication links, distributed antenna switch configured to receive downlink serialized data stream from network interfaces across corresponding digital communication link; distributed antenna switch further configured to aggregate downlink serialized data streams into aggregate downlink serialized data stream; remote antenna unit communicatively coupled to distributed antenna switch by digital communication link that receives aggregate downlink serialized data stream across digital communication link, remote antenna unit further configured to extract downlink serialized data streams from aggregate downlink serialized data stream; remote antenna unit having radio frequency converter configured to convert downlink serialized data stream into radio frequency band and radio frequency transceiver/antenna pair configured to transmit signals in radio frequency band to subscriber unit. |
| US09385795B1 |
Four-by-four downlink (4×4 DL) multiple-input-multiple output (MIMO) with existing antenna structures
Antenna structures and methods of operating the same of an electronic device are described. One apparatus includes an antenna structure comprising four antenna elements, a RF circuit, and a MIMO RF circuit coupled between the antenna structure and the RF circuit. The MIMO RF circuit may include a pair of diplexers; and a pair of switches. The RF circuit is operable to cause a first antenna element of the four antenna elements to radiate and receive electromagnetic energy in a first frequency range via the MIMO RF circuit and the RF circuit is operable to cause a remaining three antenna elements of the four antenna elements to receive electromagnetic energy in the first frequency range via the MIMO RF circuit to support 4×4 DL MIMO. |
| US09385792B2 |
Method for transmitting codewords in multiple input multiple output system
A method for effectively transmitting/receiving a codeword in a MIMO system is disclosed. In a system including a plurality of predetermined rank structures, a reception end transmits rank information (RI), precoding matrix index (PMI), and channel quality information (CQI) of each codeword to a transmission end. The transmission end selects a rank structure on the basis of information received from the reception end. The transmission end selects only some codeword blocks among a plurality of codeword blocks available for the selected rank structure, transmits signals via the selected codeword blocks, and transmits a null signal for the non-selected codeword blocks. |
| US09385788B2 |
Power supply apparatus, power supply method, and storage medium
A power supply apparatus includes a receiving unit configured to receive a power supply request and a power supply condition from a power receiving apparatus, and a power supply control unit configured to instruct a power supply unit to perform a test power supply to a target power receiving apparatus which is a transmission source of the power supply request, and instruct the power supply unit to perform actual power supply according to the power supply condition when the receiving unit receives a success notification of the test power supply from the target power receiving apparatus after performing the test power supply. |
| US09385787B2 |
Communications via wireless charging
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for wireless charging. In some example embodiments, there is provide a method. The method may include receiving, at a power receiver, a first ping message and a second ping message; detecting, at the power receiver, a first time between transmissions of the first ping message and the second ping message; and decoding, at the power receiver, the first time into a data value representative of a transmitted data value sent by a power transmitter. Related apparatus, systems, methods, and articles are also described. |
| US09385786B2 |
Method and apparatus for charging a battery in a mobile device through a near field communication (NFC) antenna
A near field communication (NFC) antenna in a mobile device is used to wirelessly charge a battery in the mobile device by placing the mobile device on, or in very close proximity to, a charging station that emits an electromagnetic field. An induced current from the NFC antenna is detected that is above a predetermined threshold for longer than a predetermined duration. The induced current is used to charge the battery in the mobile device. |
| US09385785B2 |
Common communications device
A common communications device comprising an array of near-field coupled resonant elements, the elements each comprising a coupling portion comprising a loop portion with free ends, the device being provided in combination with a data transmission unit and a data reception unit, each unit having a coupling portion, the units being arranged to communicate with one another by means of the coupling portion of each unit and the common communications device, the coupling portion of the data transmission unit comprising a resonant element comprising a loop portion arranged to be near-field coupled to the loop portion of a first resonant element of the device, the coupling portion of the data reception unit comprising a resonant element comprising a loop portion arranged to be near-field coupled to the loop portion of a second resonant element of the device not being the first resonant element. |
| US09385781B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for characterizing common mode noise and estimating loop imbalance
The present invention relates generally to addressing performance issues in xDSL communication systems, and more particularly to methods and apparatuses to measure and characterize CM noise impacting a DSL line in a customer premises, measurements and characterization of the projection of these CM signals in Differential Mode (DM), and finally a derivation of an estimate of the loop balance. |
| US09385772B1 |
Enhanced storage option in multi-slot communications supporting USB UICC SIM cards
The various embodiments include methods and apparatuses for providing multiple memories on a multi-slot communication device or on a multi-slot communication device and a wireless device as a single, contiguous, combined memory. The memories may include various types of universal serial bus (USB) and/or universal integrated circuit card (UICC) memories. Ranges of physical addresses of portions of each memory may be associated with a range of virtual addresses of the combined memory. The associations of physical and virtual addresses may be stored on the multi-slot communication device. A single memory access request to the combined memory may be made using the virtual addresses, then translated into multiple memory access requests for the individual memories using the physical addresses. Providing memory access requests to a memory on the wireless device may be accomplished by connecting to the memory on the wireless device over a wireless network by the multi-slot communication device. |
| US09385770B2 |
Arrayed antenna for coherent detection of millimeterwave and terahertz radiation
We disclose an arrayed antenna for reception of electromagnetic radiation from a millimeter-wave or terahertz range. In an example embodiment, individual antenna cells in the arrayed antenna are configured for coherent detection of the received electromagnetic radiation and are electrically connected with one another in a manner that causes each of the antenna cells to positively contribute to the overall gain of the arrayed antenna. In some embodiments, the arrayed antenna may have a network of electrical conductors that is configured to (i) collect and deliver the electrical output signals generated by the individual antenna cells to an output terminal of the arrayed antenna, (ii) deliver an electrical local-oscillator signal from a common local-oscillator source to the individual antenna cells, and (iii) deliver electrical DC power from a common power supply to electrical circuits in the individual antenna cells. |
| US09385767B2 |
Apparatus for correcting multipath errors in carrier phase measurements of a navigation receiver
A correction phase locked loop (CPLL), including a signal processing unit that receives a digitized input signal from a satellite, the signal processing unit comprising (a) a primary correlator and primary discriminator, connected in series and generating a main error signal Z1 from the digitized input signal; (b) a correction correlator and a correction discriminator connected in series and generating a correction signal Z2; and (c) an adder for adding the main error signal Z1 and the correction signal Z2 to produce a common error signal Z. A loop filter filters the common error signal Z to produce a corrected error signal that is used for frequency-phase control of a Numerical Control Oscillator (NCO). The NCO generates two mutually orthogonal output reference signals whose phase is substantially free of multipath errors. |
| US09385766B2 |
Digital signal processing device, receiving device, and signal transmitting and receiving system
A Fourier transform unit (111) performs Fourier transform on a digital signal on a time axis to generate a frequency domain signal which is a signal on a frequency axis. A filter unit (113) equalizes the frequency domain signal in a frequency domain using N first coefficients. An inverse Fourier transform unit (112) performs inverse Fourier transform on the frequency domain signal processed by the filter unit (113) and returns the frequency domain signal to the digital signal on the time axis. That is, the Fourier transform unit (111), the inverse Fourier transform unit (112), and the filter unit (113) compensate for waveform distortion included in the digital signal using an equalization process (that is, frequency-domain equalization (FDE)) in the frequency domain. A first coefficient setting unit (114) sets N first coefficients used by the filter unit (113) using m (provided N>m) second coefficients. |
| US09385765B2 |
Diversity receiver front end system with phase-shifting components
Diversity receiver front end system with phase-shifting components. A receiving system can include a controller configured to selectively activate one or more of a plurality of paths between an input of the receiving system and an output of the receiving system. The receiving system can further include a plurality of amplifiers, each one of the plurality of amplifiers disposed along a corresponding one of the plurality of paths and configured to amplify a signal received at the amplifier. The receiving system can further include a plurality of phase-shift components, each one of the plurality of phase-shift components disposed along a corresponding one of the plurality of paths and configured to phase-shift a signal passing through the phase-shift component. |
| US09385755B2 |
Parallel bit interleaver
A bit interleaving method involves applying a bit permutation process to a QC-LDPC codeword made up of N cyclic blocks each including Q bits, and dividing the codeword after the permutation process into a plurality of constellation words each including M bits, the codeword being divided into F×N/M folding sections, each of the constellation words being associated with one of the F×N/M folding sections, and the bit permutation process being applied such that each of the constellation words includes F bits from each of M/F different cyclic blocks in a given folding section associated with a given constellation word. |
| US09385748B2 |
Parallel dictionary-based compression encoder
Systems, devices and methods for data compression using history search for dictionary based compression. Systems, devices and methods may use parallel processing techniques for data compression and encoding. Systems, devices and methods may provide memory search techniques for hardware. |
| US09385745B1 |
Sigma-delta ADC with dither
Systems and methods for reducing spurious noise tones in sigma-delta analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are described. A dither signal may be added to two differential input signals of a pseudo-differential sigma-delta ADC. The dither signal may be generated by a pseudo-random bit sequence generator and applied to two input buffers, which add the dither signal to received differential analog input signals. The dithered signals may be digitized by two independent sigma-delta ADCs and then subtracted to remove the dither signal from an overall digital output signal. |
| US09385738B2 |
Digital readout method and apparatus
Autonomously operating analog to digital converters are formed into a two dimensional array. The array may incorporate digital signal processing functionality. Such an array is particularly well-suited for operation as a readout integrated circuit and, in combination with a sensor array, forms a digital focal plane array. |
| US09385737B1 |
Adaptive correction of interleaving errors in time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters
A system includes an interleaved analog-to-digital converter (ADC) comprising a plurality of sub-ADCs, where each of the plurality of sub-ADCs has an adjustable timing. The system includes a data analyzer that analyzes an output of the interleaved ADC, that estimates timing mismatches of the plurality of sub-ADCs, and that corrects the timing mismatches by adjusting the adjustable timing of one or more of the plurality of sub-ADCs based on the estimated timing mismatches. |
| US09385728B2 |
Integrated clock differential buffering
Integrated clock differential buffering. A first phase locked loop (PLL) circuit having a first clocking ratio is coupled to receive an input differential clock signal. The first PLL circuit generates a first reference clock signal. A second PLL circuit having a second clocking ratio is coupled to receive the input differential clock signal. The second PLL circuit to generate a second reference clock signal. A first set of clock signal output buffers are coupled to receive the first reference clock signal and to provide a first differential reference clock signal corresponding to the first reference clock signal. A second set of clock signal output buffers is coupled to receive the second reference clock signal and to provide a second differential reference clock signal corresponding to the second reference clock signal. The first PLL circuit, the second PLL circuit, the first set of output buffers and the second set of output buffers reside within an integrated circuit package also having a die to receive at least the first differential reference clock signal. |
| US09385727B2 |
Automated load tracking and system tuning mechanism for wireless charging
A system includes at least one active energy transfer coil and a first passive energy transfer coil. The active energy transfer coil is configured to couple with a power supply. The at least one active energy transfer coil has an active coupling range. The first passive energy transfer coil is magnetically coupled to the active energy transfer coil and is located within the active coupling range. The first passive energy transfer coil has a passive coupling range. The first passive energy transfer coil is configured to provide energy to a first device located within the passive coupling range and based on energy received from the at least one active energy transfer coil. |
| US09385725B2 |
Runtime loading of configuration data in a configurable IC
Some embodiments of the invention provide a configurable integrated circuit (IC) that has several configurable circuits for configurably performing different operations. During the operation of the IC, each particular configurable circuit performs a particular operation that is specified by a particular configuration data set for the particular configurable circuit. While the IC operates and a first set of configurable circuits performs a first set of operations, configuration data is loaded from the outside of the IC for configuring a second set of configurable circuits. In some embodiments, the configurable IC includes a configuration network for rapid loading configuration data in the IC from outside of the IC. In some of these embodiments, the configuration network is a pipelined network. Also, the IC of some embodiments includes a configuration controller for retrieving configuration data from outside of the IC, formulating configuration data sets, and routing the configuration data sets to the second set of configurable circuits over the configuration network. |
| US09385723B1 |
CMOS level shifter circuit with self-adaptive local supply boosting for wide voltage range operation
A level shifter that supports wide voltage range operation by adaptively boosting local supply voltage to its input stage. The level shifter may interface an input (low) voltage domain and an output (high) voltage domain. In the level shifter, an input stage may receive an input signal from the input voltage domain, and an output stage may generate an output signal to be sent to the output voltage domain. In the level shifter, the power supply to the low-voltage input stage is automatically and adaptively boosted to effectuate level conversion of the input signal. A boost control signal is generated when the output signal fails to switch or is slow to switch in response to a corresponding switching of the input signal. In this manner, the voltage operating range of the level shifter is increased. Because boosting is engaged only when needed, the level shifter provides efficient operation with self-adaptability. |
| US09385722B2 |
Voltage level shifter circuit
Embodiments include apparatuses, methods, and systems for voltage level shifting a data signal between a low voltage domain and a high voltage domain. In embodiments, a voltage level shifter circuit may include adaptive keeper circuitry, enhanced interruptible supply circuitry, and/or capacitive boosting circuitry to reduce a minimum voltage of the low voltage domain that is supported by the voltage level shifter circuit. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. |
| US09385720B2 |
Semiconductor device and driving method thereof
A semiconductor device in which operation delay can be suppressed is provided. The semiconductor device includes a first logic element, a second logic element, a first circuit that has a function of controlling conduction between the first logic element and the second logic element, and a fourth circuit. The fourth circuit is electrically connected to the first circuit, and is electrically connected to the second logic element. |
| US09385718B1 |
Input-output buffer circuit with a gate bias generator
An integrated circuit is disclosed. The integrated circuit includes an input-output (IO) buffer circuit. The IO buffer circuit further includes first and second transistors coupled in series. The first transistor receives an input signal and the second transistor receives a pulsed voltage signal. Furthermore, a method to operate the IO buffer circuit is also disclosed. |
| US09385717B1 |
Level-sensitive two-phase single-wire latch controllers without contention
Systems and methods are described for a contention-free single-wire latch controller that includes first and second bidirectional signal pins (e.g., the L and R pins in the FIGS), a latch enable output pin (or signal), E, and a decision element (such as a NAND or a NOR gate). A first driving transistor may be coupled between the first bidirectional signal pin and a power rail. A second driving transistor may be coupled between the second bidirectional signal pin and the power rail. A first half-latch may be coupled to the first bidirectional signal pin. A second half-latch may be coupled to the second bidirectional signal pin. |
| US09385716B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a first block coupled between a first latch node and a second latch node, a second block suitable for generating common-mode noise between the first latch node and the second latch node, wherein the second block includes a first MOS transistor having a gate coupled with the first latch node, and one between a source and a drain of the first MOS transistor is coupled with the second latch node while the other between the source and the drain is floating. |
| US09385710B2 |
Touch screen, electronic device comprising same and method for manufacturing same
Embodiments of the present invention provide a touch screen, an electronic device comprising the same and a method for manufacturing the same. The touch screen comprises driving electrode layers, a transparent organic polymer layer and metal bridges conductively communicated with two adjacent driving electrode layers, and protective layers covering the metal bridges to prevent the oxidation of the metal bridges are disposed between the driving electrode layers and the metal bridges. In the touch screen provided by the embodiment of the present invention, as the metal bridges are respectively covered by the protective layers, the metal bridges will not undergo oxidation reaction due to the contact of transparent organic polymers, and thus the electric conductivity of the metal bridges can be effectively guaranteed; the increase of the impedance of oxide layers can be avoided; and the product yield of the touch screen can be improved. |
| US09385708B2 |
Methodology to avoid gate stress for low voltage devices in FDSOI technology
An inverter is implemented in an FDSOI integrated circuit die. The inverter includes a PMOS transistor and an NMOS transistor. The PMOS and NMOS transistors each include a first gate coupled to the respective source terminal of the transistor. The PMOS and NMOS transistors each include a back gate coupled to the input of the inverter. |
| US09385704B2 |
Semiconductor device and driving method of the same
In the case of reducing an effect of variations in current characteristics of transistors by inputting a signal current to a transistor in a pixel, a potential of a wiring is detected by using a precharge circuit. In the case where there is a difference between a predetermined potential and the potential of the wiring, a charge is supplied to the wiring to perform a precharge by charging rapidly. When the potential of the wiring reaches the predetermined potential, the supply of charge is stopped and a signal current only is supplied. Thus, a precharge is performed only in a period until the potential of the wiring reaches the predetermined potential, therefore, a precharge can be performed for an optimal period. |
| US09385702B2 |
I/O module
An input/output (I/O) module is configured to connect a controller and a field device. The I/O module includes a PWM (pulse width modulation) demodulator configured to demodulate a PWM signal that is input from the controller, a current source configured to output a current based on an output signal of the PWM demodulator to the field device, a resistance connected in line with the current source, and a feedback circuit configured to feed back an output current of the current source to the PWM demodulator via the controller. |
| US09385700B2 |
Clock monitoring for sequential logic circuits
A monitor circuit for monitoring a clock signal is described. In accordance with one example of the disclosure, the monitor circuit includes a pulse generator and a comparator circuit. The pulse generator is configured to generate a sequence of pulses synchronous to the clock signal, wherein each pulse has an edge with a monotonously rising or falling signal level. The comparator circuit receives the sequence of pulses and is configured to detect, for each clock cycle of the clock signal, whether or not the signal level of the sequence of pulses is outside a desired range at a specific time instant within the clock cycle of the clock signal. |
| US09385698B2 |
Pulse width modulator for high speed digitally controlled voltage regulator
Described is a pulse width modulation architecture for high speed digitally controlled voltage regulator. Described is an apparatus which comprises: a first phase interpolator (PI) for coupling an input to a delay element of a delay line, wherein the coupling is via a selection unit; a second PI for coupling an output of the delay element of the delay line, wherein the coupling is via the selection unit; and a third PI for providing an output, the third PI calibrated according to delay settings of the first and second PIs. |
| US09385696B1 |
Generating a pulse clock signal based on a first clock signal and a second clock signal
Various aspects provide for generating a clock signal for a hold latch. A latch pulse generator generates a pulse clock signal based on a first clock signal associated with a first flip-flop component and a second clock signal associated with a second flip-flop component. A hold latch component receives the pulse clock signal generated by the latch pulse generator and generates a data signal that is transmitted to the second flip-flop component. |
| US09385693B2 |
Flip-flop circuit and semiconductor apparatus using the same
A flip-flop circuit may include: a latch unit configured to latch an input signal in response to a clock signal; and a timing control unit configured to delay a signal provided from the latch unit by a predetermined time regardless of the clock signal. |
| US09385692B2 |
Low power oscillator with charge subtraction scheme
An ultra-low power oscillator is designed for wake-up timers that can be used in compact wireless sensors, for example. A constant charge subtraction scheme removes continuous comparator delay from the oscillation period, which is the source of temperature dependence in conventional RC relaxation oscillators. This relaxes comparator design constraints, enabling low power operation. In 0.18 μm CMOS, the oscillator consumes 5.8 nW at room temperature with temperature stability of 45 ppm/° C. (−10° C. to 90° C.) and 1%/V line sensitivity. |
| US09385690B1 |
Integrated circuit with multiplexed I/O pads
An integrated circuit (IC) includes power domains and I/O multiplexing units. The I/O multiplexing units include components that are spilt across the power domains. The I/O multiplexing units multiplex signals received from the power domains and provide signals to one or more peripheral devices connected to the IC by way of I/O pads of the IC. |
| US09385689B1 |
Open loop band gap reference voltage generator
A reference voltage generator that does not require a start-up circuit or a feedback loop generates a proportional-to-absolute-temperature (PTAT) output voltage based on two complementary-to-absolute-temperature (CTAT) currents. The reference voltage generator provides a reference voltage that is a sum of the PTAT output voltage and a CTAT voltage. |
| US09385686B2 |
Acoustic wave device
An acoustic wave filter includes a piezoelectric substrate, an insulating pattern that has higher thermal conductivity than the piezoelectric substrate formed on the piezoelectric substrate, at least two pads formed on the piezoelectric substrate or the insulating pattern, at least one pad formed on the insulating pattern, at least one acoustic resonator formed on the insulating pattern, and at least one acoustic resonator directly formed on the piezoelectric substrate. |
| US09385684B2 |
Acoustic resonator having guard ring
A bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator structure comprises a first electrode disposed over a substrate, a piezoelectric layer disposed over the first electrode, a second electrode disposed over the first piezoelectric layer, and a guard ring structure formed around a perimeter of an active region corresponding to an overlap of the first electrode, the first piezoelectric layer, and the second electrode. |
| US09385683B2 |
Diplexer and transceiver thereof
A diplexer, for coupling a first radio frequency (RF) signal corresponding to a first carrier frequency and a second RF signal corresponding to a second carrier frequency is disclosed. The diplexer includes a first port arranged to couple the first RF signal; a second port arranged to couple the second RF signal; a third port capable of connecting an antenna; a first impedance unit coupled to the first port and the third port; and a second impedance unit coupled to the second port and the third port; wherein the first port, the second port and the third port are coupled to a direct current (DC) ground; wherein the first impedance unit is arranged to provide an first open-circuit impedance against the second RF signal, and the second impedance unit is arranged to provide a second open-circuit impedance against the first RF signal. |
| US09385680B2 |
Crest factor reduction applied to shaping table to increase power amplifier efficiency of envelope tracking amplifier
There is disclosed a method of controlling an input to an envelope modulated power supply of an envelope tracking amplification stage, comprising: generating an envelope signal representing the envelope of a signal to be amplified; applying a shaping function to the envelope signal to generate a shaped envelope signal, including: clipping the shaped envelope signal at high input envelope values; and providing the shaped envelope signal as an input signal to the envelope modulated power supply. |
| US09385679B1 |
Staggered Y topology for multiband limiter
A multiband limiter with Staggered-Y topology including a band splitter having a signal input and a plurality of bands, a first band limiter having an input coupled to a first band of the band splitter, a first summer having a first input coupled to an output of the first band limiter and a second input coupled to a second band of the band splitter, and a first summer limiter having an input coupled to an output of the first summer. |
| US09385678B2 |
Methods and systems for controlling volume
A system includes a plurality of sources configured to provide a plurality of audio channels, and a control system including a processor, and a computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon. When executed by the processor, the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to adjust a master volume, identify a channel volume type associated with a first audio channel of the plurality of audio channels, and determine a channel volume associated with the first audio channel based at least partially on at least one of the adjustment of the master volume and the channel volume type. |
| US09385676B2 |
System and method for dynamically mixing audio signals
A system and method for dynamically mixing audio signals may calculate a signal amplitude for each of two or more audio signals. The signal amplitude may be the absolute value of the audio signal. A signal sum may be calculated using each of the two or more signal amplitudes. Each of the two or more signal amplitudes may be smoothed. The signal sum may be smoothed. The smoothing may be a filter or a leaky integrator. A respective mixing gain may be calculated for each of the two or more audio signals using a respective ratio of each of the two or more smoothed signal amplitudes and the smoothed signal sum. Each of the two or more audio signals may be gain adjusted responsive to the respective mixing gain. Each of the two or more gain adjusted audio signals may be mixed to create an output signal. |
| US09385674B2 |
Dynamic speaker management for multichannel audio systems
A multiband limiter with selective sideband linking includes first and second frequency band splitters, a first and second plurality of limiters, first and second summers, and a plurality of selectable links coupling the first plurality of limiters to the second plurality of limiters. The first plurality of limiters each have a band input coupled to one of the first plurality of band outputs, a link port and a limiter output, and the first summer is receptive to the limiter outputs of the first plurality of limiters and has a first channel output. The second plurality of limiters each have a band input coupled to one of the second plurality of band outputs, a link port and a limiter output, and the second summer is receptive to the limiter outputs of the second plurality of limiters and has a second channel output. |
| US09385672B2 |
Compensated common-mode feedback for an amplifier
A common-mode feedback module is disclosed for controlling feedback in an amplifier, such as a multi-stage amplifier. The common-mode feedback module may include a feedback input stage, a cascode stage, and a feedback output stage. The common-mode feedback module may provide feedback, such as negative feedback to the amplifier to extend a bandwidth of a frequency response and/or increase stability. |
| US09385668B2 |
Cableless high power RF/microwave power amplifier with multiple power amplifier units
A cableless high power RF or microwave amplifier may amplifies an RF or microwave signal. The amplifier may include: an input signal divider (DIV) that has a DIV input connector that receives the RF or microwave signal and that divides this input signal into multiple sub-input signals, each of which is delivered to a DIV output connector; multiple power amplifier units (PAUs), each of which has a PAU input connector that receives an RF or microwave signal and a PAU output connector that delivers an amplified version of the received RF or microwave signal; and an output signal switching combiner unit (SCU) that has multiple SCU input connectors and that coherently sums the signals at the multiple SCU input connectors and delivers this to an SCU output connector. Each of the PAU output connectors may be electrically connected to a different one of the SCU input connectors without connecting cables. |
| US09385661B1 |
Amplifier with deterministic noise cancellation and method thereof
In one embodiment, a circuit comprising a passive input network of an input impedance configured to couple an input voltage to a first circuit node; an adaptive current source configured to output an adaptive bias current to the first circuit node; a cascode device controlled by a control voltage and configured to receive a sum current from the first circuit node and output an output current to a second circuit node; and a load network of a load impedance configured to provide termination to the second circuit node, wherein the adaptive bias current is dynamically adapted to track a deterministic noise component in the input voltage. |
| US09385659B2 |
Device and method for controlling power amplifier
A control device provides a supply voltage to an output transistor of a power amplifier. The control device includes a detector encoder, a switch sequencer and a power switch. The detector encoder receives a detection signal indicating a negative peak voltage level of an output signal of the power amplifier, receives a reference signal indicating a critical voltage of the detection signal at which the negative peak voltage level of the output transistor is deemed to be out of voltage with reference to saturation voltage of the output transistor, compares the detection and reference signals, and outputs Boost Request and Recovery Request signals in response. The switch sequencer translates the Boost Request and Recovery Request signals into multiple control bits. The power switch coordinates switching among a no boost voltage and multiple boost voltages based on the control bits, and outputs one of these voltages as the supply voltage. |
| US09385653B2 |
Crystal oscillator with reduced acceleration sensitivity
A crystal oscillator having a plurality of quartz crystals that are manufactured so that the directional orientation of the acceleration sensitivity vector is essentially the same for each crystal. This enables convenient mounting of the crystals to a circuit assembly with consistent alignment of the acceleration vectors. The crystals are aligned with the acceleration vectors in an essentially anti-parallel relationship and can be coupled to the oscillator circuit in either a series or parallel arrangement. Mounting the crystals in this manner substantially cancels the acceleration sensitivity of the composite resonator and oscillator, rendering it less sensitive to vibrational forces and shock events. |
| US09385651B2 |
60 GHz frequency generator incorporating third harmonic boost and extraction
A novel and useful 60 GHz frequency generator based on a third harmonic extraction technique which improves system level efficiency and performance. The frequency generator employs a third harmonic boosting technique to increase the third harmonic at the output of the oscillator. The oscillator generates both ˜20 GHz fundamental and a significant amount of the third harmonic at ˜60 GHz and avoids the need for a frequency divider operating at 60 GHz. The undesired fundamental harmonic at ˜20 GHz is rejected by the good fundamental harmonic rejection ratio (HRR) inherent in the oscillator buffer stage while the ˜60 GHz component is amplified to the output. The fundamental harmonic is further suppressed by active cancellation by properly combining the two outputs. The oscillator fabricated in 40 nm CMOS exhibits a phase noise of −100 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from a 60 GHz carrier and have a tuning range of 25%. |
| US09385641B2 |
System and method for inducing rotation of a rotor in a sensorless motor
System and method for initiating rotation of a rotor in a motor. The motor may include the rotor and a plurality of pairs of electromagnets. A rotation period may be determined. One or more pairs of electromagnets of the plurality of pairs of electromagnets may be excited at a first excitation level. The excited one or more pairs of electromagnets may be determined based on the rotation period. The excitation level may be decreased, over a first period of time, to a second excitation level. The second excitation level may be a lower excitation level than the first excitation level. The excitation level may be increased, over a second period of time, to a third excitation level. The third excitation level may be a higher excitation level than the second excitation level. The rotation period may be decreased over the first and second periods of time. |
| US09385638B2 |
Regenerative rectifier for a motor control drive
A system, and associated method, for controlling a motor drive coupled to an AC power source in a condition wherein the motor drive is generating a regenerative current. The system includes a plurality of electronic switching devices structured to be provided in anti-parallel connection with a plurality of rectifier diodes of the motor drive, and a controller structured and configured to receive a number of phase voltages from the AC power source, determine a grid angle for the AC power source using the number of phase voltages, and generate a number of control signals for controlling the electronic switching devices using the grid angle when the motor drive is generating the regenerative current. |
| US09385634B2 |
Rotational type of MEMS electrostatic actuator
A cantilever type of electrostatic vertical combdrive actuators may generate larger actuator displacement (typically over 70 um) with a relatively small and simple structure. The actuation voltage is lower while the actuation movement is robust without any typical sideway finger snapping phenomena due to a cantilever type of structure. Because of its small form factor, it can form a high fill factor array in applications such as lower power consumption display devices, sensitive electromagnetic radiation detector/detector arrays, etc. The MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) electrostatic rotational actuators may have wide applications such as in optical shutter, optical chopper, optical switches, optical attenuators, optical tunable filter, RF shunt switch, RF ohmic contact switch, RF MEMS variable capacitors, MEMS display and sensitive electromagnetic radiation detector etc. |
| US09385627B2 |
Universal power conversion devices for alternating current electric apparatus
The present disclosure is directed to universal power conversion devices for alternating current electric apparatus. One example power conversion device includes a plurality of transformers and a plurality of terminal blocks. The plurality of terminal blocks comprise at least an AC input terminal block for receiving an input alternating current signal and a primary coil terminal block. The primary coil terminal block has a plurality of output terminals respectively connected to a plurality of taps of a plurality of primary coils of the plurality of transformers. A plurality of jumpers respectively providing electrical connection between respective output terminals of the AC input terminal block and input terminals of the primary coil terminal block are selectively reconfigurable for reconfiguring a power conversion applied to the input alternating current signal by the power conversion device. |
| US09385623B2 |
Control system and method for controlling a rectifier
A system and method for controlling a rectifier due to changing operating conditions including at least one reactor per phase connected to the rectifier for providing an input signal, a bias current for controlling the reactor, and a control current for controlling the reactor. The bias current is fixed to a predefined value which is taken as an input signal for providing a control current compensating the difference between the predefined value of the bias current and a start value defining a start point of the linear operating range of the reactor. |
| US09385616B2 |
AC/DC power converter
In one embodiment, an AC/DC power converter can include: a rectifier bridge and a filter capacitor for converting an external AC voltage to a half-sinusoid DC input voltage; a first storage component, where during each switching cycle in a first operation mode, a first path receives the half-sinusoid DC input voltage to store energy in the first storage component, and a first current through the first storage component increases; a second storage component, where a second path receives a second DC voltage to store energy in the second storage component, and a second current through the second storage component increases; and a third storage component, where in a second operation mode, the first current decreases to release energy from the first to the third storage component, where the second DC voltage includes a voltage across the third storage component through a third path. |
| US09385613B2 |
Method of operating switch mode power converters, and controllers and lighting systems using such a method
A controller and method for operating a controller are disclosed. In an embodiment, a method involves in a mode-setting phase, polling connection pins to sense the presence and/or magnitude of a respective relatively high impedance connected between a respective connection pin and a predetermined electrical potential, and/or other connection pins to sense the presence and/or magnitude of a respective further impedance connected between the respective connection pin and a predetermined electrical potential. The method also involves selecting an operational mode from a plurality of possible operational modes. In an operational phase, the method involves operating in the selected operational mode, including providing a respective drive signal having a relatively low output impedance from each of the first group of connection pins, and measuring a sense voltage on each of the second group of connection pins. |
| US09385610B2 |
Power supply with tickle pulse injection
A power supply injects a series of “tickle” pulses into a pulse width modulated (PWM) controller to induce the controller to generate PWM pulses at a minimum switching frequency, preferably one that is super-sonic (especially for audio applications). The switching frequency may also be selected or controlled such that it avoids resonances in the power supply. The “tickle” pulses may be clocked by the same clock that times the PWM controller, and they may be shaped to help ensure that the power supply maintains some regulation during low-load conditions. |
| US09385609B2 |
Analog current estimation and digital estimation correction for a multiphase buck converter
A phase current estimator for a switching power converter includes analog circuitry for generating a phase current estimate error by comparing a phase current of the switching power converter to an analog representation of an estimate of the phase current. The phase current estimator further includes digital circuitry for revising the phase current estimate based on the phase current estimate error and a plurality of parameters associated with operation of the switching power converter. An estimator fault detection unit is provided for determining whether a difference between the phase current and estimate exceeds a threshold for indicating substandard phase current estimation. |
| US09385605B2 |
Switched mode power supply with a bypass path for shunting current
A switching stage is provided that generally includes multiple switching paths for routing a signal. For example, the switching stage may include a first switching path having at least one switching element for selectively connecting an input of the switching stage to an output of the switching stage and a second switching path having at least one switching element for selectively connecting the input of the switching stage to the output of the switching staged. In certain aspects, the first and second switching paths are controlled such that a signal is selectively routed from the input of the switching stage to the output of the switching stage via the first and second switching paths in dependence on the current of the signal to be routed. |
| US09385604B2 |
DC/DC converter, switching power supply device, and electronic apparatus
Provided is a DC/DC converter for a switching power supply device including a plurality of DC/DC converters which include a master DC/DC converter and a plurality of slave DC/DC converters and have output terminals connected in parallel to each other. The DC/DC converter includes: first and second terminals that are used to cascade the plurality of DC/DC converters in a line; a control circuit that determines that a host DC/DC converter is the master DC/DC converter when a predetermined voltage is detected at the second terminal and determines that the host DC/DC converter is the slave DC/DC converter when the predetermined voltage is not detected; and that controls a current output from the second terminal based on whether the host DC/DC converter is the master DC/DC converter or the slave DC/DC converter. |
| US09385603B2 |
Control method and control circuit for switching power supply
In one embodiment, a method of controlling a switching power supply can include: (i) generating an ideal on time signal according to an input voltage and an output voltage of the switching power supply; (ii) generating a ripple voltage signal having a predetermined constant value when a power switch of the switching power supply is on, and a linearly decreasing value when the power switch is off; (iii) generating a regulating voltage signal according to an output voltage sense signal and the ripple voltage signal; (iv) generating a regulating control signal by comparing the regulating voltage signal against a first reference signal; (v) generating an on time control signal according to the regulating control signal and the ideal on time signal; and (vi) generating a driving signal according to the on time control signal for driving the power switch. |
| US09385598B2 |
Boost converter stage switch controller
A low voltage lamp includes a boost converter stage and a load. The load may include low voltage light producing elements including low voltage light emitting diodes. The boost converter stage receives an electronic transformer output and includes an inductor coupled to a switch and a switch controller that receives one or more controller inputs. Inductor current may be returned to the transformer when the switch is closed and provided to a rectifier coupled to the load when the switch is open. Controller inputs may include a transformer input that receives the transformer output, a sense input indicating switch current, and a load input indicating load voltage. Controller logic may synchronize assertions of a control signal for the switch with edge transitions of the transformer output to maintain peak inductor current within a specified range and to selectively transfer stored energy in the inductor to the load or back to the transformer. |
| US09385596B1 |
Charge pump circuit capable of reducing reverse currents
A charge pump unit capable of reducing reverse current includes a first NMOS transistor, a first PMOS transistor, a second NMOS transistor, and a second PMOS transistor. The first NMOS transistor and the first PMOS transistor are coupled in series and are controlled by a first clock signal. The second NMOS transistor and the second PMOS transistor are coupled in series and are controlled by a second clock signal. The first NMOS transistor is for receiving a first input voltage and the second NMOS transistor is for receiving a second input voltage. The first clock signal and the second clock signal transit at different time points. A rising edge of the first clock signal leads a respective falling edge of the second clock signal. |
| US09385594B2 |
Two-state charge-pump control-loop for MEMS DVC control
The present invention generally relates to a DVC having a charge-pump coupled to a MEMS device. The charge-pump is designed to control the output voltage delivered to the electrodes, such as the pull-in electrode or the pull-off electrode, that move the switching element within the MEMS device between locations spaced far from and disposed closely to the RF electrode. |
| US09385590B2 |
Arrangement and method for a vehicle inverter drive
A method and arrangement are disclosed for a vehicle inverter drive having a voltage distribution block and two or more inverters, intermediate circuits of which are connected in parallel to the voltage distribution block for supplying voltage to the intermediate circuits, in which the intermediate circuits of the inverters are interconnected with a coaxial cable to minimize inductance in the parallel connection. |
| US09385584B2 |
Voltage regulator
Provided is a voltage regulator including a leakage current correction circuit capable of keeping the accuracy of an output voltage of the voltage regulator even when an output voltage of a reference voltage circuit is decreased due to the influence of a leakage current. The voltage regulator includes: a reference voltage circuit configured to output a reference voltage; an output transistor configured to output an output voltage; a voltage divider circuit configured to divide the output voltage to output a feedback voltage; an error amplifier circuit configured to amplify a difference between the reference voltage and the feedback voltage, and output the amplified difference to control a gate of the output transistor; and a leakage current correction circuit connected to an output terminal of the voltage divider circuit. The leakage current correction circuit is configured to decrease the feedback voltage to prevent the output voltage from dropping at high temperature. |
| US09385574B1 |
Heat transfer fluid based zero-gas-emission power generation
A power generator apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes a heat absorber configured to absorb heat and provide the absorbed heat to a first heat transferring fluid. The first heat transferring fluid is then circulated to an evaporator. The evaporator is configured to: receive the first heat transferring fluid; facilitate heat exchange between the first heat transferring fluid and a second heat transferring fluid; and return the first heat transferring fluid to the heat absorber. The apparatus further includes a compressor configured to compress the second heat transferring fluid and use the compressed second heat transferring fluid to generate electricity. A heat recovery is used to retrieve heat and liquefy the second heat transferring fluid, and an expansion valve is used to regulate pressure of the second heat transferring fluid received from the heat recovery unit and return the second heat transferring fluid to the evaporator. |
| US09385570B2 |
Stator magnet wire end coil retention system
The invention includes a retention system and method for stator magnet wires. In embodiments, the retention system includes a packing ring that can swell to a larger size following installation. In embodiments, the lubricant used in the motor causes the packing ring to swell. When the packing ring swells, it exerts pressure against the end turns of the stator magnet wires, and can contour to the shape of the wires so that there are no pressure points on the wires. A rigid support ring can be positioned concentric with the packing ring so that the packing ring does not swell toward the axis of the motor housing. |
| US09385561B2 |
Charging coil system for a drop-in target device such as a toothbrush
A system for efficiently charging a target device such as a power toothbrush, when placed in a charging receptacle such as a cup connected to a source of electrical power. A plurality of steering coils are arranged around the primary charging coil in the charging receptacle. A control circuit changes the magnetic field phase pattern of the steering coils relative to the phase of magnetic field of the primary coil until the maximum power transfer between the charging receptacle and the target device is determined. Charging of the target device occurs at the maximum power transfer rate. |
| US09385559B2 |
Semiconductor device, power transmission device, power reception device, charging system, wireless communication system, and charging method
A semiconductor device transmits a wireless signal to a power reception device that charges a battery, transmits a charge completion signal when the battery charge is completed, and transmits a response signal in reply to a query signal in the wireless signal. The semiconductor device includes a drive control circuit, a reception circuit, and a controller. The controller can control, when the reception circuit does not receive the response signal or receives the charge completion signal, the drive control circuit to transmit communication capable power that makes it possible to communicate with the power reception device and control, when the reception circuit receives the response signal and does not receive the charge completion signal, the drive control circuit to transmit charging power capable of charging the battery of the power reception device by the wireless signal, the charging power being higher than the communication capable power. |
| US09385557B2 |
Methods, systems, and products for charging of devices
Methods, systems, and products charge a battery in a mobile device. A calendric pattern describes habitual usage of the mobile device. The battery may thus be charged based on the calendric pattern. |
| US09385550B2 |
Battery conditioner with power dissipater
The present application is directed to a power dissipation apparatus including a conductive trace formed on a substrate and to methods of using the power dissipation apparatus. The power dissipation apparatus may be used to dissipate heat generated from electrical current passed through the conductive trace of the power dissipation apparatus. The current may be provided from, for example, a battery conditioner. |
| US09385544B2 |
External battery
An external battery includes an input end, an output end, a bare cell between the input end and the output end, a charging unit configured to deliver power from a charger to the bare cell via the input end, a first switch between the charging unit and the input end, a DC-DC converter configured to convert an output voltage from the bare cell into a converted voltage of a magnitude that is different from that of the output voltage, and configured to deliver the converted voltage to the output end, a second switch between the bare cell and the DC-DC converter, and a main controller unit (MCU) configured to sense at least one of overcharging, over-discharging, or an over-discharge current of the bare cell using the output voltage or an output current from the bare cell, and configured to control the first switch and the second switch. |
| US09385543B2 |
Hybrid storage cell, vehicle and power storage unit employing same, smart grid vehicle system employing vehicle, and power supply network system employing power storage unit
Provided is a hybrid storage cell that can prevent overcharge, despite lacking an expensive protection switch or other device adapted to deal with high current or high voltage, in order to proactively prevent rupture or ignition of lithium ion storage cells or other organic solution storage cells in the event of unforeseen overcharging. The cell comprises a plurality of series-connected virtual cells (32) of parallel-connected organic solution storage cells (24A) and aqueous solution storage cells (26A), the organic solution storage cells and the aqueous solution storage cells having closely approximating average discharge voltages. The overcharge threshold voltage of the organic solution storage cells is designed to be higher than the final discharge voltage of the aqueous solution storage cells, and the final discharge voltage of the organic solution storage cells to be lower than the final discharge voltage of the aqueous solution storage cells. In the event that the organic solution storage cells of a virtual cell are exposed to overcharge energy that could lead to overcharge, the energy is absorbed by a hydrogen-generating reaction of the aqueous solution storage cells, holding the discharge voltage of the virtual cell to the final discharge voltage of the aqueous solution storage cells, and preventing the organic solution storage cells from reaching the overcharge threshold voltage. |
| US09385539B2 |
Surface-mediated cell-powered portable computing devices and methods of operating same
This invention provides a portable computing device powered by a surface-mediated cell (SMC)-based power source, the portable device comprising a computing hardware sub-system and a rechargeable power source electrically connected to the hardware and providing power thereto, wherein the power source contains at least a surface-mediated cell. The portable computing device is selected from a laptop computer, a tablet, an electronic book (e-book), a smart phone, a mobile phone, a digital camera, a hand-held calculator or computer, or a personal digital assistant. |
| US09385533B2 |
Power system stabilization
A system for damping power system oscillation includes a damping device controller for generating a damping control signal to compensate for a plurality of oscillation modes in the power system oscillations and a damping device to generate a damping signal based on a damping control signal. The damping device controller includes a plurality of outer closed loop paths each including an adaptive controller configured to determine an individual oscillation mode from at least one power system measurement signal. Each adaptive controller is further configured to generate an adaptive control signal to shift at least one open loop pole of an inner loop path related to the individual oscillation mode to a closed loop location. |
| US09385532B2 |
Energy management system
An energy management system includes an energy management apparatus configured to mange energy supplied to equipment devices of a plurality of buildings, and a control apparatus configured to control the equipment devices in the buildings. The energy management apparatus is located superordinate to the buildings. The control apparatus is connected to the energy management apparatus. The control apparatus includes an operating status perceiving unit configured to perceive operating status of the equipment devices, and a reducing capability presentation unit configured to present a plurality of energy reducing capabilities for at least one condition to the energy management apparatus. The energy reducing capabilities are amounts of energy that can be reduced for the equipment devices based on the operating status perceived. |
| US09385530B2 |
Input line selector system for battery chargers
An input line selector system provided to selectively connect one of two input power lines is configured with a single switch provided in series with each of the input power lines, the connection between the switches being made such that it prevents reverse flow of current in the event that the switches are OFF. A smart, simple and precisely operating automatic line selector is provided to control the operation of the two switches. The line selector system configuration is simple and implements only two switches and can be applied to a linear charger or switching charger application with addition of one or two switches respectively, thereby providing a simple, efficient and cost effective system. |
| US09385529B2 |
Power supply branching control apparatus and method for supplying power to electric loads
Power supply current is supplied to a plurality of electric loads, the power supply current being generated by a DC power supply, flowing in and branching from a shared power supply switching device and then flowing in reverse connection protection devices that are a field-effect transistor and connected in series to the electric loads, respectively. The reverse connection protection devices are connected in a polarity such that the power supply current flows in the forward direction of parasitic diodes generated between the source terminal S and the drain terminal D of the field-effect transistor. When the current in the field-effect transistor is less than a predetermined value, a gate control circuit interrupts the gate voltage of the reverse connection protection device to cause the reverse connection protection device to open. |
| US09385522B2 |
Low fault current isolator system
A low fault current isolation arrangement senses a loss of voltage and automatically isolates and de-energizes a down live primary wire if overcurrent protection devices have not cleared the high impedance fault in an electric power distribution network. Incorporating an operator selectable time delay response, the low fault current isolation arrangement permits overcurrent protection devices to attempt to detect and shut down the affected conductor, and then isolates and shuts down the low current fault if the overcurrent devices are not successful. The isolation arrangement continuously monitors AC voltage as remotely provided by smart meters even after a fault location is de-energized, and serves as a back up, and not as a replacement, for existing overcurrent protection schemes. A host computer operates in conjunction with plural smart meters each coupled to an associated customer distribution transformer in conjunction with the fault isolator to detect and shut down high impedance faults. |
| US09385517B2 |
Busway output box guide/inhibitor system for insertion and removal of a busway output box
Systems and methods are provided for facilitating safe removal of rotational-style output boxes in busway bar power distribution systems particularly configured components to form output box guides. The disclosed schemes render rotational style output boxes for busway bar systems less susceptible to damage introduced by inadvertent or improper removal of the rotational style output boxes in the busway bars. Mechanical structures are provided that substantially inhibit an ability to incorrectly rotate a rotational-style output box during a removal process. A busway output box guide system provides structures associated with and/or attached to at least one of an output box and a busway bar, labeling and warning indication components that inform and substantially inhibit an ability of a user to incorrectly rotate a rotational-style output box in a “wrong” direction particularly when removing the rotational style output box from a busway bar in a power distribution system. |
| US09385515B2 |
Poke-thru floor fitting
A poke-thru floor system includes a poke-thru interface portion, a base and a cover. The poke-thru interface portion allows cable to pass through a floor structure. The base may be disposed on an upper surface of the floor structure and has an opening for communicating with the poke-thru interface portion. The cover interfaces with the base to form a longitudinal passage and is formed to be substantially the same shape as an upper surface of a cable raceway. |
| US09385514B2 |
Power housing with articulating door and faceplate assembly
A power housing assembly includes a housing having a side thereof that is at least partially open. A faceplate, coupled to the open side at a first hinge position, can articulate about the first hinge position between a first position and a second position. The faceplate includes a substantially L-shaped portion that resides (i) in the housing when the faceplate is in its first position, and (ii) outside of the housing when the faceplate is in its second position. |
| US09385507B2 |
Semiconductor laser light source having an edge-emitting semiconductor body
A semiconductor laser light source comprising an edge-emitting semiconductor body (10) is provided. The semiconductor body (10) contains a semiconductor layer stack (110) having an n-type layer (111), an active layer (112) and a p-type layer (113) which is formed for generating electromagnetic radiation which comprises a coherent portion (21). The semiconductor laser light source is formed for decoupling the coherent portion (21) of the electromagnetic radiation from a decoupling surface (101) of the semiconductor body (10) which is inclined with respect to the active layer (112). The semiconductor body (10) comprises a further external surface (102A, 102B, 102C) which is inclined with respect to the decoupling surface (101) and has at least one light-diffusing sub-region (12, 12A, 12B, 12C, 120A, 120B) which is provided in order to direct a portion of the electromagnetic radiation generated by the semiconductor layer stack (110) in the direction towards the further external surface (102A, 102B, 102C). |
| US09385505B2 |
Laser light source apparatus, and method for controlling temperature of wavelength conversion element in laser light source apparatus
The wavelength of fundamental wave light emitted from a semiconductor laser is converted by a wavelength conversion element, and the wavelength-converted light is emitted. A power supply circuit feeds electric power to the semiconductor laser. A control part controls an amount of electric power to be fed to a heater such that the wavelength conversion element becomes a temperature that optimizes the wavelength conversion efficiency. Temperatures detected by an element temperature detector and a light source part temperature detector are introduced to the control part, and the control part takes a wavelength conversion element temperature, at which a temperature detected by the light source part temperature detector is minimum, as a set temperature that makes the wavelength conversion efficiency optimal, and feedback-controls the wavelength conversion element temperature such that the wavelength conversion element temperature is at the set temperature by controlling the heating quantity of the heater. |
| US09385501B1 |
System and method for generating and utilizing a valid sweep signal to obviate spurious data and increase sweep rate in an akinetic path-based swept laser
A system and method for triggering data acquisition in a semiconductor laser system including outputting electromagnetic energy from the semiconductor laser over a range of wavelengths according to a signaling path. The signaling path includes a plurality of discrete data inputs to the semiconductor laser for outputting electromagnetic energy over a range of wavelengths and the signaling path includes one or more perturbances in transitioning from one wavelength to another wavelength along the signaling path. A series of triggering signals for input to a measurement system is generated by the semiconductor laser. The semiconductor laser also generates a series of valid signal indicators when the outputted electromagnetic energy is not undergoing one or more perturbances. The valid signal indicators may be digitized and stored and/or used to pause the measurement system. |
| US09385498B2 |
Crimp machine and crimp system
Disclosed is a crimp machine capable of eliminating product management for a relay connector per an ID. In the crimp machine, by a power source line, a ground line, and a signal line being positioned between a terminal mount table to which a crimp connector disposed in the relay connector is mounted and a crimp blade, and by the crimp blade being move close to a terminal mount table, the power source line, the ground line, and the signal line are thus crimped, wherein a connection terminal is disposed on the terminal mount table and an ID is made to output from the connection terminal. |
| US09385496B2 |
Glow plug terminal and glow plug
A glow plug having a main body bracket, a heater, a center shaft, an insulator, an O-ring that is provided between the front end surface of the insulator and the main body bracket, and a pin terminal that is fitted to the rear end portion of the center shaft and used for supplying electricity from the outside. The pin terminal includes a small-diameter portion, a flange, and a large-diameter portion where an engagement portion and a fitting recess are formed. The large-diameter portion includes a crimp formation region, which is formed so as to have the even outer diameter and be capable of being crimped, in a range from the front end thereof to the front end of the engagement portion. A part of the crimping target portion forms a crimping portion that fixes the rear end portion of the center shaft by crimping. |
| US09385495B1 |
Weight supporting slip ring
A slip ring assembly is disclosed allowing significant external weight on either the stationary or rotating sides of the slip ring. Additionally, a slip ring assembly is disclosed allowing multiple small, linear, rolling contacts on each conductive ring of each electrical receiver disk of the slip ring (both the stationary and the rotating electrical receiver disks). Disclosed is an embodiment of a separator plate having a spiraling-out-from-the-center series of holes and in those holes of the separator plate are the small linear rolling, contacts. In one embodiment each spiraling series of holes with small the rolling contacts provides one rolling contact on each electrical conductive ring on each receiver disk. These spiral rings enable a slip ring designer to provide multiple rolling contacts on each circular electrical conduction ring by simply increasing the number or spiraled series of holes. |
| US09385493B2 |
Adjustable bus bar for power distribution equipment
A busbar assembly for interconnecting electrical equipment units is disclosed. The busbar assembly includes one or more conductors have a conductive rod. Each end of the conductive rod has an end forming a ball member. The busbar assembly also includes two or more connectors having a clamp mechanism to receive the ball member of the conductive rod. A fastener threadably couples with a conductor on an electrical equipment unit to rigidly secure the busbar assembly to the electrical equipment units. |
| US09385492B2 |
Switch connector comprising an insulative bovy over an inulative base that comprises two insulators
A switch connector includes an insulative base, a fixed terminal, a movable terminal inserted molded with the insulative base, an insulative body assembled with the insulative base, and a shielding shell enclosing the insulative body. The fixed terminal has a block portion and the movable terminal has an elastic arm, the block portion elastically contacts the elastic arm. The insulative base includes a first insulator having a terminal receiving passageway and a second insulator. The fixed terminal is inserted molded in the first insulator, the movable terminal is received in the terminal receiving passageway, and the second insulator over-molds the movable terminal and the first insulator. A method of making a switch connector includes: insert molding a fixed terminal with a first insulator; disposing a movable terminal in the first insulator; over-molding a second insulator on the moveable terminal and the first insulator. |
| US09385491B1 |
Overheat auto power off socket
The present invention relates to an overheat auto power off socket, in which a linkage unit it includes is positioned at one side of a conductive shrapnel, and via a hot melt piece found within linkage unit, it conducts electricity, and when the temperature level of the conductive shrapnel is too high, it first melts, and then causes formation of a short circuit between linkage unit and the wiring terminal frame, so that it stops conduction of electricity, and therefore achieves the purpose of preventing formation of dangerous situations due to high temperatures. |
| US09385486B2 |
Socket module, electrosurgical device, and set with a socket module
A socket module for an electrosurgical device has a housing (10), at least two connectors (11, 12) each having two contacts (11a, 11b, 12a, 12b). A first connection member (13) electrically connects a first contact (11a) of the first connector (11) to a first contact (12a) of the second connector (12). The first connection member (13) has two contact regions (13a, 13b), of which a first contact region (13a) is connected to the first contact (11a) of the first connector (11) and a second contact region (13b) is connected to the first contact (12a) of the second connector (12). A printed circuit board (15) is arranged in the housing (10) and electrically connected to the first connector. (11) The printed circuit board (15) supports a third contact region (15a, 15b) which connects the first connector (11) to the printed circuit board (15). |
| US09385483B2 |
Cable connector assembly having improved anti-EMI function
A cable connector assembly (100) includes an electrical connector (1), a cable connecting the electrical connector electrically, an external shell (2) mounted to the connecting portion of the electrical connector and the cable. The electrical connector includes an insulative housing (12), a number of terminals (13) received in the insulative housing, and a front shell (11) mounted to the insulative housing. The insulative housing includes a base section (120) and a mating section (123) extending forwardly from the base section. The front shell (11) includes a frame portion (113) enclosing the mating section and a retaining portion (110) extending rearwardly from the frame portion and assembled to the base section. The retaining portion further defines a number of elastic portions (111) bent upwardly from the retaining portion and resisting against an inner face of the external shell. |
| US09385482B2 |
Electrical connector with grounding plate
An electrical connector assembly includes a first electrical connector and a second electrical connector mated with each other. The first electrical connector includes an insulative housing, a plurality of conductive terminals and a grounding plate. The insulative housing extending along a longitudinal direction includes a base portion and a plurality of side walls extending forwardly from the base portion and forming a mating cavity. The insulative housing defines a plurality of first passageways and second passageways separately formed in two opposite side walls thereof communicating with the mating cavity. The conductive terminals include a plurality of first terminals and second terminals received in the corresponding first and second passageways. Each of the first and second terminals has a contact portion extending into the mating cavity. The grounding plate is disposed between the first and second terminals and defines at least one pressing portion located in the mating cavity. |
| US09385477B2 |
High speed edge card connector
A connector for connection between a circuit board and a further electronic component is disclosed. The connector includes an insulating housing having a board slot open towards a mating direction for accommodating the circuit board, and a plurality of terminals. The terminals have a rear portion, an intermediate portion and a tip portion, the intermediate portion including a contact portion for contacting a surface portion of the circuit board when accommodated in the board slot. The housing includes a window such that for a number of adjacent terminals housing material is absent between the intermediate portions. A shield member may be arranged in between the rear portions of the terminals. Improved circuit boards are also disclosed. |
| US09385475B1 |
Indicating handles for electrical connectors
An electrical connector is described herein and can include a first connector end and a second connector end removably coupled to the first connector end. The first connector end can include a first collar forming a first cavity, where the first collar comprises a connector coupling feature. The first connector end can also include a first handle disposed on a first outer surface of the first collar, wherein the first handle comprises a handle coupling feature. The second connector end can include a second collar forming a second cavity, where the second collar includes a complementary connector coupling feature, where the connector coupling feature of the first connector end couples with the complementary connector coupling feature of the second connector end. The second connector end can also include a second handle disposed on a second outer surface of the second collar that includes a complementary handle coupling feature. |
| US09385473B2 |
Lever-actuated electrical connector and mating system
A lever-actuated electrical connector is disclosed having a housing mateable with a mating connector having a complementary mating terminal. A mating lever is positioned on the housing and rotatable from an initial mating position to a final mating position. A lever lock is disposed on the mating lever and latches to a mating housing of the mating connector when the mating connector and electrical connector are completely mated. A mating detection terminal is positioned on the mating lever and forms a detection circuit when in contact with the mating terminal of the mating connector. The position of the mating detection terminal is controlled by the lever lock through the operation of the mating lever, and the detection circuit is only formed when the mating lever is in a final mating position. |
| US09385472B2 |
Cable connector with releasing member
This invention provides a cable connector including a body and a releasing member. The body has a front side and a rear side opposite to the front side. The releasing member includes a base, a pressing portion bending and extending toward the rear side from the base, a bending portion extending toward the front side and bending downwardly from the base, a supporting portion bending and extending toward the front side from the bending portion and two extending portions extending toward the rear side from the two sides of the bending portion. |
| US09385471B2 |
Magnetic connector assembly
An electrical connector assembly includes a first connector including a first magnetic element and a number of first contacts, and a second connector including a second magnetic element and a number of second contacts. The first magnetic element and the second magnetic element include a pair of opposite poles located at two ends thereof respectively along a direction perpendicular to a mating direction of the first magnetic element and the second magnetic element. When the first connector mates with the second connector, the poles of the corresponding ends of the first magnetic and the second magnetic element are opposite. |
| US09385466B2 |
Retention features for cable assembly of a pluggable connector
A pluggable connector includes a plug body having a cavity and at least one latch and a cable assembly having electrical contacts and at least one cable terminated to corresponding electrical contacts. The cable assembly has a cable support body engaging and surrounding each electrical contact and each cable. The positions of the electrical contacts and cable are fixed relative to the cable support body. A retention clip is separately provided from and removably coupled to the cable support body. The retention clip has at least one retention tab extending therefrom being received in the cavity such that the retention tab engages the corresponding latch of the plug body to retain the cable assembly in the cavity. |
| US09385465B2 |
Terminal spacer
A terminal spacer having a cylindrical shape is attached to the circumference of an electric wire connected to a charge terminal. The terminal spacer includes a slit portion extending across the entire length in the axial direction of the terminal spacer. The slit portion includes an electric wire insertion slit portion into which the electric wire can be inserted, and a narrow slit portion continuously extending from the electric wire insertion slit portion and having an opening width narrower than that of the electric wire insertion slit portion. |
| US09385461B2 |
Contact terminal having a plunger pin
A contact terminal having a main body case and a plunger pin received in an elongate hole formed in the main body case is provided. The plunger pin is a round bar provided with a step and includes a small diameter portion including the protrusion end portion and a large diameter portion that slides on a surface of the hole to freely move in a longitudinal direction thereof. A cut space is formed to extend from an end of the large diameter portion so as to leave at least a part of a side surface portion of the large diameter portion and the cut space receives an insulation ball including at least an insulation surface. A coil spring is arranged between the hole and the insulation ball to press the protrusion end portion of the plunger pin such that the protrusion end portion protrudes from the main body case. |
| US09385460B2 |
Connector
A connector includes a connector housing provided with multiple terminal housing chambers. The multiple terminal housing chambers are separated by top walls, bottom walls, and side walls. Lances are supported by the bottom walls of the terminal housing chambers, which are located on the same surface side. Each of the bottom walls includes a cutout portion which avoids interference with the lance when the lance bends in a direction to retreat from the terminal housing chamber. Each lance bends in the direction to retreat from the terminal housing chamber when a terminal is inserted into the terminal housing chamber. When the terminal is fully inserted into a regular insertion position, each lance recovers from flexural deformation and is locked to the terminal. |
| US09385459B2 |
Flippable electrical connector
A plug connector includes a mating tongue defining top and bottom surfaces thereon. Each surface is provided with a plurality of conductors in one row wherein the characters/categories of the conductors on the top surface are sequentially arranged to be same with those on the bottom surface with a pair of power conductors in two notches at two lateral side edges. The corresponding receptacle connector mounted upon a printed circuit board, defines a receiving cavity to receive the mating tongue therein. Opposite top and bottom rows of contacts are respectively located by upper and bottom sides of the receiving cavity and categorized essentially in a same sequence with the conductors of the plug connector for respectively connecting to the corresponding conductive pads, respectively. A pair of power contacts are located by two lateral sides of the receiving cavity to couple to the corresponding power conductor portions in the notches. |
| US09385457B2 |
Connector assembly and method
Connectors and methods to couple packages and dies are shown. Selected examples include plugs and receptacles having two or more terraces with contacts provided along the terraces. Examples of connectors and methods include configurations where the connector is usable with a package including a die coupled along a substrate. In selected examples a heat sink is coupled over the die, and a package includes a side access port between the heat sink and the substrate configured to receive the connector, such as one or more of a plug or receptacle through the side access port. |
| US09385452B2 |
Card edge connector with an improved ejector
A card edge connector includes an elongated insulative housing extending along a left-to-right direction, a plurality of conductive terminals retained in the insulative housing and an ejector retained at one end of the insulative housing. The insulative housing defines a central slot recessed from an upper surface thereof for receiving a memory module. The ejector defines a base portion and a pair of gripping portions extending upwardly from the base portion, two gripping portions have an accommodating slot located therebetween for receiving the memory module and a lump portion located in the accommodating slot. The lump portion defines an elastic arm projecting into the accommodating slot for locking the memory module, When the memory module is pulled out in a hard-interference manner, the memory module will press upwardly against the elastic arm so that the elastic arm is elastically deformed to release the memory module. |
| US09385446B2 |
Connector assembly, port accessory and method for slide-on attachment to interface ports
A connector assembly and method including a post, a port body, a post engager, an actuator and a spring assembly. The post engager is configured to engage the post in a first operating mode while the actuator is configured to release the post engager from the post in a second operating mode. The spring assembly is operably coupled to the post engager and is configured to axially bias the post against the port body during the first operating mode to facilitate an electrical ground path between the port body and the post. |
| US09385443B2 |
Connection or connecting terminal comprising a pushbutton for actuating a spring element
The invention relates to a contacting or connection terminal for electrically connecting at least one conductor (26) and at least one electrical contact body, said terminal having a housing (2) in which the contact body is arranged, and at least one pressing member (3), wherein the electrical contact body comprises a clamping conductor connector for the at least one electrical conductor (26) and has at least one punched part (5), said punched part (5) having at least one spring element (6) for the clamping conductor connector. An actuation of the pressing member (3) acts on the spring element (6) and enables an opening of the clamping conductor connector, wherein the opening path of the clamping conductor connector (WF), due to actuation of the pressing member (3), is greater than the pressing member path (WD), at least in one portion. The invention also relates to a circuit board and a luminaire with a contacting or connection terminal according to the invention. |
| US09385440B2 |
Cylindrical braid crimp connection structure
A cylindrical braid crimp connection structure includes a cylindrical braid formed by braiding bundles of wires, a cylindrical connection portion inserted inside of a terminal of the cylindrical braid, and a ring crimp member fitted on an outside of the terminal of the cylindrical braid. The ring crimp member is crimped to form recessed deformities, and the terminal is pressed toward the cylindrical connection portion by the recessed deformities to complete an electric connection. The recessed deformities are formed with a shape larger than the meshes formed in the cylindrical braid. |
| US09385433B2 |
Multiband hybrid antenna
An antenna including a high band generating assembly having a first end and a second end, the high band generating assembly including a feed point and a bifurcated conductive element coupled to the feed point and having an angularly bent tip, the feed point defining the first end of the high band generating assembly, the angularly bent tip defining the second end of the high band generating assembly, at least one low band generating assembly, the at least one low band generating assembly including the high band generating assembly and at least one pair of dipole arms extending from the bifurcated conductive element, and a balun portion coupled to the feed point. |
| US09385428B2 |
Metamaterial structure
A second conductor (200) is opposite to a first conductor (100), and is repeatedly arranged. A plurality of vias (400) are provided to each of a plurality of second conductors (200), and provide an inductance component between the first conductor (100) and the second conductor (200). A third conductor (300) is connected to a first one of the second conductors (200) through a via (500), and is opposite to a second one of the second conductors (200) located next to the first one of the second conductors (200), to thereby form a transmission line between the first one of the second conductors and the second one of the second conductors (200). That is, the third conductor (300) functions as a stub together with the second one of the second conductors (200). |
| US09385427B2 |
Multi-band antenna and wireless communication device employing same
A multi-band antenna includes a radiating portion, a feed portion, a ground portion, a first switch module, and a second switch module. The radiating portion includes a plurality of connecting ends. The ground portion includes two ground sections with different impedances. The first switch module connects the feed portion to a first connecting end or a second connecting end, and the second switch module connects one of the ground sections to a third connecting end or a fourth connecting end. A wireless communication device employing the multi-band antenna is also disclosed. |
| US09385426B2 |
Method for formation of radiometric images and an antenna for implementation of the method
A method of radiometric image generation is provided using a series of isochronous revolutions of a multi-beam antenna with a dispersion characteristic. The antenna is combined with a multi-channel receiver with frequency channel separation to form an imaging unit. The method comprising cyclically executing the following phases: two separate calibration phase; using first and second standards; external radiation reception phase; data processing phase and data transformation phase. |
| US09385425B2 |
Antenna device
The present invention is to provide an antenna device with the isolation among feedpoints being further improved. In order to achieve this goal, the present invention provides an antenna device provided with a substrate having a ground area, and a first conductor, a second conductor and a third conductor. In the antenna, one end of the second conductor is connected to the ground area via a first feedpoint and the other end of the second conductor is connected to the first conductor. A second feedpoint is included serially in the third conductor at any position. Further, at least part of the third conductor is disposed opposite to the first conductor, and both ends of the third conductor are connected to the ground area. |
| US09385422B2 |
Antenna bandwidth-optimized by hybrid structure comprising planar and linear emitters
The invention relates to a hybrid antenna structure that comprises at least one electrically insulating substrate, at least one electrically conductive coating that covers at least one surface of the substrate at least section-wise and serves as a planar antenna for reception of electromagnetic waves, as well as at least one coupling electrode electrically coupled to the conductive coating for coupling out of antenna signals from the planar antenna. It is essential here that the coupling electrode be electrically coupled to an unshielded, linear antenna conductor that serves as a linear antenna for reception of electromagnetic waves, with the antenna conductor situated outside an area that can be projected by orthogonal parallel projection onto the planar antenna serving as a projection area, by which means an antenna foot point of the linear antenna becomes a common antenna foot point of the linear and planar antenna. The invention further relates to a method for producing such a hybrid antenna structure. |
| US09385418B2 |
Antenna apparatus for portable terminal
An antenna apparatus for a portable terminal having a main board is provided. The antenna apparatus includes a main antenna that electrically connects to a feed line of the main board. A metal frame is constructed as part of a case frame forming an exterior of the portable terminal. The metal frame is divided into first and second parts that are separated. The first part electrically connects to the main antenna or to the main board feed line, and is designed to radiate. The second part electrically connects to a ground surface of the main board. The metal frame enhances overall antenna performance rather than causing degradation through interference. |
| US09385417B2 |
Broadband antenna and wireless communication device employing same
A broadband antenna is mounted in a metal piece and includes a radiating portion, a ground portion, and a feed portion. The radiating portion includes a main portion and a plurality of radiating arms extending from the main portion in multiple directions, the radiating arms extend to contact the metal piece. The main portion, the radiating arms, and the metal piece enclose several slots. The ground portion is connected to a plurality of end portions of the radiating arms. The feed portion is connected to the metal piece and is adjacent to the radiating portion. The feed portion, the ground portion, the main portion, and the plurality of radiating arms form different current paths, thus to form different resonance nodes, thereby tender the broadband antenna to work at multi frequency bands. A wireless communication device employing the broadband antenna is also described. |
| US09385416B2 |
Three dimensional antenna dome array
According to one embodiment of the invention, a wireless network device comprises wireless logic and a heat dissipation unit that encases the wireless logic. The heat dissipation unit includes an antenna dome array that comprises a top surface having a convex-shaped outer periphery with a plurality of antenna elements positioned along the outer periphery. |
| US09385415B2 |
Near field communication with matching circuitry
A matching circuit of a near field communication (NFC) device includes a resonance unit connected between a first terminal and a second terminal of an antenna. The antenna is responsive to an electromagnetic wave. The resonance unit includes a first capacitor connected between the first terminal and the second terminal of the antenna. A matching unit is configured to perform impedance matching between the antenna and an NFC chip. The matching unit is connected between the first terminal and the second terminal of the antenna. |
| US09385410B2 |
Radio wave half mirror for millimeter wave band and method of flattening transmittance thereof
To provide a radio wave half mirror for a millimeter wave band which can flatten transmittance characteristics and a method of flattening the transmittance of the radio wave half mirror for a millimeter wave band. A radio wave half mirror 20 includes a metal plate 21 that has an outward shape closing a transmission line 11 and a slit 22 for transmitting electromagnetic waves that is provided in the metal plate 21 along a long side of an opening of the transmission line 11. The thickness L of the metal plate 21 in a direction in which the electromagnetic waves pass through the slit 22 is set on the basis of the transmittance characteristics of the electromagnetic waves. |
| US09385409B2 |
Multi-mode resonator/filter comprised of first and second columnar central conductors disposed within a cylindrical exterior conductor
Provided is a multi-mode resonator in which four resonance modes are degenerated, a dielectric member is not necessarily required, and enhanced efficient use of space is obtained. A multi-mode resonator 1 is a multi-mode resonator in which four resonance modes are degenerated, this resonator including an exterior conductor 2 made of a metal material, and formed in the shape of a box, wherein both ends of a cylindrical circumferential wall section 2c are closed off by a first end section 2a and a second end section 2b; a columnar first central conductor disposed inside the exterior conductor 2, one end 3a being shorted to the first end section 2a of the exterior conductor 2 and another end 3b being left open; and a columnar second central conductor disposed inside the exterior conductor 2, one end 4a being shorted to the second end section 2b of the exterior conductor 2 and another end 4b being left open. |
| US09385408B2 |
Reduced backdrilling with quarter wavelength transmission line stubs
Embodiments of the present invention provide for a transmission line stub that includes a via stub of a conductive via. The conductive via includes a via stub and a coupling element, wherein a first transmission line configured to transmit a signal is coupled to the conductive via at the intersection of the via stub and the coupling element. The coupling element is configured to transmit the signal from the first transmission line. A line stub electrically coupled to the via stub, wherein the length of the line stub is selected such that the transmission line stub having a length of the sum of the lengths of the via stub and the line stub is configured to suppress a preselected frequency. |
| US09385406B2 |
Non-reciprocal gyromagnetic phase shift devices using multiple ferrite-containing slabs
A non-reciprocal gyromagnetic phase shift device for microwave signals is provided. The device has a section of waveguide with at least two stacked chambers in each of which ferrite-containing slabs are arranged opposite one another on top and bottom walls of the stacked chambers along a common axis, in use a magnetic field being applied to the section of waveguide along the common axis along which are positioned the ferrite-containing slabs. The phase shift device proposed may be used in different microwave circuits. For example, it may be combined with a folded magic tee and a 3 dB hybrid coupler in order to form a 4-port differential phase shift circulator. |
| US09385403B2 |
Battery pack
In certain embodiments, an apparatus comprises a battery housing and mechanical switches. The battery housing is configured to house one or more batteries and comprises a connector configured to provide current to a device. A surface of the battery housing forms slots, where each slot is configured to receive a battery. Each mechanical switch is coupled to a slot and is configured to allow current from the battery to flow to the connector if a battery is received in the slot, and to pass current through the slot if a battery is not received in the slot. |
| US09385400B2 |
Method for manufacturing sealed battery
Disclosed is a method for manufacturing a sealed battery capable of reducing leakage of helium gas introduced into an exterior. A method for manufacturing a sealed battery according to the present invention includes a leak testing step for detecting leak of helium gas (H) introduced into an exterior (30), a processing step for increasing apparent specific gravity of the helium gas (H) by mixing the helium gas (H) and the hydrocarbon gas with specific gravity larger than that of the helium gas (H) to prepare mixed gas (G), an introducing step for introducing the helium gas (H) into the exterior (30) with the apparent specific gravity of the helium gas (H) increased by introducing the mixed gas (G), and a sealing step for sealing the exterior (30) into which the helium gas (H) is introduced. |
| US09385396B2 |
Battery cell of curved shape and battery pack employed with the same
Disclosed herein is a battery cell configured such that an electrode assembly of a cathode/separator/anode stack structure is mounted in a changeable cell case in a state in which the electrode assembly is impregnated with an electrolyte, wherein the electrode assembly and the cell case are curved in the same direction on axial vertical sections thereof in a state in which opposite ends of the electrode assembly and opposite ends of the cell case are directed in the same direction about a middle part of the electrode assembly and a middle part of the cell case. |
| US09385387B2 |
Method for manufacturing reinforced membrane electrode assembly and reinforced membrane electrode assembly
The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a membrane electrode assembly which improves the reliability of seal, mechanical strength, and handling ability of a solid polymer type fuel cell. The manufacturing method includes: preparing a membrane electrode assembly which differs in the size of the gas diffusion layers at the anode side and the cathode side; and providing a resin frame at the outer peripheral edge of the membrane electrode assembly by molding; wherein the molding includes the use of a mold that keeps penetration of the resin frame material into the gas diffusion layers and/or electrode layers to a minimum and prevents warping of the outer peripheral edges. |
| US09385383B2 |
Method for generating injected current of fuel cell stack
Disclosed herein is a method for generating an injected current of fuel cell stack, including: generating a synthesized frequency current in a form in which a first frequency current is synthesized with a second frequency current; and applying the synthesized frequency current to the fuel cell stack, wherein the first frequency current and the second frequency current are each used to calculate at least one of total harmonic distortion and impedance. According to the embodiment of the present invention, a hardware configuration may be reduced by applying the synthesized frequency current of the AC current for calculating the total harmonic distortion (THD) and the AC current for calculating the impedance to the fuel cell stack, without generating the AC current for calculating the total harmonic distortion (THD) and the AC current for calculating the impedance, respectively, thereby reducing a price and a size of the fuel cell stack. |
| US09385377B2 |
Method for producing a catalyst for fuel cells
An object of the present invention is to provide a production method which can increase the activity of a catalyst particle comprising a core particle and an outermost layer, the core particle comprising at least one of palladium and a palladium alloy, and the outermost layer comprising at least one of platinum and a platinum alloy and covering the core particle. The method is for producing a catalyst for fuel cells, in which a catalyst particle is supported by an electroconductive carrier, the method comprising the steps of: preparing a supported catalyst in which a catalyst particle comprising a core particle and an outermost layer is supported by an electroconductive carrier, the core particle comprising at least one of palladium and a palladium alloy, and the outermost layer comprising at least one of platinum and a platinum alloy and covering the core particle; acid treatment to bring the supported catalyst into contact with an acid solution which dissolves palladium more preferentially than platinum; and firing the supported catalyst at 80° C. or more and less than 200° C. in a reducing gas atmosphere after the acid treatment step. |
| US09385364B2 |
Carbon-deposited alkali metal oxyanion electrode material and process for preparing same
The present invention relates to a process for the synthesis of a carbon-deposited alkali metal oxyanion cathode material comprising particles, wherein said particles carry, on at least a portion of the particle surface, carbon deposited by pyrolysis, said process comprising a dry high-energy milling step performed on precursors of said carbon-deposited alkali metal oxyanion prior to a solid-state thermal reaction. |
| US09385362B2 |
Battery pack with protection circuit module for unit batteries
A battery pack includes a plurality of unit batteries arranged side by side in a first direction, each unit battery including a can accommodating an opening including an electrode assembly having a first electrode plate, a second electrode plate, and a separator between the electrode plates, and a cap plate sealing the opening. The plurality of unit batteries may be arranged side by side in the first direction with all the cap plates exposed in the same direction. The battery pack may further include a protection circuit module adjacent to the cap plate with a circuit board extending in the first direction and a protection device coupled to it, wherein each unit battery further includes a first terminal on a first area of the cap plate and a second terminal on a second area of the cap plate, each coupled to the unit battery and the protection circuit module. |
| US09385356B2 |
Terminal holder for electric vehicle battery assembly
An electric vehicle battery assembly according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a battery cell, a rail securing the cell, and a terminal holder in direct contact with the rail. |
| US09385353B2 |
Battery pack and method of manufacturing the same
A battery pack and a method of manufacturing the battery pack, to include a pouch battery cell and a casing frame to accommodate and securely surround the battery cell. The casing frame may be constructed with a base frame, a first lateral frame protruding from one edge of the base frame, and a wing portion that is rotatable with respect to the base frame. The wing portion rotates from a first position where the battery cell can be inserted into the casing frame, to a second position where the battery cell is surrounded by and secured within the casing frame against damage from external forces, impulses and impacts. |
| US09385351B2 |
Modular and portable battery pack power system
A reconfigurable battery pack power system with interchangeable accessories has at least one modular, portable, rechargeable battery module having a first side, the first side having a first contour and a mounting port and a power output port, and at least one accessory module configured to receive power from the battery module. The accessory module has a second side with a second contour that mates with the first contour on the battery module, and has a power coupling connector and a fastener. The accessory module is interchangeably mateable with the battery module with the first and second contours nested together, and with the power output port engaged with the power coupling connector and with the fastener engaged with the mounting port, so that the battery module and the accessory module form a single integrated and substantially rigid structure. |
| US09385348B2 |
Organic electronic devices with multiple solution-processed layers
A method for fabricating an organic light emitting device stack involves depositing a first conductive electrode layer over a substrate; depositing a first set of one or more organic layers, wherein at least one of the first set of organic layers is a first emissive layer and one of the first set of organic layers is deposited by a solution-based process that utilizes a first solvent; depositing a first conductive interlayer by a dry deposition process; and depositing a second set of one or more organic layers, wherein at least one of the second set of organic layers is a second emissive layer and one of the second set of organic layers is deposited by a solution-based process that utilizes a second solvent, wherein all layers that precede the layer deposited using the second solvent are insoluble in the second solvent. |
| US09385347B2 |
Optical mask
An optical mask includes a light-to-heat conversion layer with an improved temperature profile. The optical masks may comprise a light-transmitting base substrate; a first reflective pattern layer which is formed on the light-transmitting base substrate comprising a first opening portion transmitting light emitted from under the light-transmitting base substrate and a first reflective portion reflecting the light; a second reflective pattern layer which is formed over the first opening portion comprising a second opening portion overlapping a first area of the first opening portion and a second reflective portion overlapping a second area of the first opening portion; and a light-to-heat conversion pattern layer which is formed on the light-transmitting base substrate, being disposed in the first area of the first opening portion, absorbing at least a part of the light, and converting the light absorbed into heat. |
| US09385346B2 |
Organic light emitting diode display panel and method for manufacturing the same
An organic light emitting diode display panel is disclosed, which comprises: a first substrate having a first edge, a second edge, a third edge opposite to the first edge, and a fourth edge opposite to the second edge; a second substrate opposite to the first substrate; an organic light emitting diode unit disposed on the second substrate; a fit unit disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate and surrounding the organic light emitting diode unit; and a buffer unit disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate and between the frit unit facing to the first edge of the first substrate and the first edge thereof, wherein the buffer unit has a first end with a first cutting edge connecting to the second edge. In addition, the present invention also provides a method for manufacturing the same. |
| US09385343B2 |
Organic light-emitting diode display panel
An organic light-emitting diode display panel includes a substrate on which an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) light-emitting element is mounted. The OLED light-emitting element includes an OLED organic layer. A black silicon structure is disposed on the substrate and reveals the OLED organic layer. The black silicon structure absorbs ambient light to reduce the reflectance of the ambient light. By disposing the black silicon structure around the OLED organic layer or by directly forming the OLED organic layer in the black silicon structure, the extremely high light absorbing capability of the black silicon structure is used to significantly reduce the reflectance of the ambient light. A clear display effect in a bright environment can be achieved under smaller luminance, reducing the luminance of the display panel and saving the power consumption. Furthermore, the number of films and the overall thickness of the panel can be reduced. |
| US09385337B2 |
Nanocrystals on fibers
The present invention relates inter alia to light- and/or irradiation-emitting fibers comprising nanocrystals, in particular quantum dots and nanorods, their preparation and use. The fiber may have a fiber core 10, an outer first electrode 20, a light emitting layer 30, a radiation transmissive second electrode 40 positioned over the organic light emitting layer 30. Eventually the fiber may also comprise an optional radiation transmissive moisture and/or air barrier layer 50 and/or an optional radiation transmissive encapsulating material 60. |
| US09385331B2 |
Flexible display apparatus and method of fabricating the same
A method of forming a flexible display apparatus includes: forming a flexible substrate on a support substrate; forming a light-emitting diode on the flexible substrate; forming a first encapsulation layer on the light-emitting diode; forming a second encapsulation layer; bonding the first encapsulation layer to the second encapsulation layer using an adhesive layer between the first encapsulation layer and the second encapsulation layer; separating the support substrate from the flexible substrate and cutting the flexible substrate to form the flexible display apparatus; and forming a polarizing plate on the second encapsulation layer. |
| US09385329B2 |
Platinum complexes and devices
Platinum compounds of Formulas I and II useful in a variety of devices, such as, for example organic-light emitting diodes (OLEDs). |
| US09385328B2 |
Composite material, light-emitting element, light-emitting device, electronic device, and lighting device
A composite material which includes an organic compound and an inorganic compound and has a high carrier-transport property is provided. A composite material having a good property of carrier injection into an organic compound is provided. A composite material in which light absorption due to charge-transfer interaction is unlikely to occur is provided. A composite material having a high visible-light-transmitting property is provided. A composite material including a hydrocarbon compound and an inorganic compound exhibiting an electron-accepting property with respect to the hydrocarbon compound is provided. The hydrocarbon compound has a substituent bonded to a naphthalene skeleton, a phenanthrene skeleton, or a triphenylene skeleton and has a molecular weight of 350 to 2000, and the substituent has one or more rings selected from a benzene ring, a naphthalene ring, a phenanthrene ring, and a triphenylene ring. |
| US09385326B2 |
Triangulene oligomers and polymers and their use as hole conducting material
The present invention related to thermally stable p-conducting oligomers and polymers of triangulene of formula (I) and their use in dye sensitized solar cells. |
| US09385324B2 |
Electronic system with augmented reality mechanism and method of operation thereof
A method of operation of an electronic system includes: scanning an image for detecting a subject; detecting a potential adjustment for moving the subject within the image; and selecting an augmentation for recommending the potential adjustment and for displaying the augmentation on a device. |
| US09385322B2 |
Method and apparatus for depositing LED organic film
In one embodiment the disclosure relates to an apparatus for depositing an organic material on a substrate, including a source heater for heating organic particles to form suspended organic particles; a transport stream for delivering the suspended organic particles to a discharge nozzle, the discharge nozzle having a plurality of micro-pores, the micro-pores providing a conduit for passage of the suspended organic particles; and a nozzle heater for pulsatingly heating the micro-pores nozzle to discharge the suspended organic particles from the discharge nozzle. |
| US09385321B1 |
Real-space charge-transfer device and method thereof
A real-space charge-transfer device is disclosed. In particular, a Gunn diode is disclosed having a conductive structure fabricated overlying its active region. A secondary signal, other than the normal Gunn diode signal, is generated by the Gunn diode based upon a characteristic of the overlying conductive structure. For example, when the conductive structure is a grate having N teeth the secondary signal will have N secondary oscillation cycles that occur during the duration of a single normal Gunn diode oscillation cycle. |
| US09385319B1 |
Filamentary based non-volatile resistive memory device and method
A resistive memory device includes a first metallic layer comprising a source of positive metallic ions, a switching media having an upper surface and a lower surface, wherein the upper surface is adjacent to the first metallic layer, wherein the switching media comprises conductive filaments comprising positive metallic ions from the source of positive metallic ions formed from the upper surface towards the lower surface, a semiconductor substrate, a second metallic layer disposed above the semiconductor substrate, a non-metallic conductive layer disposed above the second metallic layer, and an interface region between the non-metallic conductive layer and the switching media having a negative ionic charge. |
| US09385318B1 |
Method to integrate a halide-containing ALD film on sensitive materials
Various embodiments herein relate to methods and apparatus for depositing a bilayer barrier layer on a substrate. The bilayer barrier layer may include a first sub-layer designed to protect underlying halide-sensitive layers from damaging halide-containing chemistry, as well as a second sub-layer designed to protect underlying materials from damage due to oxidation. In a number of embodiments the first sub-layer is layer having a high carbon content, and the second layer is silicon nitride. The silicon nitride second sub-layer may be deposited with halide-containing chemistry that would otherwise damage halide-sensitive materials, if not for the presence of the first sub-layer. The resulting bilayer barrier layer provides high quality protection for underlying materials. |
| US09385313B2 |
Resistive memory cell having a reduced conductive path area
A method of forming a resistive memory cell, e.g., a CBRAM or ReRAM, may include forming a bottom electrode layer, forming an oxide region of an exposed area of the bottom electrode, removing a region of the bottom electrode layer proximate the oxide region to form a bottom electrode having a pointed tip or edge region, and forming first and second electrolyte regions and first and second top electrodes over the bottom electrode to define distinct first and second memory elements. The first memory element defines a first conductive filament/vacancy chain path from the first portion of the bottom electrode pointed tip region to the first top electrode via the first electrolyte region, and second memory element defines a second conductive filament/vacancy chain path from the second portion of the bottom electrode pointed tip region to the second top electrode via the second electrolyte region. |
| US09385311B2 |
Semiconductor device and electronic device including the same
A semiconductor device includes a first conductive layer, a second conductive layer spaced from the first conductive layer, a variable resistance layer interposed between the first and second conductive layers, and an impurity-doped layer provided over a side surface of the variable resistance layer. The variable resistance layer has a smaller width than the first and the second conductive layers. |
| US09385302B2 |
Multi-layer electronic component and method for manufacturing the same
A multi-layer electronic component that can be repetitively operated under high voltage, high temperature and high humidity is provided. The multi-layer electronic component comprises a plurality of dielectric material layers made of a sintered material having perovskite structure that includes Pb; and a plurality of internal electrodes, the dielectric material layers and the internal electrodes being stacked alternately one on another, wherein lead compound that remains in the crystal grain boundaries of the dielectric material layers is controlled so that the number of grains of the lead compound not smaller than 0.01 μm are 2 or less per 100 μm2 on average. |
| US09385297B2 |
Method for manufacturing niobate-system ferroelectric thin film device
There is provided a method for manufacturing a niobate-system ferroelectric thin film device, including: a lower electrode film formation step of forming a lower electrode film on a substrate; a niobate-system ferroelectric thin film formation step of forming a niobate-system ferroelectric thin film on the lower electrode film; an etch mask formation step of forming a desired etch mask pattern on the niobate-system ferroelectric thin film; and a ferroelectric thin film etching step of forming a desired fine pattern of the niobate-system ferroelectric thin film by wet etching using an etchant including an aqueous alkaline solution of a chelating agent. |
| US09385295B2 |
Powder and rod process for forming superconducting wire and method of manufacture thereof
A powder and rod process for forming Nb3Sn or V3Ga superconducting wire is provided. The process includes hot extrusion or cold drawing of an assembly comprising an octagonal or hexagonal configuration of copper-clad rods comprising niobium, vanadium, a niobium alloy, or a vanadium alloy and an intermetallic powder compound, such as MnSn2, that is situated in a central hole within the octagonal or hexagonal configuration of rods. |
| US09385294B2 |
Diamond substrates for superconducting quantum circuits
A mechanism relates to a superconducting quantum system. A diamond substrate layer is included. A superconducting quantum device is disposed on the diamond substrate layer. The superconducting quantum device includes a superconducting quantum circuit formed on top a surface of the diamond substrate layer. |
| US09385293B1 |
Quantum memory device and method
A system and method involve generating an electric field across a superconductor device having an ionic layer disposed between and separated from first and second superconductor layers by respective first and second barrier layers. The electric field may be generated by applying an input signal, such as a voltage, to the superconductor device while the device is in a superconducting state. The voltage may be below a threshold voltage for inducing ion transport within the ionic layer or may be above or below a threshold voltage for inducing ion transport from the ionic layer across an ionic layer/barrier layer interface. The ion transport may tune the potential profile and/or modulate the critical current of the superconductor device and may include quantum coherent ionic transport, Josephson tunneling, or resonant tunneling. The electric field generated across the superconductor device may alter the spin-states of the ions within the ionic layer. |
| US09385291B2 |
Structure of thermoelectric film
A structure of a thermoelectric film including a thermoelectric substrate and a pair of first diamond-like carbon (DLC) layers is provided. The first DLC layers are respectively located on two opposite surfaces of the thermoelectric substrate and have electrical conductivity. |
| US09385290B2 |
Assembly comprising a thermoelectric element and a means for electrically connecting said thermoelectric element, module and thermoelectric device comprising such an assembly
An assembly of at least one thermoelectric element capable of generating an electric current under the effect of a temperature gradient exerted between two of its sides, referred to as the contact sides, and an electrical connection means is disclosed. The assembly includes a first deformable element electrically connecting the electrical connection means to the thermoelectric element, the first element including a first side linked to the electrical connection means and a second side linked to the thermoelectric element, the first side being deformable independently from the second side and vice versa, the assembly including a second deformable element forming a heat bridge between the first and second sides of the first element. A thermoelectric module including such an assembly and a thermoelectric device including such a module are also disclosed. |
| US09385289B2 |
Light-emitting-device package and production method therefor
A light-emitting-device package according to one aspect of the present invention includes: a metal substrate; a light emitting device disposed on a first surface of the metal substrate and configured to emit at least ultraviolet light; a pair of electrodes disposed to be spaced apart from each other on at least the first surface of the metal substrate, and electrically connected to the light emitting device; and an insulating layer provided between the metal substrate and the pair of electrodes. UV reflectance of the first surface of the metal body is higher than UV reflectance of the pair of electrodes. |
| US09385285B2 |
LED module with high index lens
An array of housings with housing bodies and lenses is molded, or an array of housing bodies is molded and bonded with lenses to form an array of housings with housing bodies and lenses. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are attached to the housings in the array. An array of metal pads may be bonded to the back of the array or insert molded with the housing array to form bond pads on the back of the housings. The array is singulated to form individual LED modules. |
| US09385283B2 |
Light emitting device equipped with protective member
A light emitting device includes a light emitting device body and a protective member. The light emitting device body has a flexible base member, at least one light emitting element arranged on the base member, and a sealing resin member sealing the light emitting element. The protective member is disposed adjacent to the sealing resin member on the base member. The protective member has a height greater than a height of the sealing resin member. |
| US09385279B2 |
Light-emitting device and method for manufacturing the same
A light-emitting device includes a semiconductor light-emitting element, a first resin layer, a first metallic layer, a second resin layer, and a second metallic layer. The semiconductor light-emitting element includes a semiconductor stacked body and an electrode provided on one side of the semiconductor stacked body. The second resin layer is provided on the first resin layer and has a lower surface in contact with the first resin layer and an upper surface opposite to the lower surface. The second metallic layer is provided in the second resin layer and has a metallic lower surface and a metallic upper surface opposite to the metallic lower surface. The metallic upper surface is exposed from the second resin layer. The metallic upper surface of the second metallic layer is at least partially lower in height from the semiconductor stacked body than the upper surface of the second resin layer. |
| US09385274B2 |
Patterned opto-electrical substrate and method for manufacturing the same
The present invention relates to a patterned opto-electrical substrate, comprising a substrate, the substrate has a first patterned structure, a spacer region and a second patterned structure, wherein the second patterned structure is formed on one or both of the first patterned structure and the spacer region, and the first patterned structure is a micron-scale protruding structure or a micron-scale recessing structure, while the second patterned structure is a submicron-scale recessing structure. The present invention also relates to a method for manufacturing the aforementioned patterned opto-electrical substrate and light emitting diodes having the aforementioned patterned opto-electrical substrate. |
| US09385269B2 |
Semiconductor epitaxial structure and light-emitting device thereof
The present invention discloses an epitaxial structure for semiconductor light-emitting device, comprising an electron injection region, a hole injection region, a multi-quantum well active region, a potential barrier layer for blocking carriers, and one or more band edge shaping layers. The doping type and/or doping concentration of said band edge shaping layers are different from those of the adjacent layers. It may trim the band edge shape of the semiconductor energy band through the local built-in electric field formed as a result of adjusting the doping type, doping concentration and/or layer thickness thereof, such that the carriers in the multi-quantum well active region are distributed uniformly, the overall Auger recombination is decreased, and the effective potential barrier height of the potential barrier layer for blocking carriers is increased to reduce the drain current formed by carriers overflowing out of the multi-quantum well active region, thereby improving internal quantum efficiency. The present invention further discloses a semiconductor light-emitting device that employs said epitaxial structure, which similarly achieves the effects of reduced Auger recombination and/or decreased drain current through the trimming of the band edge shape of the energy band structure by the local built-in electric field, thereby improving internal quantum efficiency of the device. |
| US09385268B2 |
Method of manufacturing semiconductor chips
A method of manufacturing semiconductor chips includes: forming grooves on a front face side of a substrate; and forming grooves on a back face side of the substrate as defined herein, and in manufacturing conditions in which a variation range of a top section of the cutting member having a tapered tip end shape with no top face in the groove width direction changes from a range included in the groove on the front face side to a range away from the groove on the front face side as wear of the cutting member advances, the use of the cutting member is stopped before the variation range changes from the range included in the groove on the front face side to the range away from the groove on the front face side. |
| US09385256B2 |
Solar cell panel
A solar cell panel is discussed, which includes a plurality of solar cells, each solar cell including a substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface, and a plurality of first electrodes extending in a first direction; an interconnector that is positioned in a second direction crossing the plurality of first electrodes and electrically connects adjacent ones of the plurality of solar cells to one another; and a conductive adhesive film including a resin and a plurality of conductive particles dispersed in the resin, the conductive adhesive film being positioned between the plurality of first electrodes and the interconnector in the second direction crossing the plurality of first electrodes to electrically connect the plurality of first electrodes to the interconnector. |
| US09385255B2 |
Integrated thin film solar cell interconnection
Photovoltaic modules may include multiple flexible thin film photovoltaic cells electrically connected in series, and laminated to a substantially transparent top sheet having a conductive grid pattern facing the cells. Methods of manufacturing photovoltaic modules including integrated multi-cell interconnections are provided. Methods may include steps of coordinating, integrating, and registering multiple rolls of substrates in continuous processes. |
| US09385253B2 |
Method of manufacturing solar cell module
A method of manufacturing a solar cell module comprising adhering a first silicone gel sheet to one surface of a transparent light receiving panel to be a sunlight incidence surface; adhering a second silicone gel sheet to one surface of a light non-receiving panel or back sheet on the side opposite to the sunlight incidence surface; disposing a solar cell string on the first silicone gel sheet of the light receiving panel, and disposing butyl rubber in a picture frame-like shape along an outer peripheral region of a panel where either of the silicone gel sheets are not formed; and laying the light receiving panel and the light non-receiving panel or back sheet over each other with the silicone gel sheets on the inside, and pressing them at 100 to 150° C. in vacuum to encapsulate the solar cell string with the silicone gel sheets and press bond the light receiving panel and the light non-receiving panel or back sheet to each other through the butyl rubber. |
| US09385249B2 |
Optical element module, optical transmission module, and method of manufacturing optical transmission module
An optical element module includes an optical element having a light receiving unit configured to input an optical signal or a light emitting unit configured to output an optical signal, a board on which the optical element is mounted, and a guide holding member that has a through hole into which an optical fiber is configured to be inserted for inputting and outputting the optical signal to or from the light receiving unit or the light emitting unit of the optical element, and is mounted and arranged to be aligned with the optical element in a thickness direction of the board. The through hole has a cylindrical shape and has substantially the same diameter as an outer diameter of the optical fiber. A diameter of the light receiving unit or the light emitting unit is smaller than that of the optical fiber. |
| US09385247B2 |
Passivation scheme for solar cells
A method of forming an oxide layer on an exposed surface of a semiconductor device which contains a p-n junction is disclosed, the method comprising: immersing the exposed surface of the semiconductor device in an electrolyte; producing an electric field in the semiconductor device such that the p-n junction is forward-biased and the exposed surface is anodic; and electrochemically oxidizing the exposed surface to form an oxide layer. |
| US09385246B2 |
Differential MOSCAP device
A differential MOS capacitor includes a first plurality of upper capacitor plates, a second plurality of upper capacitor plates, and a conductive plate. At least two of the second plurality of upper capacitor plates are spaced laterally from each other and are disposed laterally between at least two of the first plurality of upper capacitor plates. The conductive plate is configured to serve as a common bottom capacitor plate such that a first capacitor is formed by the first plurality of upper capacitor plates and the conductive plate and a second capacitor is formed by the second plurality of upper capacitor plates and the conductive plate. |
| US09385245B2 |
Gate tunable tunnel diode
A gate tunable diode is provided. The gate tunable diode includes a gate dielectric formed on a gate electrode and a graphene electrode formed on the gate dielectric. Also, the gate tunable diode includes a tunnel dielectric formed on the graphene electrode and a tunnel electrode formed on the tunnel dielectric. |
| US09385243B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a first electrode, a second electrode, a first semiconductor region that is formed between the first electrode and the second electrode and is in contact with the first electrode, a second semiconductor region that is formed between the first semiconductor region and the second electrode, a contact region that is formed between the second semiconductor region and the second electrode and is in contact with the second semiconductor region and the second electrode, a plurality of third semiconductor regions that are formed between the second electrode and the first semiconductor region and are in contact with the second electrode, and a wiring that is in contact with the second electrode, a portion of the wiring bonded to the second electrode being positioned above the third semiconductor region and not positioned above the contact region. |
| US09385238B2 |
Transistor using oxide semiconductor
Stable electrical characteristics and high reliability are provided for a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor. In a transistor including an oxide semiconductor layer, a buffer layer containing a constituent similar to that of the oxide semiconductor layer is provided in contact with a top surface and a bottom surface of the oxide semiconductor layer. Such a transistor and a semiconductor device including the transistor are provided. As the buffer layer in contact with the oxide semiconductor layer, a film containing an oxide of one or more elements selected from aluminum, gallium, zirconium, hafnium, and a rare earth element can be used. |
| US09385237B2 |
Source and drain doping profile control employing carbon-doped semiconductor material
Carbon-doped semiconductor material portions are formed on a subset of surfaces of underlying semiconductor surfaces contiguously connected to a channel of a field effect transistor. Carbon-doped semiconductor material portions can be formed by selective epitaxy of a carbon-containing semiconductor material layer or by shallow implantation of carbon atoms into surface portions of the underlying semiconductor surfaces. The carbon-doped semiconductor material portions can be deposited as layers and subsequently patterned by etching, or can be formed after formation of disposable masking spacers. Raised source and drain regions are formed on the carbon-doped semiconductor material portions and on physically exposed surfaces of the underlying semiconductor surfaces. The carbon-doped semiconductor material portions locally retard dopant diffusion from the raised source and drain regions into the underlying semiconductor material regions, thereby enabling local tailoring of the dopant profile, and alteration of device parameters for the field effect transistor. |
| US09385233B2 |
Bulk finFET with partial dielectric isolation featuring a punch-through stopping layer under the oxide
A bulk finFET with partial dielectric isolation is disclosed. The dielectric isolation is disposed underneath the channel, and essentially bounded by the channel, such that it does not extend laterally beyond the channel under the source and drain regions. This allows increased volume of SiGe source and drain stressor regions placed adjacent to the channel, allowing for a more strained channel, which improves carrier mobility. An N+ doped silicon region is disposed below the dielectric isolation and extends laterally beyond the channel and underneath the stressor source and drain regions, forming a reverse-biased p/n junction with the P+ doped source and drain SiGe stressor to minimize leakage currents from under the insulator. |
| US09385231B2 |
Device structure with increased contact area and reduced gate capacitance
A FET structure including epitaxial source and drain regions includes large contact areas and exhibits both low resistivity and low parasitic gate to source/drain capacitance. The source and drain regions are laterally etched to provide recesses for accommodating low-k dielectric material without compromising the contact area between the source/drain regions and their associated contacts. A high-k dielectric layer is provided between the raised source/drain regions and a gate conductor as well as between the gate conductor and a substrate, such as an ETSOI or PDSOI substrate. The structure is usable in electronic devices such as MOSFET devices. |
| US09385229B2 |
Semiconductor device with improved breakdown voltage
Semiconductor device structures and related fabrication methods are provided. An exemplary semiconductor device structure includes a first region of semiconductor material having a first conductivity type and a first dopant concentration, a second region of semiconductor material having a second conductivity type overlying the first region, a drift region of semiconductor material having the first conductivity type overlying the second region, and a drain region of semiconductor material having the first conductivity type. The drift region and the drain region are electrically connected, with at least a portion of the drift region residing between the drain region and the second region, and at least a portion of the second region residing between that drift region and the first region. In one or more exemplary embodiments, the first region abuts an underlying insulating layer of dielectric material. |
| US09385224B2 |
Method of forming an integrated multichannel device and single channel device structure
An integrated circuit is disclosed that includes a single channel device having a first portion of a single shared heterostructure overlying a substrate structure in a single channel device area, and a gate contact that is in contact with the first portion of the single shared heterostructure. The integrated circuit also includes a multichannel device comprising a second portion of the single shared heterostructure overlying the substrate structure in a multichannel device area, a barrier layer overlying the second portion of the single shared heterostructure, and a superlattice structure overlying the barrier layer, the superlattice structure comprising a plurality of heterostructures. An isolation region in the single shared heterostructure electrical isolates the single channel device from the multichannel device. |
| US09385222B2 |
Semiconductor device with insert structure at a rear side and method of manufacturing
A cavity is formed in a first semiconductor layer that is formed on a semiconducting base layer. The cavity extends from a process surface of the first semiconductor layer to the base layer. A recessed mask liner is formed on a portion of a sidewall of the cavity distant to the process surface or a mask plug is formed in a portion of the cavity distant do the process surface. A second semiconductor layer is grown by epitaxy on the process surface. The second semiconductor layer spans the cavity. |
| US09385215B2 |
V-shaped SiGe recess volume trim for improved device performance and layout dependence
Some embodiments of the present disclosure relates to a method and a device to achieve a strained channel. A volume of a source or drain recess is controlled by a performing an etch of a substrate to produce a recess. An anisotropic etch stop layer is then formed by doping a bottom surface of the recess with a boron-containing dopant, which distorts the crystalline structure of the bottom surface. An anisotropic etch of the recess is then performed. The anisotropic etch stop layer resists anisotropic etching such that the recess comprises a substantially flat bottom surface after the anisotropic etch. The source or drain recess is then filled with a stress-inducing material to produce a strained channel. |
| US09385214B2 |
Method of forming a selectively adjustable gate structure
The present disclosure relates to a method of forming a gate structure that can be selectively adjusted to reduce critical-dimension (CD) variations. In some embodiments, the method is performed by forming a gate structure having a first length over a semiconductor substrate. The first length of the gate structure is measured and compared to a target length. If the first length differs from the target length by an amount that is greater than a threshold value, the first length is adjusted to converge upon the target length. By selectively adjusting the length of the gate structure, critical-dimension (CD) variations can be reduced, thereby increasing yield and reducing cost. |
| US09385206B2 |
Semiconductor device having spacer with tapered profile
A semiconductor device is disclosed. The semiconductor device includes a substrate, a gate structure on the substrate, and a spacer adjacent to the gate structure, in which the bottom of the spacer includes a tapered profile and the tapered profile comprises a convex curve. |
| US09385202B2 |
Semiconductor device having a patterned gate dielectric
In one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes an isolated trench-electrode structure. The semiconductor device is formed using a modified photolithographic process to produce alternating regions of thick and thin dielectric layers that separate the trench electrode from regions of the semiconductor device. The thin dielectric layers can be configured to control the formation channel regions, and the thick dielectric layers can be configured to reduce switching losses. |
| US09385201B2 |
Buried source-drain contact for integrated circuit transistor devices and method of making same
An integrated circuit transistor is formed on a substrate. A trench in the substrate is at least partially filed with a metal material to form a source (or drain) contact buried in the substrate. The substrate further includes a source (or drain) region in the substrate which is in electrical connection with the source (or drain) contact. The substrate further includes a channel region adjacent to the source (or drain) region. A gate dielectric is provided on top of the channel region and a gate electrode is provided on top of the gate dielectric. The substrate may be of the silicon on insulator (SOI) or bulk type. The buried source (or drain) contact makes electrical connection to a side of the source (or drain) region using a junction provided at a same level of the substrate as the source (or drain) and channel regions. |
| US09385200B2 |
Bipolar transistor having collector with doping spike
This disclosure relates to bipolar transistors, such as heterojunction bipolar transistors, having at a doping spike in the collector. The doping spike can be disposed relatively near an interface between the collector and the base. For instance, the doping spike can be disposed within half of the thickness of the collector from the interface between the collector and the base. Such bipolar transistors can be implemented, for example, in power amplifiers. |
| US09385199B2 |
Normally-off gallium nitride-based semiconductor devices
A method includes forming a relaxed layer in a semiconductor device. The method also includes forming a tensile layer over the relaxed layer, where the tensile layer has tensile stress. The method further includes forming a compressive layer over the relaxed layer, where the compressive layer has compressive stress. The compressive layer has a piezoelectric polarization that is approximately equal to or greater than a spontaneous polarization in the relaxed, tensile, and compressive layers. The piezoelectric polarization in the compressive layer could be in an opposite direction than the spontaneous polarization in the compressive layer. The relaxed layer could include gallium nitride, the tensile layer could include aluminum gallium nitride, and the compressive layer could include aluminum indium gallium nitride. |
| US09385196B2 |
Fast switching IGBT with embedded emitter shorting contacts and method for making same
Integrated circuits are presented having high voltage IGBTs with integral emitter shorts and fabrication processes using wafer bonding or gown epitaxial silicon for controlled drift region thickness and fast switching speed. |
| US09385193B2 |
FINFET transistor structure and method for making the same
A FINFET transistor structure includes a substrate including a fin structure. Two combined recesses embedded within the substrate, wherein each of the combined recesses includes a first recess extending in a vertical direction and a second recess extending in a lateral direction, the second recess has a protruding side extending to and under the fin structure. Two filling layers respectively fill in the combined recesses. A gate structure crosses the fin structure. |
| US09385190B2 |
Deep trench isolation structure layout and method of forming
The embodiments described herein provide a semiconductor device layout and method that can be utilized in a wide variety of semiconductor devices. In one embodiment a semiconductor device is provided that includes a plurality of deep trench isolation structures that define and surround a first plurality of first trench-isolated regions in the substrate, and further define a second plurality of second trench-isolated regions in the substrate. The first plurality of first trench-isolated regions is arranged in a plurality of first columns, with each of the first columns including at least two of the first plurality of first trench-isolated regions. Likewise, the plurality of first columns are interleaved with the second trench-isolated regions to alternate in an array such that a second trench-isolated region is between consecutive first columns in the array and such that at least two first trench-isolated regions are between consecutive second trench-isolated regions in the array. |
| US09385182B2 |
Junction termination structures including guard ring extensions and methods of fabricating electronic devices incorporating same
An electronic device includes a semiconductor layer, a primary junction in the semiconductor layer, a lightly doped region surrounding the primary junction and a junction termination structure in the lightly doped region adjacent the primary junction. The junction termination structure has an upper boundary, a side boundary, and a corner between the upper boundary and the side boundary, and the lightly doped region extends in a first direction away from the primary junction and normal to a point on the upper boundary by a first distance that is smaller than a second distance by which the lightly doped region extends in a second direction away from the primary junction and normal to a point on the corner. At least one floating guard ring segment may be provided in the semiconductor layer outside the corner of the junction termination structure. Related methods are also disclosed. |
| US09385178B2 |
High voltage resistor with PIN diode isolation
Provided is a high voltage semiconductor device that includes a PIN diode structure formed in a substrate. The PIN diode includes an intrinsic region located between a first doped well and a second doped well. The first and second doped wells have opposite doping polarities and greater doping concentration levels than the intrinsic region. The semiconductor device includes an insulating structure formed over a portion of the first doped well. The semiconductor device includes an elongate resistor device formed over the insulating structure. The resistor device has first and second portions disposed at opposite ends of the resistor device, respectively. The semiconductor device includes an interconnect structure formed over the resistor device. The interconnect structure includes: a first contact that is electrically coupled to the first doped well and a second contact that is electrically coupled to a third portion of the resistor located between the first and second portions. |
| US09385168B2 |
High resolution low power consumption OLED display with extended lifetime
Arrangements of pixel components that allow for full-color devices, while using emissive devices that emit at not more than two colors, and/or a limited number of color altering layers, are provided. Devices disclosed herein also may be achieved using simplified fabrication techniques compared to conventional side-by-side arrangements, because fewer masking steps may be required. |
| US09385167B2 |
OLED display architecture
A device that may be used as a multi-color pixel is provided. The device has a first organic light emitting device, a second organic light emitting device, a third organic light emitting device, and a fourth organic light emitting device. The device may be a pixel of a display having four sub-pixels. The first device may emit red light, the second device may emit green light, the third device may emit light blue light and the fourth device may emit deep blue light. |
| US09385164B2 |
Method of making a resistive random access memory device with metal-doped resistive switching layer
A method for forming a resistive random access memory (RRAM) device is disclosed. The method comprises forming a first electrode, forming a resistive switching oxide layer comprising a metal oxide by thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD), doping the resistive switching oxide layer with a metal dopant different from metal forming the metal oxide, and forming a second electrode by thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD), where the resistive switching layer is interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. In some embodiments, forming the resistive switching oxide may be performed without exposing a surface of the switching oxide layer to a surface-modifying plasma treatment after depositing the metal oxide. |
| US09385161B2 |
Semiconductor integrated circuit device having reservoir capacitor and method of manufacturing the same
A semiconductor integrated circuit device having a reservoir capacitor and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. A first insulating layer is formed on a semiconductor substrate including a first region and a second region. A first conductive layer is formed on the first insulating layer, and a second insulating layer is formed on the first conductive layer. The second insulating layer is patterned to be left in a portion of the first region. A second conductive layer is formed on the second insulating layer and the first conductive layer. The second conductive layer is etched to expose a partial surface of the first conductive layer in the first region. The second conductive layer and the first conductive layer are etched to form a reservoir capacitor in the first region and form a gate in the second region. |
| US09385154B2 |
Solid-state image sensor, driving method and electronic apparatus
There is provided a solid-state image sensor including a pixel region in which a plurality of pixels of a preset plurality of colors are arranged in a two-dimensional matrix shape, a vertical signal line corresponding to a pixel column of the pixel region, a trigger line corresponding to a pixel row of the pixel region and supplying a trigger pulse corresponding to each of the colors of the plurality of pixels, and a trigger pulse supply part supplying, via the trigger line, the trigger pulse in a manner that a signal voltage of each pixel of a predetermined color in the pixel region is read out for each pixel row via the vertical signal line, and thereafter, a signal voltage of each pixel of another color in the pixel region is read out for each pixel row via the vertical signal line. |
| US09385150B2 |
Image sensor device
An image sensor and image sensor device include: a lighting portion extending in a main scanning direction and emitting light to the object-to-be-read; a rod lens array for imaging light from the object-to-be-read; and a light receiving portion for converting the light imaged by the rod lens array to an electric signal. The lighting portion emits a normally directed light from the normal direction of the object-to-be-read to irradiate a first irradiation region of the object-to-be-read, and an inclined light inclined by a predetermined angle from the normal direction of the object-to-be-read to irradiate a second irradiation region being apart from the first irradiation region in a sub-scanning direction. |
| US09385149B2 |
CMOS imaging device having optimized shape, and method for producing such a device by means of photocomposition
An imaging device comprises a sensor of surface area of at least 10 cm2 and comprising: an image zone produced on a single substrate and comprising a group of pixels disposed in rows and columns, the number of pixels per column not being uniform for all the columns of pixels, each pixel collecting electric charges generated by a photosensitive element, row conductors linking the pixels row by row, column conductors linking the pixels column by column, row addressing blocks linked to the row conductors to address each row of pixels individually, and column reading blocks linked to the column conductors to read the electric charges collected by the pixels of the row selected by the row addressing blocks, the column reading blocks being situated at the periphery of the image zone; the row addressing blocks and the column reading blocks being produced on the same substrate as the image zone. |
| US09385146B2 |
Rework method of array substrate for display device and array substrate formed by the method
The present invention provides a method of reworking an array substrate including a gate metal layer, a gate insulation layer (G1), a semiconductor layer, a source/drain metal layer, a lower passivation layer, a common electrode layer, an upper passivation layer, and a pixel electrode layer sequentially formed therein. By using a rework mask protecting a jumping passivation hole area in reworking the pixel electrode layer, the method can maintain the electric connection between the common electrode layer and the rework pixel electrode pattern in the jumping passivation hole area even after the pixel electrode rework process, to thereby reduce the occurrence of failure and the reduction of throughput due to the rework process. |
| US09385145B2 |
Double thin film transistor structure with shared gate
A double thin film transistor includes a first semiconductor layer, a gate, a second semiconductor layer, a first insulating layer, a second insulating layer, a first source, a first drain, a second source and a second drain. The first semiconductor layer is disposed over a substrate. The gate is disposed over the first semiconductor layer. The second semiconductor layer is disposed over the gate, and the first and second semiconductor layers are the same conductive type. The first insulating layer is disposed between the first semiconductor layer and the gate. The second insulating layer is disposed between the gate and the second semiconductor layer. The first source and the first drain are disposed between the substrate and the second insulating layer. The second source and the second drain are disposed over the second insulating layer. |
| US09385144B2 |
Array substrate and display device
An array substrate and a display device that comprises the array substrate are disclosed. The array substrate comprises a base substrate, a plurality of scan lines (Ga, 21) and a plurality of data lines (Dr, 4) that are provided on the base substrate and intersect with each other, and a plurality of sub-pixel regions arranged evenly; sub-pixel regions in two adjacent rows are configured as one pixel row group, so that a plurality of pixel row groups are arranged longitudinally, and between two rows of sub-pixel regions within each of the pixel row groups and/or between every two adjacent pixel row groups, there are provided two scan lines (Ga, 21), which overlap in partial (22b) and are insulated from each other; or, sub-pixel regions in two adjacent columns are configured as one pixel column group, so that a plurality of pixel column groups are arranged transversely, and between two columns of sub-pixel regions within each of the pixel column groups or between every two adjacent pixel column groups, there are provided two data lines (Dr), which overlap in partial and are insulated from each other. The array substrate has a relatively high aperture ratio. |
| US09385137B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and method for manufacturing same
According to one embodiment, a method for manufacturing a semiconductor memory device includes forming a stacked body by alternately stacking an insulating film and a conductive film. The method includes forming a trench in the stacked body. The trench extends in one direction and divides the conductive film. The method includes burying a diblock copolymer in the trench. The method includes phase-separating the diblock copolymer into a plurality of first blocks and an insulative second block extending in a stacking direction of the insulating film and the conductive film. The method includes forming a plurality of holes by removing the first blocks. The method includes forming charge accumulation layers on inner surfaces of the holes. And, the method includes forming a plurality of semiconductor pillars extending in the stacking direction by burying a semiconductor material in the holes. |
| US09385129B2 |
Method of forming a memory capacitor structure using a self-assembly pattern
A capacitor structure and method of forming thereof on a substrate is described. The capacitor structure includes a substrate having a plurality of capacitor electrodes formed within an insulative retaining material, and a collar layer structure in contact with the plurality of capacitor electrodes, wherein the collar layer structure interconnects the plurality of capacitor electrodes and exposes the underlying insulative retaining material through openings having an unguided, random self-assembly pattern. Furthermore, the insulative retaining material may be removed from the capacitor structure. The method includes using a self-assembly process to form the interconnecting collar layer structure. |
| US09385127B2 |
Method and apparatus for suppressing metal-gate cross-diffusion in semiconductor technology
An inverter includes: a PMOS comprising: a p-type source region, a p-type drain region, a p-channel region between the p-type source region and the p-type drain region, and a PMOS metal gate region; a NMOS, comprising: an n-type source region, an n-type drain region, an n-channel region between the n-type source region and the n-type drain region, and a NMOS metal gate region; an insulating layer above the p-channel region and the n-channel region, wherein the PMOS metal gate region and the NMOS metal gate region are above the insulating layer; and a gate contact between the NMOS metal gate region and the PMOS metal gate region. |
| US09385124B1 |
Methods of forming reduced thickness spacers in CMOS based integrated circuit products
One method disclosed herein includes, among other things, forming a first spacer proximate gate structures of first and second transistors that are opposite type transistors, forming an initial second spacer proximate the first spacer of the first transistor and a layer of second spacer material above the second transistor, performing a timed, wet etching process on both of the transistors so as to completely remove the layer of second spacer material from the second transistor while leaving a reduced thickness second spacer positioned adjacent the first spacer of the first transistor, wherein the reduced thickness second spacer has a thickness that is less than an initial thickness of the initial second spacer, and forming a third spacer on and in contact with the first spacer of the second transistor. |
| US09385123B2 |
STI region for small fin pitch in FinFET devices
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor devices, and particularly to fabricating a shallow trench isolation (STI) region in fin field effect transistors (FinFETs) having a small fin pitch. According to one embodiment, a method of using selective etching techniques to remove a single fin to form a fin trench and to form an isolation trench having a width approximately equal to a width of the single fin below the removed fin is disclosed. The fin trench and the isolation trench may be filled with isolation material to form an isolation region. |
| US09385122B2 |
Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using source/drain epitaxial overgrowth for forming self-aligned contacts without spacer loss and a semiconductor device formed by same
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device comprises growing a source/drain epitaxy region over a plurality of gates on a substrate, wherein a top surface of the source/drain epitaxy region is at a height above a top surface of each of the plurality of gates, forming at least one opening in the source/drain epitaxy region over a top surface of at least one gate, forming a silicide layer on the source/drain epitaxy region, wherein the silicide layer lines lateral sides of the at least one opening, depositing a dielectric layer on the silicide layer, wherein the dielectric layer is deposited in the at least one opening between the silicide layer on lateral sides of the at least one opening, etching the dielectric layer to form a contact area, and depositing a conductor in the contact area. |
| US09385120B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of fabricating the same
A method of fabricating a semiconductor device is provided. A sacrificial gate, a hard mask, a spacer and a first interlayer insulating film are formed on a substrate. The hard mask, a part of the spacer, and a part of the first interlayer insulating film are removed to expose an upper portion of the sacrificial gate. A sacrificial insulating layer covers the exposed upper portion of the sacrificial gate. A second interlayer insulating film covers the sacrificial insulating layer, the spacer and the first interlayer insulating film. The sacrificial insulating layer and the second interlayer insulating film are partially removed to expose a top surface of the sacrificial gate. The sacrificial gate and the sacrificial insulating layer are removed to form a trench. A gate structure is formed in the trench. |
| US09385117B2 |
NPN heterojunction bipolar transistor in CMOS flow
An integrated circuit formed on a silicon substrate includes an NMOS transistor with n-channel raised source and drain (NRSD) layers adjacent to a gate of the NMOS transistor, a PMOS transistor with SiGe stressors in the substrate adjacent to a gate of the PMOS transistor, and an NPN heterojunction bipolar transistor (NHBT) with a p-type SiGe base formed in the substrate and an n-type silicon emitter formed on the SiGe base. The SiGe stressors and the SiGe base are formed by silicon-germanium epitaxy. The NRSD layers and the silicon emitter are formed by silicon epitaxy. |
| US09385115B2 |
Electrostatic discharge protection device
The present disclosure relates to an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device. The electrostatic discharge protection device, may comprise: a semiconductor controlled rectifier; and a p-n diode. The semiconductor controlled rectifier and the diode may be integrally disposed laterally at a major surface of a semiconductor substrate; and a current path for the semiconductor controlled rectifier may be separate from a current path for the diode. |
| US09385111B2 |
Electronic component with electronic chip between redistribution structure and mounting structure
An electronic component which comprises an electrically conductive mounting structure, an electronic chip on the mounting structure, an electrically conductive redistribution structure on the electronic chip, and a periphery connection structure electrically coupled to the redistribution structure and being configured for connecting the electronic component to an electronic periphery, wherein at least one of the electrically conductive mounting structure and the electrically conductive redistribution structure comprises electrically conductive inserts in an electrically insulating matrix. |
| US09385110B2 |
Semiconductor device and method
A link device with a large density routing is attached to a package in order to provide a high-density interconnect pathway to interconnect semiconductor devices. In an embodiment the package is an integrated fan out package. The link device may be bonded on either side of the package, and the package may optionally comprise through package vias. The link device may also be an integrated passive device that includes resistors, inductor, and capacitor components. |
| US09385109B2 |
Semiconductor packages having trench-shaped opening and methods for fabricating the same
Provided are semiconductor packages and methods of fabricating the same. In one embodiment, the package may include an upper package stacked on a lower package, and a plurality of connection terminals electrically connecting the lower and upper packages. The lower package may include a lower package substrate, a lower semiconductor chip mounted on the lower package substrate, and a lower mold layer provided on the lower package substrate to mold the lower semiconductor chip. The lower mold layer may have a trench-shaped first opening through which the lower package substrate is exposed in a substantially line shape. The connection terminals may be electrically connected to the lower package substrate exposed by the first opening and be not in contact with the lower mold layer. |
| US09385102B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of forming supporting layer over semiconductor die in thin fan-out wafer level chip scale package
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor die. An encapsulant is formed around the semiconductor die. A build-up interconnect structure is formed over a first surface of the semiconductor die and encapsulant. A first supporting layer is formed over a second surface of the semiconductor die as a supporting substrate or silicon wafer disposed opposite the build-up interconnect structure. A second supporting layer is formed over the first supporting layer an includes a fiber enhanced polymer composite material comprising a footprint including an area greater than or equal to an area of a footprint of the semiconductor die. The semiconductor die comprises a thickness less than 450 micrometers (μm). The thickness of the semiconductor die is at least 1 μm less than a difference between a total thickness of the semiconductor device and a thickness of the build-up interconnect structure and the second supporting layer. |
| US09385096B2 |
Semiconductor device with bumps and display device module incorporating the same
A semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor chip having a main face which has a pair of long sides parallel to each other and a pair of short sides orthogonal to the pair of long sides; first bumps arrayed in a first bump placement region of the semiconductor chip, the first bump placement region being positioned along one of the pair of long sides; second bumps arrayed in a second bump placement region of the semiconductor chip, the second bump placement region being positioned along the other of the pair of long sides; first power lines disposed in a region between the first bump placement region and the second bump placement region, the first power lines extending in a direction parallel to the pair of long sides; and third bumps integrated on the semiconductor chip. Each of the third bumps provides short-circuiting of the first power lines. |
| US09385090B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a conductive shield layer that has a first portion covering a surface of a sealing resin layer and a second portion covering side surfaces of the sealing resin layer and side surfaces of the substrate. Portions of wiring layers, including a grounding wire, on or in the substrate have cut planes which are exposed to the side surfaces of the substrate and spread out in a thickness direction of the substrate. A cut plane of the grounding wire is electrically connected to the shield layer. An area of the cut plane of the grounding wire is larger than an area of a cross section of the grounding wire parallel to, and inward of the substrate from, the cut plane of the grounding wire. |
| US09385078B1 |
Self aligned via in integrated circuit
A method for forming a via in an integrated circuit comprises patterning a first opening in a first hardmask, the first hardmask disposed on a first organic self-planarizing polymer (OPL) layer, removing an exposed portion of the first OPL layer to define a cavity, removing an exposed portion of a second hardmask in the cavity, removing an exposed portion of a first dielectric layer disposed under the second hardmask to further define the cavity, removing an exposed portion of a first cap layer in the cavity, removing an exposed portion of a second dielectric layer to further define the cavity, removing an exposed portion of a second cap layer to further define the cavity, removing an exposed portion of a liner layer over a second conductive material in the cavity, and depositing a conductive material in the cavity. |
| US09385076B2 |
Semiconductor device with bump structure on an interconncet structure
A semiconductor device includes a post-passivation interconnect (PPI) structure having a landing pad region. A polymer layer is formed on the PPI structure and patterned with a first opening and a second opening to expose portions of the landing pad region. The second opening is a ring-shaped opening surrounding the first opening. A bump structure is formed on the polymer layer to electrically connect the landing pad region through the first opening and the second opening. |
| US09385074B2 |
Semiconductor package with embedded die
A semiconductor package having an embedded die and solid vertical interconnections, such as stud bump interconnections, for increased integration in the direction of the z-axis (i.e., in a direction normal to the circuit side of the die). The semiconductor package can include a die mounted in a face-up configuration (similar to a wire bond package) or in a face-down or flip chip configuration. |
| US09385072B2 |
Method of manufacturing semiconductor device and semiconductor device
Reliability of a semiconductor device is improved. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes a step of arranging a plurality of semiconductor chips next to each other over a chip mounting surface of a die pad. Further, the method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes a step of electrically coupling the semiconductor chip and the semiconductor chip via a wire. In this regard, a pad (chip-to-chip connection pad) of the semiconductor chip on a second bonding side in the step of coupling the wire is provided such that it is distantly located from a peripheral portion of a surface of the semiconductor chip. |
| US09385069B2 |
Gate contact structure for FinFET
An embodiment includes a substrate, wherein a portion of the substrate extends upwards forming a fin, a gate dielectric over a top surface and at least portions of sidewalls of the fin, a gate electrode over the gate dielectric, and a contact over and extending into the gate electrode, wherein the contact has a first width above the gate electrode and a second width within the gate electrode, the first width being smaller than the second width. |
| US09385065B2 |
Solid state thermal rectifier
Thermal rectifiers using linear nanostructures as core thermal conductors have been fabricated. A high mass density material is added preferentially to one end of the nanostructures to produce an axially non-uniform mass distribution. The resulting nanoscale system conducts heat asymmetrically with greatest heat flow in the direction of decreasing mass density. Thermal rectification has been demonstrated for linear nanostructures that are electrical insulators, such as boron nitride nanotubes, and for nanostructures that are conductive, such as carbon nanotubes. |
| US09385059B2 |
Overmolded substrate-chip arrangement with heat sink
An electronic device comprises a substrate, at least one electronic chip mounted on and electrically connected to the substrate and being configured as a system control unit for controlling a connected system, a heat removal structure thermally connected to the at least one electronic chip and configured for removing heat generated by the at least one electronic chip upon operation of the electronic device, and an overmolding structure configured for at least partially encapsulating at least the at least one electronic chip and the substrate. |
| US09385057B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor flat package has a semiconductor chip, leads connected to the semiconductor chip, and an encapsulation resin covering the semiconductor chip and partially covering the leads. Outer end surfaces of the leads are exposed from the encapsulation resin and covered with a plated layer, and a side end surface of the plated layer and a side end surface of the encapsulation resin are flush with each other. A material with good solder wettability is formed at a lead cut portion of the semiconductor flat package, to thereby improve solder connection strength with a circuit board. A solder fillet is formed from the lead cut portion of the semiconductor package, to thereby enable adaptation of solder automatic visual inspection after mounting. |
| US09385055B2 |
Stacked semiconductor chips with thermal management
A method of assembling a semiconductor chip device is provided that includes placing an interposer on a first semiconductor chip. The interposer includes a first surface seated on the first semiconductor chip and a second surface adapted to thermally contact a heat spreader. The second surface includes a first aperture. A second semiconductor chip is placed in the first aperture. |
| US09385054B2 |
Data processing device and manufacturing method thereof
A method by which a defective memory cell can be efficiently excluded from a memory cell array is provided. In one embodiment, the memory cell array includes M word lines and (N+K) bit lines. K of the bit lines are spares (i.e., redundant bit lines). Programmable switches in a switch array are programmed so that the switch array connects a driver that drives the bit lines to N bit lines that are not connected to defective memory cells. The memory cell array is tested by a test circuit connected to the bit lines in such a manner that the test circuit transmits and receives a signal to and from the bit lines via the switch array. The test circuit may be formed using a reconfigurable circuit. Other embodiments may be claimed. |
| US09385052B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of forming build-up interconnect structures over carrier for testing at interim stages
A semiconductor device has a first interconnect structure formed over the carrier. A semiconductor die is disposed over the first interconnect structure after testing the first interconnect structure to be known good. The semiconductor die in a known good die. A vertical interconnect structure, such as a bump or stud bump, is formed over the first interconnect structure. A discrete semiconductor device is disposed over the first interconnect structure or the second interconnect structure. An encapsulant is deposited over the semiconductor die, first interconnect structure, and vertical interconnect structure. A portion of the encapsulant is removed to expose the vertical interconnect structure. A second interconnect structure is formed over the encapsulant and electrically connected to the vertical interconnect structure. The first interconnect structure or the second interconnect structure includes an insulating layer with an embedded glass cloth, glass cross, filler, or fiber. |
| US09385051B2 |
Method for the formation of a FinFET device having partially dielectric isolated fin structure
A semiconductor material is patterned to define elongated fins insulated from an underlying substrate. A polysilicon semiconductor material is deposited over and in between the elongated fins, and is patterned to define elongated gates extending to perpendicularly cross over the elongated fins at a transistor channel. Sidewall spacers are formed on side walls of the elongated gates. Portions of the elongated fins located between the elongated gates are removed, along with the underlying insulation, to expose the underlying substrate. One or more semiconductor material layers are then epitaxially grown from the underlying substrate at locations between the elongated gates. The one or more semiconductor material layers may include an undoped epi-layer and an overlying doped epi-layer. The epitaxial material defines a source or drain of the transistor. |
| US09385049B2 |
Process for manufacturing integrated device incorporating low-voltage components and power components
An integrated device includes: a semiconductor body having a first, depressed, portion and second portions which project from the first portion; a STI structure, extending on the first portion of the semiconductor body, which delimits laterally the second portions and has a face adjacent to a surface of the first portion; low-voltage CMOS components, housed in the second portions, in a first region of the semiconductor body; and a power component, in a second region of the semiconductor body. The power component has at least one conduction region, formed in the first portion of the semiconductor body, and a conduction contact, coupled to the conduction region and traversing the STI structure in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the first portion of the semiconductor body. |
| US09385047B2 |
Integrated circuits having a plurality of high-K metal gate FETs with various combinations of channel foundation structure and gate stack structure and methods of making same
Semiconductor manufacturing processes include forming conventional channel field effect transistors (FETs) and deeply depleted channel (DDC) FETs on the same substrate and selectively forming a plurality of gate stack types where those different gate stack types are assigned to and formed in connection with one or more of a conventional channel NFET, a conventional channel PFET, a DDC-NFET, and a DDC-PFET in accordance a with a predetermined pattern. |
| US09385046B2 |
Voids in STI regions for forming bulk FinFETs
An embodiment is an integrated circuit structure including two insulation regions over a substrate with one of the two insulation regions including a void, at least a bottom surface of the void being defined by the one of the two insulation regions. The integrated circuit structure further includes a first semiconductor strip between and adjoining the two insulation regions, where the first semiconductor strip includes a top portion forming a fin over top surfaces of the two insulation regions, a gate dielectric over a top surface and sidewalls of the fin, and a gate electrode over the gate dielectric. |
| US09385040B2 |
Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes providing a wafer, grinding a backside of the wafer, disposing a backside film on the backside of the wafer, cutting the wafer to singulate a plurality of dies from the wafer, and forming a mark on the backside film disposed on each of the plurality of dies by a laser operation. |
| US09385039B2 |
Formation of through-silicon via (TSV) in silicon substrate
To form a through-silicon via (TSV) in a silicon substrate without using plating equipment or using sputtering equipment or small metal particles, and form an interlayer connection by stacking a plurality of such silicon substrates, a through hole of a silicon substrate is filled using molten solder itself. In detail, solid solder placed above the through hole of the silicon substrate is molten and the molten solder is guided to and filled in the internal space. A metal layer can be deposited on an internal surface of the through hole beforehand, and also an intermetallic compound (IMC) can be formed in a portion other than the metal layer. |
| US09385029B2 |
Method for forming recess-free interconnect structure
A method for forming an interconnect structure includes forming a dielectric material layer on a semiconductor substrate. An oxygen-rich layer is formed over the dielectric material layer. The dielectric material layer and the oxygen-rich layer are patterned to form a plurality of vias in the semiconductor substrate. A barrier layer is formed in the plurality of vias and on the dielectric material layer leaving a portion of the oxygen-rich layer exposed. A metal layer is formed on the bather layer and on the exposed portion of the oxygen-rich layer, wherein the metal layer fills the plurality of vias. The semiconductor substrate is annealed at a predetermined temperature range and at a predetermined pressure to transform the exposed portion of the oxygen-rich layer into a metal-oxide stop layer. |
| US09385020B2 |
Substrate holding and rotating device, substrate treatment apparatus including the device, and substrate treatment method
A substrate holding and rotating device includes: a turntable rotatable; a rotative drive unit which rotates the turntable; a holding member which is provided on the turntable and horizontally holds a substrate in upwardly spaced relation to the turntable; a vertically movable protection disk disposed between the turntable and a substrate holding position; and a magnetic levitation mechanism including a first magnet attached to the protection disk, an annular second magnet which generates a repulsive force with respect to the first magnet, a support member which non-rotatably supports the second magnet, and a relative movement mechanism which moves the support member and the turntable relative to each other. |
| US09385016B2 |
Semiconductor processing system and program
In a processing system of a linear tool in which plural carrying robots are arranged in carrying mechanical units to which processing modules are coupled and a processing target is delivered and received between the plural carrying robots, in the case where there are plural carrying routes on which the processing target is carried, the present invention provides a technique for determining the carrying route on which the highest throughput can be obtained.In the processing system of a linear tool, in the case where there are plural carrying routes on which the processing target is carried, the throughputs of the respective carrying routes are compared to each other, and the carrying route is determined by a unit for selecting the carrying route with the highest throughput. |
| US09385014B2 |
Flip-chip package covered with tape
A manufacturing method of a semiconductor device includes arranging a melted resin on a substrate, arranging a semiconductor chip on the melted resin, pressing the semiconductor chip and flip-chip mounting the semiconductor chip on the substrate, and hardening the melted resin with the melted resin being subjected to a fluid pressure and forming a resin portion. |
| US09385007B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same
A plurality of semiconductor elements for power control are formed on a semiconductor substrate. A stress relaxation resin layer covering a crossing region where band-shaped dicing areas dividing the semiconductor elements adjacent to each other cross is formed. The crossing region is diced to cut the stress relaxation resin layer to obtain the separate semiconductor elements. Accordingly, even with semiconductor elements produced with a compound semiconductor substrate of SiC or the like, a semiconductor device having high adhesive strength with a sealing resin and being less likely to cause cracking or peeling of the sealing resin due to thermal stress during an operation can be obtained. |
| US09385000B2 |
Method of performing etching process
A method of performing an etching process is provided. A substrate is provided, wherein a first region and a second region are defined on the substrate, and an overlapping region of the first region and the second region is defined as a third region. A tri-layer structure comprising an organic layer, a bottom anti-reflection coating (BARC), and a photoresist layer is formed on the substrate. The photoresist layer and the BARC in the second region are removed. An etching process is performed to remove the organic layer in the second region by using the BARC and/or the photoresist layer as a mask, wherein the etching process uses an etchant comprises CO2. |
| US09384998B2 |
Technique to deposit sidewall passivation for high aspect ratio cylinder etch
Various embodiments herein relate to methods, apparatus and systems for forming a recessed feature in dielectric material on a semiconductor substrate. Separate etching and deposition operations are employed in a cyclic manner. Each etching operation partially etches the feature. Each deposition operation forms a protective coating on the sidewalls of the feature to prevent lateral etch of the dielectric material during the etching operations. The protective coating may be deposited using methods that result in formation of the protective coating along substantially the entire length of the sidewalls. The protective coating may be deposited using particular reactants and/or reaction mechanisms that result in substantially complete sidewall coating at relatively low temperatures without the use of plasma. In some cases the protective coating is deposited using molecular layer deposition techniques. |
| US09384997B2 |
Dry-etch selectivity
A method of etching exposed patterned heterogeneous structures is described and includes a remote plasma etch formed from a reactive precursor. The plasma power is pulsed rather than left on continuously. Plasma effluents from the remote plasma are flowed into a substrate processing region where the plasma effluents selectively remove one material faster than another. The etch selectivity results from the pulsing of the plasma power to the remote plasma region, which has been found to suppress the number of ionically-charged species that reach the substrate. The etch selectivity may also result from the presence of an ion suppression element positioned between a portion of the remote plasma and the substrate processing region. |
| US09384995B2 |
Tungsten salicide gate source for vertical NAND string to control on current and cell pillar fabrication
A non-volatile memory device and a method for forming the non-volatile memory device are disclosed. During fabrication of the memory device, a tungsten salicide is utilized as an etch-stop layer in place of a conventionally used aluminum oxide to form channel pillars having a high aspect ratio. Use of the tungsten salicide is useful for eliminating an undesired etch-stop recess and an undesired floating gate that is formed when an Al oxide etch-stop layer is conventionally used. |
| US09384982B2 |
Depositing material into high aspect ratio structures
A method is provided, along with a corresponding apparatus, for filling a high aspect ratio hole without voids or for producing high aspect ratio structures without voids. A beam having a diameter smaller than the diameter of the hole is directed into the hole to induced deposition beginning in the center region of the hole bottom. After an elongated structure is formed in the hole by the beam-induced deposition, a beam can then be scanned in a pattern at least as large as the hole diameter to fill the remainder of the hole. The high aspect ratio hole can then be cross-sectioned using an ion beam for observation without creating artefacts. When electron-beam-induced deposition is used, the electrons preferably have a high energy to reach the bottom of the hole, and the beam has a low current, to reduce spurious deposition by beam tails. |
| US09384981B2 |
Method of manufacturing silicon carbide semiconductor device
A method of manufacturing a silicon carbide semiconductor device includes the steps of preparing a silicon carbide substrate, forming a first electrode on the silicon carbide substrate, establishing ohmic contact between the silicon carbide substrate and the first electrode by irradiating the first electrode with laser beams, and forming a second electrode on the first electrode. In the step of establishing ohmic contact, a surface of the first electrode is irradiated with laser beams such that arithmetic mean roughness of a surface of the second electrode is not greater than 0.2 μm. |
| US09384980B2 |
Manufacturing method of semiconductor device
According to an embodiment, a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device includes: forming a first film on a processing target by using a first material; forming a second film on the first film by using a second material; selectively removing the second and first films to provide an opening pierced in the second and first films; selectively forming a metal film on an inner surface of the opening in the first film; and processing the processing target by using the metal film as a mask. |
| US09384978B1 |
Method of forming trenches
The present invention provides a method for forming trenches. First, a mandrel layer is formed on a substrate, wherein the mandrel layer comprises a stop layer and a sacrificial layer. A spacer is formed on at least a sidewall of the mandrel layer, following by forming a material layer on the substrate for covering the spacer and the mandrel layer. After performing a removing process to remove apart of the material layer, apart of the spacer and the sacrificial layer; the spacer is removed to form at least one first trench in the remaining material layer and the mandrel. |
| US09384975B2 |
Nanowire devices
A method of forming nanowire devices. The method includes forming a stressor layer circumferentially surrounding a semiconductor nanowire. The method is performed such that, due to the stressor layer, the nanowire is subjected to at least one of radial and longitudinal strain to enhance carrier mobility in the nanowire. Radial and longitudinal strain components can be used separately or together and can each be made tensile or compressive, allowing formulation of desired strain characteristics for enhanced conductivity in the nanowire of a given device. |
| US09384973B2 |
Methods of forming semiconductor films and methods of manufacturing transistors including semiconductor films
Provided are semiconductor films, methods of forming the same, transistors including the semiconductor films, and methods of manufacturing the transistors. Provided are a semiconductor film including zinc (Zn), nitrogen (N), oxygen (O), and fluorine (F), and a method of forming the semiconductor film. Provided are a semiconductor film including zinc, nitrogen, and fluorine, and a method of forming the semiconductor film. Sputtering, ion implantation, plasma treatment, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), or a solution process may be used in order to form the semiconductor films. The sputtering may be performed by using a zinc target and a reactive gas including fluorine. The reactive gas may include nitrogen and fluorine, or nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine. |
| US09384972B2 |
Method of manufacturing semiconductor device by forming a film on a substrate
Provided is a technique of forming a film on a substrate by performing a cycle a predetermined number of times. The cycle includes: forming a first layer by supplying a gas containing a first element to the substrate, wherein the first layer is a discontinuous layer, a continuous layer, or a layer in which at least one of the discontinuous layer or the continuous layer is overlapped; forming a second layer by supplying a gas containing a second element to the substrate to modify the first layer under a condition where a modifying reaction of the first layer by the gas containing the second element is not saturated; and forming a third layer by supplying a gas containing a third element to the substrate to modify the second layer under a condition where a modifying reaction of the second layer by the gas containing the third element is not saturated. |
| US09384971B2 |
Method of manufacturing semiconductor device by forming a film on a substrate
Provided is a technique including forming a film by performing a cycle a predetermined number of times. The cycle includes: forming a first layer by supplying a gas containing a first element under a condition where chemical adsorption of a molecule constituting the gas containing the first element is not saturated; forming a second layer including the first layer and a layer including a second element stacked on the first layer by supplying a gas containing the second element under a condition where chemical adsorption of a molecule constituting the gas containing the second element is not saturated; and forming a third layer by supplying a gas containing a third element to modify the second layer under a condition where a modifying reaction of the second layer by the gas containing the third element is not saturated. |
| US09384966B2 |
Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device by forming a film on a substrate
Provided is a technique of forming a film on a substrate by performing a cycle a predetermined number of times. The cycle includes: forming a first layer by supplying a gas containing a first element to the substrate, wherein the first layer is a discontinuous layer, a continuous layer, or a layer in which at least one of the discontinuous layer or the continuous layer is overlapped; forming a second layer including the first layer and a discontinuous layer including a second element stacked on the first layer; and forming a third layer by supplying a gas containing a third element to the substrate to modify the second layer under a condition where a modifying reaction of the second layer by the gas containing the third element is not saturated. |
| US09384965B2 |
Polycrystallization method
According to one embodiment, provided is a polycrystallization method for polycrystallizing an amorphous semiconductor film that has a natural oxide film on the surface. The polycrystallization method includes a step of cleaning the natural oxide film while leaving the natural oxide film on the surface of the amorphous semiconductor film, and a step of polycrystallizing the amorphous semiconductor film in the state where the natural oxide film is left. |
| US09384962B2 |
Oxygen treatment of replacement work-function metals in CMOS transistor gates
A method of manufacturing a metal gate is provided. The method includes providing a substrate. Then, a gate dielectric layer is formed on the substrate. A multi-layered stack structure having a work function metal layer is formed on the gate dielectric layer. An O2 ambience treatment is performed on at least one layer of the multi-layered stack structure. A conductive layer is formed on the multi-layered stack structure. |