US09059948B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products for clustering and communicating between Internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) entities and for supporting database access in an IMS network environment. According to one aspect, an IMS cluster node includes a serving call state control function (S-CSCF) for controlling media sessions between IMS users. The cluster node further includes a home subscriber service (HSS) function for storing and providing IMS subscription information to the S-CSCF function. A shared memory is operatively associated with the S-CSCF function and the HSS function. The S-CSCF function obtains IMS subscription information from the HSS function via the shared memory.
US09059945B2
A network processor includes a schedule, sync and order (SSO) module for scheduling and assigning work to multiple processors. The SSO includes an on-deck unit (ODU) that provides a table having several entries, each entry storing a respective work queue entry, and a number of lists. Each of the lists may be associated with a respective processor configured to execute the work, and includes pointers to entries in the table. A pointer is added to the list based on an indication of whether the associated processor accepts the WQE corresponding to the pointer.
US09059940B2
Aggregation switches connected to an edge node by a multi-chassis link aggregation group, wherein the aggregation switches are connected by a virtual fiber link that provides a connection for exchange of information between the Aggregation Switches regarding MAC addressing to synchronize MAC address tables. A transport control protocol defines a VLAN and multicast group of ports on the Aggregation Switch to receive management or control packets.
US09059939B2
Disclosed herein are representative embodiments of tools and techniques for providing network service assurance. One exemplary embodiment includes a framework for network service assurance that includes a presentation layer, a service management layer, a network-infrastructure management layer, and a unified network-access layer. The unified-network-access layer is configured to receive a network request in a standard abstracted format, the network request being associated with at least one network element. The unified network-access layer also being configured to select a vendor adaptor from a plurality of vendor adaptors based on an element type of the at least one network element. The unified network-access layer further being configured to generate a vendor-formatted network request using the vendor adapter, and configured to send the vendor-formatted network request to the at least one network element.
US09059938B1
A request for a webpage or a service of a website server is sent from a user computing device to a proxy website server. The proxy website server can receive information from a website server indicative of a usage level of the website server. The proxy website server can determine whether to send the request to the website server based on usage of the website server compared to a capacity threshold. The proxy website server can send a response to the user computing device which includes either the requested webpage or service from the website server or an error message.
US09059934B2
A window regulator for improving the performance of communications networks is described. In a communications network, data is sent downstream from a sender to a receiver, and acknowledgements are sent back upstream. When data is received at the receiver, the data is placed in a buffer and an acknowledgement of receipt may be sent. If no acknowledgement is received by a sender after a certain period of time, the sender retransmits the data. The receiver communicates how much data the receiver is willing to receive at any given time by sending an advertised window to the sender. The window regulator sets the size of the advertised window based on measurements of capacity in the network to improve the amount and rate of data sent downstream while avoiding loss of data and subsequent retransmissions.
US09059933B2
An automatically provisioned virtual private data center provided on a cloud network of multiple virtual private data centers that reside in one or more physical data centers and may migrate between multiple physical data centers. The VPDC is a encapsulated virtual structure provisioned according to customer selected options within a virtual data center having one or more foundation nodes. Different service profiles are provided in a provisioning interface to the customer, each defining several configuration specifics that are used to automatically provision a VPDC for the customer.
US09059932B2
A hybrid network device can implement functionality to detect a change in a packet route associated with one or more packets sharing a common route, and to manage out-of-order packet arrival. In a hybrid communication network, a first network device can communicate with a second network device via a plurality of packet routes. The first network device can detect one or more route change indicators that are indicative of a change in a packet route between the first network device and the second network device from a first packet route to a second packet route based, at least in part, on a plurality of packets received from the second network device. Based on the route change indicators, it may be determined whether the plurality of packets were received according to a predetermined order and if the plurality of packets should be re-ordered based on the predetermined order.
US09059931B2
The disclosure relates to a method and to corresponding systems for visualizing an address space and for organizing automation-related data, wherein according to a first method variant the user interface of a display device of a computer system is divided into a plurality of configurable address space display regions. Each address space display region is divided into a first partial region and into a second partial region, wherein the address space display regions all represent a same address space that can be chosen by a user. In the first partial regions, the node network of the address space is visualized in different display modes. In the second partial regions, details of a node chosen by the user are displayed. When the user navigates in one of the first partial regions and carries out a change to the node network, the structure of the node network and relations between the nodes in all first partial regions are automatically synchronized.
US09059915B2
In one implementation, the volumes of the queues in a network device are monitored to identify ports that are congested or near congestion. In another implementation, an auxiliary queue or counter is used to measure the long term congestion or predict future congestion. The auxiliary queue includes a counter that tracks the occupancy of the queue through a service rate that is less than the service rate of the queue. The service rate of the queue may be the data rate at which data leaves the queue. The service rate of the counter or auxiliary queue may be the speed at which the value of the counter changes. Forced packet dropping may be applied to packets destined to queues associated with a counter that exceeds a threshold.
US09059914B2
An order of terminal devices that are destinations of a measurement packet train to be transmitted is instructed to each of a plurality of terminal devices connected together via a network (step S101). The measurement packet train is transmitted from each of the plurality of terminal devices to a destination terminal device in accordance with the instructed order (step S102). An available bandwidth in a path from an originator of the measurement packet train to the destination is calculated based on a receiving status of the measurement packet train at the destination terminal device (step S103).
US09059913B2
A method performed by a network system communicatively coupled to a device over a wireless access network, the method comprising transmitting a traffic flow to, or receiving the traffic flow from, a software application on the device, the traffic flow comprising one or more related data transfers over the wireless access network, the traffic flow being routed between the software application and the network system through an assisting element comprising a control application or a proxy agent on the device, wherein the traffic flow has a characteristic associating the traffic flow with the first software application, the characteristic preserving the association between the traffic flow and the software application when the traffic flow is routed by the one or more assisting elements; identifying the characteristic; and implementing at least a portion of a control, accounting, or notification service policy based on the identified characteristic.
US09059905B2
The present invention relates to methods and arrangements in an MPLS-TP network. comprising a plurality of interconnected routers configured for MPLS-TP, wherein at least a first router is defined as an originating Maintenance End Point, MEP, a second router is defined as a targeting MEP and the third router is defined as a Maintenance Intermediate Point, MIP. The basic idea of the present invention is to associate a table with each MIP and MEP, wherein the tables comprises information related to the MEPs of the MPLS-TP network and the information from the tables is inserted in the reply packets and forwarded packets. By using this information, the OAM packets can find the subsequent MIP or MEP and failure localization may be performed.
US09059904B2
A method for an intermediate node to locate a fault independently, where the intermediate node serves to forward a packet between a first end node and a second end node, the method includes: creating a test packet and sending the test packet to the first end node, where the test packet includes address information of the second end node, and the test packet is used to trigger the first end node to send a response packet to the second end node; forwarding the response packet from the first end node to the second end node; capturing the response packet; and analyzing, according to a result of the packet capturing, whether a packet from the first end node to the second end node can be forwarded normally.
US09059897B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a process that obtains seed information including privacy profile settings of on-line social network users. The seed information is compared to a random population of on-line social network users and a sampling size of a total population is reduced according to the comparison. The reduced sampling is compared to one of a social graph, a generalized profile of an on-line user, or a combination thereof. The social graph is determined from a randomized-walk algorithm applied to an on-line social network of the users and an outlier is identified in the reduced sampling based on relationships between the on-line social network users. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US09059888B2
An optical network includes receiving inter-rack traffics from transmitter racks, converting by transmitters the inter-rack traffics to respective wavelength division multiplexing WDM optical signals, receiving and routing by a cyclic interleaver the optical signals from the transmitters to output ports in a cyclic manner, converting respective routed optical signals from the cyclic interleaver into respective electrical signals, and demodulating OFDM formats from respective converted optical signals containing signals for respective receiver racks.
US09059887B2
A receiving device for receiving OFDM signals in which arrangement of pilot signals changes with symbol time, includes: an inverse Fourier transform unit configured to calculate an impulse response by performing an inverse Fourier transform on pilot signals included in a received signal; a first Doppler frequency estimation unit configured to estimate a first Doppler frequency from a phase rotation amount at peak positions between impulse responses of pilot signals of different subcarriers of the impulse responses; a second Doppler frequency estimation unit configured to estimate a second Doppler frequency from a phase rotation amount between impulse responses of pilot signals of the same subcarrier of the impulse responses; and a Doppler frequency selection unit configured to select one of the first and the second Doppler frequency estimated by the first and the second Doppler frequency estimation unit so as to reduce influence of a multipath.
US09059884B2
A domain name system (DNS) server is disclosed. The DNS server includes: a receiver to receive a DNS query comprising a domain name from a client device, wherein the domain name corresponds to a host server; a modifier to append a domain to an end of the domain name to create a modified domain name; and a mapping engine to compare the modified domain name to a local cache, wherein the local cache comprises a list of domain names, at least some of which are to be routed to an Internet Protocol (IP) address corresponding to an intermediate server.
US09059882B2
An information presentation control device includes: an acquisition unit which acquires information items; an information total amount calculation unit which calculates a total amount of the information items; a sender importance level determining unit which determines sender importance levels each of which indicates how important a different one of senders is; an information total amount determining unit which determines whether or not the total amount of the information items is greater than a predetermined value; a filtering unit which performs, when it is determined that the total amount of the information items is greater than the predetermined value, at least one process on an information item having a lower sender importance level, among the information items, so that an amount of the information item is reduced more; and an output unit which outputs the information items after the filtering unit performs the process.
US09059878B2
A method of operating an array of antennas in a wireless communication system to provide user-specific azimuth and elevation beamforming is described. The method includes providing a product codebook structure consisting of both an azimuth and elevation portion. A receiver receives reference signals from a transmitter corresponding to both the azimuth and elevation portions of the array of antennas. The method also includes determining the index of the azimuth codebook portion of the product codebook from the azimuth portion of the received reference signals and determining the index of the elevation codebook portion of the product codebook from the elevation portion of the received reference signals. Apparatus and computer readable media are also described.
US09059874B2
An apparatus includes an input, an output, an equalizer configured to receive an input signal at the input and to output an output signal for the output, and a reset block coupled to the equalizer and the output. The reset block is configured to pull the output signal at the output toward a bias voltage level based on a reset signal.
US09059870B1
Techniques for managing electronic message distribution are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for managing electronic message distribution, the method includes analyzing an electronic message, determining whether the electronic message satisfies one of a plurality of predetermined conditions, converting at least a portion of the electronic message from a first format to a second format based on the determination of whether the electronic message satisfies the one of the plurality of predetermined conditions, and transmitting the converted electronic message.
US09059869B2
A hybrid device can be configured to select a transmit interface to attempt to ensure that each network interface of the hybrid device supports unidirectional traffic. Each of the plurality of network interfaces of the hybrid device can be categorized into one of a set of interface classes based on whether incoming traffic is received at the network interface and/or whether outgoing traffic is transmitted from the network interface. A transmit interface class is selected from the set of interface classes based, at least in part, on a priority level associated with each of the interface classes. One of the network interfaces that belongs to the transmit interface class is selected as a transmit interface for transmitting the frame on the communication network.
US09059868B2
A network switch includes a virtual local area network module that determines that a device coupled to a first switch port includes a virtual network interface. The module further identifies a virtual switch port partitioned in the first switch port associated with the virtual network interface and determines that a virtual local area network is associated with the identified virtual switch port.
US09059867B2
A technique efficiently selects a path computation element (PCE) to compute a path between nodes of a computer network. The PCE selection technique is illustratively based on dynamic advertisements of the PCE's available path computation resources, namely a predictive response time (PRT). To that end, the novel technique enables one or more PCEs to dynamically send (advertise) their available path computation resources to one or more path computation clients (PCCs). In addition, the technique enables the PCC to efficiently select a PCE (or set of PCEs) to service a path computation request based upon those available resources.
US09059859B2
A system and methods for providing a Control User Interface (CUI) for controlling a Networked Device (ND) with a Remote Controller (RC) are provided. A Service Provider (SP) receives capability information of the RC and CUI information from the ND, generates a reconfigured CUI based on a location of the RC from which to control the ND, and transmits the reconfigured CUI to the ND. The ND receives the reconfigured CUI from the SP and transmits the reconfigured CUI to the RC. The RC receives the reconfigured CUI from the ND and controls the ND with the reconfigured CUI.
US09059849B2
The present invention discloses a method, system and apparatus of multi-subframe scheduling. The method of multi-subframe scheduling comprises: sending a terminal a continuous scheduling indication, a first Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process number corresponding to a first scheduled subframe, and a scheduling configuration parameter of multi-subframe scheduling; acquiring a second HARQ process number corresponding to a currently-scheduling subframe according to the first HARQ process number corresponding to the first scheduled subframe and the continuous scheduling indication, and performing a data packet transmission of the corresponding second HARQ process number in the currently-scheduling subframe by using the scheduling configuration parameter, each scheduled subframe of the multi-subframe scheduling carrying one data packet, and each scheduled subframe of the multi-subframe scheduling using the scheduling configuration parameter. The embodiments of the present invention may save control signaling overhead of the system and improve spectrum efficiency of the system.
US09059838B2
A system obtains a key and first and second plaintext, where the first plaintext is identical to the second plaintext. The system uses the key to encrypt the first plaintext to a first ciphertext and the second plaintext to a second ciphertext using a same encryption algorithm, where the first ciphertext is different than the second ciphertext.
US09059833B2
This invention discloses a data receiving device and method thereof for identifying a transmission mode of a data signal. The method includes steps of: generating a first reference clock according to a source clock; generating a phase detection signal according to the data signal and a data recovery clock; adjusting the phase of the first reference clock according to the phase detection signal to generate the data recovery clock; generating a second reference clock according to the phase detection signal and the first reference clock, the second reference clock and the data recovery clock having the same frequency and a phase difference; detecting the transmission mode according to the second reference clock and the data signal to generate a mode signal; and deciding whether to change the frequency of the first reference clock according to the mode signal.
US09059832B2
Rank deficient decoding for linear network coding. The decoding problem is first decomposed into multiple parallel sub-problems. A determination is made whether the decoding problem is or is not rank deficient. If rank deficient, and for each sub-problem, a rank deficient decoder is applied to obtain a solution.
US09059830B2
Embodiments of computer-implemented methods, systems, computing devices, and computer-readable media are described herein for device-to-device on-demand advertisement. In some embodiments, the method may include receiving a request for broadcasting an advertisement by a device-to-device (D2D) advertiser via a D2D communication protocol, requesting that an evolved NodeB (eNB) associated with the D2D advertiser allocate a resource for broadcasting the advertisement by the D2D advertiser, determining that the broadcasting the advertisement is no longer needed, and requesting that the eNB retrieve the allocated resource. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US09059827B2
To reduce the process of a cell search including sector identification without increasing loads on a transmission/reception apparatus. A synchronization channel (SCH) included on downlink in a multicarrier mobile communication system is multiplied by a sector specific code and a cell specific code (step S1), assigned to subcarriers on the frequency axis (step S2), subjected to spreading processing and IFFT processing (steps S3, S4), and further subjected to insertion of GI and D/A conversion processing (steps S5, S6), and multicarrier is transmitted from a directional antenna of each sector (step S7). The receiving side specifies a SCH position by auto-correlation method or cross-correlation method, performs FFT, and then, concurrently performs identification of a sector by detection of the sector specific code, and acquisition of cell specific information by demodulation of the cell specific code.
US09059825B2
A receiver includes a fixed delay unit configured to delay a first clock signal received from a clock channel by a predetermined time and output a second clock signal; a first delay unit configured to delay the first clock signal in response to a first control signal; a first data sampler configured to sample a data signal received from a data channel in response to an output signal of the first delay unit and output a first data signal; a second delay unit configured to delay the first data signal in response to a second control signal and output a second data signal; a second data sampler configured to sample the second data signal in response to the second clock signal; and a delay controller configured to output the first control signal and the second control signal.
US09059814B2
A scalable, modular optical mesh patch panel includes a multi-slot receptacle configured to receive at least one of a first modular optical interconnect block and a second modular optical interconnect block that enable connectivity among one or more add-drop modules and/or respective degrees of a reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexer node (ROADM).
US09059808B2
A microprocessor chip includes a plurality of processors; at least one first optical input/output unit configured to receive optical signals from an external device and transmit optical signals to the external device; and an optical system bus that is connected between the plurality of processors and the at least one first optical input/output unit.
US09059805B2
A modulator bias selection method, a coherent optical transmitter, and optical modulator solve the problem of generating a correct constellation using the bias points with the minimum phase adjustment range. The optimum modulator bias systems and methods include a coherent optical transmitter with control of four (XI, XQ, YI, YQ) quadrature data signals via a transmitter (Tx) application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), with a modulator bias controller which implements an algorithm to find the optimum bias points. The optimum bias points yield a correct constellation with minimum phase/bias adjustment. An algorithm is used to find the optimum bias solution using fast, simple method, adjusting only one quadrature at a time and exploiting a control feature of the Tx ASIC. This algorithm is significantly simpler than a generalized search, is a local algorithm, and uses only DC power measurement at the transmitter.
US09059800B2
Optical communication apparatuses capable of performing appropriate communication according to a distance to a receiving apparatus, optical communication methods, and an optical communication system are provided. A transmitting apparatus transmits an optical signal corresponding to data. The transmitting apparatus modulates intensity of the optical signal into intensity corresponding to a distance over which the data is to be delivered and outputs this intensity-modulated optical signal. This allows the transmitting apparatus to change the intensity of the optical signal corresponding to the data according to a distance to a receiving apparatus that receives the data, which thus allows the receiving apparatus to surely receive the data.
US09059799B2
An apparatus comprising a processor configured to calculate a noise figure of an optical amplifier for a plurality of selected wavelength channels in a partial-fill scenario that accounts for channel loading. The noise figure is calculated using a plurality of corresponding noise figure correction values at a plurality of wavelengths based on an effective number of channels.
US09059797B2
The embodiments of the present invention relate to optical communication technologies, and provide a method, an apparatus, and a unit for detecting a fault of a submarine device. The apparatus includes: a pair of optical couplers that are respectively set on two optical cables for transmitting optical signals in opposite direction and are configured to receive or send optical detection signals through the optical cables, where: the two optical couplers are connected through an optical fiber that transmits an optical detection signal, and a photosensitive component is set on the optical fiber and is configured to adjust an optical parameter of the optical detection signal by perceiving change of an ambient environment state parameter when a fault occurs. The embodiments of the present invention bring benefits of detecting whether a target submarine device is faulty, and locating a cause for the fault of the submarine device accurately.
US09059791B2
The present invention discloses a method and an apparatus for protecting a tunnel, wherein the method comprises: setting a second protection group on two intermediate nodes of a first protection group; when a segment between the two intermediate nodes fails, adopting the second protection group to protect the tunnel. The present invention solves the problem in a relevant art that it is very difficult to configure multiple protection segments for one working segment and it might be limited by various conditions, such as network resources and the like; therefore, the utilization rate and the reliability of the network resources are improved.
US09059784B2
A system and methods for location-based authentication using medium earth orbit (MEO) and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites are presented. Location of a client device is authenticated based on at least one client received MEO satellite signal received from at least one MEO satellite at the client device and at least one client received LEO satellite signal received from at least one LEO satellite at the client device.
US09059781B2
According to one embodiment, a buffer circuit has a capacitor comprising a first terminal and a second terminal, an input signal being inputted to the first terminal, a first inverting amplifier circuit configured to invert and amplify a signal of the second terminal of the capacitor, a second inverting amplifier circuit configure to invert and amplify an output signal of the first inverting amplifier circuit, and a MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) transistor comprising a third terminal, a fourth terminal and a gate, the third terminal being connected to the second terminal of the capacitor, the fourth terminal being connected to a connection node of the first and the second inverting amplifier circuits, an inversion signal of the input signal being inputted to the gate.
US09059771B2
A wireless relay device relays data from a transmitting device to a receiving device by wireless communication. The wireless relay device includes a buffer and a buffer control unit. The buffer temporarily stores relay target data. The buffer control unit controls the buffer, based on comparison of priority of first data received from the transmitting device with priority of second data stored in the buffer, (i) to remove the second data from the buffer and to store the first data in the buffer or (ii) not to store the first data in the buffer.
US09059757B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving signals is provided for use in a codebook-based closed-loop multiple antenna system. A method for receiving signals in a codebook-based multiple antenna system according to the present disclosure includes estimating a desired signal and an interference channel, determining a codebook index using the desired channel, a Hermitian of the desired channel, and the interference channel, and feeding back the codebook index to a transmitter. The multi-antenna system of the present disclosure is advantageous in suppressing the interference from other cells and maximizing the gain of the desired signal especially when the number of receive antennas is greater than the reception streams and in designing a codebook with high performance as compared to the Grassmanian codebook and low complexity.
US09059750B2
Techniques are provided to compute downlink beamforming weights for beamforming multiple spatial streams to a wireless device when that wireless device does not transmit with a maximum number of spatial streams, and thus when the full dimensional knowledge of the wireless channel to that wireless device needs to be implicitly derived. Uplink signals are received at a plurality of antennas of a first wireless device that are transmitted via a plurality of antennas of a second wireless device. The first wireless device derives values at a plurality of subcarriers of the received signals across the plurality of antennas of the first wireless device. Downlink beamforming weights are computed from values of consecutive subcarriers across the plurality of antennas of the first wireless device. The first wireless device applies the downlink beamforming weights at respective subcarriers to a number of spatial streams to be transmitted to the second wireless device.
US09059748B2
A remote controller with magnet for ceiling fan and includes a transmitter body defining a compartment in which at least a magnet is installed. With the magnet installed therein, the transmitter body can readily attach to a flat surface of a ferric object. Alternatively, the transmitter body can be used with a holder defining a pocket in which a ferric plate is arranged. The transmitter body can magnetically attach to the ferric plate of the holder. By this arrangement, the transmitter body can readily stored within the pocket. This arrangement can effectively increase the convenience of the operation and usage. In addition, the overall configuration is simple and free from all kind of malfunction. It can be readily expected to reach its intended convenience and configurational stability.
US09059743B2
A transmitter apparatus wherein a relatively simple structure is used to suppress burst errors without changing the block sizes of encoded blocks even when the number of modulation multi-values is increased. An encoding part subjects transport data to a block encoding process to form block encoded data. A modulating part modulates the block encoded data to form data symbols; and an arranging (interleaving) part arranges(interleaves) the block encoded data in such a manner that the intra-block encoded data of the encoded blocks, which include their respective single different data symbol, get together, and then supplies the arranged(interleaved) block encoded data to the modulating part. In this way, there can be provided a transmitter apparatus wherein a relatively simple structure is used to suppress burst errors without changing the block sizes of encoded blocks even when the number of modulation multi-values is increased.
US09059739B2
A systematic encoder such as a systematic polar encoder for channel encoding to ameliorate the effects of noise in a transmission channel. The codeword carries a data word to be transmitted transparently, and also carries a parity part derived from the data word and a fixed word. Implementations advantageously reduce coding complexity to the order of N log(N), wherein N is the dimension of a matrix of the n th Kronecker power associated with a matrix effectively employed by the encoder.
US09059738B2
Methods of reading data from storage devices may include reading data stored in the storage device using normal read voltages; performing a first low density parity check (LDPC) decoding based on the read data; generating reliability bits of each of read bits according to the decoding result, the read bits being bits of the read data; and performing a second low density parity check (LDPC) decoding based on the read data and the reliability bits to perform a first error correction on the read data.
US09059737B2
Disk drives are described in which blocks of data spanning multiple sectors are encoded into a plurality of codewords which are then divided into segments that are physically separated (distributed) on the disk surface over multiple sectors in a distributed codeword block so that the codewords have an improved worst case SNR in comparison to individual sectors. This results in more even SNR performance for each codeword, which improves the performance for portions of a track which have lower than the average SNR. Embodiments are described in which the distributed codeword blocks span across tracks.
US09059721B2
An electronic device includes an input configured to receive at least one baseband input signal and at least one mixer downstream from the input. The electronic device also includes a phase-locked loop (PLL) including a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) and a phase detector coupled thereto, the VCO coupled to the at least one mixer. A power amplifier is downstream from the at least one mixer and generates at least one aggressing signal that would otherwise generate an output pull of the VCO. The electronic device also includes a VCO pulling compensation circuit coupled to the input and the VCO and configured to compensate the VCO for the output pull based upon the at least one baseband input signal and the at least one aggressing signal.
US09059709B2
In a gate drive circuit, a gate voltage limiting circuit limits a gate voltage equal to or lower than a first limiting voltage in a first period, and limits the gate voltage equal to or lower than a second limiting voltage in a second period. A gate voltage generation circuit generates a drive voltage having a first set value, which is determined to operate the transistor in an active region, in the first period, and generates the drive voltage having a second set value, which is determined based on a gate withstand voltage of the transistor and loss in an on operation of the transistor in a saturated region, in the second period. The first limiting voltage is higher than the first set value by a predetermined value. The second limiting voltage is higher than the second set value by a predetermined value.
US09059706B2
A drive circuit is used for driving a switching element. The drive circuit includes a detection unit and an integrated circuit. The detection unit detects a state of a controlled switching element and outputs a voltage signal corresponding to a detection result of the state. The integrated circuit receives the voltage signal via an input terminal for the detection result and controls the switching element based on the received voltage signal. The input terminal includes at least two input terminals that are connected to each other so as to receive the same voltage signal from the detection unit.
US09059698B2
An integrated circuit device includes an external power supply input configured to be coupled to an external power supply and a digital circuit, such as a clock signal generator circuit, that generates noise at a power supply input thereof. The device further includes a replica load circuit and a power supply circuit coupled to the external power supply input, to a power supply input of the digital circuit and to a power supply input of the replica load circuit. The power supply circuit is configured to selectively couple the external power supply node to the power supply input of the digital circuit responsive to a voltage at the power supply input of the replica load circuit. The replica load circuit may be configured to provide a load that varies responsive to a voltage at the power supply input of the digital circuit.
US09059687B2
A method of operating a circuit includes receiving a first data signal at a first node. The first node is coupled to a second node to couple the first data signal to the second node. After coupling the first node to the second node, an inversion is enabled from the second node to a third node. An inversion from the third node to the fourth node is provided. After the enabling the inversion from the second node to the third node, the first node is decoupled from the second node. After the enabling the inversion from the second node to the third node, the second node is coupled to the third node. An inversion from the fourth node to the third node is enabled and the second node is decoupled from the fourth node.
US09059686B2
In one example, a high-speed divider includes two identical pseudo-CML latches and four output inverters. Each latch includes a pair of cross-coupled signal holding transistors. A first P-channel pull-up circuit pulls up on a second output node QB of the latch. A second P-channel pull-up circuit pulls up on a first output node Q of the latch. A pull-down circuit involves four N-channel transistors. This pull-down circuit: 1) couples the QB node to ground when a clock signal CK is high and a data signal D is high, 2) couples the Q node to ground when CK is high and D is low, 3) prevents a transfer of charge between the QB and Q nodes through the pull-down circuit when D transitions during a time period when CK is low, and 4) decouples the QB and Q nodes from the pull-down circuit when CK is low.
US09059685B2
A circuit for pulse width measurement comprises a charging circuit, a comparator and a determining circuit. The charging circuit is configured to charge a capacitive device in response to a periodic signal. The comparator is configured to compare a voltage across the capacitor with a reference voltage level. The determining circuit is configured to determine the number of pulses of the periodic signal in response to a signal from the comparator indicating that the voltage across the capacitor reaches the reference voltage level.
US09059681B2
An unbalanced-balanced conversion circuit element includes an inductor connected in series between an unbalanced terminal and a first balanced terminal. The first balanced terminal side of the inductor is grounded via a capacitor. A capacitor is connected in series between the unbalanced terminal and a second balanced terminal. An inductor is connected between the first balanced terminal side of the inductor and the second balanced terminal side of the capacitor. In a laminate defining the unbalanced-balanced conversion circuit element, the capacitor is spaced far from a mounting surface of the laminate in comparison with other circuit elements.
US09059676B2
Disclosed is a surface acoustic wave device which has IDT electrodes arranged over a lithium tantalate piezoelectric substrate and is capable of suppressing propagation losses even at a high frequency band equal to or higher than 2 GHz as low as possible in order to utilize surface acoustic waves including LSAW. For this purpose, 45° to 46° rotated YX-cut lithium tantalate substrate is used as the piezoelectric substrate, a thickness of the IDT electrode is set to 7.5% λ to 8% λ, and a metallization ratio in electrode fingers of the IDT electrode is set to 0.55 to 0.65.
US09059674B2
A method of characterizing a tunable superconducting circuit, includes selecting an operating direct current (DC) flux for a first charge island from a plurality of coupled charge islands residing in the tunable superconducting circuit coupled to a first resonator and a second resonator, tuning operating DC flux values for at least two charge islands from the plurality of coupled charge islands, measuring coupling energies of the first resonator and the second resonator and measuring frequencies from each of the plurality of coupled charge islands.
US09059673B2
An amplifier circuit and an operation method thereof are provided. The amplifier circuit includes two stages of amplifiers. When the amplifier circuit is operated in a high gain mode, the two stages of amplifiers are operated normally to provide high gain. When the amplifier circuit is operated in a low gain mode, the second stage of amplifier is turned off, and the first stage of amplifier is coupled to output terminals of the amplifier circuit through signal isolation elements so as to form a single stage of amplifier. Therefore, the amplifier circuit can change the total gain value thereof according to a requirement of gain.
US09059669B2
A first device receives a sound suppression message from a second device via a communication network. The sound suppression message indicates that the second device will produce an audible sound. The first device determines a sound profile associated with the second device. The first device then modifies (e.g., suppresses or reduces) a volume of sound that that the first device (or a third device) produces in response to receiving the sound suppression request message and based, at least in part, on the sound profile associated with the second device. The sound profile can include a device identifier associated with classes, models, and makes of devices.
US09059666B2
Various embodiments described herein provide systems and methods for improved performance for power amplifiers, particularly GaN power amplifiers. According to some embodiments, a power amplifier (e.g., GaN power amplifier) utilizes an adaptive closed-loop control of the drain current of the power amplifier to achieve improved performance for the power amplifier. Additionally, for some embodiments, use of the adaptive closed-loop control of the drain current of the power amplifier depends on the power region in which the power amplifier is operating (e.g., depends on the radio frequency power region).
US09059661B2
Implementations of a high gain range transmitter with variable-size mixers are described.
US09059650B2
An angle detecting module for a motor rotor is provided. The angle detecting module includes a permanent-magnet synchronous motor, three linear hall components and a processing device. The permanent-magnet synchronous motor includes a stator and a rotor. The three linear hall components are disposed on the stator; and the linear hall components are spaced by electrical 120 degrees. Each of the linear hall components outputs an analog signal after measuring a magnetic field position of the rotor, and each of the analog signals has magnetically saturated third harmonic component. The processing device is electrically connected to the linear hall components, and the processing device optimizes each of the analog signals and generates an average rotor angle.
US09059649B1
Methods and systems are provided for determining a position of a rotor in a motor at a particular time based on the non-uniform (imperfect) angular position of coils in the motor. In one example, a method may be implemented for light detection and ranging (LIDAR) applications. The method may involve rotating a rotor of a motor at a substantially constant angular velocity, receiving from Hall-effect sensors in the motor data representative of which coils in the plurality of coils are active during the substantially constant rotation of the rotor, correlating a reference angular position of the rotor, receiving subsequent data from the Hall-effect sensors indicating which coils are active at a particular time, correlating the particular time to a position of the rotor in the substantially constant rotation of the rotor, and determining an angular position of the rotor at the particular time.
US09059635B2
Disclosed is a power converter control circuit, comprising at least a power converter circuit and a control circuit. The power converter circuit is able to boost up an input voltage into a greater driving voltage and supply it to the driven device. Moreover, the power converter circuit is also able to generate a voltage signal and a current-sense signal separately, and then combine them into a joint voltage/current-sense signal. The control circuit receives the joint voltage/current-sense signal and resolves it into an over-voltage signal and a current-sense signal with the aid of a modulation signal. The two signals are separately fed into an over-voltage protection device and an over-current protection device for comparison; the outcomes are utilized to execute the over-voltage protection and the over-current protection.
US09059630B2
A microphone circuit includes a condenser microphone and a charge pump. The condenser microphone is configured to receive sound energy and responsively convert the sound energy into a microphone output voltage. The charge pump is implemented in a low voltage CMOS process. It is coupled to the microphone and is configured to supply a bias voltage to the microphone allowing the microphone to operate. By using a proper circuit topology, whose maximum output voltage is limited by the breakdown voltage between the NWELL and the substrate, and by blocking the formation of the PWELL around the NWELL at a predetermined distance so that the NWELL is surrounded by a very lightly doped substrate from all sides, the maximum output voltage of the charge pump is increased significantly.
US09059620B2
In an inverter in which noise reducing coils and a smoothing capacitor are provided on a power line to an inverter module to achieve a no-busbar configuration, simplification of the manufacturing process, reduction of the influence on the size of the inverter, enhanced noise reducing function, reduction in cost and so on, the smoothing capacitor is electrically connected, on the inverter module, to the power line in parallel with a power system board, and the noise reducing coils are connected to the power line by directly connecting output lead wires thereof to P-N terminals of the inverter module.
US09059610B2
An axial hybrid magnetic bearing (HMB) is disclosed herein. The HMB has a first electric magnet, a second electric magnet, and a rotor being between the two electric magnets. The rotor has a permanent magnet (PM) structure facing the two electric magnets by its two sides. By doing so, the power consumption can be lower by a bias magnetic flux provided by the PM structure; the equilibrium point of the rotor can be adjusted by the magnetic force of the two electric magnets, which will not change the magnetic characteristic of the PM structure.
US09059606B2
A surface motor direct-drive sucker-rod screw pump device is driven by a vertical three-phase permanent magnet brush-less DC motor, and comprises a motor controller (6), a rectifying circuit, an inversion circuit, a CPU and a driving circuit. The motor controller (6) is used to adjust the voltage and frequency of the motor by the rectifying circuit, the inversion circuit, the CPU and the driving circuit. Thus, the speed of the motor can vary from zero to the maximum. The device is easy to operate and has a higher efficiency.
US09059602B2
A generator driven by the driving force of a vehicle traction engine has permanent magnets and electromagnets arranged in tandem on a rotor, the magnetic field of the permanent magnet and the magnetic field of the electromagnet act independently on stator coils of a stator, forming a high-power unit controlled by a generator control unit that, when the output of the generator is lower than a prescribed value, flows forward current through the field coils to generate a magnetic field having the same orientation as the magnetic field due to the permanent magnet, and when the output of the generator is higher than a prescribed value, passes a reverse current through the field coils that generates a magnetic field having an opposite orientation to that of the magnetic field due to the permanent magnet, forming an alternating current having a prescribed value. The alternating current output is rectified.
US09059600B2
A residential box data center system includes an information technology (IT) load, a direct current (DC) power generator electrically connected to the IT load and a housing, where both the IT load and the DC power generator are located in the housing.
US09059598B2
A wireless charging method includes synchronizing power phases of at least two charging power supply devices, and wirelessly charging a terminal using the at least two charging power supply devices.
US09059591B2
A docking station that securely holds a portable electronic device in a desired location with respect to a primary power coil for inductive charging of a battery of the portable electronic device is provided. In one embodiment the docking station includes a pair of opposed end stops spaced apart longitudinally along a base and a primary coil of an inductive charging system positioned below the base. The end stops are longitudinally adjustable to properly align a secondary coil of the portable electronic device with a primary coil. A flexible retention wall may be deflected to provide a biasing force on the portable electronic device. Walls of the end stops are generally curved toward each other and provide downward pressure to prevent vertical and horizontal movement. In another embodiment, a retainer clip is movably coupled with and selectively slides along the base to securely hold the portable electronic device.
US09059588B2
A balance correcting circuit is prevented from moving charges from a low-voltage electricity storage cell to a high-voltage electricity storage cell in a electricity storage system. The balance correcting circuit includes an inductor, a first switching device, a second switching device, and a control signal generating unit that supplies a control signal to the first and second switching devices to turn on and off the first and second switching devices so that the first switching device and the second switching device are alternately turned on and off. The control signal generating unit stops generating the control signal when receiving a state transition signal indicating that the electricity storage system transitions to and temporarily stays in a charging state while the electricity storage system is operating.
US09059585B2
An independent bleeding integrated circuit device is provided to replace the bleeding resistor for an EMI filter capacitor, to establish a discharge path between the two terminals of the EMI filter capacitor when the EMI filter capacitor is disconnected from an AC power source, for discharging the EMI filter capacitor. When the EMI filter capacitor is connected with an AC power source, the discharge path is cut off to avoid power loss.
US09059583B2
Apparatuses and systems for dissipating ESD events are provided. In an embodiment, an integrated circuit (IC) device, includes a ground rail, a positive supply rail, a negative supply rail, a circuit block, a plurality of contact pads, the circuit block being configured to output an output voltage via a first contact pad of the plurality of contact pads and a range of the output voltage being is between a voltage of the positive supply rail and a voltage of the negative supply rail, and a coupling system that couples the first contact pad to a second contact pad of the plurality of contact pads so as to dissipate an electrostatic discharge (ESD) event between the first and second contact pads.
US09059582B2
An acceptable voltage margin between a voltage level for triggering electrostatic current discharge and a voltage level for programming operation of an OTP device is determined. Activation of an ESD protection circuit is controlled in part in response to a false trigger prevention circuit. To avoid gate oxide breakdown that may occur with a MOSFET protection device used for higher voltage requirements of an OTP device, the ESD protection circuit employs a bipolar transistor.
US09059579B2
A sealant-filled enclosure assembly for environmentally protecting a connection between cables includes a housing and a mass of sealant. The housing is selectively configurable between an open position to receive the connection and a closed position wherein the housing defines an enclosure cavity to contain the connection. The housing includes at least one sealant cavity and a port control system. The port control system includes a gate member that is selectively deflectable from a closed position, wherein the gate member blocks a cable port, to an open position, wherein the cable port is open to permit a cable to extend into the enclosure cavity through the cable port. The gate member is rigid or semi-rigid. The mass of sealant is disposed in the at least one sealant cavity.
US09059575B2
A cable bus system for the mounting and positioning of high amperature, from low to high voltage electrical power cables transmitting polyphase electrical current. The cable bus system included a ventilated enclosure used to protect electrical cables mounted therein. The enclosure is provided with multiple modular cable trays which are bolted together in a stacked arrangement to form a single multi-level cable raceway. The enclosure is further provide with ventilated top and bottom covers which are secured respectively to the top and bottom of the uppermost and bottommost calve trays to define the enclosed metal circuit. The cable bus system is capable of transmitting the same highest allowable “free air” cable amperature in both above and underground installations, effectively improving the transmission of electrical power from one end to the other end in installations where a transition of electrical power from on the ground is either necessary or economically preferable. For the underground portion, the cable bus is installed in the encasement that is uniquely offset vented or power cooled to meet the cable high amperage requirements. This cable bus system is also suitable for high vertical rise installations when utilizing anti cable slip mechanism or technique.
US09059573B2
A tool includes lower and upper members which are connected together so that the tool can be moved to an open position or to a closed position. The tool has a number of cutting blades and surfaces which allow a user to cut or strip a HDMI cable. The tool also has a pair of platforms which hold an associated laced wire guide and mated terminal block therein. The tool can be used to terminate the cut and stripped HDMI cable with the mated wire guides and terminal block.
US09059556B2
Cooling arrangement for laser-active solid-state materials, laser arrangement and method for cooling a laser-active solid-state material. The invention relates in particular to a cooling arrangement for the active liquid cooling of a laser-active solid-state material. In order to achieve an advantageous cooling effect, it is proposed to use a nozzle unit which is formed and adapted in order to subject the laser-active solid-state material to a directed coolant jet.
US09059554B2
A discharge-pumped gas laser device may include a laser chamber, a pair of discharge electrodes provided in the laser chamber, a fan with a magnetic bearing being provided in the laser chamber and configured to be capable of circulating a gas in the laser chamber, a housing configured to contain the laser chamber, and a magnetic bearing controller connected to the magnetic bearing electrically, being capable of controlling the magnetic bearing, and provided in the housing separately from the laser chamber.
US09059545B2
A socket connector includes an interconnect assembly having an array of contacts being compressible in a vertical direction and shielding springs surrounding corresponding contacts and being compressible in the vertical direction with the contacts. The shielding springs are electrically grounded and provide electrical shielding for the contacts.
US09059542B2
An electrical connector for connecting to a terminal post. A contact is provided in electrical engagement with the terminal post regardless of the orientation of the contact with respect to the terminal post. A locking slide is moveably mounted to the housing body. A first reference member is provided on a first end of the body of the connector, the first reference member is provided proximate a first sidewall of the body of the connector. A second reference member is provided on the first end of the body of the connector, the second reference member is provided proximate a second sidewall of the body of the connector. When the locking slide is in the prelocked position, the first reference member is visible and when the locking slide is in the locked position, the second reference member is visible.
US09059541B2
An electrical connector assembly to be connected to a first control circuit includes a first connector including a switch unit, a second control circuit, and a first contact unit, and a second connector including a detecting circuit and a second contact unit. When connecting the first and second connectors, the connector assembly is disposed sequentially in first and second states. In the second state, where contact pads of the first and second contact units are in respective electrical contacts such that a loop is formed for a trigger signal to be transmitted to the detecting circuit for the latter to generate a detecting signal to the second control circuit, when the first control circuit generates a control signal, the second control circuit controls the switch unit to switch to a conducting state to transmit an electrical power signal to the first control circuit.
US09059537B2
An electric connector accessory for a bundle of conductor wires, constituted by an accessory body (2) and by a nut (3). The nut is constituted by two half-nuts (15, 16) that are separated by an axial plane and that can be assembled together by clip-fastening, and the accessory body (2) is suitable for being applied laterally against the bundle of wires, and for being held by locking the nut (3) onto the connector.
US09059536B2
A door mechanism assembly includes a movable unit and a door unit. The movable unit is disposed in a housing of an electronic device and is for carrying an electronic connector corresponding to an opening on the housing. The door unit is disposed in the housing and can open or cover the opening. The movable unit includes a first magnetic member, and the door mechanism assembly includes a second magnetic member. The first and second magnetic members are repulsive with each other. The door unit normally covers the opening, so as to protect the electronic connector. When the movable unit moves near the door unit, the door unit will be pushed away from the opening by the repulsive magnetic force, such that the electrical connector will be exposed in the opening and that the electrical connector provides an electrical connection function.
US09059534B2
There is provided a shield connector that allows reliable prevention of a rubber plug from being detached from a housing. A shield connector has a terminal fitting connected to an end of an electrical wire, a housing accommodating the terminal fitting, a shield shell covering the housing, and a rubber plug attached to an outer circumference of the electrical wire for waterproofing of the inner space of the housing. The shield shell includes an electrical-wire insertion hole through which the electrical wire is passed. The rubber plug includes a packing and a resin member made in one piece with the packing. The resin member includes a cylindrical body and a flange portion protruding from an outer circumferential surface of the cylindrical body. An end of the cylindrical body is in the electrical-wire insertion hole, and the flange portion is sandwiched by the housing and the electrical-wire insertion hole.
US09059533B2
A lockout and tagging device and assembly for a switchable energy isolation device such as a terminal block are provided. The lockout and tagging device includes a base member configured to support a tag and a male member extending from the base member and including a retaining portion complementary to a female receptacle of the isolation device to retain the male member in a female receptacle after insertion of the male member into the female receptacle. The lockout and tagging device also includes a blocking member extending from the base member. The blocking member positively blocks an actuator of the isolation device from moving and switching the isolation device into its non-isolating state when the male member is retained in the female receptacle. A circuit coupled to the isolation device is positively de-energized when the actuator is blocked in the isolating state.
US09059528B2
A signal connector anti-theft device set includes a cap, a rotating member defining multiple through holes and rotatably set in the cap, a locking member abutted against the rotating member in the cap and having a driven structure facing toward the through holes of the rotating member, and a hand tool having a working tip for rotating the rotating member into accurate alignment with the driven structure of the rotating member and then inserting through the through holes of the rotating member into the driven structure to rotate the locking member between a locking position and an unlocking position.
US09059526B2
An electrical connector electrically connecting a chip module to a printed circuit board, and includes an insulative housing, a plurality of terminals received in the insulative housing and a block assembled to the insulative housing, the electrical connector comprises a bottom wall and a plurality of side walls, between the bottom wall and the side walls forms a receiving space to receive the chip module for assembling the chip module from top to bottom in vertical direction, the block is configured with frame shape and comprises a plurality of tabs, the insulative housing comprises a plurality of slots matched with the tabs, the block can prevent the chip module coming off from the insulative housing while the chip module received in the receiving space.
US09059523B2
A contact apparatus includes a case; fixed terminals having the fixed contacts arranged within the case; 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 on said one surface of the movable contact member within the case, one surface of the first yoke facing an inner surface of the case and the other surface thereof facing said one surface of the movable contact member; and a second yoke arranged on the other surface of the movable contact member within the case, the second yoke having one surface facing the other surface of the first yoke through the movable contact member. The first yoke is larger in volume than the second yoke.
US09059518B2
An antenna for wireless apparatus which is placed in the vicinity of a conductive object is disclosed. The antenna for wireless apparatus includes a GND plate, a conductive plate parallel to the GND plate, two antenna elements, and two raising conductive plates. Each of the antenna elements includes a short-circuit conductive body and a radiation plate placed at an edge of the short-circuit conductive body. The two antenna elements are placed substantially parallel to a side surface of the conductive object with a distance of a half wavelength of a radio wave to be transmitted and received. The two raising conductive plates are placed close to the two antenna elements respectively and raise the conductive plate from the GND plate to a predetermined height.
US09059517B2
Systems and methods according to the present disclosure for assembling conformal arrays utilize an outer tool for insertion into an open cell of a conformal array, an inner tool for insertion into the outer tool, and an adhesive source for delivering adhesive to the edges of the open cell via the inner tool and the outer tool. An assembled conformal array includes adhesive extending along the edges of the open cell.
US09059515B2
A dual band antenna providing a high forward gain includes a radiator, a director disposed in front of the radiator, and a reflector disposed behind the radiator. A dual resonance notch antenna including a conducting plate and a feeding portion is used as the radiator. The director includes a conducting plate and a short-circuiting portion and the reflector includes a conducting plate and a short-circuiting portion. Each conducting plate is disposed such that the direction of a normal to the conducting plate is a front-rear direction. Two slots having different lengths are formed in each conducting plate so as to be aligned with each other. The feeding portion is disposed in one of the slots. Each short-circuiting portion is disposed in one of the two slots at a position corresponding to the feeding portion.
US09059513B2
A multiband antenna structure comprises a substrate, a first radiating unit and a second radiating unit. The first radiating unit is disposed on the substrate, having a feed-in end, a first radiating path and a first terminal. The first radiating unit is operated at a first operating frequency. The second radiating unit is disposed on the substrate and has a grounding end, a second radiating path and a second terminal. The second radiating unit is operated at a second operating frequency. The first terminal of the first radiating unit is adjacent to the second radiating path or the second terminal of the second radiating unit is adjacent to the first radiating path for the first radiating unit or the second unit to excite a third operating frequency. The third operating frequency is lower than the lower frequency among the first operating frequency and the second operating frequency.
US09059509B2
A decoupling circuit for enhancing isolation of two monopole antennas is disclosed. The two monopole antennas substantially symmetrically stand on a bottom, and a gap is formed between the two monopole antennas. The decoupling circuit includes a grounding element located on the bottom and electrically connected to a ground, a connection bar substantially perpendicular to the bottom, including a first terminal electrically connected to the grounding element, a second terminal extending to the gap, a first branch extending from the second terminal of the connection bar to a first monopole antenna of the two monopole antennas, and a second branch extending from the second terminal of the connection bar to a second monopole antenna of the two monopole antennas.
US09059507B2
An antenna assembly generally includes dielectric mounting members coupling at least one pair of bow tie antennas to an antenna support. A reflector is coupled to the antenna support. One or more pairs of electrical conductors extend between a balun and the at least one pair of bow tie antennas. The one or more pairs of electrical conductors electrically connect the balun with the at least one pair of bow tie antennas. The one or more pairs of electrical conductors include portions that are bent inwards generally towards the at least one reflector to create an impedance transformer and an improved impedance match at a feed point of the balun. The dielectric mounting members include one or more recessed portions or slots configured for providing a stop for angled electrical conductor portions of the electrical conductors and for providing a stop for straight electrical conductor portions of the electrical conductors.
US09059502B2
Some demonstrative embodiments include devices, systems and/or methods of wireless communication via a dual directional antenna. For example, a device may include a hinge to connect between first and second elements to allow rotating the first element between first and second rotational states with respect to the second element, and a rotatable dual directional wireless communication antenna coupled to the hinge. The dual directional wireless communication antenna may be configured to communicate wireless communication signals in a first direction, when the first element is at the first rotational state, and to communicate the wireless communication signals in a second direction, different from the first direction, when the first element is at the second rotational state.
US09059501B2
A system for transmitting radio frequency includes antenna elements configured to transmit radio frequency beams including a horizontal beam widths and vertical beam widths. The antenna elements are positioned to transmit radio frequency in directions to cover areas independent of each other. The system includes a port operatively coupled to the antenna elements to transmit power to the antenna elements to cause the antenna elements to transmit radio frequency in the respective directions. The antenna elements and the port form a distributed antenna system.
US09059500B2
A capacitive loop antenna is disclosed. The capacitive loop antenna comprises a shorting-to-ground terminal, for providing grounding, a feeding terminal, for receiving a first radio frequency feeding signal, and a first capacitive loop. The first capacitive loop comprises a first connection element, a first radiator, comprising an end electrically connected to the feeding terminal via the first connection element, to feed the first radio frequency feeding signal to the first radiator, a second connection element, and a second radiator, comprising an end electrically connected to the shorting-to-ground terminal via the second connection element. A first section of another end of the first radiator is capacitively coupled with the second radiator.
US09059496B2
A nanoparticle-enhanced liquid crystal phase shifter is provided including a first substrate layer, a plurality of electrodes attached to the substrate layer, a ground plane layer attached to a second substrate layer, and a liquid crystal layer between the ground plane layer and the first substrate layer, including a suspension of a liquid crystal material and highly polarizable nanoparticles having specific shape and size characteristics.
US09059490B2
Embodiments are directed to a transition structure for interfacing an integrated circuit chip and a substrate, comprising: a co-planar waveguide (CPW) structure formed based on ground-signal-ground (GSG) pads on the integrated circuit chip, a grounded co-planar waveguide (CPWG) structure coupled to the GSG pads, and a microstrip coupled to the CPWG structure.
US09059485B2
Reactive replenishable device management comprises receiving device measurement data from at least one device, updating one or more device usage profiles associated with the at least one device, and if an analysis of the one or more device usage profiles indicates usage of the at least one device is sub-optimal, performing one or more of: controlling at least one of an attribute or an operation of the at least one device, issuing one or more device management recommendations to a user of the at least one device, and issuing one or more user alerts to the user. The at least one device comprises at least one of one or more replenishable devices, one or more replenishers associated with the one or more replenishable devices, and one or more other devices associated with the one or more replenishable devices.
US09059484B2
An electrochemical cell includes an outer casing defining at least a portion of an anode electrode chamber, an ionically conducting separator disposed within the outer casing, an inner surface of the separator defining a cathode electrode chamber, a cathode electrode disposed within the cathode chamber, a conductive current collecting body coupled with the cathode electrode, an alkali metal-containing electrolyte disposed in the cathode electrode chamber, and a sealing body coupled with the outer casing and sealing the anode electrode chamber from an external atmosphere disposed outside of the outer casing. The electrolyte supplies alkali metal through the separator to the anode electrode chamber in response to an electric charge applied to the conductive current collecting body. A first content of a gas component in the anode electrode chamber is in the anode electrode chamber in an amount that is less than an amount of a second content of the gas component in ambient air.
US09059476B2
An electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery, the electrolyte comprising: a lithium salt, a non-aqueous organic solvent, and an additive represented by Formula 1 below: wherein R1, R2, R3, and R4 are the same as defined in the detailed description.
US09059474B2
Disclosed is a cable-type secondary battery comprising at least one inner electrode layer including an inner electrode active material formed on a surface of an inner current collector having a horizontal cross section of a predetermined shape and extending in a lengthwise direction, a separation layer formed to surround the inner electrode layer, and an outer electrode layer formed to surround the separation layer and including an outer electrode active material formed on a surface of an outer current collector, and the cable-type secondary battery further comprises a first connection terminal that is electrically connected to the outer current collector and formed at one end of the cable-type secondary battery, and a second connection terminal that is electrically connected to the inner current collector and formed at the other end of the cable-type secondary battery.
US09059471B2
A method of manufacturing a carbon catalyst according to the present invention includes: a first step involving heating a raw material containing a resin and a metal to carbonize the resin so that a carbon catalyst is obtained; a second step involving subjecting the carbon catalyst to a treatment for removing the metal; and a third step involving subjecting the carbon catalyst that has been subjected to the treatment to a heat treatment to improve an activity of the carbon catalyst.
US09059468B2
A positive electrode current collector for lead-acid batteries contains a current collector substrate of titanium or a titanium alloy, a coating of titanium oxide formed on the surface of the current collector substrate, and a conductive ceramic layer formed on the surface of the coating, and the thickness of the coating is 0.09 μm or thinner.
US09059465B2
Provided is a positive electrode active material for a lithium ion battery positive electrode material made of lithium-containing nickel-manganese-cobalt composite oxide of a layered structure represented with LiaNixMnyCozO2 (1.0
US09059461B2
A coated nickel hydroxide powder suitable as a cathode active material for alkaline secondary battery includes nickel hydroxide powder particles which have a coating layer thereon of preferably cobalt hydroxide or cobalt oxyhydroxide.
US09059447B2
A scalable intelligent power-supply system and method capable of powering a defined load for a specified period of time is disclosed and claimed. Multiple external AC and DC inputs supply power to the system if available and required. An internal DC input from a back-up energy source is on board. The back-up energy source is scalable by adding additional energy cartridges such as batteries in racks mounted within frames of the system. The AC and DC inputs (including the internal DC input) are controlled, measured, sensed, and converted by circuitry controlled by the microprocessor into multiple AC and/or DC outputs. A microprocessor manages power input to, within, and output from the system. The performance of a Lithium-ion batteries used to power an automobile can be determined on the basis individual battery packs or individual battery cells within the packs. This enables the clusters or groups of Lithium ion batteries to be used in a vehicle such that these clusters operate and function as a “gas” tank or more appropriately as an “energy” tank.
US09059442B2
A fuel cell is formed by sandwiching a membrane electrode assembly between a first separator and a second separator. An outlet connection channel connecting a fuel gas flow field with a fuel gas discharge passage is provided in the first separator. The outlet connection channel has a plurality of discharge holes extending through the first separator. The discharge holes are arranged in the direction of gravity. The discharge hole at the lowermost position has an opening elongated downward to have an opening area larger than opening areas of the other discharge holes above and adjacent to the discharge hole at the lowermost position.
US09059431B2
An organic light emitting display includes first and second electrodes facing each other on a substrate, a red light emitting layer, a green light emitting layer and a blue light emitting layer formed between the first and second electrodes, a hole-transporting layer formed between the first electrode and each of the red light emitting layer, the green light emitting layer and the blue light emitting layer, and an electron-transporting layer formed between the second electrode and each of the red light emitting layer, the green light emitting layer and the blue light emitting layer, wherein a gap between a photo-luminescence (PL) peak maximum of the red host of the red light emitting layer and a photo-luminescence (PL) peak maximum of the electron-transporting layer contacting the red light emitting layer is within ±25 nm.
US09059427B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to devices and methods for reducing the resistance level of top electrodes in top emission AMOLED displays. By way of example, one embodiment includes disposing a metal frame between the top electrode and an insulating layer. The present disclosure also relates to methods for making such a display in reduced number of process steps, including certain techniques for combining certain steps into one process step.
US09059422B2
Disclosed is a substrate with a transparent conductive film, wherein an underlying layer and a transparent conductive film are arranged in this order on a transparent insulating substrate. The transparent conductive film-side surface of the underlying layer is provided with a pyramid-shaped or inverse pyramid-shaped irregular structure, and the transparent conductive film comprises a first transparent electrode layer which is formed on the underlying layer and a second transparent electrode layer which forms the outermost surface of the transparent conductive film. By forming a zinc oxide layer that serves as the second transparent electrode layer by a reduced pressure CVD method, a substrate with a transparent conductive film that is provided with an irregular structure smaller than that of the underlying layer can be obtained. The substrate with a transparent conductive film can improve the conversion efficiency of a photoelectric conversion device through an increased light trapping effect.
US09059420B2
An organic EL element includes a transparent supporting substrate; a diffraction grating having a concavity and convexity layer with first concavities and convexities formed on a surface thereof, disposed on the transparent supporting substrate; and a transparent electrode, an organic layer having at least a light emitting layer, and a metal electrode having second concavities and convexities on a surface facing organic layer, which are stacked in this order on the diffraction grating and formed into such shapes such that a shape of the first concavities and convexities is maintained, wherein conditions (A), (B) and (C) respectively relating to a Fourier transformed, standard deviations pertaining to depth distributions for first and second concavities and convexities, and a ratio of the change in standard deviation of depth distribution of the second concavities and convexities relative to depth distributions of the first concavities and convexities are satisified.
US09059419B2
An organic EL element comprises: an anode; a cathode; a buffer layer; and a hole injection layer between the anode and the buffer layer. The hole injection layer includes a nickel oxide that includes both nickel atoms with a valence of three and nickel atoms with a valence of two. At least part of the hole injection layer has a crystal structure AaNibOc that includes nickel, a metal element A, and oxygen, the nickel including nickel atoms with a valence of three, and the metal element A differing from nickel and including metal A atoms with a valence of three.
US09059417B1
A photodetector (PD) includes a substrate, and a ZnO nucleation layer on the substrate. A wurtzite MgxZn1-xO layer is on the ZnO nucleation layer, wherein x is a mole fraction between 0 and 0.62. A level of crystallinity of the wurtzite MgxZn1-xO layer characterized by x-ray diffraction with a deconvolution of a triple-crystal ω rocking curve of a ZnO (0002) peak has a narrow component with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) less than or equal to (≦) 20 arc/s. First and second spaced apart electrodes are on a surface of the wurtzite MgxZn1-xO layer. The mole fraction x can be between 0.20 and 0.46, including between 0.37 and 0.46, and provide a PD responsivity of at least 20 A/W at 5V in the solar blind region from 200 nm to 290 nm.
US09059416B2
A substrate, manufacturing method thereof, and an organic electroluminescent device using the same are provided, belonging to photoelectron field. The substrate includes a paper layer (102), a first protection layer (101) formed on the lower surface of the paper layer, and a second protection layer (103) formed on the upper surface and covering the same of the paper layer. The substrate, solves problems of paper which is easy to absorb humidity and has high permeability of oxygen by a protection processing that said paper is coated with the heat seal film of polyethylene terephthalate coated with Polyvinyl Dichloride. At the meantime, the substrate has the advantages of cheap material, extensive sources, simple manufacturing process, good flexibility of the substrate, and good capability of preventing the permeability of water as well.
US09059401B2
A three-dimensional array adapted for memory elements that reversibly change a level of electrical conductance in response to a voltage difference being applied across them. Memory elements are formed across a plurality of planes positioned different distances above a semiconductor substrate. Bit lines to which the memory elements of all planes are connected are oriented vertically from the substrate and through the plurality of planes.
US09059400B2
A manufacturing method to form a memory device includes forming a hard mask on a magnetic stack. A first magnetic stack etch is performed to form exposed magnetic layers. A liner is applied to the exposed magnetic layers to form protected magnetic layers. A second magnetic stack etch forms a magnetic random access memory (MRAM) cell, where the liner prevents shunting between the protected magnetic layers.
US09059394B2
A method of fabricating a lower bottom electrode for a memory element and a semiconductor structure having the same includes forming a dielectric layer over a semiconductor substrate having a plurality of conductive contacts formed therein to be connected to access circuitry, forming a dielectric cap layer over exposed portions of the dielectric layer and the conductive contacts, depositing a planarizing material over the dielectric cap layer, etching a via to an upper surface of each conductive contact, removing the planarizing material, depositing electrode material over the dielectric cap layer and within the vias, the electrode material contacting an upper surface of each conductive contact, and planarizing the electrode material to form a lower bottom electrode over each conductive contact.
US09059385B2
A light emitting device package is provided comprising a light emitting device including at least one light emitting diode and a body including a first lead frame on which the light emitting device is mounted and a second lead frame spaced apart from the first lead frame, wherein at least one of the first and second lead frames is extending to a bending region in a first direction by a predetermined length on the basis of an outer surface of the body and is bent in a second direction intersecting the first direction.
US09059383B2
A hand held breast pump comprises a powered head (1), a body (7) including a diaphragm pump, a breast engaging portion (23) and a bottle coupling (24). The powered head (1) may be exchangeable for a manual head (4).
US09059378B2
A luminous glazing unit including at least one substrate formed by a transparent glazing element; at least one light source; and at least one light extraction device for extracting the light, the extraction device being arranged to create a luminous region, the extraction device being formed by at least one fibrous layer.
US09059375B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor light emitting device includes first and second semiconductor layers, and a light emitting unit. The light emitting unit is provided between the first and second semiconductor layers and includes well layers and barrier layers. The barrier layers include p-side and n-side barrier layers, and a first intermediate barrier layer. The n-side barrier layer is provided between the p-side barrier layer and the first semiconductor layer. The first intermediate barrier layer is provided between the barrier layers. The well layers include p-side and n-side well layers, and a first intermediate well layer. The p-side well layer is provided between the p-side barrier layer and the second semiconductor layer. The n-side well layer is provided between the n-side barrier layer and the first intermediate barrier layer. The first intermediate well layer is provided between the first intermediate barrier layer and the p-side barrier layer.
US09059364B2
The present invention teaches an effective mechanism for enhancing thermoelectric performance through additional conductive bands. Using heavily doped p-PbTe materials as an example, a quantitative explanation is disclosed, as to why and how these additional bands affect the figure of merit. A high zT of approaching 2 at high temperatures makes these simple, likely more stable (than nanostructured materials) and Tl-free materials excellent for thermoelectric applications.
US09059359B2
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a photo detection device including a substrate, a first light absorption layer disposed on the substrate, a second light absorption layer disposed in a first region on the first light absorption layer, a third light absorption layer disposed in a second region on the second light absorption layer, and a first electrode layer disposed on each of the first, the second, and the third light absorption layers.
US09059355B2
A method of etching including providing a plurality of nanostructures extending away from a support, the support comprising a dielectric layer located between the plurality of nanowires, forming a patterned mask over a first portion of the plurality of nanostructures, such that a second portion of the plurality of nanostructures are exposed and are not located under the patterned mask, etching the second portion of the plurality of nanostructures to remove at least a portion of the patterned mask and the second portion of the plurality of nanostructures, monitoring at least one gaseous byproduct of the etching of the plurality of nanostructures during the etching of the plurality of nanostructures and stopping the etching on detecting that the dielectric layer is substantially removed.
US09059347B2
A photoelectric conversion device having a high electric generating capacity at low illuminance, in which a semiconductor layer is appropriately separated and short circuit of a side surface portion of a cell is prevented. The photoelectric conversion device includes an isolation groove formed between one first electrode and the other first electrode that is adjacent to the one first electrode; a stack including a first semiconductor layer having one conductivity type over the first electrode, a second semiconductor layer formed using an intrinsic semiconductor, and a third semiconductor layer having a conductivity type opposite to the one conductivity type; and a connection electrode connecting one first electrode and a second electrode that is in contact with a third semiconductor layer included in a stack formed over the other first electrode that is adjacent to the one first electrode. A side surface portion of the second semiconductor layer is not crystallized.
US09059342B2
A solar cell element having a transparent substrate body, a NaxAg1-x, layer, a ZnO layer, a transparent conductive layer, and a photoelectric conversion layer including an n-type semiconductor layer and a p-type semiconductor layer. The transparent substrate body, the NaxAg1-x layer, the ZnO layer, the transparent conductive layer, and the photoelectric conversion layer are stacked in this order, x represents a value of not less than 0.001 and not more than 0.02, the NaxAg1-x layer has a thickness of 2-15.2 nanometers, and the ZnO layer has an arithmetical mean roughness of not less than 20-750 nanometers. The ZnO layer is composed of a plurality of ZnO columnar crystal grain, each ZnO columnar crystal grain has a longitudinal direction along a normal line direction of the transparent substrate body, and each ZnO columnar crystal grain has a R2/R1 ratio of 1.1-1.6.
US09059336B2
A thermoelectric conversion element includes: a magnetic layer; a conductive film formed on the magnetic layer and configured to generate an electromotive force in an in-plane direction by inverse spin-Hall effect; and two terminal sections formed to contact with the conductive film at two portions whose potentials are different to each other by the electromotive force. Each of the two terminal sections contacts with the conductive film in a continuous or discrete contact surface. A longitudinal direction of a minimum rectangle which encompasses the continuous or discrete contact surface of each of the two terminal sections intersects with the direction of the electromotive force.
US09059335B2
Electronic devices for the generation of electromagnetic radiation are provided. Also provided are methods for using the devices to generate electromagnetic radiation. The radiation sources include an anisotropic electrically conducting thin film that is characterized by a periodically varying charge carrier mobility in the plane of the film. The periodic variation in carrier mobility gives rise to a spatially varying electric field, which produces electromagnetic radiation as charged particles pass through the film.
US09059320B2
A memory device is provided including a semiconductor on insulator (SOI) substrate including a first semiconductor layer atop a buried dielectric layer, wherein the buried dielectric layer is overlying a second semiconductor layer. A capacitor is present in a trench, wherein the trench extends from an upper surface of the first semiconductor layer through the buried dielectric layer and extends into the second semiconductor layer. A protective oxide is present in a void that lies adjacent the first semiconductor layer, and a pass transistor is present atop the semiconductor on insulator substrate in electrical communication with the capacitor.
US09059316B2
While embedded silicon germanium alloy and silicon carbon alloy provide many useful applications, especially for enhancing the mobility of MOSFETs through stress engineering, formation of alloyed silicide on these surfaces degrades device performance. The present invention provides structures and methods for providing unalloyed silicide on such silicon alloy surfaces placed on semiconductor substrates. This enables the formation of low resistance contacts for both mobility enhanced PFETs with embedded SiGe and mobility enhanced NFETs with embedded Si:C on the same semiconductor substrate. Furthermore, this invention provides methods for thick epitaxial silicon alloy, especially thick epitaxial Si:C alloy, above the level of the gate dielectric to increase the stress on the channel on the transistor devices.
US09059314B2
Equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) scaled high k/metal gate stacks are provided in which the capacitance bottleneck of the interfacial layer is substantially eliminated, with minimal compromise on the mobility of carriers in the channel of the device. In one embodiment, the aforementioned EOT scaled high k/metal gate stacks are achieved by increasing the dielectric constant of the interfacial layer to a value that is greater than the originally formed interfacial layer, i.e., the interfacial layer prior to diffusion of a high k material dopant element therein. In another embodiment, the aforementioned scaled high k/metal gate stacks are achieved by eliminating the interfacial layer from the structure. In yet another embodiment, the aforementioned high k/metal gate stacks are achieved by both increasing the dielectric constant of the interfacial layer and reducing/eliminating the interfacial layer.
US09059309B2
The object to provide a semiconductor device comprising a highly-integrated SGT-based CMOS inverter circuit is achieved by forming an inverter which comprises: a first transistor including; an first island-shaped semiconductor layer; a first gate insulating film; a gate electrode; a first first-conductive-type high-concentration semiconductor layer arranged above the first island-shaped semiconductor layer; and a second first-conductive-type high-concentration semiconductor layer arranged below the first island-shaped semiconductor layer, and a second transistor including; a second gate insulating film surrounding a part of the periphery of the gate electrode; a second semiconductor layer in contact with a part of the periphery of the second gate insulating film; a first second-conductive-type high-concentration semiconductor layer arranged above the second semiconductor layer; and a second second-conductive-type high-concentration semiconductor layer arranged below the second semiconductor layer.
US09059306B2
Semiconductor devices that include a trench with conductive material for connecting a VDMOS device to a LDMOS device are described. The semiconductor devices include a substrate having a first region and a second region, wherein the second region is disposed on the first region. A trench extends from a top surface of the second region to the first region. The semiconductor substrate includes a VDMOS device formed proximate to the top surface of the second region and a LDMOS device that is also formed proximate to the top surface of the second region. The drain region of the VDMOS device is electrically connected to the source region of the LDMOS device by way of a conductive material disposed in the trench.
US09059305B2
An interdigitated capacitor includes a substrate and a pair of comb-like electrodes both formed on the semiconductor substrate and horizontally arranged thereon, each of the pair of comb-like electrodes including finger electrodes having a curved profile.
US09059304B2
According to various embodiments, a flip chip package structure is provided in which a redistribution layer (RDL) is disposed on a surface of both a semiconductor chip and one or more lateral extensions of the semiconductor chip surface. The lateral extensions may be made using, e.g., a reconstituted wafer to implement a fanout region lateral to one or more sides of the semiconductor chip. One or more electrical connectors such as solder bumps or copper cylinders may be applied to the RDL, and an interposer such as a PCB interposer may be connected to the electrical connectors. In this way, a relatively tight semiconductor pad pitch may be accommodated and translated to an appropriate circuit board pitch without necessarily requiring a silicon or glass interposer.
US09059303B2
According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes: a first stacked body having a gate insulating film, a first charge storage layer, a first insulating film, a second charge storage layer, and a second insulating film, a second element isolation region, a bottom and at least part of a side portion of the second element isolation region being in contact with the semiconductor substrate in the peripheral portion; and a second stacked body, a third insulating film, a first layer, a fourth insulating film, a second layer, and the second insulating film are stacked in this order from the semiconductor substrate side between the semiconductor substrate and the control gate electrode in the second stacked body in the peripheral portion, a side portion of the second stacked body being covered with the second insulating film.
US09059298B2
An object is to provide a semiconductor device having a structure with which parasitic capacitance between wirings can be sufficiently reduced. An oxide insulating layer serving as a channel protective layer is formed over part of an oxide semiconductor layer overlapping with a gate electrode layer. In the same step as formation of the oxide insulating layer, an oxide insulating layer covering a peripheral portion of the oxide semiconductor layer is formed. The oxide insulating layer which covers the peripheral portion of the oxide semiconductor layer is provided to increase the distance between the gate electrode layer and a wiring layer formed above or in the periphery of the gate electrode layer, whereby parasitic capacitance is reduced.
US09059296B2
An oxide thin film transistor (TFT) and a fabrication method thereof are provided. First and second data wirings are made of different metal materials, and an active layer is formed on the first data wiring to implement a short channel, thus enhancing performance of the TFT. The first data wiring in contact with the active layer is made of a metal material having excellent contact characteristics and the other remaining second data wiring is made of a metal material having excellent conductivity, so as to be utilized to a large-scale oxide TFT process. Also, the first and second data wirings may be formed together by using half-tone exposure, simplifying the process.
US09059294B2
A switching circuit (semiconductor device) (18) includes two switching units (SW1 and SW2), which are connected in series to each other, and two capacitances (CS1 and CS2), where one electrode of one of the capacitances is connected to the connecting section of the switching units (SW1 and SW2) and one electrode of the other capacitance is connected to one end of the switching units (SW1 and SW2). To the other electrodes of the capacitances (CS1 and CS2), signals having a constant voltage or signals having a same phase are supplied. A bottom gate electrode (light-shielding film) (22) is formed for the switching unit (SW2).
US09059289B2
At least one semiconductor fin is formed over an insulator layer. Portions of the insulator layer are etched from underneath the at least one semiconductor fin. The amount of the etched portions of the insulator is selected such that a metallic gate electrode layer fills the entire gap between the recessed surfaces of the insulator layer and the bottom surface(s) of the at least one semiconductor fin. An interface between the metallic gate electrode layer and a semiconductor gate electrode layer contiguously extends over the at least one semiconductor fin and does not underlie any of the at least one semiconductor fin. During patterning of a gate electrode, removal of the semiconductor material in the semiconductor gate electrode layer can be facilitated because the semiconductor gate electrode layer is not present under the at least one semiconductor fin.
US09059282B2
Semiconductor devices and methods of manufacture thereof are disclosed. In one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes an array having at least one first region and at least one second region. The at least one first region includes at least one first device oriented in a first direction. The at least one second region includes at least one second device oriented in a second direction. The second direction is different than the first direction.
US09059272B2
A method for forming a transistor includes providing a patterned gate stack disposed on a III-V substrate and having sidewall spacers formed on sides of the patterned gate stack, the III-V substrate including source/drain regions adjacent to the sidewall spacers and field oxide regions formed adjacent to the source/drain regions. The method includes growing raised source/drain regions on the source/drain regions, the grown raised source/drain regions including III-V semiconductor material, and growing metal contacts on the grown raised source/drain regions. Another method for forming a transistor includes providing a patterned gate stack disposed on a III-V substrate and having sidewall spacers formed on sides of the patterned gate stack, the III-V substrate including source/drain regions adjacent to the sidewall spacers and field oxide regions formed adjacent to the source/drain regions. The method includes growing metal contacts on the source/drain regions. Transistors and computer program products are also disclosed.
US09059271B2
A method for forming a transistor includes providing a patterned gate stack disposed on a III-V substrate and having sidewall spacers formed on sides of the patterned gate stack, the III-V substrate including source/drain regions adjacent to the sidewall spacers and field oxide regions formed adjacent to the source/drain regions. The method includes growing raised source/drain regions on the source/drain regions, the grown raised source/drain regions including III-V semiconductor material, and growing metal contacts on the grown raised source/drain regions. Another method for forming a transistor includes providing a patterned gate stack disposed on a III-V substrate and having sidewall spacers formed on sides of the patterned gate stack, the III-V substrate including source/drain regions adjacent to the sidewall spacers and field oxide regions formed adjacent to the source/drain regions. The method includes growing metal contacts on the source/drain regions. Transistors and computer program products are also disclosed.
US09059263B2
A low-K value dielectric protection spacer for patterning through substrate vias (TSVs) through a low-K value wiring layer. A method for forming a low-K value dielectric protection spacer includes etching a via opening through a low-K value dielectric interconnect layer. A protective layer is deposited in the via opening and on the low-K value dielectric interconnect layer. At least a portion of the protective layer is etched from the bottom of the via opening and from a horizontal surface of the low-K value dielectric interconnect layer. The etching leaving a protective sidewall spacer on a sidewall of the via opening. A through substrate via is etched through the bottom of the via opening and through the semiconductor substrate. The through substrate via is filled with a conductive material.
US09059257B2
A method including forming a sacrificial metal cap on a metal line formed in a first dielectric layer; forming a second dielectric layer on the first dielectric layer; removing the sacrificial metal cap selective to the second dielectric layer and metal line to form a cap opening; forming a dielectric cap in the cap opening and on the metal line; forming an interconnect dielectric layer over the dielectric cap and the second dielectric layer; forming an interconnect opening in the interconnect dielectric layer; removing a portion of the dielectric cap exposed by the interconnect opening selective to the interconnect dielectric layer, the second dielectric layer, and the metal line; and forming an interconnect structure in the interconnect opening, the interconnect structure comprising a contact line above a via, the via having an upper via portion with angled sidewalls and a lower via portion with substantially vertical sidewalls.
US09059251B2
A microelectronic structure and a method for fabricating the microelectronic structure provide a plurality of voids interposed between a plurality of conductor layers. The plurality of voids is also located between a liner layer and an inter-level dielectric layer. The voids provide for enhanced electrical performance of the microelectronic structure.
US09059240B2
A fixture for shaping a laminate substrate includes a trap ring, a base plate and a center button. The base plate includes a recess adapted to receive the laminate substrate. The center button is disposed in an opening in the base plate. The center button may be adjusted to shape the laminate substrate.
US09059237B2
A semiconductor device includes: a first semiconductor region; a second semiconductor region, which is arranged on the first semiconductor region; a third semiconductor region, which is arranged on the second semiconductor region; a plurality of fourth semiconductor regions, each of which is arranged with being spaced from each other on the third semiconductor region; a insulation film arranged on a inner wall of a recess, which extends from upper faces of the fourth semiconductor region to pass through the third semiconductor region and the fourth semiconductor region and reaches the second semiconductor region; a control electrode, a first main electrode, a second main electrode, which is electrically connected to the third semiconductor region and the fourth semiconductor region, wherein a ratio of a width of the recess to a width of the third semiconductor region abutting on the second main electrode is 1 or more.
US09059231B2
A base region extends upward from a recessed semiconductor surface of a semiconductor material portion present on an insulator. The base region includes a vertical stack of, an extrinsic base region and an intrinsic base region. The extrinsic base region includes a first compound semiconductor material portion of a first conductivity type and a first dopant concentration. The intrinsic base region includes another first compound semiconductor material portion of the first conductivity type and a second dopant concentration which is less than the first dopant concentration. A collector region including a second compound semiconductor material portion of a second conductivity type opposite of the first conductivity type is located on one side on the base region. An emitter region including another second compound semiconductor material portion of the second conductivity type is located on another side on the base region.
US09059224B2
A method and system for treating a substrate are provided. The system includes a coating unit, a pre/post-exposure treatment unit, and a developing unit. Each of the units includes a load port and an index module. The pre/post-exposure treatment unit includes first and second modules that are arranged in different layers. The first module performs a process for coating a protective layer on the wafer before an exposure process. The second module performs a process for cleaning the wafer and a post-exposure bake process after the exposure process.
US09059219B2
Provided is a method for manufacturing a transistor by which the defective shape of a semiconductor device is prevented in the case where a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer are formed on an oxide semiconductor film. A source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer are formed each having a cross-sectional shape with which disconnection of a gate insulating film is unlikely to occur even when the gate insulating film over the source electrode layer and the drain electrode layer has a small thickness. An oxide semiconductor film having a crystal structure over an insulating surface is formed; an electrode layer on the oxide semiconductor film is formed; and a thickness of an exposed portion of the oxide semiconductor film is reduced by exposing the oxide semiconductor film to dilute hydrofluoric acid with a concentration higher than 0.0001% and lower than or equal to 0.25%.
US09059214B2
Embodiments of the disclosed technology relate to a method for manufacturing a thin film transistor (TFT) with a polysilicon active layer comprising: depositing an amorphous silicon layer on a substrate, and patterning the amorphous silicon layer so as to form an active layer comprising a source region, a drain region and a channel region; depositing an inducing metal layer on the source region and the drain region; performing a first thermal treatment on the active layer provided with the inducing metal layer so that the active layer is crystallized under the effect of the inducing metal; doping the source region and the drain region with a first impurity for collecting the inducing metal; and performing a second thermal treatment on the doped active layer so that the first impurity absorbs the inducing metal remained in the channel region.
US09059213B2
A node dielectric and a conductive trench fill region filling a deep trench are recessed to a depth that is substantially coplanar with a top surface of a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) layer. A shallow trench isolation portion is formed on one side of an upper portion of the deep trench, while the other side of the upper portion of the deep trench provides an exposed surface of a semiconductor material of the conductive fill region. A selective epitaxy process is performed to deposit a raised source region and a raised strap region. The raised source region is formed directly on a planar source region within the SOI layer, and the raised strap region is formed directly on the conductive fill region. The raised strap region contacts the raised source region to provide an electrically conductive path between the planar source region and the conductive fill region.
US09059211B2
At least one layer including a scavenging material and a dielectric material is deposited over a gate stack, and is subsequently anisotropically etched to form a oxygen-scavenging-material-including gate spacer. The oxygen-scavenging-material-including gate spacer can be a scavenging-nanoparticle-including gate spacer or a scavenging-island-including gate spacer. The scavenging material is distributed within the oxygen-scavenging-material-including gate spacer in a manner that prevents an electrical short between a gate electrode and a semiconductor material underlying a gate dielectric. The scavenging material actively scavenges oxygen that diffuses toward the gate dielectric from above, or from the outside of, a dielectric gate spacer that can be formed around the oxygen-scavenging-material-including gate spacer.
US09059203B2
Disclosed is a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) structure (e.g., an SOI field effect transistor (FET)) and method of forming the SOI structure so as to have sub-insulator layer void(s) selectively placed so that capacitance coupling between a first section of a semiconductor layer and the substrate will be less than capacitance coupling between a second section of the semiconductor layer and the substrate. The first section may contain a first device and the second section may contain a second device. Alternatively, the first and second sections may comprise different regions of the same device. For example, in an SOI FET, sub-insulator layer voids can be selectively placed in the substrate below the source, drain and/or body contact diffusion regions, but not below the channel region so that capacitance coupling between the these various diffusion regions and the substrate will be less than capacitance coupling between the channel region and the substrate.
US09059198B2
Fabrication methods for bi-directional silicon controlled rectifier device structures. A well of a first conductivity type is formed in a device region, which may be defined from a device layer of a semiconductor-on-insulator substrate. An anode of a first silicon controlled rectifier is formed in the first well. A cathode of a second silicon controlled rectifier is formed in the first well. The anode of the first silicon controlled rectifier has the first conductivity type. The cathode of the second silicon controlled rectifier has a second conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type.
US09059188B1
According to an aspect of the present principles, there is provided a method and an authentication apparatus. The method includes arranging a plurality of graphene resistors in parallel or series. The method further includes forming a unique identification code based on respective temperatures emanating from or respective voltages output from the plurality of graphene resistors when the plurality of graphene resistors are in a powered state.
US09059184B2
A method and system for decapsulating a portion of an encapsulated integrated circuit delivers etchant mixture in variable but precise, high-velocity micro-metered pulses to a single outlet port of a pump from any one of or a combination of separate inlet ports connected to separate etchant source containers holding specific etchant solutions, controls temperature of the etchant mixture by passing the etchant mixture from the outlet port through a serpentine passage in a temperature-controlled metal block, and delivers the etchant mixture from the serpentine passage of the temperature-controlled block via a delivery conduit to an encapsulation surface of the encapsulated integrated circuit.
US09059177B2
A method of forming a metal interconnect structure includes forming a copper line within an interlevel dielectric (ILD) layer; directly doping a top surface of the copper line with a copper alloy material; and forming a dielectric layer over the ILD layer and the copper alloy material; wherein the copper alloy material serves an adhesion interface layer between the copper line and the dielectric layer.
US09059174B2
Methods of fabricating a multi-layer semiconductor structure are provided. In one embodiment, a method includes depositing a first dielectric layer over a semiconductor structure, depositing a first metal layer over the first dielectric layer, patterning the first metal layer to form a plurality of first metal lines, and depositing a second dielectric layer over the first metal lines and the first dielectric layer. The method also includes removing a portion of the second dielectric layer over selected first metal lines to expose a respective top surface of each of the selected first metal lines. The method further includes reducing a thickness of the selected first metal lines to be less than a thickness of the unselected first metal lines. A multi-layer semiconductor structure is also provided.
US09059170B2
An electronic fuse structure including an Mx level comprising an Mx metal, and an Mx+1 level above the Mx level, the Mx+1 level including an Mx+1 metal and a via electrically connecting the Mx metal to the Mx+1 metal in a vertical orientation, where the Mx+1 metal comprises a thick portion and a thin portion, and where the Mx metal, the Mx+1 metal, and the via are substantially filled with a conductive material.
US09059162B2
A COF substrate may include a base film, first upper conductive patterns, at least one second upper conductive pattern and lower conductive patterns. The first upper conductive patterns may be arranged on an upper surface of the base film. Each of the first upper conductive patterns may have an inner pattern and an outer pattern spaced apart from each other. The second upper conductive pattern may be arranged on the upper surface of the base film between the first upper conductive patterns. The lower conductive patterns may be arranged on a lower surface of the base film. The lower conductive patterns may be electrically connected between the inner pattern and the outer pattern. Thus, conductive materials causing a short between the panel patterns may not exist between the inner pattern and the outer pattern on the upper surface of the base film.
US09059157B2
An integrated circuit packaging system and method of manufacture thereof includes: a substrate having a top insulation layer and a top conductive layer; an inter-react layer on the substrate; an integrated circuit die on the substrate; a package body on the inter-react layer and the integrated circuit die; and a top solder bump on the top conductive layer, the top solder bump in a 3D via formed through the package body, the inter-react layer, and the top insulation layer for exposing the top conductive layer in the 3D via.
US09059143B2
A semiconductor device which includes a substrate, a semiconductor element arranged on the substrate, a heat dissipation component arranged on the semiconductor element, and a mold component covering an upper part of the substrate, the semiconductor element and the heat dissipation component, wherein an area of a surface on the semiconductor element of the heat dissipation component is larger than an area of a surface on which the heat dissipation component of the semiconductor element is arranged.
US09059142B2
A method for forming a semiconductor device with a vertical gate is disclosed, including providing a substrate, forming a recess in the substrate, forming a gate dielectric layer on a sidewall and a bottom of the recess, forming an adhesion layer in the recess and on the gate dielectric layer, wherein the adhesion layer is a metal silicide nitride layer, and forming a gate layer in the recess and on the adhesion layer.
US09059140B1
A method of mounting a plurality of semiconductor or microelectronic chips or dies, the method including providing a carrier, temporarily adhering the plurality of semiconductor or microelectronic chips or dies to the carrier with active faces of the chips or dies facing towards the carrier, covering backsides of the chips and filling empty spaces between the chips or dies with a metallic material to thereby define an assembly of the chips or dies and the metallic material, and releasing the assembly from the carrier, wherein each chip or die comprises at least one bonding ring higher than a height of the active face of the respective chip or die or any connections on the active face of the respective chip or die.
US09059139B2
A semiconductor structure and method of manufacturing the same are provided. The semiconductor device includes epitaxial raised source/drain (RSD) regions formed on the surface of a semiconductor substrate through selective epitaxial growth. In one embodiment, the faceted side portions of the RSD regions are utilized to form cavity regions which may be filled with a dielectric material to form dielectric spacer regions. Spacers may be formed over the dielectric spacer regions. In another embodiment, the faceted side portions may be selectively grown to form air gap spacer regions in the cavity regions. A conformal spacer layer with interior and exterior surfaces may be formed in the cavity region, creating an air gap spacer defined by the interior surfaces of the conformal spacer layer.
US09059135B2
Nanochannel sensors and methods for constructing nanochannel sensors. An example method includes forming a sacrificial line on an insulating layer, forming a dielectric layer, etching a pair of electrode trenches, forming a pair of electrodes, and removing the sacrificial line to form a nanochannel. The dielectric layer may be formed on insulating layer and around the sacrificial line. The pair of electrode trenches may be etched in the dielectric layer on opposite sides of the sacrificial line. The pair of electrodes may be formed by filling the electrode trenches with electrode material. The sacrificial line may be removed by forming a nanochannel between the at least one pair of electrodes.
US09059133B2
One or more embodiments relate to a semiconductor device, comprising: A semiconductor device, comprising: a semiconductor substrate; a plurality of first conductive vias, the first conductive vias electrically coupled together, each of the first conductive vias passing through the substrate; and a plurality of second conductive vias, the second conductive vias electrically coupled together, each of the second conductive vias passing through the substrate, the second conductive vias spacedly disposed from the first conductive vias, each of the second conductive vias laterally surrounding a respective one of the first conductive vias.
US09059131B2
A semiconductor device including at least one capacitor formed in wiring levels on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, wherein the at least one capacitor is coupled to an active layer of the SOI substrate. A method of fabricating a semiconductor structure includes forming an SOI substrate, forming a BOX layer over the SOI substrate, and forming at least one capacitor in wiring levels on the BOX layer, wherein the at least one capacitor is coupled to an active layer of the SOI substrate.
US09059118B2
A method is disclosed for producing high quality semi-insulating silicon carbide crystals in the absence of relevant amounts of deep level trapping elements. The invention includes the steps of heating a silicon carbide crystal having a first concentration of point defects to a temperature that thermodynamically increases the number of point defects and resulting states in the crystal, and then cooling the heated crystal at a sufficiently rapid rate to maintain an increased concentration of point defects in the cooled crystal.
US09059109B2
A package assembly including a semiconductor die electrically coupled to a substrate by an interconnected joint structure. The semiconductor die includes a bump overlying a semiconductor substrate, and a molding compound layer overlying the semiconductor substrate and being in physical contact with a first portion of the bump. The substrate includes a no-flow underfill layer on a conductive region. A second portion of the bump is in physical contact with the no-flow underfill layer to form the interconnected joint structure.
US09059103B2
Disclosed is a processing method that removes moisture in a low permittivity film formed on a substrate to be processed which has a damaged layer on the surface thereof while maintaining the specific permittivity or a leakage current value low when the film is subjected to a recovery processing. The method for the recovery processing includes applying, on the damaged layer of the low permittivity film, a first processing gas whose molecules are small sufficient to permeate the inside of the damaged layer of the low permittivity film and which is able to remove the moisture in the damaged layer and a second processing gas which forms a hydrophobic dense reformatted layer on the surface of the damaged layer, thereby allowing the first processing gas and the second processing gas to react with the damaged layer.
US09059092B2
Systems and methods are provided for fabricating semiconductor devices. For example, a substrate is provided. A polymer layer is formed on the substrate. An oxygen-based plasma is applied to remove the polymer layer. An oxidizing solution is applied to generate a dielectric layer. A conductive layer is formed on the dielectric layer for fabricating semiconductor devices.
US09059091B2
A transistor is fabricated by removing a polysilicon gate over a doped region of a substrate and forming a mask layer over the substrate such that the doped region is exposed through a hole within the mask layer. An interfacial layer is deposited on top and side surfaces of the mask layer and on a top surface of the doped region. A layer adapted to reduce a threshold voltage of the transistor and/or reduce a thickness of an inversion layer of the transistor is deposited on the interfacial layer. The layer includes metal, such as aluminum or lanthanum, which diffuses into the interfacial layer, and also includes oxide, such as hafnium oxide. A conductive plug, such as a metal plug, is formed within the hole of the mask layer. The interfacial layer, the layer on the interfacial layer, and the conductive plug are a replacement gate of the transistor.
US09059087B2
An insulating portion has a first region, a second region, and a third region in the stated order from the silicon portion side, the nitrogen concentration of the first region is lower than the nitrogen concentration of the second region and the oxygen concentration of the first region, the nitrogen concentration of the third region is lower than the nitrogen concentration of the second region and the oxygen concentration of the third region, and the thickness of the first region is larger than the thickness of the third region.
US09059086B2
A semiconductor device capable of suppressing generation of a high electric field and preventing a dielectric breakdown from occurring, and a method of manufacturing the same. The method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes (a) preparing an n+ substrate to be a ground constituted by a silicon carbide semiconductor of a first conductivity type, (b) forming a recess structure surrounding an element region on the n+ substrate by using a resist pattern, and (d) forming a guard ring injection layer to be an impurity layer of a second conductivity type in a recess bottom surface and a recess side surface in the recess structure by impurity injection through the resist pattern, and a corner portion of the recess structure is covered with the impurity layer.
US09059080B2
Methods for fabricating device structures, such as bipolar transistors and diodes. The method includes forming a trench extending through stacked semiconductor and insulator layers and into an underlying semiconductor substrate. The trench may be at least partially filled with a sacrificial plug containing a dopant with a conductivity type opposite to the conductivity type of the semiconductor substrate. Dopant is transported outwardly from the sacrificial plug into the semiconductor substrate surrounding the trench to define a doped region of the second conductivity type in the semiconductor substrate. A first contact is formed that extends through the semiconductor and insulator layers to a portion of the semiconductor substrate outside of the doped region. A second contact is formed that extends through the semiconductor and insulator layers to the doped region.
US09059069B2
There is provided a linear sensor including a plurality of sensor elements that are disposed in line, each including a light sensing part that senses light, generates an electric charge according to an amount of the sensed light, and accumulates the electric charge, a readout gate used to read out the electric charge accumulated in the light sensing part, and a reset gate used to discharge the electric charge accumulated in the light sensing part so as to be reset, wherein a region having a highest concentration of an impurity included in the light sensing part is formed in a position similarly away from the readout gate and the reset gate in the light sensing part.
US09059068B2
A method is provided for fabricating a pixel structure of a CMOS transistor. The method includes providing a semiconductor substrate doped with first type doping ions; and forming a trench in the semiconductor substrate by etching the semiconductor substrate. The method also includes forming isolation layers on side surfaces of the trench to prevent dark current from laterally transferring; and forming an epitaxial layer doped with second type doping ions with a doping type opposite to a doping type of the first type doping ions in the trench. Further, the method includes forming a pinning layer on a top surface of the epitaxial layer; and forming a gate structure on a surface of the semiconductor substrate at one side of the epitaxial layer. Further, the method also includes forming a floating diffusion region in the semiconductor substrate at one side of the gate structure far from the epitaxial layer.
US09059067B2
A semiconductor device includes an interposer mounting a semiconductor chip. The interposer includes a silicon substrate having a recessed region formed on a first surface, a first through via penetrating a first region of the silicon substrate from the first surface to an opposing second surface, an insulator disposed in the recessed region, and a first wire pattern at least partially disposed on the insulator and electrically connecting the first through via to the semiconductor chip.
US09059065B2
Provided is a method of varying the gain of an amplifying photoelectric conversion device and a variable gain photoelectric conversion device which are capable of achieving both signal processing under low illuminance and high-current processing under high light intensity, and thereby capable of securing a wide dynamic range. An amplifying photoelectric conversion part includes a photoelectric conversion element and amplification transistors forming a Darlington circuit. The sources and the drains of field-effect transistors are connected to the bases and the emitters of the amplification transistors, respectively. The gates of the field-effect transistors each function as a gain control part.
US09059052B2
Kerf areas are located between the integrated circuit chips on a wafer. Via chain test structures are located in the kerf areas or test chips. The via chain test structures comprise a first conductor in a first area of the wafer. First via chains are connected at individual points to the first conductor. Each of the first via chains comprises an open-ended electrical circuit beginning at the first conductor and ending in an insulated region of a second area of the wafer. The via chain test structures comprise a second conductor in the second area. Second via chains are connected at individual points to the second conductor. Each of the second via chains comprises an open-ended electrical circuit beginning at the second conductor and ending in an insulated region of the first area.
US09059049B2
A plurality of pixels are arranged on the substrate. Each of the pixels is provided with an EL element which utilizes as a cathode a pixel electrode connected to a current control TFT. On a counter substrate, a light shielding film, a first color filter having a first color and a second color filter having a second color are provided. The second color is different from the first color.
US09059048B2
A display apparatus, an array substrate, and a method for producing the array substrate are provides to so as to effectively reduce a horizontal distance occupied by the ESD assembly at each side of the display region of the substrate and achieve a good performance of the narrow edge frame of the TFT-LCD. The array substrate comprises a pixel region and a periphery wiring region, wherein an Electro-Static Discharge (ESD) assembly and a short-circuit ring are disposed in the periphery wiring region, and wherein the ESD assembly comprises a plurality of Thin Film Transistors (TFTs) each having a source electrode and a drain electrode that are disposed within the short-circuit ring.
US09059045B2
A TFT is manufactured using at least five photomasks in a conventional liquid crystal display device, and therefore the manufacturing cost is high. By performing the formation of the pixel electrode 127, the source region 123 and the drain region 124 by using three photomasks in three photolithography steps, a liquid crystal display device prepared with a pixel TFT portion, having a reverse stagger type n-channel TFT, and a storage capacitor can be realized, FIG. 2.
US09059044B2
An electrical device including a first conductivity semiconductor device present in a first semiconductor device region of an SOI substrate, and a second conductivity semiconductor device present in a second semiconductor device region of the SOI substrate. The electrical device also includes a diode present within a diode region of the SOI substrate that includes a first doped layer of a first conductivity semiconductor material that is present on an SOI layer of the SOI substrate. The first doped layer includes a first plurality of protrusions extending from a first connecting base portion. The semiconductor diode further includes a second doped layer of the second conductivity semiconductor material present over the first doped layer. The second doped layer including a second plurality of protrusions extending from a second connecting base portion. The second plurality of protrusions is present between and separating the first plurality of protrusions.
US09059041B2
Trenches are formed through a top semiconductor layer and a buried insulator layer of a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. A selective epitaxy is performed to form bulk semiconductor portions filling the trenches and in epitaxial alignment with the semiconductor material of a handle substrate. At least one dielectric layer is deposited over the top semiconductor layer and the bulk semiconductor portions, and is patterned to form openings over selected areas of the top semiconductor layer and the bulk semiconductor portions. A semiconductor alloy material is deposited within the openings directly on physically exposed surfaces of the top semiconductor layer and the bulk semiconductor portions. The semiconductor alloy material intermixes with the underlying semiconductor materials in a subsequent anneal. Within each of the SOI region and the bulk region, two types of semiconductor material portions are formed depending on whether a semiconductor material intermixes with the semiconductor alloy material.
US09059033B2
A semiconductor device is provided having a pad with an improved moisture blocking ability. The semiconductor device has: a circuit portion including a plurality of semiconductor elements formed on a semiconductor substrate; lamination of insulator covering the circuit portion, including a passivation film as an uppermost layer having openings; ferro-electric capacitors formed in the lamination of insulator; wiring structure formed in the lamination of insulator and connected to the semiconductor elements and the ferro-electric capacitors; pad electrodes connected to the wiring structure, formed in the lamination of insulator and exposed in the openings of the passivation film; a conductive pad protection film, including a Pd film, covering each pad electrode via the opening of the passivation film, and extending on the passivation film; and stud bump or bonding wire connected to the pad electrode via the conductive pad protection film.
US09059030B2
A memory cell includes a transistor device comprising a pair of source/drains, a body comprising a channel, and a gate construction operatively proximate the channel. The memory cell includes a capacitor comprising a pair of capacitor electrodes having a capacitor dielectric there-between. One of the capacitor electrodes is the channel or is electrically coupled to the channel. The other of the capacitor electrodes includes a portion of the body other than the channel. Methods are also disclosed.
US09059024B2
Techniques are disclosed for forming low contact resistance transistor devices. A p-type germanium layer is provided between p-type source/drain regions and their respective contact metals, and an n-type III-V semiconductor material layer is provided between n-type source/drain regions and their respective contact metals. The n-type III-V semiconductor material layer may have a small bandgap (e.g., <0.5 eV) and/or otherwise be doped to provide desired conductivity, and the p-type germanium layer can be doped, for example, with boron. After deposition of the III-V material over both the n-type source/drain regions and the germanium covered p-type source/drain regions, an etch-back process can be performed to take advantage of the height differential between n and p type regions to self-align contact types and expose the p-type germanium over p-type regions and thin the n-type III-V material over the n-type regions. The techniques can be used on planar and non-planar transistor architectures.
US09059021B2
A method for forming a field effect transistor device includes patterning an arrangement of fin portions on a substrate, patterning a gate stack portion over portions of the fin portions and the substrate, growing an epitaxial material from the fin portions that electrically connects portions of adjacent fin structures, and removing a portion of the gate stack portion to expose a portion of the substrate.
US09059020B1
A method and circuit for implementing an enhanced transistor topology enabling enhanced current capability with added device drive strength with buried field effect transistors (FETs) below and beside a traditional FinFET on a bulk substrate, and a design structure on which the subject circuit resides are provided. Buried field effect transistors (FETs) are formed on either side and under the traditional FinFET. The gate of the FinFET becomes the gate of the parallel buried (FETs) and allows self alignment to the underlying sources and drains of the buried FET devices in the bulk semiconductor.
US09059017B2
A structure and a method of making the structure. The structure includes first and second semiconductor regions in a semiconductor substrate and separated by a region of trench isolation in the semiconductor substrate; a first gate electrode extending over the first semiconductor region; a second gate electrode extending over the second semiconductor region; a trench contained in the region of trench isolation and between and abutting the first and second semiconductor regions; and an electrically conductive strap in the trench, the strap electrically connecting the first and second semiconductor regions.
US09059016B1
A lateral heterojunction bipolar transistor is formed on a substrate including a top semiconductor layer of a first semiconductor material having a first band gap and of a first conductivity type. A stack of an extrinsic base and a base cap is formed over the top semiconductor layer. A dielectric spacer is formed around the stack. Ion implantation of dopants of a second conductivity type is performed to dope regions of the top semiconductor layer that are not masked by the stack and the dielectric spacer, thereby forming an emitter region and a collector region. A second semiconductor material having a second band gap greater than the first band gap, having a doping of the second conductivity type and being lattice matched to the first semiconductor material is selectively deposited to form an emitter contact region and a collector contact region, respectively.
US09059012B2
An epitaxial wafer having a void for separation of a substrate and a semiconductor device fabricated using the same. The epitaxial wafer includes a substrate, a mask pattern disposed on the substrate and comprising a masking region and an opening region, and an epitaxial layer covering the mask pattern. The epitaxial layer includes a void disposed on the masking region. The epitaxial layer can be separated from the growth substrate by applying chemical lift-off or stress lift-off, at the void.
US09058996B2
According to one embodiment, a method for generating mask data is configured to form a circuit pattern on a substrate using a directed self-assembly material. The method includes extracting a first region, setting a second region and setting a third region. The first region does not existing in the circuit pattern and existing in an initial pattern. The initial pattern includes a plurality of interconnect patterns extending in a first direction. The second region is formed by elongating the first region in a second direction intersecting the first direction. The second region straddles the first region in the second direction. The third region includes at least one of the second regions. The directed self-assembly material is disposed in the third region.
US09058995B2
Device structures, design structures, and fabrication methods for a drain-extended metal-oxide-semiconductor (DEMOS) transistor. A first well of a first conductivity type and a second well of a second conductivity type are formed in a device region. The first and second wells are juxtaposed to define a p-n junction. A first doped region of the first conductivity type and a doped region of the second conductivity type are in the first well. The first doped region of the first conductivity type is separated from the second well by a first portion of the first well. The doped region of the second conductivity type is separated from the second well by a second portion of the first well. A second doped region of the first conductivity type, which is in the second well, is separated by a portion of the second well from the first and second portions of the first well.
US09058988B2
Methods of depositing layers having reduced interfacial contamination are disclosed herein. The inventive methods may advantageously reduce contamination at the interface between deposited layers, for example, between a deposited layer and an underlying substrate or film. In some embodiments, a method of depositing a layer may include annealing a silicon-containing layer having a first layer disposed thereon in a reducing atmosphere; removing the first layer using an etching process to expose the silicon-containing layer after annealing; and depositing a second layer on the exposed silicon-containing layer.
US09058987B2
A dielectric template layer is deposited on a substrate. Line trenches are formed within the dielectric template layer by an anisotropic etch that employs a patterned mask layer. The patterned mask layer can be a patterned photoresist layer, or a patterned hard mask layer that is formed by other image transfer methods. A lower portion of each line trench is filled with an epitaxial rare-earth oxide material by a selective rare-earth oxide epitaxy process. An upper portion of each line trench is filled with an epitaxial semiconductor material by a selective semiconductor epitaxy process. The dielectric template layer is recessed to form a dielectric material layer that provides lateral electrical isolation among fin structures, each of which includes a stack of a rare-earth oxide fin portion and a semiconductor fin portion.
US09058984B2
A semiconductor device includes a dielectric layer in which zirconium, hafnium, and a IV group element are mixed. A method for fabricating a capacitor includes forming a bottom electrode, forming the dielectric layer and forming a top electrode over the dielectric layer.
US09058983B2
In some examples, a process to generate an in-situ hardmask layer on porous dielectric materials using the densifying action of a plasma in conjunction with a sacrificial polymeric filler, the latter which enables control of the hardmask thickness as well as a well-defined interface with the underlying ILD.
US09058982B2
An insulating film that does not contain hydrogen or free fluorine and has good film properties is provided. A silicon oxynitride film includes silicon, nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine, wherein the elemental percentage (N+O+F)/Si of the total (N+O+F) of nitrogen (N), oxygen (O), and fluorine (F) to silicon (Si) is in a range of 1.93 to 1.48, and in the silicon oxynitride film, an elemental percentage of silicon ranges from 0.34 to 0.41, an elemental percentage of nitrogen ranges from 0.10 to 0.22, an elemental percentage of oxygen ranges from 0.14 to 0.38, and an elemental percentage of fluorine ranges from 0.17 to 0.24. The film can be formed on a substrate by inductive coupling type plasma CVD whereby a plasma is generated by inductive coupling using a silicon tetrafluoride gas, a nitrogen gas, and an oxygen gas as a material gas.
US09058972B2
A semiconductor device includes: a first semiconductor chip; and a second semiconductor chip that is stacked on the first semiconductor chip. The first semiconductor chip includes a first wiring portion of which a side surface is exposed at a side portion of the first semiconductor chip. The second semiconductor chip includes a second wiring portion of which a side surface is exposed at a side portion of the second semiconductor chip. The respective side surfaces of the first wiring portion and the second wiring portion, which are exposed at the side portions of the first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip, are covered by a conductive layer, and the first wiring portion and the second wiring portion are electrically connected to each other through the conductive layer.
US09058964B2
A method of switching between two modes of power supply to a mass analyzer is provided. In a first mode of operation, operated for a first predefined time duration, a first power supply, coupled to the mass analyzer, generates a first nonzero potential, while a second power supply, disconnected from the mass analyzer, generates a second non-zero potential. In a second mode of operation, operated for a second predefined time duration, the second potential is coupled to the mass analyzer, while the first power supply, disconnected from the mass analyzer, generates the first potential. These predefined time durations are selected such that only one of: the first potential; and the second potential is coupled to the mass analyzer at any time, and such that the first and second modes of operation are carried out at least once within a predetermined length of time.
US09058957B2
A charged particle beam apparatus is provided with a parameter adjustment practice function for allowing any user to easily learn manual focus adjustment and stigma adjustment. Control conditions of the focus arrangement of an objective lens, an X-stigmator and a Y-stigmator are set according to the user's operation. According to a group of the focus adjustment, an X-stigma adjustment and a Y-stigma adjustment which are set, a practice-purpose image corresponding to the control conditions is read out from a storage device and is displayed on a screen.
US09058944B2
Disclosed is a lighting system for an electric parking brake switch. The lighting system includes a panel in which an installation space and an operation space are formed at an upper portion thereof. In addition the system includes a switch that is installed in the installation space and is shaft coupled to perform pivotal motion. Furthermore, a prism is installed within the switch wherein one surface is exposed toward the operation space. The prism is configured to allow light which enters from underside bottom surface to pass therethrough and travel vertically upward after exiting from an upper surface, and to refract within thereof and then travel toward the operation space. Additionally, a light source is disposed at a lower end portion of the panel and is configured to emit light to the prism.
US09058939B2
An arc runner configured to provide a substantially constant separation between a side surface of a conductive contact carrier and an arc discharge surface of the arc runner during an initial portion of a separation of two contacts. The arc discharge surface is preferably a flat surface oriented perpendicular to an axis of rotation of one contact away from the other. The conductive contact carrier having the side surface is configured to allow the arc runner to repeatedly travel along its side without mechanical interference during repeated openings and closings of the contacts. During the initial portion of the separation of the contacts, an electrical arc generated between the contacts during the separation is desirably transferred off of the contacts to the arc discharge surface after the separation between the contacts exceeds the distance between the side surface and the arc discharge surface.
US09058938B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a contact switching device that does not cause a contact failure due to resin powder, and has higher contact reliability. For this, there is a contact switching device in which a movable iron core provided at one end portion of a movable shaft (145) is attracted to a fixed iron core, based on excitation and degauss of an electromagnet portion, by which the movable shaft (145) reciprocates in a shaft center direction, and a movable contact (148a) of a movable contact piece (148) arranged at another end portion of the movable shaft (145) contacts and departs from a fixed contact. Inside a magnet holder (135) containing the movable contact piece (148), metal position restricting plate (162) that can abut on at least one side of the movable contact piece (148) is arranged.
US09058932B2
A capacitor system and a method for producing a capacitor system. The capacitor system may be used in a power semiconductor module. In one embodiment, the capacitor system comprises a metal shaped body having a depression; a capacitor arranged at least partly in the depression; a spacer composed of electrically insulating material, the spacer being arranged at least partly between the capacitor and the metal shaped body in the depression; and an electrically insulating potting material provided in the depression, wherein the potting material fixes the capacitor in the depression so that the capacitor does not touch the metal shaped body.
US09058929B2
A boosting AC-to-DC converter may include a main rectifier, first and second auxiliary rectifiers, and an autotransformer. The autotransformer may include a plurality of winding assemblies each having a primary terminal connected to an AC power source, a main secondary terminal connected to the main rectifier, a first auxiliary secondary terminal connected to the first auxiliary rectifier, and a second auxiliary secondary terminal connected to the second auxiliary rectifier. Impedance between the primary terminal of each of the winding assemblies and the main rectifier is less than impedance between the primary terminal of each of the winding assemblies and either the first auxiliary rectifier or the second auxiliary rectifier. Impedance between the primary terminal of each of the first winding assemblies and the first auxiliary rectifier is different from impedance between the primary terminal of each of the winding assemblies and the second auxiliary rectifier.
US09058926B2
Exemplary embodiments include a fluid insulated high voltage coil having closed tank for an insulation fluid and a high voltage coil arranged therein with at least two taps. An insulation tube extends into the tank, where the inner part of the tube is accessible from an outer side of the tank. Electric contact elements extend through the tube walls along its longitudinal axis, where at least some of the contact elements are electrically connected with the taps. A removable column-like electrical interaction device is arranged within the inner part of the insulation tube, which is electrically connected to the at least two taps by means of the contact elements.
US09058923B2
A stack is configured by stacking magnetic layers and non-magnetic layers, and has a rectangular-parallelepiped shape. A coil is provided in the stack, and has a coil axis that is substantially parallel to a stacking direction of the stack. The stacking direction and the coil axis are not parallel to sides that configure the stack.
US09058908B2
The invention relates to the field of nuclear technology and radiochemistry, more specifically to the production and isolation of radionuclides for medical purposes. The method for producing actinium-225 and isotopes of radium comprises irradiating a solid block of metallic thorium of a thickness of 2 to 30 mm, which is contained within a hermetically sealed casing made of a material which does not react with thorium, with a flow of accelerated charged particles with high intensity. The irradiated metallic thorium is removed from the casing and is either heated with the addition of lanthanum and the distillation of radium or is dissolved in nitric acid with the recovery of actinium-225 by extraction. A target for implementing this method consists of blocks of metallic thorium of a thickness of 2 to 30 mm, which are contained within a hermetically scaled casing made of different materials which do not react with thorium.
US09058906B2
A fuel element storage and cooling configuration includes a fuel element storage pool and a cooling system having at least one first heat exchanger disposed in the fuel element storage pool and at least one second heat exchanger disposed in a heat sink and located at a distance therefrom, above a highest point of the first heat exchanger. The two heat exchangers are connected, using a pipe system, to form a closed circuit, which is at least partially filled with a flowable coolant. If the temperature of the first heat exchanger is increased with respect to the second heat exchanger, natural circulation of the coolant, and thus heat transport from the fuel element storage pool to the heat sink, is ensured without a pump apparatus.
US09058899B2
Exemplary embodiments for SRAM cells, new control units for SRAM systems, and embodiments of SRAM systems are described herein. An SRAM cell is configured to receive a first input voltage signal and a second input voltage signal with a different value from the first input voltage signal, and to maintain a first stored value signal and a second stored value signal. A control circuit is configured to receive a first input voltage signal and a second input voltage signal, and controlled by a sleep signal, a selection signal, and a data input signal, so that the output of the control circuit is data sensitive to the data input signal. An SRAM system comprises a plurality of SRAM cells, controlled the disclosed control circuit wherein an SRAM cell has two input voltage signals controlled by a data input signal and its complement signal respectively.
US09058894B2
Device, system, and method of memory allocation. For example, an apparatus includes: a Dual In-line Memory Module (DIMM) including a plurality of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) units to store data, wherein each DRAM unit includes a plurality of banks and each bank is divided into a plurality of sub-banks; and a memory management unit to allocate a set of interleaved sub-banks of said DIMM to a memory page of an Operating System, wherein a combined memory size of the set of interleaved sub-banks is equal to a size of the memory page of the Operating System.
US09058879B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for storing data in a multi-level cell flash memory device with cross-page sectors, multi-page coding and per-page coding. A single sector can be stored across a plurality of pages in the flash memory device. Per-page control is provided of the number of sectors in each page, as well as the code and/or code rate used for encoding and decoding a given page, and the decoder or decoding algorithm used for decoding a given page. Multi-page and wordline level access schemes are also provided.
US09058877B2
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprises a cell unit including a first and a second selection gate transistor and a memory string provided between the first and second selection gate transistors and composed of a plurality of serially connected electrically erasable programmable memory cells operative to store effective data; and a data write circuit operative to write data into the memory cell, wherein the number of program stages for at least one of memory cells on both ends of the memory string is lower than the number of program stages for other memory cells, and the data write circuit executes the first stage program to the memory cell having the number of program stages lower than the number of program stages for the other memory cells after the first stage program to the other memory cells.
US09058874B2
A sensing circuit includes a plurality of cell read current generators, a reference current generator and a plurality of sense amplifiers. Each of the cell read current generators generates a cell read current from each of a plurality of memory cells. The reference current generator sums the cell read currents to generate a sum current. Each of the sense amplifiers determines data state stored in each of the memory cells based on each of the cell read currents and an average current. The average current is obtained based on the sum current.
US09058871B2
The resistive random access memory (ReRAM) device includes a first amplifier configured to amplify a sensing current corresponding to data sensed in a memory cell, and a second amplifier configured to store the sensing current amplified by the first amplifier, and amplify electric charges when storing the amplified sensing current.
US09058867B2
A data saving period control circuit; a power gating control circuit; and a data processing circuit including a general-purpose register, an error correction code storage register, and an error correction code circuit are included. The general-purpose register and the error correction code storage register each include a volatile memory unit and a nonvolatile memory unit. The data saving period control circuit is a circuit for changing a length of a data saving period in which data output from the power gating control circuit is saved from the volatile memory unit to the nonvolatile memory unit included in the general-purpose register, depending on whether an error in an error correction code stored in the error correction code storage register is detected by the error correction code circuit.
US09058866B2
An SRAM includes a first SRAM column having first SRAM cells and a first local evaluation logic coupled to a global bit line and a second SRAM column having second SRAM cells and a second local evaluation logic coupled to the same global bit line. The first SRAM column is selected with a first column select line and the second SRAM column is selected with a second column select line.
US09058865B1
A method of programming a non-volatile memory device includes providing a resistive switching device, the resistive switching device being in a first state and characterized by at least a first resistance, applying a first voltage to the resistive switching device in the first state to cause the resistive switching device to change to a second state wherein the second state is characterized by at least a second resistance, wherein the second resistance is greater than the first resistance, and applying a second voltage to the resistive switching device in the second state to cause the resistive switching device to change to a third state, wherein the third state is characterized by at least a third resistance, wherein the second voltage has a magnitude higher than a magnitude of the second voltage, and wherein the third resistance is greater than the second resistance.
US09058858B2
An apparatus includes a level shifter and a switching circuit. The level shifter includes an input, a first output, and second output having a logic value complementary to a logic value of the first output. The switching circuit includes a data input, a feedback input coupled to the second output of the level shifter, and an output coupled to the input of the level shifter. The switching circuit is configured to selectively latch, based on a select signal, a logic state of the level shifter at the second output.
US09058853B2
An integrated circuit having improved radiation immunity is described. The integrated circuit comprises a substrate; an n-well formed on the substrate; a p-well formed on the substrate; and a p-tap formed in the p-well adjacent to the n-well, wherein the p-tap extends between circuit elements formed in the n-well and circuit elements formed in the p-well, and is coupled to a ground potential. A method of forming an integrated circuit having improved radiation immunity is also described.
US09058850B2
The instant disclosure discloses a fixing structure of a data access device having a fixing tray and a handle. The fixing tray includes at least one fixing latch and at least one elastic member. One end of the fixing tray is a pivot and two hooks. The distance between the fixing latch and the pivot is shorter than that between the elastic member and the pivot. The other end of the fixing tray is an inserting section. One end of the handle is a hinge section, from which two cams are extended. The other end of the handle is an operational pull. The hinge section and the operational pull are connected by a connecting rod. The hinge section pivotally connects to the pivot. A fixing case with the fixing structure of a data access device is disclosed.
US09058843B2
A tape medium uses a format to store data in which the tape medium is partitioned into an index partition (IP) and a data partition (DP). The latest metadata related to additional data newly added and written to the DP in accordance with the format is updated and stored in the IP. The same metadata is repeatedly written after the updated metadata (e.g. Index #1) in the IP. Alternatively, additional data newly added and written to the DP is stored in memory, and is called from memory and then added and written after metadata (e.g. Index #0) during the formatting. In either manner, data written prior to formatting may be recovered.
US09058842B2
The present inventions are related to systems and methods for iterative data processing scheduling. In one case a data processing system is disclosed that includes a data detector circuit and a data decoder circuit. The data detector circuit is operable to apply a data detection algorithm to a data set to yield a detected output. The data decoder circuit is operable to repeatedly apply a data decoding algorithm to the detected output to yield a decoded output over a number of passes, where the number of passes is within an allowable number of local iterations selected based at least in part on a read gate signal.
US09058841B2
A method and system for editing video sequences. The method includes playing a first video sequence on a device and introducing one or more objects randomly in the first video sequence. The method further includes determining one or more randomized properties associated with the randomly inserts objects. Moreover, the method includes recording the one or more randomized properties. The system includes a device. The device includes a memory that stores one or more objects and one or more randomized properties associated with the one or more objects; a random generator that introduces the objects randomly from the memory in a first video sequence; and a processor operable to play the first video sequence including randomly introduced objects, determine the one or more randomized properties associated with the one or more objects and to record the one or more randomized properties.
US09058835B2
An array may comprise a plurality of disk drives and a controller coupled to the plurality of drives. The controller may be configured to initiate spin-up of one or more first disk drives of the array; determine when each of the first disk drive(s) of the array for which spin-up was initiated reaches a predetermined spin rate that is less than a target spin rate at which the disk drive is ready to process data access commands; and initiate spin-up of one or more second disk drives of the array as the first disk drive(s) is determined to have reached the predetermined spin rate.
US09058829B1
A apparatus includes first and second read transducers arranged on a media-facing surface. The read transducers detect magnetic fields of a recording medium. First and second heaters are disposed proximate the respective first and second read transducers. The first and second heaters independently control respective first and second protrusions of the first and second read transducers from the media-facing surface.
US09058826B1
A data storage device is disclosed comprising a disk comprising data, and a head actuated over the disk. A timing signal is generated by reading the data from the disk, and a frequency generator is adjusted based on the timing signal to generate a disk locked clock substantially synchronized to a rotation speed of the disk. A free fall condition is detected based on the timing signal, and when the free fall condition is detected the head is parked.
US09058825B2
Rotational latency is reduced in a standard conventional form factor HDD system by replacing, for example—the prior art rotary arm actuator of a conventional HDD, with one or more belts and pulleys and one or more read/write heads mounted on, or otherwise associated with the belts. Multiple scaled iterations facilitate energy savings and power optimized systems, without compromise to data access performance.
US09058817B1
A computer-implemented method for simplifying the pasting of textual transcriptions from a transcription engine into an application is described. An audio file is sent to a transcription engine. A textual transcription file of the audio file is received from the transcription engine. The textual transcription file is automatically loaded into a copy buffer. The textual transcription file is pasted from the copy buffer into an application.
US09058816B2
Mental state of a person is classified in an automated manner by analysing natural speech of the person. A glottal waveform is extracted from a natural speech signal. Pre-determined parameters defining at least one diagnostic class of a class model are retrieved, the parameters determined from selected training glottal waveform features. The selected glottal waveform features are extracted from the signal. Current mental state of the person is classified by comparing extracted glottal waveform features with the parameters and class model. Feature extraction from a glottal waveform or other natural speech signal may involve determining spectral amplitudes of the signal, setting spectral amplitudes below a pre-defined threshold to zero and, for each of a plurality of sub bands, determining an area under the thresholded spectral amplitudes, and deriving signal feature parameters from the determined areas in accordance with a diagnostic class model.
US09058807B2
According to one embodiment, a first storage unit stores n band noise signals obtained by applying n band-pass filters to a noise signal. A second storage unit stores n band pulse signals. A parameter input unit inputs a fundamental frequency, n band noise intensities, and a spectrum parameter. A extraction unit extracts for each pitch mark the n band noise signals while shifting. An amplitude control unit changes amplitudes of the extracted band noise signals and band pulse signals in accordance with the band noise intensities. A generation unit generates a mixed sound source signal by adding the n band noise signals and the n band pulse signals. A generation unit generates the mixed sound source signal generated based on the pitch mark. A vocal tract filter unit generates a speech waveform by applying a vocal tract filter using the spectrum parameter to the generated mixed sound source signal.
US09058804B2
A speech signal transmission apparatus includes an extractor to extract speech signals from speech source signals collected by a plurality of microphones, a power calculator to calculate powers of speech signals of multiple channels and set any one of the speech signals of the multiple channels as a reference speech signal, a synchronization adjustor to adjust synchronization of the other speech signals based on the reference speech signal, a signal generator to generate extraction signals by offsetting the reference speech signal from the other synchronization-adjusted speech signals, an encryptor to compress and encrypt the reference speech signal and the extraction signals, and a transmitter to transmit the compressed and encrypted reference speech signal and extraction signals.
US09058803B2
A method for compressing an audio stream, including a plurality of signals, describing a sound scene produced by a plurality of sources in a space, by: identifying the sources from an audio stream; determining a frequency band, energy level and spatial position in the space for each of the identified sources; determining, for each identified source, a spatial resolution corresponding to the smallest difference in position of said source in the space which a listener is capable of perceiving, on the basis of: the frequency band, the energy level, and the spatial position of said source; and, on the frequency band, energy level, and spatial position of at least one subset of the other identified sources; generating a compressed stream comprising the information required to restore each identified source with at least the same corresponding spatial resolution.
US09058801B2
A system for managing the changing state of an adaptive filter in an active noise control (ANC) system is described. An adaptive filter state storage stores copies of prior states of the adaptive filter. A disturbance detector can detect either normal ambient noise or abnormal ambient noise. An adaptive filter state manager signals that a copy of a current state of the adaptive filter is to be repeatedly written to the state storage, so long as normal ambient noise is being detected. But when abnormal noise is detected, the state manager signals that the adaptive filter be restored to one of its prior states, from the copies stored in the state storage. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US09058800B2
A sounding board (1) for musical instruments having a first plurality of planks (2) in which each plank (2i) of the plurality of planks (2) is provided with respective longitudinal sides (2ia, 2ib); wherein the planks (2) of the first plurality of planks are approached to one another, each one at the respective longitudinal sides (2ia, 2ib), so as to form a first panel (P1) of the sounding board (1); a second plurality of planks (3) in which each plank of the plurality (3) of planks (3i) is provided with respective longitudinal sides (3ia, 3ib); wherein the planks (3i) of the second plurality of planks (3) are approached to one another, each one at their respective longitudinal sides (3ia, 3ib), so as to form a second panel (P2) of the sounding board (1); in which the first and the second panel (P1, P2) are overlapping with one another with their respective planks (2i, 3i) extending along the same angled direction (A) of the sounding board (1); wherein the planks (2i) of the first plurality of planks (2) are staggered with respect to such planks (3i) of the second plurality of planks (3) so that the longitudinal sides (2ia, 2ib) of each one of the planks (2i) of the first plurality of planks (2) are misaligned with respect to such longitudinal sides (3ia, 3ib) of each one of the planks (3i) of the second plurality of planks (3).
US09058788B2
A method of processing image data for display by a display panel of a display device is provided. The method comprises receiving main image pixel data representing a main and side image pixel data representing a side image. In a first processing step, a mapping is performed of the pixel data to signals used to drive the display panel. The mapping is arranged to produce an average on-axis luminance which is dependent mainly on the main image pixel data and an average off-axis luminance which is dependent at least to some extent on the side image pixel data. In a second processing step, the received side image pixel data are processed to emphasize at least one feature of the side image which might otherwise be perceived by a viewer as being de-emphasized in the side image displayed off axis as a result of the first processing step.
US09058770B2
A static electricity prevention circuit of a display device including: a driving circuit configured to drive a display unit that displays an image, at least one clock signal wire configured to transmit a clock signal to the driving circuit, at least one transistor electrically coupled to the dock signal wire, and at least one capacitor including a first electrode coupled to a source electrode and to a drain electrode of the transistor, and a second electrode configured to be maintained at a voltage,
US09058760B2
An adjusting method includes steps of providing a display apparatus, transforming a first value in a first color space of a color displayed by the display apparatus into a second value in a second color space, adjusting the second value to a third value in the second color space, and transforming the third value into a fourth value in the first color space. By adjusting the second value to the third value in the second color space intuitively, the present invention achieves the advantages of providing an intuitive operation, simplifying the adjustment, saving time and enhancing the user experiences.
US09058755B2
A lightweight display includes a plurality of display modules having a plurality of pixels carried by a display mounting frame. A support frame integral with the display mounting frame provides support. An electronic support member carries electrical components electrically communicating with the plurality of display modules for controlling the display of an image. Wherein the depth of the plurality of display modules, display mounting frame, support frame and electronic support member is less than four inches when defining a display assembly. Also wherein the display assembly has a screen size measured diagonally in a range of 114 inches to 224 inches and a weight in the range of 90 pounds to 120 pounds and wherein the display assembly has an aspect ratio ranging from 1.67 to 1.82.
US09058753B2
Paper is disclosed for use in making repositionable or removable adhesive labels. The adhesive can be applied in patches or discrete areas to the paper or to a layer of material that cleans rollers in the manufacturing line and/or in printers. The adhesive can be applied in single or multiple layers. The paper is light weight paper and preferably thermal paper for use in POS printers.
US09058747B2
A locator system employs personal communicators which are carried on or worn in a holster by drivers. The communicators are employed to automatically transmit data for determining the identity of the driver, the identity of the vehicle and date and time stamps when the vehicle enters and exits various detection zones. In one embodiment the detections zones are defined by Bluetooth signals.
US09058745B2
A system for facilitating vehicular and/or foot traffic movement in a space. First and second lane routes are defined within the space for vehicular and/or foot traffic. Traffic moving in the first lane route either crosses the second lane or merges with traffic moving in the second lane route. A mirror system with a reflective surface is operatively situated within the space to allow traffic moving in at least one of the first and second lane routes to view, through the reflective surface on the mirror, traffic moving in the other of the first and second lane routes as the traffic in the at least one of the first and second lane routes approaches or arrives at a crossing or merge location. The mirror system has a source of illumination that generates an extended pattern of light around a portion of the reflective surface.
US09058741B2
A method for remotely accessing a ventilator. The method includes receiving a request to remotely access ventilator data, at the ventilator, from a remote device; transmitting the ventilator data to the remote device from the ventilator; and receiving remote caregiver data, at the ventilator, from the remote device, wherein the remote caregiver data is based on the ventilator data.
US09058740B2
A state determining device includes a current detecting unit, a state determining unit, and a notifying unit. The current detecting unit detects a current value of a drive current which flows into a drive motor that rotary-drives a driven unit with a drive force according to the drive current. Based on the drive current value detected by the current detecting unit, the state determining unit determines a state of a driving system including the driven unit. The notifying unit notifies a user of a determination result of the state determining unit.
US09058735B2
A system for detecting a condition of a driver is provided, wherein the system includes a first electrical device, a second electrical device, a regulation unit and an alert unit. The first electrical device detects an initial vehicle angle of a vehicle, the second electrical device detects an initial head angle of the driver and the regulation unit calculates a regulation angle based on the initial head angle and the initial vehicle angle. Additionally, the first electrical device detects a current vehicle angle of the vehicle, the second electrical device detects a current head angle of the driver and the regulation unit calculates a regulated head angle based on the current head angle and the regulation angle. Furthermore, the alert unit calculates a difference value between the regulated head angle and the current vehicle angle and generates a warning message if the difference value is larger than a threshold.
US09058729B2
Malfunction or failure of mechanical, electrical and electro-mechanical equipment, for example equipment used in manufacturing operations, is often preceded by an increase in the operating temperature of at least some portion of the equipment. A temperature-sensitive, active material-containing actuator is pre-selected to operate at a pre-determined temperature indicative of impending equipment failure and placed in thermal contact with the equipment. If the equipment achieves the pre-selected temperature the actuator signals this by displaying a flag or providing some other passive visual indication. Alternatively, or additionally, the actuator may issue an electrically-powered alert including visual or audible alerts or a wireless communication. Selected actuators are based on smart materials including shape memory alloys (SMA), shape memory polymers (SMP) and paraffin wax, all of which may be adapted to operate over a temperature range sufficient to encompass the expected range of pre-determined temperatures.
US09058719B2
Gaming terminals, gaming systems, and electrical and mechanical connector assemblies for coupling a gaming terminal to a chair positioned in front of the gaming terminal are presented herein. A gaming system is disclosed. The gaming system includes a gaming terminal for playing a wagering game and a chair positioned in front of the gaming terminal. The chair includes electronic components operated by a digital data signal and powered by a power supply signal. The gaming terminal includes an electrical connector assembly for coupling to a complementary electrical connector assembly on the chair. The electrical connector assembly also includes a switching device for automatically electrically coupling the electronic components with a power supply signal from a power supply once the respective electrical connector assemblies are securely coupled.
US09058714B2
A gaming system for conducting a wagering game includes at least one input device configured to receive a wager, at least one display device configured to display a wagering game, one or more thermal devices configured to produce a thermal effect, at least one controller in operative communication with the one or more thermal devices, at least one memory device storing instructions. When the instructions are executed by the at least one controller, the one or more thermal devices to produce a thermal effect according to an aspect of the wagering game.
US09058705B2
A vehicle communication system includes a control unit in a vehicle, a vehicle data bus operable to transmit vehicle data to the control unit, and a mobile communication device having data network access. The mobile device has a self-contained mode in which the mobile communication device processes and displays the network data received via the data network and in which the control unit transmits the vehicle data to the mobile communication device. The mobile communication device also has an immersive mode in which the control unit processes the network data received via the data network and in which the control unit converts the vehicle data to audible speech and plays the audible speech in the vehicle.
US09058704B2
An electronic vehicle key is provided. The electronic vehicle key includes a battery and a controller receptive to electrical power from the battery. The electronic vehicle key further includes a connecting circuit receptive to electrical power from a vehicle. The electronic vehicle key still further includes an interface circuit that is configured to provide an electrical connection between the connecting circuit and the controller, at least when the battery is ineffective for electrically powering the controller.
US09058699B2
System and method for image composition using non-destructive editing model and fast gradient solver
Systems and methods for interactive image compositing may integrate image searching using visual search criteria (e.g., color, composition, tonal distribution, or lighting effects), non-destructive image compositing, and high-performance rendering using a fast gradient solver to provide an efficient workflow for users. An image compositing application, executable by a CPU and/or GPU, may employ a sketch-and-refine approach, whereby a user draws a rough perimeter around an object of interest in an image and (following an initial application of the fast gradient solver to a lower-resolution version of the image) receives a preview of how it would fit into a composition. The fast gradient solver may differentiate between the object and its background by applying artificial intelligence techniques and/or dependent on user-supplied hints. In a second stage, the fast gradient solver may refine the solution for a final rendering of the composite image by operating on successively higher-resolution versions of the image.
US09058687B2
Technologies and implementations for capturing two-dimensional images for an augmented reality representation are generally disclosed.
US09058678B1
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for efficiently performing broad phase collision detection using parallel spatial subdivision. The technique involves organizing candidate objects according to a hashed representation of each object centroid, constructing a cell identification (ID) array, sorting the cell ID array, creating a collision cell list, and traversing the collision cell list. The result is a candidate list of object groups that may collide, based on an initial assessment of spatial proximity. Whether a given pair of objects actually collides is determined by a precise narrow phase collision analysis.
US09058676B2
In an embodiment, a display pipe is configured to composite one or more frames of images and/or video sequences to generate output frames for display. Additionally, the display pipe may be configured to compress an output frame and write the compressed frame to memory responsive to detecting static content in the output frames. The display pipe may also be configured to read the compressed frame from memory for display instead of reading the frames for compositing and display. In some embodiments, the display pipe may include an idle screen detect circuit configured to monitor the operation of the display pipe and/or the output frames to detect the static content.
US09058672B2
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique controlling the pixel location at which the plane equation is evaluated. Multiple pixel offsets (dx, dy) may be specified that each define to a sub-pixel sample position. Attributes are then calculated for each sub-pixel sample position that is covered by a geometric primitive. One advantage of the technique is that anti-aliasing quality may be improved since high frequency color components may be selectively supersampled for particular geometric primitives.
US09058670B2
It is provided a method for conveying data on a flying object in a scene. The method including capturing video frames of the scene by video cameras to get video frames which include image of the object, identifying the object in captured video frames to get associated object parameters, calculating motion variables, solving motion equations for anticipated object trajectory taking into account certain effects, and conveying data to displaying devices. The certain effects are an effect of object collision with a ground surface, air friction, wind effect, and interaction of a spinning object with air. The method may be applied to a ball in a sporting playing field. The cameras may have variable operating parameters desirable for the calculating the motion variables, which may be determined by camera calibration using captured artifacts of the scene. Shadow of the object may be captured as well and be used to provide data absent due to occluding a of the object from a video camera. Also, the captured frames of a ball may be used to calculate parameters relating to a bat which hits the ball.
US09058664B2
A method for fusing 2D fluoroscopic images with 2D angiographic images for real-time interventional procedure guidance includes using a 2-dimensional angiographic image to detect injection of a contrast agent into an anatomical structure, where the contrast agent first appears in a detected image frame, subtracting a background image from the detected image frame and binarizing the subtracted image frame to segment the anatomical structure from the subtracted image frame, registering the segmented anatomical structure with a predefined shape model of the anatomical structure to generate an anatomical mask, generating an anatomical probability map from the anatomical mask using intensity information from the subtracted image frame, where the anatomical probability map expresses a probability of a pixel in the subtracted image frame belonging to the anatomical structure, and fusing the angiographic image with one or more subsequently acquired 2-dimensional fluoroscopic images of the anatomical structure using the anatomical probability map.
US09058657B2
In an exemplary embodiment, a system includes a three-dimensional camera and a processor. The processor is operable to access a first portion of visual data captured by the three-dimensional camera wherein the visual data comprises an image of a dairy livestock and access a second portion of the visual data, wherein the first portion and the second portion are aligned in a first dimension. The processor is further operable to determine a first coordinate, wherein the first coordinate comprises a location of the first portion in a second dimension, the second dimension orthogonal to the first dimension and determine a second coordinate, wherein the second coordinate comprises a location of the second portion in the second dimension. The processor is further operable to determine a first distance exceeds a distance threshold, wherein the first distance is the distance between the first coordinate and the second coordinate in the second dimension.
US09058644B2
Various embodiments enable regions of text to be identified in an image captured by a camera of a computing device for preprocessing before being analyzed by a visual recognition engine. For example, each of the identified regions can be analyzed or tested to determine whether a respective region contains a quality associated with poor text recognition results, such as poor contrast, blur, noise, and the like, which can be measured by one or more algorithms. Upon identifying a region with such a quality, an image quality enhancement can be automatically applied to the respective region without user instruction or intervention. Accordingly, once each region has been cleared of the quality associated with poor recognition, the regions of text can be processed with a visual recognition algorithm or engine.
US09058643B2
Devices and methods for detecting of drops on a transparent wall through which digital image is acquired by means of an image acquisition system. The method includes establishing a gradient image from the digital image by assigning to each pixel the value of the gradient for the pixel; filtering the gradient image by assigning to each pixel a value obtained by rank filtering; and establishing a mask representing the position of the detected drops in the digital image by activating the pixels for which the difference between the value of the pixel in the filtered image and the value of the pixel in the gradient image exceeds a predetermined value.
US09058639B2
A method of processing image data includes generating image data including luminance and chrominance data representing a selected object, separating the luminance and chrominance data, storing the separated luminance and chrominance data in corresponding separate spaces in memory, and separately compressing the stored luminance and chrominance data.
US09058633B2
A system for agricultural monitoring and prediction comprises a first reporting agent a second reporting agent a database, and a processor. The first reporting agent is configured for reporting aerial data representing relative measurements of an agricultural metric in a geographic area, the relative measurements having an unknown bias. The second reporting is configured for reporting ground-based data representing absolute measurements of the agricultural metric for a portion of the geographic area. The database is configured for storing the absolute measurement data and the relative measurement data along with other farming data for a wide geographic area. The processor is configured for accessing the database and using the ground-based data for the portion of the geographic area to calibrate the aerial data, thereby synthesizing absolute measurements of the agricultural metric for the geographic area from the aerial data.
US09058614B2
A method for dynamically clustering data items, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of data items originating from at least two sources, a plurality of distinct metadata details, and data indicative of associations between the data items and the metadata details, wherein each data item is associated with at least one metadata detail indicative of its owner, and wherein at least a first data item originating from a first source and a second data item originating from a second source are related data items associated with at least one shared metadata detail; grading probabilities of relationships between at least one of the data items and at least one of the metadata details; clustering the data items into one or more clusters, based on the calculated probabilities; and, optionally, sharing clusters and meta-clusters between users.
US09058608B2
Methods, computer-readable media, and systems for placement attribute targeting are described. In one example, an advertiser can specify attributes of one or more web pages on which their advertisements can be displayed. Based on a page attribute of the web page that a user accesses, one or more advertisements can be transmitted to the user for display, where the advertisements are chosen such that the page attribute matches the attribute specified by the advertiser. In some implementations, a computer-implemented method includes determining an attribute of a web page to be displayed to a user at a location, selecting content corresponding to the determined web page attribute, and transmitting the selected content to the location for display as at least part of the web page.
US09058603B1
Disclosed are various embodiments that facilitate client-side encryption of form data. A network page that includes client-side code that encrypts one or more data items using a public key is sent to the client. The data items are provided by a user in one or more form fields of the network page. The data items and one or more unencrypted data items are obtained from the client over an encrypted channel. The data items are encrypted using the public key when the data items have not been encrypted by the client-side encryption code. The data items are sent in an encrypted state to a server over an internal network. A firewall is interposed between the internal network and the server to protect the server from the internal network.
US09058592B2
The claimed subject matter provides a method for detecting compromised accounts. The method includes receiving a communication from a sender's account to a recipient. The sender's account is associated with a sender. The method also includes presenting a compromised account reporting interface to the recipient based on specific conditions. Further, the method includes receiving a selection by the recipient indicating the sender's account is compromised. The method also includes determining that the sender's account is compromised based on the selection. Additionally, the method includes generating, in response to a selection by the recipient, a report indicating that the account is compromised.
US09058573B2
In one embodiment, a networked device running a social networking application logs local area network traffic in order to maintain a table of connected users on the same LAN. In such embodiments, the networked device uploads its log of LAN traffic to a social networking system, which associates each MAC address with a user of the social networking system, and detects and identifies recurring patterns when the user of the networked device and other users are on the same LAN. Based upon such patterns, the social networking system may suggest that the two users become friends or otherwise interact on the social networking system. In particular embodiments, a networked device running a social networking application may broadcast mDNS messages containing its social networking ID, allowing other similarly configured devices on the same LAN to interact with the user of the device.
US09058572B2
The subject matter disclosed herein provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for state alignment and transaction coupling to enable reliable communication between an application, such as a backend system, and a correlation engine (or rules engine). In one aspect there is provided a method. The method may provide a first interface to receive information from an adapter for an application separate from a state correlation engine and provide a second interface to receive information from the state correlation engine to the adapter. The first and second interfaces may provide state alignment between the application and the state correlation engine. Related systems, apparatus, methods, and/or articles are also described.
US09058571B2
A method and apparatus for automatically transforming a business process definition into a web application package. The method may include receiving a definition of a business process, and transforming the definition of the business process into a web application package, where the transformation is performed automatically without requiring a user to specify deployment descriptors for executing the business process as a web application.
US09058569B2
Systems and methods for failure prediction and maintenance planning are provided. A system for failure prediction and maintenance planning, comprises a statistical modeling module comprising a periodic impact evaluation module capable of identifying periodic effects on the failure risk, a balance equation systems module capable of constructing balance equations with respect to phases of failure times, and an initial phase estimation module capable of estimating an unknown initial phase, wherein one or more of the modules are implemented on a computer system comprising a memory and at least one processor coupled to the memory.
US09058565B2
A method and apparatus for providing an opportunistic crowd based service platform is disclosed. A mobile sensor device is identified based on a current location and/or other qualities, such as intrinsic properties, previous sensor data, or demographic data of an associated user of the mobile sensor device. Data is collected from the mobile sensor device. The data collected from the mobile sensor device is aggregated with data collected from other sensor devices, and content generated based on the aggregated data is delivered to a user device.
US09058564B2
Some examples are directed to selecting at least one candidate solution from a first plurality of candidate solutions that has converged on a suboptimal solution during a computer simulation. The computer simulation tests fitness of the first plurality of candidate solutions for an optimization problem. Some examples are further direct to storing a copy of the at least one candidate solution, performing a cataclysm on the first plurality of candidate solutions, and generating a second plurality of candidate solutions. Some examples are further direct to integrating the copy of the at least one candidate solution into the second plurality of candidate solutions after performing of one or more additional computer simulations that test the fitness of the second plurality of candidate solutions for the optimization problem.
US09058559B2
A management apparatus connected to an image forming apparatus for managing usage of the image forming apparatus is disclosed. The management apparatus includes a user data storage part for storing user identification data and use restriction data corresponding to the user identification data, and a use restriction data acquiring part for acquiring the use restriction data corresponding to the user identification data.
US09058557B2
An image forming apparatus includes a setting screen displaying portion to display a setting screen on a display portion, an input screen displaying portion to display an input screen including input keys on the display portion, a position detecting portion to detect a position designated by a user on a display surface of the display portion, an item selecting portion to select one of a plurality of setting items on the setting screen, a setting value accepting portion to accept a value determined by the input key designated by the user as a setting value for the setting item being selected, and a designation accepting portion, provided independently of the position detecting portion, to accept a user's designation. The input screen displaying portion displays the input screen on the display portion when the designation accepting portion accepts a first designation in the state where the setting screen is being displayed.
US09058555B2
There are provided a printing apparatus which holds a job, determines whether attribution information of a sheet to be used by the stored job is registered for a sheet storage unit, judges whether a sheet exists in a sheet storage unit to be used by the job, and notifies a result of the determination and a result of the judgment.
US09058550B2
An electronic device (100) includes a control circuit (108) that is operable with a memory or storage device (120). The electronic device includes an RFID tag (113) having a second memory (118). The RFID tag can be read from, or written to, by a RFID communication device (114) when the electronic device is OFF. Device personalization can be achieved when the control circuit accesses the second memory to retrieve the device configuration data during a boot sequence and configures the electronic device in accordance with the device configuration data retrieved from the second memory during the boot sequence. Device information can be made available when the electronic device is OFF by writing the device information to the second memory.
US09058548B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to payment cards and methods for making payment cards. In one embodiment, a card comprises a first layer and a second layer adjacent to the first layer. The second layer comprises a plurality of particles comprising metal, and the plurality of particles comprise at least about 15 volume % of the second layer. In another embodiment, a mixture is prepared comprising polymer and a plurality of particles comprising metal. The plurality of particles comprise at least about 15 volume % of the mixture. The mixture is pressed and an outer layer is applied. The mixture and outer layer are then cut to form the card.
US09058546B2
A method for providing a user interface of an image forming apparatus and image forming apparatus are provided. The method includes displaying a setting user interface (UI) to set a function of the image forming apparatus, and when a user manipulation is not input to the setting UI for a predetermined time before a user finishes setting the function, temporarily storing setting information that the user has input through the setting UI. The method includes when a predetermined event occurs, re-displaying the setting UI corresponding to the setting information. Accordingly, the UI is effectively provided.
US09058544B2
A device and method for detecting a region of interest on a delivery object. In the method cluster identification data is stored. An item of the cluster identification data represents a cluster of image data items in a training set of image data items. A group of heat maps is stored. A heat map is associated with a cluster represented by the cluster identification data, and provides for cells of a grid a probability distribution for a probability of the cell belonging to a defined region of interest given the number of blobs in the cell. When a new image data item of the delivery object is received, the cluster identification data may be used to associate the input image data item with at least one cluster, and the heat map of the associated cluster to determine at least one region of interest in the image data item.
US09058540B2
A data clustering method, a data clustering device using the same, and an image processing apparatus and a data processing apparatus equipped with the data clustering device are provided. The method includes sorting a plurality of data point to be clustered and generating a processing sequence based on the sorting, wherein each of the data point has at least one feature value. The method also includes using a non-iterative mechanism to cluster the data points into a plurality of data clusters according to the processing sequence. The method further includes optimizing the generated data clusters. Accordingly, the data clustering method can fast cluster the data points.
US09058537B2
An information processing method includes detecting a partial area configuring a target object from an input image, evaluating appropriateness of the detection result, voting with respect to the target object based on the detection result and the evaluation result, and identifying an attribute of the target object based on the voting result.
US09058535B2
A security barcode is made up of modules that include optical disrupters that are too small to be deliberately placed in precise positions. The barcode is authenticated by a simple webcam including three-dimensional positioning means co-operating with a recognizable graphic structure referred to as a “marker”. In order to establish the authenticity of an article protected by the code, a description of the code is made after the code has been printed and is stored in a database, and that description is compared with a new description that results from at least two acquisitions, one made under the same conditions, and the other made while changing the three-dimensionally defined viewpoint and/or the lighting. In its preferred variant, the barcode cannot be printed in order to represent a predetermined number. It is also impossible to reproduce the barcode.
US09058533B2
A method for retrieving information encoded in a structured illumination pattern including selecting an encoded structured illumination pattern having a variable intensity; providing an object with a surface having a 3D relief pattern; selecting at least one portion but not all of the object's surface including the 3D surface relief pattern; projecting the selected structured illumination pattern onto the selected portion of the surface; using a digital camera to capture an image of the reflected structured light pattern from the selected portion of the surface; storing the image in a memory; and processing the image of the detected reflected structured light pattern using a processor responsive to the detected reflected structured light pattern and the selected structured light pattern to retrieve the encoded information, wherein the encoded information is based on the geometrical and material properties of the 3D surface relief pattern and is distinct from the object, surface, or relief pattern.
US09058532B2
An image pick-up device, which photographs an object to generate an image signal, including: an opening formed to pass light therethrough; a transparent plate which covers the opening; an image detector arranged to generate the image signal; an optical lens forming an image of the object on the image detector through the transparent plate when the object is positioned in an imaging area; a lighting device arranged to illuminate the object and is placed both in an inner area in which the imaging area outside the housing is folded into the housing with reference to the transparent plate, and in an outer area of the imaging area in the housing; and an optical-path modifying element which modifies an optical path of a potential stray light.
US09058530B2
A system for monitoring ingestion of medicine (21) comprises forming a digestible radio frequency identification (RFID) tag (10). The RFID tag is attached to the medicine. The RFID tag and medicine are ingested. A signal from the RFID tag is monitored.
US09058525B2
A device is provided for supporting a magnetic reading head. The device includes a guide for guiding and cushioning the reading head. The guide is mounted between a base of the reading head and a bearing surface parallel to the base, and includes at least one part made of a material, the Young's modulus of which is greater than 200 N/mm2.
US09058520B2
Systems and methods for inspecting a device are disclosed. The method includes arranging the device in a known position relative to a plurality of movable cameras. The plurality of movable cameras is mounted on a controllable actuator. The plurality of cameras is pointed at the device by controlling the controllable actuator to position the camera with a user interface. An image of the device generated by the camera is displayed on a mobile and wireless display. The computing device also causes a rendered virtual image of the device to be displayed on the mobile and wireless display. A stream of interest and a region of interest is selected at the mobile and wireless display from the images generated by the cameras.
US09058517B1
A pattern recognition system and method which generates a feature vector by multiplying an image vector with a sparse matrix. The sparse matrix is generated from a Gabor function which is a sinusoidal wave multiplied by a Gaussian function. The Gabor function is a function of a set of parameters including a parameter related to the direction of the sinusoidal wave, a parameter related to a center of the Gabor function, and a parameter related to a wavelength of the sinusoidal wave. The wavelength takes at least two values, with a first wavelength value lower than or substantially equal to the distance between two adjacent centers of the Gabor function, and the first wavelength value is lower than a second wavelength value and higher than or substantially equal to half the second wavelength value.
US09058516B2
A system and method for processing form images including strokes. A controller receives a plurality of form images including a plurality of strokes. A stroke identification module identifies the position of each stroke in each of the form images. A geometry engine generates an overlay of the plurality of form images and identifies a group of overlapping strokes from the overlay. The geometry engine generates a field bounding box encompassing the group of strokes, the field bounding box representing a field in the plurality of form images. The geometry engine crops a field image from each form image based on the size and position of the field bounding box. A label detector analyzes an area around the field image in the form image to determine a label and generates a label image.
US09058514B2
Disclosed herein is an apparatus and method for estimating the joint structure of a human body. The apparatus includes a multi-view image acquisition unit for receiving multi-view images acquired by capturing a human body. A human body foreground separation unit extracts a foreground region corresponding to the human body from the acquired multi-view images. A human body shape restoration unit restores voxels indicating geometric space occupation information of the human body using the foreground region corresponding to the human body, thus generating voxel-based three-dimensional (3D) shape information of the human body. A skeleton information extraction unit generates 3D skeleton information from the generated voxel-based 3D shape information of the human body. A skeletal structure estimation unit estimates positions of respective joints from a skeletal structure of the human body using both the generated 3D skeleton information and anthropometric information.
US09058506B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for signing an electronic document, including establishing an electronic signature appearance for an electronic signature, determining a bounding region on the electronic document for the display of the electronic signature appearance, at the time of signing an electronic document, previewing the electronic signature appearance in the bounding region and signing the electronic document with an electronic signature, the electronic signature associated with the electronic signature appearance. The electronic signature appearance can be configured at the time of signing the electronic document.
US09058491B1
A system may include a host that may include a processor coupled to a non-volatile memory over a secure communication protocol. As a result, prior to release for manufacturing, a binding code may be established between the host and the non-volatile memory. In some embodiments, this binding code may be stored on the non-volatile memory and not on the host. Then during a boot up of the system, the boot up process may be initiated by the host using code associated with the host, followed by secure booting using the secure protocol using code stored on the non-volatile memory.
US09058488B2
A method is disclosed, where some embodiments of the method include installing at least one benign malware indicator on one or more computing devices, monitoring the one or more computing devices for the presence of the at least one benign malware indicator, and responsive to determining the benign malware indicator is no longer present, sending a notification indicating the benign malware indicator is no longer detected as present on the one or more computing devices. Other embodiments include performing an antivirus scan or identifying unauthorized software programs. An apparatus and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-readable instructions capable of performing similar actions, the latter in conjunction with a computer executing instructions stored on the media, are also disclosed.
US09058482B2
Described herein are devices and techniques for remotely controlling user access to a restricted computer resource. The process includes pre-determining an association of the restricted computer resource and computer-resource-proximal environmental information. Indicia of user-proximal environmental information are received from a user requesting access to the restricted computer resource. Received indicia of user-proximal environmental information are compared to associated computer-resource-proximal environmental information. User access to the restricted computer resource is selectively granted responsive to a favorable comparison in which the user-proximal environmental information is sufficiently similar to the computer-resource proximal environmental information. In at least some embodiments, the process further includes comparing user-supplied biometric measure and comparing it with a predetermined association of at least one biometric measure of an authorized user. Access to the restricted computer resource is granted in response to a favorable comparison.
US09058472B1
Disclosed are systems and methods for providing access to computer files, including receiving, by a hardware processor, from a remote computer, a request to access a file; determining one or more parameters of at least one of the requested file, the remote computer and a user of the remote computer; determining, based on the one or more parameters, access rules for the requested file, wherein the access rules specify at least encryption requirements for the requested file, and applying, by the hardware processor, the access rules to the requested file.
US09058466B1
Enabling security of a computer system. Physical proximity of an authorized user with the computer system is detected without requiring the authorized user to physically access the interior of the computer system is monitored. In response to detecting the physical proximity of an authorized user, the authorized user is allowed access to privileged operations of the computer system.
US09058462B2
A system and method of producing an integrated circuit using abutted cells having shared polycrystalline silicon on an oxide definition region edge (PODE) includes modeling inter-cell leakage current in a plurality of different cells. Each of the plurality of different cells is abutted with another cell and having the shared PODE. The method also comprises verifying a pre-determined acceptable power consumption of the integrated circuit based on the inter-cell leakage current.
US09058458B2
Serializer-deserializer (SERDES) and integrated circuit package including a package substrate, first and second SERDES dies having a SERDES circuit, and a logic die having a logic circuit. The SERDES circuit communicatively connected to the package substrate. The first and second SERDES dies positioned adjacent, in a plane, and disposed on the package substrate. The logic circuit communicatively connected to the SERDES circuit and to the package substrate. The logic die stacked vertically and disposed on the first and second SERDES dies. A method of assembling a SERDES and integrated circuit package including providing a SERDES structure selected from a menu of SERDES die and SERDES circuit combinations. A design structure of a SERDES and integrated circuit package including a package substrate, first and second SERDES dies having a SERDES circuit, and a logic die having a logic circuit. The SERDES circuit communicatively connected to the package substrate.
US09058453B2
A system and method are provided for configuring a plurality of pin resources. The method includes identifying a plurality of pin resources of a primary application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) device and configuring the plurality of pin resources based on a pin distribution between a first interface and a second interface, where the first interface provides a first communication path between the primary ASIC device and a first device, and the second interface provides a second communication path between the primary ASIC device and a second device.
US09058450B1
Techniques for using subcell libraries allow efficient handling of a large number of cells. To improve design accuracy using cell libraries, very large cell libraries are needed. However, optimization tools are not able to use very large cell libraries directly, since their results suffer. Very large cell libraries are organized into sublibraries that are adapted to be processed by optimization tools. This allows improvement in the design quality of integrated circuits, while allowing the designs to be processed by optimization tools.
US09058445B2
A method is presented for modeling reservoir properties. The method includes constructing a coarse computational mesh for the reservoir. The coarse computational mesh comprises a plurality of cells. The method further includes determining a plurality of flows for each of the plurality of cells based on Dirichlet boundary conditions. Additionally, the method includes determining a solution to a coarse pressure equation for the reservoir based on the plurality of flows.
US09058441B2
A method for modeling FinFET width quantization is described. The method includes fitting a FinFET model of a FinFET device to single fin current/voltage characteristics. The FinFET device comprises a plurality of fins. The method includes obtaining statistical data of at least one sample FinFET device. The statistical data includes DIBL data and SS data. The method also includes fitting the FinFET model to a variation in a current to turn off the finFETs device (IOFF) in the statistical data using the DIBL data and the SS data and determining a model for a voltage to turn off the finFETs device (VOFF). The method also includes fitting the FinFET model to the VOFF.
US09058440B1
Disclosed are methods, systems, and structures for implementing an improved approach for simulating mixed-signal electronic circuits with specialized power management requirements, such as low power designs. Some approaches provide an improved method and system for providing a highly reliable, usable and scalable solution to allow for designers to use their power information files in a mixed-signal simulation and carry the impact of power intents defined on the digital blocks onto the analog blocks without needing any manual changes to models/designs.
US09058430B2
A method and system for testing a software application. A description of a test suite for testing the software application being tested (ABT) is inserted into a test database. The ABT is invokes multiple external software applications during execution of a test script of the test suite. Each external application invoked by the ABT is replaced by a corresponding simulator during execution of the test script. Output data to be returned to the ABT by each invoked simulator is inserted into the test database, after which each test script of the test suite is executed. The executing includes: sending a request, by the ABT to each simulator invoked in each test script, for requested data; and receiving, by the ABT, the requested data from each simulator invoked in each test script. The received requested data includes the output data that had been inserted into the test database.
US09058426B2
Methods for testing a transactional software application which interacts with a database structure. The software application includes a plurality of application units, which are adapted to be executed at least in part concurrently. The method includes executing the software application. Executing the software application includes executing a plurality of transaction operations on the database structure by a plurality of respective invocations of a database management system of the database structure by the respective plurality of application units. The method also includes determining locks being applied by the database management system on elements of the database structure for each transaction operation executed by each application unit individually. The method also includes identifying potential lock conditions of the software application in possible successions of application of the locks according to possible interleaving of the application units.
US09058424B1
A computing device may obtain usage information relating to an execution of a function within code. The usage information may include a set of input values and an output value obtained based on executing the function using the set of input values. The computing device may further determine that the function has been executed a particular quantity of times using the set of input values and obtaining the output value, and may generate a unit test, for the function, based on determining that the function has been executed the particular quantity of times using the set of input values and obtaining the output value.
US09058421B2
In one or more embodiments, a data processing system can include at least one core capable of executing instructions of an instruction set architecture and a trace unit coupled to the at least one core. A call to a subroutine can be detected, and in response, a program trace correlation (PTC) message can be generated and sent to a trace port. Data associated with an execution of the subroutine and/or performance of the data processing system can be sampled and sent to the trace port. A return from the subroutine can be detected, and in response, a trace message can be generated and sent to the trace port. The PTC message and the trace message can be correlated, and the correlation of the PTC message and the trace message can be used to determine a boundary for the subroutine and/or the sampled data associated with the execution of the subroutine.
US09058419B2
A control system according to the principles of the present disclosure includes an operation control module, a fault detection module, a remedial action module, and a reset module. The operation control module controls operation of a vehicle system. The fault detection module detects a fault in the operation control module when the operation control module fails an integrity test. The remedial action module takes a remedial action when the fault is detected. The reset module resets the operation control module when the fault is detected and the remedial action is not taken.
US09058408B2
An electronic communication system is controlled by a content service provider to return relevant information from a content specific database in response to a user query. The content service provider compiles a plurality of content specific databases, each dedicated to a category of information of interest to the user. The user registers a user profile with the content service provider. A query, including the selected content specific database, is transmitted from the user to the content service provider. The selected content specific database is searched for the first level query within context of the user profile. A menu of matches is generated from the content specific database for the first level query. The menu is organized by relevance scores assigned to the matches based on correspondence to the first level query. The menu is transmitted from the content service provider through the electronic communication network to the user.
US09058405B2
A playback apparatus includes a storage unit and a processor. The storage unit stores therein, for each of a plurality of playback environments, information indicating suitability for playback of a content in association with an identifier of the content. The processor receives a content via a network. The processor selects a playback environment based on an identifier of the received content and the information stored in the storage unit. The processor starts a first virtual machine that includes the selected playback environment. The first virtual machine is one of a plurality of virtual machines each including a playback environment. The playback environments included in the plurality of virtual machines are different from one another. The processor requests the first virtual machine to play back the received content.
US09058398B2
Features are disclosed for identifying multiple users contending for use of a shared media device with which to present a content item. Users may be detected by the shared media device or a management component, and each user may have previously begun and stopped consumption at a different point within the content item. When multiple users wish to consume the content, a component or module determines which presentation position to use, or creates a new presentation position for use. In cases in which not all users have begun consuming or wish to consume the same content item, a component or module determines which content item to present.
US09058394B2
A computer-implemented system and process for generating video search engine results page is disclosed. The system provides a query term and retrieves a collection of search results. Tags are generated for each search result and used to match media objects to each search result. The search results and video objects related to each search result are returned as a video search engine results page.
US09058392B1
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for client state result de-duping may comprise receiving from a client a first query comprising one or more search terms; obtaining from a data store a first list of search results relevant to the one or more search terms; generating state information representing the first list of search results; sending a first response to the client that includes the first list of search results and the state information; receiving from the client a second query comprising the one or more search terms and the state information; obtaining a second list of search results comprising items that have been added to the data store since the first query; removing from the second list of search results one or more search results represented by the received state information; and sending a second response to the client that includes the second list of search results.
US09058390B2
The present disclosure provides user-interface methods and systems for submitting search requests to search engines and presenting search results therefrom customized using content preferences learned about a user, comprising sending query information to at least two search engines, including a query identifying desired content, and user information, including context information describing the environment in which the query information is being sent, and a user signature representing content preferences learned about the user; receiving at least one set of a search result and auxiliary information from the at least one search engine in response to sending the query information, including information describing attributes of the search result that led to the search result being chosen by the at least one search engine; ordering the at least one search result based at least in part on the auxiliary information; and presenting the ordered search results to the user.
US09058385B2
Systems and methods are provided for identifying and recommending electronic content to consumers. In accordance with an implementation, one or more elements of electronic content are identified based on video graph data. In an exemplary method, information associated with a first element of video content is received, and corresponding video graph data is obtained. One or more second elements of video content that are similar to the first element of video content are identified based on the obtained video graph data. A subset the first and second elements of video content is subsequently identified for delivery to the user.
US09058384B2
A system and method for identifying a bird vocalization is presented. An input audio signal representing the bird vocalization is captured. A fingerprint of the input audio signal is then generated. A score of a similarity of the fingerprint to at least one of a plurality of predetermined fingerprints is determined by determining a desirable alignment between the fingerprint and the at least one of a plurality of predetermined fingerprints. A report can be generated based on the score of the similarity and an identity of the at least one of the plurality of the predetermined fingerprints, the report identifying a bird species associated with the bird vocalization.
US09058383B2
A method and system for filtering a candidate document in a candidate document set are provided. The method includes receiving one or more entity word—topic word pairs and identifying one or more entity words of the candidate document and topic words. The method also includes determining whether to add the candidate document into a filtered document set using the entity words and topic words in the given entity word—topic word pairs and the identified entity words and topic words in the candidate document. The method further includes adding the candidate document into a filtered document set in response to determining that the candidate document should be added into the filtered document set.
US09058382B2
A method and system for augmenting a training set used to train a classifier of documents is provided. The augmentation system augments a training set with training data derived from features of documents based on a document hierarchy. The training data of the initial training set may be derived from the root documents of the hierarchies of documents. The augmentation system generates additional training data that includes an aggregate feature that represents the overall characteristics of a hierarchy of documents, rather than just the root document. After the training data is generated, the augmentation system augments the initial training set with the newly generated training data.
US09058380B2
Methods and systems are disclosed for implementing data matching techniques. In some embodiments, methods and systems may be implemented for filtering a received record associated with at least one record attribute against an entity record. The methods and systems comprise, for example, applying a record attribute weight to the at least one record attribute associated with the received record, performing at least one matching technique that compares the at least one record attribute of the received record against the entity record, wherein the at least one matching technique is associated with a corresponding matching technique multiplier, calculating a matching score based on a result of the at least one matching technique and the multiplier associated with the at least one matching technique, and comparing the matching score to a threshold to determine whether the received record represents a suspect entity.
US09058372B2
An apparatus, system, and method provide database management within a wireless communication system by maintaining a database within wireless communication devices transmitting changes using wireless messages. An initiating slave wireless communication device, maintaining a first data version of a database, transmits a database modification request message to a master wireless communication device maintaining a second data version of the database. After modifying the second data version of the database in accordance with the database modification request message, the master wireless communication device transmits a database modification instruction to any number of non-initiating slave wireless communication devices to modify other data versions of the database maintained at the respective non-initiating slave wireless device. As a result, the multiple data versions are synchronized to maintain a database within the wireless communication system.
US09058366B2
Among other disclosures, a method may include identifying content in an electronic communication, the content including a link. The method may include characterizing content associated with the link and storing the characterization. Upon detecting a match of a characterization, presenting one or more of the communication or portion thereof, the link or content associated with the link.
US09058348B2
An Enterprise Network includes a master data management (MDM) system that is linked to two or more data sources each of which include means for storing local management information. The MDM system builds a master management information database that is comprised of some or all of the management information stored by the data sources. The master database in the MDM includes master records each of which is comprised of one or more attributes. The MDM system is configured to only update particular master record attributes with selected management information received from a trusted data source.
US09058347B2
A collection of content objects and a representative content object may be stored in a k-dimensional tree. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a content object; constructing a first k-dimensional tree in response to determining a second k-dimensional tree is storing information corresponding to a number of content objects that is equal to a number of nodes of the second k-dimensional tree; storing information corresponding to the received content object as a node in the first k-dimensional tree; and moving information corresponding to a stored content object from of each node of the second k-dimensional tree to a corresponding node of the first k-dimensional tree, wherein the corresponding node of the first k-dimensional tree is identified based at least in part on content of the content object.
US09058341B2
A method and an associated system for providing on a wireless communication device an image representing contents of a package, the method comprising the steps of reading a readable code on the package using a camera on the wireless communication device, displaying the image representing the contents of the package on the wireless communication device when the camera is positioned to view at least a portion of the package, the image being superimposed on a view of the package, and altering the image in response to relative movement between the package and the camera such that the image displayed on the wireless communication device represents the portion of the contents of the package at which the camera is pointed.
US09058335B2
A search engine may maintain a list of derived metadata. When an event occurs that requires updating a search index, the search engine can determine which metadata is derived metadata and take appropriate actions with respect to the derived metadata. For example, if a request is received to update the index for a particular object, the search engine may protect the derived metadata from change while updating the other metadata in the index. As another example, if a request is received to update the text content for the object, the search engine may change the text content and the derived metadata. By identifying derived metadata, the search engine can protect the derived metadata from change when a request is received that otherwise causes metadata to change and can change the derived metadata when a request is received that would otherwise not change the metadata portion of the index.
US09058331B2
The present invention includes a system and method for generating a conversation in a social network based on visual search results. A mixed media reality (MMR) engine indexes source materials as MMR objects, receives images from a user device and identifies matching MMR objects. A content management engine generates metadata corresponding to the MMR objects. A social network application generates conversations corresponding to the MMR object. The conversation includes multiple discussion threads. If a conversation already exists, the social network application provides the user with access to the conversation.
US09058324B2
A device and method for predictively precaching content on a mobile communication device includes monitoring numerous data sources for contextual data on the activities of the user. The mobile communication device predicts network connectivity outages and affected applications using the contextual data. The mobile communication device notifies the affected applications of the predicted network connectivity outage, and in response the affected applications precache suitable content. The affected applications may employ several precaching strategies in response to the notification, such as downloading content from a remote content server, adjusting content streaming, or adjusting content buffering prior to the predicted network connectivity outage. During the network outage, application service is provided using the precached content. Such precaching may also be accomplished using a local caching proxy server.
US09058323B2
A system, method, and apparatus for collecting data streams, such as data packets, on a network, such as the Internet, are disclosed. Evaluation of the metadata and the relationships can be performed algorithmically, as predetermined by an analyst or as provided as preset options by the network monitoring system (NMS). The collected data associated with the users of the network may be accessed by multiple analysts belonging to different groups having a NMS of their own. The system may allow access to multiple analysts belonging to separate groups by parsing through a single instance of the stored data. Multiple analysts belonging to different groups may allow to access to a single instance of the stored data.
US09058320B2
A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY keyboard and is enabled with a disambiguation routine that is operable to disambiguate text input. In addition to identifying and outputting representations of language objects that are stored in the memory and that correspond with a text input, the device is able to perform a spell check routine during input of a text entry and to learn and automatically correct mistakes typically made by the particular user.
US09058310B2
In an online collage-based editor, a method for determining an effective aspect ratio for a selected project orientation that includes a group of two or more available page sizes having different aspect ratios and displaying a project page at a derived aspect ratio in the GUI during editing includes the steps (a) determining for each page size in the group, the viewable area of each page, (b) recording the aspect ratios of the viewable areas of step (a), (c) using a mathematical function, describing a total amount of error present amongst the available aspect ratios of step (b) for a given aspect ratio, (d) using a mathematical program, process, or automated calculation tool, finding the effective aspect ratio that minimizes the function and hence the error value of step (c), and (e) displaying the project page at the selected effective aspect ratio.
US09058307B2
Scorecard data including scorecard views, and the like are exported to a presentation application for generating a presentation based on the scorecard data. Briefing book definitions are generated based on the scorecard data, default parameters and user-defined parameters for providing a user selections for the presentations. Using composite objects, scorecard and report views may be reformatted, resized, laid out, and paginated according to the presentation preferences. Once the user selections are received the presentation may be rendered generating charts based on the data, grouping and breaking down views, incorporating unstructured data, and the like.
US09058306B2
An information handling system includes a storage enclosure operable to communicate with a storage initiator. The storage enclosure includes a first controller corresponding to a first storage domain for enabling access between the storage initiator and a plurality of storage targets using a storage protocol. A second controller of the system, corresponding to a second storage domain, is operable to enable access between the storage initiator and the plurality of storage targets. A second storage enclosure subsystem is part of the second controller and a second configurable extra-protocol interconnection between the second storage enclosure subsystem and the first controller enables the second storage enclosure subsystem to function as a storage enclosure subsystem for the first controller.
US09058303B2
A method operates on observed relationship data between pairs of entities of a set of entities including entities of at least two (and optionally at least three) different entity types. An observed collective symmetric matrix is constructed in which element (n,m)=element (m,n) stores the observed relationship between entities indexed n and m when the observed relationship data includes this observed relationship. A prediction collective symmetric matrix is optimized in order to minimize a loss function comparing the observed collective symmetric matrix and the prediction collective symmetric matrix. A relationship between two entities of the set of entities is predicted using the optimized prediction collective symmetric matrix. Entities of the same entity type may be indexed using a contiguous set of indices such that the entity type maps to a contiguous set of rows and corresponding contiguous set of columns in the observed collective symmetric matrix.
US09058301B2
Techniques for transferring a matrix for performing one or more operations are provided. The techniques include applying a permutation on at least one of one or more columns and one or more rows of a matrix to group each of at least one of one or more columns and one or more rows of the matrix with a same alignment, blocking at least one of the grouped columns and grouped rows, and performing one or more operations on each matrix block.
US09058298B2
One aspect of the present invention includes a configuration of a storage management system that enables the performance of deduplication activities at both the client (source) and at the server (target) locations. The location of deduplication operations can then be optimized based on system conditions or predefined policies. In one embodiment, seamless switching of deduplication activities between the client and the server is enabled by utilizing uniform deduplication process algorithms and accessing the same deduplication index (containing information on the hashed data chunks). Additionally, any data transformations on the chunks are performed subsequent to identification of the data chunks. Accordingly, with use of this storage configuration, the storage system can find and utilize matching chunks generated with either client- or server-side deduplication.
US09058297B2
A device includes a key store memory, a rule set memory, a plurality of cryptographic clients, and a key store arbitration module. The key store memory stores a plurality of cryptographic keys and the rule set memory stores a set of rules for accessing the cryptographic keys. A cryptographic client is operable to issue a request to access a cryptographic key(s) and, when access to the cryptographic key is granted, execute a cryptographic function regarding at least a portion of the cryptographic key to produce a cryptographic result. The key store arbitration module is operable to determine whether the request to access the cryptographic key is valid; when the request is valid, interpret the request to produce an interpreted request; access the rule set memory based on the interpreted request to retrieve a rule of the set of rules; and grant access to the cryptographic key in accordance with the rule.
US09058295B2
A request from a host is received requesting data from a storage device. Data of the storage device is written into a buffer of the host. The data at the buffer is to be encrypted and written back to the storage device. The requested data of the request is written to the buffer after the encrypted data is written back to the storage device.
US09058291B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to erasure correcting codes for storage arrays. An aspect of the invention includes receiving a read stripe from a plurality of storage devices. The read stripe includes a block of pages arranged in rows and columns, with each column corresponding to one of the storage devices. The pages include data pages and parity pages, with the number of parity pages at least one more than the number of rows and not a multiple of the number of rows. The method further includes reconstructing at least one erased page in response to determining that the read stripe includes the at least one erased page and that the number of erased pages is less than or equal to the number of parity pages. The reconstructing is responsive to a multiple erasure correcting code and to the block of pages. The reconstructing results in a recovered read stripe.
US09058277B2
Methods and systems for prefetching data for a processor are provided. A system is configured for and a method includes selecting one of a first prefetching control logic and a second prefetching control logic of the processor as a candidate feature, capturing the performance metric of the processor over an inactive sample period when the candidate feature is inactive, capturing a performance metric of the processor over an active sample period when the candidate feature is active, comparing the performance metric of the processor for the active and inactive sample periods, and setting a status of the candidate feature as enabled when the performance metric in the active period indicates improvement over the performance metric in the inactive period, and as disabled when the performance metric in the inactive period indicates improvement over the performance metric in the active period.
US09058270B2
A mechanism is provided for detecting false sharing misses. Responsive to performing either an eviction or an invalidation of a cache line in a cache memory of the data processing system, a determination is made as to whether there is an entry associated with the cache line in a false sharing detection table. Responsive to the entry associated with the cache line existing in the false sharing detection table, a determination is made as to whether an overlap field associated with the entry is set. Responsive to the overlap field failing to be set, identification is made that a false sharing coherence miss has occurred. A first signal is then sent to a performance monitoring unit indicating the false sharing coherence miss.
US09058256B2
A data writing method for a rewritable non-volatile memory module is provided. The method includes selecting at least one physical erasing unit as a global random area and building a global random area searching table for recording update information corresponding to updated logical pages that data stored in the global random area belongs to. The method also includes receiving updated data belonging to a logical page; and determining whether a data dispersedness degree corresponding to the global random area is smaller than a data dispersedness degree threshold. The method further includes, if the data dispersedness degree corresponding to the global random area is smaller than the data dispersedness degree threshold, writing the update data into the global random area and recording update information corresponding to the logical page in the global random area searching table.
US09058254B2
A memory device includes a nonvolatile memory and a controller. The nonvolatile memory includes a storage area having a plurality of memory blocks each including a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells, and a buffer including a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells and configured to temporarily store data, and in which data is erased for each block. If a size of write data related to one write command is not more than a predetermined size, the controller writes the write data to the buffer.
US09058237B2
A locking system may place a persistent object on each of the devices in a computer cluster. The objects may indicate that an update is being performed on the devices so that other systems may not also update the devices. When an update has completed, the objects may be removed. The objects may include an identifier for the system owning the objects, as well as other information regarding the update. In some cases, the objects may include executable code and perform some of the update functions on the various devices.
US09058236B2
An apparatus, control method, and system for updating firmware of an image forming apparatus remotely such that the image forming apparatus is monitored to determine the state of the image forming apparatus at the time the update instruction is received and to monitor whether the firmware in the image forming apparatus has been updated successfully.
US09058234B2
A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions is presented. The instructions may cause a control system to receive a proposed update to a grid system. The instructions may also cause the control system to create a patch based on the proposed update to amend infrastructure information relating to the grid system upon receipt of the proposed update. Additionally, the instructions may cause the control system to implement the patch by storing the amended infrastructure information in memory. Furthermore, the instructions may cause the control system to send a patch update related to the patch to a master application.
US09058224B2
A plurality of asynchronous command streams are established. A first command stream shares a common resource with a second command stream. A synchronization object is incorporated into the first command stream. A central server arbitrates serialization of the first and second command streams using the synchronization object. The central server arbitrates serialization without direct communication between the first and second command streams.
US09058223B2
An invention is disclosed for performing entropy encoding in a parallelized manner, using a GPU. In embodiments, an input sequence of integers is received, and run-length encoding is performed on any runs of zeros in parallel operations on the GPU. Then, a plurality of parallelized operations are performed on the run-length encoded sequence to entropy encode the sequence. The value N may be entropy encoded using only N and the value that precedes it in the sequence, N−1, so the encoding may be sub-divided into multiple operations that may be performed in parallel on the GPU. After entropy encoding is performed, a bitstream may be produced using parallelized operations on the GPU.
US09058222B1
A distributed networked computer system is provided. The distributed networked computer system receives processing threads from a plurality of workstations and distributes the processing threads to selected processing nodes through a load balancer. The load balancer is configured to recognize certain enterprise users and transfer the processing threads from the certain enterprise users to dedicated processing nodes dedicated to processing the threads of those certain users.
US09058220B2
A system includes a plurality of processors programmed to perform distributed, iterative computations on aggregate statistics of a data set. Each of the processors maintains global statistics describing the data set. The processors are programmed to iteratively perform a plurality of Gibbs sampling sweeps over a corresponding subset of the data set to update the corresponding global statistics. The processors are further programmed to maintain differential vectors representing the changes made to the global statistics by local computation. These can be broadcast to other processors to create a consistent global statistic across processors. The differential vectors can be saved for a number of past generations to provide updates for slow processors, processors that have been down for some time and newly added processors to the network. Additional methods are described for efficiently compressing multiple differential vector updates in to a smaller number of equally informative updates.
US09058211B2
A method and system may receive a request to provision one or more computing resources, such as a physical or virtual server based on configuration information received from a user via a web portal. An availability of the one or more computing resources may be pre-validated. When the pre-validating for all of the one or more computing resources is not successful, an alert message may be output to the user via the web portal indicating that one or more of the requested computing resources is not available. When the pre-validating for all of the one or more computing resources is successful, one or more jobs may be queued in a jobs database based on the request to provision the one or more computing resources, dequeued by a workflow engine, and executed to configure the one or more computing resources.
US09058209B2
An apparatus for determining the presence of a tone in an input signal includes memory circuitry and data processing circuitry coupled to the memory circuitry. The data processing circuitry is operative to receive multiple samples of the input signal, and to determine a first value at least in part by multiplying each of the samples by respective ones of a first set of values for an impulse response and summing the results. The data processing system is also operative to determine a second value at least in part by multiplying each of a portion of the samples by respective ones of a second set of values for the impulse response and summing the results. The data processing system is operative to determine the power of the tone in the multiple samples of the input signal at least in part by utilizing the first value and the second value.
US09058206B2
A system, computer program and a method for debugging a system, the method includes: controlling, by a debugger, an execution flow of a processing entity; setting, by the debugger or the processing entity, a value of a scheduler control variable accessible by the scheduler; wherein the debugger is prevented from directly controlling an execution flow of a scheduler; and determining, by the scheduler, an execution flow of the scheduler in response to a value of the scheduler control variable.
US09058204B2
A control method and a control device for releasing memory are provided. The method implements: obtaining information of current running programs in a terminal device; checking programs whose running states are idle in the current running programs according to the obtained information; closing programs whose running states are idle and releasing corresponding memory.
US09058203B2
A distributed processor-based system comprises a plurality of communicating platforms, wherein a number of platforms in the distributed processor-based system comprise at least one compiler, the at least one compiler being operably coupled to data type translation logic and arranged to generate a memory layout for the respective platform. In response to an indication for a communication to occur between a first platform and a second platform the data type translation logic translates a memory layout using data type attributes for data to be transferred from the first platform to the second platform based on at least one platform-specific characteristic, such that the data does not require translating when received at the second platform.
US09058197B2
A method for sharing memories of virtual machines is provided. The method is applied for a computer system configured to execute at least one virtual machine. The method includes the following steps. A memory map corresponding to the virtual machines is obtained, wherein usage states of memory pages of the virtual machine are stored in the corresponding memory map. Unused memory pages of the virtual machines are marked as free pages according to the corresponding memory map. The free pages of the virtual machines are shared. Therefore, the unused memory pages in the virtual machine can be shared. A computer system using the foregoing method is also provided.
US09058193B2
Methods and systems for providing compatibility of applications with multiple versions of an operating system are provided. The method may comprise receiving, by a device, a request to perform a function-call of an application that references features of a first version of an operating system. The method also includes determining whether a version of the operating system and a system library on the device supports the function-call of the application so as to be able to perform dynamic compilation of code in the system library for the function-call at run-time, and based on the determination, accessing a compatibility library associated with the application that includes pre-compiled code for execution by a given device having a given version of the operating system other than the first version of the operating system. The method also includes at run-time, performing the function-call using corresponding pre-compiled code from the compatibility library.
US09058191B2
In a multiprocessor system, a primary processor may store an executable image for a secondary processor. A communication protocol assists the transfer of an image header and data segment(s) of the executable image from the primary processor to the secondary processor. Messages between the primary processor and secondary processor indicate successful receipt of transferred data, termination of a transfer process, and acknowledgement of same.
US09058186B2
A method includes displaying a first application view. A first input is detected, and an application view selection mode is entered for selecting one of concurrently open applications for display in a corresponding application view. An initial group of open application icons in a first predefined area and at least a portion of the first application view adjacent to the first predefined area are concurrently displayed. The initial group of open application icons corresponds to at least some of the concurrently open applications. A gesture is detected on a respective open application icon in the first predefined area, and a respective application view for a corresponding application is displayed without concurrently displaying an application view for any other application in the concurrently open applications. The open application icons in the first predefined area cease to be displayed, and the application view selection mode is exited.
US09058181B2
A conditional processing method and apparatus for efficient memory management are provided. A conditional processing method includes generating a parse tree by loading a plurality of nodes of data structured based on a declarative description language in a memory in series; evaluating, when a parsing switch node having an attribute describing a condition for conditional processing exists among the nodes, child nodes of the parsing switch node according to the attribute; loading only the child nodes fulfilling the attribute in the memory; and outputting the child nodes retained on the memory.
US09058178B2
In a data processing system, a selection is made, based at least on an access type of a memory access request, between at least a first timing and a second timing of data transmission with respect to completion of error detection processing on a target memory block of the memory access request. In response to receipt of the memory access request and selection of the first timing, data from the target memory block is transmitted to a requestor prior to completion of error detection processing on the target memory block. In response to receipt of the memory access request and selection of the second timing, data from the target memory block is transmitted to the requestor after and in response to completion of error detection processing on the target memory block.
US09058173B2
A method for controlling a mobile terminal device that includes a multi-core CPU and a display that displays an execution result of an application program executed by the multi-core CPU includes detecting an application program of which an execution result is displayed, calculating a CPU load per thread in the application program detected in the detecting, and increasing the number of cores operating in the multi-core CPU when the number of threads, each of the threads causing the CPU load to be equal to or higher than a first value, is equal to or higher than a second value.
US09058171B2
A data processing method, a data processing system, and relevant devices are provided, which are used to reduce system power consumption. The method in embodiments of the present invention includes: performing sampling on an analog signal to obtain an analog sample value; performing analog-to-digital conversion on the analog sample value to obtain a digital signal; dividing bits forming the digital signal into at least two bit groups; and turning off output of bits in at least one bit group if a preset turnoff condition is satisfied. A data processing system and relevant devices are further provided.
US09058162B2
A storage control apparatus includes: a pre-processing-execution determining block for determining whether or not either one of an erase operation and a program operation is to be executed as pre-processing in a write operation to be carried out on a predetermined data area to serve as a write-operation object; and a pre-read processing block for reading out pre-read data from the data area prior to the write operation if a result of the determination indicates that the pre-processing is to be executed. The apparatus further includes a bit operating block for carrying out: the pre-processing and one of the erase and program operations which is not the pre-processing as post-processing if a result of the determination indicates that the pre-processing is to be executed; and the post-processing without carrying out the pre-processing if a determination result indicates that the pre-processing is not to be executed.
US09058161B2
There are provided a universal power supplying apparatus and a universal power supplying method that can be universally used for various types of devices having a variety of voltage and current levels of a driving power. The universal power supplying apparatus includes a power supplying unit that converts an input power into a driving power having a previously set voltage level and supplies the converted power, a power recognizing unit that outputs a recognized voltage having the previously set voltage level to an output terminal from which power is output to recognize connection of a device, and controls a power output of the power supplying unit according to a detected rated output, and a detecting unit that provides a detection voltage having the previously set voltage level to the output terminal.
US09058154B2
A window substrate for a display device includes a base substrate including a display region and a non-display region disposed adjacent to at least one portion of the display region, a light shielding layer on the base substrate and facing at least one portion of the non-display region, the light shielding layer having at least one opening, and a filter layer on the base substrate and facing the opening, the filter layer being adapted to transmit a portion of a light passing through the opening.
US09058140B2
When a printer apparatus is allowed to execute a printing of a document using paper based on a print setting set by the user, the following processes are executed in order to allow the user to recognize a paper saving print setting. Whether or not there is a print setting which can save an amount of paper compared to the print setting set by the user is determined. If it is determined that a paper saving print setting exists, the user is notified of such a paper saving print setting.
US09058136B2
Methods and systems receive an electronic document into a computerized device. The electronic document contains reusable items. The methods and systems herein render the electronic document into a printer-ready format using the computerized device to produce a printer-ready document and output the printer-ready document from the computerized device. The rendering process creates objects for the reusable items within the printer-ready document as the reusable items are encountered during the rendering. The objects are created to be uninfluenced by the graphic state of the current page in the printer-ready document. The methods and systems also store the objects in a non-transitory storage medium of the computerized device as the objects are created. Then, as the reusable items are re-encountered during the rendering process, these methods and systems simply reference the previously created object in the storage.
US09058135B1
Testing a digital system includes calculating a first ratio of a first clock frequency for a first clock domain and a second clock frequency for a second clock domain different from the first clock domain using a processing device and calculating a first offset between a first timer in the first clock domain and a second timer in the second clock domain. Using an expression dependent upon the first offset and the first ratio, event data from at least one of the first clock domain or the second clock domain is converted to a common clock domain.
US09058129B2
A system can use metadata and metadata mappings to track changes between business requirements, architectural design and implementation.
US09058128B1
An electronic user device can provide intelligent power management. The device can monitor information such as charge level and rate of power consumption, and determine an appropriate time to charge the device. If a device is placed on a charger at a time when the device does not require charging, and the charging could potentially shorten the life of the device battery, the device might activate an internal switch or communicate with the charger to prevent the device from being charged. The device can be configured to notify the user when the device should be charged using any number of notification approaches. If the device is unable to be charged during a certain period, or the rate of power consumption exceeds at least one set value, the device can adjust functionality of various components and/or applications in order to conserve power until the device is able to be charged.
US09058123B2
A storage module may be configured to service I/O requests according to different persistence levels. The persistence level of an I/O request may relate to the storage resource(s) used to service the I/O request, the configuration of the storage resource(s), the storage mode of the resources, and so on. In some embodiments, a persistence level may relate to a cache mode of an I/O request. I/O requests pertaining to temporary or disposable data may be serviced using an ephemeral cache mode. An ephemeral cache mode may comprise storing I/O request data in cache storage without writing the data through (or back) to primary storage. Ephemeral cache data may be transferred between hosts in response to virtual machine migration.
US09058108B2
Systems and methods are described relating to a matcher that inputs partial vectors at a rate of 1 per clock cycle and delivers complete vectors at the output with an indication per vector of its validity. The matcher can copy a maximum number of valid elements from an input queue to target vector in-order each clock cycle and eliminate copied elements from the input queue. The completely filled target vectors are paired with the complete data vectors and outputted as composite vectors.
US09058104B2
In one embodiment, a method includes displaying a keyboard on a touch-screen of a computing device; in response to a touch gesture within a display area of the touch-screen, the touch gesture comprising one or more paths that comprise two or more points on the touch-screen, determining a particular one of a plurality of characters corresponding to the touch gesture; and entering the particular one of the characters as user input to the computing device.
US09058102B2
A symbol input device includes a plurality of symbol keys, a correction key, a time keeping portion for measuring a time for which the symbol key is pressed and held, a storage portion for storing data, and an input receiving portion which accepts input with the symbol key or the correction key, recognizes a time for which the symbol key is pressed and held based on the measurement by the time keeping portion, automatically accepts re-input of the symbol corresponding to the symbol key when the time for which the same symbol key is pressed and held exceeds a predetermined long press time, and increases the long press time every time when the number of correction times that is the number of times of which the correction key has been pressed reaches a predetermined first number of times after the automatic re-input.
US09058094B2
A method and apparatus are disclosed for facilitating category selection by a user in a computerized auction. A category field is provided, containing a plurality of category entries used to categorize an item in the auction. One category entry is selected in the category field and at least one subcategory field is provided, containing a plurality of subcategory entries also used to categorize the item in the auction, the subcategory entries corresponding to the one selected category entry of the plurality of category entries. At least one subcategory entry corresponding to the one selected category entry is further selected in the at least one subcategory field for further processing.
US09058093B2
A method for managing information elements on axes is provided, the method comprising providing a plurality of axes of information elements adapted to display information elements thereon in a substantially rectilinear fashion, displaying at least a portion of at least one of the plurality of axes of information elements with information elements respectively displayed thereon, at least some of the information elements displayed being adapted to be selectable, to enable a first group of actions thereon, and adapted to be activated, to enable a second group of actions thereon. Another embodiment of the present invention provides a method for enabling logical functions on a basis of a plurality of axes of information elements adapted to be displayed on a display. Another embodiment of the present invention provides a method for navigating among axes of information elements identifying directions where movements of the active information element are allowed.
US09058081B2
An electronic device may include a housing having a mousing surface, and a navigation device carried by the housing and comprising a proximity detector. The proximity detector may include a single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) configured to detect movement of an activator adjacent the mousing surface. For example, the proximity detector may detect movement along three axes.
US09058077B2
An electronic device includes a base, a touch screen display, a pair of switches and operational components. The touch screen display is connected to the base, movable relative thereto and includes a display device and a touch-sensitive input surface overlying the display device. A pair of switches disposed between the base and the touch screen display and configured such that one of the switches is actuated in response to application of a force anywhere on the touch-sensitive input surface of the touch screen display and both of the switches are actuated in response to application of more than one force on the touch-sensitive input surface of the touch screen display. The operational components include a controller connected to the touch-sensitive input surface and a processor connected to the controller and the display.
US09058074B2
Disclosed is an organic light emitting display an organic light emitting display that can efficiently prevent permeation of moisture in a structure including an in-cell touch electrode array, the uppermost layer of the second buffer layer contacting the sealant between the dead region adjacent to the touch pad portion and the touch pads is an inorganic film.
US09058071B2
The invention relates to a method for determining the location and duration of a sustained contact of a touch event performed by a user on a surface of an object comprising the steps of: a) determining the location of the touch event, in particular based on an acoustic signal generated by the impact of the touch on the surface, and b) determining the duration of the touch event based on a perturbation of a signal generated in or on the object by a transducer characterized in that step b) comprises analyzing the signal generated at or close to N natural frequencies of the object, with N being one or more. The analysis close to the natural frequencies allows the reliable determination of not only the location of a touch event but also whether the user continues to interact with the surface of the object which is due to the important damping of the generated signal in the presence of the touch. The invention also relates to a touch sensitive device configured to carry out the method.
US09058055B2
An advanced video teleconferencing system facilitates an engaging and realistic video conferencing experience. Key design elements and video, audio, and control capabilities are provided for a video conferencing experience that cannot be attained with conventional methods, which elements and capabilities include careful design of the table and room at each site, supplementary displays showing imagery in a mirrored manner, networked environmental control, an AutoDirector with keyword and gesture recognition, and audio reflection from a display or beam splitter.
US09058054B2
Methods and systems for capturing an image are provided. In one example, a head-mounted device (HMD) having an image capturing device, a viewfinder, a gaze acquisition system, and a controller may be configured to capture an image. The image capturing device may be configured to have an imaging field of view including at least a portion of a field of view provided by the viewfinder. The gaze acquisition system may be configured to acquire a gaze direction of a wearer. The controller may be configured to determine whether the acquired gaze direction is through the viewfinder and generate an image capture instruction based on a determination that the acquired gaze direction indicates a gaze through the viewfinder. The controller may further be configured to cause the image capturing device to capture an image.
US09058050B2
In a clock-based soft-start circuit configured to generate a soft-start reference voltage that restrains an inrush current at an initialization of power supplied to a DC-DC converter, the clock-based soft-start circuit comprises a time setting unit configured to set a soft-start time period in response to a clock signal. A ramp circuit is configured to generate a soft-start reference voltage which is ramped upward or downward between a base level and a reference voltage level during the soft start time period set by the time setting unit. In this manner, the clock-based soft-start circuit is applicable for all DC-DC converters and the soft-start in a linear slope is possible.
US09058049B2
A low-power-mode unit connected in parallel with a low-dropout regulator to provide a low-power mode includes a power P-MOS transistor, a differential amplifier, and an analog synchronization loop. The analog synchronization loop is configured to add a variable voltage offset depending on a total current at the output such that, in a high-power mode, the low-power unit current flowing through the P-MOS transistor is not zero, while being substantially smaller than the low-dropout regulator current flowing through the low-dropout regulator, and smaller than a predetermined value.
US09058044B2
A reference voltage generation circuit includes an auto-activation unit, an operational amplifier unit, and a tail current resistor. An input of the operational amplifier is grounded via the tail current resistor. The auto-activation unit is coupled to the operational amplifier so that the circuit operates at an operating point. A reduction of current noises, circuit area, and overall cost occurs implemented through the described tail current unit
US09058039B2
A method and apparatus for reckoning a position of a moving robot using dead-reckoning and range sensing. The method includes performing dead-reckoning to determine a variation state in accordance with motion of the moving robot, calculating an absolute position of the moving robot by sensing a distance between the moving robot and at least one fixed position, predicting an optimized current position of the moving robot using the variation state and the absolute position, determining whether the optimized current position is within a specified effective area, and correcting the optimized current position in accordance with the determined result.
US09058031B2
An automation controller that includes a central processing unit configured to communicate via an input/output module with automation devices of a process controlled by the automation controller. The automation controller also includes a retention feature configured to toollessly couple with a detachable display and memory module. Further, the automation controller includes a controller connector configured to communicatively couple with a display connector of the detachable display and memory module such that the automation controller and the detachable display and memory module are communicatively coupled, wherein the central processing unit is configured to transmit data for presentation on a display of the detachable display and memory module and configured to receive data from a memory and/or a data entry feature of the detachable display and memory module when the detachable display and memory module is communicatively coupled to the automation controller.
US09058029B2
A system and method for generating modeling software for processing control, used in power plant control, cement plants or other industrial control applications, using models such as expert systems, fuzzy logic, genetic optimization algorithms, and neural networks to convert sensor data into actionable data, information and/or diagnostics. The present invention includes a graphical programming environment, graphical programming tools, graphical user interface (GUI), visual feedback, real-time refresh, run-time object swap, logic standby (safety recovery), modeling and optimization to allows a user to create a control system for an industrial process, and that allows the user to change the process without any manual compile, assemble or load steps other than a save and refresh pushbutton.
US09058026B2
A method and apparatus for compensating for hysteresis in a system, the method comprising: determining a first estimate of a system parameter using the Preisach model; measuring a value of a system parameter; and determining an updated estimate of the estimated system parameter using the measured value of a system parameter. The measured system parameter may be the same system parameter as the system parameter for which the first estimate is determined using the Preisach model, or it may be a further system parameter that is a different system parameter to the system parameter for which the first estimate is determined using the Preisach model. Determining the updated estimate of the estimated system parameter may further use the first estimate of the estimated system parameter, or it may further use a corresponding determined value of the further system parameter.
US09058020B2
A mechanism for advancing, by periodic jumps, a cage of an escapement mechanism, including: a pivoting retaining mechanism authorizing or preventing pivoting of the cage, depending on whether the retaining mechanism is moving or not; and a stopping mechanism cooperating with the retaining mechanism to allow or prevent the pivoting of the retaining mechanism according to the position of the stopping mechanism. The trajectory of the retaining mechanism interferes with that of the stopping mechanism, both being external to the cage, and the retaining mechanism includes a flirt pinion carrying a flirt arranged to cooperate with the stopping mechanism and whose trajectory interferes with the stopping mechanism, the flirt pinion cooperating with a toothing of the cage, via an inverter wheel set.
US09058016B2
A printing apparatus to print an image on a sheet is provided. The printing apparatus includes a photosensitive member, a contiguous member arranged to contact the photosensitive member, and a protection sheet configured to protect the photosensitive member from the contiguous member. The protection sheet is arranged in an intervening position between the photosensitive member and the contiguous member but configured to be removed from the intervening position by a user before using the printing apparatus. The protection sheet interferes with at least one of the user's behavior conducted on the printing apparatus in order to use the printing apparatus and a detecting behavior of a sensor which is arranged in the printing apparatus to detect a condition of the printing apparatus.
US09058012B2
An image forming apparatus gas a photosensitive drum, an anti-static lamp, and a drum unit, The drum unit includes a unit main frame for holding the photosensitive drum, anda holder frame for holding the anti-static lamp, The holder frame is detachably attached to the unit main frame.
US09058001B2
An image forming apparatus includes a toner image forming unit that forms and continuously transfers a toner image based on image data onto a transported sheet from the front to the rear in a sheet transport direction as the sheet is transported, a fixing unit positioned downstream of the toner image forming unit in the transport direction and that fixes the transferred toner image onto the sheet, an image determining unit that determines whether the formed toner image is a scattering toner image that causes toner scattering during the transfer, and a speed controlling unit that controls, when it is determined that the toner image is a scattering toner image, a transport speed of the sheet and a transfer speed of the toner image to the sheet such that the speeds are slower than those when it is determined that the toner image is not a scattering toner image.
US09057973B2
A charging blade for charging a surface of an image bearing drum by contacting thereto includes a charging portion for effecting electric discharge to the surface of the drum; a non-charging portion not effecting the electric discharge to the surface of the drum, wherein the non-charging portion can contact the drum to provide a dischargeable gap between the charge portion and the drum, and at least a part the non-charging portion is made of a substance having a resistance higher than that of the charge portion to prevent no discharge occurs from the non-charging portion to the surface of the drum; and a support for the non-charging portion and the charge portion, wherein the non-charging portion and the charge portion are separation members and are not contacted to each other.
US09057965B2
A method of generating a set of defect candidates for a wafer includes generating a filtration area according to a graph operation of one or more of a plurality of layout areas. The wafer includes at least one die manufactured according to a mask, and the mask is prepared by combining the plurality of layout areas. The method further includes generating the set of defect candidates by omitting a subset of initial defect candidates having positions within the filtration area.
US09057951B2
Photoresist compositions include a blend of a phenolic polymer with a (meth)acrylate-based copolymer free of ether-containing and/or carboxylic acid-containing moieties. The (meth)acrylate copolymer includes a first monomer selected from the group consisting of an alkyl acrylate, a substituted alkyl acrylate, an alkyl (meth)acrylate, a substituted alkyl methacrylate and mixtures thereof, and a second monomer selected from the group consisting of an acrylate, a (meth)acrylate or a mixture thereof having an acid cleavable ester substituent; and a photoacid generator. Also disclosed are processes for generating a photoresist image on a substrate with the photoresist composition.
US09057942B2
A stereoscopic 3-D imaging apparatus has a camera and a wedged optical component attachable to the front of the camera. The wedged optical component is rotatable around the front of the camera using a rotating device, and the rotating device controls the rotation speed of the wedged optical component. The camera is capable of capturing stereoscopic 3-D images, resulting in lower costs and a simple capture process.
US09057933B1
A protective enclosure assembly for housing a wildlife surveillance camera includes a housing positionable proximate a stanchion. The housing has a camera aperture extending therethrough. A cable is operationally coupled between the housing and the stanchion. The housing is retained on the stanchion. A spacer is positionable within the housing. A camera is positioned within the spacer. The camera is retained proximate the camera aperture. A door is operationally coupled to the housing. The door selectively closes the housing.
US09057928B2
The invention relates to an apparatus for generation of electromagnetic radiation, having a pump light source that emits an excitation radiation at a first wavelength, and having an optical waveguide that generates frequency-converted radiation at a second and a third wavelength, by means of degenerate wave mixing, from the excitation radiation of the pump light source.
US09057925B2
An electrochromic device including: a first substantially transparent substrate having an electrically conductive material associated therewith; a second substrate having an electrically conductive material associated therewith; an electrochromic medium contained within a chamber positioned between the first and second substrates which includes: at least one solvent; at least one anodic material; and at least one cathodic material, wherein both of the anodic and cathodic materials are electroactive and at least one of the anodic and cathodic materials is electrochromic; wherein at least one of a seal member, the first substrate, the second substrate, and the chamber includes a plug associated with a fill port; and wherein the plug is at least partially cured with at least one photoinitiator and at least one photosensitizer upon exposure to electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength from about 350 nm to about 420 nm.
US09057918B2
In a reflective liquid crystal display device, a space where a pixel electrode is not provided between adjacent pixels causes a decrease in proportion of a display region in a pixel (i.e., aperture ratio). As a result, the reflective liquid crystal display device has a problem in that contrast and luminance of display images are decreased. An object is to provide a liquid crystal display device which displays an image with high contrast and high luminance. In the liquid crystal display device, an end portion of a pixel electrode is provided to overlap with an end portion of an adjacent pixel electrode with an insulating layer interposed therebetween so that a space between adjacent pixels is narrowed; thus, the proportion of a display region in a pixel is increased.
US09057913B2
A liquid crystal display module includes a light source and a liquid crystal module. The liquid crystal module includes a top glass substrate, a bottom glass substrate and a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the top glass substrate and the bottom glass substrate. The bottom glass substrate covers the light source, and has a hollow inner space. A top wall of the inner space presents a number of microstructures extending down to the light source, for scattering light emitted from the light source before the emitted light enters the liquid crystal layer.
US09057910B2
A display panel including a substrate on which a switching element is disposed, a first electrode connected to the switching element, an image displaying layer disposed under the first electrode, a second electrode disposed under the image displaying layer and insulated from the first electrode, a protective layer disposed under the second electrode and surrounding a lower surface and side surfaces of the image displaying layer, and an upper polarizing plate disposed on the substrate, and making contact with the substrate.
US09057909B2
A liquid crystal lens and a 3D display device are provided. The liquid crystal lens comprises a lower substrate, an upper substrate disposed opposite to the lower substrate and a common substrate disposed between the upper substrate and the lower substrate. A plurality of first lenses are disposed between the lower substrate and the common substrate, each of the first lenses only converging light component of the incident natural light in a first polarization direction. A plurality of second lenses are disposed between the upper substrate and the common substrate, each of the second lenses only converging the light component of the incident natural light in a second polarization direction different from the first polarization direction. The 3D display device of the invention can reduce loss of light energy and enhance display luminance of the 3D display device as a whole.
US09057908B2
A color filter substrate includes a transparent substrate, a patterned light-shielding layer, a plurality of color filter units, and a plurality of dummy color filter units. The transparent substrate has a display region and a peripheral region surrounding the display region. The patterned light-shielding layer is disposed on the transparent substrate, and the patterned light-shielding layer includes a first light-shielding pattern disposed on the display region and a second light-shielding pattern disposed on the peripheral region. The first light-shielding pattern defines a plurality of sub-pixel regions. The color filter units are disposed on the display region. The dummy color filter units are disposed on the peripheral region. Spacing between two adjacent dummy color filter units or spacing between the color filter unit and the adjacent dummy color filter unit is wider than spacing between two adjacent color filter units.
US09057906B2
A capacitive in cell touch panel, its driving method and a display device, in which, on the TFT array substrate, a pixel structure in which two adjacent rows of pixel units form one pixel unit group and two gate signal lines are disposed between the two rows of pixel units of the pixel unit group is adopted. Positions of gate signal lines between adjacent pixel unit groups can be saved by modifying positions of gate signal lines of two adjacent rows of pixel units and TFT switches. As such, touch driving lines with touch function can be set at the saved positions for gate signal lines and touch sensing electrodes can be disposed on the color filter substrate and extend in the column direction of the pixel units to realize touch function while ensuring high aperture ratio.
US09057900B2
A display module, which includes a display panel, a backlight unit and a bezel. The backlight unit is disposed opposite to the display panel. The bezel includes a bottom, a plurality of sidewalls and a plurality of extension structures. The bottom is configured to support the backlight unit. These sidewalls are configured to corporately enclose the display panel and the backlight unit, and each sidewall has a first end and a second end opposite to each other; wherein the first end is connected to the bottom. The extension structures each extend from the second end of the respective sidewall and include a supporting portion, disposed between the backlight unit and the display panel and opposite to the bottom, configured to support the display panel.
US09057893B2
Provided is a light control element wherein stable operation at low driving voltage is possible. A light control element comprises a substrate (1) having an electro-optic effect, a plurality of optical waveguides (2) formed on said substrate (1), and a control electrode (3) which is formed on said substrate and controls the phase of the light that propagates through the optical waveguides (2), wherein the control electrode is provided with at least two resonance type electrodes (31, 32) having the same resonant frequencies, and power supply electrodes (41, 42) which supply a control signal to each resonance type electrode (31, 32); and the shape and forming position of each resonance type electrode (31, 32), and the supply position to each resonance type electrode (31, 32) according to the power supply electrode (41, 42) are set so as to allow odd mode coupling with respect to each other; and a control signal having the same phase or a prescribed phase difference is supplied to each resonance type electrode (31, 32) by the power supply electrode (41, 42).
US09057887B1
Provided herein are optically transparent materials configured to block an appropriate amount of incident blue light, such that when the materials are positioned in the optical path between environmental light and the retina of a user, the optically transparent materials reduce the amount of blue light from the environmental light that reaches the retina of a user. The materials can block an effective amount of blue light to minimize damage to retinal tissue while permitting transmission of an effective amount of maintain acceptable photopic vision, scotopic vision, color vision, and circadian rhythms.
US09057881B2
An illumination system and a projection apparatus adopting the illumination system are provided. The projection apparatus comprises the illumination system and a light modulator. The illumination system comprises at least one light source, a curved reflecting component, a phosphor wheel, a polarizer and a half wave retarder. The light provided by the at least one light source passes through the curved reflecting component and the phosphor wheel to provide a first light in a first time sequence and a second light in a second time sequence. The first light and the second light are transformed into a first polarized light and a second polarized light respectively in different time sequences by the polarizer and the half wave retarder.
US09057880B2
Generally, near seamless electronics displays may be employed in cinema and exhibition applications. Laser scanned displays may be enabled such that the display may display three dimensional (“3D”) content. A first method to enable a laser scanned display for 3D content may employ polarization, with or without polarization conversion and another method may employ multiple colors. Additionally, the envelope function that may be employed across the display may be achieved by changing laser power as a beam is scanned on the screen or by changing the dwell time of the laser beam on the pixels. One method of minimizing the effects of seams in the screen may be to reduce the screen resolution near the seams by screen design and/or laser beam dwell time or illumination energy.
US09057875B2
A display mirror assembly for a vehicle includes a display mirror assembly for a vehicle having a front shield including a first side and a second side. A partially reflective, partially transmissive element is mounted on the first side. A rear shield is disposed behind the front shield. A display module is mounted between the front shield and the rear shield and includes in order from the front shield: a display; an optic block; a heat sink having an edge lit PCB mounted along a top edge thereof; and a PCB. The front shield is secured to at least one component of the display module with a first retaining feature and the rear shield is secured to at least one component of the display module with a second retaining feature. A housing at least partially surrounds the front shield, display module, and rear shield.
US09057872B2
This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus for display device including a dielectric stack positioned between a first electrically conductive layer and a second movable electrically conductive layer. In one aspect, the dielectric stack includes alternating dielectric layers of high and low indices of refraction. By controlling the refractive indices and thicknesses of layers within the dielectric stack, the display device's states of light reflection may be reversed, such that light is reflected when the movable layer is positioned in proximity to the first electrically conductive layer.
US09057870B2
A zoom lens includes a first lens group, a second lens group, a third lens group, a fourth lens group, a fifth lens group and a sixth lens group, all of which are arranged in sequence from an object side to an image side along an optical axis. The first lens group is with positive refractive power. The second lens group is with negative refractive power. The third lens group is with positive refractive power. The fourth lens group is with negative refractive power. The fifth lens group is with positive refractive power. The zoom lens satisfies the following condition: |fw/f6<0.15, wherein fw is an effective focal length of the zoom lens at a wide-angle end and f6 is an effective focal length of the sixth lens group.
US09057864B2
An underwater rolling seal connector assembly has releasably mateable plug and receptacle units with one or more rolling seals mounted in front faces of receptacle and plug units. The rolling seals are rotatable back and forth between a closed position sealing one or more chambers within the respective units which contain one or more contacts and an open position in which bores through the seals are open to allow contacts in one unit to pass through the seal openings and engage contact in the other unit. Actuators automatically rotate the rolling seals into the open position during mating and back into the closed position on de-mating. At least one actuator assisting device is located in at least one of the units and associated with the rolling seal in that unit to bias the seal back to the closed position during de-mating.
US09057863B2
A fiber optic harness assembly includes first through sixth groups of optical fibers and first and second connector sets. The groups of optical fibers are arranged in data transmission pairs such that one group of each pair is configured to transmit data and the other group is configured to receive data. The pairs of the groups are organized such that a first pair includes the first and second groups, a second pair includes the third and fourth groups, and a third pair includes the fifth and sixth groups. The optical fibers of the groups are sized and routed to facilitate low-skew and efficient parallel optics connections for high-speed data transmission.
US09057862B2
A cable breakout assembly is provided, including a feeder cable, a breakout structure having a first end threadedly engaged with a cable nut having a single-port cable gland through which the feeder cable extends, a central conduit which houses the sections of the feeder cable passing there through, and an opposed second end threadedly engaged with a cable nut having a multi-port cable gland, whose number of ports corresponds to the number of splices of the feeder cable. A plurality of environmentally sealed, flexible conduits are provided, each having a first end that interfaces with and extends from a respective port of the multi-port gland, and a second end adapted to interface with an external device, wherein each flexible conduit houses a respective spliced section of the feeder cable therein.
US09057859B2
A fiber optic telecommunications device includes a frame and a fiber optic module including a rack mount portion, a center portion, and a main housing portion. The rack mount portion is stationarily coupled to the frame, the center portion is slidably coupled to the rack mount portion along a sliding direction, and the main housing portion is slidably coupled to the center portion along the sliding direction. The main housing portion of the fiber optic module includes fiber optic connection locations for connecting cables to be routed through the frame. The center portion of the fiber optic module includes a radius limiter for guiding cables between the main housing portion and the frame, the center portion also including a latch for unlatching the center portion for slidable movement. Slidable movement of the center portion with respect to the rack mount portion moves the main housing portion with respect to the frame along the sliding direction.
US09057855B2
An optical transmission assembly includes a base plate, an optical signal emitting member, an efferent optical fiber, an optical coupler, an afferent optical fiber, and an optical signal receiving member. The optical signal emitting member is mounted on or besides the base plate. The optical signal isolator is mounted on the base plate, and alignes with the optical signal emitting member. The efferent optical fiber is mounted on the base plate. The optical coupler is located besides the base plate, coupling with the optical signal isolator via the efferent optical fiber. The afferent optical fiber is mounted on the base plate. The optical signal receiving member is mounted on or besides the base plate, coupling with the optical coupler via the afferent optical fiber. The present disclosure further includes a bidirectional and double-frequency optical transmission module having the optical transmission assembly.
US09057845B2
An optical fiber cable assembly includes an optical fiber cable, an optical fiber connector, and a strain relief member. The optical fiber connector has a housing with at least two ferrules supporting a plurality of optical fibers of the cable. Each ferrule has at least two ribbons of optical fibers therein. The strain relief member has a flexible corrugated conduit. A method is also disclosed.
US09057841B2
Technologies relating to wavelength division multiplexing are provided. In one implementation, a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) coupler is provided. The WDM coupler includes an input block including a first tube, the first tube holding an input dual fiber pigtailed capillary, the capillary holding an input fiber and a reflection fiber, a center block including a center tube holding a first inner tube and a second inner tube, the first inner tube holding a first lens within the first inner tube and the second inner tube holding a second lens within the second inner tube, the center block further including a WDM filter positioned between the first lens and the second lens and secured to the end surface of the first inner tube, and an output block including a second tube holding an output single fiber pigtailed capillary, the capillary holding a transmission fiber.
US09057814B2
A fiber having a large effective area at 1550 nm of at least 130 μm2 and a wire mesh drum microbending loss of less than 0.4 dB/km at a wavelength of 1550 nm. The fibers may include a core, a cladding, and a coating. The core may include a central core region and a surrounding first core region. The cladding may include a depressed index inner cladding region and an outer cladding region. The coating may include a primary coating surrounding the cladding and a secondary coating surrounding the primary coating. The primary coating may be formed from a primary composition that may include an acrylate monomer or an N-vinyl amide monomer in combination with an acrylate oligomer, where the acrylate oligomer is present at 35 wt % to 55 wt %. The secondary coating may be formed from a secondary composition including one or more acrylate or diacrylate monomers and an acrylate or methacrylate oligomer, where the oligomer is present at 3 wt % or less.
US09057808B2
Systems, devices, and methods are provided for using a textured surface of a light guide plate to reduce friction between the light guide plate and an adjacent film. A textured surface across an interior region of the light guide may guide light towards a top surface of the textured light guide. A film positioned on the bottom surface of the textured light guide may reflect light towards the top surface. The film may be positioned within the interior region as a substantially flat (e.g., planar) layer. The surface features may reduce the friction to enable the textured light guide plate and/or film to expand or contract independently from one another due to varying temperatures without forming wrinkles on the film or changing the planarity of the film.
US09057803B2
The present inventions relate generally to methods, apparatus and systems for measuring snow stability and structure which may be used to assess avalanche risk. The disclosed apparatus includes a sensing unit configured to measure a size of snow grains as the sensing unit is being driven into a layer of snow. The disclosed apparatus may also be configured to take other environmental measurements, including resistance to penetration, temperature, humidity, slope aspect and inclination. Methods and apparatus are also disclosed for generating a profile of snow grain size according to depth based on the measured size of snow grains. Systems and apparatus are also disclosed for sharing the generated profiles among a plurality of users via a central server, and for evaluating an avalanche risk at a geographic location.
US09057802B2
A method of testing a core sample is provided. The method comprises determining an impedance map, attaching a sleeve to the core sample, and measuring a flow performance of the core sample. An impedance of each of a plurality of portions of the sleeve is based on the impedance map.
US09057794B2
A method for determining a bulk formation density using a neutron generator includes detected secondary gamma rays and evaluating the detected gamma rays according to pre-determined selection criteria. Selected gamma rays are then used to compute the formation density. The selection criteria may include, for example, a time delay between the detection of a neutron and an associated particle and/or a direction of propagation of the neutron.
US09057791B2
A quantum-counting radiation detector in which signals of individual pixels and signals of combined pixels are evaluated in parallel processing branches and count results are combined in an appropriate manner, thereby reducing the influence of unwanted interference effects for the respective application.
US09057784B2
Various embodiments of a time-of-flight (TOF) depth camera and methods for projecting illumination light into an image environment are disclosed. One example embodiment of a TOF depth camera includes a light source configured to generate coherent light; a first optical stage including an array of periodically-arranged lens elements positioned to receive at least a portion of the coherent light and to form divergent light; a second optical stage positioned to receive at least a portion of the divergent light and to reduce an intensity of one or more diffraction artifacts in the divergent light to form illumination light for projection into an illumination environment; and an image sensor configured to detect at least a portion of return illumination light reflected from the illumination environment.
US09057782B2
Embodiments of the disclosed technology use high-speed interpolated (interdigitated) sampling for the specific purpose of GPR (Ground-Penetrating RADAR). This technology solves several issues associated with high-speed sampling in GPR which included 1) dynamic range limitations, 2) regulatory compliance issues, 3) sampler core offset error, and 4) timing errors. High-speed interpolated sampling GPR is implemented using a high-speed ADC in combination with trigger logic (such as an FPGA) and a programmable delay generator. The FPGA or other trigger logic generates a series of randomly dithered trigger pulses. A variable delay generator (or “Vernier”) is synchronously controlled in order to produce the fractional timing. The timing of the pulses is randomly or pseudo-randomly dithered, and the phase of the interpolation is shuffled in order to avoid producing discrete spectral lines in the radiated RADAR signal.
US09057774B2
Described are computer-based methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for determining a position. In some examples, the method includes determining measured time receipt differences from associated local receipt times for each pair of plurality of signals; determining a range difference for each of the plurality of signals based on the measured time receipt differences for each of the pairs of the plurality of signals; determining hypothesized range differences based on a hypothesized user position; determining an estimation difference for each of the plurality of signals based on the range difference and the hypothesized range difference for each of the plurality of signals based on a figure of merit; minimizing the estimation difference for the figure of merit based on a plurality of hypothesized user positions and an optimization routine; and outputting a user position based on a hypothesized user position associated with the minimized figure of merit.
US09057770B2
In a method for recording a magnetic resonance image with a magnetic resonance device, in which several projection image data records are recorded in succession with different gradient orientations, from which, through back projection, the magnetic resonance image is reconstructed, the recording of a projection data record in a recording time frame proceeds with a temporal frequency modulated excitation pulse of a pulse duration, wherein, through the frequency modulation of the excitation pulse, all spins to be recorded within the scope of the projection data record are excited in a temporal sequence and wherein the frequency modulation function describing the frequency modulation during the pulse duration exhibits at least one maximum and/or at least one minimum. During the excitation duration, a time-resolved reception signal is detected. The projection data record is determined from the reception signal through evaluation.
US09057768B2
A local coil for a magnetic resonance device includes a double resonance conductor loop arrangement having at least one conductor loop, and a converter apparatus configured for converting operating energy received at a first resonance frequency into an operating voltage. The local coil also includes an electronics arrangement operated with the operating voltage for processing magnetic resonance signals received at a second resonance frequency.
US09057763B2
A method for providing ordered capture clocks to detect or locate faults within N clock domains and faults crossing any two clock domains in an integrated circuit or circuit assembly in scan-test or self-test mode, where N>1, each clock domain having one capture clock and a plurality of scan cells, each capture clock comprising a plurality of capture clock pulses; said method comprising: (a) generating and shifting-in N test stimuli to all said scan cells within said N clock domains in said integrated circuit or circuit assembly during a shift-in operation; (b) applying an ordered sequence of capture clocks to all said scan cells within said N clock domains, the ordered sequence of capture clocks comprising at least a plurality of capture clock pulses from two or more selected capture clocks placed in a sequential order such that all clock domains are never triggered simultaneously during a capture operation; and (c) analyzing output responses of all said scan cells to locate any faults therein.
US09057754B2
Magnetic locators for detection of buried objects, such as ferromagnetic objects, are disclosed. Inputs provided from one or more magnetic sensors, such as three three-axis magnetic sensors, as well as from other sensors, such as accelerometers and gyroscopic sensors, may be used to determine magnetic field distortion indicative of ferromagnetic objects and provide output information corresponding to the detected object.
US09057752B2
A power circuit configured to generate and distribute DC electrical power, the power circuit includes a photovoltaic (PV) system that includes an array of PV modules electrically coupled to a combiner box, and an inverter positioned to receive DC electrical power from the array of PV modules and output AC electrical power. The PV system also includes a signal generator coupled to a first portion of the PV system, and a signal detector coupled to a second portion of the PV system, the signal detector configured to detect secondary signals generated at a loose connection of an electrical joint in the PV system, wherein the secondary signals result from a signal generated by the signal generator.
US09057744B2
According to one embodiment, a protective relaying device includes a phase difference calculating unit configured to calculate a phase difference between a phase obtained by shifting a phase of first current data by 180°, and a phase of second current data, a setting unit configured to calculate a target value of elimination of a sampling synchronization error caused by a difference between a transmission delay time of up-transmission, and a transmission delay time of down-transmission on the basis of the phase difference, and to set the calculated target value, and a sampling synchronization control unit configured to carry out control of sampling synchronization such that a difference between a time TM and a time TF.
US09057743B2
A voltage signal and a wetting current are received from a switching device. A first pulse train is created from the voltage signal and the first pulse train has a first duty cycle that is proportional to the voltage at the switching device. The first pulse train is transmitted across an isolation barrier. The first pulse train that is received across the isolation barrier is digitized and at least one operating condition of the switching device is determined based upon the digitized pulse train. A second pulse train having a second duty cycle is received and the wetting current from the switching device is controlled based upon the second duty cycle.
US09057737B2
The invention relates to an in vitro immunoassay for quantifying thrombin in a sample comprising anti-thrombin III (AT-III) and thrombin. The method comprises the following steps: contacting the sample with a small molecule that recognizes the substrate binding site of thrombin; contacting the thrombin with a thrombin specific antibody raised against a thrombin blocked in the active site; and measuring the level of bound antibody.
US09057736B2
Disclosed are methods of identifying subjects with arteriovascular disease, subjects at risk for developing arteriovascular disease, methods of differentially diagnosing diseases associated with arteriovascular disease from other diseases or within sub-classifications of arteriovascular disease, methods of evaluating the risk of arteriovascular events in patients with arteriovascular disease, methods of evaluating the effectiveness of treatments in subjects with arteriovascular disease, and methods of selecting therapies for treating arteriovascular disease.
US09057734B2
The invention provides methods, cells and constructs for optical measurement of membrane potential. These methods can be used in cells that are not accessible to presently available methods using electrodes. The methods can be directed to, for example, high-throughput drug screening assays to determine agents that can affect membrane potential of a target cell.
US09057733B2
Measurement of circulating ST2 and/or IL-33 concentrations is useful for the prognostic evaluation of subjects, in particular for the prediction of adverse clinical outcomes, e.g., mortality, and the detection of severe disease.
US09057730B2
Methods are provided for producing a molecular array comprising a plurality of molecules immoblised to a solid substrate at a density which allows individual immobilised molecules to be individually resolved, wherein each individual molecule in the array is spatially addressable and the identity of each molecule is known or determined prior to immobilisation. The use of spatially addressable low density molecular arrays in single molecule detection and analysis techniques is also provided. Novel assays and methods are also provided.
US09057729B2
The invention relates to a method of determining in vitro the amount of nuclear DNA within a human or animal cell using UV absorption measurement with UV light. The invention also relates to a method for detecting in vitro cancerous cells in a biological sample relying on the aforementioned principles. The invention also relates to an in vitro method of diagnosing or predicting the likely occurrence of cancer in a human or animal subject.
US09057723B2
The present invention relates to a method for detecting an analyte (10) in a sample, comprising the steps of: providing a transducer (3) having a pyroelectric or piezoelectric element and electrodes which is capable of transducing a change in energy to an electrical signal, a first reagent (9) immobilized on the transducer, the first reagent having a binding site which is capable of binding the analyte or a derivative of the analyte, exposing the sample to the transducer thereby allowing the analyte or a derivative of the analyte to bind to the first reagent to form a first reagent-analyte complex (13); introducing a second reagent (11), the second reagent having a binding site which is capable of selectively binding the first reagent-analyte complex, wherein the second reagent has a label (12) attached thereto which is capable of absorbing electromagnetic radiation to generate energy by non-radiative decay; irradiating the sample with electromagnetic radiation; transducing the energy generated into an electrical signal; and detecting the electrical signal. The invention also provides a kit for carrying out the method.
US09057722B2
This invention is related to the field of the prevention and treatment of kidney disease. The treatment of kidney disease may be tailored depending upon the need for, or expectation of, long-term dialysis. For example, prediction of long-term dialysis treatment can be determined by monitoring urine biomarkers related to the development of chronic kidney disease. For example, a normalized time course of hyaluronic acid can be used to determine whether a patient having suffered acute kidney injury will require long-term dialysis.
US09057717B2
A method of monitoring the effect of pollution in an aquatic mass, said method comprising disposing in said aquatic mass a biosensor unit containing a living sessile organism which exhibits apical growth and which is bound to a carrier, directing an electromagnetic beam towards a corresponding detector and between an edge and the apical tip of said sessile organism whereby to produce a diffraction pattern, detecting said diffraction pattern using said detector and monitoring a change (e.g. successive changes) in said diffraction pattern over time which is indicative of the natural growth of the apical tip of said organism.
US09057715B2
The present invention relates to a cell culture apparatus and a mass automatic cell culture device having it. There is provided a cell culture apparatus comprising a cylindrical cell culture flask which is air-tightly sealed and formed of a transparent material to observe an internal portion thereof, an injection unit for supplying the cell and the culture solution into the cell culture flask, a collection unit for discharging the cells and the culture solution from the cell culture flask, and a cell culture flask receiving part which is comprised of first and second vertical frames in which a plurality of injecting parts and collecting parts, and plate type connection parts which are respectively disposed between upper ends and lower ends of the two opposed vertical frames to be spaced apart from each other in regular intervals, and a mass automatic cell culture device having it.
US09057698B2
Chemoselective derivatization of biological amines, carboxylic acids, aldehydes or ketones are employed in methods to detect a plurality of components, or members of a component, such as metabolites, that vary in molecular structure. The methods of the invention can be employed in aqueous and nonaqueous conditions.
US09057696B2
There is disclosed improved apparatus and methods for detection of shape, size and intrinsic fluorescence properties of a fluid borne particle wherein the apparatus comprises a laser, two light sources, two detectors, and optionally a third detector. The apparatus is particularly suitable for detection of airborne biological particles.
US09057692B2
A device for measuring refractive index of medium based on optical delay technology comprises: a signal processing and controlling module, an optical transmitter module, and an optical receiver module, wherein the signal processing and controlling module controls the optical transmitter module to transmit an optical signal having a certain wavelength; the optical signal is injected into a medium to be measured; the optical signal is transmitted and delayed by the medium; the optical receiver module receives the optical signal delayed, and transforms the optical signal delayed into a electrical signal; the electrical signal is amplified and transmitted to the signal processing and controlling module; the signal processing and controlling module measures a delay time between transmitting and receiving the optical signal; and the refractive index of the medium at the certain wavelength is calculated based on the delay time and a known length of the medium.
US09057690B2
An electrochemical gas sensor testing device that includes a test signal generator that generates a multiplexed signal that includes a first test signal that includes alternating current (AC) and is free from a direct current (DC) component and a second signal that includes a DC bias voltage, an electrochemical cell that includes a counter electrode, a sensing electrode, and an electrolyte, the counter electrode and the sensing electrode being in electrical communication with the electrolyte and each other, the counter electrode being in electrical communication with the signal generator to receive the multiplexed signal generated by the signal generator, and a processor that receives an AC signal from the sensing electrode and that analyzes the AC signal.
US09057688B2
A detection device for detecting a test substance which is capable of detecting a test substance and a sample substance with high sensitivity, an electrode substrate, a working electrode, an inspection tip, a method of detecting a test substance, and a method of detecting a sample substance are provided in which a reflective part (reflective layer) is disposed on the working electrode so as to reflect excitation light emitted from a light source and passing through the working electrode toward the working electrode.
US09057683B2
An image pickup lens has a focal length far from a position of a transparent member. An image pickup device is put on the side of the transparent member the same as that of a light source and takes reflected light including regular reflection from an interface between an adhered object on the other surface of the transparent member and air. Assuming an incident angle of the emitted light on the transparent member when the light reflected in regular reflection by the other surface of the transparent member is incident on the image pickup lens being θs, an incident angle of a typical light beam of the emitted light falls within θs−30 deg through θs and an incident angle of a main element of the emitted light is less than θs.
US09057664B2
A system and/or method for quantifying the presence of one or more components in vehicle exhaust, and more particularly to a non-contact, sampling system and method for quantifying the presence of one or more components in exhaust emissions of commercial and/or heavy-duty vehicles that emit exhaust at an elevated level, under actual operating conditions.
US09057663B2
The invention relates to a method for detecting the start of combustion in a cyclically operating internal combustion engine in which a fuel/air mixture is ignited by means of a corona discharge, wherein, to generate the corona discharge, an electrical resonant circuit is excited, in which an ignition electrode that is electrically insulated with respect to combustion chamber walls constitutes a capacitor together with the combustion chamber walls, and, to identify the start of combustion, an electrical variable of the resonant circuit is evaluated. The position of an extremum is evaluated, the extremum occurring in the course of the electrical variable after ignition of the corona discharge and before extinguishment thereof, or the course of the electrical variable is compared with a reference course, wherein a threshold value is predefined and fuel combustion is concluded on the basis of a deviation by more than the threshold value.
US09057649B2
The invention comprises systems and methods for evaluating changes in the operational efficiency of an HVAC system over time. The climate control system obtains temperature measurements from at least a first location conditioned by the climate system, and status of said HVAC system. One or more processors receives measurements of outside temperatures from at least one source other than said HVAC system and compares said temperature measurements from said first location with expected temperature measurements. The expected temperature measurements are based at least in part upon past temperature measurements.
US09057643B2
A seismic sensing unit includes four uniaxial sensors each capable of detecting a movement component along a respective axis having a respective orientation and arranged such that the angles between any two of said respective orientations of said respective axes are substantially equal, wherein the uniaxial sensors are arranged such that in use the respective axes are at substantially the same angle to the vertical direction and the horizontal direction, and wherein the uniaxial sensors are geophones, accelerometers, seismometers or their combinations.
US09057642B2
A method of calibrating a dispenser of the type having a material dispensing unit that is configured to dispense material on a substrate includes providing a weigh scale having a plate configured to receive material dispensed on the plate, dispensing one or more patterns of material on the plate; weighing the amount of material dispensed on the plate, and comparing the weighed amount of material to a designated amount of material. The act of dispensing one or more patterns of material replicates at least a portion of patterns of material dispensed on the substrate during a dispensing operation. A controller for performing the method is further disclosed.
US09057633B2
A device for measuring flow is provided. Tubing having a polymer therein is activated, followed by downstream detection of agents released by the polymer. The downstream detection of the agents provides for a calculation of the flow to be performed.
US09057632B2
A water meter of the present invention may accurately measure a flow rate and reduce power consumption. The water meter includes a body including an inlet unit and an outlet unit, an impeller unit provided to rotate due to a fluid flowing in the body, a cover member that covers one side of the impeller unit and includes a guide groove formed therein, and sensors that are provided on one side and the other side of the cover member and are spaced apart from each other to face each other. The impeller unit includes blades interfering with the fluid, a shaft forming a rotational center of the blades, and a cut-off unit that extends from one side of the plurality of blades to be inserted into the guide groove, and selectively cuts off signal transmission between the plurality of sensors.
US09057631B2
A smoke detector with an easily-readable battery-life display is an apparatus that visually displays the remaining battery life for a smoke detector through an analog or digital device. The apparatus primarily includes a smoke detector, a battery power indicator, and a reference resistor. The battery power indicator is positioned on the underside of the smoke detector so that a person can look up at the smoke detector mounted on a ceiling and view the battery power indicator. The reference resistor draws a small amount of current from the battery, which allows the battery power indicator to measure the gradual reduction of voltage readings across the reference resistor and consequently determine the remaining battery life, and thus displaying the remaining battery life in the appropriate zone (red, yellow or green).
US09057630B2
A method of applying a marking onto a metrological scale. The method comprises locating one or more markings on the scale substrate in a provisional state; checking whether the one or more markings located on the scale substrate are acceptable; and finalising the one or markings which are acceptable so as to transform the one or more markings into a finalised state.
US09057629B2
A sensor assembly for determining a magnetization direction of an indicator magnet with respect to the sensor assembly includes a first magnetic field sensor for detecting a first and a second magnetic field component with respect to a first and a second spatial direction, and a second magnetic field sensor for detecting a third and a fourth magnetic field component with respect to the second spatial direction, wherein the first and the second magnetic field sensor are spaced apart from one another. Further, the sensor assembly includes a processor that is implemented to combine the first and the second magnetic field component to obtain a first combination quantity, to combine the third and the fourth magnetic field component to obtain a second combination quantity, to determine a position of the indicator magnet and the magnetization direction.
US09057624B2
Systems and methods for vehicle navigation with multiple abstraction layers are disclosed. A particular embodiment includes: receiving data sets from a plurality of sources; generating, by use of a data processor, a routing overlay based on a routing to a selected destination; generating, by use of the data processor and data from the data sets, a plurality of navigation abstraction layers corresponding to the routing; generating at least one navigation abstraction layer by smoothing or simplifying the shape of the routing overlay; and presenting at least one of the plurality of navigation abstraction layers to a user via a display interface.
US09057622B2
A method and system for routing using uncertainty data is disclosed. The uncertainty data is associated with geographic data. The uncertainty data includes a distribution function that represents the probability that the geographic data is accurate. A routing application uses the uncertainty data during or after route calculation. The routing application provides one or more routes and information about the routes based on the uncertainty data.
US09057615B2
A method for navigating using a speed sensor and a yaw rate sensor includes computing, for each of a plurality of error parameter values, a distance traveled for each of a plurality of directions of travel. The method also includes selecting the error parameter value that maximizes the distance traveled in one or more of the directions of travel, applying the selected error parameter value to data from the yaw rate sensor, and navigating using dead reckoning based on data from the speed sensor and data from the yaw rate sensor with the applied error parameter value.
US09057612B1
Methods and systems for unified directions are described herein. The method includes receiving a list of one or more routes from an origin to a destination for each of two or more different modes of transportation, each route having an associated duration. The durations of routes from each list that are subsequent to a first route from the respective list are penalized. One or more routes from each list are combined to generate a combined list of routes for each of the two or more different modes of transportation. The combined list of routes is sorted to generate a sorted list of routes based, at least in part, on the durations and penalized durations of the routes.
US09057608B2
A simple type dual axes optoelectronic level includes a carrier, an adjustable fixing mechanism, a level sensing device, a container cup holding a liquid, and a reflector. The adjustable fixing mechanism and the container cup are fixed at the carrier. The level sensing device is fixed at the adjustable fixing mechanism and faces the container cup. The reflector is fixed at the bottom surface of the container cup. The level sensing device provides a measuring light beam, which is refracted by the liquid surface to the reflector, and reflected back to the liquid surface by the reflector, and refracted again by the liquid surface to the level sensing device. Through the refraction effect, the level sensing device can detect two angles between the bottom surface of the carrier and the liquid surface. The dual axes optoelectronic level has advantages of simple structure, low cost and differentiating angles of two axes.
US09057605B2
In one aspect, ladar system includes a ladar transmitter system and a ladar receiver system configured to receive data from the transmitter. The ladar transmitter system and the ladar receiver system are disposed in a configuration forming a bistatic synthetic aperture ladar system. In one example, the ladar transmitter system is configured to be disposed in a vehicle and the ladar receiver system is configured to be stationary.
US09057598B2
Touch probe comprising a fixed member; a feeler held by one or several elastic elements in a resting position relative to said fixed member, said feeler being capable of moving from said resting position in response to a deflection force; a detection system comprising a light source driven by the displacements of the feeler relative to said fixed member; an optical image sensor receiving the light emitted by said light source; an optical mask interposed on the light path between said light source and said optical image sensor.
US09057594B2
A probe for an optical coherence tomography system according to an embodiment of the current invention includes a sheath having a proximal end and a distal end and defining a lumen therein, an optical fiber disposed at least partially within the lumen of said sheath, and a sapphire lens attached to the distal end of the sheath to form a fluid-tight seal to prevent fluid from entering the lumen of said sheath. The optical fiber has an end arranged in an optical path with the sapphire lens to provide optical coupling between the sapphire lens and the optical fiber.
US09057593B1
An apparatus capable of measuring pin protrusion and collar swage height in a fastener assembly. The apparatus comprises: a gage body; a shaft that is translatable along its axis; an instrument that measures the absolute axial position of the shaft relative to a zero position; pin protrusion and collar swage height measurement contact members coupled to the shaft; and a slotted gage plug that is rotatable and axially displaceable relative to the gage body. The gage plug sits on the swaged collar during measurements. When the collar swage height measurement contact member is disposed in the slot in the gage plug, pin protrusion can be measured. When the collar swage height measurement contact member is not disposed in the slot and instead rests on top of the gage plug, the collar swage height can be measured.
US09057584B2
A Universal Machinegun Sight (UMS) with a modular design is discussed, whereby the UMS includes a main body receiving a lens body in a detachable manner; a mounting solution disposed in the main body; a wheel type bullet drop compensation device to accept various caliber disks and disposed in the main body; a removable LED module disposed on the main body; and a magnification mounting rail disposed on the main body.
US09057582B2
A simulation system for use in military exercise of combat in an area having at least one building has a transmitter arranged on a firearm for simulating firing of a shot and a detector to be arranged on the body of a soldier. Sensors are adapted to sense whether the transmitter and the detector are located indoors or outdoors. The detector is designed to discriminate between normal power signals fired from outdoors and indoors, whereas the transmitters is adapted to emit signals of normal power when located outdoors and signal of normal power as well as a substantially lower power when located indoors.
US09057574B2
A pistol thumb safety that is capable of being coupled to a frame of a pistol, the thumb safety including a safety body adapted to be movably mounted to the frame so that the body is movable between firing and safe positions. The safety body includes an outer side surface, an inner side surface, and a top portion. A blocking feature is formed along the top portion of the safety body, wherein the blocking portion engages the slide of the pistol when the safety body is in its safe position. As a result, the slide is movable along the safety body for clearing the chamber of the pistol while the safety body is maintained in its safe position.
US09057571B2
A locking system for a firearm is disclosed. A lock has a set state and an unset state, and substantial movement of any one or more fire control group components is inhibited with in the set state. A biometric sensor attachable to a grip of the firearm is receptive to an input biometric feature data set corresponding to a physiological feature of a user. A biometric input controller stores biometric feature data sets corresponding to enrolled user identities in a memory, and compares it against the input biometric feature data set to generate a biometric input validation status indicator signal. A proximity sensor attachable to the grip detects possession of the firearm by the user and generates a corresponding grip detection indicator signal. A system controller selectively actuates the lock to the set state and the unset state based upon a received combination and sequence of the biometric input validation status indicator signal and the grip detection indicator signal.
US09057570B1
A magazine loader (10) for firearm magazines (40) has a projecting side button (50) coupled to a follower (52). Two similar and substantially flat flaps (12, 14) are hinged by a pin (18) along their longer side. A torsion spring (16) encompasses the pin and is positioned between the flaps, forcing them apart. Each flap has a substantially rectangular opening (20A, 20B) sized and positioned to fit over a magazine. The flaps can angle between an open position and a closed (parallel and touching) position. To load the magazine, a user squeezes and holds the flaps ends closed to align the openings so that the openings can be slid over the magazine to push the button down. Upon releasing the flaps they open, locking the openings on the magazine. Rounds (60) then can easily be loaded into the magazine. The loader may use a grasping member in lieu of flaps.
US09057560B2
A method of manufacturing a nozzle part for a hand dryer. The nozzle part has a nozzle body and an air outlet aperture in the nozzle body, and the method includes molding the nozzle body from plastic as a single part and then post-machining the air outlet aperture in the molded plastic nozzle body.
US09057556B2
A refrigerator includes a dispenser having a dispenser well, a control for regulating a product dispensing operation, and a select fill sensor system for automatically initiating and terminating the dispensing operation. An optical sensing system includes a camera within the dispenser well in communication with a controller for sensing the fill rate of a container within the dispenser well. The dispensing rate of product is adjusted depending on the product fill rate of the container such that optimum fill rates are obtained without overflow or spilling events. In this manner, a hands-free dispenser is provided that can be utilized regardless of the shape or size of container utilized.
US09057555B2
Provided is a basket for storing food items in a temperature-controlled environment and a refrigeration appliance including such a basket. The basket includes a substantially-horizontal platform coupled to two or more upwardly-extending walls to form an open container for receiving the food items to be stored in the temperature-controlled environment. A partition is provided for dividing the basket into two or more storage regions. A guide is coupled to at least one of the platform and the walls, and extends substantially parallel to an upper perimeter of at least one of the walls to define a range of adjustment of the partition. A fastener securely couples the partition to the guide to be adjusted to two or more different locations where the partition is to divide the basket.
US09057553B1
Apparatus and methods provide for a dual pass air flow configuration in an air conditioning system to improve efficiency and performance of the air conditioning system. An air conditioning device includes a pre-conditioned air passage chamber separated from a post-conditioned air passage chamber by an impermeable partition. A coil system separates the pre-conditioned air passage chamber and the post-conditioned air passage chamber from a partially-conditioned air passage chamber. The coil system is configured to receive air from the pre-conditioned air passage chamber and to condition the air passing through the coil system into the partially-conditioned air passage chamber. The coil system is also configured to receive the air from the partially-conditioned air and further condition the air as it passes through the coil system into the post-conditioned air passage chamber.
US09057550B2
A refrigerator is provided. The refrigerator includes an evaporator configured to evaporate a coolant and to cool a storage compartment, a compressor configured to compress the coolant evaporated in the evaporator, a condenser configured to condense the coolant compressed in the compressor, a hot line configured to receive condensed coolant, a first capillary tube configured to receive condensed coolant from the hot line, a second capillary tube configured to receive condensed coolant and arranged to allow bypassing of the hot line, a first coolant configured to adjust flow of condensed coolant from the hot line to the first capillary tube and a second coolant adjusting valve configured to control flow of condensed coolant from the condenser to the hot line and the second capillary tube.
US09057541B2
A solar collector (1) is provided having a cover (200), a back wall (300), and an absorber (100), the absorber being arranged between the cover (200) and the back wall (300) and defining, with the cover (200) and/or the back wall (300), a front and/or back cavity (14, 15), respectively. At least one spacer element (400) is provided, which extends from a front surface (102) of the absorber (100) to the cover (200) and/or from a back surface (103) of the absorber (100) to the back wall (300) and is connected or connectable directly to the absorber (100) and/or the cover (200). A method for manufacturing such a solar collector (1) is also provided.
US09057531B2
A thermal humidifier includes an upper housing provided with a steam outlet for conveying steam into a room and combined with a fundamental base having a PTC heating tube installed therein. A water-absorption member is mounted around the PTC heating tube and has a large portion soaked in a water box for absorbing liquid or water from the water box. The water-absorption member, after fully soaking up water, contacts with the PTC heating tube to enable the PTC heating tube to quickly heat the water of the water-absorption member to produce steam to be sent into a room through the steam outlet of the upper housing.
US09057530B2
Disclosed herein is a humidifying medium which adopts a natural humidifying system and has excellent lifespan characteristics. The humidifying medium according to the present invention is formed by coupling a linerboard to one or both sides of a corrugated board. The corrugated board and the linerboard have different average pore diameters, and the humidifying medium of the present invention may be formed by coupling a linerboard having an average pore diameter of 35˜40 μm to one or both sides of a corrugated board having an average pore diameter of 8˜10 μm.
US09057522B2
This application describes powdered fuels, methods of producing powdered fuels source, and dispersions of powdered fuels, as well as systems, kits, and methods for producing and adapting combustion devices to burn powdered fuel, either as a sole fuel source or in combination with existing fuel sources. Exemplary embodiments include engines and furnaces adapted to combust powdered fuel.
