US09566241B2
Stable nanoparticle compositions comprising buprenorphine and at least one biodegradable polymer. The disclosure also provides methods of controlling pain in an animal and methods of treating addiction in a human utilizing the stable nanoparticle compositions, as well as pharmaceutical formulations comprising the stable nanoparticle compositions. The stable nanoparticle compositions are capable of releasing buprenorphine over several days, weeks, or months following administration. The stable nanoparticle compositions of buprenorphine utilize biodegradable polymers capable of degrading into non-toxic components in the body of an animal and may be excreted in the urine of the animal following their metabolism in the body. The stable nanoparticle compositions can advantageously provide sustained release of buprenorphine in the body after a single administration without the need for surgical removal of implanted matrices subsequent to depletion of the drug.
US09566238B2
This invention is directed to a novel method of treating an individual suffering from a bacterial infection, such as bacterial infections of various tissues or organs of an individual. In general, the method of treatment involves administering to an individual a pharmaceutical formulation that comprises a liposome-encapsulated antimicrobial agent, wherein polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules are covalently attached to the surface of the liposomes.
US09566234B2
Provided herein are systems for treating a subject with a pulmonary infection, for example, a nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary infection, a Burkholderia pulmonary infection, a pulmonary infection associated with bronchiectasis, or a Pseudomonas pulmonary infection. The system includes a pharmaceutical formulation comprising a liposomal aminoglycoside dispersion, and the lipid component of the liposomes consist essentially of electrically neutral lipids. The system also includes a nebulizer which generates an aerosol of the pharmaceutical formulation at a rate greater than about 0.53 gram per minute. The aerosol is delivered to the subject via inhalation for the treatment of the pulmonary infection.
US09566223B2
Products and methods are disclosed for reducing the production of unwanted odors on the human body.
US09566216B2
A bone cement formulation comprising: (a) magnetic calcium phosphate nanoparticles present in an amount of 5.0-95 wt. % and having a largest linear dimension of 150 nm to 50 microns; (b) polymerizable acrylate monomer present in an amount of 5.0-95 wt. %; and (c) polyacrylate polymer present in an amount of 0-80 wt. % and having a largest linear dimension from 5.0 to 500 microns. Upon exposure to an alternating magnetic field the formulation is heated which results in polymerization of the acrylate monomer component. The formulation may also be polymerized via the use of chain polymerization initiators.
US09566209B2
Medical devices utilizing shock waves with spark gap electrodes that include fluid holes into the respective electrode cores.
US09566206B2
The present invention is directed to graduated compression garments for legs having flat toe seams, wherein the pressure value at the ankle zone (1) is of about 10-27 mmHg and at the calf zone (2) about 6-16 mmHg, wherein at least an achilles section, heel section, toe section and/or a foot sole section is cushioned on the internal side of the garment.
US09566205B2
It is proposed a design and control of series elastic holonomic mobile platform, aimed to administer therapeutic table-top exercises to patients who have suffered injuries that affect the function of their upper extremities. The proposed mobile platform is a low-cost, portable, easy-to-use rehabilitation device for home use. It consists of four actuated Mecanum wheels and a compliant, low-cost, multi degree-of freedom Series Elastic Element as its force sensing unit. Thanks to its series elastic actuation, it is highly backdriveable and can provide assistance/resistance to patients, while performing omni-directional movements on plane. The device helps improving accuracy and effectiveness of repetitive movement therapies completed at home, while also providing quantitative measures of patient progress.
US09566198B2
Disclosed is a disposable absorbent article with a chassis body having a first end margin and a second end margin longitudinally spaced from the first end margins. The article further includes a topsheet, a backsheet, and an absorbent composite disposed between the topsheet and backsheet. The absorbent composite includes a first fabric, a second fabric, and absorbent particles disposed between the first and second fabric. The first fabric is intermittently attached to the second fabric to define a plurality of containers situated therebetween, each containing an aggregate of absorbent particles. The absorbent composite includes regions of such absorbent particles aggregates, including a primary region having containers of a first size and a secondary region having a plurality of containers of a second size.
US09566196B2
An absorbent sanitary pad with side flaps having a higher basis weight of superabsorbent polymer in correspondence with the wings end points which helps reducing side leakage.
US09566194B2
A tampon for use in feminine hygiene. The tampon has an elongate body and a string. The elongate body has a first end, a second end, and an interior. The string has a first end, a second end, and an intermediate portion. The first end and the second end of the string are attached to the interior of the elongate body such that the first end and the second end are separated and the intermediate portion of the string forms a loop that extends from the second. end of the elongate body. The loop provides a grip to assist in removing the tampon.
US09566193B2
The present invention provides machinery used to create products (for instance disposable products). The machinery is operated at high speed, with the machine occupying a small footprint. Materials can be fed into the manufacturing process vertically (from above or below), using assembly stations to feed completed components into the system at appropriate stations. Additionally, restocking of raw components can be accomplished by robotic means of transferring the raw material from staging areas into infeeding or splicing stations, without the need for human operators.
US09566189B2
A needle for a surgical instrument for removal of diseased or unwanted tissue is described. The needle has a hollow elongate needle shaft with a needle tip at a distal end for cutting tissue. The needle tipis flared in at least one plane and has a plurality of grooves milled into a surface of the tip in an asymmetric arrangement around the circumference of the needle tip.
US09566188B2
Methods and apparatuses for automatically switching different aspiration levels to an ocular probe are disclosed herein. The probe may be a phacoemulsification probe. A first aspiration level, supplied by a first pump, may be applied to the probe simultaneously with ultrasonic energy. A second aspiration level, supplied by a second pump, may be automatically switched from the first aspiration level. Control feed back of the pumps may be varied according to set thresholds.
US09566184B2
This is a device that is provided or used as prosthesis in supporting the penis of a wearer, during intercourse. One embodiment is of a prosthesis is to aid the ability for a fully or partially impotent man to be able to perform sexual intercourse. Another embodiment of the prosthesis is that it will be able to mount on a penis that is partially erect. One embodiment of the prosthesis is of a type having a rigid body that is tubular in shape that the non erect or partially erect penis is mounted onto the penis in order to simulate a physical male erection (11) which is constructed with a slot (12) to mount the prosthesis during sexual intercourse and it holds the bottom of the penis in place and exposed while and during the act of intercourse. This exposes the sensitive area of the penis (which is behind the head of the penis) is exposed and allows for pleasure and orgasm. The cone (10) allows the insertion of the prosthesis into the sex canal of the partner without discomfort. The material (13) is constructed of a rigid penis like tubular construction in order to simulate a physical erection of a male. It is attached to the penis by a special tape that adheres to the prosthesis but does not adhere to the sensitive area of the penis and will not cause painful removal from the skin. Any adhesive tape is acceptable. Other embodiments are described and shown.
US09566183B1
A nasal strip for opening nasal passageways having an external portion formed from a plastic material that extends throughout the length of the nasal strip. The external portion has a central section and opposing end sections with the central section having the same or a smaller width as compared to the nasal strip width at each end section. An adhesive coating covers each of the end sections and the central section does not have an adhesive coating. A non-adhesive tab extending from either or both end sections provides a novel means for the easy removal of the nasal strip from the user's nose.
US09566174B1
Described is a system for controlling a torque controlled prosthetic device given motor intent inferred from neuroimaging data. The system includes at least one torque controlled prosthetic device operably connected with one or more processors. Further, the system is configured to receive neuroimaging data of a user from a neuroimaging device and decode the neuroimaging data to infer spatial motion intent of the user, where the spatial motion intent includes desired motion commands of the torque controlled prosthetic device represented in a coordinate system. The system thereafter executes, with a prosthesis controller, the motion commands as torque commands to cause the torque controlled prosthetic device to move according to the spatial motion intent of the user.
US09566170B2
A method and system for percutaneous fusion to correct disc compression is presented. The method has several steps, for instance, inserting a percutaneous lumbar interbody implant; positioning guide wires for each facet screw to be implanted; performing facet arthrodesis in preparation for the facet screws; fixating the plurality of facet screws; and optionally performing foramen nerve root or central decompression. The system includes an implant, an elongate cannulated insertion tool, and an elongate lockshaft positioned within the insertion tool.
US09566163B2
An expandable spinal implant configured for positioning within the intervertebral space between adjacent vertebral bodies is disclosed. The spinal implant includes a first body, a second body, a ratchet, and a locking mechanism. The first and second bodies are pivotably affixed to each other on respective first ends thereof and are capable of movement relative to each other in a medial-lateral direction with respect to the adjacent vertebral bodies. The ratchet is pivotably supported within a slot defined in the first body and is capable of engaging the second body thereby permitting movement of the first and second body relative to each other in a first direction, but not in a second direction that is different than the first direction. A method of performing spinal surgery is also disclosed.
US09566161B2
An orthopedic prosthesis includes a tibial implant and a tibial insert. The tibial implant includes an upper surface, a medial side, a lateral side and a first locking structure provided on the upper surface where the medial side and the lateral side of the tibial implant are defined by a medial-lateral midline. The tibial insert includes a second locking structure provided on its bottom surface. The first and second locking structures are configured for engaging each other along an engagement direction vector when the tibial insert is inserted into the tibial base towards the posterior side. The engagement direction vector is angled away from the medial-lateral midline of the tibial implant towards the medial side of the tibial implant by a predetermine angle.
US09566160B2
Various embodiments of femoral trochlea prostheses useable in a knee joint. The knee joint includes a patella and a distal femur with a femoral trochlea, or patello-femoral groove. In one embodiment, a femoral trochlea prosthesis includes a distal tail. In another embodiment, a femoral trochlea prosthesis includes a wing or extension portion. In yet another embodiment, a set of femoral trochlea prostheses includes a plurality of prostheses having differing thicknesses. In still another embodiment, a femoral trochlea prosthesis includes a porous medium on various portions of the prosthesis.
US09566146B2
A cardiovascular valve assembly is disclosed including a housing assembly comprising a first portion and a second portion removably attached to the first portion. A valve may be positioned within the housing assembly. The valve, which may be a mechanical valve, a biological tissue valve, or a polymeric valve, may be structured to allow fluid to flow through the housing assembly in a single direction. In certain embodiments, the valve assembly may further include at least one coupling structure provided on the second portion and at least one aperture defined in the first portion, with the aperture structured to receive the coupling structure to couple the first portion to the second portion. Corresponding systems incorporating cardiovascular valve assemblies are also disclosed.
US09566144B2
Vascular filters and deflectors and methods for filtering bodily fluids. A blood filtering assembly can capture embolic material dislodged or generated during an endovascular procedure to inhibit or prevent the material from entering the cerebral vasculature. A blood deflecting assembly can deflect embolic material dislodged or generated during an endovascular procedure to inhibit or prevent the material from entering the cerebral vasculature.
US09566143B2
An incontinence treatment device and method of treating urinary incontinence in a person includes fabricating an artificial urethra to have a flow diameter formed inside of a circumferential wall and a closure device attached directly to a portion of an outer surface of the circumferential wall of the artificial urethra. The artificial urethra is sized to be spliced to a natural urethra for alignment of the flow diameter of the artificial urethra with a lumen of the natural urethra. A pump is provided for moving liquid out of a reservoir and into the closure device to push the outer surface of the circumferential wall into the flow diameter of the artificial urethra, which operates to close the flow diameter of the artificial urethra.
US09566137B2
The invention relates to a method for validating a drilling template for producing an implant-borne tooth replacement before performing an implant drilling. The drilling template produced is placed on dental structures of a jaw area that is to be provided with the tooth replacement. A measuring element is inserted into the drill guide of the drilling template, wherein the measuring element and at least one partial region of the dental structures not covered by the drilling template is measured using an optical three-dimensional measuring method. Then the position and orientation of the measuring element in relation to the partial region of the dental structures are determined from the generated measured data of the optical measurement, wherein a virtual actual implant drilling model is created on the basis of the optical measured data using the position and orientation determined for the measuring element, and/or using the known dimensions of a drill to be used, and/or the position of a stop surface on the drilling template for the drill to be used, wherein the actual implant drilling model is compared with a planned virtual target implant drilling model from a previous implant planning with respect to its position and its orientation.
US09566127B1
A stairway apparatus for use with an endoscope storage cabinet includes a slidable door to open or close the cabinet's interior compartment. The stairway apparatus includes a base member disposed on a ground and placed against the cabinet, the base member having a first step with a front face, a rear face opposite the front face, and a top face connecting the front and rear faces, the front face having a lip coupled thereto and positioned to remain flush with the top face of the first step. The front face of the first step contacts front edges of the cabinet. The lip extends into the interior compartment of the cabinet when open and contacts side walls of the cabinet, thereby preventing lateral movement of the base member.
US09566126B2
Disclosed herein are various systems and methods for facilitating control of a tool or tools. The systems can allow a user to control multiple degrees of freedom. One such system allows a user to control multiple degrees of freedom of two tools simultaneously. Another such system allows a user to control multiple degrees of freedom with a single hand. Frames and rails for supporting and/or constraining movement of a tool or tools are also described herein.
US09566122B2
A robotic system includes a surgical manipulator and a force/torque sensor. The surgical manipulator operates in a first operating mode in which a user applies forces and torques to the surgical instrument to cause movement of the energy applicator. The surgical manipulator also operates in a second operating mode in which the surgical manipulator moves the energy applicator along a tool path. A controller monitors the output of the force/torque sensor as the energy applicator is being moved along the tool path in the second operating mode and transitions from the second operating mode to the first operating mode in response to the output exceeding associated limits.
US09566121B2
An end effector of a surgical robotic manipulator includes a removeable cutting accessory. The cutting accessory includes a cutting tip and a shaft extending along an axis. A drive member is configured to rotatably drive the shaft of the cutting accessory. An actuator is coupled to the drive member for rotatably driving the drive member. A clutch assembly is supported by and is selectively rotatable relative to the drive member and receives the shaft of the cutting accessory along the axis of the shaft for selectively locking the shaft to the drive member.
US09566120B2
Navigation systems and methods used to track objects moving in space. One navigation system and method employs trackers having light emitters for indicating when line-of-sight between tracking elements on the trackers and sensors is obstructed or for other errors. Another navigation system and method instructs users on how to place a tracker with respect to an object to reduce line-of-sight issues during a surgical procedure.
US09566116B2
Expandable laser catheters for utilizing laser energy to remove obstructions from body passages are described. In one embodiment, the laser catheter includes a shaftway having a distal end including a flexible portion configured in a series of radial folds. Multiple optical fibers, configured to transmit laser energy, extend along the shaftway and are attached to the flexible portion. An inflatable, ring-shaped balloon is attached to the catheter within the flexible portion. In use, the catheter is inserted into a body passage such as an artery, and advanced until the distal end is adjacent to an obstruction. The balloon is inflated to expand the flexible portion and to bring the optical fibers nearer the inner wall of the body passage. Laser energy is directed by the optical fibers toward targeted regions of the obstruction, As the catheter is advanced and the process repeated, a core is formed from the obstruction and contained within the flexible portion. The flexible portion is then contracted to hold the core, and the core is removed from the body passage by withdrawing the catheter.
US09566113B2
Devices, systems and methods are disclosed for the ablation of tissue. Embodiments include an ablation catheter that has an array of ablation elements attached to a deployable carrier assembly. The carrier assembly can be constrained within the lumen of a catheter, and deployed to take on an expanded condition. The carrier assembly includes multiple electrodes that are configured to ablate tissue at low power. Additional embodiments include a system that includes an interface unit for delivering one or more forms of energy to the ablation catheter.
US09566108B2
An electrosurgical system can include an electrosurgical generator, a feedback circuit or controller, and an electrosurgical tool. The feedback circuit can provide an electrosurgery endpoint by determining the phase end point of a tissue to be treated. The electrosurgical system can include more than one electrosurgical tool for different electrosurgical operations and can include a variety of user interface features and audio/visual performance indicators. The electrosurgical system can also power conventional bipolar electrosurgical tools and direct current surgical appliances.
US09566104B2
The invention relates to a reduction forceps comprising a first rod and a second rod, which are supported on a swivel joint defining an axis of rotation such that they are pivotable relative to one another, the first rod comprising on one side of the swivel joint a first jaw and the second rod comprising, on the same side of the swivel joint, a second jaw provided for cooperation with the first jaw, both said jaws having defined thereon contact points for contacting a bone or a bone plate, said contact points being movable in a common pivoting plane, which comprises the swivel joint and in which the axis of rotation extends perpendicularly, and at least one of the jaws being sectionwise displaced in the direction of a plane extending parallel to the pivoting plane.
US09566103B2
In a human or animal patient, two bone portions separated by a cut or fracture are stabilized in a desired position relative to each other by bringing the two bone portions into this desired position, by pulling them against each other, by providing an opening having a mouth on a bone surface and reaching across the cut or fracture and walls in both bone portions, by inserting an implant into the opening and anchoring the implant in the walls of the opening with the aid of a material having thermoplastic properties and energy transmitted into the implant for in situ liquefaction of at least part of the material having thermoplastic properties. One exemplary application of the stabilizing procedure concerns the two tibial bone portions separated by tibial plateau leveling osteotomy in a canine patient suffering from cranial cruciate ligament damage or rupture in a stifle joint.
US09566099B2
A pedicle anchor device is equipped for being used like a pedicle screw, i.e. for being implanted in the vertebra from dorsal direction (but generally at an angle to the sagittal plane, slightly inward towards the sagittal plane) through the pedicle so that a distal portion of the device protrudes into the vertebral body. The pedicle anchor device includes a pedicle anchor device body with a head portion, a shaft portion and a longitudinal bore that extends from a proximal end of the pedicle anchor device body and has a hole or a plurality of holes from the longitudinal bore outward, for example radially outward.
US09566094B2
Occipital plate systems are described. The occipital plate systems can include a novel occipital plate having an upper portion and lower portion. The lower portion can include an opening for receiving one or more lateral members therethrough. The lateral members include top and/or side apertures for receiving lateral connectors that are attached to polyaxial screw receiving members. The occipital plate systems can also include low-profile clamping arms that are operably attached to an occipital plate via an extension member and articulating joint member. The clamping arms, along with tension cables attached intermittently along its length, can be used in addition to or instead of screws and hooks to secure an occipital plate system to vertebrae.
US09566079B2
A single probe percutaneous surgical instrument for de-bulking/removing thrombus/clog/calculi has an actuator assembly (4), a probe set (13), an operating switch (10), and a generator (12). The actuator assembly (4) has a proximal end (4a) and a distal end (4b), a cable connector (1), a suction connector (2), and actuator switch (3) mounted with the proximal end (4a) and a horn (5) mounted at the distal end (4b). The probe set (13) is mounted to the horn (5) and includes at least one disturber (6), a spring (7), a 10 spring adjusting nut (8) and a fixed probe (9), the cable connector (1) connecting to the generator (12) through a cable, and the suction connector (2) connecting to a suction system. The actuator switch (3) controls a probe vibration mode through the generator (12), the actuator assembly (4) comprising at least two piezoelectric ceramic rings (18) assembled with a bolt (15), the horn (5) and a back plated (16). The horn (5) is mounted on the distal end (4b) of the actuator assembly (4), the horn (5) being coupled with the bolt (15) and the piezoelectric rings (18), the at least one disturber (6) and the spring (7) being mounted on the fixed probe (9) using the spring adjusting nut (8). The generator (12) includes a microprocessor and the microprocessor is programmed to control the actuator vibration mode, the fixed probe optimal vibration frequency and the disturbing strength of the disturbers.
US09566077B2
In a pneumatically actuatable surgical instrument comprising a handle and a pressurized gas operated tool arranged at the handle, a replaceable pressurized gas reservoir and a locking device for fixing the pressurized gas reservoir on the handle in an operative position in which the pressurized gas reservoir is connected to a pressurized gas channel by which the tool is supplied with pressurized gas, it is proposed, in order to improve the handling of the pressurized gas reservoir, that the instrument further comprises an unlocking device for releasing the fixing of the pressurized gas reservoir in the operative position.
US09566072B2
Vaso-impacting implants and novel methods of making coils, stent-trievers, flow diverters and the like enable aneurysm treatment, including in the brain. Refined and variegated framing and complex coils provide for rapid electrolytic detachment, including less than 20 second embodiments. Novel enhanced mandrels, fittings and winding schemes are likewise disclosed improving the standard of care and state of the art.
US09566071B2
An embolization device for treating ischemic stroke is disclosed, having a surface, wherein the body portion is configured to have a radiopaque and electropositive surface under physiological conditions when the device is emplaced, which ionically binds a blood component in an amount effective to promote stability of device in situ to bind to a tissue component in an amount effective to increase adhesion of the device as compared to a device without an electropositive surface. Embolic coils being so delivered are electrolytically detachable in under 10 seconds, according to the disclosed vascular implant systems.
US09566070B2
A device and method for treating bodily diseases and/or conditions, for example, varicose veins, tumors and aneurysms including for example insertion of a blocking device toward a target destination using a catheter and delivery of sclerosing or other agents to the vessel while maintaining minimal, for example zero pressure in the treatment area. The blocking device may prevent treatment materials, embolisms, debris etc. from entering the upstream section of vessel. The blocking device may include, for example, a cap or other concave shape and may be expandable or extendible towards the vessel walls.
US09566067B2
A surgical stapling device particularly suited for endoscopic procedures is described. The device includes a handle assembly and an elongated body extending distally from the handle assembly. The distal end of the elongated body is adapted to engage a disposable loading unit. A control rod having a proximal end operatively connected to the handle assembly includes a distal end extending through the elongated body. A control rod locking member is provided to prevent movement of the control rod until the disposable loading unit is fully secured to the elongated body of the stapling device.
US09566064B2
A surgical stapling apparatus (stapler) is provided. The stapler includes a housing, elongated member, and a reload. A cartridge is configured to selectively couple to a first jaw member of the reload and includes one or more resilient members thereon. An anvil operably supported on a second jaw member of the reload is configured to compress one or more fasteners ejected from the cartridge. The anvil includes one or more locking members thereon. A knife is configured to translate through the cartridge and anvil when the first and second jaw members are in a closed configuration. Engagement between the knife and the resilient member(s) causes the resilient member(s) to move from an initial configuration that allows the knife to travel distally past the locking member(s) to a final configuration that allows the locking member(s) to engage the knife.
US09566060B2
Described herein is a simplified placement system and method for a tissue graft anchor by which a surgeon may introduce one or more sutures into a hole in a boney tissue, apply a precise amount of tension to the sutures to advance a soft tissue graft to a desired location, and then advance the anchor into the bone, preferably while maintaining the requisite pre-determined suture tension and without introducing spin to the suture.
US09566059B2
Laparoscopic device for anchoring an internal organ to the thoracic diaphragm or abdominal wall of a patient having an introducer sheath; washer with two openings; T-fastener assembly having T-fastener with anchor having a shank with a crown and at least one fluke. The anchor is connected to the T-fastener by a flexible string. A thread is attached to the crown. An introducer needle introduces the T-fastener into a lumen of the internal organ of the patient The device further has a T-fastener pusher inside the introducer needle and locking arrangements for locking the introducer needle and the T-fastener pusher. A blocker blocks the first washer opening and a grasper, inserted through the second washer opening, grasps the shank inside the introducer sheath in a predefined orientation Finally, a holding mechanism on the introducer sheath is provided for holding the grasper in a predetermined position inside the introducer sheath.
US09566054B2
A surgical apparatus for positioning within a tissue tract accessing an underlying body cavity includes a seal anchor member including leading portion, a trailing portion, and an intermediate portion disposed between the leading and trailing portions. The leading portion of the seal anchor member is configured and adapted to ease insertion of the seal anchor member into the tissue tract. Subsequent to insertion of the seal anchor member, the leading portion of the seal anchor member is also configured and adapted to facilitate securing and/or anchoring of the seal anchor member within the tissue tract.
US09566051B2
A tissue puncture closure assembly including a wire assembly and a sealing pad delivery device, The wire assembly includes a proximal end portion, a distal end portion, and a temporary expandable anchor positioned at the distal end portion. The sealing pad delivery device includes a carrier tube, a sealing pad positioned in the carrier tube, and a lateral wire slot. The lateral wire slot is defined in an outer surface of the sealing pad delivery device and extends along at least a portion of a length of the sealing pad delivery device. The lateral wire slot is configured to permit mounting of the sealing pad delivery device to the wire assembly in a lateral direction.
US09566050B2
An apparatus for use in connection with an endoscopic surgery comprises an elongated body adapted to be placed at least partially in the vagina of a female patient partially passing through the wall of the vagina such that an end portion of said elongated element is introduced into rectouterine pouch; the elongated body comprises at least an attachment means for accommodating at least a part of at least a surgical instrument comprising an end portion adapted to be received inside the vagina, the surgical instrument and the apparatus are movable to each other. An endobag having an elongated port is provided through the vagina into the pelvis. A method for use in a pelvic or peritoneal surgery is provided wherein at least an elongated end portion of a surgical instrument is provided in the cavity of the uterus through the vagina of a female patient such that the uterus can be repositioned by manipulating the surgical instrument and an incision is performed on the vaginal wall for accessing to the rectouterine pouch, a flexible element is provided in pelvis wherein the flexible element is looped around the uterus such that the flexible element encircles the uterus.
US09566048B1
One example of a surgical apparatus may include an end effector; a shaft extending proximally from the end effector, the shaft including an articulation region; a handle including at least one button; an articulation gear held by the handle, where at least one cam path is defined in the articulation gear; and at least one holder post extending into each cam path; where actuation of one button causes the end effector to articulate through a discrete angular increment relative to the shaft.
US09566047B2
A cryogenic biopsy device is configured to provide thin, frozen tissue samples, which may be viewed under a microscope and selected for biomarker analysis. The device is configured to provide slices which are less than 50 micrometers in thickness, while snap-freezing the tissue and maintaining the sample in a deep-frozen state until it reaches the pathology lab for further processing. Alternatively, thicker slices can be harvested by the device and additional sectioning can be done in the pathology lab by using cryomicrotome. The device of the present invention may be used in rigid instruments and in flexible devices, such as endoscopes, for example, and may be suitable for single use or multiple use.
US09566040B2
An automatic collimator adjustment device and method for medical treatment equipment are disclosed. The medical treatment equipment includes an automatic collimator adjustment device, which includes a processor unit, a depth camera, and a collimator control device. The processor unit receives an instant image pixel depth signal acquired by the depth camera to compare with a predetermined image pixel depth signal of a predetermined human body portion of a target human body in order to generate at least one collimator adjustment signal to the collimator control device, so that the collimator control device controls the collimator to adjust the X-ray beam to align with the predetermined human body portion of the target human body.
US09566038B2
A computer-implemented system and method for analyzing a sample comprising a material of interest and at least first and second adjacent materials each generally adjacent to the material of interest, the material of interest having a generally different density from the at least first and second adjacent materials. The method comprises automatically defining a plurality of regions of interest within an image of the sample that includes a junction between the material of interest and the first adjacent material and a junction between the material of interest and the second adjacent material, each of the regions of interest having a width of one or more pixels or voxels; determining respective profiles of density, intensity or attenuation within the regions of interest, each of the respective profiles crossing the respective junctions; automatically identifying the material of interest in the density profile; analyzing the profiles by automatically defining, for each of the profiles, a series of sections of the respective profile, each of the sections comprising at least first and second S-like portions of the respective profile, the first portion containing the junction between the material of interest and the first adjacent material, the second portion containing the junction between the material of interest and the second adjacent material; and locating the junction in each of the first portions, including: identifying the greatest difference in values of the respective profile between an adjacent peak and trough in a segment of the respective profile that includes at least some of the material of interest and at least some of the first adjacent material; and locating a point of inflexion in the segment.
US09566035B2
A method of manufacturing an X-ray detector includes: applying a mask having an opening on a substrate on which a plurality of charge detection units are positioned; filling the opening with a paste including a photoelectric conversion material that absorbs X-rays to generate charges; and forming a photoconductive layer from the paste by separating the mask from the substrate. A thickness of the paste within the opening is thicker in an area adjacent to at least one edge among edges of the opening than in areas around other edges.
US09566033B2
The disclosure provides a wireless biometric monitoring system that may be capable of acquiring, compiling, analyzing, and transmitting biometric data in near real time/real time. The system may utilize either the most up-to-date Bluetooth protocol (currently Bluetooth Smart) or a similar wireless protocol. The system may further integrate through this wireless protocol with peripheral devices to expand the measurement capacity of the system.In embodiments, the system may be capable of monitoring multiple biometric responses including, but not limited to: skin temperature, core temperature, respirations, heart rate, predicted tidal volume, chest wall movement, abdominal movement in conjunction with inspiration, abdominal movement in conjunction with expiration, HRR (heart rate reserve), HRV (heart rate variability), body position relevant to perpendicular, shoulder position relevant to hip position, general body posture, up time, down time, and malfunctions.
US09566021B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure help to synchronize multiple video segments of an actor or actors performing athletic maneuvers. Among other things, various embodiments help provide a side-by-side visual comparison of athletic maneuvers.
US09566015B2
A signal processing module includes an input module electronically coupled to a sensing probe of a nerve integrity monitoring system. The probe senses electrical signals from a patient during operation of an electrosurgical unit. The input module receives an input signal from the probe. An EMG detection module is coupled to the input module and is adapted to detect conditions in the input signal. The conditions are classified as a function of a level of electromyographic activity. An output module, coupled to the EMG detection module, provides an indication of electromyographic activity in the input signal based on the detected conditions.
US09566006B2
An object information acquisition apparatus comprises an irradiating unit configured to irradiate an object with light; a plurality of detecting units configured to receive an elastic wave generated within the object irradiated with light, and convert the elastic wave to a received signal; a distribution acquiring unit configured to acquire a light intensity distribution within the object irradiated with light; a setting unit configured to select a minimum block unit in which light intensity is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold value, using the light intensity distribution; and a generating unit configured to generate object information of the minimum block unit selected by the setting unit, using the received signal.
US09565999B2
An ophthalmologic apparatus includes a tomographic image acquisition unit configured to acquire a tomographic image of a subject's eye based on a combined beam obtained by combining a return beam from the subject's eye, which is irradiated with a measuring beam, and a reference beam corresponding to the measuring beam, an optical path length difference changing unit configured to change an optical path length difference between the measuring beam and the reference beam, and a control unit configured to, in a case where relative positions of an optical system for irradiating the subject's eye with the measuring beam and an anterior segment of the subject's eye satisfy a predetermined condition based on an image of the anterior segment, control the optical path length difference changing unit so that the optical path length difference is within a predetermined range.
US09565985B1
A mechanism by which the mop of a sponge roller mop is released without a user having to touch a dirty mop so that the sponge can be released and replaced with a clean sponge, including a sponge pin molded onto the brace which retains the sponge. The mechanism includes a transverse section with a movable hole through which the crown from the sponge pin is inserted. The wall is moved by a transverse spring force so that the wall from the opening of the trigger mechanism is placed between the crown and a lower section of the sponge pin to thereby retain the crown within the rod retaining mechanism. When a pushbutton is pushed transversely, it overcomes the spring force so that the crown is released and a downward force from the vertical compression spring forces the crown downwardly and out of the trigger mechanism, thereby releasing the sponge.
US09565981B2
A hand carryable surface cleaning apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a main body housing a suction motor, and a cyclone bin assembly removably mounted to the main body. The cyclone bin assembly may be partially or wholly nested in the body when the cyclone bin assembly is mounted to the body. The cyclone bin assembly may be removably mounted to a lower surface of the main body. The cyclone bin assembly may be removably mounted as a sealed unit.
US09565972B1
The present disclosure discloses a grinder for grinding herbs, coffee beans, spices, tobacco, and other dried plants into particulates. The grinder comprises a body and a filter assembly. The filter assembly includes a mesh filter and is coupled at the bottom of the body. The body comprises a battery and blade coupled to a shaft, which, in turn is coupled to a motor. When the motor is run, the motor spins the blade, which, in turn grinds the herb into particulates. The particulates of herb are collected at a pollen catching cap after being filtered by the mesh filter. Further, the grinder can include a storage assembly to store or transport the particulates of the herb. The grinder can include a USB port to recharge the battery and a lighting means to provide visibility to a user operating the grinder.
US09565968B2
The beverage producing device comprises a housing (3) and a removable water container (9) which is designed to be connected to the outside of said housing (3) in an operative position, when the device is in use. The water container is further designed to be recoverable in an inoperative position inside a recovery seat (27) formed by said housing or parts thereof, when the device is not in use.
US09565963B2
Disclosed herein are a steam generator capable of preventing water inflow into a cooking compartment and easily discharging water therefrom and a cooking apparatus having the steam generator. The steam generator includes a first part to store water therein, a second part extending from the first part and having a smaller width than the first part, a heater disposed in the first part to heat water in the first part, and a temperature sensor mounted to an outer surface of the first part to detect a temperature of the heater. Whether the steam generator lacks water is determined by detecting a temperature of the heater using the temperature sensor.
US09565962B2
A multi-functional fruit and vegetable shaping tool includes a main body and a separation member. The main body has a main wall surrounding a receiving space, and a plurality of cutters that have different functions and are formed in the main wall at angularly spaced-apart positions. The separation member is removably disposed in the receiving space to isolate at least one of the cutters that is selected for performing a desired function from the rest of the cutters. The separation member is connected non-rotatably to the main wall and divides the receiving space into an unshielded operative region proximal to the at least one of the cutters, and a shielded inoperative region proximal to the rest of the cutters.
US09565948B2
A enhanced folding bed bracket, lean leg bars are installed on both sides of the X shaped folding bracket for dispersing the force received by the bracket, the lean leg bars are linked with the leg bars of the bracket through connecting member, thereby the lean leg bar can be folded or unfolded along with the fold or unfold of the fold folding frame. The strength of the bracket is increased, in the mean time the folding or unfolding is not affected. The improved enhanced folding bed bracket, its bracket receives much less force, is not easy to be deformed and folding and unfolding are easy.
US09565946B1
A bench and frame component for holding individual planks to be used in a sitting bench where fastening an individual plank to the frame can be avoided. The frame is configured to allow a plank to be received in a holding pocket defined by an upper pocket piece and a lower pocket piece. The upper pocket piece may be connected to and removed from the lower pocket piece. The lower pocket piece may include a series of pocket segments and when connected with the upper pocket piece form a series of two-piece holding pockets for receiving a plurality of planks. The frame component is combined with other components and planks to form a bench. The bench may comprise individual bench sections that connect with similar modular sections to form a sectional bench.
US09565939B2
An undermount slide assembly includes an outer slide segment, an intermediate slide segment and an inner slide segment. The outer slide segment has a web, a first flange and a second flange. The web defines an upper surface that is mountable to a first object. The intermediate slide segment has a web, a first flange and a second flange. The web is received within a space defined between the first and second flanges of the outer slide segment. At least portions of the first and second flanges of the intermediate slide segment extend below the first and second flanges of the outer slide segment. The web and the first and second flanges of the intermediate slide segment define a space therebetween. An inner slide segment is received within the space defined between the web and the first and second flanges of the intermediate slide segment.
US09565928B2
A desktop organization and display stand system generally providing an integrated system for desks and workstations that is convertible between a conventional working surface, and a display shelf to support a variety of objects including electronic media, such as a tablet computer, laptop computer, smart phone, electronic display, flat panel monitor, television, books, magazines, other printed materials, other suitable object and/or electronic media, or any combination thereof.
US09565925B2
A flexible strip brush element is constructed from multiple monofiliments arranged in a parallel fashion and attached at one end to a flexible base. The monofiliments are attached to the base by intermingling material from the base with material from the monofiliments. The free ends of the monofiliments collectively form a bristle end zone. A plurality of flexible strip brush elements may be bonded side-by-side so the free ends of the monofiliments form a common bristle end zone. The bonded flexible strip brush elements may take the form of a linear section or may be fashioned into an endless loop or jointless spiral.
US09565919B2
A consumer product comprising packaging including a product chamber and an outer jacket at least partially surrounding the product chamber; and an antiperspirant composition disposed within the product chamber, wherein the composition exhibits an average standard deviation of less than or equal to about 5 of penetration peak force measurements taken in accordance with a penetration test method as defined herein.
US09565914B1
The multi-purpose storage pouch is further defined with an inner surface and an outer surface. The storage pouch has an overall shape of a plus sign. The storage pouch folds at each of four armatures to enclose the inner surface. The inner surface includes of the storage pouch includes a plurality of pockets or retaining members that secure a plurality of items to the interior of the storage pouch. The armatures each include a nylon hook or loop strip that enables the armatures to secure one another, and therefore enclose the inner surface. The top armature includes a pocket with a translucent member that enables objects to be seen there through. The storage pouch includes a pair of grommets that enable a cord member to extend from the interior of the storage pocket. The outer surface may include one or more exterior pockets.
US09565911B2
The disclosed invention relates generally to various embodiments of holders and packaging for giving gifts. In particular, the invention relates to various gift card holders that hold a gift card and enhance the presentation and gift giving experience for recipients and gift givers alike. The holders and packing also permit a gift card disposed therein to be visible, scanned, accessed, or otherwise activated without removing the gift card from the holder.
US09565910B2
A waterproof protective case can include a front portion and a back portion configured to attach to the front portion to form the protective case. The waterproof protective case may include a port cover for covering and sealing a port opening near a feature, such as an electrical port. The port cover may include a gasket to seal the port opening, as well as a flexible member with a thinned area that flexes to allow the port cover to open and close. The protective case may include an aperture covered by a membrane to allow sound transmission through the case, and the flexible member of the port cover may include at least one opening to allow sound transmission through the flexible member. The port cover may also include an aperture covered by a membrane to allow sound transmission through the port cover.
US09565909B2
Implementations of the present disclosure disclose a device support stand assembly. According to one implementation, the assembly includes a removable support stand member having an attachment feature for coupling to a corresponding mating element formed on a rear side of a portable electronic device. In addition, the support stand member includes a tension spring configured for dual operating positions with respect to the portable electronic device.
US09565901B2
A shoe toe shaping clamping device has a mold base and multiple clamping units. The mold base has a mold body. Each clamping unit has a clamping base, a bottom clamping unit, a top clamping unit, a clamping space, and a depth adjusting unit. The bottom clamping unit is mounted on the clamping base, is adjacent to the mold body, and has a bottom clamping surface. The top clamping unit is mounted on the clamping base and has a top clamping surface. The clamping space is formed between the top clamping surface and the bottom clamping surface. The depth adjusting unit is mounted on the bottom clamping unit and shelters two sides of the clamping space. The shoe toe shaping clamping device is applied for clamping a vamp to form a shoe toe.
US09565900B2
Automated painting of a shoe sole portion is enhanced by use of a mask cover and an air knife with a paint assembly. The mask cover is positioned in front of a paint-emitting portion of a spray nozzle and is adapted to obstruct at least a portion of the paint intended to be emitted by the spray nozzle. The air knife is coupled to the mask cover and is adapted to emit a laminar fluid flow over the mask cover. The laminar fluid flow helps to limit unwanted diffusion of the paint as it passes along its intended spray path.
US09565896B2
A stability and comfort system for an article of footwear is disclosed. The stability and comfort system includes a bootie and a sock liner. The sock liner may include a heel counter that is contoured to fit a heel. The sole of the article may include an outrigger portion. The outrigger portion can be separated from a central portion of the sole to allow the outrigger portion to move substantially independently of the central portion of the sole.
US09565875B2
A cigar cooler is disclosed that includes a housing having an upper surface with a pair of open channels each sized to receive a cigar. The housing includes an open central region for receiving a cooling medium such as ice or a frozen gel. During use, the cigar is placed in an open channel between inhalations to reduce the temperature of the cigar.
US09565862B2
A pressure shoe assembly for a skinner includes a back plate that is demountably received within a groove in a mount assembly. Ends of the back plate have extensions presenting an oblique contact surface for engagement of a retention member. The angle of the contact surface secures the back plate I the mount limiting vertical movement of the pressure shoe when in use. The mount assembly includes a ledge for supporting the assembly when removed for cleaning. A lift assist mechanism aids in moving the assembly between the groove and ledge.
US09565858B2
Compositions which impart a microbicidal benefit to treated surfaces which compositions comprise (or in certain preferred embodiments may consist essentially of, or may consist of): a zinc ion source material which releases zinc ions into the treatment composition, preferably a source of Zn++ ions; preferably at least from about 20% wt. of at least one alcohol, which is preferably a lower alkyl monohydric alcohol and water, optionally one or more further surfactants, further optionally one or more constituents which impart one or more advantageous technical or aesthetic benefits to the compositions, including one or more detersive surfactants; and water, wherein the composition has a pH of at least 4, preferably at least 5, wherein the surface treatment compositions, exhibit a microbicidal or germicidal or antimicrobial effect on treated inanimate surfaces, characterized in exhibiting a microbicidal benefit when tested against one or more challenge microorganisms, according to one or more of the following standardized test protocols: ASTM E1052 Standard Test Method for Efficacy of Antimicrobial Agents against Viruses in Suspension, or ASTM E1053 Standard Test Method to Assess Virucidal Activity of Chemicals Intended for Disinfection of Inanimate, Nonporous Environmental Surfaces, or European Standard Surface Test, EN13697, or AOAC Germicidal Spray Products as Disinfectant Test Method, AOAC Index, 17th Ed. (2000), preferably against poliovirus type 1 (Sabin) (“PV1”).
US09565851B2
The present invention relates to a holder for an animal can call used for hunting. A can call is positioned about the device so that when a user activates a remote control, the holder inverts the can call producing a noise that attracts game animals.
US09565850B2
An article of manufacture for use by trappers of fur bearing animals. The article of manufacture consists of a body having a plurality of circular apertures therethrough and a plurality of elongated apertures therethrough. And, a method for positioning a trap for trapping a fur bearing animal, the method using the article of manufacture provided the trap has a tang, by the steps of: (a) positioning the article of manufacture to an object; and (b) inserting said tang into one of the elongated apertures of the article. If the trap does not have a tang, but does have a coil spring, then a clip having a tang can be inserted into the spring to adapt the trap for positioning according to the method of the instant invention.
US09565837B2
The present apparatus and method provides for real-time automated, non-invasive infrared thermography information of an animal to be used for both thermal and behavioral measurement, thereby providing an earlier and more accurate predictor of onset of disease, growth states, or reproductive states in that animal. More specifically, the present system and method provide for the use of thermal images (taken, for example, at a water station) to obtain both temperature and behavioral information about one or more animals at a time, and to utilize that information to determine the health, growth, or reproductive state of the animal. The combination of thermal biometric data, such as radio frequency identification infrared thermography, and behavioral biometric information, such as behavioral fidgets can be used to detect early-onset of these biological steady and non-steady states in animals.
US09565833B2
A system including: a self-contained unit including a first data carrier having an electronic identification device that is readable by radio frequency and the reading of which activates an electronic data sheet in a first database; and a third data carrier including a second identification code readable by an optical reader. A method is also described which uses the reading of the third data carrier to activate an electronic data sheet in a second database, and to allow the associative data between both identification codes to be visualized.
US09565831B1
At least one embodiment discloses a kitty litter scooper which is configured to receive at least one cover or at least one adapter. In at least one embodiment there is a scooping device comprising a handle and at least one head section. There can be at least one pusher and at least one cover wherein the cover is configured to cover over the head section. The pusher is configured to push the cover off of the head. In at least one embodiment, the pusher is configured to be coupled to the handle. In at least one other embodiment the handle extends along a longitudinal axis and the pusher is configured to slide along the handle.
US09565829B2
Disclosed is a novel shiitake strain Lentinula edodes (Berk.) Pegler GNA01 (accession No: KCCM11135P) and a fruit body produced by culturing the same. The fruit body exhibits a new morphology and a new taste.
US09565825B1
A novel maize variety designated PH25BF and seed, plants and plant parts thereof are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant comprise crossing maize variety PH25BF with another maize plant are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PH25BF through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby are provided. Hybrid maize seed, plants or plant parts are produced by crossing the variety PH25BF or a locus conversion of PH25BF with another maize variety.
US09565823B1
A novel maize variety designated PH2CH2 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant comprise crossing maize variety PH2CH2 with another maize plant are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PH2CH2 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby are provided. Hybrid maize seed, plants or plant parts are produced by crossing the variety PH2CH2 or a locus conversion of PH2CH2 with another maize variety.
US09565822B1
The invention relates to the soybean variety designated XR37AE15X. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety XR37AE15X. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety XR37AE15X and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety XR37AE15X with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09565821B1
The invention relates to the soybean variety designated XR47AF15X. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety XR47AF15X. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety XR47AF15X and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety XR47AF15X with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09565820B2
A soybean cultivar designated S130084 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of soybean cultivar S130084, to the plants of soybean cultivar S130084, to the plant parts of soybean cultivar S130084, and to methods for producing progeny of soybean cultivar S130084. 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 S130084. The invention also relates to methods for producing other soybean cultivars, lines, or plant parts derived from soybean cultivar S130084, 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 S130084 with another soybean cultivar.
US09565813B1
The present invention relates to an inbred sunflower line, designated CN3165A/B. The invention relates to the seeds of inbred sunflower line CN3165A/B, to the plants of inbred sunflower line CN3165A/B and to the methods for producing a sunflower plant, either inbred or hybrid, by crossing the inbred line CN3165A/B with itself or another sunflower line. The invention further relates to methods for producing a sunflower plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic plants produced by that method and to methods for producing other inbred sunflower lines derived from the inbred CN3165A/B.
US09565802B2
An agricultural machine includes a crop row sensor which has a movable paddle which interacts with plants in the crop row, and which periodically generates a sensor signal representing a position of the paddle. A signal processing system includes a memory which stores a plurality of sensor signals. The system determines a minimum magnitude of the stored sensor signals, and generates a drop rate signal representing a change in the sensor signal in a period of time. A gap detection unit generates the gap signal if the minimum signal is less than a threshold and if the drop rate is greater than a drop rate threshold. Thus, the system generates a gap signal when the paddle encounters a gap in the crop row.
US09572295B2
In an electronic component mounting method, a light-emitting element is temporarily fixed to a board by solder paste and adhesive, the adhesive is cured to fix a main body of the light-emitting element to the board, and solder is melted to bond a terminal of the light-emitting element to the board. The method includes: detecting a positional deviation of an emission portion in a top surface of the light-emitting element; detecting a position of the light-emitting element in a state in which the light-emitting element is held by an absorption nozzle; positioning the emission portion to a prescribed position on the board based on the positional deviation and the position of the light-emitting element; mounting the light-emitting element on the board at a position deviated from the prescribed position by the positional deviation; curing the adhesive; and heating the board to melt the solder.
US09572292B2
Systems and methods for providing security for authentication devices—such as electronically readable cards or ID badges with embedded RFID chips or NFC capability—may include an envelope or pocket-like case for carrying an electronically readable card, having an electrically conductive, non-opaque sleeve that can be moved to cover or expose the electronically readable card and that prevents information on the card from being electronically read when covered yet still allows the card to be seen when covered. In one or more embodiments, the sleeve may be a wire mesh that is flexible enough to be compressed to expose the card yet stiff (or rigid) enough to be extended to cover the card and that is transparent enough to allow reading visual information on the surface of the card when covering the card. Protection can be switched off by a mechanical switch that leaves the protection normally on.
US09572287B1
A server enclosure having a plurality of panels abutted to one another and constrained by a connector having a channel and at least one aperture. Each respective panel has at least one perpendicular portion being perpendicular to a face of the respective panel and adjoining a perimeter of the respective panel. Connectivity media coincident to the aperture can affix at least two panels and a connector to one another.
US09572283B2
An example embodiment includes a thermal conduction system for dissipating thermal energy generated by operation of an optical subassembly that is disposed within a shell of a communication module. The thermal conduction system can include a thermally conductive flexible member that contacts the optical subassembly and the shell of the communication module. By contacting the optical subassembly and the shell, the thermal energy generated by operation of the optical subassembly can transfer from the optical subassembly to the shell. The thermally conductive flexible member defines thermally conductive flexible member holes that correspond to pins extending from the optical subassembly. The pins pass through the thermally conductive flexible member holes enabling the thermally conductive flexible member to contact the optical subassembly.
US09572282B2
The invention provides a heat conductor device (10) for removing heat from an electrical component (12) operating in a frequency range, the device comprising a body (13) having a first thermal conductivity, characterized in that the body (13) is provided with a heat spreader (14) comprising a pattern of thermally conducting tiles (20, 50, 51, 52, 61) separated by gaps (21), the tiles having a second thermal conductivity higher than the first thermal conductivity, wherein each tile has at most a maximum area value and the gaps have at least a minimum gap width, and the maximum area and the minimum width are dimensioned for conforming to a predetermined electromagnetic interference characteristic of the heat conductor device when combined with the electrical component operating in the frequency range. The invention also provides a method for forming a heat conductor device.
US09572281B2
A method for controlling a mechanical vibrating element driven by a driving means includes operating the driving means at an operation frequency for stimulating the vibrating element to oscillate at this frequency. The method also includes adjusting the operation frequency of the driving means for stimulating the vibration element at different frequencies and of determining a respective energy consumption of the driving means depending on the frequency at which the vibrating element oscillates. The resonance frequency of the oscillation of the vibrating element is identified as the frequency at which the energy consumption of the driving means is lowest and the driving means for stimulating the vibrating element can be operated at the resonance frequency.
US09572264B2
An electronic component module includes a board having an electronic component mounted on a surface of the board and a shield case mounted on the surface of the board and covering the electronic component. The board includes a projecting part projecting from the surface of the board. The projecting part is formed of plating at a position along a sidewall of the shield case and is soldered to the shield case.
US09572256B2
A printed wiring board includes an uppermost insulating layer, first pads positioned to mount an IC chip on the insulating layer, second pads positioned to mount a second printed wiring board on the insulating layer, metal posts formed on the second pads, respectively, such that the metal posts mount the second board over the chip, and a solder resist layer formed on the uppermost insulating layer and having first and second openings such that the first openings exposes the first pads and that the second openings exposes the second pads, respectively. The metal posts are formed such that each of the metal posts has a diameter which is smaller than a diameter of each of the second opening portions, and the second opening portions are formed such that the diameter of each of the second opening portions is smaller than a diameter of each of the second pads.
US09572253B2
A novel element is provided. A novel film formation method is provided. A novel element manufacturing method is provided. Furthermore, a film including graphene is formed at low cost and high yield. The element includes a first electrode and a second electrode located apart from the first electrode. The first electrode and the second electrode include graphene. The film including graphene is formed through a first step of forming a film including graphene oxide over a substrate, a second step of immersing the film including graphene oxide in an acidic solution, and a third step of reducing graphene oxide included in the film including graphene oxide. Furthermore, before graphene oxide included in the film including graphene oxide is reduced, the film including graphene oxide is selectively removed by a photolithography technique.
US09572252B2
A wiring substrate includes an electrode including Cu or a Cu alloy, and a plated film including an electroless nickel-plated layer formed on the electrode and an electroless gold-plated layer formed on the electroless nickel-plated layer. The electroless nickel-plated layer is formed by co-precipitation of Ni, P, Bi, and S, the electroless nickel-plated layer includes a content of P of 5% by mass or more and less than 10% by mass, a content of Bi of 1 ppm by mass to 1,000 ppm by mass, and a content of S of 1 ppm by mass to 2,000 ppm by mass, and a mass ratio of the content of S to the content of Bi (S/Bi) is more than 1.0.
US09572251B2
Provided is a printed circuit board consisting of laminated substrates each with a fiberglass cloth contained in its resin and with a wiring arranged onto at least one of its surfaces, wherein, in at least one of substrates provided with a wiring for transmitting a higher speed signal than that transmitted by wirings arranged onto the other substrates, a fiberglass cloth having a different property from that of the other substrates is contained.
US09572247B2
A memory card system may include a flexible integrated circuit device package, an upper flexible case, a lower flexible case, a wiring structure, an anisotropic conductive film, etc. The flexible integrated circuit device package may include a material capable of being bent or folded and a flexible integrated circuit device having a connection pad for an electrical connection. The upper flexible case may include a material capable of being bent or folded and may cover the integrated circuit device package. The lower flexible case may include a material capable of being bent or folded and the flexible integrated circuit device package may be fixed to the lower flexible case. The wiring structure may include a material capable of being bent or folded, and also may include a connection wiring disposed on an inner surface of the upper flexible case for electrically connecting the flexible integrated circuit device package with an external device, a connection pin disposed on an outer surface of the upper flexible case, and a via wiring passing through the upper flexible case. The anisotropic conductive film may be disposed between the flexible integrated circuit device package and the upper flexible case for electrically connecting the connection pad with the connection wiring.
US09572235B2
A method for controlling a mobile terminal that includes a display and a memory, and that controls one or more lighting devices that illuminate one or more spaces. The method causes a computer of the mobile terminal and includes obtaining terminal location information indicating a location of the mobile terminal, rearranging one or more scene icons corresponding to the one or more scenes on the basis of the terminal location information and the one or more pieces of scene location information, displaying the rearranged one or more scene icons on the display, and transmitting, if one of the one or more scene icons is selected by a user, a control signal for controlling the one or more lighting devices to the one or more lighting devices, so that the one or more spaces are illuminated in an illumination state indicated by a scene corresponding to the selected scene icon.
US09572228B2
Commissioning a lighting system is disclosed. A user can be provided with a pointing device capable of emitting or returning a signal which can be received by detectors co-located with each fixture in the lighting system. The user can add a fixture to a group by aiming the pointing device at the fixture when the fixture is not assigned to the group, and the user can remove a fixture from a group in the same way when the fixture was previously assigned to the group. Additional user gestures are also disclosed.
US09572227B2
Disclosed is an intelligent lighting network for facilitating operation of a lighting system including at least one controllable light source and configured to generate light representing light avatars uniquely associated one or more users of a plurality of users. The light avatar is a light pattern suitable to represent the user and/or convey information about the user to other users.
US09572223B1
A color-controlled light source includes a plurality of light emitting diodes, the light emitting diodes being configured to emit different colors of light, intensity of the light emitted by the light emitting diodes being selectably adjustable. A sensor receives the light emitted by the light emitting diodes and converts the received light to electrical feedback signals corresponding to the emitted light. A processor generates an electrical reference signal. An amplifier receives the reference signal and the feedback signal, compares the feedback signal and the reference signal, and generates an error signal corresponding to a difference between the feedback signal and the reference signal. A current control receives the error signal and adjusts the intensity of at least one light emitting diode to cancel the error signal. A composite color emitted by the plurality of light emitting diodes has a predetermined, closed-loop controlled chromaticity.
US09572221B2
An auto-sensing dimming lamp guides ambient light to a sensor installed in a lamp cover and at a base through a light pipe. The auto-sensing dimming lamp automatically adjusts a light emission status of LED light sources according to the ambient light by a processor installed at the base. The processor includes a pass filter unit and a modulation unit, and the pass filter unit receives a detected signal waveform of the sensor and a driving voltage waveform of the LED light sources.
US09572216B1
A light source apparatus includes a light source which emits light, a response improving part which generates a response improving signal based on a first dimming control signal having a first rising period, a first operation part which generate a second dimming control signal which has the first rising period based on the first dimming control signal, a second operation part which generates a third dimming control signal by performing an arithmetic operation based on the second dimming control signal and the response improving signal, the third dimming control signal having a second rising period shorter than the first rising period and a light source driver which generates a light source driving signal based on the third dimming control signal to drive the light source based on the light source driving signal.
US09572213B2
An illumination light includes: a bridge diode that performs full-wave rectification on an alternating-current signal; a switching converter that includes a switching device and that converts the alternating-current signal on which the full-wave rectification has been performed, into a direct-current signal; a controller that controls on/off timing of the switching device; and a semiconductor light emitting element that is connected to the switching converter and the controller and to which the direct-current signal is output.
US09572210B2
Disclosed is a control circuit of an LED lighting apparatus having a dimming function. The control circuit provides a current path corresponding to light emitting states of LED channels in response to a rectified voltage, and performs dimming by controlling a current amount of the current path in response to a dimming control signal provided as an analog signal or digital signal.
US09572201B2
Provided is an induction heat cooking apparatus. The induction heat cooking apparatus includes a rectifying part rectifying an input voltage to output a DC voltage, an inverter switching the DC voltage outputted through the rectifying part to generate an AC voltage, a first heating part operated by the AC voltage applied from the inverter, a second heating part connected to the first heating part in parallel, the second heating part being operated by the AC voltage applied from the inverter, and a switching signal generation part controlling an operation state of each of the first and second heating parts from the inverter according to an operation mode inputted from the outside. The switching signal generation part includes an inverter driver including a bootstrap circuit.
US09572200B2
A disk with at least one connecting element having compensator plates, including; a substrate having an electrically conductive structure on at least one partial region of the substrate, at least one compensator plate on at least one partial region of the conductive structure, at least one electric connecting element on at least one partial region of the at least one compensator plate, a lead-free soldering mass which connects the compensator plate via at least one contact surface including; one partial region of the electrically conductive structure, wherein the difference of the thermal expansion coefficient of the substrate and the compensator plate is less than 5×10−6/° C. and wherein the connecting element comprises copper.
US09572190B2
A method automatically connects a device to a WiFi network. The method includes determining WiFi networks that are available for a connection thereto. The method includes categorizing each of the WiFi networks as a private WiFi network or a public WiFi network in which the private WiFi network utilizes a first association process while the public WiFi network utilizes a second association process. The method includes executing a first automatic connection process using the first association process until a successful connection is established to one of the private WiFi networks based upon a first prioritized list. The method includes executing a second automatic connection process until a successful connection is established to one of the public WiFi networks based upon a second prioritized list when the first automatic connection process to the private wireless networks is unsuccessful.
US09572186B2
A user equipment comprises one or more antennas, a processor to communicate with an enhanced Node B (eNB) of an Internet Protocol (IP) based wireless communication network via the antenna; and a storage medium coupled to the processor, the storage medium having instructions stored thereon, that if executed by the processor, result in: requesting the eNB for a direct communication with a second user equipment, wherein the user equipment and the second user equipment are in a cell of the eNB; performing a first channel measurement based on a command from the eNB; receiving direct communication related information from the eNB based on a result of the first channel measurement; and performing a configuration based on the direct communication related information to perform the direct communicate with the second user equipment.
US09572178B1
The inventive concept relates to a distributed antenna system (DAS), and more particularly, to an uplink signal transmission operation of each of node units constituting a DAS. A node unit of a DAS includes a signal input/output unit configured to receive m uplink signals from m lower node units and output the m uplink signals, and a multiplexer configured to generate a single uplink signal by selectively outputting any one of the m uplink signals at an interval of a predetermined output time. Accordingly, it is possible to provide a DAS capable of processing and outputting, as one signal, uplink signals received from a plurality of remote units, without any error.
US09572177B2
A control circuit of a wireless user equipment includes: a message generating circuit for generating a first and a second RRC (radio resource control) messages, and configuring corresponding first and second priorities; a message reordering circuit for comparing the first and second priorities. If the first priority is higher than the second priority, the message reordering circuit assigns the second RRC message in a message queue to have a transmission order after the first RRC message. Afterward, when the message generating circuit generates a third RRC message, the message generating circuit configures a third priority for the third RRC message. The message reordering circuit compares the first through the third priorities to rearrange transmission orders of RRC messages, and if the third priority is equal to the second priority, the message reordering circuit replaces the second RRC message in the message queue with the third RRC message.
US09572170B2
Provided are a method and an apparatus of transceiving a signal using a link adaptation in a communication system, particularly, a method of dividing a resource region into a plurality of resource regions, and applying different line adaptations to the resource regions. A method of controlling a link of a terminal in a mobile communication system receives at least two downlink channel signals to estimate states of received channels, generates a channel discrepancy report when states of channels exceed a preset threshold, and reports the channel discrepancy report to a base station through a preset uplink channel. A method of controlling a link of a base station receives a channel discrepancy report through an uplink channel, and determines MCS and transmission power of downlink channels based on the received channel discrepancy report and transmits the determined MCS and transmission power to the terminal through a downlink channel.
US09572164B2
Methods and apparatuses are provided for transmitting a signal using a sequence in a wireless communication system. A first sequence used to transmit a first signal in a first channel is determined by performing group-hopping using a pseudo-random pattern over a first group of sequences. A second sequence used to transmit a second signal in a second channel is determined by performing the group-hopping using the pseudo-random pattern over a second group of sequences.
US09572162B2
A node of a wireless network transmits information to a user equipment over an aggregated carrier that includes a primary carrier having a first set of primary carrier time/frequency resources and a secondary carrier having a second set of secondary carrier time/frequency resources. Synchronization signals and/or reference symbols are transmitted to the user equipment on the secondary carrier less often than on the primary carrier. An indication of when and/or how often the synchronization signals and/or reference symbols will be transmitted to the user equipment on the secondary carrier may also be transmitted to the user equipment over the primary carrier. By transmitting synchronization signals and/or reference symbols to the user equipment on the secondary carrier less often than on the primary carrier, resources of the secondary carrier may be conserved, energy efficiency of the secondary carrier may be increased, and/or interference with other cells may be reduced or prevented.
US09572157B2
An embodiment of the present invention provides a method, comprising dynamically reserving free channel time blocks for directional transmissions in a wireless personal area network (WPAN) by a transceiver communicating with a Coordinator and the Coordinator allocating a part or a whole of unreserved channel time blocks for a directional link during a handshake with the transceiver.
US09572143B2
Provided is a radio communication terminal which is capable of measuring quality in communication with a handover destination with high accuracy. The radio communication terminal is capable of communicating with a base station or a relay node, and includes: a receiver which receives control information including information relating to measurement of measuring quality of a neighbor cell; an extractor which extracts information on a subframe where the measurement should be performed, which is a subframe where only transmission of a signal from the relay node connected to the base station is performed, from the information relating to the measurement; a measurement section which performs the measurement, on a subframe basis, based on the extracted information on the subframe where the measurement should be performed; and a transmitter which transmits a result of the measurement to the base station or the relay node.
US09572140B2
Disclosed are a method and a device for transmitting uplink control information (UCI) by a terminal in a wireless communication system. The UCI transmission method comprises the steps of: generating an encoding information bit stream by performing channel coding for a UCI bit stream; generating complex modulation symbols by performing modulation for the generated encoding information bit stream; spreading the complex modulation symbols in block-wise on the basis of an orthogonal sequence; and transmitting the spread complex modulation symbols to a base station. The encoding information bit stream is generated by a channel coding for circularly repeating the UCI bit stream.
US09572138B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting control information in a wireless communication system supporting carrier aggregation (CA) is disclosed. A method for transmitting control information to a base station (BS) by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system includes receiving at least one of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) from the base station through at least one serving cell configured in the user equipment, and transmitting control information regarding PDCCH reception or PDSCH reception indicated by the PDCCH to the base station. The control information is transmitted through a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) of a primary cell, using control information feedback timing of at least one of the primary cell and a first cell of the at least one serving cell, and the at least one serving cell uses different uplink and downlink (UL-DL) configurations.
US09572130B2
In a wireless network, a user equipment (UE) can communicate with an Evolved Node B (eNodeB). During at least some times, the UE transmits a data stream to the eNodeB, over one of several available antenna states on the UE. The antenna states can include one or more tuning states for each antenna port on the UE. At predetermined times, which can be periodic, the UE ceases transmission of the data stream, transmits a test signal sequentially over each of its antenna states, receives a signal back from the eNodeB indicating which of the antenna states provides the strongest signal, and switches to the indicated antenna state. After switching, the UE can resume transmission of the data stream over the indicated antenna state. In some examples, the UE can repeat the antenna tuning/retuning process periodically.
US09572126B2
A system (10) for determining effects of one or more factors on one or more properties of a signal received by a wireless communication enabled device (24), the system (10) comprising: at least one sensor for sensing and gathering sensor data relating to a state of the wireless communication enabled device (24) or a state of the environment surrounding the wireless communication enabled device; and decision means for receiving input including the sensor data and determining whether one or more criteria are satisfied based on the input, each criteria being associated with a respective factor affecting a respective property, and determining the effects on the one or more properties of the signal on the basis of the criteria determination.
US09572125B1
The disclosed computer-implemented method for locating unrecognized computing devices may include (1) identifying a plurality of cooperating computing devices on a wireless network that are each configured with a device location application, (2) determining a physical location for each cooperating computing device within the plurality of cooperating computing devices, (3) receiving, from the device location application on the plurality of cooperating computing devices, data about packets intercepted by the plurality of cooperating computing devices that are directed to the wireless network by an unrecognized computing device, and (4) locating the unrecognized computing device based on information received from the plurality of cooperating computing devices that identifies both the physical location for each cooperating computing device and signal strengths of the packets intercepted by the plurality of cooperating computing devices. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09572123B2
In an example embodiment, a system may include a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal may be configured to receive a first signal including a first time advance value. The first signal may be transmitted by a first base station. The mobile terminal may be further configured to receive a second signal. The second signal may be transmitted by a second base station. The mobile base station may be further configured to determine a difference in propagation delay between the first and second signals. The mobile terminal may be further configured to determine a second time advance value by correlating the first time advance value with the difference in propagation delay.
US09572122B2
A method for a communication apparatus to align a frame boundary with a cell. A first time at which a predetermined synchronization signal is supposed to be received is determined after knowing a timing of the cell. The predetermined synchronization signal is a primary synchronization signal or a secondary synchronization signal. A second time at which the predetermined synchronization signal is actually received is determined. A first offset between the first time and the second time is determined. A timing of a local time base utilized by the communication apparatus according to the first offset is adjusted such that a frame boundary of the local time base and a frame boundary of the cell are aligned.
US09572115B2
A method and device for determining whether to send a measurement report to a serving cell and determining when an inter-cell coordination procedure is likely to achieve coordination gain are disclosed. According to one aspect, a method includes performing received signal quality measurements of the serving cell and a plurality of neighboring cells. The method also includes calculating a UE metric based on the received signal quality measurements of a plurality of interfering cells and based on a scaling parameter. The method further includes comparing the calculated UE metric to a threshold to determine whether to send the measurement report to the serving cell.
US09572113B2
A method for transmitting to a direct mobile communications (DMC) device by a user equipment operating in both a cellular mode and a DMC mode includes estimating a first pathloss of a first channel from the user equipment to a base station according to a difference between a known base station transmit power level and a received base station power level, and estimating a second pathloss of a second channel from the user equipment to the DMC device according to a difference between a known DMC device transmit power level and a received DMC device power level. The method also includes setting a transmit power level for transmission to the DMC device according to the first pathloss and the second pathloss, and transmitting a signal to the DMC device at the transmit power level.
US09572108B2
Methods, systems, and devices for enabling wireless communication devices in a cellular wireless network to utilize small cells having coverage within a macro cell are disclosed herein. User equipment (UE) can detect the need for using a booster providing a small cell, detect availability of small cells and submit a request to infrastructure of the cellular wireless network to aid in connection with the booster that provides the small cell. The request can be enhanced with small cell location queries, small cell activation requests and/or assistance data to enable meaningful small cell selection.
US09572103B2
Embodiments included herein are directed towards a system and method for addressing discontinuous transmission (DTX) in a network device. Embodiments may include receiving, at a computing device, an audio signal and generating at least one silence descriptor (SID) frame associated with the audio signal. Embodiments may also include generating at least one no data frame associated with the audio signal. Embodiments may also include initiating a speech decoder, voice enhancement, and speech encoder operation for the at least one SID frame during a DTX operation and bypassing the speech decoder, voice enhancement, and speech encoder functions for the at least one no data frame.
US09572101B2
Optimization of mobile telecommunications service during a power outage at one or more base stations, wherein optimization includes identifying one or more of a plurality of base stations to which non-emergency electrical power has been interrupted; determining an initial number of users in areas corresponding to the one or more of the plurality of base stations; generating a user location probability model and a user call probability model; scheduling initial battery power operation for the plurality of base stations; monitoring user calls and user movement after the battery power operation has started; updating the user location probability model and the user call probability model based on the monitoring; and updating battery power operation scheduling for the plurality of base stations.
US09572100B2
An electronic device, including processing circuitry, configured to configure a plurality of secondary cells for carrier aggregation and activate/deactivate at least one of the plurality of secondary cells based on a combination of an implicit manner and an explicit manner. The processing circuitry is further configured to activate the at least one of the plurality of secondary cells in an uplink in the explicit manner according to a certain inter-band carrier aggregation scenario in which component carriers are received by separate radio frequency chains.
US09572099B2
The embodiments herein relates to a method in a first network node for handling operation mode of a base station in a communications network. The communications network comprises a transport network. The first network node activates a Remote Unit-Main Unit, RU-MU, operation mode in the base station when data traffic load in the transport network is below a first threshold. The first network node activates a regular operation mode in the base station when the data traffic load in the transport network is above a second threshold.
US09572072B2
In a communication system (100) where a wireless relay node (RN) (114) relays data packets between a Node B (112) and a user equipment (UE) (102), the RN receives (608) a data packet from the Node B via a first wireless link (115), conveys (614) the received data packet to the UE via a second wireless link (120), determines (616) whether the UE is likely to handoff, and in response to determining that the UE is likely to handoff, delays conveying (620, 622) an acknowledgment of the data packet to the Node B until an acknowledgment has been received from the UE. In another embodiment, the RN may use a status report (720) to inform the Node B of data packets that have not been transmitted to the UE or that have been transmitted to the UE but for which an acknowledgement has not been received from the UE.
US09572062B2
Methods and apparatus for managing radio measurements during discontinuous reception. In one exemplary embodiment, the distribution of Long Term Evolution (LTE) DRX measurements is staggered or distributed across multiple DRX cycles (which may be contiguous or non-contiguous) so as to reduce the transceiver activity and power consumption. The exemplary UE in one implementation only performs a subset of measurements during each DRX cycle. By staggering or distributing cell measurements over multiple DRX cycles, the UE can improve power consumption, while still conforming to measurement requirements.
US09572059B2
A method for handling a missed rank report during a tune-away period is provided. The method can include a wireless communication device tuning away from a first network to a second network for a tune-away period; returning to the first network from the tune-away period; determining that a scheduled rank report was missed during the tune-away period; generating a Channel State Indicator (CSI) report based on a previously defined Rank Indicator (RI) value known to the first network in response to missing the scheduled rank report; and sending the CSI report to the first network.
US09572058B2
The instant application describes a method for identifying, at a mobile device, a first signal delay path to a first tower; identifying, at the mobile device, a second signal delay path to a second tower; determining, at the mobile device, a difference between the first signal delay path and the second signal delay path; determining, at the mobile device, whether the difference between the first signal delay path and the second signal delay path exceeds a threshold; and upon determining the difference between the first signal delay path and the second signal delay path exceeds the threshold, transmit from the mobile device two streams of a same signal to a receiver at a network. The first stream of the two streams of the same signal is transmitted at a first time, and the second stream of the two streams of the same signal is transmitted at a second time.
US09572055B2
Identifying interference in a cellular network may include creating an interference neighbor list for a target base station that includes a plurality of neighboring base stations, determining a plurality of quiet resource blocks common to the plurality of neighboring base stations and the target base station, and analyzing signals received at the target base station during the plurality of quiet resource blocks. Whether to modify uplink transmission schedules, and the extent of modification, may be determined based on traffic levels.
US09572049B2
Performance issues of wireless equipment (WE) or a wireless network are diagnosed through an alternative communication channel enabled by an alternative wireless network available to the WE. A service platform (SP) probes performance condition of the WE through a mobility control node (MCN) and, in response to a fault condition, collects data related to operation of the WE. Based at least on part of the data, the SP diagnoses the fault condition and related performance issue(s). To probe performance, the SP requests the MCN to collect data related to performance metric(s) of the WE. The alternative communication channel is established, and such data is collected therefrom, in response to low-grade connectivity amongst the MCN and the WE. The SP notifies the WE of at least the fault condition through the MCN or, in case of network fault condition, via the alternative communication channel.
US09572043B2
A first microwave backhaul transceiver may comprise a plurality of antenna elements. The transceiver may determine atmospheric conditions between it and one or more potential link partners, and adjust a radiation pattern of the plurality of antenna elements based on the determined atmospheric conditions. A first radiation pattern of the plurality of antenna elements may correspond to a first microwave backhaul link between the first microwave transceiver and a second microwave backhaul transceiver. A second radiation pattern of the plurality of antenna elements may correspond to a second microwave backhaul link between the first microwave transceiver and a third microwave backhaul transceiver. The transceiver may adjust the radiation pattern based on characteristics of data to be transmitted, and based on a routing table it maintains.
US09572038B2
A method comprising: at a first transceiver, transmitting a plurality of signals to a second transceiver and receiving corresponding receive signals from the second transceiver, wherein each transmitted signal is sent using a channel perturbation; measuring a plurality of phase values, wherein each phase value is a phase difference between one of the plurality of transmitted signals and corresponding receive signal; masking a subsequent phase modulated signal employing phase rotation at the first transceiver using the plurality of phase values.
US09572036B2
A method is disclosed for blocking a cloned mobile device by a processor of a network. The processor receives a first registration from a first mobile device at a first location. The first registration includes a device identifier and a phone number. The processor then confirms that a second registration from a second mobile device at a second location includes the device identifier and the phone number and calculates a first fraud score for the first mobile device and a second fraud score for the second mobile device. The processor then determines that the second mobile device is the cloned mobile device, when the second fraud score exceeds the first score, and blocks the cloned mobile device from registering on the network.
US09572032B2
Provided are a method and system for a terminal accessing to a wireless local area network, and a terminal thereof, wherein the method includes: a terminal which does not know a wireless local area network access key sending a key acquisition request to a shared server in the wireless local area network, wherein the request carries a terminal location and a service set identifier (SSID); the shared server in the wireless local area network selecting an access key based on a correspondence relationship between the terminal location, the SSID and the access key, and sending the selected access key to the terminal; the terminal accessing to the wireless local area network according to the access key. The embodiment of the present document enables the terminal efficiently and conveniently access to a wireless local area network.
US09572028B2
A method, and a mobile device adapted thereto, verifies a user and executes applications via handwriting recognition. The method of controlling a mobile device includes entering a lock state, detecting a user's input, verifying a user based on the input and searching for an instruction corresponding to the input, and performing at least one of maintaining or releasing the lock state and which performs an operation corresponding to the instruction, based on user verification result and the instruction search result.
US09572027B2
A method for negotiating security capabilities during movement of a User Equipment (UE) includes the following steps: a target network entity receives a Routing Area Update (RAU) Request from the UE; the entity obtains Authentication Vector (AV)-related keys deduced according to a root key, and sends the selected security algorithm to the UE; and the UE deduces the AV-related keys according to the root key of the UE. A system, SGSN, and MME for negotiating security capabilities during movement of a UE are also disclosed. The present invention is applicable to security capability negotiation between the UE and the network.
US09572023B2
The present invention is related to a method and system for service provision to mobile communication subscribers with the use of so-called virtual SIM cards and is also related to respective machine-readable media. A technical result of the invention is expansion of an arsenal of technical communication options and better security of operations with virtual SIM cards.
US09572021B2
Embodiments contemplate techniques and devices for allocating IP addresses for MTC devices, transmitting and receiving SMS using the allocated IP addresses. The MTC device may be allocated with an IP address without activating a packet data protocol (PDP) context. In addition, after the IP address has been allocated, SMS messages may be transmitted from and to MTC devices using the IP address.
US09572009B2
A network-centric device discovery solution that leverages area event location services. A proximity server (PS) performing device discovery for a discoverer mobile initiates an area event, via a location server, for each device subscribed to the same proximity service group as the discoverer mobile and camped on the same zone as the discoverer mobile. The area event notifies the PS each time such device moves into an area of an E-CGI and/or WiFI access point where the discoverer mobile attaches. If the PS receives an area event notification for the device camped on the same zone as the discoverer mobile, the PS requests location information for the device and uses returned location information to determine if the device is within a predefined proximity of the discoverer mobile. If the device is within a predefined proximity of the discoverer mobile, the PS sends a proximity alert message to the discoverer mobile.
US09572007B2
Some demonstrative embodiments include apparatuses, systems and/or methods of discovering a wireless communication device. For example, a first wireless device may include a radio to communicate over a wireless communication medium according to a discovery scheme including a plurality of contention-based discovery windows (DWs), the radio to communicate with a second wireless device a discovery frame during a first discovery process, the discovery frame including an indication of one or more selected DWs of the plurality of DWs; and a controller to switch the first wireless device between a power save state and an active state, the controller to switch the first wireless device to operate in the active state in the one or more selected discovery windows to discover the second wireless device during a second discovery process, subsequent to the first discovery process.
US09572006B2
The present invention relates to the deployment of a plurality of wireless communication devices in order to provide a wireless mesh communications network. According to various embodiments, deployment of the communications devices is made by parachutes suitably adapted for the purpose.
US09571997B2
A communication device includes a first processing unit that sends a first command to start an activation processing. The communication device also includes a second processing unit that receives the first command from the first processing unit. In addition, the communication device includes an interface between the first processing unit and the second processing unit. The first processing unit activates the interface at a predetermined interface level from among a plurality of interface levels. The second processing unit starts an application in accordance with the activated interface level. The first processing unit and the second processing unit exchange data by the activated application. The first processing unit and the second processing unit perform a deactivation processing of the activated interface.
US09571995B1
A first device may detect that a second device is within communicative proximity for a near field communication connection with the first device, and may establish the near field communication connection with the second device. The first device may determine that the first device and the second device are provisioned with a same telephone number, determine that the first device is a destination for a call to be transferred, and request a transfer of the call.
US09571987B2
A seat management system includes a moving apparatus capable of wirelessly communicating directly with each of a plurality of terminal devices while autonomously moving, and an information management apparatus. The information management apparatus includes a first storage section storing therein a seat layout chart, a receiving section operable to receive identification information of a user of each of the terminal devices and current position of the moving apparatus, acquired and transmitted by the moving apparatus, a seat specifying section operable, based on layout positions of a plurality of seats indicated in the seat layout chart, and the received current position, to specify one of the seats on which a specific one of the terminal devices as a replier of the identification information is used, and a seat layout chart update section operable to add the identification information to the specified seat in the seat layout chart.
US09571984B2
The systems and techniques disclosed herein provide the ability to determine locations visited by a user and associate relevant location labels with the locations visited based on contact information. In some examples, a location label can be applied based on a match between a location visited and information stored in a user's contact list. In other examples, a user can efficiently designate a contact and location label to be associated with a location visited. In still other examples, if a location visited by a user is not listed in the user's contact list, but is otherwise known to the system, the location visited can be appropriately labeled and the corresponding contact in the user's contact list can be updated to include the location visited.
US09571976B1
Embodiments described herein provide improvements to the accuracy of location estimates. In one embodiment, an apparatus stores a first plurality of RF signal strength values that are mapped to known locations, and stores a second plurality of RF signal strength values that are not mapped to known locations. The apparatus estimates locations where the second plurality of RF signal strength values was measured based on the first plurality of RF signal strength values and their corresponding known locations, calculates an uncertainty for the estimated locations, and identifies an estimated location having a highest uncertainty. The apparatus directs a measurement device to measure an RF signal strength value at a known location that corresponds with the estimated location, and adds the RF signal strength value to the first plurality of RF signal strength values to reduce an uncertainty in subsequent estimates of locations within the broadcast area.
US09571968B1
Disclosed aspects include geo-fence management using a cluster analysis technique. A set of dynamic user data is received from a set of users. The set of dynamic user data may have identification information which identifies one or more users, location information which indicates location for one or more users, and context information which indicates application context for one or more users. The cluster analysis technique may be used to process the set of dynamic user data. Accordingly, a geo-fence opportunity event is detected using the cluster analysis technique. Based on a selection criterion with respect to the geo-fence opportunity event, it is determined to provide an opportunity for a subset of the set of users. In response to making the determination, the opportunity can be provided for/to the subset of the set of users (e.g., sending a notification to the subset of the set of users).
US09571963B2
Accurate position capability can be quickly provided using a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). When associated with a WLAN, a wireless device can quickly determine its relative and/or coordinate position based on information provided by an access point in the WLAN. Before a wireless device disassociates with the access point, the WLAN can periodically provide time, location, and decoded GPS data to the wireless device. In this manner, the wireless device can significantly reduce the time to acquire the necessary GPS satellite data (i.e. on the order of seconds instead of minutes) to determine its coordinate position.
US09571960B2
A personalized method for enhancing a service, a network side device and a mobile user equipment are provided. The network side device provides an enhanced service for a user equipment located at a service location preset by a user. The network side device comprises a service location determination module and an enhanced service control module. The service location determination module is configured to maintain the service location preset by the user. The enhanced service control module is configured to indicate to provide the enhanced service for the user equipment located at the service location preset by the user. The mobile user equipment comprises an enhanced service indication module. The enhanced service indication module is configured to send a user indication to the network side device to enable the network side device to provide the enhanced service for the user equipment located at the service location preset by the user.
US09571955B1
A system and method to detect the presence of a portable communication device in a vehicle. In one exemplary embodiment, the method includes detecting, with an electronic processor of the portable communication device, that the portable communication device is receiving wireless power from a wireless charger located in the vehicle. The method further includes establishing a short-range wireless connection between the portable communication device and a vehicle control head. The method further includes sending a message from the portable communication device to the vehicle control head to transfer control of the portable communication device to the vehicle control head.
US09571949B2
An apparatus for determining cochlear dead region comprising a sound generation unit, an output transducer, and a control unit. The control unit causes the sound generation unit to provide a first electrical sound signal representing a first frequency band adjacent to a frequency region of interest, with a first bandwidth, a first sound pressure level and a first subsequent electrical sound signal representing a first subsequent frequency band comprising the frequency region of interest with a first subsequent bandwidth, a first subsequent sound pressure level, and a first subsequent time delay to the first electrical sound signal. In response, the output transducer generates a first output sound and a first subsequent output sound with the first subsequent time delay. A user compares the first output and first subsequent output sounds and decides, whether he hears a difference between the two sounds and gives a positive or negative decision input.
US09571946B2
A hearing device includes: a housing with a frame; a battery door attached to the housing and configured to pivot in relation to the housing about a pivot axis, the battery door having a side wall with a first wall surface at least partly defining a battery compartment with a battery axis, the first wall surface comprising contact points for supporting a battery, the contact points having equal distances to the battery axis, wherein a first vector extends from the battery axis and perpendicularly crosses the pivot axis in a first direction to the pivot axis; and a closure mechanism comprising a protruding member with a distal end, and an engagement member having a first arm with a first distal end, wherein the protruding member is configured to engage with the engagement member when the battery door is in a closed position.
US09571943B2
The present invention proposes a hearing device with a housing and a receiver module which comprises a shell (16) with a cavity having an opening (17), wherein at least part of the shell (16) forms part of the housing, and wherein an electro-acoustic transducer, comprising a motor assembly (2) and an acoustic assembly (3) including a membrane, is arranged within the cavity, the acoustic assembly (3) being disposed within the shell (16) such that the cavity is divided into a front chamber (12) and a back chamber (13), the motor assembly (2) being disposed within the back chamber (13) or the front chamber (12) and being operatively coupled to the membrane, and the front chamber (12) being in acoustic communication with the exterior of the shell (16) via the opening (17), wherein the shell (16) has an outer surface individually shaped according to a measured inner shape of a section of an ear canal of a user of the hearing device. Furthermore, a method for manufacturing such a receiver module is presented.
US09571939B2
A hearing aid includes a relatively rigid shell which holds hearing aid electronics and one or more flexible, shape-retaining filaments attached to the hearing aid shell. The filament(s) extend(s) out a proximal side of the hearing aid shell having a shape which interacts with the user's ear anatomy such as the conchae bowl. The shape determines an insertion depth of the hearing aid shell into the user's ear canal, and a spring action biases the hearing aid toward the desired insertion depth. The hearing aid supported by the filament(s) provides an open, unoccluding position in the ear canal.
US09571928B2
A wireless sound equipment including a band having elasticity, a housing provided at both ends of the band, the housing having a receiver holder formed in one end, a receiver coupled/decoupled to/from the receiver holder, a printed circuit board provided in the housing, a rotary member provided in the housing and an audio cable having one end connected to the rotary member and the other end connected to the receiver is provided. The rotary member includes an audio substrate connected to the printed circuit board and having a circular connecting terminal and an audio brush connected to the one end of the audio cable to transmit a signal transmitted from the printed circuit board to the audio cable while moving over the circular connecting terminal of the printed circuit board.
US09571923B2
A high frequency waveguide and methods relating to the design and use of the waveguide are described. The waveguide can include an acoustic input to receive an audio input signal from a high frequency driver, an acoustic output to broadcast sound, and a plurality of acoustic paths extending from the input to the output. A first path of acoustic paths is divided into two paths when a width of the first path is greater than ½ wavelength of a highest frequency at the input. In an example, each of the plurality of acoustic paths carries across all frequencies from the high frequency driver. In an example, the paths each have a first port receiving audio and a second port outputting audio, and the paths enlarge from the first port to the second port.
US09571921B2
A receiver apparatus includes a first receiver portion and an acoustic filter network. The first receiver portion has a housing and is configured to convert at least one electrical signal into first sound energy having a first frequency range. The acoustic filter network communicates with the first receiver portion and is configured to receive the first sound energy. The acoustic filter network includes at least one sound channel and at least one chamber that communicates with the at least one sound channel. The least one sound channel includes a main branch and a first side branch and the at least one chamber comprises a first chamber. The first side branch communicates with the main branch and the first chamber, and the main branch is configured to receive the first sound energy.
US09571914B1
Headphones are provided that can be formed into one or more loops of sufficient size to be worn as an accessory when the headphones are not in use. The one or loops can be formed by a magnetic closure. The headphones can be worn as a necklace, a bracelet, or around the waist. The cord of the headphones can be accessorized with one or more additional components including a chain, a thread, multiple threads, a wire, a string of beads, or a string of charms.
US09571913B2
An embodiment of the invention provides a resiliently deformable and flexible in-ear sound device having stretchable electronic circuitry. The in-ear sound device may be configured in a variety of ways, including, but in no way limited to a smart earplug, a flexible personal sound amplification product, a personal music player, a “walkie-talkie” and the like.
US09571912B2
A removable component for use with an earphone is disclosed. As an example, the removable component can be an ear tip. According to one aspect, an improved ear tip can be provided for use with a headphone. The ear tip is suitable for in-ear operation and can have a cosmetic deformable outer member. The deformable outer member can enable the ear tip to readily conform to a user's ear. The ear tip can also include an inner member to structurally support the outer member and to facilitate attachment to a headphone. Methods for forming such ear tips are also disclosed.
US09571910B2
An electronic device includes a speaker, and a cover covering the speaker. The cover includes a transparent main portion, and a non-transparent border portion. The non-transparent border portion includes a substrate integrated with the transparent main portion. The substrate of the border portion defines a plurality of through holes corresponding to the speaker to transmit sound output from the speaker.
US09571884B2
The subject disclosure describes among other things receiving user input that includes a device configuration for a device in a home automation system, where the device configuration specifies a triggering event and a response to the triggering event. The subject disclosure also describes transmitting the device configuration to the device, receiving data from the device, where the data indicates that the triggering event has been detected by the device, presenting an alert indicating that the triggering event has been detected by device, where the alert includes selectable options for responding to the alert, identifying the device detecting the triggering event, and altering an operation of the device. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09571881B1
Systems and methods for providing a video electronic programming guide (“video EPG”) may include outputting a primary program for display on a display screen, receiving a command to activate the video EPG, and in response to receiving the command, outputting a plurality of widgets for display on a display screen. Each of the plurality of widgets may represent a category of broadcast programs. Systems and methods may include receiving a widget selection for one of the plurality of widgets and outputting a video menu corresponding to the selected widget for display on the display screen. The video menu includes a plurality of video scenes, whereby each of the plurality of video scenes represents a broadcast program categorized in the selected widget. Systems and methods may include receiving a program selection for one of the plurality of video scenes.
US09571876B2
An exemplary method includes virtual set-top box (“STB”) device system receiving a registration request to register a mobile computing device to operate as a virtual STB device, verifying that the mobile computing device is within a predefined vicinity of a dedicated STB device that is located at a user premises, providing, to the mobile computing device, a virtual STB key for use by the mobile computing device to operate as the virtual STB device by leveraging access rights of an end-user account of a media content distribution service to access the media content distributed by way of the media content distribution service, and facilitating sharing of the virtual STB key with a media content processing device for use by the media content processing device to access the media content distributed by way of the media content distribution service. Corresponding systems and methods are also described.
US09571872B2
Systems, devices and methods are described to process timed text that is associated with television or other video programming. Pre-set data that describes the particular format of the timed text that is associated with a program is initially received and stored at the television receiver prior to receiving the program with encoded timed text. The timed text that is associated with the received program is interpreted according to the pre-set data previously stored at the television receiver, and the program with the interpreted timed text is output to a display for presentation to the viewer.
US09571866B2
The present disclosure relates to a system for multiplexing (i.e. combining multiple signals into one signal) both a plurality of video content (live and deferred time) and multiple video access mediums (such as cable television, satellite, internet video (clips, programming and movies), video games, DVD players, etc.) in a viewer friendly manner to enhance entertainment and other entertainment possibilities. The output of a selected video content is seen in a container known as a video container. Multiple video containers can be resized and positioned on a large screen television or other display device under viewer control. Control of video containers' video content or other content viewed, audio, and a host of other properties are done via web page controls or preferably connected mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets or other devices.
US09571861B2
A decoder for decoding a picture is described, having: an extractor adapted to extract a first subset of syntax elements from a received data stream and a second subset of syntax elements being disjoint from the first subset of syntax elements, wherein the second subset of syntax elements has filter indication information defining a first filter for a first region of at least two different regions of the picture and a second filter for a second region of the at least two different regions of the picture; a pre-decoder adapted to pre-decode the picture based on the first subset of syntax elements to produce a reconstructed version of the picture; and a filter stage adapted to apply the first filter to the first region of the reconstructed picture to obtain a first filtered version of the reconstructed version of the picture and to apply the second filter to the second region of the first filtered version of the reconstructed version of the picture to obtain a second filtered version of the reconstructed version of the picture.
US09571859B2
The embodiments of the present invention provide an intraframe encoding method, device and encoder for depth images. The method is applied to 3D video encoding or multi-view video encoding. The method includes: in an intraframe encoding mode for depth images, generating a non-all-zero residual and an all-zero residual when a prediction unit is encoded; and performing a rate-distortion optimization selection between the non-all-zero residual and the all-zero residual, as a residual encoding scheme of the prediction unit. The device is applied to 3D video encoding or multi-view video encoding. The device includes: a residual generation unit configured to generate, in an intraframe encoding mode for depth images, a non-all-zero residual and an all-zero residual when a prediction unit is encoded; and a rate-distortion optimization selection unit configured to perform a rate-distortion optimization selection between the non-all-zero residual and the all-zero residual, as a residual encoding scheme of the prediction unit.
US09571858B2
There is disclosed a method, device and computer-readable storage medium for decoding video data. The method includes: obtaining a reference sample array of a video block; obtaining a sum of the reference sample array; calculating a threshold by performing arithmetic right shift to the sum, a shift value of the arithmetic right shift being determined according to size information of the video block; and determining the binary partition pattern by comparing the reference sample array with the threshold.
US09571856B2
Techniques and tools for conversion operations between modules in a scalable video encoding tool or scalable video decoding tool are described. For example, given reconstructed base layer video in a low resolution format (e.g., 4:2:0 video with 8 bits per sample) an encoding tool and decoding tool adaptively filter the reconstructed base layer video and upsample its sample values to a higher sample depth (e.g., 10 bits per sample). The tools also adaptively scale chroma samples to a higher chroma sampling rate (e.g., 4:2:2). The adaptive filtering and chroma scaling help reduce energy in inter-layer residual video by making the reconstructed base layer video closer to input video, which typically makes compression of the inter-layer residual video more efficient. The encoding tool also remaps sample values of the inter-layer residual video to adjust dynamic range before encoding, and the decoding tool performs inverse remapping after decoding.
US09571846B2
Block processing pipeline methods and apparatus in which reference data are stored to a memory according to tile formats to reduce memory accesses when fetching the data from the memory. When the pipeline stores reference data from a current frame being processed to memory as a reference frame, the reference samples are stored in macroblock sequential order. Each macroblock sample set is stored as a tile. Reference data may be stored in tile formats for luma and chroma. Chroma reference data may be stored in tile formats for chroma 4:2:0, 4:2:2, and/or 4:4:4 formats. A stage of the pipeline may write luma and chroma reference data for macroblocks to memory according to one or more of the macroblock tile formats in a modified knight's order. The stage may delay writing the reference data from the macroblocks until the macroblocks have been fully processed by the pipeline.
US09571839B2
The present invention is related to a system and method that provides 100% numerically lossless reconstruction of the image as compared from its uncompressed source. The method of the present invention is configured to compress the raw Red-Green-Blue (RGB) data from a digital image stored on a device and the method further comprises the steps of compressing the pixel (Pc) only if the RGB component of the pixel (Pc) to be compressed is predictable using the RGB component of the neighboring pixels (PN) by using the methods (m01-m16) else the pixel (Pc) is retained.
US09571837B2
A method for color blending prevention in video coding may include selecting, in a mode decision phase of an encoding of a current video frame, to encode an output bitstream in skip mode, wherein the skip mode includes altering encoding of the coding unit by setting luma component transform coefficients for the coding unit to zero, revaluating the selection of the skip mode based on quantized chroma coefficients, the quantized chroma coefficients generated from transformed and quantized residual chroma components, confirming the selection of the skip mode when there are no non-zero quantized chroma coefficients, and revoking the selection of the skip mode when there are non-zero quantized chroma coefficients, wherein the non-zero quantized chroma coefficients are transmitted when the selection of the skip mode is revoked.
US09571836B2
An encoding method includes: encoding transform coefficients of a transform coefficient block according to a predetermined scan order, and encoding a set number of transform coefficients in each group until a last group of the transform coefficient block is encoded; storing an obtained map of non-zero transform coefficients, absolute values of transform coefficients, and positive and negative signs of non-zero transform coefficients; when the last group is being encoded, encoding the stored map of non-zero transform coefficients and the map of non-zero transform coefficients encoded in the last group into a bit stream; and encoding the stored absolute values of transform coefficients and positive and negative signs of non-zero transform coefficients and the absolute values of transform coefficients and positive and negative signs of non-zero transform coefficients encoded in the last group into the bit stream.
US09571831B2
The image predictive encoding device 10 comprises an intra frame predictive signal generation method determination section 15 which determines, for adjacent areas comprising regenerated pixel signals and adjacent to the target area, a predictive method which is derived on the basis of data corresponding to the adjacent areas as an R mode predictive method or an L mode predictive method, an intra frame predictive signal generation section 16 which generates an intra frame predictive signal on the basis of the R mode predictive method thus determined, and a subtractor 18, a transform section 19, a quantization section 20, and an entropy encoding section 25 which encode a residual signal of a pixel signal of the target area on the basis of the generated intra frame predictive signal.
US09571825B2
Notification is given of the fact that a television camera lens has developed a malfunction. An extender lens includes an imaging lens having a 1× magnification and an imaging lens having a 2× magnification. For each of these imaging lenses, a master lens is adjusted in such a manner that the light-receiving surface of an image sensor will be brought to an in-focus position. The master lens adjustment processing is executed periodically and data indicating a history of amounts of adjustment of the master lens is stored in memory per imaging lens. Data indicating the history of amounts of adjustment of the master lens is read from the memory. Whether the television camera lens is malfunctioning is detected from the read data indicating the history. If a malfunction is detected, an error LED emits light to notify of the malfunction.
US09571817B2
A photometric processing part calculates a normal vector of a surface of a workpiece from a plurality of luminance images acquired by a camera in accordance with the photometric stereo method, and performs synthesis processing of synthesizing at least two images out of an inclination image made up of pixel values based on the normal vector calculated from the plurality of luminance images and at least one reduced image of the inclination image, to generate an inspection image showing a surface shape of the inspection target. In particular, a characteristic size setting part sets a characteristic size which is a parameter for giving weight to a component of a reduced image at the time of performing the synthesis processing. The photometric processing part can generate a different inspection image in accordance with the set characteristic size.
US09571810B2
A method for generating a target perspective model referenced for depth map generation includes at least following steps: receiving a first input image; utilizing a region-based analysis unit for analyzing a plurality of regions in the first input image to extract image characteristics of the regions; and determining the target perspective model according to at least the image characteristics. Another method for generating a target perspective model referenced for depth map generation includes: receiving a first input image; determining a first perspective model in response to the first input image; and utilizing a perspective model generation unit for generating the target perspective model by a weighted sum of the first perspective model and at least one second perspective model.
US09571801B2
The present invention provides a device for creating a photographing plan by extracting a changed point from target points to preferentially photograph the extracted point. The photographing plan creation device includes: a photographed data reception part for receiving a first photographed data photographed by a flying object; a change determination part for comparing the first photographed data to a second photographed data which is the past photographed data stored in an image data storage part; a priority setting part for setting the shooting priority based on the comparison result; a photographing possibility determination part for determining whether photography is possible at the observation time; a photographing plan creation part for creating a photographing plan based on the shooting priority and the photographing possibility determination; and a shooting command transmission part for converting the photographing plan to a command and transmitting the command to the flaying object.
US09571797B2
Network equipment which is connected to other network equipment through a network is disclosed. The equipment includes: a detection unit processing picture data and detecting a moving object and a non-moving object; a metadata generation unit generating metadata including information indicating detection statuses of the detection unit and information concerning the moving object and the non-moving object detected in the detection unit; and a data transmission unit transmitting the picture data and the metadata generated in the metadata generation unit to the other network equipment.
US09571791B1
A method and system for importing information in a computing system. An information content is displayed on one or more respective screens in corresponding locations. An import request, for importing a digital representation of a physical object placed on a current screen in a current location, is received. A first digital image at least partially representing the current screen is acquired by one or more digital cameras. An object digital image representing an object area of the current screen being covered by the physical object is obtained. The object area is identified from comparison between the first digital image and a displayed digital image. A digital document representing the physical object is generated from the object digital image. The digital document is added to the information content for displaying the digital document at a position on each screen corresponding to a position of the physical object on the current screen.
US09571789B2
A telepresence device may relay video, audio, and/or measurement data to a user operating a control device. A user interface may permit the user to quickly view and/or understand temporally and/or spatially disparate information. The telepresence device may pre-gather looped video of spatially disparate areas in an environment. A temporal control mechanism may start video playback at a desired point in a current or historical video segment. Notations may be associated with time spans in a video and recalled by capturing an image similar to a frame in the time span of the video. An area of interest may be selected and video containing the area of interest may be automatically found. Situational data may be recorded and used to recall video segments of interest. The telepresence device may synchronize video playback and movement. A series of videos may be recorded at predetermined time intervals to capture visually trending information.
US09571782B2
A cable provider could offer a promotional feature, such as live pause of video, above and beyond a tier of service to which the customer subscribes, limiting the feature to being activated only upon occurrence of one or more events. In a network video delivery context, a set-top box plays live video, including an ability to pause live video upon the occurrence of an event. The system can detect an event, including an event unrelated to video, and prompt a user to pause. The system can include configuration settings enabling, for example, detection of various events, prompting the user to pause live video, and/or automatically pausing the live video. The system enables the user to play a time-shifted video corresponding to resuming the paused video playback. The system can include a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) local to the user, to facilitate the time-shifted video. The system is also compatible with a RS-DVR, where DVR functionality and time-shifted video is provided remotely from a head-end of a network video system. Additionally, the system is compatible with non-DVR network video delivery systems configured to provide live pause.
US09571778B2
Methods and apparatuses for building and reconfiguring audiovisual equipment in a video production system. A wiring cradle may be installed in the video production system and one or more electrical or optical connections may be established between the wiring cradle and another element of the video production system. Electrical connections may be established through the wiring cradle between a video processing component mounted in the wiring cradle and at least one other component of the video production system according to an interconnection configuration for the video production system. The wiring cradle physically secures the wiring cradle to a rack or enclosure. Electrical connection may be established by automatically connecting inputs or outputs based on an interconnection configuration maintained in non-volatile storage provided in the wiring cradle.
US09571773B2
Provided is a drive apparatus including an address decoder circuit provided in each pixel row of a pixel array inside a solid state image sensor, the address decoder circuit being configured to generate at least a control signal to cause, based on a V address signal to identify the pixel row in the pixel array, pixels of the pixel row corresponding to the V address signal to perform a read operation that reads accumulated charges from the relevant pixels or an electronic shutter operation that sweeps away the accumulated charges from the relevant pixels. The V address signals of at least two mutually different systems are supplied to the address decoder circuit, and at least the two mutually different address decoder circuits generate the control signal for at least the two mutually different pixel rows within one horizontal scanning period.
US09571772B2
A solid-state imaging device includes a pixel and a floating diffusion. The pixel includes a photoelectric conversion element that converts incident light into and electric charge, a first transfer gate that includes a plurality of electrodes and transfers the electric charge from the photoelectric conversion element, a charge holding region that holds the electric charge transferred from the photoelectric conversion element by the first transfer gate, each of the plurality of electrodes of the first transfer gate corresponding to a sub-region of the charge holding region, and a second transfer gate that transfers the electric charge from the charge holding region. The floating diffusion region holds the electric charge transferred from the charge holding region by the second transfer gate.
US09571764B2
An image sensor includes a pixel array. The image sensor may include a photoelectric conversion device generating electric charges according to photoelectric conversion in each of a plurality of pixels, a shutter of each of the plurality of pixels controlling movements of the generated electric charges according to a drive signal, a driving line connecting the shutters of all of the plurality of pixels of the pixel array, through which the drive signal is transmitted, and a plurality of driving buffers applying the drive signal to the driving line.
US09571757B2
A camera system includes memory, a lens assembly arranged to direct light from a scene onto an image sensing element, an image sensing element configured to receive light from the scene via the lens assembly, at least one infrared illuminator configured to transmit infrared light, and a processor, coupled to the image sensing element and the illuminators. The processor is configured to operate the illuminators and the image sensing element in a first mode whereby infrared light transmitted by the illuminators and reflected from the scene is used to generate a two-dimensional image of the scene. The processor is also configured to operate the illuminators and the image sensing element in a second mode whereby infrared light transmitted by the illuminators and reflected from the scene is used to detect a first region, located within the scene, having a specific material.
US09571756B2
An apparatus for communicating with an external apparatus through a network includes an image capture unit configured to capture an image of a subject, a superimposing unit configured to superimpose a character upon the captured image, a reception unit configured to receive color information indicating a color relating to the superimposed character, and a setting unit configured to set an outline color of the superimposed character based on the received color information.
US09571752B2
There is provided a display control apparatus including a predicted-image generation unit configured to generate a predicted image of an imaging result based on a shutter speed, and a display control unit configured to update display of the predicted image in an update cycle corresponding to the shutter speed.
US09571750B2
An image capturing apparatus includes a detection unit that detects brightness of light from an object, an XY addressing type of image sensor, a focal plane shutter having a mechanical second curtain shutter, an electronic first curtain shutter that resets the pixels in each line, and causes accumulation of charges in the pixels to start, a period detection unit that detects periodic variation in a light amount, a prediction unit that, based on the period of the variation in the light amount, predicts variation in the light amount in a predetermined exposure time, and a control unit that controls a reset time of the electronic first curtain shutter such that charge accumulation amounts of the pixels of each line fall within a predetermined range according to the variation in the light amount.
US09571744B2
A video processing method and an apparatus using the same are disclosed. The method includes steps of performing a brightness-reducing treatment on all pixels in a displayed image; performing a brightness-enhancing treatment on all first pixels in the displayed image; performing a brightness-smoothing treatment on pixels having a brightness value being between a higher smooth-treatment brightness value and a lower smooth-treatment brightness value. The video processing method keeps the brightness value of the pixels from being out of grayscale range.
US09571741B1
A method is disclosed for improving the quality of photographs taken in low-light conditions by adjustment of shutter speed and digital gain based on a shutter prioritization value. Using a network of sensor, a digital camera processes various parameters, such as luminance of the scene and movement of the camera or of subjects within the scene, to compute a shutter prioritization value. The value is then used to select the most appropriate shutter speed and digital gain combination from a constant exposure curve. Higher prioritization values correspond to faster shutter speeds and higher digital gain. Lower prioritization values correspond to lower shutter speeds and lower digital gain. In further embodiments, the shutter prioritization value may be manually customized by a user in order to produce artistic effects.
US09571738B2
According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes a display unit, an image acquiring unit, a reduction processor, a combining unit, and a display processor. The display unit displays images. The image acquiring unit acquires a plurality of photographed images, with photography ranges thereof being gradually changed. The reduction processor reduces the photographed images acquired by the image acquiring unit. The combining unit combines the photographed images reduced by the reduction processor to generate a preview image. The display processor displays the preview image on part of the display unit that displays the photographed images acquired by the image acquiring unit.
US09571729B2
A monitoring camera includes an image pickup unit which captures an image of an object, a communication unit which receives superimposition information from a client apparatus through an IP network, a controller which determines whether the received superimposition information is larger than a first amount, an OSD generation unit which outputs part of the received superimposition information when the superimposition information is larger than the first amount and outputs the received superimposition information when the superimposition information is not larger than the first amount, and a compressing/encoding unit which superimposes the output superimposition information on the captured image.
US09571724B2
A photographing method, medium, and apparatus based on face detection in a portable camera. The portable photographing apparatus may include an image input unit that receives an image, a face detection unit that detects a face from the received image, a storage unit that stores the image detected by the face detection unit as a moving image in a first mode, and a quality evaluation unit that evaluates the quality of the image detected by the face detection unit and stores the same as a still image in a second mode upon satisfaction of predetermined conditions evaluated based on the quality evaluation of the still image.
US09571723B2
There is set forth herein a system including a camera device. In one embodiment the system is operative to perform image processing for detection of an event involving a human subject. There is set forth herein in one embodiment, a camera equipped system employed for fall detection.
US09571714B2
A method of automatically activating a camera application implemented in a mobile device in locked mode starts with the processor receiving a first signal from an accelerometer. The device's processor activates the camera application when the processor determines that the mobile device has remained in a stationary portrait or landscape position for a period of time based on the first signal. Activating the camera application includes signaling by the processor to the display device to display a camera screen from a locked screen. The processor may also receive a second signal from a proximity sensor that detects presence of a nearby object to the mobile device. When the processor determines that there is presence of the nearby object to the mobile device based on the second signal, the mobile device remains in locked mode and the processor does not activate the camera application.
US09571704B2
According to an embodiment a signal multiplexing apparatus includes a clock selector, a data selector, and a converter. The clock selector selects either a first clock signal synchronized with a first data signal or a second clock signal different from the first clock signal to obtain a third clock signal. The data selector selects a subset of a first signal set at each timing controlled by the third clock signal to generate a first parallel signal. The first signal set includes the first data signal and a second data signal whose speed is lower than a speed of the first data signal. The converter converts the first parallel signal into a serial signal in accordance with the third clock signal.
US09571702B2
A particular method includes receiving a video stream to be displayed on a display device. The method also includes, during a first time period, sending a low resolution version of the video stream to the display device while recovering a full resolution version of the video stream. The method further includes synchronizing the low resolution version of the video stream with the full resolution version of the video stream. The method also includes, during a second time period after the first time period, switching from sending the low resolution version of the video stream to the display device to sending the full resolution version of the video stream to the display device.
US09571695B2
Disclosed are an image processing device, a printing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program capable of making processing common among printing modes to simplify an entire image processing flow in image processing based on a plurality of printing modes with different definition. An image processing unit 14 includes an image size adjustment unit 20 which adjusts the size of an input image, and a halftone processing unit 24 which performs halftone processing on the input image size-adjusted by the image size adjustment unit 20 to generate a halftone image. The image size adjustment unit 20 adjusts the input image to the same size in two or more printing modes among a plurality of printing modes with different definition, and the input image of the same size is subjected to halftone processing in the halftone processing unit 24.
US09571692B2
An image communication apparatus enables a sender to easily measure timing of pressing down a FAX transmission start button even in the case of manual transmission. When destination information about another image communication apparatus inputted by a user is transmitted to the image communication apparatus via a connected handset, a session for media type “audio” is established between the two to start an in-band transmission by a second communication unit. When receiving the audio signal from another image communication apparatus after establishment of the session, sound generated from the received audio signal is controlled to be output to the handset to urge the user to start FAX transmission, but when receiving an INVITE message with a media type “image” or “application” from another image communication apparatus instead of receiving the audio signal, after the establishment of the session, a notification urging the user to start FAX transmission is made.
US09571690B2
An image scanner, which is incorporated in an image forming apparatus, includes a stationary-document reading section, a moving-document reading section disposed at an angle to the stationary-document reading section, a reader movable between the stationary-document reading section and the moving-document reading section, and a reading element movable to different angles while contacting the stationary-document reading section and the moving-document reading section to selectively read a document placed on the stationary-document reading section and a document moving over the moving-document reading section. The image scanner further includes any one of position detector, a combination of a moving device and at least one position sensor, and a combination of at least one pressing member, a framework, and an angle changer.
US09571686B2
An electronic device includes a first mode, a second mode, a mode transition accepting unit, a state confirmation unit, and a transition determination unit. The mode transition accepting unit is configured to accept from a plurality of demanding sources a transition demand to transition from the first mode to the second mode. The state confirmation unit is configured to confirm a device state of the electronic device. The transition determination unit is configured to determine whether or not a transition from the first mode to the second mode is possible based on a demanding source of the transition demand accepted by the mode transition accepting unit, and the device state confirmed by the state confirmation unit. When the device state is a predetermined device state, the transition determination unit makes a determination that the transition is possible for some of the plurality of demanding sources that issued the transition demand and not possible for others of the plurality of demanding sources that issued the transition demand.
US09571682B2
An image forming apparatus according to one aspect of the disclosure includes a printing mechanism, a drawing data creating circuit, a medium supply circuit, and a charging circuit. The medium supply circuit performs: a primary supply supplying the printing medium to a specific position; and a secondary supply supplying the printing medium from the specific position to the printing mechanism. When the band-used color fixed as color by the drawing data creating circuit exists, the medium supply circuit starts the primary supply prior to completion of creating all the bands of the drawing data by the drawing data creating circuit. When the band-used color fixed as color by the drawing data creating circuit exists, the charging circuit performs the charging process in a case where the color for use is color, in starting the primary supply.
US09571677B2
An image processing apparatus includes a printing unit, a storage unit, and a processing unit. The storage unit stores communication addresses of image processing apparatuses in a group to which the apparatus belongs. In response to a request for registration in the group from a different image processing apparatus, the processing unit causes the storage unit to store a communication address of the different image processing apparatus, and transmits a registration commission for registering the communication address of the different image processing apparatus in the group to the image processing apparatuses in the group using the communication addresses stored in the storage unit.
US09571676B2
An image forming apparatus stores image data generated from a document scanned by a scanner on a removable medium. When storage on the removable medium is not completed, part of the image data that has been stored by that time is deleted from the removable medium.
US09571672B2
A method and apparatus is provided for acquiring document data from additional input sources to a DSM system. In an embodiment, a DSM computing device includes a remote image receiver service configured to connect to a remote image source via a network connection, receive configuration information and image data from the remote image source, and determine post scan processing instructions based, at least in part, on the configuration information. In another embodiment, a DSM computing device includes an input selection service configured to identify one or more input sources available at the computing device, receive input source information identifying a particular input source of the one or more input sources, receive image information identifying the particular image data residing on the particular input source, retrieve the particular image data from the particular input source, and make the particular image data available to a distributed scan management service.
US09571664B2
A system and method are provided for reliable activation and attachment of mobile devices. An activation server receives, from a client device, a subscription request for accessing a network, wherein the subscription request includes a first identifier of the client device. The activation server determines, based on the first identifier, whether a pending subscription account exists or a new subscription account is to be created. Upon determining that the pending subscription account exists or the new subscription account is to be created, the activation server releases the pending subscription account or creates the new subscription account, and instructs the client device to remove a second identifier from the client device and to use the first identifier for attaching to the network.
US09571659B2
An embodiment includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium with programming code executable by a processor to perform operations including accessing a scheduled time and teleconference contact information associated with a teleconference calendar event. The operations include determining whether an operator is operating a vehicle based on synchronization between a mobile device and an abstraction and communication device (device) interfaced with the vehicle. When an actual time is within a threshold of the scheduled time and the operator is operating the vehicle, the operations include determining whether the operator is a participant of a teleconference. If so, the operations include extracting the teleconference contact information from the teleconference calendar event. The operations include communicating a prompt to join the teleconference and receiving a confirmation to join the teleconference. The operations include communicating a signal indicating the confirmation via the device and placing a call to join the teleconference.
US09571655B2
A system and method include a processor and a memory. The memory stores instructions, which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to allocate interactions to a server based on a function of a criteria over time, where the server can only handle a determined number of interactions at a time.
US09571653B1
A system for managing and routing calls involves a switch, multiple endpoints, an IVR system; and storage including a data structure associating individual unique keys with ANI information and one of the endpoints. In response to receipt of a call, identified by a specific ANI, the IVR will allow the user to input a routing key. If the user does not provide the routing key, it will follow the user's interaction to one of the endpoints, and I) generate a unique key, II) store the unique key, the specific ANI and an identifier of the one of the endpoints, and III) make the unique key available so that, the user can provide the unique key as the routing key on a subsequent call. If the user does provide the routing key, the specific ANI will be verified and the user's call routed to the endpoint associated with the routing key.
US09571652B1
Enhanced diarization systems and methods of use are provided herein. Some exemplary methods may include applying one or more rules that affect separation of the call audio data into segments, the rules being associated with the at least one call schema, separating the call audio data into segments according to the one or more rules, grouping segments of call audio data associated with a speaker, and storing in a storage media an identifier and the grouped segments for the speaker.
US09571648B2
A method of providing 911 service to a private branch exchange, includes grouping a plurality of private telephone numbers into a set. An outgoing telephone line for a 911 call is assigned to the set. Location information for the outgoing telephone line is input into a location database.
US09571647B2
A communication system for emergency communication comprises a communication server to establish an IP based voice communication between an endpoint and a monitoring center. In one implementation, the system establishes an emergency call using an emergency communication system comprising a communication endpoint, a communication interface and a monitoring center comprising an automation system and a communication server to establish an IP based voice communication. The system initiates the emergency call at the endpoint location using the communication interface, establishes an IP based voice communication between the endpoint and the monitoring center via the communication server, and automatically sends a message from the communication server to the automation system when the call is initiated.
US09571641B2
A call messaging system includes a database comprising a call screening rule for a callee and a call screening engine configured to determine whether a bypass condition exists for an incoming call to the callee, and to bypass the call screening rule for the incoming call, if the bypass condition exists.
US09571638B1
A method includes receiving an audio signal. The method further includes determining segments of audio from the audio signal. The method further includes sending a first segment of the audio signal to a first communication assistant (CA) device. The method further includes sending a second segment of the audio signal to a second CA device. The method further includes receiving a first text string associated with the first segment from the first CA device. The method further includes sending the first text string to a text display device. The method further includes receiving a second text string associated with the second segment from the second CA device. The method further includes sending the second text string to the text display device.
US09571632B2
Mobile device including a screen operable to provide sound output from the screen. The device may include distributed mode loudspeaker (DML) technology arranged to vibrate the entire screen. The device may be arranged wherein the whole screen surface acts as a speaker. A speaker hole in the device can be fully eliminated.
US09571628B1
Systems and methods for automatically adjusting telephonic conversation volume are provided. A computer-implemented method includes: detecting a telephone being used for a conversation and receiving data from at least one of a microphone, a camera, and a location system associated with the telephone. The method includes analyzing the data to determine at least one of: usage of sensitive or confidential words in the conversation; distance of the telephone to another person; level of annoyance of another person; conversation loudness relative to ambient loudness; location of the telephone relative to quiet areas. The method includes automatically adjusting a volume of a speaker of the telephone during the conversation based on the analyzing.
US09571626B1
A method for receiving and demodulating in an automobile modulated signals into a location finding baseband signal to connect to a display. Receiving and demodulating one or more wireless remote control modulated signals for remote control of either a door lock or control of ignition of an automobile or both. Receiving a touch screen generated signal and providing a touch screen generated control signal used to initiate transmission of a Bluetooth standardized signal. Receiving and demodulating a modulated Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) signal into a demodulated OFDM baseband signal and converting the demodulated OFDM signal into a spread spectrum signal for transmission of the spread spectrum signal.
US09571623B2
A system may be configured to receive an indication that a call has been placed (e.g., to a call center), and may provide a customized visual interface. The customized visual interface may include information that is potentially relevant to a user who has placed the call, and may be based on, for example, a user profile or history information, a purchase history of goods or services offered by an entity associated with the called party. The customized visual interface may allow the user to more quickly satisfy the purposes of his or her call than through traditional audio or touchtone menus.
US09571618B2
Arrangements described herein include identifying a voice communication session established between a first communication device and a second communication device and, based on the voice communication session established between the first communication device and the second communication device, identifying a plurality of contacts who potentially may be the second user. A list including at least a name of each of the plurality of contacts who potentially may be the second user is presented to a first user using the first communication device.
US09571616B2
A housing includes a plurality of overlapping layers. Each layer has either transparent material or semitransparent material, and each layer has a different refractivity.
US09571609B2
A protocol converter includes a processor configured to receive a request for content from a client system. The processor is further configured to determine if the protocol converter is currently receiving the content through the multicast session, and join the multicast session if the protocol converter is not currently receiving the content. Additionally, the processor is configured to receive the content as an end point of the multicast session, format the content for communication to the client system, and provide content to the client system in a communication separate from the multicast session. Receiving the content as an end point of the multicast session can include terminating the application layer protocol used by the multicast session. Additionally, formatting the content can include re-encapsulating the content as hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) with an appropriate content-type.
US09571604B2
An example approach for enabling content to be distributed based on user and device related execution criteria is described. A collaboration platform determines one or more execution criteria for at least one device based, at least in part, on presence information, capability information, characteristic information, or a combination thereof of at least one other device within proximity of the at least one device. The collaboration platform also determines an execution of the one or more content items based, at least in part, on one or more execution criteria associated with the one or more content items.
US09571599B2
Methods and systems for multimedia redirection in a virtualized environment using a proxy server are described herein. The proxy server may store scripting code that may be injected into web content retrieved from a content resource server. The injected scripting code may cause an instantiated application in the virtualized environment to intercept/override at least some method calls in the web content. The proxy server may send the redirected multimedia content and other information to a client agent application executing on a user's computing device for rendering.
US09571597B2
The present disclosure discloses a multimedia file push method and apparatus, and relates to the field of network technologies. The method includes: obtaining first visual feature information, where the first visual feature information is visual feature information of a to-be-pushed multimedia file; determining a first user identity according to the first visual feature information, where the first user identity is a push target user identity of the to-be-pushed multimedia file; and pushing the to-be-pushed multimedia file according to the first user identity.
US09571593B2
In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a profile page of a user on an online social network, accessing cached content from a feed, determining the last time the content from the feed was updated, and if the last time the content was update was before a particular time, then updated the profile page of the user to include the cached content, else, accessing the feed and updating the profile page of the user to include updated content.
US09571591B2
A system is provided for tracing end-to-end transactions. The system uses bytecode instrumentation and a dynamically injected agent to gather web server side tracing data, and a browser agent which is injected into browser content to instrument browser content and to capture tracing data about browser side activities. Requests sent during monitored browser activities are tagged with correlation data. On the web server side, this correlation information is transferred to tracing data that describes handling of the request. This tracing data is sent to an analysis server which creates tracing information which describes the server side execution of the transaction and which is tagged with the correlation data allowing the identification of the causing browser side activity. The analysis server receives the browser side information, finds matching server side transactions and merges browser side tracing information with matching server side transaction information to form tracing information that describes end-to-end transactions.
US09571590B2
A computer-implemented monitoring and reporting method is provided. Identifying information is received corresponding to a user of a social networking application enabled by a social networking system. The social networking system is queried via a network for information corresponding to the user. The queried information is compared with predetermined criteria to determine a content category corresponding to the identifying information, and a report is provided including an indication of the determined content category.
US09571589B2
A computer-implemented method that includes receiving a location from a location aware access device and an IP address of a network device to which the location aware access device is connected, receiving a request that includes the IP address of the network device from a location unaware access device that is connected to the network device, determining a geographic location for the location unaware access device based on the IP address of the network device and the location received from the location aware access device, selecting information responsive to the request from the location unaware access device based at least in part on the geographic location, and providing the selected information to the location unaware access device.
US09571579B2
A method and system for providing information management of data from hosted services receives information management policies for a hosted account of a hosted service, requests data associated with the hosted account from the hosted service, receives data associated with the hosted account from the hosted service, and provides a preview version of the received data to a computing device. In some examples, the system indexes the received data to associate the received data with a user of an information management system, and/or provides index information related to the received data to the computing device.
US09571571B2
According to a peer-to-peer protocol, a peer-to-peer network includes multiple clubs and multiple peers that receive content distributed by a source of the network. Each of the multiple peers is part of at least two of the clubs. A joining peer identifies a club of the peer-to-peer network to join and receives identifying information for peers in the identified club. The joining peer randomly selects from the peers in the identified club at least a first peer and a second peer with which to establish connections. The random selection is proportionally weighted by the number of connections the first peer has with other peers and the number of connections the second peer has with other peers. The joining peer establishes a first connection with the first peer and a second connection with the second peer.
US09571570B1
A device may be configured to store virtual identifier information indicating virtual identifiers associated with servers. The virtual identifier information may associate a quantity of virtual identifiers with each respective server of the servers based on a weight associated with the respective server. The device may receive an object identifier identifying an object to be processed by at least one of the servers. The device may calculate hash values for the virtual identifiers based on the object identifier. The device may determine a virtual identifier associated with a hash value that satisfies a particular condition. The device may select a server associated with the virtual identifier. The device may send an instruction to the server to process the object.
US09571567B2
Methods and systems to reconfigure clusters in elastic multi-tenant cloud computing system. An example method includes partitioning a first resource reservation of a first virtual data center between a first cluster and a second cluster and partitioning a second resource reservation of a second virtual data center between the first cluster and the second cluster, and based on the partitioning of the first resource reservation and the second resource reservation, collectively adjusting a first portion of the first resource reservation allotted to the first cluster and a second portion of the second resource reservation allotted to the first cluster in a same reconfiguration operation.
US09571557B2
In the event that function names contained when one of the scripts describing objects processed within each predetermined processing unit in the web application is defined as a script of interest and the script of interest is converted to internal code are not common with function names contained when the scripts describing the remaining objects are converted to internal code, the internal code of said script of interest is cached.
US09571555B2
Disclosed are methods, circuits, devices, systems and associated computer executable code for generating a web-projection. One or more scripts, defining web-projections, are executed, initiating communication sessions with one or more webpage servers defined in the scripts. Specific content(s) defined in the script, from the one or more webpage servers, is retrieved, translated and injected into corresponding web-projections prior to being served to a requesting client web browser.
US09571546B2
It is presented a method for matching a media source and a media receiver. The method comprises the steps of: receiving position messages from a plurality of media sources, the position messages comprising geographic position data indicating a geographic position of each respective media source; receiving a request media message from the media receiver, the request media message comprising desired geographic position data indicating a desired geographic position of a media source; creating a matching group comprising all matching media sources of the plurality of media sources, which matching media sources are in a geographic position matching the desired geographic position; forwarding a live media stream, captured by at least one of the matching media sources of the matching group, to the media receiver; and maintaining the matching group. A corresponding media broker server, computer program and computer program product are also presented.
US09571533B2
A communication session is established between users of communication devices. A representation of the users is displayed as part of the communication session. A liaison agent is dynamically added as a party of the communication session. The liaison agent is an application that works on behalf of one or more user during the communication. In response to dynamically adding the liaison agent as a party of the communication system, the displayed representation of the communication session is updated to indicate that the liaison agent has been added to the communication session. The liaison agent can provide a variety of services to a user, such as tracking work product, handling incoming calls, bridging communication sessions, providing web cam services, doing surveys, gathering a roll of a communication session, playing messages, notifying other users of events in the communication session, and/or the like.
US09571526B2
A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and policy rating server device that receives a request from a client computing device for one or more privacy ratings. The request identifies at least one application, such as an application installed on the client computing device for example. A policy associated with the identified application is obtained. The obtained policy is analyzed to identify a plurality of key words or phrases associated with use by the at least one application of functionality of, or personal information stored on, the client computing device. One or more privacy ratings are generated based on numerical values assigned to each of the identified key words or phrases. The generated one or more privacy ratings are output to the client computing device in response to the request.
US09571523B2
A network security policy may be implemented at network switches as a set of active packet disposition directives. In a dynamically programmable network, the network switches can be dynamically reprogrammed with packet disposition directives. A security actuator receives flow policy directives from a number of network applications. The flow policy directives express higher-level network security policy goals, including blocking and/or redirecting network traffic. The security actuator converts a flow policy directive into one or more packet disposition directives. The packet disposition directives may include trigger rules to cause network communications to be monitored for matching trigger packets. An automated mechanism initiated by the security actuator may cause trigger packets to be forwarded to the security actuator for analysis. The security actuator may generate packet disposition directives in response to receiving the trigger packets.
US09571520B2
A method for preventing malware attacks includes the steps of detecting an attempt on an electronic device to access a task scheduler, determining an entity associated with the attempt to access the task scheduler, determining a malware status of the entity, and, based on the malware status of the entity, allowing or denying the attempted access to the task scheduler. The task scheduler is configured to launch one or more applications at a specified time or interval.
US09571515B2
An approach is provided to improve security of security questions. In the approach, the system prompts a user for a security question. The security question and security answer associated with the security question are received by the system using a user input to the information handling system. Network-accessible data stores, such as social network accounts, are searched for the security answer resulting in search results. The searching results reveal a risk level which is identified by the system. The identified risk level is provided to the user, such as at a display device.
US09571495B2
Systems and methods for authorizing web service requests. In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method includes receiving a web service request having an authorization header and business code, authenticating a Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) token included in the authorization header and constructing a security context based on attributes of the SAML token. The process also includes passing the security context to an authorization interceptor to interact with a policy information point (PIP) and a policy decision point (PDP), receiving a permit response, and then authorizing the web services request. In some implementations, the requested web service is then transmitted to the client computer that requested the web service.
US09571491B2
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to identity technology. In aspects, profile data is mined to determine claims providers with which a user may be familiar. These familiar claims providers are used in conjunction with claims providers that are allowed by a relying party to determine a candidate set of claims providers that are both familiar to the user and allowed by the relying party. This candidate set of claims providers is then displayed to a user so that the user may select one or more of the claims providers to obtain claims to provide to the relying party.
US09571486B2
The purpose of the invention is to provide a password with lower cost but higher safety used in an authentication system, and users may choose one specific picture as a password to register or log in the internet. Because the data string of the picture is too big for general crackers to alter, break and steal the data string of the picture with currently available cracked methods. The present invention of the authentication system also includes a communication device and a cloud server to provide users to register or log in the system.
US09571475B2
Techniques described herein may be used to encrypt a telephone call between users. User devices (e.g., smart phones) may be connected to encryption relay devices that operate as relays between headsets worn by the user and the user devices. As information passes from the headset toward a corresponding user device, an encryption relay device may encrypt the information before the information reaches the user device so that the user device transmits encrypted call information to the other user participating in the call. When encrypted information is received, and travels from the user device to the headset, the encryption relay device may decrypt the information before it reaches the headset. Thus, the techniques described herein provide an end-to-end encryption solution to telephone calls.
US09571469B2
A computer implemented system, method and a computer program product for ahead of time delivery of electronic content, have been provided. A file policy specifying a time period in which the electronic content is to be rendered accessible to a subscriber, is created. The electronic content is embedded with the file access policy, and subsequently encrypted. The encrypted electronic content is transmitted ahead-of-time to a network enabled device accessible to the subscriber. The encrypted electronic content is decrypted subsequent to the authentication of the subscriber. The electronic content is made accessible via the network enabled device only in the event that the current time stamp received from a time server is within the time period specified by the file access policy.
US09571467B2
An information management system includes an information processing device, and an information management device that prepares log information indicating a content of communication with the information processing device. The information processing device includes a recording data acquisition unit, an encryption unit, and a transmitting unit. The recording data acquisition unit sequentially acquires recording data indicating a content of communication between the information management device and the information processing device. The encryption unit encrypts the recording data to prepare encrypted data. The transmitting unit transmits the encrypted data to the information management device. The information management device includes a log information preparation unit that prepares the log information including the encrypted data.
US09571465B1
Data security is enhanced by injecting insecurity into communications between two computer systems to test one of the computer systems. The insecurity is injected by modifying the communications between the two computer systems by modifying or adding messages. A response from one of the computer systems is monitored to determine whether the computer system reacts to the modification in a secure manner or if mitigating actions need to be performed.
US09571462B1
An extensible personality-based secure messaging infrastructure deployed in a computerized system comprising at least one central processing unit, a memory, a storage system and a network interface unit, the system being accessible by a user, the system comprising: an application resource database configured to store at least one resource entry; a contact information database comprising at least one peer personality entry and an own personality entry, the at least one peer personality entry corresponding to at least one resource entry in the resource database; a key storage operatively coupled to the contact information database and comprising a plurality of communication channel key entries, a plurality of peer personalities key entries and a plurality of application resource key entries, and at least one of the plurality of the peer personalities key entries corresponding to at least one peer personality entry in the contact information database.
US09571461B2
A method identifies anonymized parties in a transmitted communication. A sender replaces one or more communication party identifiers in control data within a communication with one or more anonymized identifiers before transmitting the communication to one or more recipients of the communication. A recipient receiving the communication searches a local lookup table by an anonymized identifier for a corresponding non-anonymized identifier which identifies a party of the communication. In response to identifying a corresponding non-anonymized identifier, the recipient then replaces the anonymized identifier with the corresponding communication party identifier and presents the recipient with the non-anonymized identifiers within the communication.
US09571452B2
A firewall uses a variety of techniques to obtain a useful domain name from a network request, that is, a domain name that facilitates the accurate enforcement of domain-based security rules for network traffic at the firewall. If the network request includes an Internet Protocol (IP) address instead of the domain name, the firewall may begin with a reverse domain name lookup. If this technique fails to adequately resolve the domain name, then the firewall may attempt a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) GET request to the IP address and investigate the header for useful domain name information. The firewall may also or instead initiate a secure connection to the IP address and analyze a certificate returned from the destination for the presence of domain name information. These measures can produce one or more domain names that can be collectively analyzed to select a suitable domain name for the application of a domain-based security rule or policy by the firewall.
US09571446B2
Systems and techniques are disclosed for transmitting a message via one or more platforms, the messages being associated with media content and/or related media content. A related media content may be identified based on the media content and a platform may be selected based on a platform selection criteria. The message may correspond to the related media content and may be transmitted to the platform.
US09571443B2
A community information sharing system, method and program product therefore. A communications network with connected communications devices serves community communications device users. A communications network gateway is associated with a community communications server, e.g., on a cloud computer, and couples the communications network to a data network. The gateway interfaces communications devices connected to communications network with the communications server, providing communications devices access to an online message board, message board information and services.
US09571440B2
An electronic message may be reconfigured to effect an enhanced notification using an input interface to receive at least one electronic message created by or on behalf of a message source for delivery to an intended recipient. A matching engine determines whether the electronic message corresponds to a predetermined definition of an enhanced notification. An enhancement engine reconfigures the electronic message to the enhanced notification if stored information related to the intended recipient indicates that the intended recipient is subscribed to receive the enhanced notification. Reconfiguring the electronic message may include reconfiguring the message to provide special handling, routing or presentation.
US09571439B2
An electronic message may be reconfigured to effect an enhanced notification using an input interface to receive at least one electronic message created by or on behalf of a message source for delivery to an intended recipient. A matching engine determines whether the electronic message corresponds to a predetermined definition of an enhanced notification. An enhancement engine reconfigures the electronic message to the enhanced notification if stored information related to the intended recipient indicates that the intended recipient is subscribed to receive the enhanced notification. Reconfiguring the electronic message may include reconfiguring the message to provide special handling, routing or presentation.
US09571431B2
A method and apparatus for managing IM conversations is provided. In response to idle time and, preferably, read message status, particular current conversations are removed from a list of current conversations. The removed conversations may be moved to an archive which may be automatically maintained in response to size constraints. An archive interface is facilitated to review conversations, save all or portions thereof, delete, etc. The archived conversations are preferably associated with the contact for the conversation to show a history of conversations.
US09571425B2
Voice communication method and apparatus and method and apparatus for operating jitter buffer are described. Audio blocks are acquired in sequence. Each of the audio blocks includes one or more audio frames. Voice activity detection is performed on the audio blocks. In response to deciding voice onset for a present one of the audio blocks, a subsequence of the sequence of the acquired audio blocks is retrieved. The subsequence precedes the present audio block immediately. The subsequence has a predetermined length and non-voice is decided for each audio block in the subsequence. The present audio block and the audio blocks in the subsequence are transmitted to a receiving party. The audio blocks in the subsequence are identified as reprocessed audio blocks. In response to deciding non-voice for the present audio block, the present audio block is cached.
US09571421B1
Efficient and highly-scalable network solutions are provided that each utilize deployment units based on Clos networks, but in an environment such as a data center of Internet Protocol-based network. Each of the deployment units can include multiple stages of devices, where connections between devices are only made between stages and the deployment units are highly connected. In some embodiments, the level of connectivity between two stages can be reduced, providing available connections to add edge switches and additional host connections while keeping the same number of between-tier connections. In some embodiments, where deployment units (or other network groups) can be used at different levels to connect other deployment units, the edges of the deployment units can be fused to reduce the number of devices per host connection.
US09571419B2
Managing a service is provided. Information is collected about use of a set of resources by the service. A request is received to verify information regarding a selected portion of a period of time during the use of the set of resources by the service. In response to receiving the request to verify the information regarding the selected portion of the period of time during the use of the set of resources by the service, a description of the use of the set of resources by the service during the selected portion of the period of time is generated using the collected information. A response to the request is created using the generated description of the use of the set of resources by the service during the selected portion of the period of time as proof of validity of the information.
US09571400B1
A method for weighted routing of data traffic can include generating a first hash value based on a header of a data packet and performing a lookup in a first equal cost multi-path (ECMP) table using the first hash value to select a secondary ECMP table. The first ECMP table can include a weighted listing of at least two secondary ECMP tables. The method can further include generating a second hash value based on the header of the data packet and performing a lookup in the selected secondary ECMP table based on the second hash value to select an egress port of a plurality of egress ports of the data switch. The method can further include forwarding the data packet on the selected egress port.
US09571382B2
A method, a controller, and a system for processing a data packet are disclosed. The method includes receiving, by a controller, a data packet that is reported by a switch and does not match a forwarding rule; after it is determined that a type of the data packet is a broadcast data packet, generating a forwarding rule for the data packet, where the forwarding rule includes an action attribute being discarded; and sending the forwarding rule of the data packet to the switch, so that when receiving the data packet again, the switch discards the data packet according to the action attribute of the forwarding rule. In the present invention, a broadcast storm on a network can be avoided without shielding a port of a switch. Therefore, for a fully-connected network, a forwarding capability of a port and a quantity of available transmission links on the network are ensured.
US09571376B2
A physical layer communication device (PHY) transmits and receives signal to and from a communication link using a synchronous protocol. The PHY communicates with a higher-layer device using a packet protocol. Timestamp values contained in timing-related messages in some packets are written or modified by the PHY. Delays incurred in transmitting and receiving the packets are predicted and used in setting the timestamp values.
US09571375B2
Disclosed are a method and a node for detecting subframe misordering, including that: a receiving node receives subframes from a transmitting node, and judges whether a trail trace identifier carried in each subframe received is same with a desired trail trace identifier of a subframe to be received; when the trail trace identifier carried in each subframe received is same with the desired trail trace identifier of the subframe to be received, judges whether a subframe number value carried in each subframe belongs to a range of desired subframe number values of the subframe to be received, and if it has been judged that the subframe number value carried in the received subframe does not belong to the range of desired subframe number values of the subframe to be received, determines that there is subframe misordering.
US09571372B1
A computer-implemented method for estimating ages of network devices may include (1) identifying at least one networked device that may be attached to a network, (2) identifying a media access control address of the networked device, the media access control address comprising an organizational unique identifier, (3) querying an organizational-unique-identifier database with the organizational unique identifier and receiving, in response, device-age information relating to an estimated age of the networked device and (4) determining the estimated age of the networked device based at least in part on the device-age information. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09571369B2
A data acquisition apparatus is provided. The data acquisition apparatus includes a local data storage unit; a data acquisition unit acquiring data; and a control unit storing data acquired by the data acquisition unit in the local data storage unit, wherein when stored data exceeds a predetermined capacity, the control unit transmits data to a history server, and when it is confirmed by the history server that data transmission is successful, the control unit deletes corresponding data from the local data storage unit.
US09571365B2
A monitoring apparatus includes a memory, and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to receive plural acknowledgment packets each including an identifier for identifying a packet and information indicating selective acknowledgment which are transmitted from a reception node that has received a data packet transmitted from a transmission node via a network to the transmission node via the network, and determine that a data packet loss occurs in the reception node in a case where a first identifier and first information included in a first acknowledgment packet among the plural acknowledgment packets are respectively matched with a second identifier and second information included in a second acknowledgment packet received after the first acknowledgment packet among the plural acknowledgment packets.
US09571356B2
A method and high availability cluster configuration for capture of data packets propagating in an external network into the cluster through a wired-tap connection between the cluster and at least one router of the external network. Captured packets are supplied with popularity tags and striped over high-access-rate non-transitory storage media belonging to a capture pool of serving nodes that are specially provisioned and selected by the master node. The captured packets are either devolved or demoted to low-access-rate non-transitory storage media of at least two serving nodes not including any backup master based on popularity metrics contained their tags. The demotion, devolution as well as determination of popularity metrics and setting of a popularity threshold are managed by a distributed management protocol.
US09571353B1
Hosts for virtual computing nodes may communicate health and status information through a low-bandwidth interface. Event descriptions evolving over time may be communicated through a fixed-length bit field whose format also evolves over time. Information describing the evolving data format may be communicated through an out-of-band communications channel. Event descriptions transmitted using the evolving data format may be processed once the format is accessible to the recipient of the event descriptions.
US09571350B2
A process of diagnosing and debugging a network element remotely may employ sending of performance data to a third party evaluator for processing of the data. A mobile device may interface with the network element and request evaluation of the performance by the third party evaluator. Large memory loads may be sent to the third party evaluator where intensive processing may be performed. The results of the processing by the third party evaluator may be sent to the mobile device for viewing by a user.
US09571340B2
A method performed by a controlling computer node in a network with a plurality of subordinate computing nodes, the method including: receiving, from a first subordinate computer node, information indicating computing resource impacts for a plurality of different processing functions; receiving, from a communication endpoint, a processing task; determining an impact upon available resources of the first subordinate computer node if the task were to be assigned to the first subordinate computer node, wherein the determining is performed using the information indicating computing resource impacts; and assigning the task to either the first subordinate computer node or another one of the subordinate computer nodes based at least in part on the determining the impact.
US09571328B2
A self-organizing internet protocol television (IPTV) grid system that: establishes an internet protocol television grid including an IPTV server, a plurality of grid nodes, a first end user device and a second end user device; communicates an IPTV channel signal over a first communication path that begins at the IPTV server and ends at the first end user device; communicates the IPTV channel signal over a second communication path that begins at the IPTV server and ends at the second end user device; determines that a quality issue condition exists for the channel signal as communicated to the second end user device; and responsive to the determination of the quality issue condition, communicates the IPTV channel signal over a third communication path that begins at the first end user device and ends at the second end user device.
US09571327B2
A call between a calling party and a called party, one or both of whom may be subscribers to Internet Telephony (IT) services, commences upon the receipt of a call dialed by the calling party to the Plain Old Telephony Service (POTS) number associated with the calling party. A first hub receives the call and routes it to the called party if that party is not an IT services subscriber that is currently on line. If the called party is an IT services subscriber that is on-line, the call is received at an Internet Services Provider serving the called party. The ISP converts the call to an IT format if the call is not already in that format and thereafter delivers the call to the called party.
US09571323B2
A broadcast signal receiver is discussed. A broadcast signal receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a synchronization & demodulation module performing signal detection and OFDM demodulation on a received broadcast signal; a frame parsing & deinterleaving module performing parsing and deinterleaving of a signal frame of the broadcast signal; a demapping & decoding module performing conversion of data of at least one Physical Layer Pipe (PLP) of the broadcast signal into the bit domain and FEC decoding of the converted PLP data; and an output processing module outputting a data stream by receiving the at least one PLP data.
US09571320B2
A method and an apparatus for receiving broadcast signals thereof are disclosed. The apparatus for receiving broadcast signals, the apparatus comprises a receiver to receive the broadcast signals, a demodulator to demodulate the received broadcast signals by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) scheme, a frame parser to parse a signal frame from the demodulated broadcast signals, a time deinterleaver to time deinterleave data in the parsed signal frame and a decoder to decode the time deinterleaved data.
US09571318B2
Provided are a transmitting apparatus, a receiving apparatus and methods of controlling the transmission and reception. The transmitting apparatus includes: a baseband packet generator configured to, in response to input of data, generate a baseband packet for mapping the data with a physical layer; a baseband frame generator configured to generate a baseband frame including the baseband packet; a signal processor configured to signal-process the baseband frame; and a transmitter configured to transmit the baseband frame after the signal processing, wherein the baseband packet includes signaling information which indicates that the data comprises at least one of base layer data and enhancement layer data.
US09571313B2
Aspects of embodiments relate to an optical wavelet transform (WT) or inverse wavelet transform (IWT) medium for implementing optical multiwavelet orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) or optical demultiplexing. In embodiments, the optical WT/IWT medium comprises a plurality of N waveguides for receiving in parallel a corresponding number of N modulated optical input signals λ1,MOD to λN,MOD. Each waveguide comprises at least two optical resonators configured such to realize a wavelet filterbank so that the modulated optical signals λ1,MOD to λn,MOD undergo WT/IWT in a manner such to obtain optical wavelet transformed signals that can be orthogonally frequency division multiplexed or demultiplexed.
US09571311B2
A receiver for a serial link. The receiver has an analog input configured to receive a received signal and includes a first front end comprising a first sampler configured to sample a signal at an input of the first front end, and a first correction circuit configured to add a first correction to the signal at the input of the first front end, the first correction including a first offset correction. The offset correction is updated by a modified sign-sign least mean squares method.
US09571309B1
A plurality of comparator circuits output results of comparing a pulse amplitude modulated input signal having four or more values with a plurality of first thresholds. A selection section decides a value of the input signal at certain timing by selecting one of the comparison results on the basis of a result of deciding a value of the input signal at previous timing. A threshold setting section generates the first thresholds from a plurality of third thresholds obtained by adding an offset value based on magnitude of inter-symbol interference corresponding to each value to one of second thresholds whose number is based on the number of values, on the basis of an average value of third thresholds greater than a second threshold or third thresholds smaller than the second threshold and an adjustment value based on the decision result and sets the first thresholds in the comparator circuits.
US09571308B1
Systems and methods for high speed communications are described herein. In certain aspects, the systems and methods include innovative transceiver architectures and techniques for re-timing, multiplexing, de-multiplexing and transmitting data. The systems and methods can be used to achieve reliable high-speed point-to-point communication between different electronic devices, computing devices, storage devices and peripheral devices.
US09571305B2
Methods and apparatus of channel estimation using time-domain parameter extraction are disclosed. The wireless channel can be modeled by a multipath model with a limited number of parameters in the continuous time domain. In the discrete time domain, the multipath model leads to channel impulse responses that have a limited number of channel taps with non-negligible energy. Extracting the time-domain parameters and then reconstructing the channel yields channel estimates that have better accuracy. Time-domain parameter extraction also has lower computational complexity than existing methods.
US09571303B2
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method, system and apparatus handling a request for a media-over-packet communication session. The method comprises receiving a request for a media-over-packet communication session destined for a network address. Responsive to determining existence of an active communication session with a first communication client registered to the network address, the method further comprises determining an identifier associated with a second communication client registered to the network address, the second communication client different from the first communication client; and routing the request to the second communication client using the identifier.
US09571298B2
In a configuration where an apparatus network is connected to a backbone network at two points, a first apparatus and a first switch device are normally communicatively connected to each other and also communication between a second apparatus and a second switch device is normally disconnected. The first apparatus monitors the link state with the first switch device. The second apparatus queries the first apparatus about the link state. When the first apparatus and the first switch device are not communicatively connected to each other or when the second apparatus cannot communicate with the first apparatus via the apparatus network, the second apparatus cancels the disconnected state with the second switch device.
US09571294B2
A communication device for communicating with a plurality of terminals via a wireless network, the communication device being configured to, when it has a message to transmit to that plurality of terminals: select, from a multiple of available acknowledgement mechanisms, an acknowledgement mechanism for the terminals to use in acknowledging receipt of the message and communicate the selected acknowledgement mechanism to the plurality of terminals.
US09571285B2
Systems and methods for implementing an identity assertion framework to authenticate a user in a federation of security domains are provided. A first security token service associated with a first security domain is configured to receive a request for a first token from a device and issue the first token based on a first issuing policy of the first security domain. A token authenticator associated with a second security domain is configured to determine that the first token is not issued in the second security domain. A hardware-processor-implemented second security token service is configured to receive the first token from the token authenticator, determine that the first token was issued by the first security token service, and validate the first token based on a local federation policy that defines a federation agreement between the first security domain and the second security domain.
US09571280B2
The present disclosure is directed to application integrity protection via secure interaction and processing. For example, interaction with a user interface in a device may result in input information being generated. Following encryption, the input information may be conveyed to an application executing in a secure processing environment. The encrypted input information may be received, decrypted and processed by the application. An example application may include a secure controller component, a secure model component and a secure view component. The secure controller component may, for example, provide change instructions to the secure model component based on the decrypted input information. The secure model component may then, if necessary, provide a change notification to the secure view component based on the change instructions. The secure view component may then generate output information, which may be encrypted prior to being provided to the user interface for decryption, processing and presentation.
US09571279B2
A new approach is proposed to support secured hardware security module (HSM) backup for a plurality of web services hosted in a cloud to offload their key storage, management, and crypto operations to the HSM. Each HSM is a high-performance, FIPS 140-compliant security solution for crypto acceleration of the web services. Each HSM includes multiple partitions isolated from each other, where each HSM partition is dedicated to support one of the web service hosts/servers to offload its crypto operations via a HSM virtual machine (VM) over the network. The HSM-VM is configured to export objects from the key store of a first HSM partition to a key store of a second HSM partition, wherein the second HSM partition is configured to serve the key management and crypto operations offloaded from the web service host once the objects exported from the key store of the first HSM partition are received.
US09571277B2
A method for generating a key in a network. The network includes at least one first user and one second user having a secured communication link to one another, and a third user, to which a secured communication link is to be established. The first user and the third user each generate a first partial value sequence from properties of the transmission channel between the first user and the third user. The second user and the third user each generate a second partial value sequence from properties of the transmission channel between the second user and the third user. In a secured part of the network, which includes at least the first and the second user, but not the third user, the key is ascertained from at least the first partial value sequence of the first user and the second partial value sequence of the second user. The key is also generated in the third user from at least the first partial value sequence and the second partial value sequence.
US09571276B2
A method and an apparatus for deriving a device-specific value from a physical unclonable function realized on a device are provided. Categorization information items are allocated to responses derived from challenges. The categorization information items are derived from statistical variations. The device-specific value may be processed further as a key bit or as an identifier.
US09571275B1
Apparatus and method for providing unique device identification values for a network accessible device. In accordance with some embodiments, a unique device identifier value is generated in response to a data exchange operation with a network accessible device. The identifier value is subsequently transmitted by the device as a unique device identifier value in conjunction with the transmitting of a request for a subsequent data exchange operation with the device.
US09571269B2
A problem to be solved is to reduce processing time when a block cipher which refers to a table is implemented in software.An encryption device includes: a round-key generation module which generates a round key from a secret key; a table-entry generation module which adds a starting address of an n-bit S-box table (n≧2) aligned to a 2m-bit boundary (m≧n) in a memory, and the round key, and holds an obtained value as a table entry; and a data mixing module which mixes data by referring to the S-box stored in the first memory, by using, as a table index, an exclusive OR between the table entry stored in the second memory and the data.
US09571264B2
A tracking method and apparatus of a communication system to prevent a timing difference and bit error rate performance degradation caused by unstable characteristics of a plurality of circuit devices are provided. The tracking method and apparatus include sampling signals received at receiving antennas, tracking sample values resulting from the sampling of the signals, and combining the tracked sample values.
US09571255B2
Provided is a method and apparatus for transmitting an HARQ ACK/NACK. The method includes: in a TDD-FDD CA scheme; recognizing a 2-bit downlink (DL) downlink assignment index (DAI) field configured in a DL downlink control information (DCI) format, the DL DCI format indicating a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) transmission on the second serving cell, and the 2-bit DL DAI field indicating that ten downlink subframes for the second serving cell are associated with one uplink subframe; in response to received data, generating a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) signal, the HARQ ACK/NACK signal being indexed based on a value of the 2-bit DL DAI field; and transmitting the HARQ ACK/NACK signal through one uplink subframe of the first serving cell.
US09571252B2
The invention relates to an apparatus including at least one processor and at least one memory including a computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: determine a configuration change at a border of a current radio frame and a following radio frame, schedule during the current radio frame physical downlink shared channel and/or physical uplink shared channel resources having an impact on the following radio frame based on the configuration change, and apply hybrid automatic repeat request and signaling timing according to the physical downlink shared channel and/or physical uplink shared channel resource scheduling from a beginning of the following radio frame, wherein a frame carrying the physical downlink shared channel and/or physical uplink shared channel resource scheduling indicates the timing.
US09571249B2
The present disclosure discloses a system and method for dynamic control of channel sounding for transmit beamforming. Generally, sounding frames are periodically transmitted by a network device to a particular device at a first sounding interval. First feedback information is received from the particular device. The first feedback information corresponds to the sounding frames transmitted at the first sounding interval. Based on one or more current conditions included in the feedback information, a second sounding interval is selected to transmit the sounding frames to the particular device. The sounding frames are periodically transmitted to the particular device at the second sounding interval. Second feedback information is received from the particular device. The second feedback information corresponds to the sounding frames transmitted at the second sounding interval.
US09571244B2
An overhead accompanying feedback from a UE terminal is reduced.The UE terminal selects not only M subbands with high quality but also M subbands with poor quality. Alternatively, the UE terminal selects M subbands to be fed back by increasing a priority of a subband with a high degree to which the quality of the subband is to be improved by the feedback or a subband having a high possibility of unnecessary eNodeB being removed from the CoMP set by the feedback. In addition, the UE terminal performs measurement and feedback in units of subband groups which can be collectively handled.
US09571242B2
A method includes receiving a signal including a two-dimensional signal pattern in a time-frequency representation, wherein the two-dimensional signal pattern includes a first reference signal at a predetermined first position in the two-dimensional signal pattern and at least one second reference signal at a predetermined second position in the two-dimensional signal pattern. The first reference signal includes cell identification information of a target cell of a cellular radio system and the at least one second reference signal includes cell identification information of at least one interfering cell of the cellular radio system. The method further includes determining a first noise covariance measure based on the first reference signal, determining at least one second noise covariance measure based on the at least one second reference signal, and mitigating an interference included in the received signal based on the first noise covariance measure and the at least one second noise covariance measure.
US09571238B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a control channel resource transmission method, a base station and a user equipment which can ensure balance between performance of E-CCEs on a resource set, and further ensure scheduling and receiving performance of the E-CCEs. A control channel resource transmission method includes: mapping, by a base station, more than one enhanced control channel element E-CCE onto a resource set, where each E-CCE is mapped onto a corresponding first resource subset and a corresponding second resource subset respectively, so that each E-CCE occupies a resource of the same size or a difference between sizes of resources occupied by the E-CCEs is less than a preset threshold, where the E-CCEs are carried on the resource set for transmission; and transmitting the resource set that carries the E-CCEs to a user equipment; and demodulating, by the user equipment, the resource set and performing receiving.
US09571228B2
The present disclosure provides a fine-grained link adaptation mechanism that allows for link adaptation at a resource block granularity. To this end, the fine-grained link adaptation mechanism can determine the effective signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio for individual user equipment in a particular cell at the resource block granularity. This way, the transmitter can use the effective signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio to adapt the modulation and coding scheme at the resource block granularity. The fine-grained link adaptation mechanism can be introduced to a long term evolution (LTE) network without substantial redesign of the LTE network.
US09571227B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a link adaptation feedback method and a transmitting device. The method includes: receiving, by a transmitting device, a link adaptation feedback frame sent by a receiving device, where the link adaptation feedback frame carries space-time block coding type indication information; and determining, by the transmitting device according to the space-time block coding type indication information, information about use of space-time block coding by a data frame related to the link adaptation feedback frame, and selecting, according to the use information, a space-time stream, and a modulation and coding scheme used when the transmitting device sends a data frame. Through the embodiments of the present invention, and according to the use information, the transmitting device may select the space-time stream, and the MCS used when the transmitting device sends a data frame, thereby improving link performance.
US09571222B2
A method is provided for provisioning time-varying traffic demands in an optical transport software-defined network. The method includes pre-provisioning an amount of bandwidth for best effort traffic. The method further includes iteratively applying, using a processor, an iterative simulated annealing-based traffic provisioning procedure to determine candidate bandwidths for the best effort traffic in a set of iterations. The method also includes selecting a particular candidate bandwidth that has a corresponding blocking value lower than a given blocking requirement β and that requires a minimum amount of spectrum as compared to other candidate bandwidths. The iteratively applying step includes varying the amount of bandwidth for best effort traffic in each iteration to determine the candidate bandwidths. The iteratively applying step further includes varying an amount of shared bandwidth between neighboring channels, out of the amount of bandwidth for best effort traffic, in each iteration, to further determine the candidate bandwidths.
US09571217B2
A method and an apparatus for detecting inter-cell interference in a mobile communication system are provided. A base station receives a reference signal (RS) from a terminal, generate one or more interference candidate RSs, calculate a cross correlation of the one or more interference candidate RSs and the received RS, estimate at least one of a size of a Resource Block (RB) an offset of the RB, a group index (U), and a cyclic shift (CS) by using a preset number of interference candidate RSs in an order of the large cross correlation. The base station further removes an interference signal or performs a direct reduction by using at least one of the estimated RB size, the RB offset, the timing offset, and the group index (U). According to the present disclosure, it is beneficial to mitigate or cancel inter-cell interference problem on an uplink transmission without any assistance of neighbor base stations and/or adjacent cells in a wireless communication system.
US09571216B2
A packet network includes a peer-to-peer transparent clock hardware support, a peer-to-peer transparent clock being at least used in order to measure and correct delays of link or path adjacent to network elements and NE residence time, and a Master/Slave end-to-end synchronization path including a first set of network elements A time stamped packet including at least a correction field indicating the cumulated transmission delay of the said packet along the synchronization path. A method includes a detecting a failure event; storing by the first element a measured past path delay of at least one previously transmitted time stamped packet received by the first element; and a function of the incoming current value of the received correction field, the first network element residence time, and a first value depending of a measured past path delay value. A first indicator is generated when detecting a failure.
US09571213B2
A tag generation method for generating tags used in data packets in a broadcast encryption system is provided. The method includes detecting at least one revoked leaf node; setting a node identification (node ID) assigned to at least one node among nodes assigned node IDs at a layer 0 and to which the at least one revoked leaf node is subordinate, to a node path identification (NPID) of the at least one revoked leaf node at the layer 0; generating a tag list in the layer 0 by combining the NPID of each of the at least one revoked leaf nodes at the layer 0 in order of increment of node IDs of the corresponding at least one revoked leaf nodes; and generating a tag list in a lowest layer by repeatedly performing the setting and generation operation down to the lowest layer.
US09571204B2
A LED optical communication receiving lens includes a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The first surface includes a first spherical surface and a second spherical surface connected to the first spherical surface. The second surface includes a third spherical surface and a planar surface connected to the third spherical surface. A position of the LED optical communication receiving lens is defined as a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system (x, y, z). Sphere centers and symmetric central points of the first spherical surface, the second spherical surface, and the third spherical surface are located on the x axis. The first spherical surface and the planar surface are transmitted surfaces. The second spherical surface and the third spherical surface are reflective surfaces. The present application also relates to a LED optical communication system including the LED optical communication receiving lens.
US09571202B2
An optical connector assembly, includes: a printed circuit board including a supporting surface and a notch; a fixing portion embedded into the notch and comprising a first surface, a second surface, a lead frame and an electrical pin arranged from the fixing portion to the supporting surface to be flush with the supporting surface, a positioning slot disposed on the first surface; a joint portion comprising a first side, plural openings penetrating the first side, the joint portion extending from an edge of the first side to cover the top of the fixing portion, a positioning pin disposed on the first side; plural chips disposed on the fixing portion; plural fibers inserted through the openings. Wherein the positioning pin is engaged into the positioning slot, such that the fibers are coaxially aligned with the chips for light transmission.
US09571200B2
A transceiver having an improved transmitter optical signal to noise ratio, and methods of making and using the same.
US09571199B1
A network element that allows in-band control of the network element includes a plurality of interfaces for connecting to other network elements. The network element includes a high data rate transceiver logic configured for transmitting and receiving communications having a first data rate over a first communication channel. The network element also includes a low data rate transceiver logic configured for transmitting and receiving communications having a second data rate that is substantially lower than the first data rate over a second communication channel. The network element further includes a shared photodiode for receiving optical signals over the first and second communication channels. The shared photodiode also converts received optical signals into electrical signals for processing by one of the high data rate transceiver logic and the low data rate transceiver logic. A shared laser module configured to be driven by the high data rate transceiver logic and the low data rate transceiver logic is also included in the network element to output an optical signal over a fiber optic cable via one of the first and second communication channels.
US09571197B2
An integrated mobile communication repeater monitoring device, and method and system for mobile communication relay and information provision, is provided. Signals received from communication networks are divided into signals of mobile communication channels and signals of data channels, mobile communication services are provided to on the basis of the signals of the mobile communication channels, and data is displayed on the basis of the signals of the data channels.
US09571190B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a central controller that executes instructions facilitating performance of operations including monitoring multiple network nodes, at least some of the network nodes being in communication with others through respective point-to-point links. Each point-to-point link includes a respective free space optical channel. The central controller detects optical received signal strength of a free space optical channel falling below a certain level and provides control signals to reconfigure the multiple network nodes. Signals are re-routed along one of the respective point-to-point links through other network nodes responsive to detecting the optical received signal strength falling below the certain level Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09571189B2
An optical fiber breakage point may be located by coupling to the optical fiber an out-of-band optical test signal modulated at a periodic modulation pattern. A distance to the breakage point may be determined from a difference between modulation patterns of transmitted and received test signals.
US09571179B2
A relay node is described herein, the relay node comprising a network connectivity device configured to receive a plurality of medium access control layer (MAC) packet data units (PDUs) from a plurality of user agents; a processor configured to multiplex the plurality of MAC PDUs to form a Super-MAC PDU; and wherein the network connectivity device is further configured to transmit the Super-MAC PDU to an access node.
US09571172B2
An arrangement of MIMO antennas in a vehicle, such as an automobile, where at least one of the MIMO antennas is placed inside the vehicle in the richer multipath signal propagation environment. The MIMO antennas will include a primary MIMO antenna that may also be used for non-4G cellular services and one or more secondary MIMO antennas that are used only for 4G cellular services. In one embodiment, the primary MIMO antenna is mounted to a roof of the vehicle in a module including other antennas and the one or more secondary antennas are positioned at desired locations within the vehicle. In another embodiment, the primary MIMO antenna and the one or more secondary MIMO antennas are all positioned within the vehicle.
US09571158B2
A system and method for inferring schematic and topological properties of an electrical distribution grid is provided. The system may include Remote Hubs, Subordinate Remotes, a Substation Receiver, and an associated Computing Platform and Concentrator. At least one intelligent edge transmitter, called a Remote Hub Edge Transmitter, may transmit messages on the electrical distribution grid by injecting a modulated current into a power main that supplies an electric meter. The Subordinate Remotes, Remote Hubs, the Substation Receiver, and the associated Computing Platform and Concentrator may contain processing units which execute stored instructions allowing each node in the network to implement methods for organizing the on-grid network and transmitting and receiving messages on the network. The Substation Receiver, Computing Platform and Concentrator may detect and infer schematic grid location attributes of the network and publish the detected and inferred attributes to other application systems including geospatial information systems maintaining the logical and physical network model.
US09571152B2
Apparatus and methods for calibration of envelope trackers are provided. In one embodiment, a power amplifier system includes a VGA that amplifies an RF input signal to generate an amplified RF input signal, a power amplifier that amplifies the amplified RF input signal to generate an RF output signal, and an envelope tracker that generates a supply voltage for the power amplifier. The envelope tracker includes a scaling module that generates a scaled envelope signal based on a power control level (PCL) signal and an envelope signal that changes in relation to an envelope of the RF input signal. The envelope tracker further includes a calibration module that controls an amount of scaling of the scaled envelope signal based on calibration data to compensate for an envelope amplitude misalignment of the envelope tracker. The envelope tracker controls the voltage level of the supply voltage based on the scaled envelope signal.
US09571151B2
Examples of cases and other accessories for mobile electronic devices are provided. Some cases are provided to protect mobile electronic devices from unintended forceful contact that could otherwise cause damage to the mobile electronic devices and/or to protect the mobile electronic devices against unwanted and potentially damaging ingress of harmful materials, such as water, dust, dirt, and/other potentially damaging materials. Some cases can include an attachment region that is configured to receive an auxiliary component to be used and/or attached with the mobile electronic device, such as an auxiliary lens or other optical device that can be used and/or attached with an onboard camera of the mobile electronic device.
US09571145B2
A high frequency circuit module includes a variable inductance circuit portion and a reactance circuit portion. The variable inductance circuit portion is connected between an antenna port and ground. The variable reactance circuit is connected between the antenna port and a front-end port. The variable inductance circuit portion includes a first inductor, a second inductor, and a switch. The first inductor is connected between the antenna port and the ground. The second inductor and the switch are connected in series, and this series circuit is connected in parallel to the first inductor.
US09571133B2
A duplexer having good insulation, small geometric dimensions and good decoupling of the transmit signal path from an antenna which may have poor matching is specified. To that end, the duplexer comprises two transmit filters, a receive filter and two 90° hybrids.
US09571132B1
A radio transmitter system includes: a transmitter for deriving a carrier frequency modulated by an input; an electrically short antenna system, and a matching network between the transmitter and antenna system. The matching network includes: a primary circuit responsive to the transmitter, a secondary circuit including the antenna system, and magnetic or capacitive coupling between the primary and secondary circuits. The magnetic coupling is an air core transformer having first and second windings respectively included in the primary and secondary circuits. The matching network has a voltage versus frequency response including at least two horns spaced from each other such that the matching network has a pass band approximately equal to the modulation bandwidth.
US09571124B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting a Forward Error Correction (FEC) packet block including a plurality of FEC packets in a multimedia system are provided. The method includes generating a plurality of first FEC packet blocks by performing a first FEC encoding on a plurality of source symbols, each of the plurality of first FEC packet blocks including at least one source packet and at least one repair packet for repair of each of the at least one source packet, generating a second FEC packet block by performing a second FEC encoding on the plurality of first FEC packet blocks, the second FEC packet block including at least one repair packet for the plurality of first FEC packet blocks, and transmitting the second FEC packet block that includes, in header information of each of the at least one source packet and the at least one repair packet.
US09571119B2
A method includes generating a sampling signal having a non-uniform sampling interval and sampling a received signal with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) using the sampling signal. The method also includes mapping the sampled received signal onto a frequency grid of sinusoids, where each sinusoid has a signal amplitude and a signal phase. The method further includes estimating the signal amplitude and the signal phase for each sinusoid in the frequency grid. In addition, the method includes computing an average background power level and detecting signals with power higher than the average background power level. The non-uniform sampling interval varies predictably.
US09571118B1
A pre-charge buffer for sampling input signals and generating a sampled output signal includes a coarse sampling circuit, a fine sampling circuit, and a sample and hold circuit. The coarse sampling circuit pre-samples the input signals during hold phases and for a first predetermined time interval during sample phases of the corresponding sample and hold cycles, and generates a first output signal. The fine sampling circuit samples the input signals during sample phases and generates a second output signal. The sample and hold circuit receives the first and second output signals, and generates a sampled output signal. The coarse sampling circuit provides the first output signal for a predefined time interval during the sample phases to reduce the effect of charge injection and charge sharing. The system uses bottom plate sampling to reduce charge injection caused by switches in the coarse sampling circuit.
US09571105B2
A clock generator having a delay locked loop and a delay control circuit. The delay locked loop receives an input clock signal and adjusts an adjustable delay circuit to generate an output clock signal that is synchronized with received input clock signal. The delay control circuit coupled to the delay locked loop generates a control signal to initialize the delay measure operation to adjust the adjustable delay circuit, after comparing the phase difference of the input clock signal and the output clock signal. The delay control circuit further generates a start measure control signal to start measuring a delay applied to the measurement signal propagating through the adjustable delay circuit, and generates a stop measure control signal to stop the delay measurement of the measurement signal. The delay adjustment of the delay locked loop is then adjusted to apply the delay measurement when synchronizing the input and output clock signals.
US09571103B2
A lookup table with low power consumption is provided. The lookup table includes a memory element including a transistor and a capacitor. A drain of the transistor is connected to one electrode of a capacitor and the input of an inverter, and a source is connected to a first wiring. The other electrode of the capacitor is connected to a second wiring. In such a memory element, the potential of the second wiring is complementary to the potential of the first wiring when writing data; accordingly, the potential of the drain of the transistor, i.e., the potential of the input of the inverter can be higher than the high potential of the inverter. Thus, shoot-through current of the inverter at this time can be significantly reduced. As a result, power consumption in a standby state can be significantly reduced.
US09571096B2
A touch panel-based switch includes a control circuit layer, a sensing layer, a dielectric layer, and a touch operation layer, stacked in the order. The sensing layer electrically connected to the control circuit layer includes plural sensing cell, and the dielectric layer is flexible. The touch operation layer is flexible as well and includes a button area and an adjacent non-button area. The button area includes a ground plane stacked on the dielectric layer and a first touch cover stacked on the ground plane, and the non-button area includes a second touch cover stacked on the dielectric layer. Plural though openings are provided in the button area corresponding to the sensing cells such that a portion of the dielectric layer is exposed.
US09571083B2
In some example embodiments, there may be provided an apparatus. The apparatus may include a delay line including a plurality of cells; and tuning circuitry coupled to the delay line and configured to generate a first output and a second output to tune the delay of the delay line, wherein the first output tunes in aggregate the plurality of cells of the delay line, and wherein the second output tunes each of the plurality of cells separately. Related methods, systems, and articles of manufacture are also disclosed.
US09571080B2
Delay-locked loop arrangement comprising a steering unit and a delay-locked loop circuit. The steering unit is configured to generate a reference clock signal and a main clock signal wherein the reference clock signal and the main clock signal feature a first frequency during a performance mode of operation. The reference clock signal and the main clock signal feature a second frequency being lower than the first frequency and a phase delay with respect to each other during a sleep mode of operation. The delay-locked loop circuit is configured to generate an error signal depending on a comparison of the reference clock signal and a feedback signal. Furthermore, the delay-locked loop circuit generates the feedback signal depending on the error signal and on the main clock signal.
US09571079B2
An integrated circuit includes a signal generating unit, a signal monitoring unit and a processing unit. The signal generating unit is configured to generate a control signal. The signal monitoring unit is configured to receive the control signal and accordingly output a monitor signal. The processing unit is configured to receive the monitor signal. The control signal is adjusted until the monitor signal is located within a preset range. A signal monitoring method used with the integrated circuit and a signal monitoring method used with a plurality of transistors are also provided.
US09571075B1
An integrated circuit with input voltage clamping circuitry for receiving an input signal from external devices is provided. The input voltage clamping circuitry may include a voltage splitting and clamping circuit, a selectively enabled transmission gate circuit, and a digitization and clamping circuit. The voltage splitting and clamping circuit may be configured to split the input signal into at least two separate components each of which is limited to a predetermined voltage swing. The transmission gate circuit may be selectively enabled to provide full rail signaling when the input signal has a power supply level that is below a predefined threshold. The digitization and clamping circuit may include a Schmitt trigger translation for converting the split signal components to a digitized signal that is clamped down to the predefined threshold.
US09571074B2
According to one aspect, a method may include receiving a circuit model that includes a clock mesh that controls each of a plurality of logic circuits by inputting a respective clock signal to an end-point of each logic circuit. The method may include providing an incremental latency adjustment to the circuit model by determining one or more end-points that are candidates for adjustment of a respective end-point's clock skew schedule. And, for each end-point that is associated with a negative front slack, adjusting a clock skew schedule of an end-point by a quantized amount. Further, for each end-point that is associated with a negative back-slack, adjusting the clock skew schedule of an end-point that is associated by a quantized amount. The method may also include repeating, the step of providing an incremental timing update. The method may include performing a timing evaluation upon the circuit model.
US09571072B2
A frequency multiplication circuit includes a delay circuit that has a clock signal having a period input thereto and delays the signal by a time, an exclusive OR circuit that has the clock signal and a signal from the delay circuit input thereto and outputs a signal serving as an exclusive OR between the clock signal and the signal from the delay circuit, and a signal correction circuit that has a signal from the exclusive OR circuit input thereto and corrects the input signal to output the resultant. The length of the time is a length other than n×T/4 (n is an integer). The signal correction circuit attenuates a signal having a second frequency based on T/2, rather than a signal having a first frequency based on the time τ.
US09571070B2
A mobile communication device includes an analog clock and a digital clock circuit. The analog clock circuit is configured to generate an oscillating output. The digital clock circuit is configured to generate a digital clock output having a frequency that is substantially equal to the frequency of the oscillating output.
US09571063B2
An acoustic resonator device includes a bottom electrode disposed on a substrate over an acoustic reflecting feature, a piezoelectric layer disposed on the bottom electrode and a top electrode disposed on the piezoelectric layer, where an overlap between the top electrode, the piezoelectric layer and the bottom electrode over the acoustic reflecting feature define an active region of the acoustic resonator device. The acoustic resonator device further includes at least one of a wing having an outer edge extending beyond at least a portion of an outer edge of the top electrode, and a first frame formed in one of an outer region or a center region of the top electrode. The at least one of the wing and the first frame has an apodized shape, such that no edges are parallel to one another, the apodized shape of the at least one of the wing and the first frame being different from an electrode shape defined by an outer edge of the top electrode.
US09571060B2
A transformer of the balanced-unbalanced type includes a primary inductive circuit and a secondary inductive circuit housed inside an additional inductive winding connected in parallel to the terminals of the secondary circuit and inductively coupled with the primary circuit and the secondary circuit.
US09571056B2
RF PA circuitry includes an amplifier stage, gain compensation circuitry, and an adder. The amplifier stage is configured to receive and amplify an RF input signal to provide an RF output signal. The gain compensation circuitry is coupled in parallel with the amplifier stage and configured to receive the RF input signal and provide a gain compensation signal, wherein the gain compensation signal is configured to linearize at least a portion of the gain response of the amplifier stage or the RF PA circuitry in general. The adder is coupled between an output of the amplifier stage and the gain compensation stage and is configured to receive and add the RF output signal and the gain compensation signal to provide a linearized RF output signal.
US09571051B2
An instrumentation amplifier (INA) that includes a first amplifier and a second amplifier coupled to the first amplifier. The first amplifier includes a first transistor. The first amplifier is configured to receive a positive phase signal of a differential signal. The second amplifier includes a second transistor and is configured to receive a negative phase signal of the differential signal. The first and second transistors each include a gate, source, and drain. The first transistor drain is connected to the second transistor drain.
US09571042B2
The present disclosure relates to digital up-conversion for a multi-band Multi-Order Power Amplifier (MOPA) that enables precise and accurate control of gain, phase, and delay of multi-band split signals input to the multi-band MOPA. In general, a multi-band MOPA is configured to amplify a multi-band signal that is split across a number, N, of inputs of the multi-band MOPA as a number, N, of multi-band split signals, where N is an order of the multi-band MOPA and is greater than or equal to 2. A digital upconversion system for the multi-band MOPA is configured to independently control a gain, phase, and delay for each of a number, M, of frequency bands of the multi-band signal for each of at least N−1, and preferably all, of the multi-band split signals.
US09571039B2
A group-aware, current limited amplifier system including a group brownout control bus and a number of current-limited amplification channels coupled to the group brownout control bus. In an example embodiment, each current-limited amplification channel includes an amplifier, an amplifier power supply developing a current level signal that represents the amount of current being drawn by the amplifier, a brownout controller responsive to a digital audio input, the group brownout control bus, and the current level signal, and operative to develop a control signal; and an audio digital-to-analog (D/A) converter responsive to the digital audio input and to the control signal and operative to develop an analog audio output that is coupled to an input of the amplifier.
US09571032B2
The present invention relates to a junction box for a solar cell module which receives a command of a manager from the outside, controls the solar cell module, displays an operating state of the solar cell module, and implements an anti-theft function, a fire prevention function, etc. of the solar cell module, and a method for driving the same. The junction box for a solar cell module according to the present invention comprises: a relay installed between a solar cell module and a combiner for connecting the solar cell module and the combiner for blocking the connection therebetween according to a control signal transmitted from the outside; an RF communication module for signal-processing a data signal transmitted from the outside and extracting solar cell module information and a command of a manager; and a microprocessor for controlling an operation of the relay so that the relay connects the solar cell module and the combiner or blocks the connection therebetween according to the command of the manager extracted from the RF communication module.
US09571024B1
A multiphase motor generator system includes a multiphase induction motor having a plurality of separate terminals, a multiphase inverter coupled to a DC link voltage source and the plurality of terminals of the multiphase induction motor, a plurality of current detectors configured to detect a plurality of currents that flow between the multiphase inverter and the plurality of terminals of the multiphase induction motor, and a controller coupled to the current detectors and the multiphase inverter, and configured to receive the detected currents and output a plurality of control voltages to the multiphase inverter. The controller includes a multiphase to direct-quadrature (dq) conversion unit, a dq equivalent unit, a dq to multiphase conversion unit, and a pulse-width-modulator (PWM) converter.
US09571023B2
A method and device are disclosed for synchronizing an inverter with an alternating voltage source. The method includes measuring a current generated by the alternating voltage source and flowing through diodes of the inverter, determining a phase angle and angular velocity relating to the alternating voltage source from the measured current for enabling synchronization between the inverter and the alternating voltage source, and starting modulation of the inverter according to the obtained phase angle and angular velocity.
US09571022B2
An electrical DC generation system is disclosed. According to one aspect, a system for electrical DC generation includes an electrical machine having multiple stator windings and multiple rectifiers for connection to portions of the stator windings. At least one active rectifier and at least one passive rectifier are connected in series to form a DC bus having a positive terminal and a negative terminal, where the positive terminal of the DC bus is connected to a positive output terminal of the electrical machine and where the negative terminal of the DC bus is connected to a negative output terminal of the electrical machine. The at least one active rectifier is used to control a current flowing through the DC bus and/or an output voltage of the electrical machine.
US09571018B2
A zero crossing of a motor current waveform at the terminal of a brushless sensor-less multi-phase DC motor is determined without opening a non-drive period while the motor is continuously driven. A voltage level at a first threshold at the terminal of a motor is detected. At a first time, a current flow switch connected to the terminal is switched. At a second time, a voltage level at a second threshold is detected at the terminal of the motor. The zero crossing is determined between the first time and the second time and used to synchronize the driving of the motor.
US09571016B2
A motor control system is disclosed. The motor control system includes a level-shifting unit, a motor unit and a control unit. The level-shifting unit receives an original pulse width modulation (PWM) signal to generate an output PWM signal. When a first high level of the original PWM signal is larger than a first reference value, the level-shifting unit shifts a second high level of the output PWM signal to a set high level. When a first low level of the original PWM signal is lower than a second reference value, the level-shifting unit shifts a second low level of the output PWM signal to a set low level. The control unit controls the speed of the motor according to the output PWM signal.
US09571015B2
A DC permanent magnet synchronous motor, including: a motor body including a rotating shaft, a permanent rotor assembly, a stator assembly, and a housing assembly; a motor controller including a first microprocessor for drive control, an inverter circuit, and a detection circuit for detecting operating parameters of the motor; and an external control card including a second microprocessor for application control. The operating parameters of the motor are input into the first microprocessor by the detection circuit. The first microprocessor outputs a PWM signal to control the inverter circuit. An output end of the inverter circuit is connected to a coil winding. The external control card is disposed outside the motor body and is connected to the motor body via an electric wire. The second microprocessor and the first microprocessor are interconnected so that they can communicate.
US09571011B2
The present disclosure includes: a magnetostrictive plate including a magnetostrictive material; a yoke around which a coil is wound and which has two ends magnetically connected to a surface of the magnetostrictive plate; and a bias magnet that generates bias magnetic flux circulating from one of the two ends of the yoke to the other one of the two ends through the yoke. Here, the magnetostrictive plate is surface-bonded to a non-magnetic structural body.
US09571007B2
A method for controlling a polyphase inverter that includes a number of half bridges connected into an intermediate voltage circuit and center taps between switching elements. By cyclically switching the switching elements, the respective center taps of the half bridges are connected to an upper intermediate circuit rail or to a lower intermediate circuit rail of the intermediate voltage circuit according to the principle of pulse width modulation. The switching elements of at least one half bridge are driven in a modified manner, at least in some time intervals, in that the switching pulses of at least two consecutive periods of the pulse width modulation are concatenated directly in time as one switching pulse. In this way, the switching frequencies of the correspondingly driven switching elements and thus the switching losses of the latter can be further reduced.
US09571006B2
A method for the operation of an electrical circuit taking the form of a multi-level half-bridge (MLHB), and a multi-level half-bridge designed for implementation of the method, comprising two connections to which a bridge voltage is applied and which are connected via two symmetrical branches meeting at a central connection, wherein a central voltage is applied to the central connection against the potential of one of the connections.
US09570994B1
A blanking time for a switch-mode power supply controller includes a first blanking time interval and a second blanking time interval. During the first blanking time interval, the time to charge the feedback voltage at the feedback input of the switch-mode power supply is measured, and a timer setting time is stored based on the measured time. During the second time interval, a series of charge cycles is used. At each charge cycle, the feedback voltage is discharged and then allowed to charge. If, after being discharged, the feedback voltage reaches a voltage threshold during the timer setting time, a counter value is incremented and the next cycle begins. If the feedback voltage does not reach the voltage threshold within the timer setting time, the blanking time ends. If the counter value reaches a count threshold, a shutdown mode is initiated.
US09570987B2
The invention relates to a voltage converter (100), including: a plurality of two-way conversion cells (303), each cell comprising a primary circuit (307, Wp), and a secondary circuit (308, Ws) that is insulated from the primary circuit, wherein each circuit can be separately activated in order to supply an output voltage from the converter; and at least one control circuit (306) configured to, in a first operating mode, control the activated cells in order to transfer electrical energy from the primary circuit to the secondary circuit, and control the inactivated cells in order to transfer electrical energy from the secondary circuit to the primary circuit.
US09570983B2
An electronic system includes a multiple POL regulators that supply a regulated voltage to a component within the electronic system. A phase spreading scheme may be implemented so that the POL regulators operate under various phases to reduce voltage noise, high input capacitance, and high radiated emissions. One phase spreading scheme includes a single POL regulator controlling phase spreading so that the other POL regulators operate under different phases. Another phase spreading scheme includes an upstream POL regulator determining a phase offset that may be passed to a downstream POL regulator so that the downstream POL regulator may operate under a different phase relative to the upstream POL regulator.
US09570981B2
A bidirectional DC-DC converter includes a series circuit of a first winding of a first reactor, a second reactor, and a first switch connected to both ends of a first DC power source, a series circuit of a second switch and a second DC power source connected to both ends of the first switch, a series circuit of a second winding of the first reactor, a third reactor, a first selector switch, and a first diode connected to both ends of a series circuit of the second reactor and the first switch, a series circuit of a second selector switch, a second diode, and the second DC power source connected to both ends of a series circuit of the first selector switch and first diode, and a controller turning on/off the switches and the selector switches.
US09570977B2
An initialization device for a charge pump includes a driving circuit and a bias voltage circuit. The driving circuit is between two power supply nodes. The driving circuit includes a first node configured to be coupled to an output electrode of a capacitor in the charge pump. The bias voltage circuit is coupled to the two power supply nodes. The bias voltage circuit includes a second node coupled to a control terminal of the driving circuit. In response to an applied initialization signal, the bias voltage circuit is configured to output a bias voltage to the second node. The bias voltage has at least two levels that correspond to levels of the applied initialization signal. In response to the bias voltage, the driving circuit is configured to output an output signal having at least two levels that correspond to the at least two levels of the bias voltage.
US09570973B2
A bridgeless power factor correction (PFC) circuit, which includes an alternating current power supply module, a power module, and a control module; the power module includes one or more interleaved PFC circuits, each interleaved PFC circuit includes one inductor, one pair of first switching components, and at least one capacitor, a first end of the inductor is connected to the alternating current power supply module, and a second end of the inductor is connected to one end of each capacitor through one of the first switching components and is also connected to the other end of each capacitor through the other one of the first switching components; and the control module samples a current of each first switching component in the power module, and turns off a first switching component through which a negative current flows.
US09570968B1
A rotor of an induction motor includes a core assembly including a plurality of core discs formed with a plurality of slots; a plurality of conductive bars passing through the slots, each of the conductive bars having a first end and a second end respectively extended out of a first end surface and a second end surface of the core assembly; a first end ring assembly including a plurality of first conductive rings stacked on each other and penetrated by the first ends of the conductive bars; and a second end ring assembly including a plurality of second conductive rings stacked on each other and penetrated by the second ends of the conductive bars; wherein the first conductive rings and the second conductive rings are respectively welded to the first ends and the second ends of the conductive bars by electron beam welding or laser welding.
US09570966B2
A method for manufacturing a coil that is formed by winding a conductor in a loop shape and stacking loops of the conductor and that includes a slot placement portion to be placed in a slot of a stator core, and a coil end placement portion to be placed outside the slot. The method preferably involves a winding step, a protrusion forming step, a crank forming step, an opening step, and an arc forming step. The winding step forms a winding having slot placement and coil end placement portions. The protrusion forming step forms a protruding shape that protrudes in a radially outward direction of the winding. In the crank forming step a stepped portion. The opening step of forming the winding so that an interval between the pair of expected slot placement portions gradually increases. The arc forming step forms an arc-shaped portion curved in the stacking direction.
US09570965B2
A rotor coil for a revolving armature includes a strand coil that includes a part arranged in a core slot of the rotor and is composed of a plurality of element wires; and a solid coil welded to an end of the strand coil wherein the end of the strand coil and an end of the solid coil are welded by friction stir welding. A manufacturing method of a rotor coil includes the step of performing friction stir welding wherein the friction stir welding is performed for the butt joint with the end of the strand coil arranged in an advancing side defined by a rotation direction of a tool and with the solid coil arranged in a retreating side.
US09570963B2
The present invention relates to a brush cover for a brush-commutated electric motor. The brush cover comprises at least one lever brush which is mounted rotatably about an axis at the brush cover by means of a bolt. According to the invention, the bolt is surrounded, at least in sections, by at least one damping sleeve of an elastomer.
US09570958B2
A turbine engine includes an electrical system having at least two generator circuits, one coupled to a high pressure portion of a gas turbine engine and the other coupled to a low pressure portion of the gas turbine engine. The electrical system actively cools an electrical generator during operation in order to ensure proper operation as well as extend the lifespan of the generator.
US09570944B2
A power consumption measurement and control apparatus, method, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium thereof are provided. The power consumption measurement and control apparatus includes a power input line, a power output line, a sensing interface, a processing unit, a button, and a power consumption measurement and control unit. The power consumption measurement and control unit has a logic switch. When the logic switch is off and the processing unit receives an identification signal from the sensing interface, the logic switch is turned on. When the logic switch is on and one of the following conditions happens, the logic switch is turned off: (a) another identification signal from the sensing interface is received, and (b) the power consumption amount flowing out the power output line is below a predetermined threshold over a predetermined time interval.
US09570942B2
An interconnect device is disclosed for detecting whether an vehicle on-board diagnostics (OBD) data port includes a blocking diode or equivalent, that prevents back feeding of power through the OBD data port. If a diode is detected, the interconnect device alerts the user that the power cannot be back fed through the OBD II port connector. In such a condition, an alternate means is used to preserve the data mentioned above. Specifically, an alternative power supply can be connected directly to the battery cables that will be disconnected from the battery, for example, by way of battery clamps. In this way the alternative power supply is used to preserve the data until a new battery is reconnected to the vehicle battery cables. If a diode is not detected by the interconnect device, the interconnect device displays this fact to the user. The interconnect device includes circuitry for detecting and displaying whether a diode is connected in series with a power pin of the OBD II port connector. In addition, the interconnect device includes an OBD II port connector on one end connected by way of a cable to a connector, such as a cigarette lighter connector or hardwired directly to an alternate power supply.
US09570932B2
A charging current setting method for a charging module includes detecting at least two voltage values associated with two input current values of an input voltage signal at an input terminal of the charging module to calculate an input resistance; setting a lower limit voltage value of the input voltage signal according to the input resistance; controlling an input current to increase its magnitude, so that voltage level of the input voltage signal decreases in accordance with increasing level of the input current; controlling the input voltage signal to remain on the lower limit voltage value when the input voltage signal is decreasing and reaches the lower limit voltage value, and recording a magnitude of the input current as an upper limit current value when the input voltage signal is on the lower limit voltage value and the input current becomes stable; and determining a charging current value of the charging module according to the upper limit current value.
US09570922B2
A charging method for an electronic device having a charging unit and a connection interface unit and the electronic device are provided. The connection interface unit is externally connected to a peripheral device. The charging method includes: detecting a signal level between the charging unit and the connection interface unit; and when a time period that the detected signal level keeps on a particular level is over a threshold, resetting the connection interface unit, so as to restart a charging function of the electronic device for the peripheral device.
US09570920B2
A feed unit includes: a power transmission section configured to perform power transmission with use of a magnetic field or an electronic field; a power limiting section provided on a power supply line from an external power source to the power transmission section; and an operation stop section configured to forcibly stop the power transmission. The operation stop section forcibly stops the power transmission when a voltage between an input and an output of the power limiting section exceeds a first threshold. The power limiting section forcibly interrupts power supply to the power transmission section when the voltage between the input and the output exceeds a second threshold that is larger than the first threshold.
US09570918B2
A wireless power transfer system is disclosed that allows for directed power distribution. A power station that transmits the power can also transmit a distribution instruction that authorizes and/or prohibits various systems/components within a receiver device to receive power. A manager and power router within the receiver device route the power as directed by the distribution instruction. When multiple components/systems are authorized to receive the power, the receiver device can monitor power need and route as needed between authorized components/systems. In addition, the receiver device can act as a transmitter to wireless flash power to another device. The flash consists of bursting a large amount of power over a relatively short time. Several constraints, configurations, and considerations are required to perform this function.
US09570910B2
An energy storage apparatus for storing energy transmitted by a power transmission line includes an elastically deformable component and an actuator-generator. The actuator-generator is coupled to the elastically deformable component such that both mechanical and electrical actuation of the actuator-generator causes a generation of electrical energy by the actuator-generator via a release of tension in the elastically deformable component.
US09570904B2
A surge protector for protecting telecommunications related equipment and other associated sensitive electrical components from over-voltage transient occurring on tip/ring conductors of telecommunication lines coupled thereto includes a printed circuit board and a plurality of surge protection circuits being mounted on the printed circuit board. Each of the plurality of surge protection circuits includes a first set of steering diodes and a second set of steering diodes. A common transient voltage clamping device has a first end connected to a first conductor lead and a second end connected to a second conductor lead so as to be shared by the plurality of surge protection circuits. A common pair of series-connected rectifier diodes has a first end also connected to the first conductor lead and a second end also connected to the second conductor lead so as to be shared by the plurality of surge protection circuits.
US09570891B2
A piston rod (15) and a first piston (13) are arranged in the interior of an external cylinder (11) and internal cylinder (12); a second piston for absorbing the change of volume of operating fluid (24) is also arranged therein. Also, a first return spring (18) for returning the piston rod (15) to the interruption position is provided and a second return spring (20) for returning the operating fluid 24 into the high-pressure chamber (25) by pressurizing the second piston (14) is provided. In addition, the air in the interior of the buffering device (10) is withdrawn by a vacuum pump (38), and operating fluid (24) is thus introduced in a degassed condition.
US09570880B2
A laser utilizes a cavity design which allows the stable generation of high peak power pulses from mode-locked multi-mode fiber lasers, greatly extending the peak power limits of conventional mode-locked single-mode fiber lasers. Mode-locking may be induced by insertion of a saturable absorber into the cavity and by inserting one or more mode-filters to ensure the oscillation of the fundamental mode in the multi-mode fiber. The probability of damage of the absorber may be minimized by the insertion of an additional semiconductor optical power limiter into the cavity.
US09570866B2
A jack assembly includes a jack element, an elastic element, and at least one latching portion. The jack element defines a jack opening configured for receiving an electronic element therein. The elastic element is mounted in a side of the jack element. The at least one latching portion protrudes on the elastic element and extends towards the jack opening. The at least one latching portion detachably latches the electronic element to the jack opening so as to secure the electronic element within the jack opening.
US09570850B2
A system for the transmission of electrical current that has at least two rigid conductors, wherein the two conductors are connected via at least one electrically conducting, deformable connecting element, which can comprise a helical spring that is shaped like a ring in the direction of the longitudinal axis thereof and grips a section of a first conductor under pre-tension.
US09570845B2
A connector for a coaxial cable. The connector, in one embodiment, includes a post, a coupler and a continuity member configured to produce a radially-directed biasing force. The continuity member provides an electrical connection between the post and the coupler
US09570839B2
A seal (40) includes an annular portion (41) to be fit externally on a housing main body (11) and resiliently sandwiched between the housing main body (11) and a receptacle (71) when two housings (10, 70) are connected and projections (42) protruding radially out after projecting back from the annular portion (41) and configured such that protruding parts thereof resiliently contact the tip of the receptacle (71) when the two housings (10, 70) are connected. The housing (10) includes deformation guides (24) configured to deform the seal (40) such that a radially outward protruding amount of the projections (42) gradually increases by sliding on the projections (42) in the process of moving the annular portion (41) externally fit on the housing main body (11) toward a proper mounted position.
US09570832B2
A press-fit pin for a semiconductor package includes a shaft terminating in a head. A pair of arms extends away from a center of the head. Each arm includes a curved shape and the arms together form an s-shape. A length of the s-shape is longer than the shaft diameter. An outer extremity of each arm includes a contact surface configured to electrically couple to and form a friction fit with a pin receiver. In implementations the press-fit pin has only two surfaces configured to contact an inner sidewall of the pin receiver and is configured to contact the inner sidewall at only two locations. The shaft may be a cylinder. The s-shape formed by the pair of arms is visible from a view facing a top of the press-fit pin along a direction parallel with the longest length of the shaft. Versions include a through-hole extending through the head.
US09570830B2
A terminal holding member has a tubular shape and includes an accommodation portion into which an electroconductive member is inserted. The terminal holding member elastically holds a mating terminal and the electroconductive member when the mating terminal is inserted into a gap that is formed between the terminal holding member and the electroconductive member inserted into the accommodation portion. The terminal holding member includes a bottom portion that supports a bottom surface of the electroconductive member inserted into the accommodation portion, a surface-contact portion that faces the bottom portion and that is capable of coming into surface-contact with a first surface of the mating terminal, and a spring portion that connects the bottom portion and the surface-contact portion to each other so that the terminal holding member has spring properties with which the surface-contact portion is urged toward the bottom portion.
US09570818B2
A contacting device (100) for connecting an electrical conductor (11) comprises a connection contact (101) for fixing the electrical conductor (11) to the contacting device (100), wherein the connection contact (101) has a retainer (110). The retainer (110) has an accommodating region (112) for accommodating the electrical conductor (11). The accommodating region (112) tapers between an inlet opening (E112) and a base surface (B112) of the accommodating region (112) in such a way that a cross section (A11) of the electrical conductor (11) is deformed when the electrical conductor (11) is inserted into the accommodating region (112), whereby the electrical conductor is retained on the connection contact (101) in the clamping seat. The electrical conductor (11) can thus be fixed to the connection contact (101) without bending of the retainer (110).
US09570817B1
An electrical connector includes a housing and a conductive terminal. The housing includes a terminal slot and an insertion entrance in front of the terminal slot. The conductive terminal is correspondingly mounted in the terminal slot. The conductive terminal comprises a base portion, two side portions and two elastic arms, the base portion extends in a front-rear direction, the two side portions extend upwardly respectively at two sides of a rear end of the base portion, the two elastic arms extend respectively from the two side portions toward the insertion entrance of the housing so that a front end of each elastic arm is close to the insertion entrance. As depicted, a clamping portion is formed close to the front end of each elastic arm by punching a tab therein.
US09570813B2
A user device having a dielectric carrier, a multi-band slot antenna, a reflector and a feed line connector is described. The multi-band slot antenna has slot openings in a second portion of conductive material disposed on a second side of the user device and is operable to radiate electromagnetic energy. The reflector is additional conductive material disposed on the second side and is operable to reflect a majority of the radiated electromagnetic energy away from the user device in a first direction.
US09570807B2
An antenna module includes an antenna line disposed annularly, a magnetic body formed annularly along the antenna line, having a bottom part and a pair of side parts to accommodate the antenna line, and provided with end faces of the pair of side parts disposed in a same direction, and an insulator disposed between the magnetic body and the antenna line.
US09570800B2
By providing a radiator configuration circuit and a feeding circuit each having a simple structure, a ground radiation antenna having a more simplified fabrication process as well as a remarkably reduced fabrication cost is provided herein. Additionally, a ground radiation antenna having an excellent radiation performance, even when one side of a mobile communication terminal is covered with a conductive substance, such as an LCD panel, is also provided herein.
US09570798B1
An antenna assembly including a pair of sheet conductive elements directed in divergent directions, with the conductive elements including a conical sheet conductor and a cylindrical sheet conductor, and a plurality of radiating conductors conductively attached to and extending away from the sheet conductors. A feed point is defined between the conical sheet conductors of the pair of conductive elements. A balun is coupled to the feed point and a tubular radome protects at least portions of the plurality of radiating conductors.
US09570795B1
A multi-functional, multi-layer film or skin which may be used as a covering for a structure or platform incorporates an integrated photovoltaic element and an integrated RF antenna element. The film or skin is suitable for use in various applications, including those involving autonomous, self-powered, mobile communication systems and especially for use as a skin or covering for solar powered aircraft and UAVs. Planar PV cells and planar RF antenna are used to facilitate their integration into the film or skin. The PV cells and RF antenna are configured to face operate outward from opposite faces of the skin. The film or skin addresses potential problems arising from conflicting directional requirements for PV orientation and antenna pointing on mobile platforms. This is accomplished by employing wide angle AR coatings on the PV elements and electrical controls to steer the RF antenna.
US09570794B2
A support apparatus for an inflatable communications antenna system includes a case the size of airline carry-on luggage that is dimensioned to store a deflated antenna and its accompanying power, control and inflation systems.
US09570791B2
A circulator comprises a waveguide housing having a plurality of hollow waveguide arms that communicate with a central cavity, the waveguide housing having a height defined by a plurality of waveguide sidewalls between a waveguide floor and a waveguide ceiling. A ferrite element is disposed in the central cavity of the waveguide housing, with the ferrite element including a central portion. The ferrite element further includes a plurality of ferrite segments that each extend from the central portion and terminate at a distal end. A plurality of dielectric transformers each having an upper surface protrude into the waveguide arms away from the central cavity along the waveguide floor. The dielectric transformers have a height that is less than the height of the waveguide housing such that the upper surface of the transformers is separated from the waveguide ceiling by a gap.
US09570789B2
Provided are coaxial transmission line microstructures formed by a sequential build process, and methods of forming such microstructures. The microstructures include a transition structure for transitioning between the coaxial transmission line and an electrical connector. The microstructures have particular applicability to devices for transmitting electromagnetic energy and other electronic signals.
US09570786B2
A transmission line portion of a high-frequency transmission cable includes a dielectric body in which a first ground conductor, a signal conductor, and a second ground conductor are arranged along a thickness direction of the dielectric body from a first principle surface side. The second ground conductor is arranged at a position that does not overlap the signal conductor when viewed in a direction perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the first principle surface. The third ground conductor and the signal conductor are located at the same position in the thickness direction of the dielectric body. The second and third ground conductors are connected to the first ground conductor via interlayer-connector conductors. The width of the second and third ground conductors is narrower than the width of the signal conductor, but a sum of the widths of the second and third ground conductors is larger than the width of the signal conductor.
US09570785B2
Systems and methods for ferrite circulator phase shifters are provided. In one embodiment, a multi-bit phase shifter comprises: a first switching circulator having a first port coupled to a first short circuit of a first phase length; and a second switching circulator coupled in series with the first switching circulator, the second switching circulator having a second port coupled to a second short circuit of a second phase length, the second switching circulator configured to switch in the second short circuit when the first short circuit is switched out by the first switching circulator, and switch out the second short circuit when the first short circuit is switched in by the first switching circulator.
US09570763B2
A fuel cell power plant (36) has vertical fuel cells (102) each sharing a half of a hybrid separator plate (100) which includes a solid fuel flow plate (105) having horizontal fuel flow channels (106) on one surface and coolant channels (108) on an upper portion of the opposite surface, bonded to a plain rear side of a porous, hydrophilic oxidant flow field plate (115) having vertical oxidant flow channels (118). Coolant permeates through the upper portion of the porous, hydrophilic oxidant flow field plates and enters the oxidant flow channels, where it evaporates as the water trickles downward through the oxidant flow field channels, thereby cooling the fuel cell.
US09570754B2
To provide an NiO-GDC composite powder or NiO-SDC composite powder having a uniform composition, which is suitable as an anode material for a solid oxide fuel cell.A process for producing an anode material for a solid oxide fuel cell, made of a composite powder comprising a composite oxide containing cerium element and gadolinium or samarium element, and oxygen element, and an oxide containing nickel element and oxygen element, which comprises a dissolving step of mixing raw material compounds containing metal elements constituting the above composite powder, at least one organic acid selected from the group consisting of maleic acid, lactic acid and malic acid, and a solvent to obtain a metal elements-containing solution, and a drying/sintering step of drying and sintering the metal elements-containing solution.
US09570744B2
[Problem] To provide a lithium ion secondary battery having excellent high-rate discharge characteristics. [Solution] Excellent high-rate discharge characteristics are obtained by a lithium ion secondary battery in which a compound represented by Lia(NixCoyAl1-x-y)O2 (where 0.95≦a≦1.05, 0.5≦x≦0.9, 0.05≦y≦0.2, and 0.7≦x+y≦1.0) is used as a positive electrode active material in a positive electrode, the positive electrode has an electrode density of 3.75 to 4.1 g/cm3, and the positive electrode has a BET specific surface area of 1.3 to 3.5 m2/g as an electrode.
US09570740B2
In a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery including a positive electrode, a negative electrode and a nonaqueous electrolytic solution, the nonaqueous electrolytic solution contains a nitrile compound having a chain saturated hydrocarbon group and a nitrile group, the number of carbon atoms in the nitrile compound is four or more, and the positive electrode contains a positive-electrode active material on the surface of which particles of a rare earth element compound are deposited in dispersed form.
US09570738B2
A positive active material, a positive electrode and a lithium battery containing the positive active material, and a method of manufacturing the positive active material are disclosed. The positive active material includes: a positive active material core particle for intercalating and deintercalating lithium ions; and a coating layer at least partially surrounding the positive active material core particle and including a ceramic composite represented by Formula 1. Li7+aLa3−bZr2−cMdO12+e Formula 1 In Formula 1, M comprises at least one selected from aluminum (Al), titanium (Ti), scandium (Sc), vanadium (V), yttrium (Y), niobium (Nb), hafnium (Hf), tantalum (Ta), silicon (Si), gallium (Ga), and germanium (Ge), and −1≦a≦1, 0≦b≦2, 0≦c≦2, 0≦d≦2, and 0≦e≦1.
US09570723B2
According to an embodiment, an electric storage apparatus includes an electric storage device; an insulating member arranged in alignment with the electric storage device; and a sandwiching member made of metal configured to sandwich the insulating member with the electric storage device, wherein one of the insulating member and the sandwiching member includes a recess having an opening on a first surface and having a recess-side large-diameter portion, on the bottom side, with an inner circumference larger than the opening, and the other of the insulating member and the sandwiching member includes a projection-side large-diameter portion, on the distal end side, with an outer circumference larger than the opening, the projection-side large-diameter portion being arranged inside the recess-side large-diameter portion.
US09570722B2
Provided is a power storage device that enables a reduction in workload and work risk and thus allows a battery unit to be simply and safely removed from and attached to the power storage device.A power storage device (1) includes a plurality of battery unit receiving portions (70) for receiving battery units (100), a plurality of connectors (20) each floatable in the plane intersecting a direction (X) of insertion of the battery unit (100) into the battery unit receiving portion (70), an attaching object (80) to which the plurality of connectors (20) are attached, and connecting members (93) that connect between the plurality of connectors (20).
US09570716B2
A deposition substrate transferring unit that can deposit a deposition material at an exact location on a substrate, includes an electrostatic chuck that has a first surface to which a substrate is attached; and a carrier having a surface that combines with a second surface of the electrostatic chuck to move the electrostatic chuck in a first direction. The carrier includes accommodation parts disposed in empty space within the carrier, and supplementary ribs respectively formed on surfaces of the accommodation parts.
US09570714B2
An organic layer deposition assembly, an organic layer deposition apparatus, an organic light-emitting display apparatus, and a method of manufacturing the organic light-emitting display apparatus, in order to improve a characteristic of a deposited layer, the organic layer deposition assembly including a deposition source for discharging a deposition material; a deposition source nozzle unit disposed at a side of the deposition source, and including a plurality of deposition source nozzles; and a patterning slit sheet disposed while facing the deposition source nozzle unit, and including a plurality of patterning slits and one or more alignment confirmation pattern slits that are formed at edge portions of the plurality of patterning slits, wherein the deposition material that is discharged from the deposition source passes through the patterning slit sheet and then is formed on the substrate, while a deposition process is performed.
US09570709B2
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an ultrathin organic light-emitting device and, more specifically, to a method for manufacturing an ultrathin organic light-emitting device capable of dramatically reducing the thickness thereof, in addition to improving light extraction efficiency. To this end, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing an ultrathin organic light-emitting device, comprising: a polymer material coating step for coating a polymer material onto a support; a frit coating step for coating a frit paste onto the polymer material; a heat treatment and separation step for conducting heat treatment at a temperature at which the polymer material breaks down, thereby separating the support and a frit substrate which has been formed by heat-treating the frit paste; and a device layer forming step for forming, in sequence, a device layer comprising a first electrode, a device layer comprising an organic light-emitting layer, and a device layer comprising a second electrode, on one side of the frit substrate which has been in contact with the polymer material.
US09570708B2
An organic light emitting display including a back plane including an active area on which an image is displayed, and a bezel area outside the active area; a pixel array on the active area and configured to display the image; an encapsulation plate encapsulating the pixel array; a transparent adhesive film free of a moisture absorption filler, formed on the active area and disposed between the encapsulation plate and the back plane; and a dam including a sealant with a moisture absorption filler formed in the bezel area and adjoining the adhesive layer so as to limit moisture from penetrating into the pixel array.
US09570707B2
An OLED display according to an exemplary embodiment includes: a substrate; an organic light emitting diode formed on the substrate; an overcoat covering the organic light emitting diode; and a patterned metal sheet attached on the overcoat and having a plurality of protrusion and depression portions. A plurality of protrusions may be formed in a bottom surface of the patterned metal sheet where the protrusion and depression portions of the patterned metal sheet and the overcoat face each other.
US09570706B2
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display is disclosed. In one aspect, the OLED display comprises a display substrate, an encapsulation substrate, and at least one spacer. The display substrate includes a non-pixel area, wherein a plurality of via holes is formed in the non-pixel area. The encapsulation substrate is formed over the display substrate. The spacer is formed between the display substrate and the encapsulation substrate so as to maintain a gap therebetween, wherein the spacer at least partially covers at least one of a plurality of via holes.
US09570705B2
Provided are a method of manufacturing an organic electronic device (OED), an OED manufactured thereby, and a use of the OED. During a process of manufacturing an OED, exposure of a pad region may be efficiently performed in a simple process, thereby preventing permeation of a contaminant, and an OED manufactured by the method and a use of the OED may be provided.
US09570699B2
Provided is an organic light emitting device including a transparent electrode in which conducting filaments are formed and a method of manufacturing the same. In the organic light emitting device, a transparent electrode of an organic light emitting device is formed by using a resistance change material which has high transmittance with respect to light in a UV wavelength range and of which resistance state is to be changed from a high resistance state into a low resistance state due to conducting filaments, which current can flow through, formed in the material if a voltage exceeding a threshold voltage inherent in a material is applied to the material, so that it is possible to obtain the transparent electrode having high transmittance with respect to light in a UV wavelength range as well as light in a visible wavelength range generated by the organic light emitting device and having high conductivity.
US09570696B2
Provided is a white organic light emitting device which can improve abnormal light emission and efficiency and reliability of the device.A white organic light emitting device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes: a first light emitting unit including a first emitting layer between a first electrode and a second electrode; a second light emitting unit including a second emitting layer on the first light emitting unit; and a charge generation layer between the first light emitting unit and the second light emitting unit, and a volume of a metal in the charge generation layer is 1.0% or less of the total volume of the charge generation layer.
US09570664B2
Provided are a light emitting device package, a backlight unit, a lighting device and its manufacturing method. The light emitting device package may include a flip chip type light emitting device having a first pad and a second pad, a lead frame that includes a first electrode disposed at one side of an electrode separation space, and a second electrode disposed at the other side of the electrode separation space, and on which the light emitting device is mounted, a first bonding medium formed between the first pad of the light emitting device and the first electrode of the lead frame to electrically connect the first pad and the first electrode, and a second bonding medium formed between the second pad of the light emitting device and the second electrode of the lead frame to electrically connect the second pad and the second electrode, wherein at least one first accommodating cup capable of accommodating the first bonding medium is formed in the first electrode of the lead frame, wherein at least one second accommodating cup capable of accommodating the second bonding medium is formed in the second electrode of the lead frame, and wherein at least one air discharge path is formed on each of the first and second accommodating cups.
US09570657B2
A strain release layer adjoining the active layer in a blue LED is bounded on the bottom by a first relatively-highly silicon-doped region and is also bounded on the top by a second relatively-highly silicon-doped region. The second relatively-highly silicon-doped region is a sublayer of the active layer of the LED. The first relatively-highly silicon-doped region is a sublayer of the N-type layer of the LED. The first relatively-highly silicon-doped region is also separated from the remainder of the N-type layer by an intervening sublayer that is only lightly doped with silicon. The silicon doping profile promotes current spreading and high output power (lumens/watt). The LED has a low reverse leakage current and a high ESD breakdown voltage. The strain release layer has a concentration of indium that is between 5×1019 atoms/cm3 and 5×1020 atoms/cm3, and the first and second relatively-highly silicon-doped regions have silicon concentrations that exceed 1×1018 atoms/cm3.
US09570654B2
A nitride light-emitting diode including: a substrate with sub-micro patterns over the surface, which is divided into a growth region and a non-growth region; a growth blocking layer, formed in the non-growth region of the substrate for blocking epitaxial growth in the non-growth region of the substrate; a light-emitting epitaxial layer, comprising an n-type layer, a light-emitting layer and a p-type layer, formed in the growth region of the substrate, which extends to the non-growth region through lateral epitaxy and covers the growth blocking layer; wherein, the refractive index of the growth blocking layer is less than that of the light-emitting epitaxial layer and the growth blocking layer forms undulating morphology along the sub-micro patterns of the substrate, thus increasing light extraction interface of LED, generating refractive index difference between the light-emitting epitaxial layer and the light extraction interface and improving light extraction efficiency.
US09570652B2
An LED is provided. The LED includes at least two light emitting units located on a same plane. Each light emitting unit includes a first semiconductor layer, an active layer and a second semiconductor layer stacked in that order. Each light emitting unit further includes a first electrode and a second electrode electrically connected with the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer respectively. The active layer of each light emitting unit is spaced from the active layers of other light emitting units. A distance between adjacent active layer ranges from 1 micron to 1 millimeter.
US09570650B2
An elongate photovoltaic (PV) module for use in a solar energy conversion plant for the production of electricity from incident light, the PV-module comprising a top portion with a support panel (G) carrying on a front side a plurality of electrically connected PV cells (D), and a transparent protective layer (A) sealed to the support panel (G) so as to encapsulate the PV-cells (D) between the support panel (G) and the protective layer (A), wherein prior to installation of the PV-module at the deployment site a collapsible portion of the PV-module is configured to be collapsible in a longitudinal direction by folding and/or rolling, wherein the collapsible portion includes at least the top portion, wherein the PV-module further comprises one or more integrated ballast chambers (I) in a bottom portion of the PV-module arranged on a rear side of the support panel (G), wherein said integrated ballast chamber (I) after installation of the PV-module at the deployment site contains an amount of a ballasting material (H) with a weight sufficient to immobilize the PV-module on a supporting surface of the deployment site under predetermined characteristic climate conditions for the deployment site.
US09570648B2
Optoelectronic devices (e.g., optical proximity sensors), methods for fabricating optoelectronic devices, and systems including optoelectronic devices, are described herein. An optoelectronic device includes a light detector die that includes a light detector sensor area. A light source die is attached to a portion of the light detector die that does not include the light detector sensor area. An opaque barrier is formed between the light detector sensor area and the light source die, and a light transmissive material encapsulates the light detector sensor area and the light source die. Rather than requiring a separate base substrate (e.g., a PCB substrate) to which are connected a light source die and a light detector die, the light source die is connected to the light detector die, such that the light detector die acts as the base for the finished optoelectronic device. This provides for cost reductions and reduces the total package footprint.
US09570646B2
An integrated circuit includes a substrate material that includes an epitaxial layer, wherein the substrate material and the epitaxial layer form a first semiconductor material with the epitaxial layer having a first conductivity type. At least one nanowire comprising a second semiconductor material having a second conductivity type doped differently than the first conductivity type of the first semiconductor material forms a junction crossing region with the first semiconductor material. The nanowire and the first semiconductor material form an avalanche photodiode (APD) in the junction crossing region to enable single photon detection. In an alternative configuration, the APD is formed as a p-i-n crossing region where n represents an n-type material, i represents an intrinsic layer, and p represents a p-type material.
US09570637B2
A solar cell includes: a semiconductor substrate having a light receiving surface and a back surface; a first semiconductor layer of the first conductivity type on the back surface; a second semiconductor layer of the second conductivity type on the back surface; a first electrode electrically connected to the first semiconductor layer; and an insulating layer for electrically insulating the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer from each other in a region in which an edge of the first semiconductor layer and an edge of second semiconductor layer overlap. The first electrode includes a first transparent electrode layer and a first collection electrode layer on the first transparent electrode layer. The first transparent electrode layer is separated into a primary electrode layer that is on the first semiconductor layer and a separated electrode layer that is on the second semiconductor layer in the region.
US09570629B2
The embodiments of the present invention provide a thin film transistor including a gate, an upper active layer, a lower active layer, an upper source, a lower source, an upper drain and a lower drain. The upper active layer and the lower active layer are disposed at an upper side and a lower side of the gate, respectively, the lower source and the lower drain are connected to the lower active layer, respectively, and the upper source and the upper drain are connected to the upper active layer, respectively. The embodiments of the present invention also provide an array substrate including the thin film transistor, a method of fabricating the array substrate, and a display device including the array substrate.
US09570623B2
A semiconductor device capable of high speed operation is provided. Further, a semiconductor device in which change in electric characteristics due to a short channel effect is hardly caused is provided. An oxide semiconductor having crystallinity is used for a semiconductor layer of a transistor. A channel formation region, a source region, and a drain region are formed in the semiconductor layer. The source region and the drain region are formed by self-aligned process in which one or more elements selected from Group 15 elements are added to the semiconductor layer with the use of a gate electrode as a mask. The source region and the drain region can have a wurtzite crystal structure.
US09570619B2
As a display device has higher definition, the number of pixels is increased and thus, the number of gate lines and signal lines is increased. When the number of gate lines and signal lines is increased, it is difficult to mount IC chips including driver circuits for driving the gate lines and the signal lines by bonding or the like, whereby manufacturing cost is increased. A pixel portion and a driver circuit for driving the pixel portion are provided on the same substrate, and at least part of the driver circuit comprises a thin film transistor including an oxide semiconductor sandwiched between gate electrodes. A channel protective layer is provided between the oxide semiconductor and a gate electrode provided over the oxide semiconductor. The pixel portion and the driver circuit are provided on the same substrate, which leads to reduction of manufacturing cost.
US09570615B2
A process for fabrication of semiconductor devices, particularly FinFETs, having a low contact horizontal resistance and a resulting device are provided. Embodiments include: providing a substrate having source and drain regions separated by a gate region; forming a gate electrode having a first length on the gate region; forming an epitaxy layer on the source and drain regions; forming a contact layer having a second length, longer than the first length, at least partially on the epitaxy layer; and forming an oxide layer on top and side surfaces of the contact layer for at least the first length.
US09570608B2
A semiconductor device includes a stressed substrate stressed by a first stress, a first stressed channel formed in the substrate and having the first stress, and a first strained gate electrode strained by a first strain generating element. A first strained gate electrode is formed over the first stressed channel, the first strained gate electrode including a first lattice-mismatched layer to induce a second stress to the first stressed channel.
US09570606B2
An LDMOS (Laterally-Diffused Metal Oxide Semiconductor) device has a substrate, which includes a first doped region, a second doped region, and a shallow trench isolation (STI) region disposed in the second doped region. The first doped region and the second doped region are adjacent and have different conductivity types. The device also has a gate structure disposed on the substrate; the gate structure substantially does not overlap the second doped region.
US09570598B2
A semiconductor structure comprises a first layer. The first layer comprises a first III-V semiconductor material. The semiconductor structure also comprises a second layer over the first layer. The second layer comprises a second III-V semiconductor material different from the first III-V semiconductor material. The semiconductor structure further comprises an insulating layer over the second layer. The insulating layer is patterned to expose a portion of the first layer. The exposed portion of the first layer comprises electrons of the second layer. The semiconductor structure additionally comprises an intermetallic compound over the exposed portion of the first layer.
US09570592B2
A method of forming a memory device on a semiconductor substrate having a memory region (with floating and control gates), a first logic region (with first logic gates) and a second logic region (with second logic gates). A first implantation forms the source regions adjacent the floating gates in the memory region, and the source and drain regions adjacent the first logic gates in the first logic region. A second implantation forms the source and drain regions adjacent the second logic gates in the second logic region. A third implantation forms the drain regions adjacent the control gates in the memory region, and enhances the source region in the memory region and the source/drain regions in the first logic region. A fourth implantation enhances the source/drain regions in the second logic region.
US09570587B2
A method for performing a stress memorization technique (SMT) a FinFET and a FinFET having memorized stress effects including multi-planar dislocations are disclosed. An exemplary embodiment includes receiving a FinFET precursor with a substrate, a fin structure on the substrate, an isolation region between the fin structures, and a gate stack over a portion of the fin structure. The gate stack separates a source region of the fin structure from a drain region of the fin structure and creates a gate region between the two. The embodiment also includes forming a stress-memorization technique (SMT) capping layer over at least a portion of each of the fin structures, isolation regions, and the gate stack, performing a pre-amorphization implant on the FinFET precursor by implanting an energetic doping species, performing an annealing process on the FinFET precursor, and removing the SMT capping layer.
US09570585B2
A method of forming a transistor device includes providing a drift layer having a first conductivity type, forming a first region in the drift layer, the first region having a second conductivity type that is opposite the first conductivity type, forming a body layer on the drift layer including the first region, forming a source layer on the body layer, forming a trench in the source layer and the body layer above the first region and extending into the first region, forming a gate insulator on the inner sidewall of the trench, and forming a gate contact on the gate insulator.
US09570584B2
Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a semiconductor device including a substrate and a gate structure on the substrate. A first well region of a first conductivity type is in the substrate, close to a first sidewall of the gate structure. A second well region of a second conductivity type is also in the substrate close to the second sidewall of the gate structure. A conductive region is disposed in the second well region. The conductive region can be an epitaxy region. A chemical composition inside the second well region between the conductive region and the gate structure is essentially homogeneous as a chemical composition throughout the second well region.
US09570581B2
A stack gate structure for a non-volatile memory array has a semiconductor substrate having a plurality of substantially parallel spaced apart active regions, with each active region having an axis in a first direction. A first insulating material is between each stack gate structure in the second direction perpendicular to the first direction. Each stack gate structure has a second insulating material over the active region, a charge holding gate over the second insulating material, a third insulating material over the charge holding gate, and a first portion of a control gate over the third insulating material. A second portion of the control gate is over the first portion of the control gate and over the first insulating material adjacent thereto and extending in the second direction. A fourth insulating material is over the second portion of the control gate.
US09570580B1
A method of forming a semiconductor device includes etching a substrate to form two first trenches separated by a fin; filling the two first trenches with an isolation layer; and depositing a dielectric layer over the fin and the isolation layer. The method further includes forming a second trench in the dielectric layer over a channel region of the semiconductor device, the second trench exposing the isolation layer. The method further includes etching the isolation layer through the second trench to expose an upper portion of the fin in the channel region of the semiconductor device, and forming a dummy gate in the second trench over the isolation layer and engaging the upper portion of the fin.
US09570578B2
A gate forming process includes the following steps. A gate dielectric layer is formed on a substrate. A barrier layer is formed on the gate dielectric layer. A silicon seed layer and a silicon layer are sequentially and directly formed on the barrier layer, wherein the silicon seed layer and the silicon layer are formed by different precursors.
US09570577B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor mesa that includes at least one body zone forming first pn junctions with source zones and a second pn junction with a drift zone. Electrode structures are on opposite sides of the semiconductor mesa. At least one of the electrode structures includes a gate electrode configured to control a charge carrier flow through the at least one body zone. In a separation region between the source zones, which are arranged along an extension direction of the semiconductor mesa, the semiconductor mesa includes at least one partial or complete constriction.
US09570570B2
The present disclosure relates to a silicon carbide (SiC) field effect device that has a gate assembly formed in a trench. The gate assembly includes a gate dielectric that is an dielectric layer, which is deposited along the inside surface of the trench and a gate dielectric formed over the gate dielectric. The trench extends into the body of the device from a top surface and has a bottom and side walls that extend from the top surface of the body to the bottom of the trench. The thickness of the dielectric layer on the bottom of the trench is approximately equal to or greater than the thickness of the dielectric layer on the side walls of the trench.
US09570555B1
Source and drain epitaxial semiconductor material integration for high voltage semiconductor devices
A method of forming a semiconductor device that includes providing a first set of fin structures having a first pitch, and a second set of fin structure having a second pitch, wherein the second pitch is greater than the first pitch. An epitaxial semiconductor material on the first and second set of fin structures. The epitaxial semiconductor material on the first fin structures is merging epitaxial material and the epitaxial material on the second fin structures is non-merging epitaxial material. A dielectric liner is formed atop the epitaxial semiconductor material that is present on the first and second sets of fin structures. The dielectric liner is removed from a portion of the non-merging epitaxial material that is present on the second set of fin structures. A bridging epitaxial semiconductor material is formed on exposed surfaces of the non-merging epitaxial material.
US09570550B1
A method for forming a semiconductor device comprising forming a stack of nanowires, the stack including a first nanowire having a first length, and a second nanowire having a second length, the second nanowire arranged above the first nanowire, forming a sacrificial gate stack on the stack of nanowires, growing a source/drain region on the first, second nanowires, removing the sacrificial gate stack to expose channel regions of the first and second nanowires, and forming a gate stack over the channel regions.
US09570543B2
A semiconductor substrate has an element portion and a termination portion located on an outer side of the element portion. A first electrode layer is provided on a first surface of the semiconductor substrate. A second electrode layer is provided on a second surface of the semiconductor substrate in an upper portion of the element portion. An interlayer insulation film is provided on the second surface of the semiconductor substrate. The interlayer insulation film has: an element insulation portion that provides insulation between a part of the element portion of the semiconductor substrate and the second electrode layer; and a termination insulation portion covering a termination portion of the semiconductor substrate. The termination insulation portion includes a high dielectric constant film that is higher in dielectric constant than the element insulation portion.
US09570520B2
A light emitting device, including a first electrode; a hole transport area on the first electrode; a first light emitting layer on the hole transport area, the first light emitting layer emitting a first color, and having a first thickness; a second light emitting layer adjacent to one side of the first light emitting layer, the second light emitting layer emitting a second color, and having a second thickness; a first shadow layer on the first light emitting layer, the first shadow layer including a same material as the second light emitting layer, and first shadow layer having a thickness corresponding to about 1% of the second thickness; an electron transport area on the first light emitting layer, the second light emitting layer, and the first shadow layer; and a second electrode on the hole transport area.
US09570519B2
Discussed is an organic light emitting display device. The organic light emitting display device includes a substrate in which red, green, and blue pixel areas are defined, a first electrode and a hole transport layer formed on the substrate, first to third emitting material layers formed in each of the red, green, and blue pixel areas on the hole transport layer, a first electron transport layer formed on the first to third emitting material layers, a first charge generation layer formed on the first electron transport layer, a second charge generation layer formed on the first charge generation layer, fourth to sixth emitting material layers formed in each of the red, green, and blue pixel areas on the second charge generation layer, a second electron transport layer formed on the fourth to sixth emitting material layers, and a second electrode formed on the second electron transport layer.
US09570507B2
An image sensor pixel includes a semiconductor layer, a photosensitive region to accumulate photo-generated charge, a floating node, a trench, and an entrenched transfer gate. The photosensitive region and the trench are disposed within the semiconductor layer. The trench extends into the semiconductor layer between the photosensitive region and the floating node and the entrenched transfer gate is disposed within the trench to control transfer of the photo-generated charge from the photosensitive region to the floating node.
US09570503B2
Provided is an image sensor device. The image sensor device includes a substrate having a front side and a back side. The image sensor includes first and second radiation-detection devices that are disposed in the substrate. The first and second radiation-detection devices are operable to detect radiation waves that enter the substrate through the back side. The image sensor also includes an anti-reflective coating (ARC) layer. The ARC layer is disposed over the back side of the substrate. The ARC layer has first and second ridges that are disposed over the first and second radiation-detection devices, respectively. The first and second ridges each have a first refractive index value. The first and second ridges are separated by a substance having a second refractive index value that is less than the first refractive index value.
US09570500B2
A solid-state imaging device includes: a pixel region in which a plurality of pixels composed of a photoelectric conversion section and a pixel transistor is arranged; an on-chip color filter; an on-chip microlens; and a multilayer interconnection layer in which a plurality of layers of interconnections is formed through an interlayer insulating film. The solid-state imaging device further includes a light-shielding film formed through an insulating layer in a pixel boundary of a light receiving surface in which the photoelectric conversion section is arranged.
US09570494B1
In one embodiment, a method for forming a backside illuminated image sensor includes providing a region of semiconductor material having a first major surface and a second major surface configured to receive incident light. A pixel structure is formed within the region of semiconductor material adjacent the first major surface. Thereafter, a trench structure comprising a metal material is formed extending through the region of semiconductor material. A first surface of the trench structure is adjacent the first major surface of the region of semiconductor material and a second surface adjoining the second major surface of the region of semiconductor material. A first contact structure is electrically connected to one surface of the conductive trench structure and a second contact structure is electrically connected to an opposing second surface.
US09570487B2
An optical output photodetector includes a substrate having a semiconductor surface and at least one optical photodetector element on the semiconductor surface. The optical photodetector element includes a plurality of integrated sensing regions which collectively provide a plurality of different absorbance spectra. The plurality of sensing regions includes a plurality of different semiconductor materials or a semiconductor material having a plurality of different dopants. The optical photodetector element can be configured as an array of optical photodetector elements and the dopants can be magnetic dopants.
US09570483B2
A flat panel display device with an oxide thin film transistor is disclosed which includes: an oxide semiconductor layer which has a width of a first length and is formed on a buffer film; a gate insulation film which has a width of a second length and is formed on the oxide semiconductor layer; a gate electrode which has a width of a third length and is formed on the gate insulation film; an interlayer insulation film formed on the entire surface of the substrate provided with the gate electrode; source and drain electrodes formed on the interlayer insulation film and connected to the oxide semiconductor layer; a pixel electrode formed on a passivation film and connected to the drain electrode. The first length is larger than the second length and the second length is larger than the third length.
US09570477B2
A thin film transistor (“TFT”) array panel includes; an insulation substrate, a TFT disposed on the insulation substrate and including a drain electrode, a passivation layer covering the TFT and including a contact portion disposed therein corresponding to the drain electrode, a partition comprising an organic material disposed on the passivation layer, and including a transverse portion, a longitudinal portion, and a contact portion disposed on the drain electrode, a color filter disposed on the passivation layer and disposed in a region defined by the partition, an organic capping layer disposed on the partition and the color filter, and a pixel electrode disposed on the organic capping layer, and connected to the drain electrode through the contact portion of the passivation layer and the contact portion of the partition, wherein a contact hole is formed in the organic capping layer corresponding to the contact portion of the passivation layer.
US09570475B2
Embodiments of the disclosure provide an array substrate and a manufacture method thereof. The array substrate comprises a display region and a non-display region, the display region comprises a transistor, the transistor comprises a source electrode, a drain electrode and an active layer, the source electrode and the drain electrode are provided on the active layer and are respectively provided at two ends of the active layer. The non-display region is provided with an alignment mark, the alignment mark is provided in a same layer as the active layer and is configured for aligning the source electrode and the drain electrode with the active layer in the case of re-fabricating the source electrode and the drain electrode.
US09570468B2
Semiconductor devices and fabrication methods for simultaneously forming a 3T-FinFET and a 4T-FinFET on a same substrate are provided. A first fin and a second fin can be formed on a semiconductor substrate. The first fin has a top surface higher than the second fin. A first gate dielectric layer and a first gate can be formed across the first fin. A second gate dielectric layer and a second gate can be formed across the second fin. An interlayer dielectric layer can be formed to cover the first gate, the second gate, and the semiconductor substrate. A first portion of the interlayer dielectric layer, a portion of the first gate, and a portion of the first gate dielectric layer, over the first fin, and a second portion of the interlayer dielectric layer over the second fin can be removed to expose the second gate.
US09570467B2
High voltage three-dimensional devices having dielectric liners and methods of forming high voltage three-dimensional devices having dielectric liners are described. For example, a semiconductor structure includes a first fin active region and a second fin active region disposed above a substrate. A first gate structure is disposed above a top surface of, and along sidewalls of, the first fin active region. The first gate structure includes a first gate dielectric, a first gate electrode, and first spacers. The first gate dielectric is composed of a first dielectric layer disposed on the first fin active region and along sidewalls of the first spacers, and a second, different, dielectric layer disposed on the first dielectric layer and along sidewalls of the first spacers. The semiconductor structure also includes a second gate structure disposed above a top surface of, and along sidewalls of, the second fin active region. The second gate structure includes a second gate dielectric, a second gate electrode, and second spacers. The second gate dielectric is composed of the second dielectric layer disposed on the second fin active region and along sidewalls of the second spacers.
US09570463B1
A three-dimensional memory device including multiple stack structures can be formed with a joint region electrode, which is an electrode formed at a joint region located near the interface between an upper stack structure and a lower stack structure. A memory stack structure is formed through the multiple stack structures. The joint region electrode laterally surrounds a portion of the memory stack structure in proximity to the interface between different stack structures. The joint region electrode includes a layer portion having a thickness and a collar portion that laterally surrounds the memory stack structure and having a greater vertical extent than the thickness of the layer portion. The increased vertical extent of the collar portion with respect to the vertical extent of the layer portion provides enhanced control of a portion of a semiconductor channel in the memory stack structure located near the interface between different stack structures.
US09570456B1
A semiconductor integrated device and a method of forming the same, the semiconductor integrated device includes a substrate, at least one shallow trench isolation, a memory cell device and a poly-insulator-poly capacitor. A capacitor region and a memory cell region are defined on the substrate. The at least one shallow trench isolation is formed in the substrate. The memory cell device is disposed on the at least one shallow trench isolation in the memory cell region and includes a double polysilicon gate. The poly-insulator-poly capacitor is disposed on the at least one shallow trench isolation in the capacitor region, wherein the poly-insulator-poly capacitor directly contacts the at least one shallow trench isolation.
US09570450B1
The method includes forming a first opening in a dielectric layer exposing a source drain region of an SRAM device and forming a second opening in the dielectric layer exposing a source drain region of a logic device, forming a third opening in the dielectric layer exposing a gate of the SRAM device and forming a fourth opening in the dielectric layer exposing a gate of the logic device, forming a first sidewall spacer in the third opening and forming a second sidewall spacer in the fourth opening, recessing a portion of the first sidewall spacer without recessing the second sidewall spacer, forming a strapped contact in the first and third openings, the strapped contact creates an electrical connection between the source drain region of the SRAM device and the gate of the SRAM device, the electrical connection is directly above a remaining portion of the first sidewall spacer.
US09570449B2
A metal strap is formed in a middle-of-line (MOL) process for communication between an eDRAM and a FinFET. An oxide is deposited in a trench over the eDRAM to prevent development of an epitaxial film prior to formation of the metal strap. The result is an epiless eDRAM strap in a FinFET.
US09570444B2
A disposable semiconductor material is deposited to form disposable semiconductor material portions on semiconductor fins. A first dielectric liner is deposited and patterned to form openings above a first set of disposable semiconductor material portions on a first semiconductor fin. The first set of disposable semiconductor material portions is replaced with a first set of active semiconductor regions by a combination of an etch and a selective epitaxy process that deposits a first semiconductor material. A second dielectric liner is deposited and patterned to form openings above the second set of disposable semiconductor material portions. The second set of disposable semiconductor material portions is replaced with a second set of active semiconductor regions employing another epitaxy process that deposits a second semiconductor material. The active semiconductor regions can have the same faceting profile irrespective of the semiconductor materials therein.
US09570443B1
In one example, a device includes a p-type field effect transistor region and n-type field effect transistor region. The p-type field effect transistor region includes at least one fin including strained germanium. The n-type field effect transistor region also includes at least one fin including strained germanium.
US09570440B2
Embodiments of semiconductor devices and driver circuits include a semiconductor substrate having a first conductivity type, an isolation structure (including a sinker region and a buried layer), an active device within area of the substrate contained by the isolation structure, and a diode circuit. The buried layer is positioned below the top substrate surface, and has a second conductivity type. The sinker region extends between the top substrate surface and the buried layer, and has the second conductivity type. The active device includes a body region of the second conductivity type, and the diode circuit is connected between the isolation structure and the body region. The diode circuit may include one or more Schottky diodes and/or PN junction diodes. In further embodiments, the diode circuit may include one or more resistive networks in series and/or parallel with the Schottky and/or PN diode(s).
US09570437B2
A semiconductor die is disclosed comprising a lateral semiconductor device on an upper major surface of a substrate, the integrated circuit comprising a silicon layer over the substrate, a recess in the silicon layer, a layer of LOCOS silicon oxide within the recess and having a grown upper surface which is coplanar with the surface of an un-recessed portion of the silicon layer, wherein the silicon layer beneath the recess has a non-uniform lateral doping profile, and is comprised in a drift region of the lateral semiconductor device. A method of making such a die is also disclosed, as is an integrated circuit and a driver circuit.
US09570431B1
An embodiment semiconductor wafer includes a bottom semiconductor layer having a first doping concentration, a middle semiconductor layer over the bottom semiconductor layer, and a top semiconductor layer over the middle semiconductor layer. The middle semiconductor layer has a second doping concentration greater than the first doping concentration, and the top semiconductor layer has a third doping concentration less than the second doping concentration. A lateral surface of the bottom semiconductor layer is an external surface of the semiconductor wafer, and sidewalls of the bottom semiconductor layer, the middle semiconductor layer, and top semiconductor layer are substantially aligned.
US09570428B1
A tiled array of hybrid assemblies and a method of forming such an array enables the assemblies to be placed close together. Each assembly comprises first and second dies, with the second die mounted on and interconnected with the first die. Each vertical edge of a second die which is to be located adjacent to a vertical edge of another second die in the tiled array is etched such that the etched edge is aligned with a vertical edge of the first die. Indium bumps are deposited on a baseplate where the hybrid assemblies are to be mounted, and the assemblies are mounted onto respective indium bumps using a hybridizing machine, enabling the assemblies to be placed close together, preferably ≦10 μm. The first and second dies may be, for example. a detector and a readout IC, or an array of LEDs and a read-in IC.
US09570427B2
Light emitting devices and methods of integrating micro LED devices into light emitting device are described. In an embodiment a light emitting device includes a reflective bank structure within a bank layer, and a conductive line atop the bank layer and elevated above the reflective bank structure. A micro LED device is within the reflective bank structure and a passivation layer is over the bank layer and laterally around the micro LED device within the reflective bank structure. A portion of the micro LED device and a conductive line atop the bank layer protrude above a top surface of the passivation layer.
US09570425B2
Provided are a display including a nano-scale LED and a method for manufacturing the same. In detail, nano-scale LED devices, each of which has a nano unit, are connected to nano-scale electrodes without electrical short-circuit to overcome a limitation in which it is difficult to allow nano-scale LED devices according to the related art to stand up and be coupled to electrodes and a limitation in which it is difficult to allow the nano-scale LED devices to be one-to-one coupled to the nano-scale electrodes different from each other, thereby realizing a display including the nano-scale LEDs. Also, the display may have superior light extraction efficiency and prevent defective pixels and the defect of the whole display due to the defects of the nano-scale LED devices, which may rarely occur, from occurring to minimize the defects of the display including the nano-scale LEDs and maintain its original function.
US09570424B2
A light source module includes a circuit board, light emitting diode chips mounted on the circuit board by flip-chip bonding or a surface mounting technology (SMT), and a diffusor covering the circuit board and the light emitting diode chips.
US09570414B2
According to one embodiment, a first electrode is formed on a first face of a first semiconductor chip, and a second electrode and a protrusion are formed on a second face of a second semiconductor chip. The first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip are spaced from one another by the protrusion in such a manner that the first face and the second face face each other. The first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip are subject to reflow to be electrically connected to each other, and then the protrusion is cured at a temperature lower than a reflow temperature.
US09570409B2
A semiconductor device includes: a first interconnection line and a second interconnection line which extend apart from each other on a first plane at a first level on a substrate; a bypass interconnection line that extends on a second plane at a second level on the substrate; and a plurality of contact plugs for connecting the bypass interconnection line to the first interconnection line and the second interconnection line. A method includes forming a bypass interconnection line spaced apart from a substrate and forming on a same plane a plurality of interconnection lines connected to the bypass interconnection line via a plurality of contact plugs.
US09570408B2
A resin-sealed semiconductor device 10 of the present invention includes: a mesa-type semiconductor element 100 which includes a mesa-type semiconductor base body having a pn-junction exposure portion in an outer peripheral tapered region which surrounds a mesa region, and a glass layer which covers at least the outer peripheral tapered region; and a molding resin 40 which seals the mesa-type semiconductor element 100, wherein the mesa-type semiconductor element 100 includes a glass layer which substantially contains no Pb as the glass layer. The resin-sealed semiconductor device of the present invention can acquire higher resistance to a reverse bias at a high temperature than a conventional resin-sealed semiconductor device, although the resin-sealed semiconductor device of the present invention has the structure where the mesa-type semiconductor element is molded with a resin in the same manner as the conventional resin-sealed semiconductor device.
US09570405B2
One semiconductor device includes a wiring substrate, a semiconductor chip layered on one face of the wiring substrate and having a first face facing the wiring substrate and a second face positioned on a reverse side from the first face, a circuit being formed on at least the second face, a non-circuit-incorporating chip in which a circuit is not formed, the non-circuit-incorporating chip being layered on the second face of the semiconductor chip, and a sealing resin disposed between at least the wiring substrate and the non-circuit-incorporating chip.
US09570403B2
A first trench having a first aspect ratio and a second trench having a second aspect ratio that is greater than the first trench are provided into a material stack of a semiconductor substrate and a dielectric material. An epitaxial semiconductor material having a different lattice constant than the substrate is then grown within each of the first and second trenches. The semiconductor material which is epitaxially formed in the first trench has an upper semiconductor material portion that is entirely defect free, while the semiconductor material which is epitaxially formed in the second trench has defects that randomly propagate to the topmost surface of the semiconductor material. At least one semiconductor device is then formed on each epitaxially grown semiconductor material. The at least one semiconductor device located on the epitaxially grown semiconductor material formed in the second trench is a physical unclonable function device.
US09570393B2
A nonvolatile memory device may include a stair-shaped structure including a first interlayer dielectric layer and a memory cell repeatedly stacked. The nonvolatile memory device may include an etch stop layer and a second interlayer dielectric layer formed over the stair-shaped structure. The nonvolatile memory device may include an isolation layer passing through the stair-shaped structure, the etch stop layer, and the second interlayer dielectric layer. The nonvolatile memory device may include protective layer interposed between the isolation layer and the etch stop layer, and the protective layer interposed between the isolation layer and the second interlayer dielectric layer. The nonvolatile memory device may include contact plugs coupled to each memory cell, respectively, by passing through the second interlayer dielectric layer and the etch stop layer.
US09570391B2
A semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing the same are disclosed. A semiconductor device includes a contact hole formed over a semiconductor substrate so as to open an active region, a contact plug coupled to the active region in the contact hole and having a height lower than that of the contact hole, and a bit line that is coupled to the contact plug and has the same width as the contact plug. When forming a bit line of a cell region, a barrier metal layer is formed between a bit line contact plug and a bit line conductive layer, such that interfacial resistance is reduced, a thickness of the bit line conductive layer is increased, conductivity is improved, and the height of overall bit line is reduced, resulting in reduction in parasitic capacitance.
US09570389B1
An interconnect structure includes a dielectric layer with one or more trenches extending therein, one or more interconnect lines, and one or more first liner layers. Each interconnect line is positioned within a trench. At least one first liner layer is affixed between the trench bottom surface and the interconnect bottom surface. The interconnect structure further includes one or more second liner layers. At least one of the second liner layers is affixed directly to the interconnect top surface and at least one interconnect side surface. The interconnect structure further includes at least one air gap. Each air gap is positioned between the trench side surface and the interconnect side surface. A corresponding method of manufacture and product of a method of manufacture are also disclosed.
US09570385B2
Interposer circuitry (130) is formed on a possibly sacrificial substrate (210) from a porous core (130′) covered by a conductive coating (130″) which increases electrical conductance. The core is printed from nanoparticle ink. Then a support (120S) is formed, e.g. by molding, to mechanically stabilize the circuitry. A magnetic field can be used to stabilize the circuitry while the circuitry or the support are being formed. Other features are also provided.
US09570367B2
A bottom package for a PoP (package-on-package) may be formed with a reinforcement layer supporting a thin or coreless substrate. The reinforcement layer may provide stiffness and rigidity to the substrate to increase the stiffness and rigidity of the bottom package and provide better handling of the substrate. The reinforcement layer may be formed using core material, a laminate layer, and a metal layer. The substrate may be formed on the reinforcement layer. The reinforcement layer may include an opening sized to accommodate a die. The die may be coupled to an exposed surface of the substrate in the opening. Metal filled vias through the reinforcement layer may be used to couple the substrate to a top package.
US09570364B2
A method of detecting focus shift in a lithography process, a method of analyzing an error of a transferred pattern using the same, and a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using the methods are provided. The focus shift detecting method of a lithography process comprises generating a first contour band of a mask pattern between a first focus and a second focus, generating a second contour of the mask pattern between the first focus and a third focus, and determining whether focus shift of the mask pattern occurs using an intersection of the first contour band and the second contour band.
US09570358B2
A method comprises applying a first patterning process to a first photoresist layer to form a first opening, a second opening, a third opening and a fourth opening in the sacrificial layer, applying a second patterning process to a second photoresist layer to form a fifth opening, a sixth opening, a seventh opening and an eighth opening in the sacrificial layer, wherein distances between two adjacent openings formed from the first and second patterning processes are substantially equal to each other, applying a third patterning process to a third photoresist layer to form a ninth opening, a tenth opening, an eleventh opening and a twelfth opening in the sacrificial layer, wherein distances between two adjacent openings formed from the second and third patterning processes are substantially equal to each other and forming a plurality of nanowires based on the openings.
US09570353B1
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device is provided. The method includes forming of an interlayer insulating film on a semiconductor substrate; etching the interlayer insulating film to form a contact hole and an alignment hole wider than the contact hole; depositing a first metal layer having a thickness thicker than a half of the width of the contact hole and thinner than a half of the width of the alignment hole; etching the first metal layer so that a bottom surface of the alignment hole are exposed and the first metal layer remains covering a bottom surface of the contact hole; treating the semiconductor substrate based on the position of the alignment hole; and cutting a part of the semiconductor substrate including the alignment hole to divide a semiconductor device having the contact hole from the semiconductor substrate.
US09570346B2
A barrier metal is formed from a surface of an interlayer insulating film 2 to a trench that is formed in a semiconductor portion exposed in a contact hole. After RTA treatment and a plasma nitriding process, a plug is embedded at an inner side of the barrier metal inside the trench and the contact hole. The RTA treatment is performed at a temperature range of about 500 degrees C. to 650 degrees C. The plasma nitriding process is performed at a temperature lower than that of the RTA treatment. The barrier metal is formed by a first metal film of titanium and a second metal film of titanium nitride sequentially stacked. The plug is formed from tungsten. A surface electrode formed of aluminum is formed from a surface of the second metal film on the interlayer insulating film to a surface of the plug.
US09570339B2
A semiconductor process including the following step is provided. A sacrificial layer is formed in a substrate. The sacrificial layer and the substrate are etched to form a trench in the sacrificial layer and the substrate. A first isolation material fills the trench, thereby a first isolation structure being formed. The sacrificial layer is patterned to form a plurality of sacrificial patterns. A plurality of spacers are formed beside the sacrificial patterns respectively. The sacrificial patterns are removed. Layouts of the spacers are transferred into the substrate, so that a plurality of fin structures are formed in the substrate. The spacers are then removed. The present invention also provides a semiconductor structure formed by said semiconductor process.
US09570338B2
A method for forming an isolation member in a trench of a substrate may include the following steps: performing a first deposition process to form a first isolation material set, which is at least partially positioned in the trench; partially removing the first isolation material set, such that a remaining portion of the first isolation material set remains in the trench; after the first isolation material set has been partially removed, performing a fluorine-reduction process on at least the remaining portion of the first isolation material set; after the fluorine-reduction process, performing a second deposition process to form a second isolation material set, which is at least partially positioned in the trench, wherein the second isolation material set includes the remaining portion of the first isolation material set; and processing the second isolation material set for forming the isolation member.
US09570320B2
A method of opening a barrier film below copper structures in a stack is provided. A pulsed gas is provided into a plasma processing chamber, wherein the providing the pulsed gas comprises providing a pulsed H2 containing gas and providing a pulsed halogen containing gas, wherein the pulsed H2 containing gas and the pulsed halogen containing gas are pulsed out of phase, and wherein the pulsed H2 containing gas has an H2 high flow period and the pulsed halogen containing gas has a halogen containing gas high flow period, wherein the H2 high flow period is greater than the halogen containing gas high flow period. The pulsed gas is formed into a plasma. The copper structures and the barrier film are exposed to the plasma, which etches the barrier film. In another embodiment, a wet and dry cyclical process may be used.
US09570317B2
A microelectronic method for etching a layer to be etched, including: modifying the layer to be etched from a surface of the layer to be etched and over a depth corresponding to at least a portion of thickness of the layer to be etched to form a film, with the modifying including implanting light ions into the layer to be etched; and removing the film includes a selective etching of the film relative to at least one layer underlying the film.
US09570314B2
Methods for dicing a wafer is presented. The method includes providing a wafer having first and second major surfaces. The wafer is prepared with a plurality of dies on main device regions and are spaced apart from each other by dicing channels on the first major surface of the wafer. A film is provided over first or second major surface of the wafer. The film covers at least areas corresponding to the main device regions. The method also includes using the film as an etch mask and plasma etching the wafer through exposed semiconductor material of the wafer to form gaps to separate the plurality of dies on the wafer into a plurality of individual dies.
US09570310B2
The number of masks and photolithography processes used in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device are reduced. A first conductive film is formed over a substrate; a first insulating film is formed over the first conductive film; a semiconductor film is formed over the first insulating film; a semiconductor film including a channel region is formed by etching part of the semiconductor film; a second insulating film is formed over the semiconductor film; a mask is formed over the second insulating film; a first portion of the second insulating film that overlaps the semiconductor film and second portions of the first insulating film and the second insulating film that do not overlap the semiconductor film are removed with the use of the mask; the mask is removed; and a second conductive film electrically connected to the semiconductor film is formed over at least part of the second insulating film.
US09570307B2
Provided are methods of doping substrates and making doped semiconductor features. An exemplary method includes providing a substrate having at least one feature having an aspect ratio; depositing a layer of dopants onto the substrate, the layer of dopants having a shape conforming to the at least one feature. A dielectric layer is deposited onto the layer of dopants, the dielectric layer having a shape conforming to the layer of dopants. The dielectric layer is annealed to diffuse the dopants into the substrate.
US09570306B2
The present application aims to provide a surface treatment method that is able to accurately control the rate of etching a single crystal SiC substrate and thereby enables correct understanding of the amount of etching. In the surface treatment method, the single crystal SiC substrate is etched by a heat treatment performed under Si vapor pressure. At a time of the etching, inert gas pressure in an atmosphere around the single crystal SiC substrate is adjusted to control the rate of etching. Accordingly, correct understanding of the amount of etching is obtained.
US09570298B1
A strain relaxed buffer layer is fabricated by melting an underlying layer beneath a strained semiconductor layer, which allows the strained semiconductor layer to elastically relax. Upon recrystallization of the underlying layer, crystalline defects are trapped in the underlying layer. Semiconductor layers having different melting points, such as silicon germanium layers having different atomic percentages of germanium, are formed on a semiconductor substrate. An annealing process causes melting of only the silicon germanium layer that has the higher germanium content and therefore the lower melting point. The silicon germanium layer having the lower germanium content is elastically relaxed upon melting of the adjoining silicon germanium layer and can be used as a substrate for growing strained semiconductor layers such as channel layers of field-effect transistors.
US09570295B1
Described herein is a method for manufacturing a stack of semiconductor materials in which a growth substrate is separated from the stack after a semiconductor material, e.g., a Group III nitride semiconductor material, is grown on the substrate. The separation is effected in a spalling procedure in which spalling-facilitating layers are deposited over a protective cap layer that is formed over the Group III-nitride semiconductor material. Such spalling-facilitating layers may include a handle layer, a stressor layer, and an optional adhesion layer. The protective cap layer protects the Group III-nitride from being damaged by the depositing of one or more of the spalling-facilitating layers. After spalling to remove the growth substrate, additional processing steps are taken to provide a semiconductor device that includes undamaged semiconductor material. In one arrangement, the semiconductor material is GaN and includes p-doped GaN region that was undamaged during manufacturing.
US09570292B2
A method for making an epitaxial structure includes the following steps. A substrate having an epitaxial growth surface is provided. A buffer layer is formed on the epitaxial growth surface. A carbon nanotube layer is placed on the buffer layer. A first epitaxial layer is epitaxially grown on the buffer layer. The substrate and the buffer layer are removed to expose a second epitaxial growth surface. A second epitaxial layer is epitaxially grown on the second epitaxial growth surface.
US09570291B2
Semiconductor substrates and methods for processing semiconductor substrates are provided. A method for processing a semiconductor substrate includes providing a semiconductor substrate having an outer edge, a central region, and a peripheral region between the outer edge and the central region. The semiconductor substrate also has an upper surface. The method includes forming an amorphous material over the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate in the peripheral region. Also, the method includes irradiating the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate, wherein the amorphous material inhibits cracking at the outer edge of the semiconductor substrate.
US09570284B1
A method for controlling a semiconductor fabrication process includes the steps of analyzing process-data related to an intermediate-process-step in the fabrication process and adjusting a metal-layer-parameter corresponding to the metal layer based on the process-data.
US09570283B2
An electrostatic trap such as an orbitrap is disclosed, with an electrode structure. An electrostatic trapping field of the form U′(r, φ, z) is generated to trap ions within the trap so that they undergo isochronous oscillations. The trapping field U′(r, φ, z) is the result of a perturbation W to an ideal field U(r, φ, z) which, for example, is hyperlogarithmic in the case of an orbitrap. The perturbation W may be introduced in various ways, such as by distorting the geometry of the trap so that it no longer follows an equipotential of the ideal field U(r, φ, z), or by adding a distortion field (either electric or magnetic). The magnitude of the perturbation is such that at least some of the trapped ions have an absolute phase spread of more than zero but less than 2 π radians over an ion detection period Tm.
US09570281B2
The invention relates to an ion generation device and an ion generation method, and more particularly to a device and a method which generates ions at the low pressure and then said ions can be transferred into the next stage in an off-axis manner. In the invention, ions from electrospray or other types of ion source are generated in the pressure which is lower than atmosphere pressure. A followed ion guide device can then transfer most of said generated ions into next stage in an off-axis manner, while most of neutral noise can be eliminated in this process.
