| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09641818B1 |
Kinetic object removal from camera preview image
A digital camera is configured to display a continually updated preview image of an observed scene, wherein kinetic objects that appear in the observed scene do not appear in the continually updated preview image. An observed scene includes static objects and kinetic objects. The observed scene is recorded using a digital imaging sensor which forms part of a smartphone. A live camera feed results, the live camera feed comprising a plurality of frames, each depicting the observed scene at a specific time. A median color value is evaluated over m non-consecutive frames captured from the live camera feed. The median color values are used to generate an output feed that is displayed at a reduced frame rate as compared to the live camera feed. The resulting displayed scene includes the same static objects which appeared in the observed scene, but does not include the kinetic objects. |
| US09641817B2 |
Method and system for generating multi-projection images
Disclosed herein is a method of generating multi-projection images. The method of generating multi-projection images includes controlling a plurality of different types of filming devices so that the filming devices are disposed at specific angles, controlling the shutter operations of the plurality of different types of filming devices in order to synchronize the plurality of different types of filming devices, and controlling the plurality of different types of filming devices so that the filming devices perform filming operations in a plurality of viewpoint directions. |
| US09641816B2 |
Image pickup apparatus capable of selectively picking up a color image and a black-and-white image
Provided is an image pickup apparatus comprising: a light control mirror element (ace CME) having a function of splitting an incident light flux (LF) into a first LF from reflection and a second LF from transmission and a function of switching between a semi-transmissive/semi-reflective state (s-t/s-rS) and a totally reflective state (TRS); a LF splitting unit causes first and second LFs to be emitted from first and second exit surfaces (ES), respectively; an electrochromic element (EE) switches between a state of transmitting light having a first wavelength range (WR) out of first LF (first state) and a state of transmitting light having a second WR out of first LF (second state); and a control device conducts switching control between a first mode in which LCME is in s-t/s-rS and EE is in first state and a second mode in which LCME is in TRS and EE is in second state. |
| US09641815B2 |
Super resolution and color motion artifact correction in a pulsed color imaging system
The disclosure extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for producing an image in light deficient environments and associated structures, methods and features. The features of the systems and methods described herein may include providing improved resolution and color reproduction. |
| US09641814B2 |
Crowd sourced vision and sensor-surveyed mapping
A system for enhancing the provision of location information based on previously stored visual data. Apparatuses may utilize sensors to sense at least visual information at a location. The sensed visual information may include attributes that may be defined as one or more visual elements in the recorded visual information. The one or more visual elements may then be stored in a mapping database in association with the location. |
| US09641811B2 |
System and method for providing real-time maintenance, trouble-shooting, and process assurance for the oilfield
An operation, communication, and executions facilitation system includes at least one modular system device including at least one onsite fixed-base camera configurable at an onsite location directed at job equipment for remote live operation viewing by at least one offsite actor. At least one onsite hand-held camera directable by at least one onsite actor at selected equipment for remote live viewing of custom images by the at least one offsite actor. At least one audio communication device usable by the at least one onsite actor, and at least one personal computer configurable to receive data from onsite equipment. A secured or dedicated network connected to one or more of the at least one modular system device. A data center in communication with the secured or dedicated network; and, at least one operations center at an offsite location configured to be manned by the at least one offsite actor and configured to receive data via the data center from the at least one modular system device. Wherein two-way communication between the at least one offsite actor and the at least one onsite actor is accomplished through one or more of the at least one onsite hand-held camera, the at least one audio communication device, and the at least one personal computer. A method of providing and facilitating real-time equipment maintenance, trouble-shooting, and targeted remote operational process assurance of an operation. |
| US09641810B2 |
Method for acquiring images from arbitrary perspectives with UAVs equipped with fixed imagers
A method for acquiring images of a photographic target from arbitrary perspectives with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with at least one image acquisition device having a fixed acquisition direction with respect to the vehicle, said UAV having automatic navigation means allowing to reach an arbitrary location and automatic attitude control means allowing to transiently reach an arbitrary orientation in space, said photographic target being outside the current field of view of the acquisition device while the UAV flies along a predefined flying path, this method comprising: computing a target UAV position and an orientation in space required to acquire a desired image from a set of parameters, navigating to said target UAV position, modifying an attitude of the UAV in order to modify the acquisition direction to point toward the photographic target, acquiring images, and starting a recovery phase by controlling the UAV back to cruise attitude and navigate back along the predefined flying path. |
| US09641809B2 |
Circuit arrangement and method for processing a digital video stream and for detecting a fault in a digital video stream, digital video system and computer readable program product
The present invention relates to a circuit arrangement for processing a digital video stream, the circuit arrangement comprising: an input interface for receiving a digital video stream, a processing circuit which is arranged to process the digital video stream, a hang-up detecting circuit for detecting a fault in the processed digital video stream, the hang-up detecting circuit comprising: a checksum generating circuit which is arranged to generate checksums for the frames of the processed digital video stream, a memory for storing generated checksums and an analyzing device arranged to compare a currently generated checksum to a plurality of corresponding checksums of preceding frames stored in the memory and to generate an error signal if at least one predefined amount of compared checksums are matching. The present invention also relates to a digital video system, a method for processing a digital video stream and a computer readable program product. |
| US09641807B2 |
Motor vehicle with a driver assistance system and method of operating a driver assistance system
A motor vehicle includes a control device and at least one lighting device which is controllable by the control device sequentially in at least two modes which illuminate surroundings of the vehicle differently. At least one camera captures at least two images of the differently illuminated surroundings of the vehicle. The at least two different images are processed by an image processing device for producing a processing result which is transmitted for control of a driver assistance system. |
| US09641805B2 |
Providing a tele-immersive experience using a mirror metaphor
A tele-immersive environment is described that provides interaction among participants of a tele-immersive session. The environment includes two or more set-ups, each associated with a participant. Each set-up, in turn, includes mirror functionality for presenting a three-dimensional virtual space for viewing by a local participant. The virtual space shows at least some of the participants as if the participants were physically present at a same location and looking into a mirror. The mirror functionality can be implemented as a combination of a semi-transparent mirror and a display device, or just a display device acting alone. According to another feature, the environment may present a virtual object in a manner that allows any of the participants of the tele-immersive session to interact with the virtual object. |
| US09641802B2 |
Video session manager and method for enabling and managing video calling and telepresence communications sessions across multiple domains
A video session manager and method for enabling, optimizing and managing inter-domain video calling, telepresence and videoconferencing sessions, in exclusive video sessions, or within multi-modal communications sessions. The video session manager and method is operative for receiving and analyzing a communications session request from one or more endpoints (users); determining the viability of a communication session based on one or more attributes of the session; connecting the one or more requesting endpoints to start the session; continuously or periodically monitoring the session for problems with or changes in the session; and altering the parameters of the session in accordance with one or more predetermined policies, if a problem or change is detected, in order to maintain the viability of the session. |
| US09641799B2 |
Multimodal cognitive communications and collaborative knowledge exchange with visual neural networking and packetized augmented intelligence
The invention enables multimodal cognitive communications, collaboration, consultation and instruction with multichannel multiplexed streaming imagery data. It also enables synchronous multiparty curation, multisensory annotation and metadata tagging, as well as multi-formatted encapsulation, saving and sharing of collaborated imagery data as packetized augmented intelligence. The invention acquires both live stream and archived medical modality imagery from network-connected medical devices, cameras, signals and sensors, as well as multi-omic [phenotypic, genomic, metabolomic and radiomic] clinical data from biometric maps and movies, hapmaps, heat maps and data stream visualizations. The invention also acquires both medical and non-medical streaming imagery data from image data repositories, documents and structured reports, workstations and mobile devices, as well as from wearable computing, signals and sensors. The invention enables networked teams to interactively communicate, concurrently collaborate and bi-directionally exchange multichannel multiplexed imagery data streams, singly or together, in real time or asynchronously, generally by curating, annotating and tagging imagery information objects. The invention encapsulates and saves collaborated imagery data, together with multisensory annotations and metadata tags, in standard file formats as packetized augmented intelligence. The invention enables recursive cognitive enrichment with augmented cognitive vismemes, and saves packetized imagery information objects, multisensory annotations and metadata tags in native file formats [PDF, MPEG, JPEG, XML, XMPP, OR, SVG and DAE[ as well as in formats compliant with standards for digital communications in medicine [DICOM]. The invention enables live stream multicasting of multimodal cognitive communications and collaborative knowledge exchange with multisensory [visual, auditory, haptic] annotation and tagging of streaming imagery data, as well as secure, encrypted transmission of packetized augmented intelligence across file sharing data networks for rapid, adaptive learning, specialist skills acquisition and interoperable health information exchange. |
| US09641797B2 |
Wireless augmented reality communication system
A portable unit is for video communication to select a user name in a user name network. A transceiver wirelessly accesses a communication network through a wireless connection to a general purpose node coupled to the communication network. A user interface can receive user input to log on to a user name network through the communication network. The user name network has a plurality of user names, at least one of the plurality of user names is associated with a remote portable unit, logged on to the user name network and available for video communication. |
| US09641792B2 |
Data recording device and method relating to a time shifting function on a recording medium
The invention relates to a device and a method for recording data on a recording medium. The invention relates to the implementation of the timeshift function in a part of said recording medium called the timeshift buffer memory having a size defined in terms of recording capacity. For the timeshift buffer memory, a first threshold defines a capacity limit, a second threshold defines a recording time limit. The device records the data in the timeshift buffer memory as long as the second threshold is not reached and when the second threshold is reached before the first threshold, the processor truncates the start of the timeshift buffer memory when the data being read are not located at the start of the buffer memory or moves to reading the data of the timeshift buffer memory when the data being read are located at the start of the timeshift buffer memory. |
| US09641786B2 |
Camera capable of communicating with other communication device
A camera having communication ability can switch a mode between a communication mode and a shooting mode. The camera combines features of a communication device and a digital camera. The camera comprises a communication device, an imaging device, and a switching device. The switching device switched the communication mode to the shooting mode responsive to completion of communication. |
| US09641784B2 |
Imaging device
An object of the present invention is to reduce capacitance of a charge accumulation part (floating diffusion) of each pixel unit. In an imaging device, in addition to a plurality of first switching transistors for coupling a plurality of coupling wires extending in the column direction, a second switching transistor is provided between each of the coupling wires and a floating diffusion in each pixel unit. Preferably, the gate of the first switching transistor and the gate of the second switching transistor are electrically coupled to each other. |
| US09641777B2 |
Semiconductor device, solid-state image sensor and camera system
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, a solid-state image sensor and a camera system capable of reducing the influence of noise at a connection between chips without a special circuit for communication and reducing the cost as a result. The semiconductor device includes: a first chip 11; and a second chip 12, wherein the first chip 11 and the second chip 12 are bonded to have a stacked structure, the first chip 11 has a high-voltage transistor circuit mounted thereon, the second chip 12 has mounted thereon a low-voltage transistor circuit having lower breakdown voltage than the high-voltage transistor circuit, and wiring between the first chip and the second chip is connected through a via formed in the first chip. |
| US09641776B2 |
Image sensor with flexible interconnect capabilities
Electronic devices may include image sensors having configurable image sensor pixel interconnections. Image sensors may include image sensor pixels coupled to analog circuitry via configurable interconnect circuitry. The analog circuitry may include many analog circuit blocks. The analog circuit blocks may control and read out signals from associated image sensor pixels. The configurable interconnect circuitry may be controlled to reroute the connections between the analog circuit blocks and specific groups of image sensor pixels. Digital circuitry may be coupled to the analog circuitry via configurable interconnect circuitry. The digital circuitry may include digital circuit blocks. There may be significantly more image pixels controlled by a small number of analog circuit blocks, which are in turn controlled by a smaller number of digital circuit blocks. The image sensor pixel array, the configurable interconnect circuitry, the analog circuitry, and the digital circuitry may be vertically stacked. |
| US09641773B2 |
High dynamic range imaging device
The present invention relates to improved imaging devices having high dynamic range and to monitoring and automatic control systems incorporating the improved imaging devices. |
| US09641770B2 |
Algorithm and devices for calibration and accuracy of overlaid image data
The algorithm of the present disclosure works in conjunction with a user device (e.g., a mobile phone) capable of acquiring and displaying an image, and a server. First and second portions of the algorithm can be resident on the user device and the server, respectively. The algorithm can receive the image, as well as other information from the device such as the location and compass heading of the device, and time of day. The algorithm can obtain information relating to an object in the image, and display the data set on or near the object in the image. The data set can contain information relevant to or about the object. The algorithm can automatically detect whether the data set is in the right location, and if not, calculate and apply an offset to the data set. The algorithm can also store data from multiple users and analyze this data over a period of time to determine the accuracy of the same. |
| US09641769B2 |
Image capture apparatus and method for controlling the same
An image capture apparatus can execute automatic focus detection of an imaging optical system, using a signal obtained from an image sensor. First image-forming position information is obtained by performing, using first weights, weighted addition on information regarding image-forming positions of the imaging optical system, the information corresponding to different spatial frequencies. In addition, second image-forming position information is obtained by performing, using second weights, weighted addition on the information. A result of the automatic focus detection is corrected based on a result of a comparison between the first and second image-forming position information. The first weights correspond to an evaluated band at the time of appreciating an image, and the second weights correspond to an evaluated band of the signal used in the automatic focus detection. |
| US09641765B2 |
Image capture device, image correction method, and image correction program
The image capture device includes an image capture element which is formed of a plurality of pixels and acquires a captured image by detecting light from a subject and converting the light into an electric signal, an optical path changing unit which changes an optical path of light incident on an image capture element and displaces a position of light incident on the image capture element, a state change determining unit which obtains a deviation of a brightness value per pixel in a captured image, determines whether or not a subject temporally changes its state based on the deviation, and outputs an optical path change instruction to an optical path changing unit when it is determined that the subject does not change its state, a correction value calculating unit which performs a predetermined correction value calculating process on captured images of the same subject before and after a state change by an image capture element and calculates a noise image contained in the captured image as a correction value, and a correction executing unit which eliminates noise from a captured image by use of a correction value. |
| US09641763B2 |
System and method for object tracking and timing across multiple camera views
A system and method for object tracking and timing across multiple camera views includes local and global tracking modules for tracking the location of objects as they traverse particular regions of interest within an area of interest. A local timing module measures the time spent with each object within the area captured by a camera. A global timing module measures the time taken by the tracked object to traverse the entire area of interest or the length of the stay of the object within the area of interest. |
| US09641759B2 |
Mobile terminal and controlling method thereof
A mobile terminal and controlling method thereof are disclosed, by which a sharp and clear photo can be composed using a plurality of photos taken by burst shooting. The present invention includes a camera, a sensing unit configured to detect a surrounding brightness, a user input unit configured to receive a photographing command, and a controller, if the photographing command is received, taking a first number of photos by burst shooting, the controller outputting a shaking eliminated photo based on a second number of photo(s) selected from the first number of the taken photos, wherein the second number is determined based on the detected surrounding brightness. |
| US09641752B2 |
Systems and methods for imaging identification information
Described herein are techniques for acquiring an image of a user's credential document through a user device. A method includes capturing information from a user interface regarding a particular type of credential document to be imaged, receiving a video stream of the user's credential document from a camera of the user device, displaying the video stream on a display of the user device, and determining whether a set of criteria for capturing the image of the user's credential document are satisfied. If the criteria are not satisfied, the method presents a first indication on the user device that the user's credential document is not ready to be imaged. If the criteria are satisfied, the method presents a second indication on the user device that the user's credential document is ready to be imaged and captures an image of the user's credential document. |
| US09641750B2 |
Camera control means to allow operating of a destined location of the information surface of a presentation and information system
The disclosure concerns a control device for controlling an information device arrangement. Control device includes camera means (CAM) and display means (VF) to allow operating of a destined location of the information surface. Destined location is adapted for determination from the control information being in the image information (IMAGE) formed by the camera means (CAM). The control device is arranged at least to determine from the control information of the image information (IMAGE) data (x1, y1, hei, wid, gx, gy) in order to determine a continuous stream of locations pointed by the control device. System, method and program products are also targets of the present invention. |
| US09641748B2 |
Mobile terminal and controlling method therefor
Disclosed is a mobile terminal capable of restoring an unseen area, after taking a photograph, and a control method therefor. The mobile terminal, according to the present invention, can comprise: a camera for taking the photograph; a memory for storing data; a display unit for displaying, as a preview image, a partial area of an image inputted to the camera; and a control unit for taking the photograph of the entire image inputted to the camera when a photographing command is inputted, and controlling the partial area of the taken photograph to be displayed when a display command for the taken photograph is received. At this time, the control unit controls the entire area of the taken photograph to be displayed on the display unit when an editing command for the taken photograph is received, and can cut out a cropped area from the entire area of the taken photograph and store the same when the cropped area is set on the entire area of the taken photograph. |
| US09641747B2 |
Imaging device
An imaging device comprises a lens barrel including an optical system that collects light from a predetermined viewing area and that defines an optical axis; an imaging unit that receives the light collected by the optical system and generates image data, the image data defining a main image that includes a determined sub area; a ring-shaped operation ring that is provided on an outer circumference of the lens barrel and that is manually rotatable about the optical axis of the optical system; and an area change unit that changes at least one of (A) a size of the determined sub area, or (B) a position of the determined sub area, responsive to a manual operation of the operation ring. |
| US09641742B2 |
Imaging device and method of driving imaging device
An imaging device includes an acquisition unit acquiring a defocus amount for an optical image which is obtained by an imaging element, a recording unit recording a driving speed of lens with the defocus amount in response to an instruction from a user, wherein the lens is controlled, for adjusting a position at which the optical image is focused, by a lens driving unit, an information generating unit generating lens driving information specifying a relation between the defocus amount and the lens driving speed, and a control unit controlling the lens driving unit so as to move the lens to a position at which the optical image is in-focused to the object at a predetermined speed specified in the lens driving information as a driving speed corresponding to the defocus amount acquired by the acquisition unit. |
| US09641729B2 |
System and method for encoder-integrated media denoising
Embodiments are provided herein to achieve video or image sequence encoding with an improved denoising algorithm that is both efficient computationally and has acceptable overhead cost in comparison to other denoising schemes for video encoding. The embodiments include using recursive bilateral filtering as part of the denoising algorithm, which is integrated into a video encoder to overcome limitations of other encoder-integrated denoising algorithms. An embodiment method includes receiving, at a filtering and residual computation function at the encoder, a macro block comprising a plurality of pixels. The filtering and residual computation function also receives, from a motion estimation function at the encoder, a reference block. The reference block comprises a plurality of reference pixels corresponding to the macro block. The filtering and residual computation function further applies a recursive bilateral filter function to each of the pixels of the macro block using the reference pixels of the reference block. |
| US09641728B2 |
Image data processing apparatus
An image data processing apparatus includes a white-colorant-amount specifying unit that specifies an amount of a white colorant used by an image forming apparatus to form an image having a unit area, the image forming apparatus forming an image on a recording medium by using the white colorant and at least one process-color colorant; and a process-color-colorant-total-amount adjusting unit that adjusts a total amount of the at least one process-color colorant used by the image forming apparatus to form the image having a unit area. The process-color-colorant-total-amount-adjusting unit adjusts the total amount of the at least one process-color colorant so that a sum of the amount of the white colorant and the total amount of the at least one process-color colorant used to form the image having a unit area is constant. |
| US09641724B1 |
Method and system for compressing and converting an image during printing
A method and a system for image compression are disclosed. An image is converted to a halftoned image. The one or more halftoned lines in the halftoned image comprise one or more pixels. A first transformed image is generated from the halftoned image based on shifting of the one or more pixels, associated with the one or more halftoned lines in the halftoned image, by a first value. A second transformed image is generated from the first transformed image based on shifting of the one or more pixels, associated with the one or more halftoned lines in the first transformed image, by a second value. Further, a compressed image is generated based on compression of the second transformed image. The compressed image is stored in a storage device. Another method and system for image conversion are disclosed that converts the compressed image back to the first transformed image. |
| US09641720B2 |
Information processing apparatus searching operation/job log information based on selection of displayed job/operation log information
A document ID is recorded in an operation log, and an operation ID and document ID are recorded in a job log. The job log and operation log are set such that they can be searched in association with each other. An operation log record associated with a designated document record is read and added to a result list (S2104). Operation log records are read out one by one from the result list. If an associated document ID is found, it is added to a target document ID (S2109). Further, an operation log record associated with the found document ID is added to the result list (S2104). |
| US09641719B2 |
Method for searching captured images using identification information
There is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium. An imaging unit captures an image. A search request unit requests a search by using identification information for identifying a person described in the image or a medium having the image printed thereon. A reception unit receives image feature values corresponding to the identification information, as a result of the search. An acquisition unit acquires information for accessing a content or content information when the received image feature values and image feature values extracted from the captured image correspond to each other. |
| US09641718B2 |
Copying machine and printer
A copying machine is configured to execute a first scanning process to scan an image on an original sheet and generate image data, which is stored in a storage of the copying machine and an external processing device, a printing process to print the image of the original sheet, a second scanning process to release an image data storing area of the storage, and store the image data in the storage and the external processing device, a transmission process to release the image data storing area of the storage, and transmit the image data from the external processing device to the storage, and a detection process to detect whether a free capacity of the storage becomes less than a particular value. |
| US09641716B2 |
Image forming apparatus and image forming method for both side copying
An image forming apparatus includes an image reading that reads an original document. An image processing unit determines a region other than a first document region corresponding to the first surface of the original document. The region other than the first document region is eliminated from first image data. A region other than a second document region corresponding to the second surface of the original document is determined. The region other than the second document region from the second image data is eliminated. A printing image is generated. An image forming unit prints the printing image generated by the image processing unit on a single surface of a recording medium. |
| US09641712B2 |
Image reading device and image forming apparatus
An image reading device generates, as image data of a reading region, image data for output and image data for size detection, the latter having a lower resolution than the former, discriminates high density lines from the size-detection image data, sets as a target line one of the high density lines. And the image reading device calculates as a width for size detection a width from a reference line to the target line, sets as the size of a document a reference size that has a width closest to the width for size detection, performs image processing on the output image data based on the reference size set as the size of the document, and outputs the processed image data. |
| US09641710B2 |
Information processing apparatus that displays destination display information according to display condition
An information processing apparatus includes: a memory that stores destination information; an operation part that receives an operation; a for-display destination information generation part that generates for-display destination information based on the destination information; and a display part that displays the for-display destination information. The operation part receives a display switch operation, the destination information includes a first destination information group and a second destination information group, and the for-display destination information generation part, based on a single operation of the display switch operation, switches the for-display destination information between a display of the first destination information group, a display of the second destination information group, and a display of both of the first destination information group and the second destination information group. |
| US09641707B2 |
Operation screen of an image forming apparatus being displayed on a portable device based on the position of the portable device
An information processing apparatus includes: a display section displaying a first operation image for user operation; a display control section; a detection section detecting an approach direction of a predefined communication device approaching the display section; a storage section storing, besides the first operation image of the display section, plural second operation images associated with the approach direction; a communication control section reading, from the storage section, the second operation image associated with the approach direction detected by the detection section, allowing a communication section to transmit the read second operation image to the communication device, and to receive, from the communication device, an instruction corresponding to an operation inputted on the second operation image in the communication device; an instruction reception section receiving the instruction received by the communication section besides an instruction corresponding to operation on the first operation image of the display section; and an execution section. |
| US09641704B2 |
Information processing system, information processing apparatus, and control method
An information processing system includes an information processing apparatus that is capable of being remotely operated by a remote operation terminal via a network, an execution unit that executes a job in accordance with operation, a first operation receiving unit that receives operation of the remote operation terminal for the execution unit, a second operation receiving unit that receives operation for the execution unit, a determining unit that determines whether operation is received by the first operation receiving unit or the second operation receiving unit, a charging determining unit that determines whether the job executed by the execution unit is an object for charging in accordance with the result determined by the determining unit, and a storing unit that stores therein the result determined by the determining unit. |
| US09641702B2 |
Methods and systems of generating a lenticular article using a printing blanket
A method for a production of a lenticular image. The method comprises feeding a lenticular printing substrate having a corrugated side and a printing side into a digital printing press, feeding at least one nontransparent ink to set a substantially nontransparent layer on a printing blanket of the printing press, feeding a plurality of colored inks to set an interlaced color image layer on top of the substantially nontransparent layer on the printing blanket, and printing with the printing blanket onto the printing side. |
| US09641699B2 |
Calibration of scanning devices
Systems and methods for calibrating scanning devices are described. The method comprises dividing a dark scan image of a calibration strip into one or more regions. The dark scan image is further analyzed to obtain at least one data point from each of the one or more regions. Further, calibration values for each of the one or more regions are computed based on the at least one data point for calibrating the scanning device. The calibration values include mean and standard deviation of the data points for each of the one or more regions. |
| US09641698B2 |
Mobile communication network distribution system and mobile communication network distribution method
An object of the invention is to provide a communication service with high utilization efficiency. A mobile communication network distribution system includes: an acquisition unit that acquires condition information; a determination unit that determines a degenerate mobile communication network which provides a function satisfying a functional requirement based on the condition information acquired by the acquisition unit among a plurality of mobile communication networks to be a connection destination mobile communication network which is a connection destination of the UE; and a distribution unit that distributes the connection destination of the mobile communication terminal to the connection destination mobile communication network determined by the determination unit. |
| US09641697B2 |
Policy and charging control method, V-PCRF and V-OCS
A subscription information processing method, a policy and charging control method, an online charging method, a visited network, a V-PCRF and a V-OCS, wherein, the subscription information processing method comprises: a visited network receiving visited network subscription information and account information of a roaming user, the visited network subscription information and the account information and home network subscription information and account information of the roaming user using the same user identification information; the visited network storing the visited network subscription information and the account information of the roaming user. |
| US09641691B1 |
IP telephony network using a configuration map for organizing sites
A system and method for managing an IP telephony network that uses a configuration map for organizing sites in a tree-like hierarchy. The system is capable of managing the addition, removal and movement of IP telephony elements within an IP telephony network and locating services and IP telephony elements within the IP telephony network in an efficient manner. |
| US09641686B1 |
Method for using customer attributes to select a service representative
A customer submits a request for assistance to a customer service. Accordingly, the customer service may access a customer database to obtain one or more customer preferences that can be used to select a service representative. If the customer database does not include these preferences, the customer service may utilize one or more customer attributes to calculate these one or more customer preferences. Subsequently, the customer service may access a service representative database and select a service representative based at least in part on the one or more customer preferences. The customer service may transmit the request to the selected service representative to enable the service representative to assist the customer. |
| US09641685B2 |
Systems and methods for an omni-channel routing broker
Omni-channel routing broker technology is usable to improve the experience for customers and for workers using service channels, especially for very large enterprise service operation centers that have large pools of agents, helping businesses determine the relative priority for handling a variety of service channels, and to efficiently route issues accordingly. Omni-channel routing broker includes intelligent routing of service requests in a large, distributed service center operation, efficiently prioritizing the routing of work across organizations to agents based on availability, capacity and priority—in a multi-tenant environment. The disclosed methods are usable for managing digital data for many tenants to software instances, including groups of users who share common access with a specific set of privileges to a software instance of at least one application. The disclosed technology makes possible the delivery of an improved performance from routing 3-4 requests per second to routing 100 requests per second. |
| US09641680B1 |
Cross-linking call metadata
Methods, systems, and devices for cross-linking events and persons using anonymized voice fingerprint identifiers (IDs) and call metadata are described. The method can include retrieving, form a centralized database, call metadata associated with a caller index ID. The method can include determining call metadata characteristics for the call metadata. The method can include matching the call metadata characteristics of the call metadata with characteristics associated with a personality type of a psychological behavioral model. The method can include generating a caller profile that comprises personality type information for the personality type. The method can include associating the caller profile with the caller index ID. The method can include storing the caller profile in an entry in the centralized database associated with the caller index ID. |
| US09641677B2 |
System and method for determining and communicating presence information
A system and method for communicating presence information that can include at a first server of a communication platform, receiving an authorization token of a first client application; verifying at least one permission associated with the authorization token; registering a presence status of the first client application upon verifying the at least one permission of the authorization token; at a second server of the communication platform, accepting an incoming communication request; retrieving communication instructions according to the incoming communication request; identifying an instruction to communicate with a communication destination of the first client application; accessing the presence status resource of the first client application; establishing communication with the first client application according to the accessed presence status resource. |
| US09641674B1 |
Identifying website activities as being those of a telephone caller
Disclosed are systems and methods of identifying website activities of a webpage visitor as being those of a caller placing a telephone call to a published tracking telephone number presented as a substitute for a contact telephone number. The published tracking telephone number is presented as the substitute so that when a webpage visitor observes the published tracking telephone number and acts as the caller, the telephone call is non-disruptively forwarded to the contact telephone number for purpose of identifying the website activities as being those of the caller. |
| US09641673B2 |
Method, network element, and system for assessing voice quality
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, a network element, and a system for assessing voice quality, which relates to the communications field and solves a problem that user perception cannot be reflected according to a voice quality assessment result. The method includes acquiring a voice code stream, and collecting statistics on a transmission parameter in each short-time assessment period; decoding the voice code stream, and collecting statistics on a source parameter according to the decoded voice code stream; and calculating a comprehensive voice quality assessment result according the transmission parameter and the source parameter. The present invention is used for voice quality assessment. |
| US09641665B2 |
Method for providing content and electronic device thereof
A method and an electronic device are provided herein. The electronic device includes a processor. The processor may execute the method, including detecting, by a sensor, heart rate information while providing a content of the electronic device, determining, by a processor, an emotional quotient based on the detected heart rate information, and mapping the determined emotional quotient to the provided content. |
| US09641663B2 |
Reverse number look up
Web content is formatted to show an icon adjacent identified phone numbers to enable select-to-call, e.g., click-to-call functionality from within a web platform. The select-to call functionality can enable the user's web platform context to be maintained during the call. In some instances, details associated with the phone number that is called using the select-to call functionality can be retrieved from a database and surfaced to the user, by way of the web platform, to enrich the user's call experience. |
| US09641662B2 |
Information processing system, wireless terminal, launching method of portable information terminal and computer readable recording medium having program for controlling thereof
The present invention provides an information processing system including a portable information terminal having a plurality of functions and a wireless terminal which wirelessly communicates with the portable information terminal. The wireless terminal includes an acquisition unit for acquiring function information indicating a plurality of programs contained in the portable information terminal from the portable information terminal and a launch instruction unit for, in response to selection of a program of a plurality of programs indicated by the function information acquired by the acquisition unit, transmitting to the portable information terminal a launch instruction signal for instructing to launch the selected program. The portable information terminal includes a processing unit for starting execution of a program whose launch is instructed by the launch instruction signal following reception of the launch instruction signal from the wireless terminal. |
| US09641659B2 |
Access node and method
An all-encompassing fully integrated communication Access Node for call stations and other security and communications equipment includes a modular housing within which is mounted wire and wireless communication systems and power systems. The housing has a chassis for mounting the electronics and battery modules and a backbox and panel for staged installations, managing cables and providing heat dissipation. A door to the chassis is secured using latch hooks with roller bearings. Optical cable termination is provided as a two sided patch panel. Dual power supplies provide power to internal components and to external components via a distribution module. Backup power is provided by a custom battery backup with a charging controller. Cooling is controlled by dual fans and a fan controller moving air through the housing using openings and baffles. Freestanding pedestal mounting of the Access Node and various other mounts for column, wall, or ceiling to any substrate or condition is an option. Venting through a plug prevents pressure build up. |
| US09641657B1 |
Providing satellite communication capabilities to existing communication devices, including a common smart phone
A system and apparatus which permits an existing communication device, such as a common smart phone, to have satellite communication capabilities. The apparatus can include a transmitter/receiver which can relay communications and data, between the existing communications device and a satellite network. Optionally, the data can be encrypted before being sent over the satellite network. Optionally, the transmitter/receiver can have a distress activation input which can automatically emit an SOS signal along with the transmitter/receiver's current GPS coordinates when a user activates the input. |
| US09641656B2 |
Portable communication devices with accessory functions and related methods
Portable communication devices and related methods for use in supporting voice and/or data communication are provided. One example portable communication device includes a housing, an interface connector disposed at the housing. The interface connector is configured to couple to an accessory module configured to provide at least one accessory function. The example portable communication device also includes a processor disposed at least partially within the housing. The processor is coupled to the interface connector and is configured to determine whether a coupled accessory module is an approved module for use with the portable communication device, based on an identity of the accessory module, and if the accessory module is an approved module, enable power at the interface connector such that communication between the portable communication device and the accessory module is permitted. |
| US09641650B2 |
TCP proxy server
In methods and devices for controlling a TCP proxy server, the TCP-proxy initial window size is set based on TCP RTT measurements. This is possible because the TCP proxy has knowledge about both sides Round Trip Time RTT values just after opening the TCP connections. The proxy can set its initial window size higher in the download case if it notices that the RTT in the link between the proxy and internet is shorter than the RTT in the other link, typically a wireless link. In the opposite case, when the RTT in the link between the proxy and internet is longer than the RTT in the other link, typically a wireless link, the TCP proxy can be configured to send more Acknowledgements (ACKs) to increase the internet TCP server congestion window size faster. |
| US09641649B2 |
IGMP/MLD translation
Disclosed is an apparatus comprising a network element (NE) configured to receive an Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) data packet in Internet Protocol version four (IPv4) format, translate the data packet into an Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) data packet in Internet Protocol version six (IPv6) format, and forward the translated data packet. Also disclosed is an apparatus comprising a NE configured to receive an MLD data packet in IPv6 format, and translate the data packet into an IGMP data packet in IPv4 format. Also disclosed is a method comprising receiving a plurality of data packets, wherein the plurality of data packets comprise IGMP data packets and MLD data packets, translating at least one of the IGMP data packets into a MLD data packet, and translating at least one of the MLD data packets into an IGMP data packet. |
| US09641647B2 |
Communication protocol and system for network communications
A communication protocol and system is disclosed for network communications between a data service residing on a client that provides network communications between one or more mobile applications on a mobile computing device and a network based on a process number. The shared data service communicates with a data service plug-in on the server side associated with the process number, in order to handle requests from the mobile applications that access a plug-in associated with the process number through the data service. The communication connection between the mobile application and the data plug may be managed by a set of rules defined for that network communication. |
| US09641645B2 |
Optimized image delivery over limited bandwidth communication channels
Large-scale images are retrieved over network communications channels for display on a client device by selecting an update image parcel relative to an operator controlled image viewpoint to display via the client device. A request is prepared for the update image parcel and associated with a request queue for subsequent issuance over a communications channel. The update image parcel is received from the communications channel and displayed as a discrete portion of the predetermined image. The update image parcel optimally has a fixed pixel array size, is received in a single and or plurality of network data packets, and were the fixed pixel array may be constrained to a resolution less than or equal to the resolution of the client device display. |
| US09641644B2 |
Optimized image delivery over limited bandwidth communication channels
Large-scale images are retrieved over network communications channels for display on a client device by selecting an update image parcel relative to an operator controlled image viewpoint to display via the client device. A request is prepared for the update image parcel and associated with a request queue for subsequent issuance over a communications channel. The update image parcel is received from the communications channel and displayed as a discrete portion of the predetermined image. The update image parcel optimally has a fixed pixel array size, is received in a single and or plurality of network data packets, and were the fixed pixel array may be constrained to a resolution less than or equal to the resolution of the client device display. |
| US09641635B2 |
Dynamic selection of reliability of publishing data
A system and method for dynamic selection of reliability by data publishing protocol while publishing data, comprising a constrained gateway device (102) being adapted to publish data by using a data publisher and adapted to send and receive acknowledgment messages, one or more subscriber devices (104) communicatively coupled with the constrained gateway device (102) and subscribed to the server (106) and adapted to send and receive acknowledgment messages, and a server (106) communicatively coupled with the constrained gateway device (102) and the one or more subscriber devices (104) and adapted to exchange the acknowledgement messages between the data publisher on the constrained gateway device (102) and the one or more subscriber devices (104) wherein the data publisher running on the constrained gateway device (102) has multiple reliability levels for publishing data and is adapted to dynamically select the reliability level based on available bandwidth and energy. |
| US09641632B1 |
Method of storing a web user ID in first-party cookies
Third party ad servers log a user's web browsing activities. On web pages where the ad server is a third party, the web page's code is configured to provide the ad server read and write access to an advertiser's first party cookie on a user's web browser. The ad server uses this access to read and write a unique user identification number to the cookie. The ad server also maintains a separate copy of the user identification number on a remote server. Correlating the user identification both within the ad server and within the cookies stored in the user's web browser allows the ad server to identify and log the web traffic associated with particular users. This information is useful in a number of contexts, including determining which ad inventory to purchase for which users, and how to value the corresponding ad inventory. |
| US09641631B2 |
Integrated personalized content recommendation and management system and method
The integrated personalized content recommendation and management system aggregates content across multiple third-party websites and applications to be presented to said user based to generate personalized content recommendations. The system utilizes a unique profile associated with a particular user to generate the personalized content recommendations, and additionally, the system may seamlessly propagate the user's profile across multiple third-party websites and applications, and build social instructions based on the user's profile. The integrated personalization content recommendation and management system and method may provide an online recommendation and social networking service that delivers to users personalized content, social and/or product recommendations derived from participating electronic mediums (e.g. web sites, applications and mobile devices). The personalized content or product inventory may be derived from participating consumer or commercial web sites and web and mobile based applications. |
| US09641629B2 |
Distance-based network resource discovery
An apparatus for distance-based network resource discovery includes a storage device storing machine-readable code and a processor executing the machine-readable code. The machine-readable code includes a determination module determining a distance between an information handling device and a network resource capable of communication with the information handling device. The machine readable code also includes a policy module following a discovery policy according to the distance. The discovery policy is associated with discovery of the network resource. |
| US09641628B2 |
Host discovery and attach
Methods, systems and computer readable media for discovering edge devices within a network and establishing connectivity between the edge devices and one or more corresponding network services are described. In some implementations, the method can include snooping a received packet to determine whether a source entity of the received packet is known and to determine whether the received packet can be handled by a first processing layer based on a rule set in the first processing layer and configured to be accessed by the first processing layer. The method can also include classifying the packet at the first processing layer when the packet can be handled by the first processing layer, and forwarding the packet to a second processing layer when the packet cannot be handled by the first processing layer. |
| US09641627B2 |
Techniques for remapping sessions for a multi-threaded application
Examples may include a remapping of sessions for a multi-threaded application that may be executed at a server or a client coupled to the server via a plurality of transmit control protocol (TCP) connections. Sessions may be remapped such that the multi-threaded application may expect to route sessions through a same TCP connection but the sessions are actually outputted via separate TCP connections. |
| US09641623B2 |
System and method for managing content on multiple computerized devices
A system and method for controlling one or more computerized devices through a slave device that is appointed to operate as the master device is disclosed. The inventive method comprises an event defined by one or more event parameters, appointing a master device designation to a computerized device for the event, initiating a communication channel with one or more slave devices, initiating a slave application layer on one or more slave devices, presenting through the slave application layer a registration option for the event, receiving, a registration selection for the event, initiating a master application layer on the computerized device, presenting, through the master application layer, one or more slave command options, receiving, on the computerized device, one or more slave commands, and transmitting the one or more slave commands to one or more registered slave devices through the communication channel. |
| US09641622B2 |
Master device for using connection attribute of electronic accessories connections to facilitate locating an accessory
A connection-indicative signal can be received at a master electronic device from an electronic accessory. The connection-indicative signal can include a connection attribute indicative of a presence or characteristic of a connection between the electronic accessory and at least one other electronic accessory of the master electronic device. A location of the master electronic device can be determined at the master electronic device. The location can be stored at the master electronic device in association with the connection attribute. The master electronic device can detect a locate-accessory input that corresponds to a request to locate the at least one other electronic accessory; or that a locate-accessory condition is satisfied based on another connection attribute included in another connection-indicative signal received from the electronic accessory. The stored location can be retrieved in response to the detecting. A presentation that includes location information that corresponds to the stored location can be presented. |
| US09641618B2 |
Ontology based resource provisioning and management for services
Techniques are disclosed for integration, provisioning and management of entities and processes in a computing system such as, by way of example only, business entities and business processes. In particular, techniques are disclosed for ontology based resource provisioning and management for services. For example, such an ontology based approach can be utilized in conjunction with a business support system which may be employed in conjunction with a cloud computing environment. |
| US09641617B2 |
System and method for verifying integrity of cloud data using unconnected trusted device
The present invention provides a method and system for verifying integrity of cloud data using unconnected trusted device. The method involves requesting encrypted data though a terminal from a metadata offsite location on a cloud storage then entering encrypted data into an unconnected trusted device thereafter obtaining sentinel data from one or more predefined sentinel locations in encrypted data then requesting original data from the cloud storage through the terminal from the unconnected trusted device thereafter comparing sentinel data and original data for integrity and finally displaying the results. |
| US09641616B2 |
Self-steering point-to-point storage protocol
Techniques are disclosed for processing a self-steering storage command via a point-to-point communication protocol. A network adapter in a storage node receives an instance of a current command frame directed to a group of storage nodes and performs a storage operation in response to a storage command associated with the current command frame. The network adapter determines whether all storage nodes have received an instance of the current command frame. If all storage nodes have received an instance of the current command frame, then the network adapter transmits a final completion status frame to a computation node that originated the current command frame. Otherwise, the network adapter generates a next instance of the command frame, and transmits the next instance of the current command frame to an additional storage node in the group of storage nodes. |
| US09641614B2 |
Distributed storage defense in a cluster
Embodiments provide a method and system for enabling access to a storage device. Specifically, a node may request admittance to a cluster that has read and write access to a storage device. The node seeking access to the storage device must be first be approved by other nodes in the cluster. As part of the request, the node seeking access to the storage device sends a registration key to a storage device. Upon expiration of a registration timer, the node seeking access to the storage device receives a registration table from the storage device and determines whether its registration key is stored in the registration table. If the registration key is stored in the registration table the node has been accepted in the cluster and as a result, has been granted read and write access to the storage device. |
| US09641611B2 |
Logical interface encoding
A networking system, and more particularly an interface management subsystem, offers logical interface abstraction for networking system software. The networking system generally transmits data via a hardware interface. All software components in the control and forwarding plane use a Logical Interface (LIF) that is a logical representation of the hardware interface. A mapping occurs between the LIF and hardware interface used to transmit the data. Each LIF is represented by an LIF identifier used to store and retrieve logical interface records to and from shared memory accessible to all protocols and applications in the control and forwarding plane. The efficient storage and retrieval of such logical interface records allows for a global unique view of network interfaces, avoidance of data replication in each networking system software application's memory space, etc. |
| US09641606B2 |
Peer to peer secure synchronization between handheld devices
A method implemented in a user equipment (UE) comprising a processor. First information is stored to a removable memory connected to the UE and second information is stored to a non-volatile memory of the UE. The first information may be a unique value and may include additional information. A connection request based at least in part on the first information is received. A connection response based at least in part on the second information and the connection request is sent. |
| US09641599B2 |
Providing a native desktop using cloud-synchronized data
Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for providing a native desktop using cloud-synchronized data are presented. In some embodiments, a desktop management service provided by at least one computing device may selectively store data from a remote desktop. Subsequently, the desktop management service may synchronize the stored data with a cloud-based data storage platform. Thereafter, the desktop management service may cause a native desktop to be presented on a client device using the synchronized data. In some arrangements, the extracted, analyzed, and/or selectively stored data may include one or more application shortcuts, one or more documents, one or more registry keys, one or more personalization settings, or one or more layout settings. Additionally or alternatively, the remote desktop may be associated with a first operating system, and the native desktop may be associated with a second operating system different from the first operating system. |
| US09641594B2 |
Generic download and upload functionality in a client/server web application architecture
The present invention relates generally to client-server architectures for allowing generic upload and download functionality between a web application at a server and a client. One exemplary method includes sending a download/upload request to a web application at the server, where the download/upload request specifies at least one file to download/upload; receiving a transmission from the server; parsing the transmission to identify a download/upload command and an associated download/upload manifest, where the download/upload manifest includes executable code that, when executed on the client, will perform the download/upload of the at least one file. |
| US09641591B1 |
Modifying web content at a client
Producing a modified document object model structure is disclosed. A desired webpage is requested. An alternative webpage is received in response to the request instead of an original version of the desired webpage to be rendered. The alternative webpage is processed. Program code included in the alternative webpage is utilized to request the original version of the desired webpage. The original version of the desired webpage is received. The modified document object model structure different from an original document object model structure corresponding to the received original version of the desired webpage is produced. |
| US09641589B2 |
Extensibility for manipulation of medical data
A method for extending a functionality of a computing device programmed to obtain physiological measurements from a patient includes: registering, at the computing device, a plug-in module, the plug-in module providing additional functionality for the computing device; using the plug-in module to communicate with a medical device; commanding the medical device to obtain physiological information from a patient; receiving data associated with the physiological information from the medical device; and transferring the data to a central repository. |
| US09641584B2 |
Method and arrangement for representation switching in HTTP streaming
In a method of enabling representation switching during HTTP streaming sessions in a communication system, arranging available representations into groups, providing information identifying the groups and their respective representations, and switching representation based on the provided group identify information. |
| US09641582B2 |
Bandwidth management device, central management device and method of bandwidth management
The embodiments of the present invention provide a bandwidth management device, central management device and method of bandwidth management. The bandwidth management device includes: a first receiver, configured to receive attribute information of media devices; wherein a criticality factor of media device is included in each piece of the attribute information; a second receiver, configured to receive media streaming from the media devices; a bandwidth assigner, configured to assign bandwidth for each piece of media streaming based on the criticality factor. Through the embodiments of the present invention, optimization of bandwidth usage is realized and it is easy to change the critical level of video streaming adaptively. |
| US09641570B2 |
Electronic information collaboration system
An approach for electronic information collaboration allows the use of a mobile device to cause electronic information to be displayed on one or more projector display devices via a virtual projector. The use of a virtual projector allows electronic information to be displayed on multiple projector display devices and/or client devices. The approach may also include the use of collaboration clients and a collaboration server to provide additional functionality with respect to the electronic information including, for example, the ability for changes made to electronic information at one location to be propagated to another location. The approach also allows a mobile device to be used to establish a videoconferencing session between two or more videoconferencing sites. The approach may include generation and use of a locations map that displays icons that correspond to videoconferencing sites and that may be selected to establish a connection between videoconferencing sites. |
| US09641569B2 |
Systems and methods for collaborating in a non-destructive testing system using location information
A collaboration system for sharing data in a non-destructive testing (NDT) system may include a first computing device that may receive data that has been acquired using one or more NDT inspection devices. The first computing device may then establish a communication connection between itself and some other computing device such that the communication connection may enable the first computing device to share data with the other computing device. After establishing the communication connection, the first computing device may determine location information that corresponds to the data. Using the location information, the first computing device may then determine one or more assets that correspond to the data. The first computing device may then identify information associated with the assets and display the information. |
| US09641562B2 |
Systems and methods of monitoring call quality
When a voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) telephone call is being conducted by a mobile telephony device, measurements of at least one condition that exists for the mobile telephone device during the VOIP telephone call are taken during the duration of the telephone call. The measurements could be taken periodically as the VOIP telephone call progresses. The measured condition is one that could affect the perceived quality of the VOIP telephone call. The measurements of the at least one condition are recorded against the telephone call for later use and analysis. The recorded information may be analyzed to determine how to modify a setting of the mobile telephony device to improve the quality of VOIP telephone calls conducted with the mobile telephony device. |
| US09641559B2 |
Methods and systems for dynamic adjustment of session parameters for effective video collaboration among heterogeneous devices
Methods and systems for maximizing the quality perceived by the user in a software-based, multi-point video conference or collaboration session between devices that are potentially different (e.g., devices from different vendors, devices with different operating systems, devices on different networks, devices that function as servers, clients or both) and maintaining the quality over time. |
| US09641555B1 |
Systems and methods of tracking content-exposure events
In one embodiment, a method includes identifying a user-initiated precursor of an anticipated exposure event. The method also includes, in response to the identifying, automatically determining particular content that would be exposed if the exposure event were to occur. In addition, the method includes automatically determining one or more users to which the particular content would be exposed if the exposure event were to occur. Further, the method includes, before the exposure event occurs, publishing a result of the automatically determining to a user associated with the user-initiated precursor. Also, the method includes, in response to a detected occurrence of the exposure event, monitoring a plurality of communications platforms for follow-on exposure events in relation to the particular content which chain from the exposure event. |
| US09641552B2 |
Extending SELinux policy with enforcement of file name translations
An operating system identifies a request of a process to create a new object with a name in a file system of the processing device. The operating system identifies a policy rule applicable to the new object in view of at least the name of the new object. The operating system creates a label for the new object using the applicable policy rule and associates the new object with the created label. |
| US09641548B2 |
System and method for detecting and protecting against malicious
The invention relates to computer security and to systems and methods for detecting and protecting against malicious content such as computer viruses. Gateway (200) and security (400) computers for protecting a client computer (300) against dynamically generated malicious content. The gateway computer includes: a receiver configured to receive original content, the original content including a call to an original function, the call including an associated input. The gateway computer further includes: a content modifier unit configured to modify the original content to produce modified content, wherein the modified content includes at least a portion of the original content and a call to a shielding function, the shielding function being operable to cause the client computer to transmit an instruction to a security computer (400) to inspect the input associated with the call to the original function. The gateway computer further includes: a transmitter configured to transmit the original content to the security computer and to transmit the modified content to the client computer, thereby allowing, based on the original content, detection of dynamically generated malicious content. |
| US09641536B2 |
Policy access control lists attached to resources
Methods, storage systems and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that include defining, for an entity, a policy access control list including one or more access rules, each of the access rules including one or more user conditions and one or more entity conditions. Upon receiving a request from a user to access a given entity, one or more user attributes associated with the user and one or more entity attributes associated with the given entity are identified. For each of the access rules, the one or more user conditions are applied to the one or more user attributes, the one or more entity conditions are applied to the one or more entity attributes. Access to the given content entity is granted to the user upon determining that a minimum threshold of the one or more user conditions and the one or more entity conditions are met. |
| US09641529B2 |
Methods, systems and computer program products for an application execution container for managing secondary application protocols
A virtual application container can manage a plurality of secondary applications using a graphical user interface (GUI). The secondary applications may be selectively downloadable by a user and/or provided by third-party external providers. The application execution container may include a common feature or services interface that is used by the secondary applications that are executed in the GUI, which may include user verification and/or authentication information. The application execution container may include security and control functions that may be used by external service providers to ensure that users are properly authenticated, and the ability to add and/or utilize individual secondary applications may be granted based on predetermined eligibility criteria. |
| US09641528B2 |
Systems and methods for multi-stage identity authentication
Certain implementations of the disclosed technology may include systems and methods for multi-stage identity authentication. A method is provided that includes receiving a set of identity information associated with a subject and querying one or more public or private databases with at least a portion of the set of identity information. The method includes receiving independent information responsive to the querying. The method includes determining zero or more first indicators of fraud risk and producing one or more identity proofing queries derived from the independent information. Based at least in part on a comparison of the one or more proofing queries and a query response, the method includes determining zero or more second indicators of fraud risk and evaluating a fraud score. Responsive to evaluating the fraud score, the method includes initiating one or more of authentication enrollment and multi-factor authentication of the subject. |
| US09641526B1 |
Location based authentication methods and systems
A wearable computing device, such as a wearable credit card type device or a wearable identification type device, that provides for location based authentication to verify that a user currently in possession of the wearable computing device is indeed the authorized user. In this aspect, the wearable computing device may detect wireless network signals in range of the wearable computing device, and transmit authentication data and the detected wireless network signals to an authentication service. The wearable computing device may then be authenticated when the authentication data corresponds to the user and the detected wireless network signals correspond to a pre-authorized location for authentication. |
| US09641525B2 |
External authentication support over an untrusted network
There are provided measures for supporting an authentication to an external packet data network over an untrusted access network, said measures exemplarily comprising authenticating a user equipment to a communication network providing connectivity for the user equipment across an unsecured access network in response to a first authentication request, wherein the authentication request is an authentication request of a key information exchange mechanism and includes authentication data, receiving a second authentication request for authenticating the user equipment towards a packet data network external to the communications network. The measures may further comprise creating a binding update message including the authentication data and identity information of the user received from the user equipment. |
| US09641519B2 |
Table-connected tokenization
A tokenization system tokenizes sensitive data to prevent unauthorized entities from accessing the sensitive data. The tokenization system accesses sensitive data, and retrieves an initialization vector (IV) from an IV table using a first portion of the sensitive data. A second portion of the sensitive data is modified using the accessed initialization vector. A token table is selected from a set of token tables using a third portion of the sensitive data. The modified second portion of data is used to query the selected token table, and a token associated with the value of the modified second portion of data is accessed. The second portion of the sensitive data is replaced with the accessed token to form tokenized data. |
| US09641510B2 |
Control system operable by mobile devices
A control system includes a control device, a controller, a plurality of user mobile devices, and a manager mobile device. An initial first identification information picked up by each user mobile device is sent to the manager mobile device, is authenticated, and is encoded together with a control device identification number corresponding to the control device. Every time a user mobile device is connected to the controller for opening the control device, a holder of the user mobile device is requested to input an instant first identification information. After decoding by a decoding key, the controller identifies whether the instant first identification information is identical to the authenticated initial first identification information and identifies whether the obtained control device identification number is identical to that of the control device. The identification result is used to decide whether the control device should be set to be an open state. |
| US09641509B2 |
Enterprise authentication server
In a computer-implemented authentication method, a first authentication request from a first machine is received at an authentication server. The first authentication request includes an identification of a second machine that is to provide a requested service. An authentication token including client-specific and server-specific portions is generated at the authentication server, responsive to receiving the first authentication request from the first machine. An authentication identifier and the server-specific portion of the authentication token are transmitted from the authentication server to the second machine, responsive to receiving the first authentication request from the first machine. A second authentication request, including the authentication identifier and both the server-specific and the client-specific portions of the authentication token, is received at the authentication server from the second machine. An authentication status for the requested service is determined at the authentication server, responsive to receiving the second authentication request from the second machine. |
| US09641505B2 |
Secure authentication in a multi-party system
An authentication server transmits a random number to and receives a other information from a service provider. Later, the first random number is received from a requester and a provider identifier, the received other information and provider authentication policy requirements are transmitted to the requester. A user identifier and validation information are received from the requester. The received validation information is determined to correspond to the provider authentication policy requirements, and compared with stored user validation information associated with the received user identifier to authenticate the requester. A message, including both the random number and other information, signed with a credential of the requesting user is received and transmitted to the first provider. |
| US09641504B2 |
HTTP header-based adaptable authentication mechanism
The disclosure is generally directed to systems and methods for HTTP header-based authentication. For example, the systems and methods include receiving, at a mobile platform server, a first request message from a client device, the first request message requesting to download an application from the mobile platform server, sending, to the client device, a first response message having a first authentication query within header portions of the first response message, receiving, at the mobile platform server, a second request message having first authentication credentials within header portions of the second request message, sending, to the client device, a second response message having a second authentication query within header portions of the second response message, receiving, at the mobile platform server first device, a third request message having second authentication credentials within header portions of the third request message, and sending, to the client device, the application. |
| US09641498B2 |
Single sign-on processing for associated mobile applications
Systems, methods and computer-readable media are disclosed for performing single sign-on processing between associated mobile applications. The single sign-on processing may include processing to generate an interaction session between a user and a back-end server associated with a mobile application based at least in part on one or more existing interaction sessions between the user and one or more back-end servers associated with one or more other mobile applications. In order to establish an interaction session with an associated back-end server, a mobile application may leverage existing interaction sessions that have already been established in connection with the launching of other associated mobile applications. |
| US09641493B2 |
Protecting data owned by an operating system in a multi-operating system mobile environment
An approach is provided for protecting data owned by an operating system on a mobile computing device having multiple operating systems. A map specifying protected data regions for the operating systems is generated. The map is secured with a shared key retrieved from a data structure. Based on the shared key, a tuple specifying the data region is retrieved from the data structure. Based on the map, the shared key, and the tuple, and responsive to a data cleanup activity being performed by a software utility being executed on another, currently running operating system included in the multiple operating systems, a data region included in the protected data regions is determined to be owned by the operating system. Based on the data region being owned by the operating system and specified by the map, the data cleanup activity is blocked from being performed on the data region. |
| US09641489B1 |
Fraud detection
Disclosed herein are techniques for use in fraud detection. In one embodiment, the techniques comprise a method. The method comprises receiving an encrypted current location associated with a user. The method also comprises obtaining an encrypted historical location associated with the user and an encrypted location sensitivity metric that relates to a distance within which locations are considered to be the same. The method further comprises performing an authentication operation based on the encrypted current location, the encrypted historical location and the encrypted location sensitivity metric. |
| US09641487B2 |
Method, system and apparatus for sharing media content in a private network
A method, system and apparatus for sharing media content securely and reliably among various computing devices in a private network through media streaming technology is provided. According to the invention, a media streaming apparatus is installed on each computing device, said media streaming apparatus comprises: a controller for controlling a media streaming proxy and a trusted media player to render the requested media stream according to a user's request or the request coming from other application component; the trusted media player for securely rendering the requested media stream for the user under the control of said controller; the media streaming proxy for communicating with the trusted media player and other remote media streaming proxies in said private network, forwarding encrypted media stream, controlling encryption/decryption module to encrypt/decrypt the media player and providing the decrypted media stream to the trusted media player; and the encryption/decryption module for encrypting/decrypting the media stream under the control of the media streaming proxy. |
| US09641485B1 |
System and method for out-of-band network firewall
The present invention is a system and method for an out-of-band network firewall where a firewall, packet-filtering device receives mirrored data packet traffic between a remote host and local host. The out-of-band firewall then will determine if traffic between the remote host and local host should be blocked, and if so then the firewall will send a forged data packet to the remote host and the local host to sever the communication between the hosts. The firewall system may forge a TCP reset packet (RST packet) using the mirrored data packets such that when the TCP reset packet is sent, the hosts will believe that the other respective host is requesting that the connection be reset and terminated. If the firewall receives the mirrored packets from an agent connected to a local host, then the firewall will instruct the agent to block future traffic from the blocked host. |
| US09641482B2 |
Global hosting system
Network architecture supports hosting and content distribution on a global scale. The architecture allows a Content Provider to replicate and serve its most popular content at an unlimited number of points throughout the world. The inventive framework comprises a set of servers operating in a distributed manner. The actual content to be served is preferably supported on a set of hosting servers (sometimes referred to as ghost servers). This content comprises HTML page objects that, conventionally, are served from a Content Provider site. A base HTML document portion of a Web page is served from the Content Provider's site while one or more embedded objects for the page are served from the hosting servers, preferably, those hosting servers near the client machine. By serving the base HTML document from the Content Provider's site, the Content Provider maintains control over the content. |
| US09641480B2 |
Automated participant account determination for a communication session
A unified communication application can allow a user to communicate with contacts across multiple electronic communication services. When the user desires to send a message, the communication application can identify a set of candidate account addresses associated with several electronic communication services in response to receiving a partial identifier of an intended recipient. The communication application can present a list including the set of candidate account addresses to the user. In response to receiving a user selection of one of the candidate account addresses, the communication application can determine a sender account from which to send the message. |
| US09641475B2 |
Electronic mail receiving device and method
A preview generating section 104 generates preview forming data within a predetermined data size by extracting at least a part of header information and at least a part of a mail body from an electronic mail obtained by a mail obtaining section 102. A cache section 142 caches the preview forming data. A display section 108 displays a preview list on a display device 68 using the preview forming data cached by the cache section 142. When a preview included in the preview list is selected, a command transmitting section 106 requests a server to transmit the electronic mail identified by the selected preview. |
| US09641474B2 |
Aggregation of emailed product order and shipping information
Product order and shipping information received via email messages is automatically aggregated for ready user review. Once the user is authenticated, authorization to access their email mailbox is obtained and the email message headers of their emails are analyzed to identify those messages of interest. The bodies of the email messages of interest are parsed to extract the product order and shipping information which is stored and presented for display to the user typically grouped by individual product thus greatly simplifying user review of orders. |
| US09641469B2 |
User messaging based on changes in tracked activity metrics
A system comprising at least one server computer having at least one processor programmed to: receive, over a network, activity data of a first user measured by an activity monitoring device; process the activity data of the first user to update a value of an activity metric for the first user; responsive to updating the value of the activity metric for the first user, identify a change in an inequality relationship between the value of the activity metric for the first user and a value of the activity metric for a second user; and, responsive to identifying the change in the inequality relationship, trigger, over the network, a first user device to prompt the first user to generate a message to the second user for display on a second user device. |
| US09641468B2 |
Method, server, client, and system for releasing instant messaging key-value data
Methods, servers, clients, and systems for releasing instant messaging key-value data are provided. A server receives a request packet for pulling key-value data sent from a client during a login. The request packet at least contains a full-amount pulling time-stamp, an increased-amount pulling time-stamp, and a data-altering serial number. The server selects a pre-set data releasing mechanism according to parameters contained in the request packet, to release full amount key-value data to the client or to release increased amount key-value data to the client, or not to release the key-value data, such that, according to a returned result from the server, the client updates local cache data to display to a user. |
| US09641460B2 |
Power efficiency improvement in network equipment using service group consolidation
Particular embodiments provide systems and methods to reduce the average power consumption per subscriber. Particular embodiments select windows of time when network components are under-utilized by subscribers of the network. During periods of under-utilization of a network component, subscribers may be consolidated onto a smaller number of network components by increasing the service group size. The consolidation increases the service group size, which has the effect of lowering bandwidth per subscriber. However, the bandwidth use per subscriber may be lower during this time. The use of the smaller number of network components allows the energy for these components to be used more efficiently. When the subscriber network demands increase, the distribution system places the network components into an active power state and redistributes the subscribers to the newly-activated components. This decreases the service group size, such as back to the original size. |
| US09641458B2 |
Providing efficient routing of an operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) frame received at a port of an ethernet switch
A system for efficient routing of an OAM) frame in an Ethernet switch receives an OAM frame at a first port; building a first classification key dependent on an OAM frame header; classifies in a context of the first port to create a first classification; resolves action dependent on the first classification; modifies the first classification key to create a second classification key; classifies the frame in a context of the second port to create a second classification; sends the second classification key to an OAM engine coupled to the Ethernet switch for modification into a third classification key; receives the third classification key from the OAM engine; modifies the third classification key into a final classification key; modifies the header of the OAM frame with the final classification key; and sends the modified OAM frame to a switching fabric of the Ethernet switch. |
| US09641454B2 |
Method, topology and point of presence equipment for serving a plurality of users via a multiplex module
A number of users interface with a network via a multiplex module, on a communication path established between the multiplex module and a point of presence. Some users may be served by one or more first channels of the communication path while one or more remaining users may be served by one or more additional channels of the communication path. Users having a basic service level agreement may be served by the first channels while users having an extended service level agreement may be served by the one or more additional channels. Allocation of users to distinct channel types based on their service level agreements may apply at a primary point of presence or may apply at a redundant point of presence. |
| US09641448B1 |
Packet ordering system using an atomic ticket release command of a transactional memory
An Island-Based Network Flow Processor (IB-NFP) receives packets of many flows, and classifies them as belonging to an ordering context. These packets are distributed to a set of Worker Processors (WPs), so that each packet of the context is processed by one WP, but multiple WPs operate on packets of the context at a given time. The WPs use an atomic ticket release functionality of a transactional memory to assist in determining when to release packets to another set of Output Processors (OP). The packets are indicated to the set of OPs in the correct order, even though the WPs may complete their processing of the packets in an out-of-order fashion. For a packet that is indicated as to be released, an OP generates a “transmit command” such that the packet (or a descriptor of the packet) is then put into a properly ordered stream for output from the IB-NFP. |
| US09641446B2 |
Control method, information processing system, and information processing apparatus
A control method by an information processing system including a plurality of computers and a plurality of switch devices, the control method includes storing, by a first processor, degeneration information indicating a path in which a transmission rate is decreased and a decreasing ratio of a transmission rate in a first memory when a first switch device which include the first processor detects the path and the first switch device is set as a point of origin; determining, by a second processor, whether a plurality of packets pass through the path, based on the degeneration information when the plurality of packets are transmitted from a computer including the second processor; determining a length of a gap based on the decreasing ratio when it is determined that the plurality of packets pass through the path; and transmitting the plurality of packets with a transmission interval based on the length. |
| US09641444B2 |
System and method for extracting user identifiers over encrypted communication traffic
Systems and methods for extracting user identifiers over encrypted communication traffic are provided herein. An example method includes monitoring multiple flows of communication traffic. A sequence of messages is then sent to a user in accordance with a first temporal pattern. A flow whose activity has a second temporal pattern that matches the first pattern is then identified among the monitored flows. The identified flow is then associated with the user. |
| US09641443B2 |
MIMO PGRC system and method
A method of transmitting a wireless signal (FIGS. 3A-3C) is disclosed. A data stream is divided (306) into a first data stream and a second data stream. The first data stream is encoded (300) at a first data rate. The second data stream is encoded (320) at a second data rate different from the first data rate. A first part of the encoded first data stream is transmitted from a first transmit antenna (308). A second part of the encoded first data stream is transmitted from a second transmit antenna (312). |
| US09641441B2 |
Learning information associated with shaping resources and virtual machines of a cloud computing environment
A source network device of a cloud computing network receives a packet destined for a destination virtual machine provided in a destination cloud computing device. The packet is received from a source virtual machine provided in a source cloud computing device. The source network device associates, to the packet, a source shaping resource of the source network device, where the source shaping resource includes a bandwidth that matches or exceeds a bandwidth associated with the source virtual machine. The source network device adds, to the packet, a header that identifies an address of the source virtual machine, an identifier associated with the source shaping resource, and the bandwidth associated with the source virtual machine. The source network device provides, via the source shaping resource, the packet and the header to the cloud computing network for transmission to the destination virtual machine. |
| US09641436B1 |
Generating a flow ID by passing packet data serially through two CCT circuits
An integrated circuit includes an input port, a first Characterize/Classify/Table Lookup and Multiplexer Circuit (CCTC), a second CCTC, and an exact-match flow table structure. The first and second CCTCs are structurally identical. The first and second CCTs are coupled together serially. In one example, an incoming packet is received onto the integrated circuit via the input port and packet information is supplied to a first characterizer of the first CCTC. Information flow passes through the classifier of the first CCT, through the Table Lookup and Multiplexer Circuit (TLMC) of the first CCT, through the characterizer of the second CCT, through the classifier of the second CCT, and out of the TLMC of the second CCT in the form of a Flow Id. The Flow Id is supplied to the exact-match flow table structure to determine whether an exact-match for the Flow Id is found in the flow table structure. |
| US09641434B1 |
Private network address obfuscation and verification
Private network address obfuscation and verification methods and apparatus that may obfuscate private network source addresses embedded in packet header addresses when sending packets from private networks onto or over external, public networks, and that verify incoming packets to the private networks using the obfuscated private network addresses embedded in the incoming packet header destination addresses. Obfuscating the private network addresses embedded in outgoing packets and verifying incoming packets according to the obfuscated content embedded in the destination addresses may help keep the private network addresses of endpoints on the private network hidden in the packet header content on public networks and difficult to detect by entities on the public networks, which may, for example, make malicious activities such as denial of service (DoS) attacks on the private network impractical. |
| US09641431B1 |
System and methods for utilization-based balancing of traffic to an information retrieval system
Systems and methods for, among other things, a utilization based load balancing system which controls the distribution of queries to an information retrieval system made up of a network of server clusters. In one embodiment, a server cluster allocates computational resources among computational tasks. These computational tasks are replicated across a given server cluster, typically such that those computational tasks requested more frequently have more replicas, and more resources allocated to them to fulfill the requests. The system applies a utilization metric to determine how much capacity a given task has available and uses this determination to determine the capacity available for the cluster as a whole. Load balancing is achieved by re-directing queries to another cluster in response to the utilization value for a given cluster reaching a threshold. |
| US09641428B2 |
System and method for paging flow entries in a flow-based switching device
A network switching device includes a macroflow sub-plane that performs packet-based routing in the network switching device and a microflow routing sub-plane that performs flow-based routing in the network switching device. The microflow routing sub-plane receives a first data packet, determines that the first data packet is associated with a first flow page, wherein the first flow page comprises a plurality of flow entries, determines that the first flow page is not resident in a routing table of the microflow routing sub-plane, and requests the first flow page from a software defined network (SDN) controller. |
| US09641423B2 |
Communication using delegates, such as delegates specified in an email or scheduling application
A facility allows for automatic delegation of incoming real-time communications based on a delegation scheme. The delegation scheme may be rules-based and may be applied to a single real-time communication channel or multiple communication channels, including both real-time and non-real-time communication channels. The delegate information may include rules that indicate under what circumstances a communication should be rerouted, which delegate the communication should be rerouted to, and whether other associated actions should be taken in connection with the rerouting (or lack thereof). In some cases, the context of the incoming communication may play a role in how or whether a communication is rerouted to a delegate. |
| US09641412B2 |
Method and apparatus for guaranteeing traffic quality of communication module in wireless communication system
Provided is a communication control apparatus for controlling data transmission performed by a first communication module and a second communication module, each using a different communication scheme, the apparatus including a receiver to receive traffic information associated with the first communication module, an operating unit to calculate, based on the traffic information, a slack time, starting from a first point in time and ending at a second point in time at which traffic relating to the first communication module occurs, and a transmitter to transmit the slack time to the second communication module, wherein the first point in time is a point in time at which the second communication module requests the slack time from the communication control apparatus in order to transmit data. |
| US09641410B2 |
Performance measurement in a network supporting multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)
A method and apparatus to provide hop-by-hop tracking for a communication network is described. In one embodiment, each router verifies that a next downstream router supports tracking and in response, adds a tracking indicator and a timestamp to the data packet. An end router provides a compilation of all the timestamps back to the originating router. |
| US09641404B1 |
Methods, systems, and computer readable medium for dynamic, policy-based allocation of system resources
Systems, methods, and computer readable medium for optimizing storage allocations based on system resources are disclosed. According to one aspect, the subject matter described herein includes a method for dynamic, policy-based allocation of system resources. The method includes maintaining statistics in connection with like system resources. Each of the system resources having associated statistics that are suitable for describing a relationship with an allocatable class of resource. A request is received for a resource. In response to receiving the request, one of the like system resources is selected, based on the statistics and a policy, as a best system resource in connection with the allocatable class of resource. |
| US09641403B2 |
Systems, devices and methods of decomposing service requests into domain-specific service requests
The various embodiments include methods, computers and communication systems that enable decomposing abstract service requests into resources rules, which may include receiving an abstract service request (e.g., a request specifying a functional requirement) via an exposed public interface, generating domain-specific resource rules based on the received abstract service request, identifying relevant components in a telecommunications domain for enforcing the generated domain-specific resource rules, and send the domain-specific resource rules to the identified components (e.g., on-line charging server, policy management server, etc.) for enforcement. Generating domain-specific resource rules based on the received abstract service request may include generating the rules consistent with the existing resource rules of the domain. |
| US09641399B1 |
Application and infrastructure performance analysis and forecasting system and method
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a computer implemented web based application and infrastructure performance analysis and forecasting system and method for improving the performance of at least one application and infrastructure and reducing complexity of analyzing the performance of the application and infrastructure. The system and method receive infrastructure input from a user regarding application and infrastructure configuration, as well as performance objective(s). Based on the infrastructure input received from the user, a modeling engine determines at least one application and infrastructure performance model. The system and method then receive model specific input from the user for each model. Based on the information received from the user, a model computation engine computes output for the models which is then displayed to the user. |
| US09641398B1 |
Bloom filter index for device discovery
Identifying network devices having specified traits using a multi-level hierarchical data structure. Bloom filters representing traits of network devices are received and their bit vectors are decomposed into successive bytes. For each byte except the last one, memory for storing a pointer to memory on the next level is allocated on the level corresponding to the byte. The pointer storage is labeled by the value of the next byte. A pointer to the allocated memory is stored in the pointer storage on the previous level that was labeled by the value of the current byte. For the last byte, memory for storing references to network devices is allocated on the last level. A pointer to the allocated memory is stored in the pointer storage on the second-to-last level that was labeled by the value of the last byte. A reference to the network device is stored in the allocated memory. |
| US09641394B2 |
Automated build-out of a cloud-computing stamp
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for automatically configuring an inventory of hardware to interact seamlessly with a cloud-computing fabric of a data center are provided. Initially, hardware devices within the hardware inventory are located by sending and receiving communications to network devices via serial-based connections and network-based connections, respectively. Information collected during hardware-device location is cross-referenced against a template file for purposes of validation. This information is also employed to generate an infrastructure state of the hardware inventory. The infrastructure state is shared with a controller of the fabric to integrate the hardware inventory therein. Upon integration, services and security measures are provisioned on the hardware inventory, which is designated as a fabric-computing cluster of the data center in order to extend reachability of the fabric, while distributed services are deployed and enabled on available portions of the hardware inventory, which are managed by the fabric controller. |
| US09641392B2 |
Policy implementation in a networked computing environment
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an approach for resolving and/or implementing policies based on layers of a network stack (e.g., cloud computing stack). Specifically, for a given policy that is being resolved, the system first evaluates the applicability of the policy to each layer in the network stack. For a given policy, the system then evaluates the relative effectiveness of applying the policy to achieve the overall goal of the policy. Based on the best fit evaluation of the relative comparison, the system then decides how and where the policy is enacted (e.g., determines a protocol for implementing the policy). |
| US09641388B2 |
Customized deployment in information management systems
According to certain aspects, an information management system may be configured to: receive system information relating to one or more data storage requirements associated with a first user; access an electronic database containing deployment configuration rules usable in determining information management cell configurations; generate a recommended deployment configuration for an information management cell associated with the first user based at least in part on the system information and the deployment configuration rules; receive computing infrastructure information relating to computer hardware components within the information management cell that are available for use in implementing the recommended deployment configuration; and generate an installation script for the information management cell based at least in part on the recommended deployment configuration and the computing infrastructure information. |
| US09641386B2 |
Networking device port multiplexing
A system includes a first networking devices, a multiplexer, a second networking device, and a third networking device. The first networking device includes a pair of ports operational up to a first throughput. The multiplexer includes an input port connected to a port of the first networking device, and a pair of output ports. The second networking device includes an output port connected to a port of the first networking device and to an output port of the multiplexer, and operational up to a second throughput greater than the first throughput. The third networking device includes an output port connected to an output port of the multiplexer, and operational up to a third throughput no greater than the first throughput. |
| US09641384B1 |
Automated management of computing instance launch times
Technology is described for monitoring computing instance launch times. A launch plan for launching a computing instance in a computing service environment may be identified. A predicted launch time for launching the computing instance on a selected physical host in the computing service environment may be determined using a launch time prediction model. An actual launch time for launching the computing instance in the computing service environment may be identified. The predicted launch time that is determined using the launch time prediction model may be compared with the actual launch time for launching the computing instance in the computing service environment. The actual launch time may be determined as not being within a defined threshold of the predicted launch time. An alert may be generated to indicate that the actual launch time is not within the defined threshold of the predicted launch time. |
| US09641382B2 |
Fast network formation after network power restoration
In one embodiment, a first device in a network detects a power restoration event subsequent to a power outage event. Power is restored to the first device during the power restoration event. The first device synchronizes a channel hopping schedule to the detected power restoration event. The first device communicates with a neighboring device of the first device using the channel hopping schedule synchronized to the detected power restoration event. The neighboring device uses a corresponding channel hopping schedule to communicate with the first device that is also synchronized to the power restoration event. |
| US09641381B2 |
Multi-device complexity broker
A brokering device that manages multimedia information includes an interface device having access to a network and a multimedia service provider. The interface device enables selection of multimedia information from the network, and provides the selected multimedia information to a plurality of locations without requiring the user to specify a protocol associated with the multimedia information. |
| US09641380B2 |
Spanning tree protocol (STP) implementation on an event driven virtual link aggregation (vLAG) system
In one embodiment, a method for providing virtual link aggregation (vLAG) includes forming a third logical port using a first logical port and a second logical port; determining first networking protocol state information corresponding to the third logical port using the first networking system, where the first networking protocol state information includes an indication of whether the first networking system is capable of communicating with the second networking system via an interswitch link (ISL) The method also includes storing a first networking protocol state information corresponding to the third logical port using the first networking system; communicating the first networking protocol state information to the second networking system via the and storing the first networking protocol state information using the second networking system. |
| US09641378B1 |
Adjustment of compression ratios for data storage
Storing data from a volatile memory of a host in a non-volatile memory (NVM) of a data storage device (DSD). Data from the volatile memory of the host is identified which has been compressed with a first compression ratio. The identified data is decompressed and a second compression ratio is determined based on a time to restore the data to the volatile memory of the host and characteristics of the NVM. At least a portion of the decompressed data is recompressed with the second compression ratio and at least a portion of the recompressed data is stored in the NVM. |
| US09641373B2 |
Peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction in fronthauls
An apparatus comprises: a receiver port configured to receive an input signal comprising in-phase and quadrature (IQ) data and control words (CWs); a peak-to-average power (PAPR) reducer coupled to the receiver port and configured to: receive the IQ data, process the IQ data, separate the IQ data into a clipped signal and a peak signal, and determine peak information associated with the peak signal; and a transmitter port coupled to the PAPR reducer and configured to separately transmit the clipped signal and the peak information. A method comprises: receiving an input signal comprising first data and second data; processing the first data; separating the first data into a clipped signal and a peak signal; determining peak information associated with the peak signal; and transmitting the clipped signal and the peak information. |
| US09641370B2 |
Apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals, apparatus for receiving broadcast signals, method for transmitting broadcast signals and method for receiving broadcast signals
A method and an apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals thereof are disclosed. An apparatus for transmitting broadcast signals comprises an encoder for encoding service data corresponding to each of a plurality of data transmission path, wherein each of the data transmission path carries at least one service component, a mapper for mapping the encoded service data onto constellations, an encoder for encoding physical signaling data, a frame builder for building at least one signal frame including preamble data, the encoded physical signaling data, the mapped service data, wherein the preamble data is located before the encoded physical signaling data and the encoded physical signaling data is located before the mapped service data, a modulator for modulating the at least one signal frame by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) scheme and a transmitter for transmitting the broadcast signals carrying the at least one modulated signal frame, wherein the broadcast signals includes channel information data, wherein the channel information data includes binding information between the service data and the data transmission path. |
| US09641367B2 |
Signal converter and control device
A signal converter 100 includes, for at least two-phase signals detected by a resolver excited by a carrier signal having a carrier frequency fc, a first phase shifter 101 that shifts a phase of a first phase signal of the resolver with a pole at a frequency f1 lower than the carrier frequency fc, a second phase shifter 102 that shifts a phase of a second phase signal of the resolver with a pole at a frequency f2 higher than the carrier frequency fc, and a synthesizer 103 that combines the phase-shifted first phase signal with the phase-shifted second phase signal. |
| US09641365B2 |
Detection of simultaneous double transmission
A measuring device serves for the detection of a simultaneous presence of at least a first signal and a second signal in a measurement signal. The measuring device contains a receiving unit for receiving the measurement signal as a digital measurement signal and a processing unit. This processing unit includes a transformation unit for transforming the digital measurement signal into a measurement signal in the frequency domain. The processing unit further contains a subtraction unit for subtracting the first sideband of the measurement signal in the frequency domain from a second sideband of the measurement signal in the frequency domain. In this context, the subtraction unit generates a residual signal. |
| US09641361B2 |
Sub-sampling receiver
Provided is a wireless signal receiver including: an analog-digital converter (ADC) converting an analog RF signal into a digital baseband signal; and a sub-sampling block dividing and processing the digital baseband signal into a first path signal and a second path signal, and extracting a complex baseband signal by using a relative sample delay difference between the first and second path signals, wherein the first path signal is a signal obtained by adjusting a sample delay and sampling rate of the digital baseband signal, and the second path signal is a signal obtained by filtering without adjusting the sampling rate of the digital baseband signal. |
| US09641360B2 |
Preferential allocation of different length scrambling codes
A base station herein assists a radio network controller (RNC) to allocate scrambling codes in a cell. The base station's assistance advantageously permits the RNC to allocate different length scrambling codes to different mobile terminals (or downlink carriers) in the cell. Specifically, the base station determines a preference for whether the length of a scrambling code to be allocated to each terminal or carrier should be short or long, based on whether uplink communications transmitted by the terminal, or downlink communications transmitted over the carrier, are to be processed with a high-complexity receiver or a low-complexity receiver. The RNC receives these preferences from the base station and takes them into account in order to allocate either a short scrambling code or a long scrambling code to each terminal or downlink carrier in the cell. The RNC then propagates the scrambling code allocations throughout the cell. |
| US09641359B1 |
Apparatus and method for accounting for gain and phase error introduced by a first filter by adjusting coefficients of a second filter
A system including first and second filters and an adaptation engine. The first filter includes first taps that receive first coefficients and filters a digital signal to generate a first filtered signal. One of the first coefficients is constrained, such that the one of the first coefficients are not updated and phase and gain errors are introduced. The second filter includes second taps that receive second coefficients and filters the first filtered signal to generate a second filtered signal. The second coefficients include first and second coefficients. The adaptation engine, based on the one of the first coefficients, updates: the first coefficient to set a phase of the second filter; and the second coefficient to set a gain of the second filter. The phase of the second filter corresponds to a change in the phase error. The gain of the second filter corresponds to a change in the gain error. |
| US09641358B2 |
Adaptive modulation
A wireless communication system includes first and second transceivers operable to transmit and receive signals over a communication channel using a plurality of modulation modes. A first signal is received which has been transmitted using a first modulation mode over the communication channel from the first transceiver to the second transceiver, and a first channel equalization characteristic for an equalizer of a first type for receiving the first signal at the second transceiver is determined from measurements of the communication channel. From the first channel equalization characteristic, a second channel equalization characteristic is determined for an equalizer of a second type for a second modulation mode. A measure of a difference between the second and the first channel equalization characteristics is determined, and the second modulation mode is selected for transmission over the communication channel from the first transceiver at least in part in dependence on the measure. |
| US09641357B1 |
System and method for mmWave channel estimation
A method for decoding a symbol transmitted over a millimeter wave (mmWave) channel estimates channel state information (CSI) of the mmWave channel using a Bayesian inference on a test symbol according to a probabilistic model of the mmWave channel including statistics on paths and spread of mmWaves propagating in the mmWave channel and decodes a symbol received over the mmWave channel using the CSI. |
| US09641350B2 |
System and method for supporting a scalable flooding mechanism in a middleware machine environment
A system and method can support a scalable packet forwarding mechanism in a middleware machine environment. The middleware machine environment can comprise one or more network switch instances, wherein each network switch instance is associated with one or more external ports that are adapted to receive data packets from an external network. Furthermore, the middleware machine environment can comprise a plurality of packet dispatching components, each of which is responsible for forwarding a data packet to a virtual machine on a host server that operates to process the data packet. Additionally, a link aggregation component can combine multiple external ports into a logical port, and wherein the bandwidth of the logical port is linearly scaled accordingly to a total number of the multiple external ports. |
| US09641349B2 |
Systems and methods of viral enablement of features by peer-to-peer connection
The technology disclosed relates to identifying and notifying a user of nearby attendees at a mega attendance event who are in user's social graph by comparing the user's social graph to a list of event attendees. The identified attendees can be stratified into social graph tags that annotate, categorize and prioritize other users in the user's social graph. The technology disclosed also relates to identifying and notifying the user of nearby attendees of sessions at the event who meet introduction preferences of the user by finding matches between introduction preference attributes specified by the user and attributes of the attendees provided by the list of event attendees. |
| US09641347B2 |
Method and device for selecting packet data network gateway in wireless communication system
One embodiment of the present invention is a method whereby a network node selects a packet data network gateway (P-GW) in a wireless communication system, the method for selecting a P-GW comprising the steps of: receiving, from user equipment, an attach request including information on a group; determining whether or not the attach request is a first request from the group; and selecting a P-GW to perform a policy and charging enforcement function (PCEF) on the group including the user equipment, wherein the selected P-GW is the same P-GW selected for the group in case the attach request is a third or later request from the group. |
| US09641346B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing charging control to application-layer data
An objective of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for performing charging control to application-layer data. When a trigger condition is satisfied, a TDF transmits a first credit control request to an OCS, wherein the first credit control request includes a result of inspecting an application or application traffic by the TDF; the OCS determines charging control information for the application or application traffic based on the first credit control request to generate a credit control answer; the OCS transmits the credit control answer to the TDF. Compared with the prior art, in the present invention, the TDF detects an application or application traffic and provides the detection result to the OCS; the OCS determines charging control information to the application or application flow and returns it to the TDF, thereby realizing charging control to the application-layer data and improving the accuracy of the charging system. |
| US09641339B2 |
System and method for authentication for field replaceable units
A method and apparatus of a network element that authenticates a field replaceable unit of the network element is described. The network element authenticates a field replaceable unit of the network element by generating a nonce. In addition, the network element generates a signature using a nonce and a private encryption key that is securely stored in the field replaceable unit. The network element further verifies the signature using a public encryption key that is a pair to the private encryption key and is not securely stored in the field replaceable unit. If the field replaceable unit is verified, the network element uses the field replaceable unit to operate the network element. Otherwise, the network element disables the field replaceable unit. |
| US09641337B2 |
Interface compatible approach for gluing white-box implementation to surrounding program
A method of gluing a cryptographic implementation of a cryptographic function to a surrounding program in a cryptographic system, including: receiving, by the cryptographic system, an input message; receiving a computed value from the surrounding program; performing, by the cryptographic system, a keyed cryptographic operation mapping the input message into an output message using the computed value from the surrounding program, wherein the output message is a correct output message when the computed value has a correct value; and outputting the output message. |
| US09641327B2 |
Systems and methods for “machine-to-machine” (M2M) communications between modules, servers, and an application using public key infrastructure (PKI)
Methods and systems are provided for supporting efficient and secure “Machine-to-Machine” (M2M) communications using a module, a server, and an application. A module can communicate with the server by accessing the Internet, and the module can include a sensor and/or an actuator. The module, server, and application can utilize public key infrastructure (PKI) such as public keys and private keys. The module can internally derive pairs of private/public keys using cryptographic algorithms and a first set of parameters. A server can authenticate the submission of derived public keys and an associated module identity. The server can use a first server private key and a second set of parameters to (i) send module data to the application and (ii) receive module instructions from the application. The server can use a second server private key and the first set of parameters to communicate with the module. |
| US09641325B1 |
Server systems for distributed cryptographic protocols
A server system for implementing a distributed cryptographic protocol includes a machine management server which comprises a current virtual machine configured to implement the protocol using a set of communication keys and state information for the protocol. The system further includes a memory and a refresh server. The system is configured, for each of successive new time periods in operation of the protocol, to perform a refresh operation wherein: the refresh server retrieves the state information from the memory, generates a new set of communication keys, and sends the state information and new set of keys to the machine management server; the machine management server configures a new virtual machine for implementing the protocol, whereby the new virtual machine receives the new set of keys and state information sent by the refresh server; and the new virtual machine assumes operation as the current virtual machine for the new time period and stores state information for that time period in the memory. |
| US09641324B2 |
Method and device for authenticating request message
A method for authenticating request messages is disclosed. An authentication service device performs centralized allocation and management for authentication random numbers; when a User Equipment (UE) uses a protected service, the key negotiation process needs to be performed only once, whereupon the authentication is performed with multiple Application Servers (ASs) in turn according to the policy of using an authentication random number. Further, the corresponding authentication service device, AS, and UE are disclosed. |
| US09641321B1 |
Method and apparatus for the virtualization of cryptographic resources
A method and apparatus is provided for the virtualization of cryptographic resources which enables memory speed encryption and decryption that is not bound by the speed at which processor resources can compute the result of a symmetric-key algorithm. This is achieved through a time-memory tradeoff via empty space at provisioning time. When implementing the apparatus, un-initialized memory is filled with the output of a symmetric-key algorithm uniquely keyed for the specific set of data that is going to be written to the provisioned area. Since the provisioning operation stores cryptographically structured data, rather than redundant data, plaintext that is xor'ed into memory is automatically encrypted and ciphertext that xor'ed into memory is automatically decrypted without the need for additional cryptographic computation. This reduced computation requirement enables cryptographic function to be implemented at the ends of communication, rather than the middle, and treated as a virtualized resource. |
| US09641320B2 |
Flexible architecture and instruction for advanced encryption standard (AES)
A flexible aes instruction set for a general purpose processor is provided. The instruction set includes instructions to perform a “one round” pass for aes encryption or decryption and also includes instructions to perform key generation. An immediate may be used to indicate round number and key size for key generation for 128/192/256 bit keys. The flexible aes instruction set enables full use of pipelining capabilities because it does not require tracking of implicit registers. |
| US09641313B1 |
CMOS interpolator for a serializer/deserializer communication application
The present invention relates generally to integrated circuits. More particularly, the present invention provides a circuit and method for regulating a voltage for a high speed serializer/deserializer (SerDes) device. But it will be recognized that the technique can be used for regulating memory devices (e.g., DDR 4 SDRAM devices, DDR4 register devices, DDR4 controller devices), and other high speed data applications. In various embodiments, phase-interpolator is implemented in conjunction with a delay-lock loop (DLL) and an SR latch, where one or more outputs of the DLL is used by the SR latch. Additionally, such techniques can be used for a variety of applications such as network and/or computer storage systems, computer servers, hand held computing devices, portable computing devices, computer systems, network appliances and/or switches, routers, and gateways, and the like. |
| US09641309B2 |
Method for transceiving signal in wireless communication system, and apparatus therefor
The present invention relates to a method for transceiving a signal in a wireless communication system. A method for transceiving a signal in a wireless communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of: transmitting a downlink signal from a base station to a terminal; receiving an uplink signal transmitted from the terminal; and cancelling a self-interference signal on the basis of the transceived downlink signal or the uplink signal, wherein the transmission periods for the downlink signal and the uplink signal comprise dedicated transmission periods, and in the dedicated transmission period, signal transmission periods of the base station and the terminal are differentiated. |
| US09641305B2 |
Method of transmitting and receiving acknowledgment signal in a wireless communication system
A method of receiving an acknowledgement (ACK) signal from at least one access terminal (AT) in a wireless communication system is disclosed. More specifically, the method includes transmitting at least one packet via a packet data channel from an access network (AN), receiving at least one ACK signal from the at least one AT using same channelization resources, wherein each AT is assigned a code specific to each AT, and identifying the ACK signal corresponding to the transmitted packet from the received at least one ACK signal. |
| US09641303B2 |
System and method for increasing low density signature space
Embodiments are provided herein for increasing low density signature space for multiplexed transmissions for a plurality of users. The embodiments include generating a virtual signature using a combination operation on a plurality of basic signatures. The generated virtual signatures are provisioned as basic resource units (BRUs) for transmissions for corresponding users. The combination operation is a row-wise or column-wise permutation for combining, in each of the virtual signatures, rows or columns of corresponding basic signatures. The rows or columns represent sequences of frequency bands at one time interval or sequences of allocated time intervals at one frequency band. Alternatively, the combination operation is intra-basic resource unit (BRU) hopping. The embodiments also include generating a plurality of BRU sets comprised of virtual signatures. Each of the BRU sets is provisioned for a corresponding user. |
| US09641297B2 |
Enhancements to wireless networks to support short message service (SMS) communication in the packet switched domain
Technology for communicating a short message service (SMS) communication in a packet switched (PS) domain of a serving general packet radio service (GPRS) support node SGSN in a Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). One method comprises receiving, at the SGSN, a request message from a user equipment (UE) indicating that the UE supports PS based SMS and performs a circuit switched (CS) registration only to receive SMS service via a CS domain; and sending, from the CN control node, an accept message to the UE indicating that SMS over a non-access stratum (NAS) is supported by the SGSN. |
| US09641294B2 |
System, method, and program for robust interference rejection combining
An apparatus includes an interference rejection combining module, at least partially implemented in hardware. The interference rejection combining module determines a covariance based on a Hermitian transpose of a signal received on a subcarrier of a symbol that is not a pilot symbol. |
| US09641293B2 |
Method and apparatus for information transmission in a radio communication system
A method of transmitting, by a transmitter, information in a wireless communication system, the method includes generating first and second symbols; generating first and second transmit vectors on the basis of an Alamouti code from the first and second symbols; and transmitting the first transmit vector through a first antenna and transmitting the second transmit vector through a second antenna. The first transmit vector consists of a first transmit symbol and a second transmit symbol. The second transmit vector consists of a third transmit symbol and a fourth transmit symbol. The first, second, third, and fourth transmit symbols are transmitted based on first and second resource indexes. The first symbol is a first modulation symbol for first information, and the second symbol is a second modulation symbol for second information. |
| US09641284B2 |
Method and apparatus for receiving or transmitting interference information
A method for receiving information for interference cancellation of a user equipment (UE) includes detecting downlink control information including interference control information for a specific resource block (RB) scheduled for the UE by using an index of the specific RB, wherein the interference control information for the specific RB includes control information related to interference signal in the specific RB and indicates that the interference control information for the specific RB is the same as interference control information for one or more RBs having a series of indices subsequent to the index of the specific RB, and performing cancellation of interference signal corresponding to the interference control information in the specific RB and the one or more RBs using the interference control information for the specific RB. |
| US09641283B2 |
Adaptive modulation coding method and apparatus
An adaptive modulation coding method includes obtaining an estimated signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and a packet error rate (PER) of a communication link of a user terminal; setting a first adjustment amount of the SINR of the communication link according to the PER of the communication link; calculating an effective SINR of the communication link according to the estimated SINR of the communication link and the first adjustment amount of the SINR of the communication link; and determining a modulation coding scheme of the communication link according to the effective SINR of the communication link. |
| US09641282B2 |
Radio communication devices and methods for controlling a radio communication device
A radio communication device may include: a transmitter configured to transmit data at a data rate which is based on a pre-determined maximum data rate which is pre-determined by another radio communication device; a determination circuit configured to determine a quality indicator which is indicative of a quality of the transmission of the data; and a data rate changing circuit configured to change the data rate to a changed data rate based on the determined quality indicator. The transmitter may further transmit at the changed data rate. |
| US09641278B2 |
Subchannel photonic routing, switching and protection with simplified upgrades of WDM optical networks
The present invention includes novel techniques, apparatus, and systems for optical WDM communications. Tunable lasers are employed to generate respective subcarrier frequencies which represent subchannels of an ITU channel to which client signals can be mapped. In one embodiment, subchannels are polarization interleaved to reduce crosstalk. In another embodiment, polarization multiplexing is used to increase the spectral density. Client circuits can be divided and combined with one another before being mapped, independent of one another, to individual subchannels within and across ITU channels. A crosspoint switch can be used to control the client to subchannel mapping, thereby enabling subchannel protection switching and hitless wavelength switching. Network architectures and subchannel transponders, muxponders and crossponders are disclosed, and techniques are employed (at the subchannel level/layer), to facilitate the desired optical routing, switching, concatenation and protection of the client circuits mapped to these subchannels across the nodes of a WDM network. |
| US09641276B2 |
Statistical optical design enabled via TWDM-PON
An optical line terminal (OLT) in a time and wavelength division multiplexed (TWDM) passive optical network (PON). The OLT comprises a first optical port, a second optical port, and a processor. The first optical port is configured to couple to a plurality of optical network units (ONUs) via an optical distribution network (ODN). The second optical port is configured to couple to the ONUs via the ODN. The processor is coupled to the first optical port and the second optical port and is configured such that, responsive to receiving information indicating that the first optical port has experienced a greater power loss over time than the second optical port, the OLT assigns to the first optical port a first wavelength with a power greater than the power of a second wavelength assigned to the second optical port. |
| US09641271B2 |
TDM-based resource partition between two radio base stations
The present disclosure discloses a method of Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)-based resource partition between two radio base stations (RBSs) with which a User Equipment (UE) is to perform dual connectivity and an associated radio network node. The method comprises the step of forming at least two non-overlapping Uplink (UL) subframe sets and at least two non-overlapping Downlink (DL) subframe sets. The method further comprises the step of allocating at least one of the UL subframe sets and at least one of the DL subframe sets exclusively to each of the RBSs. |
| US09641270B2 |
Radio telecommunications system and method of operating the same with polling
An apparatus or method for transmitting data blocks on a communications channel having a radio link between two stations including a user equipment comprises receiving first data blocks from the user equipment, and transmitting second data blocks to the user equipment. A polling interval is dynamically set for the transmission of polling messages to the user equipment after transmission of the second data blocks, the polling interval being set in accordance with at least one of: a size of one or more data blocks received by the apparatus from the user equipment, a size of one or more blocks transmitted from the apparatus to the user equipment, and a service to which the user equipment is subscribed. The apparatus may be used as a PCU in a cellular mobile telephone system. |
| US09641268B2 |
Method, system and device for synchronizing clocks
A method for synchronizing clocks, including: receiving at least two clock signals, where the at least two clock signals are sent by a bidirectional clock tracking link respectively corresponding thereto; setting two or more clock signals coming from a same network element into a same clock source group; selecting one clock signal in a same clock source group as a currently tracked clock signal; and if the currently tracked clock signal belongs to the clock source group, respectively sending a standby clock signal carrying quality-level do not use information by using the bidirectional clock tracking link respectively corresponding to each of the clock signals in the clock source group. The present invention achieves the effect that in the scenario where there are two or more bidirectional clock tracking links between two network elements, a clock tracking loop will not be generated. |
| US09641267B2 |
Synchronization of receiver units over a control area network bus
In a logging system (100), multiple receiver units (106) are synchronized over a control area network (CAN) bus (110) without use of separate differential lines. A ready for synchronization command is received over the CAN bus (110). In response to receiving the ready for synchronization command, a start synchronization interrupt is enabled. A start synchronization command is then received over the CAN bus (110). In response to receiving the start synchronization command, the start synchronization interrupt is triggered for capturing formation signals which are produced responsive to excitation signals from a transmitter unit (104). |
| US09641261B2 |
Wearable wireless electronic devices and methods of providing communications via wearable wireless electronic devices
Wearable wireless electronic devices are provided. A wearable wireless electronic device may be a wearable first wireless electronic device that may include a user-wearable transmitter. The user-wearable transmitter may include first and second electrodes that are spaced apart from each other. The first and second electrodes may include first and second curved portions, respectively, when the user-wearable transmitter is worn by a user. Moreover, the first and second electrodes may be configured to transmit communications through a human body of the user to a second wireless electronic device on or adjacent the human body of the user. |
| US09641253B2 |
Data over cable service interface specification (DOCSIS) over passive optical network (PON)
A Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications (DOCSIS) Passive Optical Network (PON) system (DPON) makes optical subscribers appear as cable subscribers. In one embodiment, a Cable Modem (CM) proxy is located in an Optical Line Termination (OLT). The OLT implements a cable modem protocol stack that operates as the CM proxy and communicates with a back office system. The OLT translates the data retrieved by the CM proxy into Optical Network Unit (ONU) recognizable commands, and sends the translated data to the ONU. In a second embodiment, the CM proxy is located in the ONU. The ONU implements the cable modem protocol stack that operates as the CM proxy and communicates with the back office system. The ONU translates the data retrieved by the CM proxy into ONU recognizable commands and sends the translated data to the ONU. |
| US09641250B2 |
System and method for communicating high and low speed data via optical signals and power via electrical signals
A data communication system is disclosed including a cable medium and modulator adapted to carry data and power between a high speed data source and a high speed data sink. Relatively high speed data (e.g. the TMDS data of an HDMI interface) may be carried on optical waveguides in the cable medium. Relatively low-speed data (e.g., DDC data and clock, and CEC of an HDMI interface) may be carried on a separate set of optical waveguides or wire mediums. The optical waveguides allow for substantially less signal distortion of the high-speed data, thereby allowing the cable medium to achieve much higher lengths without significantly affecting the high-speed signaling. |
| US09641249B2 |
Support for converged fiber channel over ethernet (FCoE) traffic on software defined networks (SDNs)
In one embodiment, a system includes a software defined network (SDN) controller connected to SDN-capable switch(es), the SDN controller being configured to communicate with and program the SDN-capable switches, wherein each of the SDN-capable switches is configured to communicate with the SDN controller, one or more fiber channel forwarders (FCFs) connected to the SDN-capable switches, storage area network (SAN) fabric(s), and local area network (LAN) fabric(s), and at least one end node connected directly or indirectly to the SDN-capable switches and/or the one or more FCFs, wherein the SDN controller is configured to collect information from the one or more FCFs that corresponds with each of the one or more FCFs via fiber channel initialization protocol (FIP) advertisement frames, and create and manage a FCF database, the FCF database including the information that corresponds with each of the one or more FCFs. |
| US09641247B2 |
System and method for monitoring unknown resources
The present invention provides a method and system for inferential monitoring of a resource. The method according to one embodiment of the invention comprises selecting a given resource, the selected given resource including one or more monitorable parts and at least one unmonitorable part, and performing one or more tests on the one or more monitorable part to determine a status of the one or more monitorable parts. Results from the one or more tests of the one or more monitorable parts is correlated with the at least one unmonitorable part to determine a status of the unmonitorable part on the basis of the correlation. |
| US09641244B2 |
Compensation for an optical sensor via a printed circuit board
Opto-electronic measuring arrangement which is largely independent of extraneous light, comprising emitted and compensation light sources, which emit light time-sequentially and in a phased manner, wherein the emitted light is phase-shifted respectively by 180°. An optical receiver receives the light emitted by the emitted light source and reflected by the object being measured together with the light from the compensation light source. The actuation signals for the emitted and compensation light sources are controlled such that the synchronous signal difference occurring in the receiver between the different phases is reduced to zero. The optical coupling between the compensation light source and the receiver diode occurs mainly via an optical system in a printed circuit board on which the compensation light source and the receiver are arranged. The printed circuit board itself, i.e. the FR4 component thereof, may constitute the optical conductor between the compensation light source and receiver diode. |
| US09641242B2 |
Optical communication system, device and method for data processing in an optical network
An optical communication system, a method and a network device for an optical network are provided, wherein the device comprises a first port coupled with a first optical fiber link, a second port coupled with a second optical fiber link, the first port and the second port being configured to be coupled with respect to each other in case of a failure of the first optical fiber link or in case of a failure of the second optical fiber link. |
| US09641240B2 |
Transferring data over bluetooth using intermediary bridge
In one or more embodiments, a first device such as a mobile phone can establish a wireless connection with second device, and the second device can act as a bridge between the first device and a peripheral device, such as a printer, so that the first device need not establish a secure pairing or other type of direct connection with the peripheral device. The second device provides a profile of the peripheral to the first device. The first device can then use the profile to access the peripheral device via the second device, with the second device passing data between the first device and the peripheral identified by the profile. This bridging feature simplifies the process of using the peripheral devices, since no secure pairing or other configuration procedure is needed to enable the first device to access the peripheral. |
| US09641238B1 |
Virtualization-enabled satellite platforms
Systems, methods, and software described herein provide enhancements for deploying applications in satellites. In one example, a satellite may receive software applications capable of execution as virtual nodes on the satellite, and receive a resource schedule associated with the software applications. The satellite may further execute the software applications on the satellite based on the resource schedule, wherein the resource schedule allocates processing resources and user sensor resources to the software applications. |
| US09641237B2 |
Indoor personal relay
The embodiments herein disclose an indoor personal relay which has a wireless interface with the BS, which is effective in both cost and technology terms. The indoor personal relay, as disclosed herein is an estimate and forward relay. The relay 101 as disclosed herein does not perform any additional channel decoding/encoding on the data that it receives from the UE or BS. Embodiments disclosed herein enable the relevant UEs to have a high SINR link with the relay. This, in turn, translates to a better effective link quality between the UE and BS and higher indoor rates, which otherwise may have been not as good as a consequence of poor direct link between the UE and the BS. This relay is effectively transparent to the UE. The deployment of relays also implies minimal impact on UE IOT. |
| US09641235B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving channel state information
The present disclosure provides a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving Channel State Information. The said transmitting method includes calculating the maximum value mH(k) of real part and imaginary part of each element in CSI matrix Heff(k) of the sub-carrier; carrying out M bit quantization to mH(k) to obtain the quantization amplitude MH(k); calculating the linear portion MHlin(k) of MH(k); using MHlin(k) for carrying out Nb bit quantization to real part and imaginary part of each element in Heff(k) respectively to obtain the quantized CSI matrix Heff(k); Nb being a positive integer; and transmitting said quantization amplitude MH(k) and said quantized CSI matrix Heffq(k). |
| US09641230B2 |
Base station and signal transmitting control method of the same, and wireless communication system
Disclosed is a base station transmitting multiple beams to multiple beam areas, including: a determination unit determining at least any one of whether a downlink control signal is transmitted through the multiple beams transmitted to the multiple beam areas and a transmission section; a generation unit generating signal transmitting control information including at least any one of whether the downlink control signal is transmitted, the transmission section of the downlink control signal, and derivation information to derive a change of an access beam for a terminal that accesses the multiple beams; a communication unit downlink-transmitting the signal transmitting control information to the multiple beam areas or the multiple beams; and a control unit controlling transmission of the downlink control signal based on the signal transmitting control information. |
| US09641229B2 |
Method and system for a reconfigurable over-indexed antenna array
A method and system for reconfiguring over-indexed antenna arrays in mobile devices are provided. For example, the method includes receiving sensor input that indicates an object blocking a first subset of reconfigurable antenna elements but not blocking a second subset of reconfigurable antenna elements of an over-indexed antenna array. The method also includes configuring, based on the sensor input, a number of the antenna elements in the first subset as non-active for radiating energy and a number of the antenna elements in the second subset as active for radiating energy. |
| US09641224B2 |
Transmitting method and receiving method for simultaneous information and energy transfer
A transmitting method and receiving method for simultaneous information and energy transfer comprises: determining a first pre-allocated parameter set of a first baseband signal based on a first optimized parameter set and according to a first optimized target and a first constraint condition set; determining a second pre-allocated parameter set of a second baseband signal based on a first optimized result and a second optimized parameter set and according to a second optimized target and a second constraint condition set; and processing the baseband signals into corresponding radio-frequency signals according to the first pre-allocated parameter set and the second pre-allocated parameter set and transmitting the radio-frequency signals through an antenna; the first baseband signal and the second baseband signal each being an information baseband signal or an energy baseband signal. Both the energy transfer efficiency and the information transfer rate are improved by optimizing the information signals and energy signals. |
| US09641223B2 |
Power receiving device and power feeding system
A power receiving device and a power feeding system which are capable of performing communication and power feeding at the same time are provided. Further, a power receiving device and a power feeding system which are capable of stably performing communication during power feeding are provided. One embodiment of the present invention relates to a power receiving device which includes an antenna for communication and power feeding that receives AC power, a rectifier circuit that rectifies the received AC power including the modulation signal into DC power, a smoothing circuit that smoothes the resulting DC power, a power storage device that stores the smoothed DC power, a communication control unit that analyzes the modulation signal included in the AC power, and a transformer that is positioned between the antenna and the rectifier circuit and changes a reference potential of the AC power, and a power feeding device. |
| US09641222B2 |
Apparatus and method for managing device operation using near field communication
A device may include a memory for storing a set of instructions associated with at least one of an orientation and a position of the device. The device may also include a near field communication (NFC) transceiver for pairing the device with a second device. A processor in the device determines that the device is paired with the second device via the NFC transceiver; determines at least one of the orientation and the position of the device; and executes the set of instructions associated with at least one of the determined orientation and position of the device. |
| US09641220B2 |
Alternative power source for network protector relay
A relay for control of a network protector located on a low voltage side of a transformer with a set of three phases, the relay having at least one route for power to be provided to the relay from at least one of the set of three phases taken from a transformer side of the network protector so that the relay may have power and be functional before the network protector is closed to provide power into a dead network. |
| US09641213B2 |
Mode switching available wireless transceiver
Provided is a transceiver. The transceiver includes: a transmission unit modulating at least one of a plurality of baseband transmit signals to an RF band and amplifying the modulated at least one; a duplexer transmitting transmit signals outputted from the transmission unit to an antenna by selecting a signal in a downlink frequency band or an uplink frequency band or filtering a receive signal received from the antenna by the downlink frequency band or the uplink frequency band; a reception unit demodulating the receive signals in the downlink frequency band or the uplink frequency band from the duplexer into at least one baseband signal; a first switch delivering a transmit signal provided from the transmission unit to a first RF band filter of the duplexer in a first communication mode and a second communication mode; and a second switch delivering a first receive signal delivered from a second RF band filter of the duplexer to the reception unit in the first communication mode and a third communication mode, wherein each of the transmission unit and the reception unit includes one power amplifier and one low noise amplifier. |
| US09641211B2 |
Mobile communication device with antenna
A mobile communication device with an antenna is disclosed. A portion of a metal cover of the mobile communication device can function as an extension of a radiator of the antenna, and the installation of a pair of filters can prevent interference between the low frequency antenna and another antenna. The design of the present invention expands the sensing range of the antenna. |
| US09641209B2 |
Applicator
An applicator for aligning a screen protector on a portable electronic device (D) with a screen, four edges and a rear face opposite to the screen. The applicator comprises a body with an engagement member (2, 11) and an alignment feature (3, 5, 12, 13). The engagement member (2, 11) is arranged for edgewise engagement with no more than three of the four edges of the device (D) to align the applicator with the device by movement in a direction generally parallel to the plane of the screen such that the alignment feature (3, 5, 12, 13) covers a portion of the face of the device comprising the screen which is not covered by the screen protector allowing an edge of the screen protector to be located with respect to the alignment feature. |
| US09641208B2 |
Cover for mobile device with ecological lighter
A portable electric cigarette lighter or mobile device accessory with integrated portable electric cigarette lighter, the mobile device accessory including: (a) a protective accessory for a mobile device; (b) an electric lighter mechanism integrated into the protective accessory, the lighter mechanism including: (i) a heating element, (ii) a power source, (iii) an actuator, adapted to activate the heating element by operationally coupling the heating element to the power source and (d) a slide shutter adapted to reversibly expose the heating element. |
| US09641202B2 |
Systems/methods of carrier aggregation
Various embodiments of carrier aggregation are provided that increase communications capacity and throughput. According to some embodiments, a transmitter is configured with a plurality of transmitter chains and, responsive to an aggregate bandwidth and/or frequency content of an overall signal that is to be transmitted by the transmitter, the overall signal is segmented into a plurality of components, each one of which comprises a bandwidth that is smaller than the bandwidth of the overall signal, and is thus transmitted by the plurality of transmitter chains of the transmitter. Accordingly, each component of the plurality of components of the overall signal is processed by a respective transmitter chain of the plurality of transmitter chains. Systems/methods of spatial multiplexing are also provided further increasing network capacity and throughput. |
| US09641196B2 |
Data block interleaving and deinterleaving method and apparatus for communication equipments
The present invention relates to communication field, disclosing a data block interleaving and deinterleaving method and apparatus for communication equipments. In the present invention, a recursive method for calculating interleaver or deinterleaver addresses for existing power line communication standards is proposed. The complex modulo operation is simplified to a series of Add-Compare-Subtract operations. Therefore, the hardware implementation complexity is significantly reduced. |
| US09641195B2 |
Trellis coded modulation
A trellis coded modulator and method for generating an encoded word from an input word. The TCM has a first logic branch configured to generate a data portion of the encoded word; and a second logic branch, coupled in parallel with the first logic branch, and configured to generate a corresponding parity portion of the encoded word sequentially after the generation of the data portion of the encoded word. |
| US09641194B2 |
Method for encoding multi-mode of BCH codes and encoder thereof
A method for encoding multi-modes of BCH codes and an associated encoder is disclosed. The method has the steps of: building a number of encoding matrices; combining the encoding matrices with one side aligned to form a combined matrix; seeking common sub-expressions (CSEs) in the combined matrix, and encoding a message using the combined matrix. |
| US09641193B2 |
Comparators for delta-sigma modulators
Methods, systems and devices are disclosed, such as an electronic device that includes a plurality of data locations and a delta-sigma modulator. In some embodiments, the delta-sigma modulator includes a preamplifier coupled to the data locations and a latch coupled to the preamplifier. |
| US09641192B1 |
Methods and apparatus for a delta sigma ADC with parallel-connected integrators
Various embodiments of the present technology may comprise a method and device for a delta-sigma ADC. The method and device may comprise receiving an input signal to at least two parallel-connected first-stage integrators and corresponding feedback DACs, and simultaneously integrating the input signal by each of the first-stage integrators. The method and device may further comprise a second stage integrator connected in series with the first-stage integrators, a quantizer, and digital to analog converters, coupled between the output of the quantizer and the inputs of the first-stage integrators. |
| US09641191B1 |
Digital down converter with equalization
A digital down converter with an equalizer translates an ADC output signal to a low frequency spectral region, followed by decimation. All operations of correction of the processed signal are carried out with a reduced sampling rate compared with sampling rates of the prior art. Equalization is performed only in a frequency pass band of the down converter. The achieved reduction of the required computation resources is sufficient to enable the down converter with equalization to operate in a real time mode. |
| US09641187B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device according to an aspect of the invention relates to an AD converter that converts a signal level of an analog signal into a digital value by using a comparator, and determines an amount of adjustment of an offset voltage of the comparator based on an offset determination result of the comparator obtained immediately after a least significant bit (LSB) of a digital value output as a conversion result is converted. |
| US09641180B2 |
Reconfigurable semiconductor device
There is provided a reconfigurable semiconductor device including a plurality of circuit blocks each including a reconfigurable logic unit, and an analog circuit configured to convert an analog signal from the outside into a digital signal to output the digital signal to the reconfigurable logic unit, and convert a digital signal outputted from the reconfigurable logic unit into an analog signal to output the analog signal to the outside. The circuit block has a rectangular shape, is connected to the two adjacent circuit blocks from one side with a plurality of analog lines, and is connected to the other two adjacent circuit blocks from the other side on a side opposite to the one side with a plurality of analog lines. |
| US09641179B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a 3-input NOR decoder having six MOS transistors arranged in a line. The MOS transistors of the decoder are formed in a planar silicon layer disposed on a substrate and each have a structure in which a drain, a gate, and a source are arranged vertically and the gate surrounds a silicon pillar. The planar silicon layer includes 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 silicon layer on a surface of the planar silicon layer. |
| US09641174B2 |
Use of micro-structured plate for controlling capacitance of mechanical capacitor switches
Micro capacitive switches and methods of manufacturing micro capacitive switches at variable nominal capacitance value using micro-structures on the contact plates of the same dimension. In a preferred embodiment, a separately manufactured contact plate can be mounted to a movable magnet in order to be actuated to “on” and “off” state of the capacitive switch. Depending on the contact plate's surface condition, variable contact capacitance at “on” state can be precisely specified by geometrical properties of the micro-structures on the surface, such as the density, size and depth. |
| US09641171B2 |
Large-range input circuit
Disclosed is a large-range input circuit for digital signals in the range of extra-low voltage signals of ≦120 V and in the range of low voltage signals of <1500 V, said input circuit comprising series-connected Zener diodes that are polarized in the reverse direction, each one defining at least one switching threshold in the range of the extra-low voltage signals or in the range of the low voltage signals, and can be selected to be active by not being bridged, wherein a respective auxiliary optocoupler, which can be controlled by a microprocessor, is used to bridge the inactive Zener diode. |
| US09641168B2 |
Controlling reverse conducting IGBT
A method for controlling a first switch and a second switch is suggested, wherein each switch is an RC-IGBT and wherein both switches are arranged as a half-bridge circuit. The method includes: controlling the first switch in an IGBT-mode; controlling the second switch such that it becomes desaturated when being in a DIODE-mode; wherein controlling the second switch starts before and lasts at least as long as the first switch changes its IGBT-mode from blocking state to conducting state. |
| US09641164B2 |
Quadrature LC tank digitally controlled ring oscillator
A quadrature LC tank based digitally controlled ring oscillator (DCO). The oscillator structure incorporates a plurality of stages, each stage including a buffer and a series LC tank. Four stages are coupled together to create a 360 degree phase shift around a loop. The oscillation frequency of the oscillator is the same as the resonant frequency of each LC tank, therefore it avoids quality factor degradation of LC tanks found in the prior art. In one example embodiment, class-D amplifiers are used to drive each of the LC tanks. Capacitor banks before at the input and output of the buffers provide coarse and fine tuning of the frequency of oscillation. The high efficiency exhibited by these amplifiers results in very good phase noise performance of this oscillator. The oscillator utilizes a startup circuit to launch oscillation upon power on. |
| US09641161B1 |
Flip-flop with delineated layout for reduced footprint
In some embodiments, a flip-flop is laid-out on a flip-flop region of a semiconductor substrate. The flip-flop includes master switch circuitry made of a first plurality of devices which are circumscribed by a master switch perimeter residing within the flip-flop region. Scan mux input circuitry is operably coupled to an input of the master switch circuitry. The scan mux input circuitry is made up of a second plurality of devices that are circumscribed by a scan mux perimeter which resides within the flip-flop region and which is non-overlapping with the master switch perimeter. Slave switch circuitry is operably coupled to an output of the master switch circuitry. The slave switch circuitry is made up of a third plurality of devices that are circumscribed by a slave switch perimeter which resides within the flip-flop region and which is non-overlapping with both the master switch perimeter and the scan mux perimeter. |
| US09641160B2 |
Common N-well state retention flip-flop
Embodiments include apparatuses, methods, and systems for state retention electronic devices. In embodiments, an electronic device may include a state retention flip-flop having a plurality of P-type metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) devices coupled with a common N-well, with one or more of the plurality of PMOS devices powered by an always-on supply and one or more of the plurality of PMOS devices powered by a power-gated supply. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. |
| US09641158B2 |
Low power decimator
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing a low power decimator. A decimator may receive a plurality of input samples from a digital microphone. The decimator may include one or more coefficient tables for storing values combining two or more filter coefficients for filtering the received samples. The decimator may utilize a concatenation of multiple samples to perform a lookup of a corresponding coefficient table. The coefficient tables may store only the necessary non-redundant values for all coefficient combinations which can be applied to the multiple samples. The result of the lookup of the coefficient table may have its sign inverted or be zeroed based on the values of the multiple samples. |
| US09641155B2 |
Duplexer
A duplexer includes a reception filter that is connected between a reception terminal and an antenna terminal and includes one or a plurality of series resonators that are acoustic wave resonators, and a transmission filter that is connected between a transmission terminal and the antenna terminal and includes one or a plurality of acoustic wave resonators, a resonance frequency of a first series resonator that is one of the one or the plurality of series resonators and is closest to the antenna terminal in the reception filter being higher than an upper limit frequency of a reception band of the reception filter. |
| US09641154B2 |
Single crystal micromechanical resonator
A single crystal micromechanical resonator includes a suspended plate of lithium niobate or lithium tantalate. The suspended plate and a support structure are formed from a single crystal. |
| US09641152B2 |
Acoustic wave device
An acoustic wave device includes: a piezoelectric substrate; and an IDT formed on the piezoelectric substrate, wherein an anisotropy coefficient is positive, an overlap region where electrode fingers of the IDT overlap each other includes a center region and an edge region, the electrode fingers in the center and edge regions are continuously formed, the electrode finger in the edge region is inclined with respect to the electrode finger in the center region so that a pitch in a width direction of the electrode finger in the edge region is greater than a pitch in a width direction of the electrode finger in the center region, and an angle between the width direction in the center region and a crystal axis orientation of the piezoelectric substrate is less than an angle between the width direction in the edge region and the crystal axis orientation. |
| US09641151B2 |
Elastic wave filters and duplexers using same
An elastic wave filter including a substrate, a signal line disposed on the substrate and connecting a first signal terminal to a second signal terminal, a plurality of series resonators connected to the signal line in series, and a plurality of parallel resonators connected to the signal line. At least one of the series resonator having an anti-resonant frequency closest to the passband of the filter among the plurality of series resonators, and/or the parallel resonator having a resonant frequency closest to the passband of the filter among the plurality of parallel resonators, is covered with a dielectric film that is relatively thicker than a dielectric film covering the other series and/or parallel resonators. |
| US09641150B2 |
Electrical component
An electrical component, e.g., a diplexer or a duplexer, can have one of a number of diverse arrangements for terminal surfaces on the substrate bottom. For example, the terminal surfaces for first and second filters are not disposed at the maximum distance from one another. First and second filters can be disposed as one or two discrete components on the substrate, wherein one filter can be implemented as being integrated in a multilayer substrate. |
| US09641149B2 |
Matching segment circuit to which radio frequency is applied and radio frequency integrated devices using the matching segment circuit
Provided are a matching segment circuit, to which a radio frequency (RF) is applied, and an RF integrated device using the matching segment circuit. The matching segment circuit to which an RF is applied may include an input end connected to a first RF device, a parallel segment having a first capacitor and a first inductor connected in parallel, a second inductor connected to the parallel segment in series, and an output end connected to a second RF device. The first capacitor, the first inductor, and the second inductor may be configured so that an impedance of the first RF device and an impedance of the second RF device may match. |
| US09641143B2 |
Electronic device for a radiofrequency signal reception chain, comprising a low-noise transimpedance amplifier stage
An electronic device includes a transimpedance amplifier stage having an amplifier end stage of the class AB type and a preamplifier stage coupled between an output of a frequency transposition stage and an input of the amplifier end stage. A self-biased common-mode control stage is configured to bias the preamplifier stage. The preamplifier stage is formed by a differential amplifier with an active load that is biased in response to the self-biased common-mode control stage. |
| US09641141B1 |
Harmonics suppression circuit for a switch-mode power amplifier
Even harmonics are suppressed by a harmonics-reducing bias generator that drives bias voltages to cascode control transistors in series with driver transistors in a power amplifier. A first bias voltage is generated by mirroring pull-up currents in the power amplifier. A p-channel source transistor and a p-channel cascode current-mirror transistor also mirror the power amplifier pull-up current to a midpoint node. An n-channel sink transistor and an n-channel cascode current-mirror transistor mirror the pull-down current in the power amplifier to the midpoint node. An op amp compares the midpoint node to VDD/2, and drives the gate of a p-channel feedback transistor. Current from the p-channel feedback transistor flows through an n-channel cascode current-mirror transistor that generates a second bias voltage. The second bias voltage is adjusted until the midpoint node reaches VDD/2, causing the pull-up and pull-down currents in the power amplifier to better match, reducing even harmonics. |
| US09641139B2 |
Amplifier and related method
An amplifier applicable to an intra-band non-contiguous carrier aggregation (NCCA) band includes a first amplifier circuit and a second amplifier circuit. The NCCA band includes at least a primary component carrier (PCC) channel and a secondary component carrier (SCC) channel not adjacent to each other. The first amplifier circuit receives a first input signal, and generates a first output signal for undergoing down-conversion of one of the PCC channel and the SCC channel. The second amplifier circuit receives at least one second input signal, and generates a second output signal for undergoing down-conversion of another of the PCC channel and the SCC channel. The at least one second input signal received by the second amplifier circuit is provided by the first amplifier circuit according to the first input signal. |
| US09641138B2 |
Multipath feedforward band pass amplifier
An exemplary multipath feedforward amplifier includes a plurality of amplification stages configured to form at least partially distinct amplification paths extending from an input terminal to an output terminal, each amplification path defined by a respective subset of the plurality of amplification stages, wherein at least one amplification stage is a band pass resonator. In various implementations, multipath feedforward amplifier can maximize gain at a frequency of interest by having an amplification path that cascades band pass resonators. In various implementations, the plurality of amplification paths are configured to optimize gain at a center frequency ranging from about 2 GHz to about 3 GHz. |
| US09641136B2 |
Travelling wave amplifier (TWA) for driving optical modulator
A travelling wave amplifier (TWA) with a widened frequency bandwidth is disclosed. The TWA include input transmission lines, amplifier units connected in parallel between the input terminal and the out terminal of the TWA. Each of the amplifier units configures an emitter follower in the front end thereof and an amplifying section. A feature of the TWA is that compensation units that compensates the high frequency performance of the TWA are implemented in the input transmission lines and/or integrated with the amplifier units. |
| US09641133B2 |
Adaptive rail power amplifier technology
Adaptive rail power amplifier technology processes an audio signal by feeding the audio signal to the power amplifier to produce an output signal, applying positive and negative power supply voltages centered with respect to the audio signal to the positive and negative power supply rails of the power amplifier, comparing the output signal with the positive and negative power supply rail voltages to produce dynamically varying positive and negative control signals, feeding the positive and negative control signals to positive and negative high current charge pumps and adding supplemental positive and negative voltages from the positive and negative charge pumps to the positive and negative power supply rails to produce a linear adaptive rail voltage which tracks the output signal. |
| US09641123B2 |
Systems for mounting photovoltaic modules
System and method for mounting one or more photovoltaic modules includes one or more flexible rods, including a first end and a second end opposite the first end, each of the one or more flexible rods further including an inner core and a first jacket surrounding the inner core between the first end and the second end. The first end is configured to be attached to at least one photovoltaic module using one or more first adhesive materials. The second end is configured to be inserted into at least one hole of a modular rail and attached to at least the modular rail using one or more second adhesive materials. The one or more flexible rods are configured to allow at least a lateral movement in a first direction between the photovoltaic module and the modular rail and support at least the photovoltaic module in a second direction. |
| US09641122B2 |
HVAC actuator with automatic end stop recalibration
An actuator in a HVAC system includes a motor and a drive device driven by the motor. The drive device is coupled to a movable HVAC component for driving the movable HVAC component between multiple positions. The actuator further includes a main actuator controller. The main actuator controller includes end stop location memory that stores one or more end stop locations indicating expected locations of the one or more end stops. The main actuator controller further includes an end stop location recalibrator that runs an automatic recalibration process to determine and set recalibrated end stop locations. The end stop location recalibrator runs the automatic calibration process in response to detecting that the drive device has unexpectedly stalled at a location other than a stored end stop location. |
| US09641116B2 |
Method and device for operating an asynchronous machine, and an asynchronous machine
The invention relates to a method for operating an asynchronous machine (1) comprising a rotor (3) and a stator (2), in which a torque of the asynchronous machine (1) is adjusted by specifying a desired magnetic flux of a surrounding magnetic field of the stator (2) and specifying a desired slip between a rotational speed of the rotor (3) and the rotational speed of the surrounding magnetic field. According to the invention, at least in the load condition and when a rotary frequency of the surrounding magnetic field of the stator is equal to zero, the desired magnetic flux and/or the desired slip with constant torque is changed in such a way that an actual rotary frequency of the surrounding magnetic field is not equal to zero. |
| US09641113B2 |
System and method for controlling a power generation system based on PLL errors
In one aspect, a method for controlling a power generation system may generally include determining a phase angle error associated with the power generation system, determining a scaling factor based on the phase angle error, generating a current command for controlling the operation of a power convertor of the power generation system and applying the scaling factor to the current command such that the current command is reduced when the phase angle error exceeds a predetermined error threshold. |
| US09641108B2 |
Method and system for calibrating and detecting offset of rotary encoder relative to rotor of motor
Methods and systems for operating a motor having a rotor rotatable relative to a stator include commutating the motor to cause the rotor to rotate to a known position. While the rotor is at the known position, a position of an encoder magnet configured to rotate with the rotor is measured. Subsequent commutation of the motor is adjusted to take into account a difference between the known position of the rotor and the measured position of the encoder magnet. |
| US09641105B2 |
Mobile communication terminal
A mobile communication terminal comprises an acoustic-electro conversion unit configured to convert sound into electric energy, which includes a conversion device for converting vibration into electric energy; and an energy storage unit electrically connected to the conversion device and configured to store electric energy generated by the conversion device. The mobile communication terminal can solve the problem that the mobile communication terminal has large power consumption and short continuous service time, and can make full use of energy, has a long continuous service time and is convenient to use. |
| US09641103B2 |
MEMS driver
Systems and methods provide actuator control. Actuator control is provided via charge control as opposed to voltage control. A driver for driving an actuator can include a charge pump for injecting charge into one or more capacitive elements of the actuator. The driver can further include a capacitance detection aspect for detecting the capacitance of the capacitive elements of the actuator to determine positioning of the actuator. |
| US09641101B1 |
Method for controlling output energy of a power system
A method for controlling output energy of a power system includes following steps: Using a controlling unit to detect a phase offset between voltage and current of an AC power outputted from the power system. When the power system enters an energy-storage cycle, the controlling unit makes a power conversion unit output the AC power having a first preset power factor and store a partial energy of an AC grid in an energy-storage unit when the AC power is in a reactive power area. When the power system enters an energy-release cycle, the controlling unit makes the power conversion unit output the AC power having a second preset power factor and release the energy stored in the energy-storage unit, wherein an average value of the power factor in the energy-storage cycle and the energy-release cycle is the same as a preset average power factor. |
| US09641100B2 |
High power converter comprising low power switches and a switch control device for generating a pulse with a reference value and at least two control values
A system for converting a first voltage into a second voltage includes input terminals and output terminals, switching members disposed between the terminals which can convert voltage, and a device for controlling the switching members. The device includes a cell for controlling a switching member, and a member for managing and supplying the control cell. The member is connected to the control cell by a link allowing the simultaneous transmission of a control signal and electrical energy. The member includes a device for generating a pulse, and which includes at least two different control intervals. |
| US09641098B2 |
Multi-level inverter apparatus and method
An inverter comprises a first input capacitor and a second input capacitor connected in series, an inverting unit comprising a first switch, a second switch, a third switch and a fourth switch connected in series, wherein the inverting unit is connected to an input of an L-C filter, a first bidirectional conductive path connected between a common node of the first switch and the second switch, and a common node of the first input capacitor and the second input capacitor, a second bidirectional conductive path connected between a common node of the third switch and the fourth switch, and the common node of the first input capacitor and the second input capacitor and a flying capacitor connected between the common node of the first switch and the second switch, and the common node of the third switch and the fourth switch. |
| US09641097B2 |
Motor vehicle electrical system having an active bridge rectifier and overvoltage protection during a load dump, rectifier system, associated operating method and means for its implementation
A vehicle electrical system includes: an active bridge rectifier which is connected to a generator via multiple phase terminals, and having terminals on the direct voltage side; a unit for recognizing load shedding at the active bridge rectifier and short-circuiting the phase terminals in a clocked manner, as the result of which a pulsed current is fed to the vehicle electrical system; a vehicle electrical system capacitor configured for smoothing the pulsed current; and a voltage limiting unit configured for clipping a voltage between the terminals of the bridge rectifier on the direct voltage side to a predefined maximum voltage. |
| US09641092B2 |
Power converter
Provided is a power converter 3 that directly converts polyphase AC power to AC power. A converter circuit has a plurality of first switching elements 311, 313 and 315 that are connected to each phase R, S or T of the polyphase AC power to enable switching for turning on current-carrying bidirectionally, and a plurality of second switching elements 312, 314 and 316 that are connected to each phase to enable switching for turning on current-carrying bidirectionally. The converter circuit comprises input lines R, S and T connected to each input terminal, and output lines P and N connected to each output terminal. Parts of wiring 347 and 348 of protection circuits 32 are located between output lines P and N. The wiring distance between each protection circuit 32 and the corresponding switching element can be shortened. |
| US09641085B2 |
Switching power converter, clock module, control circuit and associated control method
A power converter having a clock module and a method for controlling a clock signal of the power converter. The clock module is configured to provide the clock signal and to set a clock frequency of the clock signal to a first predetermined frequency at the moment when the power converter is powered on. The clock module is further configured to regulate the clock frequency to increase from the first predetermined frequency to a second predetermined frequency through a predetermined times of step type frequency increase during a startup procedure of the power converter. |
| US09641084B2 |
Control method and control circuit for switching power supply
In one embodiment, a method of controlling a switching power supply, can include: (i) generating a driving current signal that follows a waveform of a sense voltage signal, where the sense voltage signal is related to a current through a collector of a transistor that is configured as a power switch of the switching power supply, where the collector is coupled to an inductive element of the switching power supply; (ii) providing the driving current signal to a base of the transistor, where the transistor is in a saturated conduction state when a pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal is active; and (iii) releasing charge accumulated on the base when the PWM signal is inactive to turn off the transistor. |
| US09641079B2 |
Dual buck-boost DC/DC converter
For a DC/DC converter with high dynamics and for high-voltage conditions, a provision is made that a capacitor series connection (2) of at least three capacitors (C1, C2, C3) is provided in the DC/DC converter (1), a first capacitor (C1) and middle third capacitor (C3) of the capacitor series connection (2) being part of a first inverting buck-boost converter (7) and a second capacitor (C2) and the middle third capacitor (C2) of the capacitor series connection (2) being part of a second inverting buck-boost converter (8), and that the first direct-current voltage (UIN) is applied to the capacitor series connection (2) and the second direct-current voltage (UOUT) is applied to the common third capacitor (C3) of the first and second inverting buck-boost converter (7, 8). |
| US09641077B2 |
Applying force voltage to switching node of disabled buck converter power stage
Reliability of a buck power stage may be enhanced by extending the maximum input voltage able to be withstood in the disabled (non-switching) state. During device qualification/testing, a power management unit (PMU) in the disabled state may have its input node subjected to greater than a maximum input voltage permitted for reliability (Vmax). Under such conditions, a force voltage (Vforce) may be selectively applied to the PMU switching node in the disabled state. For a given input voltage (VIN), this reduces voltage across the non-switching transistors of the power stage (and hence the resulting stress) to below Vmax. In certain embodiments, the Vforce applied to the switching node is of a fixed magnitude. In other embodiments, the Vforce applied to the switching node is of a magnitude varying with input voltage. Embodiments may be particularly suited to implement power management for a System-On-Chip (SoC). |
| US09641076B2 |
Switching regulators
A switching regulator switches a current from input direct current (DC) power to generate target DC power. The switching regulator includes: a direct current (DC)-DC converter and a ripple injection circuit. The DC-DC converter is configured to: generate an output voltage at an output terminal based on an input voltage applied to an input terminal, and according to a switching cycle that selectively forms a voltage-down current path or a voltage-up current path based on a comparison between a reference voltage and a voltage sensed at a feedback node; and apply a feedback current from the output terminal to the feedback node. The ripple injection circuit is configured to: generate a pulse current synchronized with the switching cycle; and apply the pulse current to the feedback node. |
| US09641075B2 |
Current feedback and offset voltage cancellation for DC-DC converter
Embodiments of current feedback circuits for Direct Current (DC)-DC converters and methods for operating current feedback circuits for DC-DC converters are described. In one embodiment, a current feedback circuit for a DC-DC converter includes a current replication circuit configured to provide current feedback to the DC-DC converter based on an on-time of the DC-DC converter and an alternating current (AC)-coupling circuit configured to add the current feedback to a regulation circuit of the current feedback circuit and to remove a DC voltage from the current replication circuit. The regulation circuit includes a filter circuit configured to compensate for an offset of an output voltage of the DC-DC converter caused by the current feedback. Other embodiments are also described. |
| US09641072B2 |
Systems, methods, and apparatus to drive reactive loads
Systems, methods, and apparatus to drive reactive loads are disclosed. An example apparatus to drive a reactive load includes a reactive component in circuit with the reactive load, a first switching element in circuit with the reactive load to selectively hold the reactive load in a first energy state and to selectively allow the reactive load to change from the first energy state to a second energy state, a second switching element in circuit with the reactive load to selectively hold the reactive load in the second energy state and to selectively allow the reactive load to change from the second energy state to the first energy state, and a controller to detect a current in the reactive load, and to control the first and second switching elements to hold the reactive load in the first or the second energy state when the current traverses a threshold. |
| US09641070B2 |
Circuits and techniques for detecting an open pin condition of an integrated circuit
An integrated circuit an open pin detector includes a current source coupled to the pin, a comparator having a first input coupled to the pin, a second input responsive to a threshold voltage, and an output at which a comparator output signal is provided. A controller is responsive to the comparator output signal to provide an enable signal to the current source and an open pin signal indicative of an open pin condition at the pin. A method for detecting an open pin condition of a pin of an integrated circuit includes comparing the pin voltage to a first threshold voltage level, initiating open pin detection in response to the pin voltage falling below the first threshold voltage level, such as by providing a current to the pin, and indicating an open pin condition if the pin voltage rises to exceed a second threshold voltage level within a predetermined time interval. Also described is preventing the pin voltage from exceeding a predetermined voltage level during open pin detection. |
| US09641069B1 |
Charge pump circuit
A charge pump circuit includes a plurality of stages. Each stage of the charge pump circuit includes: a first transistor, drain of the first transistor being output of the stage, source of the first transistor being input of the stage; a second transistor, gate of the second transistor being connected to source of the first transistor, drain of the second transistor being connected to drain of the first transistor, source of the second transistor being connected to gate of the first transistor, body of the second transistor being connected to body of the first transistor; and a third transistor, gate of the third transistor being connected to drain of the first transistor, drain of the third transistor being connected to source of the first transistor, source of the third transistor being connected to body of the first transistor and body of the third transistor. |
| US09641061B2 |
Power source apparatus and electric device
Provided are a power supply device capable of supplying required power even during standby and an electrical apparatus. A power supply device includes a current resonant circuit configured to drive a transformer and a resonant circuit using a switching element, the resonant circuit being connected to a primary side of the transformer, the switching element being periodically repeatedly turned on and off, and a controller configured to control the switching element so that the switching element performs a continuous operation in which the switching element is turned on and off continuously repeatedly or an intermittent operation in which the switching element is turned on and off intermittently repeatedly, in accordance with an external signal indicating the continuous operation or the intermittent operation. |
| US09641060B2 |
Switching mode power supply
A switching mode power supply, including a drive circuit, a low-pass filter, a feedback circuit, an operational amplifier, a reference voltage signal generation circuit, a comparator, a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal generation circuit, and a duty cycle detection circuit, where the duty cycle detection circuit is configured to convert a PWM signal that is output by the PWM signal generation circuit or a pulse output voltage signal that is output by the drive circuit into a triangular wave signal, and input the triangular wave signal to a negative input end of the comparator. The present invention is used to avoid using a complex collection circuit to collect a signal from an inductor, thereby reducing complexity of the switching mode power supply, decreasing a current collection time, and improving an operating frequency. |
| US09641054B2 |
Segmented magnet component for electric machine and method of assembly
A component includes magnet elements adjoined to each other to form an arced segmented magnet section that is configured to fit in an a curved rotor slot gap of an electric machine. An electric machine that employs the component and method of assembly of the component are also disclosed. The present invention has been described in terms of specific embodiment(s), and it is recognized that equivalents, alternatives, and modifications, aside from those expressly stated, are possible and within the scope of the appending claims. |
| US09641053B2 |
Connecting element between a motor and a control unit
A connecting element between a motor and a control unit includes a flat base plate having contact elements and an, in particular centered, opening. The base plate further includes a shaft around the opening. A first seal is provided at the edge of the base plate and a second seal is provided at the upper edge of the shaft. |
| US09641050B2 |
Wind turbine generator
A wind turbine generator comprising a rotor, a stator and an air gap between a gap-delimiting region of the stator and a gap-delimiting region of the rotor; wherein the rotor and/or the stator are deformable under operational loads and configured in such a way that the air gap resulting from the presence of operational loads is more uniform than the air gap in the absence of operational loads. A method for optimizing an air gap between a gap-delimiting region of a stator and a gap-delimiting region of a rotor of a wind turbine generator, said rotor and/or said stator being deformable under operational loads and said optimization consisting in that the air gap resulting from the presence of the set of operational loads is more uniform than the air gap in the absence of the set of operational loads. |
| US09641043B1 |
Portable sound attenuating device and related methods
Implementations of a portable soundproofing enclosure may include: four side panels coupled together, a top panel coupled to each of the four side panels, the four side panels and the top panel, the top panel including a fan. The panels may form a cavity sized to fully enclose a portable generator. At least two of the four side panels may include an air dam. At least one of the side panels may have a plurality of louvers configured to allow air to be drawn through the panel. The bottom edges of the sides may be configured to rest on a mat. |
| US09641041B2 |
Fan motor
A fan motor according to the present invention includes a lower bracket having a center portion through which a rotating shaft passes, a bracket welding groove formed at an upper portion, and a lower bearing insertion space formed around the rotating shaft outside the center portion; an upper bracket having a center portion through which the rotating shaft passes, a bracket welding projection formed at a position corresponding to the bracket welding groove of the lower bracket, and an upper bearing insertion space formed around the rotating shaft inside the center portion; a rotor combined with the rotating shaft and rotating inside the upper bracket; and a stator positioned around the rotor, and the bracket welding groove and the bracket welding projection are tightly coupled to each other through ultrasonic welding. |
| US09641040B2 |
Rotating electric machine
Provided is a rotating electric machine capable of preventing an outer race of a bearing from rotating because of a reduction in force for coupling a bearing housing portion and the outer race of the bearing. A resin case (24) uses thermal expansion to fill a clearance between the bearing housing portion and the outer race of a counter-driving side bearing. A hook (25) projecting inward in a radial direction is formed at least at one position on a circumferential edge portion of the resin case (24) on a side opposite to a rotor. The bearing housing portion includes a concave portion to which the hook (25) is to be locked, which is formed on a flange portion inside of which a shaft passes. |
| US09641036B2 |
Rotary electric machine
A U-phase coil that constitutes an armature winding includes four (first through fourth) small coil groups U101, U102, U201, and U202 that make one round circumferentially, that are formed by connecting in series in order of circumferential arrangement winding bodies that are housed in slot pairs that are separated by 360 electrical degrees. The U-phase coil is configured into a parallel circuit in which the first and fourth small coil groups U101 and U202, which are connected in series, and the second and third small coil groups U102 and U201, which are connected in series, are connected in parallel by linking together winding ends within a radially inner winding end group using crossover wires 711 and 721, and by linking together winding ends within a radially outer winding end group using a crossover wire 821. |
| US09641023B2 |
Standby power supply circuit for 2-wire bus intercom system and apparatus thereof
The present invention discloses a standby power supply circuit for a 2-wire bus intercom system and an apparatus thereof. The standby power supply circuit is separated into two power supply modules; in which the first power supply module is a power supply to standby circuit and the second power supply module is a power supply to operation circuit; said power supply to operation circuit is switched off by a constant current switch when the device load is at the standby status; and said power supply to standby circuit comprises a constant current circuit whose alternating current impedance is very large. The solutions of the present invention achieve larger alternating current impedance for the 2-wire intercom system, which can offer sufficient power for many device loads both in the conditions of operation and standby statuses. |
| US09641022B2 |
Power supply apparatus, battery apparatus, and battery system
A power supply apparatus that receives electric power from a power generation apparatus having a varying output and supplies electric power to an outside, the apparatus comprising: a power storage device that has a larger amount by which electric power is stored and/or a lower self-discharge rate than a capacitor device used as a passive device and also has higher charge and discharge efficiency and/or higher responsiveness than a secondary battery, the power storage device receiving electric power from the power generation apparatus and discharging electric power to the outside; a current control unit that controls a current supplied from the power storage device to the outside; and a control unit that controls a current and a voltage of the power generation apparatus by charging and discharging the power storage device so as to maximize an amount of power generation by the power generation apparatus. |
| US09641020B2 |
Receiver
A receiver is provided, wherein the receiver includes an antenna, a band pass filter and a frequency mixer electrically connected in sequence, and a local oscillator electrically connected with the frequency mixer, and further includes: a diplexer for separating and outputting high and low frequency components in a signal outputted by the frequency mixer; and a rectifying unit for converting the high frequency component outputted by the diplexer into direct current energy and storing the direct current energy in a storage battery. The diplexer introduced in the receiver separates a baseband signal and a carrier signal in the same path losslessly, respectively conducts information decoding and energy capture, implements simultaneous information and energy transfer, and does not need to change the present modulation technology, therefor having strong compatibility, being reasonable and simple in structure, and being easy to implement. |
| US09641018B2 |
Power receiving apparatus, method for controlling power receiving apparatus, and storage medium
A power receiving apparatus receives power wirelessly transmitted by a power transmission apparatus, and stores the received power. The power receiving apparatus includes a communication unit configured to transmit and receive a control signal in a wireless power transmission system. The power receiving apparatus switches a supply source of power to the communication unit when a power storage capacity is less than a threshold value. |
| US09641015B2 |
Charging structure
A charging structure including a power supply device, a rechargeable battery and a charging management device is provided. The power supply device is configured to provide a system voltage. The charging management device is configured to switch a corresponding charging mode according to the voltage level of the positive end of the rechargeable battery. The charging management device stops charging action when a charging current for charging the rechargeable battery drops down to a pre-set current value. |
| US09641009B2 |
Charging device for secondary battery and charging method for secondary battery
A charging device includes charging power detection unit and full charge determination unit. The charging device further includes charging control unit adapted to repeatedly execute a additional charging control until the number of times of the full charge determination reaches a predetermined full charge determination count. The charging device further includes unit adapted to detect the temperature of the secondary battery, and full charge determination count setting unit adapted to set a larger full charge determination count as the temperature decreases at least based on the temperature of the secondary battery when the full charge determination is made. |
| US09641008B2 |
Device for recharging an automobile battery and method for managing the device
A rapid charging device for a battery includes a filtering stage of resistive-inductive-capacitive type to be connected to a three-phase network, a buck stage, a boost stage to be connected to the battery, an induction winding interposed between the buck stage and the boost stage, and a regulating unit capable of imposing chopping duty cycles on the buck stage and on the boost stage. The regulating unit compensates the phase shift induced by the filtering stage between the currents and the voltages taken from each phase of the three-phase network and also maintains the value of the current amplitude passing through the winding above a non-zero predefined threshold. |
| US09641004B2 |
System and method for balancing charge between battery cells
Systems and methods for balancing charge of battery cells of a battery pack are disclosed. In one example, battery cell balancing may be improved by balancing battery cells of a battery cell stack simultaneously. The system and method may be particularly useful battery packs that may be constructed with battery cell stacks that vary in a number of series battery cells. |
| US09641001B2 |
Electronic apparatus and method
An electronic apparatus includes a power receiving means for wirelessly receiving power, a detection means for detecting whether the electronic apparatus is in a predetermined state, a load means supplied with power from the power receiving means, and a control means that performs control so a second power is supplied from the power receiving means to the load means if the detection means detects that the electronic apparatus is in the predetermined state and a first power is supplied from the power receiving means to the load means, wherein the second power is lower than the first power, and the control means further performs control so the first power is supplied from the power receiving means to the load means if the detection means detects the electronic apparatus is in a state different from the predetermined state and the supplied power is reduced to a predetermined power value or less. |
| US09641000B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a first nonlinear element, an differential amplifier that generates a differential signal from a signal output by the first nonlinear element; a first and second insulating elements that are connected to a non-inverting signal output terminal and an inverting signal output terminal of the differential amplifier, respectively; first to third nonlinear elements each outputting a first logic level if the received signal is equal to or larger than a given threshold value, and outputting a second logic level if the received signal is smaller than the given threshold value; and a logic circuit that outputs the logic level output by the second nonlinear element if the logic levels output by the second and third nonlinear elements are different from each other, and makes the logic level of the output signal unchangeable when the second and third nonlinear elements output the same logic level. |
| US09640997B2 |
Power system stabilization using distributed inverters
A power grid of renewable sources is stabilized. Inverters for connecting power sources, such as wind turbines, batteries, or photovoltaics, to a grid are used to damp grid oscillations. The damping is distributed to the inverters, but based on measurements for the grid rather than local measurements. The control of the damping is based on grid wide analysis, and the damping is performed proportionately by already existing inverters distributed throughout the grid. |
| US09640996B2 |
Electric power supply system
Disclosed is an electric power supply system which has: a common power source which stores and supplies a power via a local power grid; and a distributed power source which supplies a power to buildings and a surplus to the common power source. The electric power supply system further includes a first power meter measuring the amount of power supplied from a commercial power source, a second power meter measuring the amount of power received from and supplied to the common power source via the local power grid, and a distribution control device which distributes a power from the common power source to the area based on the amounts of power as measured by the first power meter and the second power meter. |
| US09640995B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmission line control
An apparatus includes a converter having an AC side and a DC side, a switch adapted to be connected to a transmission line on a first side and connected to a load on a second side connected to the AC side, an energy storage device, connected to the DC side. In a first operating mode, the switch is closed, such that an energy storage current flows to/from the energy storage device to charge/discharge the energy storage device, respectively. In a second operating mode, the switch is open, preventing current from flowing from the transmission line to the converter, and the energy storage device supplies a direct current which is converted to an alternating current by the converter. In the first operating mode, the apparatus is configured such that power transfer on the transmission line corresponds to a surge impedance loading of the transmission line, by affecting the energy storage current. |
| US09640993B2 |
System and method for managing energy consumption
A control unit with data analyzer is connected to database and configured to receive user inputs such as time driven mode, supply driven mode and automatic mode and operate the system with respect to the selected mode, tariff opted and user input commands, and signals the storage unit to get charged from the input source or to supply power to all the lines or to the selected lines from storage unit. The control unit during the time when energy prices are less, signals to charge the storage unit and supplies power to all appliances through the input source and during the time when energy prices are more, signals to shut off the non critical loads and utilize the charged power from storage unit to selected lines. |
| US09640992B1 |
System and method for voltage controlled initialization
An apparatus and method for initializing electrical devices based on a voltage level. The voltage level may be modified to a particular setting based on the availability of power supply components, such as AC to DC rectifiers. Depending upon the availability of the power supply components, a control system may alter output voltage to a particular level. The components receiving power may be coupled to voltage dividers, where the voltage dividers are configured to modify an input voltage to cause or prevent the input voltage from rising above an initialization level for the particular component. The output voltage may be set by the control system such that a number of components that experience a voltage rise above an initialization threshold correspond to the number of available power supply components. |
| US09640983B2 |
Bidirectional hybrid breaker
A bidirectional hybrid breaker comprises a main current circuit, a transfer current circuit, an over-voltage limiting circuit and a control system, wherein the main current circuit, the transfer current circuit and the over-voltage limiting circuit are connected in parallel. The transfer current circuit consists of circuits 1-4, wherein the circuit 1 and the circuit 4 are connected in series at first and then connected with the main current circuit in parallel; a pre-charged capacitor is connected with the circuit 4 in parallel after being connected with the circuit 3 in series; and, one end of the circuit 2 is connected with the left end of the main current circuit while the other end thereof is connected with a connection point of the pre-charged capacitor and the circuit 3. |
| US09640976B2 |
Overvoltage protection system for wireless power transfer systems
A wireless power transfer overvoltage protection system is provided. The system includes a resonant receiving circuit. The resonant receiving circuit includes an inductor, a resonant capacitor and a first switching device. The first switching device is connected the ends of the inductor. The first switching device has a first state in which the ends of the inductor are electrically coupled to each other through the first switching device, and a second state in which the inductor and resonant capacitor are capable of resonating. The system further includes a control module configured to control the first switching device to switching between the first state and the second state when the resonant receiving circuit is charging a load and a preset condition is satisfied and otherwise, the first switching device is maintained in the first state. |
| US09640974B2 |
Passive resonance DC circuit breaker
A DC circuit breaker including a pair of arcing contact members for holding an arc, an interaction element, adapted for interacting with the arc in dependence of whether the arc is in a first or second state such that the arc voltage drop in the first state is lower than the drop in the second state, a resonance branch coupled in parallel to the contact members thereby forming a resonance circuit adapted for letting a resonance branch current Ir oscillate thereby inducing oscillations of an arc current Ia, wherein the resonance branch includes a coupling element for coupling the resonance branch with the arc, such that the arc is brought to the first state when the current Ir in the resonance branch has a first direction, and that the arc is brought to the second state when the current Ir in the resonance branch has a second direction. |
| US09640970B2 |
Over-voltage protection device having a coil assembly
The present disclosure relates to an overvoltage-protection device for protecting a high-frequency terminal from overvoltage. Overvoltages can be compensated by a coil arrangement, which includes coils electrically in series with different, increasing inductances. The end of the relatively thinner coil is connected to the high-frequency terminal of a circuit. |
| US09640969B2 |
Arc fault circuit interrupter
An arc fault circuit interrupter includes: an insulating casing, electrical input terminals and electrical output terminals, first and second electrical path connected between the electrical input terminals and electrical output terminals, and a movement mechanism. The movement mechanism includes: first and second moving contact arms, electrically coupled to the first and second electrical paths, respectively; a control circuit board; an arc detection mechanism, electrically coupled to the control circuit board, for detecting an arc signal and causing the control circuit board to generate a trip signal; a tripping mechanism, electrically coupled to the control circuit board, for receiving the trip signal to disconnect the electrical coupling between the first moving contact arm and the first electrical path and/or the electrical coupling between the second moving contact arm and the second electrical path. The device can immediately cut off the power when detecting an arc signal to prevent fire hazard. |
| US09640968B2 |
Arc fault circuit interrupter
An arc fault detection circuit for an arc fault circuit interrupter (AFCI). The arc fault detection circuit includes an arc detecting circuit for detecting an arc fault in one or more power supply lines and outputting a detected signal, an arc filtering circuit electrically coupled to an output terminal of the arc detecting circuit for removing signal parts unrelated to the arc fault from the detected signal and outputting a filtered half-cycle signal, and an arc processing circuit electrically coupled to an output terminal of the arc filtering circuit for generating, based on the filtered half-cycle signal received, a processed half-cycle signal characterizing the arc fault. The arc fault detection circuit also includes simulated arc testing circuit that has a user-touchable test switch, and an arc oscillator to generate a simulated arc fault signal for testing the arc fault detection circuit or its respective components. |
| US09640964B1 |
Two-piece duplex connector with internal cable retaining ring
A duplex electrical connector constructed of two body portions with internal bores. The body portions easily assemble and disassemble in a sliding manner, the direction of the assembly and disassembly being substantially at right angles to the axes of the internal bores. A front connector body includes a leading end and a trailing end with a lip, a trailing flange, and a bottom periphery. A tab with an aperture therein extends from the top lip. A rear connector body includes a leading end with a front extension, a boss, a trailing end, and two internal bores extending from the trailing end to the leading end. Sliding assembly of the connector bodies enables minimizing the size of the connector bodies for reducing unit production costs while enabling easy disassembly of the two connector body portions for inspection of internal cable connections. |
| US09640962B2 |
Power control system having modules
A power control system is provided that includes a receptacle and a module. The receptacle is hard-wired to a power distribution system, such as conventional 120 VAC. The module can be removable inserted into the receptacle and can provide desired functionality, such as power deliver, wireless communication and actuation. By providing a receptacle that accepts multiple modules that each can have different functionality and by allowing a user to readily remove replace modules in the receptacle, a useful and flexible control system can be set up. |
| US09640960B2 |
Customizable bus systems
A customizable bus system includes a system module containing one or more accessory modules and is easily mounted along a surface in a workspace, such as the underside of a cabinet. The accessory modules provide conveniently located utility services and applications such as power, lighting or media connections, and may be interchanged within the bus system to provide particular services and applications where they are needed most. Additionally, the bus system may include a control center for controlling the operation of one or more of the accessory modules, such as manually or automatically. The bus system may also include multiple housings that are functionally linked, such as by a connector module having couplings for mechanically linking with housings and providing electrical or other connectivity between the housings. |
| US09640959B2 |
Platform with engine and wiring harness system, platform with controlled system and wiring harness system, and wiring harness system
One embodiment of the present invention is a unique platform. Another embodiment is a unique engine system. Another embodiment is a unique wiring harness system. Other embodiments include apparatuses, systems, devices, hardware, methods, and combinations for one or more of various types of platforms, such as aircraft, ground vehicles, water-borne vessels and stationary platforms; engine systems; and wiring harness systems. Further embodiments, forms, features, aspects, benefits, and advantages of the present application will become apparent from the description and figures provided herewith. |
| US09640958B2 |
Removable adhesive backed ducts for cabling and a removal method
A duct for distributing one or more telecommunication lines comprises an elongated body having a length and a conduit portion with a lengthwise bore formed therein. The conduit portion contains one or more telecommunication lines. The duct also includes a flange extending lengthwise adjacent the main body to mount the duct to a mounting surface, such as a wall. The duct also includes an adhesive layer disposed on a surface of the flange, the adhesive layer comprising a removable adhesive to permit removal of the duct from the mounting surface after mounting. |
| US09640951B2 |
Triggering circuit of overvoltage protection with an asymmetric element
A triggering circuit of an overvoltage protection device with an asymmetric element, specified for actuating a spark gap in symmetric or asymmetric arrangement of main electrode I, connected to input terminal I, of main electrode II, connected to input terminal II, and the auxiliary electrode, includes main electrode I of the spark gap, which is connected via a thermo-sensitive disconnector, and also via a parallel combination of varistor II and capacitor I to electrode I of the asymmetric three-pole lightning arrester, whose middle electrode is connected via the primary winding of the transformer to main electrode II of the spark gap, whose auxiliary electrode is connected via varistor I to electrode II of the asymmetric three-pole lightning arrester, which is connected via the secondary winding of the transformer to main electrode II of the spark gap, and at the same time, the thermo-sensitive disconnector is coupled via the thermal coupling with varistor II and, at the same time, the voltage at the asymmetric three-pole lightning arrester is as follows: static ignition voltage U1 between electrode II and the middle electrode is higher than static ignition voltage U2 between the middle electrode and electrode I. |
| US09640945B2 |
Method and arrangement for actuating a wavelength-tunable laser diode in a spectrometer
Method in which, in order to actuate a wavelength-tunable laser diode in a spectrometer, a power-time function is predetermined instead of a current-time function, wherein the laser diode is tuned periodically over a wavelength range in accordance with the power-time function. For this purpose, a current profile (i) with which the laser diode is actuated is determined from the power-time function and measured values of the voltage (u) present at the laser diode. |
| US09640933B2 |
Wire with terminal and method of manufacturing wire with terminal
A method of manufacturing a wire with terminal includes: a) crimping a core wire crimping portion of a terminal onto an exposed core wire extending from an insulating sheathing member at an end portion of a wire; b) crimping a sheath crimping portion of the terminal onto the insulating sheathing member; and c) designating at least one of a first trough-shaped combination portion, which links a terminal connection portion of the terminal and the core wire crimping portion, and a second trough-shaped combination portion, which links the core wire crimping portion and the sheath crimping portion, as a target combination portion and deforming the upright tabs of the target combination portion into an arc shape bulging outward. |
| US09640932B2 |
Tool for installation and/or removal of connector or gas-insulated switchgear termination
A tool for installation and removal of a connector of a gas-insulated switchgear termination includes a housing defining an operation chamber therein, a mounting assembly selectively disposed in the operation chamber of the housing and adapted for securely installing a sleeve member of a gas-insulated switchgear termination on a conical connector member of the gas-insulated switchgear termination or removing the sleeve member securely sleeved on the conical connector member from the conical connector member, an actuator assembly adapted for actuating motion of the mounting assembly, and a friction reducing assembly adapted for reducing friction and resistance occurring during the motion of the mounting assembly. |
| US09640931B2 |
Electronic apparatus and method of manufacturing electronic apparatus
An electronic apparatus includes: a first case and a second case assembled to each other; a first cable that couples a first component provided in the first case and a second component provided in the second case; and a second cable that couples a pair of members provided in the first case, and provided with a bent section at an intermediate part of the second cable in a longitudinal direction thereof, the second cable supporting the first cable inside the bent section. |
| US09640930B2 |
System and method for monitoring the status of one or more components of an electrical machine
A monitoring apparatus configured for monitoring a carbon brush of a brush holder assembly of an electrical machine. The monitoring apparatus may include a flexible sensor and a signal processing circuit for processing a signal received from the flexible sensor. The flexible sensor may have an electrical resistance that varies based on a radius of curvature of the flexible sensor, wherein the radius of curvature of the flexible sensor may be associated with a deflection of a spring providing a force to engage the carbon brush with a rotating component of the electrical machine. The signal processing circuit may be coupled to the sensor and may be configured to determine a measure of a wear state of the carbon brush using information about the variable resistance of the flexible sensor. |
| US09640919B2 |
Electric vehicle shielded power cable connector
A connector assembly mechanically and electrically connects a shielded power cable, capable of conducting DC and multiple phase AC electric power, to drive motors and powered accessories of an electric vehicle. The connector assembly includes a shielded power cable, a connector body, a sealing ring, a tapered compression ring and a flexible rubber boot. The hollow frustoconical interior of the connector body and the frustoconical tapered compression ring, with the shield layer of the power cable compressed between them, form a self-locking taper that provides a strong mechanical connection. The sealing ring and the flexible rubber boot inhibit penetration of fluids and particles into the connector assembly. The addition of an adhesive to the compressed section strengthens the connection and reduces corrosion. Filling empty spaces inside the connector body with an adhesive sealer further prevents penetration by contaminants, reduces corrosion and strengthens the connector. |
| US09640914B2 |
Connectors and systems having improved crosstalk performance
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the field of electronic communication, and more particularly, to techniques used to compensate for/reduce/or otherwise manipulate crosstalk in communication connectors, and apparatuses and methods which employ such techniques. In an embodiment, the present invention is a communication connector that includes a plurality of signal pairs including at least a first pair and a second pair, a first compensation stage between the first pair and the second pair, and an orthogonal compensation network between the first pair and the second pair. The orthogonal compensation network can be time delayed from the first compensation stage. |
| US09640911B2 |
Plug connector with capability of dual mating orientation
A plug connector includes a plug shell, a housing base and a plug contact. The housing base is combined with the plug shell and includes a main base and a tongue structure. The tongue structure extends from the main base and has a first face and a second face opposite to the first face. The plug contact includes a main body, a foot portion, a first end portion and a second end portion. The main body is mounted in the main base. The foot portion extends from the main body and stretches out of the main base. The first end portion is resiliently connected to the main body and protrudes out of the tongue structure via the first face. The second end portion corresponding to the first end portion is resiliently connected to the main body and protrudes out of the tongue structure via the second face. |
| US09640910B1 |
Apparatus for securing connection between cable assembly and storage device connector
A disclosed connector latch for latching a cable assembly to a connector includes a substantially planar body and has a width approximately equal to the cable assembly width. The connector latch includes a retention clip comprising first and second tabs. Each tab extends the latch body and terminates at a flange displaced above the latch body by a thickness of the cable assembly. The connector latch includes a clamp with first and second branches. Each branch includes a middle portion pivotally coupled to the latch body, a fang at a distal end of each branch, and pinch plates at a proximal end of each branch. The branches are configured with an unbiased state in which they engage a distal edge of a connector connected to the cable. The mass storage device may be an M.2 solid state drive and the device connector may be a serial ATA connector. |
| US09640908B2 |
Alignment apparatus and a method for manufacturing thereof
An alignment apparatus is coupled to an accessory module that is rotatably attachable to an electronic device. The alignment apparatus includes a pivot mounting member and a connector retaining member movably coupled to the pivot mounting member. The connector retaining member is rigidly coupled to a connector. The connector retaining member moves the connector with respect to the pivot mounting member to a predetermined angle. The predetermined angle aligns the connector with a connecting mate on the electronic device in an approximately parallel position while the accessory module is rotating for attachment onto the electronic device. |
| US09640904B2 |
Sensored cable for a power network
Sensored cable (1) for distribution of electrical power in a power network, the sensored cable comprising an inner conductor and an insulating layer (10) arranged concentrically around at least an axial section of the inner conductor. The sensored cable further comprises a capacitive voltage sensor (100) for sensing a voltage of the inner conductor, characterized by the sensor including a printed circuit board element (60), which is placed over an electrically isolated piece (140) of conductive or semiconductive material, arranged on the insulating layer of the cable. The electrically isolated piece (140) of conductive or semiconductive material is operable to form an electrode of a sensing capacitor of the capacitive voltage sensor. The cable may comprise a (semi-) conductive layer (20). The electrically isolated piece (40) of conductive or semiconductive material may comprise a portion of the (semi-) conductive layer. |
| US09640903B2 |
Rear holder capable of absorbing dimensional variations in electric wires
A rear holder is attached to a wire lead-out opening for leading out an electric wire from a housing. The rear holder includes an inner holder. An inner circumferential surface of a through hole of the rear holder is formed so that a part of the inner circumferential surface includes a small diameter portion and the remaining part includes a large diameter portion. A hood portion having an arc shape is provided in the inner holder, and the hood portion is formed so that, in a state that the inner holder is assembled to the rear holder, the hood portion is inserted into the large diameter portion while each of opposite circumferential ends of the hood portion abuts against a step surface in a border between the large diameter portion and the small diameter portion. |
| US09640901B2 |
Electrical connection box with a flexible linking part
An electrical connection box (10), including: a relay (20) which has a locking projection (20K); and a connection box main body (30) which has a pressing projection (30K) that is engaged with the locking projection (20K), and which is formed with a storage space (30P) that stores the relay (20), in which a guide wall (30W) which is provided to stand on a boundary of the storage space is formed across the entire circumference of the boundary of the storage space in the connection box main body, and in which the pressing projection (30K) is formed at a narrow linking part (30B) of the guide wall in a direction in which the guide wall is provided to stand. |
| US09640896B1 |
Protective module for data transmission port
A protective module for a data transmission port includes a plugging element and an unlocking element. The plugging element includes an extension portion and an end portion. The extension portion is inserted into the data transmission port. The end portion obstructs an opening of the data transmission port and is made of a first magnetically attracting material. The unlocking element includes an attraction portion adapted to attract the end portion and made of a second magnetically attracting material. The end portion of the plugging element escapes from the data transmission port as a result of magnetic attraction between the end portion of the plugging element and the unlocking element as soon as the unlocking element approaches the plugging element plugged into the data transmission port. Therefore, the protective module prevents external devices from getting connected to the data transmission port and prevents dust intrusion. |
| US09640892B2 |
Electronic card connector
An electronic card connector includes a metal shell, a terminal block and a tray. The metal shell is provided on a circuit board and cooperates with the circuit board to define a slot having an entrance. The tray has an insertion end which first enters the slot of the metal shell and two receiving portions which are respectively parallel to two sides of the inserting-ejecting direction and respectively correspond to two limiting arms of the metal shell. The tray further has two interference oblique surfaces adjacent to the insertion end, when the tray is improperly inserted under a state that the tray is turned upside down, the two interference oblique surfaces respectively abut against the two limiting arms, therefore the tray cannot enter into the slot. |
| US09640891B2 |
Connector
A connector includes contact pairs arranged on and fixed to a housing, each of the contact pairs being consisted of two contacts that are insulated from each other, and elasticity-reinforcing members corresponding to the contact pairs, each of the elasticity-reinforcing members being not fixed to the housing but held by a corresponding contact pair among the contact pairs, wherein the two contacts constituting each contact pair respectively include contacting portions that come into contact with corresponding contacts of a counter-connector, are made of elastic contact pieces extending in a fitting direction with the counter-connector and are disposed such that the contacting portions face each other, wherein each elasticity-reinforcing member sandwiches the two contacts constituting the corresponding contact pair at outer sides of the facing contacting portions of the two contacts and comes into contact with the two contacts while maintaining insulation property. |
| US09640887B2 |
Low profile zero/low insertion force package top side flex cable connector architecture
An integrated circuit package is presented. In an embodiment, the integrated circuit package has contact pads formed on the top side of a package substrate, a die electrically attached to the contact pads, and input/output (I/O) pads formed on the top side of the package substrate. The I/O pads are electrically connected to the contact pads. The integrated circuit package also includes a flex cable receptacle electrically connected to the I/O pads on the top side of the package substrate. The flex cable receptacle is non-compressively attachable to a flex cable connector and includes receptacle connection pins electrically connected to the I/O pads. |
| US09640883B2 |
Connecting member
A connecting element for electrically conductively connecting two component parts to a conductor, the conductor having at least two conductor elements which are movable relative to one another in the connection direction, wherein a relative movement of the conductor elements results in a radial deformation of at least one of the conductor elements. |
| US09640882B2 |
Connector and IT device
A connector including a female pin and a male pin is disclosed, wherein the female pin includes a first elastic sheet seat and an elastic sheet, the first elastic sheet seat is provided with a first seat hole, a pin bar extending-out hole, and a guide transition hole communicated with the first seat hole and the pin bar extending-out hole. The elastic sheet is assembled inside the first seat hole. The male pin includes a base and a pin bar fastened to the base. The pin bar includes a large-diameter part and a small-diameter part, wherein the large-diameter part is used to fit a clamping portion of the elastic sheet, and wherein the small-diameter part is used to fit the pin bar extending-out hole. A guide transition hole and a pin bar extending-out hole of a first elastic sheet seat achieve a guiding function for insertion of a pin bar. |
| US09640881B2 |
Contact device for establishing an electrical connection to a contact point of a printed circuit board
A contact device for establishing an electrical connection to a contact point of a printed circuit board is insertable into a contact hole arranged at the contact point, so as to establish an electrical connection to the contact point of the printed circuit board. The contact device includes a contact element having a deformation portion and a screw element operable to be screwed into the contact element. The deformation portion is in a longitudinal extension state when in a pre-assembly state and is operable to be deformed out of the longitudinal extension state when in an assembled state by means of the screw element being screwed at least part way into the contact element. |
| US09640877B2 |
Connection structure of crimp terminal with respect to wire
Herein disclosed is a connection structure including a waterproof sheet disposed in an inner surface of a wire connection section and has an opening section in a position corresponding to a conductor exposed section, in which the waterproof sheet is configured such that a front end of the waterproof sheet is positioned on a front side from a front end of a conductor crimp section and a rear end of the waterproof sheet is positioned on a rear side from a rear end of the cover crimp section. |
| US09640875B2 |
Method and apparatus pertaining to an RFID tag reader antenna array
One or more frame components that each comprise 1/Xth of a 360 degree RFID tag reader antenna array can be physically coupled to one another to thereby form a multi-frame component. One or more RFID tag reader antenna mounts can comprise a part of such frame components and can be configured to aim a corresponding RFID tag reader antenna outwardly of the frame component. These teachings also accommodate disposing a plurality of RFID tag reader antenna units within a facility such that these antenna units are disposed higher than an expected location of, say, at least 90% of the RFID tags when the latter are in the facility. By one approach these antenna units can all be disposed at a substantially same height within the facility. These antenna units may, or may not, be visually concealed as desired. |
| US09640867B2 |
Tunable spatial phase shifter
A tunable phase shifter is provided that includes a spatial phase shift element and a conducting sheet. The spatial phase shift element includes a dielectric substrate and a conductive antenna element mounted on the dielectric substrate. The conducting sheet is mounted a distance from the spatial phase shift element and configured to reflect an electromagnetic wave through the spatial phase shift element. The conductive antenna element is configured to radiate a second electromagnetic wave in response to receipt of the reflected electromagnetic wave. The distance between the conducting sheet and the spatial phase shift element can be changed to adjust a phase shift of the reflected electromagnetic wave. |
| US09640864B2 |
Radio-frequency transceiver device capable of reducing specific absorption rate
A radio-frequency transceiver device capable of reducing a specific absorption rate (SAR) includes an antenna including a radiating element and a grounding element, wherein the radiating element substantially extends along a first direction on a first plane; and a SAR suppression unit, substantially extending along the first direction and an edge of the radiating element of the antenna on the first plane and apart from the edge of the radiating element by a gap, for reducing the SAR of the antenna. |
| US09640863B2 |
Device and method for antenna impedance matching
The disclosure provides a device and a method for antenna impedance matching. The device comprises an application detection module, configured to detect a current state of an antenna of a terminal, and output a matching adjustment signal according to the state; an adaptive control module, configured to perform control over a process of matching adjustment in response to the matching adjustment signal; and a matching adjustable module, configured to, under control of the adaptive control module, perform matching adjustment on impedance of the antenna through an impedance matching network corresponding to the matching adjustment signal. Through the technical solution provided by the disclosure, the problem of single impedance matching mode in the prior art is solved, and further, the effect that differential matching can be performed for various application states of the terminal is achieved. |
| US09640862B2 |
Antenna system and method
A conical radiator coupled to an antenna patch disposed along a first end of the radiator, said patch disposed on an insulator. A ground plane is connected to the insulator and a radiomen is disposed opposite a second end of the radiator. The radiomen has a first region presenting a convex surface towards the radiator, and a second region presenting a concave surface towards the radiator. The first end of the conical radiator is the apex of the cone. A ground plane is included and a portion of the ground plane is a planar surface and another portion extends away from the planar portion towards the radiomen. Also disclosed is a method for forming a radiation pattern by shaping the radiomen to effectuate a predetermined radiation pattern using localized convex and concave surfaces positioned on the radiomen at different points in relation to the conical radiator. |
| US09640859B2 |
Antenna apparatus and method of manufacturing the same
Disclosed are an antenna apparatus and a method of manufacturing the same. The antenna apparatus includes a base, a radiation device on the base, and a protective layer formed on the radiation device to expose a partial region of the radiation device. The outer appearance failure of the antenna apparatus can be prevented, and the electrical performance of the antenna apparatus can be ensured. |
| US09640858B1 |
Portable electronic device with an antenna array and method for operating same
Apparatus includes a device housing, a device face, a printed circuit board (PCB), and an antenna array. The device housing has a shape characterized by an axis, a planar housing surface that is perpendicular to the axis, and a housing sidewall that is parallel to the axis. The housing sidewall is positioned along a periphery of a planar housing surface. The device face is positioned at an opposite end of the device housing from the planar housing surface. The PCB is positioned between and parallel to the planar housing surface and the device face. The antenna array has multiple antenna elements at least some of which are electrically coupled to the PCB. The antenna array is configured to concentrate radiation of radio waves laterally through a radiation plane that is parallel to the sidewall of the housing and that is perpendicular to the device face and the planar housing surface. |
| US09640857B2 |
Communication module
A communication module includes a circuit board having electronic components thereon, an insulative molded member encapsulating the electronic components on the circuit board, and an antenna unit on the molded member. The circuit board is electrically connected to the antenna unit through a post terminal. The antenna unit and the molded member define a cavity therebetween. |
| US09640856B2 |
Dual antenna feed clip
A multiple antenna feed assembly including an antenna feed support having a body made of an electrically insulating material and a method of forming the antenna feed assembly. The antenna feed support may have a slot adapted to receive a connector; and a gap formed in the body having a thickness to fit a printed circuit board (PCB). The multiple antenna feed assembly may include a first connector adapted to fit in the slot of the antenna feed support; and a second connector electrically isolated from the first connector. Also provided is an antenna feed support to provide structural support and electrical isolation for the components of a multiple antenna feed assembly as above. |
| US09640854B2 |
Wireless communication device
A wireless communication device includes a circuit board having a pattern formed on a surface thereof, a wireless communication main body configured to perform wireless communication, a shield cover configured to cover and shield the wireless communication main body arranged on the one surface of the circuit board, and an antenna connected to the wireless communication main body, in which the shield cover and the antenna include one metal plate, an attachment portion for attachment to a product, the antenna is an inverted F-antenna including an antenna main body, a feed portion, and a short-circuit portion, the short-circuit portion provided on one end side of the antenna and a top plate portion of the shield cover facing the wireless communication main body are connected by a short-circuit plate portion, and the feed portion is connected to a feed land formed on the surface of the circuit board. |
| US09640851B2 |
RF waveguide phase-directed power combiners
High power RF phase-directed power combiners include magic H hybrid and/or superhybrid circuits oriented in orthogonal H-planes and connected using E-plane bends and/or twists to produce compact 3D waveguide circuits, including 8×8 and 16×16 combiners. Using phase control at the input ports, RF power can be directed to a single output port, enabling fast switching between output ports for applications such as multi-angle radiation therapy. |
| US09640850B2 |
Methods and apparatus for inducing a non-fundamental wave mode on a transmission medium
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a system for generating first electromagnetic waves and directing instances of the first electromagnetic waves to an interface of a transmission medium to induce propagation of second electromagnetic waves having at least a dominant non-fundamental wave mode. Other embodiments are disclosed. |
| US09640848B2 |
Artificial microstructure and metamaterial with the same
An artificial microstructure made of conductive wires includes a split resonant ring with a split, and two curves. The two curves respectively start from first end and the second end of the split resonant ring and curvedly extend inside the split resonant ring, where the two curves do not intersect with each other, and do not intersect with the split resonant ring. |
| US09640844B2 |
Temperature adjustment device
A temperature adjustment device includes a cooling member and a connecting member. The cooling member consists of a first plate and a second plate. The first plate is thermally abutted against a heat-generating member. The second plate is stacked on a lower surface of the first plate to define a cooling space with the first plate, the cooling space a cooling medium flows through, and being configured to include an inlet and an outlet of the cooling medium on a bottom surface facing against the first plate. The connecting member is the connecting member to a temperature adjustment circuit, and that is configured with a tube member having a flat part. The connecting member includes a connecting port connected to the inlet or the outlet on the flat part, and that is laminated and arranged on the second plate such that the flat part is abutted against the second plate. |
| US09640841B2 |
Semiconductor device and manufacturing method of semiconductor device
A semiconductor device capable of reducing an inter-source electrode resistance RSS(on) and reducing a chip size is provided. A semiconductor device according to the present invention includes a chip partitioned into three areas including a first area, a second area, and a third area, and a common drain electrode provided on a back surface of the chip, in which the second area is formed between the first and third areas, a first MOSFET is formed in the first area and the third area, and a second MOSFET is formed in the second area. |
| US09640839B2 |
Oxiranyl ester derivatives as additive for electrolytes in lithium ion batteries
The present invention relates to an electrolyte composition (A) containing (i) at least one aprotic organic solvent; (ii) at least one conducting salt; (iii) at least one compound of formula (I) and (iv) optionally at least one further additive. |
| US09640836B1 |
Class of solid state electrolytes for magnesium batteries
A solid-state electrolyte suitable for use in an electrochemical cell includes a first borohydride salt, a second borohydride salt, and an ether solvent. The first borohydride salt can be magnesium borohydride, or a variate thereof, and the second borohydride salt can include lithium and/or sodium borohydride. The ether solvent is present at low concentration, insufficient to form a liquid electrolyte. The solid-state electrolyte is a homogeneous solid at room temperature, and possesses appreciable ionic conductivity. Methods for forming the solid-state electrolyte include combining the aforementioned components at specified molar ratios, and may include additional mixing. Electrochemical cells having the solid-state electrolyte support appreciable current density, and magnesium electrochemical cells in particular support magnesium deposition and stripping. |
| US09640835B2 |
Ion conducting glass-ceramics, method for manufacturing same and all-solid-state secondary battery including same
An ion conducting glass-ceramics represented by the general formula (I): Na2S-MxSy—NaSb, wherein M and N are different and selected from P, Si, Ge, B, Al and Ga; x, y, a and b are integers indicating the stoichiometric ratio depending on the species of M and N; and the content of Na2S is more than 60 mol % and less than 80 mol %. |
| US09640829B2 |
Heater and method of operating
A heater includes a heater housing extending along a heater axis; a fuel cell stack assembly disposed within the heater housing and having a plurality of fuel cells which convert chemical energy from a fuel into heat and electricity through a chemical reaction with an oxidizing agent; an electric resistive heating element disposed within the heater housing and electrically connected to the fuel cell stack assembly; and a first thermal switch located between the fuel cell stack assembly and the electric resistive heating element. The first thermal switch is closed to place the fuel cell stack assembly in electrical communication with the electric resistive heating element when the fuel cell stack assembly is electrochemically active and is open to prevent electrical communication between the fuel cell stack assembly and the electric resistive heating element when the fuel cell stack assembly is not electrochemically active. |
| US09640828B2 |
Fuel cell stack assembly
There is provided a fuel cell stack assembly being thermally and mechanically compliant. The fuel cell stack comprises fuel feed pipe and fuel outlet pipe, a plurality of bundles of fuel cell tube sub-assemblies, the bundles being separated by an expansion gap to prevent thermal and mechanical stresses propagating from one bundle to an adjacent bundle. |
| US09640826B2 |
Multiple-membrane multiple-electrolyte redox flow battery design
A redox flow battery is provided. The redox flow battery involves multiple-membrane (at least one cation exchange membrane and at least one anion exchange membrane), multiple-electrolyte (one electrolyte in contact with the negative electrode, one electrolyte in contact with the positive electrode, and at least one electrolyte disposed between the two membranes) as the basic characteristic, such as a double-membrane, triple electrolyte (DMTE) configuration or a triple-membrane, quadruple electrolyte (TMQE) configuration. The cation exchange membrane is used to separate the negative or positive electrolyte and the middle electrolyte, and the anion exchange membrane is used to separate the middle electrolyte and the positive or negative electrolyte. |
| US09640817B2 |
Power generator having hydrogen manifold
A power generator includes a cavity to accept a hydrogen producing fuel cartridge. A channel is coupled to receive hydrogen from the fuel cartridge. A manifold is coupled to the channel to receive hydrogen from the channel, the manifold having an opening to receive oxygen and water vapor, the manifold being positioned to provide the water vapor to the cavity. An array of fuel cell membranes is supported by the manifold to receive hydrogen from the manifold and oxygen from the opening in the manifold. |
| US09640813B2 |
Cell frame, cell stack, and redox flow battery
A cell frame in which the structure of a positive electrode electrolyte flow path and the structure of a negative electrode electrolyte flow path are different from each other, a cell stack in which the structure of at least one of the positive electrode electrolyte flow path and the negative electrode electrolyte flow path differs between the cell frame positioned at the center and the cell frame positioned at an end, the cell stack being configured such that electrical resistance in at least one of the positive electrode electrolyte flow path and the negative electrode electrolyte flow path increases from the cell frame positioned at the center toward the cell frame positioned at the end, and a redox flow battery utilizing them. |
| US09640811B2 |
Fuel cell system having ejector
A fuel cell system with an ejector is provided. In particular, the system includes a stack, fuel injection nozzle and a water injection nozzle. In particular, the stack produces electricity via an electrochemical reaction using fuel and air. The fuel injection nozzle injects fuel into the stack and the water injection nozzle injects water into the fuel injection nozzle. In particular, water is supplied from the water injection nozzle into the fuel injection nozzle due to a vacuum within the fuel injection nozzle. |
| US09640810B2 |
Power generator having fuel cell and membrane conduits
A power generator includes a housing, a chemical hydride fuel block adapted to be removably placed within the housing, an air conduit disposed about the chemical hydride fuel block in the housing. The air conduit includes a fuel cell portion and a water vapor permeable, hydrogen impermeable membrane portion. The housing has an air intake opening to draw air into the housing and through the air conduit to provide oxygen to the fuel cell portion and to carry water vapor generated by the fuel cell portion past the permeable membrane portion such that water vapor passes through the membrane and causes release of hydrogen from the fuel block. |
| US09640809B2 |
Ion filter roof structure of fuel cell for vehicle
An ion filter roof structure of a fuel cell for a vehicle is provided and includes a controller that is connected to a heater, a pump, a 4-way valve, and a radiator disposed within a fuel cell for a vehicle. In addition, a thermal management system of the ion filter roof structure includes an ion filter and a fuel cell stack connected to the controller to form an ion filter roof. Based on this structure, during high output, a cooling performance of the vehicle is improved, durability of the ion filter is improved, and a pump operation is decreased to improve fuel efficiency. |
| US09640805B2 |
Coating process for fuel cell components
A process including coating a fuel cell component with an aqueous solution including a polyelectrolyte polymer. |
| US09640803B2 |
Manganese oxide and carbon combination generator battery
A solid state energy generator and storage device, comprising two layers, in contact with each other, of dissimilar materials in terms of electron density and configuration, sandwiched between an anode and a cathode. One of the layers is a stabilized mixture of carbon and an ionic material (carbon matrix) and the other layer is a stabilized manganese oxide mixed with an ionic material (oxide matrix). The built-in potential of the device is determined mathematically by integrating the electrostatic forces across the barrier and will rise or fall in direct proportion to the device temperature (in Kelvin). In addition the device can be charged and thus function as a charge storage device, with the rated voltage varying according to the temperature of the device. When a load is attached across the terminals of the device a current flows. |
| US09640801B2 |
Process for producing catalyst carrier, process for producing composite catalyst, composite catalyst, and fuel cell using same
A catalyst carrier production process includes a step (a) of mixing a transition metal compound (1), a nitrogen-containing organic compound (2), and a solvent to provide a catalyst carrier precursor solution; a step (b) of removing the solvent from the catalyst carrier precursor solution; and a step (c) of thermally treating a solid residue obtained in the step (b) at a temperature of 500 to 1100° C. to provide a catalyst carrier; wherein the transition metal compound (1) is partly or wholly a compound including a transition metal element (M1) selected from the group 4 and 5 elements of the periodic table as a transition metal element; and at least one of the transition metal compound (1) and the nitrogen-containing organic compound (2) includes an oxygen atom. |
| US09640800B2 |
Nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery having a positive electrode including an aluminum foil and a positive electrode active material layer formed thereon
Provided is a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery with improved high-rate discharge characteristics. The nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery includes a positive electrode including a metal foil and a positive electrode active material layer formed thereon; a negative electrode containing a negative electrode active material; and a nonaqueous electrolyte containing a nonaqueous solvent and a solute dissolved therein. The metal foil of the positive electrode is an aluminum foil having an at least partially roughened surface adjacent to the positive electrode active material layer. The positive electrode includes a conductive layer containing a conductor and a binder in recesses in the at least partially roughened surface of the aluminum foil. The positive electrode active material layer is disposed on the conductive layer and contains a positive electrode active material, the conductor, and the binder. |
| US09640798B2 |
Nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery
A nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery according to one aspect of the present invention contains a dispersant in a positive electrode mixture layer. The content of a positive electrode active material in the positive electrode mixture layer is 97% by mass or more, and the content ratio of a conductive agent to a binder in the positive electrode mixture layer is 1.00-1.67. The binder is composed of a polyvinylidene fluoride which has a carboxyl group or a carboxyl group derivative as a terminal functional group. |
| US09640795B2 |
Positive-electrode active material particle for all-solid battery and method for production thereof
A positive-electrode active material particle for an all-solid battery which includes a sulfide-based solid electrolyte includes an active material core and a reaction-inhibiting layer which contains carbon and with which the active material core is coated. |
| US09640790B2 |
Middle or large-sized battery module
Disclosed herein is a middle- or large-sized battery module comprising a plurality of stacked unit cells, each unit module including two or more plate-shaped battery cells electrically connected with each other, each battery cell having electrode terminals formed at opposite sides thereof. The battery module is manufactured by connecting electrode terminals of a pair of unit modules by welding, mounting a sensing unit, including a sensing member, to the welding part and bending the welding part such that the unit modules are stacked, and repeatedly performing the above processes until all the unit cells are stacked. |
| US09640789B2 |
Connecting element for secondary battery and secondary battery comprising the same
A connecting element for a secondary battery according to the present disclosure includes a metal plate having a recess groove, a soldering pattern having a lower melting point than the metal plate and formed within the recess groove, and an insulation layer formed on at least one surface among both surfaces of the metal plate, and covering an area where the soldering pattern is formed.According to the present disclosure, it is possible to interrupt an overcurrent quickly when the overcurrent occurs, and prevent secondary damage caused by a spark that may occur when the connecting element for the secondary battery is ruptured. |
| US09640784B2 |
Deposition apparatus, method of manufacturing organic light emitting display apparatus using the same, and organic light emitting display apparatus manufactured by using the method
A deposition apparatus includes a substrate combining unit configured to dispose a substrate on a moving unit including a surface, a first blocking member combining unit configured to raise a first blocking member, a first deposition unit including one or more deposition assemblies configured to deposit a material on the substrate, a first blocking member separation unit configured to separate the first blocking member downward from the moving unit, and a first conveyer unit configured to convey the moving unit in a first direction, where the one or more deposition assemblies are spaced apart from the substrate by a predetermined distance so that the material is deposited on the substrate in the first deposition unit while the moving unit is conveyed in the first direction. |
| US09640783B2 |
Light emitting device with reflective layer including filler particles
A light-emitting device according to an aspect of the present disclosure includes a light transmissive first electrode layer, a light transmissive second electrode layer, an electroluminescent layer between the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer, and a reflective layer located on a side opposite to the electroluminescent layer with respect to the second electrode layer. The reflective layer includes a base material having a refractive index equal to or higher than a refractive index of the electroluminescent layer, and fillers each having a refractive index different from that of the base material. |
| US09640779B2 |
Organic light emitting diode display device
An organic light emitting diode display device is provided, which comprises: a first substrate having a first surface with a first side; and a glass-forming sealant disposed thereon, adjacent to the first side and having a top surface, a bottom surface opposite to the top surface, and a middle surface therebetween. The middle surface has a first end connecting to the top surface, a second end connecting to the bottom surface and a third end therebetween. A first distance between a first projection of the first end on the first surface and the first side is unequal to a second distance between a second projection of the second end on the first surface and the first side; and a third distance between a third projection of the third end on the first surface and the first side is shorter than the first or second distance. |
| US09640775B2 |
Organic electroluminescence element
Provided is an organic EL element having a high emission efficiency, a light emission life, and excellent high-temperature preservation stability. This organic electroluminescence element has at least one light-emitting layer between a positive electrode and a negative electrode. The light-emitting layer comprises at least one type of light-emitting dopant and at least three types of non-emitting organic materials represented by general formula (2); of the non-emitting organic materials, the material with the largest molecular weight has a molecular weight of 1,500 or less; and the minimum content of the non-emitting organic materials is 1 mass % or greater. |
| US09640770B2 |
N-type thin film transistor
An thin film transistor includes an insulating substrate, an MgO layer, a semiconductor carbon nanotube layer, a functional dielectric layer, a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a gate electrode. The semiconductor carbon nanotube layer is sandwiched between the MgO layer and the functional dielectric layer. The source electrode and the drain electrode electrically connect the semiconductor carbon nanotube layer. The gate electrode is sandwiched between the insulating substrate and the MgO layer. |
| US09640769B2 |
Organic electric field light emitting element and production therefor
A composition for an organic electroluminescent device is a composition for forming an organic light emitting layer of an organic electroluminescent device by wet coating process. The composition contains a phosphorescent material, a charge transport material, and a solvent, in which the phosphorescent material and the charge transport material are each an unpolymerized organic compound, and the first oxidation potential of the phosphorescent material ED+, the first reduction potential of the phosphorescent material ED−, the first oxidation potential of the charge transporting material ET+, and the first reduction potential of the charge transporting material ET− satisfy the following condition: ET−+0.1≦ED− |
| US09640768B2 |
Heterocyclic compound and orgainic light-emitting device including the same
A heterocyclic compound of Formula 1 and an organic light-emitting device including the same are provided. Ar and X in Formula 1 are defined as in the specification. |
| US09640762B2 |
Method for producing transparent electrode and organic EL element
A method for producing a transparent electrode includes a forming step, an applying step and an irradiating step. The forming step is a step of forming a conductive metal layer on a transparent resin substrate. The applying step is a step of applying a composition containing a conductive polymer and a nonconductive polymer over the transparent resin substrate and the conductive metal layer so as to form a conductive polymer layer. The irradiating step is a step of irradiating the conductive polymer layer with an infrared ray having a ratio of spectral radiance at a wavelength of 5.8 μm to spectral radiance at a wavelength of 3.0 μm of 5% or less. |
| US09640758B2 |
Phase-change memory device and fabrication method thereof
A phase-change memory device and a method of fabricating the same are provided. The phase-change memory device includes a semiconductor substrate in which a word line is arranged, a diode line disposed over the word line and extending parallel to the word line, a phase-change line pattern disposed over the diode line, and a projection disposed between the diode line and the phase-change line pattern and protruding from the diode line. The diode line and the projection are formed of a single layer to be in continuity with each other. |
| US09640754B2 |
Process for producing magnetoresistive effect element
This invention provides a production process in which in a process for producing a magnetoresistive effect element, noble metal atoms in a re-deposited film adhered to a side wall after element isolation are efficiently removed to prevent short-circuiting due to the re-deposited film.The noble metal atoms are selectively removed from the re-deposited film by applying an ion beam, formed using a plasma of a Kr gas or a Xe gas, to the re-deposited film formed on the side wall of the magnetoresistive effect element after the element isolation. |
| US09640750B2 |
Acoustic wave device with suppressed higher order transverse modes
In an acoustic wave device, an unnecessary high-order transverse mode wave is suppressed. The acoustic wave device includes a piezoelectric substrate, at least one pair of interdigital transducer (IDT) electrodes formed on the piezoelectric substrate, and a dielectric film which covers at least a part of the piezoelectric substrate and the IDT electrodes. The IDT electrodes each have a plurality of electrode fingers interleaved with each other. An acoustic velocity of an acoustic wave in the area in which the electrode fingers are interleaved with each other is greater than an acoustic velocity of an acoustic wave in an edge area including end portions of the electrode fingers. |
| US09640747B2 |
Thermoelectric device
The disclosed relates to a thermoelectric device for generating electrical currents exploiting the Seebeck effect, more specifically a structural thermoelectric device which can replace a structural component of a body. The structural thermoelectric device can include a first conductor layer, a second conductor layer and located therebetween a polymer thermocouple layer having a reinforcement formed from a structural support, wherein the internal surface of the support includes at least one layer of at least one conducting polymer. The reinforcement can be is porous material with a plurality of voids, wherein the internal surfaces of the voids are coated with a conducting polymer, which is capable of providing the Peltier effect. |
| US09640743B2 |
Method for manufacturing package, method for manufacturing light emitting device, package and light emitting device
A method for manufacturing a package, includes preparing a lead frame that, in a region where the package is to be formed, has a first electrode and a second electrode that is different from the first electrode; clamping the first electrode and the second electrode between an upper molding die and a lower molding die; injecting a first resin into the molding dies between which the first electrode and the second electrode have been clamped, through an injection opening formed adjacent to the first electrode and on the outside of the region where the package is to be formed; curing or solidifying the injected first resin; and cutting out an injection mark of the injection opening for the first resin from next to the first electrode after the first resin has been cured or solidified. |
| US09640742B2 |
LED package with reflecting cup
The present disclosure provides an LED package which includes electrodes, an LED die electrically connected with the electrodes, an encapsulation covering the LED die; and a casing surrounding the encapsulation and the LED die. The casing includes a base, a reflecting cup and a supporting portion. The reflecting cup extends from the base upwards, the reflecting cup surrounds the LED die, and the supporting portion is located inside the reflecting cup and across the electrodes. |
| US09640737B2 |
Horizontal light emitting diodes including phosphor particles
Horizontal light emitting diodes include anode and cathode contacts on the same face and a transparent substrate having an oblique sidewall. A conformal phosphor layer having an average equivalent particle diameter d50 of at least about 10 μm is provided on the oblique sidewall. High aspect ratio substrates may be provided. The LED may be directly attached to a submount. |
| US09640732B2 |
Small-sized light-emitting diode chiplets and method of fabrication thereof
Diode includes light emitting region, first metal layer, dielectric layer, and second metal layer. Light emitting diode includes n-type group III-nitride portion, p-type group III-nitride layer, and light emitting region sandwiched between n- and p-type layers. First metal layer may be coupled to p-type III-N portion and plurality of first terminals. First metal layer and p-type III-N portion may have substantially similar lateral size that is smaller than 200 micrometers. A portion of light emitting region and first metal layer may include a single via. Electrically-insulating layer may be coupled to first metal layer and sides of the single via. First terminals may be exposed from electrically-insulating layer. Second metal layer may include second terminal and may be coupled to electrically-insulating layer and to n-type III-N portion through the single via. The thickness of the diode excluding second terminal may be between 2 and 20 micrometers. Other embodiments are described. |
| US09640730B2 |
Light emitting device
A light emitting device, comprises an element mounting substrate with a circuit pattern at least on an element mounting surface of the element mounting substrate, a light emitting element mounted on the element mounting surface of the element mounting substrate and connected with the circuit pattern, a sealing member that seals the light emitting element and is bonded on the element mounting surface, and a coating layer that covers the element mounting side of the element mounting substrate inside the sealing member, wherein the coating layer has its refractive index smaller than that of the sealing member. |
| US09640728B2 |
Optoelectronic device and the manufacturing method thereof
An optoelectronic device is provided. The optoelectronic device comprises: an optoelectronic system for emitting light; multiple contact regions on the optoelectronic system and separated from one another; and multiple fingers on the optoelectronic system and opposite to the multiple contact regions; wherein a first contact region in the multiple contact regions is between two adjacent fingers, and a first distance between the first contact region and one of the adjacent fingers is between 5% and 50% of a second distance between the two adjacent fingers. |
| US09640727B2 |
Light emitting device
A light emitting device includes a light emitting element having electrodes, a support, at least one pair of conductive wires that are formed on a surface of the support with a space from each other, and on which the electrodes of the light emitting element are disposed, distance between the pair of conductive wires under an outer edge of the light emitting element being shorter than the distance between the pair of conductive wires at other portions under the light emitting element, and a phosphor layer that continuously covers the outer edge of the light emitting element and a surface of the conductive wires around a region where the light emitting element is disposed. |
| US09640724B2 |
III-nitride light emitting device with double heterostructure light emitting region
A III-nitride light emitting layer is disposed between an n-type region and a p-type region in a double heterostructure. At least a portion of the III-nitride light emitting layer has a graded composition. |
| US09640722B2 |
Semiconductor structure and method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure
A semiconducting structure configured to emit electromagnetic radiation. The structure includes a first zone and a second zone with first and second types of conductivities respectively opposite to each other, the first and second zones being connected to each other to form a semiconducting junction. The first zone includes at least a first and a second part, the first and the second parts being separated from each other by an intermediate layer, as a spreading layer, extending approximately parallel to a junction plane along a major part of the junction. The spreading layer can cause spreading of carriers in the plane of the spreading layer. |
| US09640719B2 |
Light emitting diode, method of fabricating the same and LED module having the same
Disclosed are a light emitting diode (LED), an LED module including the same, and a method of fabricating the same. The light emitting diode includes a first conductive-type semiconductor layer; a second conductive-type semiconductor layer; an active layer interposed between the first conductive-type semiconductor layer and the second conductive-type semiconductor layer; a first electrode pad region electrically connected to the first conductive-type semiconductor layer; a second electrode pad region electrically connected to the second conductive-type semiconductor layer; and a spark gap formed between a first leading end electrically connected to the first electrode pad region and a second leading end electrically connected to the second electrode pad region. The spark gap can achieve electrostatic discharge protection of the light emitting diode. |
| US09640717B2 |
Ultraviolet light emitting apparatus
An ultraviolet light emitting apparatus may include a chamber, at least one semiconductor light emitting device, an electron beam irradiation source, and first and second connection electrodes configured to apply a voltage from an external power source to the at least one semiconductor light emitting device. The chamber may define an internal space and include a light emission window. The at least one semiconductor light emitting device may be on the light emission window and include a first conductivity type nitride semiconductor layer, an undoped nitride semiconductor layer, and an active layer between the first conductivity type nitride semiconductor layer and the undoped nitride semiconductor layer. The electron beam irradiation source may be in the internal space of the chamber and configured to irradiate an electron beam onto the undoped nitride semiconductor layer. |
| US09640716B2 |
Multiple quantum well structure and method for manufacturing the same
A multiple quantum well structure includes a plurality of well-barrier sets arranged along a direction. Each of the well-barrier sets includes a barrier layer, at least one intermediate level layer, and a well layer. A bandgap of the barrier layer is greater than an average bandgap of the intermediate level layer, and the average bandgap of the intermediate level layer is greater than a bandgap of the well layer. The barrier layers, the intermediate level layers, and the well layers of the well-barrier sets are stacked by turns. Thicknesses of at least parts of the well layers in the direction gradually decrease along the direction, and thicknesses of at least parts of the intermediate level layers in the direction gradually increase along the direction. A method for manufacturing a multiple quantum well structure is also provided. |
| US09640714B2 |
Method for manufacturing light emitting element
A method for manufacturing a light emitting element that includes preparing a wafer having a substrate and a semiconductor structure, the substrate including a plurality of protrusions at positions corresponding to lattice points on a triangular lattice. The method includes forming a plurality of first modified parts in the substrate by irradiating the substrate with a laser beam along first dividing lines, forming a plurality of second modified parts in the substrate by irradiating the substrate with a laser beam along second dividing lines, and dividing the wafer along the first modified parts and the second modified parts to obtain a plurality of light emitting elements. |
| US09640711B2 |
Substrate cleaving under controlled stress conditions
A thickness of material may be detached from a substrate along a cleave plane, utilizing a cleaving process controlled by a releasable constraint plate. In some embodiments this constraint plate may comprise a plate that can couple side forces (the “P-plate”) and a thin, softer compliant layer (the “S-layer”) situated between the P-plate and the substrate. In certain embodiments a porous surface within the releasable constraint plate and in contact to the substrate, allows the constraint plate to be secured to the substrate via a first pressure differential. Application of a combination of a second pressure differential within a pre-existing cleaved portion, and a linear force to a side of the releasable constraint plate bound to the substrate, generates loading that results in controlled cleaving along the cleave plane. |
| US09640707B2 |
Method of manufacturing solar cell and method of forming doping region
A method of manufacturing a solar cell is disclosed. The method includes forming a doping region including first and second portions having different doping concentrations by ion-implanting a dopant into a semiconductor substrate and forming an electrode connected to the doping region. In the forming of the doping region, the first and second portions are simultaneously formed by the same process using a mask that is disposed at a distance from the semiconductor substrate. |
| US09640703B2 |
Avalanche photodiode
In an avalanche photodiode provided with a substrate including a first electrode and a first semiconductor layer, formed of a first conductivity type, which is connected to the first electrode, the configuration is in such a way that, at least an avalanche multiplication layer, a light absorption layer, and a second semiconductor layer having a bandgap that is larger than that of the light absorption layer are layered on the substrate; a second conductivity type conductive region is formed in the second semiconductor layer; and the second conductivity type conductive region is arranged so as to be connected to a second electrode. With the foregoing configuration, an avalanche photodiode having a small dark current and a high long-term reliability can be provided with a simple process.Additionally, the configuration is in such a way that, by removing at least the light absorption layer among the layers which are layered on the peripheral portion, of the substrate, on which the second conductivity type conductive region and the second semiconductor layer around the second conductivity type conductive region are surrounded by that layers, a side face of the light absorption layer is formed. With the configuration, the dark current can be further reduced. |
| US09640701B2 |
Method of manufacturing a low noise photodiode
A method of manufacturing a photodiode including a useful layer made of a semi-conductor alloy. The useful layer has a band gap value which decreases from its upper face to its lower face. A step of producing a first doped region forming a PN junction with a second doped region of the useful layer, said production of a first doped region including a first doping step, so as to produce a base portion; and a second doping step, so as to produce at least one protuberance protruding from the base portion and in the direction of the lower face. |
| US09640698B2 |
Energy harvesting devices and method of fabrication thereof
An apparatus and method pertaining to a perpetual energy harvester. The harvester absorbs ambient infrared radiation and provides continual power regardless of the environment. The device seeks to harvest the largely overlooked blackbody radiation through use of a semiconductor thermal harvester. |
| US09640696B2 |
Concentrating photovoltaic cell array
Apparatus for the industrial wiring and final testing of photovoltaic concentrator modules, consisting of a module frame, a lens disc, a sensor carrier disc and an electrical line routing arrangement, comprising the following features: a) a laser contact-making device for the contactless connection of connecting lines between the individual sensors and of connecting elements and of collective contact plates, wherein the line routing arrangement on the sensor carrier disc as basic structure has, in each case, five CPV sensors connected in parallel, and these parallel circuits are connected in series, b) a device for testing electrical properties, wherein a specific voltage is applied to CPV sensors themselves, and the light emitted by them via the lenses is detected and assessed, c) a device for testing tightness of finished concentrator modules, wherein compressed air is applied to the modules in the interior and the emission of compressed air is checked. |
| US09640695B2 |
Shaft bearing for solar panels and drive unit
The present invention relates to a device for the mounting and single-axis solar position tracking of a plurality of tracking units arranged successively in the north-south direction for solar panels having multiple drive units for this solar position tracking, wherein each tracking unit consists of a supporting framework for two adjacent solar panel assemblies each having multiple solar panels, which are installed on panel carriers, each have an associated main support shaft and a drive unit, wherein each main support shaft is connected at the ends to a main support receptacle in each case, the imaginary longitudinal axis through all main support receptacles forms the overall axis of rotation of the device, wherein the overall axis of rotation can have a bend, the drive unit is connected to two directly adjacent main support receptacles, so that a drive unit communicates in each case with two main support shafts, and causes the tracking of both solar panel assemblies from east to west and back by extending or retracting a telescopic arm, wherein each main support shaft is only connected to one drive unit, the entire arrangement is supported by piledriven profiles and each drive unit is connected to a piledriven profile and the mounting plates of the two main support receptacles supported on this piledriven profile. |
| US09640690B2 |
Multilayer film and manufacturing method thereof
Provided are a multi-layered film, a backsheet for a photovoltaic cell, a method of forming the same and a photovoltaic module. The multi-layered film may include a primer layer and a fluoropolymer coating layer formed by coating, and thus the fluoropolymer coating layer, which is a surface layer, may have excellent durability and weather resistance due to an inter-diffusion effect between materials in the respective layers, and a high interface adhesive strength with a substrate and the primer layer. In addition, in the preparation of the multi-layered film, a production cost may be reduced, productivity may be increased, and degradation in quality of a product caused by thermal transformation or heat shock may be prevented. The multi-layered film may be effectively used as a backsheet for various photovoltaic modules. |
| US09640685B2 |
Solar cell and method of fabricating the same
Disclosed are a solar cell and a method of fabricating the solar cell. The solar cell includes a back electrode layer; a light absorbing layer on the back electrode layer; and a buffer layer on the light absorbing layer, wherein the buffer layer includes a first buffer layer, a second buffer layer on the first buffer layer and a third buffer layer on the second buffer layer, and wherein the first buffer layer includes a group I-VI compound. A method of fabricating a solar cell includes the steps of: forming a back electrode layer on a substrate; forming a light absorbing layer on the back electrode layer; forming a second buffer layer on the light absorbing layer including selenium; and forming a third buffer layer including sulfide on the second buffer layer. |
| US09640678B2 |
Method for producing the rear contact layer for CdTe thin-film solar cells
The present invention concerns a method for the manufacture of the first layer of a back contact layer for thin-layer solar cells in superstrate configuration. In the prior art, this layer is deposited as a compound, for example as a layer of Sb2Te3. In accordance with the invention, however, a tellurium-rich surface layer of the cadmium telluride layer is produced, on which a first material is deposited which is capable of forming an electrically conductive second material with tellurium and of producing the second material by reaction of the first material and tellurium in the surface layer. The second material forms the first layer of the back contact layer. |
| US09640675B2 |
Conductive paste composition and semiconductor devices made therefrom
A conductive paste composition contains a source of an electrically conductive metal, a lead-tellurium-based oxide, a discrete oxide of an adhesion promoting element, and an organic vehicle. An article such as a high-efficiency photovoltaic cell is formed by a process of deposition of the paste composition on a semiconductor substrate (e.g., by screen printing) and firing the paste to remove the organic vehicle and sinter the metal and lead-tellurium-based oxide. |
| US09640674B2 |
Composition for forming electrode of solar cell and electrode formed thereof
Disclosed herein is a composition for solar cell electrodes. The composition includes a conductive powder, a glass frit, and an organic vehicle, wherein the glass frit is a bismuth oxide-tellurium oxide-zinc oxide-lithium oxide-based glass frit comprising: 5 wt % to 20 wt % of bismuth oxide; 55 wt % to 80 wt % of tellurium oxide; 0.1 wt % to 15 wt % of zinc oxide; and 0.1 wt % to 10 wt % of lithium oxide. Solar cell electrodes formed of the composition have low serial resistance (Rs) and high open voltage (Voc), thus providing high conversion efficiency and good adhesive strength with respect to a ribbon. |
| US09640671B2 |
Deep gate-all-around semiconductor device having germanium or group III-V active layer
Deep gate-all-around semiconductor devices having germanium or group III-V active layers are described. For example, a non-planar semiconductor device includes a hetero-structure disposed above a substrate. The hetero-structure includes a hetero-junction between an upper layer and a lower layer of differing composition. An active layer is disposed above the hetero-structure and has a composition different from the upper and lower layers of the hetero-structure. A gate electrode stack is disposed on and completely surrounds a channel region of the active layer, and is disposed in a trench in the upper layer and at least partially in the lower layer of the hetero-structure. Source and drain regions are disposed in the active layer and in the upper layer, but not in the lower layer, on either side of the gate electrode stack. |
| US09640669B2 |
Semiconductor device, display device including the semiconductor device, display module including the display device, and electronic appliance including the semiconductor device, the display device, and the display module
In a semiconductor device including a transistor, the transistor is provided over a first insulating film, and the transistor includes an oxide semiconductor film over the first insulating film, a gate insulating film over the oxide semiconductor film, a gate electrode over the gate insulating film, a second insulating film over the oxide semiconductor film and the gate electrode, and a source and a drain electrodes electrically connected to the oxide semiconductor film. The first insulating film includes oxygen. The second insulating film includes hydrogen. The oxide semiconductor film includes a first region in contact with the gate insulating film and a second region in contact with the second insulating film. The first insulating film includes a third region overlapping with the first region and a fourth region overlapping with the second region. The impurity element concentration of the fourth region is higher than that of the third region. |
| US09640668B2 |
Electronic device, manufacturing method of electronic device, and sputtering target
A film formation is performed using a target in which a material which is volatilized more easily than gallium when heated at 400° C. to 700° C., such as zinc, is added to gallium oxide by a sputtering method with high mass-productivity which can be applied to a large-area substrate, such as a DC sputtering method or a pulsed DC sputtering method. This film is heated at 400° C. to 700° C., whereby the added material is segregated in the vicinity of a surface of the film. Another portion of the film has a decreased concentration of the added material and a sufficiently high insulating property; therefore, it can be used for a gate insulator of a semiconductor device, or the like. |
| US09640667B1 |
III-V vertical field effect transistors with tunable bandgap source/drain regions
Vertical field effect transistor (FET) device with tunable bandgap source/drain regions are provided, as well as methods for fabricating such vertical FET devices. For example, a vertical FET device includes a lower source/drain region formed on a substrate, a vertical semiconductor fin formed on the lower source/drain region, and an upper source/drain region formed on an upper region of the vertical semiconductor fin. The lower source/drain region and vertical semiconductor fin are formed of a first type of III-V semiconductor material. The upper source/drain region is formed of a second type of III-V semiconductor material which comprises the first type of III-V semiconductor material and at least one additional element that increases a bandgap of the second type of III-V semiconductor material of the upper source/drain region relative to a bandgap of the first type of III-V compound semiconductor material of the lower source/drain region and the vertical semiconductor fin. |
| US09640665B2 |
Fin FET and method of fabricating same
A fin field effect transistor (fin FET) is formed using a bulk silicon substrate and sufficiently guarantees a top channel length formed under a gate, by forming a recess having a predetermined depth in a fin active region and then by forming the gate in an upper part of the recess. A device isolation film is formed to define a non-active region and a fin active region in a predetermined region of the substrate. In a portion of the device isolation film a first recess is formed, and in a portion of the fin active region a second recess having a depth shallower than the first recess is formed. A gate insulation layer is formed within the second recess, and a gate is formed in an upper part of the second recess. A source/drain region is formed in the fin active region of both sides of a gate electrode. |
| US09640660B2 |
Asymmetrical FinFET structure and method of manufacturing same
A method of fabricating an asymmetric FinFET is provided in the invention, comprising: a. providing a substrate (101); b. forming a fin (102) on the substrate (101), wherein the width of the fin (102) is defined as a second channel thickness; c. forming a shallow trench isolation; d. forming a sacrificial gate stack on the top surface and sidewalls of the channel which is in the middle of the fin, and forming source/drain regions in both ends of the fin; e. depositing an interlayer dielectric layer to cover the sacrificial gate stack and the source/drain regions, planarizing the interlayer dielectric layer to expose sacrificial gate stack; f. removing the sacrificial gate stack to expose the channel; g. forming an etch-stop layer (106) on top of the channel; h. covering a photoresist film (400) on a portion of the semiconductor structure near the source region; i. thinning the channel which is not covered by the photoresist layer (400) from both direction vertical to the channel sidewalls until a first channel thickness obtained; j. removing the etch-stop layer (106). Harmful short channel effects can be restrained and device performance can be enhanced. |
| US09640656B2 |
Transistors having strained channel under gate in a recess
Some embodiments include a construction having a second semiconductor material over a first semiconductor material. A region of the second semiconductor material proximate the first semiconductor material has strain due to different lattice characteristics of the first and second semiconductor materials. A transistor gate extends downwardly into the second semiconductor material. Gate dielectric material is along sidewalls and a bottom of the transistor gate. Source/drain regions are along the sidewalls of the transistor gate, and the gate dielectric material is between the source/drain regions and the transistor gate. A channel region extends between the source/drain regions and is under the bottom of the transistor gate. At least some of the channel region is within the strained region. |
| US09640653B2 |
Integrated circuit device, system, and method of fabrication
A semiconductor device, comprising a first semiconductor portion having a first end, a second end, and a slit portion, wherein the width of the slit portion is less than the width of at least one of the first end and the second end; a second portion that is a different material than the first semiconductor portion, a third portion that is a different material than the first semiconductor portion, wherein the second and third portions are on opposite sides of the slit portion, and at least three terminals selected from a group consisting of a first terminal connected to the first end, a second terminal connected to the second end, a third terminal connected to the second portion, and a fourth terminal connected to the third portion. |
| US09640652B2 |
Semiconductor devices including epitaxial layers and related methods
A semiconductor device may include a semiconductor layer having a first conductivity type, a well region of a second conductivity type in the semiconductor layer wherein the first and second conductivity types are different, and a terminal region of the first conductivity type in the well region. An epitaxial semiconductor layer may be on the surface of the semiconductor layer including the well region and the terminal region with the epitaxial semiconductor layer having the first conductivity type across the well and terminal regions. A gate electrode may be on the epitaxial semiconductor layer so that the epitaxial semiconductor layer is between the gate electrode and portions of the well region surrounding the terminal region at the surface of the semiconductor layer. |
| US09640651B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a termination trench surrounding a region in which a plurality of gate trenches is provided; a p-type lower end region being in contact with a lower end of the termination trench; a p-type outer circumference region being in contact with the termination trench from an outer circumferential side and exposed on a surface of the semiconductor device; a plurality of guard ring regions of a p-type provided on an outer circumferential side of the p-type outer circumference region and exposed on the surface; and an n-type outer circumference region separating the p-type outer circumference region from the guard ring regions and separating the guard ring regions from each another. |
| US09640641B2 |
Silicon germanium fin channel formation
A method for channel formation in a fin transistor includes removing a dummy gate and dielectric from a dummy gate structure to expose a region of an underlying fin and depositing an amorphous layer including Ge over the region of the underlying fin. The amorphous layer is oxidized to condense out Ge and diffuse the Ge into the region of the underlying fin to form a channel region with Ge in the fin. |
| US09640639B2 |
Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same
A semiconductor device including a transistor in which an oxide semiconductor is used for a channel formation region and which has a positive threshold voltage to serve as a normally-off switching element, and the like are provided. Stable electrical characteristics are given to the semiconductor device including the transistor in which an oxide semiconductor film is used for the channel formation region, and thus the semiconductor device has high reliability. In a semiconductor device including a transistor in which an oxide semiconductor film including a channel formation region, source and drain electrode layers, a gate insulating film, and a gate electrode layer are stacked in this order over an oxide insulating film, a conductive layer overlapping with the gate electrode layer with the channel formation region provided therebetween and controlling the electrical characteristics of the transistor is provided in the oxide insulating film including an oxygen excess region. |
| US09640638B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of forming a power MOSFET with interconnect structure to achieve lower RDSON
A semiconductor device has a substrate and gate structure over the substrate. A source region is formed in the substrate adjacent to the gate structure. A drain region in the substrate adjacent to the gate structure opposite the source region. An interconnect structure is formed over the substrate by forming a conductive plane electrically connected to the source region, and forming a conductive layer within openings of the conductive plane and electrically connected to the drain region. The interconnect structure can be formed as stacked conductive layers laid out in alternating strips. The conductive plane extends under a gate terminal of the semiconductor device. An insulating layer is formed over the substrate and a field plate is formed in the insulating layer. The field plate is electrically connected the source terminal. A stress relief layer is formed over a surface of the substrate opposite the gate structure. |
| US09640637B2 |
Method for producing semiconductor device
A method for producing a semiconductor device includes a first step of forming a first insulating film around a fin-shaped semiconductor layer; a second step of forming a first pillar-shaped semiconductor layer, a first dummy gate, a second pillar-shaped semiconductor layer, and a second dummy gate; a third step of forming a third dummy gate and a fourth dummy gate; a fourth step of forming a third diffusion layer in an upper portion of the fin-shaped semiconductor layer, in a lower portion of the first pillar-shaped semiconductor layer, and in a lower portion of the second pillar-shaped semiconductor layer; a fifth step of forming a gate electrode and a gate line around the first pillar-shaped semiconductor layer and forming a contact electrode and a contact line around the second pillar-shaped semiconductor layer; and a sixth step of forming first to fifth contacts. |
| US09640636B1 |
Methods of forming replacement gate structures and bottom and top source/drain regions on a vertical transistor device
One illustrative method disclosed herein includes, among other things, forming an initial vertically oriented channel semiconductor structure having a first height above a substrate, forming a sacrificial spacer structure adjacent the initial vertically oriented channel semiconductor structure and, with the sacrificial spacer in position, performing at least one process operation to define a self-aligned bottom source/drain region for the device that is self-aligned with respect to the sacrificial spacer structure, forming an isolation region in the trench and forming a bottom source/drain electrode above the isolation region. The method also includes removing the sacrificial spacer structure and forming a bottom spacer material around the vertically oriented channel semiconductor structure above the bottom source/drain electrode. |
| US09640634B2 |
Field effect transistor structure with abrupt source/drain junctions
Microelectronic structures embodying the present invention include a field effect transistor (FET) having highly conductive source/drain extensions. Formation of such highly conductive source/drain extensions includes forming a passivated recess which is back filled by epitaxial deposition of doped material to form the source/drain junctions. The recesses include a laterally extending region that underlies a portion of the gate structure. Such a lateral extension may underlie a sidewall spacer adjacent to the vertical sidewalls of the gate electrode, or may extend further into the channel portion of a FET such that the lateral recess underlies the gate electrode portion of the gate structure. In one embodiment the recess is back filled by an in-situ epitaxial deposition of a bilayer of oppositely doped material. In this way, a very abrupt junction is achieved that provides a relatively low resistance source/drain extension and further provides good off-state subthreshold leakage characteristics. Alternative embodiments can be implemented with a back filled recess of a single conductivity type. |
| US09640633B1 |
Self aligned gate shape preventing void formation
A semiconductor device that includes a first fin structure in a first portion of a substrate, and a second fin structure in a second portion of the substrate, wherein the first portion of the substrate is separated from the second portion of the substrate by at least one isolation region. A gate structure present extending from the first fin structure across the isolation region to the second fin structure. The gate structure including a first portion on the first fin structure including a first work function metal having at least one void, an isolation portion that is voidless present overlying the isolation region, and a second portion on the second fin structure including a second work function metal. |
| US09640632B2 |
Semiconductor device having improved heat dissipation
A semiconductor device having improved heat dissipation is disclosed. The semiconductor device includes a semi-insulating substrate and epitaxial layers disposed on the semi-insulating substrate wherein the epitaxial layers include a plurality of heat conductive vias that are disposed through the epitaxial layers with the plurality of heat conductive vias being spaced along a plurality of finger axes that are aligned generally parallel across a surface of the epitaxial layers. The semiconductor device further includes an electrode having a plurality of electrically conductive fingers that are disposed along the plurality of finger axes such that the electrically conductive fingers are in contact with the first plurality of heat conductive vias. |
| US09640631B2 |
Bipolar transistor manufacturing method
A method for manufacturing a bipolar transistor, including the steps of: forming a first surface-doped region of a semiconductor substrate having a semiconductor layer extending thereon with an interposed first insulating layer; forming, at the surface of the device, a stack of a silicon layer and of a second insulating layer; defining a trench crossing the stack and the semiconductor layer opposite to the first doped region, and then an opening in the exposed region of the first insulating layer; forming a single-crystal silicon region in the opening; forming a silicon-germanium region at the surface of single-crystal silicon region, in contact with the remaining regions of the semiconductor layer and of the silicon layer; and forming a second doped region at least in the remaining space of the trench. |
| US09640630B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the semiconductor device
In a semiconductor device, a first interlayer insulating layer made of an inorganic material and formed on inverse stagger type TFTs, a second interlayer insulating layer made of an organic material and formed on the first interlayer insulating layer, and a pixel electrode formed in contact with the second interlayer insulating layer are disposed on a substrate, and an input terminal portion that is electrically connected to a wiring of another substrate is provided on an end portion of the substrate. The input terminal portion includes a first layer made of the same material as that of the gate electrode and a second layer made of the same material as that of the pixel electrode. With this structure, the number of photomasks used in the photolithography method can be reduced to 5. |
| US09640627B2 |
Schottky contact
The present disclosure relates to a Schottky contact for a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device has a body formed from one or more epitaxial layers, which reside over a substrate. The Schottky contact may include a Schottky layer, a first diffusion barrier layer, and a third layer. The Schottky layer is formed of a first metal and is provided over at least a portion of a first surface of the body. The first diffusion barrier layer is formed of a silicide of the first metal and is provided over the Schottky layer. The third layer is formed of a second metal and is provided over the first diffusion barrier layer. In one embodiment, the first metal is nickel, and as such, the silicide is nickel silicide. Various other layers may be provided between or above the Schottky layer, the first diffusion barrier layer, and the third layer. |
| US09640616B2 |
Superlattice materials and applications
A superlattice cell that includes Group IV elements is repeated multiple times so as to form the superlattice. Each superlattice cell has multiple ordered atomic planes that are parallel to one another. At least two of the atomic planes in the superlattice cell have different chemical compositions. One or more of the atomic planes in the superlattice cell one or more components selected from the group consisting of carbon, tin, and lead. These superlattices make a variety of applications including, but not limited to, transistors, light sensors, and light sources. |
| US09640615B1 |
Method for making III-V nanowire quantum well transistor
The present invention provides a filed effect transistor and the method for preparing such a filed effect transistor. The filed effect transistor comprises a semiconductor, germanium nanowires, a first III-V compound layer surrounding the germanium nanowires, a semiconductor barrier layer, a gate dielectric layer and a gate electrode sequentially formed surrounding the first III-V compound layer, and source/drain electrodes are respectively located at each side of the gate electrode and on the first III-V compound layer. According to the present invention, the band width of the barrier layer is greater than that of the first III-V compound layer, and the band curvatures of the barrier layer and the first III-V compound layer are different, therefore, a two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is formed in the first III-V compound layer near the barrier layer boundary. Since the 2DEG has higher mobility, the performance of the filed effect transistor improved. Besides, the performance of the filed effect transistor also improved due to the structure is a gate-all-around structure. |
| US09640613B2 |
Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof
Improvements are achieved in the performance and reliability of a semiconductor device. In a trench in an n-type semiconductor substrate, a gate electrode for a trench-gate field effect transistor is formed via a gate insulating film. A p-type semiconductor region for channel formation is formed so as to be adjacent to the trench. Over the p-type semiconductor region, a source n+-type semiconductor region is formed so as to be adjacent to the trench. In the semiconductor substrate, a first p-type column is formed under the p-type semiconductor region. Under the first p-type column, a second p-type column is formed. The first p-type column is internally included in the second p-type column in plan view. The two-dimensional size of the second p-type column is larger than the two-dimensional size of the first p-type column. |
| US09640611B2 |
HV complementary bipolar transistors with lateral collectors on SOI with resurf regions under buried oxide
Complementary high-voltage bipolar transistors in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) integrated circuits is disclosed. In one disclosed embodiment, a collector region is formed in an epitaxial silicon layer disposed over a buried insulator layer. A base region and an emitter are disposed over the collector region. An n-type region is formed under the buried insulator layer (BOX) by implanting donor impurity through the active region of substrate and BOX into a p-substrate. Later in the process flow this n-type region is connected from the top by doped poly-silicon plug and is biased at Vcc. In this case it will deplete lateral portion of PNP collector region and hence, will increase its BV. |
| US09640610B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing semiconductor device
An IGBT includes an emitter electrode, base regions, an emitter region, a collector region, a collector electrode, a gate insulating film provided in contact with the silicon carbide semiconductor region, the emitter region, and the base region, and a gate electrode that faces the gate insulating film. A FWD includes a base contact region provided adjacent to the emitter region and electrically connected to the emitter electrode, and a cathode region disposed in the upper layer part on the other main surface side of the silicon carbide semiconductor region, provided adjacent to the collector region, and electrically connected to the collector electrode. The IGBT further includes a reduced carrier-trap region disposed in a principal current-carrying region of the silicon carbide semiconductor region located above the collector region and having a smaller number of carrier traps than the silicon carbide semiconductor region located above the cathode region. |
| US09640608B1 |
Serial capacitor device with middle electrode contact and methods of making same
A capacitor includes a bottom electrode and a top electrode positioned above the bottom electrode. The top electrode and the bottom electrode are conductively coupled to one another. A middle electrode is positioned between the bottom electrode and the top electrode. A lower dielectric layer is positioned between the bottom electrode and the middle electrode. An upper dielectric layer positioned between the middle electrode and the top electrode. A first contact is conductively coupled to the top electrode. A second contact is conductively coupled to the middle electrode. |
| US09640607B2 |
Die including a high voltage capacitor
According to an embodiment of the invention there may be provided a die that may include a first capacitor layer that comprises (a) a first capacitor conductive plate, and (b) a first capacitor layer dielectric material that partially surrounds the first capacitor conductive plate; a first conductor; an intermediate metal layer that comprises (a) an intermediate metal layer conductor that is made of Copper, and (b) an intermediate metal layer dielectric material that partially surrounds the intermediate metal layer conductor; wherein the first conductor is positioned between a substrate of the die and the intermediate metal layer; a redistribution layer that comprises (a) a redistribution layer conductor that is electrically coupled to an interface pad of the die, (b) a second capacitor conductive plate, and (c) a redistribution layer dielectric material that partially surrounds the redistribution layer conductor and the second capacitor conductive plate; wherein a certain portion of the intermediate metal layer dielectric material is positioned between the first and second capacitor conductive plates; wherein at least the certain portion of the intermediate metal layer dielectric material, the first capacitor conductive plate and the second capacitor conductive plate form a high voltage capacitor; and wherein the intermediate metal layer conductor is configured to supply power to a group of transistors of the die while the first conductor is configured to supply power only to a sub-group of the transistors of the die. |
| US09640600B2 |
Manufacturing method of display device, display device, and display device formation substrate
A manufacturing method of a display device includes forming a pixel in a display area of a panel, forming a transistor circuit in a peripheral area of the panel, the peripheral area being located in the vicinity of the display area, forming a first pad in a part of the peripheral area, forming a second pad in a peripheral area of another panel adjacent to the part of the panel, the second pad being electrically connected to the transistor circuit, performing a driving inspection on the transistor circuit by use of the second pad, and separating the first pad and the second pad from each other after the driving inspection. |
| US09640597B2 |
Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) substrate and display device
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) substrate, which includes a plurality of light-emitting sub-pixels and a pixel partition wall, wherein at least one layer among hole injection layers (HIL), hole transport layers (HTL) and organic light-emitting layers of at least two light-emitting sub-pixels has a different thickness; and upper surfaces of the HIL, the HTL and the organic light-emitting layer of any light-emitting sub-pixel are each parallel and level to an upper surface of one respective lyophilic film layer of the pixel partition wall. The OLED substrate can be used for improving the surface smoothness of each organic layer of the light-emitting sub-pixel. The embodiment of the present invention further provides a display device. |
| US09640591B2 |
Method of manufacturing organic light emitting display device
A method of manufacturing an organic light emitting display device. The method according to one embodiment includes forming a first electrode over a substrate in which red, green, and blue pixel areas are defined; forming a first hole transporting layer on the first electrode; forming a second hole transporting layer in a position corresponding to the red pixel area; forming a first emission common layer; forming a third hole transporting layer on the first emission common layer in a position corresponding to the green pixel area; forming a second emission common layer; forming a fourth hole transporting layer on the second emission common layer in a position corresponding to the blue pixel area; forming a third emission common layer; forming an electron transporting layer on the third emission common layer; and forming a second electrode on the electron transporting layer. |
| US09640589B2 |
Organic electroluminescent display panel and display device
The invention provides an organic electroluminescent display panel and a display device. The organic electroluminescent display panel of the invention includes a substrate, and a plurality of sub-pixel units of the same shape formed on the substrate, each sub-pixel unit including 6 sub-pixel elements of the same color, the geometric shape of each sub-pixel element being such that the center of the sub-pixel unit where it is located is taken as a vertex; the sub-pixel units are in 3 colors, any two adjacent sub-pixel units being different in color; the connecting lines of the centers of every two adjacent sub-pixel units among 3 sub-pixel units adjacent to each other form an equilateral triangle, 3 sub-pixel elements defined by that equilateral triangle form one pixel unit. |
| US09640588B2 |
Memory cell with independently-sized elements
Memory cell architectures and methods of forming the same are provided. An example memory cell can include a switch element and a memory element formed in series with the switch element. A smallest lateral dimension of the switch element is different than a smallest lateral dimension of the memory element. |
| US09640585B1 |
Method of producing a semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes four or more first memory cells arranged on a row, the first memory cells each including a first pillar-shaped semiconductor layer, a first gate insulating film formed around the first pillar-shaped semiconductor layer, a first gate line formed around the first gate insulating film, and a first magnetic tunnel junction storage element formed on the first pillar-shaped semiconductor layer. The semiconductor device further includes a first source line that connects lower portions of the first pillar-shaped semiconductor layers to each other, a first bit line that extends in a direction perpendicular to a direction in which the first gate line extends and that is connected to an upper portion of the first magnetic tunnel junction storage element, and a second source line that extends in a direction perpendicular to a direction in which the first source line extends. |
| US09640583B2 |
Light emitting device and light emitting device array
A light emitting structure includes lower and upper semiconductor layers having different conductive types, and an active layer disposed between the lower and upper semiconductor layers. The light emitting structure is provided on the substrate. A first electrode layer provided on the upper semiconductor layer includes a first adhesive layer and a first bonding layer overlapping each other. A reflective layer is not provided between the first adhesive layer and the first bonding layer. |
| US09640581B2 |
Solid-state image pickup device
A solid-state image pickup device capable of suppressing the generation of dark current and/or leakage current is provided. The solid-state image pickup device has a first substrate provided with a photoelectric converter on its primary face, a first wiring structure having a first bonding portion which contains a conductive material, a second substrate provided with a part of a peripheral circuit on its primary face, and a second wiring structure having a second bonding portion which contains a conductive material. In addition, the first bonding portion and the second bonding portion are bonded so that the first substrate, the first wiring structure, the second wiring structure, and the second substrate are disposed in this order. Furthermore, the conductive material of the first bonding portion and the conductive material of the second bonding portion are surrounded with diffusion preventing films. |
| US09640577B2 |
Image sensor
Example embodiments relate to an image sensor supporting a global shutter for minimizing image distortion. An example image sensor includes a semiconductor layer having a first surface and a second surface that are opposite to each other; a photosensitive device, which is formed in the semiconductor layer near the first surface and accumulates charges based on light incident via the second surface; a charge storage device, which is formed in the semiconductor layer near the first surface and temporarily stores charges accumulated by the photosensitive device; a first transmission transistor, which transmits charges accumulated by the photosensitive device to the charge storage device and includes a first gate formed on the first surface of the semiconductor layer; and a leakage photogenerated charge drain region, which is formed in the semiconductor layer near the second surface, is apart from the charge storage device, and is arranged above the charge storage device. |
| US09640574B2 |
Image sensor circuit, system, and method
A process of forming optical sensors includes sealing an imaging portion of each of a plurality of optical sensors on a sensor wafer with a transparent material. The operation of sealing leaves a bonding portion of each of the optical sensors exposed. The process further includes cutting the wafer into a plurality of image sensor dies after sealing the optical sensors such that each image sensor die includes one of the optical sensors sealed with a corresponding portion of the transparent material. |
| US09640571B2 |
Pixel arrays of image sensors, and image sensors including the pixel arrays
Pixel arrays of an image sensor that include a first pixel and a second pixel adjacent the first pixel are provided. The first pixel may include a first photoelectric conversion device, a first charge storage device, a first floating diffusion node and a first transfer gate. The second pixel may include a second photoelectric conversion device, a second charge storage device, a second floating diffusion node and a second transfer gate. The pixel arrays may also include a storage gate on both the first charge storage device and the second charge storage device. The storage gate may have a unitary structure. |
| US09640570B2 |
Method of manufacturing solid-state image sensor
A method of manufacturing a solid-state image sensor, including a first transistor for transferring charges from a charge accumulation region to a first charge holding region and a second transistor for transferring charges from the first charge holding region to a second charge holding region, the method comprising forming, on the semiconductor substrate, a resist pattern having a opening on the first charge holding region, and injecting a impurity via the opening so as to make the first charge holding region be a buried type, wherein the impurity is injected such that an impurity region, which makes the first charge holding region be a buried type, is formed at a position away from an end of the gate electrode of the second transistor. |
| US09640568B2 |
Mask set, pixel unit and manufacturing method thereof, array substrate and display device
A mask set, a pixel unit and a manufacturing method thereof, an array substrate and a display device are provided to overcome the problem of low brightness of a display screen of a display device. In the pixel unit, the maximum size value of an overlapped area between an active layer and a drain electrode of a thin-film transistor (TFT) in the direction parallel to data line is less than the size value of one side, overlapped with the data line, in an overlapped area between the active layer and a source electrode; and the source electrode is the portion of the data line disposed in an overlapped area between the active layer and the data line. The pixel unit has the advantages of a larger opening area and higher light transmittance. Thus, the brightness of a display screen of the display device comprising the pixel units can be enhanced. Moreover, the problem of screen flicker can be avoided to some extent, and hence the display quality of images can be improved. |
| US09640567B2 |
Method of fabricating array substrate
A method of fabrication an array substrate which includes foaming an oxide semiconductor layer on a substrate; forming a gate insulating layer corresponding to a central portion of the oxide semiconductor layer; forming a first reactive metallic pattern and second reactive metallic patterns on the gate insulating layer and portions of the oxide semiconductor layer exposed outside the gate insulating layer, respectively; forming a gate electrode on the first reactive metallic pattern; forming source and drain areas having conductive properties in the oxide semiconductor layer by performing heat treatment such that materials of the second reactive metallic patterns are diffused into the oxide semiconductor layer contacting the second reactive metallic patterns; forming an inter insulating layer on the gate electrode and having first contact holes that expose the second reactive metallic patterns; and forming source and drain electrodes on the inter insulating layer and contacting the second reactive metallic patterns through the first contact holes, respectively. |
| US09640565B2 |
GOA unit, method for manufacturing GOA unit, display substrate and display device
The present disclosure provides a Gate driver On Array (GOA) unit, a method for manufacturing the GOA unit, a display substrate and a display device. The GOA unit includes a capacitor structure including: a first metal layer arranged on a substrate; an insulation layer arranged on the first metal layer, wherein the insulation layer is thinned out and has a first thickness, and the first thickness is less than a thickness of any other layer arranged on a same layer as the insulation layer in the display substrate; and a second metal layer arranged on the insulation layer. |
| US09640560B2 |
Light-emitting diode (LED) display panel, manufacturing method thereof and display device
A light-emitting diode (LED) display panel, a manufacturing method thereof and a display device are disclosed. The LED display panel comprises a thin-film transistor (TFT) backplane, a light-emitting structure and an overcoat (OC) layer (10). The OC layer (10) is disposed between the TFT backplane and the light-emitting structure and configured to cover gate lines (21) and data lines (22) in a display area of the LED display panel. The manufacturing process of the LED display panel adds the process of the OC layer (10) and hence can effectively avoid the scratches onto the TFT backplane caused by an evaporation mask plate when the light-emitting structure is formed and prevent the caused electrostatic problem. |
| US09640555B2 |
Semiconductor device including oxide semiconductor
A change in electrical characteristics can be inhibited and reliability can be improved in a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor. The semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor film includes a first insulating film, the oxide semiconductor film over the first insulating film, a second insulating film over the oxide semiconductor film, and a third insulating film over the second insulating film. The second insulating film includes oxygen and silicon, the third insulating film includes nitrogen and silicon, and indium is included in a vicinity of an interface between the second insulating film and the third insulating film. |
| US09640554B2 |
Pixel structure
A pixel structure includes a semiconductor layer, an insulating layer, a first conductive layer, a second conductive layer, a passivation layer, and a first electrode layer. The semiconductor layer includes a first semiconductor pattern having a first source region, a first drain region, and a first channel region. The insulating layer is disposed on the semiconductor layer. The first conductive layer is disposed on the insulating layer and includes a first gate, a first source, a first drain, and a data line connected to the first source. The second conductive layer is disposed on the first conductive layer and includes a scan line. The passivation layer covers the first and second conductive layers and the semiconductor layer. The first electrode layer is disposed on the passivation layer and provides electrical connection to different layers. |
| US09640553B2 |
Thin-film transistor (TFT), manufacturing method thereof, array substrate and display device
A thin-film transistor (TFT), a manufacturing method thereof, an array substrate and a display device are disclosed. The method for manufacturing the a TFT comprises the step of forming a gate electrode, a gate insulating layer, an active area, a source electrode and a drain electrode on a base substrate. The active area (4) is made of a ZnON material. When the gate insulating layer is formed, a material for forming the gate insulating layer is subjected to control treatment, so that a sub-threshold amplitude of the TFT is less than or equal to 0.5 mV/dec. The manufacturing method reduces the sub-threshold amplitude of the TFT and improves the semiconductor characteristic of the TFT. |
| US09640552B2 |
Multi-height fin field effect transistors
Semiconductor fins are formed on a top surface of a substrate. A dielectric material is deposited on the top surfaces of the semiconductor fins and the substrate by an anisotropic deposition. A dielectric material layer on the top surface of the substrate is patterned so that the remaining portion of the dielectric material layer laterally surrounds each bottom portion of at least one semiconductor fin, while not contacting at least one second semiconductor fin. Dielectric material portions on the top surfaces of the semiconductor fins may be optionally removed. Each first semiconductor fin has a lesser channel height than the at least one second semiconductor fin. The first and second semiconductor fins can be employed to provide fin field effect transistors having different channel heights. |
| US09640548B2 |
Method for fabricating non-volatile memory device
A method for fabricating a non-volatile memory device includes forming a stacked structure where a plurality of inter-layer dielectric layers and a plurality of second sacrificial layers are alternately stacked over the first gate electrode layer, forming a first channel hole that exposes the first sacrificial layer by penetrating through the stacked structure, forming a second channel hole by removing the exposed first sacrificial layer, forming an oxide layer by oxidizing a surface of the first gate electrode layer exposed through the first and second channel holes, forming a channel layer in the first and second channel holes, and forming second gate electrode layers in spaces from which the second sacrificial layers are removed, wherein a memory layer is interposed between the channel layer and the second gate electrode layer. |
| US09640546B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor memory array includes a first nonvolatile memory cell having a first charge storage layer and a first gate electrode and a second nonvolatile memory cell, adjacent to the first memory cell in a first direction, having a second charge storage layer and a second gate electrode. The first and second electrodes extend in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, the first electrode has a first contact section extending toward the second electrode in the first direction, and the second electrode has a second contact section extending toward the first electrode in the first direction. The first and second contact positions are shifted in the second direction, respectively, and the first electrode and the first contact section are electrically separated from the second electrode and the second contact section. |
| US09640542B2 |
Semiconductor device having contact pads
A semiconductor device includes a stacked structure having first conductive layers stacked stepwise and first insulating layers interposed between the first conductive layers, wherein undercuts are formed under the first conductive layers and each of the first conductive layers includes a first region covered by the first conductive layer and a second region extending from the first region, contact pads coupled to the second regions of the respective first conductive layers, and a liner layer formed on the contact pads and filling the undercuts. |
| US09640537B2 |
Non-silicon device heterolayers on patterned silicon substrate for CMOS by combination of selective and conformal epitaxy
A single fin or a pair of co-integrated n- and p- type single crystal electronic device fins are epitaxially grown from a substrate surface at a bottom of one or a pair of trenches formed between shallow trench isolation (STI) regions. The fin or fins are patterned and the STI regions are etched to form a height of the fin or fins extending above etched top surfaces of the STI regions. The fin heights may be at least 1.5 times their width. The exposed sidewall surfaces and a top surface of each fin is epitaxially clad with one or more conformal epitaxial materials to form device layers on the fin. Prior to growing the fins, a blanket buffer epitaxial material may be grown from the substrate surface; and the fins grown in STI trenches formed above the blanket layer. Such formation of fins reduces defects from material interface lattice mismatches. |
| US09640535B2 |
Method for forming source/drain contacts during CMOS integration using confined epitaxial growth techniques and the resulting semiconductor devices
A semiconductor device includes an isolation region laterally defining an active region in a semiconductor substrate, a gate structure positioned above the active region, and a sidewall spacer positioned adjacent to sidewalls of the gate structure. An etch stop layer is positioned above and covers a portion of the active region, an interlayer dielectric material is positioned above the active region and covers the etch stop layer, and a confined raised source/drain region is positioned on and in contact with an upper surface of the active region. The confined raised source/drain region extends laterally between and contacts a lower sidewall surface portion of the sidewall spacer and at least a portion of a sidewall surface of the etch stop layer, and a conductive contact element extends through the interlayer dielectric material and directly contacts an upper surface of the confined raised source/drain region. |
| US09640533B2 |
Methods, apparatus and system for providing source-drain epitaxy layer with lateral over-growth suppression
At least one method, apparatus and system disclosed herein for suppressing over-growth of epitaxial layer formed on fins of fin field effect transistor (finFET) to prevent shorts between fins of separate finFET devices. A set of fins of a first transistor is formed. The set of fins comprises a first outer fin, an inner fin, and a second outer fin. An oxide deposition process is performed for depositing an oxide material upon the set of fins. A first recess process is performed for removing a portion of oxide material. This leaves a portion of the oxide material remaining on the inside walls of the first and second outer fins. A spacer nitride deposition process is performed. A spacer nitride removal process is performed, leaving spacer nitride material at the outer walls of the first and second outer fins. A second recess process is performed for removing the oxide material from the inside walls of the first and second outer fins. An epitaxial layer deposition processed upon the set of fins. A portion of the lateral over-growth of epitaxial layer on the outer walls of the first and second outer fins is suppressed by the spacer nitride material. |
| US09640532B2 |
Stacked metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) and metal oxide metal (MOM) capacitor architecture
A device includes a first stacked capacitor comprising a first MOS capacitance and a first MOM capacitance, the first MOS capacitance coupled to a first node, the first node configured to receive a first bias voltage, and a second stacked capacitor comprising a second MOS capacitance and a second MOM capacitance, the second MOS capacitance coupled to the first node. |
| US09640530B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a package, an input terminal fixed to the package, an input pre-matched substrate provided in the package, a semiconductor element provided in the package and formed on a substrate different from the input pre-matched substrate, a matching circuit including a circuit element formed on the input pre-matched substrate, a first wire for connecting the input terminal and the circuit element, and a second wire for connecting the circuit element and the semiconductor element, a first MIM capacitor formed as part of the circuit element, and a first stabilization circuit formed as part of the circuit element to reduce oscillation, wherein a lower electrode of the first MIM capacitor is connected to the package through a via provided in the input pre-matched substrate. |
| US09640525B2 |
ESD protection circuit, semiconductor device, on-vehicle electronic device, and on-vehicle electronic system
Provided is an ESD protection circuit including: a power MOS transistor provided between an external connection terminal and a reference voltage terminal; a clamping circuit that is provided between the external connection terminal and a gate of the power MOS transistor and clamps a voltage between the external connection terminal and the gate of the power MOS transistor at a predetermined value or less; a first resistive element provided between the gate and a source of the power MOS transistor; and a MOS transistor that is provided in series with the power MOS transistor and has a gate and a source which are commonly connected to each other. |
| US09640524B2 |
Electrostatic discharge protection semiconductor device
An ESD protection semiconductor device includes a substrate, a gate set formed on the substrate, a source region and a drain region formed in the substrate respectively at two sides of the gate set, at least a first doped region formed in the source region, and at least a second doped region formed in the drain region. The source region, the drain region and the second doped region include a first conductivity type, and the first doped region includes a second conductivity type. The first conductivity type and the second conductivity type are complementary to each other. The second doped region is electrically connected to the first doped region. |
| US09640522B1 |
V1 and higher layers programmable ECO standard cells
In an aspect of the disclosure, apparatuses for reducing the cost of using an ECO standard cell library in chip design are provided. Such an apparatus may be a MOS device including several regions. The MOS device may include a pMOS transistor and an nMOS transistor in a first region of the device. The pMOS transistor gate of the pMOS transistor and the nMOS transistor gate of the nMOS transistor may be formed by a gate interconnect extending in a first direction across the device. The MOS device may include several unutilized pMOS transistors and several unutilized nMOS transistors in a second region of the device adjacent to the first region. Fins of the pMOS transistors and the nMOS transistors in the first region may be disconnected from fins of the unutilized pMOS transistors and the unutilized nMOS transistors in the second region. |
| US09640520B2 |
Photocoupler package
The invention provides a photocoupler package. The photocoupler package includes a light-emitting diode (LED) mounted on a first lead frame, electrically connected to the first lead frame. A photodetector is mounted on a second lead frame, electrically connected to the second lead frame. A first insulating material is disposed on the first lead frame, surrounding the LED. A second insulating material is disposed on the second lead frame, surrounding the photodetector. A third insulating material encapsulates the first insulating material and the LED. A third insulating material also encapsulates the second insulating material and the photodetector. This photocoupler possesses high photocoupling efficiency, small volume, and superior high-isolation capability. |
| US09640503B2 |
Package substrate, semiconductor package and method of manufacturing the same
A package substrate and a semiconductor package are provided. The package substrate includes an insulating layer having opposing first and second surfaces; a first wiring layer formed in the insulating layer, exposed from the first surface of the insulating layer, and having a plurality of first conductive pads; a second wiring layer formed in the insulating layer, exposed from the second surface, and having a plurality of second conductive pads; a third wiring layer formed on the first surface and electrically connected with the first wiring layer; a plurality of first metal bumps formed on the first conductive pads corresponding; and at least one conductive via vertically embedded in the insulating layer and electrically connected to the second and third wiring layers. Therefore, the surfaces of first conductive pads are reduced, and the non-wetting between the first conductive pads and the solder materials formed on conductive bumps is avoided. |
| US09640498B1 |
Integrated fan-out (InFO) package structures and methods of forming same
An embodiment method includes providing a carrier having a recess and attaching a die to the carrier, wherein the die is at least partially disposed in the recess. The method further includes forming a molding compound over the carrier and around at least a portion of the die, forming fan-out redistribution layers over the molding compound and electrically connected to the die, and removing the carrier. |
| US09640497B1 |
Semiconductor backmetal (BM) and over pad metallization (OPM) structures and related methods
A method of forming semiconductor devices includes providing a wafer having a first side and second side, electrically conductive pads at the second side, and an electrically insulative layer at the second side with openings to the pads. The first side of the wafer is background to a desired thickness and an electrically conductive layer is deposited thereon. Nickel layers are simultaneously electrolessly deposited over the electrically conductive layer and over the pads, and diffusion barrier layers are then simultaneously deposited over the nickel layers. Another method of forming semiconductor devices includes depositing backmetal (BM) layers on the electrically conductive layer including a titanium layer, a nickel layer, and/or a silver layer. The BM layers are covered with a protective coating and a nickel layer is electrolessly deposited over the pads. A diffusion barrier layer is deposited over the nickel layer over the pads, and the protective coating is removed. |
| US09640496B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, and a redistribution layer (RDL) over the semiconductor substrate and configured to receive a bump. The semiconductor device further includes a polymeric material over the RDL, and the polymeric material includes an opening to expose a portion of the RDL. In the semiconductor device, a barrier is covering a joint between the polymeric material and the RDL. |
| US09640493B2 |
Method for fabrication of an integrated circuit rendering a reverse engineering of the integrated circuit more difficult and corresponding integrated circuit
An integrated circuit includes a substrate with several functional blocks formed thereon. At least two identical functional blocks are respectively disposed at two or more different locations on the integrated circuit. Electrically inactive dummy modules in the neighborhoods and/or inside of the functional blocks are provided, wherein at least two different electrically inactive dummy modules are includes in the respective neighborhoods and/or inside of the at least two identical functional blocks. |
| US09640491B2 |
Semiconductor device having semiconductor elements connected to an intermediate plate by a brazing filler metal, and manufacturing method for semiconductor device
A semiconductor device, including: an intermediate plate; a semiconductor element connected to one of surfaces of the intermediate plate by a brazing filler metal; a main plate connected to the other one of the surfaces of the intermediate plate by a brazing filler metal; and a resin layer, the intermediate plate having an external region extending to an outer side with respect to a region in which the intermediate plate is connected to the brazing filler metal, a first through-hole extending through the intermediate plate in the external region, the resin layer covering at least the brazing filler metal, the intermediate plate and a surface of the main plate in which the main plate faces the intermediate plate, the resin layer being also arranged inside the first through-hole. |
| US09640487B2 |
Wafer alignment mark scheme
A wafer alignment apparatus includes a light source, a light detection device, and a rotation device configured to rotate a first wafer and a second wafer. The light source is configured to provide a first light directed to the first wafer and a second light directed to the second wafer. The light detection device is configured to detect reflected light intensity from the first wafer to find a position of at least one wafer alignment mark of the first wafer and to detect reflected light intensity from the second wafer to find a position of at least one wafer alignment mark of the second wafer. |
| US09640486B2 |
Ingot marking for solar cell determination
The invention relates to a method for marking wafers, in particular wafers for solar cell production: The method comprises the steps of manufacturing a position line (21a, 21b, 21c) on a peripheral surface of a silicon ingot or column, the ingot or column extending in an axial direction and having a longitudinal axis in the axial direction, wherein the position line extends in the axial direction along substantially the whole ingot or column and is inclined with respect to the longitudinal axis. By this position line it is possible to determine the position of a wafer cut from the ingot or column within the ingot or column, respectively. Further, an individual identification pattern (20a, 20b, 20c) of lines on the peripheral surface of the silicon ingot or column is manufactured, the individual identification pattern of lines extending in axial direction over substantially the whole ingot or column and providing an individual coding which allows to identify the silicon ingot or column. |
| US09640484B2 |
Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof
A semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same, the semiconductor device includes a fin shaped structure, a gate structure, an epitaxial layer, a germanium layer, an interlayer dielectric layer and a first plug. The fin shaped structure is disposed on a substrate. The gate structure is formed across the fin shaped structure. The epitaxial layer is disposed in the fin shaped structure adjacent to the gate structure. The germanium layer is disposed on the epitaxial layer. The interlayer dielectric layer covers the substrate and the fin shaped structure. The first plug is disposed in the interlayer dielectric layer to contact the germanium layer. |
| US09640482B1 |
Semiconductor device with a contact plug and method of fabricating the same
The present invention utilizes a barrier layer in the contact hole to react with an S/D region to form a silicide layer. After forming the silicide layer, a directional deposition process is performed to form a first metal layer primarily on the barrier layer at the bottom of the contact hole, so that very little or even no first metal layer is disposed on the barrier layer at the sidewall of the contact hole. Then, the second metal layer is deposited from bottom to top in the contact hole as the deposition rate of the second metal layer on the barrier layer is slower than the deposition rate of the second metal layer on the first metal layer. |
| US09640479B2 |
Method for fabricating semiconductor structure
A semiconductor structure is provided. The semiconductor structure includes a substrate; and a plurality of parallel first conductive layers formed on the substrate. The semiconductor structure also includes a composite magnetic structure having a plurality of magnetic layers and a plurality of insulation layers with a sandwich arrangement formed on a portion of the substrate and portions of surfaces of the plurality of first conductive layers. Further, the semiconductor structure includes a plurality of first conductive vias and a plurality of second conductive vias formed on the first conductive layers at both sides of the composite magnetic structure. Further, the semiconductor structure also includes a plurality of second conductive layers formed on a top surface of the composite magnetic structure, top surfaces of the first conductive vias, and top surfaces of the second conductive vias to form at least one coil structure wrapping around the composite magnetic structure. |
| US09640474B1 |
Power semiconductor package having power semiconductor die in a support substrate with bar vias
A semiconductor package includes an output inductor placed over a support substrate, a power semiconductor die having a bottom surface situated on the support substrate and a top surface having an active region, where the output inductor is coupled to the active region on the top surface of the support substrate, and where the support substrate includes a plurality of bar vias. The output inductor is a packaged component having at least two leads in electrical connection with the active region of the power semiconductor die. The support substrate further includes routing conductors in electrical connection with the active region of the power semiconductor die. The power semiconductor die includes a control transistor and a sync transistor connected in a half-bridge. |
| US09640470B2 |
Semiconductor module
A common connecting section for connection to terminals at the same potential in circuits is placed outside a mold section to allow a reduction in size of a semiconductor module 1. Since the common connecting section is a portion of a lead frame which would be placed within such a mold section in a conventional semiconductor module, the mold section can be reduced in size as compared with the conventional one, thereby reducing the amount of mold resin and the material cost. |
| US09640462B2 |
Semiconductor device having wiring pad and wiring formed on the same wiring layer
Disclosed herein is a device that includes a first wiring provided as a first-level wiring layer and elongated in a first direction; and a first wiring pad provided as the first-level wiring layer, the first wiring pad being rectangular and including a first side edge that is elongated in the first direction and a second side edge that is elongated in a second direction crossing to the first direction, the first side edge being greater in length than the second side edge, the first wiring pad being greater in length in the second direction than the first wiring. |
| US09640459B1 |
Semiconductor device including a solder barrier
A semiconductor device includes a leadframe and a semiconductor chip including a contact. The contact faces the leadframe and is electrically coupled to the leadframe via solder. The semiconductor device includes a solder barrier adjacent to the first contact and an edge of the chip. |
| US09640453B2 |
Power semiconductor device
This invention is provided with: a circuit board which is placed in a package and in which an electric circuit including a power semiconductor element is formed; and a plurality of press-fit terminals each having a wire-bond portion electrically connected in the package to the electric circuit, a press-fit portion for making electrical connection with an apparatus to be connected, and a body portion whose one end portion continuous to the wire bond portion is internally fastened to the package and whose other end portion supports the press-fit portion so as to place the press-fit portion away from the package; wherein in each of the plurality of press-fit terminals, at a portion in the body portion exposed from the package, there is formed a constriction portion that is constricted from both sides in a direction perpendicular to the center line, so as to leave a portion around the center line. |
| US09640451B2 |
Wafer bonding structures and wafer processing methods
A wafer processing method is provided. The method includes providing a to-be-processed wafer having a first surface with a plurality of the device regions and dicing groove regions between adjacent device regions and a second surface; and providing a capping wafer having a first surface and a second surface. The method also includes bonding the first surface of the capping wafer with the first surface of the to-be-processed wafer. Further, the method includes performing an edge trimming process onto the to-be-processed wafer to cause a radius of the to-be-processed wafer to be smaller than a radius of the capping wafer; and grinding the second surface of the capping wafer. Further, the method also includes cleaning the second surface of the capping wafer; and etching a portion of the grinded and cleaned capping wafer to expose the dicing groove regions on the first surface of the to-be-processed wafer. |
| US09640450B1 |
Method for reducing light-induced-degradation in manufacturing solar cell
A method for reducing light-induced-degradation in manufacturing a solar cell, includes the steps of: (a) irradiating the solar cell with an irradiance; (b) maintaining the solar cell within a temperature range; (c) removing the solar cell away from the irradiance of step (a) after a time; and (d) determining the irradiance, the temperature range, and the time such that the LID is optimally below a predetermined LID. |
| US09640446B2 |
Semiconductor structure and fabrication method thereof
A method for fabricating a semiconductor structure is provided. The method includes providing a semiconductor substrate; and forming a plurality of semiconductor devices on the semiconductor substrate. The method also includes forming a dielectric layer covering the plurality of the semiconductor devices on the semiconductor substrate; and forming an optical auxiliary layer configured to reflect a portion of a levelness-detecting light and absorb a portion of the levelness detecting light transmitting through the optical auxiliary layer during a levelness-detecting process over the dielectric layer. Further, the method includes forming a photoresist layer over the optical auxiliary layer; and detecting a levelness of the semiconductor substrate and exposing the photoresist layer to form a patterned photoresist layer. |
| US09640445B1 |
Methods of fabricating switched-capacitor DC-to-DC converters
A method of fabricating a switched-capacitor converter includes providing a semiconductor layer having a top surface and a bottom surface, forming switching elements on the top surface of the semiconductor layer, forming a first insulation layer and first interconnection patterns on the switching elements, forming a second insulation layer over the first insulation layer and the first interconnection patterns, forming a second interconnection pattern over the second insulation layer, forming a third insulation layer over the second insulation layer and the second interconnection pattern, forming third interconnection patterns and a lower interconnection pattern over the bottom surface of the semiconductor layer, forming a capacitor over the lower interconnection pattern, forming a fourth insulation layer over the bottom surface of the semiconductor layer to expose an upper electrode pattern of the capacitor, forming a fifth insulation layer covering the capacitor, and forming pads in the fifth insulation layer. |
| US09640440B2 |
Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device with wider sidewall spacer for a high voltage MISFET
An insulating film and another insulating film are formed over a semiconductor substrate in that order to cover first, second, and third gate electrodes. The another insulating film is etched back to form sidewall spacers over side surfaces of the insulating film. Then, the sidewall spacers over the side surfaces of the insulating films corresponding to the sidewalls of the first and second gate electrodes are removed to leave the sidewall spacers over the side surfaces of the insulating film corresponding to the sidewalls of the third gate electrode. Then, the sidewall spacers and the insulating films are etched back, so that the sidewall spacers are formed of the insulating film over the sidewalls of the first, second, and third gate electrodes. |
| US09640434B2 |
Method for processing an electroplated copper film in copper interconnect process
A method for processing an electroplated copper film in copper interconnect process is disclosed by the present invention. Firstly, in the copper back-end-of-line interconnect process, the first annealing process for the electroplated copper film is performed at or below 180° C.; then, after the copper back-end-of-line interconnect process, another annealing process with higher temperature (equal or above 240° C.) to the electroplated copper film is performed to make the copper recrystallize, so as to decrease the resistivity of the electroplated copper film and form an interface state having lower resistivity at the interface of the vias bottom, which decrease the contact resistance between the vias and the underlying copper interconnects and further reduce the RC time delay in the vias. The present invention can be applied in the Cu/Low-k back-end-of-line interconnect process and compatible with the standard Cu/Low-k back-end-of-line process integration. |
| US09640433B2 |
Methods of forming interconnects and semiconductor structures
A method of activating a metal structure on an intermediate semiconductor device structure toward metal plating. The method comprises providing an intermediate semiconductor device structure comprising at least one first metal structure and at least one second metal structure on a semiconductor substrate. The at least one first metal structure comprises at least one aluminum structure, at least one copper structure, or at least one structure comprising a mixture of aluminum and copper and the at least one second metal structure comprises at least one tungsten structure. One of the at least one first metal structure and the at least one second metal structure is activated toward metal plating without activating the other of the at least one first metal structure and the at least one second metal structure. An intermediate semiconductor device structure is also disclosed. |
| US09640432B2 |
Memory device structure and fabricating method thereof
The disclosed subject matter provides a memory device structure and a fabricating method thereof. The memory device structure includes a substrate including a device region and a peripheral region; multiple gate structures; a first dielectric layer, a second barrier layer, multiple source interconnecting lines, and multiple drain region plugs; a second dielectric layer in the device region include multiple source line plugs, and multiple second drain region plugs, and multiple controlling gate plugs; a third dielectric layer including multiple first conductive layers; a fourth dielectric layer including multiple interconnecting structures; a fifth dielectric layer including multiple second conductive layers; and a sixth dielectric layer including multiple third conductive layers. |
| US09640426B2 |
Semiconductor device with self-aligned air gap and method for fabricating the same
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a plurality of semiconductor structures over a substrate, forming an interlayer dielectric layer over the semiconductor structures, etching the interlayer dielectric layer, and defining open parts between the semiconductor structures to expose a surface of the substrate, forming sacrificial spacers on sidewalls of the open parts, forming conductive layer patterns in the open parts, and causing the conductive layer patterns and the sacrificial spacers to reach each other, and defining air gaps on the sidewalls of the open parts. |
| US09640422B2 |
III-N devices in Si trenches
A trench comprising a portion of a substrate is formed. A nucleation layer is deposited on the portion of the substrate within the trench. A III-N material layer is deposited on the nucleation layer. The III-N material layer is laterally grown over the trench. A device layer is deposited on the laterally grown III-N material layer. A low defect density region is obtained on the laterally grown material and is used for electronic device fabrication of III-N materials on Si substrates. |
| US09640420B2 |
Wafer processing method
A method of processing a wafer includes coating the front side of the wafer with a water-soluble liquid resin to form a thin film; fixing the wafer to a protective plate for protecting the front side of the wafer, with a bond material interposed between the protective plate and the thin film; holding by a chuck table the protective plate with the wafer fixed thereto and grinding the back side of the wafer to make the wafer have a predetermined thickness; releasing step of releasing the bond material together with the protective plate to which the wafer has been fixed; and supplying water to the bond material remaining on the front side of the wafer to remove the thin film together with the bond material. |
| US09640417B2 |
Cassette transfer apparatus and cassette transferring method using the same
A cassette transfer apparatus includes a holding unit configured to hold a cassette having a wafer loaded therein, the cassette having at least one stepped part, and the holding unit including at least one holding part configured to have the at least one stepped part placed thereon. The at least one stepped part includes a pair of stepped parts provided at opposite surfaces of the cassette, and the at least one holding part includes a pair of holding parts that extends back and forth and is configured to have the pair of stepped parts placed thereon. |
| US09640410B2 |
Pattern formation method
According to one embodiment, a pattern formation method includes forming a resist pattern on an underlying film, slimming the resist pattern, forming a pinning portion having affinity for a first polymer by depositing, on a surface of the slimmed resist pattern, an etching product produced by etching the underlying film, forming a neutral, film having affinity for the first polymer and a second polymer on the underlying film after the etching, forming a block copolymer film containing the first polymer and the second polymer on the pinning portion and the neutral film, forming a microphase separation pattern by applying a predetermined process to the block copolymer film to perform microphase separation. |
| US09640405B2 |
Chip package having a laser stop structure
A chip package included a chip, a first though hole, a laser stop structure, a first isolation layer, a second though hole and a conductive layer. The first though hole is extended from the second surface to the first surface of the chip to expose a conductive pad, and the laser stop structure is disposed on the conductive pad exposed by the first through hole, which an upper surface of the laser stop structure is above the second surface. The first isolation layer covers the second surface and the laser stop structure, and the first isolation layer has a third surface opposite to the second surface. The second though hole is extended from the third surface to the second surface to expose the laser stop structure, and a conductive layer is on the third surface and extended into the second though hole to contact the laser stop structure. |
| US09640396B2 |
Spin-on spacer materials for double- and triple-patterning lithography
Novel double- and triple-patterning methods are provided. The methods involve applying a shrinkable composition to a patterned template structure (e.g., a structure having lines) and heating the composition. The shrinkable composition is selected to possess properties that will cause it to shrink during heating, thus forming a conformal layer over the patterned template structure. The layer is then etched to leave behind pre-spacer structures, which comprise the features from the pattern with remnants of the shrinkable composition adjacent the feature sidewalls. The features are removed, leaving behind a doubled pattern. In an alternative embodiment, an extra etch step can be carried out prior to formation of the features on the template structure, thus allowing the pattern to be tripled rather than doubled. |
| US09640395B2 |
Reduction of edge effects from aspect ratio trapping
A device includes a crystalline material within an area confined by an insulator. In one embodiment, the area confined by the insulator is an opening in the insulator having an aspect ratio sufficient to trap defects using an ART technique. Method and apparatus embodiments of the invention can reduce edge effects in semiconductor devices. Embodiments of the invention can provide a planar surface over a buffer layer between a plurality of uncoalesced ART structures. |
| US09640383B2 |
Liquid treatment apparatus and liquid treatment method
A liquid treatment apparatus includes a substrate holding member that holds a substrate horizontally, a rotation mechanism that rotates the substrate holding member; a chemical liquid nozzle that supplies a chemical liquid to the substrate held by the substrate holding member; a top plate that covers the substrate held by the substrate holding member from above the substrate; and at least one LED lamp that heats the substrate during a chemical liquid treatment by irradiating the substrate with light of a predetermined wavelength through the top plate from above the top plate. |
| US09640377B2 |
Method for tandem mass spectrometry analysis in ion trap mass analyzer
This invention is related to a tandem mass spectrometric analysis method in ion trap mass analyzer. Such method comprise three stages as represented by selective isolation, collision induced disassociation and mass scanning of ion. At the collision induced isolation stage, this invention is expected to endow parent ion of certain mass-charge ratio with energy through resonance excitation by changing cycle of radio frequency signals, namely frequency of radio frequency voltage imposed on the ion trap; such high-energy ions produced through resonance excitation are to be disassociated through collision with neutral molecules in the ion trap, which will further generate product ion to realize tandem mass spectrometric analysis. Advantage of this method lies in the fact that it can realize collision induced disassociation by changing scanning cycle at the stage of collision induced disassociation stage through software configuration, which can significantly simplify experimental devices and methods for tandem mass spectrometric analysis. |
| US09640374B2 |
Deconvolution and identification algorithms for use on spectroscopic data
A new algorithm is taught for identifying compounds from spectroscopic or mass spectra data, wherein the improved order of operations of the present invention are defined as 1) background noise removal, 2) deconvolution by smoothing peaks, finding peaks and grouping peaks into unknown compounds, 3) preparing correlation values for combinations of unknown compound and target compound pairs, 4) sorting the combinations of unknown compound and target compound pairs by their correlation values, 5) removing complete ions from the mass spectra data using a peak, a retention time, and a retention window, and 6) matching unknown compounds to target compounds such that no target compound appears twice. |
| US09640371B2 |
System and method for detecting a process point in multi-mode pulse processes
A system and method of identifying a selected process point in a multi-mode pulsing process includes applying a multi-mode pulsing process to a selected wafer in a plasma process chamber, the multi-mode pulsing process including multiple cycles, each one of the cycles including at least one of multiple, different phases. At least one process output variable is collected for a selected at least one of the phases, during multiple cycles for the selected wafer. An envelope and/or a template of the collected at least one process output variable can be used to identify the selected process point. A first trajectory for the collected process output variable of a previous phase can be compared to a second trajectory of the process output variable of the selected phase. A multivariate analysis statistic of the second trajectory can be calculated and used to identify the selected process point. |
| US09640370B2 |
Etching apparatus and methods
A method is for etching the whole width of a substrate to expose buried features. The method includes etching a face of a substrate across its width to achieve substantially uniform removal of material; illuminating the etched face during the etch process; applying edge detection techniques to light reflected or scattered from the face to detect the appearances of buried features; and modifying the etch in response to the detection of the buried feature. An etching apparatus for etching substrate across its width to expose buried is also disclosed. |
| US09640359B2 |
Inverted cylindrical magnetron (ICM) system and methods of use
An Inverted Cylindrical Magnetron (ICM) System and Methods of Use is disclosed herein generally comprising a co-axial central anode concentrically located within a first annular end anode and a second annular end anode; a process chamber including a top end and a bottom end in which the first annular end anode and the second annular end anode are coaxially disposed, whereby the first annular end anode, the second annular end anode, and the central anode form a 3-anode configuration to provide electric field uniformity, and the process chamber including a central annular space coupled to a tube insulator disposed about the central annular space wall; a cathode concentrically coupled to the tube insulator and a target; and a plurality of multi-zone electromagnets or hybrid electro-permanent magnets surrounding the exterior of the process chamber providing a tunable magnetic field. |
| US09640358B2 |
Reinforced radiation window, and method for manufacturing the same
A radiation window foil is provided for an X-ray radiation window. It includes a continuous window layer with a first side and a second side. A first mesh or grid layer is stacked on or bonded to the first side of the continuous window layer. A second mesh or grid layer is stacked on or bonded to the second side of the continuous window layer. |
| US09640355B2 |
Contact apparatus
A contact apparatus is provided and includes fixed terminals having fixed contacts, a movable contact member having the movable contacts provided on one surface thereof so as to come into contact or out of contact with the fixed contacts, a first yoke arranged at one side of said one surface of the movable contact member, and a second yoke arranged at a side of the other surface of the movable contact member, the second yoke having one surface facing the first yoke through the movable contact member. The first yoke is larger in volume than the second yoke. |
| US09640354B2 |
Contact device
In a contact device, rotational movement of a movable contactor with a yoke attached is regulated by the fact that the yoke abuts against a wall surface of a wall portion. In an event where the movable contactor with the yoke attached moves rotationally, the yoke is allowed to abut against only a wall surface in one region obtained by dividing the wall surface by a virtual line passing through a rotation center of the yoke. |
| US09640352B2 |
Overvoltage protection device having a thermal disconnection apparatus
An overvoltage protection device comprises at least one overvoltage protection unit having at least one contact lug as well as a mechanical disconnection apparatus that is activated in the event of a thermal overload. The mechanical disconnection apparatus comprises a connection element that can be moved from a closed position to a current-interrupting or voltage-disconnecting position by a slider that is preloaded by spring force. |
| US09640349B2 |
Gas circuit breaker
The gas circuit breaker is made up of a fixed contact, a movable contact, a sealed tank having the fixed contact and the movable contact therein, an operating mechanism for driving the movable contact, and a mechanism unit for housing a link mechanism for connecting the operating mechanism with the movable contact. The operating mechanism is made up of an opening spring and a closing spring, cases for covering respective peripheries of those elastic bodies, a control mechanism for holding and freeing the driving force of the elastic body, and a link mechanism for conveying the driving force of the elastic body to the movable contact. The opening spring is laterally disposed in the axial direction between the link mechanism and the control mechanism. An integral flange is provided on an opening spring case and a closing spring case. |
| US09640348B2 |
Pushbutton switch
A pushbutton switch includes a pushbutton unit and a resilient member. The pushbutton unit includes a mounting seat and a pushbutton covering the mounting seat. The resilient member has a switch contactor, two resilient arms extending respectively from opposite ends of the switch contactor, two abutment segments engaging the limiting seat, and four sustainment segments extending away from the abutment segments and inclined toward the switch contactor. When the pushbutton is pressed to push the sustainment segments, the resilient arms are deformed to have a resilient force for urging the pushbutton away from the limiting seat, and to drive the switch contactor to contact and move an activator of a switch assembly. |
| US09640347B2 |
Keycaps with reduced thickness
An illuminated metal keycap having a legend diffuser material that may diffuse light through a legend opened in a background layer. The background layer may be opaque and the legend may be transparent. The metal keycap is adhered to a scissor mechanism positioned above electrical switch circuitry. Included within, below, or adjacent to the scissor mechanism may be one or more light sources positioned to emit light through the metal keycap, around the perimeter of the metal keycap, and/or through the background layer. |
| US09640346B2 |
Keyboard
The present invention provides a keyboard. The keyboard includes a circuit board, a key installing board, and a plurality of key switches, the circuit board is disposed opposite the key installing board, the key installing board is provided with a plurality of installation holes corresponding to the key switches, the plurality of key switches are movably clamped on the key installing board through the plurality of installation holes, each of the key switches has a conductor, the conductor extends in the direction of near the circuit board through an installation hole, the circuit board is provided with a plurality of connection terminals working with conductors of the plurality of key switches, the conductors of the plurality of key switches are contacted with the plurality of connected terminals of the circuit board. The key switches of the keyboard of the present invention are moveable, elongating use-life of the keyboard. |
| US09640345B2 |
Electronic device having input button
An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a housing; an input button inserted into a button hole formed at the housing and disposed to allow a state change, a dome switch having a dome part and disposed to be spaced apart from the input button, a flexible member interposed between the input button and the dome switch and disposed to be pressed in a direction of the dome part by a state change of the input button, and a rigid member interposed between the dome part and the flexible member to deliver the state change of the input button delivered through the flexible member to the dome part. |
| US09640343B2 |
Hand-switch arrangement for an adjustable seating furniture, adjustable seating furniture and assembly method for an adjustable seating furniture
A hand-switch arrangement (HSA) for an adjustable seating furniture (SF), in particular a recliner, the hand-switch arrangement (HSA) comprising an operating unit (OU) and a carrier module (CM). The carrier module (CM) comprises a body part (BP) with an opening (O) for accommodating the operating unit (OU). The carrier module (CM) is designed to be mechanically fixed to a rigid part (RP) of the adjustable seating furniture (SF). The operating unit (OU) comprises a control panel (CP) for controlling a drive unit (DU) of the adjustable seating furniture (SF). The operating unit (OU) further comprises a locking means (LM1) and the carrier module (CM) comprises a mating locking means (LM2) for engaging the locking means (LM1) of the operating unit (OU) when the operating unit (OU) is inserted into the opening (O) of the carrier module (CM), wherein a mounting depth of the operating unit (OU) is adjustable. |
| US09640339B2 |
On-load tap changer, method for installing a load transfer switch insert in the on-load tap changer, and kerosene drain screw
An on-load tap changer has a switching tube, an oil suction pipe arranged centrally and coaxially along an axis inside the switching tube, and a kerosene drain screw so mounted in a base of the on-load tap changer that it is coaxial with an axis of the oil suction pipe, with the axis of the switching tube, and with an axis of the on-load tap changer. A bearing ring is so acted on by a resilient element at one side and radially with respect to the axis of the on-load tap changer that the switching tube and the oil suction pipe both mechanically positively cooperate with the bearing ring and are centered about the axis of the on-load tap changer. |
| US09640336B2 |
Magnetic latching relay having asymmetrical solenoid structure
Disclosed is a magnetic latching relay having an asymmetrical solenoid structure, the magnetic latching relay comprising an electromagnet portion, a contacting portion, and a drive portion; the electromagnet portion comprises a magnetic conductive component, a coil rack, and a coil; the drive portion comprises a movable iron core; further comprising two pieces of permanent magnet, the two magnets being respectively disposed on the two sides of a coil axis and being respectively adjacent to or in contact with the corresponding sides of the magnetic conductive component; and the two pieces of permanent magnets are within the movement range of the movable iron core in the axial direction of the coil, and are biased towards the moving direction of the movable iron core when a contact is in the closed state, such that the retaining force of the moving iron core is substantially the same in both closed and open states of contact. The present invention introduces biased permanent magnets into a relay having a solenoid electromagnet portion structure to make the relay a magnetic latching relay, for ensuring low heat dissipation while solving the problem of unbalanced action reset voltage of a solenoid electromagnet portion, thus improving product performance and operational reliability. |
| US09640335B2 |
Electrode and electricity storage device
An electrode of the present invention includes: an electrically conductive support (11); and an active material layer (12) provided on the electrically conductive support (11), containing an electrode active material (13) and an electrical conductivity assistant (14), wherein: the electrode active material (13) includes at least one of a first polymer compound having a tetrachalcogenofulvalene structure in a repetition unit of a main chain, and a second polymer compound which is a copolymer between a first unit which has the tetrachalcogenofulvalene structure in a side chain and a second unit which does not have the tetrachalcogenofulvalene structure in the side chain; and in active material layer (13), the electrode active material (13) does not form particles but covers at least a portion of a surface of the electrical conductivity assistant (14). |
| US09640330B2 |
Photoelectric conversion element and solar cell
A photoelectric conversion element, including: an electron transporting material; and a porphyrin compound represented by General Formula (1) or (2), wherein the electron transporting material is coated with the porphyrin compound: where R1 and R2 each independently denote an aromatic hydrocarbon group which has 6-20 carbon atoms and may have an alkyl or alkoxy group as substituent, R1 and R2 may be bonded to form ring structure A1, X denotes a monovalent group expressed by Structural Formula (I), (II) or (III), and Y denotes a phenyl group which may have an alkyl or alkoxy group as a substituent, where R denotes an aromatic hydrocarbon group which has 6-20 carbon atoms and may have an alkyl or alkoxy group as substituent, X denotes a monovalent group expressed by Structural Formula (I), (II) or (III), and Y denotes a phenyl group which may have an alkyl or alkoxy group as substituent, |
| US09640326B2 |
Solid electrolytic capacitor
A solid electrolytic capacitor includes a capacitor element, a negative terminal, a positive terminal, and a resin package covering the capacitor element. The negative terminal and the positive terminal are joined respectively to a negative electrode section and a positive electrode section of the capacitor element. The negative terminal has a mount portion, a protruding portion, and a collecting portion. The mount portion has the negative electrode section disposed thereon, and is joined to an underside of the negative electrode via a conductive bonding portion. The protruding portion protrudes from a side edge of the mount portion in a same plane as the mount portion, and has a width narrowed stepwise in a protruding direction. The collecting portion is provided adjacent to a side edge of a part where the protruding portion is narrowed stepwise, and accommodates a part of the conductive bonding portion. |
| US09640325B2 |
Method for manufacturing solid electrolytic capacitor
A method for manufacturing a solid electrolytic capacitor, which includes the steps of: in a dispersion medium containing a monomer for obtaining a conjugated conductive polymer and a seed particle with protective colloid formed of a polyanion, polymerizing the monomer to obtain a conjugated conductive polymer-containing dispersion liquid; attaching the conjugated conductive polymer-containing dispersion liquid to the surface of a porous anode body at least having an anode body made of a valve metal and a dielectric film formed on the surface of the anode body; and removing a part or all of the dispersion medium from the conjugated conductive polymer-containing dispersion liquid attached to the porous anode body to form a solid electrolyte layer. Also disclosed is a solid electrolytic capacitor obtained by the method. |
| US09640324B2 |
Metallized film capacitor
A metallized film capacitor includes: a first dielectric film; a first metal deposition electrode provided to a first surface of the first dielectric film; a second dielectric film; and a second metal deposition electrode that is provided to a first surface of the second dielectric film and that faces the first dielectric film. The metallized film capacitor further includes: a low resistance provided above at least one of a first end of the first metal deposition electrode and a first end of the second metal deposition electrode; and a first film that covers at least a portion of the low resistance and that comprises mainly aluminum oxide. |
| US09640323B2 |
Multilayer ceramic capacitor
A multilayer body includes an inner layer portion having a dimension in a stacking direction greater than a dimension of the inner layer portion in a width direction, a second outer layer portion including an outer portion including a second principle surface and an inner portion disposed adjacent to both of the outer portion and the inner layer portion, a dimension of the outer portion in the stacking direction being greater than a dimension of the inner portion, and a composition ratio of Si relative to Ti in the outer portion is greater than that in the inner portion. |
| US09640320B2 |
Method of producing grain-oriented electrical steel sheet
In a method of producing a grain-oriented electrical steel sheet by subjecting a coil for grain-oriented electrical steel sheet after cold rolling to a primary recrystallization annealing, applying an annealing separator thereon, and conducting final annealing, rapid heating is conducted at a rate of not less than 80° C./sec from 500° C. to 700° C. in the course of heating for the primary recrystallization annealing, and a temperature keeping treatment is conducted for 2 to 100 hours from 700° C. to 1000° C. in the course of heating for the final annealing, and further, the final annealing is preferably conducted by laying a thermal insulation material on an upper surface of a coil supporting stand in an annealing furnace used for the final annealing concentrically from the outer periphery of the coil supporting stand and over an area of not less than 20% of the radius of the coil supporting stand. |
| US09640318B2 |
Non-uniform spacing in wireless resonator coil
Techniques of forming a transmitter coil are described herein. The techniques may include forming turns of the transmitter coil, wherein a non-uniform spacing between the turns of the transmitter coil is to reduce a magnetic field variation associated with the transmitter coil. |
| US09640315B2 |
Low stray-loss transformers and methods of assembling the same
A transformer includes a magnetic core, a first winding assembly, and a second winding assembly. The magnetic core includes a plurality of legs, including a first winding leg. The first winding assembly includes a first conductive conduit helically wound around the first winding leg a first number of turns. The first winding assembly has a first magnetic length. The second winding assembly includes a second conductive conduit wound around one of the plurality of legs a second number of turns. The second winding assembly is inductively coupled to the first winding assembly, and has a second magnetic length substantially equal to said first magnetic length. |
| US09640312B2 |
Multi-phase common mode choke
A common mode choke includes at least two groups of multi-phase coils wound on a magnetic core for balancing differential mode inductance between the phases. The multi-phase coils in each group are series connected and concentrically wound on a respective portion of the magnetic core. Each group of multi-phase coils is non-overlapping with each other group of multi-phase coils. |
| US09640308B2 |
High temperature superconducting magnet
A high temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet coil disposed within a cryostat is configured with a thermo-siphon cooling system containing a liquid cryogen. The cooling system is configured to indirectly conduction cool the HTS magnet coil by nucleate boiling of the liquid cryogen that is circulated by the thermo-siphon in a cooling tube attached to a heat exchanger bonded to the outside surface of the HTS magnet coil. A supply dewar is configured with a re-condenser cryocooler coldhead to recondense boiloff vapors generated during the nucleate boiling process. |
| US09640303B2 |
Bundle of cables, a method of laying cables and use of a securing means
A bundle of cables includes at least two underwater cables and a fastener for fastening the underwater cables together. The fastener is water-soluble, biologically decomposable and/or chemically decomposable. A method of laying at least two underwater cables simultaneously from a vessel and a method of using a water-soluble, biologically decomposable and/or chemically decomposable fastener to fasten at least two underwater cables together to form a bundle of cables are also described. |
| US09640299B2 |
Crosslinked resin compound and wire and cable using the same
A crosslinked resin compound includes a resin compound including 0.1 to 20 parts by mass of one material selected from the group consisting of monomer having an epoxy group, acid anhydride and silane coupling agent with respect to 100 parts by mass of ethylene-based copolymer, and the resin compound is crosslinked. |
| US09640297B2 |
Composite materials comprising conductive nano-fillers
A process for the production of a composition comprising one or more conductive nano-filler(s), one or more polyarylethersulphone thermoplastic polymer(s) (A), one or more uncured thermoset resin precursor(s) (P), and optionally one or more curing agent(s) therefor, wherein said process comprises mixing or dispersing a first composition comprising one or more conductive nano-filler(s) and one or more polyarylethersulphone thermoplastic polymer(s) (A) with or into one or more uncured thermoset resin precursor(s) (P), and optionally one or more curing agent(s) therefor. |
| US09640293B2 |
Talbot effect based nearfield diffraction for spectral filtering
The invention relates to a grating arrangement and a method for spectral filtering of an X-ray beam (B), the grating arrangement comprising: a dispersive element (10) comprising a prism configured to diffract the X-ray beam (B) into a first beam component (BC1) comprising a first direction (D1) and a second beam component comprising (BC2) a second direction (D2), tilted with respect to the first direction; a first grating (20) configured to generate a first diffraction pattern (DP1) of the first beam component (BC1) and a second diffraction pattern (DP2) of the second beam component (BC2), the second diffraction pattern (DP2) shifted with respect to the first diffraction patter (DP1); and a second grating (30) comprising at least one opening (31) which is aligned along a line (d) from a maximum (MA) to a minimum (MI) of intensity of the first diffraction pattern (DP1) or of the second diffraction pattern (DP2). |
| US09640292B2 |
X-ray apparatus
X-ray diffraction apparatus includes a flat graded multilayer 8 which may be used in a SAXS configuration for a sample 6. The apparatus may be adapted for Bragg-Brentano measurements by a collimator 16 without the need for alternate beam paths or complex arrangements. |
| US09640290B2 |
Solid state electrical generator
A solid state electrical generator that is responsive to a relatively low level radiation field to power emergency equipment in a nuclear powered generating facility. The electricity is generated from materials, that are not initially radioactive, that are able to produce electrical power when placed inside a relatively low neutron and/or gamma radiation field and will essentially breed material to enhance the power produced by the device sufficiently to allow the device to provide sufficient power to the emergency equipment, even though the reactor or other source of neutron and/or gamma radiation has shut down. |