US09160317B2
Provided are a semiconductor circuit and a method of operating the same. The semiconductor circuit includes a first pulse generating circuit enabled to a rising edge of a clock signal and configured to generate a first read pulse, a second pulse generating circuit enabled to a rising edge of the clock signal and configured to generate a second read pulse independent of the first read pulse, a dynamic pull-down stage configured to develop a voltage level of a first dynamic node based at least on data values of an input signal and the first and second read pulses, and a dynamic pull-up stage configured to develop a voltage level of a second dynamic node based at least on data values of the input signal and the first and second read pulses.
US09160305B1
In one embodiment, a hybrid micromechanical resonator includes a capacitive resonator element and a piezoelectric resonator element, wherein the resonator can be capacitively and piezoelectrically transduced.
US09160300B2
An acoustic wave device includes: an electrode that is located on a substrate and excites an acoustic wave; and an oxide silicon film that is doped with an element and provided so as to cover the electrode, wherein a normalized reflectance obtained by normalizing a local maximum value of a reflectance when a light is caused to enter an upper surface of the oxide silicon film doped with the element by a reflectance when a light having a wavelength at the local maximum value is caused to enter an upper surface of the substrate directly is equal to or larger than 0.96.
US09160295B2
Apparatus and method for a radially attachable RF trap attached from a side to a shielded RF cable. In some embodiments, the RF trap creates a high impedance on the outer shield of the RF cable at a frequency of RF signals carried on at least one inner conductor of the cable. In some embodiments, an RF-trap apparatus for blocking stray signals on a shielded RF cable that has a peripheral shield conductor and a inner conductor for carrying RF signals includes: a case; an LC circuit having a resonance frequency equal to RF signals carried on the inner conductor; projections that pierce and connect the LC circuit to the shield conductor; and an attachment device that holds the case to the cable with the LC circuit electrically connected to the shield conductor of the shielded RF cable.
US09160291B2
A semiconductor circuit which can have stable input output characteristics is provided. Specifically, a semiconductor circuit in which problems caused by the leakage current of a switching element are suppressed is provided. A field-effect transistor in which a wide band gap semiconductor, such as an oxide semiconductor, is used in a semiconductor layer where a channel is formed is used for a switching element included in a switched capacitor circuit. Such a transistor has a small leakage current in an off state. When the transistor is used as a switching element, a semiconductor circuit which has stable input output characteristics and in which problems caused by the leakage current are suppressed can be fabricated.
US09160288B2
Aspects of a method and system for sharing a single antenna for frequency modulation (FM) transmission or FM reception, and near field communication (NFC) are presented. Aspects of a system may include at least one circuit that enables, via a single antenna, simultaneous transmission of an FM signal and transmission of an NFC signal or reception of an NFC signal.
US09160287B2
Circuits and methods for achieving high linearity, high efficiency power amplifiers, including digital predistortion (DPD) and pulse cancellation in switched-state RF power amplifier systems are described.
US09160284B2
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 adaptive predistortion and adaptive closed-loop control of the drain current of the power amplifier to achieve improved power amplifier performance.
US09160283B2
Integrated pulse shaping biasing circuitry for a radio frequency (RF) power amplifier includes a square wave signal generator and an inverted ramp signal generator. The square wave signal generator and the inverted ramp signal generator are coupled in parallel between an input node and current summation circuitry. The square wave signal generator generates a square wave signal. The inverted ramp signal generator generates an inverted ramp signal. The current summation circuitry receives the generated square wave signal and the inverted ramp signal, and combines the signals to generate a pulse shaped biasing signal for an RF power amplifier. The square wave signal generator, the inverted ramp signal generator, and the current summation circuitry are monolithically integrated on a single semiconductor die.
US09160281B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit includes an operational amplifier that amplifies a voltage difference between an input voltage supplied to an inverting input terminal and a reference voltage supplied to a non-inverting input terminal and outputs an amplified signal, a feedback resistor that performs negative feedback of the amplified signal to the inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier, and a variable resistor unit that sets a current path with a first resistance value in accordance with a control signal between an external input terminal and the inverting input terminal of the operational amplifier, and sets a first alternative path with a second resistance value in accordance with the control signal between a node on the current path and a reference voltage terminal to which the reference voltage is supplied.
US09160280B1
The memory polynomial based digital predistorter utilizes a cluster-based particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique and has an embedded model-size estimator. The PSO technique and model-size estimator efficiently find the dimensions and accurately estimate the coefficients of the memory polynomial based digital predistorter for improved linearity of a power amplifier.
US09160272B2
A control device for a permanent magnet motor, including: a rotor position detector configured to detect a rotating speed of a rotor of a permanent magnet motor in a state in which the permanent magnet motor is disconnected from a load by a clutch and rotates without power supply; a magnet temperature estimator configured to estimate a magnet temperature of the permanent magnet motor based on the detected rotating speed; a current compensator configured to determine a compensation amount for compensating for a current command to the permanent magnet motor based on the estimated magnet temperature; and a drive control device configured to control a power converter for driving the permanent magnet motor based on the compensation amount.
US09160269B2
A motor assembly coupled to an external alternating voltage input, the motor assembly comprising a motor including a stator and a rotor rotatable about a longitudinal axis. The motor assembly further includes a circuit assembly, the circuit assembly having a state detector operable to detect the state of the external alternating voltage input and a control unit operable to control the motor based on the state of the external alternating voltage input detected by the state detector. The motor assembly also includes a housing substantially encasing the motor, and the circuit assembly.
US09160266B2
A method for damping torsional oscillations in a power production plant includes a drive train, a rotor fitted to a rotor-side end of the drive train, and a generator driven via the drive train and fitted to a generator-side end of the drive train. By using at least one angular position of the drive train at the generator-side end thereof, a torsional moment acting on the drive train is determined and used to control the generator.
US09160265B2
A regulating circuit that regulates rotary speed of a pulse-width modulated fan includes a measuring device that determines a period duration (TIst) of a tacho signal (TACH) of the fan, a digital regulating register that acquires a regulation value to drive the fan on the basis of a determined period duration (TIst) and a desired value (Tsoll), a digital control register that adjusts a duty ratio to drive the fan, the digital control register has a smaller register width than the digital regulating register, and a controller that updates the digital control register by evaluating a predetermined number of more significant bits of the digital regulating register.
US09160263B2
A system for monitoring and controlling a brushless motor associable to an electric power source by means of a rectifier. An actuator assembly is operatively associated to the motor and rectifier. The rectifier is arranged to provide a continuous busbar voltage (Vbar) and a continuous reference voltage (Vref) to the actuator assembly. The actuator assembly includes switches (SW1-6) arranged to energize two phases of the motor simultaneously. The system comprises a voltage observer, associated to the motor and to the actuator assembly, permitting monitoring of an induced voltage in a non-energized phase of the motor. The system includes a control unit associated to the voltage observer. The control unit is arranged to command opening of a switch of the actuator assembly for a time interval to interrupt the power supply to the motor, when the reading of the induced voltage in the non-energized phase presents a value within a voltage interval (dV). A method of identifying transient currents in a coil of a non-energized phase of a brushless motor, for the extinction, is provided.
US09160261B2
The variable speed switch according to the present invention is capable of outputting an electric signal for increasing or decreasing an amount of electric power supplied to the motor of an electric power tool according to a displacement amount of a switch-operating portion. The variable speed switch includes a wake-up contact configured to work when the switch-operating portion is operated and by which a voltage can be applied to a control circuit part of the motor to make the control circuit part in an operable state, and also includes a load sensor configured to receive a pressing force from the switch-operating portion by the displacement amount of the switch-operating portion after the operation of the wake-up contact is made and to output an electric signal according to the pressing force.
US09160260B1
A system and method for acoustic quieting and reduction of vibration of an electromechanical actuator (“EMA”) accomplished by using closed loop control techniques using vibration feedback from an EMA mounted sensor to modify the current command in the motor drive electronics to minimize the resultant motor torque ripple.
US09160259B2
The present invention relates to a method, a system and an electronic device (15), especially designed for start and control of the functioning of a single-phase induction motor (12). Said motor (12) comprises a run winding (10) and a start winding (11), the start winding (11) is electrically associated to an electronic start device (15), the run winding (10) and the electronic start device (15) are electrically associated to an alternating voltage source (F) configured to supply feed energy to the motor (12), the start winding (11) is kept de-energized at a first operation instant (Top1) of the motor (12). More particularly, the present invention is configured to energize the start winding (11) through the electronic start device (15) in the condition in which a first voltage signal (Vsamp1), sampled from the alternating voltage source (F), through a sensor element (7), is lower than or equal to a first voltage reference (V1), or higher than or equal to a second voltage reference (V2), so as to initiate a start period of the motor (12).
US09160256B1
A system for controlling an electromechanical device includes a motor drive, a main controller, a voltage regulator and a resistor-capacitor circuit. The motor drive controls an electric motor of the electromechanical device. The main controller provides motor commands to control the motor drive that are provided by providing command voltage on at least one command line. The voltage regulator circuit receives the command voltage and provides a motor voltage to power the motor drive. A capacitor of the resistor-capacitor circuit is charged by the command voltage, and the motor voltage is controlled based upon charge of the capacitor.
US09160255B2
A method of preheating a brushless motor that includes sequentially energizing and de-energizing a phase winding over one or more drive periods. The phase winding is energized in the same direction throughout each drive period so as to lock a rotor of the motor at an aligned position.
US09160253B2
A sine pulse width modulation controller includes an edge detection unit for receiving a feedback input signal from the external electrical device to generate an edge signal, a register unit for storing and outputting a parameter signal, an angle increasing unit for receiving the edge signal and the parameter signal, determining cycles of pulse width modulation and generating an angle signal, a sine calculation unit for receiving the angle signal and performing a recursive algorithm based on the angle signal to implement the recursive algorithm so as to generate a sine calculation value, a multiplication unit for receiving the sine calculation value which is then further multiplied by the amplitude signal from the register unit to generate a pulse width signal, and a sine output unit receiving the pulse width signal to generate driving signals for driving the external electrical device to generate a sine terminal voltage.
US09160242B2
A switching circuit is configured to switch on/off a current that flows through a resonance circuit constituted by a primary winding of a transformer, a capacitance element, and an inductor that are connected in series. Electric power that is induced in a secondary winding of the transformer is rectified by a rectifier circuit. A switch is connected in parallel with the capacitance element. A control unit is configured to control the switching circuit and the switch. The control unit is configured to select a first operation in which an operation frequency of the switching circuit is controlled by switching off the switch, and select a second operation in which a period during which a current flows from the switching circuit to the primary winding of the transformer is controlled by switching on the switch.
US09160235B2
The power supply apparatus includes the feedback winding of a transformer having a first winding, and a second winding whose number of turns is larger than that of the first winding. A voltage output from the transformer is detected. Based on the detected voltage, connection between a switch element and the first winding or the second winding is switched.
US09160221B2
A lens holder driving device includes a lens holder for holding a lens assembly and a ring-shaped driving coil fixed to the lens holder. The lens holder has N bonded surfaces for bonding N areas of an inner surface of the driving coil to a tubular portion of the lens holder by means of an adhesive agent. At least one of the N bonded surfaces has a peeling inhibiting arrangement for inhibiting the driving coil from peeling from the lens holder after the N areas of the inner surface of the driving coil are bonded to the N bonded surfaces by means of the adhesive agent.
US09160219B2
Disclosed is a brushless motor (1A) which is an axial gap type brushless motor (1A) wherein stators (3A, 4A) comprising a coil (41) and a rotor (2) comprising a permanent magnet (23) are arranged with a gap therebetween in the axial direction. The coil (41) is a band-like wire which is spirally wound such that the width direction of the band-like wire generally coincides with the direction of the magnetic flux that is generated by the permanent magnet (23) of the rotor (2). Consequently, the axial gap type brushless motor (1A) having the above-described structure can be further reduced in eddy current loss in comparison to conventional brushless motors.
US09160212B2
A multi-source passive energy power generation system that includes use of solar radiation to drive an air compressor and compressed air is then delivered to a power wheel positioned within a fluid tank. The air pressure is delivered to air chambers mounted upon tubular spokes of the power wheel and buoyancy force is used to drive rotation of the power wheel within the fluid tank. In some embodiments weights are added to translate along the tubular spokes under the guidance of cam surfaces to a rotational force to the power wheel from the force of gravity.
US09160210B2
Rotary encoders for use with trolling motors are disclosed. An example rotary encoder includes a housing defining an aperture and a linear guide and an input sleeve to extend through the aperture. The input sleeve includes an exterior guide to be engaged and followed by a shuttle to enable rotary position information to be obtained from the input sleeve. The shuttle is movably coupled within the linear guide. The shuttle is biased to engage a central portion of the exterior guide if rotation of the input sleeve moves the shuttle past first or second ends of the groove to prevent the rotary encoder from being damaged by over-rotation of the input sleeve.
US09160203B2
A wireless power system for powering a television includes at least one device resonator including at least one loop of conductive material, a matching network including at least two capacitive elements, and power and control circuitry coupled to the matching network and configured to connect with a load of the television, wherein the at least one device resonator is configured to wirelessly receive power via an oscillating magnetic field generated by a source resonator when the distance between the source resonator and the at least one device resonator is at least 2 cm, wherein the load of the television is configured to draw at least 5 Watts of power, and wherein an efficiency of wirelessly receiving power by the least one device resonator is at least 50%.
US09160197B2
An apparatus for generating and storing electric energy, the apparatus including a fiber, an electric energy generation unit disposed on the fiber, and an electric energy storage unit disposed on the fiber.
US09160185B2
An active balancing and battery charging system for a battery including a plurality of packs made up of cells. An H-bridge circuit having a nominal system voltage as an input generates a square wave output to a plurality of step-down transformers each associated with a pack, where the plurality of step-down transformers provide an active balancing voltage of about the nominal pack voltage. Each pack may include a balancing transformer including a common primary coil receiving the active balancing voltage from the associated step-down transformer or the pack itself. The balancing transformer also includes a plurality of secondary coils each associated with the respective plurality of cells of the pack. A voltage induced in the secondary coils causes a discrete charge current to flow to any cells in the pack that are undercharged relative to other cells.
US09160181B2
An energy supply system including an electrical energy storage system having multiple storage modules, in particular a battery system, an ascertaining device for ascertaining state variables of the storage modules and an energy transmission device for energy transmission between the storage modules and a downstream electrical device. It is provided that the energy transmission device has multiple d.c. chopper converters, which are connected to one another in parallel and/or in series at the output end, and each of the d.c. chopper converters is connectable to a storage module of the energy storage system, and the energy supply system has a trigger device for triggering the d.c. chopper converters as a function of the ascertained state variable of the respective connected storage module. Also described is a method for operating an energy supply system.
US09160177B2
A semiconductor circuit includes a drive component that includes first switching elements connected to discharge switching elements and resistive elements; and a drawing component. The first switching elements interconnect, in accordance with a drive time of the discharge switching elements, drive current sources that supply charge to control signal lines and the control signal lines. The drawing component draws charge with draw current sources in accordance with a draw time in which the drawing component draws the charge supplied from the drive component.
US09160171B2
Systems, methods, and apparatus for pre-processing of electrical power grid data for event-driven automatic generation control (AGC) are presented herein. An AGC application can determine AGC output data, for output to a unit controller that controls power generator(s) related to an electrical power grid, based on current values of a subset of electrical power grid data associated with the electrical power grid that has changed since a prior determination that the electrical power grid data has changed. A pre-process component can determine the subset of the electrical power grid data that has changed since the prior determination, and send the current values of the subset of the electrical power grid data to an area control error component. An event-driven component can determine information in response to an event trigger generated based on processing the current values of the subset of the electrical power grid data received from the pre-process component.
US09160164B2
A method and apparatus for fault detection of series diodes in rectifiers is disclosed, wherein the voltages across one or both of the individual diodes, and/or the voltage across the pair of diodes are measured to determine a ratio between two of those voltages. The ratio is then analyzed to determine if a fault (e.g., a short circuit or an open circuit) is present. In some embodiments, circuitry can be included to compensate for the normal variations in diode characteristics (e.g., reverse leakage current, reverse recovery charge) between the pair of series diodes to minimize the potential for erroneous fault detection.
US09160163B2
The present disclosure relates to a battery management system for at least one battery cell, for example a lithium-ion battery cell, and to a motor vehicle and to a battery system. A battery management system for at least one battery cell is configured in such a way that, in reaction to a triggering signal, said battery management system can make available a current path between poles of the at least one battery cell. In this context, the current path is configured in such a way that by making available the current path a light arc in a fuse of the at least one battery cell after the triggering of the fuse is prevented or ended. This increases the protection against hazards which can arise from a battery cell in hazardous situations for a vehicle.
US09160159B2
An embodiment of an apparatus, such as a circuit breaker, includes an input node, an output node, and a digital circuit. The input node is configured to receive an input voltage, and the output node is coupled to the input node and is configured to carry an output current. And the digital circuit is configured to uncouple the output node from the input node in response to a power drawn from the input node exceeding a threshold.
US09160158B2
Systems and methods are presented for detecting high-impedance faults (HIFs) in an electric power delivery system using a plurality of coordinated high-impedance fault detection systems. In certain embodiments, a method for HIFs may include receiving first and second current representations associated with first and second locations of the electric power delivery system respectively. Based on at least one of the first and second current representations, the occurrence of an HIF may be determined. A relative location of the HIF may be determined based on a relative amount of interharmonic content associated with an HIF included in the first and second current representations, and a protective action may be taken based on the determined relative location.
US09160148B2
A method for manufacturing a spark plug includes: a preparation step of preparing a specimen provided with a center electrode, an insulator, a metal shell, and a ground electrode; and an inspection step of applying a predetermined voltage between the ground electrode and the center electrode of the prepared specimen, and determining whether dielectric breakdown is caused in the insulator. The inspection step includes a calculation step and a judgment step. The calculation step involves receiving an oscillating wave generated from the specimen upon application of the predetermined voltage to the specimen, obtaining a power spectrum by subjecting an oscillating wave signal representing the oscillating wave to fast Fourier transform, and then calculating an integral of a predetermined frequency range in the power spectrum. In the judgment step, whether discharge is caused by dielectric breakdown of the insulator is judged by utilizing the integral.
US09160142B2
The invention relates to a laser (1) with a laser chip (10) having a plurality of active laser channels (20), a front facet (10a) for coupling out the laser radiation of the laser channels (20) and a rear facet (10b) for rear—side reflection of the laser radiation of the laser channels (20) in the direction of the front facet (10a); an external resonator (50) which couples a portion of the radiation exiting the laser chip (10) at the front facet (10a) back into the laser chip (10) and, by said back-coupling, couples the radiation of the laser channels (20) with one another; wherein at least one of the laser channels (20) is curved at least sectionally and—in the far field—in addition to a main beam (P3), at least one secondary beam (P1, P2) is divergently emitted by the laser chip (10); and wherein the resonator (50) reflects at least one of the secondary beams (P1, P2), which is—in the far field—divergently emitted by the laser chip (10) next to a main beam (P3), in the direction of the laser chip (10).
US09160133B2
A laser includes a total reflective mirror, an output mirror, a discharge lamp, and an active laser medium. The total reflective mirror, the output mirror, and the discharge lamp define a resonant cavity. The active laser medium is filled in the resonant cavity. The total reflective mirror includes a body, a metal film, and at least one microstructure. The at least one microstructure is concaved from a first reflective surface of the total reflective mirror. The at least one microstructure has a depth and a lateral size, and both the depth and the lateral size are in a range from about 0.5λ to about 2λ, while λ is a working wavelength of the laser.
US09160117B2
A telecommunications patching system includes a patch panel comprising a plurality of connector ports and a plurality of patch cords configured to selectively interconnect pairs of the connector ports. Each patch cord has opposite ends and a respective connector secured to each end that is configured to be removably secured within a connector port. The connectors of a respective patch cord have the same unique identifier associated therewith. A first sensor is located at each connector port and detects when a patch cord connector is inserted within, and removed from, a respective connector port. A second sensor is located at each connector port and reads the identifier of a patch cord connector inserted within a respective connector port. The first and second sensors are in communication with a controller that monitors and logs patch cord interconnections with the connector ports.
US09160116B2
The present invention discloses a connector, including: a first interface, a second interface, and a signal boost circuit, where at least one of the first interface and the second interface includes a power supply contact head, and the power supply contact head is configured to power the signal boost circuit; and a casing, where the signal boost circuit is arranged inside the casing and concatenated between the first interface and the second interface, and the signal boost circuit performs signal amplification processing on a differential signal received by the first interface and outputs the signal over the second interface, and the first interface and the second interface are arranged on different surfaces outside the casing. Further, the present invention discloses an electronic device.
US09160112B2
An arrangement for protecting against incorrect plugging of plug-in modules on the front side and rear side of a backplane comprises pairs of guide pin elements with guide pins pointing in opposite directions that extent along a common longitudinal axis perpendicular to the backplane. The guide pin elements engage positively in corresponding guide receptacles of the plug-in modules when they are plugged on in the correct orientation relative to the guide pins. The arrangement comprises means for non-rotatably mounting the guide pin elements on the front side and rear side of the backplane in a predetermined angular position. The two guide pin elements are identical. Arranged between the guide pin elements is a central connecting member that can be inserted in a non-rotatable manner into an attachment hole of the backplane. The connecting member has two molded sections that point in opposite directions and engage positively in commensurately embodied recesses, thus establishing the angular position of the guide pins relative to the backplane.
US09160110B2
A motor drive unit including an enclosure, a bus bar supported by the enclosure, at least one modular power unit, and a flexible connector for electrically coupling the modular power unit with the bus bar. The flexible connector includes mating male and female connector portions each mounted to a respective one of the bus bar and the modular power unit, the connector portion mounted to the modular power unit being supported by a housing mounted to the modular power unit for movement relative thereto.
US09160101B2
An electric connector including a housing having an insertion opening for a flat conductor, a connector terminal that is conductively connected to the flat conductor, an actuator having a pressing surface, and a shaft portion. The connector terminal is provided with a terminal portion that comes in contact with the flat conductor and a base end that supports the terminal portion. The terminal portion is provided with a front terminal that includes a front contact portion that is provided on an insertion opening side with respect to the shaft portion so as to face the pressing surface and a rear terminal that includes a rear contact portion that is provided on the rear side of the housing with respect to the pressing surface and at a position that is closer to the pressing surface with respect to the front contact portion.
US09160095B2
A connector assembly having a first connector portion, a second connector portion, and connector position assurance structure. An anti-deflection tab and an anti-deflection protrusion are employed in the connector assembly to control movement of the connector position assurance structure relative to the remainder of the connector assembly.
US09160088B2
Backplane communication system including a backplane and a rack assembly having an array of electrical connectors with respective mating ends. The backplane communication system also includes a plurality of guide pins that each have a cross-sectional diameter taken transverse to an axis of the guide pin. The backplane interfaces with the rack assembly such that the guide pins extend through guide holes of the backplane and the electrical connectors are aligned with mating windows. Each of the guide pins has a leading segment that extends through the corresponding guide hole and a trailing segment that is disposed within the corresponding guide hole. The cross-sectional diameter along the trailing segment is greater than the cross-sectional diameter along the leading segment.
US09160086B2
A connector for electrically connecting a first printed circuit board (PCB) with a second PCB wherein, in one example, the connector includes a housing having a keyed feature adapted to mate with a correspondingly keyed feature provided to each of the first and second PCBs and at least one connecting terminal carried by the housing having at least partially exposed opposed ends each of which electrically engages a contact pad formed on an underside of the respective PCBs. The connecting terminal may be arranged to accept a conductor and to thereby electrically couple the conductor to the first and second PCBs.
US09160085B2
A connector assembly and an electrical connector for electrically coupling at least two electrical conductors is provided whereby the connector assembly comprises a support structure wall separating the assembly into a first and a second portion; a conductive wall for providing electrical connectivity between the first and second portions; a first biasing member disposed in the first portion, the first biasing member being adapted to deflect upon a first electrical conductor being inserted into the first portion, the first biasing member being further adapted to bias the first electrical conductor against the conductive wall; and a second biasing member disposed in the second portion, the second biasing member being adapted to deflect upon a second electrical conductor being inserted into the second portion, the second biasing member being further adapted to bias the second electrical conductor against the conductive wall to electrical couple the first and the second electrical conductors.
US09160084B2
A housing structure is prevented from becoming complicated. A connector (A) includes: a housing (10) having a terminal accommodation chamber (11); a terminal fitting (20) inserted into the terminal accommodation chamber (11); a lance (14) which can lock the terminal fitting (20) in a detachment prevention state; a front retainer (30); a mold removal space (19) which serves to mold the lance (14); and a detection hole (35) formed in the front retainer (30), allowing insertion of a probe P from the front side and communicating with the terminal accommodation chamber (11) via the mold removal space (19).
US09160083B2
Axially compressible, F-connectors for conventional installation tools for interconnection with coaxial cable include grounding inserts for establishing electrical continuity despite inadequate nut tightening. The connector has a rigid nut, a post penetrating the nut, a tubular body, and an end cap. The conductive post coaxially extends through the connector, linking the nut and body. A post end penetrates the coaxial cable. Internal grounding inserts comprise a circular band coaxially engaging the post and portions on the band engaging the nut. Multiple radially spaced apart spring clips defined around the band grasp a flange portion of the post. The band is seated within a ring groove within the nut, making electrical contact. An alternative insert comprises a tubular band for contacting the post and an integral skirt abutting the nut's internal ring groove and contacting a portion of the socket to which the connector is coupled.
US09160075B2
A multi-band antenna for a portable communication device is disclosed, in which the communication device includes a first housing, a second housing and a substrate. The multi-band antenna includes a feeding portion, a system ground plane, a metal ring, a resonant cavity, a first and a second radiating portion. The system ground plane is disposed on the substrate. The metal ring is connected to the first housing, and forms a space with the first housing to accommodate the substrate, in which the metal ring is electrically coupled to the system ground plane through a plurality of ground ends. The resonant cavity is formed between the system ground plane and the metal ring to generate a first resonant mode. The first and the second radiating portion are disposed on the second housing, for generating a second and a third resonant mode, respectively.
US09160070B2
RFID tags that must operate in the presence of ionizing radiation need to be radiation hardened in order to achieve reliable operation. This disclosure teaches several RFID tags that achieve radiation hardening without requiring the use of special-purpose radiation-hardened electronic devices. RFID tags typically use an antenna made of metal for achieving reliable radio communications. Radiation hardening is achieved by shaping the antenna such that the metal of the antenna acts as a shield for the radio circuits.
US09160069B2
A grounded antenna may include cross-shaped high-impedance surface metal strips and a wireless communication device having said antenna. The antenna may include an antenna radiation unit and a ground plate and may be set inside of a housing. Multiple high-impedance surface units may be arranged on the ground plate in intervals.
US09160067B2
An antenna for a wireless terminal is disclosed with an antenna bushing configured to provide enhanced antenna performance. The antenna bushing includes an antenna guide portion having an upper tubular portion supporting a radiator at substantially a point of extraction from the wireless terminal. A bushing fastening portion is disposed adjacent the upper tubular portion. A signal contact point of the antenna bushing transfers an antenna signal to/from an RF circuit point of the wireless terminal. At least a portion of the signal contact point is adjacent the upper tubular portion. The configuration may reduce deleterious effects of EMI from other circuit components of the wireless terminal.
US09160065B2
The present invention provides a substrate-embedded antenna and an antenna array constituted by said antennas. An antenna of the present invention comprises a plurality of substrates, a metal fill and a feed line. Each of the substrates has at least one through-hole. The metal fill is placed within each through-hole, and each metal fill placed therein connects one another to form a columnar metal conductor which acts as a radiating body of the antenna. The feed line is electrically coupled to the metal conductor to input and output electrical signals. A plurality of said antennas may constitute an antenna array.
US09160060B2
The disclosure provides an antenna device and communications terminal including such an antenna device. The antenna device includes a coil including a conductor wound around a plate-shaped magnetic core. A flat conductor is positioned adjacent to the coil, and the coil is positioned such that it is closer than the flat conductor to an antenna of a communication partner positioned near the antenna device. The coil conductor includes a first conductor portion adjacent to a first main surface of the magnetic core and a second conductor portion adjacent to a second main surface thereof. A circuit substrate includes a ground electrode formation area and a ground electrode non-formation area. The antenna coil is mounted on the ground electrode non-formation area of the circuit substrate with the first main surface of the magnetic core facing the circuit substrate.
US09160058B2
A portable communication device includes an appearance, a substrate and a switchable resonant antenna. The substrate is disposed in the appearance, and the substrate has a ground plane. The switchable resonant antenna comprises a first connection portion, a switching unit, a first metal element and a second metal element, where the first connection portion is electrically coupled between the ground plane and the switching unit, the switching unit is configured to electrically couple the first connection portion to the first metal element or the second metal element according to a control signal generated corresponding to a detecting result, in order to generate a first resonant mode.
US09160050B2
An electric transformer device (balun) is formed on a support plate having a first base face and an opposite second base face. The balun includes a first port (40) connectable to an electrical line for a differential signal and a second port connectable to an electrical line for a single-ended signal. A first printed conductive track is associated to the first base face of the support plate for connecting the first port to the second port. A printed conductive path is associated to the second base face of the support plate for connecting the first port to the second port. The printed conductive path is formed of a symmetric second and third printed conductive tracks.
US09160035B2
A method for manufacturing the lithium ion conductive substance is provided that includes the following steps: (a) a step of forming an inorganic substance that contains predetermined quantities of a Li component, an Al component, a Ti component, a Si component, and a P component, into a sheet shape, and (b) a step of interposing between materials that contain at least one kind of element selected from Zr, Hf, Y, and Sm, and sintering, a sheet-shaped formed body obtained at step (a).
US09160029B2
A secondary battery includes an electrode assembly; a can having an opening configured to receive the electrode assembly, wherein the can includes a first stepped portion and a second stepped portion on an inner surface adjacent to the opening and wherein the first and second stepped portions have different depths; a cap assembly comprising a cap plate hermetically sealing the opening of the can; and an insulation case located between the electrode assembly and the cap assembly.
US09160028B2
Provided is a unit stacking device for a secondary battery, which stacks one or more first radical units having a first size and one or more second radical units having a second size greater than the first size and includes a stack jig, which includes a first inner space having a size corresponding to the first size and a second inner space disposed above the first inner space and communicating with the first inner space and having a size corresponding to the second size. The first radical units are stacked in the first inner space through the second inner space, and then, the second radical units are stacked in the second inner space.
US09160020B2
An electrode structure 15 is received in a joint portion of frames 13, 14. A first gas diffusion layer 19 and a first gas passage forming member 21 are arranged on a first surface of the electrode structure 15. A second gas diffusion layer 20 and a second gas passage forming member 22 are formed on a second surface of the electrode structure 15. A separator 23 is joined with a surface of the frame 13 and a surface of the gas passage forming member 21. A separator 24 is joined with a surface of the frame 14 and a surface of the gas passage forming member 22. A water passage 28 is formed between a flat plate 25 of the gas passage forming member 22 and the separator 24. The water passage 28 has a depth set to a value smaller than depth of a gas passage T2 of the gas passage forming member 22. Generated water is introduced from the gas passage T2 of the gas passage forming member 22 to the water passage 28 through capillary action via communication holes 29. The generated water in the water passage 28 is moved to a downstream side of the water passage 28 by pressure caused by oxidization gas. This prevents corrosion of the cathode side electrode catalyst layer and improves durability of the anode side gas passage forming member. As a result, a fuel cell capable of preventing decrease of power generation is provided.
US09159999B2
A compound MjXp which is particularly suitable for use in a battery prepared by the complexometric precursor formulation methodology wherein: Mj is at least one positive ion selected from the group consisting of alkali metals, alkaline earth metals and transition metals and j is an integer representing the moles of said positive ion per moles of said MjXp; and Xp, a negative anion or polyanion from Groups IIIA, IV A, VA, VIA and VIIA and may be one or more anion or polyanion and p is an integer representing the moles of said negative ion per moles of said MjXp.
US09159998B2
A positive electrode active material provided in the present invention is characterized in that it is substantially formed of a lithium nickel cobalt manganese composite oxide and that a molar content ratio (NiIII/NiII) of bivalent nickel atoms (NiII) and trivalent nickel atoms (NiIII) of nickel atoms constituting the composite oxide is 0.15≦(NiIII/NiII)≦0.95.
US09159996B2
A method for synthesizing lithium titanium oxide-based anode active material nanoparticles, and more particularly, a method for synthesizing lithium titanium oxide-based anode active material nanoparticles using a supercritical fluid condition is disclosed herein. The method may include (a) preparing a lithium precursor solution and a titanium precursor solution, (b) forming lithium titanium oxide-based anode active material nanoparticles by introducing the lithium precursor solution and titanium precursor solution into an reactor at a supercritical fluid condition, and (c) cleaning and drying the nanoparticles, and may further include (d) calcinating the nanoparticles at 500-1000° C. for 10 minutes to 24 hours after the step (c).
US09159988B2
A method for making a current collector of an electrochemical battery is disclosed. In the method, a current collecting metal substrate and a solid graphite source are provided. A graphite/graphene layer is formed on at least one surface of the current collecting metal substrate, by rubbing the at least one surface of the current collecting metal substrate with the solid graphite source. A method for making an electrode of an electrochemical battery is also disclosed.
US09159985B2
A breaker includes a fixed metal plate, a moving metal plate, a bimetal, and a heater. The fixed plate includes a fixed contact in a space of an exterior case having an electrically-insulating case and an exterior metal plate. The exterior plate and the fixed plate are arranged opposed to each other, and fixed to the electrically-insulating case. The bimetal has a convex shape, and is arranged between the heater and the moving plate. The electrically-insulating case includes first and second outer walls and protruding from the both ends of the case. A central part of the fixed plate is fixed to the first outer wall, and a part of moving plate is fixed to the second outer wall. The exterior plate closes the opening of the space.
US09159977B2
A method for producing an electric storage device having a bus bar and an electric storage element equipped with an external terminal includes the steps of: arranging the electric storage element having the external terminal, positioning a resin member having either one of a receiving portion or a projection relative to the electric storage element, arranging the bus bar having the other one of the receiving portion or the projection on the external terminal, connecting the bus bar to the external terminal, and inserting the projection into the receiving portion in the step of arranging the bus bar.
US09159966B2
The present invention provides a battery case configured by fixing a joined portion where plate sections overlap with each other using a fixation member, and two different types of sealing members are disposed at the joined portion. It is possible to ensure high sealing properties by using sealing members suitable for the respective shapes of portions of the joined portion.
US09159965B2
A battery pack has a first housing including a first fastening portion and a first rib, and a second housing including a second fastening portion fastened to the first fastening portion and a second rib. The first rib is near the first fastening portion, and the second rib is between the first housing and the first rib.
US09159960B2
The present disclosure relates to an annealing apparatus and an annealing method, which are applied to the packaging art of the AMOLED panel, wherein the annealing apparatus comprises an electromagnetic wave generator coupled with a plurality of irradiators and comprises a plate whose surface is provided with the irradiators and which is placed above or below the AMOLED panel for annealing it. The method comprises the following steps: annealing the AMOLED panel by an annealing apparatus which comprises an electromagnetic wave generator and a plate having lots of irradiators; when the irradiators aim at the annealing area, the annealing areas are annealed by the high frequency electromagnetic wave generated by the electromagnetic wave generator and irradiated from the irradiators. The present disclosure can save the time of the annealing process and can improve the process situation. Meanwhile, the present disclosure increases production yield and improves product quality.
US09159944B2
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a white organic light-emitting diode is provided. The white organic light-emitting diode includes an anode, a cathode, and a composite light-emitting layer formed between the anode and the cathode, the composite light-emitting layer including a first host layer, a second host layer, and a dye layer formed between the first host layer and the second host layer, and the dye layer including at least two dyes.
US09159941B2
An organic electroluminescence device includes a pair of electrodes and an organic compound layer between the pair of electrodes. The organic compound layer includes an emitting layer including a host material and a phosphorescent dopant material. The host material is selected from a compound satisfying the following formula (1) with respect to a difference ΔST between singlet energy EgS and an energy gap Eg77K at 77K and satisfying the following formula (2) with respect to the singlet energy EgS ΔST=EgS−Eg77K<0.4 (eV) (1) EgS≧2.90 (eV) (2)
US09159930B2
The present invention relates to a formulation comprising at least one solvent and at least two functional compounds of the general formula (I) where A is a functional structural element, B is a solubility-promoting structural element and k is an integer in the range from 1 to 20, the molecular weight of the functional compound is at least 550 g/mol and the solubility-promoting structural element B conforms to the general formula (L-I) where Ar1, Ar2 is each, independently of one another, an aryl or heteroaryl group, which may be substituted by one or more radicals R of any desired type, X is in each case, independently of one another, N or CR2, preferably CH, R1, R2 is each, independently of one another, hydrogen, a straight-chain alkyl, alkoxy or thioalkoxy group having 1 to 40 C atoms or a branched or cyclic alkyl, alkoxy or thioalkoxy group having 3 to 40 C atoms or is a silyl group or a substituted keto group having 1 to 40 C atoms, an alkoxycarbonyl group having 2 to 40 C atoms, an aryloxycarbonyl group having 7 to 40 C atoms, a cyano group (CN), a carbamoyl group (C(═O)NH2), a haloformyl group (C(═O)—X, in which X represents a halogen atom), a formyl group (C(═O)—H), an isocyano group, an isocyanate group, a thiocyanate group or a thio-isocyanate group, a hydroxyl group, a nitro group, a CF3 group, Cl, Br, F, a crosslinkable group or a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic or heteroaromatic ring system having 5 to 60 ring atoms, or an aryloxy or heteroaryloxy group having 5 to 60 ring atoms, or a combination of these systems, where one or more of the groups R1 and/or R2 may form a mono- or polycyclic, aliphatic or aromatic ring system with one another and/or with the ring to which the group R1 is bonded; and l is 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4; where the dashed bond indicates the bond to the functional structural element A. The present invention furthermore relates to electronic devices which comprise mixtures of these compounds.
US09159923B2
An evaporation donor substrate that makes it possible to evaporate only a desired evaporation material in the case of performing deposition by an evaporation method. Thus, the use efficiency of an evaporation material can be increased resulting in reduction in production cost, and further a film with high uniformity can be deposited. The evaporation donor substrate can be obtained by forming a reflective layer having an opening over a substrate, forming a thermal insulation layer having a light-transmitting property separately over the substrate and the reflective layer, forming a light absorption layer over the thermal insulation layer, and forming a material layer over the light absorption layer.
US09159919B2
A variable resistance memory device includes vertical electrodes vertically projecting from a substrate, first horizontal electrodes stacked along the vertical electrodes, second horizontal electrodes stacked along the vertical electrodes, and a variable resistance layer interposed between the vertical electrodes and the first and second horizontal electrodes, wherein the first and second horizontal electrodes are arranged in directions crossing with each other.
US09159918B2
A resistive random access memory includes a first electrode, a second electrode and a first metal oxide composite layer. The second electrode is opposite to the first electrode. The first metal oxide composite layer is disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. The first metal oxide composite layer has a film layer and a nanorod structure.
US09159905B2
A vibrating element as an element on which a base part, a supporting part extending from the base part, and adjustment electrodes as mass adjustment parts are provided and a semiconductor substrate as a circuit element are provided, and the adjustment electrodes are placed in locations not overlapping with the semiconductor substrate in a plan view, the supporting part and the semiconductor substrate are connected, and thereby, the vibrating element is mounted on the semiconductor substrate.
US09159899B2
Processes for making a membrane having a curved feature are disclosed. Recesses each in the shape of a reversed, truncated pyramid are formed in a planar substrate surface by KOH etching through a mask. An oxide layer is formed over the substrate surface. The oxide layer can be stripped leaving rounded corners between different facets of the recesses in the substrate surface, and the substrate surface can be used as a profile-transferring substrate surface for making a membrane having concave curved features. Alternatively, a handle layer is attached to the oxide layer and the substrate is removed until the backside of the oxide layer becomes exposed. The exposed backside of the oxide layer includes curved portions protruding away from the handle layer, and can provide a profile-transferring substrate surface for making a membrane having convex curved features.
US09159897B2
A superconducting structure (1) has a plurality of linked band-segments (2), with each linked band-segment (2) having a substrate (3) and a superconducting layer deposited onto it (4). The linked band-segments (2) are joined to one another by superconducting layers (4) that face each other. Each linked band-segment (2) is joined to two additional band-segments (7a, 7b) in such a way that the superconducting layers (4) of the two additional band-segments (7a, 7b) and of the linked band-segment (2) face each other. The additional band-segments (7a, 7b) together substantially overlap the total length (L) of the linked band-segment (2). This provides for a superconducting structure, which exhibits high superconductivity and which is very suitable for long distances.
US09159892B2
An object of the invention is to provide an LED light source device and a manufacturing method for the same that can maintain high reflectance over an extended period of time notwithstanding the interaction between light and heat. More specifically, the invention provides an LED light source device that includes a substrate, an electrode formed on the substrate, a white inorganic resist layer deposited over the substrate so as to cover a surface thereof everywhere except where the electrode is formed, and an LED element connected to the electrode, wherein the white inorganic resist layer contains fine white inorganic particles dispersed or mixed into an inorganic binder, and a method for manufacturing such an LED light source device.
US09159889B2
A radiation-emitting component includes a semiconductor chip which has a first main surface, a second main surface on an opposite side from the first main surface and an active region that generates radiation; a carrier on which the semiconductor chip is fixed on the side of the second main surface; an output layer arranged on the first main surface of the semiconductor chip and forming a lateral output surface spaced apart from the semiconductor chip in a lateral direction, a recess tapering in a direction of the semiconductor chip being, formed in the output layer and deflecting radiation emerging from the first main surface during operation into the direction of the lateral output surface.
US09159888B2
Methods for fabricating light emitting diode (LED) chips comprising providing a plurality of LEDs typically on a substrate. Pedestals are deposited on the LEDs with each of the pedestals in electrical contact with one of the LEDs. A coating is formed over the LEDs with the coating burying at least some of the pedestals. The coating is then planarized to expose at least some of the buried pedestals while leaving at least some of said coating on said LEDs. The exposed pedestals can then be contacted such as by wire bonds. The present invention discloses similar methods used for fabricating LED chips having LEDs that are flip-chip bonded on a carrier substrate and for fabricating other semiconductor devices. LED chip wafers and LED chips are also disclosed that are fabricated using the disclosed methods.
US09159886B2
A lighting apparatus having wavelength-converting materials formed in a carrier layer is disclosed. In one embodiment, the lighting apparatus has a light source attached to a substrate that is assembled in a housing. The light source is configured to emit a substantially narrow band light that is transformed into broad-spectrum white light by the wavelength-converting materials positioned on the carrier layer. The wavelength-converting materials and the carrier layer are distanced away from the light source, such that the carrier layer is thermally isolated from the light source.
US09159885B2
A broadband light source includes a phosphor layer excited by light from multiple LEDs. A dichroic reflector reflects light from the LEDs onto the phosphor layer. First and second LEDs are responsible for first and second broadband portions respectively of a broadband output light of the source, each such broadband portion being broadband and nominally white. The device components are configured and arranged so that the first and second broadband light portions have different CIE color coordinates. These portions combine to yield a resultant color for the overall broadband light output of the source, which resultant color is a function of the relative amounts of the first and second broadband light portions. An open-loop or closed-loop controller can independently drive the LEDs to provide a desired mix of the broadband light portions so that the overall broadband light output has a color in a desired design space.
US09159878B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor light emitting device includes a stacked structural body, a first electrode, and a second electrode. The stacked structural body includes a first semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type, a second semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type, and a light emitting portion. The stacked structural body has a first major surface on a side of the second semiconductor layer. The first electrode is provided on the first semiconductor. The second electrode is provided on the second semiconductor layer. The first electrode includes a first pad portion and a first extending portion that extends from the first pad portion along a first extending direction. The first extending portion includes a first width-increasing portion. A width of the first width-increasing portion along a direction orthogonal to the first extending direction is increased from the first pad portion toward an end of the first extending portion.
US09159877B2
A nano-structured light-emitting device including a first semiconductor layer; a nano structure formed on the first semiconductor layer. The nano structure includes a nanocore, and an active layer and a second semiconductor layer that are formed on a surface of the nanocore, and of which the surface is planarized. A conductive layer surrounds sides of the nano structure, a first electrode is electrically connected to the first semiconductor layer and a second electrode is electrically connected to the conductive layer.
US09159867B2
Embodiments of the invention provide an array substrate, a manufacturing method thereof and a display device. The array substrate comprises: a base substrate; a gate line and a gate electrode formed on the base substrate; a gate insulating layer formed on the gate line and the gate electrode; a source electrode, a drain electrode and a pixel electrode formed on the gate insulating layer, wherein the pixel electrode is directly connected to the drain electrode; and an active layer formed on the gate insulating layer, the source electrode and the drain electrode.
US09159866B2
A photo sensor, a method of manufacturing the photo sensor, and a display apparatus, the photo sensor including a substrate; a light receiving unit on the substrate, the light receiving unit including an amorphous semiconductor material; a first adjacent unit and a second adjacent unit formed as one body with the light receiving unit, the first adjacent unit and the second adjacent unit being separated from each other by the light receiving unit; a first photo sensor electrode electrically connected to the first adjacent unit; and a second photo sensor electrode electrically connected to the second adjacent unit, wherein at least one of the first adjacent unit and the second adjacent unit includes a crystalline semiconductor material.
US09159864B2
Methods for forming a back contact on a thin film photovoltaic device are provided that include applying a conductive paste onto a surface defined by a p-type absorber layer (e.g., comprising cadmium telluride) of a p-n junction and curing the conductive paste to form a conductive coating on the surface defined by a p-type absorber layer of the p-n junction. The conductive paste can include a conductive material, a solvent system, and a binder such that during curing an acid from the conductive paste reacts to enrich the surface with tellurium while copper is deposited onto the Te enriched surface. The acid is then substantially consumed during curing.
US09159858B2
A solar cell system may maximize solar cell efficiency and minimize energy loss by collecting as much light as possible, using refraction and total internal reflection. The solar cell system includes a solar cell, a layer of a first transparent material placed on the top end of the solar cell, a layer of a second transparent material filling the interior cavity of the solar cell, a plurality of photo-voltaic surface cells incorporated in the solar cell, and the side walls and bottom end of the solar cell are coated with a reflective material.
US09159833B2
A fin structure of a semiconductor device, such as a fin field effect transistor (FinFET), and a method of manufacture, is provided. In an embodiment, trenches are formed in a substrate, and a liner is formed along sidewalls of the trenches, wherein a region between adjacent trenches define a fin. A dielectric material is formed in the trenches. Portions of the semiconductor material of the fin are replaced with a second semiconductor material and a third semiconductor material, the second semiconductor material having a different lattice constant than the substrate and the third semiconductor material having a different lattice constant than the second semiconductor material. Portions of the second semiconductor material are oxidized.
US09159832B2
An integrated circuit structure includes a semiconductor substrate, an insulation region extending into the semiconductor substrate, and a semiconductor strip between two opposite portions of the insulation region. The semiconductor strip includes an upper portion higher than top surfaces of the insulation regions and a lower portion in the insulation region. The lower portion has a sidewall including a first sidewall portion having a first slope and a second sidewall portion over and connected to the first sidewall portion. The second sidewall portion has a second slope smaller than the first slope.
US09159831B2
A multigate field effect transistor includes two fin-shaped structures and a dielectric layer. The fin-shaped structures are located on a substrate. The dielectric layer covers the substrate and the fin-shaped structures. At least two voids are located in the dielectric layer between the two fin-shaped structures. Moreover, the present invention also provides a multigate field effect transistor process for forming said multigate field effect transistor including the following steps. Two fin-shaped structures are formed on a substrate. A dielectric layer covers the substrate and the two fin-shaped structures, wherein at least two voids are formed in the dielectric layer between the two fin-shaped structures.
US09159829B1
Some embodiments include transistor constructions having a first insulative structure lining a recess within a base. A first conductive structure lines an interior of the first insulative structure, and a ferroelectric structure lines an interior of the first conductive structure. A second conductive structure is within a lower region of the ferroelectric structure, and the second conductive structure has an uppermost surface beneath an uppermost surface of the first conductive structure. A second insulative structure is over the second conductive structure and within the ferroelectric structure. A pair of source/drain regions are adjacent an upper region of the first insulative structure and are on opposing sides of the first insulative structure from one another.
US09159826B2
A tunneling field-effect transistor (TFET) device is disclosed. A protrusion structure is disposed over the substrate and protrudes out of the plane of substrate. Isolation features are formed on the substrate. A drain region is disposed over the substrate adjacent to the protrusion structure and extends to a bottom portion of the protrusion structure as a raised drain region. A drain contact is disposed over the drain region and overlap with the isolation feature.
US09159821B2
A GaN device suppressing the instantaneous current reduction after the shut-off of a high frequency signal is disclosed. The GaN device provides, on a SiC substrate, an AlN layer, a GaN layer, and an AlGaN layer, The SiC substrate has an energy difference greater than 0.67 eV but less than 1.43 eV; the AlN layer has a thickness less than 50 nm; and the GaN layer has a thickness less than 1.5 μm.
US09159820B2
A semiconductor device contains a semiconductor substrate, a cathode, an anode, and a gate electrode. The semiconductor device has a cathode segment disposed in a portion corresponding to at least the cathode, an anode segment disposed in a portion corresponding to the anode, a plurality of embedded segments disposed in a portion closer to the cathode segment than to the anode segment, a takeoff segment disposed between the gate electrode and the embedded segments to electrically connect the gate electrode to the embedded segments, and a channel segment disposed between the adjacent embedded segments.
US09159815B2
An object is, in a thin film transistor in which an oxide semiconductor is used as an active layer, to prevent change in composition, film quality, an interface, or the like of an oxide semiconductor region serving as an active layer, and to stabilize electrical characteristics of the thin film transistor. In a thin film transistor in which a first oxide semiconductor region is used as an active layer, a second oxide semiconductor region having lower electrical conductivity than the first oxide semiconductor region is formed between the first oxide semiconductor region and a protective insulating layer for the thin film transistor, whereby the second oxide semiconductor region serves as a protective layer for the first oxide semiconductor region; thus, change in composition or deterioration in film quality of the first oxide semiconductor region can be prevented, and electrical characteristics of the thin film transistor can be stabilized.
US09159811B2
A semiconductor structure may be formed by forming a fin on a substrate, forming a gate over a portion of the fin, removing a portion of the fin not below the gate to expose a sidewall of the fin beneath the gate and a top surface of the substrate, forming a first protective layer on the top surface of the substrate but not on the sidewall of the fin, forming a second protective layer on the sidewall of the fin prevented from forming on the top surface of the substrate by the first protective layer, removing the first protective layer to expose the top surface of the substrate, forming a buffer layer on the top surface of the substrate; the buffer layer prevented from forming on the sidewall of the fin by the second protective layer, and forming a source-drain region on the buffer layer electrically connected to the fin.
US09159801B2
Bipolar junction transistors and design structures for a bipolar junction transistor. The bipolar junction transistor may include a plurality of emitters that are arranged in distinct emitter fingers. A silicide layer is formed that covers an extrinsic base layer of the bipolar junction transistor and that fills the gaps between adjacent emitters. Non-conductive spacers on the emitter sidewalls electrically insulate the emitters from the silicide layer. The emitters extend through the extrinsic base layer and the silicide layer to contact the intrinsic base layer. The emitters may be formed using sacrificial emitter pedestals in a replacement-type process.
US09159799B2
A method for fabricating a merged p-i-n Schottky (MPS) diode in gallium nitride (GaN) based materials includes providing an n-type GaN-based substrate having a first surface and a second surface. The method also includes forming an n-type GaN-based epitaxial layer coupled to the first surface of the n-type GaN-based substrate, and forming a p-type GaN-based epitaxial layer coupled to the n-type GaN-based epitaxial layer. The method further includes removing portions of the p-type GaN-based epitaxial layer to form a plurality of dopant sources, and regrowing a GaN-based epitaxial layer including n-type material in regions overlying portions of the n-type GaN-based epitaxial layer, and p-type material in regions overlying the plurality of dopant sources. The method also includes forming a first metallic structure electrically coupled to the regrown GaN-based epitaxial layer.
US09159798B2
A replacement gate process is disclosed. A substrate and a dummy gate structure formed on the substrate is provided, wherein the dummy gate structure comprises a dummy layer on the substrate, a hard mask layer on the dummy layer, spacers at two sides of the dummy layer and the hard mask layer, and a contact etch stop layer (CESL) covering the substrate, the spacers and the hard mask layer. The spacers and the CESL are made of the same material. Then, a top portion of the CESL is removed to expose the hard mask layer. Next, the hard mask layer is removed. Afterward, the dummy layer is removed to form a trench.
US09159790B2
A circuit for turning OFF a thyristor. The circuit includes at least one first circuit element configured to provide a high reverse turn-OFF voltage to the thyristor gate for a predetermined period of time. Immediately following the predetermined period of time, at least one second circuit element provides a normal reverse turn-OFF voltage to the thyristor gate. The normal reverse turn-OFF voltage is substantially lower than the high reverse turn-OFF voltage.
US09159788B2
A nitride semiconductor structure including a silicon substrate, a nucleation layer, a buffer layer and a nitride semiconductor layer is provided. The nucleation layer is disposed on the silicon substrate. The buffer layer is disposed on the nucleation layer, in which the buffer layer includes n sub-buffer layers where n≧2, and each of the sub-buffer layers has island structures. The nitride semiconductor layer is disposed on the buffer layer.
US09159787B2
Semiconductor device stacks and devices made there from having Ge-rich device layers. A Ge-rich device layer is disposed above a substrate, with a p-type doped Ge etch suppression layer (e.g., p-type SiGe) disposed there between to suppress etch of the Ge-rich device layer during removal of a sacrificial semiconductor layer richer in Si than the device layer. Rates of dissolution of Ge in wet etchants, such as aqueous hydroxide chemistries, may be dramatically decreased with the introduction of a buried p-type doped semiconductor layer into a semiconductor film stack, improving selectivity of etchant to the Ge-rich device layers.
US09159778B2
A mechanism is provided for integrating an inductor into a semiconductor. A circular or other closed loop trench is formed in a substrate with sidewalls connected by a bottom surface in the substrate. A first insulator layer is deposited on the sidewalls of the trench so as to coat the sidewalls and the bottom surface. A conductor layer is deposited on the sidewalls and the bottom surface of the trench so as to coat the first insulator layer in the trench such that the conductor layer is on top of the first insulator layer in the trench. A first magnetic layer is deposited on the sidewalls and bottom surface of the trench so as to coat the first insulator layer in the trench without filling the trench. The first magnetic layer deposited on the sidewalls forms an inner closed magnetic loop and an outer closed magnetic loop within the trench.
US09159770B2
A 3D semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The method includes forming a first semiconductor layer including a common source node on a semiconductor substrate, forming a transistor region on the first semiconductor layer, wherein the transistor region includes a horizontal channel region substantially parallel to a surface of the semiconductor substrate, and source and drain regions branched from the horizontal channel region to a direction substantially perpendicular to the surface of the semiconductor substrate, processing the first semiconductor layer to locate the common source node corresponding to the source region, forming a gate in a space between the source region and the drain region, forming heating electrodes on the source region and the drain region, and forming resistance variable material layers on the exposed heating electrodes.
US09159764B2
A solid-state imaging device with a semiconductor substrate; a pixel formation region in the substrate and including a pixel made of a photoelectric conversion element; and an element isolation portion in the substrate and including an element isolation insulating layer and an impurity element isolation region. The element isolation insulating layer is positioned in a surface of the substrate. The impurity element isolation region is positioned under the element isolation insulating layer and within the substrate. The impurity element isolation region has at least a portion with a width that is narrower than that of the element isolation insulating layer. The photoelectric conversion element extends to a position under the element isolation insulating layer of the element isolation portion.
US09159730B2
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a device isolation layer pattern on a substrate to form an active region, the active region including a first contact forming region at a center p of the active region and second and third contact forming regions at edges of the active region, forming an insulating layer and a first conductive layer on the substrate, forming a mask pattern having an isolated shape on the first conductive layer, etching the first conductive layer and the insulating layer to expose the active region of the first contact forming region by using the mask pattern, to form an opening portion between pillar structures, forming a second conductive layer in the opening, and patterning the second conductive layer and the first preliminary conductive layer pattern to form a wiring structure contacting the first contact forming region and having an extended line shape.
US09159728B2
A system comprises a first transistor comprising a first active region and a second active region, a first resistor comprising a plurality of first vias connected in series, wherein the first resistor is over the first active region, a second resistor comprising a plurality of second vias connected in series, wherein the second resistor is over the second active region, a second transistor comprising a third active region and a fourth active region, a capacitor having a terminal electrically coupled to the fourth active region and a bit line electrically coupled to the third active region.
US09159727B2
Provided are a nonvolatile memory device and a method for fabricating the same. The method includes sequentially stacking on a semiconductor substrate a first interlayer dielectric film, a first sacrificial layer, a second interlayer dielectric film, and a second sacrificial layer, forming a resistance variable layer and a first electrode penetrating the first and second interlayer dielectric films and the first and second sacrificial layers, forming an upper trench by removing a top portion of the first electrode, filling the upper trench with a channel layer, exposing a portion of a side surface of the resistance variable layer by removing the second sacrificial layer, forming an insulation layer within the channel layer, and forming a second electrode on the exposed resistance variable layer.
US09159725B2
A semiconductor device includes a depletion mode GaN FET cascoded with an enhancement mode NMOS transistor. A gate of the GaN FET is electrically coupled to a source of the NMOS transistor through a gate network. The gate network controls at least one of a turn-on time and a turn-off time of the GaN FET. The gate network may be controlled by an input signal to a gate of the NMOS transistor.
US09159719B2
A two-stage protection device for an electronic component protects against transient disturbances. The electronic component may be a semiconductor component, and may include one or multiple transistors and/or an integrated circuit. The protection device is connected to at least a first contact and a second contact of the electronic component, and is disposed essentially in parallel to the component that is to be protected, between the first contact and the second contact. The protection device includes a first stage with at least one diode and a second stage separated from the first stage by a resistor. The second stage includes at least one diode arrangement having two back-to-back disposed diodes which are disposed cathode-to-cathode.
US09159707B2
A flexible display includes a plurality of pixel chips, chixels, provided on a flexible substrate. The chixels and the light emitters thereon may be shaped, sized and arranged to minimize chixel, pixel, and sub-pixel gaps and to provide a desired bend radius of the display. The flexible substrate may include light manipulators, such as filters, light converters and the like to manipulate the light emitted from light emitters of the chixels. The light manipulators may be arranged to minimize chixel gaps between adjacent chixels.
US09159700B2
A display panel and a method of forming a display panel are described. The display panel may include a thin film transistor substrate including a pixel area and a non-pixel area. The pixel area includes an array of bank openings and an array of bottom electrodes within the array of bank openings. An array of micro LED devices are bonded to the corresponding array of bottom electrodes within the array of bank openings. An array of top electrode layers are formed electrically connecting the array of micro LED devices to a ground line in the non-pixel area.
US09159697B2
A method for forming voids corresponding to pads of SMT components is provided. The method comprises following steps: One or more condition parameters are inputted into a searching unit. The searching unit searches all of the pads with reference to the condition parameters to obtain a pre-selected group of pads. A judgment unit is provided to determine whether each pad of the pre-selected group of pads meets a pre-determined processing requirement to generate a to-be-processed group of pads. An execution unit executes a void formation step with reference to corner coordinates of each of the to-be-processed group of pads, so as to form at least a void at the portion of a contact surface corresponding to a corner of the pad. In an embodiment, four voids which are related to respective corners of each pad of the to-be-processed group are formed at the contact surface accordingly.
US09159683B2
Methods for etching copper in the fabrication of integrated circuits are disclosed. In one exemplary embodiment, a method for fabricating an integrated circuit includes providing an integrated circuit structure including a copper bump structure and a copper seed layer underlying and adjacent to the copper bump structure and etching the seed layer selective to the copper bump structure using a wet etching chemistry consisting of H3PO4 in a volume percentage of about 0.07 to about 0.36, H2O2 in a volume percentage of about 0.1 to about 0.7, and a remainder of H2O, and optionally NH4OH.
US09159675B2
An integrated circuit that includes a substrate, a semiconductor layer arranged on the substrate and an insulating layer arranged on an upper portion of the semiconductor layer and including a bump provided on an upper surface thereof, wherein the semiconductor layer includes a main semiconductor area and an including an internal alignment mark including a p-type semiconductor that is overlapped by a metallic external alignment mark arranged on the upper surface of the insulating layer. The p-type semiconductor internal alignment mark can be viewed by an infrared camera during a mounting process of the integrated circuit.
US09159668B2
An electronic-fuse (e-fuse) circuit includes: an e-fuse array; a control switch, coupled to the e-fuse array, for controlling whether a voltage supply is applied to the e-fuse array in programming; and a close loop feedback circuit, coupled to the control switch and the e-fuse array, for clamping at lease one node voltage of the e-fuse array to a reference voltage, and for controlling the control switch to control a blowing current in programming the e-fuse array.
US09159665B2
A flip chip interconnect of a die on a substrate is made by mating the interconnect bump onto a narrow interconnect pad on a lead or trace, rather than onto a capture pad. The width of the narrow interconnect pad is less than a base diameter of bumps on the die to be attached. Also, a flip chip package includes a die having solder bumps attached to interconnect pads in an active surface, and a substrate having narrow interconnect pads on electrically conductive traces in a die attach surface, in which the bumps are mated onto the narrow pads on the traces.
US09159660B2
A semiconductor package structure includes a first substrate, a second substrate and an encapsulant. The first substrate comprises a plurality of first bumps and a plurality of first solder layers. Each of the first solder layers is formed on each of the first bumps and comprises a cone-shaped slot having an inner surface. The second substrate comprises a plurality of second bumps and a plurality of second solder layers. Each of the second solder layers is formed on each of the second bumps and comprises an outer surface. Each of the second solder layers is a cone-shaped body. The second solder layer couples to the first solder layer and is accommodated within the first solder layer. The inner surface of the cone-shaped slot contacts with the outer surface of the second solder layer. The encapsulant is formed between the first substrate and the second substrate.
US09159658B2
A connection carrier for at least one semiconductor chip is disclosed. The connection carrier has a carrier body having a main surface. A first connection area and a second connection area at a distance from the first connection area are formed on the main surface. The connection carrier has a mechanical decoupling device which is intended to reduce transmission of mechanical forces from the carrier body to at least one region of the first connection area. A semiconductor component having such a connection carrier is also stated.
US09159657B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor chip which includes a first circuit and a second circuit that are spaced apart from each other, without internal wirings electrically connecting the first circuit and the second circuit to each other, a substrate on which the semiconductor chip is disposed, and substrate wirings that are arranged on the substrate and electrically connect the first circuit and the second circuit to each other.
US09159656B2
Semiconductor die packages are disclosed. An exemplary semiconductor die package includes a premolded substrate. The premolded substrate can have a semiconductor die attached to it, and an encapsulating material may be disposed over the semiconductor die.
US09159645B2
A liquid-cooled-type cooling device includes a casing having a cooling-liquid inlet and a cooling-liquid outlet. A fin for forming flow channels is disposed within the casing between the inlet and the outlet. A portion of the interior of the casing located rearward of the fin is an inlet header section, and a portion of the interior of the casing located frontward of the fin is an outlet header section. A rear side surface within the inlet header section is skewed toward the fin in a direction from the right side toward the left side. A positioning vertical surface extending straight along the left-right direction and positioning a rear end portion of the fin is provided on a lower portion of a left end portion of the rear side surface within the inlet header section. The rear end portion of the fin is in contact with the positioning vertical surface.
US09159644B2
A DSC type device manufacturing process includes placing a circuit assembly in a mold. The circuit assembly includes a first heat sink, a semiconductor chip mounted on the first heat sink, a second heat sink mounted on the semiconductor chip and a pin block electrically connected to the semiconductor chip. An outer surface of the first heat sink and an outer surface of the pin block are placed in contact with a first inner surface of the mold. A spacer insert is placed in contact with, and positioned between, a second inner surface of the mold and an outer surface of the second heat sink. The mold is filled with an insulating material that is subsequently hardened. After hardening, a resulting device is extracted from the mold with the outer surfaces of the first heat sink, the pin block and the second heat sink exposed.
US09159636B2
A semiconductor package has a semiconductor chip, a lead frame in which a semiconductor chip is mounted on a die pad, and a resin sealing the semiconductor chip and the die pad from an upper surface and a lower surface, the resin has a concave portion disposed at the surface and a concave portion situated inside the concave portion in a plan view.
US09159634B2
A transistor outline housing is provided that has bonding wires on an upper surface. The bonding wires are reduced in length and have connection leads with an excess length at an end opposite the bonding end.
US09159633B2
A method for forming an integrated circuit having a test macro using a multiple patterning lithography process (MPLP) is provided. The method includes forming an active area of the test macro having a first and second gate region and forming a first and second source/drain regions in the active area. The method also includes forming a first contact connected to the first gate region, a second contact connected to the second gate region, a third contact connected to the first source/drain region, and a forth contact connected to the source/drain region. The method further includes determining if an overlay shift has occurred during the formation of the active area by testing for a short between one or more of the first contact, the second contact, the third contact, or the fourth contact.
US09159610B2
A method for fabricating an integrated circuit includes providing a conductive material overlying a semiconductor substrate and a dielectric material overlying the conductive material, wherein an opening exposes a surface of the conductive material and sidewalls of the dielectric material and selectively depositing a first layer of a first barrier material on the surface of the conductive material with the sidewalls of the dielectric material remaining exposed, the first barrier material being such that, if annealed in an annealing process, the first barrier material would diffuse into the conductive material. The method further includes modifying the first barrier material on the exposed surface to form a second barrier material, the second barrier material being such that, during an annealing process, the second barrier material does not diffuse into the conductive material and depositing a second layer of the first barrier material along the sidewalls of the opening. Still further, the method includes annealing the semiconductor substrate. Integrated circuits fabricated in accordance with the foregoing method are also disclosed.
US09159608B2
There is disclosed a method for forming a TiSiN thin film on a substrate according to ALD including a first process of preheating a substrate while supplying Ar or N2 containing inert gas to a chamber, after disposing a substrate in a chamber; a second process of forming a TiN film on the substrate by repeating at least one time a process of purging over-supplied Ti containing gas after supplying Ti containing gas and inert gas after that and a process of purging residual product after supplying N containing gas and inert gas after that; a third process of forming a SiN film by repeating at least one time a process of purging over-supplied Si containing gas after supplying Si containing gas on the TiN film and supplying inert gas after that and a process of purging residual product after supplying N containing gas and supplying inert gas after that; and a fourth process of forming a TiSiN film having a desired thickness by repeating the second and third processes at least one time, a partial pressure range of the gas used in forming the TiSiN thin film is Ti containing gas: 9×10−3 Torr or less, Si containing gas: 1×10−3˜3×10−1 Torr and N containing gas: 7×10−3˜6×10−1 Torr, and a pressure range of the gas is 500 mTorr˜5 Torr and the Si content of the formed TiSiN thin film is 20 atom % or less.
US09159597B2
An apparatus, a system and a method are disclosed. An exemplary apparatus includes a wafer processing chamber. The apparatus further includes radiant heating elements disposed in different zones and operable to heat different portions of a wafer located within the wafer processing chamber. The apparatus further includes sensors disposed outside the wafer processing chamber and operable to monitor energy from the radiant heating elements disposed in the different zones. The apparatus further includes a computer configured to utilize the sensors to characterize the radiant heating elements disposed in the different zones and to provide a calibration for the radiant heating elements disposed in the different zones such that a substantially uniform temperature profile is maintained across a surface of the wafer.
US09159593B2
Apparatus and methods for removing particle contaminants from a solid surface includes providing a layer of a viscoelastic material on the solid surface. The viscoelastic material is applied as a thin film and exhibits substantial liquid-like characteristics. The viscoelastic material at least partially binds with the particle contaminants. A high velocity liquid is applied to the viscoelastic material, such that the viscoelastic material exhibits solid-like behavior. The viscoelastic material is thus dislodged from the solid surface along with the particle contaminants, thereby cleaning the solid surface of the particle contaminants.
US09159592B2
The present invention provides methods and apparatus capable of routine placement and replacement of fabricator tools in a designated tool location. The tool location can be selected from multiple tool locations arranged in a matrix with horizontal and vertical designations. The operation may be fully automated. In another aspect, the invention describes Cleanspace fabricators which use devices to routinely remove and place tooling.
US09159590B2
The present invention relates to a method for producing encapsulated nanoparticles by dispersing said nanoparticles and an encapsulating medium in a common solvent to form a first solution system and treating said first solution system with a stimulus suitable to induce simultaneous aggregation of the nanoparticles and the encapsulating medium.
US09159588B2
A method for a packaged leadless semiconductor device including a heat sink flange to which semiconductor dies are coupled using a high temperature die attach process. The semiconductor device further includes a frame structure pre-formed with bent terminal pads. The frame structure is combined with the flange so that a lower surface of the flange and a lower section of each terminal pad are in coplanar alignment, and so that an upper section of each terminal pad overlies the flange. Interconnects interconnect the die with the upper section of the terminal pad. An encapsulant encases the frame structure, flange, die, and interconnects with the lower section of each terminal pad and the lower surface of the flange remaining exposed from the encapsulant.
US09159586B1
A method of forming an integrated circuit (IC) package is disclosed comprising: (a) removing oxides from side surfaces of terminals of the IC package; (b) substantially covering an underside of the terminals of the IC package; and (c) forming a solder coating on the side surfaces of terminals of the IC packages while covering the underside of the terminals of the IC package. The solder coating on the side surfaces of the terminals protects the terminals from oxidation due to aging and subsequent processes. Additionally, the solder coating on the side surfaces of the terminals substantially improves the solderability of the IC package to printed circuit boards (PCBs) or other mountings. This further facilitates the inspection of the solder attachment using less expensive and complicated methods.
US09159581B2
This description relates to a method of making a semiconductor device including forming an inter-level dielectric (ILD) layer over a substrate and forming a layer set over the ILD layer. The method further includes etching the layer set to form a tapered opening in the layer set and etching the ILD layer using the layer set as a mask to form an opening in the ILD layer. The opening in the ILD layer has a line width roughness (LWR) of less than 3 nanometers (nm). This description also relates to a semiconductor device including an inter-level dielectric (ILD) layer over a substrate; and a layer set over the ILD layer. The layer set has a tapered opening within the layer set. Etching the layer set comprises forming the tapered opening having sidewalls at an angle with respect to a top surface of the ILD layer ranging from 85-degrees to 90-degrees.
US09159574B2
Methods of silicon etch for trench sidewall smoothing are described. In one embodiment, a method involves smoothing a sidewall of a trench formed in a semiconductor wafer via plasma etching. The method includes directionally etching the semiconductor wafer with plasma generated from a fluorine gas to smooth the sidewall of the trench, the trench having a protective layer formed by plasma generated by a second process gas such as oxygen or a polymerization gas. In another embodiment, a method involves etching a semiconductor wafer to generate a trench having a smooth sidewall. The method includes plasma etching the semiconductor wafer with one or more first process gases including a fluorine gas, simultaneously performing deposition and plasma etching the semiconductor wafer with one or more second process gases including a fluorine gas and a polymerization gas mix, and performing deposition with one or more third process gases including a polymerization gas.
US09159552B2
A method includes forming isolation regions in a semiconductor substrate, forming a first semiconductor strip between opposite portions of isolation regions, forming a second semiconductor strip overlying and contacting the first semiconductor strip, and performing a first recessing to recess the isolation regions. A portion of the second semiconductor strip over top surfaces of remaining portions of the isolation regions forms a semiconductor fin. A second recessing is performed to recess the isolation regions to extend the semiconductor fin downwardly, with an inter-diffusion region of the first semiconductor strip and the second semiconductor strip being exposed after the second recessing. The inter-diffusion region is then etched.
US09159550B2
The invention relates to a method for producing a graphene sheet on a platinum silicide, wherein the platinum silicide is in the form of a layer or a plurality of pins.This method comprises: a) producing a stack by (i) depositing a layer C1 of a diffusion barrier material on a substrate; (ii) depositing, on the layer C1, a layer C2 of a carbon-containing material, wherein said carbon-containing material optionally comprises silicon; (iii) depositing, on the layer C2, a layer C3 of platinum; (iv) depositing a layer C4 of a material of formula SiaCbHc on the layer C3 if the carbon-containing material of the layer C2 is free from silicon; and b) heat-treating the stack obtained at step a). It also relates to structures obtained using this method and the uses of these structures.Applications: manufacture of micro- and nanoelectronic devices, micro- and nanoelectromechanical devices, etc.
US09159548B2
A method for using a system, which includes a film formation apparatus for forming a high-dielectric constant thin film on target substrates together and a gas supply apparatus for supplying a process gas. The method includes a preparatory stage of determining a set pressure range of pressure inside a vaporizing chamber for a liquid material cooled at a set temperature. The preparatory stage includes obtaining a first limit value of pressure at which vaporization of the liquid material starts being inhibited due to an increase in the pressure, obtaining a second limit value of pressure at which vaporization of the liquid material starts being unstable and the pressure starts pulsating movement due to a decrease in the pressure, and determining the set pressure range to be defined by an upper limit lower than the first limit value and a lower limit higher than the second limit value.
US09159538B1
A mass spectrometric analysis method comprises: (1) processing a mass spectrum to reduce the signals to monoisotopic values; (2) creating a list of differences between the monoisotopic values; (3) creating one or more lists of theoretical mass-to-charge differences among known adducts, charge states and polymerization states whose formation may be expected from various analyte molecules; (4) comparing the theoretical differences (line or edge in the network) to the list of differences from the mass spectrum and, where applicable, make and tabulate tentative species assignments; and (5) assigning the mass spectral peaks to respective ion species in accordance with the redundancy of each assignment based on multiple independent calculated mass-to-charge differences pertaining to each peak.
US09159529B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a scanning electron microscope for discriminating an angle of an electron ejected from a sample without providing an opening for restricting the angle at outside of an axis. In order to achieve the object described above, there is proposed a scanning electron microscope which includes a deflector to deflect an irradiating position of an electron beam, and a control unit to control the deflector, and further includes a detector to detecting an electron provided by irradiating a sample with the electron beam, an opening configuring member arranged between the detector and the deflector and having an opening for passing the electron beam, and a secondary signal deflector to deflect an electron ejected from the sample, in which the secondary signal deflector is controlled to deflect the electron ejected from the sample toward an opening of passing the electron beam in accordance with a deflection control of the deflector.
US09159519B2
Disclosed are: a paste for an electron emission source, which enables omission of an activation process and is capable of emitting electrons at a low voltage, while exhibiting excellent adhesion to a cathode substrate; and an electron emission source which uses the paste for an electron emission source. Specifically disclosed is an electron emission source which is produced by subjecting a paste for an electron emission source containing the components (A)-(C) described below to a heat treatment. The electron emission source has cracks and carbon nanotubes project from the surfaces of the cracks. (A) carbon nanotubes (B) glass powder (C) at least one substance selected from the group consisting of metal salts, metal hydroxides, organic metal compounds, metal complexes, silane coupling agents and titanium coupling agents.
US09159516B2
The present disclosure provides a system and method for controlling positioning of a movable member of a MEMS microactuator to reduce bouncing and ringing. The system includes control circuitry in communication with the MEMS microactuator. The control circuitry is adapted to linearly increase an actuation signal from a first state to a second state to urge the movable member from a first position to a second position and hold the movable member in the second position. The control circuitry is further adapted to linearly decrease the actuation signal from the second state to the first state to release the movable member to the first position. A transition time is not less than the inverse of one quarter of a natural frequency of the movable member as the movable member moves to the first position.
US09159515B2
An electromagnetic relay includes: a yoke capable of changing a magnetic pole thereof by an electromagnet; an armature that is magnetized by a permanent magnet and contacts with or separates from the yoke in accordance with the magnetic pole of the yoke; a movable contact that contacts with a fixing contact; an elastic body that biases the movable contact; and a pressing member that presses the elastic body in accordance with a movement of the armature to cause the movable contact to at least contact with or separate from the fixing contact, wherein a cover fixing the permanent magnet and the armature, and the pressing member are integrally formed.
US09159513B2
An electromagnetic relay includes a contact including a movable spring having a base end fixed to a bottom of a housing and a tip end provided with a movable contact, and a fixed spring having a base end fixed to the bottom of the housing and a tip end provided with a fixed contact. The movable contact is provided opposite to the fixed contact so as to come in contact with the fixed contact or move away therefrom. The housing has a protrusion protruding toward a side of the fixed contact opposite to a side facing the movable contact.
US09159510B2
There is provided a fixed contact structure, including: a substrate; at least one fixed contact which is disposed on the substrate; a movable contact which slides on the corresponding fixed contact in a sliding direction; a resist layer which is consecutively disposed on the substrate outside both ends of the fixed contact with respect to the sliding direction; and gaps which are formed outside both ends of the fixed contact with respect to a direction orthogonal to the sliding direction.
US09159501B2
An electric storage device includes an electrode assembly, in which a positive electrode and a negative electrode in the shape of a sheet are wound with a separator sandwiched therebetween. The electrode assembly has a flat shape and includes a first flat portion and a second flat portion, which are opposed to each other, and a first curved portion and a second curved portion which connect end portions of the first and second flat portions together. One of the positive electrode and the negative electrode covers an inner-circumferential end portion of the other electrode and is disposed on an innermost circumference of the electrode assembly. An inner-circumferential end portion of the one of the electrodes causes an elastic force to act outwardly on the other electrode.
US09159500B2
A photoelectric conversion element (100) according to the present disclosure includes: a photoanode (15); a counter electrode (32); a solid compound layer (22) disposed between the photoanode (15) and the counter electrode (32); a charge storage electrode (55) disposed at an interspace from the counter electrode (32); and an electrolyte medium (24) being contained in the solid compound layer (22) and filling the interspace.
US09159485B2
A method is for making an electrical inductor. The method includes forming a first subunit having a sacrificial substrate, and an electrically conductive layer defining the electrical inductor and including a first metal on the sacrificial substrate. The method includes forming a second subunit having a dielectric layer and an electrically conductive layer thereon defining electrical inductor terminals and having the first metal, and coating a second metal onto the first metal of one of the first and second subunits. The method includes aligning the first and second subunits together, heating and pressing the aligned first and second subunits to form an intermetallic compound of the first and second metals bonding adjacent metal portions together, and removing the sacrificial substrate.
US09159480B2
A method is proposed for actuating an electromagnetic load (3) which can be switched between at least two switching states, particularly a magnetic valve, wherein switching between a first and a second of the switching states takes place as a result of a current flowing through the load (3) by means of applying an electrical voltage to said load (3). Provision is thereby made for the voltage to be clocked upon application thereof to said load (3) if due to the applied voltage the switching process would occur without clocking outside of a current ramp-up. The invention furthermore relates to an electrical circuit for actuating an electromagnetic load (3).
US09159478B2
A rotary resistance device providing resistance to rotary object includes a magnetic field generating assembly having a magnetizable main body, an even number of magnetizable extended bodies, magnetizable coils and separators, two first caps, and two shaft sections; a magnetizable outer cylinder enclosing the magnetic field generating assembly therein and rotatably connected to the shaft sections; and a magnetorheological fluid filled in a space formed between the magnetic field generating assembly and the magnetizable outer cylinder. The magnetizable extended bodies have the magnetizable coils wound thereon and are radially equally spaced on the magnetizable main body; the separators are respectively connected to between two adjacent magnetizable extended bodies; the first caps are closed onto two ends of the assembled magnetizable main body, magnetizable extended bodies and separators to seal the magnetizable coils in the magnetic field generating assembly; and the shaft sections are fixedly connected to the first caps.
US09159465B2
Methods, compositions and articles of manufacture involving conformationally flexible conjugated polymers are provided. A structure is provided comprising the conformationally flexible conjugated polymer bound to or associated with at least one member of a binding pair comprising a sensor molecule and a target molecule or the complex they form. The conformationally flexible conjugated polymer comprises at least one angled linker having bonds to its two adjacent polymeric units which form an angle of less than about 155° with respect to one another. Methods of use of such structures and solutions comprising them are also provided.
US09159462B2
The invention relates to a detection apparatus comprising a filter (20) for filtering a conical radiation beam (4) such that at least a first region (22) and a second region (23) of the radiation beam are generated having different energy spectra, wherein the first region of the radiation beam illuminates a first detector area (25) on a detection surface (21) of a detector, thereby generating a first set of detection values, and the second region of the radiation beam illuminates a second detector area (26) on the detection surface, thereby generating a second set of detection values. For example, by using the filter the detection apparatus can be used as dual-energy computed tomography apparatus, wherein, for instance, a standard computed tomography apparatus can be transformed to a dual-energy computed tomography apparatus by adding the filter to the standard computed tomography apparatus, preferentially without modifying the radiation source and the detector.
US09159460B2
A fuel assembly may include a channel nosepiece; a lower tie plate positioned above the channel nosepiece; and at least one bundle retention clip connected to the channel nosepiece and the lower tie plate and configured to resist movement of the lower tie plate away from the channel nosepiece.
US09159445B2
A semiconductor device includes a fuse array for storing normal fuse data and pattern data through a programming operation, a boot-up control unit suitable for generating an enable signal for enabling an output of the pattern data, and a pattern detection unit suitable for detecting a pattern of the pattern data in response to the enable signal, and generating a detection signal. The fuse array outputs the normal fuse data in response to the detection signal.
US09159442B2
A serial memory may have memory arranged in a plurality of memory blocks, a serial interface for receiving a read instruction and associated memory address; and a controller configured to only store a plurality of most significant bits from each memory block which are accessed in parallel before an entire address has been received through the serial interface. The controller is further configured to stream out one of the plurality of most significant bits upon full reception of the memory address while retrieving the remaining bits from memory using the entire address and stream out the remaining bits after the most significant bits have been streamed out.
US09159433B2
A semiconductor memory device and a method of operating the same are disclosed. The semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array including memory blocks, a voltage generator configured to generate a precharge voltage; and a read and write circuit coupled to the memory blocks through bit lines, and configured to supply the precharge voltage to the bit lines when a selected memory block is accessed. Here, the precharge voltage varies depending on a distance between the read and write circuit and the selected memory block.
US09159428B2
A method for performing auto-refresh of a SONOS memory in a field programmable gate array in a system, includes sensing an auto-refresh condition, selecting a memory segment that has not yet been refreshed, storing the contents of memory segment, erasing the memory cells in the memory segment, and reprogramming the memory cells in the memory segment, until all of the memory segments have been reprogrammed.
US09159425B2
A memory includes an array of non-volatile memory cells. Each cell includes a select transistor in series connection with a floating gate transistor. The cells are configurable for operation in a programming mode and an erase mode. When in the programming mode, the gate terminal of the select transistor is driven with a negative bias voltage so as to bias that transistor in the accumulation region and eliminate sub-threshold leakage. When in the erase mode, the gate terminal of a pull-down transistor coupled to the memory cell is driven with a negative bias voltage so as to bias that transistor in the accumulation region and eliminate sub-threshold leakage.
US09159423B1
The present invention provides a method and system to reduce the impact of errors introduced in flash devices while providing improved system performance through optimized activities with limited impact to overhead using a predetermined threshold value or threshold device value. In an embodiment, a device threshold value is compared with the cumulative number of data bits having a zero value of a target page and an error type of the target page is assessed to determine whether the target page is available to be written to. Therefore for a highly effective method for is provided for determining the availability of a page, having a block address and page address, to be identified, in one instance, as being an erased page that is available to be written to.
US09159422B1
A method of writing data to non-volatile computer storage is disclosed. A logical page of data is received and stored in an intermediate storage. A first portion of the logical page is read from the intermediate storage and written to a first physical page in the non-volatile computer storage. A second portion of the logical page is read from the intermediate storage and written to a second physical page in the non-volatile computer storage. A method of reading data from non-volatile computer storage is disclosed. A first portion of a logical page is read from a first physical page in the non-volatile computer storage and written in an intermediate storage. A second portion of the logical page is read from a second physical page and written in the intermediate storage. The first portion and the second portion of the logical page are concatenated to form the logical page.
US09159419B2
Apparatuses, systems, methods, and computer program products are disclosed for a memory controller. An apparatus includes a volatile memory medium located on a memory module. An apparatus includes a non-volatile memory medium located on a memory module. A memory controller is located on a memory module. A memory controller may be configured to provide access to at least a non-volatile memory medium over a direct wire interface with a processor.
US09159417B2
Carbon nanotube template arrays may be edited to form connections between proximate nanotubes and/or to delete undesired nanotubes or nanotube junctions.
US09159406B2
Techniques are disclosed for SLC blocks having different characteristics than MLC blocks such that SLC blocks will have high endurance and MLC blocks will have high reliability. A thinner tunnel oxide may be used for memory cells in SLC blocks than for memory cells in MLC blocks. A thinner tunnel oxide in SLC blocks may allow a lower program voltage to be used, which may improve endurance. A thicker tunnel oxide in MLC blocks may improve data retention. A thinner IPD may be used for memory cells in SLC blocks than for memory cells in MLC blocks. A thinner IPD may provide a higher coupling ratio, which may allow a lower program voltage. A lower program voltage in SLC blocks can improve endurance. A thicker IPD in MLC blocks can prevent or reduce read disturb. SLC blocks may have a different number of data word lines than MLC blocks.
US09159404B2
A nonvolatile memory device includes a word line, four or more bit lines, three or more MIS transistors having gate nodes thereof connected to the word line, the N-th (N: positive integer) one of the MIS transistors having two source/drain nodes thereof connected to the N-th and N+1-th ones of the bit lines, respectively, a sense circuit having two nodes and configured to amplify a difference between potentials of the two nodes, and a switch circuit configured to electrically couple the N-th and N+2-th ones of the bit lines to the two nodes of the sense circuit, respectively, and to electrically couple the N+1-th one of the bit lines to a fixed potential, for any numerical number N selected to detect single-bit data stored in the N-th and N+1-th ones of the MIS transistors.
US09159401B2
A semiconductor device comprises first and second global bit lines, a sense amplifier amplifying a voltage difference of the first and second global bit lines, first and second local bit lines corresponding to the first and second global bit lines, and first and second hierarchical switches controlling electrical connections between the first and second global bit lines and the first and second local bit line. In a precharge operation prior to accessing a selected memory cell belong to the first local bit lines, a pair of the first and second hierarchical switches, which is not in an access path, is kept ON, and remaining ones thereof are kept OFF. Subsequently, in an access to the selected memory cell, a first hierarchical switch of the pair is switched from ON to OFF, and simultaneously a first hierarchical switches in the access path is switched from OFF to ON.
US09159393B2
Memories, and methods of operating such memories, having a memory cell, sense circuitry having a gate, program circuitry and a decoder having a first signal line connected to the gate of the sense circuitry, a second signal line connected to the program circuitry, and an output selectively connected to the memory cell. The decoder is configured to selectively connect the output to the first signal line responsive to a first control signal and to selectively connect the output to the second signal line responsive to the first control signal and a second control signal. The sense circuitry is configured to selectively activate the gate responsive to a third control signal.
US09159392B2
Memory subsystems and methods, such as those involving a memory cell array formed over a semiconductor material of a first type, such as p-type substrate. In at least one such subsystem, all of the transistors used to selectively access cells within the array are transistors of a second type, such as n-type transistors. Local word line drivers are coupled to respective word lines extending through the array. Each local word line drivers includes at least one transistor. However, all of the transistors in the local word line drivers are of the second type. A well of semiconductor material of the second type, is also formed in the material of the first type, and a plurality of global word line drivers are formed using the well. Other subsystems and methods are disclosed.
US09159390B2
A domain crossing circuit of a semiconductor apparatus includes a delay-locked loop block configured to generate a delay-locked loop clock signal in response to a clock signal and a clock enable signal; a clock enable block configured to generate the clock enable signal in response to the clock signal and a read command signal; and a command pass block configured to perform primary latency control according to the clock signal and secondary latency control according to the delay-locked loop clock signal, for the read command signal generated in response to a strobe signal, and generate a latency signal.
US09159388B2
A memory controller receives data and phase-providing signals from a memory device. The phase-providing signal is not a clock signal, but is used by the memory controller to phase align a local data-sampling signal with the incoming data. The memory controller samples the data signal with the data-sampling signal. The memory controller can perform maintenance operations to update the phase relationship between the phase-providing and data-sampling signals.
US09159382B2
A strobe signal from a memory is delayed through delay circuits of a strobe delay selection section, thus obtaining a plurality of delayed strobe signals. A strobe latch section produces check data in synchronism with each of the delayed strobe signals, and a system latch section latches, with a system clock, check data latched by the strobe latch section. Based on a comparison by an expected value comparison section and a determination by a delay determination section, the optimal strobe signal with the optimal delay is selected from among the delayed strobe signals produced in the strobe delay selection section. Then, data from the memory is delayed through delay circuits in a data delay selection section, thus obtaining a plurality of delayed data, and the optimal data with the optimal delay is selected from among the plurality of delayed data based on the comparison by the expected value comparison section and the determination by the delay determination section.
US09159375B2
Some embodiments include selectively conducting devices having a first electrode, a second electrode, and dielectric material between the first and second electrodes. The dielectric material may be configured to conduct current from the first electrode to the second electrode when a first voltage is applied across the first electrode and the second electrode. Furthermore, the dielectric material may be configured to inhibit current from flowing from the second electrode to the first electrode when a second voltage having a polarity opposite that of a polarity of the first voltage is applied across the first electrode and the second electrode. The diode material may comprise a plurality of layers of different dielectric materials arranged in order of increasing barrier height. Quantum wells may form at junctions of layers of the plurality responsive to the first voltage. Some embodiments include diode forming methods.
US09159374B2
A mass storage memory module system including a memory module having memory holding members which can be connected to each other, and removably connected to a memory controller. One or more modular memory holding members can be connected to each other to expand the overall storage capacity of the memory module. The presently described expandable memory module does not have a storage capacity limit. A memory holding member includes a plate, a plane, a board and another material having at least one memory device, or, on which at least one memory device is held or to which at least one memory device is mounted.
US09159370B2
A media distribution system is provided in which a primary means of transport for digital media is through a device with housing shaped as an optical disc and insertable into various current and future optical disc drive devices. Media travels from different digital sources such as a personal media library and other networked resources to embedded memory on the optical disc shaped device via a capable personal computer or electronic device. This media is then able to be presented in the most appropriate format in a number of different types of current and legacy devices with optical drives such as CD audio devices and DVD players.
US09159363B2
Systems and methods are disclosed to adjust the loudness or another audio attribute for one or more audio clips. Intra-track audio levels can automatically be equalized, for example, to achieve a homogeneous audio level for all clips within an audio track. Information about such audio adjustments may be identified and stored as information without destructively altering the underlying clip content. For example, keyframes may define changes to a fader that will be applied at different points along a track's timeline to achieve the audio adjustments when the track is played. An audio editing application can provide a feature for automatically determining appropriate keyframes, allow manual editing of keyframes, and use keyframes to display control curves that represent graphically the time-based adjustments made to track-specific faders, play test audio output, and output combined audio, among other things.
US09159356B2
The present invention provides a non-resonant two-photon absorption recording material containing a non-resonant polymer two-photon absorption compound, and the non-resonant two-photon absorption recording material wherein the main chain of the non-resonant polymer two-photon absorption compound contains at least one member selected from polystyrene, polyacrylate, polymethacrylate-polyester, polyurethane, polyether and polyimide, and also provides an optical information recording medium having a recording layer containing the recording material.
US09159355B1
The present disclosure describes techniques for DVD-RAM header or land/groove detection. In some aspects, a wobble signal is integrated, an offset is removed from the integrated wobble signal, and a header is detected in the non-offset integrated wobble signal. In some aspects, a threshold value is adjusted based on a comparison of the received wobble signal and the threshold value, and a header is detected based on the adjusted threshold value.
US09159353B2
Fabrication methods for magnetic recording media that use a plasma polish are disclosed. For one exemplary method, a film of a magnetic recording medium is deposited, and a top surface of the film is polished utilizing a plasma formed by a noble gas to smoothen the top surface of the film. A subsequent layer is then deposited onto the polished top surface of the film. A top surface of the subsequent layer has a reduced roughness by being deposited on the polished top surface of the film.
US09159351B2
A perpendicular magnetic recording medium includes a substrate, a soft magnetic layer, a pre-underlayer, an underlayer, and a main recording layer serving as a magnetic recording layer. The pre-underlayer contains seed crystal grains that serve as a base for crystal grains of the underlayer, and an addition substance that is added between the seed crystal grains and composed of an element having an atomic radius smaller than that of an element forming the seed crystal grains.
US09159344B2
A disk drive read circuit is disclosed comprising a read element for generating a read signal, and a sense amplifier comprising an input terminal coupled through a first capacitor to the read element and an output terminal coupled through a second capacitor to a transmission line, wherein the sense amplifier is for amplifying the read signal.
US09159341B2
A product according to one embodiment includes a tape having an applicator portion for applying an organic coating to a magnetic head for reducing exposure of the head to oxidation promoting materials; the organic coating on the applicator portion of the tape; and a lubricant on a data portion of the tape. A product according to another embodiment includes a tape having a data portion along a portion of a length thereof, and a cleaning portion along another portion of the length of the tape, the cleaning portion being for removing an organic coating from a magnetic head. A magnetic storage system according to one embodiment includes a magnetic head having a removable organic coating thereon in an amount sufficient for reducing exposure of the head to oxidation promoting materials.
US09159336B1
An audio-based system may perform automatic noise reduction to enhance speech intelligibility in an audio signal. Described techniques include initially analyzing audio frames in the time domain to identify frames having relatively low power levels. Those frames are then further analyzed in the frequency domain to estimate noise. For example, the initially identified frames may be analyzed at each of multiple frequencies to detect the lowest exhibited power at each of those frequencies. The lowest power values are used as an estimation of noise across the frequency spectrum, and as the basis for calculating a spectral gain for filtering the audio signal in the frequency domain.
US09159335B2
Provided are an apparatus and method for estimating noise and a noise reduction apparatus employing the same. The noise estimation apparatus estimates noise by blocking audio signals from a direction of a target sound source from received audio signals, and compensating for distortions from directivity gains of a target sound blocker blocking the audio signals from the target sound source.
US09159329B1
A method and system for improving the quality of speech generated from Hidden Markov Model (HMM)-based Text-To-Speech Synthesizers using statistical post-filtering techniques. An example method involves: (a) determining a scale factor that, when applied to a synthesized reference spectral envelope, minimizes a statistical divergence between a natural reference spectral envelope and the synthesized reference spectral envelope, where the synthesized reference spectral envelope is generated by a state of an HMM; (b) for a given synthesized subject spectral envelope generated by the state of the HMM, determining an enhanced synthesized subject spectral envelope based on the determined scale factor; and (c) generating, by a computing device, a synthetic speech signal including the enhanced synthesized subject spectral envelope.
US09159303B1
Slide guitar for providing various improvements and advantages including instant accurate string height adjustments simultaneously at the nut and bridge. The slide guitar has a marked adjustment knob adjacent a graduated scale under the headstock to visually determine with repeated mathematical accuracy the exact distance between the bottom of the strings and the top of the first fret as a point of reference. The improved string musical instrument includes a leveling head embedded into portions of the headstock and neck wherein the leveling head contains a slide selector having a sloped surface for contacting the nut combined with a dual bridge for instantly changing the instrument's string height and bridge type. The slide guitar instantly changes from a conventional type guitar to a steel type guitar creating an improved variable string action slide guitar.
US09159290B2
A scan driving circuit of a display apparatus is electrically connected to the display panel through a plurality of scan lines and includes a plurality of stages of driving unit. The driving unit comprises a shift control device outputting a control signal according to a starting signal and a driving device. The driving device outputs an output signal to the corresponding scan line according to the control signal, a first trigger signal and a second trigger signal. The output signal is used as the starting signal of the next stage of driving unit, and the rising transition time of the second trigger signal and the falling transition time of the first trigger signal have an overlap.
US09159289B2
A liquid crystal display and the driving method thereof are disclosed. The liquid crystal display includes a plurality of pixels, data lines for transmitting data driving signals to the pixels, a scanning driver for generating scanning driving signals, a waveform shaping circuit for connecting with the scanning driver, a plurality of scanning lines for transmitting the shaped scanning driving signal to the pixels. The waveform shaping circuit shapes the waveforms of the scanning driving signal along a rising edge. In this way, the voltage difference between the pixel electrodes is eliminated. Thus, the color shift is reduced, and the display performance of the liquid crystal display is enhanced.
US09159284B2
A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel including a plurality of signal lines, a liquid crystal panel driving unit configured to provide a driving voltage to the plurality of signal lines, an image data judging unit configured to judge whether input image data is still image data or moving picture data, an image data correcting unit configured to correct moving picture data to output corrected moving picture to the liquid crystal panel driving unit, a plurality of light sources configured to provide a light to the liquid crystal panel, and a light source driving unit configured to detect a display region having a motion value larger than a reference value from among an image of which frame data is displayed, based on a comparison of current frame data of the moving picture data with previous frame data of the moving picture data.
US09159281B2
A driving method applied in a display is provided. The display includes M scan lines, N data lines, M control lines and M×N pixels. M and N are natural numbers greater than 1. The driving method includes the following steps of: driving M scan lines in M scan periods respectively; providing a data voltage to each of the N data lines in each of the M scan periods; driving the first to the (M−K)th control lines in the (K+1)th to the Mth scan periods respectively to turn on the discharge switch in each of the pixels on the first to the (M−K)th control lines; and driving the second to the Kth control lines to trigger level shifting events in the first to the (K−1)th scan periods respectively, so that level shifting events are triggered on a scan and control lines in the first to the (K−1)th scan periods.
US09159278B2
In one embodiment of the present invention, an overdrive (OD) method includes: acquiring a display grayscale value of a current frame within a display grayscale range; obtaining a target grayscale value of the current frame within a target grayscale range according to the display grayscale value of the current frame, where a minimum target grayscale value is larger than a minimum display grayscale value, and/or a maximum target grayscale value is smaller than a maximum display grayscale value, and each display grayscale value within the display grayscale range correspond one by one to one target grayscale value within the target grayscale range; and obtaining a system grayscale value of the current frame according to the target grayscale value of the current frame and a display grayscale value or a system grayscale value of a previous frame, and outputting a corresponding gamma voltage according to the system grayscale value.
US09159272B2
Specifically provided is a light emitting device for image display, wherein each of light emitting elements, a PWM control unit which PWM-controls a current to be supplied to the light emitting element, a control condition setting unit which, according to the APL of image data, determines and updatably sets the PWM limiting condition for limiting the PWM value that is the duty ratio of the PWM control, and the reference current value that is the value of the current flowing to the light emitting element in response to turn-on of the PWM control, and a PWM value calculation unit which on the basis of the image data, the PWM limit condition, and the reference current value, calculates the PWM value of each area, and the PWM control unit performs the PWM control on the basis of the reference current value and the calculated PWM value.
US09159270B2
Techniques for operating a display system in a wide range of ambient light conditions are provided. An intensity of ambient light on a display panel may be detected. The display panel may be illuminated by light sources in addition to the ambient light. An individual light source may be individually settable to an individual light output level. If it is determined that the luminance level of the ambient light is above a minimum ambient luminance threshold, an ambient black level may be calculated using the intensity of ambient light. Light output levels of one or more of the light sources may be elevated to first light output levels. Here, the one or more light sources may be designated to illuminate one or more dark portions of an image. The first light output levels may create a new black level equaling the determined ambient black level.
US09159256B2
An apparatus for marketing a brand may generally comprise coupling members and an advertising member. The advertising member may serve as a marketing tool upon which a marketer can display information to a potential consumer, thereby making a commercial impression upon an end user. Each coupling member is configured to be placed upon a hook, or to receive a hook from a hanger. For example, a coupling member may be configured to receive a plurality of hooks. Said coupling members may also be equipped with adjustors, such as to allow for the apparatus to be secured to a hook, and for the plurality of hangers to be secured to the apparatus.
US09159254B2
A flag and pole mounting assembly for attaching a flagpole to a vehicle includes a middle shaft extending substantially between two sidewalls of the vehicle and adjustable endshafts for extending the total length of the mounting assembly. Posts at each end of the middle shaft engage with stake pockets located in the two sidewalls of the vehicle. A flagpole attachment member couples to the middle shaft and defines a cavity for receiving and securing the flagpole to the middle shaft. A light source connected to the flagpole attachment member illuminates the flagpole or an associated flag when the flagpole is coupled to the flagpole attachment member. A solar panel or other power source is electrically connected to the light source for powering the light source. The mounting assembly may only utilize one stake pocket or may engage with the sidewalls of the vehicle without use of any stake pockets.
US09159240B2
A tailored arrival allocation system (TAAS) for determining a descent profile for an aircraft is described. TAAS includes a gateway operable for establishing communications between TAAS and aircraft, and for establishing communications between TAAS and at least one of a source of weather data, an air traffic services facility, and an airlines operations center. A processing device communicatively coupled to the gateway calculates a descent profile based on data received from a plurality of an air traffic services coordination function, an airline operations center function, data from the aircraft, and data received from a weather station that allows the aircraft to meet the required time at one or more metering fixes during the descent. Output interfaces provide data relating to the calculated descent profile to the processing device. The gateway communicates with a flight management computer for the aircraft to incorporate the calculated descent profile onto the flight management computer.
US09159238B2
A mobile device such as a mobile phone, smart phone, personal music player, handheld game device and the like that is configured to be location-aware through GPS (Global Positioning System), cell tower positioning, or other means of determining location, is provided with a public transportation selector functionality that interfaces with one or more on-line public transportation schedule services. The public transportation selector passes the location of a user of the mobile device, the user's destination, and the targeted arrival time to the schedule services which responsively return information including, for example, station/stop location information, route identifier, departure and arrival times, and fare costs. The public transportation selector aggregates schedule information provided by the services for presentation to the user through a user interface on the mobile device. The user can then select the desired public transportation option and be provided with directions to the appropriate station or stop.
US09159234B2
In a method for emulating an environmental sensor in a motor vehicle in a specified collision situation at a first predetermined speed of the motor vehicle, raw data are recorded in a collision situation at a second speed, which is lower than the first speed, with the environmental sensor to be emulated using the motor vehicle and/or a structurally substantially identical motor vehicle and stored. The stored raw data and/or raw data extrapolated therefrom are used downsampled for emulating the environmental sensor at the first speed.
US09159228B2
A method and structure for estimating parking occupancy within an area of interest can include the use of at least two image capture devices and a processor (e.g., a computer) which form at least part of a network. A method for estimating the parking occupancy within the area of interest can include the use of vehicle entry and exit data from the area of interest, as well as an estimated transit time for vehicles transiting through the area of interest without parking.
US09159225B2
A method and system for configuring a universal remote control (URC) to control a remote-controlled device includes establishing a communication link between the URC and the remote-controlled device in response to detecting a gesture motion of the URC. Device information may be received from the remote-controlled device and used by the URC to program the URC to control the remote-controlled device. The URC may be configured to control a plurality of remote-controlled devices. The communication link may be a near field wireless communication link.
US09159221B1
Integrated touch sense controls installed at a steering wheel, steering wheel cover or decorative pieces installed at the steering wheel in order to capture the hands movements interpreter the finger gestures and control various devices in the car without distracting the driver while operating the vehicle. The steering wheel controls may also incorporate one or multiple displays for feedback and driver assistance. The display is located such that is always at the direct line of sight of the driver.
US09159217B1
Sounds, alarms or other indications of conditions of potential interest that are produced by appliances and other household devices are detected by one or more sensors to trigger a notification signal that is sent to a remotely located user. The signals produced by the sensors are advantageously compared with a database of signals representing conditions of potential interest produced by known appliances and devices, producing the appropriate notification signal when a match is found. Notifications may be relayed to one or more selected users only when predetermined conditions are satisfied.
US09159212B1
Systems and procedures for tracking the locations of passengers on a vessel are provided. Example systems may include a portable tag configured to be assigned to a passenger, the tag encoded with a tag identifier; a plurality of tag readers configured to be positioned at predetermined locations on a vessel, each tag reader configured to read the tag identifier of the tag when the tag reader receives a signal from the tag; a tracking component configured to communicate with the tag readers, the tracking component configured to receive, from a detecting tag reader, an indication that the signal has been received from the tag, the tracking component configured to determine a detected location of the tag based at least in part on the predetermined location of the detecting tag reader; and a notification component configured to send towards a user device, a notification including the detected location.
US09159207B2
A method of generating a haptic sensation comprising: determining an initial estimate of a filter to be applied to a respective signal input to each transducer; defining a model of the system; calculating the vibration of the member as an output of the model of the system; calculating a reference error value for the output of the model; determining changed parameter values of the parameters of the model; recalculating the error value for the output of the model; comparing the recalculated error value with the reference error value; setting the recalculated error value as the reference error value, setting the changed parameter values as the model parameters, and repeating the above steps, or outputting the model parameters; generating a new filter using the output model parameters; and applying the new filters to respective input signals applied to each transducer to generate vibration within the member to provide the haptic sensation.
US09159201B2
On the slot machine, a slot game including a base game and free games is caused to proceed on a display. On the base game reel strips, on all of a plurality of reels, symbols whose each kind is the same, other than feature symbols and wild symbols, are arranged in succession. On the free game reel strips, on all of a plurality of reels, symbols whose each kind is the same, other than the feature symbols and the wild symbols, are arranged in succession and in addition thereto, only in a case of top symbols whose payout multiplying factor is the highest, the top symbols whose number is larger than a number of top symbols displayed on the base game reel strips are arranged in succession.
US09159196B2
A gaming system including a central server linked to a plurality of gaming machines. The central server includes a plurality of progressive modules. Each progressive module maintains one or more progressive awards and is associated with zero, one or more of the gaming machines in the gaming system. Upon a determination that a designated one of the progressive awards will be provided, one of the gaming machines associated with the progressive module which maintains the designated progressive award provides the designated progressive award to the player of such gaming machine.
US09159194B2
A method for a game includes providing a plurality of individual gaming machines for playing a base game, where an outcome of each gaming machine is determined at least in part by chance, and communicatively coupling a progressive bonus apparatus to said plurality of individual gaming machines. The method includes creating value elements and inserting them onto individual gaming machines in a bank of gaming machines. The value elements can be seen visually by players so that the players can monitor the status of the bonus game while playing the base game. Also disclosed is an apparatus capable of carrying out the above method as well as a media carrying an instruction set for carrying out the above method.
US09159190B2
An establishment can coordinate devices (e.g., lights, speakers, displays) to enhance a game playing environment based on events detected in a network of wagering game machines. A system can be implemented that determines an environmental effect based on an event of a wagering game (e.g., a near win event), regardless of the particular wagering game developer/manufacturer. The system can then determine that the environmental effect should be modified based on current circumstances of the area to be impacted and/or the player, for example. The system modifies the environment effect as indicated for the current circumstances and causes the modified environmental effect to be produced.
US09159188B2
A method of generating data for controlling an operation of a gaming machine is provided. The gaming machine includes a reel, a first driver for driving the reel, a rendering device, and a second driver for driving the rendering device. A data sheet including a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns is provided. Columns include a trigger field, a reel field being predefined to be associated with the first driver, and an effect field being predefined to be associated with the second driver. When a first command for controlling the first driver is input to in the reel field of the first set of rows, and at least one second command for controlling the second driver is input to the effect field of the first set of rows, the second command is executed in synchronization with the first command.
US09159185B2
A physical playing card gaming system includes a gaming table including at least one dealer position and at least one player position. The system includes a physical playing card handling device that is configured to read at least one of a card rank and card suit of physical playing cards. The system also includes at least one processor in communication with the physical playing card handling device and a video monitor. The at least one processor is programmed to determine the composition of at least one dealer hand and at least one player hand based on the at least one of card rank and card suit read. The at least one processor is programmed to cause game information based on the determined hands to be displayed in response to dealer input. Methods of operating such a physical playing card gaming system include displaying the game information upon dealer request.
US09159184B2
A peripheral device (sandwiched device) to be installed adjacent to a gaming machine, including an imaging unit (CCD camera) configured to image a player who is playing a game with the gaming machine and output face image data for identifying the face of the player obtained by imaging, and a CPU configured to: obtain information about a game the player played with the gaming machine; determine whether or not an illegality condition is met based on the obtained information about the game; and set whether or not to activate the imaging unit based on the determination result.
US09159176B2
A vehicle identification apparatus mounted in a vehicle provided with a detection unit configured to detect a speed of a first other vehicle and a communication unit configured to receive information indicative of a speed of a second other vehicle from the second other vehicle. In the apparatus, a calculation unit calculates an indicator value indicative of a likelihood that the first and second other vehicles are the same, where the indicator value is defined as a function of the speed of the first other vehicle detected by the detection unit and the speed of the second other vehicle indicated by the information received by the communication unit. A determination unit determines whether or not the first and second other vehicles are the same on the basis of the indicator value calculated by the calculation unit.
US09159171B2
A method and apparatus are disclosed wherein positioning data and road charging data depending on a vehicle position may be inserted into a combined data stream. The positioning data and road charging data may be provided with the same protocol type such as a national marine electronics association, NMEA, protocol or NMEA 0183 protocol. The combined data stream therefore comprises a mixed sequence of positioning data protocol messages and road charging data protocol messages.
US09159170B2
System and method are provided for building and rendering a 3D graphics dataset of an object that consists of multiple parts, wherein the 3D graphics dataset includes a 3D geometry dataset and a configuration file, and in the configuration file each of the multiple parts is identified as used (e.g., visible, actionable) or unused (e.g., not visible, not actionable) in each of multiple display features (e.g., in display states, such as in animations, or in display relationships). The method determines which of the multiple parts are unused in each of the multiple display features and identifies those parts, which are unused in all of the display features, as excluded parts, and saves a list of the identified excluded parts in association with the object. In rendering the object on a display, the method does not load data directed to the excluded parts, to thereby speed up the loading/rendering process.
US09159155B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products receive an image request identifying an image having a width and a height. A number of interleaved buffers is identified, each of the interleaved buffers operable to store data associated with the image. The image is split into each of the interleaved buffers on a computing device. An interleaved image is displayed corresponding to at least one of the interleaved buffers, where the interleaved image having substantially the same width and height of the image.
US09159152B1
A motion capture simulation system can include a capture volume. A participant disposed in the capture volume can be motion captured and immersed into a virtual environment. The virtual environment may be larger in size than the capture volume. In the virtual environment, the participant may be represented by an avatar. The avatar in the virtual environment can be moved in a first direction based on a motion of the participant in the first direction in the capture volume. As the participant moves in the first direction in the capture volume, the participant may approach a boundary of the capture volume, while the participant's avatar may have space to move further in the first direction in the larger virtual environment. Approaching the boundary, the participant can change direction, for example turning around to avoid the boundary. The redirected participant can continue driving the avatar to move in the first direction.
US09159148B2
A method for patient monitoring includes receiving one or more first patient parameters from at least one medical device. The method further includes transforming the one or more first patient parameters into one or more gauge display parameters. The method further includes generating data operable to display the one or more gauge display parameters individually in a particular portion of a display device. The one or more gauge display parameters include at least a historical range and a current value within the historical range. The method further includes analyzing one or more second patient parameters to adjust the one or more gauge display parameters.
US09159141B2
The invention is made in the field of image block encoding and reconstruction. A method for reconstructing a current block of an image is described, the current block being encoded using predictive encoding of segments resulting from geometry adaptive block partitioning of said current block. After decoding encoded data comprising at least one flag and motion vectors, wherein blocks referenced by the motion vectors are used for prediction of segments of the current block, the at least one flag and an encoding order of the motion vectors in the encoded data is used for determining which of the referenced blocks exhibits a geometry that matches the geometry of the current block and for determining a segment of the determined block, wherein prior to determining the segment, the determined block is geometry adaptive block partitioned into segments from which the segment is determined for predicting one of the segments of the current block.
US09159125B2
There are provided a histogram stretching apparatus and a histogram stretching method. The histogram stretching apparatus includes: an image analyzing unit; a histogram generating unit; an extension level setting; and a histogram stretching unit, wherein the histogram generating unit adds a preset reference image level to the minimum image level to calculate the first image level and subtracts the preset reference image level from the maximum image level to calculate the second image level.
US09159115B1
There is disclosed a technique for use in processing vectorized elements on a mobile computing device. A vector list is received, wherein the list comprises a set of vectors having positional and magnitude values associated with identified markers. A first test angle and stride size is determined. Vectors falling within a boundary defined by the first test angle and first stride size are analyzed and a likelihood the vectors form a line is determined. An increment size is adjusted if a positive determination result occurs. Vectors that intersect with a line are identified, wherein the vectors include vectors determined to fall with the boundary defined by the first test angle and first stride size. Based on a first policy, vectors that intersect the line are identified. A report including anchor information associated with the identified vectors is created.
US09159111B2
A method for utilizing firearm discharge data in a crime reporting and tracking database, includes: recording one or more discharges of a firearm; transmitting information from the discharging firearm to a crime reporting and tracking database; utilizing the transmitted information to establish relationships between the discharged firearm, committed crimes, and missing persons within the crime reporting and tracking database; and wherein the recording and transmitting is carried out by devices within the firearm.
US09159106B1
Systems and methods are provided for fabricating products on demand. In some embodiments, a manufacturable model, which may include information about a three-dimensional representation of a product to be fabricated, is received by a user of an electronic system and may be validated by the electronic system. A prototype of the product can be generated based at least in part on the manufacturable model, and the manufacturable model and/or the product can be made available for selection by other users of the system. The product may be fabricated based at least in part on the manufacturable model using, for example, a three-dimensional printer, and may be delivered to users of the electronic system.
US09159103B2
A system and method for dynamically determining quantity for risk management are described. According to one example embodiment, as a trader positions an order icon at a desired price or price-derivative value on a graphical interface, an order quantity for the order is dynamically determined based on the order price and a selected risk management formula. A trader can change the price or the price-related value for one or more orders by moving the order icons relative to a price axis on a graphical interface. In such an embodiment, the initially calculated order quantity for each order will be dynamically recalculated based on the modified orders for the trading strategy.
US09159092B2
A method for selecting a shoe fitted to a foot from a plurality of shoes. For each shoe from the plurality of shoes, a dimensionally accurate outline of the footbed of the shoe is provided in electronic form. Further, for each shoe from the plurality of shoes, a dimensionally accurate outline of a section through the shoe, wherein the sectional plane runs perpendicularly to the footbed and along the way of largest foot length of a foot positioned in the shoe, is provided in electronic form. Further, an assembly for selecting a shoe fitted to a foot from a plurality of shoes including a data processing system with a database and an output unit, as well as an assembly for simultaneous representation of the footbed outline and the sectional outline to scale for a shoe corresponding to the method with two flat screens perpendicular to each other are provided.
US09159085B2
A method includes sending a request to a user indicating options to modify a quality of experience for one or more application flows between a radio network and a mobile node used by the user. The request indicates the user should select one of the following: declining an option to upgrade an existing service to a new service able to support the one or more application flows with a higher quality of experience than supported by the existing service; or accepting an option to upgrade the existing service to the new service. In response to receiving an indication the user selected the option to upgrade the existing service, performing one or more actions to upgrade the existing service to the new service. The option to upgrade the existing service can include an option of receiving advertisements for the new service or paying extra for the new service.
US09159083B1
A computerized method and apparatus for evaluating content on a computer network. The method includes obtaining a quality score of content configured for display with a web page, wherein the quality score is based at least in part on keywords associated with the content and either a search query or metadata associated with the web page. The method also includes identifying a user metric of a computing device associated with the search query or the metadata. The method further includes generating an adjusted quality score of the content based on the quality score and the user metric. The method also includes selecting a parameter for an auction based on the adjusted quality score, wherein the parameter indicates a relation between a bid value based auction and a content quality based auction.
US09159078B2
A method, system or computer usable program product for managing attributes including utilizing a processor to generate a unique mutable identifier in response to a request from an end entity; obtaining a selected set of attributes from the end entity; associating and storing in memory the set of attributes with the unique mutable identifier; and providing the set of attributes associated with the mutable identifier to any application in response to an inquiry utilizing the unique mutable identifier from that application.
US09159076B2
A server (113) receives broadcast schedule from a broadcast station (12) and stores it (S170). A reception terminal (114) receives a broadcast program through a broadcast wave and outputs it (S171). An answer input by a user on a survey target broadcast program is included in answer information, together with an input time and information on the broadcast station (12), and is sent to a server (113) (S172 and S173). The server (113) references a program schedule based on the input time and the information on the broadcast station (12) of the answer information, specifies the survey target broadcast program and collects answers from the reception terminals (114) on the survey target broadcast program.
US09159051B2
A SEF grammar is created to be used with the Java CC program to autogenerate a SEF parser. The SEF parser can be run with specially written X12 code on any SEF file to automatically create an EDI object model for that SEF file. A programmer can then write application code to use the EDI object model to parse an EDI document that the SEF file describes and generate in memory an EDI object model instance for that EDI document. The application code is also used to employ the EDI object model instance to efficiently process the EDI document's EDI transaction. In addition, the application code is used to employ the EDI object model on the EDI object model instance to emit an EDI document for further use.
US09159038B2
A pre-paid service system configured to provide a subscriber interface to a Subscriber and receive a service level selection from the subscriber, wherein the service level selection includes a capacity limit and/or a time limit. Upon authorization of a payment, the system activates the Subscriber's service. The system also monitors the Subscriber's usage data and time of activation. When the Subscriber's usage data amount or time of activation meets or exceeds the selected service level, the system may deactivate the Subscriber's service.
US09159036B2
A gamercard associated with an integrated gamer profile to identify a gamer is provided to the gamer and other PC/console users who also participate in other online gaming community activities such as game-related web sites. The gamercard is also provided to the user in a modular fashion formatted in a way suitable for the user to display it directly within other applications of the user (such as their personal web sites and mobile device applications for display on their cell phone) without the user having to update the information within the other applications when the information changes in the central database.
US09159031B2
Various technologies described herein pertain to automatic prediction of an anticipated audience response for scripting. A sub-document unit can be received, where the sub-document unit can be part of a script. The sub-document unit, for example, can be a sentence, a paragraph, a scene, or substantially any other portion of the script. Content of the sub-document unit and a context of the sub-document unit can be analyzed to extract features of the sub-document unit. A predictive model can be employed to predict an anticipated audience response to the sub-document unit based upon the features of the sub-document unit. Moreover, the anticipated audience response to the sub-document unit predicted by the predictive model can be output.
US09159030B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for determining geographic locations of devices. One of the methods includes obtaining an estimated user location associated with each respective IP address block based on observed events from the IP address block; obtaining an estimate of a probability model p(ev|loc), the probability model p(ev|loc) including a respective probability distribution of interest locations for each of multiple user locations; wherein obtaining the estimate of the probability model p(ev|loc) includes calculating p(ev|loc) from a p(zone|loc) matrix and a p(ev|zone) matrix; and using the estimate for the probability model p(ev|loc) and the observed events to calculate an estimate for multiple probability distributions X(loc) associated with a respective IP address block.
US09159028B2
Provided are techniques for computing a task result. A processing data set of records is created, wherein each of the records contains data specific to a sub-task from a set of actual sub-tasks and contains a reference to data shared by the set of actual sub-tasks, and wherein a number of the records is equivalent to a number of the actual sub-tasks in the set of actual sub-tasks. With each mapper in a set of mappers, one of the records of the processing data set is received and an assigned sub-task is executed using the received one of the records to generate output. With a single reducer, the output from each mapper in the set of mappers is reduced to determine a task result.
US09159025B2
Embodiments of the invention are generally directed toward methods, systems, and computer-readable media for prioritizing bridge repairs. A bridge score is generated that represents various factors such as conditions, load issues, risk of failure, and importance. Repairs to bridges or bridge segments that pose a greater risk may be prioritized before repairs made to bridges posing a lower risk.
US09159017B2
A passive, metal mount, UHF RFID tag with a high antenna efficiency is provided. The passive, metal mount, UHF RFID tag has a first securing surface and second securing surface which are both hinged at sides of a main body of the tag and which allow the tag to be secured to flat objects, round objects having various circumferences or to objects having unusual exterior surfaces. A pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) tape secures the tag to the object. The tag allows the main body (or “form factor”) to be offset from a metallic asset which is tracked without the metallic object negatively interfering with the RFID. The metallic surface of the asset being tracked is used to activate the Patch antenna duality of the custom design inlay, thus increasing the radiation efficiency of the driven element (integrated circuit) and ultimately the read range.
US09159003B2
Subject matter described herein is directed to providing font-rendering information (e.g., XPS file) that is usable to print a document. For example, a font file is received that defines a font type included in the document. A determination is made that a quantity of pages of the document does not exceed a subsetting-optimization threshold. When the quantity of pages does not exceed the threshold, a subsetted font file of the font type is generated. The subsetted file is provided, such as via the spool file, to a print subsystem.
US09158998B2
The disclosure discloses a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, storing the template processing program for executing steps on a control device of an operation terminal. The terminal is connected with a print label producing apparatus using a template t, and with a server configured to store a plurality of language versions of mutually different language types for the template. The terminal comprises a display device, the control device, and a memory. The steps comprises a language selection receiving step for receiving a selection of at least one language type, a downloading step for downloading from the server at least one template that contains the language version of the language type, a combined file generating step for generating a combined file that combines a plurality of language versions using mutually different language types into a single file, and a storing step for storing the combined file in the memory.
US09158997B2
In a method for displaying mammography images, an identification of the mammography images is first inputted via a user interface of a computer system. A host is employed to receive the identification for activating the mammography images and reading a header of the mammography images. The host reads a plurality of displaying rules previously configured for comparing with the header of the mammography images. The host then automatically selects one of the plurality of displaying rules that is best conformed to the header of the mammography images. The host automatically classifies the mammography images according to the selected one displaying rule. Finally, a monitor displays the classified mammography images.
US09158996B2
A disclosure describes a learning image collection apparatus includes an acquisition unit, an extraction unit, a calculation unit, and a selection unit. The acquisition unit acquires an image including a target object. The extraction unit extracts, from the image, a plurality of candidate areas being candidates for the target object. The calculation unit calculates one of a first degree of similarity, a second degree of similarity, and a third degree of similarity, the first degree of similarity being a degree of similarity between one of the candidate areas and a predetermined area, the second degree of similarity being a degree of similarity between a size of the target object and a predetermined size, the third degree of similarity being a degree of similarity between the plurality of candidate areas. The selection unit selects one of the candidate areas as a target object area including the target object.
US09158981B2
Techniques for evaluating the quality of a an image on a printing surface. The techniques generally includes receiving a first signal corresponding to the original image and a second signal corresponding to the rendition of the original image. The techniques further include filtering both signals using a common set of filters to extract at least partial contours of the original image and of its rendition and to determine a quality value of the rendition of the original image based on a comparison between the filtered images in the frequency domain.
US09158977B2
A method for estimating ego motion of an object moving on a surface, the method including generating at least two composite top view images of the surface on the basis of video frames provided by at least one onboard video camera of the object moving on the surface; performing a region matching between consecutive top view images to extract global motion parameters of the moving object; calculating the ego motion of the moving object from the extracted global motion parameters of the moving object.
US09158975B2
A system for video monitoring a retail business process includes a video analytics engine to process video obtained by a video camera and generate video primitives regarding the video, A user interface is used to define at least one activity of interest regarding an area being viewed, each activity of interest identifying at least one of a rule or a query regarding the area being viewed. An activity inference engine processes the generated video primitives based on each defined activity of interest to determine if an activity of interest occurred in the video.
US09158955B2
A code symbol reading apparatus, that reads a code symbol on an object to be read by scanning the object, repeats trial to read the code symbol until the apparatus succeeds in reading, while changing a transmission frequency of a filter that processes a signal representing a light intensity variation obtained through the scan and in which transmittance depends on a frequency of the signal.
US09158952B2
There is set forth herein an indicia reading terminal having a first illumination and exposure control configuration and a second illumination and exposure control configuration, the first illumination and control configuration having a first associated illumination control and a first associated exposure control, the second illumination and exposure control configuration having a second associated illumination control and a second associated exposure control, wherein with the first illumination control active an average energization level of the illumination subsystem during exposure of one or more frames is higher than with the second illumination control active, and wherein with the first exposure control active an average exposure period of the image sensor array is shorter than with the second exposure control active.
US09158943B2
An encryption and decryption device for a portable storage device and an encryption and decryption method thereof are provided. The encryption and decryption device includes a storage element, a control element and an encryption and decryption circuit. The control element receives a password, saves the password to the storage element and provides an encryption and decryption command. The encryption and decryption circuit is electrically connected to a portable storage device, receives the encryption and decryption command, reads the password stored in the storage element according to the encryption and decryption command, and encrypts or decrypts data stored in the portable storage device by utilizing the password according to whether the data have been encrypted. After the data are encrypted or decrypted, the encryption and decryption circuit clears the password in the storage element.
US09158941B2
A data processing apparatus and method are provided for managing access to content within the data processing apparatus. The data processing apparatus has a secure domain and a non-secure domain and comprises at least one device which is operable when seeking to access content stored in memory to issue a memory access request pertaining to either the secure domain or the non-secure domain. Further, writeable memory is provided which can store content required by the at least one device, with the writeable memory having at least one read only region whose content is stored therein under control of a secure task, the secure task being a task executed by one of the devices in the secure domain. Protection logic is then used in association with the writeable memory, which on receipt of a memory access request seeking to access content in the at least one read only region, prevents access to that read only region if that memory access request pertains to the non-secure domain and is seeking to write content to the read only region. This enables the speed, power and flexibility benefits of placing content in writeable memory to be achieved without prejudicing the security of that content, by ensuring that that content cannot be modified from the non-secure domain.
US09158936B2
An electronic device for storing data content by storing at least a portion of the data content in a rewritable memory device by storing an n bit count value associated with the status of the data content in a one time programmable memory. The n bit count value is written to the secure memory device along with the corresponding data content. Then the n bit count value is incremented and stored in the one time programmable memory each time there is a modification of the data content in the rewritable memory device. The number of bits of the one time programmable memory may correspond to the number of potential modifications of the stored data content.
US09158933B2
System, method, computer program product embodiments and combinations and sub-combinations thereof for protection of encryption keys in a database are described herein. An embodiment includes a master key and a dual master key, both of which are used to encrypt encryption keys in a database. To access encrypted data, the master key and dual master key must be supplied to a database server by two separate entities, thus requiring dual control of the master and dual master keys. Furthermore, passwords for the master and dual master keys must be supplied separately and independently, thus requiring split knowledge to access the master and dual master keys. In another embodiment, a master key and a key encryption key derived from a user password is used for dual control. An embodiment also includes supplying the secrets for the master key and dual master key through server-private files.
US09158914B2
Techniques for causing a component loader associated with a hotpatch mechanism to execute a user-mode component which, when executed, creates a user-mode process, thread, or held reference are described herein. The component may further indicate to the component loader that it lacks hotpatch data, causing the component loader to unload the component. In some implementations, a kernel-mode module may initially provide the component to the hotpatch mechanism with an entrypoint of the component set to zero and with hotpatch data for the component loader. The hotpatch mechanism may apply the hotpatch data, modifying the component loader such that the component loader requests execute rights for a section object for the component. The kernel-mode module may then set the entrypoint such that the component becomes executable, and provides the section object and component to the hotpatch mechanism to cause the component loader to execute the component.
US09158893B2
A code finder system deployed as a software module, a web service or as part of a larger security system, identifies and processes well-formed code sequences. For a data flow that is expected to be free of executable or interpreted code, or free of one or more known styles of executable or interpreted code, the code finder system can protect participants in the communications network. Examples of payload carried by data flows that can be monitored include, but are not limited to, user input data provided as part of interacting with a web application, data files or entities, such as images or videos, and user input data provided as part of interacting with a desktop application.
US09158891B2
Systems, methods, and apparatuses may be used to test devices using a portable device. A portable device is a tablet computer, a smart phone, or other type of device. In embodiments, the different components of the portable device are utilized to perform tests on a medical device such as a hearing prosthesis or other type of medical device. For example, portable device components such as accelerometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes, microphones, speakers, etc. are used to provide testing stimuli and/or record the responses from the hearing prosthesis to the testing stimuli. The portable device is used to generate testing stimulus and record the response from the device being tested using the various components of the portable device. Analysis of the output of the medical device can be performed to determine a remedy to improve operation of the device.
US09158879B2
Methodologies and an apparatus enabling a generation of color undeterminable polygons in IC designs are disclosed. Embodiments include: determining a plurality of first routes extending horizontally in an IC design, each of the plurality of first routes being placed on one of a plurality of equally spaced vertical positions of the IC design; determining whether a second route overlaps one of the vertical positions of the plurality of equally spaced vertical positions; and selecting a design rule for the second route based on the determination of whether the second route overlaps.
US09158871B2
An apparatus and a method for vulnerability and reliability modeling are provided. The method generally includes constructing a graph model of a physical network using a computer, the graph model including a plurality of terminating vertices to represent nodes in the physical network, a plurality of edges to represent transmission paths in the physical network, and a non-terminating vertex to represent a non-nodal vulnerability along a transmission path in the physical network. The method additionally includes evaluating the vulnerability and reliability of the physical network using the constructed graph model, wherein the vulnerability and reliability evaluation includes a determination of whether each terminating and non-terminating vertex represents a critical point of failure. The method can be utilized to evaluate wide variety of networks, including power grid infrastructures, communication network topologies, and fluid distribution systems.
US09158870B2
Systems and methods are provided for modeling and simulating a communication network operating under at least one communication protocol, which supports a Smart Grid electricity network. Communication performance data of the communication network are generated by a processor based on operating behavior of the Smart Grid with a plurality of assets under a first condition. Devices in the Smart grid are grouped in bins for rapid modeling. One or more different configurations of the communication network are entered into the processor and related performance data is also generated. Network configurations are compared based on the generated performance data which may include end-to-end delay and reception rate. Processor based systems to perform modeling methods are also provided.
US09158868B2
A powertrain mounting system for a vehicle powertrain includes a first powertrain mount that exhibits a first gradual rate of change of static stiffness when under load. The mounting system also includes a second powertrain mount that exhibits a second gradual rate of change of static stiffness when under load. The first gradual rate of change of static stiffness is related to the second gradual rate of change of static stiffness by a static equilibrium torque balance equation of respective displacements at the first and the second powertrain mounts. The static equilibrium torque balance equation is based in part on a spatial arrangement of the first and the second powertrain mounts relative to the powertrain. A method of designing the powertrain mounting system determines the first and second gradual rates of change of static stiffness under load to achieve efficient energy management.
US09158864B2
A system, and related methods and devices, is disclosed for documenting a location of installed equipment. The system includes a mobile reader and a memory. The mobile reader is configured to read a unique identification of an equipment unit and to determine a location of the equipment unit while proximate the equipment unit. The location and the unique identification of the equipment unit is associated and stored in the memory. The memory may be located in the mobile reader or in a remotely located database. The mobile reader may be an optical reader configured to read the unique identification from an optical barcode associated with the equipment unit, or the mobile reader may be an RFID reader configured to read the unique identification from an RFID tag associated with the equipment unit.
US09158862B2
A system including an associative memory. A first input device in communication with the associative memory is configured to receive comparison criteria associated with a first entity stored in the associative memory. A search engine is configured to acquire, using a processor in conjunction with the associative memory and also using the comparison criteria, an attribute category of the first entity and an attribute value of the first entity. A second input device is configured to input, using the processor in conjunction with the associative memory, the attribute category and the attribute value into a worksheet of the associative memory. A comparator is configured to compare, using the processor in conjunction with the associative memory, the first entity and a second entity. The comparator is further configured to apply the worksheet as part of comparing the first entity and the second entity.
US09158861B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for dynamically generating indicators of entity locations on an electronic map corresponding, for example, to a suggested search request. In one aspect, a method includes providing an electronic map of a geographic area for display on a user interface, receiving a character string entered into the user interface, the character string representing a partial search query, determining a suggested search request based on the character string, and identifying an entity responsive to the suggested search request and a geographic location for the identified entity. An indicator identifying the geographic location of the entity is provided for display on the electronic map.
US09158856B2
A method and a device for search engine optimization, that receives an identifier that identifies a domain, one or more keywords for analysis relative to a search engine, and search engine usage data, for each received keyword, gathering search engine results data, for at least one received keyword, mapping the at least one keyword to at least one web page within the identified domain, said mapping based on at least one of said search engine usage data and said search engine results data, and for at least one of the received keywords, generating at least one instruction to modify a web page element in a web page to which the at least one received keyword is mapped.
US09158855B2
A method of extracting individual posts from a weblog comprises the steps of: (a) providing a feed associated with the weblog; and (b) screen scraping the weblog into a representation for weblog posts using the feed data containing partial content of the weblog.
US09158849B2
A server device is configured to identify sub-pages corresponding to a particular webpage, where the particular webpage and the identified sub-pages may be associated with a same website; determine titles for the identified sub-pages; process the identified sub-pages to select a set of sub-pages, of the identified sub-pages, to use to generate a snippet for the particular webpage, where each webpage, in the set of sub-pages, may satisfy particular criteria, and a quantity of the set of sub-pages may be based on a length of a concatenation of the titles for the set of sub-pages; generate the snippet, for the particular webpage, using the titles for the set of sub-pages; and store the generated snippet in association with the particular webpage, where the generated snippet may be presented in a search result document when the particular webpage is identified as being relevant to a search query.
US09158844B1
The present invention provides a system and method of managing Internet browser navigation. Software code designed to interact with and control the user's Internet browser is embedded into web pages made available to remote users by a web server. Embedded software code is read by the user's Internet browser upon loading a requested web page. Embedded software code directs the browser to store one or more attributes upon the remote user's computer system. Stored attributes may then be compared to attributes embedded within subsequently requested web pages to determine if the requested web page, or a corrected web page, should be displayed.
US09158841B2
One aspect of the invention provides a method of evaluating semantic differences between a first item in a first semantic space and a second item in a second semantic space. The method includes: calculating a first ordered list of N nearest neighbors of the first item within the first semantic space; calculating a second ordered list of N nearest neighbors of the second item within the second semantic space; and computing a plurality of similarity measures between the first n nearest neighbors of the first item and the first n nearest neighbors of the second item, wherein n and N are positive integers and 1≦n≦N.
US09158836B2
Provided are techniques for displaying search results in a first page, receiving feedback from the user that indicate which of the search results in the first page are at least one of relevant and irrelevant, re-ordering the search results in a second page based on the indications of the search results in the first page, and displaying the re-ordered search results in the second page.
US09158834B2
Methods and systems for mapping repairs orders within a database are described. Mapping a repair order can include generating a searchable data record with multiple data record fields. Each data record field can include a term located on the repair order or a standard term associated with the term on the repair order. In order to retrieve repair orders from the database, the data records can be searched using search criteria that match standard terms storable in the data record fields. Although the repair orders can be searched to find repair orders with terms that match the search criteria, the search may be carried out more efficiently (e.g., quicker) by searching the data records instead of the repair orders. One or more repair orders can be associated with real-fix tips. Phrases of the real-fix tips can be selected automatically based, for example, or RO terms recited on the repair orders.
US09158833B2
A method and system for determining at least one target value of at least one target in at least one document, comprising: determining, utilizing at least one scoring application; at least one possible target value, wherein the at least one scoring application utilizes information from at least one training document, and applying the information, utilizing the at least one scoring application, on the at least one new document to determine at least one value of the at least one target on the at least one new document.
US09158824B2
Aspects of the present invention provide a solution for recognizing a pattern in a set of data, such as data streaming over a data communication system. In an embodiment, a set of data events is retrieved in the data stream. The retrieved objects each have a plurality of characteristics that can be matched to a predetermined desired characteristic, such as a key value. The retrieved data events can be evaluated with respect to a pattern, with a characteristic of data events being evaluated with respect to an aggregate value related to the pattern. This aggregate value can be updated incrementally based on the data in the characteristic. Based on the evaluation, a determination as to whether the set of data events received subsequent to the first object satisfies the pattern.
US09158821B1
A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes establishing a pool of potential matches for a user in a computer-implemented matching system, in which each of the potential matches meet at least one criteria of the user; determining a messaging score for each of the potential matches of the pool, the messaging score indicating a messaging aptitude of the potential match; and ranking the potential matches, where each of the potential matches is ranked based on a similarity of the messaging score of the potential match to a messaging score of the user. In one embodiment, the method may further include presenting to the user results of the ranking.
US09158817B2
Provided are techniques for transmitting a first query from a query agent in a client computing device to an answering agent in a server computing device; receiving, at the query agent from the answering agent, a first response to the first query; saving the first query in conjunction with the first response in a computer readable storage medium; intercepting, by a query service agent, a second query from the query agent to the answering agent; correlating the second query to the first query; and transmitting to the query agent from the query service agent the first response in response to the second query.
US09158811B1
A computing machine performs a correlation search associated with a service provided by one or more entities that each have corresponding machine data, the service having one or more key performance indicators (KPIs) that each indicate a state of the service at a point in time or during a period of time and that each derive from the corresponding machine data for the one or more entities. The correlation search associated with the service comprises search criteria pertaining to the one or more KPIs, and a triggering condition to be applied to data identified by a search query using the search criteria. The computing machine stores a notable event in response to the data identified by the search query satisfying the triggering condition and causes display of a graphical user interface presenting information pertaining to the stored notable event, the information comprising an identifier of the correlation search that triggered the storing of the notable event and an identifier of the service associated with the correlation search.
US09158809B2
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to grid queries. In aspects, a client sends search criteria that represent two or more dimensions to a service. The service obtains results that satisfy the search criteria and performs intersection operations to populate a data grid. The data grid is then returned to the client for output on an output device of the client. The client may provide a user interface that allows quick updating of the search criteria to obtain a new data grid.
US09158787B2
Described in detail herein are systems and methods for deduplicating data using byte-level or quasi byte-level techniques. In some embodiments, a file is divided into multiple blocks. A block includes multiple bytes. Multiple rolling hashes of the file are generated. For each byte in the file, a searchable data structure is accessed to determine if the data structure already includes an entry matching a hash of a minimum sequence length. If so, this indicates that the corresponding bytes are already stored. If one or more bytes in the file are already stored, then the one or more bytes in the file are replaced with a reference to the already stored bytes. The systems and methods described herein may be used for file systems, databases, storing backup data, or any other use case where it may be useful to reduce the amount of data being stored.
US09158781B1
A method to create a version map to represent the data state of a file at a particular point in time when an incremental backup is performed. In one embodiment, a logical memory backup file is created that is known as a cumulative data file. Changes to the cumulative data file according to one embodiment of the present invention include appending copies of modified data when the modified data meets a certain condition. A new version map may be created each time an incremental backup occurs. Locations of both modified and unmodified data in the backup data file are mapped for future reference to the data.
US09158777B2
Augmented reality methods and apparatus are described according to some aspects of the disclosure. In one aspect, a method of experiencing augmented data includes using a source system, emitting a dynamic symbol which changes over time, using a consumption system, receiving the emission of the source system, using the consumption system, analyzing the emission which was received by the consumption system to determine whether the dynamic symbol is present in the emission, and using the consumption system, generating a representation of augmented data to be consumed by a user of the consumption system as a result of the analyzing determining that the dynamically changing symbol is present in the emission of the source system.
US09158774B2
The present innovation provides a method of establishing a connection between two individuals using an interpersonal spacetime interaction system, including enabling a first user to specify a spacetime event and to provide annotations for the spacetime event, maintaining a spacetime database comprising data objects, each data object corresponding to a spacetime event, querying a spacetime database, using a query that includes at least a specification of a desired spacetime event, said query being initiated by a second user, retrieving information from those data objects in the spacetime database whose corresponding spacetime events are proximate to the desired spacetime event, and providing the retrieved information to the second user.
US09158766B2
A system and method for facilitating adjusting a displayed representation of a visualization. An example method includes employing a touch-sensitive display to present a user interface display screen depicting a first visualization; and providing a first user option to apply touch input to a region of the user interface display screen coinciding with a portion of the first visualization to facilitate affecting an arrangement of data displayed via the first visualization, wherein the touch input includes a multi-touch gesture. In a more specific embodiment, the touch gesture includes a rotation gesture, and the method further includes displaying a visual indication of a change, e.g., a pivot operation, to be applied to a second visualization as a user performs the rotation gesture, and updating the second visualization as a user continues perform the rotation gesture. The first visualization is updated based on the second visualization upon completion of the rotation gesture.
US09158755B2
A processor-implemented method, system, and/or computer program product lemmatizes a phrase for a specific category. An initial phrase, which is associated with a specific category, is received by a processor. The processor removes a last letter or set of letters from a word in the initial phrase to form an initial truncated version of the phrase, and then runs a term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) algorithm on the initial truncated version of the phrase. The processor lemmatizes subsequent truncated versions of the initial phrase, and then runs the TF-IDF algorithm until a highest TF-IDF value is identified for a specific truncated version of the initial phrase when compared to TF-IDF values of other truncated versions of the initial phrase. The specific truncated version of the initial phrase that is associated with the highest TF-IDF value is then associated with the specific category.
US09158753B2
A data processing method includes obtaining text information corresponding to a presented content, the presented content comprising a plurality of areas; performing text analysis on the text information to obtain a first keyword sequence, the first keyword sequence including area keywords associated with at least one area of the plurality of areas; obtaining speech information related to the presented content, the speech information at least comprising a current speech segment; and using a first model network to perform analysis on the current speech segment to determine the area corresponding to the current speech segment, wherein the first model network comprises the first keyword sequence.
US09158739B2
In a pendular motion determination unit of a motion stabilizer for a tractor, a parameter computation unit computes a determination parameter PA indicative of a quantity of change in an actual yaw rate Y, a threshold value setting unit computes a threshold value PAth for the parameter PA, and a determination unit determines that a pendular motion caused by swaying motion of a trailer is imparted, if the parameter PA is greater than the threshold value PAth. Based upon at least one of a value related to the actual yaw rate Y and a value related to the standard yaw rate Ys, an evaluation value computation unit computes a steering-back maneuver evaluation value TS (indicative of a possibility of making periodical steering-back maneuvers), based upon which at least one of the threshold value PAth and the parameter PA is changed.
US09158738B2
Category determination is performed on an object candidate extracted from a captured image after an exclusion process is performed in advance. In the exclusion process, a distance from a vehicle to the object candidate is calculated based on a size of the object candidate in a current image, a moved distance of the vehicle occurring in a time interval from a time a previous image was captured to a time the current image is captured is calculated, the size of the object candidate in the current image is decreased at a change ratio based on the distance to the object candidate and the moved distance, and a size of the object candidate in the previous image and a size of the object candidate decreased at the change ratio are compared. The object candidate with difference between them being determined to be larger than a predetermined value is removed.
US09158733B2
The present invention is a computerized system to link a user's e-mail openings and click throughs on the user's e-mail address to the user's online click stream that tracks the user's interests and activity behavior data on the user's destination websites. The system includes a dedicated tracking sub domain, a programmable tracking code embeddable on the destination site, a domain tracking cookie, a tagging engine and a template engine. The invention also includes a method for using the computerized system that generates a domain tracking cookie that is tied to an e-mail address, tracks the user on a destination site using a programmable tracking code, tracks and updates the user's interests and activity behavior data using the tracking code and takes the data to customize e-mails and the website to the user's interests and activity.
US09158731B2
A multiprocessor arrangement is disclosed, in which a plurality of processors are able to communicate with each other by means of a plurality of time-sliced memory blocks. At least one, and up to all, of the processors may be able to access more than one time-sliced memories. A mesh arrangement of such processors and memories is disclosed, which may be a partial or complete mesh. The mesh may to two-dimensional, or higher dimensional.A method of communication between processors in a multiprocessor arrangement is also disclosed, in which one or more processors are able to each access a plurality of memories, in each case by time-slicing.
US09158730B2
A method for controlling an information processing system that includes a client device including a plurality of sensors that acquire positional information of the client device and a server device that transmits data to the client device includes causing the server device to specify a positioning requirement corresponding to positional information of the client device based on association information associating a distance between the client device and a location in which the server device transmits the data to the client device located with each of the sensors, and causing the client device to select a sensor based on the positioning requirement specified by the server device among the sensors.
US09158718B2
Deterministic message processing in a direct memory access (DMA) adapter includes the DMA adapter incrementing from a sub-head pointer, a sub-tail pointer until encountering an out-of-sequence packet. The DMA adapter also consumes packets between the sub-head pointer and the sub-tail pointer including incrementing with the consumption of each packet, the sub-head pointer until determining that the sub-head pointer is equal to the sub-tail pointer. In response to determining that the sub-head pointer is equal to the sub-tail pointer, the DMA adapter determines whether the head pointer is pointing to the next in-sequence packet. If the head pointer is pointing to the next in-sequence packet, the DMA adapter resets the sub-head pointer and the sub-tail pointer to the head pointer. If the head pointer is not pointing to the next in-sequence packet, the DMA adapter resets the sub-head pointer and the sub-tail pointer to the next in-sequence packet.
US09158712B2
A computer implemented method creates a snapshot of a logical volume of a computer. The computer stores a system state of the computer in persistent memory. The computer flushes a cache of the computer. The computer identifies a preceding snapshot. In response to identifying the preceding snapshot, the computer hardens changes occurring after the preceding snapshot. The computer then switches from a first indirection table to a second indirection table.
US09158704B2
A computer system using virtual memory provides hybrid memory access either through a conventional translation between virtual memory and physical memory using a page table possibly with a translation lookaside buffer, or a high-speed translation using a fixed offset value between virtual memory and physical memory. Selection between these modes of access may be encoded into the address space of virtual memory eliminating the need for a separate tagging operation of specific memory addresses.
US09158697B2
A method for cleaning a cache of a processor includes: generating a specific command according to a request, wherein the specific command includes an operation command, a first field and a second field; obtaining an offset and a starting address according to the first field and the second field; selecting a specific segment from the cache according to the starting address and the offset; and cleaning data stored in the specific segment.
US09158696B2
This disclosure provides techniques and apparatuses to enable early, run-ahead handling of IC and ITLB misses by decoupling the ITLB and IC tag lookups from the IC data (instruction bytes) accesses, and making ITLB and IC tag lookups run ahead of the IC data accesses. This allows overlapping the ITLB and IC miss stall cycles with older instruction byte reads or older IC misses, resulting in fewer stalls than previous implementations and improved performance
US09158695B2
The present disclosure is directed to a system for dynamically adaptive caching. The system includes a storage device having a physical capacity for storing data received from a host. The system may also include a control module for receiving data from the host and compressing the data to a compressed data size. Alternatively, the data may also be compressed by the storage device. The control module may be configured for determining an amount of available space on the storage device and also determining a reclaimed space, the reclaimed space being according to a difference between the size of the data received from the host and the compressed data size. The system may also include an interface module for presenting a logical capacity to the host. The logical capacity has a variable size and may include at least a portion of the reclaimed space.
US09158689B2
Technologies are described herein generally relate to aggregation of cache eviction notifications to a directory. Some example technologies may be utilized to update an aggregation table to reflect evictions of a plurality of blocks from a plurality of block addresses of at least one cache memory. An aggregate message can be generated, where the message specifies the evictions of the plurality of blocks as reflected in the aggregation table. The aggregate message can be sent to the directory. The directory can parse the aggregate message and update a plurality of directory entries to reflect the evictions from the cache memory as specified in the aggregate message.
US09158666B2
If simultaneous replacement main system and standby system of a management module was necessary due to a failure, fault or other problem in a structure containing redundant management modules, then the management information retained in the management module will be lost. A computer system contains an external storage device that is outside the manager module. This external storage device stores the same information as the management information held by the main system management module, and after replacing the management modules the management information held in the external storage device is restored in the management module. A switch is further included between the external storage device and the management module, and controlling this switch from the management module allows the plurality of management modules to exclusively access the external memory device.
US09158660B2
An aspect includes enabling and disabling execution of a run-time instrumentation facility. An instruction for execution by the processor in a lesser privileged state is fetched by the processor. The instruction is executed based on determining, by the processor, that the run-time instrumentation facility permits execution of the instruction in the lesser-privileged state and that controls associated with the run-time instrumentation facility are valid. The run-time instrumentation facility is disabled based on the instruction being a run-time instrumentation facility off (RIOFF) instruction. The disabling includes updating a bit in a program status word (PSW) of the processor to indicate that run-time instrumentation data should not be captured by the processor. The run-time instrumentation facility is enabled based on the instruction being a run-time instrumentation facility on (RION) instruction. The enabling includes updating the bit in the PSW to indicate that run-time instrumentation data should be captured by the processor.
US09158645B2
A method for continuous data transfer when a USB mass storage device is disconnected and reconnected is provided. The method may include monitoring state information from one or more mass storage devices, using a software driver to detect a change in state of the mass storage device on the computer. Active I/O transfers using the USB mass storage device are paused when the software driver detects that the USB mass storage device is detached from the computer. A configurable timer is started. The software drive may detect the attaching of a USB device. If, prior to the expiration of the timer, the software driver verifies that the USB mass storage device is the same that was previously attached to the computer, active I/O transfers are continued.
US09158641B2
A cloud auto-test method used in a cloud auto-test system including a processing module is provided. The cloud auto-test method includes the steps outlined below. A test management virtual machine is constructed by the processing module. An under-test object is read to monitor and update the version of the under-test object. At least one test flow including at least one test item is established and managed. A test operation virtual machine is constructed such that the under-test object having the latest version is loaded to the test operation virtual machine. An auto-test process is performed on the under-test object in the test operation virtual machine according to the test flow. A result of the test process analyzed.
US09158640B2
A mechanism is provided for context-aware irritation of a micro-processor. At each executed phase in a set of phases of a test case being executed on a set of micro-processors, a determination is made of a set of characteristics associated with the given executed phase of the test case. Based on the set of determined set of characteristics associated with the given executed phase, a determination is made of an irritation to be executed alongside the given executed phase of the test case. The determined irritation is then executed alongside the given executed phase of the test case.
US09158639B2
A method and apparatus for determining correlation between input and output messages in a system under test (SUT) is provided in the present invention. The SUT is provided with preset watch-points, and the running of the SUT is detected by triggering watch-points in a test platform at its run time. The method includes the steps of: upon detecting a message input operation, finding a variable that stores an input message, associating the variable with a tag of the input message, and adding a watch-point for the variable in the test platform; as well as, upon detecting network output operation, finding a variable that stores an output message of the SUT; and determining correlation between the output message and an input message according to a tag associated with the variable that stores the output message.
US09158635B2
A first Policy and Charging Rules Function “PCRF” server for recovery of a Policy and Charging Control “PCC” system. The PCC system also has a second PCRF server previously in charge of controlling an Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network “IP-CAN” session previously established with a UE, and a PCRF-client. The first PCRF server includes a network interface unit of the first PCRF server arranged for receiving a modification request of the IP-CAN session from the PCRF-client after failure of the second PCRF server which was in active mode. The first PCRF server has a PCRF identifier which is shared with the second PCRF server that has failed. The first PCRF server now in active mode. The modification request requesting new rules for the IP-CAN session, including modification data and excluding access data and supported features for the IP-CAN session. The first PCRF server includes a processing unit of the first PCRF server arranged for determining that the IP-CAN session is unknown, and arranged for submitting a request from the network interface unit of the first PCRF server to the PCRF-client to provide all information that the PCRF-client has regarding the IP-CAN session. The information includes all data required to be sent for the IP-CAN session establishment and synchronization data. A Policy and Charging Rules Function “PCRF”-client for recovery of a Policy and Charging Control “PCC” system. Methods for recovery of a Policy and Charging Control “PCC” system with a first Policy and Charging Rules Function “PCRF” server in standby mode, a second PCRF server in active mode, and a PCRF-client, wherein an IP-CAN session is already established with a UE and controlled by the second PCRF server. A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for recovery of a Policy and Charging Control “PCC” system.
US09158630B1
In one aspect, a method includes marking a list of locations currently being shipped to a replica site, generating course granularity hash signatures of data for each area of memory in the snapshot volume, generating fine granularity hash signatures of data for each subarea of memory in the snapshot volume, sending course granularity hash signatures to the replica site for each area not being changed in a production volume and sending fine granularity hash signatures to the replica site for each area being changed in the production volume. The snapshot volume is a snapshot of the production volume.
US09158622B2
Disclosed is a storage device which includes a nonvolatile memory device including a memory block a program order of which is adjusted regardless of an arrangement of memory cells, and a memory controller that performs address mapping to replace a bad page of the memory block with a normal page of the memory block.
US09158621B2
A method of copying data includes receiving a command instructing copying of data from a source location in the memory die to a destination location in the memory die. The method includes determining if a criterion is met, including comparing a predefined parameter to a dynamic threshold. In response to determining that the criterion is met, the method includes executing the copying by moving the data from the source location in the memory die to the controller die and, after moving the data to the controller die, moving an error-corrected version of the data from the controller die to the destination location in the memory die. In response to determining that the criterion is not met, the method includes executing the copying by moving the data inside the memory die source location to the destination location without moving the data to the controller die.
US09158619B2
An apparatus, system, and method provide for on chip redundancy repair for stacked memory devices. A memory device may include a memory stack including one or more layers of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and a system element coupled with the memory stack, the system element including a memory controller for control of the memory stack, and repair logic that is coupled with the memory controller. The repair logic is to hold repair addresses that are identified as failing addresses for defective areas of the memory stack, with the repair logic to receive a memory operation request and implement redundancy repair for an operation address for the request using a repair logic memory to store the repair addresses and data for the repair addresses.
US09158614B2
Disclosed is a unit for allowing a user, when any error occurs in a service, to easily ascertain the degree of influence on the service provision due to the error. In order to solve the above-described problem, there is provided a service management device including a graphing unit that graphically displays, on an identical time series graph, an access frequency to a predetermined service provided on a computer network and a predicted access frequency to the service in a state where no error occurs in the service, and displays an error occurrence time, on the time series graph, when the error occurs in the service.
US09158613B2
A data storage device includes a non-volatile memory that includes a three-dimensional (3D) memory and circuitry associated with operation of memory cells of the 3D memory. The non-volatile memory includes a word line coupled to a plurality of storage elements. A method includes detecting a condition associated with a defect in the word line. A first subset of the plurality of storage elements and a second subset of the plurality of storage elements are determined based on an estimated location of the defect. The method further includes determining a first read threshold for the first subset and a second read threshold for the second subset.
US09158607B2
Subject matter described pertains to apparatuses and methods for operating a memory device.
US09158605B2
A system and method for repairing corrupt software components of a computer system. Corrupt software is detected and repaired utilizing an automated component repair service. Repair files are downloaded from an external storage location and used to repair the corruption. The downloaded files are preferably the smallest amount of data necessary to repair the identified corruption. The process of repairing corrupt files is used in conjunction with a software updating service to resolve problems that occur when corrupt software is updated by allowing a corrupt component to be repaired and then uninstalled such that an updated component can be properly installed.
US09158567B2
A method includes configuring a host system to instantiate a virtual machine using server configuration information from a virtual machine monitor (VMM) and configuring a switch network to provide the virtual machine with access to resources on the switch network using network configuration information from the VMM. A VMM includes a workload with a server configuration module that configures a host system to include a virtual machine, and a network configuration module that configures a switch network coupled to the host system, such that the virtual machine obtains access to resources on the switch network.
US09158564B2
Certain aspects of the present disclosure are directed to a computer system, including: a hypervisor configured to run on a CPU and to provide a first domain; and a virtual baseboard management controller (BMC) stack configured to run in the first domain or as part of the hypervisor. Certain aspects of the present disclosure are directed to a non-transitory computer readable medium that stores instructions executable by at least one processor, the instructions including loading a virtual baseboard management controller (BMC) stack in a first domain of, or as a part of, a hypervisor running on the processor.
US09158559B2
Methods are disclosed for managing configuration variables and settings within a note-taking application such that application features are adjusted globally across an entire note-taking application regardless of the particular device from which application content is accessed. The configuration variables and settings may pertain to any or all of a variety of application features such as but not limited to adjustment of client, user and content-specific configuration options.
US09158558B1
A computer-implemented method for providing application manifest information may include analyzing source code of a software application. The method may also include detecting that the source code is programmed to access a computer resource and determining a security implication of the source code being programmed to access the computer resource. Determining the security implication may include providing a notification of the security implication of the source code to a developer of the source code. Determining the security implication may also include providing information about the security implication in an application manifest. Systems and computer-readable-media for creating and editing application manifests are also disclosed.
US09158556B2
Techniques for managing web content creation include identifying a portal meta-model comprising one or more rules defining relationships between portal objects, and characteristics of the portal objects; receiving a portal model through a graphical user interface (GUI), the portal model comprising one or more customizable constraints on the relationships between the portal objects and the characteristics of the portal objects; identifying one or more portal objects comprising portal content; and applying the one or more rules and the one or more customizable constraints to the identified one or more portal objects.
US09158547B2
Hardware and software techniques for interrupt detection and response in a scalable pipelined array processor environment are described. Utilizing these techniques, a sequential program execution model with interrupts can be maintained in a highly parallel scalable pipelined array processing containing multiple processing elements and distributed memories and register files. When an interrupt occurs, interface signals are provided to all PEs to support independent interrupt operations in each PE dependent upon the local PE instruction sequence prior to the interrupt. Processing/element exception interrupts are supported and low latency interrupt processing is also provided for embedded systems where real time signal processing is required. Further, a hierarchical interrupt structure is used allowing a generalized debug approach using debut interrupts and a dynamic debut monitor mechanism.
US09158541B2
A processor may include a physical register file and a register renamer. The register renamer may be organized into even and odd banks of entries, where each entry stores an identifier of a physical register. The register renamer may be indexed by a register number of an architected register, such that the renamer maps a particular architected register to a corresponding physical register. Individual entries of the renamer may correspond to architected register aliases of a given size. Renaming aliases that are larger than the given size may involve accessing multiple entries of the renamer, while renaming aliases that are smaller than the given size may involve accessing a single renamer entry.
US09158536B2
An approach for integrated development environment (IDE)-based program code library consolidation in a networked computing environment (e.g., a cloud computing environment) is provided. Under this approach, it may be determined whether to consolidate a first set of program code libraries in an integrated development environment (IDE). The determination may be based on consolidation criteria applicable to the first set of program code libraries. Based on the determination, the first set of program code libraries may be consolidated based on a set of consolidation preferences and a set of consolidation rules to yield a second set of program code libraries. An ordered list identifying the second set of program code libraries may then be generated.
US09158535B2
A network-based application development and distribution platform allows application developers to build, modify, and configure dynamic content applications (especially mobile applications) remotely, and without requiring manual software coding. Smart endpoints facilitate creation of distributable applications for multiple operating systems, form factors, access methods, and/or device types, while creating only a single product and associating the product with the desired endpoints corresponding to the operating systems, form factors, access methods, and/or device types. The platform also facilitates software updates, as updates can be made to the product once, rather than once for each version of the application.
US09158531B2
A method for updating game software is performed at a first client device. While a game session related to the game software is running at the first client device, the first client device performs steps including: identifying updating data for the game software and predefined criteria for locating one or more other client devices that possess the updating data; locating at least one second client device in accordance with the predefined criteria; sending an outgoing downloading request to the located at least one second client device; and upon acceptance of the outgoing downloading request by the at least one second client device, downloading the updating data from the located at least one second client device. The downloading further comprises dynamically adjusting respective bandwidth allocated to the downloading in accordance with data transmission need of the game session.
US09158528B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for facilitating an upgrade of a cluster of servers in the presence of one or more inaccessible nodes in the cluster. During operation, the system receives an instruction to upgrade an older version of a distributed software program installed on each of a plurality of nodes forming the cluster. The system installs and activates a newer version of software on a subset of the plurality of nodes, the subset having fewer nodes than the entire cluster. The system receives an instruction to forcibly upgrade the cluster. Subsequently, the system upgrades the cluster so that the subset of nodes operate with the newer version of software, in which each node remains a member of the cluster during the upgrade.
US09158527B2
An upgrade system, an upgrade type of which may be adaptively changed, and an upgrade method includes a server, an upgrade type of which may be adaptively changed, a client, an upgrade type of which may be adaptively changed, and a ticket controlling apparatus. The server includes: a server interface unit receiving information relating to an upgrade from a ticket controlling apparatus comprising a ticket; a pushing unit in which at least one client to be upgraded is registered; and a pushing scheduling unit connecting to the ticket controlling apparatus, receiving the information relating to the upgrade from the server interface unit, and scheduling an upgrade of the at least one client by using the pushing unit based on the received information relating to the upgrade. The ticket comprises information about a distribution strategy, information about the upgrade type, and information about a module to be distributed.
US09158520B2
Method, system, and programs for providing packages to applications is disclosed. An application that is executable on a plurality of device platforms is generated. The application is deployed to a client device. A package list received from the client device is analyzed to determine package dependencies for packages on the package list. The packages on the package list and dependent packages are provided based on the package dependencies to the client device. The packages and dependent packages may be installed by the client device to ensure that the application is executable based on characteristics of the client device.
US09158510B2
Techniques for using a proxy model to encapsulate one or more telecommunications (telecom) functionalities are provided. The techniques include generating a proxy model, wherein the proxy model comprises at least one of a representation module, an implementation module, a metadata module, one or more utility snippet modules, one or more unit test code modules and a module linking to one or more blogs, and using the proxy model to encapsulate one or more telecom functionalities. Techniques are also provided for creating a telecom service using the proxy model.
US09158501B2
A method and apparatus for generating random numbers based on packetized media data comprising querying one or more packetized media devices for a predetermined number of bits from one or more current real-time transport protocol (RTP) session, receiving the predetermined number of bits from the one or more packetized media devices, assembling the predetermined number of bits into a set of bytes; and converting the second set of bytes into a numerical value.
US09158499B2
Embodiments of an electronic circuit comprise a module, such as a security module, configured to perform cryptographic processing for a predetermined security protocol that includes random number checking. The security module is controlled by a descriptor that includes instructions that cause the security module to access a generated random number, compare the generated random number to a random number stored during a previous execution of the descriptor, and generate an error signal when the generated random number and the previous execution random number are equal.
US09158495B2
A method and system for a software driver of a graphics controller to work with a display codec. The software driver may be configured to work with different display codecs at different periods of time while using a default configuration. Other embodiments are also described.
US09158490B2
An image forming system includes a server, a first image forming apparatus, and a second image forming apparatus. The server includes: a registration unit that stores identification information for the first image forming apparatus in the first memory; a job obtaining unit that obtains a print job; and a job transmission unit that, upon receiving a request including the identification information stored in the first memory, transmits the print job. The first image forming apparatus includes: a second memory that stores the identification information; and a first job reception unit that transmits the request including the identification information stored in the second memory to the server and receives the print job. The second image forming apparatus includes: an identification information obtaining unit that obtains the identification information; and a second job reception unit that transmits the request including the obtained identification information to the server and receives the print job.
US09158484B2
An image processing apparatus capable of performing calibration includes a storage unit configured to store a calibration job for performing calibration and a normal job for performing image processing in order of reception, a judgment unit configured to judge whether to interrupt the normal job during execution of the normal job and to perform the calibration job, and a control unit configured to interrupt processing of the normal job to be in a state where the processing can be resumed and perform the calibration job if it is judged that the calibration job is to be performed, and to perform the calibration job after the stored normal job is completed if it is judged that the calibration job is not to be performed.
US09158461B1
A combination of a host system and data storage system that enables accurate performance testing of the storage subsystem is disclosed. In one embodiment, a driver of a host system receives a command message from a host system application. The command message enables the driver to generate and communicate one or more storage access commands to the data storage system. The driver then receives one or more execution results from the data storage system and determines and communicates the total execution time of the one or more storage access commands to the host system application. When the host system application determines performance of the data storage system the undesirable impact of the communication overhead between the host system application and the driver is minimized. Accordingly, accurate performance measurements of data storage systems are obtained.
US09158455B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, are described for combining the crop function with zoom, pan and straighten functions as part of a single cropping environment, such that a user can select a portion of an image for cropping, apply zoom, pan and straighten transformations to the selected image portion and then crop the transformed image portion in a single utility. In one aspect, the methods include the actions of receiving user input defining a crop region within a displayed image. The methods also include the actions of displaying a user interface including a cropping panel that is configured to display a subset of the image corresponding to the defined crop region. Further, the methods include the actions of receiving user input requesting to perform at least one of a zoom, rotate or translate operation on the crop region displayed in the cropping panel.
US09158454B2
“Real-world” gestures such as hand or finger movements/orientations that are generally recognized to mean certain things (e.g., an “OK” hand signal generally indicates an affirmative response) can be interpreted by a touch or hover sensitive device to more efficiently and accurately effect intended operations. These gestures can include, but are not limited to, “OK gestures,” “grasp everything gestures,” “stamp of approval gestures,” “circle select gestures,” “X to delete gestures,” “knock to inquire gestures,” “hitchhiker directional gestures,” and “shape gestures.” In addition, gestures can be used to provide identification and allow or deny access to applications, files, and the like.
US09158453B2
A Human-Machine Interface (HMI) system comprises a machine interface, a processing system, and a user interface. The machine interface receives operational data associated with an operation of a machine. The processing system processes the operational data associated with the operation of the machine to determine a trend in the operational data. The user interface displays a graphical representation of the trend, and receives a first user input and a second user input simultaneously on a surface of the user interface. The processing system processes the first user input and the second user input to determine a change in the trend. The user interface displays a graphical representation of the change in the trend.
US09158451B2
A method for displaying data in a terminal having a touch screen, the method comprises: displaying data in a data display area and determining whether a touch event is sensed in a data display mode; checking an area where the touch event is sensed, and checking whether the touch event was moving if the touch event is sensed; checking a direction of motion of the touch event if the touch event was moving; rotating the data display area according to the direction of motion of the touch event; and displaying data of the order according to the rotating direction in an area where the rotated data is being displayed.
US09158450B2
A handwriting input device in which a handwriting input is possible to a touch panel which is superimposed on a display screen including: an inputted contents processing section for recognizing a content by the handwriting input and setting up a area on the display screen based on an recognition result; an application software determining section for determining an application software which should be started up based on the recognition result and starting up the application software; and a result processing section for inserting information acquired by the started application software into the area and displaying on the display screen.
US09158443B2
Methods and arrangements to manage transparent windows are described herein. Embodiments may comprise logic such as hardware and/or code to select one or more windows to make transparent and to switching the active window between source and target windows via the position of the mouse. Many embodiments provide a right click, pop-up menu (i.e., pressing the right mouse button generates a pop-up menu), a pull-down menu, or a button associated with windows. These features may allow a user to select individual or all windows to be transparent. A transparent window provides some view of windows or objects below the transparent window while providing some view of the contents such as graphics and/or text in the transparent window. Embodiments may also include management logic such as hardware and/or code to facilitate selection of a transparent window to make the window active.
US09158438B2
The present disclosure describes methods, systems, and computer program products for providing a multi-level user interface theming engine. One computer-implemented method includes initiating a start of a user interface following receipt of a theming request, requesting available themes for presentation in the user interface, receiving a request to access an existing theme, receiving theming data responsive to a generated request to load the existing theme, and receiving a request to publish modified theming data.
US09158433B1
Methods of interfacing with a terminal based operating system include receiving a block of text including a plurality of lines of text, displaying the block of text on a terminal window, presenting a selection cursor on the displayed block of text at a cursor location on the terminal window, wherein a size of the block of text is equal to a screen size of the terminal window, receiving a cursor selection while the cursor is positioned at the cursor location, presenting a menu including menu options corresponding to available actions that can be taken, receiving a command corresponding to one of the menu options, identifying a text object associated with the cursor location wherein a size of the block of text is equal to a screen size of the terminal window, and executing the one of the menu options on the text object.
US09158432B2
A region recommendation device 100 includes a visibility analysis unit 101 which identifies a region where a viewing order satisfies a set criterion as a frequent viewing region, a selection possibility analysis unit 102 which identifies a object which the selection possibility satisfies a set criterion as a frequent selection object, and a recommended-region identification unit 103 which recommends a suitable region from among regions besides the region in which the placed frequent selection object in the frequent viewing region.
US09158430B2
Various embodiments provide a target element zoom component that is configured to perform a focal point zoom operation on a target element using an appropriate zoom factor. In at least some embodiments, the target element zoom component receives a request to perform a zoom operation at a focal point of a target element in a page displayed in a display area. In at least some embodiments, the request is received via two-finger tap input on a screen of a touch enabled device. The target element zoom component then determines an appropriate zoom factor for the zoom operation. Responsive to determining the appropriate zoom factor, the target element zoom component performs the zoom operation on the page using the appropriate zoom factor so that the target element remains within the display area with the focal point retained.
US09158427B1
The present invention discloses an electromagnetic sensing touch screen, which includes a display panel, a sensing capacitor matrix, select units, voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs), digital potentiometers, EM (electromagnetic) wave receive/detection units, a standard EM wave transmit unit and a control unit. A single detection unit consists of a corresponding select unit, VCO, digital potentiometer and EM wave receive/detection unit. The control unit drives the standard EM wave transmit unit to transmit standard EM wave, and further controls the EM wave receive/detection units to receive sensed capacitance values from the sensing capacitor matrix in a scanning manner. As a result, each EM wave receive/detection unit generates a respective detection signal for determining the location of the finger(s) and checking how the finger(s) approaches to or actually touches the sensing capacitor matrix, thereby generating finger location information and implementing the multipoint touch and display function.
US09158423B2
A method for detecting presence of an interference source is to be performed by a touch sensing system that stores a threshold capacitance difference. The method includes the steps of sampling capacitances periodically within a time period for obtaining a base capacitance value; sensing a comparison capacitance after the time period; computing an absolute difference between the comparison capacitance and the base capacitance value; and determining that the interference source is present when the comparison capacitance is smaller than the base capacitance value and the absolute difference is greater than the threshold capacitance difference.
US09158411B2
In a low-latency touch-sensitive device, post-processing is performed to convert a two-dimensional map of signal strengths into usable touch events. Four such post-processing procedures are disclosed: field flattening, touch point detection, interpolation and touch point matching between frames. The field flattening procedure subtracts an offset to remove crosstalk between rows and columns, and compensates for differences in amplitude between particular row/column combinations due to attenuation. The touch point detection procedure computes coarse touch points by finding local maxima in the flattened signal. The interpolation procedure computes fine touch points from the coarse touch points. In an embodiment, such interpolation is done by fitting the coarse touch points to a paraboloid. The frame matching procedure matches the calculated touch points to each other across frames.
US09158403B2
Capacitances caused by respective electrodes of a touch panel, which is used to detect an instruction position of the user based on a change in capacitance, are measured, and it is determined whether or not a difference between the measured value and a reference value is larger than a threshold. When it is determined that the difference is larger than the threshold, a portion corresponding to the electrode on the touch panel is detected as the instruction position of the user. After detection, when the difference continues for a predetermined period time, the measured value is set as a new reference value.
US09158396B2
An OLED display device has a built-in touch panel and includes an upper substrate and a lower substrate arranged opposite to each other, a thin film transistor array formed on the lower substrate, an organic light emitting array formed on the thin film transistor array, a touch sensor array formed on the upper substrate opposite to the lower substrate for sensing external touch by a capacitive type, an upper contact pad formed on the upper substrate to be connected to the touch sensor array, a lower contact pad formed on the lower substrate opposite to the plurality of upper contact pads, a conductive spacer connected between the upper contact pad and the lower contact pad, and a signal transmission film electrically connected to a main pad formed on the lower substrate and the lower contact pad for supplying signals for controlling the thin film transistor array and the touch sensor array.
US09158394B2
A stylus provided in the present invention is utilized to input accompanying with a capacitive touch panel. The stylus includes a housing, a magnetic core and a pen tip. The magnetic core is disposed inside the housing. The magnetic core has an axial through hole which defines a bore diameter. The pen tip is disposed at an end of the housing, and the pen tip is made of conductor. The pen tip has a rod portion and a contacting portion. The rod portion is inserted into the axial through hole, and the contacting portion protrudes from the pen shell. The contacting portion has a cylindrical surface and a part spherical surface. The cylindrical surface defines a first diameter; the part spherical surface defines a second diameter. The first diameter is less than the second diameter, and the first diameter is greater than or equal to the bore diameter.
US09158382B2
The obtaining condition input user interface receives a gesture input while a subject appearance image (human body icon) is displayed, the endoscope condition identification unit recognizes an endoscope gesture representing an insertion path of an endoscope in the subject represented by the subject appearance image based on position information of the gesture and a position of the subject appearance image on the display surface and if, the endoscope gesture is recognized, identifies a medical information obtaining condition for obtaining medical information of an actual and/or a virtual endoscopic examination of the subject, the medical information obtaining unit selectively obtain medical information satisfying the identified medical information obtaining condition from the medical information database storing a plurality of sets of medical information, and the medical information display control unit displays the obtained medical information.
US09158381B2
Systems and methods for detecting and analyzing bodies visible to an input source are disclosed herein. Analysis of detected bodies can be used in gesture recognition. In particular embodiments, detection and recognition of hand and portions thereof, including fingers and portions thereof (e.g., fingertips) can be performed to recognize gestures related to the hand. Recognition and analysis of bodies visible to an input source can occur using, for example, blob detection techniques, machine learning techniques, and various calculative techniques including statistical analysis, application-specific equations, and estimations related to bodies anticipated to be visible to the input source.
US09158362B2
In some embodiments, the invention involves a system and method relating to managing power utilization in systems having multiple processing elements. In at least one embodiment, the present invention is intended to control the sleeping/wakefulness of processing elements, as necessary, to maintain a preferred level of power utilization in the platform. Activity is routed to sequestered processing elements instead of sleeping processing elements to save power.
US09158351B2
A method and apparatus for dynamic power limit sharing among the modules in the platform. In one embodiment of the invention, the platform comprises a processor and memory modules. By expanding the power domain to include the processor and the memory modules, dynamic sharing of the power budget of the platform between the processor and the memory modules is enabled. For low-bandwidth workloads, the dynamic sharing of the power budget offers significant opportunity for the processor to increase its frequency by using the headroom in the memory power and vice versa. This enables higher peak performance for the same total platform power budget in one embodiment of the invention.
US09158339B2
A solar notebook computer includes a storage battery and at least one solar panel. The solar panel is connected electronically with said storage battery through a regulated constant current circuit unit, and, the regulated constant current circuit unit is inside of the host of the notebook computer or outside of the notebook computer. Said at least one solar panel is movably set on the casing of the notebook computer through a connecting equipment. The solution is simple, easy to carry, conductive to environmental protection and expands the functions of the notebook computer.
US09158338B2
A mobile device includes a docking unit for docking with an external device, and an integrated circuit chip including an impedance matching circuit for impedance matching of an internal bus outside of the integrated circuit chip, wherein activation or deactivation of the impedance matching circuit is determined based on whether the docking unit is docked.
US09158331B2
Various embodiments enable on-demand scaling of a timer wheel. Some embodiments dynamically start and stop a timer wheel based, at least in part, on whether the timer wheel has any associated active timers. In some cases, the timer wheel is suspended when all associated active timers have been serviced. Alternately or additionally, the timer wheel is re-activated upon associating one or more active timers in need of service to the timer wheel. Various embodiments enable addition and removal of timer(s) to the timer wheel and/or various time slots associated with the timer wheel without using a global lock associated with the timer wheel.
US09158324B2
An integrated circuit includes a process voltage temperature (PVT) effect transducer responsive to a PVT effect, a PVT effect quantifier coupled to the PVT effect transducer and configured to quantify the PVT effect to provide an output, and a bias controller configured to receive the output of the PVT effect quantifier and provide a bias voltage for a substrate of an NMOS or a PMOS transistor. The bias controller is configured to compare the output received from the PVT effect quantifier to a threshold value, and decrease or increase the bias voltage depending on whether the output is higher or lower than the threshold value.
US09158318B2
According to one embodiment, the voltage divider circuit divides the output voltage, and generates a feedback voltage. The output voltage switching transistor has one end connected to a feedback voltage side, and operates based on an output voltage switching signal. The first condenser has one end connected to the one end of the output voltage switching transistor, and the other end connected to a control terminal of the output voltage switching transistor.
US09158317B2
An internal voltage generation circuit including a drive control signal generator and an internal voltage driver. The drive control signal generator generates a drive control signal in response to an active pulse signal and a drive signal. The internal voltage driver, electrically coupled to the drive control signal generator, divides a level of an internal voltage signal in response to the drive control signal to generate a division voltage signal, compares a level of the division voltage signal with a level of a reference voltage signal to generate the drive signal, and drives the internal voltage signal in response to the drive signal.
US09158315B2
A constant on time mode power supplier uses longer constant on time when the output voltage of the constant on time mode power supplier is drooped due to load variation, to increase energy provided to the output of the constant on time mode power supplier for preventing the output voltage from undershooting and shortening the time for the output voltage to recover stable.
US09158302B2
An overheating detection processing system monitors in real time and stores data samples from the different types of power plant overheating detectors. The system determines a likelihood of whether a stored detector output sample reading, alone or in combination with other readings, is indicative of monitored power plant equipment overheating. The system references previously stored information in an information storage device that associates respective types of detector sample reading levels with equipment overheating. The system also compares a combination of stored sample readings and establishes overheating determination confidence levels. The confidence levels information is combined to derive an overall confidence level of whether the power plant equipment is overheated. An overheating alarm response is initiated if an overheating condition is determined at any confidence level. Additional responses are made based on a combination of calculated confidence levels.
US09158299B2
A robot system includes a first cell and a second cell. The first cell includes a first robot, a first controller, and a first casing. The first robot performs work on a to-be-worked material. The first controller controls the first robot. The first casing accommodates the first robot and the first controller. The second cell includes a second robot, a second controller, and a second casing. The second robot performs work on a to-be-worked material. The second controller controls the second robot. The second casing accommodates the second robot and the second controller. When the first casing and the second casing are connected to each other, the first controller and the second controller respectively control the first robot and the second robot to work in a common operation area, where a first movable area and a second movable area overlap.
US09158293B2
Systems and methods for determining how to stack containers/trailers on a vehicle consist at a terminal/yard at least to maintain aerodynamic efficiency. Embodiments of the present invention provide a terminal management software application configured to determine how to stack containers/trailers on vehicles of a vehicle consist, taking into account a resultant aerodynamic efficiency of the vehicle consist during transit as well as other factors.
US09158287B2
An information processing apparatus includes: a communication device communicating with an external device and a clock server; a first clock measuring a local time; a second clock measuring a time based on time information from the clock server; a storage device storing setting information; and a controller performing: when receiving the time information from the external device, judging whether a specified condition is met; when the specified condition is met, setting a time indicated by the time information to the first clock as the local time; when the specified condition is met, controlling the first clock to measure the local time, without the controller setting the time to the first clock as the local time; setting the time indicated by the time information to the second clock and setting a time determined based on the time of the second clock and the setting information to the first clock.
US09158285B2
A thin and flexible wrist watch that includes a segmented e-paper display screen for displaying time. The watch is programmable and rechargeable by interaction with a base station.
US09158278B2
An image forming apparatus includes a sheet conveyance passage, a photosensitive drum, a transfer unit, a fixing section, a conveyance unit, one or more detection sensors, an airflow generating section, a cooling airflow passage, and a shielding member. The conveyance unit is at an opposite side of the transfer unit from the photosensitive drum with a predetermined clearance from the transfer unit. Each detection sensor is disposed to face the transfer unit in cross section intersecting the axial direction of the photosensitive drum. The sheet detection sensor performs a predetermined detection. The airflow generating section causes a cooling airflow to flow between the transfer unit and the conveyance unit in the axial direction. The cooling airflow passage guides the cooling airflow toward each detection sensor. The shielding member blocks an airflow from a location around the transfer unit toward the cooling airflow passage in a direction intersecting the axial direction.
US09158269B2
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus may include a body frame; a developer cartridge; a toner cartridge mounted in the body frame to be detachable, and is configured to move to a first location where the toner cartridge starts to connect to the developer cartridge to supply toner and to a second location where the connection is completed; at least one first location regulating member provided in the developer cartridge and regulating a relative location of the toner cartridge with respect to the developer cartridge when the toner cartridge is located in the first location; and at least one second location regulating member provided in the body frame and regulating a relative location of the toner cartridge with respect to the developer cartridge so that the toner cartridge is spaced apart from the at least one first location regulating member when the toner cartridge is located in the second location.
US09158266B2
A waste toner conveying device for conveying waste toner removed from an image carrier to a waste toner container includes a waste toner conveying path including at least a falling and conveying path for letting the waste toner fall under its own weight; a toner bridging prevention member configured to move in the falling and conveying path to prevent bridging of the waste toner; a drive source configured to drive the toner bridging prevention member; a drive transfer member configured to transfer a driving force from the drive source to the toner bridging prevention member; and a toner adhesion prevention member configured to prevent the waste toner from adhering to the drive transfer member.
US09158260B2
An image forming apparatus includes a developing roller, a conveyance roller which conveys a sheet; a driving source which provides a driving force to the developing roller and the conveyance roller, a developing driving gear mechanism which transmits the driving force of the driving source to the developing roller, and a conveyance driving gear mechanism which transmits the driving force of the driving source to the conveyance roller. The developing driving gear mechanism includes a developing driving switching mechanism which causes a rotating direction of the developing roller when the first driving source rotates in a first direction to be same as the rotating direction of the developing roller when the first driving source rotates in a second direction reverse to the first direction.
US09158258B2
An image formation apparatus includes an image formation apparatus body, and a replacement member detachably provided in the image formation apparatus body and configured to be used for image formation. The replacement member includes a first storage to store a life determination value used in life determination of the replacement member. The image formation apparatus body includes a connection section configured to be connected to the first storage of the replacement member, and a controller configured to operate in: a first processing mode of accessing the first storage of the replacement member to acquire the life determination value and managing the life of the replacement member based on the acquired life determination value; and a second processing mode of managing the life of the replacement member such that the quality of image formation using the replacement member is not lower than that obtained through operation in the first processing mode.
US09158250B2
A fixing device includes: an endless fixing member; a heating unit that is provided inside an inner peripheral surface of the fixing member; and a nip forming unit that comes into press-contact with a rotationally driven pressing member with the fixing member interposed therebetween to form a nip. The nip forming unit has a shape in which a center of a contact surface protrudes toward the pressing member compared to both ends. The nip forming unit has a protruding amount at a center toward the pressing member compared to both ends of the nip forming unit in no-load state is set to be less than a bent amount of the nip forming unit when the nip forming unit comes into press-contact with the pressing member with the fixing member interposed therebetween.
US09158249B2
A fixing member including a base; a first elastic layer overlaid on an outer circumference of the base, the first elastic layer formed of a silicone rubber composition including a heat conductive filler and a micro-balloon, the heat conductive filler of the first elastic layer is a heat conductive needle shaped filler; a second elastic layer overlaid on an outer circumference of the first elastic layer, the second elastic layer formed of a silicone rubber composition including a heat conductive filler and a micro-balloon, the heat conductive filler of the second elastic layer is a heat conductive needle shaped filler and a heat conductive sphere shaped filler; and a release layer overlaid on an outer circumference of the second elastic layer. An amount of the heat conductive filler of the second elastic layer is larger than an amount of the heat conductive filler of the first elastic layer.
US09158242B2
An image forming apparatus, including: an image bearing member; a transfer member to which a transfer voltage is applied to transfer the toner image on the image bearing member to a recording medium; a transfer voltage applying unit configured to apply the transfer voltage to the transfer member to make a value of a current flowing through the transfer member into a set current value; and a control unit configured to control the transfer voltage applying unit by changing stepwise the set current value according to a resistance of the transfer member, wherein the control unit sets a set current value smaller than a target current value when a target voltage value is larger than a preset threshold voltage value, the target current value being set according to the resistance of the transfer member, the target voltage value being applied to flow a current of the target current value.
US09158241B2
An image forming apparatus includes: a first image bearing member (drum); a second drum; a transfer belt; a first transfer member provided correspondingly to the first drum via the transfer belt; a second transfer member provided correspondingly to the second drum via the transfer belt; a high-voltage power source; and a controller. After an image is continuously formed on transfer materials by applying, to the first transfer member, a voltage of a predetermined polarity from the power source in a state that the first transfer member contacts the transfer belt and the second transfer member is spaced from the transfer belt, the controller executes an adjusting operation in which a voltage of a polarity opposite to the predetermined polarity is applied from the power source to the first transfer member in a state that the second transfer member is spaced from the transfer belt.
US09158235B1
There is provided a developing apparatus which, when using a conveying member having a resin-made rotation shaft member, is capable of preventing fusion and adhesion of a toner in a vicinity of a bearing resulting from friction between the rotation shaft member and the bearing. A developing apparatus includes a developing tank; a first developer conveying section and a second developer conveying section; a first bearing and a second bearing; a first temperature rise suppression section and a second temperature rise suppression section which a have higher thermal conductivity than those of a first rotation shaft member and a second rotation shaft member as well as those of the first bearing and the second bearing; and a deflection suppression belt which is stretched out by the first temperature rise suppression section and the second temperature rise suppression section.
US09158225B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member which bears an electrostatic latent image; a developing device including a developing container which contains a developer, a developer carrying member which carries the developer to develop the electrostatic latent image, and an electrode member provided in the developing container; a voltage applying device which applies an alternate-current voltage to the developer carrying member; and a detecting device which detects information on a capacitance between the developer carrying member and the electrode member when the voltage applying device applies the alternate-current voltage to the developer carrying member in forming an image. The voltage applying device has, as the alternate-current voltage, a first alternate-current voltage having a first peak-to-peak voltage and a first frequency, and a second alternate-current voltage having a second peak-to-peak voltage higher than the first peak-to-peak voltage and a second frequency lower than the first frequency.
US09158223B2
In an image forming apparatus, deterioration of images is suppressed when distortions of scanning lines of a plurality of light sources are corrected. Image data is corrected each in a sub-scanning direction corresponding to the plurality of light sources, in accordance with distortion characteristics of the scanning lines of the plurality of light sources, for each of divided regions, common to a plurality of light sources, divided in a main-scanning direction, and the plurality of light sources are driven based on the image data each corrected corresponding to the plurality of light sources.
US09158221B2
An image forming apparatus includes: a casing; a belt unit including a first roller, a second roller positioned higher than the first roller and a belt; image bearing members; developer containers; a removing member; an accommodating member; and a conveying member. The image bearing members includes a first image bearing member and a second image bearing member. The removing member is positioned adjacent to the second image bearing member and below an imaginary plane. The accommodating member accommodates the waste toner removed by the removing member, and is positioned adjacent to the first image bearing member and above the imaginary plane. The accommodating member is mounted in and removed from the casing along with a first developer container corresponding to the first image bearing member. The conveying member conveys the waste toner removed by the removing member to the accommodating member.
US09158188B2
There are provided a light source device where optical axes of a light source element and a lens are parallel and the element and the lens are disposed at a predetermined distance, a projector and a light source device fabrication method. A light source device includes a light source element having a flange portion and a cylindrical portion smaller in diameter than the flange portion, a light source element holder disposed abutting a rear of the flange portion, a collimator lens disposed at the front of the element, an annular member disposed between the element and the lens and of which a rear end face abuts a front surface of the flange portion and of which a front end face abuts a rear surface of the lens and a collimator lens holder which accommodates the lens in a hole portion.
US09158184B2
A device, method, and program stored in a recording medium are provided. A sampling time period and, a value of limit angle are set. Inclination of the projector device is detected with respect to a horizontal surface to output a plurality of inclination angle values of the projector device. A representative angle value of a current sampling time period is calculated based on the plurality of inclination angle values and the difference between the representative angle value and a representative angle value from a previous sampling time period is calculated. It is determined whether the difference in representative angle value is equal to or greater than the limit angle value to generate a determination result. Finally, trapezoidal distortion in the image is corrected based on the inclination angle values detected when the determination result indicates that the difference is equal to or greater than the limit angle value.
US09158177B2
A supercontinuum optical source comprises a laser source apparatus comprising at least one laser, the laser source apparatus configured for providing first and second signals; a modulator apparatus downstream of at least one laser of the laser source apparatus for modulating at least one of the first and second signals, the modulator apparatus including at least one modulator; a combiner downstream of the modulator apparatus for combining the first and second signals; an amplifier downstream of the combiner for amplifying the first and second signals after combination; a nonlinear element downstream of the amplifier for receiving the first and second signals after amplification, the nonlinear optical element providing spectral broadening responsive to the first signal and wherein the second signal does not substantially contribute to spectral broadening; and an output for outputting spectrally broadened light from the optical supercontinuum source.
US09158171B2
A pixel structure includes a first sub-pixel, a second sub-pixel, and a third sub-pixel, the three sub-pixels are arranged in a row and are all divided into a first region and a second region. The first region of the first pixel is above the second region of the first pixel. The first region of the third pixel is above the second region of the first pixel. The first region of the second pixel is below the second region of the second pixel. The first regions of two adjacent sub-pixels are not adjacent such that two first regions do not form the two consecutive points and thus do not form a lightspot. Furthermore, in a low grey value display, the color-mixing effect is better because the first regions of sub-pixels are arranged in a triangle distribution. This also improves the color-mixing effect of RGB colors.
US09158170B2
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device, an array substrate in the LCD device, and a method of manufacturing the array substrate are proposed. The LCD device includes an array substrate, a color filter (CF) substrate, and a liquid crystal (LC) layer sandwiched between the array substrate and the CF substrate. A voltage-applying circuit, an auxiliary wire, and a first test pad are disposed on the array substrate. The auxiliary wire is adjacent to the voltage-applying circuit. The auxiliary wire and the voltage-applying circuit are made of the same unit and undergo the same process. If the reference wire is examined to be defective, it could refer that the voltage-applying circuit might have a fault after references and comparisons. So the array substrate could be controlled or repaired, reducing the number of defective products.
US09158167B1
A liquid crystal display device may include a substrate. The liquid crystal display device may further include a pixel electrode disposed on the substrate. The liquid crystal display device may further include a common electrode overlapping the pixel electrode, wherein a liquid crystal injection hole is formed through at least the common electrode. The liquid crystal display device may further include a liquid crystal layer disposed between the pixel electrode and the common electrode. The liquid crystal display device may further include a light-blocking element disposed inside the liquid crystal injection hole.
US09158164B2
A pixel array substrate and a display panel are provided. The pixel array substrate includes a substrate, scan line groups, data lines, and pixel structures. The scan line groups are disposed on the substrate. The data lines are intersected with the scan line groups. The pixel structures are connected to the scan line groups and the data lines. Each pixel structure includes an active device group, a first pixel electrode, a second pixel electrode, and a connection electrode. The first pixel electrode is located between the second pixel electrode and the nth scan line group. The connection electrode is located at a side of the first pixel electrode adjacent to one data line. The second pixel electrode is electrically connected to the active device group through the connection electrode. The connection electrode, the first pixel electrode, and the second pixel electrode are of the same layer.
US09158160B2
The present invention prevents the shaving of an alignment film caused by a columnar spacer in a liquid crystal display device of an IPS method using photo-alignment. A plinth higher than a pixel electrode is formed at a part where a columnar spacer formed over a counter substrate touches a TFT substrate. When an alignment film of a double-layered structure is applied over the pixel electrode and the plinth, the thickness of the alignment film over the plinth reduces by a leveling effect. When photo-alignment is applied in the state, a photodegraded upper alignment film over the plinth disappears and a lower alignment film having a high mechanical strength remains. As a result, it is possible to prevent the shaving of the alignment film.
US09158156B2
This invention relates to a transmissive liquid crystal display including a light source (BL), a reflective linearly-polarizing layer (Pr1), a birefringent layer (A) having specific optical properties and specific retardation properties, a light source-side absorptive linearly-polarizing layer (P1), a liquid crystal cell (LC), and a viewer-side linearly-polarizing layer (P2) which are arranged in this order. In the transmissive liquid crystal display of the invention, light leakage is suppressed in oblique directions so that black brightness can be reduced. A reduction in contrast in the normal direction can also be suppressed, which is caused by the distribution of light to the normal direction.
US09158154B2
A backlight module is disclosed, which includes an outer frame having a sidewall and a hole formed on the sidewall, an inner frame disposed inside of the outer frame, and an adhesive device. The inner frame includes a block wall and a support. The block wall has an inner surface, an outer surface, and a breakable section. The outer surface is in contact with the sidewall, and the breakable section is disposed corresponding to the hole. The adhesive device is disposed on the support.
US09158142B2
A display unit and an electronic device and an assembling method are provided, wherein the electronic device includes a case and a display unit. The case includes a holding compartment. The display unit is accommodated in the holding compartment, and includes a display module, a transparent cover layer and a transparent adhesive tape. The transparent adhesive tape is configured between the display module and the transparent adhesive tape, and the transparent adhesive tape is adhered to the transparent cover layer. The transparent adhesive tape includes a flange portion extending beyond the display module, and the flange portion can be bent to secure the display unit to the case.
US09158139B2
A method for manufacturing a Mach-Zehnder modulator includes the steps of forming a stacked semiconductor layer, the stacked semiconductor layer including a first conductivity type semiconductor layer, a core layer and a second conductivity type semiconductor layer, forming a waveguide mesa, the waveguide mesa having a first portion, a second portion and a third portion arranged between the first and second portions; forming a buried region on the waveguide mesa; forming an opening in the buried region on the third portion by etching the buried region using a mask; etching the second conductivity type semiconductor layer in the third portion through the buried region as a mask; and removing the buried region after etching the second conductivity type semiconductor layer. In the step of etching the second conductivity type semiconductor layer, the buried region covers a side surface of the third portion of the waveguide mesa.
US09158135B1
Ancillary or secondary displays usable with various electronic devices are described herein. In some implementations, the ancillary display may include a dual hinge to allow the ancillary display to act as a cover for a portion of an associated electronic device. In some implementations, the ancillary display may include a magnetic connector capable of providing a mechanical coupling with an electronic device. The magnetic connector may also provide a pathway for the transmission of data and/or power between the ancillary display and the electronic device.
US09158129B2
Lenses for correcting presbyopia are translating, multifocal contact lenses with pseudotruncations which are asymmetric about the vertical meridian.
US09158126B1
An adjustable eyewear temple system is disclosed. The system includes both a substantially rigid temple piece and a flexible cable temple piece, wherein the cable temple piece extends through a channel along the inside of the rigid temple piece. An adjustment piece allows the cable temple piece to be stored within the rigid temple piece when not needed. The system appears to a passerby as a standard temple piece due to the location of the channel and adjustment piece on the inside.
US09158125B2
An eyewear system including eyeglasses having first and second lenses; first and second nose pads; and a bridge operably connecting the first and second lenses, the bridge being bendable from a bridge rest position to permit relative movement between the first and second nose pads and providing a bridge pinch force of 50 g or less between the nose pads when the nose pads are moved 7 mm or less from the bridge rest position.
US09158119B2
Disclosed is an enlargement optical system configured to form an image of an object at an enlargement side, including a lens system and a mirror system in order from a side of the object, the lens system including at least one lens, the mirror system including a first mirror and a second mirror in order from a side of the object, and the second mirror being an concave mirror, wherein an intermediate image conjugate to the object is formed at a side of the object with respect to the second mirror and the first mirror is held to be capable of adjusting a position thereof.
US09158117B2
A spectra shaping apparatus for chirped pulse amplification(CPA) comprises a CTSI spectral decomposition system and a CTSI spectral synthesizing system being symmetrical, and a spectral modulating system composed of a diaphragm (10) and a plane spectra modulating reflector (5), wherein the CTSI spectral decomposition system totally expands a laser chirped pulse to a spectra plane, the spectral modulating system performs a spectra modulation on the image plane, and the CTSI spectral synthesizing system reverts the modulated spectra into the chirped pulse without distortion, thereby realizing spectra shaping. The apparatus has the feature of manufacturing easy, compacting structure, requiring less space, and cheap in cost etc., which can be different types of configuration for different circumstance application, and which can be utilized in a general laser spectrum shaping and spectrum modulation, especially for a high energy and ultra-high peak-power laser system with a large caliber and a broadband of pulse.
US09158112B2
A light scanning apparatus includes a light source, a deflector configured to deflect a light flux from the light source, and an imaging optical system configured to guide the light flux deflected at the deflector onto a scanned surface. The imaging optical system consists of a single imaging optical element, wherein, on the optical axis of the imaging optical system, the conditions 0.15≦T2/Sk≦0.3 and 0.03≦d/K≦0.08 are satisfied. A condition 0.3≦B≦0.6 is satisfied at a condensing position Y where a scanning angle θ is greatest, when the condensing position Y in the main scanning direction on the scanned surface of the light flux deflected at the scanning angle θ by the deflector is expressed by Y=(K/B)×tan(B×θ).
US09158111B2
An optical scanning device for scanning a photoreceptor surface with beams includes a light source that emits multiple beams in one direction, a deflector for deflecting the beams, a detector for detecting light intensities of the beams, and a switch for switching travel routes of the beams between a first route leading from the light source to the deflector and a second route leading from the light source to the detector.
US09158109B2
Optical systems with aspherical optical elements are described. The aspherical optical elements have surfaces in which the in-plane radius of curvature spatially varies and the in-plane cross section surface profile is characterized in that the multiplication of the cosine of the incidence angle raised to a non-zero exponent by the in-plane radius of curvature varies less than twenty percent between any two points on the in-plane cross section surface profile.
US09158105B2
The present invention provides a transmission/reflection dual-functional electrowetting display panel, which has two operation modes of transmission and reflection and specifically includes a plurality of main pixel (20). Each main pixel (20) includes a plurality of sub-pixels (22). Each sub-pixels (22) includes: a first, a second, and a third substrates (42, 44, 49), a light-blocking control layer (46), and a color displaying layer (48). The light-blocking control layer (46) includes: a first reflection electrode (53) and a first transmission electrode (54) and a first polar solution (55) and a nonpolar light-absorbing solution (56). The color displaying layer (48) includes a second reflection electrode (63) and a second transmission electrode (64) and a second polar solution (65) and a nonpolar color-displaying solution (66). The transmission/reflection dual-functional electrowetting display panel of the present invention improves the flexibility of use, the contrast ratio, and the transmission ratio of the electrowetting display panel.
US09158098B2
The 1st positive lens unit is located closer to the object side at the telephoto end than at the wide angle end. The distance between the 1st negative lens unit and the 1st positive lens unit is larger at the telephoto end than at the wide angle end. The distance between the image side lens unit group and the 1st negative lens unit varies during zooming from the wide angle end to the telephoto end. The image side lens unit group comprises a 2nd positive lens unit and a 3rd positive lens unit. The distance between the 2nd positive lens unit and the 1st negative lens unit is smaller at the telephoto end than at the wide angle end. The distance between the 3rd positive lens unit and the 2nd positive lens unit varies during zooming from the wide angle end to the telephoto end.
US09158097B2
Optical arrangement for varying a magnification or a refractive power in an optical path, wherein this optical arrangement as a whole encompasses at least two different possible magnifications or refractive powers, comprising a first optical element having a refractive power and a second optical element having a refractive power, characterized in that this optical arrangement comprises at least one optical switch, wherein the first optical element having a refractive power and the second optical element have a refractive power are spaced apart from one another.
US09158092B2
A zoom lens system comprising a plurality of lens units, wherein a lens unit located closest to an object side and a lens unit located closest to an image side are fixed with respect to an image surface in zooming from a wide-angle limit to a telephoto limit at a time of image taking, and at least three lens units among all the lens units are moving lens units that move along an optical axis in the zooming, at least one lens unit among the moving lens units is a focusing lens unit that moves along the optical axis in focusing from an infinity in-focus condition to a close-object in-focus condition, and the following condition: Σ(Tn)/H≦2.1 (Σ(Tn): the total of axial thicknesses of all the moving lens units, H: the maximum image height) is satisfied.
US09158089B2
An optical auxiliary unit includes a housing frame, an optical filter and an actuator structure. The housing frame is temporarily placed on a temporary auxiliary carrying substrate, and the housing frame has a bottom opening enclosed by the temporary auxiliary carrying substrate and a top opening opposite to the bottom opening. The optical filter is fixed on the housing frame, and the top opening of the housing frame is enclosed by the optical filter. The actuator structure is fixed on the housing frame to cover the optical filter, and the actuator structure includes a lens holder fixed on the housing frame and a movable lens assembly movably disposed inside the lens holder and above the optical filter.
US09158083B2
An ultrasonic motor includes a member to be driven including a contact surface; a vibrator including at least one contact part and a piezoelectric element, the vibrator driving the member to be driven by an ultrasonic vibration excited by the piezoelectric element; a retention part for retaining the vibrator; and a pressurization unit including an elastic member so as to apply an impressing force on the at least one contact part against the member to be driven. The retention part includes an abutting part including a line contact part that receives the impressing force from the elastic member and comes into line contact with the pressurization unit; the abutting part has a shape formed of a part of a cylinder; and a center axis of the cylinder is parallel to the at least one contact part and perpendicular to a driving direction of the member to be driven.
US09158082B2
A connector, which can protect a photoelectric conversion device from noise and has high durability includes a plug provided at one end of an optical fiber and a receptacle to which the plug is mounted from above. The plug includes a photoelectric conversion device composed of a semiconductor device that is not covered with a metal case and a metal member provided so as to cover an upper side of the photoelectric conversion device. The receptacle includes a metal housing to which the plug is fixed. The plug and the receptacle are fixed to each other only by engagement between the metal member and the metal housing.
US09158076B2
An on-site hot-melt quick connector for optical fibers comprises a plug housing, a ferrule, an optical fiber telescopic protective tube, a tail end cover, a pressure welding protective tail handle and a compression ring. A front baffle ring is mounted in the plug housing and a rear baffle ring is mounted in the tail end cover. The ferrule and the optical fiber telescopic protective tube are positioned between the front baffle ring and the rear baffle ring and can move in the axial direction. As the quick connector for optical fibers of the invention has a definite space for movement in the axial direction, the optical fibers themselves can move along with the plugging action during butting, avoiding the bending of the optical fibers caused as they are unable to move, thus guaranteeing the transmission quality of the optical signals. The service life of the quick connector is also guaranteed.
US09158074B2
A pivotable cable connection device for a pair of fiber optic connectors includes a carriage and a housing. The carriage includes a body defining a hub pin receiver and an actuator pin slot. A face is connected to the body and defines an opening. The housing is received within the carriage so as to extend through the opening. The housing includes a housing axis and a hub pin. The hub pin is received within the hub pin receiver. Additionally, the housing includes an actuator pin that is received within the actuator pin slot. The housing axis is substantially orthogonal to the face when the actuator pin is positioned in a first end of the actuator pin slot, and is positioned oblique to the face when the actuator pin is positioned in a second end of the actuator pin slot.
US09158068B2
Consistent with the present disclosure, an AWG is provided that has grating waveguide groupings that extend between a first free space region and a second free space region. The difference in length (ΔL) between successive grating waveguides differs for each grouping of grating waveguides, such that, for example, the ΔL associated with a given grating waveguide grouping is not an integer multiple of any of the other grating waveguide groupings. The grating waveguide groupings direct images having relatively small wavelength differences to a given output waveguide, and each grating waveguide grouping has an associated passband, which is similar to that of the conventional AWG. Unlike the conventional AWG, however, multiple grating waveguide groupings are included in the same AWG, such that the spectra associated with the grating waveguide groupings combine to provide a transmission characteristic having a passband that is greater than any individual passband. Accordingly, even if the optical signal wavelengths vary or are offset from the center wavelength of the passband, such wavelengths may still be transmitted with less loss.
US09158066B2
An optical fiber includes a core region having a longitudinal axis. A cladding region surrounds the core region. The core region and cladding region are configured to support and guide the propagation of signal light in a fundamental transverse mode in the core region in the directions of the axis. The fiber has a bend-induced gradient of its equivalent index of refraction indicative of a loss in guidance of the mode. At least a portion of cladding region has a graded index of refraction opposite the bend-induced gradient. The cladding region is configured to have a substantially flat equivalent index in response to a bend of the optical fiber.
US09158065B2
A hollow core fiber having polarization dependent loss is provided. The hollow core fiber embedded in a cellular cladding having a plurality of cells arranged in a nominally regular cellular lattice. A pre-determined number of cells at pre-determined locations within a cellular cladding are substituted by leakage cells that differ in at least one property including a physical or a chemical property, or both. The leakage cells collectively provide a leakage path that may preferably be made polarization sensitive, such that a core mode with a particular polarization state is selectively coupled to the cladding, thereby inducing polarization dependent loss. The leakage cells may be dispersed along a symmetry axis in a radial distance longer than one or more lattice spacing away from the core. The polarization dependent loss may be controlled further by asymmetric core shapes and/or by introducing additional surface features along the core-cladding interface.
US09158060B2
The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device and a backlight module incorporated in the liquid crystal display device. The backlight module includes a waveguide, an optical film, an elastic member, and an alignment pin. Wherein the elastic members support corners of the waveguide, and the optical film is disposed onto a surface of the waveguide facing away the elastic members. Wherein the alignment pin is arranged on a side of the elastic member facing the optical film which includes at least a positioning hole is defined, wherein the positioning hole envelopes onto the alignment pin and at least a portion of the alignment pin extending beyond the positioning hole. Wherein the aligning pin has an enlarged head portion having a diameter larger than a diameter of the positioning hole. By this arrangement, the optical film can be prevented from getting loosened, and the quality of the backlight module can be ensured.
US09158054B2
In one aspect, the present subject matter is directed to a sensor. The sensor includes an encapsulated fiber optic sensor and a ring shaped structure. The encapsulated fiber optic sensor passes through the ring shaped structure. The ring shaped structure is configured to resonate at a predetermined frequency.
US09158041B2
An optical sheet is incorporated in a direct type surface light source device including a light source and is configured to allow light emitted from the light source to exit after changing a travel direction of the light. The optical sheet has a light exiting side lens part including unit lenses juxtaposed to one another and each unit lens is convex toward a light exiting side. A light scattering layer, configured to scatter the light, is provided to each unit lens. The light scattering layer extends along a light exiting side surface of each convex unit lens and constitutes the light exiting side surface of the unit lens. A thickness of the light scattering layer around an apex portion of each unit lens is greater than the thickness of the light scattering layer around each end portion of the unit lens.
US09158035B2
Significant changes in monitored and reported operational parameters and/or power outage events occurring in a utility's electrical power transmission/distribution grid are correlated with historical, current and/or forecast weather events based on potential root cause, geographic and temporal constraints. Operational event and outage information is collected and time-stamped using a communication network of devices and sources that monitor and report, among other things, equipment parameters, electric power availability and outages. A computer-implemented root cause analysis engine (RCA) operatively associated with a computer-implemented weather data correlation engine sorts and analyzes operational parameter/event information and identifies probable correlations to localized weather phenomenon. Operational parameters/events are then displayed using a graphic display device in a manner that enables user controllable and configurable viewing of a time-lapse evolution of weather phenomenon overlayed with graphics representing both weather-related and other relevant operational parameters/events depicted in relation to the utility's physical infrastructure.
US09158032B2
An optical detection system. The optical detection system includes a host node having (a) an optical source for generating optical signals, and (b) an optical receiver. The optical detection system also includes a plurality of fiber optic sensors for converting at least one of vibrational and acoustical energy to optical intensity information, each of the fiber optic sensors having: (1) at least one length of optical fiber configured to sense at least one of vibrational and acoustical energy; (2) a reflector at an end of the at least one length of optical fiber; and (3) a field node for receiving optical signals from the host node, the field node transmitting optical signals along the at least one length of optical fiber, receiving optical signals back from the at least one length of optical fiber, and transmitting optical signals to the optical receiver of the host node.
US09158027B2
A mobile scanning system with a scanner including a radiation source and detectors mounted on a vehicle and arranged to scan an object, a controller mounted on the vehicle and arranged to control the scanner, an operator system arranged to be located remote from the vehicle and to communicate with the controller to enable an operator to interact remotely with the controller.
US09158026B2
A method for detection of underground anomalies including in a system of distributed antennas (10), which are leaky transmission lines, disposed in 16 boreholes (12) formed in a ground, a transmitter (14) being connected to one of the antennas (10), and a receiver (16) being connected to another of the antennas (10), injecting an electromagnetic pulse into one of the antennas (10), wherein the pulse gradually leaks out, and wherein if a speed of propagation in the line in which the pulse is injected is faster than a speed of propagation in the ground, a shock wave is transmitted through the ground, called a transmitted signal, and received as a received signal at another of the antennas (10), and wherein an underground anomaly diffracts the shock wave, resulting in a detectable disturbance in the received signal, and locating the anomaly as a function of a time delay of the disturbance relative to the transmitted signal.
US09158017B2
There is provided a seismic imaging technology for imaging a subsurface structure by processing measured data reflected from the subsurface structure after a wave from a source wave has been propagated to the subsurface structure. According to an aspect, there is provided a seismic imaging method for obtaining imaging data of a subsurface structure through waveform inversion using a macro-velocity model as an initial value, wherein the macro-velocity model which is used as the initial value for the waveform inversion is calculated by: calculating a velocity difference function which is a difference between a real velocity and an initial velocity model, wherein the velocity difference function is a ratio of measured seismic scattered energy and modeled scattered energy based on the initial velocity model; and calculating the macro-velocity model by updating the initial velocity model with the velocity difference function.
US09158011B2
A system for in situ nuclear measurement of alpha radiation of an effluent and a related method. The system includes: M diamond semiconductor detectors obtained by chemical vapor deposition, or silicon semiconductor detectors covered with a diamond layer, as alpha radiation detectors, configured to be immersed in the effluent, and to measure alpha radiation emitted by the effluent, M is an integer greater than or equal to 1; P measuring channels connected to the M alpha radiation detectors, P is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M, each of the P measuring channels configured to provide a value or a sum of alpha activity values from the M alpha radiation detectors to which they are connected; and, if P is greater than 1, a mechanism for adding together results from the P measuring channels.
US09158009B2
A reflective resin sheet is bonded to one face of a supporting substrate transmitting a radiation ray and a resin sheet of the same material as that of the reflective resin sheet to the other face of the supporting substrate. A phosphor layer converting a radiation ray into visible light is formed additionally on the reflective resin sheet formed on one face of the supporting substrate. The phosphor layer is enclosed with an additional moisture-proof layer and the reflective resin sheet. It is possible to obtain a scintillator panel higher in sensitivity characteristics, stabilized in quality and more cost-effective by placing the reflective resin sheet between the supporting substrate and the phosphor layer.
US09158005B2
An X-ray detector is disclosed. According to an embodiment of the invention, the X-ray detector includes at least two adjacently arranged detector elements, to each of which a high voltage is applied in order to detect incident X-rays. In this case, two adjacent detector elements are coupled to one another by way of a protection circuit, designed to limit a voltage difference between the two adjacent detector elements to a voltage value which is non-critical with regard to the formation of a flashover between the two detector elements.
US09158003B2
A multi-energy radiation detector may include an array substrate including a plurality of unit circuits, and/or a photoelectric conversion layer on the array substrate. The photoelectric conversion layer may include a plurality of regions having thicknesses different from each other. A method of manufacturing a multi-energy radiation detector may include forming gate and first electrodes by forming and patterning a first metal layer on a substrate; forming an insulating layer on the gate and first electrodes; forming a channel layer by forming and patterning a semiconductor layer on the insulating layer; forming source, drain, and second electrodes by forming and patterning a second metal layer on the channel layer; forming a passivation layer to cover the source, drain, and second electrodes; forming a first photoelectric conversion layer on the passivation layer; and/or forming a second photoelectric conversion layer on part of the first photoelectric conversion layer.
US09157999B2
Methods and apparatus are described for processing a set of GNSS signal data derived from code observations and carrier-phase observations at multiple receivers of GNSS signals of multiple satellites over multiple epochs, the GNSS signals having at least two carrier frequencies and a navigation message containing orbit information, comprising: obtaining precise orbit information for each satellite, determining at least one set of ambiguities per receiver, each ambiguity corresponding to one of a receiver-satellite link and a satellite-receiver-satellite link, and using at least the precise orbit information, the ambiguities and the GNSS signal data to estimate a phase-leveled clock per satellite.
US09157994B2
Methods and systems for dynamic range detection and positioning utilizing leaky wave antennas (LWAs) are disclosed and may include configuring one or more LWAs to enable communication of signals in a particular direction. RF signals that are reflected from an object may be received via the LWAs, and a location of the object may be determined based on the received reflected RF signals. The velocity of the object may be determined based on a Doppler shift associated with the received reflected RF signals. A frequency chirped signal may be transmitted by the LWAs to determine a location of the object. A resonant frequency of the LWAs may be configured utilizing micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) deflection. LWAs may be situated along a plurality of axes in the wireless device. The LWAs may include microstrip or coplanar waveguides, where a cavity height is dependent on spacing between conductive lines in the waveguides.
US09157989B2
Methods and apparatus are presented for distance measurement using laser pulses in which at least one of an attenuation function and an offset of the attenuation function relative to the send pulse is variable to accommodate differing measurement needs. In some embodiments, at least one of an attenuation function and an offset of the attenuation function is fixed relative to the send pulse for some number of measurement cycles and information derived from the result is used to modify either or both of the attenuation function and offset of the attenuation function relative to the send pulse for subsequent measurement.
US09157983B2
This system and method provides a direction finding system that enables modern RF DF systems to analyze short duration signals in the entire instantaneous bandwidth. By providing a method to process wideband data, the invention drastically improves throughput and probability of intercept (POI). The invention is unique in that it does not require separate narrowband channels for analysis, and can simultaneously calculate azimuth and elevation estimates for every frequency in the bandwidth of an incident signal. It is also well-suited for fixed point, FPGA implementations making it a perfect match for modern state-of-the-art processing systems. The system and method capitalizes on the ability of Fourier Frequency Transform operations to accurately resolve incident wave phase at discrete frequencies. The system then uses the phase information from the individual elements in the array to arrive at an emitter azimuth angle. The azimuth angle is nearly simultaneously used in concert with lookup tables of all possible elevation angles to compare the arrival time delay between the array elements to determine emitter elevation angle.
US09157977B2
According to one embodiment, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes; an imaging area setting unit configured to set an imaging area for a patient according to an imaging condition; an excitation angle determination unit configured to collect magnetic resonance signals from the imaging area by a pre-scan and to determine, on the basis of the collected magnetic resonance signal, an optimal excitation angle of a radio-frequency magnetic field for use in an imaging scan; and an imaging unit configured to acquire imaging data by carrying out the imaging scan of the set imaging area for the patient applying the radio-frequency magnetic field with the determined optimal excitation angle.
US09157975B2
A computer-implemented method for concurrently estimating the amount of fat and iron in anatomical tissue from magnetic resonance (MR) signal data includes receiving a test signal representative of the anatomical tissue acquired using a MR pulse sequence type. A repository of reference signal data is generated. The repository comprises a plurality of reference signals derived by an MR signal simulation for a plurality of different transverse relaxation rates, a plurality of different fat fractions, and the MR pulse sequence type. A first reference signal is identified in the plurality of reference signals. The first reference signal provides a best match to the test signal based on one or more matching criteria. The repository is searched to determine a first transverse relaxation rate and a first fat fraction associated with the first reference signal. Then, the amount of fat and iron in the anatomical tissue is estimated based on the first transverse relaxation rate and the first fat fraction.
US09157974B2
The invention relates to detecting coagulation and coagulation-related activities including agglutination and fibrinolysis of samples. More particularly the invention relates to methods and apparatus for monitoring coagulation and/or obtaining a coagulation time of a sample using NMR-based detectors.
US09157971B2
A radio frequency (RF) birdcage coil includes a first distributed capacitance end ring, a second distributed capacitance end ring, and a plurality of rungs connected between the first and second end rings, wherein at least one of the first and second distributed capacitance end rings includes a substrate having a first side and a second side, a first plurality of conductors formed on the first side, a second plurality of conductors formed on the second side, and an insulating material deposited on the first side such that the insulating material substantially covers the first plurality of conductors.
US09157970B2
A magnetic field sensor is employed to determine a rotational velocity of an element by sensing frequency variations in a magnetic flux during rotation of the element. The magnetic field sensor includes a sensor face provided with obstacles, such as a series of spaced, substantially parallel grooves arranged perpendicular to a direction in which contamination tends to move across the face during operation of the sensor. The obstacles inhibit movement of contamination across the face such that the contamination does not cause false variations in the magnetic flux which would degrade sensor signals.
US09157968B1
A method for characterizing the health of a rechargeable battery includes measuring initial condition parameters of a rechargeable battery prior to the battery being placed into service. A baseline normalization of the initial condition parameters is performed using a standardized relationship data set for a norm battery to generate baseline normalization coefficients to normalize the initial condition parameters to the norm battery. Run-time condition parameters of the battery are measured after the battery is in service as part of a continuous built in test system. The run-time condition parameters are normalized using the standardized relationship data set for the norm battery and the baseline normalization coefficients to generate normalized run-time condition parameters for the battery. The normalized run-time condition parameters are then compared to the standardized relationship data set for the norm battery to calculate a state-of-charge and state-of-health for the battery as the run-time condition.
US09157955B2
A chip damage detection device is provided that includes at least one bi-stable circuit having a first conductive line passing through an observed area of a semiconductor integrated circuit chip for damage monitoring of the observed area. The at least one bi-stable circuit is arranged to flip from a first stable state into a second stable state when a potential difference between a first end and a second end of the first conductive line changes or when a leakage current overdrives a state keeping current at the first conductive line. Further, a semiconductor integrated circuit device that includes the chip damage detection device and a safety critical system that includes the semiconductor integrated circuit device or the chip damage detection circuit is provided.
US09157952B2
A switch system having a plurality of switch inputs, a plurality of switch outputs, a switch matrix comprising a plurality of N×N switching elements to selectively couple one or more of the plurality of switch inputs to one or more of the plurality of switch outputs during use to provide one or more paths for routing signals from one or more of the switch inputs to one or more of the switch outputs during use.
US09157951B1
A system and method are provided for determining whether a vendor-neutral electronic display conforms to a standard. A vendor-neutral software product installed on a computer causes a portion of an electronic display to produce a first test output, the computer being coupled to the electronic display. A vendor-neutral portable device coupled to the computer captures a light characteristic of the first test output. A determination is made whether the captured light characteristic conforms to a standard.A meter comprises a plurality of photodiodes; a custom processor coupled to the plurality of diodes; and a USB link coupled to the custom processor and able to couple to a computer. The computer couples to an electronic display and includes a vendor-neutral software product that is able to cause a portion of the electronic display to produce a first test output. The plurality of photodiodes is able to capture a light characteristic of the first test output. The custom processor is able to determine whether the captured light characteristic conforms to a standard.
US09157944B2
A method and device for impressing a measuring-signal voltage (U) on a power supply network in which a generator signal (Usig) is alternately sampled by two sample-and-hold elements (20, S1, S3), the sampled values are alternately allocated to a first pulse sequence (P1) and a second pulse sequence (P2), the pulse sequences (P1, P2) are separately inductively transmitted and the secondary-side measuring-signal voltage (U) is formed by adding the induced partial voltages (U1, U2) together.
US09157942B2
An electrical power diagnostic device and methods are disclosed. A power-supply-side connector is operable to couple to a power supply, and a load-side connector is operable to couple to a load. At least one conductive path for electricity to flow between the power-supply-side connector and the load-side connector, and a diagnostic monitor is operable to monitor and change electrical properties of the power-supply-side connector and the load-side connector.
US09157941B2
A detachable electric power information display receptacle module includes an outlet apparatus and an electric power information display apparatus. The outlet apparatus is detachably connected to the electric power information display apparatus and has a power output interface and a power input interface. When an electrical device is connected to the outlet apparatus, the outlet apparatus detects the power consumption of the electrical device. The electric power information display apparatus receives the power consumption from a signal transmission line and displays electric power information. When the electric power information display apparatus is combined with the outlet apparatus, the detachable electric power information display receptacle module is performed as a portable electronic meter. When the electric power information display apparatus is separated from the outlet apparatus, the electric power information display apparatus may be placed in a proper position for user to review the electric power information conveniently.
US09157935B2
An apparatus for endpoint detection during removal of material from an electronic component includes a mounting plate operable to provide physical and electrical attachment for a device-under-test (DUT), a spindle operable to hold a tip for removing material from the DUT, a signal generator operable to provide an input signal to a first electrode, and a microprocessor connected to use an output signal from a second electrode to terminate the removal of material when an endpoint is reached, the first electrode being one of the tip and the DUT and the second electrode being the opposite one of the tip and the DUT.
US09157931B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a probe card capable of controlling generation of a scratch or an indentation in a connection pad and capable of controlling generation of heat in a connection pad and its vicinity having contacted a contact probe at low cost and in a simple way. A probe card includes a probe substrate, at least one contact probe electrically connected to a signal line provided to an insulating base of the probe substrate and fixed to the insulating base, and at least one engagement member installed on the contact probe at a position near a tip end portion of the contact probe. The engagement member has at least one engagement portion that makes abutting contact with another predetermined member during operation to restrain the operation of the contact probe.
US09157922B2
A dispensing method which dispenses a first liquid contained in a first vessel which stores the first liquid and a second liquid to introduce the first liquid into a second vessel by using a tube.
US09157921B2
The invention generally relates to mass spectral analysis. In certain embodiments, methods of the invention involve analyzing a lipid containing sample using a mass spectrometry technique, in which the technique utilizes a liquid phase that does not destroy native tissue morphology during analysis.
US09157919B2
The present invention relates to methods of identifying oligonucleotides capable of modulating the immune system in a mammalian subject, comprising analysis of which tertiary structural type said oligonucleotide adopts, in phosphate-buffered saline solution. Further, the invention provides oligonucleotides identifiable by the methods of the invention and to their use in methods of treating diseases, such as inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
US09157918B2
Monoclonal antibodies which bind specifically to the proinflammatory cytokine pyroglutamate MCP-1 (MCP-1 N1pE).
US09157908B2
Methods for culturing cancer cells in vitro using a three-dimensional scaffold, scaffolds that include the cultured cancer cells, and methods for using the cultured cancer cells and the scaffolds that include the cultured cancer cells in anticancer therapeutic drug development.
US09157906B2
The present invention provides methods and compositions for modulating the activity of phosphodiesterase 1B (PDE1B) in intracellular signaling pathways, including but not limited to, dopamine D1 intracellular signaling pathways. The invention also provides methods and compositions for modulating the activities of intracellular signaling molecules, including, but not limited to, DARPP-32 and GluR1 AMPA receptor, via modulation of PDE1B. The invention also provides pharmaceutical compositions and methods of screening for compounds that modulate PDE1B activity. The invention also provides methods of treating or ameliorating the symptoms of a disorder, including but not limited to a PDE1B-related disorder or a dopamine D1 receptor intracellular signaling pathway disorder, by administering a modulator of PDE1B, preferably, but not limited to, an inhibitor of PDE1B or an agent that decreases the production of PDE1B.
US09157889B2
A method for measuring surface property parameters of a material comprises: performing saturation processing on a surface of a material; mixing the material which has been processed by saturation with an indicating electrolyte solution; after the mixture solution achieves an balance by ion exchange, measuring the balanced concentration values of positive ions of the indicating electrolyte and H+ in the mixture solution; according to the balanced concentration values of positive ions of the indicating electrolyte, calculating surface potential of the material; and according to the surface potential of the material, calculating specific surface area and surface charge density of the material; according to surface charge density of the material, calculating surface electric field intensity; according to surface charge density and specific surface area of the material, calculating total surface charge of the material. A system for measuring surface property parameters of a material can be based on the method.
US09157886B2
The design and fabrication of ultrathin poly-3-hexyl thiophene (P3HT) film based amine sensors are described herein. Ultrathin P3HT monolayer films can be built on a patterned flexible n-octadecylphosphonic acid (ODPA)/Al2O3/PET substrate, forming a flexible polymer thin film transistor according to a solution process. The mechanism of the sensor is based on the interaction of amine molecules with the surface of the P3HT monolayer. The interaction of amine molecules with the surface of the P3HT monolayer can affect the current density of the PTFT, and the change in current density can indicate the presence of amine molecules in the surroundings. The amine sensors described herein can easily detect amine molecules in a parts per billion (ppb) range. The amine sensors can be utilized, for example, as disposable sensors within food packaging to ensure the safety of the packaged food.
US09157883B2
Various embodiments for methods and systems that allow for detecting of a direction in which a sample is flowing towards a plurality of electrodes and detecting a fill error of an electrochemical test strip.
US09157879B2
Examples of the present invention include apparatus and methods for monitoring aging of an item. A solid-state structure is located within, adjacent to, or otherwise proximate the item, the solid-state structure including nanostructures. The electrical resistance and/or magnetization of the solid-state structure is determined to determine the degree of aging of the item. In representative examples, the solid-state structure includes nanostructures of a metal, such as a ferromagnetic metal, within a non-magnetic matrix, such as a semimetal, semiconductor, or insulator.
US09157864B2
An analytical device including an optically opaque cladding, a sequencing layer including a substrate disposed below the cladding, and a waveguide assembly for receiving optical illumination and introducing illumination into the device. The illumination may be received from a top, a side edge, and a bottom of the device. The waveguide assembly may include a nanoscale aperture disposed in the substrate and extending through the cladding. The aperture defines a reaction cell for receiving a set of reactants. In various aspects, the device includes a sensor element and the illumination pathway is through the sensor element. Waveguides and illumination devices, such as plasmonic illumination devices, are also disclosed. Methods for forming and operating the devices are also disclosed.
US09157862B2
A medical examination device used for the detection of pre-cancerous and cancerous tissue has an illumination source, a visualization unit, a contacting optical probe, a detector and a process unit. One embodiment of the apparatus includes both a non-contacting macroscopic viewing device (the visualization unit) for visualizing an interior surface of the cervix, as well as a fiber optic wand (contacting optical probe) for spectrally analyzing a microscopic view of the tissue.
US09157849B2
Measuring device of the present invention includes a plurality of measuring sites for generating a plurality of optical paths and various dilutions. The range for concentration measurement and the measurement accuracy are enhanced due to the plurality of optical path length, and the interference on the measurement ranges and results caused by the concentration or the turbidity of suspended solid is reduced and removed by water sample dilution, and thus the characteristic wavelengths of the components in the water are measured. Next, the information of spectrum database is used to determine the ingredients which may exist in the water (qualitative analysis), and UV-VIS-NIR absorbance spectrum analysis is used to obtain the concentration of the respective ingredients in the water at the same time (quantitative analysis).
US09157848B2
A method and system is provided to detect deformations on a sheet metal panel. The method includes swiping the sheet metal panel's surface through a screening material to screen the deformations present on the sheet metal panel's surface, thereby establishing screened deformations. Further, rubbing an area around the screened deformations through a stone material determines the size of the screened deformations. Finally, measuring the size of screened deformations according to a measuring rule establishes a nature of the screened deformation.
US09157840B2
The present inventive concept provides a multiple separation device and a method of separating a blood cancer cell using the same. In the device and the method, a blood sample is put in a fine channel and then cancer cells can be separated according to the type of cancer by controlling a flow velocity of the blood or a magnetic force of ferromagnetic pattern.
US09157839B2
This document discloses, among other things, a method and system for a substrate having a bypass region for fluid flow. The substrate includes a plurality of fluid flow channels with each channel configured to concurrently allow fluid flow while precluding passage of a target particle or object.
US09157837B2
A collection device for use in connection with off-device testing of collected samples. The device includes a first panel having one or more apertures for receiving samples, a second panel opposite the first panel, and a removable tab having a first portion and a second portion. The first portion is aligned with at least one of apertures on the first panel and constructed such that depositing the sample through the at least one aperture causes the sample to be directly deposited on the first portion of the tab, and the second portion includes a sample-free grasping area accessible from an exterior of the device for removing the tab. A method of obtaining a sample is also disclosed.
US09157831B2
A numerical control device determines whether or not a spindle is in a cutting state where it machines a workpiece. If the spindle is in a cutting state, the numerical control device calculates a second rotational speed, which is obtained by multiplying a rotational speed of the spindle by a weight corresponding to a force on the spindle calculated based on a torque of a feed shaft, and integrates the calculated value into an index value. If the spindle is not in the cutting state, the numerical control device integrates the rotational speed of the spindle into the index value. The lifetime of a bearing is estimated based on the index value.
US09157823B2
The present invention provides a pressure gauge for measuring a pressure of a source. The pressure gauge includes a case, a flexible film, a magnetic device, a coil, a processor, and a screen. The case has a bore connecting the source. The coil is provided in the case. The flexible film is provided on an inner side of the case to cover the bore that the flexible film is expandable by the pressure of the source. The magnetic device is received in the case to be moved relative to the coil by the flexible film. The movement of the magnetic device causes the coil to generate an induced electromotive force, and the processor may find the gas pressure according to the induced electromotive force, and show it on the screen.
US09157818B2
A method for measuring torque measurement and generating a notifier, including searching for one or more wirelessly pairable load applying devices for applying a load to an object; displaying to a user those paired one or more load applying devices; responsive to selecting one of the displayed one or more load applying devices, receiving one or more of the group consisting of load measurements transmitted from the selected load applying device; and generating a notifier based on the proximity of the one or more of the group consisting of load measurements and torque measurements and a target value.
US09157815B2
Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for sensing pressure using an optical waveguide sensor. The apparatus for sensing pressure using an optical waveguide sensor, includes: a light source radiating light; an optical waveguide panel emitting some of the radiated light outside through a plurality of light transmitting regions previously formed, and changing an amount of totally reflected light according to pressure applied to at least one of the plurality of light transmitting regions; a detector detecting the amount of light; and an analyzer determining intensity and a location of the pressure according to the detected amount of light.
US09157805B2
According to the present invention, the gas adsorption capability of a getter can be maintained while the characteristics of an infrared ray sensor element are prevented from being deteriorated. An infrared ray sensor package has an infrared ray sensor element, a base substrate, a housing, an infrared ray transmission window, and a getter. The infrared ray sensor element is vacuum-sealed in a space surrounded by the base substrate, the housing, and the infrared ray transmission window. A spacer is disposed between the infrared ray sensor element and the base substrate to form a gap between the infrared ray sensor element and the base substrate. The getter is arranged in the gap formed between the infrared ray sensor element and the base substrate. A heat shielding member is disposed between the infrared ray sensor element and the getter. The heat shielding member is a heater for heating the infrared ray sensor element or an element formed of alloy containing Ni or heat-resistant glass.
US09157795B1
Example methods and systems for calibrating one or more light sources are described. One example method includes determining a position of at least three photosensors relative to a world frame, controlling an orientation of at least one light source so as to cause the at least one light source to project a light beam across an area encompassing the at least three photosensors, receiving signals indicating a sensing of a light beam directed at one of the photosensors, determining orientations of the at least one light source that cause a signal at one of the photosensors, and based on the position of the at least three photosensors and the orientations of the at least one light source that cause a signal at one of the photosensors, determining a transformation from a local frame of the at least one light source to the world frame.
US09157794B2
An imaging device includes an exposure control unit, a determination unit, and an illuminance calculation unit. The exposure control unit is configured to control a plurality of exposure times. The determination unit is configured to determine whether or not saturation occurs using at least one data item of a plurality of data items obtained during the plurality of exposure times. The illuminance calculation unit is configured to calculate, if the determination unit determines that the saturation occurs, an illuminance using a data item different from the at least one data item used in the determination.
US09157787B2
An interactive body weight scale is presented. The body weight scale may have computing and data communication ability to track a user's weight by connecting to a number of different electronic devices. The body weight scale is capable of recording an audio message, converting the audio message to message text, and transmitting the message to a remote social network. The scale may also receive message responses from the remote network and play the messages back based on whether a particular message is a positive message. A scale use indicator provides a reminder for a user to use the body weight scale.
US09157782B2
The present invention relates to a coverslipping machine (1) including: a hollow needle (2) for applying mounting medium onto a specimen slide (5); a transparent container (103) to be filled with a liquid; a light source (101) for radiating measurement light in a principal radiating direction (A) into the container (103); and a light sensor (102, 102′) for detecting the measurement light, the light source (101) being arranged with respect to the container (103) in such a way that the radiated measurement light is refracted by a liquid in the container whose fill level exceeds a fill level limit, the light sensor (102, 102′) being arranged with respect to the container (103) in such a way that only measurement light refracted by the liquid or only measurement light not refracted by the liquid is detected.
US09157766B2
Techniques for reconfiguring utility meters from a mobile mode to a network mode are discussed. A utility meter may be configured for operation in a mobile mode environment, wherein it transmits data using radio frequency (RF) transmissions, such as by “bubbling-up” a “standard consumption message” at intervals. However, a switchover from mobile mode to network mode may be scheduled. The switchover may involve a plurality of endpoints (i.e., metering devices together with associated mobile mode and network mode functionality) transitioning from mobile mode functionality to network mode functionality. In one example, processors on an endpoint using a first “image” including executable software providing mobile mode functions may reboot to use a second image providing fixed network mode functions (e.g., mesh or star network operability). Following the transition, the endpoints may discover adjacent or nearby endpoints, and a fixed network having network mode functionality may be configured.
US09157763B2
A process transmitter includes a sensor for producing an analog process signal as a function of a process parameter. The uncompensated analog process signal is digitized by an A/D converter and digitally compensated by a digital processor. The digitized signal from the analog-to-digital converter is also band pass filtered. The digitally compensated signal and the band pass filtered signal are combined to produce a transmitter output.
US09157751B2
A database for providing an optimal route may be provided. First and second levels of a navigation database may be defined. The first level is divided into a plurality of first tiles. The second level is divided into a plurality of second tiles that are larger than the first tiles. A plurality of link data records may be stored in the first level. The plurality of link data records are representative of a plurality of road segments in a geographic region. One or more link data records of the plurality of link data records to be stored in the second level may be determined. The determining is based on a position of the plurality of link data records relative to the plurality of second tiles. The determined one or more link data records may be stored in the second level.
US09157744B2
A method and apparatus for managing movement. A navigation system comprises a first inertial measurement unit enabled global positioning system device having a first inertial measurement unit with a first level of accuracy in a first vehicle and is configured to provide first information that identifies a position of the first vehicle relative to a second vehicle. The navigation system further comprises a second inertial measurement unit enabled global positioning system device in the first vehicle having a second inertial measurement unit with a second level of accuracy that is greater than the first level of accuracy and is configured to provide second information that identifies the position of the first vehicle relative to the second vehicle. The navigation system further comprises a controller that is configured to perform an action based on a desired level of accuracy of the first information.
US09157731B2
A spherical object is detected as it passes through an array of planer light beams and associated detectors. The construction of the apparatus is such that at least 4 planar light beams are obscured by the passing object, two parallel beams in one direction and two parallel beams in a second direction. The apparatus records the time at which each affected light beam is obstructed by the passing object. The apparatus then calculates the spatial position, velocity and trajectory of the object.
US09157728B2
An endoscope apparatus includes: an imaging unit which takes an image of an object; a display which displays the image and a cursor; an illumination unit which illuminates the object; a pointing device which is for placing the cursor; and a control unit which continuously monitors a cursor position placed by the pointing device, and continuously controls the illumination unit in accordance with a luminance of a partial region of the image corresponding to the cursor position so as to modulate a luminance condition of the image.
US09157724B2
The invention relates to a method and system for determining vehicle wheel alignment, and namely, camber angles, total and individual toe and front wheel steering axis caster and tilt angles (caster and kingpin inclination), by measuring changes in wheel sensor angles from a predetermined position. Changes are measured using gyroscopic sensors or MEMS angular rate sensors (MEMS gyroscopes).
US09157708B1
An EMF hardened igniter for electrically fired ammunition includes a central electrode, a dielectric that surrounds the central electrode, and a conductive body that surrounds the dielectric. A hot wire is fixed to an output end of the central electrode and to the conductive body. An ignition mixture is in contact with the hot wire. A cup surrounds and contains the ignition mixture. The cup is sealed to the conductive body. An outer surface of the central electrode is mechanically locked with an inner surface of the dielectric. An outer surface of the dielectric is mechanically locked with an inner surface of the conductive body.
US09157707B2
A combination fireworks device including at least one fire transmission unit including a plurality of single tubes placed in successive arrangement, wherein each of the plurality of single tubes includes a fire hole located on the tube side wall, and a single, continuous fuse connecting the plurality of single tubes to each other in series, wherein a portion of the fuse extends into the fire hole of each of the plurality of single tubes and the portion of the fuse includes a length of the fuse folded back onto itself in each fire hole.
US09157701B2
An electro-optic system, e.g., mounted to a weapon, measures down range winds and a range-to-target for compensating the ballistic hit point. The system may include an optical light source, collimated to generate a laser spot on the target. The system may include a wind measurement receiver that captures laser light scattered from the target. The captured light may be modulated by atmospheric scintillation eddies, producing optical patterns which change in time and move with the crosswind. These patterns may be analyzed by a processor using covariance techniques in either the time-domain or the frequency-domain to determine path-integrated crosswinds and associated errors. Ranging is done by measuring the time of flight of the laser pulse to the target collecting the scattered signal from the target. Compensated ballistic hit point, measurement errors and other data may be displayed on a micro-display digital eyepiece, or projected onto the direct view optics (DVO) of a riflescope so as to be overlaid in real-time on the optical image of the target.
US09157685B2
A heat exchanger is cleaned, inspected and/or plugged while the heat exchanger is in operation. In some embodiments, the heat exchanger includes a channel cover having valve-seal assemblies allowing isolation tools to be inserted through the channel cover into sealing engagement with the ends of tubes to provide a flow path separate from the normal flow paths through the heat exchanger. Cleaning and/or inspecting can be done through the isolation tools and tubes that are leaking can be plugged through the valve-seal assemblies. In some embodiments, brushes are located inside the heat exchanger and can be independently advanced into cleaning relation with a large majority of the tubes.
US09157682B2
A heat treatment furnace is provided which includes a gas generator with a methanol inlet connected to a methanol feed line and at least one gas outlet for dissociated methanol, wherein said gas generator is disposed to be in heat exchange contact with a cooling zone and a heating zone of the furnace.
US09157680B2
A drum-type drying device according to the invention includes a cylindrical drum section that is rotatably supported and rotated by winding a base material on the drum section, engaging portions that are disposed in an inner cavity of the drum section, and a heating section that includes engaged portions detachably engaged with the engaging portions.
US09157673B2
An upper suction port is formed in a main-body upper part of an air-conditioning apparatus main body, a suction opening part is formed in a front grill disposed on a main-body front face of the air-conditioning apparatus, a suction opening whose opening is directed upward is formed by consecutively providing an air guide wall inclined downward inside the main body on the upper edge of the suction opening, and the suction opening is located between a part, in the main-body height direction, lower than a straight line passing through a rotation center of an impeller and a closest contact point between the impeller and a front-face heat exchanger and a part, in the main-body height direction, higher than a straight line parallel with the straight line and passing through the impeller and a tongue part of a stabilizer.
US09157666B2
Equipment and processes for ground heat exchange are disclosed. Embodiments of the ground heat exchange system may comprise a geothermal well that includes an inner tube positioned coaxially inside a borehole in geologic units, a substantially-liquid impermeable outer liner sealed at the bottom, and a liquid supply system. The outer liner may include one or more layers of a substantially-liquid impermeable fabric or coating. A fluid such as water is supplied by the liquid supply system and flows co-axially through the inner tube. The fluid pressure in the annulus between the inner tube and the outer liner presses the outer liner against the borehole wall, providing sealing contact and preventing interconnection of aquifers of the geologic units.
US09157657B2
A method of cooling a solar concentrator includes absorbing heat from solar energy collectors into a chamber section. The chamber section is arranged below, in a heat exchange relationship, the solar energy collectors.
US09157651B2
A vapor mitigation system includes at least one vacuum pipe configured to collect vapors beneath a floor of a building, and a blower coupled to the at least one vacuum pipe. The blower is configured to create a vacuum under the floor of the building. The vapor mitigation system includes a controller configured to control a speed of the blower. The controller adjusts the speed of the blower in response to a level of vacuum created under the floor of the building.
US09157650B2
A heat source apparatus of a heat source system made up of a heat source machine side and a load facility side includes a heat source machine, and a heat source controller, wherein the heat source machine includes: a water heat exchanger that exchanges heat between heat source water and a refrigerant circulating through a refrigeration cycle; a primary pump that delivers heat source water to the water heat exchanger; and a heat source machine control device that operates based on information from the water heat exchanger and the primary pump, and wherein the heat source controller is connected to the heat source machine control device on a heat source side and to the load facility side so as to determine, after the primary pump is activated, whether or not the heat source water is normally fed by the primary pump based on a temperature difference between the heat source water before and after the water heat exchanger or a pressure difference between the heat source water before and after the water heat exchanger, and so as to then operate the refrigeration cycle after water feed is confirmed through water feed determination.
US09157647B2
An HVAC controller is configured to log one more user interactions into a user interaction log stored in its memory such that at least some of the user interactions may be recalled from the user interaction log and displayed on the user interface of the HVAC controller in response to a request by a user. The user may use the information contained in the user interaction log as an aid in troubleshooting an HVAC system.
US09157634B2
A heater and a method of its use are configured for use at cold operating temperatures. The heater has a supply line for transporting a volume of fuel between a fuel tank and burner. An inline heater is supplied in a supply line for the burner. The heater also has a return line that normally returns unused fuel from the burner to the heater, hence reducing the volume of fuel that needs to be heated by the heater and reducing system power requirements. The heater may be thermostatically controlled to maintain the temperature of the heated fuel to a value that is at or above a temperature required for good fuel atomization but below a flashpoint of the fuel. A valve is provided in the return line to permit diversion of the returned fuel to the fuel tank during a purge operation at initial startup.
US09157632B2
The invention relates to a water-cooled sliding combustion grate, comprising a combination of movable grate plates (6) and stationary grate plates (5). The length of the grate plates (5, 6) passing over the grate track width is more than 6 meters. The movable grate plates (6) are driven by one parallel drive each, which comprises two separate drive units, which can each move a respective end area of a movable grate plate (6) back and forth, wherein the two drive units can be synchronized. To separate the primary air transversely over the grate track over a plurality of areas, at least one partition can extend along the grate track under the grate. Each partition is moved along with the lower faces of the grate plates (5, 6) at the upper edge of said partitions so that said partitions are fully connected everywhere to the lower faces of the grate plates.
US09157620B2
A mounting arrangement for mounting an optical member to an oblong luminaire, comprising a plurality of mounting members, arranged to be fixed to an end cap at the narrow side of an oblong luminaire and to accommodate the optical member, wherein the plurality of mounting members comprises a first type of mounting member and a second type of mounting member.
US09157615B2
A lighting device includes a device body attached to an installation surface, one or more surface light-emitting modules held in the device body, and a cover held in the device body in an opposing relationship with light-emitting surfaces of the surface light-emitting modules. Each of the surface light-emitting modules includes a light-emitting unit having a light-emitting body and a base unit fixed to the device body and configured to removably hold the light-emitting unit by an elastic force. At least portions of the cover facing the light-emitting surfaces of the surface light-emitting modules are made of a light-transmitting material. The cover is held in the device body by a force stronger than the elastic force.
US09157612B2
A lighting assembly having a base body configured as a heat sink (18) having a front surface (18a), a board (14) carrying a light radiation source (12) applied on the front surface of the heat sink, and a fixing element (20) mounted on the front surface of the heat sink with the board arranged therebetween. The fixing element includes a window (22) which leaves at least partly uncovered the light radiation source, such window having side walls (220) which surround the light radiation source and spread outward to form a reflector for the light radiation.
US09157605B2
Proposed is an illumination device (100), comprising a light source (110) such as an LED or a laser diode, a wavelength conversion medium (120) such as a phosphor, and a periodic antenna array (300) made of a highly polarisable material such as a metal. The light source emits primary wavelength light that at least partially is converted in secondary wavelength light by the wavelength conversion medium. The periodic antenna array is positioned in close proximity to the wavelength conversion medium and functions to enhance the efficiency of the absorption and/or emission processes in the wavelength conversion medium through the coupling of the incident primary wavelength light or the emitted secondary light to surface lattice resonances that arise from the diffractive coupling of localized surface plasmon polaritons in the individual antennas of the array. This is especially advantageous for forming low étendue illumination device suitable for use in projection systems, or for controlling the directionality, the polarization, and/or the color of the secondary wavelength light.
US09157601B2
The present disclose relates to a lens unit. The lens unit includes a first lens and a second lens. The first lens includes a first light input surface, a first light output surface opposite to the first light input surface and a first side surface connected to the first light output surface. The first lens has a first refractive index. The second lens defines a cavity at a light input surface thereof for receiving the first lens. The second light output surface of the second lens contacts the first light output surface and the first side surface of the first lens. The second lens has a second refractive index which less than the first refractive index. The present disclose also relates to a light source module with the lens unit.
US09157598B2
It is presented a heat managing device for a light source (100) which combines heat managing by means of a heat sink, heat pipes and forced convection, thereby achieving efficient cooling of high power lighting applications. The heat managing device comprises a heat spreading element (104) having an upper side arranged for thermally connecting to at least one light source (106). The light emitted from the light source is controlled by secondary optics (103). The heat managing device comprises a heat sink which is thermally connected to the heat spreader, and to a first set of heat pipes which is thermally connected to the heat spreader. At least a portion of the heat sink is arranged to encompass the secondary optics. The heat pipes are embedded in the heat sink. Further, a fan for providing forced air convection at the heat sink is comprised in the device. A corresponding lighting device is also presented.
US09157591B2
A compact, autonomous, solar-powered, modular and aesthetic light fixture that produces useful light levels for general illumination, and includes a housing, photovoltaic cells configured to receive sunlight proximate an upper portion of the housing, concentrating optics at least partially covering the photovoltaic cells, a light source configured to emit light from the housing, an energy storage device to receive energy from the photovoltaic cells and to provide energy to the light source, an electronic energy management system for controlling charge associated with the photovoltaic cells, the energy storage device and the light source. The light fixture can be rotated 360° to accommodate any solar irradiation while sustaining a consistent appearance, it can accommodate a variety of mounting conditions, and it can be combined to form lighting systems in a variety of configurations.
US09157588B2
A reinforced decorative light string assembly, including: a first lamp assembly including a first lamp holder and a first lamp element, a second lamp assembly including a second lamp holder and a second lamp element, and a first reinforced decorative-lighting wire. The first reinforced decorative-lighting wire includes: a reinforcing strand extending axially along a central longitudinal axis of the wire, the reinforcing strand including one or more fibers comprising a polymer material; a first conductor layer including a first plurality of conductors including a copper material; a second conductor layer, the second conductor layer including a plurality of conductors; and an outer insulating layer adjacent to, and covering, the second conductor layer.
US09157581B2
A low profile luminaire to be carried by a lighting fixture. The luminaire may include a light source that comprises light-emitting diodes (LEDs), a heat sink thermally coupled to and disposed diametrically outboard of the light source, a reflector in optical communication with and disposed diametrically inboard of the light source, and a light guide in optical communication with at least one of the light source and the reflector and disposed therebetween. Light emitted from the light source may be reflected by the reflector into an edge of the light guide. Light propagating through the light guide may be projected into the environment at a uniform luminance. The luminaire may be dimensioned to cover a nominally sized four-inch can light fixture and/or electrical junction box. A method aspect of the invention details steps for assembling the low profile luminaire with light guide.
US09157575B2
A ratchet-governed television stand mainly consists of a wall panel (1), a left rack (2) and a right rack (3). The left rack (2) is hooked on a left side of the wall panel (1) and is fastened with a screw, the right rack (3) is hooked on a right side of the wall panel (1) and is fastened with a screw, the whole bracket is mounted on a surface of a support such as a wall through the wall panel (1), and a flat-panel television is mounted on the left rack (2) and the right rack (3), to achieve a visual angle required by people. The wall panel (1) is of a cuboid structure, an upper rail (11) is formed at an upper edge of the wall panel (1), a lower rail (12) is formed at a lower edge, the left rack (2) mainly includes a hook (21), a support rod (22) and a ratchet connector (23), a lower end of the support rod (22) is movably connected with a lower end of the hook (21) through a threaded rod, an upper end of the support rod (22) is movably connected with an upper end of the hook (21) through the ratchet connector (23), and the right rack (3) has a structure consistent with that of the left rack (2), to achieve the objective of design.
US09157574B2
A clamp for overhead assemblies has a clamp portion including a frame with first and second spaced apart side portions connected at respective ends to a top portion. The first and second side portion can have first and second openings therethrough to form a clamp opening. A plate is disposed through third and fourth openings in the first and second spaced apart side portions, respectively. The plate includes a tapped recess for receiving a threaded rod. A screw is disposed in a tapped recess in the top portion. An engagement end of the screw is selectively extendible into the clamp opening to engage a structural member inserted within the clamp opening to couple the structural member to the threaded rod. A longitudinal axis of the screw is aligned with the tapped recess to eliminate eccentric loading of the clamp. A method of stocking clamps is also disclosed.
US09157567B1
A device for holding a laptop that connects to luggage. The device is easy to store and set up having two rigid members, spacer bar, flexible strap and flexible strap closure.
US09157556B2
An exhaust tip assembly for an exhaust system of a vehicle includes an accent member and a collector member that is made substantially from a polymeric material. The collector member includes a collector portion and an attachment portion. The collector portion includes a first end and a second end. The collector portion defines a passage that extends from the first end to the second end. The first end is operable to receive a downstream end of a tailpipe, and the second end is operable to removably attach to the accent member. The attachment portion is configured to mount to a fascia member of a vehicle to thereby expose the accent member from the fascia member.
US09157552B2
A plant for manufacturing a rigid pipe for drawing up deep water within an offshore platform includes a floating platform on which a continuous production device is installed in the vertical axis of the pipe, and including: a first stage of winding webs of fibers impregnated with resin around a winding roll for the partial crosslinking thereof, a second stage of complete crosslinking of the resin, a third stage of mounting functional members on the pipe, a fourth stage of inspecting the pipe thus manufactured, and a fifth stage of guiding the pipe.
