最新美国发明专利第2016-09-20期 - 专利汇|PatentHub专利检索|专利查询网|发明专利查询分析

Document	Document Title
US09450428B2	Package module of battery protection circuit Disclosed is a package module of a battery protection circuit. The package module comprises: a first internal connection terminal area and a second internal connection terminal area, and in which first and second internal connection terminals connected to a battery can provided with a bare cell are respectively disposed; an external connection terminal area, in which a plurality of external connection terminals are disposed; and a protection circuit area comprising a device area in which a plurality of passive devices forming the battery protection circuit are disposed and a chip area, which is adjacent to the device area, and in which a protection IC and a dual FET chip forming the battery protection circuit are disposed, are disposed between the external connection terminal area and the second internal connection terminal area.
US09450424B2	Power providing equipment, mobile device, operating method of mobile device An operating method includes receiving a wireless power signal from a power providing equipment; and transmitting an encoded ID to the power providing equipment, so that the power providing equipment forwards the encoded ID to a server, and the power providing equipment charges a battery of the mobile device by utilizing the wireless power signal according to a charge command provided by the server.
US09450422B2	Wireless energy transfer Disclosed is an apparatus for use in wireless energy transfer, which includes a first resonator structure configured to transfer energy non-radiatively with a second resonator structure over a distance greater than a characteristic size of the second resonator structure. The non-radiative energy transfer is mediated by a coupling of a resonant field evanescent tail of the first resonator structure and a resonant field evanescent tail of the second resonator structure.
US09450420B1	Energy conveyance device Devices and methods for conveying energy through a watertight enclosure can include placing at least one means for converting electrical energy into vibrational mechanical energy in direct contact with the enclosure. At least one means for harvesting the vibrational mechanical energy from the enclosure into electrical energy can also be placed in direct contact on the enclosure, on the opposite side of the enclosure from the conversion means. The conversion means and harvesting means both operate at a matching frequency ω. A plurality of transducers generating vibrations at frequency ω can be used in conjunction with harvester, or vice versa. Or, a plurality of transducers operating at discrete frequencies ωn can be used in conjunction with a plurality of harvesters operating at matching frequencies ωn. These configurations can be used to transmit electrical energy through the watertight enclosure without breaking the watertight integrity of the enclosure.
US09450417B2	Method for efficiency-driven operation of dispatchable sources and storage units in energy systems The invention is directed to a method or management system which 1) dispatches high efficiency generators first, 2) charges/discharges energy storage units in a way to enhance efficiency of generators in the system or avoid the necessity of dispatching generators during their low efficiency operations at all. In this way the method or management system utilizes its knowledge about the efficiency characteristics of generators in the system and its ability to change the net demand seen by the generators through charge and discharge of energy storage units to increase the overall efficiency of the energy system.
US09450415B2	System and method for controlling a dual-fed induction generator in response to high-voltage grid events In one aspect, a method for controlling a dual-fed induction generator (DFIG) during a high-voltage grid event is provided. The method includes setting, by a controller, an output of a closed-loop portion of a rotor current regulator to a fixed value such that a predictive feed-forward path sets an internal voltage for the DFIG; and detecting, by the controller, a condition of high dc voltage on a dc link or a condition predictive of high dc voltage on the dc link, and in response reduce a rotor torque producing current command to approximately zero, wherein the dc link connects a line-side converter connected to a system bus and a rotor-side converter connected to a rotor of the DFIG.
US09450414B2	Method for use of static inverters in variable energy generation environments A method to collect energy from generation systems such as, for example, wind farms or solar farms with widely distributed energy-generation equipment. In some cases, static inverters are used to feed the energy directly into the power grid. In some other cases, back-to-back static inverters are used create a high-voltage DC transmission line to collect power from multiple generation sites into one feed-in site.
US09450413B2	Power regulating system for solar power station The invention relates to a system for the dynamic regulation of a regenerative energy generation installation comprising a plurality of energy generation units. The system has a signal input for receiving a pre-determined set value, a measuring device for measuring an actual value on an output of the energy generation installation, and a regulating device for regulating the energy generation units based on the set value and the measured actual value.
US09450412B2	Method and system for control power in remote DC power systems A method and system for a control power supply system is provided. The control power supply system includes a first conductor configured to carry a direct current (DC) electrical current from a source to a load, a second conductor configured to carry the DC electrical current from the load to the source, a electrical device electrically coupled in series with at least one of the first and second conductor. The electrical device is configured to fail in a shorted condition such that failure of the electrical device maintains a direct current (DC) ring bus including the first and second conductor. The control power supply system also includes a control power circuit electrically coupled in parallel with at least a portion of the electrical device such that a DC voltage across at least a portion of the electrical device provides a DC voltage supply to the control power circuit.
US09450411B2	Method, apparatus and system for suppressing low frequency oscillation in power system A method, apparatus and system for suppressing low frequency oscillation in a power system. The method includes determining a system transfer function of an interconnected power system section in which a variable frequency transformer (VFT) is located; determining a damping controller parameters according to the system transfer function; and suppressing low frequency oscillation of the power system by means of the VFT based on the damping controller parameter. The objects of the method, apparatus and system are definite: optimizing the damping controller parameter can be achieved by simply tracking and analyzing the response of the system to disturbance, without the need to understand the configuration and parameters of the system or solve complicated power system equations, which has a better effect in suppressing low frequency oscillation in the power system and is advantageous for improving the safety and stability level of the power grid.
US09450409B2	Converter station power set point analysis system and method Converter stations have real and reactive power set points initially determined as part of a main loadflow analysis routinely performed on the AC power system connected to the converter stations. Viable real and/or reactive power set points for the converter stations can be identified by calculating real and/or reactive power set point candidates for the converter stations before the main loadflow analysis is performed again on the AC power system. The power set point candidates are calculated based on information determined as part of a previous iteration of the main loadflow analysis on the AC power system. The power set point candidates which violate an operating constraint imposed on the AC power system are identified, and a region of valid power set points is defined for the converter stations that excludes the power set point candidates which violate an operating constraint imposed on the AC power system.
US09450408B2	Adaptive demand response based on distributed load control Adaptive demand response based on distributed load control may be provided. A demand response request indicative of a demand response event for an area may be received. A maximum power consumption for the area during the demand response event may be determined based on the demand response request. One or more set points for the area during the demand response event may be determined prior to the demand response event. The one or more set points are determined based on the maximum power consumption. Prior to or during the demand response event, a real-time power consumption for the area may be calculated. When the real-time power consumption exceeds the maximum power consumption, one or more loads in the area may be controlled to maintain the real-time power consumption at or below the maximum power consumption.
US09450407B2	Method and system for power management in substations Power management systems and methods are disclosed for a plant electrical network using plurality of controllers configured for power management such that a first controller from the plurality of controllers is configured to perform power management in a first local process area within the plant electrical network and can communicate with a second controller that is configured for power management in a second local process area within the plant electrical network, over a plant wide communication network. The power management function in the first local process area can be performed based on the information communicated between the first controller and the second controller and/or based on a power balance computation carried out for the plant wide electrical network or for the first local process area. The power management function can include slow load shedding.
US09450406B2	System and method for controlling an electricity supply A system for controlling an electricity supply to a load comprises at least one battery for storing energy. The system also comprises a controller for determining when to switch between a first mode wherein electricity is supplied to the load from a mains electricity circuit; and a discharging mode wherein electricity is supplied from the battery to the load via the mains electricity circuit. The determining is based on information associated with the electricity supply.
US09450405B2	Method and apparatus for reactive power capable inverters A system, method, and apparatus for converting DC input power to AC output power, including a DC-AC inverter employing: a first feedback loop for determining a maximum power point (MPP) and operating the DC-AC inverter proximate the MPP. A second feedback loop for determining a difference between a first power measurement and a second power measurement, producing an error signal indicative of the difference, and coupling the error signal to the first feedback loop to adjust at least one operating parameter of the DC-AC inverter to drive toward the MPP, where the first power measurement and the second power measurement are each determined based on a phase shift between an AC output voltage from the DC-AC inverter and an AC output current from the DC-AC inverter.
US09450399B2	Electrical or electronic safety circuit A time triggered crowbar, which is so embodied that it monitors the on-time of at least one downstream electronic component and the period of clocking and therewith the power supply in such a manner that a predetermined maximum allowable surface temperature of the at least one downstream component is not exceeded in the explosion endangered area.
US09450397B2	Circuit breaking arrangement A circuit breaking arrangement is disclosed, which is adapted to be coupled to a transmission line arranged to carry direct current for controllably effecting discontinuation of flow of direct current in the transmission line. The circuit breaking arrangement includes a current interrupter unit, which is adapted to, when actuated, interrupt current in the transmission line, and at least one resonance circuit. The resonance circuit is connected in parallel with the current interrupter unit and includes at least one capacitor, at least one inductor and at least one switch element. The resonance circuit is adapted to, upon actuation of the current interrupter unit, generate a resonance current superposing current of any arc generated in the current interrupter unit after actuation thereof, upon closing of the switch element by means of successive discharging and charging of the at least one capacitor. An auxiliary power supply unit is coupled to the resonance circuit and adapted to selectively and controllably convey power to the at least one capacitor, thereby charging it. On a condition that voltage of the transmission line and/or voltage of the at least one capacitor does not comply with a selected voltage criterion, the auxiliary power supply unit is caused to convey power to the at least one capacitor. The circuit breaking arrangement may be arranged so as to allow for conveyance of power transmitted in the transmission line to the at least one capacitor, thereby charging it.
US09450395B2	Manual reset ground fault circuit interruptor (GFCI) with a quick connect load input A Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) interrupts the flow of current through a pair of lines extending between a source of power and a load. The GFCI includes a circuit breaker, a relay circuit including a solenoid, a latch circuit, and a fault detecting circuit packaged in a circuit assembly. The GFCI is adaptable for a quick connect of a load input cord by a user, allowing for various configurations of cords to be utilized on site, the cord easily connected from the device being protected to the GFCI at the point of use. The GFCI circuit assembly includes a load input section having cable securement jaws for connection of the load input cable terminal ends.
US09450393B2	Cable enclosure systems, plugs and methods for using the same An enclosure system for receiving a cable includes an enclosure having an inner chamber and an open position exposing the inner chamber and a closed position covering the inner chamber. A cable receiving port in a wall of the enclosure extends along a longitudinal axis from outside of the enclosure into the inner chamber. The cable receiving port is configured to receive a cable therein when the cable is advanced axially into the port without rotation of the cable when the enclosure is in the closed position. A mating member is associated with the cable receiving port that limits rotation of the cable when the cable is advanced axially into the port. An axial retention member is associated with the cable receiving port that limits axial movement of the cable out of the port when the cable is advanced axially into the port to a lock position.
US09450389B2	Electrical power transmission system and method A power carrier transmits an electrical current to and from a load. The carrier has a set of wires carrying electricity in parallel to the load and another set of wires carrying the electricity back in parallel from the load. The wires are organized with equal numbers of wires form each set grouped around a junction alternatingly, so that as a result the magnetic fields created by the electricity flowing through the two sets of wires cancel each other out in the junction. The carrier may have several junctions in a rectangular matrix pattern or hexagonal close-packed pattern, or other patterns, e.g., octagonal, which may be combined with junctions with different numbers of wires. The resulting power carrier has a reduced external magnetic field.
US09450381B1	Monolithic integrated photonics with lateral bipolar and BiCMOS After forming a first trench extending through a top semiconductor layer and a buried insulator layer and into a handle substrate of a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, a dielectric waveguide material stack including a lower dielectric cladding layer, a core layer and an upper dielectric cladding layer is formed within the first trench. Next, at least one lateral bipolar junction transistor (BJT), which can be a PNP BJT, an NPN BJT or a pair of complementary PNP BJT and NPN BJT, is formed in a remaining portion of the top semiconductor layer. After forming a second trench extending through the dielectric waveguide material stack to re-expose a portion of a bottom surface of the first trench, a laser diode is formed in the second trench.
US09450375B2	High-power diode laser and method for producing a high-power diode laser In a high-power diode laser, facets which lie opposite one another contain in each case an amorphous layer system composed of silicon and carbon. The layer system is formed to perform the function both of a passivation layer and of the reflection-determining functional layers. This measure makes it possible to produce a high-power diode laser having a high COD threshold in conjunction with a long service life by way of a simplified method.
US09450373B2	Apparatus and method for enabling quantum-defect-limited conversion efficiency in cladding-pumped Raman fiber lasers Cladding-pumped Raman fiber lasers and amplifiers provide high-efficiency conversion efficiency at high brightness enhancement. Differential loss is applied to both single-pass configurations appropriate for pulsed amplification and laser oscillator configurations applied to high average power cw source generation.
US09450370B2	Planar waveguide laser device A laser medium 21 is shaped like a plate and has a waveguide structure in a direction of the thickness of a surface thereof perpendicular to the optical axis thereof. A nonlinear material 31 is placed on the optical axis of the laser medium 21 close to the laser medium 21 and has a waveguide structure in the same direction as that of the waveguide structure of the laser medium 21. A ¼ wavelength plate 41 is placed close to one of surfaces, which are perpendicular to the optical axis, of the nonlinear material 31, the one being opposite to a surface close to the laser medium 21.
US09450366B2	Long-life metal sliding contacts In one embodiment, a sliding contact system includes a first metal contact, a second metal contact in sliding engagement with the first contact, and a lubricant in which the first metal contact and the second metal contact are immersed to inhibit oxidation and cold welding of the contacts.
US09450364B2	Tape light electrical connector The present invention is directed to a tape light electrical connector that is configured to electrically and physically connect a tape light, such as a light emitting diode (LED) tape light and a lead wire together in order to provide electrical continuity between the tape light and the lead wire, and to prevent physical separation of the tape light from the lead wire, once the tape light and the lead wire have been coupled to the tape light electrical connector. The electrical connector may further be configured to allow for removal of the lead wire and the tape light from the electrical connector, and accordingly the electrical connector may be reusable for installation of other lead wires and tape lights to be connected thereto.
US09450363B2	Modular power adaptor with a base modular unit having plurality of surface connectors for connection to a power source An adaptor may include a base modular unit that includes a plurality of surface connectors, a first port and circuitry. At least one surface connector may couple to an expansion modular unit. Circuitry or logic may provide information from the first port to the at least one surface connector.
US09450361B2	Retention module with protection cap A protection cap provided for a retention module of a photoelectric conversion connector assembly includes an upper wall, a plurality of supporting walls extending downwardly from the upper wall and at least one protruding portion extending downwardly from the upper wall. The protruding portion has a latch portion at a free end thereof for latching a retention plate of the retention module. The latch portion has a first inclined guiding face extending towards the free end so as to guide the retention plate to a printed circuit board.
US09450360B2	Electrical connector for mating with two kinds of connector interfaces An electrical connector adapted for mating with a first kind or a second kind of mating connector including an insulative housing and a number of conductive terminals received in the insulative housing and arranged in a horizontal row. Each conductive terminal comprises a tail portion, a mating portion, and a middle portion between the tail portion and the mating portion, the mating portion including a first upper contact surface and a first lower contact surface opposite to the first upper contact surface.
US09450352B2	Coaxial connector A coaxial connector includes an inner conductor terminal connected to a core wire of a coaxial cable, a dielectric body that surrounds an outer periphery of the inner conductor terminal, and an outer conductor terminal connected to a shield conductor of the coaxial cable and having a tubular portion surrounding the inner conductor terminal through the dielectric body. A protruding portion protruding toward an inside of the tubular portion and engaged with the dielectric body to thereby restrict a position of the dielectric body is provided integrally with the tubular portion of the outer conductor terminal. The outer conductor terminal is formed by a stereoscopic shaping method to thereby provide the protruding portion in a protruding condition integrally with an inner peripheral wall of the tubular portion.
US09450350B2	Cable connector assembly with improved luminous effect A cable connector assembly (100) comprises: a first connector (10) having a main body (120), a number of contacts (121) retained in the main body, a first circuit board (130) electrically connected to the contacts, and a metal shell (110) enclosing the first circuit board; a cable (30) electrically connected between the first circuit board and a power source to provide a power to the first circuit board; a second circuit board (150) vertically fixed on the metal shell; a cover enclosing the first and the second circuit board; a luminous element (152) disposed on a front side of the second circuit board and electrically connected to the first circuit board; and a translucent portion (1610) defined on a front end of the cover to pass light emitted by the luminous element.
US09450349B1	Power socket with over-current protection The present invention is to provide a power socket with over-current protection, which includes a shape-memory alloy plate formed with a through-opening cut therethrough and an extension plate having an end connected with an inner edge of the through-opening and other end extended away from the inner edge of the through-opening so as to form a free end; and a metal spring clip having an end connected with the free end by lap joint and other end connected with other end of the shape-memory alloy plate by lap joint in a location corresponding to the inner edge of the through-opening. When a movable contact disposed on the free end is electrically in contact with a fixed contact and the shape-memory alloy plate withstands over-current to have a temperature exceeding a predetermined temperature, the end of the shape-memory alloy plate is deformed to separate the movable contact and the fixed contact.
US09450348B2	Electrical adaptor having a temperature indicator An electrical adaptor comprising a housing. A male electrical plug comprises a prong extending from the housing and is configured as a standard 120-volt male plug. The prong comprises a distal tip, and the distal tip forms an end to the male electrical plug. A female socket is electrically connected to the male electrical plug and comprises an electrical contact positioned in the housing. The female socket is configured to receive a standard 120-volt male plug. The electrical contact comprises a distal tip, and the distal tip forms an end to the female socket. At least one thermal indicator circuit is electrically connected to the male electrical plug and the female socket and is electrically positioned between an end of the male plug and an end of the female socket. The thermal indicator circuit is configured to actuate an alarm upon detecting a temperature at or above a threshold temperature without interrupting electrical flow between the male electrical plug and the female socket.
US09450346B1	Electrical contact pin having a ledge and/or a groove coupled to a printed circuit board An electrical contact pin for a printed circuit board. The electrical contact pin includes a first cylindrical portion having a first diameter and a second cylindrical portion extending from the first cylindrical portion. The second cylindrical portion has a second diameter larger than the first diameter. The second cylindrical portion includes a ledge configured to press against a wall of a printed circuit board. The second cylindrical portion further includes a groove configured to receive a sealing material.
US09450340B2	Connector set and connector A connector set includes a first connector and a second connector. The first connector has a plurality of first connection terminals, a first anchoring terminal, and a first insulative member, and the second connector has a plurality of second connection terminals, a second anchoring terminal, and a second insulative member. When the first connector and the second connector are coupled, the plurality of first connection terminals and the plurality of second connection terminals respectively make contact at the first contact portions and the second contact portions. The first anchoring terminal and the second anchoring terminal make contact with each other to maintain the coupling between the first connector and the second connector, and have a ring shape that encircles a periphery of the first contact portions and the second contact portions when the first connector and the second connector are coupled.
US09450338B2	High speed connector with ruggedized exterior structure and shielding A high speed connector assembly includes two interengaging connector halves each held in respective first and second interengaging connector housings. Each of the connector halves includes a plurality of conductive contacts arranged in at least two linear arrangements and at least partially surrounded by a conductive grounding shield. The connector housings are cylindrical and engage each other in a circular fashion, while the connectors engage each other in a linear, axial fashion. The connector housings provide a sealed environment for the connectors.
US09450336B2	Electrical connector and combination of an electronic device and the electrical connector A combination includes an electronic device and an electrical connector. The electronic device includes a device housing with a mating area, and a device terminal set formed in the mating area. The electrical connector includes a connector casing with a mating region, a connector terminal set to mate with the device terminal set, and an auxiliary unit with an abutment part covering a part of the mating region of the connector casing. When the mating region of the electrical connector mates with the mating area of the electronic device, the abutment part of the auxiliary unit abuts against the device housing such that the electrical connector is stabilized and prevented from moving relative to the electronic device.
US09450335B2	RJ45 plug latch guard with integrated release tab In one embodiment, a latch guard includes a plug end configured for gripping a communication plug and a pull tab extending from the plug end. The pull tab can include an arm connected to the plug end and can further include a loop connected to the arm opposite the plug end. The plug end of the latch guard can include a hood configured for at least partially covering the latch of the communication plug when the latch guard is installed on the communication plug. The plug end of the latch guard can have at least three sides, and the communication plug can have a housing with at least one depression, where at least one of the sides of the plug end of the latch guard can include a tab for engaging at least one depression of the plug housing.
US09450330B2	Connector assembly for an inductively coupled plasma source A connector assembly configured to join an induction coil to a radio frequency generator to provide together with a plasma torch, an inductively coupled plasma source for a spectrometer is disclosed. The connector assembly includes a radial clamping member associated with the radio frequency generator and a sealing member. The radial clamping member has an internal surface configured to receive an end of an induction coil. The connector assembly is configured to provide a secure connection between the end of the induction coil and the RF generator that is substantially electrically conductive and substantially liquid-tight without causing lasting deformation of the radial clamping member or the induction coil. An inductively coupled plasma spectrometer comprising such a connector assembly and a method for securing a connection between an induction coil and a radio frequency generator are also disclosed.
US09450327B1	Connector plug with flexible ridges and having a hook with a beveled surface A connector plug comprises a hook with flexible edges. The hook has a first beveled surface and a second flat surface. A stopper is coupled to the flat surface of the hook by a first barrel portion of the connector plug. The stopper is coupled to a plurality of ridges with flexible edges by a second barrel portion. The plurality of ridges are also coupled to each other by the second barrel portion. A via extends through the connector plug from one end of the connector plug to the other end of the connector plug.
US09450323B2	Terminal fitting connection structure and rotary fitting-type connector A second terminal fitting which abuts and is connected to a first terminal fitting includes a second annular portion formed at the tip end of a second terminal body which extends on a center axis thereof, a plurality of contact surfaces which protrude from the outer periphery of the second annular portion at the same intervals as those of a plurality of contact protrusions in the first terminal fitting, and a plurality of contact release portions which are positioned between the adjacent contact surfaces.
US09450321B2	Contact device for contacting a contact conductor arrangement A contact device for contacting a contact conductor arrangement with at least two contact conductors. The device has at least two contact strip arrangements, each with at least one contact strip arranged on a support. The contact strip supports connect via an arrangement of parallel rods, including two parallel connecting rods, such that the contact strip supports each connect to the connecting rods in one of two parallel hinge planes at mutually spaced hinge points on mutually parallel rotational axes and form a parallelogram with the contact strips aligned parallel to each other. At least one connecting rod central axis parallel to the rotational axes is pivotally connected to a base support at a hinge point such that an advancing motion of the base support in the direction of the contact conductor arrangement causes a corresponding advancing motion of the contact strips.
US09450320B2	FPCB cable and cable connector assembly An FPCB cable and cable connector assembly includes: a conductive line unit including a signal (conductive) line; a terminal exposing a portion of the signal (conductive) line; a terminal protector extending from a side of the conductive line unit and surrounding the terminal; and a cable connector coupled to the terminal. The cable connector includes an actuator pivotably coupled to the cable connector and configured to fix the FPCB cable to the cable connector, and the terminal protector is configured to surround the cable connector such that the FPCB cable is not unintentionally detached from the cable connector.
US09450319B2	Cable connector and connector device having the same A cable connector is to be connected to a cable and having a fitting surface to be fitted to a mating connector along an axial direction of the cable. The cable connector includes a housing; and contact members secured in the housing. Each contact member includes a basal section extending along the axial direction; a connecting section provided on one side and connected to one end of the cable; a contact section provided on the other side in the axial direction relative to the basal section; and a section to be locked and provided between the basal section and the connecting section along the axial direction. When the contact member is placed in the housing by the sliding movement, a part of each section to be locked on a side opposite the moving destination side in the sliding direction will be locked by a predetermined part of the housing.
US09450318B2	Electrical connector assembly In the terminals of the first electrical connector, the elastic arm portions are formed such that their width dimensions in the array direction of the above-mentioned terminals are smaller than the securing arm portions; in the terminals of the second electrical connector, the sections that correspond to the securing arm portions are formed such that their width dimensions are smaller than the sections that correspond to the elastic arm portions; on the elastic arm portions side, the terminals of the first electrical connector are formed such that their width dimensions are smaller than the terminals of the second electrical connector; and on the securing arm portions side, the terminals of the second electrical connector are formed such that their width dimensions are smaller than the terminals of the first electrical connector.
US09450315B2	High voltage electrical connector An electrical connector for connecting a conductor with three fixations and particularly suitable for medium and high voltage applications. The connector body includes a body part with an inner profile adapted to receive the conductor and a cover part provided with two keepers that are fastened to the body part for providing the first and the second fixation of the conductor to the body part, respectively. The third fixation of the conductor is provided by an inner keeper that is partially covered by the two outer keepers. The inner keeper includes a contact element that is disposed transversally over the conductor and attached to the body part by a U-bolt. The outer keepers and the inner keeper are shaped so that at least one of the outer keepers covers, at least partially, the inner keeper.
US09450313B2	Electrical connector with terminal clamps for improved soldering quality An electrical connector includes a body and at least one terminal. The body has a top surface and a bottom surface opposite to each other, multiple receiving holes running through the body from the top surface to the bottom surface, and at least two protruding blocks protruding downward from the bottom surface and located around each of the receiving hole. A gap exists between the two protruding blocks. Each of the protruding blocks has a stopping surface toward the gap. The terminal is disposed in the receiving hole. The terminal has a fixing portion and two clamping arms extending downward from the fixing portion along a plate surface for clamping a tin ball. Bottom ends of the two clamping arms are located in the gap. The stopping surfaces are configured to stop the clamping arms and prevent the clamping arms from moving in a plate thickness direction.
US09450309B2	Lobe antenna A broadband antenna element formed of conductive material on a planar substrate is disclosed. The element has two lobes defining a cavity with declining in width from a widest to narrowest point to form a wideband antenna. Angled corners communicating with linear side edges along with stepped angles of the edges defining the cavity, enhance reception and transmission gain.
US09450301B2	Pest control apparatus and system having an electromagnetic attracting or repelling device and housing therefor A method of controlling pests includes placing a pest control station in an area of interest. The pest control station includes an internal chamber. The method includes placing a pest control apparatus within the internal chamber of the pest control station. The pest control apparatus has a transmitting device including an antenna and a housing sealingly enclosing the antenna. The housing substantially isolates the antenna from the environment. The method also includes activating the antenna of the transmitting device to emit an electromagnetic field to define a region of influence. The housing of the transmitting device is made from a material that reduces the region of influence of the antenna by less than 50%.
US09450297B2	Antenna for device having conducting casing The invention concerns an electronic device for personal use and a coupled antenna apparatus for such a device, comprising a top cover and a housing with an opposing back cover configured to form a closed space between said top and back cover that is adapted to receive electronic circuitry and a display unit. A bezel made of a conductive material is forming a rim on top of said housing and is interfacing with the top cover. According to the invention, an elongate strip of a conductive material deposited on a first side of an elongate antenna feed element and is forming a first radiating element and a second elongate strip of a conductive material deposited on a second side of the antenna feed element is forming a second radiating element, whereby the first and second radiating elements are positioned in proximity against the bezel at at least one inner wall portion of the bezel that extends in a direction between the first and second radiating elements and the display unit. The first and second radiating elements are functionally coupled to said bezel to form an antenna system of said electronic device.
US09450295B2	Wireless communication device An exemplary wireless communication device includes a circuit board, a first antenna, a second antenna, and an end portion. The circuit board includes a feed terminal. The first antenna is located on the circuit board adjacent to the feed terminal. The second antenna is electronically connected to the feed terminal. The end portion serves as a portion of a metal housing of the wireless communication device and includes a positioning portion. The positioning portion secures the first antenna and the end portion to the circuit board.
US09450292B2	Cavity antennas with flexible printed circuits An antenna with a curved shape may be mounted behind a curved antenna window. The antenna may have an antenna resonating element such as an inverted-F antenna resonating element and may have an antenna ground. The antenna resonating element may be formed from patterned metal traces on a flexible printed circuit. The flexible printed circuit may have ground traces that run along a peripheral edge of the flexible printed circuit. The antenna ground may be formed from a metal can with walls surrounding a cavity having an opening. The metal can may have a lip formed from bent portions of the walls. The flexible printed circuit may be soldered to the lip so that the ground traces are shorted to the can. A cable connector may be mounted on a bent tab in the flexible printed circuit that extends through a notch in the lip.
US09450290B2	Health data collecting system and semiconductor device Conventionally, people have to go to the place where a measurement instrument for health data is, to obtain health data and the like. Further, even when using a portable measurement instrument, people have to manage data by themselves, thus health data cannot be managed rapidly. According to the invention, a modulating circuit, a demodulating circuit, a logic circuit, a sensor circuit, and an antenna circuit are provided over an insulating substrate, thereby data sensed by the sensor circuit is transmitted wirelessly. According to the invention, health data on the living body (for example a human body) is sensed and can be rapidly detected.
US09450289B2	Electronic device with dual clutch barrel cavity antennas An electronic device has antennas formed from cavity antenna structures. The electronic device may have a metal housing. The metal housing may have an upper housing in which a component such as a display is mounted and a lower housing in which a component such as a keyboard is mounted. Hinges may be used to mount the upper housing to the lower housing for rotation about a rotational axis. Cavity antennas may be formed in a clutch barrel region located between the hinges and running along the rotational axis. A flexible printed circuit may be formed between the cavity antennas. Each cavity antenna may have a first end that is adjacent to one of the hinges and a second end that is adjacent to the flexible printed circuit. Cavity walls for the cavity antennas may be formed from metal housing structures such as metal portions of the lower housing.
US09450282B2	Connection structure between a waveguide and a substrate, where the substrate has an opening larger than a waveguide opening Provided are a new connection structure connecting a high frequency circuit and a waveguide which allows a substrate opening size to be made common without causing deterioration of a transmission line conversion characteristic, and a manufacturing method of the connection structure.The connection structure includes a module substrate (1) on which the high frequency circuit (11) is mounted and a transmission line conversion means (9, 7) is provided between the high frequency circuit and the waveguide (3), a waveguide conductor (8) in which the waveguide is formed, and a mother substrate (2) which is provided on the waveguide conductor and includes an opening having a size larger than an opening size (d) of the waveguide, and the module substrate is fixed to the mother substrate so as to cover the opening of the mother substrate and a choke is formed utilizing a space among the module substrate, the mother substrate, and the waveguide conductor.
US09450281B2	Transit structure of waveguide and SIW A transit structure of a waveguide and a SIW is provided. According to the present invention, a SIW and a waveguide are directly connected so that when a signal is transited with a reduced loss and a signal is transmitted while satisfying a frequency band width required for an automotive radar. Further, signal transmission characteristic at every frequency in a bandwidth may be uniformly maintained. Further, an additional dielectric substrate is not required so that a reduced size, a reduced weight, and a reduced cost may be achieved and a process of bonding different substrates is not required.
US09450275B2	Polymerized lithium ion battery cells and modules with overmolded heat sinks A lithium ion (Li-ion) battery cell includes a prismatic housing that includes four sides formed by side walls coupled to and extending from a bottom portion of the housing. The housing is configured to receive and hold a prismatic Li-ion electrochemical cell element. The housing includes an electrically nonconductive polymeric (e.g., plastic) material. Additionally, a heat sink is overmolded by the polymeric material of the housing, such that the heat sink is retained in an outer portion of the sides of the housing and the heat sink is exposed along the bottom portion of the housing.
US09450272B2	Small domain-size multiblock copolymer electrolytes New block polymer electrolytes have been developed which have higher conductivities than previously reported for other block copolymer electrolytes. The new materials are constructed of multiple blocks (>5) of relatively low domain size. The small domain size provides greater protection against formation of dendrites during cycling against lithium in an electrochemical cell, while the large total molecular weight insures poor long range alignment, which leads to higher conductivity. In addition to higher conductivity, these materials can be more easily synthesized because of reduced requirements on the purity level of the reagents.
US09450258B2	Hydrogen concentration control device and method for fuel cell system Disclosed is a device and method for controlling hydrogen concentration of a fuel cell system to maintain the concentration of hydrogen of an anode at a proper level in accordance with the concentration supplied to a fuel cell. More specifically, a hydrogen concentration measuring sensor is directly provided in a hydrogen storage device, the hydrogen concentration and the impurity concentration in an anode channel of the fuel cell system are estimated based on a measured hydrogen concentration, and when it is determined that the hydrogen concentration in the anode channel falls under a reference value at which the fuel cell system can be stably operated, purge control for discharging the gases (hydrogen and impurities) in the anode channel to the outside is performed, so that the hydrogen concentration in the anode channel of the fuel cell system can be maintained equal to or higher than the reference value.
US09450255B2	Excess coolant fluid feed to fuel cell stacks A fuel cell stack assembly has a plurality of fuel cells each having a fluid coolant conduit. A coolant feed inlet manifold has a coolant inlet, and the coolant feed inlet manifold is coupled to each fluid coolant conduit for distribution of coolant to each fuel cell. The coolant feed inlet manifold also has a discharge conduit located at one end of the coolant feed inlet manifold. The discharge conduit is configured to discharge excess coolant from the coolant feed inlet manifold. By supplying excess coolant to the coolant feed inlet manifold problems arising due to very low coolant flow rates through the fluid coolant conduits in the fuel cells can be reduced or eliminated.
US09450254B2	Gas diffusion layer for fuel cell vehicle with improved operational stability The present invention provides a gas diffusion layer for a fuel cell vehicle with improved operational stability, the gas diffusion layer, which functions to supply hydrogen and air (oxygen) as reactant gases to a fuel cell stack, discharge product water generated by an electrochemical reaction, and transmit generated electricity, being formed with a thinned structure.For this purpose, the present invention provides a gas diffusion layer for a fuel cell vehicle with improved operational stability, the gas diffusion layer being formed with a dual layer structure including a microporous layer and a macroporous substrate, the macroporous substrate being formed of a material selected from the group consisting of carbon fiber felt and carbon fiber paper, the gas diffusion layer being thinned to have a thickness of 200 to 300 μm at 25 kPa and a thickness of 170 to 250 μm at 1 MPa, a density of 0.20 to 0.60 g/cm3 at 25 kPa, a porosity of 50 to 90% measured by mercury intrusion, and a through-plane electrical resistance of 30 mΩ·cm2 or lower measured at a clamping pressure of 1 MPa.
US09450252B2	Insulating structure, fuel cell and fuel cell stack This insulating structure is for a fuel cell stack or a fuel cell of the fuel cell stack. The fuel cell stack includes a membrane electrode assembly with a peripheral frame and a pair of separators that hold the frame and the membrane electrode assembly in between and is formed by stacking a plurality of sets of the membrane electrode assembly and the pair of separators. The insulating structure includes: a coupling member disposed on at least a part of an outer periphery of the fuel cell stack or the fuel cell; and a projection formed on the coupling member in an area surrounded by the pair of separators and the frame.
US09450251B2	Method of manufacturing fuel cell anode Disclosed is a method of manufacturing an anode for a fuel cell. The method includes: synthesizing a fuel cell catalyst used to oxidize a fuel for the anode in an electrochemical manner; forming an electrode for the anode by use of the synthesized fuel cell catalyst; and synthesizing an electrolysis catalyst, which is used to electrolyze water, on the electrode as the electrolysis catalyst is loaded into the anode. By introducing the electrolysis catalyst on the fuel cell electrode that has already been formed, deformation of the structure of the electrode is minimized and performance of the electrode is improved.
US09450244B2	Cathode active material with zirconium in crystal grain boundary of lithium cobalt complex oxide A battery capable of improving load characteristics, low-temperature characteristics and high-temperature cycle characteristics is provided. A cathode (13) includes a lithium cobalt complex oxide represented by LiaCoxMIyMIIzO2 (MI includes at least one kind selected from the group consisting of Al, Cr, V, Mn and Fe, MII includes at least one kind selected from the group consisting of Mg and Ca, 0.9≦a≦1.1, 0.9≦x<1, 0.001≦y≦0.05, 0.001≦z≦0.05, x+y+z=1), and further includes Zr as a sub-component element. The content of Zr is within a range from 0.01 mol % to 10 mol % both inclusive as a ratio (Zr/Co) of Zr to Co in the lithium cobalt complex oxide.
US09450237B2	Positive electrode active material for non-aqueous secondary battery and method of manufacturing thereof A positive electrode active material for non-aqueous secondary battery includes core particles containing a lithium transition metal composite oxide, and a covering layer covering, that covers a surface of the core particle. The covering layer contains niobium and carbonate ions, and the carbonate ions are present at a concentration of from 0.2 weight % to 0.4 weight %. The positive electrode active material for non-aqueous secondary battery exhibits infrared absorption peaks at a wavenumber range of from 1320 cm−1 to 1370 cm−1, and at a wavenumber range of from 1640 cm−1 to 1710 cm−1.
US09450234B2	Voltage cycling method for lithium ion battery comprising sulfur polymer composite in active material A method for cycling a sulfur composite lithium ion battery includes a step of charging and discharging the sulfur composite lithium ion battery at a first voltage range between a predetermined highest voltage and a predetermined lowest voltage. The lithium ion battery includes an electrode active material. The electrode active material includes a sulfur composite. The step of charging and discharging satisfies at least one conditions of (1) and (2): (1) the predetermined lowest voltage of the first voltage range is larger than a discharge cutoff voltage of the sulfur composite; and (2) the predetermined highest voltage of the first voltage range is smaller than a charge cutoff voltage of the sulfur composite. A method for using a sulfur composite as an electrode active material of a lithium ion battery is also disclosed.
US09450233B2	Battery comprising a coated iron anode The present invention provides one with a battery having an iron anode, e.g., a Ni—Fe battery, having improved performance characteristics. The battery uses a particular electrolyte and/or battery separator. The resulting characteristics of efficiency, charge retention and cycle life are much improved over such batteries in the prior art.
US09450231B2	Method for preparing a positive electrode material through extrusion in presence of an aqueous solvent, positive electrode obtained through said method, and uses thereof The present invention relates to a method for preparing a positive electrode that is made up of a composite material containing at least one active positive electrode made of iron and phosphate and at least one water-soluble polymer having ionic conduction properties in the presence of a lithium salt, said method comprising at least one step for mixing ingredients of the composite material through extrusion so as to obtain an extruded composite material and wherein said extrusion step is carried out by means of a co-kneader or extruder in the presence of an aqueous solvent and at a temperature from 20° to 95° C. The invention also relates to the positive electrode obtained according to said method, to the use of said electrode for manufacturing a lithium battery, and to the lithium battery having such electrode built therein. The electrode is particularly characterized in that it contains a level of active material greater than 60 wt %.
US09450226B2	Battery pack interconnection system A battery pack assembly has a plurality of interconnected battery cells and is suitable for use in an electric vehicle or a hybrid electric vehicle. The assembly includes a first battery cell having a first terminal and a second battery cell having a second terminal electrically interconnected by a bus bar formed of a conductive material and attached to the first terminal and the second terminal. A bus bar retainer formed of a dielectric material is configured to contain the bus bar within the bus bar retainer. The bus bar has a greater freedom of movement within the bus bar retainer along a first, e.g. vertical, axis than along a second, e.g. longitudinal, axis and a third, e.g. lateral axis, wherein both the second and third axes are substantially perpendicular to the first axis and to each other. The assembly may also include individually removable temperature sensing devices.
US09450224B2	Sodium iron(II)-hexacyanoferrate(II) battery electrode and synthesis method A method is provided for synthesizing sodium iron(II)-hexacyanoferrate(II). A Fe(CN)6 material is mixed with the first solution and either an anti-oxidant or a reducing agent. The Fe(CN)6 material may be either ferrocyanide ([Fe(CN)6]4−) or ferricyanide ([Fe(CN)6]3−). As a result, sodium iron(II)-hexacyanoferrate(II) (Na1+XFe[Fe(CN)6]Z.MH2O is formed, where X is less than or equal to 1, and where M is in a range between 0 and 7. In one aspect, the first solution including includes A ions, such as alkali metal ions, alkaline earth metal ions, or combinations thereof, resulting in the formation of Na1+XAYFe[Fe(CN)6]Z.MH2O, where Y is less than or equal to 1. Also provided are a Na1+XFe[Fe(CN)6]Z.MH2O battery and Na1+XFe[Fe(CN)6]Z.MH2O battery electrode.
US09450220B2	Electric energy storage and supply system An electric energy storage and supply system comprising a tank capable of accommodating a plurality of battery units where each battery unit comprises an electric energy reservoir having positive and negative voltage supply terminals, three or more electric contact pads on an outer surface of the battery unit, and a dynamically configurable connection unit for electrically connecting each of said positive and negative voltage supply terminals to any one or more of said electric contact pads, wherein electric energy can be drawn from the electric energy reservoir via selectively different combinations of electric contact pads. The system further comprises at least two inwardly facing tank contact pads provided on the inside of the tank for contacting electric contact pads of neighboring battery units and for delivering electrical energy from the system towards an external load.
US09450217B2	Pouch battery and manufacturing method thereof A pouch battery including an electrode assembly, and a pouch case comprising a receiving part accommodating the electrode assembly, wherein corners or vertices of the receiving part are coated with a UV curing agent.
US09450215B2	Outer casing material for battery and lithium secondary battery An outer casing material for a battery is provided which is constituted by laminating an outer layer that includes a heat-resistant resin film, a metal foil layer, and an inner layer that includes a thermoplastic resin film, wherein a melt flow rate of the inner layer is in a range of greater than or equal to 1 and less than 10.
US09450206B2	Organic light-emitting apparatus and method of manufacturing the same An organic light-emitting apparatus including: a substrate; an organic light-emitting device disposed on the substrate and including a first electrode, a second electrode, and an intermediate layer disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode; and an encapsulation layer provided to cover the organic light-emitting device. The encapsulation layer includes a first inorganic layer including a first fracture point, and a first fracture control layer provided on the first inorganic layer to seal the first fracture point.
US09450205B2	Opto-electric device and method for manufacturing the same An opto-electric device includes an opto-electric layer structure having an anode and a cathode layer and an opto-electric layer arranged between the anode and cathode layers, and having a light-transmission side. A dual electrically conductive layer structure is arranged at a side of the opto-electric layer structure opposite the light-transmission side, the dual electrically conductive layer structure having a first and a second electrically conductive layer mutually insulated by a first electrically insulating layer. A second electrically insulating layer is arranged between the light emitting layer structure and the dual electrically conductive layer structure, wherein the first electrically conductive layer is electrically connected by at least a first transverse electrical conductor with the anode layer and the second electrically conductive layer is electrically connected by at least a second transverse electrical conductor with the cathode layer.
US09450200B2	Organic light emitting diode An organic light emitting diode includes a first electrode including a first electrode including a reflective metal layer formed of a light-reflective metal, an upper transparent conductive layer positioned on the reflective metal layer, and a protective layer positioned on the upper transparent conductive layer; an organic emission layer positioned on the first electrode; and a second electrode positioned on the organic emission layer, wherein the upper transparent conductive layer is amorphous.
US09450198B2	Organic electroluminescent materials and devices An OLED includes a suppression mechanism and multiple dopants in its organic emissive layer. The organic emissive layer includes a host, a first compound capable of phosphorescent emission at room temperature, and a second compound capable of phosphorescent emission at room temperature. The suppression mechanism is capable of preferentially reducing the emission of light emitted by the second compound. The organic emissive layer may also contain a third compound capable of phosphorescent emission at room temperature.
US09450194B2	Heteroarene derivative and organic electroluminescence device using the same A heteroarene derivative including a nitrogen-boron coordinate bond, represented by the following formula (1). In the formula (1). Z1 is a group represented by the following formula (2); Z2 is a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group including 6 to 30 ring carbon atoms or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group including 5 to 30 ring atoms; L is a substituted or unsubstituted arylene including 6 to 30 ring carbon atoms, a substituted or unsubstituted heteroarylene including 5 to 30 ring atoms, —O—, —S—, —(CR2R3)n— (wherein n is an integer of 1 to 8).
US09450191B2	Thieno[2,3-C]Pyrrole-dione derivatives and their use for organic semiconductors Compounds of formulae (I) and (II) useful as organic semiconductor materials, and semiconductor devices containing such organic semiconductor materials are described.
US09450187B2	Process of surface modification of dielectric structures in organic electronic devices to increase surface energy The invention relates to a process of modifying the surface energy of dielectric structures, like for example dielectric layers or bank structures, in organic electronic (OE) devices, more specifically in organic field effect transistors (OFETs).
US09450185B2	Thin-film deposition mask, method of fabricating the same, and method of fabricating an organic light emitting display apparatus using the same A thin-film deposition mask includes a mask body, the mask body having a first surface and a second surface that is an opposite surface of the first surface, the mask body having a plurality of deposition holes therein, and a spacer near the deposition holes, the spacer protruding from the first surface of the mask body in a vertical direction.
US09450181B2	Semiconductor memory and method of manufacturing the same A semiconductor memory includes a plurality of stripe-like active areas formed by stacking, in a direction perpendicular to a substrate, a plurality of layers extending parallel to the substrate, a first gate electrode formed on first side surfaces of the active areas, the first side surfaces being perpendicular to the substrate, a second gate electrode formed on second side surfaces of the active areas, the second side surfaces being perpendicular to the substrate. The layers are patterned in self-alignment with each other, intersections of the active areas and the first gate electrode form a plurality of memory cells, and the plurality of memory cells in an intersecting plane share the first gate electrode.
US09450179B2	Spin torque transfer MRAM device formed on silicon stud grown by selective epitaxy A technique relates magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM). A dielectric layer is disposed on a transistor, and the transistor is formed in a uniform crystalline substrate. A hole is formed through the dielectric layer to reach the transistor. A polycrystalline material is disposed in the hole by using selective epitaxial growth (SEG), and the polycrystalline material is annealed to create an epitaxial stud. A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) is disposed on the epitaxial stud.
US09450172B2	Electromechanical effect in metal oxides This invention provides an electromechanical device comprising an active material comprising a metal oxide such as Ce0.8Gd0.2O1.9 wherein the elastic modulus of metal oxide can be modulated by applying external electric field. The Ce0.8Gd0.2O1.9 layer in a substrate\electrode\Ce0.8Gd0.2O1.9\electrode structure or conductive substrate\Ce0.8Gd0.2O1.9\electrode structure develops a stress upon applying an electric field. This invention provides methods for tailoring the elastic modulus of materials using an electric field for the generation of an electromechanical response.
US09450171B2	Thin film piezoelectric element and manufacturing method thereof, micro-actuator, head gimbal assembly and disk drive unit with the same A thin film piezoelectric element of the present invention includes a substrate and a piezoelectric thin film stack formed on the substrate. The piezoelectric thin film stack includes a top electrode layer, a bottom electrode layer and a piezoelectric layer sandwiched between the top electrode layer and the bottom electrode layer, wherein the piezoelectric layer includes a first piezoelectric layer and a second piezoelectric layer whose compositions have different phase structures. The present invention can obtain high piezoelectric constants, enhanced coercive field strength and good thermal stability, thereby enabling larger applied field strength without depolarization and achieving a large stroke for its applied device.
US09450165B1	Apparatus and method for production of untwinned YBCO films A method for manufacturing untwinned YBCO film can include the initial the step of depositing YBCO film on a substrate having a first end and second end. A temperature gradient can be established from the first end to the second end, which can establish an oxygen gradient in the YBCO film. A uniaxial pressure can further be established the film, in the same direction as the temperature gradient, form the first end to the second end. When the uniaxial pressure is established simultaneously with the temperature gradient, the result can be an untwinned YBCO film.
US09450163B1	Surface mount device with stress mitigation measures An SMD includes a substrate and one or more electrical contacts on a first surface of the substrate. Each one of the electrical contacts are configured to couple to a corresponding electrical contact located on a surface of a carrier, and are located within a concentric area of the first surface that is less than about 50% of a total area of the first surface. By providing the electrical contacts within the concentric area, the mechanical stress experienced by the electrical contacts can be significantly reduced when compared to conventional SMDs including electrical contacts on the outer edges thereof. Accordingly, the failure rate of the SMD due to separation of one or more of the electrical contacts from the carrier may be reduced.
US09450153B2	Light emitting diode and method of manufacturing the same Disclosed herein are a light emitting diode including a plurality of protrusions including zinc oxide and a method for manufacturing the same. According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the light emitting diode includes: a substrate; a nitride light emitting structure disposed on the substrate; and a transparent electrode layer disposed on the nitride light emitting structure, wherein the transparent electrode layer includes a plurality of protrusions, the plurality of protrusions each have a lower portion and an upper portion, and a side of the lower portion and a side of the upper portion have different gradients.
US09450152B2	Solid state transducer dies having reflective features over contacts and associated systems and methods Systems and methods for improved light emitting efficiency of a solid state transducer (SST), for example light emitting diodes (LED), are disclosed. One embodiment of an SST die in accordance with the technology includes a reflective material disposed over electrical connectors on a front side of the die. The reflective material has a higher reflectivity than a base material of the connectors such that light traveling toward the connectors reflects back out of the device.
US09450141B2	Method for separating growth substrate, method for light-emitting diode, and light-emitting diode manufactured using methods Disclosed are a method for separating a growth substrate, a method for manufacturing a light-emitting diode, and the light-emitting diode. The method for separating a growth substrate, according to one embodiment, comprises: preparing a growth substrate; forming a sacrificial layer and a mask pattern on the growth substrate; etching the sacrificial layer by using electrochemical etching (ECE); covering the mask pattern, and forming a plurality of nitride semiconductor stacking structures which are separated from each other by an element separation area; attaching a support substrate to the plurality of semiconductor stacking structures, wherein the support substrate has a plurality of through-holes connected to the element separation area; and separating the growth substrate from the nitride semiconductor stacking structures.
US09450137B2	Apparatus and method for mounting contact wires on solar cell wafers A device and a method for fitting solar cell contact wires providing a series connection, and which run continuously in a string direction to join a front solar cell wafer and a rear solar cell wafer.The device includes a wire-laying mechanism having a wire feed gripper, a wire transport gripper movable in the string direction relative to the wire feed gripper, a wire-holding gripper to grip and hold the contact wires behind the wafer-holding position for the rear solar cell wafer, and a wire cutter. Once a front solar cell wafer has been positioned, the contact wires are transferred from the wire feed gripper to the wire transport gripper, are advanced in the string direction over the wafer-holding position, are gripped and held by the wire-holding gripper, and are then cut behind the wire-holding gripper by the wire cutter.
US09450136B2	Electrodeposition of thin-film cells containing non-toxic elements A structure and method of making a thin-film solar cell is provided. A thin-film solar cell includes a substrate, absorber layer and a buffer layer. The absorber layer is deposited by a single-step bulk electrochemical process, or a multi-layer electrochemical process. The buffer layer is deposited by an electrochemical deposition process such as a multi-layer deposition or an atomic layer deposition. The absorber and buffer layers are non-toxic materials which can include sulfur incorporated during the deposition process or incorporated after deposition by an anneal step.
US09450132B2	Photoelectric conversion device and manufacturing method thereof An object is to increase conversion efficiency of a photoelectric conversion device without increase in the manufacturing steps. The photoelectric conversion device includes a first semiconductor layer formed using a single crystal semiconductor having one conductivity type which is formed over a supporting substrate, a buffer layer including a single crystal region and an amorphous region, a second semiconductor layer which includes a single crystal region and an amorphous region and is provided over the butler layer, and a third semiconductor layer having a conductivity type opposite to the one conductivity type, which is provided over the second semiconductor layer. A proportion of the single crystal region is higher than that of the amorphous region on the first semiconductor layer side in the second semiconductor layer, and the proportion of the amorphous region is higher than that of the single crystal region on the third semiconductor layer side.
US09450130B2	Frame-mounted wire management device A wire management device is disclosed. The device comprises a clip comprising an upper planar member and a lower planar member, each planar member having an inner and outer surface, wherein the inner surface of the upper planar member includes a post extending toward the inner surface of the lower planar member, a stem extending from the outer surface of the lower planar member, the stem including two outwardly-extending flanges, each of the first and second outwardly-extending flanges including an edge portion extending toward the outer surface of the lower planar member, and a transverse passage extending along the outer surface of the lower planar member, the transverse passage extending across the stem, wherein the stem has a recessed portion along the transverse passage.
US09450129B2	Multilayer sheet, back sheet for solar cells and solar cell module Provided are a multilayer sheet superior in weather resistance, heat resistance, and moisture proofness and also favorable in interlayer adhesiveness, and a back sheet for solar cells and a solar cell module prepared by using the same. The multilayer sheet 10 is prepared by laminating a polyolefin-based resin layer 1 having a melt flow rate, as determined by the method A specified in JIS K7210, of 0.5 to 25 g/10 minutes at 230° C. under a load of 2.16 kg and a polyvinylidene fluoride-based resin layer 2 having a melt flow rate, as determined by the method A specified in JIS K7210, of 0.5 to 25 g/10 minutes at 230° C. under a load of 2.16 kg, via an adhesion resin layer 3 of a conjugated diene-based polymer, a conjugated diene-based copolymer, or the hydride thereof having a melt flow rate, as determined by the method A specified in JIS K7210, of 0.1 to 50 g/10 minutes at 230° C. under a load of 2.16 kg. A back sheet prepared by using the multilayer sheet 10 is layered on a sealing material of a solar cell, to give a solar cell module.
US09450127B2	Photovoltaic module comprising insulation layer with silane groups The present invention relates to a photovoltaic module comprising a solar cell element and an insulation material laminated to at least one side of the solar cell element wherein the insulation material comprises an olefin copolymer which comprises silane group-containing monomer units, to a process for the production of such a photovoltaic module, and to the use of an olefin copolymer which comprises silane group-containing monomer units for the production of an insulation layer of a photovoltaic module.
US09450126B1	Solar cell module A solar cell module including a substrate and solar cells mounted on the substrate, the substrate including a base layer, a first insulation layer positioned over the base layer, a second insulation layer positioned over the first insulation layer and defining a surface, a first bus bar layer positioned between the first and second insulation layers, the first bus bar layer including at least one bus bar extending across the substrate, and a second bus bar layer positioned over the second insulation layer, the second bus bar layer including bus bars, wherein the solar cells are mounted on the surface and are electrically interconnected by the bus bars of the second bus bar layer.
US09450125B2	Stretchable substrate, stretchable photovoltaic apparatus, and stretchable device A stretchable photovoltaic apparatus according to the present invention includes: a stretchable substrate including islands protruded from a base such that the islands are separated by a trench, and a notch formed in an edge of each of the islands; a photovoltaic cell mounted on the stretchable substrate; and an interconnector of which at least a portion is positioned inside the notch, the interconnector electrically connecting the neighboring photovoltaic cells in one pair. According to the present invention, a semiconductor device may be configured in the form of a stretchable array. Therefore, the present invention is expected to be applied to various industrial fields such as a solar cell field, a display field, a semiconductor device field, a medical field, a clothing field, a measurement field, and a filming field.
US09450122B2	Lateral type photodiode, image sensor including the same, and method of manufacturing the photodiode and the image sensor Example embodiments relate to a lateral type photodiode including a substrate, an insulation mask layer formed on the substrate, and a first type semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second type semiconductor layer that contact a surface of the insulation mask layer and that are sequentially disposed in a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the insulation mask layer. The insulation mask layer includes a through hole, and the first type semiconductor layer, the active layer, and the second type semiconductor layer are sequentially formed from the through hole by using a lateral overgrowth method.
US09450119B2	Bibenzo[B]furan compound, photoelectric conversion material, and photoelectric conversion element Disclosed is a p-type organic semiconductive material that is easy to produce and that has a high planarity in its polymer skeleton, and also provides a photoelectric conversion material, a photoelectric conversion layer, a photoelectric conversion element, and an organic thin film solar cell each having high photoelectric conversion efficiency and using the p-type organic semiconductive material. Specifically, the invention provides a bibenzo[b]furan compound having at least one constitutional unit represented by the following formula (1) or (2), as well as a photoelectric conversion material, a photoelectric conversion layer, a photoelectric conversion element, and an organic thin film solar cell each using that compound for a p-type organic semiconductive material. (In the formulae, R13 and R14 each represent a hydrogen atom, a fluorine atom, a chlorine atom, a bromine atom, an iodine atom, an optionally substituted hydrocarbon group, an optionally substituted hydrocarbonoxy group, or an optionally substituted heterocyclic group.)
US09450117B2	Optoelectronic device having surface periodic grating structure The present invention provides a optoelectronic device having a surface periodic grating structure and a manufacturing method thereof, which includes: a substrate; a multi-layer semiconductor structure layer formed on the substrate; and a periodic grating structure layer embedded in the multi-layer semiconductor structure layer by etching based on optimized parameters. A direction of an incident light to the optoelectronic device is changed to be resonant to the multi-layer semiconductor structure layer to enhance optoelectricity of the optoelectronic device. The method includes: (1) providing a substrate; (2) forming a multi-layer semiconductor structure layer on the substrate; (3) selecting parameters to perform a design for a periodic grating structure layer on a surface of the multi-layer semiconductor structure layer; and (4) forming the periodic grating structure layer embedded in the multi-layer semiconductor structure layer by etching.
US09450108B2	Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device provided with charge storage layer in memory cell A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes a semiconductor portion, a first oxygen-containing portion provided on the semiconductor portion, a silicon-containing portion provided on the first oxygen-containing portion, a first film provided on the silicon-containing portion and including a lamination of a first portion containing silicon and oxygen and a second portion containing silicon and nitrogen, a first high dielectric insulating portion provided on the first film and having an oxide-containing yttrium, hafnium or aluminum, a second oxygen-containing portion provided on the first high dielectric insulating portion, a second high dielectric insulating portion provided on the second oxygen-containing insulating portion and having an oxide-containing yttrium, hafnium or aluminum, a third oxygen-containing portion provided on the second high dielectric insulating portion, and a second film provided on the third oxygen-containing portion.
US09450106B2	Thin film transistor of display apparatus Disclosed is a thin film transistor (TFT) of a display apparatus which reduces a leakage current caused by a hump and decreases screen defects. The TFT includes an active layer and a first gate electrode with a gate insulator therebetween, and a source electrode and a drain electrode respectively disposed at both ends of the active layer. The gate electrode branches as a plurality of lines and overlaps the active layer. The active layer includes one or more channel areas between the source electrode and the drain electrode, one or more dummy areas, and a plurality of link areas between the one or more channel areas to connect the one or more channel areas in one pattern. A length of each of the one or more dummy areas extends from an edge of a corresponding channel area.
US09450103B2	Thin film transistor, method for manufacturing the same, display device and electronic product A thin film transistor (TFT) according to the present disclosure may include an active layer, an etch stop layer (ESL), a source electrode and a drain electrode. The active layer may include at least one first active portion, a second active portion and a third active portion located on both sides of the first active portion and connected to the first active portion. The at least one first active portion may be overlaid by the ESL, and a longitudinal width of the at least one first active portion may be less than those/that of the second active portion and/or the third active portion. The second active portion and the third active portion may be overlaid by a horizontally-extending portion of the ESL on the first active portion. A side wing contact may be formed between the second active portion and one electrode of the source electrode and the drain electrode, and/or a side wing contact may be formed between the third active portion and the other electrode of the source electrode and the drain electrode.
US09450093B2	Semiconductor device structure and manufacturing method thereof Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including receiving a FinFET precursor including a fin structure formed between isolation regions, and a gate structure formed over a portion of the fin structure such that a sidewall of the fin structure is in contact with a gate spacer of the gate structure; patterning the fin structure to comprise a pattern of at least one upward step rising from the isolation region; forming a capping layer over the fin structure, the isolation region, and the gate structure; performing an annealing process on the FinFET precursor to form at least two dislocations along the upward step; and removing the capping layer.
US09450089B2	Semiconductor device A decrease in resistance against an abnormal current of a semiconductor device is suppressed. A first transistor is sandwiched between two second transistors (a first one and a second one of the second transistors) in a second direction. Both of a distance between a second source contact and a second drain contact that are coupled to the one second transistor, and a distance between a second source contact and a second drain contact that are coupled to the other second transistor are larger than a distance between a second source contact and a second drain contact that are coupled to a third one of the second transistors located farthest from the first transistor in the second direction.
US09450087B2	Semiconductor device, and manufacturing method for same A semiconductor device has a source region, a channel region, and a drain region disposed in order from the surface of the device in the thickness direction of a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor device includes a source metal embedded in a source contact groove penetrating the source region and reaching the channel region, a gate insulating film formed on the side wall of a gate trench that is formed so as to penetrate the source region and the channel and reach the drain region, a polysilicon gate embedded in the gate trench so that at least a region facing the channel region in the gate insulating film is covered with the polysilicon gate and so that all of the polysilicon gate is placed under a surface of the source region, and a gate metal that is embedded in a gate contact groove formed in the polysilicon gate so as to reach the depth of the channel region and that is in contact with the polysilicon gate.
US09450085B2	Semiconductor device and method for producing a semiconductor device A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate having first regions of a first conductivity type and body regions of the first conductivity type, which are arranged in a manner adjoining the first region and overlap the latter in each case on a side of the first region which faces a first surface of the semiconductor substrate, and having a multiplicity of drift zone regions arranged between the first regions and composed of a semiconductor material of a second conductivity type, which is different than the first conductivity type. The first regions and the drift zone regions are arranged alternately and form a superjunction structure. The semiconductor device further includes a gate electrode formed in a trench in the semiconductor substrate.
US09450083B2	High voltage field balance metal oxide field effect transistor (FBM) A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type. A first conductivity type epitaxial layer disposed on a top surface of the substrate includes a surface shielded region above a less heavily doped voltage blocking region. A body region of a second conductivity type opposite the first conductivity type is disposed near a top surface of the surface shielded region. A first conductivity type source region is disposed near the top surface inside the body region. A drain is disposed at a bottom surface of the substrate. A gate overlaps portions of the source and body regions. Gate insulation separates the gate from the source and body regions. First and second trenches formed in the surface shielded region are lined with trench insulation material and filled with electrically conductive trench filling material. Second conductivity type buried doped regions are positioned below the first and second trenches, respectively.
US09450076B2	Power LDMOS semiconductor device with reduced on-resistance and manufacturing method thereof An electronic semiconductor device including a semiconductor body having a first structural region and a second structural region, which extends on the first structural region and houses a drain region; a body region, which extends into the second structural region; a source region, which extends into the body region; and a gate electrode, which extends over the semiconductor body for generating a conductive channel between the source region and the drain region. The device includes a first conductive trench extending through, and electrically insulated from, the second structural region on one side of the gate electrode; and a second conductive trench extending through the source region, the body region, and right through the second structural region on an opposite side of the gate electrode, electrically insulated from the second structural region and electrically coupled to the body region and to the source region.
US09450072B2	Replacement gate structure for enhancing conductivity After formation of a gate cavity straddling at least one semiconductor material portion, a gate dielectric layer and at least one work function material layer is formed over the gate dielectric layer. The at least one work function material layer and the gate dielectric layer are patterned such that remaining portions of the at least one work function material layer are present only in proximity to the at least one semiconductor material portion. A conductive material having a greater conductivity than the at least one work function material layer is deposited in remaining portions of the gate cavity. The conductive material portion within a replacement gate structure has the full width of the replacement gate structure in regions from which the at least one work function material layer and the gate dielectric layer are removed.
US09450069B2	Silicon germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor structure and method Disclosed is an improved semiconductor structure (e.g., a silicon germanium (SiGe) hetero-junction bipolar transistor) having a narrow essentially interstitial-free SIC pedestal with minimal overlap of the extrinsic base. Also, disclosed is a method of forming the transistor which uses laser annealing, as opposed to rapid thermal annealing, of the SIC pedestal to produce both a narrow SIC pedestal and an essentially interstitial-free collector. Thus, the resulting SiGe HBT transistor can be produced with narrower base and collector space-charge regions than can be achieved with conventional technology.
US09450065B2	Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and method for manufacturing same According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes a first stacked structure body, a first semiconductor layer, a first organic film, a first semiconductor-side insulating film, and a first electrode-side insulating film. The first stacked structure body includes a plurality of first electrode films stacked along a first direction and a first inter-electrode insulating film provided between the first electrode films. The first semiconductor layer is opposed to side faces of the first electrode films. The first organic film is provided between the side faces of the first electrode films and the first semiconductor layer and containing an organic compound. The first semiconductor-side insulating film is provided between the first organic film and the first semiconductor layer. The first electrode-side insulating film provided between the first organic film and the side faces of the first electrode films.
US09450064B1	Semiconductor element, method for fabricating the same, and semiconductor device including the same A semiconductor element includes: a substrate; a gate dielectric layer formed over the substrate; a flat band voltage adjusting layer formed over the gate dielectric layer; and an intermediate layer formed between the gate dielectric layer and the flat band voltage adjusting layer. A negative flat band voltage generated at the intermediate layer and a positive flat band voltage generated between the substrate and the gate dielectric layer may offset each other.
US09450062B2	Semiconductor device having polysilicon plugs with silicide crystallites A semiconductor device includes a field effect transistor structure having source zones of a first conductivity type and body zones of a second conductivity type which is the opposite of the first conductivity type, the source zones adjoining a first surface of a semiconductor die comprising the source and the body zones. The semiconductor device further includes a dielectric layer adjoining the first surface and polysilicon plugs extending through openings in the dielectric layer and electrically connected to the source and the body zones. The polysilicon plugs have silicide crystallites in portions distant to the semiconductor die.
US09450059B2	Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same According to one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate with a groove for forming an embedded gate therein, and a gate electrode embedded via a gate insulator film in the groove. A portion of the semiconductor substrate near the gate electrode is doped with a chemical element which is inactive in the semiconductor substrate.
US09450056B2	Lateral DMOS device with dummy gate An LDMOS transistor with a dummy gate comprises an extended drift region formed over a substrate, a drain region formed in the extended drift region, a channel region formed in the extended drift region, a source region formed in the channel region and a dielectric layer formed over the extended drift region. The LDMOS transistor with a dummy gate further comprises an active gate formed over the channel region and a dummy gate formed over the extended drift region. The dummy gate helps to reduce the gate charge of the LDMOS transistor while maintaining the breakdown voltage of the LDMOS transistor.
US09450054B2	Dislocation in SiC semiconductor substrate A semiconductor substrate has a main surface and formed of single crystal silicon carbide. The main surface includes a central area, which is an area other than the area within 5 mm from the outer circumference. When the central area is divided into square areas of 1 mm×1 mm, in any square area, density of dislocations of which Burgers vector is parallel to <0001> direction is at most 1×105 cm−2. Thus, a silicon carbide semiconductor substrate enabling improved yield of semiconductor devices can be provided.
US09450046B2	Semiconductor structure with fin structure and wire structure and method for forming the same A semiconductor structure and a method for forming the same are provided. The semiconductor structure includes a substrate and a fin structure formed over the substrate. The semiconductor structure further includes a first wire structure formed over the fin structure and a source structure and a drain structure formed at two opposite sides of the fin structure. The semiconductor structure further includes a gate structure formed over the fin structure. In addition, the fin structure and the first wire structure are separated by the gate structure.
US09450045B1	Method for forming lateral super-junction structure A fabrication method to form a lateral superjunction structure in a semiconductor device uses N and P type ion implantations into a base epitaxial layer. In some embodiments, the base epitaxial layer is an intrinsic epitaxial layer or a lightly doped epitaxial layer. The method performs simultaneous N and P type ion implantations into the base epitaxial layer. The epitaxial and implantation processes are repeated successively to form multiple implanted base epitaxial layers on a semiconductor base layer. After the desired number of implanted base epitaxial layers is formed, the semiconductor structure is subjected to annealing to form a lateral superjunction structure including alternate N and P type thin semiconductor regions. In particular, the alternating N and P type thin superjunction layers are formed by the ion implantation process and subsequent annealing. The fabrication method of the present invention ensures good charge control in the lateral superjunction structure.
US09450044B2	Guard ring structure and method of forming the same A circuit device includes core circuitry. The circuit device further includes a first set of guard rings having a first dopant type, the first set of guard rings being around a periphery of the core circuitry, the first set of guard rings comprising a first guard ring and a second guard ring. The circuit device further includes a second set of guard rings having a second dopant type, the second dopant type being opposite to the first dopant type, wherein at least one guard ring of the second set of guard rings is around a periphery of at least one guard ring of the first set of guard rings, and the second set of guard rings comprises a third guard ring and a fourth guard ring.
US09450043B2	Methods and devices for fabricating and assembling printable semiconductor elements The invention provides methods and devices for fabricating printable semiconductor elements and assembling printable semiconductor elements onto substrate surfaces. Methods, devices and device components of the present invention are capable of generating a wide range of flexible electronic and optoelectronic devices and arrays of devices on substrates comprising polymeric materials. The present invention also provides stretchable semiconductor structures and stretchable electronic devices capable of good performance in stretched configurations.
US09450041B2	Stackable high-density metal-oxide-metal capacitor with minimum top plate parasitic capacitance A system including first and second plurality of conductors stacked along a first axis on a substrate. The first axis is perpendicular to a plane on which the substrate lies. In the first and second plurality of conductors, each conductor is connected to an adjacent conductor by one or more first vias arranged along the first axis. The first and second plurality of conductors are arranged in parallel along a second axis (i) perpendicular to the first axis and (ii) parallel to the plane on which the substrate lies. The first plurality of conductors respectively lie on a plurality of planes (i) perpendicular to the first axis and (ii) parallel to the plane on which the substrate lies. The second plurality of conductors respectively lie on the plurality of planes. Capacitances are formed along the plurality of planes between the first plurality of conductors and the second plurality of conductors.
US09450031B2	Display substrate and display device applying the same A display substrate and a display device applying the same are provided. The display substrate includes a base plate and a display structure. The display structure is disposed on the base plate and includes a plurality of display units arranged in an array. The display units have a core region and a peripheral region. The core region includes at least one first sub-pixel and at least one second sub-pixel. The peripheral region includes at least one third sub-pixel and is located outside the core region.
US09450030B2	Active matrix light-emitting device with overlapping electroluminescent layers A light emitting device having high definition, a high aperture ratio, and high reliability is provided. The present invention achieves high definition and a high aperture ratio with a full color flat panel display using red, green, and blue color emission light by intentionally forming laminate portions, wherein portions of different organic compound layers of adjacent light emitting elements overlap with each other, without depending upon the method of forming the organic compound layers or the film formation precision.
US09450028B2	Organic light-emitting device and image display system employing the same The disclosure provides an organic light-emitting device. The organic light-emitting device includes a substrate, and an organic light-emitting pixel array disposed on the substrate. The organic light-emitting pixel array includes a plurality of pixels. Each pixel includes a first sub-pixel and a second sub-pixel. Each sub-pixel includes a first electrode, an organic light-emitting element, a second electrode, and an optical path adjustment layer. The optical path adjustment layer is disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. Particularly, the thickness of the optical path adjustment layer of the first sub-pixel is substantially equal to the thickness of the optical path adjustment layer of the second sub-pixel.
US09450023B1	Vertical bit line non-volatile memory with recessed word lines A three-dimensional (3D) non-volatile memory array is provided having multiple word line layers stacked vertically with interleaving insulating layers over a vertically-oriented thin film transistor (TFT). The vertically-oriented TFT is used as a bit line selection device to couple a global bit line to a vertical bit line formed in a trench between portions of the word line and insulating layer stack. The word line layers are recessed horizontally to form recesses relative to the vertical bit line trench. The horizontal recesses provide spatial separation between memory cell areas and surfaces exposed during process steps. A memory material is formed conformally within the recesses, followed by a thin protective film. The film protects the memory material during etching to expose the vertical TFT for contact to the vertical bit line. Methods of fabricating arrays including recessed memory cell areas are provided.
US09450015B2	Manufacturing method of semiconductor structure A manufacturing method of a semiconductor structure includes the following steps. A patterned photoresist layer is formed on a wafer of the wafer structure. The wafer is etched, such that channels are formed in the wafer, and a protection layer of the wafer structure is exposed through the channels. The protection layer is etched, such that openings aligned with the channels are formed in the protection layer. Landing pads in the protection layer are respectively exposed through the openings and the channels, and the caliber of each of the openings is gradually increased toward the corresponding channel. Side surfaces of the wafer surrounding the channels are etched, such that the channels are expanded to respectively form hollow regions. The caliber of the hollow region is gradually decreased toward the opening, and the caliber of the opening is smaller than that of the hollow region.
US09450014B2	Backside illumination image sensor chips and methods for forming the same A die includes a first plurality of edges, and a semiconductor substrate in the die. The semiconductor substrate includes a first portion including a second plurality of edges misaligned with respective ones of the first plurality of edges. The semiconductor substrate further includes a second portion extending from one of the second plurality of edges to one of the first plurality of edges of the die. The second portion includes a first end connected to the one of the second plurality of edges, and a second end having an edge aligned to the one of the first plurality of edges of the die.
US09449999B2	Semiconductor device and IC card The present invention provides an ID chip or an IC card in which the mechanical strength of an integrated circuit can be enhanced without suppressing a circuit scale. An ID chip or an IC card of the present invention has an integrated circuit in which a TFT (a thin film transistor) is formed from an insulated thin semiconductor film. Further, an ID chip or an IC card of the present invention has a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element each using a non-single-crystal thin film for a layer conducting photoelectric conversion. Such a light-emitting element or a light-receiving element may be formed consecutively to (integrally with) an integrated circuit or may be formed separately and attached to an integrated circuit.
US09449996B2	Semiconductor device To provide a semiconductor device including a capacitor whose charge capacity is increased without reducing the aperture ratio. The semiconductor device includes a transistor including a light-transmitting semiconductor film, a capacitor where a dielectric film is provided between a pair of electrodes, an insulating film provided over the light-transmitting semiconductor film, and a light-transmitting conductive film provided over the insulating film. In the capacitor, a metal oxide film containing at least indium (In) or zinc (Zn) and formed on the same surface as the light-transmitting semiconductor film in the transistor serves as one electrode, the light-transmitting conductive film serves as the other electrode, and the insulating film provided over the light-transmitting semiconductor film serves as the dielectric film.
US09449995B2	Array substrate and manufacturing method thereof, display device An array substrate and manufacturing method thereof and a display device are provided. The array substrate comprises a substrate (10) and a plurality of complementary thin film transistors provided on the substrate (10). The plurality of complementary thin film transistors comprise a first N-type thin film transistor (11) and a second P-type thin film transistor (12), and the first thin film transistor (11) is an oxide thin film transistor and the second thin film transistor (12) is a poly-silicon thin film transistor. The method of manufacturing the array substrate simplifies the manufacturing process and reduces production difficulty and cost.
US09449993B2	Display apparatus A display apparatus includes a substrate having a display area defined in a non rectangular shape, and a non-display area surrounding the display area; an image display portion including a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines and a plurality of pixels prepared on the display area; a display pad portion prepared at one side of the substrate; a plurality of data link lines for connecting the plurality of data lines to the display pad portion; and one or more dummy capacitors prepared in some data link lines among the plurality of data link lines.
US09449991B2	Semiconductor device having circular light-blocking layer An object is to provide a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor, which has stable electrical characteristics and improved reliability. In a transistor including an oxide semiconductor film, insulating films each including a material containing a Group 13 element and oxygen are formed in contact with the oxide semiconductor film, whereby the interfaces with the oxide semiconductor film can be kept in a favorable state. Further, the insulating films each include a region where the proportion of oxygen is higher than that in the stoichiometric composition, so that oxygen is supplied to the oxide semiconductor film; thus, oxygen defects in the oxide semiconductor film can be reduced. Furthermore, the insulating films in contact with the oxide semiconductor film each have a stacked structure so that films each containing aluminum are provided over and under the oxide semiconductor film, whereby entry of water into the oxide semiconductor film can be prevented.
US09449988B2	Semiconductor device with six transistors forming a nor circuit A semiconductor device has a small area and constitutes a CMOS 3-input NOR circuit by using surrounding gate transistors (SGTs) which are vertical transistors. In the 3-input NOR circuit including six MOS transistors arranged in a line, the MOS transistors constituting the NOR circuit have the following configuration: Planar silicon layers are disposed on a substrate. The drain, the gate, and the source of the MOS transistors are arranged in a vertical direction, and the gate surrounds a silicon pillar. The planar silicon layers include a first active region having a first conductivity type and a second active region having a second conductivity type. The first and second active regions are connected to each other via a silicide layer disposed on surfaces of the planar silicon layers. In this way, a semiconductor device constituting a NOR circuit with a small area is provided.
US09449987B1	Three dimensional memory device with epitaxial semiconductor pedestal for peripheral transistors A method of fabricating a memory device is provided. The method includes forming a first alternating stack of insulator layers and spacer material layers over a semiconductor substrate, etching the first alternating stack to expose a single crystalline semiconductor material, forming a first epitaxial semiconductor pedestal on the single crystalline semiconductor material, such that the first epitaxial semiconductor pedestal is in epitaxial alignment with the single crystalline semiconductor material, forming an array of memory stack structures through the first alternating stack, and forming at least one semiconductor device over the first epitaxial semiconductor pedestal.
US09449985B1	Memory cell with high-k charge trapping layer A non-volatile storage device with memory cells having a high-k charge storage region, as well as methods of fabrication, is disclosed. The charge storage region has three or more layers of dielectric materials. At least one layer is a high-k material. The high-k layer(s) has a higher trap density as compared to Si3N4. High-k dielectrics in the charge storage region enhance capacitive coupling with the memory cell channel, which can improve memory cell current, program speed, and erase speed. The charge storage region has a high-low-high conduction band offset, which may improve data retention. The charge storage region has a low-high-low valence band offset, which may improve erase.
US09449984B2	Vertical NAND device with low capacitance and silicided word lines A three dimensional memory device including a substrate and a semiconductor channel. At least one end portion of the semiconductor channel extends substantially perpendicular to a major surface of the substrate. The device also includes at least one charge storage region located adjacent to semiconductor channel and a plurality of control gate electrodes having a strip shape extending substantially parallel to the major surface of the substrate. The plurality of control gate electrodes include at least a first control gate electrode located in a first device level and a second control gate electrode located in a second device level located over the major surface of the substrate and below the first device level. Each of the plurality of control gate electrodes includes a first edge surface which is substantially free of silicide, the first edge surface facing the semiconductor channel and the at least one charge storage region and a silicide located on remaining surfaces of the control gate electrode.
US09449982B2	Method of making a vertical NAND device using a sacrificial layer with air gap and sequential etching of multilayer stacks A method of making a vertical NAND device includes forming a lower portion of a memory stack over a substrate, forming a lower portion of memory openings in the lower portion of the memory stack, and forming a sacrificial material portion including an encapsulated cavity. The method also includes forming an upper portion of the memory stack over the lower portion of the memory stack and over the sacrificial material, forming an upper portion of the memory openings in the upper portion of the memory stack to expose the sacrificial material in the lower portion of the memory openings, removing the sacrificial material portion to connect the lower portion of the memory openings with a respective upper portion of the memory openings to form continuous memory openings, and forming a semiconductor channel in each continuous memory opening.
US09449976B2	Semiconductor device structure and method for manufacturing the same A novel semiconductor device structure includes a first-conductivity-type semiconductor substrate, an isolated region, a first-conductivity-type MOS region, and a second-conductivity-type MOS region. A first-conductivity-type MOS transistor locates in the first-conductivity-type MOS region with a second-conductivity-type well surrounding, and a first-conductivity-type deep well surrounding the second-conductivity-type well with a second-conductivity-type deep well surrounding. In the second-conductivity-type MOS region, a second-conductivity-type MOS transistor is formed with a first-conductivity-type well surrounding. The first-conductivity-type deep well and the second-conductivity-type deep well are sufficiently reducing the noise and current leakage from other devices or from the semiconductor substrate.
US09449972B1	Ferroelectric FinFET The present disclosure provides, in a first aspect, a semiconductor device, including a semiconductor substrate and a gate structure formed over the semiconductor substrate, wherein the gate structure comprises a fin and a ferroelectric high-k material formed at least over sidewall surfaces of the fin. Herein, a first thickness defined by a thickness of the ferroelectric high-k material formed over sidewalls of the fin is substantially greater than a second thickness defined by a thickness of the ferroelectric high-k material formed over an upper surface of the fin.
US09449970B2	Semiconductor devices and methods of forming the same A semiconductor device includes first and second gate structures extending in a first direction and spaced apart from each other in a second direction intersecting the first direction, a third gate structure extending in the first direction and provided between the first and second gate structures, a first contact connected to the first gate structure and having a first width in the second direction, a second contact connected to the second gate structure and having a second width in the second direction, and a third contact connected to the third gate structure and having a third width in the second direction. The first, second, and third contacts may be aligned with each other in the second direction to constitute one row. The first and second widths may be greater than the third width.
US09449969B1	Device and method for a high isolation switch An embodiment integrated circuit includes a switch and a conductive line over the switch. The switch includes a gate, a first source/drain region at a top surface of a semiconductor substrate, and a second source/drain region at the top surface of the semiconductor substrate. The first source/drain region and the second source/drain region are disposed on opposing sides of the gate. At least a portion of the first conductive line is aligned with the gate, and the first conductive line is electrically coupled to ground.
US09449967B1	Transistor array structure A semiconductor circuit can include a plurality of arrays of transistors having differing characteristics and operating at low voltages and currents. A drain line drive signal may provide a potential to a drain line to which a selected transistor is connected. A row of drain mux circuits can provide reduced leakage current on the drain line drive signal so that more accurate current measurements may be made. A gate line drive signal may provide a potential to a gate line to which the selected transistor is connected. A column of gate line mux circuits can provide a gate line low drive signal to unselected transistors to reduce leakage current in unselected transistors so that more accurate drain current measurements may be made to the selected transistor.
US09449962B2	N-well/P-well strap structures Embodiments of N-well or P-well strap structures are disclosed with lower requirements achieved by forming the strap on both sides of one or more floating polysilicon gate fingers.
US09449961B2	Panel device having electrostatic discharge protection A display device includes a substrate, at least one signal circuit, a ground protection circuit, and an auxiliary protection circuit. The substrate has a first surface, wherein the first surface includes an active area and a frame area surrounding the active area. The at least one signal circuit is disposed and extending along the frame area and electrically coupled to the active area. The ground protection circuit is disposed and extending along the frame area, wherein the ground protection circuit is positioned at a side of the signal circuit facing an edge of the substrate. The auxiliary protection circuit is disposed and extending along the frame area. The auxiliary protection circuit is disposed between the signal circuit and the ground protection circuit, wherein the auxiliary protection circuit respectively has a gap with the signal circuit and the ground protection circuit, and is electrically conductive.
US09449959B2	ESD protection circuit cell A device includes a first bidirectional PNP circuit coupled to a first output of an communication circuit, and a second bidirectional PNP circuit coupling to a second output of the communication circuit. The first and second bi-direction PNP circuits have coupled outputs and a first breakdown voltage. A third bidirectional PNP circuit is coupled to ground via the coupled outputs of the first bidirectional PNP circuit and of the second bidirectional PNP circuit. The third bidirectional PNP circuit has a second breakdown voltage. In some arrangements, a sum of the first breakdown voltage and the second breakdown voltage exceeds 60 volts. The communication circuit can be an automotive application circuit for a serial automotive communication application. The first and second bidirectional transistor circuits can form a part of a cell of an integrated circuit having an isolation structure to sustain high voltage.
US09449958B2	Light-emitting diode device A light-emitting diode device includes a carrier having at least one cavity, a light-emitting diode chip is arranged in a manner at least partly recessed in the at least one cavity, and an ESD protection element, which is formed by a partial region of the carrier. Furthermore, a light-emitting diode device includes a carrier having at least one cavity, a light-emitting diode chip arranged on the carrier, and an electrical component arranged at least partly recessed in the at least one cavity. Furthermore, the light-emitting diode device includes an ESD protection element, which is formed by a partial region of the carrier.
US09449955B2	Optical module integrated package A an optical module integrated package includes a substrate, a light-receiving chip mounted in a light-receiving region of the substrate, an electronic component mounted in the substrate, a cover mounted on the substrate and having a light-receiving chip disposed above the light-receiving hole, and a lens fixedly mounted in the light-receiving hole of the cover. Thus, the optical module integrated package not only have the chip and the electronic component integrated therein to reduce the packaging cost and to improve the yield but also provide a light filtering, focusing or diffusing effect to enhance optical recognition accuracy.
US09449954B2	LED with IC integrated lighting module The present disclosure involves a method of packaging light-emitting diodes (LEDs). A carrier having a first side and a second opposite the first side is provided. The carrier includes a plurality of conductive interconnect elements. An integrated circuit (IC) die is bonded to the first side of the carrier. A packaging material having light-reflective properties is molded over the first and second sides of the carrier such that the IC die is sealed by the packaging material. A portion of the packaging material is molded into a reflective cap structure. A light-emitting diode (LED) is bonded to the second side of the carrier. Sidewalls of the reflective cap structure circumferentially surround the LED. The LED and the IC die are electrically coupled together through the conductive interconnect elements in the carrier. A lens is then formed over the LED.
US09449953B1	Package-on-package assembly and method for manufacturing the same A package-on-package (PoP) assembly includes a bottom die package and a top die package mounted on the bottom die package. The bottom die package includes an interposer having a first side and a second side opposite to the first side, at least one chip mounted on the first side within a chip mounting area through a plurality of bumps, a molding compound disposed on the first side, the molding compound covering the at least one chip, and a plurality of peripheral bump structures penetrating through the molding compound within the peripheral area. Each of the peripheral bump structures includes conductive pillar and a partial TMV directly stacked on the conductive pillar. A plurality of solder balls is mounted on the second side of the interposer. The top die package is electrically connected to the peripheral bump structures.
US09449945B2	Filter and capacitor using redistribution layer and micro bump layer An integrated circuit package includes a die. An electrically conductive layer comprises a redistribution layer (RDL) in the die, or a micro-bump layer above the die, or both. The micro bump layer comprises at least one micro-bump line. A filter comprises the electrically conductive layer. A capacitor comprises an electrode formed in the electrically conductive layer.
US09449944B2	Electronic component package and method for manufacturing same There is provided a method for manufacturing an electronic component package, wherein a first electronic component and a second electronic component are placed on a carrier, and a sealing resin layer is formed on the carrier, followed by the carrier being peeled away to be removed, and thereby providing a package precursor in which the first and second electronic components are embedded such that an electrode of at least one of the first and second electronic components is exposed at a surface of the sealing resin layer. Upon the placing of the first and second electronic components, the first and second electronic components are positioned such that their height levels differ from each other. After the removal of the carrier, a metal plating layer is formed such that the metal plating layer is in contact with the exposed surface of the electrode of the at least one of the first and second electronic components.
US09449942B1	Method of making RFID devices on fabrics by stitching metal wires A method for making a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) device on fabric is described herein. In a first example, an RFID semiconductor chip is attached to a piece of fabric. The RFID semiconductor chip includes two terminals. A solid wire is stitched into the fabric making an RFID antenna. The solid wire is attached to the terminals of the RFID semiconductor chip. In a second example, a metal wire is selected. The metal wire is stitched into fabric making an RFID antenna. The metal wire includes two ends and a conductive adhesive is applied to two ends of the metal wire. An RFID semiconductor chip is attached to the fabric. The RFID semiconductor chip includes two terminals and the RFID semiconductor chip is attached to the fabric at the two terminals. The conductive adhesive is cured. In both examples, the wire and the RFID semiconductor chip are encapsulated in fabric.
US09449940B2	Methods and structures for processing semiconductor devices using polymeric materials and adhesives Methods of forming a semiconductor structure include exposing a carrier substrate to a silane material to form a coating, removing a portion of the coating at least adjacent a periphery of the carrier substrate, adhesively bonding another substrate to the carrier substrate, and separating the another substrate from the carrier substrate. The silane material includes a compound having a structure of (XO)3Si(CH2)nY, (XO)2Si((CH2)nY)2, or (XO)3Si(CH2)nY(CH2)nSi(XO)3, wherein XO is a hydrolyzable alkoxy group, Y is an organofunctional group, and n is a nonnegative integer. Some methods include forming a polymeric material comprising Si—O—Si over a first substrate, removing a portion of the polymeric material, and adhesively bonding another substrate to the first substrate. Structures include a polymeric material comprising Si—O—Si disposed over a first substrate, an adhesive material disposed over the first substrate and at least a portion of the polymeric material, and a second substrate disposed over the adhesive material.
US09449937B2	Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same There is provided a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device of the present invention includes a semiconductor element and a metal buffer layer in an electrical connection to the semiconductor element. The metal buffer layer and the semiconductor element are in a connection with each other by mutual surface contact of the metal buffer layer and the semiconductor element. The metal buffer layer is an external connection terminal used for a mounting with respect to a secondary mount substrate, and the metal buffer layer serves as a buffer part having a stress-relaxation effect between the semiconductor element and the secondary mount substrate.
US09449936B2	Grid array connection device and method A method and device for input/output connections is provided. Devices and methods for connection structure are shown with improved mechanical properties such as hardness and abrasion resistance. Land grid array structures are provided that are less expensive to manufacture due to reductions in material cost such as gold. Ball grid array structures are provided with improved resistance to corrosion during fabrication. Ball grid array structures are also provided with improved mechanical properties resulting in improved shock testing results.
US09449933B2	Packaging device and method of making the same A device includes a first and a second package component. A metal trace is disposed on a surface of the first package component. The metal trace has a lengthwise direction. The second package component includes a metal pillar, wherein the second package component is disposed over the first package component. A solder region bonds the metal pillar to the metal trace, wherein the solder region contacts a top surface of the metal trace.
US09449932B2	Semiconductor device and method of forming base substrate with recesses for capturing bumped semiconductor die A semiconductor device has a base substrate with recesses formed in a first surface of the base substrate. A first conductive layer is formed over the first surface and into the recesses. A second conductive layer is formed over a second surface of the base substrate. A first semiconductor die is mounted to the base substrate with bumps partially disposed within the recesses over the first conductive layer. A second semiconductor die is mounted to the first semiconductor die. Bond wires are formed between the second semiconductor die and the first conductive layer over the first surface of the base substrate. An encapsulant is deposited over the first and second semiconductor die and base substrate. A portion of the base substrate is removed from the second surface between the second conductive layer down to the recesses to form electrically isolated base leads for the bumps and bond wires.
US09449927B2	Seal ring structure with metal-insulator-metal capacitor A seal ring structure of an integrated circuit includes a seal ring and a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor. The MIM capacitor includes a top electrode, a bottom electrode disposed below the top electrode, and a first insulating layer disposed between the top electrode and the bottom electrode. The MIM capacitor is disposed within the seal ring and the MIM capacitor is insulated from the seal ring.
US09449926B2	Semiconductor device In a back surface hole injection type diode, by more effectively securing the effect of hole injection from the back surface of a semiconductor substrate, the performance of a semiconductor device is improved. In the semiconductor device, in a diode formed of a P-N junction including an anode P-type layer formed in the main surface of a semiconductor substrate and a back surface N+-type layer formed in the back surface of the semiconductor substrate, a back surface P+-type layer is formed in the back surface, and a surface P+-type layer is formed in the main surface right above the back surface P+-type layer to thereby promote the effect of hole injection from the back surface.
US09449922B2	Contact critical dimension control In a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, a dielectric layer is formed on a substrate, and a contact hole is formed from the dielectric layer to the substrate. A dielectric spacer liner is formed to cover a sidewall and a bottom of the contact hole. A portion of the dielectric spacer liner is removed to expose a portion of the substrate. A metal silicide layer is formed into the substrate through the contact hole.
US09449919B2	Semiconductor device, layout design and method for manufacturing a semiconductor device A semiconductor device includes a first interconnect structure. The first interconnect structure includes a first interconnect portion, a second interconnect portion and a third interconnect portion. The first interconnect portion has a width and a length. The second interconnect portion has a width less than the length of the first interconnect portion. The second interconnect portion is connected to the first interconnect portion. The third interconnect portion has a width less than the width of the second interconnect portion. The third interconnect portion is connected to the second interconnect portion.
US09449918B2	Semiconductor device having fuse pattern A semiconductor device has improved reliability by preventing a fuse cut through a repair process from being electrically reconnected by electrochemical migration. The semiconductor device includes a substrate, a fuse including a first fuse pattern and a second fuse pattern formed at the same level on the substrate, the first fuse pattern and the second fuse pattern being spaced a first width apart from each other such that a gap in the fuse is disposed at a first location between the first fuse pattern and the second fuse pattern, and a first insulation layer formed on the first fuse pattern and the second fuse pattern, the first insulation layer including an opening above the first location and having a second width smaller than the first width.
US09449903B2	Ball grid array package with improved thermal characteristics An integrated circuit package includes a substrate having first and second surfaces and a plurality of conductive traces therebetween and a semiconductor die mounted on the first surface of the substrate. A plurality of wire bonds connect the semiconductor die to ones of the conductive traces of the substrate and an encapsulant encapsulates the wirebonds and the semiconductor die. A heat spreader has a cap, at least a portion of the cap extending inwardly toward and being spaced from the semiconductor die. The encapsulant fills the space between the portion of the cap and the semiconductor die. The heat spreader further has at least one sidewall extending from the cap, the at least one sidewall disposed on the substrate. A ball grid array is disposed on the second surface of the substrate, bumps of the ball grid array being in electrical connection with ones of the conductive traces.
US09449902B2	Semiconductor packages having multiple lead frames and methods of formation thereof In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a semiconductor package includes a first lead frame having a first die paddle, and a second lead frame, which has a second die paddle and a plurality of leads. The second die paddle is disposed over the first die paddle. A semiconductor chip is disposed over the second die paddle. The semiconductor chip has a plurality of contact regions on a first side facing the second lead frame. The plurality of contact regions is coupled to the plurality of leads.
US09449900B2	Leadframe feature to minimize flip-chip semiconductor die collapse during flip-chip reflow A support feature on a leadframe to support a semiconductor die during placement of the die on the leadframe and minimize the collapsing effect of the connector bumps of the die after reflowing. In some embodiments, the support features are formed from material that is different from the leadframe, such as by a ball drop process or a plating process. In some embodiments, the support features are formed from the leadframe material, such as by etching. In some embodiments, the support features are covered with a coating material.
US09449895B2	Cooling system for molded modules and corresponding manufacturing methods A cooling system for molded modules includes a plurality of individual modules each including a semiconductor die encapsulated by a mold compound, a plurality of leads electrically connected to the semiconductor die and at least partly uncovered by the mold compound, and a cooling plate at least partly uncovered by the mold compound. A molded body surrounds a periphery of each individual module to form a multi-die module. The leads of each individual module and the cooling plates are at least partly uncovered by the molded body. A lid with a port is attached to a periphery of the molded body at a first side of the multi-die module. The lid seals the multi-die module at the first side to form a cavity between the lid and the molded body for permitting fluid exiting or entering the port to contact the cooling plates of each individual module.
US09449892B2	Manufacturing method of magnetic memory device According to one embodiment, a manufacturing method of a magnetic memory device, includes obtaining first and second magnetic fields for each of magnetoresistive effect elements, defining a group of the elements, for the first and second magnetic fields of the elements in the group, a highest first magnetic field being lower than a lowest second magnetic field, and a difference between the highest first magnetic field and the lowest second magnetic field being greater than a predetermined difference, determining a maximum applied magnetic field higher than the highest first magnetic field and lower than the lowest second magnetic field, and obtaining magnetic characteristics for each of the elements in the group by applying a magnetic field decreasing from the maximum applied magnetic field after the magnetic field is increased up to the maximum applied magnetic field.
US09449887B2	Method of forming replacement gate PFET having TiALCO layer for improved NBTI performance A method of forming a transistor device includes forming an interfacial layer and a dielectric layer over a substrate; and forming a workfunction metal layer over the dielectric layer, the workfunction metal layer comprising a titanium-aluminum-carbon-oxygen (TiAlCO) layer.
US09449880B1	Fin patterning methods for increased process margin A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a plurality of first spacers over a substrate. A second spacer of a plurality of second spacers is deposited on sidewalls of each first spacer. In some embodiments, a spacing between adjacent first spacers is configured such that second spacers formed on sidewalls of the adjacent first spacers physically merge to form a merged second spacer. A second spacer cut process may be performed to selectively remove at least one second spacer. In some embodiments, a third spacer of a plurality of third spacers is formed on sidewalls of each second spacer. A third spacer cut process may be performed to selectively remove at least one third spacer. A first etch process is performed on the substrate to form fin regions. The plurality of third spacers mask portions of the substrate during the first etch process.
US09449877B2	Method of protecting a mounting tape during laser singulation of a wafer A method of singulating a semiconductor wafer with laser energy while the semiconductor wafer is supported on a mounting tape during singulation comprises the step of depositing a coating material onto a portion of the mounting tape adjacent to a perimeter of the semiconductor wafer to form a protective layer over the mounting tape. The semiconductor wafer is then cut with a laser beam such that the laser beam at least partially impinges upon the protective layer during cutting of the semiconductor wafer. After singulation of the semiconductor wafer, the protective layer is removed from the mounting tape.
US09449873B2	Method for processing a carrier and an electronic component In various embodiments, a method for processing a carrier is provided. The method for processing a carrier may include: forming a first catalytic metal layer over a carrier; forming a source layer over the first catalytic metal layer; forming a second catalytic metal layer over the source layer, wherein the thickness of the second catalytic metal layer is larger than the thickness of the first catalytic metal layer; and subsequently performing an anneal to enable diffusion of the material of the source layer forming an interface layer adjacent to the surface of the carrier from the diffused material of the source layer.
US09449872B1	Method for forming cobalt barrier layer and metal interconnection process The present invention provides a method for forming a cobalt barrier layer and a metal interconnection process. The method is performed on a surface of a semiconductor device substrate on which metal interconnection lines and an inter-line dielectric layer are formed, and comprises: depositing a dielectric material film on a surface of the inter-line dielectric layer by atomic layer deposition, to densify the surface of the inter-line dielectric layer; removing the deposited dielectric material film, to expose the metal interconnection lines and the densified surface of the inter-line dielectric layer, selectively depositing cobalt on surfaces of the metal interconnection lines to form a cobalt barrier layer. In the present invention, deposition selectivity of cobalt on surfaces of the metal interconnection lines and the inter-line dielectric layer is improved, thus reducing leakage current between metal interconnection lines and improving yield and reliability of the product.
US09449861B2	Substrate processing apparatus An object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of reducing a volume occupied exclusively by a substrate processing apparatus. In order to achieve this object, a substrate processing apparatus includes: multiple processing parts that process a substrate W; a transport robot that makes rectilinear motion along one rectilinear axis or each of more rectilinear axes and rotative motion about a vertical axis to transport a substrate to each of the processing parts; a transport chamber defined as operating space for the transport robot; and a transport controller that controls operation of the transport robot. A first partial area defined in the transport chamber has a width (specifically, a width extending along a horizontal axis perpendicular to the one rectilinear axis or the more rectilinear axes) is smaller than a rotative diameter of the transport robot. The transport controller prohibits the rotative motion of the transport robot in the first partial area.
US09449856B2	Encapsulant with base for use in semiconductor encapsulation, semiconductor apparatus, and method for manufacturing semiconductor apparatus The present invention provides an encapsulant with a base for use in semiconductor encapsulation, for collectively encapsulating a device mounting surface of a substrate on which semiconductor devices are mounted, or a device forming surface of a wafer on which semiconductor devices are formed, the encapsulant comprising the base, an encapsulating resin layer composed of an uncured or semi-cured thermosetting resin formed on one surface of the base, and a surface resin layer formed on the other surface of the base. The encapsulant enables a semiconductor apparatus having a good appearance and laser marking property to be manufactured.
US09449850B2	Processing systems and methods for halide scavenging Systems, chambers, and processes are provided for controlling process defects caused by moisture contamination. The systems may provide configurations for chambers to perform multiple operations in a vacuum or controlled environment. The chambers may include configurations to provide additional processing capabilities in combination chamber designs. The methods may provide for the limiting, prevention, and correction of aging defects that may be caused as a result of etching processes performed by system tools.
US09449849B2	Method of manufacturing semiconductor device using meander-shaped heating element Provided is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using a heating device capable of suppressing shearing of a holder due to thermal deformation of the heating element included in the heating device. The method includes: loading a substrate into a process chamber surrounded by a heating device including a heating element; and increasing temperature of the heating element including a mountain part and a valley part alternately connected in plurality to form a meander shape with both ends thereof being fixed to an insulating body installed at an outer circumference of the heating element wherein the heating element is fixed to the insulating body by a holding body disposed in a holding body receiving part installed at end of the valley part having a cutout part having a width larger than that of the valley part to heat the substrate in the process chamber.
US09449848B2	Manufacturing method for semiconductor device, annealing device, and annealing method According to one embodiment, the manufacturing method for the semiconductor device according to the embodiment includes carrying out ion implantation to the semiconductor layer and forming an amorphous layer on the surface of the semiconductor layer, and a heat treatment process using microwave annealing at a temperature higher than or equal to 200° C. and lower than or equal to 700° C. and single crystallizes the amorphous layer.
US09449846B2	Vertical gate separation Methods of selectively etching tungsten from the surface of a patterned substrate are described. The methods electrically separate vertically arranged tungsten slabs from one another as needed. The vertically arranged tungsten slabs may form the walls of a trench during manufacture of a vertical flash memory cell. The tungsten etch may selectively remove tungsten relative to films such as silicon, polysilicon, silicon oxide, aluminum oxide, titanium nitride and silicon nitride. The methods include exposing electrically-shorted tungsten slabs to remotely-excited fluorine formed in a remote plasma region. Process parameters are provided which result in uniform tungsten recess within the trench. A low electron temperature is maintained in the substrate processing region to achieve high etch selectivity and uniform removal throughout the trench.
US09449843B1	Selectively etching metals and metal nitrides conformally Methods of selectively etching metals and metal nitrides from the surface of a substrate are described. The etch selectively removes metals and metal nitrides relative to silicon-containing layers such as silicon, polysilicon, silicon oxide, silicon germanium, silicon carbide, silicon carbon nitride and/or silicon nitride. The etch removes material in a conformal manner by including an oxidation operation which creates a thin uniform metal oxide. The thin uniform metal oxide is then removed by exposing the metal oxide to a metal-halogen precursor in a substrate processing region. The metal oxide may be removed to completion and the etch may stop once the uniform metal oxide layer is removed. Etches described herein may be used to uniformly trim back material on high aspect ratio features which ordinarily show higher etch rates near the opening of a gap compared to deep within the gap.
US09449842B2	Plasma etching method A plasma etching method for plasma etching a film to be etched to a size smaller than a prescribed size using a mask patterned to the prescribed size performs etching on the film to be etched to the size smaller than the prescribed size while forming a protection film on side walls of the film to be etched.
US09449832B2	Metal gate structure A method comprises depositing a metal layer partially filling a trench of a gate structure, forming a protection layer on the metal layer, wherein a sidewall portion of the protection layer is thinner than a bottom portion of the protection layer, removing a portion of the metal layer and removing the bottom portion of the protection layer.
US09449825B2	Heat treatment apparatus for heating substrate by irradiation with flashes of light, and heat treatment method A first flash heating is performed in which a lower flash lamp irradiates a back surface of a semiconductor wafer with flashes of light, so that heat conduction from the back surface to a surface of the semiconductor wafer raises the temperature of the surface from the room temperature to an intermediate temperature. Then, a second flash heating is performed in which an upper flash lamp irradiates the surface of the semiconductor wafer with flashes of light, to raise the temperature of the surface of the semiconductor wafer from the intermediate temperature to a target temperature. Since only the irradiation with flashes of light emitted from the lower flash lamp and the upper flash lamp is used to cause the semiconductor wafer having the room temperature to reach the target temperature, all heat treatments can be completed in an extremely short time of one second or less.
US09449824B2	Method for patterned doping of a semiconductor A method for an improved doping process allows for improved control of doping concentrations on a substrate. The method may comprise printing a polymeric material on a substrate in a desired pattern; and depositing a barrier layer on the substrate with a liquid phase deposition process, wherein a pattern of the barrier layer is defined by the polymeric material. The method further comprises removing the polymeric material, and doping the substrate. The barrier layer substantially prevents or reduces doping of the substrate to allow patterned doping regions to be formed on the substrate. The method can be repeated to allow additional doping regions to be formed on the substrate.
US09449821B2	Composite hard mask etching profile for preventing pattern collapse in high-aspect-ratio trenches High-aspect ratio trenches in integrated circuits are fabricated of composite materials and with trench boundaries having pencil-like etching profiles. The fabrication methods reduce surface tension between trench boundaries and fluids applied during manufacture, thereby avoiding pattern bending, bowing, and collapse. The method, further, facilitates fill-in of trenches with suitable selected materials.
US09449819B2	Semiconductor device A transistor includes a multilayer film in which an oxide semiconductor film and an oxide film are stacked, a gate electrode, and a gate insulating film. The multilayer film overlaps with the gate electrode with the gate insulating film interposed therebetween. The multilayer film has a shape having a first angle between a bottom surface of the oxide semiconductor film and a side surface of the oxide semiconductor film and a second angle between a bottom surface of the oxide film and a side surface of the oxide film. The first angle is acute and smaller than the second angle. Further, a semiconductor device including such a transistor is manufactured.
US09449818B2	Double sided Si(Ge)/Sapphire/III-nitride hybrid structure One aspect of the present invention is a double sided hybrid crystal structure including a trigonal Sapphire wafer containing a (0001) C-plane and having front and rear sides. The Sapphire wafer is substantially transparent to light in the visible and infrared spectra, and also provides insulation with respect to electromagnetic radio frequency noise. A layer of crystalline Si material having a cubic diamond structure aligned with the cubic <111> direction on the (0001) C-plane and strained as rhombohedron to thereby enable continuous integration of a selected (SiGe) device onto the rear side of the Sapphire wafer. The double sided hybrid crystal structure further includes an integrated III-Nitride crystalline layer on the front side of the Sapphire wafer that enables continuous integration of a selected III-Nitride device on the front side of the Sapphire wafer.
US09449815B2	Method of growing gallium nitride based semiconductor layers and method of fabricating light emitting device therewith Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of growing gallium nitride-based semiconductor layers through metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, including disposing a substrate in a chamber, growing a first conductivity-type gallium nitride-based semiconductor layer on the substrate at a first chamber pressure, growing a gallium nitride-based active layer on the first conductivity-type gallium nitride-based semiconductor layer at a second chamber pressure higher than the first chamber pressure, and growing a second conductivity-type gallium nitride-based semiconductor layer on the active layer at a third chamber pressure lower than the second chamber pressure.
US09449814B2	Manufacturing method of semiconductor device A problem in the conventional technique is that metal contamination on a silicon carbide surface is not sufficiently removed in a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device using a monocrystalline silicon carbide substrate. Accordingly, there is a high possibility that the initial characteristics of a manufactured silicon carbide semiconductor device are deteriorated and the yield rate is decreased. Further, it is conceivable that the metal contamination has an adverse affect even on the long-term reliability of a semiconductor device. In a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device using a monocrystalline silicon carbide substrate, there is applied a metal contamination removal process, on a silicon carbide surface, including a step of oxidizing the silicon carbide surface and a step of removing a film primarily including silicon dioxide formed on the silicon carbide surface by the step.
US09449813B2	Method of manufacturing semiconductor device, substrate processing apparatus and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium Provided is a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, which is capable of increasing the controllability of the concentration of carbon in a film by increasing the yield when a boron carbonitride film or a boron nitride film is formed. The method includes forming a film containing boron, carbon and nitrogen or a film containing boron and nitrogen on the substrate by performing, a predetermined number of times, a cycle including supplying a source gas consisting of boron and a halogen element to a substrate and supplying a reactive gas consisting of carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen to the substrate.
US09449812B2	Hydrogen-free silicon-based deposited dielectric films for nano device fabrication Embodiments of the present invention provide hydrogen-free dielectric films and methods of fabrication. A hydrogen-free precursor, such as tetraisocyanatosilane, and hydrogen-free reactants, such as nitrogen, oxygen (O2/O3) and nitrous oxide are used with chemical vapor deposition processes (PECVD, thermal CVD, SACVD, HDP CVD, and PE and Thermal ALD) to create hydrogen-free dielectric films. In some embodiments, there are multilayer dielectric films with sublayers of various materials such as silicon oxide, silicon nitride, and silicon oxynitride. In embodiments, the hydrogen-free reactants may include Tetra Isocyanato Silane, along with a hydrogen-free gas including, but not limited to, N2, O2, O3, N2O, CO2, CO and a combination thereof of these H-Free gases. Plasma may be used to enhance the reaction between the TICS and the other H-free gasses. The plasma may be controlled during film deposition to achieve variable density within each sublayer of the films.
US09449807B2	Substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method A substrate processing apparatus includes a substrate holding part, a substrate rotating mechanism, and a chamber. The substrate rotating mechanism incudes an annular rotor part disposed in an internal space of the chamber and a stator part disposed around the rotor part outside the chamber. The substrate holding part is attached to the rotor part in the internal space of the chamber. In the substrate rotating mechanism, a rotating force is generated about a central axis between the stator part and the rotor part. The rotor part is thereby rotated about the central axis, being in a floating state, together with a substrate and the substrate holding part. In the substrate processing apparatus, the substrate can be easily rotated in the internal space having excellent sealability. As a result, it is possible to easily perform single-substrate processing in a sealed internal space.
US09449806B2	High-voltage discharge lamp, lamp unit, projection image display device, and method for manufacturing high-voltage discharge lamp Disclosed is a high-pressure discharge lamp (100) that reduces the occurrence of cracks even under high mercury vapor pressure. The high-pressure discharge lamp (100) is provided with a glass arc tube (102) including a light-emitting part (103) and a sealing part (104) connected to the light-emitting part (103), the light-emitting part (103) enclosing a discharge space, and a pair of electrodes (101), one end of each of the electrodes (101) facing one end of the other electrode (101) in the discharge space, and another end of each electrode (101) being embedded in the sealing part (104) and connected to a metal foil (105), at least one embedded section of the pair of electrodes (101) including at least one projection (101c).
US09449805B2	Isolation of charged particle optics from vacuum chamber deformations A charged particle processing apparatus includes a vacuum chamber, an optics plate, charged particle optics mounted to the optics plate, and mounting members coupled between the optics plate and a chamber wall. The mounting members are configured for isolating the optics plate from deformation of the chamber wall, as may occur due to a pressure differential between the chamber interior and the environment outside the chamber. The isolation may prevent deformation from affecting the alignment and positioning of the charged particle optics. The charged particles may, for example, be ions or electrons. Thus, the apparatus may be utilized, for example, in analytical instruments such as for mass spectrometry, or inspection instruments such as for electron microscopy.
US09449802B2	Mass spectrometry with selective ion filtration by digital thresholding The methods described herein generally relate to characterization of large analytes, such as biomolecules, by molecular mass analysis. Specifically, the methods are directed to molecular mass analysis of singly- or multiply-charged ions by selective ion filtering carried out by a digital thresholding process.
US09449799B2	Film deposition device A film deposition device is disclosed. The device includes a driver, a sputtering target assembly, and at least one rotatable magnetoelectric device located at the back of the sputtering target assembly. The rotatable magnetoelectric device includes a transmission having a conveyor belt, and at least one pair of gears which cooperate with the conveyor belt and are disposed at an inner side of the conveyor belt, where an axial direction of the gears is substantially parallel to a surface of the sputtering target assembly. The rotatable magnetoelectric device also includes a first set of magnets, where the first set of magnets are disposed outside of the conveyor belt. In addition, the driver is configured to cause the gears to rotate.
US09449796B2	Plasma processing system including a symmetrical remote plasma source for minimal ion energy A remote plasma source is enclosed by a pair of counter electrodes of conical or similar shape that are mirror images of one another and connected across a plasma power source.
US09449791B2	Beam irradiation apparatus and beam irradiation method Provided is a beam irradiation apparatus including: a beam scanner that is configured such that a charged particle beam is reciprocatively scanned in a scanning direction; a measurement device that is capable of measuring an angular component of charged particles incident into a region of a measurement target; and a data processor that calculates effective irradiation emittance of the charged particle beam using results measured by the measurement device. The measurement device measures a time dependent value for angular distribution of the charged particle beam. The data processor transforms time information included in the time dependent value for the angular distribution to position information and thus calculates the effective irradiation emittance. The effective irradiation emittance represents emittance of a virtual beam bundle, the virtual beam bundle being formed by summing portions of the charged particle beam which are incident into the region of the measurement target.
US09449790B2	Pattern shape evaluation method, semiconductor device manufacturing method, and pattern shape evaluation device A cross-sectional shape or a three-dimensional shape of a circuit pattern is estimated and evaluated only from a planar image of the circuit pattern observed from the above of a wafer. The present invention includes a process of obtaining an observation image of an upper surface of a solid structure, by causing the upper surface of a substrate to be irradiated and scanned with a converged energy beam from a direction substantially perpendicular to a main surface of the substrate having the structure formed on the upper surface thereof, and detecting and/or measuring intensities of a secondary energy beam generated in the substrate and the structure or an energy beam reflected or scattered from the substrate or the structure, a process of obtaining uncertainty information regarding an intensity of scattering caused by an irregular shape of a surface of the structure, from an irradiation position of the converged energy beam in the observation image of the upper surface and the measured intensity, a process of obtaining an inclination angle θ of the surface of the structure, based on the obtained uncertainty information; and a process of estimating a solid shape of the structure, based on the obtained inclination angle θ.
US09449788B2	Enhanced defect detection in electron beam inspection and review One embodiment relates to an electron beam apparatus for inspection and/or review. An electron source generates a primary electron beam, and an electron-optics system shapes and focuses said primary electron beam onto a sample held by a stage. A detection system detects signal-carrying electrons including secondary electrons and back-scattered electrons from said sample, and an image processing system processes data from said detection system. A host computer system that controls and coordinates operations of the electron-optics system, the detection system, and the image processing system. A graphical user interface shows a parameter space and provides for user selection and activation of operating parameters of the apparatus. Another embodiment relates to a method for detecting and/or reviewing defects using an electron beam apparatus. Other embodiments, aspects and features are also disclosed.
US09449784B2	Charged particle beam instrument and sample container A charged particle beam instrument is offered which can introduce cooled samples easily into a sample chamber. The charged particle beam instrument (100) of the present invention has: a sample container (10) that accommodates samples (S) and a refrigerant (6) for cooling the samples (S); an evacuated sample chamber (20); a sample exchange chamber (30) connected with the sample chamber (20); a partition valve (40) disposed between the sample exchange chamber (30) and the sample container (10); and vacuum pumping equipment (50) for evacuating the sample container (10). The sample container (10) can be connected with the sample exchange chamber (30) via the partition valve (40). The sample container (10) is evacuated by the vacuum pumping equipment (50) while the partition valve (40) is closed.
US09449774B2	Power and control unit for a low or medium voltage apparatus A power and control unit for a low or medium voltage apparatus, said apparatus comprising at least a couple of electrical contacts that can be coupled/separated by means of an electro-magnetic actuator, first power storage means for supplying electric power for the operations of said apparatus and power supply means for charging first said power storage means, characterized in that it comprises: a primary control device for managing the operations of said apparatus when said power supply means are available; a secondary control device for managing the operations of said apparatus when said power supply means are not available, said secondary control device being able to receive electric power directly from said first power storage means.
US09449769B2	Low travel dome and systems for using the same A low travel switch and systems for using the same. A low travel switch may include a key cap and an elastomeric dome configured to provide a predefined tactile feedback over a predefined travel distance of the key cap when the key cap is depressed by a user.
US09449758B1	Powder-filling system A powder-filling system capable of filling a container with powder at an approximately uniform filling density has: a hopper having an opening removably and hermetically closably attached to the container, the hopper communicating with the container at the opening for supplying powder to a container; a powder supplier for supplying powder to the hopper; a gas supplier for repeatedly supplying compressed gas in a pulsed form to the hopper, with the hopper hermetically closably attached to the container; and a sieve member provided at the opening and having a smaller openings in a region near a side wall of the hopper than in its central region. The smaller openings in the region near the side wall of the hopper where the powder more easily falls from the hopper into the container impedes the fall of the powder in that region and improves the overall uniformity in the filling density.
US09449755B2	Arrangement having at least two coils which are arranged axially one above the other on a common core limb An exemplary arrangement includes blocks arranged between the inner winding, the individual barriers and the outer winding in order to maintain defined spacing's along the circumference. At least two coils are arranged axially one above the other on a common core limb. Each coil has at least two windings arranged radially one above the other and barriers are provided between the windings. The barriers of adjacent coils are radially offset with respect to one another, and the edge regions of the barriers engage one another in a comb-like manner.
US09449753B2	Varying thickness inductor A particular device includes a substrate and a spiral inductor coupled to the substrate. The spiral inductor includes a first conductive spiral and a second conductive spiral overlaying the first conductive spiral. A first portion of an innermost turn of the spiral inductor has a first thickness in a direction perpendicular to the substrate. The first portion of the innermost turn includes a first portion of the first conductive spiral and does not include the second conductive spiral. A second portion of the innermost turn includes a first portion of the second conductive spiral. A portion of an outermost turn of the spiral inductor has a second thickness in the direction perpendicular to the substrate that is greater than the first thickness. A portion of the outermost turn includes a second portion of the first conductive spiral and a second portion of the second conductive spiral.
US09449751B2	Reactor and reactor manufacturing method, and power converter A manufacturing method for a reactor in which resin for covering at least a part of a coil is formed integrally with the coil comprise a step of manufacturing a molded product and a step of attaching a temperature sensor such that the temperature sensor is opposed to a first face. The step of manufacturing the molded product includes following i) to iii): i) arranging the reactor in a cavity space for injection-molding of resin; ii) fixing the coil with the surface of a mold brought into contact with the first face and a second face located at positions which sandwich the coil on the periphery of the coil; and iii) injecting resin into the cavity space to cover at least a coil surface around the first face and a coil surface around the second face with the resin, with the first face and the second face exposed.
US09449749B2	Signal handling apparatus for radio frequency circuits A signal handler providing high linearity in a small size, applicable across wide operating frequencies and bandwidths, while also adapted to preferred integrated circuit (IC) and printed circuit board technologies. In one implementation, a signal handling apparatus includes an input impedance transformer for receiving an input signal and matching an internal apparatus impedance, a splitter for providing N split signals, a number of signal processing circuits for processing the N split signals, a combiner for combining the N split signals into a combined signal, and output impedance transformer for receiving the combined signal and for matching the internal apparatus impedance to an output impedance of the apparatus. The apparatus may provide filtering, duplexing and other radio frequency signal processing functions. A tunable duplexer may be implemented using a vector inductor and tunable capacitor array with frequency dependent impedance transformers.
US09449748B2	Rotatable supporting assembly A supporting assembly includes a base, a rotatable member, an electromagnet, and a switch. The base includes a main body and a first connection member. The first connection member is made of magnetic material. The first connection member protrudes from the main body and defines a first hole. The rotatable member includes a supporting member and a first shaft. The first shaft protrudes from the supporting member and passes through the first hole, thereby allowing the rotatable member to be rotatably connected to the base. The electromagnet is arranged on the supporting member and adjacent to the first shaft. The switch is electrically coupled between an external power supply and the electromagnet, and establishes or cuts off electrical connection between the external power supply and the electromagnet when the switch is turned on or turned off.
US09449743B2	Synthesis of magnetic carbon nanoribbons and magnetic functionalized carbon nanoribbons Various embodiments of the present disclosure pertain to methods of making magnetic carbon nanoribbons. Such methods generally include: (1) forming carbon nanoribbons by splitting carbon nanomaterials; and (2) associating graphene nanoribbons with magnetic materials, precursors of magnetic materials, or combinations thereof. Further embodiments of the present disclosure also include a step of reducing the precursors of magnetic materials to magnetic materials. In various embodiments, the associating occurs before, during or after the splitting of the carbon nanomaterials. In some embodiments, the methods of the present disclosure further comprise a step of (3) functionalizing the carbon nanoribbons with functionalizing agents. In more specific embodiments, the functionalizing occurs in situ during the splitting of carbon nanomaterials. In further embodiments, the carbon nanoribbons are edge-functionalized. Additional embodiments of the present disclosure pertain to magnetic carbon nanoribbon compositions that were formed in accordance with the methods of the present disclosure.
US09449742B2	Electrode component and method for fabricating the same An electrode component includes a ceramic substrate, two electrode layers formed on two opposite surfaces of the ceramic substrate, two pins respectively connected to the two electrode layers, and an insulating layer enclosing the ceramic substrate, the electrode layers and a portion of each pin. Each electrode layer is formed of two or more base metal materials or alloys thereof, and the concentrations of the base metal materials progressively vary across the electrode layer. Accordingly, the production cost is lowered, environmental pollution caused by evaporation and thermal dissolution of organic solvent can be prevented, risk of separable electrode interface at high-voltage discharge is mitigated, and the fabrication process of the electrode layer is shortened while maintaining bonding strength between the electrode layers and the ceramic substrate and solderability between the electrode layers and the pins.
US09449740B2	Electric cable An electric cable includes a conductor core including conductors each covered with an insulation layer, and a braided layer formed on an outer periphery of the conductor core. The braided layer includes a braid of a first line group and a second line group. The first line group includes first metal lines and first fiber lines arranged along a longitudinal direction of the conductor core and is spirally wound around the outer periphery of the conductor core. The second line group includes second metal lines and second fiber lines arranged along the longitudinal direction of the conductor core and is spirally wound around the outer periphery of the conductor core in a direction opposite to the first line group.
US09449738B2	High density shielded electrical cable and other shielded cables, systems, and methods A shielded electrical ribbon cable includes conductor sets each including a pair of twisted conductors, and first and second shielding films on opposite sides of the cable including cover portions substantially surrounding each conductor set, and pinched portions on each side of each conductor set. S is a minimum center-to-center spacing between nearest insulated conductors of two adjacent conductor sets, and Dmin is a minimum outer dimension of the nearest insulated conductors. S/Dmin is between 1.7 and 2.
US09449736B2	High dielectric compositions for particle formation and methods of forming particles using same A high dielectric contrast composition for particle formation that includes a high dielectric solvent, and a polymer dissolved into the high dielectric solvent. A method of forming particles including dissolving a polymer in a high dielectric solvent to form a high dielectric composition, and dielectrophoretically spinning the high dielectric composition in an electric field to form particles.
US09449733B2	Conductive ink composition, printing method using the same and conductive pattern manufactured by the same The present invention relates to a conductive ink composition including metal particles, a first solvent having a vapor pressure of 3 torr or less at 25° C., a second solvent having a vapor pressure of more than 3 torr at 25° C., and metal carboxylate, a printing method using the same, and a conductive pattern manufactured by using the same.
US09449730B2	Coating composition for prevention of substrate oxidation Disclosed herein is a coating composition for prevention of substrate oxidation/corrosion comprising energy level modulated conjugated polymer in combination with hydrophobic, spherical molecule in a suitable ratio. Particularly the invention relates to coating composition for protecting metal and alloy comprising the derivatives of polythiophene and polyphenylene vinylene with lower energy level, wherein the pores on the polymeric film are filled/blocked with hydrophobic, spherical molecule to enhance the efficiency of polymer against the corrosion.
US09449728B2	Electroconductive material for connection component An electroconductive material for a connection component have a base member made of a copper alloy plate, a Ni coating layer, a Cu—Sn alloy coating layer, and a Sn coating layer. A surface of the material is subjected to reflow treatment. The base member surface is roughened. The Cu—Sn alloy coating layer is partially exposed from the outside surface of the Sn coating layer. Regions of the Cu—Sn alloy coating layer exposed to the outside surface of the Sn coating layer have random microstructures distributed irregularly between portions of the Sn coating layer and streak microstructures extending in parallel to a rolled direction of the base member. The streak microstructures having a length of 50 μm or more and a width of 10 μm or less are contained in a number of 35 or more per 1 mm2.
US09449722B2	Gripping and locking/unlocking system, and application to the handling of nuclear materials specimen holders A system for gripping an inner tube and locking/unlocking it into and from an outer tube concentric with the inner tube. The system according to the invention is provided with one or more catching devices which allow both sealed locking/unlocking of the inner tube to the gripper member and of the inner tube in the outer tube, achieving this with only a translational movement of the gripper member over a travel A or a travel B. The system according to the invention advantageously constitutes a system for inserting and extracting a specimen holder tube intended to house a specimen of nuclear materials, such as nuclear fuels, into and from a measurement instrumentation holder tube intended to house measurement sensors and a cooling system.
US09449720B1	Dynamic redundancy repair The disclosed memory device technology for implementing dynamic device repair includes a memory array, a redundancy array and a redundancy mapping store. The memory array includes memory cells and the redundant array includes redundancy cells. The memory device also includes circuitry configured to execute a write operation and a read operation in response to respective commands, using a dynamic redundancy repair method to replace the temporary defective cells in the memory array with the redundancy cells in the redundancy array.
US09449712B2	Shift register with higher driving voltage of output stage transistor and flat panel display using the same A shift register and flat panel display using the same is provided therein. The shift register receives an operating voltage level. Through the circuit provided by the shift register, a driving voltage of an output-stage transistor is higher than prior art. Thus, the shift register has an enhanced driving ability.
US09449704B2	Flexible clock scheme of flash memory, memory module, computer-readable recording medium and operating method using the same A flash memory, a memory module, a computer-readable recording medium and an operating method are provided, which can perform a flexible setup by a flexible clock scheme. A NAND-type flash memory 100 of the invention includes: a memory array 110 having NAND-type memory cells, a controller 150 including a processor and a ROM/RAM, and a system clock generating circuit 200 configured to generate an internal system clock signal. The ROM/RAM is at least stored with setup commands for a setup of the flash memory, and the processor processes the setup commands based on the internal system clock signal during a setup period. The controller 150 further controls the system clock generating circuit 200, so that a frequency of the internal system clock signal becomes high speed during the setup period.
US09449701B1	Non-volatile storage systems and methods A non-volatile storage system is provided. The non-volatile storage system includes a memory array that includes a plurality of bit lines and a plurality of sense blocks, a plurality of bit line select transistors arranged in a bit line select transistor array, each bit line select transistor coupled between a corresponding one of the bit lines and a corresponding one of the sense blocks, the bit line select transistor array including an edge bit line select transistor adjacent an edge of the bit line select transistor array, and a first dummy bit line select transistor adjacent the edge bit line select transistor.
US09449700B2	Boundary word line search and open block read methods with reduced read disturb Techniques are presented to reduce the amount of read disturb on partially written blocks of NAND type non-volatile memory, both for when determining the last written word line in a block and also for a read operation, including post-write verify reads. Non-selected word lines that are unwritten are biased with a lower read-pass voltage then is typically used. The determination of the last written word line of a block can be done in a coarse-fine search, where the word lines are divided into a number of zones to find the zone with the last written word line, which is in turn sub-divided for a finer search.
US09449699B2	Nonvolatile memory and erasing method thereof An erase method of a nonvolatile memory includes supplying an erase voltage to a substrate, supplying a selection word line voltage to word lines connected with a selected sub-block within a memory block of the nonvolatile memory, supplying a non-selection word line voltage to word lines connected with an unselected sub-block within the memory block during a first delay time from a point of time when the erase voltage is supplied, and thereafter floating the word lines connected with the unselected sub-block.
US09449696B2	Direct-transfer marching memory and a computer system using the same A direct-transfer marching memory includes an array of memory units, each of the memory units having a sequence of bit-level cells so as to store information of byte size or word size, the information of byte size or word size is transferred synchronously, step by step, along a direction orthogonal to a direction of the sequence of bit-level cells, each of the bit-level cells encompassing an electron-storage region configured to accumulate cell-electrons. The cell-electrons accumulated in an electron-storage region in a subject memory unit is directly transferred to an adjacent electron-storage region, which is assigned in the next memory unit adjacent to the subject memory unit, the transfer of the cell-electrons is directly controlled by control signals, without using a combinational function of a logic gate circuit.
US09449694B2	Non-volatile memory with multi-word line select for defect detection operations A stress mode for use in testing non-volatile memory arrays for a number of types of defects is described. More specifically, a multi-word line select option for a given block can be used for a group of selected word lines to be set to the a programming or other high voltage, while the unselected word lines of the block are set to a pass voltage to minimize electric field differences in order to avoid disturb. For example, a group of selected word lines could number 4, 8 or 16. The multi-word line option can be applied to one block per plane, so that if there are two memory planes, for example, two such blocks can be selected simultaneously for the multi-word line option for those blocks.
US09449690B2	Modified local segmented self-boosting of memory cell channels A method of programming a memory system by selectively applying a program voltage to a selected wordline connected to a memory transistor to be programmed. A first bias voltage is applied to a first wordline adjacent to the source side of the selected wordline. The first bias voltage is also applied to a second wordline adjacent to the drain side of the selected wordline. A second bias voltage is applied to a third wordline adjacent to the drain side of the second wordline. A third bias voltage is applied to a fourth wordline adjacent to the source side of the first wordline. A pass voltage is also applied to the remaining wordlines that do not have one of a bias voltage and a program voltage applied, the pass voltage a selected voltage level.
US09449688B2	Device and method for writing data to a resistive memory The invention relates to a resistive memory including resistive elements, the resistance of each resistive element being capable of alternating between a high value and a low value, the memory further including a device for switching the resistance of at least one selected resistive element between the high and low values. The device includes a first circuit capable of circulating a first current through a first reference resistive component (RLRS), a second circuit capable of circulating a second current proportional to the first current through the selected resistive element, a third circuit capable of detecting the switching of the resistance of the selected resistive element from the comparison of the voltage across the first reference resistive component with the voltage across the selected resistive element, and a fourth circuit capable of interrupting the second current on detection of the switching.
US09449683B2	Memory cells having a plurality of resistance variable materials Resistance variable memory cells having a plurality of resistance variable materials and methods of operating and forming the same are described herein. As an example, a resistance variable memory cell can include a plurality of resistance variable materials located between a plug material and an electrode material. The resistance variable memory cell also includes a first conductive material that contacts the plug material and each of the plurality of resistance variable materials and a second conductive material that contacts the electrode material and each of the plurality of resistance variable materials.
US09449678B2	Semiconductor integrated circuit device A P-type well region in which an inverter making up an SRAM cell is formed is subdivided into two portions, which are disposed on the opposite sides of an N-type well region NW1 and are formed so that a diffusion layer forming a transistor has no curvature while causing the layout direction to run in a direction parallel to well boundary lines and bit lines. At intermediate locations of an array, regions for use in supplying power to the substrate are formed in parallel to word lines in such a manner that one region is provided per group of thirty two memory cell rows or sixty four cell rows.
US09449673B2	Memory device and memory system having the same A memory device includes a memory cell array, a multi-purpose register (MPR) and a control unit. The memory cell array includes a plurality of memory blocks. The multi-purpose register (MPR) stores physical address information for each of the plurality of memory blocks. The control unit outputs the physical address information stored in the multi-purpose register in response to an MPR read command received from a memory controller.
US09449668B2	Current induced spin-momentum transfer stack with dual insulating layers A high speed, low power method to control and switch the magnetization direction of a magnetic region in a magnetic device for memory cells using spin polarized electrical current. The magnetic device comprises a pinned magnetic layer, a reference magnetic layer with a fixed magnetization direction and a free magnetic layer with a changeable magnetization direction. The magnetic layers are separated by insulating non-magnetic layers.A current can be applied to the device to induce a torque that alters the magnetic state of the device so that it can act as a magnetic memory for writing information. The resistance, which depends on the magnetic state of the device, can be measured to read out the information stored in the device.
US09449667B2	Memory circuit having shared word line A memory circuit includes a plurality of memory cells arranged into columns and one or more pairs of adjacent rows and one or more first word lines. Each memory cell of the plurality of memory cells includes a data node, a first access node, and a first pass gate coupled to the first access node and configured to selectively alter a voltage level at the first access node according to a voltage level at the data node if the first pass gate is turned on. A word line of the one or more first word lines is coupled with the first pass gates of a pair of the one or more pairs of adjacent rows, and the first pass gates of the pair of the one or more pairs of adjacent rows are configured to be selectively turned on responsive to a voltage level at the word line.
US09449666B2	Local word line driver A memory circuit with a word line driver and control circuitry is disclosed. The plurality of word line drivers are coupled to a plurality of word lines. Word line drivers include a CMOS inverter, which can have an input and an output, and a p-type transistor and an n-type transistor. The output of the CMOS inverter is coupled to one of the plurality of word lines. The control circuitry has multiple modes, including at least a first mode to discharge a particular word line of the plurality of word lines via a first discharge path such as at least a first transistor type of the CMOS inverter; and a second mode to discharge the particular word line of the plurality of word lines via a second discharge path such as at least the a second transistor type of the CMOS inverter.
US09449665B1	Semiconductor systems and semiconductor devices A semiconductor system includes a first semiconductor device and a second semiconductor device. The first semiconductor device outputs data, a data strobe signal, an external command, and a clock signal. The second semiconductor device aligns the data in synchronization with the data strobe signal to generate first and second alignment data and latches the first and second alignment data to generate first and second latch data in response to a latch signal which is generated by dividing the data strobe signal.
US09449664B2	Quantizing circuits having improved sensing A system including a processor and a memory device. The memory device includes a memory array having a plurality of memory elements connected to a bit-line and a quantizing circuit. The quantizing circuit includes a combination circuit configured to combine an analog input signal with an analog feedback signal to produce a delta signal. The quantizing circuit also includes an integrator configured to receive and integrate the delta signal to produce a sigma signal. The quantizing circuit also includes an analog-to-digital converter configured to receive the sigma signal and compare the sigma signal with a reference signal to produce a digital output signal.
US09449662B1	Semiconductor memory apparatus A semiconductor memory apparatus may include: a command decoder configured to decode an external command and output the decoded command as an internal command; a command transmitter configured to determine a delay time in response to a voltage level of an external voltage being applied to the semiconductor memory apparatus, delay the internal command by the determined delay time, and output the delayed internal command as a delayed command; and a data storage area configured to receive the delayed command, and perform an operation according to the delayed command.
US09449657B2	Low voltage sensing scheme having reduced active power down standby current A low voltage sensing scheme reduces active power down standby leakage current in a memory device. A damping device or diode is used between a Psense amplifier control line (e.g. ACT) and Vcc and/or between an Nsense amplifier control line (e.g. RNL) and Vss (ground potential). The clamping diode is not enabled during normal memory operations, but is turned on during active power down mode to reduce leakage current through ACT and/or RNL nodes. The damping device connected to the ACT node may reduce the voltage on the ACT line during power down mode, whereas the clamping device connected to the RNL* node may increase the voltage on the RNL* line during power down mode to reduce sense amplifier leakage current through these nodes. Because of the rules governing abstracts, this abstract should not be used to construe the claims.
US09449653B2	Memory chip package having optically and electrically connected chips, memory system having the same and driving method thereof A memory chip package includes memory chips stacked, electrically connected one another, and configured to input and output an optical signal through an optical line formed by a via penetrating the memory chips. The memory chips input and output optical signals with different wavelengths, and each of the memory chips has an optical-electrical converter configured to convert an optical signal with a corresponding wavelength into an electrical signal and to convert an electrical signal into an optical signal with the corresponding wavelength.
US09449651B2	System and method for offsetting the data buffer latency of a device implementing a JEDEC standard DDR-4 LRDIMM chipset A system and method for offsetting the data buffer latency in a CPIO device having a JEDEC standard DDR-4 LRDIMM chipset as the front end is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a CPIO ASIC provides variable timing control for its DDR-4 LRDIMM interface such that propagation delay of the data buffers can be offset by the CPIO ASIC, allowing the CPIO LRDIMM to be timing compatible with an RDIMM.
US09449649B1	Disk drive having a shroud wall that completely encircles a disk outer periphery A disk drive includes a disk that has a data side and an unread side. A first read head faces and is adjacent the data side. The disk drive also includes a cylindrical shroud wall that is substantially orthogonal to the unread side and that completely encircles the disk outer periphery. A radial spacing between the cylindrical shroud wall and the disk outer periphery nowhere exceeds 1 mm. The disk drive does not include any read head that faces and is disposed adjacent the unread side.
US09449642B2	Record carrier and apparatus for scanning the record carrier A record carrier has a servo track indicating an information track intended for recording information blocks. The servo track has a variation of a physical parameter, referred to as wobble. The wobble is modulated for encoding record carrier information, such as addresses. The servo track is subdivided in modulated parts in which the frequency and/or phase of the variation deviates from the wobble frequency, and non-modulated parts. The slope of the wobble is substantially continuous at transitions between the modulated and non-modulated parts by using wobbles starting at the maxima or minima of the wobble in a first part of the modulated parts.
US09449641B2	Color transmission systems A system comprises a writer to form a plurality of color mits on a base material, wherein at least one of the color mits may represent computer-readable instructions comprising data other than pixel-image data. The plurality of color mits may include a first color mit and a second color mit, wherein the first color mit represents information data, and the second color mit represents that the first color mit contains a particular type of information data. The system also may include a reader to read colors of the plurality of color mits on the base material. The system may comprise a device to map at least one of the color mits to computer-readable instructios. The system may further comprise a processor configured to transmit signals using a colored light.
US09449637B2	Reduced reel motor disturbances in a tape drive system An apparatus according to one embodiment includes a motor having: a rotor, a magnet, and a damping layer positioned between the rotor and the magnet. The damping layer is constructed of a material characterized by converting kinetic energy into heat.
US09449636B2	Optical disc actuator and optical disc drive device The present invention provides a printed coil substrate for an optical disc actuator so that the sensitivity will change as little as possible when shifting in a focal direction and a tracking direction. Although the coil patterns laminated at a corresponding position have approximately same shape, center locations in shape of the tracking coil and the focus coils are displaced between the neighboring substrate layers, and the center locations in shape are displaced by a predetermined distance toward a direction of driving the movable portion driven by the coils. Even when the coil pattern of the first layer is moved in a direction of leaving from the position where magnetic force of the magnet is strong, the coil pattern of the second layer is simultaneously moved into the position where magnetic force of the magnet is strong. Therefore, the change of the sensitivity can be relatively compensated.
US09449623B2	Reducing ion migration in a hard disk drive microactuator flexure assembly Approaches to a suspension for a hard disk drive include having an adhered one or more piezo actuating device driven by a negative bias driving voltage. The negative bias driving voltage is lower than ground, therefore such voltage inhibits the migration of ions of an electrically conductive adhesive to an electrically conductive flexure layer, and inhibits the degradation of the resistance of an insulating material positioned between the conductive adhesive and the conductive flexure layer.
US09449620B2	Magnetic recording head having protected reader sensors and near zero recession writer poles An apparatus according to one embodiment includes a module having first and second transducers of different transducer types positioned towards a media facing side of the module, where the different transducer types are selected from a group consisting of data reader transducers, servo reader transducers, write transducers, piggyback read-write transducers and merged read-write transducers. The apparatus also includes a first protection structure for protecting the first transducer. The second transducer has either no protection or is protected by a second protection structure that is different than the first protection structure. In one embodiment, the first protection structure includes a coating on the media facing side of the module adjacent the first transducer. In another embodiment, the first protection structure is a recessed portion of the media facing side adjacent the first transducer.
US09449617B2	Method and apparatus for exemplary segment classification Method and apparatus for segmenting speech by detecting the pauses between the words and/or phrases, and to determine whether a particular time interval contains speech or non-speech, such as a pause.
US09449611B2	System and method for extraction of single-channel time domain component from mixture of coherent information A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions is described for extracting a reference representation from a mixture representation that comprises the reference representation and a residual representation wherein the reference representation, the mixture representation, and the residual representation are representations of collections of acoustical waves stored on computer readable media.
US09449610B2	Speech probability presence modifier improving log-MMSE based noise suppression performance Acoustic noise in an audio signal is reduced by calculating a speech probability presence (SPP) factor using minimum mean square error (MMSE). The SPP factor, which has a value typically ranging between zero and one, is modified or warped responsive to a value obtained from the evaluation of a sigmoid function, the shape of which is determined by a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which is obtained by an evaluation of the signal energy and noise energy output from a microphone over time.
US09449609B2	Accurate forward SNR estimation based on MMSE speech probability presence Acoustic noise in an audio signal is reduced by calculating a speech probability presence (SPP) factor using minimum mean square error (MMSE). The SPP factor, which has a value typically ranging between zero and one, is modified or warped responsive to a value obtained from the evaluation of a sigmoid function, the shape of which is determined by a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which is obtained by an evaluation of the signal energy and noise energy output from a microphone over time. The shape and aggressiveness of the sigmoid function is determined using an extrinsically-determined SNR, not determined by the MMSE determination. The extrinsically-determined SNR is obtained from a long term history of previously-determined speech presence probabilities and a long term history of previously-determined noise histories.
US09449606B2	Audio encoder, audio decoder, methods for encoding and decoding an audio signal, and a computer program An encoder for providing an audio stream on the basis of a transform-domain representation of an input audio signal includes a quantization error calculator configured to determine a multi-band quantization error over a plurality of frequency bands of the input audio signal for which separate band gain information is available. The encoder also includes an audio stream provider for providing the audio stream such that the audio stream includes information describing an audio content of the frequency bands and information describing the multi-band quantization error.A decoder for providing a decoded representation of an audio signal on the basis of an encoded audio stream representing spectral components of frequency bands of the audio signal includes a noise filler for introducing noise into spectral components of a plurality of frequency bands to which separate frequency band gain information is associated on the basis of a common multi-band noise intensity value.
US09449604B2	Method for determining an encoding parameter for a multi-channel audio signal and multi-channel audio encoder The invention relates to a method for determining an encoding parameter for an audio channel signal of a multi-channel audio signal, the method comprising: determining for the audio channel signal a set of functions from the audio channel signal and a reference audio signal; determining a first set of encoding parameters based on a smoothing of the set of functions with respect to a frame sequence of the multi-channel audio signal, the smoothing being based on a first smoothing coefficient; determining a second set of encoding parameters based on a smoothing of the set of functions with respect to the frame sequence of the multi-channel audio signal, the smoothing being based on a second smoothing coefficient; and determining the encoding parameter based on a quality criterion with respect to the first set of encoding parameters and/or the second set of encoding parameters.
US09449603B2	Multi-channel audio encoder and method for encoding a multi-channel audio signal The invention relates to a method for determining an encoding parameter for an audio channel signal of a multi-channel audio signal, the method comprising: determining a frequency transform of the audio channel signal; determining a frequency transform of a reference audio signal; determining inter channel differences for at least each frequency sub-band of a subset of frequency sub-bands, each inter channel difference indicating a phase difference or time difference between a band-limited signal portion of the audio channel signal and a band-limited signal portion of the reference audio signal in the respective frequency sub-band the inter-channel difference is associated to; determining a first average based on positive values of the inter-channel differences and determining a second average based on negative values of the inter-channel differences; and determining the encoding parameter based on the first average and on the second average.
US09449602B2	Dual uplink pre-processing paths for machine and human listening In some implementations, a device for providing dual uplink processing paths may include a human listening (HL) input processing unit configured to receive an audio stream and pre-process the audio stream to create a first audio signal adapted for human listening via a first uplink processing path, a machine listening (ML) input processing unit configured to receive the audio stream and pre-process the audio stream to create a second audio signal adapted for machine listening via a second uplink processing path, and a network interface unit configured to transmit the first audio signal via the first uplink processing path and transmit the second audio signal via the second uplink processing path to a remote server.
US09449601B2	Methods and apparatuses for encoding and decoding object-based audio signals An audio decoding method and apparatus and an audio encoding method and apparatus which can efficiently process object-based audio signals are provided. The audio decoding method includes receiving a downmix signal and object-based side information, the downmix signal comprising at least two downmix channel signals; extracting gain information from the object-based side information and generating modification information for modifying the downmix channel signals on a channel-by-channel basis based on the gain information; and modifying the downmix channel signals by applying the modification information to the downmix channel signals.
US09449599B2	Systems and methods for adaptive proper name entity recognition and understanding Various embodiments contemplate systems and methods for performing automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language understanding (NLU) that enable high accuracy recognition and understanding of freely spoken utterances which may contain proper names and similar entities. The proper name entities may contain or be comprised wholly of words that are not present in the vocabularies of these systems as normally constituted. Recognition of the other words in the utterances in question—e.g., words that are not part of the proper name entities—may occur at regular, high recognition accuracy. Various embodiments provide as output not only accurately transcribed running text of the complete utterance, but also a symbolic representation of the meaning of the input, including appropriate symbolic representations of proper name entities, adequate to allow a computer system to respond appropriately to the spoken request without further analysis of the user's input.
US09449597B2	Ultrasound receiving module, method and system An ultrasound receiving method is provided. N return-wave signals corresponding to N channels are respectively stored in N set of shift register arrays. Each set includes a delay filter unit and M shift registers. A delay controller is utilized to assign a set of coefficients to the delay filter unit to perform an interpolation operation on data of the M shift registers to obtain an output value. The delay controller is utilized to decide delay time of each channel according to a delay table, and accordingly to control a time multiplexer to switch and output the N output values in order. A multiplier is utilized to multiply the output value received from the time multiplexer by a weighted value corresponding to the channel to obtain a corrected value. An accumulator is utilized to accumulate the N corrected values to obtain an image value.
US09449596B2	Sound generation system, sound recording system, sound generation method, sound recording method, sound adjusting method, sound adjusting program, sound field adjusting system, speaker stand, furniture, speaker cabinet, and speaker device Provided are a sound generation system and a sound recording system, which are placed in a room to adjust sound. A columnar body is disposed around a sound source to adjust how much sound of a low-tone range, as well as of a middle- and high-tone range, is absorbed and diffused. Moreover, a columnar body is disposed around a recording device to adjust how much sound of a low-tone range, as well as of a middle- and high-tone range, is absorbed and diffused. The columnar bodies may be made of a combination of different diameters and/or lengths. The arrangement distances may be random. With the columnar body disposed at the most appropriate location, it is possible to adjust sound in a wide band.
US09449594B2	Adaptive phase difference based noise reduction for automatic speech recognition (ASR) Embodiments of a system and method for adapting a phase difference-based noise reduction system are generally described herein. In some embodiments, spatial information associated with a first and second audio signal are determined, wherein the first and second audio signals including a target audio inside a beam and noise from outside the beam. A signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) associated with the audio signals is estimated. A mapping of phase differences to gain factors is adapted for determination of attenuation factors for attenuating frequency bins associated with noise outside the beam. Spectral subtraction is performed to remove estimated noise from the single-channel signal based on a weighting that affects frequencies associated with a target signal less. Frequency dependent attenuation factors are applied to attenuate frequency bins outside the beam to produce a target signal having noise reduced.
US09449593B2	Detecting nonlinear amplitude processing Disclosed is a computer system comprising an audio processing module, an echo cancellation module and a control module. The audio processing module is configured to process an audio signal and output the processed audio signal to e.g. a speaker (or similar) of the system. The echo cancellation module is configured to cancel echo from an audio signal received via e.g. a microphone (or similar) of the system. The control module is configured to detect a condition indicative of nonlinear amplitude processing by the audio processing module and control said echo cancellation by the echo cancellation module based on the detected condition.
US09449591B2	Visual and/or acoustic privacy features Disclosed are exemplary embodiments of visual and/or acoustic privacy features. For example, exemplary embodiments are disclosed that include visual and/or acoustic privacy features for furniture (e.g., office chair, desk, table, cubicle, etc.). The visual and/or acoustic privacy features are movable relative to the user and/or furniture between at least a first configuration and a second configuration. In the first configuration, the visual and/or acoustic privacy features may be configured such that they do not inhibit the user from interacting with others. In the second configuration, the visual and/or acoustic privacy features may be configured to provide the user with at least some visual and/or acoustic privacy and isolation from others.
US09449589B2	Touch detecting device, electronic musical instrument, touch detecting method and storage medium First and third counters count an ON time between first and second contact nodes of a key and an ON time between the second contact node and a third contact node, respectively. A second counter counts a time after counting of the first counter is completed. A counter memory stores velocity counter values representing count times of the first and third counters, and a correction time counter value representing the count time of the second counter. An arrival comparator circuit compares an arrival time value and the correction time counter value. In a case that the velocity count value of the first counter is larger than a threshold value, when the arrival comparator circuit detects that the arrival time value coincides with the correction time counter value, a controller outputs a sound generation instruction including touch information according to the velocity counter value loaded from the counter memory.
US09449587B2	String support devices for string instruments and related methods The present disclosure provides string support devices for string musical instruments, and in particular locking string support devices and methods of locking string support devices for string musical instruments. In some embodiments the locking string support devices and related methods include a string support member fixed to mounting posts that are coupled to a body of a string musical instrument. In some embodiments the string support devices and related methods include a fixing device that fixes the string support member to each of a plurality of mounting posts. In some embodiments the string support member is fixed to the musical instrument in at least one direction via the mounting posts, such as about a first direction that extends along the length of the musical instrument and/or about a second direction that extends through the of the musical instrument.
US09449584B2	Display control apparatus, method for controlling the same, and storage medium A display control apparatus performs, when an image is switched to another image while remaining enlarged, display not giving an uncomfortable feeling to a user, and performs control, when a first image enlarged and displayed on a display unit is switched into a second image, to zoom and display, out of a display magnification of the second image based on magnification information used in the first image before the switching and stored, and of a fit magnification for making the second image have a size falling within a display area in the display unit to match the display area, the second image at a magnification that is the fit magnification or more when the display magnification based on the magnification information is smaller, and the second image at the display magnification based on the magnification information when the display magnification based on the magnification information is larger.
US09449583B2	Control method and electronic apparatus Embodiments of the present invention provide a control method and an electronic apparatus. The control method is applied to an electronic apparatus that includes an array of image display components and an array of image collecting components. The method includes displaying a first window by the array of image display components; obtaining the position of a first region in the first window; turning on the image collecting components corresponding to the first region in the first window in the array of image collecting components according to the position of the first region, wherein the number of the image collecting components corresponding to the first region is less than or equal to the number of the image collecting components in the array of image collecting components; and obtaining a first image by the image collecting components corresponding to the first region.
US09449581B2	Representation of overlapping visual entities Various embodiments present a combined visual entity that represents overlapping visual entities. The combined visual entity can include a primary visualization that represents one of the overlapping visual entities and annotations that represent others of the overlapping visual entities. For example, a map view can include multiple geographical entities that overlap. A primary visualization can be rendered that represents one of the multiple geographical entities. The primary visualization can be visually annotated (e.g., with symbols, letters, or other visual indicators) to indicate others of the multiple geographical entities. In some embodiments, a zoom operation can cause visual entities to be added and/or removed from the combined visual entity.
US09449580B2	Image display method An image display method comprising displaying a first image of an imaged zone in a first display window and displaying a second image of only a part of the imaged zone in a second display window (S2) distinct from the first display window, and refreshing a majority of the first image at a first refreshing rate that is lower than a second refreshing rate of the second image.
US09449579B2	Systems and methods for mapping color data Described herein is a system and method that relates to mapping from one color space on a 3D cube to another, and an addressing method used to represent the data. The system organizes the data to reduce memory storage requirements, by re-using redundant information from different cube corners in a lattice structure without re-storing the same data. The lattice structure may repeat for every cube of interest.
US09449575B2	Screen output control method and system, and mobile terminal supporting the same A screen output control method and system and a mobile terminal supporting the same are provided. The screen output control system includes a screen output device and a mobile terminal. The screen output device is connected with the mobile terminal so as to output screen data rendered by the mobile terminal. When the screen output device is connected, the mobile terminal renders screen data for the screen output device, writes the rendered screen data to a buffer assigned to the screen output device, and outputs screen data written in the buffer to the screen output device.
US09449572B2	Electro-optical device and electronic apparatus having compensation unit for performing voltage compensation Provided is an electro-optical device including a first pixel group in which is written into each pixel electrode of the first pixel group via a first wiring in a first path, a second pixel group in which is written into each pixel electrode of the second pixel group via a second wiring in a second path, an common electrode that is common to the first pixel group and the second pixel group, and a compensation unit performing compensation on at least one of a voltage supplied to the first pixel group via the first wiring and a voltage supplied to the second pixel group via the second wiring, in such a manner as to reduce a difference between an optimal voltage of the common electrode with respect to the first pixel group and an optimal voltage of the common electrode with respect to the second pixel group.
US09449571B2	Display device driving method, display device, and liquid crystal display device A timing controller carries out display refresh on a display panel in a first frame which comes one frame after a second frame in which (i) an image signal supplied from an interface matches an image signal stored in a frame memory and (ii) a polarity balance value is equal to a reference value. In this case, the image signal, having a polarity opposite to that of pixel applied voltages in the second frame, is supplied to the display panel in the first frame. This makes it possible to prevent a deterioration in the display panel while reducing electric power consumption.
US09449565B2	Display device and driving method thereof A display device includes: a plurality of pixels; a scan driver configured to apply a scan signal to a plurality of scan lines connected to the plurality of pixels; a data driver configured to apply a gray voltage to a plurality of data lines connected to the plurality of pixels; a signal controller configured to transmit a scan control signal for controlling operating of the scan driver to the scan driver, and configured to transmit a data control signal for controlling operating of the data driver to the data driver; a power supply configured to supply a power voltage for generation of the scan signal to the scan driver; and a short detector configured to detect a voltage level of the power voltage and generate an enable signal in response to the detection.
US09449564B2	Controller, hold-type display device, electronic apparatus, and signal adjusting method for hold-type display device To provide a hold-type display device having a fine luminance efficiency while suppressing generation of motion blur. A controller according to the invention adjusts a signal outputted to a hold-type image display panel, which includes: a double-speed drive converting part which divides one frame of an inputted video signal to a plurality of sub-frames; a color converting part which converts a video signal of three primary colors including the plurality of sub-frames to a video signal of four or more colors including the three primary colors and a compound color; and a sub-frame converting part which converts, the video signal converted by the color converting part, to a signal having a plurality of different gradations whose average luminance value becomes equivalent to luminance of the video signal converted by the color converting part, and takes each of the plurality of gradations as each of gradations of the plurality of sub-frames.
US09449556B2	Driving method of organic electroluminescence emission part A driving method of a display device having a driving transistor and a display element, one source/drain region of the driving transistor connected to a power supply part, the other source/drain region connected to an anode electrode provided in the display element, the method includes the steps of: setting a potential of the anode electrode by applying a predetermined intermediate voltage to the anode electrode so that a potential difference between the anode electrode of the display element and a cathode electrode at the other end of the display element does not exceed a threshold voltage of the display element; and then holding the driving transistor in OFF-state while a drive voltage is applied from the power supply part to one source/drain region of the driving transistor.
US09449555B2	Display device and driving method thereof Aspects of embodiments of the present invention include a display device including: a display unit comprising a plurality of scan lines that extend in a row direction, a plurality of data lines that extend in a column direction, and a plurality of pixels coupled to the scan lines and the data lines; a scan driver configured to sequentially apply a scan signal of a gate-on voltage to the scan lines during a writing period for applying a data voltage to the pixels; and a data driver configured to apply a data voltage to the data lines during the writing period, wherein a first power source voltage supplying a driving current of the pixels is applied to the data lines during a period other than the writing period.
US09449554B2	Pixel driving circuit and driving method thereof, display apparatus The present invention provides a pixel driving circuit and a driving method thereof, and a display apparatus. The pixel driving circuit comprises a reset module, a data write module, an output module and a potential holding module, wherein the potential holding module is used for holding potential of a control node when a signal is inputted from an emission signal input terminal. With this pixel driving circuit, the potential of a gate of a driving transistor is prevented from being influenced by the current leakage, and holding effect of potential of the gate of the driving transistor is improved.
US09449549B2	Semiconductor device and driving method thereof A voltage equal to the threshold value of a TFT (106) is held in capacitor unit (109). When a video signal is inputted from a source signal line, the voltage held in the capacitor unit is added thereto and a resultant signal is applied to a gate electrode of the TFT (106). Even when a threshold value is varied for each pixel, each threshold value is held in the capacitor unit (109) for each pixel. Thus, the influence of a variation in threshold value can be eliminated. Further, holding of the threshold value is conducted by only the capacitor unit (109) and a charge does not move at writing of a video signal so that a voltage between both electrodes is not changed. Thus, it is not influenced by a variation in capacitance value.
US09449546B2	LED driver, LED driving method and controller for LED driver A LED driver, a LED driving method and a controller for LED driver are discussed in the present invention. The LED driver detects the phase of the input signal which is phase cut by a triac from a pre-E-transformer. The LED driver regulates the current flowing through the LED strings by varying the phase of the input signal.
US09449545B2	Display device including gate line driver and driving method thereof A method of reducing a time for switching a gate line driving signal of display device having plural gate lines from a level that is less than a full gate-on level to the gate-on level is disclosed. The method may include: during a gate line pre-charging period of a respective gate line, causing the gate line driving signal to be at the full gate-on level; during a corresponding gate line main-charging period that follows the pre-charging period, causing the gate line driving signal of to be at the full gate-on level; and during an interposed period that is interposed between the gate line pre-charging period and its corresponding gate line main-charging period, causing the gate line driving signal to be at an intermediate level that is between the full gate-on level and an opposed gate-off level.
US09449544B2	AMOLED pixel circuit and driving method An AMOLED pixel circuit and driving method are disclosed. The AMOLED pixel circuit comprises a first transistor (T1), a second transistor (T2), a third transistor (T3), a fourth transistor (T4), a fifth transistor (T5), a sixth transistor (T6), a seventh transistor (T7), an eighth transistor (T8), a first capacitor (C1), a second capacitor (C2), a current source and a light-emitting device (OLED). The AMOLED pixel circuit can perform a rapid charging in a low gray scale state; different currents may be provided according to information on a high or low gray scale, and thus the AMOLED pixel circuit may be applied widely; an output current during a light-emitting period is a normal operational current of the light-emitting device; therefore not only a charging process is expedited, but also a normal operation of the light-emitting device is ensured.
US09449532B2	Hernia model A model for practicing transabdominal pre-peritoneal (TAPP) and total extraperitoneal (TEP) approaches for laparoscopic hernia repairs is provided. The model simulates an insufflated space between the abdominal muscles and peritoneum. A spring layer may be incorporated to provide a realistic resiliency to the model while in the simulated insufflated configuration. At least one hole is provided in the model from which synthetic tissue protrudes to simulate a hernia. The model is used to selectively simulate direct, indirect and femoral inguinal hernias as well as incisional hernias by removably placing the protruding simulated tissue into any one of several openings. The model contains all important anatomical structures and sits on a base frame or is connected to a rigid simulated pelvis. When located inside a laparoscopic trainer with an angled top cover, the model provides an ideal simulation for teaching and practicing laparoscopic hernia repair.
US09449531B2	Vision assistive devices and user interfaces Vision assistive device and user interface are disclosed. In some embodiments, a vision assistive device includes a housing having a base for positioning the housing on a surface; one or more imaging units disposed along a top portion of the housing, each imaging unit being angled downward so a central axis of the imaging unit forms an acute angle with the surface so the imaging unit captures a target image from a target object; and a control system accommodated within the housing, the control system being connected to the one or more imaging units to process the target image captured by each imaging unit and to output the target image to a user.
US09449530B1	Automatic diet tracking system and method An automatic diet tracking system and methods comprising: i) voice-transcribed or typed text natural language processing and automatic tracking to record food, food quantity, and nutrition data, ii) multi-food administration to record multiple foods and related data in a single user voice-transcribed or typed text submission, and iii) location-based diet recommendations system that provides customized food recommendations to users based on user preferences and user physical location. Further, such automatic diet tracking system and location-based diet recommendations system are usable through computers, tablets, mobile phones, smart watches, wearables and other similar devices.
US09449529B2	Educational dinnerware device An educational dinnerware device has an interior surface connected to a rim. The interior surface has at least one interior side wall and a bottom surface defining a food area. An exterior surface of the educational dinnerware device is connected to and extends away from the rim and has at least one exterior side wall and an exterior bottom surface. Formed in the exterior bottom surface is a card loading cavity with an exterior viewing surface forming a wall of the card loading cavity. A viewing card having two opposite viewing surfaces and an edge is placed in the card viewing cavity and allows one of the surfaces of the viewing card to be viewed through the exterior viewing surface, which can be viewed through the interior viewing surface of the educational dinnerware device.
US09449527B2	Break-fix simulator A system, apparatus, method, and computer program product for implementing at least one break-fix simulation are disclosed. A processor implements the at least one break-fix simulation by invoking a virtualization of a product that is configured to provide a service, executing one or more scripts that are configured to break the virtualization of the product so that at least a portion of the service fails, receiving first input via a user interface that is configured to access one or more tools for restoring the at least a portion of the service to working order, and restoring the at least a portion of the service to working order with the one or more tools utilizing the first input.
US09449526B1	Generating a game related to a digital work In some implementations, one or more words from a digital work are used to generate a game to be displayed on an electronic device. For example, the electronic device may include a library of one or more digital works. A word or knowledge game may be dynamically generated based on objects, such as characters, topics, places, organizations, things, etc., identified in at least one digital work in the library. As one example, a crossword puzzle may be created to include words and clues based at least in part on the objects identified in at least one digital work and supplemental information associated with the objects. The clues for the crossword puzzle may be generated automatically based, at least in part, on a desired level of difficulty. Further, in some cases, the game may be generated from words drawn from multiple digital works in the library.
US09449525B2	Systems and methods for testing over a distributed network A computer-based testing system includes testing stations connected to a testing service center and backend via the Internet for providing testing services. The system is operable to perform state management to implement fault recovery due to a computing device failure while a test is being administered. The system is also operable to utilize multiple caching techniques for mitigating network latency while administering tests.
US09449517B2	Driving support device, vehicle, and control program There is provided a driving support device includes a communication unit configured to perform communication with another vehicle; a storage unit configured to store reference information including information regarding positional relationship of the another vehicle with respect to an own-vehicle, information regarding a direction of relative displacement of the another vehicle with respect to the own-vehicle, and a control threshold value, each associated with one another; and a control unit configured to perform predetermined safety control based on whether or not information derived from running information on the another vehicle received by the communication unit and running information on the own-vehicle correspond to the reference information stored by the storage unit.
US09449516B2	Gesture recognition for on-board display Methods and systems for a complete vehicle ecosystem are provided. Specifically, systems that when taken alone, or together, provide an individual or group of individuals with an intuitive and comfortable vehicular environment. The present disclosure includes a system to recognize the drivers and/or passengers within the automobile. Based on the recognition, the vehicle may change a configuration of the automobile to match predetermined preferences for the driver and/or passenger. The configurations may also include the recognition of a unique set of gestures for the person. Further, the configuration can also include the tracking of health data related to the person.
US09449515B2	V2V safety system using vehicle location as vehicle identification A vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication transponder for use in V2V communication, safety and anti-collision systems using only a vehicle location for vehicle ID is described. Message embodiments are free of pre-assigned permanent vehicle identification. A hybrid TMDA and CSMA protocol is used. Vehicle position is broadcast as an offset in distance units from a pre-defined geographical grid in degree units. A transponder may proxy for non-equipped vehicle. A proxy handoff and message coding for a proxy message are described. Embodiments are free of MAC and IP addresses. No central authority or road-side equipment (RSU) is required. Embodiments include equipped vehicles and V2V system using the transponder. Embodiments include equipped vehicles and V2V system using the transponder.
US09449510B2	Selective object detection Video analytics is used to track an object of interest represented in video data representing the field of view of a scene observed by a video camera. A multidimensional virtual beam is used to detect whether the tracked object of interest is continually present in a detection zone within the field view of the scene. An occurrence of an event is signaled when the tracked object of interest is continually present in the detection zone during a period beginning when the tracked object of interest enters the detection zone and ending when the tracked object of interest leaves the detection zone through the opposite side, after having completely crossed through the detection zone. Use of a virtual beam detection zone reduces false alarms as compared to the numbers of incidences of false alarms of traditional detection methods, while adding several features and benefits.
US09449509B2	Method of traffic congestion estimation Disclosed is a method of traffic congestion estimation including a speed detection step of detecting speed of a vehicle in a predetermined period of time and outputting the detection result; a frequency analysis step of analyzing a frequency of the result of the speed detection and outputting the power spectrum; a slope detection step of detecting a slope of a power spectrum and outputting the detection result; a time variation calculation step of calculating time variation of the slope and outputting the calculation result; and a traffic congestion estimation step of estimating occurrence of traffic congestion from the calculation result of the time variation of the slope and outputting the estimation result.
US09449503B2	Circuit board for controlling wireless dental foot pedal A system, method, and apparatus including a printed circuit board with electronic circuit components mounted thereon and configured for wireless communication between the various components and devices used in a wireless dental device.
US09449501B2	Chopper mixer telemetry circuit This disclosure describes a chopper mixer telemetry circuit for use in a wireless receiver. The receiver may be located in an implantable medical device (IMD) or external programmer. The chopper mixer telemetry circuit may include a mixer amplifier that operates as a synchronous demodulator to provide selective extraction of wireless signals received from a transmitter while suppressing out-of-band noise that can undermine the reliability of the telemetry link between an IMD or programmer and another device. The mixer amplifier may utilize parallel signal paths to convert the received telemetry signal into an in-phase (I) signal component and a quadrature (Q) signal component and recombine the I and Q signal components to reconstruct the total signal independently of the phase mismatch between the transmitter and receiver. Each signal path may include a chopper-stabilized mixer amplifier that amplifies telemetry signals within a desired band while suppressing out-of-band noise.
US09449499B2	Connectorized wireless node used to distribute power and control devices in a power distribution system A connectorized wireless node used to distribute power and control devices in a system. The connectorized wireless node includes a housing, power control circuitry and wireless control circuitry. The power control circuitry is provided in the housing and distributes power to the devices. The wireless control circuitry is provided in the housing and receives wireless signals which contain control information. The wireless control circuitry cooperates with the power control circuitry to control the devices within a system.
US09449494B2	First-responder notification for alternative fuel vehicles A method for notifying parties in close proximity to a vehicle of a potential vehicle hazard includes detecting that the vehicle has been in a collision, determining the type of propulsion system used by the vehicle, generating a warning or other notification relating to the propulsion system, and communicating the notification to a party located within a predetermined range of the vehicle. Communication of the notification can be carried out by renaming the telematics unit with a device name corresponding to a hazard associated with the propulsion system, and then broadcasting the device name according to an established wireless protocol.
US09449491B2	Notifying a community of security events A method of operating a security monitoring system comprises defining a group of people to receive a notification of an event taking place at a location associated with any member of the group, by a system, determining that a security event has at least potentially taken place that the members of the group need to be notified of, by the system, and notifying the members of the group of the event, via a network. Notifications of the at least potential security event may be provided to a first party of the at least potential security event and members of the group may be notified if the first party does not respond to the notification within a predetermined period of time. A system is also disclosed.
US09449486B2	Solitary senior people care system A solitary senior people care system comprises: an electric device switch installed within a household where a senior resident resides; a household monitoring communication device configured to provide the on or off state information and identity information of the electric device switch together; an electric device switch history server computer that stores and provides solitary senior resident household electric device switch usage history information, electric device switch setting information, and electric device switching state information; and a care device configured to notify an emergency rescue center or a guardian contact number about occurrence of an emergency situation when an emergency situation occurs, the solitary senior resident household electric device switch usage history information, and the state value information indicating whether an emergency situation has occurred.
US09449485B2	Flame detector having visible light related processing circuits and infrared related circuits respectively coupled to photodiodes to establish instantaneous dc related signal changes and peak-to-peak ac signals over a predetermined time interval A flame detector incorporates visible and near infrared sensors in common with processing circuits to form processed instantaneous, dc type, signal values minus an average value and peak-to-peak ranges of values of ac-type signals over a measurement time interval on the order of three seconds. The resulting values are further processed to determine the presence of a fire condition by comparing them to a predetermined threshold.
US09449484B2	System for real time security monitoring A security system comprises one or more sensor devices configured to detect conditions at one or more sites; one or more checkpoints at each of said one or more sites configured to receive signals from the one or more sensor devices; and a central headquarters processor configured to receive signals indicative of the conditions detected at said one or more sites from the one or more checkpoints. The central headquarters processor is configured to process the signals to determine if an event has occurred.
US09449481B2	Method and apparatus for classifying video data A method of classifying video data representing activity within a space to be monitored. A method comprises storing video data obtained from a camera configured to monitor the space. Sensor data indicative of a condition occurring within the space is obtained, and a plurality of program elements are defined within the video data. Each program element has an associated classification code, and each classification code is selected using the sensor data.
US09449477B2	Applications of systems and methods for eliciting cutaneous sensations by electromagnetic radiation Disclosed herein are a variety of systems and methods for eliciting cutaneous sensations using electromagnetic radiation. In one embodiment, an optical stimulation system is configured to induce a cutaneous sensation in a user of an electronic device based upon a tactile application executable on the electronic device. The optical stimulation system may include an interface component configured to selectively direct the output of the stimulation system onto a target area of skin of the user. A controller may be configured to generate a control signal to cause the stimulation system to modify one or more characteristics of the output of the stimulation system in order to induce a cutaneous sensation based on detection of a registration mark associated with tissue to be stimulated, a representation of a simulated object, and a stimulation profile representing the simulated object.
US09449475B2	Emergency location device An emergency location device with a deployable rescue balloon is presented. The balloon is housed in tube body in its stowed state with a frangible foil holding it in place at the proximal edge of the tube body. The device includes a ball valve attached to the opposite end of the balloon and further coupled to a charger valve. The charger valve includes a piercing needle configured to pierce a helium pressure tank thereby deploying and inflating the rescue balloon. The helium tank, the charger valve, and the ball valve are all enclosed in the lumen of the tube body. The balloon is attached to the inside of the tube body via a lanyard, which unravels when the balloon is deployed. A threaded cap coupled to the distal end of the tube body, which is also used to deploy the balloon, secures the helium pressure tank in the tube body.
US09449474B2	Sales data processing device, sales data processing method and computer readable storage medium A sales data processing device of the present invention accepts operations by an operator, opens a drawer, and is provided with a history acquisition unit, a reference information acquisition unit and an irregularity detection unit. The history acquisition unit acquires a history of operations by the operator. The reference information acquisition unit acquires, from references of standard operations set in advance for each of operations that cause the drawer to open, the standard operation references for operations specified in the history. For each of the operations specified in the history, the irregularity detection unit finds a difference from the standard operation reference acquired by the reference information acquisition unit, and if the difference is of at least a predetermined level, detects that the operation is an irregular drawer operation.
US09449470B2	Wagering game with upgradable symbol stacks A gaming system includes one or more input devices, display devices, processors, and memory devices. At least one of the memory devices store instructions that cause the system to receive a wager and to display at least one array having a plurality of columns. An outcome is randomly selected, in response to the wager, in which a first column is stacked with a stack of symbols of a first rank and a second column is stacked with a stack of symbols of a second rank. The first rank is compared with the second rank to determine a high rank and a low rank according to a predetermined pay table. The stack of symbols of the low rank is upgraded to a stack of symbols of the high rank.
US09449468B2	Multi-card bingo game features After the main ball drop of a bingo game, a player may be given a free extra bingo number. A probability of awarding a free ball may be determined, at least in part, according to a desired paytable percentage for the bingo game. In some implementations providing multi-card bingo games, a player is required to hit a predetermined pattern on more than one bingo card in order to obtain a progressive award. The number of hits in the pattern(s) and/or the number of bingo cards involved may be determined according to a desired progressive award size and/or a desired probability of obtaining the progressive award. Players may have an opportunity to purchase an additional bingo number or a block of a plurality of additional bingo numbers after the main ball drop. The block may be offered at a discount compared to the price of an individual additional bingo number.
US09449463B2	Method of gaming, a gaming system and a game controller A gaming system comprises a display controlled by the gaming system to display a prior jackpot value of a jackpot corresponding to a value of the jackpot when a previous jackpot trigger event occurred. The gaming system is arranged to receive wagers on one or more games playable in the gaming system, increment a current value of the jackpot pool in memory of the gaming system based on the wagers, determine a jackpot event value of the jackpot responsive to a jackpot event occurring, the jackpot event value being the current value of the jackpot upon the jackpot event occurring and the jackpot event being independent of incrementing the jackpot, upon the player winning the jackpot responsive to the jackpot event, make an award to the player of the jackpot event value, and upon the player not winning the jackpot responsive to the jackpot event, set the jackpot event value as a new prior jackpot value and control the display to display the new prior jackpot value until the next jackpot event.
US09449462B2	Method and apparatus for awarding individual or group point multiplication In use, the player would insert his or her player card at the EGM 10. The system checks to see if any multiplier currently applies to the machine and player. The multiplier is available as a token and can communicate to the guest via display on the EGM. The multiplier would be displayed using a conditional message feature of the display. Session points would accumulate at the “multiplied” rate and are displayed as such on the EGM display. Alternately, an assurance message is available to be displayed frequently that shows the current multiplier. When the player removes his or her card, the session is posted to the patron management system. Casino personal can then review the session detail by accession the history of the player at a workstation capable of querying the player tracking system. The session multiplier and points earned by the multiplier are listed within the record.
US09449454B2	Wagering game having bonus-award feature with changing state A gaming system for conducting a wagering game includes a display arrangement for displaying a video image overlaying a game display. The video image includes special symbols for indicating a bonus-award feature having a changing state. The changing state is continually updated or modified based on outcomes of the wagering game as displayed on the game display. The gaming system further includes a controller operative to cause the bonus-award feature to provide an award to the player in response to the state of the bonus-award feature meeting certain criteria.
US09449451B2	Coin identifier A method and apparatus including the steps of establishing a defining attributes of a respective coin based at least upon a predetermined ratio of weight per unit of volume or upon topological features of one or more predominant surfaces of the coin, measuring a first set of dimensional parameters that define a shape of the disk including one or more thickness and diameter measurements, measuring a second parameter including a weight of the disk, measuring a third set of parameters defining a set of topographical features of the disk, comparing the measured parameters within at least some of the plurality of files of the database; and classifying the disk as a specific type of coin by substantially matching at least some of the measured parameters of the disk with the attributes of at least one of the plurality of files.
US09449449B2	Access control operator diagnostic control A computing device using diagnostic application software described herein allows an owner or operator of a premises to provide a service technician access to operational data from a movable barrier operator so that the technician's computing device can troubleshoot for possible issues with the operation of the barrier operator. The owner's computing device can send credentials to the technician mobile device so that the technician's computing device can then utilize the application to access the operational data. For added security, the application can further give the owner computing device control over the type and duration of access provided to the technician.
US09449447B2	Control system and control method for vehicle anti-theft A control method for anti-theft is provided. The method is running to a vehicle. The control method includes: allocating a calculation factor dynamically; calculating a high-frequency compensation value according to the calculation factor; adding the high-frequency compensation value to a frequency value of the high-frequency signal to obtain a first frequency value of the high-frequency signal; switching a high-frequency receive unit to a new channel being able to receive a high-frequency signal having a frequency value that is equal to the first frequency value of the high-frequency signal; receiving a high-frequency signal when a frequency value of the high-frequency signal is equal to the first frequency value of the high-frequency signal; and unlocking the vehicle according to the high-frequency signal.
US09449446B1	System employing a plurality of brain/body-generated inputs to control the multi-action operation of a controllable device A system employing a plurality of brain/body-generated inputs to control multi-action operation includes a controllable device, that performs at least two actions via remote control, and a head-mounted user interface device. The UI device includes a user cranium-mounted frame, first and second sensors supported by the frame, a processor, and a transmitter. The first sensor includes an electrode for contacting the cranium when the frame is worn and adapted to receive a bioelectric signal from the cranium. The second sensor receives hands-free brain/body input from the user. The processor uses application software process input provided by the first and second sensors and generates different outputs, corresponding to different commands. The transmitter transmits signals, based on the different commands, to the controllable device to initiate the different actions performed by the device.
US09449424B2	Visualization of field of view obstruction by an ellipsoid Methods, systems, and devices for the visualization of the region of a 3-dimensional space obstructed from a viewing location by an ellipsoid are disclosed. In an embodiment, the obstructed region may be defined from primitive elements which are combined using Boolean operations. The primitive elements chosen may be represented using both implicit functions and/or parametric surfaces. In an embodiment, the implicit function representation may be used to quickly determine points on candidate surfaces which may be obstructed from view. In an embodiment, the parametric representation may be used to provide ray-surface intersection solutions enabling visualization of the boundary surface of the obstruction region.
US09449423B2	Apparatus and method for image processing A method for processing a three-dimensional (3D) image of a ray tracing scheme may be performed by an image processing apparatus by verifying whether local index information matching intersection point information of a ray is present within a prefetch table when intersection point information is received, and by transferring, to a shader, rendering information stored in a local memory based on the local index information, when the local index information matching the intersection point information is present.
US09449419B2	Post tessellation edge cache In accordance with some embodiments, domain shader and/or tessellator operations can be eliminated when they are redundant. By using a corner cache, a check can determine whether a given corner, be it a vertex or a quadrilateral corner, has already been evaluated in the domain shader and/or tessellator and if so, the result of the previous operation can be reused instead of performing unnecessary invocations that may increase power consumption or reduce speed.
US09449416B2	Animation processing of linked object parts The invention relates to a method and system of forming an animation of a virtual object within a virtual environment, and a storage medium storing a computer program for carrying out such a method. The virtual object comprises a plurality of object parts, and one or more predetermined object part groups each being a sequence of linked object parts. The method includes generating a target configuration for the parts of the object part group, using a scale factor to scale the target configuration.
US09449414B1	Collaborative presentation system Embodiments of collaborative presentation systems are provided. An example collaborative presentation system includes a display device, an image sensor, a network interface, a logic device, and a storage device holding instructions executable by the logic device to retrieve a presentation file that is executed to display a presentation on the display device, receive image frames from the image sensor, the image frames including the display device, the displayed presentation, and a presenter, and extract the presenter from the image frames to generate an extracted presenter image. The instructions are further executable to adjust an appearance of the extracted presenter image to form an adjusted presenter image, generate an updated presentation file, the updated presentation file being executable to display the presentation overlaid with the adjusted presenter image, and transmit, via the network interface, the updated presentation file to a remote presentation participant device.
US09449413B2	Image compositing via multi-spectral detection A video image capture component includes a light source operable in a first spectrum, a first image detector operable in the first spectrum, a second light source operable in a second spectrum, and a second image detector operable in the second spectrum. A filtering component generates a combination image by filtering a first image obtained by the first image detector with a high-contrast filter, resulting in a high-contrast image, and masking a second image obtained by the second image detector using the high-contrast image. A compositing component creates a composite image from the combination image and a selected image. A display component displays the composite image.Alternative systems and methods for creating a combination image include techniques involving thermal imaging, laser detection, and narrow band frequency detection.
US09449411B2	Ranking image importance with a photo-collage A method of ranking the importance of digital images from a collection of images, including using a processor to operate upon a photo-collage identifying digital images in the image collection to rank the importance of one or more of the digital images based on the photo-collage, and associating the importance ranking of the one or more digital images with the corresponding one or more digital images.
US09449410B2	Intra-frame timestamps for tile-based rendering This disclosure describes techniques for supporting intra-frame timestamps in a graphics system that performs tile-based rendering. The techniques for supporting intra-frame timestamps may involve generating a timestamp value that is indicative of a point in time based on a plurality of per-bin timestamp values that are generated by a graphics processing unit (GPU) while performing tile-based rendering for a graphics frame. The timestamp value may be a function of at least two of the plurality of per-bin timestamp values. The timestamp value may be generated by a central processing unit (CPU), the GPU, another processor, or any combination thereof. By using per-bin timestamp values to generate timestamp values for intra-frame timestamp requests, intra-frame timestamps may be supported by a graphics system that performs tile-based rendering.
US09449403B2	Out of plane artifact reduction in digital breast tomosynthesis and CT Reduction of artifacts in digital breast tomosynthesis and in computed tomography. Because of the limited angular range acquisition in DBT the reconstructed slices have reduced resolution in z-direction and are affected by artifacts. Out-of-plane blur caused by dense tissue and large masses complicates 3D visualization and reconstruction of thick slices volumes. The streak-like out-of-plane artifacts caused by calcifications and metal clips distort the true shape of calcification, an important malignancy predictor. Microcalcifications could be obscured by bright artifacts. The technique involves reconstructing a set of super resolution slices and predicting the “artifact-free” voxel intensity based on the corresponding set of projection pixels using a statistical model learned from a set of training data. The resulting reconstructed images are de-blurred and streak artifacts are reduced, visibility of clinical features, contrast and sharpness are improved, 3D visualization and thick-slice reconstruction is possible without the loss of contrast and sharpness.
US09449399B2	Recognizing method of flaky or blocky prohibited articles, explosives or drugs The present invention discloses recognizing methods of flaky or blocky prohibited articles, explosives or drugs. Specifically, the method for recognizing flaky prohibited articles, explosives or drugs comprises steps of: (1) reading in tomogram data of an object to be inspected for one tomogram; (2) pre-processing the tomogram data; (3) splitting the pre-processed tomogram data into a plurality of regions that have similar physical properties; (4) analyzing whether each of the split regions is a flaky region; (5) determining whether the flaky region recognized in the current tomogram can be merged with the flaky region detected from the previous tomogram, so as to form a flaky target; (6) determining whether each detected flaky target is complete or finished; (7) repeating steps (1)-(6) and processing each tomogram data layer by layer, until all of the tomogram data have been processed.
US09449395B2	Methods and systems for image matting and foreground estimation based on hierarchical graphs In accordance with an embodiment, a method for image matting based on a hierarchical graph model, comprises receiving an input image including a plurality of image elements; generating a plurality of matting cells based on the input image, each cell including a group of image elements; calculating affinity values for the plurality of matting cells based on the input image; forming a graph based on the plurality of matting cells and the affinity values, the graph including a plurality of nodes representing the matting cells and a plurality of edges associated with the affinity values of the matting cells; and generating a plurality of matting components for the input image based on the graph.
US09449394B2	Image synthesis device, image synthesis system, image synthesis method and program An image synthesis device includes a real image acquisition unit configured to acquire a real image, a post-substitution object image acquisition unit configured to acquire a post-substitution object image that is substituted for a pre-substitution object image included in the real image and synthesized with the real image, a masking object image region detection unit configured to detect a region of a masking object image that masks the pre-substitution object image in the real image, a masked portion cut-out unit configured to cut out a portion corresponding to the region of the masking object image from the post-substitution object image, and a synthesis execution unit configured to perform the synthesis of the post-substitution object image which the portion corresponding to the region of the masking object image has been cut out from the real image.
US09449392B2	Estimator training method and pose estimating method using depth image An estimator training method and a pose estimating method using a depth image are disclosed, in which the estimator training method may train an estimator configured to estimate a pose of an object, based on an association between synthetic data and real data, and the pose estimating method may estimate the pose of the object using the trained estimator.
US09449391B2	Electronic device and method of transforming into bookshelf thereof The electronic device includes a main body, a display screen, a first block plate, a first image capturing unit, a second image capturing unit, an image analysis unit and a control unit. The first image capturing unit is used for capturing a book image of the book and a first eye image of an eye. The second image capturing unit is used capturing a second eye image of the eye. The image analysis unit is used for determining a relative distance between the eye and the main body according to the first eye image and the second eye image and a book size of the book according to the book image. The control unit is used for determining a suitable viewing angle and controlling the display screen to rotate, such that a viewing angle at the book viewed by the eye is substantially equal to the suitable viewing angle.
US09449386B2	Method and apparatus for extended phase correction in phase sensitive magnetic resonance imaging Methods, apparatuses, systems, and software for extended phase correction in phase sensitive Magnetic Resonance Imaging. A magnetic resonance image or images may be loaded into a memory. Two vector images A and B associated with the loaded image or images may be calculated either explicitly or implicitly so that a vector orientation by one of the two vector images at a pixel is substantially determined by a background or error phase at the pixel, and the vector orientation at the pixel by the other vector image is substantially different from that determined by the background or error phase at the pixel. A sequenced region growing phase correction algorithm may be applied to the vector images A and B to construct a new vector image V so that a vector orientation of V at each pixel is substantially determined by the background or error phase at the pixel. A phase corrected magnetic resonance image or images may be generated using the vector image V, and the phase corrected magnetic resonance image or images may be displayed or archived.
US09449382B2	System and method for applying a reflectance modifying agent to change a persons appearance based on a digital image A computer-controlled system determines attributes of a frexel, which is an area of human skin, and applies a reflectance modifying agent (RMA) at the pixel level to automatically change the appearance of human features based on one or more digital images. The change may be based on a digital image of the same frexel, for as seen in a prior digital photograph captured previously by the computer-controlled system. The system scans the frexel and uses feature recognition software to compare the person's current features in the frexel with that person's features in the digital image. It then calculates enhancements to the make the current features appear more like the features in the digital image, and it applies the RMA to the frexel to accomplish the enhancements. Or the change may be based on a digital image of another person, through the application of RMAs.
US09449380B2	Medical image quality monitoring and improvement system A medical image quality reporting and monitoring system for use in a medical imaging system comprises a medical image computer including, a display processor, a display and a report generator. The display processor generates data representing an image for display including a user selectable image element enabling a user to identify at least one medical image as having an image quality deficiency. The display presents the image. The report generator, in response to detection of selection of the image element, identifying at least one medical reduced quality image as having an image quality deficiency, automatically generates a report. The report comprises, data representing an anonymized reduced quality image having the image quality deficiency, a time of acquisition of the reduced quality image and imaging system acquisition settings used in acquiring the reduced quality image.
US09449378B2	System and method for processing stereoscopic vehicle information A stereoscopic measurement system determines relative location of a point on an object based on a stereo image pair of the object. The system comprises an image capture device for capturing a stereo image pair of the object, the image pair comprising a first image and a second image of the object. The system comprises a processing system configurable to designate a first point and a second point on the first image, designate the first point and the second point on the second image, define stereo points based on the designated points, and to calculate a distance between the stereo points.
US09449376B2	Image processing apparatus and image processing method for performing tone correction of an output image An image processing apparatus comprises a region discrimination unit configured to discriminate object regions included in an image; a first calculation unit configured to calculate representative luminance values of a plurality of object regions discriminated by the region discrimination unit; a second calculation unit configured to calculate luminance distribution information of each of the plurality of object regions discriminated by the region discrimination unit; a determination unit configured to determine tone characteristics based on the representative luminance values of the plurality of object regions calculated by the first calculation unit and the pieces of luminance distribution information of the plurality of object regions calculated by the second calculation unit; and an image processing unit configured to perform tone correction processing based on the tone characteristics determined by the determination unit.
US09449371B1	True motion based temporal-spatial IIR filter for video To denoise video data, a temporal IIR filter is applied to video data. The temporally filtered frame is used as a guide to spatially filter the video data without introducing temporal artifacts. The spatially filtered frame can then be temporally filtered again using a temporal IIR filter. The results of the second temporal filtering can then be used as a guide to eliminate noise that the spatial filter did not eliminate.
US09449363B2	Sampling, fault management, and/or context switching via a compute pipeline Apparatuses, systems, and methods may sample a texture, manage a page fault, and/or switch a context associated with the page fault. A three-dimensional (3D) graphics pipeline may provide texture sample location data corresponding to a texture, wherein sampling of the texture is to be executed external to the 3D graphics pipeline. A compute pipeline may execute sampling of the texture utilizing the texture sample location data and provide texture sample result data corresponding to the texture, wherein the 3D graphics pipeline may composite a frame utilizing the texture sample result data. The compute pipeline may manage a page fault, wherein the page fault and/or management of the page fault may be hidden from a graphics application. In addition, the compute pipeline may switch a compute context associated with the page fault to allow a graphics task not associated with the page fault to be executed and/or to prevent a stall.
US09449362B2	Techniques for reducing accesses for retrieving texture images Various embodiments are generally directed to techniques for reducing storage access bandwidth requirements in retrieving a texture image from a storage for applying textures to rendered objects by rendering the texture image itself into the storage to reduce the storage space in which the texture image is stored and to arrange portions of the texture image to be retrieved with fewer accesses. A device to render images includes a processor component; a color analyzer to determine a clear color of a texture image stored as source texture data; and a rendering routine to render the texture image into a storage as reduced texture data, the rendering routine to selectively store in the reduced texture data pixel color values retrieved from the source texture data that are associated with pixels of the texture image not colored with the clear color. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09449360B2	Reducing the number of sequential operations in an application to be performed on a shared memory cell Methods and apparatuses to reduce the number of sequential operations such as atomic operations in an application to be performed on a shared memory cell may be provided. A translation unit can detect in the application multiple atomic operations to be performed on the same memory and replaces the multiple atomic operations with an equivalent single atomic operation. In some implementations, the application includes shader code. In some implementations, each of the multiple atomic operations increment a value stored at the same memory by an update amount. The translation unit may calculate the partial prefix sum over all the atomic operations and replace the multiple atomic operations with a single atomic operation to increment the value stored at memory by the sum of the update amounts.
US09449356B2	System and method for monitoring progress of delivery of a patient-specific medication in a healthcare facility Systems and methods of monitoring progress of delivery of a patient-specific medication are disclosed. A patient/medication identification (ID) device is provided on a package containing the medication, the patient/medication ID device comprising medication/patient information indicative of the medication and the patient. At least one location ID device is provided at a location, the at least one location ID device comprising a unique location ID associated with the location. The medication/patient information and the patient/medication ID are read. Delivery progress information indicative of a last-known read location where at least one of the medication/patient ID information and the unique location identifier was read is generated. The delivery progress information is stored in a database. The delivery progress information is accessed from the database in response to the request. A delivery status of the medication is indicated to the user.
US09449355B2	Methods and systems for facilitating access by a patient to actionable tasks associated with a chronic care plan An exemplary method includes a chronic care solutions provider system 1) maintaining data representative of a chronic care plan for a patient with a chronic medical condition, 2) receiving data representative of a biometric reading acquired by a biometric device associated with the patient, 3) generating a plurality of actionable tasks based on the biometric reading and in accordance with the chronic care plan, and 4) concurrently presenting, within a patient portal accessible by the patient, a plurality of graphical task cards each representative of a distinct actionable task included in the plurality of actionable tasks. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.
US09449353B2	Enabling enforcement of licensing terms in distributing content in containers by including a key in the container containing the pertinent licensing terms A method, system and computer program product for enforcing licensing terms when distributing content via a container image running in a container. Upon receiving a request for a service from the container by the isolation code, where the isolation code limits, accounts and isolates resource usage of process groups, the commerce code application programming interfaces (APIs) of the isolation code read a key of the container. The key contains licensing terms applied to the component(s) (e.g., applications) of the container. The commerce code APIs will then confirm that the container is in compliance with those licensing terms. If the container is in compliance with the licensing terms, the container will be allowed to execute. Otherwise, the container will be prevented from executing. In this manner, the commerce code APIs can enforce the licensing terms, including restrictions and enforcement of payment to the licensor upon distributing content in the container.
US09449351B2	Method of characterising a resource The present disclosure provides a method of characterizing a resource in a block located in an area. The method comprises the step of providing information concerning a property of the resource for a plurality of sample positions in, at or in the environment of the block. The information is obtained from analyzes of samples from the sample positions. The method further comprises modelling a change in the property along a distance at or within the block using the provided information. The method also comprises calculating parameters associated with the modelled change using Bayes' theorem and calculating a property characteristic of the resource for the block using the calculated parameters.
US09449345B2	Method and system for authorizing network transactions based on radio frequency (RF) characterization of a device's location Aspects of a method and system for authorizing network transactions based on radio frequency (RF) characterization of a device's location are provided. In this regard, whether to approve a communication device to perform a network transaction may be determined based on results of a comparison between a radio frequency (RE) characterization of a location of the communication device and one or more approved RF characterizations. The RF characterization may be based on information from a plurality of receivers within the communication device. The one or more approved characterizations may be stored in the network device. The RF characterization may indicate a quantity of RF sources detected and identified by the communication device at the location. The RF characterization may indicate signal strength of signals received from RF sources detected and indentified by the communication device at the location.
US09449343B2	Augmented-reality shopping using a networked mobile device A consumer user can perform a number of augmented reality shopping operations using a local client shopping application executable on a mobile device. Features related to implementations of the current subject matter can include, but are not limited to, the ability to view an augmented reality depiction of a shopping display using the mobile device and to execute various “e-commerce” functions accessible via the augmented reality depiction. Related methods, systems, articles of manufacture, and the like are described.
US09449341B2	Internet radio and broadcast method with music purchasing Data streams are generally selected according to user preferences and transmitted to the user in general alignment with expressed preferences of the user. Such data streams may be music, including music videos. Users may indicate their general or specific preferences with regards to song, artists, or albums. Any other aspects or factors that might affect the user's preferences can be taken into account. A playlist is created that combines all of these factors. The playlist then serves as the basis for feeding the data streams to the user. Each user is able to express his or her own preferences and receive music corresponding to those preferences on an on-going basis.
US09449323B2	Method and apparatus for monitoring usage of items A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a device having a memory and a processor coupled to the memory. The processor can be operable to transmit a radio frequency signal directed to a radio frequency identifier tag carried by a first item, receive usage information from the radio frequency identifier tag, determine a measure of wear and tear of the first item from the usage information, compare the measure of wear and tear to a threshold, detect from the comparison a state of usage of the first item, and submit a notice representative of the state of usage of the first item. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09449322B2	Method and system of suggesting information used with items offered for sale in a network-based marketplace Methods and systems to suggest information to be used with an item being listed for sale may include analyzing stored search queries and identifying co-occurring terms or terms based on their desirability scores (or desirable terms). The co-occurring terms and the desirable terms may be identified based on their frequency of use in the search queries and/or in the title information or other information associated with items offered for sale.
US09449320B1	Closed-loop testing of integrated circuit card payment terminals Technologies for closed-looped testing of integrated circuit card payment terminals include loading a test profile onto an integrated circuit payment card. Authorization request and response messages are locally generated and translated to simulate acquirer processor processing and payment network processing. An outcome report indicative of the outcome of the test transaction is generated and transmitted to a remote certification server. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09449316B2	Settlement terminal device and settlement process method using the same Provided is a settlement terminal device including a plurality of information processing units. The settlement terminal device includes a first information processing unit, a secure second information processing unit, and an orientation detection unit which detects a direction of the settlement terminal device with respect to gravity. The first information processing unit reflects a detection result of the orientation detection unit on an orientation of a first display content displayed on the first display unit, and the second information processing unit determines whether or not to reflect the detection result of the orientation detection unit on an orientation of a second display content, in accordance with the second display content displayed on the second display unit. Thereby, a settlement terminal device capable of easily performing an input operation and display confirmation in a settlement process is provided.
US09449315B2	System for packaging, processing, activating, and deactivating multiple individual transaction cards as a singular unit A transaction card processing and activation system comprising the identification of a unique identifier corresponding to an aggregate of transaction cards of affiliated or non-affiliated card issuers and the activation of each transaction card corresponding to the unique identifier of the aggregate irrespective of the number, types, or card issuers of the transaction cards. Additionally, the present invention allows a point of sale entity to initiate the activation of each of the multiple, disparate transaction cards in the aggregate by merely processing the unique identifier associated with the aggregate.
US09449314B2	Virtualization of a central processing unit measurement facility A central processing unit measurement facility is virtualized in order to support concurrent use of the facility by multiple guests executing within a virtual environment. Each guest of the environment has independent control over disablement/enablement of the facility for that guest.
US09449311B2	Methods and systems for facilitating transactions using badges In various embodiments, a system and method for facilitating transactions using a badge are provided. In example embodiments, codes for a badge to be displayed on a web page of a web site are generated. The codes for the badge are embedded in the web page prior to an occurrence of an event external to the web site. In response to an indication of the event, the embedded codes are activated to display the badge on the web page.
US09449307B2	Managing a limited-use electronic mail account In one aspect, a method related to a limited-use electronic mail account. In addition to the foregoing, other method and system and program product aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present application.
US09449303B2	Notebook driven accumulation of meeting documentation and notations A notebook component within a note-taking application is utilized as a centralized mechanism for recording notations and providing documentation related to a particular meeting. The meeting participants are provided with centralized access to the notebook component and thus are able to update the notebook record of the meeting collaboratively and in real time. In addition to user-driven updates, updates may also be generated on an automatic or semi-automatic basis. Updates may be made before, during or after the actual meeting. Updates may originate from an application data source outside of the note-taking application itself.
US09449301B2	Managed object support Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node including one or more of the following: determining, at a policy and charging rules node, that the policy and charging rules node should perform a policy decision; comparing a criteria portion of at least one rule of a plurality of rules to a set of context information; identifying a rule of the plurality of rules that matches the set of context information; determining that a result portion of the identified rule includes a reference to a first managed object; and using the first managed object as at least part of a result of the policy decision.
US09449295B2	Tracking transactions by confluences and sequences of RFID signals An RFID device may include one or more manually activated RFID tags configured to transmit unique RFID signals in response to a manual activation thereof. A transaction may be defined upon receiving a confluence of multiple RFID signals at the same time, or at nearly the same time, at an RFID reader. A transaction may also be defined upon receiving multiple RFID signals or confluences of such signals in a predetermined series or sequence. The RFID devices may include a single manually activated RFID tag, or two or more of such tags, which may be individually activated by one or more manual interactions from a user.
US09449293B2	Displaying organizational information for a user's downline in a graphical user interface Embodiments are directed to displaying organizational information for a user's downline in an interactive graphical user interface (GUI). In one scenario, a computer system accesses portions of data for a user, where the data corresponds to secondary users in the user's downline. The computer system further generates a first-level view for the interactive GUI. The interactive GUI includes an interior portion configured to display filtered production data for the secondary users according to the accessed data as filtered by various production data filters. The interactive GUI also includes an exterior portion that includes rays extending outward from the interior portion, where each ray represents a secondary user's downline. The length and width of each ray is determined by the number of secondary users, and sales volume generated in the user's downline. The computer system then displays the generated first-level view in the interactive GUI.
US09449284B2	Methods and systems for dependency network analysis using a multitask learning graphical lasso objective function Methods and systems for displaying dependencies within data and illustrating differences between a plurality of data sets are disclosed. In accordance with one such method, a plurality of data sets are received for the generation of a plurality of dependency networks in accordance with a graphical modeling scheme. The method further includes receiving a selection of a value of a parameter that adjusts a number of differences between the dependency networks in accordance with the graphical modeling scheme. In addition, at least one version of the dependency networks is generated based on the selected value of the parameter. Further, the one or more versions of the dependency networks is output to permit a user to analyze distinctions between the dependency networks.
US09449282B2	System for determining and optimizing for relevance in match-making systems Disclosed are methods and apparatus for automatically determining the relevance of matches between entities. A set of one or more indicators of relevance for each of a plurality of matches may be detected, where each of the plurality of matches exists between a first entity and a different one of a plurality of entities. Each set of one or more indicators of relevance indicates a degree of two-way interest for a corresponding one of the plurality of matches, the degree of two-way interest indicating both a degree of interest of the first entity in the corresponding one of the plurality of entities and a degree of interest of the corresponding one of the plurality of entities in the first entity. A probability of relevance of each of the plurality of matches may be determined based at least in part upon a corresponding set of one or more indicators of relevance. Each of the plurality of matches may be ranked based at least in part on the corresponding probability of relevance. A ranking function may be trained based upon the probability of relevance of each of the plurality of matches. The ranking function may subsequently be applied to identify and rank matches (e.g., in the absence of indicators of relevance).
US09449280B2	System and method for mining large, diverse, distributed, and heterogeneous datasets A method for directed mining of a heterogeneous dataset with a computer comprising: populating a rule base with known rules, wherein each rule has a context and a situation; populating a case base with known cases, wherein each case has a context and a situation, and wherein the case base is partitioned from the rule base; ascribing a natural language semantics to predicates of the known cases and rules; randomly transforming the known rules and the known cases to form new rules by extracting a maximum number of common predicates; segmenting the rules and the cases on the basis of shared predicates without making distinction between context and situation predicates; abducing new knowledge from the dataset by fuzzily matching the context of a new rule to a situation the new rule does not cover; and issuing a query to a user to supply missing predicates of the fuzzy match.
US09449279B2	Network server arrangements for processing non-parametric, multi-dimensional, spatial and temporal human behavior or technical observations measured pervasively, and related methods for the same Network server arrangement for processing non-parametric, multi-dimensional, spatial and temporal human behavior or technical observations measured pervasively, and related method for the same are disclosed. An example computer system to process usage data received from a wireless device, the computer system including a memory including machine readable instructions; and a processor to execute the instructions to: process the usage data to identify applications which were sequentially accessed on the wireless device in a time period; build a behavior model based on the identified applications, the behavior model to describe user behavior associated with the wireless device; execute the behavior model to predict usage of an application on the wireless device; based on the prediction, monitor usage of the wireless device to determine an accuracy of the prediction; and update the behavior model based on the accuracy of the prediction.
US09449277B2	Implication determining device, implication determining method and implication determining program determining if hypothesis is a new fact To provide an implication determining device, an implication determining method, and an implication determining program capable of improving implication determination performance. A new fact determination unit determines whether a given hypothesis is a new fact that indicates a first revealed fact in a hypothesis implied sentence that is a sentence implying the given hypothesis based on a specific expression written in the hypothesis implied sentence. An implication determination unit determines whether the given hypothesis is implied in a sentence to be determined that is a sentence to be determined whether the hypothesis is included.
US09449274B2	Method and device for predicting the condition of a component or system, computer program product A device method and computer program product are disclosed for trend prediction of the course of a time-dependent series of data points of a component or system, particularly for an aircraft or spacecraft, including: providing an optimised decision tree, the input node of which is provided for inputting an input vector, the nodes of which contain the data points of a respective input vector and the leaves of which each contain an extrapolation function; iteratively calculating future data points by a respective time-dependent series of data points being inputted into the decision tree as an input vector and the decision tree calculating therefrom a data point subsequent to the last data point of the input vector in an automated manner, the calculated subsequent data point being added to the time-dependent series of data points in order to be used as a new input vector for the next iteration step.
US09449269B2	Methods and apparatus for embedding wire in substrates for secure documents A booster antenna (BA) for a smart card comprises a card antenna (CA) component extending around a periphery of a card body (CB), a coupler coil (CC) component at a location for an antenna module (AM), and an extension antenna (EA) contributing to the inductance of the booster antenna (BA). A method of wire embedding is also disclosed, by controlling a force and ultrasonic power applied by an embedding tool at different positions on the card body (CB).
US09449268B2	Battery operated device and tag for a battery operated device A device tag including a housing that includes a first connector structure constructed and arranged to engage with a battery operated device and a second connector structure constructed and arranged to slidingly engage with a battery such that the device tag is provided between the battery operated device and the battery. The device tag also includes an electrical connector carried by the housing and constructed and arranged to provide an electrical connection between the battery operated device and the battery. The device tag further includes an electronic device carried by the housing and constructed and arranged to transmit electrical signals.
US09449267B1	Methods and systems for preventing tampering of a smart tag Embodiments of the present invention relates to methods and systems for preventing tampering of a smart tag, such as a near field communication (NFC) tag or the like, in a retail environment. The smart tag is typically coupled with a protector at one side of the smart tag to prevent programming or encoding of the smart tag. The protector is removed to allow the smart tag to be programmed or write enabled. The smart tag is typically coupled with a sticker for adhering with an object such as a gift item.
US09449265B1	RFID tags with port-dependent functionality An Integrated Circuit (IC) for an RFID tag includes at least two antenna ports for coupling to at least two antennas. The IC may be configured to determine the port from which it receives an input signal, and provide a first functionality if it receives the input from a first port and a second functionality if it receives the input from a second port. The IC may be configured to determine and/or offer a functionality based on the receiving port.
US09449263B2	Image processing apparatus, stamp creation apparatus, image processing method and recording medium An image processing apparatus includes: a frame image creating unit configured to create a frame image added with code information; and an imprint information generating unit configured to generate imprint information where a mark image for forming an imprint is combined with the frame image.
US09449261B2	Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes an operation unit receiving an instruction, and a connecting unit to which a wireless communication unit is detachably attached. The connecting unit is arranged at a bottom surface of a recessed portion formed on a back surface. The recessed portion has such a depth d that an indicator unit indicating a communicating state of a wireless communication unit, arranged on a surface of the wireless communication unit attached to the connecting unit, protrudes from the recessed portion. Thus, the possibility that a USB wireless LAN adaptor is damaged by external force or is erroneously pulled out can be reduced, the communicating state can easily be recognized visually, and thus, the USB wireless LAN adaptor can be used safely.
US09449258B1	Multi-camera vehicle identification system A target object captured by a first camera is identified in images captured by a second camera. A reference platoon comprising the target object and other objects is generated using first camera images. A reference group characterizing the objects in the reference platoon is generated by running a first set of trained classifiers over the reference platoon, the first set of trained classifiers trained to characterize objects captured by the first camera. Candidate platoons are generated using second camera images. Candidate groups characterizing objects in the candidate platoons are obtained by running an independently trained second set of classifiers over the candidate platoons, the second set characterizing objects captured by the second camera. Candidate groups are compared to the reference group, and a best matching candidate platoon is selected. The target object is identified in the selected candidate platoon based on the object's position in the reference platoon.
US09449253B2	Learning painting styles for painterly rendering Embodiments relate to automatic rendering of images according to a painting style. A procedural painting system, controlled by one or more parameters is used. Classifiers are trained using machine learning to return a score related to how well an image fits a given painting style. Parameters of the procedural painting system are optimized to maximize the score returned by the classifiers, and an output image is rendered.
US09449252B1	System and method for color and brightness adjustment of an object in target image An image processing device determines a first brightness value of a first pre-specified area in proximity to an object mask of an object in a source image and a first average color value of the source image, and determines a second brightness value of a second pre-specified area in proximity to an object mask of the object in a target image and a second average color value of the target image. The brightness value of each pixel of the object in the target image is adjusted based on a ratio of the second brightness value and the first brightness value. A color value of each pixel of an object in the target image is adjusted when a difference value between the first average color value and the second average color value exceeds a threshold color value.
US09449250B1	Image download protection Techniques for providing an image download protection may be provided. In particular, an original image may be protected from being downloaded by providing a substitute image in its place, identified by a plurality of layers that are configured to look substantially similar to the original image. However, when a user device attempts to quickly store the image (e.g., by right-clicking on the image and selecting “save”), the user device can be hindered from downloading the substantially similar looking image because only one layer may be stored on the user device. In some examples, the layer of the image looks substantially distinct from the original image, but the layer in combination with a plurality of other layers can look substantially similar to the original image.
US09449249B2	Method and apparatus for enhancing visual search Various methods are described for improving the compression of location information during a visual search. One example method may comprise identifying one or more features of a source query image for a visual search. The method may further comprise generating a histogram map comprising one or more histogram bins, wherein the histogram map represents the location of the one or more features of the source query image. Additionally, the method may comprise generating a context for at least one of the one or more histogram bins, wherein the context comprises a first context value based on information related to one or more neighboring bins located a first distance from the respective histogram bin and a second context value based on information related to one or more neighboring bins located a second distance from the respective histogram bin. Similar and related methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are also provided.
US09449248B1	Generation of salient contours using live video In various implementations, a computing device is configured to provide a live preview of salient contours generated on a live digital video feed. In particular, a designer can use a computing device with a camera, such as a smart phone, to view a real-time preview of salient contours generated from edges detected in frames of a live digital video feed prior to capture, thereby eliminating the unpredictability of salient contours generated from a previously captured image. In some implementations, the salient contours are overlaid on a greyscale conversion of the live digital video feed for improved processing and visual contrast. Other implementations modify aspects of edge-detecting or post-processing filters for improved performance on mobile computing devices.
US09449247B2	Contour correction device, method, and program An input to set a correction contour line inside one region from an operator is received, and a contour line of the one region is corrected so that the correction contour line becomes a part of a contour line after correction. In this case, when a start point of the correction contour line is located on a unique contour line of each region and an end point thereof is located on a contour line shared by the two regions, the contour line of the other region is maintained, and when the start point is located on the shared contour line and the end point is located on the unique contour line, the contour line of the other region is also corrected so that the correction contour line becomes the shared contour line in the contour lines of the two regions after the correction.
US09449246B1	Method for deformable image registration A method registers a deformable image to a fixed image by first acquiring the deformable image and the fixed image. Multi-resolution multi-level image pyramids are generated for the deformable and fixed images. Levels of the multi-resolution multi-level image pyramids are processed in a coarse to fine order, and for each deformable and fixed image at each level partitioning the deformable and fixed image into overlapping blocks, and labeling each block with a label by solving, iteratively and in parallel, until a termination condition is reached, a binary maximum flow problem, within α-expansion, for each block and performing boundary fusion for the blocks, and then registering each block according to the labels to form the fixed image.
US09449243B2	Image processing apparatus for recognition of linear structures An image process apparatus is operative to obtain an image with high visual recognition property. A linear structural object incorporated into the original image is distinguished by two methods. A first method produces an evaluation image (P3) that evaluates whether each pixel is a linear structural object in the original image. A second method produces the difference image (P6) incorporating a linear structural object by obtaining the difference between the linear structural object incorporated into the original image and the portion other than the linear structural object. Since the linear structural object in the original image is extracted from an original image (P0) holding the contrasting density in the original image based on the two images related to the linear structural object produced by such different methods, and the apparatus provides an image having high visual recognition property.
US09449239B2	Credit card auto-fill Differing embodiments of this disclosure may employ one or all of the several techniques described herein to perform credit card recognition using electronic devices with integrated cameras. According to some embodiments, the credit card recognition process may comprise: obtaining a first representation of a first image, wherein the first representation comprises a first plurality of pixels; identifying a first credit card region within the first representation; extracting a first plurality of sub-regions from within the identified first credit card region, wherein a first sub-region comprises a credit card number, wherein a second sub-region comprises an expiration date, and wherein a third sub-region comprises a card holder name; generating a predicted character sequence for the first, second, and third sub-regions; and validating the predicted character sequences for at least the first, second, and third sub-regions using various credit card-related heuristics, e.g., expected character sequence length, expected character sequence format, and checksums.
US09449238B2	Augmented image correlation Systems and methods search pixels of source images and compare them to pixels of templates. Best matches correlate to objects in the image. That environmental conditions impact the appearance of objects, best matching scores suffer under poor lighting and other adverse conditions. Improving scores includes augmenting traditional correlation techniques with object features extracted from the source image and matching them to templates corresponding to the features. Certain embodiments contemplate corrupting pixels of image templates corresponding to objects with pixels extracted from the source image corresponding to features. Representative features include corners, edges, ridges, points/regions of interest, etc. Other embodiments note augmented correlation as a computing application and computing devices therefore, including cameras for capturing images and displaying results to users.
US09449237B2	Information terminal, information control method for an information terminal, and information control program To make it possible to significantly reduce a burden on a user at a time of a classification of image files added or updated, for example, and thus facilitate association with other content data. An image detector/register (20) detects an image file that is unregistered or updated, and structures and manages a list of the image files. A face rectangular detector (21) detects a face rectangle in the image files detected, associates information on the face rectangle with the image file, and stores the information. A similar face classification section (22) calculates an amount of feature of the face rectangle, compares the amount of feature calculated with amounts of feature of different face rectangles already calculated and classified into groups, calculates a similarity between the face rectangle and the face rectangles of the different face rectangles in the respective groups, and classifies and manages the face rectangles in accordance with a result of the similarity calculation. A similar face display section (23) displays at least one image file including the face rectangle classified into the same group on a display screen.
US09449233B2	Distributed target tracking using self localizing smart camera networks A plurality of camera devices are configured to localize one another based on visibility of each neighboring camera in an image plane. Each camera device captures images and identifies sightings of candidate targets. The camera device share information about sightings and triangulate positions of targets. Targets are matched to known tracks based on prior images, allowing targets to be tracked in a 3D environment.
US09449231B2	Computerized systems and methods for generating models for identifying thumbnail images to promote videos Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are provided for generating and using models to select thumbnail images for videos. In one exemplary method, the method comprises extracting at least one thumbnail from a video and determining at least one feature present in the at least one thumbnail. The method further comprises sending the extracted at least one thumbnail to one of an editor or at least one viewer. The method further comprises receiving feedback information related to the at least one thumbnail. The method further comprises generating a model and storing the generated model for use in identifying thumbnails for other videos. The model can be generated based on the determined at least one feature and the received feedback information.
US09449229B1	Systems and methods for categorizing motion event candidates The various embodiments described herein include methods, devices, and systems for categorizing motion event candidates. In one aspect, a method includes receiving and processing video frames that include a motion event candidate. The processing includes: (a) obtaining background factors corresponding to a background in at least a subset of the video frames; (b) utilizing the background factors to identify one or more motion entities; (c) for each motion entity, obtaining one or more representative motion vectors based on a motion track of the respective motion entity; (d) identifying one or more features in at least a subset of the video frames; and (e) aggregating the background factors, the representative motion vectors, and the features to generate motion features. The method further includes sending the motion features to an event categorizer, where the event categorizer assigns a motion event category to the motion event candidate based on the received motion features.
US09449227B2	Systems and methods for creating an aerial image Systems/apparatuses and methods are provided for creating aerial images. A three-dimensional point cloud image is generated from an optical distancing system. Additionally, at least one two-dimensional street level image is generated from at least one camera. The three-dimensional point cloud image is colorized with the at least one two-dimensional street level image, thereby forming a colorized three-dimensional point cloud image. The colorized three-dimensional point cloud image is projected onto a two-dimensional plane, using a processor, thereby forming a synthetic aerial image.
US09449226B2	Information processing device To provide an information processing device for outputting estimated nutrition value information on at least one dish or a drink through simplified processing. The information processing device holds as reference information a captured image of at least one dish or a drink and nutrition value information set for the item of food or drink included in the image so as to be correlated to each other, receives an image including at least one dish or a drink, and retrieves a plurality of images similar to the image received from among the reference information held. Further, the information processing device calculates a statistic of a plurality of nutrition value information pieces correlated to the plurality of respective images retrieved, and outputs the statistic calculated.
US09449224B2	Method, electronic apparatus, and computer-readable medium for recognizing printed map A method for recognizing a printed map and an electronic apparatus using the same are provided. The method comprises the following steps. First, a picture of the printed map is obtained, and a block area surrounded by a road outline in the picture is defined. Next, at least one road name related to the road outline is recognized, and a map service is queried with the at least one recognized road name to find an electronic map having a map area corresponded to the block area in the map service. Afterwards, the block area in the picture is mapped to the map area in the map service.
US09449223B2	Image processing device and image forming apparatus According to a processing period for OCR processing of image data for character recognition for a given page, the image processing section determines whether or not to generate image data for character recognition for a next page subsequent to the given page in accordance with an image quality setting different from that set for the given page. Upon determining generation in accordance with an image quality setting different from that set for the given page, the image processing section determines the image quality setting for the next page based on document type and size of the given page of the original document. The image processing section generates image data for character recognition for the next page in accordance with the determined image quality setting.
US09449222B2	Image processing device and method The present disclosure relates to an image processing device and method. The device includes: an acquiring unit for acquiring an image containing an object image; a calculating unit for calculating one or more candidate object image areas based on color and edge characteristics of the image; a selecting unit for selecting a candidate object image area with the maximal similarity to a predetermined color model as a first object image area from the one or more candidate object image areas; a determining unit for determining other of the one or more candidate object image areas as a non-object image area or a second object image area with the first object image area; a creating unit for creating an adaptive color model; and a detecting unit for detecting, based on the adaptive color model, an area containing the object image in the each of the first and second object image areas.
US09449221B2	System and method for determining the characteristics of human personality and providing real-time recommendations The present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media for identifying a personality of a human subject based on correlations between personality traits obtained from the subject's physical features, which may include a movement pattern of the subject, such as the subject's gait. Embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure are further capable of providing a recommendation to the subject for a product or service based on the identified personality of the subject.
US09449220B2	Systems and methods for cookware detection Systems and methods for cookware detection are provided. One example system includes a vision sensor positioned so as to collect a plurality of images of a cooktop. The system includes a classifier module implemented by one or more processors. The classifier module is configured to calculate a cookware score for each of the plurality of images and to use the cookware score for each of the plurality of images to classify such image as either depicting cookware or not depicting cookware. The system includes a classifier training module implemented by the one or more processors. The classifier training module is configured to train the classifier module based at least in part on a positive image training dataset and a negative image training dataset.
US09449214B2	Fingerprint sensing device with protective coating A sensing device comprising a plurality of sensing elements, each of the sensing elements being configured to provide a signal indicative of an electromagnetic coupling between the sensing element and a finger placed on a surface of the sensing device, a first layer arranged to cover the plurality of sensing elements, the first layer comprising a plurality of recesses, and a second layer arranged to cover the first layer, the second layer having hydrophobic surface properties. There is also provided a method for manufacturing such a sensing device.
US09449209B1	3D-structured pattern reading system A 3D-structured pattern reading system, including: an object having a front face formed with a 3D-structured pattern for representing predetermined data; and a reading device including a camera unit and a liquid lens unit, wherein the liquid lens unit has a variable focal length controlled by the camera unit to scan the 3D-structured pattern to derive the predetermined data with the object being placed at a distance not exceeding a maximum limit of the variable focal length from the liquid lens unit.
US09449206B2	Network cable tracking system Embodiments relate to a system and method of identifying a cable terminal plug and port on a computer system. An aspect includes a method having a step of positioning a cable plug adjacent to a computer port, the cable plug having a passive transponder. An RF signal is transmitted to the passive transponder. The passive transponder is activated with the RF signal. An identification signal is transmitted based on receiving the RF signal. It is determined that identification signal matches an identification value of the computer port.
US09449195B2	Method and apparatus to perform online credential reporting Embodiments of the invention provide a process for displaying a graphical indicator on an Internet enabled device which conveys relationships between an entity associated with a website and third party entities with respect to the website entity. One example method may include obtaining the relationship data from a credential service provider, using a portion of a uniform resource identifier as a key to access the relationship data on the credential service provider, and rendering a representation of the relationship data, wherein the rendering of the relationship data is performed in a graphical user interface of a web browser, and wherein the web browser displays a rendering of the representation of the relationship data such that there is a relationship between an entity associated with the uniform resource identifier and a third party entity.
US09449194B2	Secure access to running client application features from a browser application A secure access is provided to a plurality of software application features associated with a plurality of software applications running on a user's device, wherein the secure access is provided from a web browser application associated with the user's device. This may include providing an open connection between a server and at least one software application within the plurality of software running on the user's device. This may also include sending a message from the web browser application to the server. This may further include detecting the sent message from the web browser application to the server. Additionally, the open connection may be used to send data from the server to the at least one software application.
US09449193B2	Information processing apparatus According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a nonvolatile semiconductor memory and a processor. The nonvolatile semiconductor memory stores identification information. The processor controls an application which executes authentication processing for authenticating validation of the identification information stored in the nonvolatile semiconductor memory. The processor executes the application to read the identification information from the nonvolatile semiconductor memory, and to execute the authentication processing for determining whether or not the identification information is authentic. When the identification information is authentic, the processor continues at least some processes of the application, and when the identification information is inauthentic, the processor ends at least some processes of the application.
US09449189B1	Protection of state data in computer system code Method and system are provided for protecting state data of computer system code. The computer system code may be operating system code, subsystem code or application code and the item of state data is not expected to change within the execution of the computer system code. The method includes: creating or modifying an item of state data having a field value and being stored in memory for access by computer system code; registering an item of state data for protection; preserving the field value of the item of state data in a form inaccessible to third party software; validating the field value of the item of state data by comparing a current field value with the preserved field value to determine if the field value has been modified; and, if the field value has been modified, taking appropriate action.
US09449187B2	Environment-aware security tokens The technology described in this document can be embodied in a computer implemented method that includes receiving, at a processing device, information about one or more assets associated with a network of devices. The method also includes generating, for at least one of the assets, a security token that is based at least on a portion of the received information about the corresponding asset. The security token can be configured to identify a home network defined for the asset, and to restrict access to the corresponding asset upon detecting an occurrence of an unauthorized activity involving the asset. The method further includes storing, in a storage device, information about the security token and information linking the security token to the corresponding asset, and initiating integration of the security token with the corresponding asset.
US09449186B2	System for and method of managing access to a system using combinations of user information The present invention is directed to systems for and methods of controlling access to computer systems. A method in accordance with the present invention comprises performing a test that includes comparing input responses to randomly selected questions with corresponding pre-determined responses to the questions and granting access to the system in the event the test is passed. A first condition of passing the test is that each input response matches a corresponding pre-determined response. Once passing the test, the user is granted permissions to access data based on his position. For example, a corporate director generally has greater permissions than an engineer. Preferably, the user's permissions determine an encryption key and a decryption key that the user is able to use to access protected data.
US09449185B2	Extensible and/or distributed authorization system and/or methods of providing the same In certain example embodiments, an extensible and/or distributed security system is provided. In certain example embodiments the security system provides authorization to a resource of a first application. In the first application, a security context is created and a client is authenticated to the first application. A request is accepted in the first application to access at least one resource. The first application communicates with an authorization application to determine authorization to the at least one resource. In the authorization application, an authorization process is executed which communicates with another application that defines a step of the authorization process for this resource. Based on that step, it is determined whether the first application allows access to the at least one resource for the client.
US09449184B2	Time based access control in social software An embodiment of the invention provides a method for controlling access to content in a social networking website, wherein a connection is established between a first user and a second user on the social networking website. Content on the profile pages of the first user is categorized into a first content category and a second content category. The first content category includes content created before the connection between the first user and the second user was established. The second content category includes content created after the connection between the first user and the second user was established. Content in the first content category is also categorized into a first subcategory and at least one second subcategory. Access by the second user is restricted to the first content category. Specifically, the second user is prevented from viewing content in the first subcategory and permitted to view content in the second subcategory.
US09449179B2	Information processor Disclosed herein is an information processor that allows for manipulation of raw data to a certain extent with an application program while protecting the content of raw data. The information processor acquires encrypted media data, decodes the encrypted media data to generate raw data, scrambles the raw data to generate scrambled data, descrambles the scrambled data to generate the raw data, and outputs the raw data to a player.
US09449176B1	Computer system vulnerability analysis apparatus and method Apparatus and methods to evaluate computing systems' vulnerability implement a series of steps wherein a system may be selected, and a specific component identified. Obtaining component information may include methods for accessing its configuration address space. Creation of a list of control or configuration addresses is followed by filtering to identify documented, reserved addresses, documented reserved test addresses, and undocumented addresses. A filtered subset is tested by accessing each address contained in the subset, and verifying continuity of operation of the tested component, then accesses by reading, writing, or both to subset addresses to classify as benign to component and system. Failure may constitute data damage, component damage, system damage, component failure, or system failure.
US09449173B2	Techniques for enabling co-existence of multiple security measures Various embodiments are directed enabling anti-malware software to co-exist with protective features of an operating system. An apparatus may include a processor component including an IDT register storing an indication of size of an IDT; a monitoring component to retrieve the indication and compare the indication to a size of a guard IDT in response to modification of the IDT register to determine whether the guard routine is to inspect the IDT and a set of ISRs; and a cache component to overwrite the IDT and set of ISRs with a cached IDT and cached set of ISRs, respectively, based on the determination and prior to the inspection to prevent the guard routine from detecting a modification by an anti-malware routine, the cached IDT and cached set of ISRs generated from the IDT and set of ISRs, respectively, prior to the modification. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09449170B2	Inhibiting denial-of-service attacks using group controls A processor receives within a user interface of a process server on a first computer system a first signal that includes a request to create an isolated execution environment within a host environment controlled by an operating system executing on a second computer system, receives a second signal that specifies a control group, which specifies an amount of hardware resources on the second computer system that are accessible to the isolated execution environment, for the isolated execution environment. The processor generates a third signal that requests creation by a processor of the second computer system of the isolated execution environment and application of the control group to the isolated execution environment. The processor then repeatedly monitors for signals, from the second computer system, that report on one of an activity and a status of the isolated execution, and displays in the user interface information reflective of such signals.
US09449164B2	Method of securing a computing device A method of securing a computing device is disclosed. The computing device is configured to store an access key in a storage location in order for the computing device to operate in an operational mode. The method comprises removing the access key from the storage location in response to an event indicative of the end of the operational mode.
US09449152B2	License acquisition scheme indication method and mobile terminal therefor A license acquisition scheme indication method and mobile terminal implemented with the license acquisition indication method is provided for informing a user of available license acquisition scheme in a current connectivity environment. A license acquisition scheme indication method of the present invention collects access information of at least one content server issuing licenses required for playing right protected files, attempts access to the at least one content server in one of a direct license acquisition scheme and an indirect license acquisition scheme on the basis of the access information, and displays identities of the individual right protected files with available license acquisition schemes determined as a result of the access attempts.
US09449151B2	Health assessment by remote physical examination A health assessment server allows people to conduct their own physical examinations using one or more medical measurement devices that are bound to one or more user devices. The user uses the medical measurement devices herself and submits the results to the health assessment server through a computer network such as the Internet, either directly from the medical measurement devices or through the user devices. The health assessment server determines an improved health state of the user at which benefits accrue to the user and periodically requests updated health attributes to measure progress toward the improved health state and projecting time until the improved health state is achieved.
US09449149B2	Method for optimising local drug delivery The present invention relates to a data processing method for determining an infusion location in an anatomical region of interest of a patient's body for infusing a medical substance, the method being executed by a computer and comprising steps of: a) acquiring permeability data comprising information about the permeability of anatomical vessels in the body; b) acquiring body vessels set data comprising information about a body vessel set, wherein the body vessel set represents a set of at least one anatomical body vessel in the patient's body and wherein the body vessel set data comprises information about the spatial structure of the at least one body vessel; c) acquiring coverage condition data comprising information about a predetermined coverage of a target region with the medical substance; d) determining, for a plurality of candidate infusion locations, candidate coverage data comprising information about a candidate coverage of a target region with the medical substance based on the permeability data, the body vessel set data and the coverage condition data; e) determining infusion location data comprising information about the infusion location based on the permeability data, the body vessel set data and the coverage condition data.
US09449148B2	System and method for filling and dispensing orders A method of filling prescription orders includes inputting the prescription orders into a pharmaceutical storage and retrieval device, processing the prescription orders with the pharmaceutical storage and retrieval device to fill a plurality of vials with desired pharmaceuticals, and transferring the plurality of filled vials from the pharmaceutical storage and retrieval device to a storage unit. The method also includes storing the plurality of filled vials in the storage unit until a customer claims one of the plurality of filled vials and directing the one of the plurality of filled vials from the storage unit to the customer.
US09449146B2	Method and system for determining treatments by modifying patient-specific geometrical models Systems and methods are disclosed for evaluating cardiovascular treatment options for a patient. One method includes creating a three-dimensional model representing a portion of the patient's heart based on patient-specific data regarding a geometry of the patient's heart or vasculature; and for a plurality of treatment options for the patient's heart or vasculature, modifying at least one of the three-dimensional model and a reduced order model based on the three-dimensional model. The method also includes determining, for each of the plurality of treatment options, a value of a blood flow characteristic, by solving at least one of the modified three-dimensional model and the modified reduced order model; and identifying one of the plurality of treatment options that solves a function of at least one of: the determined blood flow characteristics of the patient's heart or vasculature, and one or more costs of each of the plurality of treatment options.
US09449145B2	Systems and methods for virtual contrast agent simulation and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to compute functional significance of stenoses Systems and methods are disclosed for assessing a risk of disease. One method includes obtaining an anatomic model associated with a target anatomy; modeling, using a processor, an injection of one or more virtual contrast agents into the anatomic model; performing a simulation of flow of blood and the one or more virtual contrast agents through the anatomic model; and computing one or more characteristics of concentration associated with the one or more virtual contrast agents at one or more locations in the anatomic model based on the simulation.
US09449140B2	Conflict detection for self-aligned multiple patterning compliance Among other things, one or more techniques and systems for performing design layout are provided. An initial design layout is associated with an electrical component, such as a standard cell. A conflict graph is generated based upon the initial design layout. The conflict graph comprises one or more nodes, representing polygons within the initial design layout, connected by one or more edges. A same-process edge specifies that two nodes are to be generated by the same pattern process, while a different-process edge specified that two nodes are to be generated by different pattern processes, such as a mandrel pattern process and a passive fill pattern process. The conflict graph is evaluated to identify a conflict, such as a self-aligned multiple pattering (SAMP) conflict, associated with the initial design layout. The conflict is visually displayed so that the initial design layout can be modified to resolve the conflict.
US09449139B2	System and method for tracing a net A system and method for tracing a net includes comparing an IC design against a marked portion of the IC design, and extracting a traced net that includes the marked portion from the IC design file. The method also includes displaying the traced net and storing at least one indicator along with information identifying the traced net.
US09449136B2	Integrated circuit layout structure and method having different cell row heights with different row ratios for area optimization An integrated circuit layout structure and method thereof establishes cell rows with different cell heights for accommodating cells with corresponding heights, such that an area of an integrated circuit can be fully utilized. Therefore, it reduces an area wasted by an unnecessary uniform cell height, so as to improve integration of the integrated circuit.
US09449132B2	Configuring a programmable device using high-level language A method of preparing a programmable integrated circuit device for configuration using a high-level language includes compiling a plurality of virtual programmable devices from descriptions in said high-level language. the compiling includes compiling configurations of configurable routing resources from programmable resources of said programmable integrated circuit device, and compiling configurations of a plurality of complex function blocks from programmable resources of said programmable integrated circuit device. A machine-readable data storage medium may be encoded with a library of such compiled configurations. A virtual programmable device may include a stall signal network and routing switches of the virtual programmable device may include stall signal inputs and outputs.
US09449130B1	Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for back annotating and visualizing parasitic models of electronic designs Various embodiments automatically back annotate an electronic design representation by inserting complex model instances in the representation and interconnecting the model instances with one or more interconnect models. Identifications of ports in a first representation may be associated or updated with identifications of corresponding ports in a second representation. Annotating the first representation may also include associating or stitching parasitic information from the second representation with or in the first representation. A model is used to represent a vectored net by splitting a vectored net with a vectored net identification into multiple scalared net segments each having its own scalared net identification. Some aspects automatically generate a display for visualizing results of annotating an electronic design with complex models. Some of these aspects may further include parasitic information and analysis results in the display.
US09449124B2	Simulation device, method and program product to determine physical quantity of a plurality of particles under disturbance A memory stores a calculation formula including a disturbance term added to a position, a velocity, an acceleration, a pressure, or a density of each particle at a current time. A processor determines the disturbance term of each particle, determines the position, the velocity, and the density (position and the like) at the current time by using a position and the like at an initial time as the position and the like at the preceding time, and by applying the disturbance term to the calculation formula, and sequentially determines a position and the like at each time subsequent to the initial time by repeating a process for determining the disturbance term and the position and the like at the current time with the use of the determined position and the like of as the position and the like at the preceding time.
US09449120B2	Computer product, data processing method, and data processing device A computer-readable recording medium stores a program causing a computer to execute a data processing process that includes designating one plane data from a plane data group representing predetermined part data among part data expressed three dimensionally; setting at a position between a plane indicated by the designated plane data and a facing plane that faces the plane and is indicated by plane data other than the designated plane data, a first set plane that faces the plane; setting at a position on an opposite side of the plane from the facing plane, a second set plane that faces the plane; and acquiring projection control information for projecting in a projection direction from any one among the first and second set planes toward the other set plane, a part group located between the first and second set planes and indicated by a part data group among the plural part data.
US09449106B2	Context-based queryless presentation of recommendations Techniques for context-based queryless presentation of recommendations are described. Without receiving an explicit query, an inferred query is determined based on a first set of context signals associated with a recommendation triggering event. Items matching the inferred query are selected based on a second set of one or more context signals associated with the recommendation triggering event. One or more results items identifying the one or more matching items are caused to display. A result items may be displayed in association with an explanation that identifies context values used to select an item for recommendation or one or more attributes of the item that are relevant to a user or the inferred query.
US09449104B2	Method and apparatus for deriving and using trustful application metadata A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and apparatus for deriving trustful metadata for an application are disclosed. For example, the method crawls online for the application, analyzes the application to determine a function of the application, and generates trustful meta-data for the application based upon the function of the application.
US09449102B2	System, method and computer program product for enabling access to a resource utilizing a token In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for enabling access to a resource of a multi-tenant on-demand database service utilizing a token. These mechanisms and methods for enabling access to a resource of a multi-tenant on-demand database service utilizing a token can be utilized to prevent identification of a user attempting to access the resource, and thus unwanted use of the user's identity.
US09449090B2	Systems and methods for addressing a media database using distance associative hashing A system, method and computer program utilize a distance associative hashing algorithmic means to provide a highly efficient means to rapidly address a large database. The indexing means can be readily subdivided into a plurality of independently-addressable segments where each such segment can address a portion of related data of the database where the sub-divided indexes of said portions reside entirely in the main memory of each of a multiplicity of server means. The resulting cluster of server means, each hosting an addressable sector of a larger database of searchable audio or video information, provides a significant improvement in the latency and scalability of an Automatic Content Recognition system, among other uses.
US09449085B2	Pattern matching of sound data using hashing Pattern matching of sound data using hashing is described. In one or more implementations, a query formed from one or more spectrograms of sound data is hashed and used to locate one or more labels in a database of sound signals. Each of the labels is located using a hash of an entry in the database. At least one of the located one or more labels is chosen as corresponding to the query.
US09449081B2	Identification of semantic relationships within reported speech Methods and computer-readable media for associating words or groups of words distilled from content, such as reported speech or an attitude report, of a document to form semantic relationships collectively used to generate a semantic representation of the content are provided. Semantic representations may include elements identified or parsed from a text portion of the content, the elements of which may be associated with other elements that share a semantic relationship, such as an agent, location, or topic relationship. Relationships may also be developed by associating one element that is in relation to, or is about, another element, thereby allowing for rapid and effective comparison of associations found in a semantic representation with associations derived from queries. The semantic relationships may be determined based on semantic information, such as potential meanings and grammatical functions of each element within the text portion of the content.
US09449079B2	Method of and system for displaying a plurality of user-selectable refinements to a search query Method of displaying by a client application in communication with a search engine a plurality of user-selectable refinements to a search query including a search term, comprising: sending the search query; receiving search results and suggested search query refinements determined based at least in part on an analysis of groups of related search queries, each suggested search query refinement corresponding to a refined search query including the search term and an additional search term; displaying search results and, apart from a search bar, refinements, refinements being selectable by a user via a graphical object; receiving a selection of one of the refinements, the selection corresponding to a refined search query including the search term and an additional search term; receiving refined search results; and displaying refined search results and a visual representation of a refinement relationship between the search query and the refined search query. Related systems are also disclosed.
US09449078B2	Evaluating the ranking quality of a ranked list The ranking quality of a ranked list may be evaluated. In an example embodiment, a method is implemented by a system to access log data, ascertain which entries of a ranked list are skipped, and determine a ranking quality metric from the skipped entries. More specifically, log data that reflects user interactions with a ranked list having multiple entries is accessed. The user interactions include at least indications of which of the multiple entries are selected entries. It is ascertained which entries of the multiple entries of the ranked list are skipped entries based on the selected entries. The ranking quality metric for the ranked list is determined responsive to the skipped entries.
US09449074B1	Determining and extracting changed data from a data source According to certain aspects, a computer system may be configured to obtain information indicating a plurality of groupings of data stored in a data source, the information indicating a number of data items included in each of the plurality of groupings; determine a first grouping of the plurality of groupings including one or more data items that have changed by comparing a first number of data items included in the first grouping and a historical first number of data items included in a corresponding local version of the first grouping; access data items included in the first grouping from the data source; compare the data items included in the first grouping to data items of the corresponding local version of the first grouping to determine which data items have changed; extract the changed data items of the first grouping; and forward the extracted data items to a destination system.
US09449070B2	Category manager for social network content A computer-based system enables categories to be associated with content in an online social networking system. A user of such a system posts a unit of content to such a system and associate one or more categories with that unit of content. As a result, the user-specified categories are stored in the social networking system in association with the posted content. When the posted content is displayed to users of the online social networking system, the categories associated with the posted content may or may not be displayed in association with the posted content. The set of categories associated with the posted content may be modified after the content is posted. Users other than the user who posted the content may be enabled to post other content within the same categories, but may be prevented from modifying those categories.
US09449069B2	Group work support method, computer-readable recording medium, and group supporting apparatus for recognizing density of discussions and activity levels of individuals A method of supporting a group work includes collecting input contents, which are input by participants via terminals, from the terminals; arranging the collected input contents into input content groups based on groups to which the participants belong; setting a representative flag on each of representative input contents selected from the respective input content groups; extracting the representative input contents and matching input contents, which match a predetermined extracting condition and are different from the representative input contents, from the collected input contents; and displaying a list of the representative input contents and the matching input contents on a display device that all the participants are able to view at a same time.
US09449067B2	Constraint processing Constraint processing for a relational database generates primary (e.g., based on primary key values) and constraint index records (e.g., based on foreign key values) during table load operations that are then sorted in a manner that rapidly and unambiguously identifies rows that fail the specified constraint test. Rows so identified may be deleted to maintain the constraint (e.g., referential) integrity of a child table. In one case, child table row data may be processed in constraint key order, eliminating the need first load the child table with row data and then delete those rows that subsequently fail the integrity test.
US09449066B2	Apparatus and method for managing phone number-based SNS account A Social Network Service (SNS) account management server transmits, when phone number change schedule information is received from a user terminal, a phone number change schedule message to user terminals respectively corresponding to friend accounts included in a friend list of the corresponding account; confirms, when authentication of the new SNS account is requested from the user terminal, whether or not the account is an account of the changed phone number for the new authentication request based on the previously transmitted phone number change schedule information; transmits, if the account is of the changed phone number, a phone number change notification message to user terminals corresponding to friend accounts included in a friend list of the account of the changed phone number; and updates the changed phone number of the user terminal in a database of each friend account.
US09449065B1	Data replication framework Generally described, the present disclosure is directed to an eventually consistent replicated data store that uses, for its underlying storage, a computer software library that provides a high-performance embedded database for data. The replicated data store employs a plurality of hosts interconnected to one another, allowing for writes to any host and full awareness of membership across all hosts. With the data replication framework disclosed herein, various modes are allowed to be built up on top of the core system.
US09449060B2	Post-migration validation of ETL jobs and exception management Handling extract-transform-load (ETL) job mismatches as “exceptions.” Exception handling may include the following steps: (i) determining a mismatch while running an extract-transform-load job with the mismatch being a mismatch of at least one of the following types: design time information mismatch, and/or operational metadata mismatch; and (ii) responsive to determining the mismatch, handling the mismatch as an exception.
US09449056B1	Method and system for creating and updating an entity name alias table A list of known names of entities is obtained along with entity name search data entered by searching parties in an attempt to identify one or more entities. The historical entity name search data entered by each individual searching party in a defined search time window is aggregated and analyzed to identify pairs of potentially related entity name searches that represent two attempts by the searching party to identify the same entity. The data representing the potentially related entity name searches is analyzed to identify a matched entity name in the list of known names that matches one of the entity names of the pair of potentially related entity name searches. Both of the entity names of the pair of potentially related entity name searches are then added to an alias list associated with the matched entity name.
US09449054B1	Methods, systems, and media for providing a media search engine Methods, systems, and media for providing a media search engine are provided. In some implementations, a method for searching for content is provided, the method comprising: receiving a media search query for media assets; identifying web search results from a corpus of web resources that are responsive to the media search query, wherein each of the web search results has an associated relevancy score; determining keyword information and contextual information from a subset of the web search results, wherein the subset of the web search results is selected from the web search results based on the associated relevancy score and wherein media entities are determined from at least a portion of the keyword information and the contextual information; assigning a topic score for the each of the media entities based on occurrence in the web search results; selecting at least one media entity from the media entities based on the topic score; identifying media assets from a corpus of media assets based at least in part on the selected media entity; and causing a subset of the media assets to be presented to a user in response to the media search query.
US09449053B2	Ranking nearby destinations based on visit likelihoods and predicting future visits to places from location history In some examples, systems and techniques can determine a respective visit likelihood for each respective destination of a plurality of destinations based at least in part on a respective distance between the respective destination and a geographic location from a location history associated with a user and a comparison between a time associated with the geographic location and a visit likelihood distribution across time. The systems and techniques can then sort at least some of the plurality of destinations. In other examples, systems and techniques can determine whether a user is likely to visit a place during a future instance of a timeslot based at least in part on a location history associated with the user. The systems and techniques can then output information relating to the place prior to the beginning of the future instance of the timeslot.
US09449052B1	Trend based distribution parameter suggestion Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for distributing content are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes accessing data specifying a plurality of search queries. Content distribution campaigns (“campaigns”) in which distribution of at least one content item is conditioned on a distribution parameter matching one of the search queries are identified. Two or more similar campaigns are identified, and a search query that matches a distribution parameter in at least one of the similar campaigns is identified as a candidate content distribution parameter. A trend score for the candidate content distribution parameter is determined based on a change in a submission rate of search queries that match the candidate distribution parameter. Suggestion data suggesting the candidate content distribution parameter as an additional content distribution parameter for at least one of the similar campaigns is provided based on the trend score.
US09449049B2	Returning estimated value of search keywords of entire account Techniques for returning estimated value of search keywords of an entire account include, for the entire account, obtaining one or more selected search keywords and their respective forecast periods and parameter settings. An estimated value of a respective search keyword in the respective forecast period is forecasted. Based on stored historical data and parameter settings of the respective search keyword, the estimated value of the respective search keyword is modified to obtain a modified estimated value. The modified estimated value of each search keyword is added up to generate an estimated value of the entire account. The estimated value of the entire account is returned to a client terminal from which the entire account is logged in. The present disclosure modifies the respective search keyword's estimated value so that the estimated value of the entire account satisfies the expected value of the client.
US09449045B2	System and method for enhanced query optimizer search space ordering In an optimizer within a Relational Database Management System improved ways in which a search space (the universe of possible join combinations) is generated and managed and improved ways in which the elements of a search space are evaluated so that among other things unpromising elements are efficiently dropped (pruned).
US09449044B1	Mistake avoidance and correction suggestions In an illustrative embodiment, an apparatus, computer-readable medium, or method may be configured to avoid command mistakes and suggest corrections. Known commands may be accessed which may include at least one expected identifier, alternative identifier, and/or identifier pattern. The frequencies of occurrence of the known commands may be calculated. A command with entered identifiers may be received and at least one possible mistake in the entered identifiers may be detected. A first numerical score for the known commands may be calculated using a string matching algorithm, a keystroke penalty matrix, and/or the detected at least one possible mistake. A second numerical score may be calculated using the frequencies of occurrence of the known commands and the first numerical score. Expected identifiers may be selected using the first and second numerical scores. A user-selectable command may be created using the expected known commands and displayed.
US09449043B2	Automatic fitting of haptic effects A system is provided that automatically generates one or more haptic effects from source data, such as audio source data. The system fits the one or more haptic effects to the source data by analyzing the source data and identifying one or more haptic effects that are the most similar to the source data. The system matches the identified one or more haptic effects with the source data. The system subsequently outputs the identified one or more haptic effects.
US09449034B2	Generic ontology based semantic business policy engine Techniques for implementing policies. In an embodiment, first data is stored in a first data store according to a first schema. A second schema is defined based at least in part on a policy and an ontology. Second data, which includes at least a portion of the first data, is stored in a second data store according to the second schema. Storing the second data is based at least in part on a mapping of the first schema to the second schema. At least a portion of the second data is analyzed and results of the analysis are provided to a user.
US09449033B2	Intent based automation of data management operations by a data management engine Provided are a method, computer program product, and system for processing a data management request. User intent that defines properties of target data is determined. Policies and constraints for the data management request are determined. An abstract data management request that identifies source data, the target data, and the polices and constraints is created. A technology to use to process the data management request based on the user intent, policies, and constraints is determined.
US09449029B2	Method and system for diet management A system and a method for diet management based on image analysis are provided. The system includes a database and a comparison device. The comparison device is coupled to the database. The comparison device performs similarity comparison in the database based on a supervector related to at least one diet image so as to find out at least one similar population and provides information related to the at least one similar population.
US09449027B2	Apparatus and method for representing and manipulating metadata Mechanisms are described for providing visual representations of metadata so as to allow for an easier, more intuitive, and more entertaining way for a user to manage metadata by allowing a user to execute operations relating to the metadata through interactions with the visual representations of that metadata. A user can further define visual objects and use such objects for searching media content items, such as by using a visual representation of metadata as a filter and displaying graphical depictions of associations between the visual representations of metadata and the associated media content item. Moreover, operations executed on the visual representations, such as copying, pasting, and modifying the visual representations, are translated to actions on the metadata itself and can be applied across different devices, as well as different media content items and groups of media content items.
US09449021B2	Use of long file names in data storage systems A data storage system comprises a data storage device (2) that comprises a first file system (4) of a first type and a second file system (70, 72, 74, 76, 78) of a second, different type, and a file system control means (92) for controlling file system operations, wherein the file system control means (92) is configured to receive requests to write files to the first or second file systems, and to write to the second file system (70, 72, 74, 76, 78) in response to substantially all requests to write files that have at least one predetermined file name property to the first or second file system.
US09449020B2	Method for smart card to process CAP file A method for a smart card to process a CAP file, including the following steps: a smart card establishing a connection with an external terminal, performing initialization, receiving an APDU command corresponding to a CAP file, storing the data contained in the APDU command in a communication cache area, judging the value of a first state flag bit of the card, and performing different operations with respect to the value of a different second state flag bit. The method for a smart card to process a CAP file provided herein can effectively utilize the storage resources of a smart card and improve the download speed of the CAP files and ensure the integrity of the contents in the CAP files and the smart card.
US09449017B2	Distributed file system consistency mechanism extension for enabling internet video broadcasting The consistency callback mechanisms employed by local file systems such as NTFS and distributed file systems such as DDS, NFS and CIFS are extended to provide a shared memory foundation for efficiently broadcasting real-time high definition video from a source object to large numbers of viewers via the Internet. Distributed applications such as video viewing client applications establish connections to a common distributed file system object, and then each application registers with the underlying distributed file system to receive notifications whenever the video source modifies the source object. The data required to update images maintained by viewing clients is included in notification messages. The distributed file system employs a network of proxy cache nodes. Proxy cache nodes receive notification messages (complete with image update data) and update their cached images of the source object and then retransmit the notification messages towards the viewing clients using IP multicast techniques. In this manner, the distributed file system's consistency mechanism efficiently employs network resources to enable the real-time distribution of video content streams.
US09449013B2	Application transparent deduplication data Mechanisms are provided to allow for application transparent deduplication data. A mail database associated with a mail application can be analyzed to identify attachments meeting particular administrator criteria. The attachments are analyzed and replaced with stubs to allow continued mail application interaction with the mail database. The attachments may be optimized with deduplication and/or compression.
US09449005B2	Metadata storage system and management method for cluster file system The present invention provides a metadata storage system and a management method for a cluster file system. The metadata of the cluster file system is stored by using a DRAM+SSD+HDD three-tier architecture, and the metadata is written sequentially into a metadata buffer in the DRAM based on write-in time. When a metadata buffer fully written, it is written back into the SSD sequentially to form a new metadata storage unit, and corresponding metadata index information in a header structure thereof is stored into the DRAM in a form of a metadata index unit.
US09449004B2	File repository abstraction layer Example systems and methods of implementing an abstraction layer for a file repository are presented. In one example, an access request to retrieve an electronic file is received from a requesting device. The request includes an identification of a first storage location in the file repository. In response to the request, the first storage location of the file repository is searched for the electronic file. If the search is successful, the electronic file is retrieved from the file repository at the first storage location. If the search is unsuccessful, a redirection file is accessed in the file repository. The redirection file includes an identification of a second storage location for the electronic, file at a storage site external to the file repository. The electronic file is retrieved from the storage site based on the indication of the second storage location. The retrieved file is transmitted to the requesting device.
US09449003B1	System, method, and computer program for presenting entity-related events using radially segmented concentric circles A system, method, and computer program product are provided for presenting entity-related events using radially divided concentric circles. In use, a plurality of events associated with at least one entity is stored. Additionally, a set of the events is retrieved according to a preconfigured time period. Further, each of the events in the set is categorized according to a plurality of predefined categories. Still yet, a plurality of concentric circles each segmented by a radial axis centered on the concentric circles is displayed, where each segment is associated with a different one of the predefined categories and each concentric circle is associated with a different portion of the preconfigured time period. Moreover, each of the events in the set is presented in one of the segments of one of the concentric circles, based on the categorization.
US09449001B2	System and method for generation of signatures for multimedia data elements A method and system for generating a complex signature respective of a multimedia data element (MMDE) are provided. The method includes partitioning the MMDE into a plurality of different minimum size MMDEs; generating, for each of the different minimum MMDEs, at least one signature, wherein generation of each at least one signature is performed by a plurality of computational cores, each computational core having at least one configurable property characterizing the core, and wherein configuration of the at least one configurable property respective of each core results in statistical independence among the plurality of cores; and assembling at least a complex signature for the MMDE comprised of a plurality of the generated signatures.
US09448998B1	Systems and methods for monitoring multiple heterogeneous software applications A system monitors each of multiple applications. For each application, a corresponding monitoring script sets forth procedures for monitoring the application. A script execution engine executes each script, and each executed script retrieves indicia to be monitored from the corresponding application. For each retrieved indicia, the script generates a corresponding record in a generic format employed across all applications, which includes a date and time the indicia was retrieved, a name of the application from which the indicia was retrieved, a name of the indicia, and a value for the retrieved indicia. A monitoring database stores the records generated by each script in the generic format. A generic monitoring console retrieves various records in the generic format from the monitoring database for various ones of the multiple applications and displays monitoring information for various ones of the multiple applications as generated from the various records.
US09448995B2	Method and device for performing natural language searches A digital device and a method for parsing a query, in particular a natural language query, and retrieving results from possibly multiple data sources such as relational databases or the Semantic Web. The method includes a parsing procedure for generating a graph-based logical representation of the query using semantically structured resources, consisting of a tokenizer, a node generator, a relationship generator, and a focus identificator. The digital device realizes a modularized architecture, consisting of a parser enabling the processing of a query with possibly multiple vocabularies, a query performer retrieving data of knowledge sources independently from their database management system, and a result processor merging the results.
US09448992B2	Natural language search results for intent queries Systems and methods provide natural language search results to clear-intent queries. To provide the natural language search results, a system may parse a document from an authoritative source to generate at least one heading-text pair, the text appearing under the heading in the document. The system may assign a topic and a question category to the heading-text pair and store the heading-text pair in a data store keyed by the topic and the question category. The system determines that a query corresponds to the topic and the question category, and provides the heading-text pair as a natural language search result for the query. In some implementations, the text portion of the heading-text pair may be a paragraph or a list of items and the natural language search result may be provided with conventional snippet-based search results in response to the query.
US09448990B2	Adaptive construction of a statistical language model A statistical language model (SLM) may be iteratively refined by considering N-gram counts in new data, and blending the information contained in the new data with the existing SLM. A first group of documents is evaluated to determine the probabilities associated with the different N-grams observed in the documents. An SLM is constructed based on these probabilities. A second group of documents is then evaluated to determine the probabilities associated with each N-gram in that second group. The existing SLM is then evaluated to determine how well it explains the probabilities in the second group of documents, and a weighting parameter is calculated from that evaluation. Using the weighting parameter, a new SLM is then constructed as a weighted average of the existing SLM and the new probabilities.
US09448985B2	Browser application and a method of operating the browser application A method of displaying a web resource to a user in a browser application that is executed on an electronic device is provided. In response to the user requesting multiple web resources (i.e. a first web resource and a second web resource), the browser application displays a browser element tab, the browser element tab for controlling displaying of a first web resource and a second web resource within the browsing window, a browser element tab, the browser element tab having: a first browser element representative of the first web resource and a second browser element representative of the second web resource (if the web resources belong to different domains) and a unified browser element representative of the single domain (if the web resources belong to a single domain), the unified browser element being selectively collapsible and expandable.
US09448980B1	Organization ownership verification in a web application A system and machine-implemented method for verifying ownership of an organization and providing authenticated organizational badges to be displayed is provided. A request for ownership verification is received from an organization. A first bi-directional link between a profile page for the organization and a control panel designated to the organization is established. A second bi-directional link between the profile page for the organization and a webpage of the organization is further established. An ownership of the organization is verified based on the established first and second bi-directional links. When the ownership of the organization is verified, a badge based on the profile page for the organization is provided for display in the web-based application.
US09448977B2	Website blueprint generation and display algorithms to reduce perceived web-page loading time This disclosure describes systems, methods, and apparatus for decreasing apparent webpage pageload times. In particular, drawing commands used to render a webpage can be saved, and a subset of the drawing commands (a blueprint) can be stored in a memory of a user device. When the user device again requests download of the webpage, the blueprint can immediately load while the full webpage downloads, processes, and renders in parallel thereto. In this way, the user sees the blueprint immediately rather than being faced with a blank screen while the download and pageload take place.
US09448975B2	Character data processing method, information processing method, and information processing apparatus A character data processing method executed by a computer includes detecting glyph variant information from an input character data string, and converting detected glyph variant information to extended expression data, the extended data and the detected glyph variant information, the basic character data being associated with the detected glyph variant information in the input character string, wherein the extended expression data can be converted to the basic character data by specific bit arithmetic processing.
US09448972B2	Wrap package of cards supporting transactional advertising Creating and delivering advertisements within wrapped packages of cards, which selectively include (i) media content, including advertisement(s) for item(s) available for purchase, (ii) application functionality and/or (iii) e-commerce related transactional services. By defining the sequence order in which the cards are navigated when consumed, wraps may deliver advertisements in the context of a “story” or “narrative”, which unfolds as the cards are sequentially browsed, similar to the turning of the pages of a book or magazine. Ads thus become more compelling. In addition, with built-in transactional functionality, advertised Item(s) can be immediately purchased without having to exit the wrap.
US09448970B2	Singular value decomposition of complex matrix Computerized singular value decomposition of an input complex matrix. A real-value matrix representation of the input complex matrix is provided to a singular value decomposition module, which correctly obtains a singular value representation of the real-value matrix representation. However, the result is not provided in a form for convenient conversion back into a valid singular value decomposition solution for the original input complex matrix, as the upper left half and lower right half of the diagonal of the diagonal matrix are not identical. A correction module corrects by formulating a corrected diagonal matrix that represents the value of the diagonal of the first diagonal matrix, but shuffled so that the upper left half of the diagonal of the second diagonal matrix is the same as the lower right half of the diagonal of the second diagonal matrix. Corrected unitary matrices may also be formed.
US09448968B2	Automated small object sorting systems and methods In various embodiments, a small object sorting system includes an object tray cart docking station configured to dock an object tray cart here within. The system additionally includes an automated tray removal and positioning subsystem configured to remove an object tray from the object tray cart, selectively position the tray such that selected small objects can be extracted therefrom, and replace the object tray into the object tray cart. Furthermore, the system includes an automated collection assembly positioning subsystem configured to selectively position a collection assembly such that the selected extracted small objects can be deposited into selected object receptacles, and an automated object extraction subsystem configured to extract the selected small objects and deposit each extracted small object into the selected object receptacles.
US09448967B2	Stream data processor Techniques are provided aimed at improving the flexibility and reducing the area and power consumption of digital baseband integrated circuits by using stream data processor based modem architecture. Semiconductor companies offering baseband ICs for handsets, face the challenges of improving die size efficiency, power efficiency, performance, time to market, and coping with evolving standards. Software defined radio based implementations offer a fast time to market. Dedicated hardware designs give the best die size and power efficiency. To combine the advantages of dedicated hardware with the advantages of conventional software defined radio solutions the stream data processor is partitioned into a stream processor unit, which implements processing functions in dedicated hardware and is hence die size and power efficient, and a flexible stream control unit which may be software defined to minimize the time to market of the product.
US09448964B2	Autonomous control in a programmable system A programmable system includes a programmable analog system that is reconfigurable to perform various analog operations, and includes a programmable digital system that is reconfigurable to perform various digital operations. The programmable system also includes a microcontroller capable of reconfiguring and controlling the programmable analog system and the programmable digital system. The programmable digital system is configured to control the programmable analog system autonomously of the microcontroller.
US09448963B2	Low-power reconfigurable architecture for simultaneous implementation of distinct communication standards A chip architecture for use in processing signals encoded in accordance with any one of a plurality of communication protocols each defined by a series of algorithms is disclosed. The chip architecture comprises a plurality of megafunctions, each in the form of reusable, reconfigurable functional blocks for use in implementing different algorithms necessary for implementing the physical layer of each of the communication protocols; and a plurality of switches configured to respond to select control signals so as to interconnect the necessary megafunctions for processing the signals encoded with each of the protocols. Preferably, at least some of the same megafunctions are used with algorithms of two or more protocols.
US09448955B2	Method for controlling interruption in data transmission process A method of controlling interrupts in the process of data transmission used for transmitting data between an information processing device and a storage device having a flash memory includes: receiving a write request sent by the information processing device using the storage device; in response to the write request, writing data to the flash memory; sending a message to the information processing device, to indicate completion of the write request, and calculating the number of times of sending messages to the information processing device within the predetermined time interval; in which, if the number is larger than the predetermined threshold, stopping the sending messages to the information processing device.
US09448953B2	Memory subsystem and computer system The present invention provides a computer system including a CPU and a memory subsystem connected via a system bus to communicate with each other. The computer system 100 includes a bus monitor 50 connected to the system bus 10 to monitor the frequency of access requests from the CPU 20 to the memory subsystem 30, and a latency changing means 60 for sending a control signal to the memory subsystem to change the latency of the access requests in response to the frequency of the access requests received from the bus monitor.
US09448952B2	Apparatus and method for synchronizing dynamic process data across redundant input/output modules A method includes receiving first data at a first I/O module from a second I/O module, where the first data defines a programmable device configuration. The method also includes configuring a programmable device in the first I/O module based on the first data, where the programmable device is associated with a first I/O channel of the first I/O module. The method further includes receiving second data at the first I/O module from the second I/O module, where the second data is associated with a second I/O channel of the second I/O module. In addition, the method includes synchronizing the first I/O channel with the second I/O channel based on the second data.
US09448948B2	Efficient replica cleanup during resynchronization Mechanisms are provided for efficient replica cleanup during resynchronization. According to various embodiments, a plurality of deleted data segment ranges on a first storage node may be identified. The first storage node may be configured to store a plurality of data segments. Each of the plurality of data segments may have associated therewith a respective identifier. Each of the data segment ranges may designate one or more data segments that have been deleted from the first storage node. The plurality of deleted data segment ranges may be transmitted to a second storage node configured to mirror the plurality of data segments stored on the first storage node. The plurality of deleted data segment ranges may be capable of being used to identify one or more data segments to delete from the second storage node.
US09448947B2	Inter-chip memory interface structure In an embodiment, a stacked package-on-package system has a memory die and a logic die. The memory die comprises a first memory and a second memory, each operated independently of the other, and each having an inter-chip interface electrically connected to the logic die. The logic die has two independent clock sources, one to provide a first clock signal to the first memory, and the other clock source to provide a second clock signal to the second memory.
US09448946B2	Data storage system with stale data mechanism and method of operation thereof Systems, methods and/or devices are used to enable a stale data mechanism. In one aspect, the method includes (1) receiving a write command specifying a logical address to which to write, (2) determining whether a stale flag corresponding to the logical address is set, (3) in accordance with a determination that the stale flag is not set, setting the stale flag and releasing the write command to be processed, and (4) in accordance with a determination that the stale flag is set, detecting an overlap, wherein the overlap indicates two or more outstanding write commands are operating on the same memory space.
US09448945B2	Using a decrementer interrupt to start long-running hardware operations before the end of a shared processor dispatch cycle Method to perform an operation, the operation comprising processing a first logical partition on a shared processor for the duration of a dispatch cycle, issuing, by a hypervisor, at a predefined time prior to completion of the dispatch cycle, a lightweight hypervisor decrementer (HDEC) interrupt specifying a cache line address buffer location in a virtual processor, and responsive to the lightweight HDEC, writing, by the shared processor, a set of cache line addresses used by the first logical partition to the cache line address buffer location in the virtual processor.
US09448942B2	Random access of a cache portion using an access module A data processing system having a first processor, a second processor, a local memory of the second processor, and a built-in self-test (BIST) controller of the second processor which can be randomly enabled to perform memory accesses on the local memory of the second processor and which includes a random value generator is provided. The system can perform a method including executing a secure code sequence by the first processor and performing, by the BIST controller of the second processor, BIST memory accesses to the local memory of the second processor in response to the random value generator. Performing the BIST memory accesses is performed concurrently with executing the secure code sequence.
US09448939B2	Collecting memory operand access characteristics during transactional execution A transactional execution of a set of instructions in a transaction of a program may be initiated to collect memory operand access characteristics of a set of instructions of a transaction during the transactional execution. The memory operand access characteristics may be stored upon a termination of the transactional execution of the set of instructions. The memory operand access characteristics may include an address of an accessed storage location, a count of a number of times the storage location is accessed, a purpose value indicating whether the storage location is accessed for a fetch, store, or update operation, a count of a number of times the storage location is accessed for one or more of a fetch, store, or update operation; a translation mode in which the storage location is accessed; and an addressing mode.
US09448938B2	Cache coherence protocol for persistent memories A memory device having a memory controller, a main memory with at least a portion comprising persistent memory, and at least two processing entities, wherein the memory controller enables the processing entities to access the main memory according to a cache coherence protocol. The cache coherency protocol can signal when the main memory is being updated and when the update has finished. The processing entities can be configured to wait for the main memory to be updated or can access previously stored memory.
US09448933B2	Using redundant transactions to verify the correctness of program code execution In the described embodiments, a processor core (e.g., a GPU core) receives a section of program code to be executed in a transaction from another entity in a computing device. The processor core sends the section of program code to one or more compute units in the processor core to be executed in a first transaction and concurrently executed in a second transaction, thereby creating a “redundant transaction pair.” When the first transaction and the second transaction are completed, the processor core compares a read-set of the first transaction to a read-set of the second transaction and compares a write-set of the first transaction to a write-set of the second transaction. When the read-sets and the write-sets match and no transactional error condition has occurred, the processor core allows results from the first transaction to be committed to an architectural state of the computing device.
US09448931B2	Endian conversion method and system An endian conversion method is executed by a CPU, and includes executing a program that includes endian conversion setting; and performing, when accessing an address of a main memory indicated in the endian conversion setting, endian conversion of data specified by the address of the main memory.
US09448929B1	Memory allocation folding based on object dominance A computer-implemented method for compilation of applications can include receiving a set of software instructions and traversing the set of software instructions based on a control-flow order of the set of software instructions. The traversing can include identifying a first allocation instruction in the set of software instructions, the first allocation instruction being configured to allocate a first amount of memory for a first object and identifying a second allocation instruction in the set of software instructions, the second allocation instruction being configured to allocate a second amount of memory for a second object. The method can include determining that the first allocation instruction dominates the second allocation instruction and, in response to the determining, combining the first allocation instruction and the second allocation instruction into a folded allocation instruction that allocates the first amount of memory and the second amount of memory in a single memory allocation operation.
US09448928B2	System and method for two-tier adaptive heap management in a virtual machine environment In accordance with an embodiment, described herein is a system and method for two-tier adaptive heap management (AHM) in a virtual machine environment, such as a Java virtual machine (JVM). In accordance with an embodiment, a two-tier AHM approach recognizes that more virtual machines can be run on a particular host, or the same number of virtual machines can support higher load while minimizing out-of-memory occurrences, swapping, and long old garbage collection pauses, if the heap is divided into tiers, so that a garbage collection policy that minimizes pause time can be used in a first (normal) tier, and a garbage collection policy that favors heap compaction and release of free memory to the host can be used in another (high-heap) tier.
US09448927B1	System and methods for removing obsolete data in a distributed system of hybrid storage and compute nodes A distributed garbage collection in a distributed storage system is described, where the storage controller functions of the distributed storage system are separated from that of distributed storage system storage media. In an exemplary embodiment, a storage controller server generates a live object map of live objects stored on the distributed storage system in a plurality of block segments distributed across a plurality of storage controller servers. The storage controller server further scans the plurality of block segments to generate segment summary statistics, where the segment summary statistics indicates the number of live objects stored in the plurality of block segments. In addition, the storage controller server compacts each of the plurality of block segments that have a low utilization based on the segment summary statistics. Furthermore, the live object map is a probabilistic data structure storing a list of valid objects.
US09448924B2	Flash optimized, log-structured layer of a file system In one embodiment, storage arrays of solid state drives (SSDs) coupled to a node are organized as redundant array of independent disks (RAID) groups. Each storage array includes one or more segments. Each segment has contiguous free space on the SSDs. Data and metadata is organized on the SSDs with a sequential log-structured layout, with the data organized as variable-length extents of one or more logical units (LUNs). Segment cleaning is performed to clean a selected segment by moving the extents of the selected segment that contain valid data to one or more different segments so as to free the selected segment. Additional extents are written as a sequence of contiguous range write operations to the entire free segment with temporal locality to reduce data relocation within the SSDs as a result of the write operations.
US09448923B2	Information processing device for synchronizing update information between a solid state drive and a backup storage An information processing device includes: an SSD storage controlling unit for storing a physical address of a storage region of data stored in an SSD (Solid State Drive) and a number of updates of the storage region, as SSD update information into the SSD; a backup storage controlling unit for storing copy data of the data stored in the SSD, and copy update information obtained by copying the SSD update information, in association with each other into a backup storage part; an acquiring unit for acquiring the copy update information corresponding to data associated with the SSD update information acquired from the SSD, from the backup storage part; and a deciding unit for deciding the data to be stored into the backup storage part based on the acquired SSD update information and the acquired copy update information.
US09448921B2	Page allocation for flash memories Technologies are described herein for allocating pages in a flash memory. Some example technologies may receive multiple data elements and a write request to write the multiple data elements to the flash memory. Example technologies may identify a correlation between a subset of the data elements based on correlation criteria. Example technologies may allocate neighboring pages of the flash memory for storing the subset of the data elements. Example technologies may write the subset of the data elements into the allocated pages.
US09448916B2	Software test automation systems and methods Described are a system and method for performing an automated quality assessment on a software program under test. A test automation system executes a test on a software program Data related to the test is automatically collected. The data includes first information determined by the test automation system in response to executing the test. The data further includes second information related to the test and received from a source other than the test automation system. The first information is analyzed. A quality assessment of the software program is generated from the analyzed first information and from the second information.
US09448914B2	Method and system for implementing remote debugging The present disclosure discloses a method and a system for implementing remote debugging, and relates to the field of communications technologies. The disclosed methods and systems can implement remote debugging across different local area networks (LANs). A transit agent, a debugger agent, and a debuggee agent are configured in a remote debugging system. The transit agent may, according to a stored mapping table, forward information sent by the debugger agent and the debuggee agent, to transmit information between a remote debugging client and a remote debugging server that are in different LANs.
US09448912B2	Providing service address space for diagnostics collection A method and system are provided for providing a service address space for diagnostics collection. The method includes: providing a service co-processor attached to a main processor, wherein the service co-processor maintains an independent copy of the main processor's address space in the form of a service address space; and updating the service address space by receiving storage update packets from the main processor and applying the storage update packets to the service address space.
US09448910B2	Computer-implemented method, program, and tracer node for obtaining trace data relating to particular virtual machine An improved method for identifying trace data relating to a particular virtual machine from trace data acquired by a tracer node. The method is executed in a computing environment including at least one processing node and a tracer node for acquiring a trace of access to a memory apparatus thereof. The method includes the steps of: starting recording of trace data containing information of the trace of the access to the memory apparatus of the tracer node; storing, in response to migration of the particular virtual machine from a given processing node to the tracer node, information identifying a physical address of the memory apparatus of the tracer node, the physical address being assigned to the particular virtual machine; and identifying the trace data relating to the particular virtual machine from the trace data, using the assigned physical address of the memory apparatus of the tracer node.
US09448909B2	Randomly branching using performance counters A system and method for efficiently performing program instrumentation. A processor processes instructions stored in a memory. When the processor processes a given instruction of a given instruction type, the processor updates a corresponding performance counter. When the performance counter reaches a threshold, the processor generates an interrupt and compares a location of the given instruction with stored locations in a given list. If a match is not found, then the processor processes an instruction following the given instruction in the computer program without processing intermediate instrumentation code. If a match is found, then the processor processes instrumentation code. Regardless of whether or not the instrumentation code is processed, when control flow returns to the computer program, the corresponding performance counter is initialized with a random value.
US09448906B2	Service quality evaluator having adaptive evaluation criteria An improved method is provided for evaluating service quality of a software application residing in a computing environment. The method includes: monitoring first and second metrics indicative of performance of the software application; evaluating the first metric in relation to a first evaluation criterion; evaluating the second metric in relation to a second evaluation criterion different than the first evaluation criterion; and determining the state of service for the software application based in part on the evaluation of the second metric. Over time, the second evaluation criterion is adapted based on the outcome of the evaluation of the first metric.
US09448903B2	Multiple test type analysis for a test case using test case metadata In one embodiment, a method determines a test case containing test code for testing a functionality of a computer system. The test case is associated with metadata. The metadata is parsed to determine a plurality of system test types and one or more parameters for the plurality of system test types wherein the one or more parameters indicate system conditions for the computer system. The method executes a set of tests using the test code with the computer system using the system conditions. Results of the executed set of tests are output for the plurality of system test types.
US09448902B2	Validating connection, structural characteristics and positioning of cable connectors In one or more aspects, a determination is made as to whether a connector is securely fastened, whether the connector connected within a socket structure is the expected connector for that socket structure, and/or whether connectors coupled to one another via one or more cables are properly positioned for communication between them. Information on selected physical connection elements of a connector is used to determine one or more structural characteristics of the cable(s) connected to the connector and to determine whether the connector is the expected connector for a particular socket structure.
US09448898B2	Network traffic routing A service appliance is installed between production servers running service applications and service users. The production servers and their service applications provide services to the service users. In the event that a production server is unable to provide its service to users, the service appliance can transparently intervene to maintain service availability. To maintain transparency to service users and service applications, service users are located on a first network and production servers are located on a second network. The service appliance assumes the addresses of the service users on the second network and the addresses of the production servers on the first network. Thus, the service appliance obtains all network traffic sent between the production server and service users. While the service application is operating correctly, the service appliance forwards network traffic between the two networks using various network layers.
US09448897B2	Process for selecting an authoritative name server Methods and systems for intelligently choosing an authoritative name server from among a group of name servers for resolving Domain Name System requests. Systems and methods are provided that enable choosing of a first server associated with and/or operated by a first service provider based on a first measurement associated with that first server. The systems and methods further comprise requesting first data from that first server, determining that the first server is unresponsive, and choosing a second server. The second server is chosen based on a second measurement, and chosen contingent on it being associated with and/or operated by to a different service provider than that associated with the first server. The systems and methods then comprise requesting second data from the second server.
US09448891B2	Performing a data write on a storage device A method of performing a data write on a storage device comprises instructing a device driver for the device to perform a write to the storage device, registering the device driver as a transaction participant with a transaction co-ordinator, executing a flashcopy of the storage device, performing the write on the storage device, and performing a two-phase commit between device driver and transaction co-ordinator. Preferably, the method comprises receiving an instruction to perform a rollback, and reversing the data write according to the flashcopy. In a further refinement, a method of scheduling a flashcopy of a storage device comprises receiving an instruction to perform a flashcopy, ascertaining the current transaction in relation to the device, registering the device driver for the device as a transaction participant in the current transaction with a transaction co-ordinator, receiving a transaction complete indication from the co-ordinator, and executing the flashcopy for the device.
US09448888B2	Preventing a rollback attack in a computing system that includes a primary memory bank and a backup memory bank Preventing a rollback attack in a computing system that includes a primary memory bank and a backup memory bank, including during startup of the computing system: determining whether the computing system is attempting to use firmware in the backup memory bank; responsive to determining that the computing system is attempting to use firmware in the backup memory bank, determining whether the firmware in the backup memory bank is a previous version of firmware in the primary memory bank; responsive to determining that the firmware in the backup memory bank is a previous version of firmware in the primary memory bank, determining whether a system administrator has authorized the use of the firmware in the backup memory bank; and responsive to determining that the system administrator has authorized the use of the firmware in the backup memory bank, configuring the computing system to utilize the firmware in the backup memory bank.
US09448885B2	Forward error correction with configurable latency A method of performing forward error correction with configurable latency, where a configurable latency algorithm evaluates a target Bit Error Rate (BER) against an actual BER and adjusts the size of a configurable buffer such that the target BER may be achieved when utilizing the smallest buffer size possible. When errors are corrected without the utilization of each of the configurable buffer locations, the algorithm reduces the size of the buffer by y buffer locations; the algorithm may continue to successively reduce the size of said buffer until the minimum number of buffer locations are utilized to achieve the target BER. If the buffer locations have been reduced such that the buffer size is too small and the target BER cannot be achieved, the algorithm may increase the size of the buffer until the minimum number of buffer locations are utilized to achieve the target BER.

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