US09498272B2

Disclosed in some embodiments are instruments and associated methods for the subchondral treatment of defects near a peripheral articular surface of a joint.
US09498259B2

Dynamic spinal plating systems that can be placed on the anterior aspect of the spine to aid in spinal fusion and surgical methods for using the dynamic spinal plating systems are disclosed. The dynamic spinal plating systems including a plate and at least one bone attachment mechanism. The plate including a superior end with at least one screw hole, an inferior end, and two lateral sides forming an opening that is transverse by the bone attachment mechanism. The dynamic spinal plating systems also include at least one screw plate with a center screw hole and two passageways that mate with two transverse members of the bone attachment mechanism. When implanted the vertebral stabilization devices may provide a degree of movement in the superior-inferior direction providing for a minimal change in length as the patient moves and as vertebral body height decreases.
US09498255B2

The present disclosure relates, according to some embodiments, to translational pedicle screw systems. A translational pedicle screw system may comprise a bone screw secured within a saddle. Different mechanisms may provide for translational movement of the saddle relative to the bone screw. In some embodiments, a saddle may comprise an elongated distal channel configured to provide a translational motion of a bone screw head disposed therein. In some embodiments, a saddle may comprise a discoidal recess configured to receive a corresponding discoidal section of a bone screw. The discoidal recess and the discoidal section may allow for a rotational offset of the saddle relative to the bone screw. In some embodiments, a proximal portion of a bone screw may comprise an attachment section configured to engage with a removable bone screw head. The removable bone screw head may translate laterally along the attachment section of the bone screw.
US09498252B2

A device for recovering one or more blastocysts from the uterus of a human includes an outer guide member for insertion into a cervical canal of the human. The outer guide member includes a distal portion with an activatable seal for isolating the uterus from the external environment and defines a lumen having a longitudinal axis. The device also includes an inner catheter located within the lumen and slidable along the longitudinal axis of the lumen relative to the outer guide member. The inner catheter has a distal tip positionable distally of the seal to extend into the uterus and includes a fluid delivery lumen terminating at a distal fluid delivery port for delivering fluid into the uterus. The device defines a distal suction port for aspirating fluid and entrained blastocysts from the uterus. The distal fluid delivery port and the distal suction port are arranged such that, in use, fluid delivered from the distal fluid delivery port travels through the distal suction port to the uterus.
US09498243B2

A hand piece includes a main body, an impeller, an air supplier, an exhauster and an exhaust controller. The impeller is received by the main body and is rotated in the main body. The air supplier is disposed at the main body and supplies an air to the impeller. The exhauster is disposed at the main body and exhausts the air supplied to the impeller. The exhaust controller is inserted into the exhauster and controls the exhaust of the air based on an air pressure exhausted from the exhauster.
US09498219B2

A stapling system is disclosed. The stapling system comprises a handle, a shaft extending from the handle, and a disposable loading unit configured for operable attachment to the shaft. The stapling system further comprises a battery, a staple cartridge comprising a plurality of staples removably stored therein, a translatable member configured to translate within the staple cartridge to eject the staples from the staple cartridge, and a rotary drive comprising a motor configured to drive the translatable member, wherein the rotary drive is configured to selectively receive electrical power from the battery only when the disposable loading unit is attached to the shaft.
US09498217B2

Methods and devices are provided for closing a puncture wound. In one exemplary embodiment, a puncture closure device is provided having an elongate tubular body that is disposable through a puncture in tissue and that includes proximal and distal portions. The proximal portion can be adapted to expand to form proximal wings upon rotation of the elongate tubular body, preferably in a first direction. The distal portion can be adapted to expand to form distal wings upon rotation of the elongate tubular body, preferably in a second, opposite direction. The proximal and distal portions can also be adapted to be moved toward one another as they expand upon rotation. As a result, the proximal and distal wings can engage tissue therebetween.
US09498210B2

A puncture apparatus includes a puncture member rotatable about a rotation center and having a needle tip which rotates together with the puncture member and is configured to puncture living body tissue. The puncture apparatus is also provided with at least one of: i) a vaginal-insertion member insertable into a vagina of a living body and including a vacuum area connected to a suction port; and ii) a urethra insertion member insertable into a urethra of the living body and including a vacuum area connected to a suction port. A cover covers the vacuum area so that the vacuum area does not contact and damage a vaginal wall of the vagina. The cover is movable relative to the vacuum area to expose the vacuum area.
US09498206B2

Described here are closure devices and methods for ligating tissue, such as the left atrial appendage, and tensioning devices and mechanism for actuating these devices. The tensioning mechanisms and devices may allow a user to apply one or more predetermined forces to a suture or other portion of the closure devices. The closure devices may comprise a suture loop releasably attached to a snare loop assembly, and a tensioning mechanism or device may be configured to tighten the suture loop and/or release the suture loop from the snare loop assembly.
US09498194B2

Organization systems for surgical instruments input devices and associated methods and systems are disclosed herein. In one aspect, a surgical instrument input device organization system can include a first interface configured to receive input from a user and a second interface communicatively coupled to the first interface via a link. The second interface can include a module sized to receive a surgical input instrument device and an actuator configured to engage a movable surface of the surgical instrument input device in response to input received from the user at the first interface.
US09498189B2

Described is an ultrasound diagnostic imaging apparatus which includes an ultrasound probe and which generates ultrasound image data sets for displaying an ultrasound image. The ultrasound diagnostic imaging apparatus includes a transmitting unit which performs ultrasound scanning for a plurality of times so that a part of or all of scan regions overlap in a plurality of different directions, an image processing unit which generates a plurality of ultrasound image data sets according to the receive signals and an anisotropic aspect evaluation unit which evaluates an anisotropic aspect of ultrasound wave reflection in the subject according to at least either of the ultrasound image data sets and the receive signals. In the ultrasound diagnostic imaging apparatus, the image processing unit generates synthetic image data in which the plurality of ultrasound image data sets are synthesized according to an evaluation result of the anisotropic aspect evaluation unit.
US09498186B2

A living body testing probe includes a living body contact part, a grip part, a non-mechanical switch part and a notification part. The living body contact part is configured and arranged to contact a living body. The non-mechanical switch part is configured and arranged to receive an operation input for changing test conditions upon being touched or approached. The notification part is configured and arranged to output information indicative of a change in the test conditions based on the operation input received by the non-mechanical switch part.
US09498183B2

Methods and devices are disclosed that, in various embodiments and permutations and combinations of inventions, diagnose and treat Pulmonary Embolism or associated symptoms. In one series of embodiments, the invention consists of methods and devices for identifying patients whose Pulmonary Embolism or associated symptoms are caused or exacerbated, at least in part, by blockages of one or more of the patient's internal pulmonary veins. In some instances, stenoses or other flow limiting structures or lesions in the patient's affected veins are identified. Further, in some instances the nature of such lesions and whether there is a significant disruption of blood pressure, or both, is ascertained. In some embodiments, methods and devices for applying one or more therapies to the blockages in the patient's pulmonary veins are provided.
US09498166B2

Measurements for medical diagnostic purposes measure the temperature of parts of the body to diagnose illnesses and for monitoring dynamics of an illness during treatment. This increases accuracy and clarity and simplifies technical implementation. An image of the region of the body of a biological subject under investigation is input into a computer database, with the image being output to a monitor of the computer, wherein the measurement points for measuring the temperature in the region of the subject under investigation are displayed in the image of the subject on the monitor screen and, once the measurements have been taken and the results of the measurements have been processed in the computer, an image of the temperature field is generated by a computer.
US09498162B2

Methods and systems for characterizing a seizure event in a patient, including determining a time of beat sequence of the patient's heart, determining a first HR measure for a first window, determining a second HR measure for a second window, wherein at least a portion of the first window occurs after the second window, determining at least one HR parameter based upon said first HR measure and said second HR measure, identifying an onset of the seizure event in response to determining that at least one HR parameter crosses an onset threshold, identifying an end of the seizure event in response to determining that at least one HR parameter crosses an offset threshold.
US09498158B2

A device includes a sensor for measuring a parameter for tissue. The sensor includes a plurality of optical elements including a plurality of detectors and at least one emitter. Separation distances between the various optical elements are selected based on a depth corresponding to a region of interest in the tissue and based on a depth corresponding to an exclusion region in the tissue.
US09498156B2

A sensor (e.g., an optical sensor) that may be placed within a living animal (e.g., a human) and may be used to measure an analyte (e.g., glucose or oxygen) in a medium (e.g., interstitial fluid) within the animal. The sensor may include a sensor housing and a polymer graft including indicator molecules and covering at least a portion of the sensor housing. The opacity of the polymer graft may remain substantially the same (i.e., may have little or no variation) over time. The sensor may include a photodetector, and variation in the opacity of the polymer graft does not cause a significant change in a measurement signal output by the photodetector. The polymer hydrogel may be made of polymers including acrylic acid and/or polyethylene glycol.
US09498149B2

An apparatus for detecting magnetic particles in a field of view, which apparatus includes selection coils, drive coils, receiving coils configured to acquire detection signals, and a processor configured to control the coils and reconstruct an image of the field of view from the detection signals. The processor is further configured to: identify in the detection signals one or more background time periods at which no magnetic particles were present in the field of view, wherein signal time periods at which magnetic particles were present in the field of view are interspersed with at least one of said one or more background time periods; use the detection signals obtained at the background time periods to correct detection signals obtained at the signal time periods; and reconstruct the image from the corrected detection signals obtained at the signal time periods.
US09498145B2

A cardiac event monitoring system may include a base unit including a base connector, a wearable electrode system, and a plug-in adapter. The wearable electrode system includes a cable, an electrode at one end of the cable, and a cable connector at the other end of the cable. The cable connector is configured to plug into the base connector. The plug-in adapter includes electrodes and an adapter connector that is configured to plug into the base connector. A handheld device may include a plug-in adapter having first and second electrodes and a controller that is configured to process electrical signals detected by at least one of the first or second electrodes that are indicative of a cardiac event.
US09498141B2

The present invention relates to a method for determining right ventricle stroke volume comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of three-dimensional images of right cardiac ventricle of a patient over a cardiac cycle; identically slicing each of the plurality of images; selecting an image from the plurality of images, for each time unit of the cardiac cycle; determining a region of interest in each slice of the selected images, wherein the region of interest shows the right ventricle of the patient; determining area of the region of interest; determining volume of the region of interest; determining total volume of the region of interest for each time unit, wherein the maximum total volume is end diastolic volume and the minimum total volume is end systolic volume; and determining the right ventricle stroke volume using an equation: Right Ventricle Stroke Volume=end diastolic volume−end systolic volume  (3).
US09498129B2

The present invention is directed to an improved method, system and product to provide wireless ECG patient monitoring. Although embodiments make specific reference to monitoring electrocardiogram signal with an adherent patch, the system methods, and device herein may be applicable to any application in which physiological monitoring is used. The present invention also presents a reliable means for docking the interface while minimizing signal interference and user error. In addition, a novel means for transmitting and receiving a patient's ECG measurements is introduced which includes the use of an epidermal communication network (ECN) and an ECG enabled module for ECN communications and interface. Although embodiments make specific reference to the use of the ECN for ECG measurements, the system methods, and protocol herein may be applicable to any wearable device and/or other smart device which is ECN enabled.
US09498126B2

A fundus imaging system includes: an image sensor array, where the image sensor array includes monochrome photodiodes and global shutter control, an illumination unit with one or more light-emitting diodes that have one or more dies, a computing system including a processor and memory, one or more lenses, one or more reflective mirrors, and a display. In an example method of use, a clinician positions a patient, initiates a focal adjustment, initiates a retinal imaging process, and the same or a different clinician views the image. In some embodiments, the imaging system is configured to analyze the image and identify detected physical attributes in the image relating to the diagnosis and treatment of diabetic retinopathy.
US09498122B2

A system for determining biomechanical properties of corneal tissue includes a light source configured to provide an incident light and a confocal microscopy system configured to scan the incident light across a plurality of cross-sections of corneal tissue. The incident light is reflected by the corneal tissue as scattered light. The system also includes a filter or attenuating device configured to block or attenuate the Rayleigh peak frequency of the scattered light, a spectrometer configured to receive the scattered light and process frequency characteristics of the received scattered light to determine a Brillouin frequency shift in response to the Rayleigh peak frequency being blocked or attenuated by the filter or attenuating device, and a processor configured to generate a three-dimensional profile of the corneal tissue according to the determined Brillouin frequency shift. The three-dimensional profile provides an indicator of one or more biomechanical properties of the corneal tissue.
US09498117B2

Deconvolution systems and methods based on cornea smoothing can be used to obtain an ablation target or treatment shape that does not induce significant high order aberrations such as spherical aberration. Exemplary ablation targets or treatment shapes can provide a post-operative spherical aberration that is equal to or below a naturally occurring amount of spherical aberration.
US09498116B2

An ophthalmologic apparatus of an embodiment includes an optical system, a rotational movement amount calculator, a registration unit, a parallel movement amount calculator, a driver, and a controller. The optical system is used to capture a moving image of a subject's eye. The rotational movement amount calculator calculates a rotational movement amount between a first image and a second image included in the moving image. The registration unit performs registration between the first image and the second image in the rotation direction based on the rotational movement amount. The parallel movement amount calculator performs a phase only correlation process on the first image and the second image registered by the registration unit to calculate a parallel movement amount between the first image and the second image. The driver moves the optical system. The controller controls the driver based on the parallel movement amount.
US09498112B1

A system and method of intubating a patient includes an intubating body. A user-control at or associated with the proximal end of the body allows both display of patient oral cavity anatomy and control of orientation of a stylet guide at or near the distal end of the body. The combination assists a user to effectively intubate the patient even if the patient has difficult anatomy.
US09498110B2

An endoscope system includes a light source unit that emits first and second narrow band light sequentially, a color filter in which first and second filters having different spectral characteristic are disposed, an image pickup device that receives light passing through the first filter in a first pixel and receives light passing through the second filter in a second pixel, and can set an exposing period and a reading period of an electric signal for each pixel, and a control unit that performs control for causing the first narrow band light to be emitted, causing the first pixels to be exposed, and reading an electric signal from the second pixel in a first period, and causing the second narrow band light to be emitted, causing the second pixel to be exposed, and reading an electric signal from the first pixel in a second period.
US09498105B2

A traction-enhancing cleaning kit for allowing sports players to clean and dry the soles of their court shoes while in-play. The cleaning kit comprises a gellified shoe cleaning fluid, and a shoe-attachable cleaning and drying device comprising a gel-absorbent cleaning/drying cartridge removably secured by a clipping mechanism to a carrier platform, which is in turn secured along the forefoot of the sneaker by its laces. The cartridge includes an encapsulated viscose rayon microfiber panel backed by a moisture-impermeable layer, and held captive in a plastic frame. The frame includes a raised wiping lip surrounding the panel. In use, the player need only swipe one foot over the top of the cleaning and drying device attached to the other foot, brushing the sole. One swipe wets and squeegees dry, and the process is repeated for the other foot.
US09498101B2

Disclosed herein is a dishwasher using oscillatory flow generated from thermoacoustic effect. The dishwasher is configured such that thermoacoustic waves having high amplitude are generated from solar energy rather than electric energy, wherein the thermoacoustic waves make oscillating waves be directly transmitted to an air column and a water column formed in a closed end of a dishwashing pipeline. In this way, high-quality energy can be directly applied to washing water, whereby energy loss can be minimized, and the washing efficiency can be markedly increased.
US09498099B2

A surface maintenance vehicle with a compact side brush assembly. The side brush assembly includes a brush deck, a parallel linkage assembly, a swing arm, and an actuator assembly. The brush deck carries a floor-engaging brush. The parallel linkage assembly permits pivoting of the brush deck about a lift axis to raise and lower the brush deck. The swing arm is adapted to rotates to swing the brush deck towards and away from the floor surface maintenance machine. The actuator assembly includes a linear actuator and a slip link.
US09498091B2

Provided is a compact wet wipes package, wherein wet wipes can be easily drawn from a storage container, and the production cost can be kept low. This wet wipes package is provided with: a wet wipes folded body which is continuously folded and stacked, and in which dividing portions are formed at a predetermined interval; an airtight storage container which is formed to store the wet wipes folded body and includes an opening portion from which stored wet wipes are to be drawn outward; a base plate which is attached to the opening portion and is formed with a pinching hole through which the wet wipes are pinched and drawn outward; a drawing hole which is linked with the pinching hole and functions to divide the wet wipes at the dividing portion; and openable/closable lid which can hermetically close the pinching hole and the drawing hole.
US09498087B1

The adjustable infant bathing chair is a chair that can be placed in a bathtub and used to wash infants. The adjustable infant bathing chair has the general appearance of a baby swing. The adjustable infant bathing chair has a plurality of nonskid feet that allow the adjustable infant bathing chair to be placed directly in a bathtub. The infant is then placed in the chair. With the chair supporting the infant, the caretaker does not need to worry about the infant slipping into the water and can focus on cleaning the infant. The adjustable infant bathing chair is adjustable for height and has a seatbelt to secure the infant. The adjustable infant bathing chair comprises a structure, a seat frame, a plurality of struts, a plurality of T connectors, a plurality of nonskid feet, and a seatbelt.
US09498086B2

An adjustable additive cartridge that provides adjustable metering of additive to a base fluid as the base fluid is flowing through the cartridge. A spout is mounted for limited rotation within a base element of the cartridge. Rotation of the spout results in varying degrees of flow of additive into a base fluid flow path through the cartridge. The cartridge may be used with a portable beverage container, such as a sports bottle or off-the-shelf water bottle. The supply of base fluid in a container used with the cartridge may be kept in an unmixed, pure state, and other cartridges, each having different additives (i.e., flavors) may be used interchangeably with the same base fluid supply. The cartridge allows a consumer/user to experience different additives, such as different flavors or supplement compositions, for a given supply of base liquid in a single container. A check valve on the cartridge prevents backflow of the base fluid. An integrated filter for filtering base fluid flowing into the cartridge may be provided. The additive cartridge may be sealed to provide for extended storage and to provide a user/consumer with evidence of integrity, quality and/or tampering prior to purchase and/or use. Visual and tactile indicators of the amount of additive being added to a base fluid may be provided. A container may retain a spare additive adjustable cartridge on the container.
US09498085B2

A food processor feed tube assembly includes a first feed tube extension and a second feed tube extension telescopically and slidably received in the first feed tube extension. The second feed tube extension is configured to be movable from a retracted position in which the second feed tube extension is substantially entirely nested within the first feed tube extension, and an extended position in which the second feed tube extension is extended from the first feed tube extension.
US09498082B2

A self-cleaning milk foaming device includes a mixing unit, a steam jet unit and a control unit. The mixing unit has a mixing chamber, and a milk inlet passage, a cleaner inlet passage and a foaming gas inlet passage communicated with the mixing chamber. The mixing chamber has a milk outlet nozzle, an upstream section, and a downstream section disposed between the upstream section and the milk outlet nozzle. The milk inlet passage is situated between the cleaner inlet passage and the milk outlet nozzle. The foaming gas inlet passage is disposed upstream of the milk inlet passage. The steam jet unit is for supplying steam into the mixing chamber. The control unit is for controlling the cleaner to flow or to stop flowing into the cleaner inlet passage.
US09498079B2

The present invention relates to a window treatment mounting assembly, and a kit which includes a window treatment mounting assembly and a window treatment or modular fabric components thereof. In one preferred aspect, a window treatment mounting assembly for mounting a window treatment over a window is provided, where the mounting assembly comprises a longitudinally elongated channel beam for releasably retaining the window treatment; a resiliently compressible retention member for releasably coupling the window treatment to the channel beam in a friction fit; and at least one mounting bracket for supporting the channel beam in a mounting position adjacent the window.
US09498075B2

A garment hanger is disclosed. The hanger has a hook and a body suspended below the hook. The body includes a garment supporting portion for supporting a garment and a display receiving portion for receiving a display member. A display member is also provided for attachment to the display receiving portion. The display portion includes retaining tabs, a flat front portion and side portions extending away from the front portion.
US09498073B2

Presented is a device for hanging a picture frame in the corner of a room, with a wall attachment bracket, and a tensioning device for pressing the picture frame into contact with the walls of the corner. The tensioning device can be an elastic tubing, a retracting reel, or a cord with a tightening device.
US09498065B2

The invention is a structure comprising a tensioned skin filled with shaped modules for bearing compression. In an uncompressed state, the modules are pourable like sand, salt or sugar. When compressed by tensioning of the skin, the modules lock up so that the skin filled tightly with modules comprises a load-bearing structure.
US09498064B2

The present disclosure relates to a seat configured to swivel, recline, and raise to accommodate a child during feeding.
US09498063B2

An apparatus is disclosed for a window shelf that attaches to a window stool without causing any damage and requiring no tools for installation. The apparatus includes a shelf with an upper and lower surface and a downwardly angled lip that engages with the rear portion of a window stool. A series of channels is defined by the bottom surface of the shelf and one or more plates, which receive one or more supporting legs. The horizontal surface of the supporting legs has a series of pointed teeth that engage with a series of pointed teeth along the channels, locking the shelf in place. The shelf can be used for a variety of purposes, such as holding household items, indoor planters, or even as a bed for small pets.
US09498061B2

A slide rail assembly includes first and second rails, a running carriage, and a pushing member. The second rail can be longitudinally displaced relative to the first rail. The running carriage is slidably mounted to the first rail, carries the second rail, and can be moved together with the second rail in a differential manner with respect to the second rail. The pushing member is movably connected to the first rail and displaceable between a horizontal position and an inclined position. Should an error occur in differential movement of the running carriage, the pushing member is able to be driven by a portion of the second rail to displace from the horizontal position to the inclined position and hence displace the running carriage to correct the error.
US09498056B1

A resting apparatus and system. The apparatus and system comprise two telescoping legs having two longitudinal rotatable leg anchors having frictional padding to prevent slipping. The telescoping legs are attached to a locking mechanism that uses a bracket having a clip that fits into various holes depending on the user's desired sleep angle. The bracket is integrally formed in the body of the substantially u-shaped pillow. The telescoping legs also have a height locking system primarily comprising of two separate channels, a first channel allowing for vertical movement and side channels used to lock in the desired height. The resting apparatus and system can be broken down such that the rotatable leg anchors form a handle for ease of use while traveling.
US09498055B2

A portable tray for luggage has a support assembly, a ratchet assembly, a table, and a storage sleeve. The support assembly installs upon the telescoping poles of an existing handle assembly of luggage. The support assembly then allows a user to position the invention at a desired elevation from a supporting surface such as a concourse floor. The ratchet assembly allows a user to rotate the table from a stowed position, generally within the poles of a handle assembly, to a cantilevered position across the top of a piece of luggage. The user then unfolds the table of three plates into a flat shape, generally level but with at least two alternate angles. The invention fits into a storage sleeve placed within the handle assembly and within the luggage. The storage sleeve prevents luggage contents from entangling with the table and other components of the invention.
US09498054B2

A foldable table that provides a stable operational position in which the table legs may extend beyond the footprint of the table, and a folded, storage position in which the table legs may be tucked within the footprint of the table. An aspect provides table legs that may slide and pivot within sockets of a table top, to enable the legs to lock into the extended position and to also pivot flat against a horizontal undersurface of the table top.
US09498050B2

A paint brush has a handle, a bristle carrier plate fixed directly to the handle, and a plurality of bundles of bristles inserted into the bristle carrier plate through receiving openings.
US09498047B2

The invention relates to an applicator for a cosmetic product, comprising a core having a first end, referred to as a proximal end, and a second, free end, referred to as a distal end, a plurality of protrusions projecting from the core, and a plurality of plates also projecting from the core, wherein the protrusions and the plates are moulded with the core, the core is curved in its direction of extension so as to define a concave part and a convex part, and wherein the protrusions extend substantially over the concave part of the core and the plates extend substantially over the convex part of the core. The invention also relates to an associated applicator assembly.
US09498044B2

A cosmetic applicator includes a casing, a cartridge disposed in the casing, a sleeve coupled to the casing, and a core. The cartridge includes a tube member formed with at least one protrusion, and a plug member having a shoulder section abutting against the tube member, a rear end section abutting airtightly against the protrusion, and a front end section. The sleeve has a rear end portion sleeved on the front end section and abutting against the shoulder section of the plug member, and at least one protrusion abutting airtightly against the front end section. The core has an absorbing segment extending through the sleeve and the plug member for absorbing liquid cosmetic, and a liquid output segment extending out of the sleeve.
US09498043B2

A cosmetic applicator whose application part has an arithmetic average surface roughness Ra of 10 μm or less is provided, based on a study of the surface roughness of the application part of the cosmetic applicator, to further reduce the amount of cosmetic material accumulating on the surface of the application part, and to more reliably release onto the skin surface the cosmetic material that has been picked up onto the surface of the application part.
US09498029B2

In one aspect, the subject matter of the disclosure features a watch band. The watch band includes a strap and a clasp mechanism integrated with an end of the strap. The clasp mechanism includes a concave member defining a channel at the end of the strap and a cover plate. The cover plate is configured to move between (i) a first position in which the cover plate covers the channel, and (ii) a second position in which the cover plate is retracted to leave at least part of the channel uncovered by the cover plate.
US09498028B2

A clasp for use in making jewelry comprises an elongated hollow tube having an opening at least at one of its ends and an elongated, Z-shaped slot having a first section extending from the open end of the tube to a first intermediate location, a second section extending approximately circumferentially from the first intermediate location to a second intermediate location, and a third section extending from the second intermediate location to a third intermediate location. Flexible decorative strands of material, having enlarged ends larger than the slot, can be slid into the opening of the slot and into the third section, where they remain unless deliberate manipulations are undertaken to remove the strands.
US09498017B2

A power generation device includes a first pivot arm having a shank extendable in a predetermined direction, and a rack arranged along the predetermined direction, wherein the shank has a slot between the rack and an end portion of the shank; a second pivot arm having a first end portion coupled with the end portion of the shank at a first pivot; and a third pivot arm having a first end portion coupled with a second end portion of the second pivot arm at a second pivot, and a second end portion of the third pivot arm coupled with the slot of the shank at a third pivot.
US09498010B2

An apparatus comprises an upper portion and a lower portion. The upper portion defines an upper edge region, while the lower portion defines a lower edge region. An upper adhesive band is disposed on the upper portion and runs alongside substantially the entire upper edge region. An upper release liner, in turn, is disposed on at least a portion of the upper adhesive band. At the same time, a lower adhesive band is disposed on the lower portion and runs alongside substantially the entire lower edge region. A lower release liner is disposed on at least a portion of the lower adhesive band. The lower portion is joined to the upper portion so as to define a hollow enclosure therebetween with the upper edge region and the lower edge region forming an open end in the hollow enclosure. The upper adhesive band and the lower adhesive band are disposed inside the hollow enclosure.
US09498009B2

A utility glove having a palm side including a three dimensional molded palm portion formed of an elastomeric material with a thumb portion and at least one finger portion and a back side of the glove comprising a fabric material, with the molded palm portion formed in a pre-curved configuration to create a concave shape. The molded palm has one or more of thickened areas for abrasion resistance, padded areas for comfort, flex grooves for improved movement, textured grip areas for improved grip and/or perforations for breathability. The molded palm portion may be formed of different elastomeric materials to take advantage of the different characteristics of the particular materials.A molded portion of the utility glove may be formed by placing a piece of fabric against a mold part formed in the shape of at least a portion of a hand, bringing a corresponding mold part having varying thicknesses into molding relation with the mold part in the shape of at least a portion of the hand and injecting an elastomeric material into the mold to form the molded portion.
US09498003B2

A gripping fabric and method for construction thereof is provided. A fabric structure that defines an inner surface and an outer surface is created. The fabric structure or the gripping fabric is configured to conform to a user's body part for constructing a garment, for example, a sock. The inner surface is proximal to a user contact surface and distal to an external contact surface. The outer surface is proximal to the external contact surface and distal to the user contact surface. A gripping material is selectively applied on the inner surface and/or the outer surface of the fabric structure. The gripping material on the inner surface and the outer surface of the fabric structure adheres to the user contact surface and the external contact surface respectively, thereby providing grip between the user contact surface and the fabric structure, and grip between the fabric structure and the external contact surface.
US09497997B2

An integral disposable electronic cigarette may include an integral hollow cigarette where combustion can be arranged at a cigarette end position, so that the electronic cigarette is more similar to a non electronic cigarette; a lateral intake structure between the battery and the atomization plant may be adopted, which prevents an air flow from affecting normal use of the battery; moreover, a three seal ring structures can be adopted, which greatly improves the safety and reliability of the electronic cigarette.
US09497992B2

Articles of manufacture, products, and packaging methods are provided that include collapsible container. Collapsible containers provided herein can define an open interior space with a peripheral side wall having a top edge and a bottom edge and a bottom wall attached to the bottom edge of the side wall. The bottom wall can include a displaceable portion in an expanded configuration that extends below the bottom edge of the side wall and adapted to being displaced to a collapsed configuration that extends above the bottom edge of the side wall. Product constituents (e.g., pouches of smokeless tobacco) can be placed in a collapsible container provided herein while the collapsible container is in its expanded configuration. After installing a lid onto a collapsible container to enclose the product within the collapsible container, the container can be collapsed to its collapsed configuration.
US09497988B2

A system of rapidly cooling hot bulk liquids includes a chilling station having a reservoir for holding a cooling medium. The reservoir includes an outlet for removing excess of the cooling medium. A container bay disposed substantially above the reservoir is adapted to receive at least one container of hot bulk liquid to be cooled. At least one rotator is adapted to rotate the container placed in the container bay substantially around the container's longitudinal axis. A spray jet outlet is disposed substantially above the container bay and in fluid communication with the reservoir. The spray jet outlet is adapted to spray the container with the cooling medium while the roller is rotating the container. The container includes a void volume, preferably at least 5%. The rotator rotates the container at a rate that depends on the size of the container and/or the viscosity of the contents of the container.
US09497985B2

A method for the separation of fat from meat. The method includes providing individual pieces of meat containing lean and fat; subjecting the individual pieces of meat to cooling for a time sufficient to produce a difference in temperature between the fat and lean, wherein the fat is cooled such that the fat is friable and crumbles into finer particulates when subjected to a crushing force and the lean is cooled to a higher temperature than the fat and the lean is able to withstand a similar crushing force without substantially crumbling into smaller particulates; and with the fat and lean at the temperatures produced, subjecting the individual pieces of meat to a crushing force to separate particulates of fat from the individual pieces of meat.
US09497982B1

The current document is directed to methods and systems for manufacturing frozen-sushi food products that remain texturally and compositionally stable while frozen and refrigerated for extended periods of time. A variety of different processing steps and ingredients are employed to prevent retrogradation of gelatinized starch in cooked sushi rice, including quick cooking of the rice, employing non-nutritive sweeteners in place of sugar, controlling the amount of salt in the sushi rice, and use of β amylase and gellan gum.
US09497976B2

A method for improving frozen fish fillets treated by way of a salt-water immersion process includes the following steps: pretreating raw fish to obtain fish fillets; precooling the fish fillets; stacking the precooled fish fillets to obtain a fish fillet stack; freezing the fish fillet stack by using a salt-water immersion process, and performing power-variable ultrasonic wave treatment; and feeding the fish fillets into a cold storage, and performing freezing storage at minus 18 degrees centigrade. The power-variable ultrasonic wave treatment includes: firstly treating for 5 to 10 min under the power of 800 to 600 W, and then changing the power to 200 to 600 W for treating for 5 to 15 min. The freezing time of fish flesh is shortened, and formed ice crystals are fine and uniform, thereby preventing the damage of the formed ice crystals to cell walls.
US09497969B2

Antimicrobial compositions based on the synergistic combination of 2-methyl-3-isothiazolone and selected commercial microbicides where the compositions are substantially free of halogenated 3-isothiazolone, are disclosed. Particularly preferred are combinations of 2-methyl-3-isothiazolone together with benzoic acid, citric acid, sorbic acid, 1,2-dibromo-2,4-dicyanobutane, 1,3-dimethylol-5,5-dimethylhydantoin, phenoxyethanol, benzyl alcohol, zinc pyrithione or climbazole, that provide enhanced microbicidal efficacy at a combined active ingredient level lower than that of the combined individual 3-isothiazolone and commercial microbicide effective use levels.
US09497967B2

A pesticidal composition comprises a synergistically effective amount of a chloride channel activator compound and a pesticide selected from N-(3-chloro-1-(pyridin-3-yl)-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-N-ethyl-3-((3,3,3-trifluoropropyl)thio) propanamide (I), N-(3-chloro-1-(pyridine-3-yl)-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-N-ethyl-3-((3,3,3-trifluoropropyl) sulfinyl)propanamide (II), or any agriculturally acceptable salt thereof. A method of controlling pests comprises applying the pesticidal composition near a population of pests. A method of protecting a plant from infestation and attack by pests comprises contacting the plant with the synergistic pesticidal composition.
US09497960B2

Suggested are alkoxylation products of 2-isopropyl-5-methyl-hexan-1-ol in which AO stands for an ethylene oxide, propylene oxide or butylenes oxide unit or their mixtures and n denominates an integer of from 1 to 100.
US09497959B1

The invention is an assembly for discouraging flying creatures from approaching and/or landing including a housing with a base, a shaft, a shaft mount, a spindle associated with the shaft, a means of turning the spindle, and an actuator.
US09497953B2

A lawn and garden sprayer system having a container and a spray wand fluidly connected to the container is provided. The spray wand includes a wand housing that has a slot formed in one side thereof that is configured to engage a lug formed on one side of the container for purposes of stowing the wand during shipping and when not in use. A communications card assembly is detachably connected between the container and spray wand during shipment and prior to its first use. The hose includes a coupler end that engaged a cap on the container and facilitates creation of a fluid circuit between the fluid contents in the container and the wand.
US09497951B1

A container for a fish hook and a fish bait consisting of two halves. The two halves are hinged together on one side of the container. The container has two finger grip portions extending there from at the same side. The hinge is made of spring leaves that are connected together by a hinge pin. The hinge pin is surrounded by a coil spring. The ends of the coil spring abut against an underside of the finger grip portions and the spring is so biased that a pressure is exerted against the finger grip portions to thereby keep the two halves of the container in a closed position. It takes two fingers of one hand to open the container. The container has a hook on one end to be hooked to a fishing reel on a fishing rod. A line end of the fishing line is contained within the container and has a hook and a bait attached thereto.
US09497950B2

A beacon light for a free floating fishing device having a transparent or translucent upper housing slidably engaged and friction fit with a lower base. The lower base is configured to be removably or permanently attached to the free floating fishing device. A lighting assembly is housed within the upper housing, and the lighting assembly includes a power source in electrical communication with a light source. A conductive biasing linkage, such as a compression spring, is housed within the upper housing and configured to be in electrical contact between the power source and the light source. The upper housing, the lighting assembly, and the lower base are in coaxial and concentric alignment. The lower base is configured to contact the conductive biasing linkage to complete the path of an electrical circuit between the power supply, the biasing linkage and the light source in order to selectively energize the light source.
US09497948B2

A spinning reel includes a handle, a reel unit, a rotor, a spool, a rotor drive mechanism, and an anti-reverse mechanism. The reel unit has a fishing rod attachment portion and a mount portion. The rotor drive mechanism includes a drive gear and a pinion gear. The pinion gear is disposed in the through hole. The pinion gear is meshed with the drive gear. The anti-reverse mechanism is configured to prevent the rotor from rotating in a fishing-line releasing direction. The anti-reverse mechanism includes a one-way clutch assembly. The one-way clutch assembly is detachably attached to the mount portion of the reel unit. The rotor drive mechanism includes a seal member. The seal member is configured to seal a clearance between the pinion gear and the through hole while being disposed at a rear end of the one-way clutch assembly in the back-and forward direction.
US09497946B2

A method is provided for culturing cochineal insects. In accordance with the method, a medium is created (101-109) from a mixture comprising a plant or cactus additive and a polymeric material. The medium is then inoculated (111) with a species selected from the group consisting of the genus Dactylopius.
US09497944B2

The present invention is directed to the production, breeding and use of transgenic non-human animals such as mice in which specific genes, such as serum albumin, or portions of genes have been replaced by homologs from another animal, such as a human, to make the physiology of the animals so modified more like that of the other animal with respect to drug pharmacokinetics and metabolism. The invention also extends to the use of the genetically modified non-human animals of the invention for pharmacological and/or toxicological studies.
US09497943B2

The disclosure relates to a method of reprogramming one or more somatic cells, e.g., partially differentiated or fully/terminally differentiated somatic cells, to a less differentiated state, e.g., a pluripotent or multipotent state. In further embodiments the invention also relates to reprogrammed somatic cells produced by methods of the invention, to chimeric animals comprising reprogrammed somatic cells of the invention, to uses of said cells, and to methods for identifying agents useful for reprogramming somatic cells.
US09497928B2

In one aspect, the present invention provides a housing system for conducting high throughput animal experiments. The housing system includes a home cage, at least one rotatable turnstile enclosed by housing to form two or more isolation chambers, a means for animal identification, and one or more action stations functionally coupled to one or more isolation chambers. The turnstile includes a plurality of one or more separation members rotatable about a vertical axis, each isolation chamber bounded by one or more separation members. The action stations contain one or more devices facilitating completion of at least one animal-directed or experimenter-initiated action. In a preferred embodiment, the home cage is sufficiently sized to house a plurality of small animals, such as mice. Tunnel passageways may be connected to the home cage, including one or more tunnel passageways containing a rotatable turnstile. Additional embodiments include rotatable turnstiles, rotatable turnstile assemblies, and methods of conducting high throughput animal experiments using the devices and systems described herein.
US09497926B2

A system and method for treating livestock may include a ramp for containing dairy livestock and one or more mobile units configured to travel on the ramp, below the dairy livestock, and perform at least one action related to a treatment of the livestock. A mobile unit may be adapted to travel to a predefined location within a stall, and attach a milking equipment unit to a cow in the stall. A plurality of mobile units and a central management unit may be configured to dynamically cause at least some of the plurality of mobile units to each perform a portion of a treatment or task.
US09497924B1

A soybean cultivar designated 41180801 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of soybean cultivar 41180801, to the plants of soybean cultivar 41180801, to the plant parts of soybean cultivar 41180801, and to methods for producing progeny of soybean cultivar 41180801. The invention also relates to methods for producing a soybean plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic soybean plants and plant parts produced by those methods. The invention also relates to soybean cultivars or breeding cultivars, and plant parts derived from soybean cultivar 41180801. The invention also relates to methods for producing other soybean cultivars, lines, or plant parts derived from soybean cultivar 41180801, and to the soybean plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid soybean seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing cultivar 41180801 with another soybean cultivar.
US09497912B2

According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH608451. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH608451, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH608451 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH608451.
US09497907B2

The embodiments herein provide a hydroponic system having a self-contained reservoir. The system comprises, a plurality of plastic pipes, a plurality of plant receivers, a plurality of angled joints, a plurality of T-fitting/connectors, a plurality of pipe caps, a customizable water pipe, an adjustable pipe brace, and an electrical pump. A method is provided for delivering the nutrient solutions to the plants through a hydroponic system. The method comprises, assembling the hydroponic system, selecting a plurality of plants to be grown in the hydroponic solution, delivering nutrient solution to the roots of the selected plant from the reservoir, and customizing the hydroponic system.
US09497906B2

A method of removing a tree and rootball includes the steps of excavating around the rootball, driving a plurality of pipes through a lower portion of the rootball to expose first ends on one side of the rootball and second ends on the other side of the rootball, disposing a first slotted beam across the topsides of the first ends of the plurality of pipes, disposing a second slotted beam across the topsides of the second ends of the plurality of pipes, interlacing a first lacing member with the first ends of the plurality of pipes and a first plurality of cross members, interlacing a second lacing member with the second ends of the plurality of pipes and a second plurality of cross members, and pulling the first and second lacing members taut to secure the first and second slotted beams to the pipes to create a platform.
US09497900B2

A planter unit for planting seeds as it traverses a field in a direction of travel includes a seed delivery tube and a furrow opener configured to open a furrow in the soil for receiving seeds dropped through the delivery tube. A gauge wheel assembly controls the depth of penetration of the furrow opener. The planter unit also has a furrow closing tool that closes the furrow, the furrow closing tool positioned after the delivery tube in the direction of travel. The planter unit also has a row cleaning and depth control tool positioned after the furrow closing tool. The row cleaning and depth control tool has first and second row whippers that push excess soil out away from above where seeds were dropped in the furrow, wherein vertical position of first and second row whippers is selectively adjustable relative the vertical position of the furrow opener.
US09504184B2

A cooling assembly is provided which includes: one or more coolant-cooled heat sinks configured to couple to one or more electronic components to be cooled; one or more flexible coolant conduits; and one or more pivotable coolant manifolds. The flexible coolant conduit(s) couples in fluid communication the pivotable coolant manifold(s) and the coolant-cooled heat sink(s), and accommodates pivoting of the pivotable coolant manifold(s), while maintaining the coolant-cooled heat sink(s) in fluid communication with the pivotable coolant manifold(s). In one or more embodiments, the pivotable coolant manifold(s) pivots between a first position laterally offset from one or more of the coolant-cooled heat sink(s), and a second position above the one or more coolant-cooled heat sinks. First and second pivot arms may be provided at opposite ends of the pivotable coolant manifold(s) to facilitate pivotable movement of the manifold(s) between the first position and the second position.
US09504181B2

A slide rail assembly includes a first rail, a second rail movably connected to the first rail, a bracket base connected to the first rail, and a supporting base movably mounted to the bracket base. The supporting base includes a wall portion and at least one supporting portion transversely connected to the wall portion. The wall portion and the at least one supporting portion jointly define a supporting channel corresponding to a longitudinal channel defined by the first rail. The at least one supporting portion of the supporting base supports the second rail as the second rail is longitudinally displaced relative to the first rail and extends through the longitudinal channel of the first rail and the supporting channel of the supporting base.
US09504178B2

A draining member protrudes from both openings of a through-hole in a vehicle control device. It has a pair of spaced elastic members extending from a connection. The connection has a width smaller than a width of the through-hole. The width between the elastic members varies from the connection toward their ends, reaching a narrow portion smaller than the width of the through-hole via an increased width portion greater than the width of the through-hole. A leg portion beyond the narrow portion has a width greater than the width of the through-hole. A minimum distance between a location where the width between the increased width portion and the narrow portion matches the width of the through-hole, and another location where the width of the leg portion is equal to or greater than the width of the through-hole, is equal to or greater than a thickness of the housing.
US09504168B2

A fluxing-encapsulant material and method of use thereof in a thermal compression bonding (TCB) process is described. In an embodiment, the TCB process includes ramping the bond head to 250° C.-300° C. at a ramp rate of 50° C./second-100° C./second. In an embodiment, the fluxing-encapsulant material comprising one or more epoxy resins having an epoxy equivalent weight (EEW) of 150-1,000, a curing agent, and a fluxing agent having a mono-carboxylic acid or di-carboxylic acid and a pKa of 4-5.
US09504166B2

A process for producing a substrate for mounting element includes forming a thick conductor layer-provided substrate having a thick conductor layer made of a metal composed mainly of silver (Ag) or copper (Cu), on a surface of an inorganic insulating substrate made of an inorganic insulating material, applying wet blast treatment to the thick conductor layer to planarize the surface of the thick conductor layer to a surface roughness Ra of at most 0.02 μm, and forming a nickel (Ni)/gold (Au)-plated layer on the thick conductor layer having the surface planarized by the wet blast treatment.
US09504165B2

A method of forming conductive traces on insulated substrate includes the steps of providing an insulated substrate; forming a coating layer on a surface of the insulated substrate, dividing the coating layer into traces-forming zones and non-traces-forming zones through laser engraving, and removing areas of the coating layer that are located in the traces-forming zones through laser-vaporizing to expose corresponding portions of the surface of the insulated substrate; forming a metallized layer of conductive traces by performing a metallizing treatment on the exposed portions of the insulated substrate and on the coating layer; and directly stripping off the residual coating layer from the non-traces-forming zones or removing it using an acid, an alkaline or a neutral solution.
US09504157B2

A hybrid circuit assembly includes an integrated metal substrate (IMS) having high-voltage, high-power components mounted thereon. The IMS includes a metal base plate an insulating adhesive on the metal base plate, and one or more wiring layers on the insulating adhesive. The hybrid circuit assembly includes a multi-layer printed wiring board (PWB) having low-voltage, low-power components mounted thereon. The multi-layer PWB is connected to the IMS and has an upper surface that is co-planar with an upper surface of the IMS. The PWB is mounted on the metal base plate via the insulating adhesive.
US09504156B1

To achieve an even distribution of different types of connections, sets of connection cells have been devised having different ratios of signal, power and ground connections in which the signal connections are all within a maximum distance of a power and/or a ground connection. In addition, the shapes of the cells are such that the cells fit together in a repeatable array that fully covers the plane of the interface, i.e., an array that tiles the plane. Accordingly, to distribute the connections substantially uniformly across the interface, the ratio of the number of signal connections, power connections and ground connections is determined; a cell is selected from the set of cells that has approximately the same ratio of the number of signal connections, power connections and ground connections; and the selected cell is repeatedly used to allocate the signal, power and ground connections in accordance with the distribution of connections in the selected cell until all the connections are distributed.
US09504155B2

Touch sensor includes plural first connection terminals which are arranged side by side in one direction on a first circuit substrate, and plural second connection terminals which are arranged side by side in the one direction on a second substrate connected to the plural first connection terminals. Each of the plural second connection terminals includes plural first wirings extending in a direction crossing the one direction, and a second wiring connected to the plural first wirings and extending in the one direction. The second wiring is provided in a region where the second circuit substrate is overlapped with the first circuit substrate.
US09504150B2

Printed electronic device comprising a substrate onto at least one surface of which has been applied a layer of an electrically conductive ink comprising functionalized graphene sheets and at least one binder. A method of preparing printed electronic devices is further disclosed.
US09504148B1

A PCB page blank includes a flexible substrate, a curable adhesive, a conductive layer, and a conductive layer support. The flexible substrate receives an opaque negative circuit pattern thereon. Portions of the curable adhesive not obscured by the circuit pattern may bond to portions of the conductive layer when exposed to light. The bonded portions of the conductive layer shear or tear from non-bonded portions of the conductive layer such that the bonded portions remain with the flexible substrate and the non-bonded portions remain with the conductive layer support when the flexible substrate and the conductive layer support are separated. The flexible substrate and the bonded portions of the conductive layer thus form a PCB prototype with the bonded portions of the conductive layer forming circuit traces of the circuit pattern.
US09504139B2

There is provided an elastic flexible substrate including an insulating film base material which includes a wire. The insulating film base material includes an opening which is formed by opening a slit, and an opened state of the opening is held by an insulating member.
US09504137B2

Certain embodiments described herein are directed to devices that can be used to sustain a capacitively coupled plasma. In some examples, a capacitive device can be used to sustain a capacitively coupled plasma in a torch in the absence of any substantial inductive coupling. In certain embodiments, a helium gas flow can be used with the capacitive device to sustain a capacitively coupled plasma.
US09504130B2

Devices (1) for selecting settings for illuminating light loads (2, 3) connected to a bus (4) comprise controllers (11) for running processes and for defining, through controls of power converters (5, 6) connected to the bus (4), in response to process results, direct current voltage signals for the bus (4) and comprise power detectors (12) for detecting changes in total power consumptions of the illuminating light loads (2, 3) and for in response to detections of the changes informing the controllers (11) to run the processes again. This way, links are created between the total power consumption via the bus (4) and the direct current voltage signal on the bus (4), to save energy. The devices (1) may further comprise receivers (13) for receiving definitions of optimal individual voltage signals and/or of optimal individual power consumptions and/or of voltage amplitudes and may further comprise power meters (14) for measuring the total power consumption of the illuminating light loads (2, 3) for different direct current voltage signals for the bus (4).
US09504122B2

A light emitting diode (LED) lamp circuit is adapted to replace a fluorescent lamp in a fluorescent light fixture without having to modify the fluorescent light fixture in any way. The LED light string and its associated drive circuitry may be divided into two symmetric light strings. Furthermore, the two strings (power rails more precisely) may be tied together with a diode voltage/current steering system. The fluorescent replacement LED lamp design ‘spoofs’ all fluorescent lamp drive modes that a ballast could be configured for.
US09504118B2

A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) may be used in a power stage DC-to-DC converter, such as a converter in LED-based light bulbs. The power stage may be operated by a controller to maintain a desired current output to the LED load. A resistor may be coupled to the BJT through a switch at the emitter of the BJT. The switch may regulate operation of the BJT by allowing current flow to ground through the resistor. The controller may perform measurements of the resistor to allow higher accuracy determinations of the current through the BJT and thus improve regulation of current to the LED load.
US09504117B2

The present invention provides an over-voltage and over-current protection circuit (30), including an over-voltage detection unit (31) to generate an over-voltage detection voltage, an over-current detection unit (32) to generate an over-current detection voltage, a LED driving unit (33) being connected with the over-voltage detection unit and the over-current detection unit to converter a reference voltage into an over-voltage reference voltage and an over-current reference voltage being proportional to the reference voltage, a reference voltage adjusting unit (34) and a control unit (35). The control unit (35) outputs a boost control signal with a high level when it judges that change range of the working voltage of the LED module (20) exceeds a predetermined value according to a LED characteristic data curve. The present invention provides an electronic device (1), the over-voltage or over-current protection threshold could be increased along with increasing the working time of the electronic device (1).
US09504112B1

A method of adapting output power of a driver to conduction duration of a phase-cut dimmer includes determining a first conduction duration of an electrical signal generated by a phase-cut dimmer. The first conduction duration corresponds to a dimmest setting of the phase-cut dimmer. The method further includes storing a first value corresponding to the first conduction duration and determining a second conduction duration of the electrical signal. The second conduction duration corresponds to a brightest setting of the phase-cut dimmer. The method also includes storing a second value corresponding to the second conduction duration and generating intermediate values that are between the first value and the second value. The method further includes adjusting an output power of a driver based on a conduction duration of the electrical signal, the first value, the second value, and the intermediate values.
US09504109B2

An AC direct driver lighting system is disclosed. According to one embodiment, the AC direct driver lighting system includes a plurality of LED groups serially connected to an AC power source, and an AC driver comprising a plurality of current sinks. Each of the plurality of current sinks is connected between a respective LED group of the plurality of LED groups and a ground. The AC direct driver lighting system further includes a valley fill circuit coupled to a target LED group of the plurality of LED groups. The valley fill circuit charges from the AC power source and supplies electrical power to the target LED group via a current path established between the AC power source and the ground via at least one of the plurality of current sinks.
US09504103B2

Embodiments are disclosed for driving a multi-color solid state light source luminaire so as to maintain a color point as temperature varies within a given range. An array of solid state light sources includes two or more strings and is driven by a single constant current source. The array is topologically arranged to allow for control of the division of current between the strings of solid state light sources. In one such current-sharing scenario, the duty cycle of a switching control signal corresponds directly to the proportion of current that flows in one of two distinct strings of solid state light sources. Thermal feedback is used to control the duty cycle. In this way, the amount of current that flows in both strings may be adjusted as temperature changes.
US09504101B2

A light string can include a power cord adapted to electrically connect to an external power source, and a plurality of light bulbs electrically connected to the power cord in series. At least one of the light bulbs can include: a lamp base defining a first inner surface, and having a first beam-splitter formed on the first inner surface; a circuit board mounted in the lamp base, the circuit board electrically connected to the power cord; a plurality of light-emitting diode (LED) units electrically mounted on the circuit board; a light shade capping the lamp base, the light shade defining a second inner surface and having a second beam-splitter formed on the second inner surface, wherein the first beam-splitter and second beam-splitter are contiguous; and a refractive lens mounted in the lamp base between the LED units and the first beam splitter.
US09504097B2

An electric heater apparatus for heating air is disclosed, comprising a heater coil assembly including a coil support comprising a panel around which lies a coil of an electrical resistance element from approximately one end of the panel to approximately an opposite end, the coil of the electrical resistance element comprising a pass of spaced apart loops, the coil support configured to support the spaced apart loops.
US09504095B2

Electromagnetic energy is applied to an object at multiple modulation space elements (MSEs). MSEs are grouped into at least a first subset and a second subset according to a first grouping rule. A first EM energy application protocol is associated with the first subset and a second EM energy application protocol is associated with the second subset. Energy is applied at each of the plurality of MSEs according to the first EM energy application protocol and the second EM energy application protocol. MSEs are grouped into a third subset and a fourth subset according to a second grouping rule. A third EM energy application protocol is associated with the third subset and a fourth EM energy application protocol is associated with the fourth subset. EM energy at each of the plurality of MSEs is applied according to the third EM energy application protocol and the fourth EM energy application protocol.
US09504090B2

A method of supporting a group communication by a first user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system is provided. A communication connection is established with a second UE via a first relay UE. The first UE receives, from a first relay UE, a message requesting a relay connection, the message including first information indicating a current hop count, second information indicating a maximum number of allowed hops, and third information on a capacity profile which indicates a maximum number of allowed subordinated UEs. If a condition is satisfied, the relay connection is provided between the first relay UE and a third UE via a second relay UE, the second relay UE being the first UE. If the condition is not satisfied, the relay connection request is rejected.
US09504088B2

A user equipment (UE) includes a reference signal component, a guard period component, and a transmission component. The reference signal component is configured to randomly select a sequence for a reference signal for transmission in an open device-to-device discovery packet. The guard period component is configured to determine a first symbol signal for transmission during a first symbol of the device-to-device discovery packet. The first symbol comprises a partially punctured symbol. The transmission component is configured to transmit the device-to-device discovery packet. The device-to-device discovery packet includes the first symbol having the partially punctured symbol and a reference signal based on the randomly selected sequence.
US09504087B2

Methods and arrangements for managing termination of a telephone call. A contemplated method includes: detecting a request by a first party to terminate a telephone call between the first party and a second party; detecting whether the second party is still speaking after detecting the request to terminate the call; and automatically forestalling termination of the call if the second party is still speaking, via affording the first party an opportunity to continue the call, via at least one of: sending a confirmation request to the first party, and sending an audio signal to the first party. Other variants and embodiments are broadly contemplated herein.
US09504086B2

A service indication mechanism is described for use by IP Multimedia Subsystem, IMS, codes (201, 204) of an IMS network (106) in routing a terminating call in a network comprising a circuit switched, CS, network (107) and an IMS network (105, 106). On receipt of a Service Initiation Protocol, SIP, message from a second IMS node (202), the SIP message including a called user number associated with the call (A1), a SIP Uniform Resource Identifier, URI, and the call services for the called user from a user profile database is retrieved (A2). A second SIP URI is generated by including a service indicator of the called user in the received SIP URI, the service indicator representing the call services of the called user (A3), the SIP message is transmitted with the second SIP-URI to a third IMS node (204). On receiving the transmitted SIP message, the third IMS node (204) detects whether the service indicator is included in the SIP URI, and applies the service indicator to a plurality of policy rules for indicating whether the terminating call should be routed to the CS network (107) and whether to suppress insertion of a prefix to a CS routing number of the called user. The third IMS node (204) transmits to a CS node (206) a SIP message including the CS routing number without the prefix when a routing policy rule associated with the service indicator indicates suppression of the prefix (B5).
US09504085B2

A communications apparatus. A first radio module communicates with a first wireless network and provides wireless communications services. A second radio module communicates with a second wireless network and provides wireless communications services. At least two antennas shared by the first radio module and the second radio module. When the first radio module operates in a connected mode and when the timing of the first radio module performing the first receiving activity coincides with the timing of the second radio module performing a second receiving activity, the first radio module reports a value of 1 for a Rank Indicator to the first wireless network at least once before the second radio module is to perform the second receiving activity, and then the second radio module uses one of the antennas to perform the second receiving activity.
US09504082B2

An enhanced connection recovery upon lost RRC connection due to radio link failure (RLF) or handover failure (HOF) is proposed. A UE first establishes an RRC connection in a source cell in a mobile communication network. Later on, the UE detects a failure event and starts an RRC reestablishment procedure in a target cell to restore the RRC connection. In a first novel aspect, a fast NAS recovery process is applied to reduce the outage time in the target cell. In a second novel aspect, context fetching is used to reduce the outage time in the target cell. In a third novel aspect, a loss-less reestablishment procedure is proposed to reduce data loss during the connection recovery.
US09504075B2

A field device apparatus is described which, for communicating with an evaluation device, can be operated in a direct or indirect operating mode, which both use the same access data.
US09504070B2

A computing device for provisioning a wireless device for connection to a wireless network via a legacy access point. The wireless device supports a wireless protected setup protocol for obtaining the network profile of the network. A user requests the computing device discover wireless devices for provisioning. In response to the user input, the computing device is configured as a soft access point and broadcasts a beacon signal indicating that the access point supports a wireless protected setup protocol, such as Wi-Fi Protected Setup. A request for provisioning is then received by the computing device from the wireless device. A network profile is transmitted from the computing device to the wireless device in accordance with the wireless protected setup protocol. The wireless device may use the profile to connect to the network via the legacy access point using the network profile.
US09504069B2

A method of performing communication between a first device and a second device by using a Wi-Fi direct scheme is provided. The method may include receiving, by the first device, information on relating to a content protection capability of the second device in during a device discovery procedure; and determining, by the first device, whether to perform a connection setup procedure with the second device based on the received information on relating to the content protection capability of the second device.
US09504068B1

In systems and methods of maintaining a network connection of a wireless device, network connection information is associated with the wireless device and is maintained at a gateway node in communication with a first communication network and a second communication network. A first network connection between the wireless device and the first communication network is terminated, and a second network connection is established between the wireless device and the second communication network using the network connection information, wherein the association of the network connection information and the wireless device is maintained until the second network connection is established.
US09504064B2

A method and an apparatus for scheduling in a mobile communication system. According to the method, for data/message pre-promised between a UE and a network node, the UE transmits a scheduling request at a predetermined timing. When the network node receives the scheduling request at the predetermined timing, the network node directly allocates a resource for transmission of the promised data/message by itself, so that the UE can instantly transmit the data/message. As a result, transmission delay can be reduced.
US09504059B2

A device with concurrent long-term evolution (LTE) and WLAN uplink transmission includes a WLAN transceiver coupled to an LTE transceiver via an interface. The LTE transceiver includes an LTE Layer-1 module that determines whether an LTE data downlink activity is scheduled for an LTE downlink sub-frame of an LTE time frame, based on information in a first portion of the LTE downlink sub-frame. When determination is made that the LTE data downlink activity is not scheduled for the LTE downlink sub-frame, a message may be communicated through the interface to notify the WLAN transceiver that the second portion of the LTE downlink sub-frame is available for WLAN communication. The LTE time frame includes multiple LTE downlink sub-frames each including the first portion and a second portion. The first portion provides the information that indicates whether the LTE data downlink activity is scheduled for the second portion of that LTE sub-frame.
US09504056B2

A method and system for sharing a single antenna on platforms with collocated Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 b/g devices are provided. A single antenna may be utilized for communication of Bluetooth HV3 frame traffic and wireless local area network (WLAN) communication based on a time multiplexing approach. At least one antenna switch may be utilized to configure an antenna system to enable Bluetooth and WLAN coexistence via the single antenna. Configuration signals may be generated by a Bluetooth radio device and/or by a WLAN radio device to configure the antenna system. A default configuration for the antenna system may provide WLAN communication between a station and a WLAN access point until Bluetooth communication becomes a priority.
US09504049B2

Channel Optimization in Half Duplex Communications Systems is provided herein. Methods may include obtaining at a first terminal, radio frequency (RF) spectral information local to the first terminal, analyzing at the first terminal, RF spectral information for a second terminal that is not co-located with the first terminal, transmitting data to the second terminal on a second terminal optimal frequency band, and receiving data from the second terminal on the first terminal optimal frequency band, where the first terminal optimal frequency being based upon the RF spectral information local to the first terminal.
US09504045B2

A Bluetooth service estimation apparatus and a Bluetooth service estimation method thereof are provided. The Bluetooth service estimation apparatus listens to data packets transmitted between the Bluetooth host and the remote Bluetooth device, and determines a Bluetooth service type between the Bluetooth host and the remote Bluetooth device according to contents of the data packets. The Bluetooth service estimation apparatus transmits the Bluetooth service type to a packet traffic arbitration module of a Wi-Fi host so that the Wi-Fi host determines a weight of network resources according to the Bluetooth service type, and decides a utilization rate of an antenna based on the weight of the network resources.
US09504040B2

A base station can prevent deterioration of data channel application control accuracy due to influence of transmission power control to a control channel. In the base station, each encoding section performs encoding processing to an SCCH (Shared Control Channel) of each mobile station, each modulating section performs modulation processing to the encoded SCCH, an arranging section arranges the SCCH to each mobile station to one of a plurality of subcarriers which configure an OFDM symbol, and transmission power control section controls transmission power of the SCCH based on reception quality information reported from each mobile station. The arranging section arranges a plurality of the SCCH to be under transmission power control to one of the subcarriers so that combinations at resource blocks are the same.
US09504034B2

A radio system having multiple bearers overlays a relatively narrowband bearer such as P25 on a relatively wideband bearer such as LTE, for transmission of both uplink and downlink signals. The wideband bearer uses a spectrum of subcarriers which form a set of radio frequency blocks. One or more blocks or other related parts of the spectrum may be allocated to the narrowband bearer. In some cases the narrowband bearer may push through the wideband allocation using a relatively high power to dominate signals transmitted by the wideband bearer. Voice calls such as emergency calls using the narrowband bearer may be prioritized.
US09504033B2

A new PHICH channel and a new PDCCH channel are allocated when the location of a subframe to be used in transmission changes by the change in the configuration of the subframe caused by a dynamic uplink/downlink configuration in a subframe bundling transmission mode. In the event that a subframe is successfully transmitted in a subframe bundling mode, the location of the subframe that has been successfully transmitted is determined as a reference in determining the point of time of the response to the bundling transmission. In addition, the bundling transmission following the subframe that has been successfully transmitted can be omitted.
US09504026B2

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for keep alive messages. In one aspect there is provided a method. The method may include receiving, at a user equipment, an indicator sent by a wireless access point, wherein the indicator represents a time to send at least one keep alive message to enable maintenance of at least one binding in at least one intermediate node; and generating, by the user equipment, the at least one keep alive message. Related apparatus, systems, methods, and articles are also described.
US09504023B2

A mobile station (MS) receives a parameter used for configuring PUCCH resources, the PUCCH resources being configured on an uplink component carrier (UCC) on which HARQ control information is transmitted on a PUCCH; determines a first PUCCH resource on the UCC for a first PDSCH transmission indicated by a detection of a first PDCCH in a sub-frame on a first downlink component carrier (DCC), the first PUCCH resource being determined based on a control channel element of the first PDCCH; determines a second PUCCH resource on the UCC for a second PDSCH transmission indicated by a detection of a second PDCCH in the sub-frame on a second DCC, the second PUCCH resource being determined from the PUCCH resources which are configured; and transmits information bits using one of the first or the second PUCCH resource, the information bits being used for indicating the HARQ control information.
US09504014B2

The present disclosure provides methods and apparatuses for performing channel estimation in a wireless environment using a Primary Physical Common Control Channel (P-CCPCH) to aid in channel estimation. For example, according to an example method provided by the present disclosure, a user equipment (UE) may receive a pilot signal and a Primary Physical Common Control Channel (P-CCPCH) signal from a network entity. In an aspect, the P-CCPCH signal may include initial broadcast channel (BCH) data layered thereon. Furthermore, the UE may predict estimated P-CCPCH data based on the initial BCH data. Additionally, in an aspect, the UE may estimate a channel based on at least the estimated P-CCPCH data and the pilot signal. As such, more reliable channel estimation is possible in wireless systems, such as at UE locations at the geographical periphery of a network entity serving area.
US09504012B1

A method, a device, and a non-transitory storage medium having instructions to obtain extended discontinuous reception (DRX) parameters from a wireless network; store the extended DRX parameters; camp on a cell of the wireless network; wake up from an idle state based on the extended DRX parameters, wherein the device wakes up at a time, prior to a paging occasion, wherein a time period from the time to the paging occasion has a duration during which the device can perform a cell reselection procedure, and subsequently, a tracking area update; measure a metric of the cell in response to a wake up; and monitor a scheduled paging occasion, wherein the scheduled paging occasion is a paging occasion that is first to occur subsequent to the wake up.
US09504011B1

Various embodiments provide methods, devices, and non-transitory processor-readable storage media for mitigating the risk of delayed connection or call failure during base station handover by preventing single radio long term evolution (SRLTE) communication devices from dropping Mobile Termination (MT) paging messages due to paging channel mismatches (e.g., mismatches between the Walsh codes used for different paging channels).
US09504009B2

A paging processing method, a communication apparatus, and a communication system are disclosed. The paging processing method includes: receiving, by a mobility management network element, a downlink data notification message which includes service attribute information of a downlink data packet; obtaining the service attribute information; and initiating paging of the user equipment based on different policies according to the service attribute information.
US09504007B2

A method for managing a terminal operated in an idle state is provided. The method includes entering a femto cell, determining whether a femto base station managing the femto cell has the same paging group as a macro base station managing a macro cell overlapping the femto cell, transmitting a first ranging code triggering a paging enable state to the femto base station if it is determined that the paging group is the same as the determination result, and receiving a paging message from the femto base station.
US09503998B2

An architecture is provided that can facilitate and/or transmit notifications based upon device presence techniques in connection with a wireless communications network. For example, when certain mobile devices register with a particular network entity (e.g., a femtocell) that services a particular target location (e.g., place of residence), then such registration can be leveraged to indicate presence at the target location. Accordingly, notifications can be delivered to custodian devices that indicate the presence information if certain predetermined conditions or criteria are satisfied.
US09503993B2

A method and apparatus for controlling power of a Base Station (BS) in a wireless communication system are provided, in which a voltage comparator compares an operation voltage of a power control target of the BS with a minimum required voltage for the power control target, and a controller decreases the operation voltage of the power control target by a predefined level, if the operation voltage is higher than the minimum required voltage, and increases the operation voltage of the power control target by a predefined level, if the operation voltage is lower than the minimum required voltage.
US09503992B2

Different target transmit powers are determined for different wireless transmissions from a wireless device. The target transmit power of a wireless transmission may depend upon whether any transmitters other than the device to which the wireless transmission is to be sent are within range of the sending wireless device. The target transmit power of a wireless transmission may be based, at least in part, on a current location of a device to which one or more frames carried by the wireless transmission are addressed. The target transmit power of a wireless transmission may be based, at least in part, on confidentiality of data carried by the wireless transmission.
US09503989B2

A method and apparatus for power control for wireless transmissions on multiple component carriers corresponding to multiple serving cells associated with multiple timing advances are disclosed. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) may determine transmit powers for a first physical channel for a first serving cell in a first timing advanced group (TAG) and a second physical channel for a second serving cell in a second TAG. The first TAG may less timing advanced than the second TAG. The WTRU may determine a WTRU configured maximum output power (PCMAX) for an overlapping portion, which may be a portion of a transmission of the first channel in a first subframe that overlaps in time with a portion of a transmission of the second channel in a next subframe. The WTRU may adjust the channels such that a sum of their transmit powers in the overlapping portion does not exceed the determined PCMAX.
US09503988B2

This disclosure is directed to a method, computer program product and mobile communication device configured for managing radio states in a mobile communication device using device mobility information. A mobility state is determined from the number of cell changes over a predefined period of time. If the mobility state transitions to medium or high, such as when the user is in a vehicle, a Bluetooth™ radio is enabled. If a connection to a Bluetooth™-enabled device is available, a connection is established. When the connection is disconnected, a configurable timer is started. If the timer expires without re-establishing the connection or the mobility state transitioning to medium or high, the Bluetooth™ radio is disabled to reduce power consumption. According to an embodiment, a Wi-Fi radio may then be enabled to establish a Wi-Fi connection. Various configurations of computer program products and mobile communication devices are also described.
US09503965B2

A device may be configured to receive network information for connecting to a wireless network that is provided by a network device. The device may store the network information. The device may detect a wireless device based on radio frequency identification (RFID) communication. The device may transmit the network information to the wireless device via the RFID communication. The device may cause the wireless device to connect to the wireless network provided by the network device and set up the wireless device using the wireless network.
US09503961B2

Embodiments described herein relate generally to a communication between in a neighbor awareness networking (NAN) cluster. A first communication device may be participating in a hidden NAN cluster and a second communication device may seek to join the hidden NAN cluster. The second communication device may broadcast a discovery beacon that includes an identifier of the hidden NAN cluster in a field of the discovery beacon that is associated with a transmitter address. If the first communication device detects such a discovery beacon, the first communication device may transmit a synchronization beacon having timing information associated with the hidden NAN cluster. If the second communication device detects the synchronization beacon, the second communication device may synchronize with the hidden NAN cluster. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09503956B2

Embodiments are provided for facilitating text- and voice-based communications that originate from an electronic device connected to a non-terrestrial network. According to certain aspects, the electronic device can be previously registered with a data center and can have an active service or product with the data center. The electronic device initiates a communication request that is intended for a destination device. The data center examines the communication request to identify the electronic device, and modifies the communication request to indicate a subscription associated with the electronic device. The data center transmits the modified communication request to a service provider network for delivery to the destination device.
US09503955B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for information transmission, including: a network entity of a source network determines whether a handover of a UE from the source network to a target network satisfies an information transmission rule; if the handover satisfies the information transmission rule, the network entity of the source network transmits information of the UE to a network entity of the target network; the information of the UE includes: MDT allowed status information of the UE and/or MDT configuration information of the UE. Embodiments of the present invention also provide an apparatus and a system for information transmission. When the UE performs a network handover, the present invention can avoid repeated MDT operations of the UE and save network resources.
US09503947B2

Provided is a cell reselection method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system. The method comprises acquiring information indicating that the lowest priority is to be applied to a specific frequency, applying the lowest priority to the specific frequency and operating a cell reselection, applying the highest priority to the specific frequency upon sensing a specific type cell during the operation, and performing a cell reselection based on the applied lowest priority or highest priority.
US09503941B2

A system and method enable handover from a DC-HSUPA-capable node in a cellular wireless network to a non-DC-HSUPA-capable node. According to various aspects of the present disclosure, a handover may implement a legacy serving cell change procedure or an enhanced serving cell change procedure. In either case, signaling from the network to user equipment includes information to enable the user equipment to change or remove an Active Set when undergoing a handover from a cell with two uplink carriers and accordingly two Active Sets, to a cell with one uplink carrier and accordingly one Active Set.
US09503933B2

In the method, a plurality of access points forming a cluster in a telecommunication network monitors network data traffic information from at least one user computing device connected thereto; obtains a status profile; reports an own identifier to a remote server; builds, by using a record including the corresponding identifier of each access point, a list of access points available for performing backhaul aggregation; and establishes connections between available access points forming sub-clusters of access points. Wherein, one of the access points acts as a cluster coordinator coordinating said formed sub-clusters of access points for a backhaul aggregation.The device is adapted to implement the method.
US09503929B2

Techniques for transmitting overload indicators over the air to UEs in neighbor cells are described. In one design, an overload indicator may be transmitted as a phase difference between at least one synchronization signal and a reference signal for a cell. In another design, an overload indicator may be transmitted as a phase difference between consecutive transmissions of at least one synchronization signal for a cell. In yet another design, an overload indicator may be transmitted by a cell on resources reserved for transmitting the overload indicator. In yet another design, an overload indicator may be transmitted by a cell on a low reuse channel or a broadcast channel. For all designs, a UE may receive overload indicators from neighbor cells, determine the loading of each neighbor cell based on the overload indicator for that cell, and control its operation based on the loading of the neighbor cells.
US09503921B2

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for determining a scrambling code conflict and an apparatus for determining a scrambling code conflict. The method includes: determining a serving cell before a handover of a user equipment fails, and determining a current serving cell of the user equipment; and comparing frequencies and scrambling codes of the current serving cell and a neighboring cell of the serving cell before the handover fails, and determining, according to a result of the comparing, that a scrambling code conflict exists between the current serving cell and the neighboring cell of the serving cell before the handover fails. A probability of a handover failure of a user equipment is reduced, so as to ensure that a service of the user equipment runs normally.
US09503918B2

Disclosed in some examples are methods, systems, and machine readable mediums which reuse existing LTE functionality to rapidly signal UEs on the availability of a LTE-U cell. Using these techniques the on/off operation can be in the order of a few milliseconds (ms). Several techniques are disclosed herein, including use of component carrier (CC) specific Discontinuous Reception (DRX) signaling, PDCCH signaling, DL assignment based signaling, Physical Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Indicator Channel (PHICH) signaling, Beacon signaling, and the like.
US09503914B2

Methods and apparatus for identification of macro-cells and subordinate transmission nodes. In one embodiment, the methods and apparatus are configured for use within a long term evolution (LTE/LTE-A) network, and include a scrambling technique which can facilitate advanced capabilities in which the subordinate nodes possess unique cell identities from the macro-cell. The use of unique scrambling sequences allows subordinate node switching and other advanced multi-antenna techniques in heterogeneous networks. The disclosed methods and apparatus further allow for distinction and detection of signals transmitted from low-power RRHs, femto-cells, etc. and advantageously achieve greater interference randomization gain.
US09503910B2

A relaying device is provided, which can mediate by using communications of a wireless apparatus without clipping off the beginning of verbal communication. The relaying device includes: a network interface that receives an audio signal as a group of packet trains via a network; a wireless apparatus interface to which a wireless apparatus is connected; a voice buffer that temporarily stores the audio signal; and a control unit that starts temporarily storing the audio signal in the voice buffer and requests the wireless apparatus to reserve a channel, when a leading packet of the group of packet trains is received, and that reads the temporarily stored audio signal from the voice buffer and transfers the audio signal to the wireless apparatus, after receiving from the wireless apparatus a reply indicating that a channel has been reserved.
US09503893B2

A relay device is communicable with a communication management system that stores relay device identification information for identifying a relay device capable of communicating with a communication terminal using a first communications protocol, in association with configuration data that allows the communication terminal to communicate using a second communications protocol. In response to a configuration data request received from a communication terminal using the first communications protocol, the relay device transmits relay device identification information to the communication management system to obtain configuration data associated with the relay device identification information, and transmits the configuration data to the communication terminal.
US09503890B2

A method of delivering an application key or keys to an application server for use in securing data exchanged between the application server and a user equipment, the user equipment accessing a communications network via an access domain. The method comprises running an Authentication and Key Agreement procedure between the user equipment and a home domain in order to make keying material available to the user equipment and to an access enforcement point. At least a part of said keying material is used to secure a communication tunnel between the user equipment and the access enforcement point, and one or more application keys are derived within the home domain using at least part of said keying material. Said application key(s) is(are) provided to said application server, and the same application key(s) derived at the user equipment, wherein said access enforcement point is unable to derive or have access to said application key(s).
US09503888B2

The present methods and apparatus relate to adapting a network configured timer corresponding to a user equipment (UE) capability information procedure for indicating one or more UE capabilities to a network entity, comprising determining a message size of a capability message configured for transmission from the UE to the network entity during the UE capability information procedure; and performing a timer adaptation procedure, wherein the timer adaptation procedure includes adapting the use of the network configured timer based on the message size of the capability message.
US09503885B2

There is provided a method of ensuring that an identifier for a subscriber of an IP Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) is available to a third-party service provider that can provide a service to the subscriber. The method comprises, at an application server of the third-party service provider, receiving a service request message from the subscriber, the service request message requesting access to the service, obtaining a source IP address and source port number from the service request message, generating an identity request message including the source IP address and source port number, the identity request message requesting a subscriber identifier associated with the source IP address and source port number, sending the identity request message to a node of the IP-CAN, and receiving an identity response message from the node of the IP-CAN, the response including a subscriber identifier that the IP-CAN associates with the subscriber.
US09503882B2

A service processing method comprises: after receiving a service sharing request from another terminal, a terminal storing context information of a current state of the terminal, and then switching to the shared service; and when a fallback condition in a preset policy is satisfied, recovering to the state before the switch according to the context information. An embodiment of the present invention also provides a terminal Embodiments of the present invention allow fallback to the state before the service sharing, and thus avoid complex setting and operation of a user.
US09503881B2

A method for a user equipment (UE) to access an evolved packet core (EPC) network includes: receiving, by an EPC access gateway connecting a wireless local area network (WLAN) to an EPC, a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) request from the UE; and obtaining, by the EPC access gateway, subscription data of the UE according to a media access control MAC address of the UE in the DHCP request, and performing EPC access processing for the UE according to the obtained subscription data, where the obtaining subscription data of the UE according to a MAC address of the UE includes: obtaining the subscription data of the UE according to (a) the MAC address of the UE and (b) a matching MAC address of the UE the subscription data of the UE that are correspondingly stored by a network device in an access authentication process.
US09503880B2

A method for managing the mobility of a mobile node in telecommunications networks, which include first and second telecommunications networks, the mobile node including a memory area that stores data concerning the mobility of the mobile node in the networks, a first module for managing the mobility of the mobile node, to establish, through the first network, from an item of mobility data, a mobility session with a home agent, and, a second module for managing the mobility of the mobile node, to establish, through the second network, from an item of mobility data, a mobility session with the home agent, the method including accessing by the first module the mobility data stored in the memory area, and obtaining, by the second module, from the first module, at least one item of mobility data from the set of data that is accessible by the first module.
US09503860B1

Systems and methods may include receiving first motion data corresponding to a first object and receiving second motion data corresponding to a second object. The systems and methods may include determining whether the second object is following the first object based on the first motion data and the second motion data. The systems and methods may include receiving additional information corresponding to the second object. The systems and methods may include determining whether the second object poses a risk to the first object based on the additional information. The systems and methods may include performing processes in response to determining that the second object is following the first object and poses a risk to the first object. Such processes may include providing a notification to a subscribing party. The notification may indicate that the second object is following the first object and poses a risk to the first object.
US09503858B2

Example methods, apparatuses, or articles of manufacture are disclosed herein that may be utilized, in whole or in part, to facilitate or support one or more operations or techniques for selective crowdsourcing of location-related data, such as within an indoor or like environment, for example, for use in or with a mobile communication device.
US09503854B1

A content item may be associated with criteria that are to be performed to unlock the content items. In response to a user action, a determination as to whether the user action satisfies the criteria may be made. In response to determining that a user satisfied the criteria, the content item may be unlocked with respect to that user, meaning that the content item may become available to that user, such as via a corresponding user device. If it is determined that the criteria is not satisfied, the content item will remain unavailable to the user. Either a service provider or a user may associate the criteria with the content item, which may include video content, audio content, textual content, or image content.
US09503853B2

A network device can be placed in a central location to detect and disseminate mobile device data via a wireless network. The network device actions can be determined by an end-user device that receives subscription-based data. The end-user can determine parameters for communication between the network, network device, and the mobile device and determine actions based on the communication.
US09503850B2

The preferred embodiments of the present invention are directed to an improved mapping and navigational system. Specifically, the present invention is directed to a system for defining and assigning geographical boundaries to points of interests on a graphical map, where the geographical boundaries preferably correlate to spatially defined boundaries of the respective points of interests. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the points of interest, along with the respective defined geographical boundaries, can be transferred from a personal computing device to a telecommunication device, such as a portable communication device, so as to be used for mapping purposes and to set off proximity alerts when the portable communication device, equipped with a GPS unit, enters or exits the geographical boundary of a particular point of interest.
US09503848B1

A wireless tracking device can operate in two or more modes in connection with determining location of the wireless tracking device. In one mode, the wireless tracking device can determine location by establishing communication with an alarm panel using a short-range transceiver. The alarm panel can have a location that is known at the alarm panel or at a remote server, for example. In another mode, the wireless tracking device can utilize a location detector, such as a GPS receiver or a short-range receiver, to determine location of the wireless tracking device.
US09503843B2

A method, computer-readable storage device and apparatus for processing a text message are disclosed. For example, the method receives the text message, analyzes the text message for an indication that a sender of the text message is requesting location information of an individual that the text message is addressed to, receives a permission to provide the location information of the individual receiving the text message, and transmits the location information of the individual to an endpoint device of the sender, wherein the location information of the individual is continually updated and sent to the endpoint device of the sender.
US09503839B2

Methods, systems, and devices are described for detecting dedicated short range communications (DSRC) transmissions to determine whether to use at least a portion of the DSRC spectrum. In one embodiment, a multi-mode device may be operated outside of the DSRC spectrum using a first clock rate, and may then be switched to a second clock rate while operating outside of the DSRC spectrum to detect DSRC transmissions using the DSRC spectrum.
US09503820B2

In some embodiments, a sensor system may include a deformable structure and a sensing element. The deformable structure may include at least one layer of piezoelectric material and at least one actuator port disposed on the at least one layer of piezoelectric material. The deformable structure may deform in response to external phenomenon. The at least one actuator port may be configured to actuate the at least one layer of piezoelectric material via application of an electrical signal to the at least one layer of piezoelectric material. The at least one layer of piezoelectric material may be configured to apply a force to the deformable structure when actuated. The sensing element may be configured to sense deformation of the deformable structure capacitively, optically, or via a sensing port according to embodiments.
US09503813B2

A system and method for dynamic residual noise shaping configured to reduce hiss noise in an audio signal. The system and method may detect an amount and type of hiss noise. The system and method may limit calculated noise suppression gains responsive to the detected amount and type of hiss noise. The limited noise suppression gains may be applied to the audio signal and may reduce the hiss noise.
US09503788B2

A tool for creating and editing applications on a television multimedia device. The tool searches the television multimedia device for a plurality of currently installed applications on the television multimedia device. The tool exposes a workspace based on a graphical programming language on the television multimedia device. The tool receives a plurality of selections in the workspace. The tool receives a configuration of the plurality of received selections in the workspace. The tool determines, based on the configuration of the received selections in the workspace, the application is complete. The tool prompts to save the completed application.
US09503782B2

A decoder which decodes input data to generate corresponding decoded output data is operable: (a) to process encoded input data to extract header information indicative of encoded data pertaining to blocks and/or packets included in the encoded input data, the header information including data indicative of transformations employed to encode and compress original block and/or packet data for inclusion as the encoded data pertaining to the blocks and/or packets; (b) to prepare a data field in a data storage arrangement for receiving decoded block and/or packet content; (c) to retrieve information describing the transformations and then applying an inverse of the transformations for decoding the encoded and compressed original block and/or packet data to generate corresponding decoded block and/or packet content for populating the data field; and (d) when the encoded input data has been at least partially decoded, to output data from the data field as the decoded output data.
US09503781B2

A commercial detection system generates a probe audio fingerprint of an audio signal associated with a media stream on a broadcast channel and determines whether the media stream has commercial content based on analysis of the probe audio fingerprint. The commercial detection system determines whether a same match between the probe audio fingerprint and a reference audio fingerprint is observed across multiple broadcast channels. Responsive to the number of same matches exceeding a predetermined threshold, the commercial detection system determines that the media stream has commercial content. The commercial detection system may also apply a trained feature analysis model to extracted acoustic features of the audio signal. The commercial detection system determines whether the media stream has commercial content based on a confidence score assigned to the probe audio fingerprint. The commercial detection system reduces false positive detection using program guide information of the media stream.
US09503780B2

An electronic device with one or more processors, memory, and a display displays a first video stream on the display and plays first audio content that corresponds to the first video stream. While displaying the first video stream and playing the first audio content, the electronic device receives a request to display a second video stream on the display. In response, the electronic device displays a visual transition from display of the first video stream to display of the second video stream; plays second audio content that corresponds to the second video stream; and increases an amplitude of the second audio content while decreasing an amplitude of the first audio content, in accordance with progress of the visual transition.
US09503773B2

Internet application use and execution in an IPTV system is separated from the television to eliminate the Internet application learning curve and at the same time preserve a viewing experience.
US09503772B2

A method of controlling a video clip player is described. The method comprises sending a control signal from a controller to the video clip player to output a pre-recorded video clip to a display; using a sensor to sense EEG signals from the brain of an observer of the displayed video clip; transmitting the sensed EEG signals from the sensor to the controller; processing the received EEG signals to determine an outcome, the outcome being achieved by the received signal comprising a predetermined frequency or a predetermined combinations of frequencies of EEG signals above a threshold level for a predetermined period of time; and controlling the video clip player in response to the determined outcome. The controlling step comprises selecting a next pre-recorded video clip to be output by the video clip player from a plurality of stored pre-recorded video clips; and instructing the video clip player to output the selected pre-recorded video clip to the display for presentation to the observer.
US09503770B2

There is provided a content orchestration system and a method for use by the content orchestration system to enable assembly of one or more customized content streams. In one implementation, such a content orchestration system includes a computing platform having a processor, and a content orchestration engine for execution by the processor. The content orchestration engine is configured to receive data describing multiple content sources capable of providing content for use in assembling a customized content stream. The content orchestration engine is also configured to identify customization guidelines corresponding to a destination of the customized content stream, and to determine instructions for assembling the customized content stream based on the data and the customization guidelines.
US09503766B2

Techniques disclosed herein include systems and methods for excluding specific application traffic from customer consumption-based data billing counts. This is useful for excluding traffic from consumption totals where the application traffic has been accounted for using other means, such as through billing as a separate or technically distinct service. In practice, a tablet computer (or other end user device) can run a video application that uses a high-speed data network via a cable modem. This video application may be included as part of a core video package associated with a distinct cable television service. The system then provides accurate consumption billing of customer traffic that is outside of any other managed services by creating separate logical data service flows at a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) for excluding specific traffic counts.
US09503762B2

The system and method disclosed herein relate to the establishment of both the location and identity of individual items in pictures or videos. Once the one or more items in the picture/video are identified and matched to images in a reference database, the locations of the items are established and additional information relating to the items is accessed. Collectively, the position data and additional data is merged in the electronic pictures or videos and then provided to a user as a merged data stream. Additional functionality related to those identified items can occur when those identified locations are “pointed to”, “clicked” or otherwise selected (e.g., purchase an item, request information, select another video stream, play a game, share the item, rate, “Like”, and the like).
US09503760B2

A method of binarizing an input symbol using a hybrid Truncated Rice/k-th order exp-Golomb binarization scheme with a Rice Parameter includes: determining a threshold; comparing the input symbol with the threshold; constructing a codeword using a Truncated Rice (TR) binarization process for the input symbol when a comparison result belongs to a first type of comparison result; and constructing a codeword with an initial prefix and a suffix for the input symbol when the comparison result belongs to a second type of comparison result; wherein the suffix is constructed using an exp-Golomb binarization process.
US09503751B2

A method and apparatus for Simplified Depth Coding (SDC) with extended Intra prediction modes are disclosed. Embodiments of the present invention use an extended Intra prediction mode set including Horizontal mode and Vertical mode. When the Horizontal mode is selected, the prediction samples for the current depth block are derived based on a reconstructed neighboring depth column adjacent to a left block boundary of the current depth block by generating rows of the prediction samples from the reconstructed neighboring depth column. When the Vertical mode is selected, the prediction samples for the current depth block are derived based on a reconstructed neighboring depth row adjacent to a top block boundary of the current depth block by generating columns of the prediction samples from the reconstructed neighboring depth row.
US09503744B2

A video processing device includes a video processing unit that decodes a video input signal into a decoded video signal in accordance with a video compression protocol, based on uncompressed video frame data. A data object compression/decompression module generates compressed video frame data by compressing a plurality of video data objects into a plurality of compressed video data objects, storing the plurality of compressed video data objects in a compressed frame buffer. The data object compression/decompression module retrieves a selected portion of video frame data from the compressed video frame buffer by identifying selected ones of plurality of compressed video data objects that correspond to the selected portion of video frame data, retrieving the selected ones of the plurality of compressed video data objects and generating the uncompressed video frame data by decompressing the selected ones of the plurality of compressed video data objects.
US09503738B2

A system and method for generating a second reduced size digital image from a first digital image, the method including iteratively compressing the first digital image to an extent determined by a quality measure comprising at least a blockiness measure quantifying added artifactual edges along coding block boundaries of the second image and/or use of a quantization matrix generated by computing a weighted average of the quantization matrix of the first digital image and a scaled second quantization matrix.
US09503737B2

Methods are provided for reducing the size of a transpose buffer used for computation of a two-dimensional (2D) separable transform. Scaling factors and clip bit widths determined for a particular transpose buffer size and the expected transform sizes are used to reduce the size of the intermediate results of applying the 2D separable transform. The reduced bit widths of the intermediate results may vary across the intermediate results. In some embodiments, the scaling factors and associated clip bit widths may be adapted during encoding.
US09503731B2

Each of multiple cameras encodes and transmits a video signal captured, the encoding being performed with one of multiple variable bit rate encoding schemes each of which has a different average bit rate. A receiving device periodically measures the total bandwidth of the video signals received from the multiple cameras, and when the total bandwidth exceeds a first threshold value the receiving device switches the encoding scheme used by the cameras to a scheme having a lower average bit rate. In addition, when the total bandwidth falls below a second threshold value that is equal to or less than the first threshold value, the receiving device switches the encoding scheme used by the cameras to a scheme having a higher average bit rate.
US09503723B2

There is disclosed a method, apparatus and computer program product for prediction mode selection for coding a block of a depth map. An ordered list of coding modes is obtained, wherein the ordered list of coding modes comprises a plurality of coding modes each of which is capable of being used for coding of the block. A plurality of depth modeling modes (DMMs) each of which is capable of being used for coding of the block are obtained. And whether a DMM of the plurality of DMMs is to be added into the ordered list of coding modes in accordance with a decision condition is determined.
US09503721B2

A video encoding apparatus for predicting a motion vector of a current block to be encoded is to determine one or more representative blocks from neighboring blocks of the current block according to priorities of the neighboring blocks; and encode the motion vector of the current block by using, as a predicted motion vector of the current block, a first motion vector selected from motion vectors of the determined one or more representative blocks and a second motion vector of at least one block within a reference picture.
US09503711B2

Chromatic aberration can be reduced and extreme projection angles can be allowed in a projection system by modifying one color channel of light having a wavelength bandwidth with image data to produce imaged light, causing the imaged light to spread angularly when displaying the imaged light through an optical distorting element onto a screen, and reducing angular spread of the imaged light exiting the optical distorting element by adjusting the wavelength bandwidth.
US09503710B2

A mobile terminal includes a memory configured to store at least one 2-dimensional (2D) image and at least one 3-dimensional (3D) image. A display unit is configured to display the images. A controller is configured to control the display unit to display a list including the at least one 2D image and the at least one 3D image when a command for displaying the list is input, and to control at least one image being one of the 2D image or the 3D image distinguishably displayed from another of the 2D image or the 3D image.
US09503695B2

A video monitoring device has a function that receives a VLAN-ID-attached Ethernet frame transferred from an Ethernet switch, and that identifies a port to which a video cable of a monitoring camera which is a distribution source of the Ethernet frame is connected by referring to the VLAN-ID attached to the Ethernet frame.
US09503690B2

A video session manager and method for enabling, optimizing, and managing inter-domain video communication sessions, including telepresence and videoconferencing sessions. The video session manager is configured to receive and analyze a video communication session request from one or more endpoints; to determine the viability of a communication session based on one or more attributes of the session; and to connect the one or more requesting endpoints to start the session. The video session manager is further configured to connect the one or more requesting endpoints via a bridging resource, such as a multipoint control unit, based on one or more considerations such as geography and transmission channel utilization.
US09503679B2

A display apparatus including a main body, a display panel installed in the main body, a video call unit installed to the main body, a circuit board for control of the video call unit, and a cable to connect the video call unit and the circuit board to each other, is provided. Installing the video call unit to the main body enables a video call via the display apparatus.
US09503678B2

Embodiments of the invention include an apparatus including a processor for retrieving subtitle layer data, wherein the subtitle layer data contains a graphic subtitle elements. The processor extracts from retrieved subtitle layer data, subtitle display region information for defining a subtitle display region, a cropping flag, and subtitle display region cropping information, for cropping the display region, the subtitle display region cropping information including a parameter for horizontal position of the cropped subtitle display region, a parameter for vertical position of the crossed subtitle display region, a parameter for width of the cropped subtitle display region, and a parameter for height of the cropped subtitle display region. The apparatus includes a renderer for enabling automatic cropping of parts of the subtitle elements to be displayed in the cropped subtitle display region, where the cropped parts of the subtitle elements to be displayed are defined by subtitle display region cropping information.
US09503676B2

In a magnetic recording scale 41 fixed to an outer periphery of a rotary tube 20 which rotates around an optic axis depending on the movement of a zoom lens, a plurality of recording section 41a and recording section 41b pairs are provided in the rotational direction. A recording section 41b has a width less than a width of a recording section 41a . The recording section 41a is recorded with code information indicating a position in the magnetic recording scale 41, and the recording section 41b is recorded with a magnetic signal for detecting the recording section 41a adjacent thereto. A lens position detecting unit 71 detects a position of the zoom lens based on the code information and then detects a position of the zoom lens based on the detected code information.
US09503667B2

A method to read out pixels includes reading a first pixel by resetting a first photodetector, integrating the first photodetector after resetting the first photodetector, resetting a first floating diffusion node coupled to the first photodetector and a second floating diffusion node coupled to a second photodetector, transferring charge from the first photodetector to the first floating diffusion node, comparing a first signal at the first floating diffusion node and a second signal at the second floating diffusion node and generating a first signal to latch a first counter value when the first signal is less than the second signal, incrementing the first signal and decrementing the second signal, and comparing the first signal and the second signal and generating a second signal to latch a second counter value when the first signal is greater than the second signal, wherein the difference between the second counter value and the first counter value indicates a first pixel level.
US09503663B2

A solid-state imaging apparatus allows precise observation and analysis of ultra-high-speed phenomena at a frame rate more than 100 Mega frames per second, which has been targeted in advanced science and engineering. The solid-state imaging apparatus comprises pixels arranged in M columns and N rows. Each pixel includes a first layer for photoelectric conversion and a second layer having m charge collection devices, where m is equal to or greater than 3, for collecting and storing charges generated light incident on a substantially whole area of the pixel, and a readout device for reading out the charges, where m charge collection devices are locally placed in an area around a center of the pixel. The second layer further includes a second storage device for storing the charges collected and stored by each of the collection devices.
US09503662B2

A solid-state imaging device and a camera system are disclosed. The solid-state imaging device includes a pixel unit and a pixel signal readout circuit. The pixel signal readout circuit includes a plurality of comparators disposed to correspond to a pixel column array, and a plurality of counters. Each counter includes a first amplifier, a second amplifier, and a mirror circuit to from a current mirror in parallel with the second amplifier. The first amplifier includes differential transistors, initializing switches connected between gates and collectors of the differential transistors, and first and second capacitors connected to each of the gates of the differential transistors. The second amplifier includes an initializing switch and a third capacitor. The mirror circuit includes a gate input transistor whose gate is inputted with a voltage sampled by the first amplifier or a voltage sampled by the second amplifier.
US09503639B2

A vehicle collects oblique imagery along a nominal heading using rotated camera-groups with optional distortion correcting electronic image sensors that align projected pixel columns or rows with a pre-determined direction on the ground, thereby improving collection quality, efficiency, and/or cost. In a first aspect, the camera-groups are rotated diagonal to the nominal heading. In a second aspect, the distortion correcting electronic image sensors align projected pixel columns or rows with a pre determined direction on the ground. In a third aspect, the distortion correcting electronic image sensors are rotated around the optical axis of the camera. In a fourth aspect, cameras collect images in strips and the strips from different cameras overlap, providing large-baseline, small-time difference stereopsis.
US09503637B2

An image processing apparatus includes an image processing unit that calculates two types of image data from one image data and outputs the calculated image data, a data combination unit that combines the two type of data supplied from the image processing unit and outputs the combined data to one terminal, an output buffer that adjusts an output timing of the combined data according to an instruction supplied from bus arbitration means for arbitrating a bus, and a data distribution unit that outputs the combined data output from the output buffer to the bus in a form of the combined data, or distributes the combined data and outputs the distributed data to the bus according to an external combination distribution instruction.
US09503635B2

A refrigerator is provided. The refrigerator may include a main body having a storage compartment, a first door rotatably installed at a first side of the main body to open and close a first portion of the storage compartment, and a second door rotatably installed at a second side of the main body to open and close a second portion of the storage compartment. A first camera may be installed at the first door to take a picture of an interior of the first storage compartment during rotation of the first door, and a second camera may be installed at the second door to take a picture of the interior of the first storage compartment during rotation of the second door. A controller may combine plural pictures taken by the first camera and the second camera into a single corrected image of a region of the first compartment spanning from the first door to the second door.
US09503632B2

An image photographing device for photographing images through a front camera and a rear camera, according to one embodiment of the present invention, comprises: a display unit; a feature extraction unit for extracting facial features from an image of a user's face which is displayed on a preview screen through the rear camera; a structure extraction unit for extracting the structure of the user's face by using the extracted facial features; an expression extraction unit for extracting the facial expression of the user by using the extracted facial features if the extracted structure of the face matches a standard facial structure; and an notification unit for outputting a photograph notification signal if the extracted facial expression of the user matches a standard facial expression.
US09503626B2

Disclosed are an image display apparatus, a camera and a control method of the same for photographing various images in a natural manner, the image display apparatus including a display unit, a user input receiver, a communication unit which communicates with at least one camera through a network, and a controller which displays an image input by the camera, and transmits a photographing signal to the camera according to the user's input.
US09503621B2

A pendant housing for a camera. The housing comprises a substantially cylindrical casing. The substantially cylindrical casing further includes a top end portion that may be removeably mounted to a tube without a tool, a dome structure that may house at least a lens portion of a camera, a bottom end portion that may be removeably mounted to the dome structure without a tool, and a waterproof seal positioned between the bottom end portion and the dome structure.
US09503604B2

Provided is an illuminating device including a cylindrical lens in which a light incidence surface and a light emission surface, which are opposite to each other, extend in a longitudinal direction, and a light source that is disposed in such a manner that a positional relationship between a paraxial virtual image of the light source due to the light incidence surface of the cylindrical lens and a center of curvature of the light emission surface is in a predetermined range.
US09503603B2

The correction value calculating method of the reading apparatus includes a reading value acquiring step of acquiring reading values at respective pixels for respective reading positions at both ends of a reading range of the reference member and reading values at respective two or more pixels for respective reading positions in the reading range except the reading positions, and reading values for respective two or more reading positions at respective pixels while relatively moving an image pickup element in which a plurality of pixels are arranged along a first direction and the reference member which becomes a reference for shading correction, and a correction value calculating step of calculating a correction value for shading correction based on the acquired reading values.
US09503593B2

An operation console used in relation to an apparatus as an object of control operated by a user operation includes: a display device having a display area for displaying information to the user; an input device for the user to input a request; and a display control device displaying, if a request for displaying specific information on said display device is input through the input device, the specific information on the display device. The input device includes a plurality of operation buttons for inputting a plurality of requests, corresponding to respective requests, arranged in the vicinity of the display area. Among the plurality of operation buttons, an operation button corresponding to the request for displaying the specific information is provided closest to the display device.
US09503592B2

Aspects of the disclosure provide systems, methods, and apparatuses for leveraging near field communications (NFC) in conjunction with printer devices. Examples of the disclosure provide for novel methods of interfacing with printers configured to use near field communications using NFC enabled readers and output media. Examples include using a smart phone to access data stored on an NFC tag associated with the printer. The data provided by the NFC tag may include printer status information, printer configuration information, network information, or other data relating to operation and maintenance of the printer. The printer may also encode the NFC tag dynamically, including encoding data to NFC tags included on print media. The printer may encode an NFC tag associated with media with a variety of information in support of various use cases.
US09503590B2

In an imaging apparatus, when a user selects a smart phone mode while a communication function menu screen is displayed, a control unit controls a communication unit to perform a connection operation to an information processing apparatus such as a smart phone. If the user selects a printer mode while the communication function menu screen is displayed, the apparatus determines the current photographing mode. If the current photographing mode is a specific photographing mode, the apparatus displays a printer connection disenabled screen to inhibit connection with the printer.
US09503580B1

Systems and methods for computing device assistance for phone based customer service representative interaction are described herein. One or more systems include a number of customer service representative computing devices having processors and memory thereon for the storage of executable instructions and data, wherein the instructions are executed to allow at least one of the number of computing devices to control a customer's computing device such that the customer service representative or executable instructions can select information, related to a phone based customer service representative interaction, to display on the customer's computing device and display the selected information on a display of the customer's computing device.
US09503574B2

A system and method for selecting call recordings for storage is provided. Criteria for retaining call recordings are identified. Each of a plurality of watchers within a call center is programmed with one or more criteria selected from the identified criteria. Call recordings are generated from calls within the call center. The criteria from one or more of the watchers are applied to each of the call recordings. Those call recordings that satisfy the applied criteria are retained within the call center.
US09503571B2

Systems, methods, and media for analyzing fraud patterns and creating fraud behavioral models are provided herein. In some embodiments, methods for analyzing call data associated with fraudsters may include executing instructions stored in memory to compare the call data to a corpus of fraud data to determine one or more unique fraudsters associated with the call data, associate the call data with one or more unique fraudsters based upon the comparison, generate one or more voiceprints for each of the one or more identified unique fraudsters from the call data, and store the one or more voiceprints in a database.
US09503569B1

Methods and devices for enabling and disabling the updating of an adaptive filter for echo cancellation of a communication device are disclosed. An echo canceller may include an adaptive filter enabled to update responsive to a determination that a first condition is satisfied that there is no double talk detected on the communication device, and a determination that a second condition is satisfied based, at least in part, on a performance characteristic. The adaptive filter may be disabled from updating responsive to at least one of the first condition and the second condition not being satisfied. Described is disabling the adaptive filter from updating responsive to detecting a performance characteristic of the adaptive filter to fail to meet a condition indicating that the adaptive filter is diverging. The condition to be met may be independent of whether double-talk is determined to be present on the communication device.
US09503563B2

A smart band including a display unit provided at a body, and forming a first touch recognition region; a wrist band connected to the body and having a second touch recognition region at one side of the band; and a controller configured to sense a dangerous situation has occurred based on touch inputs on the first and second touch recognition regions, and transmit preset information to a remote guardian's mobile terminal, in response to the dangerous situation being sensed.
US09503561B2

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a system and method for providing pen-based content transfer between mobile computing devices. According to one embodiment, a first mobile computing device and second mobile computing device are configured to host electronic content. A pen device is operated by a user for selecting preferred electronic content from the electronic content hosted on the first computing device. Furthermore, the pen device is configured to store transfer information for facilitating transmission of the preferred electronic content from the first mobile computing device to the electronic content of the second mobile computing device based on action from the user.
US09503560B1

The remote control for mobile applications is a remote control system adapted for use with PDAs. Specifically, the remote control for mobile applications establishes a Bluetooth connection between a remote control device and a controller application that is adapted to run on a PDA. The remote control for mobile applications is used to remotely control the operation of a target application that resides as a separate application on the PDA. The controller application receives commands from the remote control devices and causes the received command to be executed by the targeted application. The remote control for mobile applications comprises a remote control device, a controller application, and a Bluetooth connection.
US09503556B2

Apparatus has at least one processor and at least one memory having computer-readable code stored thereon which when executed controls the at least one processor to perform a method comprising: whilst providing two-way communication in a voice call, detecting whether a speaker component of a voice communications device is in a state of being moved away from a user's ear; in response to detecting that the speaker component of the voice communications device is in a state of being moved away from a user's ear, entering a line activity mode; in the line activity mode, determining whether voice activity is present on the inbound channel of the voice call; and in response to determining the presence of voice activity on the inbound channel of the call when in the line activity mode, causing announcement of the detection of voice activity.
US09503554B1

A portable electronic apparatus includes a first touch-sensing substrate, a camera module, transmission routes, a flexible printed circuit, and a main board. The first touch-sensing substrate has an active area and a peripheral area surrounding the active area. The camera module is connected to a second connecting area of the peripheral area. At least one of the transmission routes connects between a first connecting area and the second connecting area of the peripheral area, and rest of the transmission routes respectively connect between the active area and the first connecting area. The flexible printed circuit connects to the first connecting area. The flexible printed circuit includes a touch-sensor driver. The touch-sensor driver is electrically connected to at least part of the transmission routes. The main board includes a connector. The connector is connected with an end of the flexible printed circuit.
US09503546B2

A method for connecting to users using at least two communicating objects comprises the step of creating a user account, associating the user account to profile accounts, such as professional and/or social network accounts and/or an account memorized in a customer data base. The user accounts and the associated profile accounts of all the users are incorporated into a general data base. The detecting communication objects detects detectable communicating objects and exchanges fields of the user accounts and/or associated profile accounts, the detection keys and the search keys with each other. Common keys between the search keys of the detecting communicating object and the detection keys of a detected communicating object are identified, the user is notified, and the two communicating objects are connected to each other.
US09503541B2

Methods and systems may provide for identifying a web application having a primary resource that references a secondary resource, wherein the primary resource contains a version identifier of the primary resource and a version identifier of the secondary resource. Additionally, a cached version of the primary resource and a cached version of the secondary resource may be created on a mobile device, and the version identifier of the primary resource may be used to determine whether the secondary resource is stale. In one example, it may be determined that staleness checking has been disabled in the secondary resource. Moreover, if the primary resource does not contain the version identifiers, cloud caching may be used.
US09503526B2

Stored data is accessed over a computer network through a network data manager. Data may be stored and transferred to the network data manager from a product device using an uploader application. In one aspect, a request message containing an access request or identifier is received at the network data manager from a client device for access to a data storage facility. If the network data manager determines the access requestor identifier is associated with a data record that identifies a product device having a registration record, the network data manager transmits a data link to the client device to provide access to the data record by the client device over the computer network.
US09503525B2

A method for transmitting data files in a network includes receiving requests from destination devices for packets of the data files. The method includes constructing a conflict graph such that each packet requested by each destination device is represented by a distinct vertex in a plurality of vertices of the conflict graph, the plurality of vertices being associated with the destination devices. The method includes assigning labels to the plurality of vertices. The method includes assigning levels to the plurality of vertices. The method includes ordering the plurality of vertices from vertices having a highest level to vertices having a lowest level. The method includes coloring the plurality of vertices based on the ordering. The method includes combining the packets represented by vertices in the plurality of vertices having a same color. The method includes sending the combined packets.
US09503524B2

The present invention relates to a distributed data storage system comprising a plurality of storage nodes. Using unicast and multicast transmission, a server application may write data in the storage system. When writing data, at least two storage nodes are selected based in part on a randomized function, which ensures that data is sufficiently spread to provide efficient and reliable replication of data in case a storage node malfunctions.
US09503523B2

An example method for hybrid Fiber Channel (FC) storage with end-to-end storage provisioning and external connectivity in a storage area network (SAN) environment is provided and includes partitioning a SAN into an internal virtual storage area network (VSAN) for connectivity to an internal storage element located in a first portion of the SAN implemented in a unified computing system (UCS), where a second portion of the SAN is external to the UCS, partitioning the SAN into an external VSAN for connectivity to an external storage element located in the second portion of the SAN, and facilitating communication with the internal storage element over the internal VSAN and with the external storage element over the external VSAN. In one embodiment, border ports on a FI in FC switching mode are configured as N-ports for the external VSAN, and the external storage element is attached to the UCS through an N-port.
US09503520B2

A system and method for utilizing a server to synchronize launchers between a smartphone and a browser running on a personal computer of a user. When the user installs an application on his smartphone, the application's icon also appears automatically on a toolbar of the browser. The toolbar visually resembles the screen of the smartphone, and opening the icon of the toolbar launches, on the personal computer, a program that is identical or equivalent to the application installed on the smartphone.
US09503517B1

A storage management system monitors an indicator of whether data storage is capable of meeting a performance description as stored on a current implementation resource, such as a storage server. The indicator may be used to determine whether none, some or all of the data storage should be moved from the current implementation resource to an available implementation resource.
US09503515B2

In a distributed computing environment that includes hosts that execute a VMM, where each VMM supports execution of one or more VMs, administering VMs may include: assigning, by a VMM manager, the VMMs of the distributed computing environment to a logical tree topology, including assigning one of the VMMs as a root VMM of the tree topology; and executing, amongst the VMMs of the tree topology, a broadcast operation, including: pausing, by the root VMM, execution of one or more VMs supported by the root VMM; sending, by the root VMM, to other VMMs in the tree topology, a message indicating a pending transfer of the paused VMs; and transferring the paused VMs from the root VMM to the other VMMs.
US09503511B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure set forth a method for optimizing a multimedia service in a mobile network including a server and a client. The method includes: collecting QoS related information of a channel in the mobile network; collecting or retrieving at least one parameter associated with a usage preference of the mobile network or the client; determining a QMS metric based on the QoS related information and the at least one parameter for the channel periodically; notifying the server a first QMS metric when the difference between a second QMS metric and the first QMS metric exceeds a threshold, wherein the first QMS metric is obtained immediately succeeding the second QMS metric; and receiving a multimedia content in a manner that is determined based on the first QMS metric.
US09503506B2

A method for accessing webpages based on a transit mode is provided. A crawler route server receives a webpage access request sent from a client where the webpage access request contains identification of a target website to be accessed. The crawler route server obtains a target crawler server which has the fastest speed for accessing the target website corresponding to the identification of the target website to be accessed from at least one crawler server. Further, the method includes the crawler route server returns the identification of the target crawler server to the client, and the client accesses the target website through the target crawler server corresponding to the identification of the target crawler server.
US09503502B1

Feedback received from users regarding potential problems with an application, service, or other source of electronic content can be configured to include additional information that help triangulate the source of the problem. Content provided by third parties can be combined with content from a primary provider, but the primary provider often will be unable to determine the precise instance of third party content that a user received that might have posed a problem for the user, as may relate to malware or another such issue. By configuring feedback submissions from users to automatically include identifying information, and by logging session data for various users, a content provider can analyze and filter the data to determine likely sources of the problem, and deactivate or otherwise address those sources. Further, the content provider can analyze the information to locate any users likely to have been exposed to the same third party content.
US09503500B2

A method of classifying content items utilizes user-generated playlists. A content item is included in respective playlists from a plurality of respective distinct users. The method receives respective user-generated information corresponding to the content item from each of the respective distinct users. For some users, the respective user-generated information is the respective playlist title. For other users, the user-generated information is the text of social network posting that identifies a respective playlist. In each case, the respective user-generated information specifies a first content item attribute that characterizes the content item. Accordingly, the method assigns the first content item attribute to the content item. Subsequently, a request is received from a first user for a content item having the first content item attribute. In response, the method selects the content item according to the first content item attribute and delivers the first content item to the first user.
US09503499B1

Content logic in a web browser receives a request to load a web page in the web browser and determines whether a cached copy of the web page is available in a browser cache. If the cached copy is available, the content logic loads the cached copy of the web page in the web browser. While the cached copy of the web page is loaded, the content logic sends a request to a web server hosting the web page for updated content associated with the web page. If updated content is received from the web server, the content logic removes stale content from the cached copy of the web page and loads the updated content in the web browser.
US09503488B2

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for accomplishing a virtual call on hold. A client communication device, such as a telephone, smartphone, or computer, receives a notification of a communication session to which the user is invited, and establishes a relationship with the communication session. Alternatively, a server associated with the communication session can establish the relationship with the client communication device. Then, the communication device can present an indication of the relationship with the communication session for a duration of the communication session, such that the user can join the communication session at will via a communication channel, and such that the communication channel is not occupied by the communication session unless or until the user joins the communication session. The communication session can be a conference call, video conference, a multi-modal chat wherein multiple users communicate via different modalities.
US09503484B2

The present invention relates to a method of transmitting a signal by an MME (Mobility Management Entity) in a wireless network, the method comprising: receiving a tracking area update message from an UE (User Equipment); transmitting, on reception the tracking area update message, an Update Location message comprising an IMS voice over PS (Packet Switched) session supported indication to an HSS (Home Subscriber Server), wherein the IMS voice over PS session supported indication indicates whether or not an IMS Voice over PS Session is supported homogeneously in all tracking areas in the serving MME.
US09503479B2

A method and system for assessing security of a network perimeter of a network. Security of an authentication computer from attack is reviewed. Users outside of the network perimeter that request access to an application within the network perimeter are authenticated. Vulnerability of a gateway computer at the network perimeter from applications outside of the network perimeter is reviewed. The reviewing of vulnerability of the gateway computer includes scanning ports on the gateway computer to determine whether an unauthorized application outside the network perimeter and/or at least one unauthorized service from the unauthorized application is available within the network perimeter via the gateway computer.
US09503464B2

A system, method, and apparatus for providing alerts based on unstructured information are disclosed. An example apparatus includes an interface configured to receive unstructured information and a processor configured to determine labels for Common Alerting Protocol fields of a Common Alerting Protocol file using at least some content within the unstructured information. The processor determines, for example, a first label for an urgency field, a second label for a severity field, a third label for a category field, and a fourth label for a certainty field of the Common Alerting Protocol file. The example processor is configured to create the Common Alerting Protocol file that includes the determined labels and transmit the Common Alerting Protocol file to a decision system to determine a security risk or a safety risk for one or more subscribing clients.
US09503462B2

A method for authenticating communicating parties is disclosed. In the method biometric information associated with a first party is generated based on a recording of the first party presenting a predefined input parameter. Said biometric information may then be transmitted to a second party. Authenticity of a security parameter associated with the first party can then be verified based on said biometric information.
US09503460B2

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes identifying a network location of an endpoint, which is attempting to initiate an application; identifying whether the endpoint is operating in an enterprise environment; determining whether the application is trusted based on metadata associated with the application; and provisioning a tunnel for data traffic associated with the application. In more detailed implementations, the tunnel can be provisioned if the application is trusted and the endpoint is outside of an enterprise environment. In addition, the tunnel can be provisioned if the application is untrusted and the endpoint is within an enterprise environment.
US09503458B2

These and other objectives are attained with a method and system for evaluating an access policy change. The method comprises the step of providing an access control mechanism having a first policy, and an audit log having entries of accesses made under that first policy. The method comprises the further steps of submitting a second policy to the access control mechanism, comparing the log entries to the second policy, and based on the results of the comparing step, taking one of a predetermined number of actions.
US09503450B2

Additional security is provided for on-line account users beyond that which is otherwise conventionally provided by, e.g., longer passwords, passwords that include both characters and numbers, etc., by implementing an on-line server that notifies a pre-registered account holder via a short messaging system (SMS) with a short message login notification when a log-in (or even just a login attempt) occurs. Thus, even entry of the proper user/password information, which would conventionally be presumed to be authorized, will be notified to the registered SM address of the authorized user.
US09503449B1

A system for managing one or more certificates on granular object level in one or more datacenters is provided. The system includes a discover module, an inventory module, a work order module, and a policy module. The discover module is configured to discover the one or more certificates. The inventory module is configured to provide details of the one or more certificates. The work order module is configured to store details of (i) a work order id of the one or more certificates, (ii) device information of the one or more certificates, (iii) a time stamp of implementation of the one or more certificates, and (iv) a status the one or more certificates. The policy module is configured to create a policy that specifies (i) usage of the one or more certificates, and (ii) practices that a certificate authority (CA) employs to manage the one or more certificates.
US09503448B2

Methods, devices, and machine-readable media are provided to provide secure communications between entities. As provided in this disclosure, this may include receiving a request to begin a new communication session, determining one or more desired parameters of the session, and determining whether the desired parameters of the message match proposed parameters provided by the entity requesting the new communication session. When the one or more proposed parameters match the one or more desired parameters, a secure communication session is established between the entities.
US09503445B2

Pre-delivery authentication may be required prior to routing and delivery of electronic content. A sender of the electronic content, for example, may require that a recipient authenticate to ensure legitimate use or identity. Should pre-delivery authentication be required, the electronic content is held at any networked device while the recipient authenticates. If the recipient correctly authenticates, then the electronic content is released for delivery.
US09503441B2

An exemplary system includes a content delivery subsystem configured to receive media content from a content provider and transmit the media content over a network to a content processing subsystem configured to process and provide the media content for presentation to an end user. The content delivery subsystem is further configured to maintain resource data associated with at least one of the media content and the content provider, make at least a subset of the resource data available to the content processing subsystem for inclusion in an end user interface, provide a content customization portal for access by the content provider, authenticate the content provider accessing the content customization portal, receive custom content from the authenticated content provider via the content customization portal, and provide the custom content to the content processing subsystem for inclusion in the end user interface.
US09503439B2

A communication system includes a transmission terminal and a management device, and when having received contact list information about a second user from the management device while displaying a contact list about a first user or the transmission terminal, the transmission terminal creates the contact list about the second user based on the contact list information about the second user, and displays the contact list of the second user.
US09503434B2

Embodiments compress and encrypt data in a single pass to reduce inefficiencies that occur from compression and encrypting data separately. Typically, compression and encryption are implemented in separate functional units. This has a few disadvantages: 1) encryption cannot make use of compression state to further secure the message, 2) processed data is read and written twice, 3) additional space, time, and resources are consumed, and 4) it is more prone to potential cipher-attacks since the encryption stage is independent from compression. Embodiments overcome these disadvantages by structuring these operations so that both compression and encryption is executed within the same processing loop. Thus: 1) encryption is stronger due to the dependence on the compression state, 2) I/O buffers are accessed only once reducing overhead, 3) system footprint is reduced, and 4) cipher analysis is more complex since the decryption process cannot be separated from the decompression process.
US09503426B2

A virtual environment firewall receives a message having a request from a virtual environment entity intended for a virtual environment controller. The virtual environment firewall determines whether the request complies with one or more governance rules of the virtual environment controller. If the request does not comply with the one or more governance rules, the virtual environment firewall processes the message to prevent the request from being processed by the virtual environment controller.
US09503422B2

Apparatus, systems, network platforms, and methods of providing secure communication between multiple networks, and program product for managing heat exchanger energy efficiency and retrofit for an industrial facility, are provided. According to an exemplary apparatus, the apparatus can include provisions for preventing uninterrupted application-to-application layer communications between the one or more secured networked members and the one or more networked enterprise members to thereby eliminate active files from being communicated, preventing communication of active files or other vulnerable files, and preventing establishment of active links or sessions, between the one or more secured networked members and the one or more networked enterprise members.
US09503420B2

Disclosed are a logical network separation method and apparatus. The logical network separation method includes generating a first hash key on the basis of address information included in a service request packet, generating hash information on the basis of a transmission property of the service request packet corresponding to the first hash key when the same hash key as the first hash key is not in the hash table, and generating the policy about the reception of the service response packet corresponding to the service request packet on the basis of a destination of the service request packet. Accordingly, it is possible to block a cyber attack such as hacking, a malicious program, etc.
US09503401B1

A system, apparatus, and methods are provided for supporting automated recall of a message (e.g., a chat message) from an originator's device, or at least media that accompanied the message. An original message may convey one or more media files that are temporarily stored on a system or apparatus that hosts the communication application used to create, send, and receive messages. The media files may be lost in transit because of failure of a system component, failure of a storage device, purging of the files before they are retrieved by a recipient, or for some other reason. When the recipient's device receives an error in response to an attempt to retrieve the media file(s), it automatically initiates a recall request that is returned to the originating device. If the message and media are still available on the device, an abbreviated version of the message is re-sent, with the media.
US09503399B1

A computer-implemented method, a computer program product and a computerized apparatus, the method comprising: receiving a communication message transmitted to a user and at least one other recipient; providing to the user a display of a set of communication messages comprising the communication message; after said providing, receiving information of actions related to the communication message performed by the at least one other recipient of the communication message; scoring the communication message based on the actions to obtain a priority; and modifying the display based on the priority, whereby the display is modified dynamically upon an additional action of the at least one of the other recipients of the communication message.
US09503398B1

Implementing a signaling service protocol to permit signaling service messages between members for a message group of a sysplex coupled together using a signaling service includes executing a data transfer application that communicates with a respective partner data transfer application on each member of the message group, the data transfer application comprised of a plurality of interworking modules including a converter module. The converter module receives a request related to performing a communication-related function from one of the other interworking modules, and wherein the converter module comprises a plurality of sub-modules with each sub-module corresponding to a respective communications-related function. Based on the request the converter module determines what particular communication-related function is being requested and then identifies a corresponding sub-module within the converter module. The corresponding sub-module is executed to invoke a routine, in the data transfer application, to generate a signaling service message related to the communications-related function.
US09503371B2

Some embodiments provide a method for a network controller in a network control system that manages a plurality of logical networks. The method receives a specification of a logical network that includes a logical router. The method selects at least two host machines to implement a routing table for the logical router from several host machines designated for hosting logical routers. The selected host machines include a designated master host machine for the routing table. The method generates data tuples for provisioning a set of managed forwarding elements that implement the logical network to send data packets that require processing by the routing table to the selected host machines. The data tuples specify an order for the selected host machines with the designated master host machine as the first host machine in the specified order.
US09503367B2

A method employing resource orchestration algorithms may find a fewest number of working data centers (DCs) to guarantee K-connect survivability and a fewest number of virtual machines (VMs) among the DCs using an overlay network representing a physical optical network. The overlay network may exclude certain topological features of the physical optical network. An intra-request VM sharing method may share VMs among DCs allocated for an aggregation request. An intra-request VM sharing method may share VMs among DCs represented in the overlay network and among multiple aggregation requests.
US09503360B2

A method and apparatus for diverting traffic in a communications network are disclosed. According to one aspect, the invention provides a communications network with a first node and a second node. Connecting these two nodes is a first set of intermediate nodes on a first path (the true shortest path) and a second set of intermediate nodes on a second alternate path. At a first node, a first processor determines whether a packet arriving at the first node must transit the second node. If so, the base virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier (VID) of the packet is replaced by a first VID, and the packet is transmitted along the second path through the second set of intermediate nodes to the second node. At the second node, a second processor determines whether a packet arriving at the second node must transit the first node. If so, the base VID of the packet is replaced by a second VID different from the first VID and different from the base VID, and the packet is transmitted along the second path through the second set of intermediate nodes to the first node.
US09503357B2

A network element that acts as a hub in a hub and spoke topology is configured to limit the amount of topology and reachability information that is advertised to a set of one or more remote network elements that act as one or more spokes in the hub and spoke topology in a same routing area. The network element generates a set of one or two link state advertisements (LSAs) to advertise over an interface that connects at least one of the set of remote network elements to the network element, wherein the set of LSAs includes information that describes a connection to the set of remote network elements and one or more aggregate routes. The network element advertises, during a database exchange process with the one of the set of remote network elements, the set of LSAs to the one of the set of remote network elements.
US09503351B1

Deployment feedback for updates to resources implemented in a private network may be implemented. Feedback codes may be generated and included in deployments sent to a private network for deployment at resources implemented in the private network. One or more of the included feedback codes may be selected based on the performance of the deployment and provided via a feedback communication channel that is disconnected and distinct from the private network. Once received, a current status of the deployment may be determined based on the one or more feedback codes provided via the feedback communication channel.
US09503347B2

Examples are disclosed for determining or using server transaction latency information. In some examples, a network input/output device coupled to a server may be capable of time stamping information related to ingress request and egress response packets for a transaction. For these examples, elements of the server may be capable of determining transaction latency values based on the time stamped information. The determined transaction latency values may be used to monitor or manage operating characteristics of the server to include an amount of power provided to the server or an ability of the server to support one or more virtual servers. Other examples are described and claimed.
US09503345B2

A cloud services system includes an access services layer, a cloud service manager, and a service platform layer. The access services layer provides front-end functionality for users and service providers to order and manage cloud services, including software applications provided for use by the users. The cloud manager exposes services provided by the cloud services system to the users, and orchestrates delivery of the services and provisioning of resources for the services. The service platform layer activates virtual machines and virtual desktops to provide the services.
US09503342B2

A method of monitoring packet traffic is provided. The method includes: at a first access point, capturing portions of traffic packets passing therethrough separated by time intervals; encapsulating the portions of traffic packets thereby forming encapsulated packets and adding timestamps to the encapsulated packets so as to preserve the portions of traffic packets and information related to the time intervals; transmitting the encapsulated packets over a network; decapsulating the encapsulated packets so as to obtain replay packets and the capture timestamp, wherein the replay packets include the portions of the traffic packets; and, transmitting the replay packets separated by the time intervals, wherein the timestamps are used to reproduce the time intervals so as to imitate the traffic packets passing through the first access point.
US09503339B2

In various embodiments, a multi-channel request-to-send and a multi-channel clear-to-send may be used in a wireless communications network to assure that a subsequent multi-channel communications exchange between two devices takes place only over channels that are sensed by both devices as being free.
US09503324B2

Systems (100) and methods (1400) for enterprise mission management of a Computer Network (“CN”). The methods involve configuring CN to operate in accordance with a first Mission Plan (“MP”) specifying a manner in which an assigned value for a first IDentity Parameter (“IDP”) is to be dynamically modified by a first node of CN; detecting a trigger event which indicates that a new MP needs to be implemented within CN; obtaining a second MP that specifies a manner in which an assigned value for a second IDP is to be dynamically modified by a second node of CN; determining if any conflicts exist between operations of the second node defined by the second MP and operations of the first node defined by the first MP; and configuring operations of CN to further operate in accordance with the second MP if it is determined that no conflict exists.
US09503320B2

An example method for managing an operation image in an embedded computer in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure includes prompting input related to the operation image associated with the embedded computer. If the input is detected within a predetermined period of time, the method includes customizing the operation image based on the input from the user, and if the input is not detected within the predetermined period of time, the method includes proceeding with a predetermined selection.
US09503315B2

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer readable media for modifying IP backbone link weights such that multicast traffic and unicast traffic will not travel on a same path between nodes. The method comprises assigning link weights to nodes within an IP backbone such that multicast forwarding paths and unicast forwarding paths are failure disjoint, and delivering undelivered multicast packets using IP unicast encapsulation to the loopback address of next hop router on a multicast tree upon link/interface failure.
US09503312B2

It is to realize a network management system which can suppress to a minimum a time during which it is impossible to make a communication when a trouble occurs in any of field wireless management stations formed to be redundant.In a network management system in which field wireless management stations 11, 12 having gateway functions and system management functions incorporated are redundantly connected together, the field wireless management stations 11, 12 include at least switch modules 11b, 12b, and the plurality of field wireless management stations 11, 12 are connected to each other through a synchronizing cable 30 and synchronizing connectors CNa, CNb provided in the synchronizing cable 30, and switches SWm are connected in series to a synchronizing system which connects the switch modules 11b, 12b to each other to turn on and off the system.
US09503310B1

The methods and systems described herein centralize simulation resources and effectively delivering training and simulation services to a broad set of distributed users at both the enterprise and operational levels. The cloud-based delivery of simulation applications described herein enables on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. In exemplary systems, users may provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed, automatically without requiring human interaction.
US09503306B2

A domain name may be transferred from a donor account to a recipient account at a registrar using a donor mobile device and a recipient mobile device that may be in close proximity to each other. An application on the donor mobile device may send a donor request to an application on the recipient mobile device identifying the domain name. The application on the recipient mobile device may send either an accept or a reject of the donor request to the application on the donor mobile device. If accepted by the application on the recipient mobile device, the application on the donor mobile device may send a request to the registrar to move the domain name from the donor account to the recipient account. The registrar, after verifying or confirming the domain name transfer request, may transfer the domain name from the donor account to the recipient account.
US09503303B2

The present disclosure presents symbol mapping for any desired error correction code (ECC) and/or uncoded modulation. A cross-shaped constellation is employed to perform symbol mapping. The cross-shaped constellation is generated from a rectangle-shaped constellation. Considering the rectangle-shaped constellation and its left hand side, a first constellation point subset located along that left hand side are moved to be along a top of the cross-shaped constellation while a second constellation point subset located along that left hand side are moved to be along a bottom of the cross-shaped constellation. For example, considering an embodiment having four constellation point subsets along the left hand side of the rectangle-shaped constellation, two of those subsets are moved to be along the top of the cross-shaped constellation while two other subsets of the constellation points along the left hand side are moved to be along the bottom of the cross-shaped constellation.
US09503296B2

A quadrature detector performs a quadrature detection on an FM signal based on a local oscillation signal, and outputs a baseband signal. A first corrector and a second corrector perform a correction on the baseband signal based on a DC offset correction value. The DC offset detector performs a polar coordinate conversion on the baseband signal, and derives the DC offset value in such a way that respective amplitudes in a plurality of phase domains defined on an IQ plane approximate one another. An FM detector performs an FM detection on the corrected baseband signal, and generates a detection signal. A controller controls the frequency of the local oscillation signal in such a way that a phase component having undergone the polar coordinate conversion by the DC offset detector is rotated.
US09503295B2

A drive-mode oscillator module generates at least one proof-mass drive signal for use within a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) device. The drive-mode oscillator module comprises at least one gain control component arranged to receive at least one proof-mass motion measurement signal, and to generate a digital modulation control signal based at least partly on the at least one proof-mass motion measurement signal, and at least one modulation component arranged to receive the digital amplitude modulation control signal, and to output at least one proof-mass drive signal. The at least one modulation component is arranged to digitally modulate the at least one proof-mass drive signal based at least partly on the received digital amplitude modulation control signal.
US09503292B1

A method for calculating a feed forward equalizer coefficient of a feed forward equalizer in a minimum mean square error decision feedback equalizer (MMSE-DFE) based on a fast transversal recursive least squares (FT-RLS) algorithm is provided. The length of the feed-forward equalizer is LF, which is a positive integer. The method includes an outer iteration having an LF number of iterations. The outer iteration includes an inner iteration having an n number of iterations, where n is an integer between 0 and (LF−2).
US09503289B2

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for transitioning a receiver from a first state to a second state using an in-band signal over a differential serial data link.
US09503287B2

In an embodiment a method of estimating a sparse signal from a measured signal using a transform matrix is disclosed. The method comprises determining a partial contribution to the sparse signal; determining a residual by subtracting the partial contribution from the measured signal; and iteratively determining further contributions to the sparse signal. An iteration comprises: identifying a first candidate column of the transform matrix, the first candidate column being the column of the transform matrix which is most correlated with the residual at the start of the iteration; calculating a condition indicator, the condition indicator being an indication of the condition of a matrix formed by columns of the transform matrix selected in previous iterations and the first candidate column; comparing the condition indicator with a threshold; if the condition indicator is above the threshold selecting the first candidate column as a selected candidate column; if the condition indicator is below the threshold, identifying a second column of the transform matrix as a second candidate column and selecting the second candidate column as the selected candidate column; determining a contribution to the sparse signal for the iteration from the selected candidate column; and calculating a new residual by subtracting the contribution to the sparse signal for the iteration from the residual at the start of the iteration.
US09503279B2

A first network device comprises a service routing element and a client routing element. The service routing element is configured with a first anycast rendezvous point address so as be an anycast rendezvous point peer with at least a second network device in a service routing domain. The client routing element is configured with a second anycast rendezvous point address so as to be an anycast rendezvous point peer with at least a third network device in a client routing domain. The first network device receives in its service routing element from a service routing element of the second network device a register message identifying a multicast source, and provides at least a portion of the register message from its service routing element to its client routing element in a manner that allows the third network device to learn the identity of the multicast source from the client routing element.
US09503273B2

A control device, which handles a network system in which electronic devices installed in each of multiple rooms are connected via a communication network and each electronic device can perform communication via the communication network, includes: a control unit to selectively set a first control mode in which operation control according to operation input is performed as to a particular single electronic device, a second control mode in which operation control according to operation input is performed in common as to electronic devices installed in the same room, and a third control mode in which operation control according to operation input is performed in common as to electronic devices connected to the communication network, as an operation control mode according to predetermined operation input, and to generate a control command; and a transmission unit to transmit a control command that the control unit has generated according to the control mode.
US09503269B2

A certificate issuer (210) can periodically request, receive, and store current server-based certificate validation protocol (SCVP) staples (225) for supported relying parties (205) from at least one server-based certificate validation protocol (SCVP) responder (215). The certificate issuer (210) can receive a contact initiation request (220) from one of the relying parties (205). Responsive to receiving the contact initiation request (220), the certificate issuer (210) can identify a current SCVP staple from the saved staples that is applicable to the relying party (205). The certificate issuer (210) can conveying a response to the contact initiation request (220) to the relying party (205). The response can comprise the identified SCVP staple and a public key infrastructure (PKI) certificate (230) of the certificate issuer. The SCVP staple can validate a certification path between the PKI certificate (230) and a different certificate trusted by the relying party (205).
US09503256B2

Embodiments of an invention for SMS4 acceleration hardware are disclosed. In an embodiment, an apparatus includes SMS4 hardware and key transformation hardware. The SMS4 hardware is to execute a round of encryption and a round of key expansion. The key transformation hardware is to transform a key to provide for the SMS4 hardware to execute a round of decryption.
US09503255B2

A method is disclosed for intermixing a first stream of data and a second stream of data. An associated first secret key is expanded to form a first associated expanded secret key. An associated second secret key is expanded to form a second associated expanded secret key. The first stream of data and the second stream of data are intermixed to form a combined stream of data, which is ciphered. The combined stream of data is de-multiplexed after ciphering thereof and provided at an output port.
US09503244B2

A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving information symbols in a communication system are provided. A method includes determining a channel quality indicator (CQI) and two acknowledgements; generating a first symbol based on the CQI; generating a second symbol based on the two acknowledgements, if both the CQI and the two acknowledgements are to be transmitted on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH); and transmitting the first symbol and the second symbol on the PUCCH. 1 is applied for generating the second symbol if the two acknowledgements have a first value, −1 is applied for generating the second symbol if the two acknowledgements have a second value, j is applied for generating the second symbol if the two acknowledgements have a third value, and −j is applied for generating the second symbol if the two acknowledgements have a fourth value, wherein the j is an imaginary unit.
US09503238B2

Methods and apparatus for receiving a first control channel and a second control channel in a wireless communication system are provided. Control information for receiving the second control channel from a base station is received through higher layer signaling. A second control channel resource is determined from an entire control channel resource based on the control information. A first control channel resource is determined from the entire control channel resource according to the second control channel resource.
US09503221B2

The present invention relates to a method for adjusting aggregation size based on Acknowledgement (ACK) bitmap, characterized by the steps of: receiving kth Compressed Block Acknowledgement (CBA); calculating granularity factor (g) by applying Equation (1); determining bit error density (BEDk) for kth CBA by applying Equation (2); receiving (k+1)th CBA; determining bit error density (BED(k+1)) for (k+1)th CBA by applying Equation (2); adjusting the aggregation size based on the value of granularity factor (g), kth bit error density BEDk+1 values and (k+1)th bit error density BEDk+1; wherein if the kth bit error density BEDk is greater than the (k+1)th bit error density BEDk+1, then increasing the aggregation size based on the value of granularity factor (g); wherein if the kth bit error density BEOk is lower than the (k+1)th bit error density BEDk+1 then decreasing the aggregation size based on the value of granularity factor (g); wherein if the kth bit error density BEDk is equal to the (k+1)th bit error density BEDk+1 then the aggregation size is kept unchanged.
US09503213B2

A method for determining an optimal pulse repetition period (PRP) in a system including a wireless transmission device operating in a static physical transmission environment includes providing a first and second injection-locked transmission system (ILT system). The method further includes implementing an algorithm in a microprocessor within the first ILT system. The algorithm includes synchronizing a receiver clock in the second ILT system with the clock of the first ILT system; setting the PRP equal to an impulse duration, the PRP being very short; increasing the PRP until a bit error rate (BER) at the PRP is less than the bit error rate limit; and based on the determining that the BER is less than the bit error rate limit, setting the PRP as the optimal PRP.
US09503207B1

Methods and systems are described for calibrating phase hardware-induced distortion in a long term evolution (LTE) communications system. In one aspect, an estimate of a phase difference at a user equipment (UE) between downlink channels including signals sent over two or more BS transmitter chains is received from the UE in an LTE communications system. A phase difference between uplink channels including signals received over two or more BS receiver chains is determined at a BS. A relative phase distortion induced by two or more BS transceiver chains is determined based on the received estimate of phase difference between downlink channels and the determined phase difference between uplink channels.
US09503201B2

A method for transmitting power, data, and instructions using acoustic-electric channels having one or more transducer arrays, and to compensate for imperfect alignment of transducer arrays. Transducer arrays each include multiple transducer elements coupled to a channel barrier. Each element can be independently controlled, and misaligned transducers are selectively deactivated to improve overall channel performance. Arrays are optimized by testing different combinations of elements, and the combinations which are the most effective or efficient are used for transmissions. The system and the optimization features can be used to communicate between surfaces which have relative movement, such as between water craft hulls. Optimization can be periodic or constant to compensate for movement within the channel. The arrays can be used with curved substrates. Methods of designing adaptable arrays are also provided.
US09503198B2

A photodiode (11) of a receiver (10) outputs a current signal having a value that corresponds to the optical power of a received optical signal. A transimpedance amplifier (12) amplifies the current signal output from the photodiode (11), converts the current signal to a voltage signal, and further outputs the voltage signal that is converted from the current signal. A current detection circuit (17) generates a current having a value larger than that of the current signal output from the photodiode (11). A feedback resistor (16) changes a gain of the transimpedance amplifier (12) based on magnitude of the current generated by the current detection circuit (17).
US09503196B2

A method for increasing energy in a pulse optical beam is provided. The method may include: receiving an optical input beam having a period pulse train with a given repetition frequency; splitting the input beam into N optical signals; phase modulating each signal in the N optical signals at a different phase, such that the N optical signal are orthogonal to each other; and coherently combining each of the phase modulated signals into a single optical output beam.
US09503190B2

A client-side dynamic multi-routing power distribution system of an optical terminal equipment integrates the Power over Ethernet, dynamic multi-routing power distribution and power management technologies to dispatch power to the optical terminal equipment from a home gateway to meet power demands of the off-premise optical terminal equipment and to greatly reduce the cost for laying power lines for the off-premise FTTx optical terminal equipment, thereby expanding the coverage of optical fiber broadband service. The client-side dynamic multi-routing power distribution system includes (1) a network signal processing and DC power supply module of the home gateway for dispatching power to the remote FTTx optical terminal equipment through a telecom line at a network interface; (2) a network signal processing and DC powered module of the FTTx optical terminal equipment for handling multi-routing power distribution and dynamic load balancing from a plurality of home gateways.
US09503169B1

A method for transmitting a signal to a receiver by a transmitter in a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) wireless communication system is disclosed. A method for transmitting a signal to a receiver by a transmitter in a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) wireless communication system includes: generating at least one bit stream by channel-coding data; allocating a first bit stream having a specific size from among the bit streams to an antenna sequence codeword according to an antenna sequence codebook; and transmitting the remaining second bit stream from among the bit streams to the receiver according to the order of antenna pairs indicated by the allocated antenna sequence codeword, wherein the antenna sequence codebook indicates a mapping relationship between the first bit stream and the antenna sequence codeword, and the antenna sequence codeword is defined by two timeslots and two antenna indexes.
US09503164B1

This invention is concerned with estimating a massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) channel. In one embodiment, the transmit antennas are first partitioned into antenna groups each comprising a subset of the transmit antennas such that a pre-determined level of channel-estimation accuracy is attainable. For each antenna group, training signals for estimating a group of channels associated with the antenna group are determined. In particular, the number of the antenna groups, the subset of the transmit antennas for forming the antenna group, and the training signals for the antenna group are determined based on spatial correlations of the massive MIMO channel, a maximum allowable total number of training signals and a transmit signal-to-noise ratio such that the pre-determined level of channel-estimation accuracy is achievable. Advantageously, the number of antenna groups is determined by identifying a highest number of antenna groups under a constraint that the pre-determined level is achievable.
US09503160B1

A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader configured to perform self-jammer cancellation (SJC) may include an SJC module coupled to a low-noise amplifier (LNA), which in turn may be coupled to a mixer via an LNA-mixer interface. The interface may be implemented with a horizontal matching circuit that includes four inductors magnetically and direct-current (DC) coupled to each other. In some embodiments, the inductors may each be implemented using a different segment of a single inductor.
US09503156B2

Systems and methods for enabling co-existence among power line communications (PLC) technologies are described. In some embodiments, a method performed by a PLC device, such as a PLC gateway, may include searching for and detecting a co-existence preamble on a PLC network while not transmitting or receiving frames. The device waits a time period before attempting transmission of a frame if the coexistence preamble is detected and is not followed by a native preamble. Transmissions are resumed to the PLC network after expiration of the time period.
US09503153B2

A method for generating a spread spectrum Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) signal includes obtaining a sequence of data symbols for a data channel, obtaining at least one first spread spectrum code comprising a first sequence of spread spectrum chips for the data channel, obtaining at least one second spread spectrum code comprising a second sequence of spread spectrum chips for a pilot channel, and generating a sequence of pre-modulation chips by combining the sequence of data symbols for the data channel with the spread spectrum chips of the first sequence of the at least one first spread spectrum code and data symbols for the pilot channel with the spread spectrum chips of the second sequence of the at least one second spread spectrum code to a combined sequence of chips. The method further includes assigning the chips of the combined sequence of chips to the transmission channels In-Phase I and Quadrature Q of the spread spectrum GMSK signal so that not more than two consecutive pre-modulation chips generated with the same spread spectrum code are transmitted in the same transmission channel I or Q, and performing GMSK modulation using the sequence of pre-modulation chips to generate a spread spectrum GMSK signal.
US09503130B2

A signal transmitter with adjustable signal power includes a housing, a first adjustable metal shielding layer and a circuit board. The first adjustable metal shielding layer is disposed within the housing. The area of the first adjustable metal shielding layer consists of a first shielding area and a first un-shielding area. The first shielding area and the first un-shielding area are adjustable. The circuit board is disposed within the housing, and is located below the first adjustable metal shielding layer. The circuit board is electrically connected with the first adjustable metal shielding layer, and includes a signal emission chip. The signal emission chip is configured for adjusting signal emission power to emit a signal according to the first un-shielding area of the first adjustable metal shielding layer. A message generating system and a signal power adjusting method are disclosed herein as well.
US09503126B2

A method of decoding data encoded with a polar code and devices that encode data with a polar code. A received word of polar encoded data is decoded following several distinct decoding paths to generate a list of codeword candidates. The decoding paths are successively duplicated and selectively pruned to generate a list of potential decoding paths. A single decoding path among the list of potential decoding paths is selected as the output and a single candidate codeword is thereby identified. In another preferred embodiment, the polar encoded data includes redundancy values in its unfrozen bits. The redundancy values aid the selection of the single decoding path. A preferred device of the invention is a cellular network device, (e.g., a handset) that conducts decoding in accordance with the methods of the invention.
US09503125B2

A decoder includes a syndrome value calculator configured to generate multiple syndrome values. The decoder further includes a check node to variable node message generator that is coupled to the syndrome value calculator. The check node to variable node message generator is configured to generate multiple check node to variable node messages in a single clock cycle based on the multiple syndrome values.
US09503121B2

A modulator is configured to respond to input swings by providing a feedback voltage via a feedback path to compromise an increase in noise and distortion power with increasing signal power at signal levels exceeding a predetermined threshold. A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) generates a feedback voltage with a resistor string biased with a given current and switches as a function of an input value to mitigate the voltage swing at a summing node.
US09503119B2

A switched current pipeline analog-to-digital converter (ADC) integrated circuit. The integrated circuit comprises a track and hold circuit (T/H) and a residue amplifier. The T/H is configured to generate a differential output of the T/H based on an analog input. The residue amplifier is coupled to the T/H, configured to capture a sample of a common mode signal of the differential output of the T/H during a periodic pulse interval, wherein the pulse interval is less than half of the time duration of the period of the pulse, configured to generate a corrected input common mode feedback signal based in part on the sample of the common mode signal of the differential output of the T/H, and configured to generate a differential output of the residue amplifier based on the differential output of the T/H and based on the corrected input common mode feedback signal.
US09503112B1

The overall performance of a dual-path ADC system may be improved by using a VCO-based ADC for small-amplitude signals and employing non-linear cancellation to remove nonlinearities in signals output by the VCO-based ADC. In particular, VCO-based dual-path ADC systems of this disclosure may be configured to receive a first digital signal from a first ADC and a second digital signal from a second ADC, wherein the second digital signal is more non-linear than the first digital signal. The dual-path systems may also be configured to determine one or more non-linear coefficients of the second digital signal based, at least in part, on processing of the first and second digital signals. The dual-path systems may be further configured to modify the second digital signal based, at least in part, on the determined one or more non-linear coefficients to generate a more linear second digital signal.
US09503111B2

An atomic oscillator using a quantum interference effect, includes: a first light source unit emitting first light which includes a resonant light pair having two different wavelengths; a gas cell sealed with alkali metal atoms; a first light detection unit detecting a light intensity of the first light which is transmitted through the gas cell; a second light source unit emitting second light towards the gas cell; and a control unit changing a light intensity of the second light which is emitted from the second light source unit to compensate a change in the light intensity detected by the first light detection unit.
US09503110B2

A gas cell includes an internal space in which metal atoms and a buffer gas are sealed, the buffer gas includes nitrogen gas, and the partial pressure of the nitrogen gas in the internal space is equal to or higher than 30 Torr. The gas cell includes a pair of window portions and a body portion, the length of the internal space along a direction in which the pair of window portions are arranged is equal to or less than 10 mm, and the width of the internal space along a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the pair of window portions are arranged is equal to or less than 10 mm.
US09503105B2

Described examples include circuitry and methods to control lock time of a phase lock loop (PLL) or other locking circuit, in which a phase frequency detector (PFD) circuit is switched from a first mode to provide a control input signal to a charge pump as a pulse signal having a pulse width corresponding to a phase difference between a reference clock signal and a feedback clock signal to a second mode to hold the control input signal at a constant value for a predetermined time in response to detected cycle slip conditions to enhance loop filter current during frequency transitions to reduce lock time for the locking circuit.
US09503093B2

A programmable IC includes a plurality of programmable resources, a plurality of shareable logic circuits coupled to the plurality of programmable resources, and a virtualization circuit. The plurality of programmable resources includes programmable logic circuits and programmable routing resources. The virtualization circuit is configured to manage sharing of the plurality of shareable logic circuits between a plurality of user designs implemented in the plurality of programmable resources. The user designs are communicatively isolated from one another on the programmable IC.
US09503092B2

An integrated circuit comprising a plurality of logic tiles, wherein each logic tile includes a plurality of (i) computing elements and (ii) switch matrices. The plurality of switch matrices are arranged in stages including (i) a first stage, configured in a hierarchical network (for example, a radix-4 network), wherein, each switch matrix of the first stage is connected to at least one associated computing element, (ii) a second stage configured in a hierarchical network (for example, a radix-2 or radix-3 network) and coupled to switches of the first stage, and (iii) a third stage configured in a mesh network and coupled to switches of the first and/or second stages. In one embodiment, the third stage of switch matrices is located between the first stage and second stage of switch matrices; in another embodiment, the third stage is the highest stage.
US09503089B2

An integrated circuit comprising N adjacent identical blocks indexed by index j, a current block connected to preceding and following blocks, each comprising identification circuits comprises: N ordered inputs indexed i, connected to N outputs of the preceding block of same index; and N ordered outputs indexed i, connected to N inputs of the following block of same index; each input for i≠N of the current block connected by routing line indexed to output i+1 of the current block; last input N of the current block not connected to output of the current block; and first output 1 of the current block not connected to input of the current block; each block comprising: a connection pad; and N logic gates indexed i, each gate comprising first and second inputs and an output, N buses indexed i comprising a line through N blocks, and connected to output of a logic gate.
US09503084B2

A capacitive control interface for a domestic appliance includes an outer layer configured to be pressed by a user, a first capacitive component, a second capacitive component facing and separated from the first capacitive component, a first layer of insulating material between the outer layer and the first capacitive component, and a second layer of insulating material beneath the first layer of insulating material and in contact with the first capacitive component, the second layer having a thru hole encompassing the second capacitive component, wherein the second capacitive component faces the first capacitive component at the thru hole, and wherein the outer layer is flexibly responsive to pressure and is configured to transfer a flexure to the first capacitive component.
US09503079B1

Aspects of the disclosure provide a power circuit that includes a first switch module and a second switch module in parallel. The first switch module has a first gate terminal, a first drain terminal and a first source terminal, and the second switch module has a second gate terminal, a second drain terminal and a second source terminal. A drain interconnection module coupled to the first drain terminal and a gate interconnection module coupled to the second gate terminal are inductively coupled to balance current flowing through the first switch module and the second switch module.
US09503078B1

A circuit comprises: a first capacitor; a second capacitor; a MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) transistor; and an operational amplifier, wherein the first capacitor is configured to couple to the second capacitor via the MOS transistor; the operational amplifier is configured to receive a voltage at the first capacitor and output a control voltage; and the MOS transistor is configured to be controlled by the control voltage.
US09503074B2

In some method and apparatus embodiments, an RF circuit comprises a switch transistor having a source, a drain, a gate, and a body. A gate control voltage is applied to the gate of the switch transistor. A body control voltage is applied to the body of the switch transistor. The body control voltage is a positive bias voltage when the switch transistor is in an on state. In some embodiments, an RF circuit comprises a control voltage applied to the gate of the switch transistor through a first resistance and applied to the body of the switch transistor through a second resistance. The first resistance is different from the second resistance.
US09503073B2

A power semiconductor device includes an output transistor, a control circuit connected with a gate of the output transistor, a first discharge route from a first node to a ground terminal, and a second discharge route from the first node to the ground terminal. In a usual turn-off, only the first discharge route is used. When a load abnormality occurs, both of the first and second discharge routes are used. The second discharge route contains a discharge transistor and a countercurrent prevention device. The discharge transistor is connected between the first node and the second node. The countercurrent prevention device prevents a flow of current from the third node to the second node. At least, in an OFF period, the control circuit sets the gate voltage of the discharge transistor to a high level.
US09503072B2

A switching element (A) is connected in parallel to a load (L). A switching element (B) is connected between the switching element (A) and a grounding point. The drive circuit (1) drives the switching element (A). The drive circuit (2) drives the switching element (B). Upon detecting a load short circuit, a load short circuit detection circuit (3) outputs a first signal. A timer (6) outputs a second signal after a lapse of a predetermined time after inputting the first signal. Upon receiving the first signal, the drive circuit (1) turns ON the switching element (A). Upon receiving the second signal, the drive circuit (2) turns OFF the switching element (B).
US09503068B1

In an embodiment, a supply voltage envelope detector circuit is configured to detect a shape of the supply voltage over time and to compare the detected shape to expected shapes that indicate voltage droop events for which corrective action may be needed. The expected shapes may be predetermined based on one or more of: the design of the integrated circuit that includes the supply voltage envelope detector circuit; attributes of the power management unit (PMU) that is to generate the supply voltage for the integrated circuit; and/or attributes of the system that includes the integrated circuit. The shape of the voltage droop may experience little variation during use, and thus may be used to detect a droop event earlier and more accurately than a threshold-based mechanism, in some embodiments.
US09503064B2

A skew calibration circuit may include a data delay unit receiving first data and a first code, and output delayed first data as second data by delaying the first data according to the first code; a clock delay unit receiving a first clock signal and a second code, and output delayed first clock signal as second clock signal by delaying the first clock signal according to the second code; a multiplexer receiving a clock signal and output the clock signal or an inverted clock signal of the clock signal as a first clock signal in response to a selection signal; and a control logic unit receiving the second data and the second clock signal and control the first code, the second code and the selection signal in response to the second data and the second clock signal.
US09503060B2

An integrated circuit for switching a transistor is disclosed. In some embodiments, an operational amplifier is configured to drive a transistor, and slew rate control circuitry is configured to control the slew rate of the transistor source voltage during turn on. The transistor source voltage is employed as feedback to the operational amplifier to facilitate closed loop control of the transistor source voltage during switching of the transistor.
US09503057B1

Systems and methods are provided for distributing clocks or other signals on an integrated circuit. In some aspects, one or more distributed deskewing objects are provisioned for reducing or eliminating skew while linking multiple clock distribution segments into one clock tree of an arbitrary shape and size.
US09503053B1

An active balun uses two inverters to produce a differential output from a single-ended input. A current source supplies current to both inverters and a current sink sinks current from both inverters. The inverters include bias resistors coupled between their inputs and outputs. A coupling capacitor couples the output of the first inverter to the input of the first inverter. Values of the bias resistors and the coupling capacitor may selected to assure stability of the active balun. The values may be programmable, for example, based on a desired operating frequency. The current source may be biased by a common-mode feedback circuit based on the common-mode voltage of the differential output.
US09503047B2

A bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator includes a substrate having a top side surface and a bottom side surface. A Bragg mirror is on the top side surface of the substrate. A bottom electrode layer is on the Bragg mirror, and a piezoelectric layer is on the bottom electrode layer. A top dielectric layer is on the piezoelectric layer, and a top electrode layer is on the top dielectric layer. The bottom side surface of the substrate has a surface roughness of at least 1 μm root mean square (RMS).
US09503043B2

A duplexer is provided, which includes a first, a second and a third signal ports; a first filter and a second filter. The first filter has first, second, and third resonant circuits that have first, second and third inductors, respectively. The first, second and third inductors are mutually inductive. The first and third resonant circuits are electrically connected to the first and second signal ports, respectively. The second filter has fourth, fifth and sixth resonant circuits that have fourth, fifth and sixth inductors, respectively. The fourth resonant circuit is connected in series with the first resonant circuit. The fifth inductor and the fourth inductor are mutually inductive. The sixth resonant circuit is electrically connected to the third signal port. The second filter further has a main capacitor connected in series with the fifth and sixth resonant circuits respectively and located therebetween.
US09503040B1

A method and electronic circuit for changing the gain of a radio frequency signal. The apparatus is an electronic circuit comprising one or more variable gain electronic elements, and one or more adjustable phase shifting elements. The method comprises the steps of receiving a radio frequency signal, varying the gain of the variable gain electronic element while the variable gain electronic element changes the amplitude of the radio frequency signal, and adjusting an adjustable phase shifting element to generate a reverse phase shift in the radio frequency signal in response to the associated phase shift from the step of varying the gain.
US09503037B2

A cavity filter is disclosed, which comprises a cavity, a cover plate, and a connector inner conductor disposed within the cavity, wherein the connector inner conductor passes through the cover plate to be connected with an external circuit board, the connector inner conductor comprises a first inner conductor and a second inner conductor, the first inner conductor is connected with a signal transmission point on the external circuit board, the second inner conductor is connected with an internal signal transmission point inside the cavity, the first inner conductor and the second inner conductor have a gap therebetween and cooperate with each other to form a structural capacitor, and the internal signal transmission point is connected with the signal transmission point on the external circuit board via the structural capacitor. A power amplifying module and a signal transceiving device are also disclosed.
US09503034B2

A switching combiner unit (SCU) may combine coherent RF or microwave outputs from multiple power amplifier units (PAUs). Each SCU may be able to be switched between an on-line mode (on-line PAU), during which the PAU amplifies a coherent instance of the same RF or microwave input signal and delivers that amplified input signal to an output, and a standby or off-line mode (standby/off-line PAU), during which the PAU does not amplify an instance of the same RF or microwave input signal or deliver an amplified input signal to the output. The SCU may include an input port that connects to each of the PAU outputs; a control signal input that receives one or more control signals that indicate whether each PAU is in the on-line or standby/off-line mode; signal combining circuitry that coherently sums the outputs from all of the on-line PAUs, while simultaneously isolating the standby/off-line PAUs from the output of the SCU and the outputs of the on-line PAUs; and an SCU output port that delivers the coherently summed outputs from all of the on-line PAUs.
US09503028B2

A three-way sequential power amplifier includes an input network connected to a main amplifier, a first peak amplifier, a second peak amplifier, which in turn are connected to a three-way output network. An input signal for an input port of the input network is a wideband radio frequency (RF) signal with a time varying amplitude. An output port of the output network can be connected to an antenna, via a bandpass filter, to attenuate out of band frequencies.
US09503014B2

A compact geared motor unit, capable of properly protecting an electric motor without disengaging gears or suspending the unit, even when a thrust force larger than an allowable value is generated. The geared motor unit 10 has an electric motor and a gear configured to generate a thrust force applied to the electric motor when transmitting a torque, and a control section for controlling the electric motor. The control section has a thrust load obtaining part which obtains a thrust load of the electric motor at predetermined timings or time intervals; a critical thrust load storing part which stores a critical thrust load of the electric motor; and a torque limiting part which electrically limits the torque of the electric motor when the obtained thrust load exceeds the stored critical thrust load.
US09503003B2

An image forming apparatus drives and rotates at least one of a photosensitive drum and a transport roller with use of a stepping motor in a multi-phase excitation mode. The image forming apparatus includes: a constant-voltage control unit controlling the stepping motor by applying a constant voltage for each phase; a constant-current control unit controlling the stepping motor by regulating an amount of current for each phase by a chopping control; a measuring unit measuring a chopping count of each phase on a per-step basis; a chopping count determination unit determining whether the chopping count of each phase is less than or equal to a predetermined count; and a control switching unit causing the constant-voltage control unit to control the stepping motor when the chopping count determination unit determines affirmatively, and causing the constant-current control unit to control the stepping motor when the chopping count determination unit determines negatively.
US09503002B2

An image forming apparatus includes an engine portion configured to perform image forming, a direct current (DC) motor configured to mechanically operate the engine portion, a driver including a resistor to measure current that flows to the DC motor according to the measured current and configured to provide a predetermined voltage to the DC motor, and a drive controller configured to measure a driving speed of the DC motor based on a voltage value of the resistor and to control the driver to provide a voltage that corresponds to the measured driving speed to the driver.
US09502999B2

There is provided an apparatus for driving a motor including: a converter applying an input voltage to each phase winding of the motor; and a processor controlling a phase current flowing to the phase winding to which the input voltage is applied to be increased or decreased in a preset reference range and controlling phase commutation of the motor based on a change in the phase current.
US09502997B2

The invention relates to an engine control for a synchronous motor having a number of N stator coils set off in regard to each other, which are arranged around a rotor of the synchronous motor, wherein there may be impressed upon the stator coils by the engine control a coil voltage and wherein there is formed a coil current having a direct current component in a co-ordinate system rotating proportionally with the number of revolutions performed by the synchronous motor as well as a cross current component, wherein the cross current component effects a tangential force activating the rotor in the direction of rotation and wherein the direct current component effects a force acting perpendicularly to the rotor surface on the rotor, wherein the engine control has a direct current generator for generating a direct current component periodically alternating in the rotating co-ordinate system, in order to neutralize oscillations of the synchronous motor activated by the engine control by means of the force generated perpendicularly to the rotor surface, wherein the direct current generator is formed for evaluating at least one angle information and an operating cross current.
US09502983B2

A power supply device includes a power switch, a power delivering means configured to convert an input in accordance with switching operation of the power switch and output a result, and a switch control circuit configured to linearly control switching frequency of the power switch in accordance with an output detection voltage corresponding to an output voltage according to the output.
US09502980B2

In one implementation, a circuit for producing an average output inductor current indicator in a voltage converter is configured to start a counter when a high side power switch turns on, to sense a sample current through an output inductor of the voltage converter after the high side power switch turns off and when a low side power switch is on, and to register a first count of the counter when the low side power switch turns off. The circuit is further configured to register a second count of the counter when the high side power switch subsequently turns on, and to produce the average output inductor current indicator based on the sample current and the first and second counts of the counter.
US09502976B2

According to an embodiment, a power supply circuit is provided. The power supply circuit includes a switching transistor which is controlled to be ON/OFF by a PWM signal, and a mode switching control circuit configured to switch a control mode between peak current mode control and valley current mode control depending on the length of an ON time of the PWM signal which drives the switching transistor.
US09502965B1

A power supply apparatus (10) includes a voltage input side (102), a power switch circuit (104), a voltage output side (106) and a pulse width modulation signal generating circuit (108). According to a pulse width modulation signal (112), the pulse width modulation signal generating circuit (108) controls the power switch circuit (104), so that the power supply apparatus (10) enters a burst mode. A pulse quantity of each of burst clumps of the power supply apparatus (10), a pulse frequency of each of the burst clumps of the power supply apparatus (10) and a pulse duty cycle of each of the burst clumps of the power supply apparatus (10) are fixed and constant after the power supply apparatus (10) enters the burst mode.
US09502961B2

A control circuit controls a switching power factor corrector based on switch off-time modulation by controlling the input electric charge during on-time. The circuit includes a charge current generator that generates charge current as a replica of a current sense signal amplified with a gain corresponding to the square of peak value of a rectified input voltage, a loop capacitor charged with the charge current during on-time intervals and discharged with a discharge current during off-time intervals, a discharge current generator that generates the discharge current proportional to a product of a comparison voltage and a difference between a regulated output voltage and the rectified input voltage, and a PWM modulator that senses a charge voltage of the loop capacitor, turns on the switch for an on-time duration in response to detecting that the charge voltage nullifies, and turns off the switch when the on-time duration has elapsed.
US09502950B2

A method of manufacturing a rotor for rotating electrical machines, notably an alternator, the rotor including two magnet wheels defining between them at least one interpole space arranged to receive at least one magnet. At least one angular indexing mark is produced on at least one of the magnet wheels. At least one groove partially delimiting the interpole space is formed, by machining, on the magnet wheel while maintaining the magnet wheel in an angular position dependent on the angular indexing mark.
US09502948B2

A method for producing stator pole teeth includes: arranging stator pole teeth to be wound in the form of a row, each of the stator pole teeth having at least one insulation body; winding one pole tooth or several pole teeth of the row of stator pole teeth; routing winding wire or winding wires out of a winding space in the pole teeth to the outside of the stator pole teeth into a laying space bounded on one side by insulation bodies of the pole teeth; and laying the winding wire or the winding wires in the laying space to connect individual pole teeth to one another. During laying of the winding wire or wires, the laying space is temporarily constricted such that the winding wires are forcibly automatically axially stacked in the laying space so as to avoid wire crossovers.
US09502937B2

The first extending portion 26 overlaps the second extending portion 27 in a radial direction at one part in the circumferential direction and overlaps the third extending portion 28 in the radial direction at another part in the circumferential direction. The second extending portion 27 overlaps the first extending portion 26 in the radial direction at one part in the circumferential direction and overlaps the third extending portion 28 in the radial direction at another part in the circumferential direction. The third extending portion 28 overlaps the first extending portion 26 in the radial direction at one part in the circumferential direction and overlaps the second extending portion 27 in the radial direction at another part in the circumferential direction.
US09502934B2

A motor rotor includes an iron core and a permanent magnet arranged inside the iron core, wherein, a plurality of groups of mounting grooves are arranged in the iron core in a circumferential direction of the iron core, and each group of mounting grooves comprises two or more than two mounting grooves arranged at intervals in a radial direction of the iron core; and a plurality of groups of permanent magnets are provided, and each permanent magnet in each group of permanent magnets is correspondingly embedded in the corresponding mounting groove of each group of mounting grooves. A motor having the motor rotor is further provided, and the magnetic reluctance torque of the motor rotor is increased, thereby increasing the output torque of the motor and the efficiency of the motor.
US09502931B2

A brushless motor includes a first rotor core, a second rotor core, and a field magnet member. The first rotor core includes primary projecting pieces arranged along a circumferential direction at equal intervals. The second rotor core has the same shape as the first rotor core, and includes secondary projecting pieces arranged along the circumferential direction at equal intervals. The secondary projecting pieces are positioned between the primary projecting pieces that are adjacent to one another in the circumferential direction. The field magnet member is arranged between the first rotor core and the second rotor core. The field magnet member is magnetized along an axial direction to generate primary magnetic poles in the primary projecting pieces, and generate secondary magnetic poles in the secondary projecting pieces. A rotor includes the first rotor core, the second rotor core, and the field magnet member.
US09502930B2

A motor rotor includes an iron core and permanent magnets provided inside the iron core. The iron core is provided with sets of mounting grooves on the iron core in the peripheral direction of the iron core, each set of mounting grooves having two or more mounting grooves provided intermittently in the radial direction of the iron core. There are sets of permanent magnets, the individual permanent magnet of each set of permanent magnets correspondingly being embedded into the individual mounting grooves of each set of mounting grooves; there is an island region between the outermost layer of mounting grooves and the periphery of the iron core, and an enhancing hole is provided in the island region, an enhancing rod being provided in the enhancing hole. A motor includes a motor stator and the motor rotor, with the motor rotor provided inside the motor stator.
US09502929B2

A rotor with a first rotor core, a second rotor core, a field magnet, and an interpole magnet is provided. The first rotor core has a first core base and a plurality of first nail-shaped magnetic pole parts that extend in the axis direction from the outer circumference section of the first core base. The second rotor core has a second core base and a plurality of second nail-shaped magnetic pole parts that extend in the axis direction from the outer circumference section of the second core base. The field magnet is magnetized along the axis direction and makes the first nail-shaped magnetic parts function as first magnetic poles and the second nail-shaped magnetic parts function as second magnetic poles. The interpole magnet is arranged between the first nail-shaped magnetic parts and the second nail-shaped magnetic parts. The interpole magnet has the same polarity as the first and second nail-shaped magnetic pole parts, in the sections where same face the first and second nail-shaped magnetic pole parts.
US09502928B2

A motor of this invention comprises a rotor having a permanent magnet, the number of which magnet poles is P, and a stator including M pcs of teeth, the teeth arranged in a circumferential direction in a manner to face the permanent magnet through a spatial gap, wherein the stator includes stator core having the number M of the teeth, and a winding wire wound about each of the tooth, wherein the number P of the magnet poles and the number M of the teeth have a relation defined by formulae (2/3)M
US09502922B2

A charging apparatus is provided that avoids a reduction in the strength of radio waves or a magnetic field used by a charging target device having a wireless communication function and reduces an influence on the radio waves or magnetic field. In this apparatus, position detection section (201) detects a position of power reception coil (251) of charging target device (150) placed on charging table (101). Power transmission coil (208) is made close to power reception coil (251) and transmits electric power. Coil moving mechanism (207) brings power transmission coil (208) close to the position of power reception coil (251) that is detected by position detection section (201).
US09502919B2

Provided is a wireless communication apparatus including at least one two-way antenna for power recovery, a wireless block processing a wireless signal which the two-way antenna for power recovery transmits and receives, a power recovery block recovering electric power from a received signal of the two-way antenna for power recovery, and a connection switching part connecting the two-way antenna for power recovery to and switching the connection between the wireless block and the power recovery block. A duty ratio at which the connection switching part connects the two-way antenna for power recovery to the wireless block and the power recovery block is set so that the wireless block attains a desired communication speed.
US09502918B2

Disclosed herein are some embodiments for safely charging a mobile system battery pack, even when the power source (e.g., adapter) voltage is at a relatively high level that would otherwise result in excessive charge current.
US09502917B2

The present invention relates to a charging method of an electronic cigarette and an electronic cigarette box. The charging method of the electronic cigarette comprising: presetting first voltage and current, and second voltage and current, charging the electronic cigarette with the first voltage and current for a preset length of time, detecting actual charging current or charging voltage to the electronic cigarette, comparing the actual charging current or charging voltage with the second current or voltage separately, selecting different charging modes to the electronic cigarette according to a comparing result. The electronic cigarette box is enabled to be compatible with different charging management modes for charging the electronic cigarettes, and the charging modes can be automatically selected according to the different charging management modes of the electronic cigarette.
US09502910B2

A power charging apparatus and a battery apparatus quickly charge a battery with power by separately charging each battery cell with power. The power charging apparatus includes: a power supplier supplying power; and a charging part having at least two chargers corresponding one-to-one to at least two battery cells connected to each other in parallel, each of the at least two chargers charging the corresponding battery cell with power transmitted from the power supplying unit. The battery apparatus includes: a battery having at least two battery cells connected to each other in parallel; and a charging part having at least two chargers corresponding one-to-one to the at least two battery cells and charging the at least two chargers with power received.
US09502907B2

Power supplies for pool and spa equipment are disclosed. In one embodiment, the power supply includes a buoyant housing, a peripheral float, at least one solar cell positioned on the buoyant housing for collecting sunlight and converting same to electrical energy, and a power cable for interconnecting the power supply and pool/spa equipment. In other embodiments, first and second inductive power couplings are provided for powering pool and spa equipment. The power couplings can also be installed using existing plumbing features of the pool or spa.
US09502901B2

An area electric power system includes a number of direct current power sources, and a number of inverters operatively associated with the number of direct current power sources. Each of the number of inverters is structured to provide real power and controlled reactive power injection to detect islanding. An output is powered by the number of inverters. A number of electrical switching apparatus are structured to electrically connect the number of inverters to and electrically disconnect the number of inverters from a utility grid. A number of devices are structured to detect islanding with respect to the utility grid responsive to a number of changes of alternating current frequency or voltage of the output.
US09502893B2

A distributed power supply system and a method for managing such a distributed power supply system is disclosure. The method may include: for each power storage unit i of the plurality of power storage units, determining whether power storage unit i have sufficient status of charge (SOC) based on SOC of the power storage unit i (Ci), and load of the power storage unit i (Li); identifying a set of power storage units that have insufficient SOC; and adjusting output power of the power storage units that have sufficient SOC to provide supplemental power to the set of power storage units that have insufficient SOC.
US09502888B2

A system for clearing power transmission line faults includes a sensor network configured to communicate with a transmission line and configured to detect one or more faults on the transmission line, a crowbar configured to coordinately switch first and second ends of a section of the transmission line to respective termination points, wherein the crowbar includes first and second grounding switches disposed respectively at about the first and second ends of the section of the transmission line, and a controller configured to receive information from the sensor network and configured to control the switching of the crowbar in response to the information.
US09502883B2

Snapback ESD protection device employing one or more non-planar metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors (MOSFETs) are described. The ESD protection devices may further include lightly-doped extended drain regions, the resistances of which may be capacitively controlled through control gates independent of a gate electrode held at a ground potential. Control gates may be floated or biased to modulate ESD protection device performance. In embodiments, a plurality of core circuits are protected with a plurality of non-planar MOSFET-based ESD protection devices with control gate potentials varying across the plurality.
US09502879B2

An insulating waterproof member for insulating and waterproofing a connector of a cable, the insulating waterproof member including: a sealing material for covering the connector, and a protective sheet for covering the connecting portion with the sealing material interposed therebetween, the protective sheet having an adhesive layer on a surface on a sealing material side, wherein the protective sheet includes a body portion for covering the connector and an extending portion that extends in a first direction from the body portion, and the extending portion allows pressure to be imparted to the sealing material and the body portion that cover the connector in a first region at a first end side of the body portion in a second direction that intersects the first direction, in a second region at a second end side of the body portion, and in a third region between the first region and the second region.
US09502877B2

The present invention provides an inlet funnel (100) for cable terminal, which comprises a funnel body part (10) and a fixation part (20). The funnel body part (10) has one end with a smaller opening and the other end with a larger opening, said funnel body (10) having a gradually increasing diameter (D) from said one end with the smaller opening to said other end with the larger opening, and the funnel body (10) is suitably to be installed over an electrical cable (C). The fixation part (20) is provided at said other end with the larger opening of said funnel body part (10) and adapted for the attachment of said inlet funnel (100). The inlet funnel (100) further comprises a pretreated mounting part (30) extending from said one end side with the smaller opening towards said the other end side with the larger opening. Accordingly, the inlet funnel for cable terminal according to the present invention may reduce workload, save time, and simplify the mounting process.
US09502876B2

A power cord integrated hanger system for suspending a lighting fixture has a flexible load bearing inner suspension part and a flexible non-load bearing outer conductor part that acts as the “power cord” for the suspended lighting fixture. The flexible outer conductor part has an internal passageway for the inner suspension part. An outer cover of the outer conductor part holds electrical conductors in place in the outer conductor part and preferably conceals the conductors from view. The outer cover of the conductor part can be provided with different aesthetic qualities to enhance the visual appearance of the hanger system.
US09502873B2

A compressor electrical component enclosure may include a base and a lid. The base may include first and second opposing surfaces and a magnet. The magnet may be coupled to the second surface and may secure the base to a compressor shell. The lid may engage the base and cooperate with the base to define an electrical component housing.
US09502858B2

A laser array mux assembly generally includes an array of laser emitters coupled to an optical multiplexer, such as an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG), with an external partial reflector after the multiplexer. Each of the laser emitters may include a gain region that emits light across a range of wavelengths including, for example, channel wavelengths in an optical communication system. The AWG filters the emitted light from each of the laser emitters at different channel wavelengths associated with each of the laser emitters. The reflector reflects at least a portion of the filtered light such that lasing occurs at the channel wavelengths of the reflected light. The laser array mux assembly may be used to generate an optical signal at a selected channel wavelength or to generate and combine optical signals at multiple channel wavelengths.
US09502852B2

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to fiber designs for wavelength tunable ultra-short pulse lasers. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to systems incorporating fiber designs for higher order mode fibers capable of soliton self frequency shifting where a system comprises a first fiber for shifting the wavelength from a pump wavelength to a transfer wavelength and a second fiber for shifting the pulse from the transfer wavelength to an output wavelength. In one embodiment of the present invention, a wavelength tunable short pulse fiber laser system comprises: a pulse generator for providing a pulse having an input wavelength; a mode-converter; a first designed fiber for shifting the pulse from the input wavelength to a transfer wavelength; and a second designed fiber for shifting the pulse from the transfer wavelength to an output wavelength.
US09502838B2

An electrical connector includes an insulative housing defining a receiving room and a tongue portion in the receiving room, a first contact module defining a first embedded portion and a second contact module defining a second embedded portion both received in the insulative housing, and a shielding shell enclosing the insulative housing. The tongue portion defines a recess at a front end thereof and a first through hole, the recess engaging with a forehead of the first and second contact modules, the first through hole receiving the first and second contact modules while exposing the exposed upper surface of the first embedded portion and the exposed lower surface of the second embedded portion.
US09502829B2

An electrical connector (500) includes a transformer (100) including a magnetic core (3), a first wire group (1), and a second wire group (2). The magnetic core has a left half (31), a right half (32), and an opening (30). The first and second wire groups each have four wires with different colors. Each wire has a first end, a second end, and a central portion. The central portion of the first wire group is only wound around the left half. The central portion of the second wire group is only wound around the right half.
US09502828B2

The invention relates to an insulation body of a plug-in connector that consists of a plug body (10), in which contact elements (11) are provided, and which consists of a connection body (20), which in turn has connection elements (21) that can be electrically connected to conductor tracks of a circuit board and/or to individual wires of a multi-wired cable to be connected, wherein the plug body (10) and the connection body (20) can be mated together, as a result of which the contact elements (11) can be electrically contacted with the connection elements (21) of the connection body (20).
US09502819B2

There is disclosed magnetic connectors and electronic devices including such connectors. A connector may include a magnet rotatable about at least one axis of the magnet; wherein the magnet rotates to magnetically engage a magnet of another connector to form an electrical connection between the two magnets. A connector may also include a cylindrical magnet to magnetically engage a magnet of another connector; and a sleeve wrapped around at least part of the magnet, the sleeve comprising a contact for forming an electrical connection with a contact on the other connector. A connector may be adapted for selective connection with other connectors. A connector may be adapted such that a moveable magnet may move between an engaged position proximate a contacting surface of the connector and a disengaged position recessed from a contacting surface, wherein the moveable magnet is biased to the disengaged position.
US09502815B2

An electrical connector is disclosed having a terminal housing and a female type terminal positioned in the terminal housing. The terminal housing has a first terminal housing, and a second terminal housing positioned independent from the first terminal housing. The female type terminal has a first female terminal, second female terminal, and a coupling member. The first female terminal is positioned in the first terminal housing and is electrically connected to a first male terminal. The second female terminal is positioned in the second terminal housing and is electrically connected to a second male terminal. The coupling member connects the first female terminal to the second female terminal.
US09502813B2

A supporting frame construction for modular connectors comprises a main structural element associated by sliding engagement means with a linear element; said main structural element including a linear portion having a plurality of seats for engaging therein a plurality of corresponding projections formed on modules to be mounted in the supporting frame construction; said linear element including a plurality of linear element seats, corresponding to the seats of the linear portion of the main structural element, for engaging therein corresponding projections formed on said modules.
US09502807B2

A tamper resistant electrical receptacle comprising a slide housing disposed beneath the hot and neutral blade openings in the receptacle. The slide housing includes a neutral slide body and a hot slide body having slide pads and tabs for reducing friction when the bodies slide against each other as the spring bias of the bodies in the slide housing is overcome by simultaneous insertion of the tines of an electrical plug contact ramp surfaces and camming past the slide bodies causing them to slide against each other and spreading a gap area a distance sufficient for receiving the lateral neutral prong of a 20 A electrical plug.
US09502805B2

The invention relates to a connector for motor vehicles. By means of the invention the device for assuring the position of the contacts is prevented from being accidentally displaced from its shipping position to its use position. To this end, the device for assuring the position of the contacts is locked in the shipping position against a stop. On insertion of one or more contacts into its respective cavity, a direct interaction between this contact or these contacts and the device for assuring the position of the contacts causes escape from the stop. The device for assuring the position of the contacts can then be displaced from its shipping position to its use position.
US09502799B2

A connector (200) provides improved robustness and strength with a header (202) configured to retain and expose a plurality of receptacles (204). The exposed portion of each receptacle provides a surface mount solderable element as part of the overall connector. Another embodiment further provides a lead (208) extending from the exposed portion of the receptacle to provide an additional leaded solderable element to the connector. Thus, the connector can provide both surface mount capability and/or a combination of surface mount and lead mount capability. The exposed portions of the receptacles may be soldered flush to a board (302), thus minimizing z-height of the connector to the board and allowing for a larger sized diameter receptacle.
US09502794B2

A terminal block assembly with one or more removable dividers. The dividers include a tenon that can be inserted into a groove in one or more blocks. The dividers can be retained by a fastening member, such as a clip, placed at an open end of the groove.
US09502792B2

The present invention provides an earth apparatus of a vehicle, which includes a panel having a through-hole, a fastener having a panel-shaped support portion with an open side at one side and a nut portion fitted in the through-hole of the panel, and an earth member combined by the fastener, connected with an earth wire at one side, and having a guide bending downward at a predetermined length at the other side such that the guide is combined at a position corresponding to the open side of the support portion of the fastener.
US09502783B2

The invention relates to a two-part crimped contact element. The invention further relates to a method for producing a two-part crimped contact element. The invention further relates to a device for producing a two-part crimped contact element. Previous crimped contact elements comprising two portions have a high transition resistance between the two portions and insufficient mechanical stability. The crimped contact element according to the invention overcomes these disadvantages by at least one pressure-shaped connection element being used to connect the two portions.
US09502782B2

A stab for use in a plug-in assembly includes a stab piece and a lug. The stab piece includes one or more contact arms configured to engage a bus bar, and a base portion coupled to the one or more contact arms. The base portion is configured to be coupled to a stab shaft for rotating the stab about a rotational axis to transition the stab from a retracted position to an extended position. The lug is coupled to the stab piece and configured to receive wire for transmitting power from the bus bar to an electrical component. The lug is configured to be deformed around the wire to hold the wire when a crimping force is applied to the lug. The lug is configured to hold the wire at a position approximately centered on a rotational axis of the stab shaft when the lug is deformed by the crimping force.
US09502780B2

An exemplary antenna array has first self-complementary antenna cells, e.g. bowtie antennas, disposed in a first plane in rows and columns. Additional bowtie antenna cells are disposed in a second plane parallel to the first plane and are aligned in corresponding rows and columns. A first stripline disposed between the first and second planes carries RF signals to/from the first and second bowtie antenna cells. A slot feed couples the RF signals between the first stripline and each of the first and second bowtie antenna cells. A conductive layer in a third plane parallel to the first and second planes serves as a ground plane for signals radiated from/to the first and second bowtie antenna cells.
US09502776B2

An antenna system includes a metal housing including a first edge and a second edge that meet at a corner and a slot located proximate the second edge that extends from the first edge parallel to the second edge defining a strip and an antenna located behind and in close proximity to the strip. The antenna is coupled to the strip. A parasitic element is located proximate the antenna and the strip includes a ground coupling that crosses the slot in spaced relation thereto. The parasitic element assists in establishing second and third higher frequency modes of the antenna system.
US09502775B1

A computing device may include a conductive member, a slot antenna having a slot defined by the conductive member and an antenna pattern portion disposed proximate to the slot, and/or a slot switch configured to switch a portion of the slot. The slot switch may have a first terminal and a second terminal such that the portion of the slot is disposed between the first terminal and the second terminal. The slot switch may be switchable between a first configuration in which the first and second terminals are electrically connected and a second configuration in which the first and second terminals are not electrically connected. The computing device may also include a switching controller configured to switch the slot switch between the first and second configurations.
US09502765B2

Embodiments are provided for an agile antenna that beamsteers radio frequency (RF) signals by selectively activating/de-activating tunable elements on radial-waveguides using direct current (DC) switches. The antenna comprises two parallel radial waveguide structures, each comprising a first radial plate, a second radial plate in parallel with the first radial plate, and conductive elements positioned vertically and distributed radially between the two plates. The radial waveguide structure further includes a plurality of quarter RF chokes which are connected to the conductive elements via respective micro-strips and tunable elements. The two parallel radial plates are separated by a height determined according to a desired transmission frequency range for RF signals, a length of the micro-strips, a diameter of the conductive elements, and a clearance space around each one of the conductive elements.
US09502757B2

An antenna capable of operating among all LTE bands, and also capable of operation among all remote side cellular applications, such as GSM, AMPS, GPRS, CDMA, WCDMA, UMTS, and HSPA among others. The antenna provides a low cost alternative to active-tunable antennas suggested in the prior art for the same multi-platform objective.
US09502749B2

The invention relates to an antenna assembly having a microchip, a first antenna portion of a conducting material supported by a substrate and a second portion of the conducting material wrapped around the substrate, first antenna portion and microchip. Both antenna portions are connected to the microchip and said antenna portions overlap in order to form a capacitance. The antenna assembly may be employed in a construction for an RFID chip for long ranges.
US09502745B2

A flexible substrate is disclosed. The flexible substrate includes an insulating substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface, a first connection portion having a first conductor, a first ground pattern, and a second ground pattern on the first surface, the first ground pattern and the second ground pattern being spaced apart from the first conductor and respectively located at either side of the first conductor, a conductor pattern formed on the second surface, the conductor pattern being connected to the first conductor, and a third ground pattern formed on the second surface, the third ground pattern being connected to the first ground pattern, wherein a distance between the conductor pattern and the third ground pattern is smaller than a distance between the first conductor and the first ground pattern.
US09502744B2

The invention is related to a microstrip line structure, which comprises: a first microstrip line and a second microstrip line, paralleled with the first microstrip line for transferring a transmission signal, and a plurality of grooves periodically arranged on both sides of the second microstrip line by using subwavelength, and each period length in the plurality of grooves is smaller than the wavelength of the transmission signal.
US09502737B2

The present disclosure provides an energy storage device comprising at least one electrochemical cell comprising a negative current collector, a negative electrode in electrical communication with the negative current collector, an electrolyte in electrical communication with the negative electrode, a positive electrode in electrical communication with the electrolyte and a positive current collector in electrical communication with the positive electrode. The negative electrode comprises an alkali metal. Upon discharge, the electrolyte provides charged species of the alkali metal. The positive electrode can include a Group IIIA, IVA, VA and VIA of the periodic table of the elements, or a transition metal (e.g., Group 12 element).
US09502736B2

A cylindrical single-piece lithium-ion battery of 400 Ah includes: a cylindrical battery enclosure (1), a battery mandrel (3), a plurality of tabs (4), a wiring terminal (6), a positive and negative electrode cover (11); a positive electrode sheet, said battery positive electrode is composed of LiFePO4, conductive carbon-black, graphite, adhesive such as PVDF, and solvent such as NMP; a negative electrode sheet, the battery negative electrode is composed of lithium titanate, conductive carbon-black, graphite, adhesive such as PVDF, and solvent such as NMP. The cylindrical lithium-ion battery made by the invention has a capacity of 400 Ah which is the one reportedly having the largest capacity in the world presently.
US09502731B2

A bipolar plate for a fuel cell has a first end, a second end, a first side, and a second side. The bipolar plate also has an active region, a feed region, a perimeter region, a sealing region, and a hinge region. The sealing region is disposed between the perimeter region and each of the active region and the feed region. A plurality of outwardly extending tabs are disposed adjacent the perimeter region at each of the first end and the second end of the bipolar plate. The hinge region is disposed between the perimeter region and the outwardly extending tabs. The hinge region extends from the first side of the plate to the second side of the bipolar plate. The hinge region permits a flexing of the outwardly extending tabs to connect with peripheral electrical device without undesirably flexing the sealing region.
US09502728B1

A high efficiency fuel cell system adapted to receive flue gas from a flue gas generating device and to capture carbon dioxide from the flue gas, the high efficiency fuel cell system comprising a topping fuel cell assembly comprising a topping cathode portion and a topping anode portion, a bottoming fuel cell assembly comprising a bottoming cathode portion and a bottoming anode portion, wherein the bottoming anode portion receives anode exhaust output from the topping anode portion, and a separation assembly configured to receive carbon dioxide-containing exhaust and to separate carbon dioxide from the carbon dioxide-containing exhaust, wherein the carbon dioxide-containing exhaust is one of anode exhaust output from the bottoming anode portion and a gas derived from the anode exhaust output from the bottoming anode portion, and wherein at least one of the topping cathode portion and the bottoming cathode portion receives at least a portion of the flue gas output from the flue gas generating device.
US09502726B2

A method and an apparatus to adapt the performance of a cathode humidification unit as a membrane in a fuel cell stack degrades over time. An algorithm compares a sensed humidity profile of the fuel cell stack and model humidity profile of a cathode humidification unit model to calculate a new degradation factor. The cathode humidification unit model uses the degradation factor in the performance of the cathode humidification unit.
US09502724B2

A fuel cell system may be capable of reducing an adverse influence which acts on a fuel cell at the time of restarting the fuel cell after emergency shutdown of operation of the fuel cell. A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell, a fuel gas supply unit, an oxygen-containing gas supply unit, a storage unit that stores whether shutdown of operation of the fuel cell is normal shutdown or emergency shutdown, and a control unit that controls at least the fuel gas supply unit and the oxygen-containing gas supply unit. The control unit, in emergency shutdown, controls the fuel gas supply unit at a time of restarting the fuel cell after the shutdown of the fuel cell so as to reduce an amount of fuel gas supplied to the fuel cell to be less than that at a time of restarting the fuel cell after normal shutdown.
US09502715B2

An electrochemical cell is provided that includes a structurally and compositionally disordered electrochemically active alloy material as an anode active material with unexpected capacity against a nickel hydroxide based cathode active material. The disordered metal hydroxide alloy includes three or more transition metal elements and is formed in such a way so as to produce the necessary disorder in the overall system. When an anode active material includes nickel as a predominant, the resulting cells represent the first demonstration of a functional Ni/Ni cell.
US09502712B2

Disclosed is a method of manufacturing a battery electrode in which a positive electrode lead tab and a negative electrode lead tab each of which is integrally formed with a collector formed of a metal foil and has excellent characteristics. The method includes separating a battery electrode having a desired size from a strip-shaped electrode in which an active material is intermittently applied onto a collector. The strip-shaped electrode includes an n-th application part, an n-th non-application part adjoining the n-th application part, and an (n+1)-th application part that adjoins the n-th non-application part on an opposite side at which the n-th application part adjoins the n-th non-application part (n is a positive integer). The battery electrode is cut out from the strip-shaped electrode, including at least the n-th application part, n-th non-application part, and (n+1)-th application part.
US09502711B2

Fabrication of yarns or other shaped articles from materials in powder form (or nanoparticles or nanofibers) using carbon nanotube/nanofiber sheet as a platform (template). This includes methods for fabricating biscrolled yarns using carbon nanotube/nanofiber sheets and biscrolled fibers fabricated thereby.
US09502708B2

A rechargeable battery whose ohmic resistance is modulated according to temperature is disclosed.
US09502696B2

A terminal-cover assembly for a secondary battery comprises a cover and at least two terminal assemblies. The cover is arranged on one side of the battery housing and has several through-holes where two terminal assemblies are installed. Each terminal assembly has an electric-conduction terminal penetrating the through-hole. The electric-conduction terminal has an installation member at one end thereof and at least one fixing element with a female thread. A fastening element with a male thread is inserted through the installation member and engaged with the female thread of the fixing element. The fixing element and fastening element are made of an identical material. Thereby, the fastening element and the fixing element can cooperate with electric-conduction plates to cascade secondary batteries to form a battery assembly, neither damaged by hardness difference nor loosened by different extents of deformations resulting from different thermal expansion coefficients.
US09502694B2

Provided are a pouch for a secondary battery including a first sheet and a second sheet, and a frame unit which is sealed by the first sheet and the second sheet and includes an accommodating part for accommodating an electrode assembly including electrode tabs therein, and a secondary battery including the pouch. According to the present invention, since a structure of a pouch for a secondary battery may include a frame unit capable of accommodating a large electrode assembly, a high-capacity and large-area secondary battery having high capacity and high stiffness may be realized.
US09502692B2

An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display is disclosed. In one aspect, the OLED display includes a plurality of pixels and each pixel includes a first area configured to emit light and a second area configured to transmit external light therethrough. Each pixel also includes a first electrode formed in the first area and an organic layer formed in the first area and the second area, wherein the organic layer covers the first electrode. Each pixel further includes a second electrode covering at least the organic layer formed in the first area and having a first opening exposing at least a portion of the organic layer formed in the second area. A reflection prevention layer is formed substantially covering the organic layer formed in the second area. The reflection prevention layer has a refractive index lower than that of the organic layer.
US09502691B2

An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel and manufacturing method thereof. The method of manufacturing the OLED display panel comprises forming an anode (2), an organic light-emitting layer (3), a cathode (4) and a first optical coupling layer (5) sequentially on a substrate (1), and forming a second optical coupling layer (6) on a side, away from the cathode (4), of the first optical coupling layer (5) by arranging a plurality of protrusion structures with arc-shaped surfaces. Light that would be totally reflected from a surface of the first optical coupling layer are transmitted out through the protrusion structures with the arc-shaped surfaces of the second optical coupling layer, therefore the total reflection of the light is reduced, the light extraction efficiency is increased, and the external quantum efficiency of the device is improved.
US09502686B2

Methods for forming an OLED device are described. An encapsulation structure having organic buffer layer and an interface layer disposed on the organic buffer layer sandwiched between barrier layers is deposited over an OLED structure. In one example, the method includes depositing a first barrier layer on a region of a substrate having an OLED structure disposed thereon, depositing a buffer layer with a fluorine-containing plasma formed from a first gas mixture containing a polymer gas precursor and a fluorine containing gas on the first barrier layer, depositing an interface layer on the buffer layer with a second gas mixture containing the polymer gas precursor, and depositing a second barrier layer on the interface layer.
US09502685B2

An organic EL element including: first and second electrode layers; an organic EL layer located therebetween and including a light-emitting layer; an insulating layer extending between the electrode layers at least in a region where the organic EL layer is not present; and a sealing layer located on the other side of the second electrode layer from the organic EL layer, the sealing layer covering at least the organic EL layer. The insulating layer includes first and second sections provided between the electrode layers. The second section is thicker than the first section and not closer to the organic EL layer. At least a part of the second section is not covered by the sealing layer. The first section is entirely covered by the sealing layer. The insulating layer located between the electrode layers and not covered by the sealing layer is entirely included in the second section.
US09502684B2

A highly reliable organic electroluminescence device and a manufacturing method includes at least one organic electroluminescence element, a structure, a to-be-covered portion and a passivation film. On a substrate, the organic electroluminescence element includes an anode, an organic layer including an organic light emitting layer, and a cathode. The structure is disposed on the substrate, and thickness of the structure is greater than that of the organic electroluminescence element. The to-be-covered portion is disposed at a step bottom portion of the structure and is formed such that the curvature radius of the cross-sectional shape of the to-be-covered portion at the step bottom portion is at least 0.3 micrometers. The passivation film covers the organic electroluminescence element, the structure and the to-be-covered portion.
US09502668B2

An organic light-emitting device having a light-emitting layer containing a compound represented by the general formula below has a high light emission efficiency. In the general formula, at least one of R1 to R5 represents a cyano group, at least one of R1 to R5 represents a 9-carbazolyl group, a 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-9-carbazolyl group, a 1-indolyl group or a diarylamino group, and the balance of R1 to R5 represents a hydrogen atom or a substituent.
US09502661B2

An amine derivative including a fluorine substituted aryl group is represented by compound (1) of the following Formula 1. wherein, each of Ar1 and Ar2 independently represents a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group, L is a substituted or unsubstituted arylene group or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroarylene group, each of R1 and R2 independently represents a hydrogen atom, a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group, a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group, or a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group, a is an integer satisfying 0≦a≦3, and at least one of Ar1 and Ar2 is substituted with at least one fluorine atom.
US09502660B2

The present invention relates to an electronic device comprising a compound according to formula 1 A-B (1) and wherein —Ar1 is a C6-C18 arylene, which can be monocyclic or polycyclic and may be optionally substituted by one or more C1-C10-alkyl or C3-C10-cycloalkyl groups, —Ar2 is a C6-C18 arene skeleton, optionally substituted with electron donating groups R4, —B1 and B2 are independently selected from B and Ar2, —B3 is independently selected from the same group as B, —R1, R2, R3 are independently selected from alkyl, arylalkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, dialkylamino, - x is selected from 0, 1, 2 and 3, wherein for x>1 each Ar1 may be different, - y is a non-zero integer up to the overall count of valence sites on the arene skeleton, - z is a integer from zero up to the overall count of valence sites on the arene skeleton minus y; as well as a respective compound according to formula A-B.
US09502649B2

An integrated circuit with a multilayer bottom electrode, and a corresponding method for manufacturing the integrated circuit, are provided. An insulating layer includes an opening, and a bottom electrode substantially fills the opening. The bottom electrode includes a plurality of layers laterally or vertically stacked upon each other, and lining the opening. The layers of the plurality include corresponding surfaces facing an interior of the opening and extending respectively at angles relative to a top surface of the bottom electrode. Further, the layers of the plurality include corresponding regions of increased resistance or height extending along the corresponding surfaces. A dielectric layer is arranged over the insulating layer and the bottom electrode, and a top electrode arranged over the dielectric layer.
US09502641B2

A mechanism relates to magnetic random access memory (MRAM). A free magnetic layer is provided and first fixed layers are disposed above the free magnetic layer. Second fixed layers are disposed below the free magnetic layer. The first fixed layers and the second fixed layers both comprise a rare earth element.
US09502638B2

A method of making a flexible piezoelectric structure is disclosed. A piezoelectric film is deposited by film deposition on a planar substrate. A biocompatible flexible substrate is contacted with the piezoelectric film. The piezoelectric film and biocompatible flexible substrate are separated from the planar substrate, and the piezoelectric film remaining is attached to the biocompatible flexible substrate.
US09502634B2

An electrically conductive contact layer (4) is provided with a joining material (9) during a method for producing a piezoelectric component (1), in particular a piezoelectric sensor (1). To this end, the electrically conductive contact layer (4) can be dipped into a paste that serves to form the joining material (9). The contact layer (4) provided with the joining material (9) is subsequently disposed between a first piezoceramic layer (2) and a second piezoceramic layer (3). The contact layer (4) is then inserted via the joining material (9) between the first piezoceramic layer (2) and the second piezoceramic layer (3), wherein a pressure is applied to the first piezocermaic layer (2) against the second piezoceramic layer (3).
US09502625B2

Described herein are techniques related a precision deposition of unpackaged semiconductor devices (“dies”) onto a substrate. This Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US09502624B2

The present invention provides a surface mounted light emitting apparatus which has long service life and favorable property for mass production, and a molding used in the surface mounted light emitting apparatus.The surface mounted light emitting apparatus comprises the light emitting device 10 based on GaN which emits blue light, the first resin molding 40 which integrally molds the first lead 20 whereon the light emitting device 10 is mounted and the second lead 30 which is electrically connected to the light emitting device 10, and the second resin molding 50 which contains YAG fluorescent material and covers the light emitting device 10. The first resin molding 40 has the recess 40c comprising the bottom surface 40a and the side surface 40b formed therein, and the second resin molding 50 is placed in the recess 40c. The first resin molding 40 is formed from a thermosetting resin such as epoxy resin by the transfer molding process, and the second resin molding 50 is formed from a thermosetting resin such as silicone resin.
US09502614B2

A light emitting device is provided with a growing base having specific geometry to prevent delamination between the encapsulant and the growing base, and thereby enhance structural reliability of the light emitting device. Furthermore, the light emitting efficiency as well as uniformity of light output of the light emitting device can be improved by forming the side surface of the growing base with at least a curved portion or slanted portion, and uneven structures can be formed on the curved portion or slanted portion to further improve the uniformity of light output. Furthermore, the light emitting diode chips can be fabricated by taking batch processing on the growing substrate, as provided in the wafer-level structure, with the advantages of saving cost, improving yield, etc.
US09502608B2

Provided is a light emitting device capable of reducing light attenuation within the element and having high light extraction efficiency, and a method of manufacturing the light emitting device. The light emitting device has a light emitting element having a light transmissive member and semiconductor stacked layer portion, electrodes disposed on the semiconductor stacked layer portion in this order. The light emitting element has a first region and a second region from the light transmissive member side. The light transmissive member has a third region and a fourth region from the light emitting element side. The first region has an irregular atomic arrangement compared with the second region. The third region has an irregular atomic arrangement compared with the fourth region. The first region and the third region are directly bonded.
US09502607B2

In at least one embodiment, the method is designed to produce an active zone for an optoelectronic semiconductor chip and comprises the following steps: growing a fourth barrier layer (24) based on Alx4Iny4Ga1−x4−y4N where 0≦x4≦0.40 and on average 0
US09502595B2

A μLED device comprising: a substrate and an epitaxial layer grown on the substrate and comprising a semiconductor material, wherein at least a portion of the substrate and the epitaxial layer define a mesa; an active layer within the mesa and configured, on application of an electrical current, to generate light for emission through a light emitting surface of the substrate opposite the mesa, wherein the crystal lattice structure of the substrate and the epitaxial layer is arranged such that a c-plane of the crystal lattice structure is misaligned with respect to the light emitting surface.
US09502590B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides a solar cell. The solar cell includes a photovoltaic structure and a front-side metal grid situated above the photovoltaic structure. The front-side metal grid also includes one or more electroplated metal layers. The front-side metal grid includes one or more finger lines, and each end of a respective finger line is coupled to a corresponding end of an adjacent finger line via an additional metal line, thus ensuring that the respective finger line has no open end.
US09502589B2

A solar cell has a collecting electrode formed therein. The collecting electrode is provided with: a main conductive layer that contains copper; and an overcoat layer that covers at least a part of the main conductive layer.
US09502580B2

A highly reliable semiconductor device exhibiting stable electrical characteristics is provided. Further, a highly reliable semiconductor device is provided. Oxide semiconductor films are stacked so that the conduction band has a well-shaped structure. A second oxide semiconductor film having a crystalline structure is provided over the first oxide semiconductor film and a third oxide semiconductor film is provided over the second oxide semiconductor film. The bottom of a conduction band in the second oxide semiconductor film is deeper from a vacuum level than the bottom of a conduction band in the first oxide semiconductor film and the bottom of a conduction band in the third oxide semiconductor film.
US09502577B2

Provided are oxide thin-film transistor and display device employing the same, and method for manufacturing an oxide thin-film transistor array substrate. A source electrode and a drain electrode are located below an oxide active layer pattern, and a gate electrode is located below the source electrode and the drain electrode, and the gate insulating layer is located between the gate electrode and the source electrode/the drain electrode.
US09502570B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a thin film transistor and its manufacturing method, an array substrate and a display device, to improve the electrical performance of the thin film transistor and improve the picture quality of images displayed by the display device. The thin film transistor includes: a substrate; a gate, a source, a drain and a semiconductor layer formed on the substrate; a first gate protection layer; a gate isolation layer; and a second gate protection layer. The first gate protection layer is at least partly located between the gate and the semiconductor layer, and is an insulating layer. The gate isolation layer is at least partly located between the first gate protection layer and the second gate protection layer, and is a conductive layer. The second gate protection layer is at least partly located between the gate isolation layer and the semiconductor layer, and is an insulating layer.
US09502569B2

A method for forming a FinFET transistor structure includes providing a substrate with a buried oxide layer and a layer of first semiconductor material. One or more fin structures are formed on the first layer of semiconductor material using a hard mask layer. Sidewall spacers are formed on sidewalls of the fin structures and the hard mask layer. An angled oxygen ion implantation is carried out using the hard mask and side walls as the mask. Next, an annealing process is performed to form oxide diffusion regions. Then, the oxide diffusion regions are removed, and the exposed first semiconductor material layer is etched to expose portions of the buried oxide layer. The resulting fin structure has recessed regions formed on the sidewalls, and the fin structure has a bottom portion below the recessed regions that is wider than a top portion.
US09502558B2

Method to strain a channel zone of a transistor of the semiconductor on insulator type transistor that makes use of an SMT stress memorization technique in which regions located under the insulation layer of the substrate (FIG. 6) are amorphized, before the transistor gate is made.
US09502555B2

A semiconductor device and a fabricating method thereof are provided. The semiconductor device includes: a substrate comprising a trench; a first electrode disposed below the trench; a second electrode disposed above the trench, a first insulating layer being disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode; a first contact arranged in a first direction of the substrate and connected to the first electrode; and a second contact arranged in second direction that is different from the first direction, the second contact being connected to the second electrode.
US09502554B2

Aspects of the present disclosure describe a high density trench-based power MOSFETs with self-aligned source contacts and methods for making such devices. The source contacts are self-aligned with spacers. The MOSFETS also may include a depletable shield in a lower portion of the substrate. The depletable shield may be configured such that during a high drain bias the shield substantially depletes. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US09502533B2

Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method. In this method, a semiconductor substrate, which has an active region disposed in the semiconductor substrate, is received. A shallow trench isolation (STI) structure is formed to laterally surround the active region. An upper surface of the active region bounded by the STI structure is recessed to below an upper surface of the STI structure. The recessed upper surface extends continuously between inner sidewalls of the STI structure and leaves upper portions of the inner sidewalls of the STI structure exposed. A semiconductor layer is epitaxially grown on the recessed surface of the active region between the inner sidewalls of the STI structure. A gate dielectric is formed over the epitaxially-grown semiconductor layer. A conductive gate electrode is formed over the gate dielectric.
US09502527B2

A semiconductor device structure is provided. The semiconductor device structure includes a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor device structure further includes a gate stack over the semiconductor substrate. The gate stack includes a gate dielectric layer, a metal gate over the gate dielectric layer, a first insulating layer over the metal gate and a second insulating layer over the first insulating layer. Materials of the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer are different. The semiconductor device structure also includes spacers over opposite sidewalls of the gate stack. The spacers and the metal gate surround a recess, and the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer are in the recess.
US09502510B2

The present disclosure relates to heterojunction bipolar transistors for improved radio frequency (RF) performance. In this regard, a heterojunction bipolar transistor includes a base, an emitter, and a collector. The base is formed over the collector such that a base-collector junction is formed between the base and the collector. The base-collector junction is configured to become forward-biased at a first turn-on voltage. The emitter is formed over the base such that a base-emitter junction is formed between the base and the emitter. The base-emitter junction is configured to become forward-biased at a second turn-on voltage, as opposed to the first turn-on voltage. Notably, the second turn-on voltage is lower than the first turn-on voltage.
US09502502B2

Semiconductor devices and methods of manufacture thereof are described. In an embodiment, a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device may include: patterning a substrate to have a first region and a second region extending from the first region of the substrate; depositing an isolation layer over a surface of the first region of the substrate; and epitaxially forming source/drain regions over the isolation layer and adjacent to sidewalls of the second region of the substrate.
US09502498B2

A power semiconductor device may include a first conductivity type semiconductor substrate, a super-junction portion disposed on the first conductivity type semiconductor substrate and including a first conductivity type pillar and a second conductivity type pillar arranged in an alternating manner, and a three-dimensional (3D) gate portion disposed on the first conductivity type pillar. The 3D gate portion is disposed on the first conductivity type pillar to reduce the widths of the first and second conductivity type pillars, thereby effectively reducing a device size.
US09502490B2

A package substrate is provided that includes a core substrate and a capacitor embedded in the core substrate including a first side. The capacitor includes a first electrode and a second electrode disposed at opposite ends of the capacitor. The package also includes a first power supply metal plate extending laterally in the core substrate. The first power supply metal plate is disposed directly on the first electrode of the capacitor from the first side of the core substrate. A first via extending perpendicular to the first metal plate and connected to the first power supply metal plate from the first side of the core substrate.
US09502479B2

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a transparent display device and a manufacturing method thereof. A display region of the transparent display device includes light a transmission area (12) and a light shield area (11). At least one silicon solar cell is disposed in a partial area of the light transmission area (12). The silicon solar cell is configured to absorb optical energy in the direction perpendicular to the light transmission direction of the light transmission area (12) and convert the optical energy into electric energy.
US09502469B2

An integrated interposer may include a substrate and a resistive-type non-volatile memory (NVM) array(s). The integrated interposer may also include a contact layer on a first surface of the substrate. The contact layer may include interconnections configured to couple the resistive-type NVM array(s) to a die(s). The resistive-type NVM array(s) may be partially embedded within the contact layer of the integrated interposer.
US09502465B2

A solid-state image pickup device includes a plurality of pixels, each of the pixels including a photoelectric conversion portion, a charge holding portion, a floating diffusion, and a transfer portion. The pixel also includes a beneath-holding-portion isolation layer and a pixel isolation layer. An end portion on a photoelectric conversion portion side of the pixel isolation layer is away from the photoelectric conversion portion compared to an end portion on a photoelectric conversion portion side of the beneath-holding-portion isolation layer, and an N-type semiconductor region constituting part of the photoelectric conversion portion is disposed under at least part of the beneath-holding-portion isolation layer.
US09502463B2

An image sensor device includes a silicon-based substrate, a silicon-germanium epitaxy layer, an isolation feature, an active pixel cell and a logic circuit. The silicon-germanium epitaxy layer is on the silicon-based substrate, in which the silicon-germanium epitaxy layer has a composition of Si1-xGex, where 0
US09502461B2

A camera module and a fabrication method thereof are provided. The camera module includes a lens structure and an image sensor device chip disposed under the lens structure. The lens structure includes a transparent substrate and a lens disposed on the transparent substrate. A spacer is disposed on the transparent substrate to surround the lens, wherein the spacer contains a base pattern and a dry film photoresist. The method includes forming a base pattern on a carrier and attaching a dry film photoresist on the carrier. The dry film photoresist is planarized by a lamination process and then patterned to form a spacer. A transparent substrate having a plurality of lenses is provided. The spacer is stripped from the carrier, attaching on the transparent substrate to surround each of the lenses, and then bonded with image sensor device chips.
US09502457B2

An image sensor may be provided with an array of image pixels formed on a substrate having front and back surfaces. Each pixel may have a photodiode that receives light through the back surface, a floating diffusion node, and a charge transfer gate. The floating diffusion node may be formed in the center of the photodiode and may be surrounded by the charge transfer gate at the front surface. The charge transfer gate may isolate the floating diffusion node from the surrounding photodiode. The pixel may include reset transistor gates, an addressing transistor gate, and a source follower transistor arranged about the periphery of the photodiode. By centering the floating diffusion node and charge transfer gate within the photodiode, the image pixels may have improved shutter efficiency and charge transfer efficiency relative to pixels having floating diffusion nodes at non-centralized locations.
US09502454B2

An image pickup element includes: a semiconductor substrate including a photoelectric conversion section for each pixel; a pixel separation groove provided in the semiconductor substrate; and a fixed charge film provided on a light-receiving surface side of the semiconductor substrate, wherein the fixed charge film includes a first insulating film and a second insulating film, the first insulating film being provided contiguously from the light-receiving surface to a wall surface and a bottom surface of the pixel separation groove, and the second insulating film being provided on a part of the first insulating film, the part corresponding to at least the light-receiving surface.
US09502450B2

The present technology relates to a solid-state imaging device, manufacturing method of a solid-state imaging device, and an electronic device, which can provide a solid-state imaging device having further improved features such as reduced optical color mixing and the like. Also, an electronic device using the solid-state imaging device thereof is provided. According to a solid-state imaging device having a substrate 12 and multiple photoelectric converters 40 that are formed on the substrate 12, an insulating film 21 forms an embedded element separating unit 19. The element separating unit 19 is configured of an insulating film 20 having a fixed charge that is formed so as to coat the inner wall face of a groove portion 30, within the groove portion 30 which is formed in the depth direction from the light input side of the substrate 12.
US09502448B2

A method for fabricating an array substrate includes sequentially forming a bottom gate, a first gate insulating layer, an active layer and a second gate insulating layer on a base substrate, a gate line being formed at the same time as forming the bottom gate; forming a top gate on the second gate insulating layer; sequentially forming a gate isolation layer, a source electrode, a drain electrode and a pixel electrode on the top gate. Before forming the top gate on the second gate insulating layer, the method includes forming a nickel layer at an area on the active layer where the source electrode is to be formed and/or an area on the active layer where the drain electrode is to be formed, and then performing a heat treatment on the active layer at a temperature in the range of 500° C.-570° C. for 2 hours in an atmosphere of H2.
US09502447B2

An array substrate comprises a base substrate, a gate line, a data line and a thin film transistor arranged in an array on the base substrate, a pixel electrode and a passivation layer, the thin film transistor include a gate electrode, an active layer, a source electrode and a drain electrode, and the pixel electrode and the active layer, the drain are disposed in a same layer and formed integrally. A display device comprising the array substrate and a manufacturing method of the array substrate are further disclosed.
US09502444B2

A method for forming a thin-film layer pattern, a display substrate and a manufacturing method thereof, and a display device are provided. The method for forming the thin-film layer pattern comprises: forming a first thin-film layer to be patterned on a substrate; forming a first overcoat (OC) layer on a surface of the first thin-film layer; forming a first overcoat layer pattern by beam melting; and removing the first thin-film layer not covered by the first overcoat layer pattern to form a first thin-film layer pattern. The method adopts beam melting process and hence can improve the accuracy and the resolution of the display substrate, improve the product quality and reduce the manufacturing cost.
US09502443B1

A substrate cutting apparatus includes: a stage configured to support a substrate and including at least one curved portion that extends along a first direction, and flat portions respectively on sides of the curved portion and continuous with the curved portion; and a cutting portion above the stage and configured to cut the substrate in a second direction and along the first direction at a position spaced from a central line of the curved portion in a third direction.
US09502440B2

A novel display device capable of excellent reflective display is provided. The display device includes a transistor including a gate electrode layer, a gate insulating layer over the gate electrode layer, a semiconductor layer over the gate insulating layer, and a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer over the gate insulating layer and the semiconductor layer; a reflective electrode layer on the same plane as the source electrode layer and the drain electrode layer; a coloring layer overlapping with the reflective electrode layer; a pixel electrode layer overlapping with the coloring layer; and an anti-oxidation conductive layer connected to one of the source electrode layer and the drain electrode layer. The pixel electrode layer is connected to the transistor through the anti-oxidation conductive layer.
US09502436B2

A thin film transistor, an array substrate and a method for fabricating the array substrate, and a display device are disclosed. The thin film transistor comprises a gate electrode, a gate insulation layer, a semiconductor active layer, a source electrode, a drain electrode and a protection layer provided on a base substrate, and comprises: a first transparent electrode provided between the source electrode and the semiconductor active layer, corresponding to the source electrode and in direct contact with the source electrode; a second transparent electrode provided between the drain electrode and the semiconductor active layer, corresponding to the drain electrode and in direct contact with the drain electrode, the first transparent electrode is in contact with the semiconductor active layer through a first via provided in the protection layer, the second transparent electrode is in contact with the semiconductor active layer through a second via provided in the protection layer.
US09502435B2

Hybrid high electron mobility field-effect transistors including inorganic channels and organic gate barrier layers are used in some applications for forming high resolution active matrix displays. Arrays of such high electron mobility field-effect transistors are electrically connected to thin film switching transistors and provide high drive currents for passive devices such as organic light emitting diodes. The organic gate barrier layers are operative to suppress both electron and hole transport between the inorganic channel layer and the gate electrodes of the high electron mobility field-effect transistors.
US09502432B1

The semiconductor device may include a substrate including a trench. The semiconductor device may include an isolation layer formed in the trench and including an etch stop pattern. The semiconductor device may include a stacked structure disposed over the substrate. The semiconductor device may include a slit insulating layer passing through the stacked structure and including a first region extending in a first direction and a second region extending in a second direction intersecting with the first direction. An intersection region between the first region and the second region may pass through a portion of the isolation layer and come into contact with the etch stop pattern.
US09502427B2

A preliminary tunnel insulation pattern and a preliminary charge storage pattern are formed on each active pattern extending in a direction, and a trench is defined between structures including the active pattern, the preliminary tunnel insulation pattern and the preliminary charge storage pattern. A preliminary isolation pattern partially fills the trench. A dielectric layer and a control gate electrode layer are formed on the preliminary charge storage pattern and the preliminary isolation pattern. The control gate electrode layer, the dielectric layer, the preliminary charge storage pattern and the preliminary tunnel insulation pattern are patterned to form gate structures including a tunnel insulation pattern, a charge storage pattern, a dielectric layer pattern and a control gate electrode. The preliminary isolation pattern is isotropically etched to form an isolation pattern and a first air gap. An insulating interlayer is formed between the gate structures to keep the first air gap.
US09502426B1

A one time programming non-volatile memory cell includes a first floating gate transistor with a single gate structure, an isolation transistor, and a select transistor. A first terminal of the first floating gate transistor is connected with a second control line. A floating gate of the first floating gate transistor is in a floating state. A first terminal of the isolation transistor is connected with a second terminal of the first floating gate transistor. An isolation gate of the isolation transistor is connected with an isolation line. A first terminal of the select transistor is connected with a second terminal of the isolation transistor. A second terminal of the select transistor is connected with a first control line. A select transistor of the select transistor is connected with a word line.
US09502423B2

A semiconductor includes a gate line having a first portion in a transistor region and a second portion in a decoupling capacitor region.
US09502412B2

A semiconductor device structure and method for forming the same are provided. The semiconductor device structure includes a substrate and a gate stack structure formed on the substrate. The semiconductor device structure also includes gate spacers formed on the sidewall of the gate stack structure, and the gate spacers include a top portion and a bottom portion adjoined to the top portion, and the bottom portion slopes to a top surface of the substrate. The semiconductor device structure further includes an epitaxial structure formed adjacent to the gate spacers, and the epitaxial structure is formed below the gate spacers.
US09502410B1

The present invention provides a semiconductor structure, including a substrate having a first fin structure and a second fin structure disposed thereon, a first isolation region located between the first fin structure and the second fin structure, a second isolation region located opposite the first fin structure from the first isolation region, and at least an epitaxial layer disposed on the side of the first fin structure and the second fin structure. The epitaxial layer has a bottom surface, the bottom surface extending from the first fin structure to the second fin structure, and the bottom surface is lower than a bottom surface of the first isolation region and a top surface of the second isolation region.
US09502408B2

A method for manufacturing a fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) device, comprises forming a plurality of fins on a substrate to a first thickness, forming a sacrificial gate stack on portions of the fins, forming source drain junctions using ion implantation, forming a dielectric layer on the substrate, removing the sacrificial gate stack to expose the portions of the fins, thinning the exposed portions of the fins to a second thickness less than the first thickness, and forming a gate stack on the thinned exposed portions of the fins to replace the removed sacrificial gate stack.
US09502401B2

An integrated circuit includes a first switching device including a first semiconductor region in a first section of a semiconductor portion and a second switching device including a second semiconductor region in a second section of the semiconductor portion. The first and second sections as well as electrode structures of the first and second switching devices outside the semiconductor portion are arranged along a vertical axis perpendicular to a first surface of the semiconductor portion.
US09502399B1

Diode string configurations are provided that employ one or more guard bars (GBARS) positioned adjacent an end diode structure of a diode string to create a parasitic silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) coupling between the end diode structure and the guard bar/s that operates to discharge current of an ESD event through a lateral parasitic bipolar transistor of the SCR and away from the individual diodes of the diode string. One or more of the disclosed guard bars may be positioned adjacent to a diode on a first end of a diode string to create a lateral SCR coupling for ESD discharge away from all of the diodes in the diode string without requiring positioning of a last diode on an opposite end of the same diode string adjacent the first terminal diode.
US09502384B2

A semiconductor device may include a first input/output (I/O) unit and a second I/O unit. The first I/O unit may include a first input path that receives a signal through a first pad and a first output path and a first I/O controller that output a signal to the first pad. The second I/O unit may include a second input path that receives a signal through a second pad and a second output path and a second I/O controller that output a signal to the second pad.
US09502383B2

Presented herein is a package comprising a carrier device of a device stack and at least one top device of the device stack mounted on a first side of the carrier device. A lid is mounted on the first side of the carrier device, with a first portion of the lid attached to the carrier device and a second portion of the lid extending past and overhanging a respective edge of the carrier device. The lid comprises a recess disposed in a first side, and the at least one top device is disposed within the recess. A thermal interface material disposed on the top device and contacts a surface of the recess.
US09502382B2

A coplanar waveguide transition includes a substrate, a first coplanar waveguide on a first side of the substrate, and a second coplanar waveguide on a second side of the substrate. The coplanar waveguide transition includes a first, a second, and a third via through the substrate electrically coupling the first coplanar waveguide to the second coplanar waveguide. The coplanar waveguide transition includes voids through the substrate between the first, second, and third vias and edges of the first coplanar waveguide and edges of the second coplanar waveguide.
US09502381B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a semiconductor device, a semiconductor package, and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device comprises: a semiconductor die; an electrical isolation layer formed on a surface of the semiconductor die; a substrate; and a non-conductive adhesive layer disposed between the electrical isolation layer and the substrate, so as to adhere the electrical isolation layer to the substrate.
US09502377B2

A semiconductor package is disclosed, which includes: a circuit board; a carrier disposed on the circuit board; an RF chip disposed on the carrier; a plurality of high level bonding wires electrically connecting electrode pads of the RF chip and the circuit board; and an encapsulant formed on the circuit board for encapsulating the carrier, the high level bonding wires and the RF chip. The present invention positions the RF chip at a high level so as to facilitate element arrangement and high frequency wiring on the circuit board, thereby achieving a highly integrated wireless SiP (System in Package) module.
US09502373B2

An adhesive dispenser comprises a dispensing head. The dispensing head comprises an adhesive material applicator portion on a first level of the dispensing head. The adhesive material applicator portion corresponds to a periphery of a package. The dispensing head also comprises a thermal interface material (TIM) applicator portion on a second level of the dispensing head different from the first level. The TIM applicator portion corresponds to a die of the package. The dispensing head further comprises an adhesive material conduit configured to supply the adhesive material applicator portion with an adhesive material. The dispensing head additionally comprises a TIM conduit configured to supply the TIM applicator portion with a TIM.
US09502370B2

A system and method for bonding semiconductor devices is provided. An embodiment comprises halting the flow of a eutectic bonding material by providing additional material of one of the reactants in a grid pattern, such that, as the eutectic material flows into the additional material, the additional material will change the composition of the flowing eutectic material and solidify the material, thereby stopping the flow. Other embodiments provide for additional layouts to put the additional material into the path of the flowing eutectic material.
US09502359B2

Embodiments of shielding apparatuses are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a shielding apparatus may include first and second conductive regions and a plurality of vias disposed between the first and second conductive regions. The first and second conductive regions and the plurality of vias may surround an integrated circuit (IC) component and individual vias of the plurality of vias are spaced relative to one another to shield incoming or outgoing electromagnetic interference (EMI). Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09502351B1

A MOS device includes first and second sets of power rails. The first set of power rails extends across the MOS device and includes at least two power rails for providing a first voltage to the MOS device. The first set of power rails is interior to an edge of a cell boundary in the MOS device. At least one power rail of the first set of power rails extends over a pMOS active region of the MOS device. The second set of power rails extends across the MOS device and includes at least two power rails for providing a second voltage to the MOS device. The second set of power rails is interior to an edge of the cell boundary in the MOS device. At least one power rail of the second set of power rails extends over an nMOS active region of the MOS device.
US09502349B2

Roughly described, a memory device has a multilevel stack of conductive layers which are divided laterally into separate word lines, each defining a block of memory cells. Vertically oriented pillars each include series-connected memory cells at cross-points between the pillars and the conductive layers. String select lines run above the conductive layers, each intersection of a pillar and an string select line defining a respective select gate of the pillar. Bit lines run above the SSLs. Ground select lines run below the conductive layers, each intersection of a pillar and a ground select line defining a respective ground select gate of the pillar. The ground select lines are divided laterally such that the number of ground select lines in each block is greater than 1 but less than the number of string select lines in the block.
US09502348B2

A method for forming a semiconductor device includes, sequentially, providing a substrate having a first region and a second region; forming a first dielectric layer on the substrate; forming a second dielectric layer having a plurality of first openings exposing portions of a top surface of the first dielectric layer; forming a first conductive layer in the first openings; etching the second dielectric layer and the first dielectric layer in the second region until the substrate is exposed to form a plurality of second openings; forming passivation regions in portions of the substrate exposed by the second openings; exposing the surface of the first dielectric layer in the second region; forming a third dielectric layer on the surface of the first dielectric layer and in the second openings; and forming a second conductive layer, a portion of which is configured as an inductor, over the third dielectric layer.
US09502345B2

A multiple-chip-package (MCP) has multiple chip groups and multiple package terminal groups for electrical connections in the MCP. Semiconductor chips of the same chip group are electrically connected to the package terminals of the same package terminal group, while package terminals of different chip groups are electrically connected to the package terminals of different package terminal groups.
US09502332B2

A nonvolatile memory device including a substrate which includes a cell array region and a connection region, an electrode structure formed on the cell array region and the connection region and including a plurality of laminated electrodes, a first recess formed in the electrode structure on the connection region and disposed between the cell array region and a second recess formed in the electrode structure on the connection region, and a plurality of vertical wirings formed on the plurality of electrodes exposed by the first recess.
US09502331B2

An electric power converter includes a semiconductor module, a cooling pipe, a pressing member and a supporting member. A pair of supporting wall portions is disposed so as to sandwich the semiconductor module, the cooling pipe, and the pressing member in an overlapping direction. A semiconductor element includes a small-sized semiconductor element, and a large-sized semiconductor element of which an outer shape is larger than that of the small-sized semiconductor element when projected onto a plane parallel to the overlapping direction. Within the semiconductor module, the large-sized semiconductor element is disposed closer to a connecting end portion side where a connecting portion of the pair of supporting wall portions are disposed than the small-sized semiconductor elements is.
US09502324B2

An electronic device having a heat generating element and a housing is provided including a heat dissipation arrangement provided between the heat generating element and the housing, the heat dissipation arrangement comprising a first layer in contact with the heat generating element and a second layer provided on top of the first layer and being in contact with the housing, the first layer having higher heat conductivity than the second layer, the second layer preventing heat from rapidly passing through such that the heat can be diffused in the first layer.
US09502321B2

A package substrate comprising a thin film redistribution layer (RDL) with a plurality of metal pillar configured on chip side is disclosed to thin the thickness of an IC package before mounting to a circuit board. The height of metal pillar keeps a proper distance between the IC chip and the package substrate so that an underfill material can be filled in between to ensure the reliability of the IC package.
US09502314B2

Disclosed herein is a method for manufacturing a tested apparatus that includes forming a stacked structure that includes a plurality of first semiconductor chips stacked over a semiconductor wafer. The semiconductor wafer comprises a plurality of second semiconductor chips that are arranged in matrix of a plurality of rows and columns. Each of the first semiconductor chips is stacked over and electrically connected to a different one of the second semiconductor chips. The method further includes contacting a probe card to at least one of the first semiconductor chips to perform a first test operation on a corresponding one of the second semiconductor chips with an intervention of the at least one of the first semiconductor chips so that a plurality of tested apparatus each comprising a pair of first and second semiconductor chips stacked with each other is derived.
US09502312B2

A novel semiconductor transistor is presented. The semiconductor structure has a gate region forming a channel with repetitive patterns in the direction perpendicular to the current flow, so that the portion of its channel that is not strictly planar contributes to a significant reduction of the silicon area occupied by the device. It offers the advantage of lower on-resistance for the same silicon area while improving on its dynamic performances. The additional cost to shape the channel region of the device in periodic repetitive patterns is minimum, which makes the present invention easy to implement in any conventional CMOS process technology and very cost effective.
US09502308B1

A method includes forming first and second contact openings so as to expose first and second source/drain regions, respectively, of a semiconductor material. At least one process operation is performed to selectively form a first liner only in the first contact opening. The first liner covers a bottom portion of the first contact opening and exposes a sidewall portion of the first contact opening. A second liner is formed in the first and second contact openings. At least one process operation is performed so as to form a conductive material above the second liner to fill the first and second contact openings and define first and second contacts conductively coupled to the first and second source/drain regions, respectively.
US09502302B2

Dummy gates are removed from a pre-metal layer to produce a first opening (with a first length) and a second opening (with a second length longer than the first length). Work function metal for a metal gate electrode is provided in the first and second openings. Tungsten is deposited to fill the first opening and conformally line the second opening, thus leaving a third opening. The thickness of the tungsten layer substantially equals the length of the first opening. The third opening is filled with an insulating material. The tungsten is then recessed in both the first and second openings using a dry etch to substantially a same depth from a top surface of the pre-metal layer to complete the metal gate electrode. Openings left following the recess operation are then filled with a dielectric material forming a cap on the gate stack which includes the metal gate electrode.
US09502301B2

Methods are provided for fabricating multi-layer semiconductor structures. The methods include, for example: providing a first layer and a second layer over a substrate, the first layer including a first metal and the second layer including a second metal, where the second layer is disposed over the first layer and the first metal and second metal are different metals; and annealing the first layer, the second layer, and the substrate to react at least a portion of the first metal of the first layer to form a first reacted layer and at least a portion of the second metal of the second layer to form a second reacted layer, where at least one of the first reacted layer or the second reacted layer includes at least one of a first metal silicide of the first metal or a second metal silicide of the second metal.
US09502295B2

A protective film material for protecting a surface of a wafer during a laser processing treatment contains a water soluble poly-N-vinyl acetamide. The protective film material is applied to the surface of the wafer which is then irradiated with a laser beam through the protective film material to perform a laser processing treatment. After the laser processing treatment, the protective film material is removed by washing with water.
US09502294B2

A method of singulating a plurality of semiconductor dies includes providing a carrier substrate and joining a semiconductor substrate to the carrier substrate. The semiconductor substrate includes a plurality of devices. The method also includes forming a mask layer on the semiconductor substrate, exposing a predetermined portion of the mask layer to light, and processing the predetermined portion of the mask layer to form a predetermined mask pattern on the semiconductor substrate. The method further includes forming the plurality of semiconductor dies, each of the plurality of semiconductor dies being associated with the predetermined mask pattern and including one or more of the plurality of devices and separating the plurality of semiconductor dies from the carrier substrate.
US09502290B2

A method of forming an integrated circuit structure includes providing a substrate; forming a metal feature over the substrate; forming a dielectric layer over the metal feature; and forming an opening in the dielectric layer. At least a portion of the metal feature is exposed through the opening. An oxide layer is accordingly formed on an exposed portion of the metal feature. The method further includes, in a production tool having a vacuum environment, performing a plasma process to remove the oxide layer. Between the step of forming the opening and the oxide-removal process, no additional oxide-removal process is performed to the metal feature outside the production tool. The method further includes, in the production tool, forming a diffusion barrier layer in the opening, and forming a seed layer on the diffusion barrier layer.
US09502285B1

A method of forming trenches is provided. A first layer, a second layer and a third layer are formed on the substrate. A patterned third layer with a plurality of third trenches is formed. A spacer is formed on sidewalls of the third trenches, following by removing a portion of the patterned third layer between the third trenches. By using the spacer and the patterned third layer as a mask, a patterned second layer with a plurality of second trenches is formed. Next, the patterned third layer and the spacer are completely removed, and a block layer is formed on the patterned second layer, filling into the at least one second trench to separate said second trench into at least two parts. The first layer is patterned by using the patterned second layer and the block layer as a mask to form a patterned first layer with first trenches.
US09502283B2

Electron-beam (e-beam) based semiconductor device features are disclosed. In a particular aspect, a method includes performing a first lithography process to fabricate a first set of cut pattern features on a semiconductor device. A distance of each feature of the first set of cut pattern features from the feature to an active area is greater than or equal to a threshold distance. The method further includes performing an electron-beam (e-beam) process to fabricate a second cut pattern feature on the semiconductor device. A second distance of the second cut pattern feature from the second cut pattern feature to the active area is less than or equal to the threshold distance.
US09502266B2

An object of the present invention is to provide an epitaxial wafer on which dislocation is preventable even when a LSA treatment is performed in device processes. An epitaxial wafer according to the present invention includes a wafer 11 whose nitrogen concentration is 1×1012 atoms/cm3 or more or whose specific resistance is 20 mΩ·cm or less by boron doping, and an epitaxial layer 12 provided on the wafer 11. On the wafer 11, if a thermal treatment is performed at 750° C. for 4 hours and then at 1,000° C. for 4 hours, polyhedron oxygen precipitates grow predominantly over plate-like oxygen precipitates. Therefore, in the device processes, plate-like oxygen precipitates cannot be easily formed. As a result, even when the LSA treatment is performed after various thermal histories in the device processes, it is possible to prevent the dislocation, which is triggered by oxygen precipitates, from generating.
US09502261B2

A method includes forming a first material layer on a substrate and performing a first patterning process using a first layout to form a first plurality of trenches in the first material layer. The method further includes performing a second patterning process using a second layout to form a second plurality of trenches in the first material layer, wherein the second layout a cut pattern for the first layout. The method further includes forming spacer features on sidewalls of both the first and second pluralities of trenches, wherein the spacer features have a thickness and the cut pattern corresponds to a first trench of the second plurality whose width is less than twice the thickness of the spacer features. The method further includes removing the first material layer; forming a second material layer on the substrate and within openings defined by the spacer features; and removing the spacer features.
US09502259B2

A method for fabricating semiconductor device is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: providing a substrate; forming a fin-shaped structure on the substrate; forming a cap layer on the fin-shaped structure; removing part of the cap layer on top of the fin-shaped structure; removing part of the fin-shaped structure; removing the remaining cap layer; and removing part of the remaining fin-shaped structure.
US09502256B2

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) can be used to form a dielectric layer of zirconium aluminum oxynitride (ZrAlON) for use in a variety of electronic devices. Forming the dielectric layer may include depositing zirconium oxide using atomic layer deposition and precursor chemicals, followed by depositing aluminum nitride using precursor chemicals, and repeating. The dielectric layer may be used as the gate insulator of a MOSFET, a capacitor dielectric, and a tunnel gate insulator in flash memories.
US09502230B2

A method of manufacturing a SiC substrate of the invention includes at least an oxide film-forming process of forming an oxide film (10) to cover a surface (1a) of the SiC substrate (1); and a planarization process of polishing the SiC substrate (1) from an oxide film side (10) in accordance with a CMP method so as to remove the oxide film (10), and of polishing the surface (1a) of the SiC substrate (1) to planarize the surface (1a).
US09502229B2

Various examples are provided for collimator assemblies and/or energy analyzer arrays of plasma spectrometers. In one example, among others, an ultra-compact plasma spectrometer includes a collimator assembly; an energy analyzer array that receives charged particles from the collimator; and a detector plate that detects charged particles exiting the energy analyzer array. The energy analyzer array can include a plurality of analyzer plates having distinct energy channels. In another example, a method includes bonding a stack of analyzer plates to form an energy analyzer array, affixing a collimator assembly to the entrance surface of the energy analyzer array, and affixing an array of detectors to the exit surface of the energy analyzer array. The analyzer plates include energy analyzer bands extending from the entrance surface to the exit surface. The aperture arrays and the detectors can align with the energy analyzer bands.
US09502226B2

Mass spectrometry systems include a core featuring an ion source, an ion trap, and an ion detector connected along a gas path, a pressure regulation subsystem connected to the gas path and configured to regulate a gas pressure in the gas path, a sample pre-concentrator connected to the gas path, where the sample pre-concentrator includes an adsorbent material, and a controller connected to the sample pre-concentrator, where during operation of the system, the controller is configured to heat sample particles adsorbed on the adsorbent material to desorb the particles from the adsorbent material and introduce the desorbed particles into the gas path, and a pressure difference between a gas pressure in the sample pre-concentrator and a gas pressure in at least one of the ion source, the ion trap, and the ion detector when the desorbed particles are introduced into the gas path is 50 mTorr or less.
US09502222B2

The invention relates to an integrated anode and activated reactive gas source for use in a magnetron sputtering device and a magnetron sputtering device incorporating the same. The integrated anode and activated reactive gas source comprises a vessel having an interior conductive surface, comprising the anode, and an insulated outer body isolated from the chamber walls of the coating chamber. The vessel has a single opening with a circumference smaller that that of the vessel in communication with the coating chamber. Sputtering gas and reactive gas are coupled through an input into the vessel and through the single opening into the coating chamber. A plasma is ignited by the high density of electrons coming from the cathode and returning to the power supply through the anode. A relatively low anode voltage is sufficient to maintain a plasma of activated reactive gas to form stoichiometric dielectric coatings.
US09502221B2

A method includes receiving a voltage and current measured at an output of an RF generator of a first plasma system and calculating a first model etch rate based on the voltage and current, and a power. The method further includes receiving a voltage and current measured at an output of the RF generator of a second plasma system, determining a second model etch rate based on the voltage and current at the output of the RF generator of the second plasma system, and comparing the second model etch rate with the first model etch rate. The method includes adjusting a power at the output of the RF generator of the second plasma system to achieve the first model etch rate associated with the first plasma system upon determining that the second model etch rate does not match the first model etch rate. The method is executed by a processor.
US09502215B2

A plasma processing apparatus is provided. According to the apparatus, a main antenna connected to a high frequency power source and an auxiliary antenna electrically insulated from main antenna is arranged. Moreover, projection areas when the main antenna and the auxiliary antenna are seen in a plan view are arranged so as not to overlap with each other. More specifically, the auxiliary antenna is arranged on a downstream side in a rotational direction of the turntable relative to the main antenna. Then, a first electromagnetic field is generated in the auxiliary antenna by way of an induction current flowing through the main antenna, and a second induction plasma is generated even in an area under the auxiliary antenna in addition to an area under the main antenna by resonating the auxiliary antenna.
US09502211B1

Methods and systems are provided for a scanning microscope to rapidly form a partial digital image of an area. The method includes performing an initial scan for the area and using initial scan to identify regions representing features of interest in the area. Then, the method performs additional adaptive scans of the regions representing structures of interest. Such scans adapt the path of the scanning beam to follow the edges of a feature of interest by performing localized scan patterns that intersect the feature edge, and directing the localized scan patterns to follow the feature edge.
US09502200B1

A trip assembly for a circuit breaker includes a trip lever and a trip actuator. The trip lever causes electrical contacts, which are in a closed position, to disengage from each other into an open position and interrupt current flow to a circuit, when tripped by the trip actuator due to an overcurrent condition. The trip actuator includes a bimetallic member, a yoke and an armature with an opening in which an end of the trip lever is latched in the closed position. The yoke includes a tab adjacent to the opening. When the trip lever is latched in the opening, the end of the trip lever includes first, second and third surfaces that contact a front surface of the armature, an interior surface of the armature defining the opening, and the tab of the yoke, respectively, to provide a consistent magnetic gap between the back side of the armature and the yoke.
US09502195B2

A switching device includes a contact system having a movable contact to be moved along a movement direction, a stationary contact and an improved arc quenching device with a configuration for generating a magnetic field formed in a plane perpendicular to the movement direction and an electrode configuration having a first electrode conductively connected to the movable contact and a second electrode conductively connected to the stationary contact. The first electrode and the second electrode are disposed in such a way that an electric field can be generated between the first electrode and the second electrode perpendicularly to the direction of movement and perpendicularly to the magnetic field.
US09502188B2

One or more apparatuses are provided for forming a seal between a circuit breaker and an enclosure. An adjustable door assembly includes an inner floating frame assembly positioned according to a floating configuration between a first external flange and a second external flange that connect to an enclosure door of an enclosure housing a circuit breaker. The inner floating frame assembly includes an inner floating frame and an inner floating box frame. An adjustable coupling is used to apply a force, between the inner floating frame and the inner floating frame box, to the inner floating box frame towards a front side of the circuit breaker to form a seal between the front side of the circuit breaker and the enclosure door. The seal may provide a barrier for mitigating arc flash, hazardous gases, material, and/or explosive force from escaping from a backside of the circuit breaker.
US09502184B2

The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a unit for storing electrical energy, comprising a cover and an outer casing, the method including a closing step (400) consisting of contactlessly applying a compressive force to one of the parts forming the storage unit, such that the cover and the outer casing are mechanically titled into one another so as to close the outer casing using the cover by means of the engagement of the shapes thereof.
US09502173B2

There is provided a shield part including: a magnetic laminate formed by laminating a plurality of magnetic layers and having a first surface and a second surface; a coil pattern formed on the first surface; and a first lead part formed at an end portion of a central portion of the coil pattern and a second lead part formed outside of the coil pattern, wherein a portion of the second surface is removed to form a recess, the first lead part is electrically connected to the second lead part by a conductive material disposed in the recess and a first via formed in the magnetic laminate in a lamination direction, and the second lead part is electrically connected to the first lead part by the conductive material disposed in the recess and a second via formed in the magnetic laminate in the lamination direction.
US09502157B2

A power cable assembly device adapted to be arranged in the spaces between neighboring power cores of a power cable, includes an extruded profiled body made of a polymer material and adapted to the cross-sectional shape and elongation of the power cable, the profiled body including a chamber and defining a slit to the chamber, the chamber being adapted to receive a fiber optic cable via the slit. Substantially the whole surface of the profiled body inside the chamber, the surface of the profiled body defining the slit, and the surface of at least a region outside the profiled body extending from the slit and away from the slit is provided with a layer of semi-conductive material.
US09502155B2

A seal assembly includes a first shield tube surrounding a signal wire and a second shield tube surrounding the signal wire. The seal assembly includes an electrically insulating barrier positioned between the first shield tube and the second shield tube and through which the signal wire extends. The insulating barrier includes a first conductive layer on a first side of the insulating barrier and a second conductive layer on an opposing second side of the insulating barrier. The first shield tube is electrically connected to the first conductive layer and the second shield tube is electrically connected to the second conductive layer such that the first shield tube, first conductive layer, second shield tube, and second conductive layer are electrically insulated from the signal wire.
US09502151B2

An ink composition and a circuit board and a method for producing the same are provided. The ink composition comprises: an acrylic resin; an epoxy resin; a polyester resin; a curing agent; and an active powder comprising a modified metal compound, in which the metal element of the modified metal compound is at least one selected from the group consisting of Zn, Cr, Co, Cu, Mn, Mo, and Ni.
US09502143B2

A floating nuclear power reactor including one or two nuclear power reactors positioned in a floating vessel such as a barge or the like. Means is disclosed for flooding the containment structure of the nuclear reactor and for flooding the reactor vessels to cool the same.
US09502135B2

Provided is a shift register unit, a gate driving apparatus and a display device capable of increasing a lifespan of a shift register. The shift register unit according to the present disclosure includes: a first thin film field effect transistor, a drain thereof connected with a first signal terminal, a source thereof connected with the outputting node at the present stage, a gate thereof connected with a first node; a second thin film field effect transistor, a drain thereof connected with the first signal terminal, a source thereof connected with the pulling-up node, and a gate thereof connected with the first node; a third thin film field effect transistor, a drain thereof connected with a second signal terminal, a source thereof connected with the outputting node at the present stage, and a gate thereof connected with a second node; a fourth thin film field effect transistor, a drain thereof connected with the second signal terminal, a source thereof connected with the pulling-up node, and a gate thereof connected with the second node; and a node voltage control module, configured to control the first node and the second node to be in a high potential state alternatively when the shift register unit is in a pulling-down phase. The present disclosure increases the lifespan of the shift register.
US09502132B2

An antifuse memory device includes an antifuse memory cell, a reference current generation unit, and a comparison unit. The antifuse memory cell includes an antifuse. The reference current generation unit provides a reference current selected from a plurality of reference currents. The comparison unit compares an intensity of a cell current flowing through the antifuse with an intensity of the reference current and provides an output signal corresponding to a result of the comparison.
US09502126B1

A method of operating a semiconductor memory device includes applying a read voltage to a selected word line on which a program operation is performed; applying a first pass voltage to at least one unselected word line adjacent to the selected word line; applying a second pass voltage to the at least one unselected word line when a first reference time elapses; and performing a read operation on memory cells connected to the selected word line according to the read voltage when a second reference time elapses.
US09502120B2

A method for data storage includes accepting data for storage in an array of memory cells, which are arranged in rows associated with respective word lines. Data is stored in one or more memory cells of the array using one or more programming levels. In response to a determination that a first memory cell of the one or more memory cells is subject to distortion, a second memory cell may be programmed to a predetermined programming level.
US09502117B2

Methods and apparatus are provided for collecting cell-level statistics for detection and decoding in flash memories. Data from a flash memory device is processed by obtaining one or more read values for a plurality of bits in a page of the flash memory device; and generating cell-level statistics for the flash memory device based on a probability that a data pattern was read from the plurality of bits given that a particular pattern was written to the plurality of bits. The cell-level statistics are optionally generated substantially simultaneously with a reading of the read values, for example, as part of a read scrub process. The cell-level statistics can be used to convert the read values for the plurality of bits to a reliability value for a bit among the plurality of bits.
US09502115B2

An input signal is amplified into an output signal that is to be applied to an electrical load including a capacitive component. An amplifier stage includes a pre-amplifier module to receive a first supply voltage, and an output module to receive a second supply voltage. The pre-amplifier module includes a first gain block to pre-amplify the input signal into a first pre-amplified signal, and a second gain block to pre-amplify the input signal into a second pre-amplified signal. A feedback block feeds back the output signal as a feedback signal. A combination element combines the first pre-amplified signal and the feedback signal into a combined signal. The output module combines the combined signal and the second pre-amplified signal into the output signal.
US09502102B1

Providing for a memory cell capable of forming a one time programmable, multi-level cell two-terminal memory cell or a rewritable, two terminal memory cell is described herein. In some embodiments, one time programmable, multi-level cell two-terminal memory cell can exhibit diode-like characteristics. In other embodiments, the memory cell can comprise a first electrode layer configured to generate ions in response to an electric field applied to the memory cell; a resistive ion migration layer at least in part permeable to migration of the ions within the resistive ion migration layer; a second electrode layer; and a substrate layer comprising a silicon wafer.
US09502099B2

A method for controlling a memory includes causing a data de-skewer to operate in a writing mode, at the data de-skewer, receiving a first signal, and skewing the first data signal by a first compensation skew, causing the data de-skewer to operate in a reading mode, at the data de-skewer, receiving a second signal, and skewing the second signal by a second compensation skew, wherein the first signal is representative of a bit from a byte that is to be written to the memory, and wherein the second signal is representative of a bit from a byte that has been read from the memory.
US09502092B2

MRAM devices that are switched by unipolar electron flow are described. Embodiments use arrays of cells that include a diode or transistor with a pMTJ. The switching between the high and low resistance states of the pMTJ is achieved by electron flow in the same direction, i.e. a unipolar flow. Embodiments of the invention include methods of operating unipolar MRAM devices that include a read step after a write step to verify the operation. Embodiments also include methods of operating unipolar MRAM devices that include an iterative stepped-voltage write process that includes a plurality of write-read steps that begin with a selected voltage for the write pulse for the first iteration and gradually increase the voltage for the write pulse for the next iteration until a successful read operation occurs.
US09502082B1

Methods, apparatuses, and systems may provide a sensor to monitor a power consumption of a non-volatile random access memory (RAM) and a volatile RAM. A switch, connected to an output of the sensor, controls power to the non-volatile RAM, and a voltage regulator regulates a voltage of the non-volatile RAM and the volatile RAM. One or more memory slots receive the non-volatile RAM and the volatile RAM, and a processor receives information from the sensor, and controls the voltage regulator based on the received information. The voltage regulator comprises a plurality of registers to store power consumption information of the non-volatile RAM and the volatile RAM.
US09502078B2

A semiconductor memory apparatus is capable of improving the alignment margin for a bank and sufficiently ensuring a space for forming a global input/output line. The semiconductor memory apparatus includes a stack bank structure having at least two sub-banks continuously stacked without disconnection of data signal lines, and a control block arranged at one side of the stack bank structure to simultaneously control column-related signals of the sub-banks.
US09502077B2

An apparatus according to one embodiment includes a controller configured to control a write transducer to perform shingled writing where a currently written track is written over a portions of a previously written track thereby defining a shingled track comprising a remaining portion of the previously written track. The controller is also configured to cause reading of data from at least one shingled track during the shingled writing using a read transducer.
US09502069B2

A plasmonic transducer includes at least two metal elements with a gap therebetween. The metal elements are elongated along a plasmon-enhanced, near-field radiation delivery axis. Cross sections of the metal elements in a plane normal to the delivery axis vary in shape along the delivery axis. A waveguide is disposed along an elongated side of the plasmonic transducer. The waveguide is optically coupled to the plasmonic transducer along the elongated side.
US09502067B1

The present invention provides an improved file system format for an optical disc to help prevent illegal copying of multimedia content, where certain non-readable data record is placed into increased measured length of a multimedia data block; disc made pursuant to present format allows normal playback with very low level noise that would not affect the user enjoyment of viewing/listening the movie or music content on the multimedia disc.
US09502066B2

An aspect of the present invention relates to ferromagnetic hexagonal ferrite powder, the average particle size of which is equal to or less than 20 nm, and which comprises, on a particle number basis, equal to or more than 50% of ellipsoid hexagonal ferrite powders satisfying relation (1): 1.2
US09502064B1

A data recording head may consist of at least a charge control circuit that has a substrate, ground, surface charge circuitry, and data reader circuitry. The substrate may be electrically isolated from the ground and electrically connected between the surface charge circuitry and a non-zero fixed voltage. The surface charge circuitry can be configured to apply a varying substrate charge to the substrate at a predetermined frequency to alter a head media spacing between the substrate and a data storage medium.
US09502061B1

Systems, devices, processes, and methods of optimizing a data storage device based on adjacent track interference (ATI) are presented. ATI can be detected by writing a specific track of a disc a number of times and measuring a bit error rate (BER) of an adjacent track. In addition, more accurate in-field simulations of ATI can be achieved by seeking to another track, such as an adjacent track, in-between each write to the specific track. Further, in a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) device, a laser bias control can be implemented during at least one of the seeks to calibrate a laser in-between each write. Even further, the seeks may be anticipatory track seeks (ATS).
US09502049B2

An audio encoder has a window function controller, a windower, a time warper with a final quality check functionality, a time/frequency converter, a TNS stage or a quantizer encoder, the window function controller, the time warper, the TNS stage or an additional noise filling analyzer are controlled by signal analysis results obtained by a time warp analyzer or a signal classifier. Furthermore, a decoder applies a noise filling operation using a manipulated noise filling estimate depending on a harmonic or speech characteristic of the audio signal.
US09502046B2

A method for encoding sound field signals includes allocating coding rate by application of a uniform criterion to all subbands of all signals in a joint process. An allocation criterion may be based on a comparison, in a given subband, between a spectral envelope of the signals to be encoded and a coding noise profile, wherein the noise profile may be a sum of a noise shape and a noise offset, which noise offset is computed on the basis of the coding bit budget. The rate allocation process may be combined with an energy-compacting orthogonal transform, for which there is proposed a parameterization susceptible of efficient coding and having adjustable directivity. In a further aspect, the invention provides a corresponding decoding method.
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