US09707344B2
An autoinjector includes a housing (10) to receive a syringe (14), and a drive mechanism including first and second springs (30, 32) operating in tandem via an intermediate member (34), on a plunger (42). The plunger is retained in a locked position by a trigger. Release of the trigger causes the first spring to advance the syringe to an arrest point whereafter the second spring extends within the syringe to expel a dose.
US09707343B2
An autoinjector comprising a lower body (10) receiving a tank, said tank containing fluid product and comprising a piston and a needle, such as a pre-primed syringe (A), said autoinjector comprising: injection means (5, 8) to inject said fluid product through said needle when said needle is in an injection position; and a tank movement device (2, 4, 9) for retracting said needle out of the body of the user after injection of the fluid product, a trigger (19), actuated by said injection means, actuating said tank movement device (2, 4, 9) after injection of the fluid product so as to retract said needle; said autoinjector comprising a retarding device (15, 16, 17) adapted to delay during a predetermined time the actuation of said tank movement device (2, 4, 9) by said trigger (19) after injection of the fluid product, to delay retraction of said needle by said predetermined time after the end of injection.
US09707340B2
A line management apparatus for managing multiple IV lines connected in a Y fitting provides for flow sensing and for electronic control of flow in the multiple lines. The line management apparatus may be used independently as a precise gravity feed IV system or may provide for use in combination with an infusion pump to ensure proper delivery of multiple solutions without blending of the multiple solutions.
US09707339B2
Devices and methods for obtaining high flow rates in a port catheter system, and devices and methods for using a high flow rate port catheter system are disclosed. In one embodiment, a reservoir is dedicated for aspiration and a separate reservoir is dedicated for infusion. Fluid flow channels associated with aspiration are larger than the fluid flow channels associated with infusion. The catheter connected to the port can have an offset tip configuration. Methods for accessing the port are also disclosed.
US09707337B2
A user-initiated fluid pathway connection includes: a connection hub, a piercing member, a sterile sleeve, and a drug container having a cap, a pierceable seal, a barrel, and a plunger seal, wherein the piercing member is initially retained within the sterile sleeve between the connection hub and the pierceable seal of the drug container. The connection hub may include an internal aperture within the connection hub which functions as a flow restrictor and wherein a piercing member is connected to one end of the internal aperture and a fluid conduit is connected to another end of the internal aperture. A drug delivery pump with integrated sterility maintenance features includes a housing, upon which an activation mechanism, an insertion mechanism, a fluid pathway connection as described above, a power and control system, and a drive mechanism connected to a drug container are mounted. Methods of assembly and operation are also provided.
US09707335B2
A drive mechanism includes a housing, a piston adapted to impart movement to a plunger seal within a drug container, a plurality of biasing members disposed in parallel, and a retainer. The biasing members are disposed to release energy to cause movement of the piston from a retracted first position to the extended second position, the piston bearing against the plunger seal to dispense medicine. The retainer is disposed to maintain the biasing members in the energized position and to release the biasing members to permit the piston to dispense the medicine. The drive mechanism may also include an end-of-dose indicator to identify at least one of when the sleeve assembly is disposed subjacent a window in the housing, the relative motion of the sleeve assembly with reference to the window or another reference component, the stoppage of such motion, and the rated or change of rate of motion.
US09707328B2
A sorbent based monitoring system for measuring the solute concentration of at least one component of a fluid. The system has a sorbent regeneration system for regeneration of the fluid and has a sorbent cartridge that has at least one material layer. The fluid is conveyed through the sorbent cartridge and contacts at least one sensor after having contacted at least one material layer.
US09707325B2
A medical device includes a tubular member having a distal end residing interiorly of the body of a patient, a proximal end extending exteriorly of the body, and a lumen extending therebetween. A first passageway extends along the tubular member between a distal end in fluid communication with the lumen, and a proximal end extending exteriorly of the body. A second passageway extends along the tubular member between a distal end located distal to the distal end of the first passageway, and a proximal end extending exteriorly of the body. An occlusion member is associated with the distal end of the second passageway. The occlusion member is movable between an occluded configuration and a non-occluded configuration for selectively occluding the lumen of the tubular member. When the lumen is occluded, a flushing fluid may be passed therethrough via the distal end of the first passageway.
US09707321B2
Porous implant material having a plurality of metal bodies having different porosity rates which are bonded with each other at bonded-boundary surface F parallel to a first direction, wherein: a bonded body of the metal bodies has an entire porosity rate of 50% to 92%; the metal body having higher porosity rate is a porous metal body having a three-dimensional network formed from a continuous skeleton in which a plurality of pores are interconnected; the metal body having lower porosity rate has a porosity rate of 0 to 50% and an area-occupation rate of 0.5% to 50% in a cross-section surface orthogonal to an axial direction which agrees with the first direction along the bonded-boundary surface; and a compressive strength compressing in a direction parallel to the bonded-boundary surface is 1.4 times to 10 times of a compressive strength compressing in a direction orthogonal to the bonded-boundary surface.
US09707318B2
A bone patch and method for treating a bone condition of an animal. The bone patch includes a composition of ingredients. The composition of ingredients include: stem cells; signaling molecules for osteoblast/endothelial differentiation; and scaffold material. The method for treating a bone condition includes: applying the bone patch to the animal for bone regeneration, treatment of a fractured bone, and/or treatment of a bone disorder.
US09707314B2
A bone cement formulation having i) a PMMA powder fraction designed for quick reaction and ii) a polymerization inhibitor provided in a delayed release form. This allows the cement to obtain an initial viscosity suitable for injection and a long working time.
US09707310B2
To provide an illuminating device-cum-air cleaning device that solves a heat problem and allows efficient operation of an air cleaning means.Air inlets/outlets 3A and 3B are provided in a wall surface of a housing 10 to which an illumination light source 2 is attached. A fan 4 is provided in the housing 10 to generate a forced air flow inside and outside the housing 10 through the air inlets/outlets 3A and 3B and discharge heat from the illumination light source 2 by the forced air flow to the outside of the housing 10. In the middle of a flow path for the forced air flow a within the housing 10, a photocatalyst 50 facing the flow path and a UV light source 51 irradiating the photocatalyst 50 with light including ultraviolet rays are provided as air cleaning means 5.
US09707309B2
The dispenser can be used with air fresheners including a container (1) holding a perfuming liquid (2) and closed by means of a wooden cap (3), with the particularity that the said wooden cap (3) is provided with a central axial duct (4) of small diameter, communicating with a second transverse duct (5) provided in an upper semi-cylindrical extension (6) and passing through this transverse duct (5), the diffusing string or wick (7) being retained therein and impregnated in perfuming liquid (2) when the container (1) with the cap (3) coupled to the neck (1′) is turned upside down.
US09707306B2
Provided herein are systems, devices, and methods for ultraviolet (UV) disinfection and sterilization, more specifically, systems, devices, and methods for UV disinfection and sterilization of a container, and more particularly systems, devices, and methods for UV disinfection and sterilization of a container used in the process of fermentation for an alcoholic beverage. Provided are also systems, UV devices, and methods for inhibiting the growth of one or more species of microorganisms present in a container, preferably for inhibiting the growth of one or more species of microorganisms present on an interior surface of a container.
US09707303B2
The present invention discloses a gene delivery system containing a reduction-sensitive shielding system having a targeting function, a preparation method and an application in the field of gene therapy thereof. The gene delivery system is composed of a reduction-sensitive shielding system having a targeting function, cationic polymer material and plasmid DNA; the cationic polymer material and the plasmid DNA complexed to form complex particles, the reduction-sensitive shielding system having a targeting function is shielded on the complex surface by means of electrostatic interaction, so as to reduce the toxicity of the delivery system and successfully transfer the loaded genetic material into cells, thereby achieving expression of genetic material and completing the transfection process, and moreover, improving the targeting and the efficiency of gene transfection.
US09707289B2
Stabilized trimers of a clade A strain and a clade C strain of HIV-1 are provided. Broadly neutralizing antisera against HIV-1, methods of making broadly neutralizing antisera against HIV-1, broadly neutralizing vaccines against HIV-1, as well as methods of treating subjects infected with HIV, preventing HIV infection, and inhibiting HIV-mediated activities are also provided.
US09707286B2
The present invention relates to the fields of medical microbiology and vaccines. In particular the invention relates to a process for detergent-free preparation of outer membrane vesicles (OMV) of Gram negative bacteria for use in vaccines, to OMV obtainable by said process, and to a pharmaceutical composition comprising such OMV. The present invention further relates to the use of OMV of the present invention as a medicament in particular for use in a method for eliciting an immune response.
US09707284B2
This invention concerns a pharmaceutical formulation and method for treating autoimmune disorders. The formulation and method provide for a combination therapy regimen wherein two separate substances are administered to a patient having or predisposed to having the disorder. The two components comprise at least one immunomodulatory peptide and a chloroquine derivative. The combination of the two components can be administered together or separately.
US09707279B2
The invention provides an EndoS polypeptide, or a polynucleotide encoding an EndoS polypeptide, for use in a method for treating or preventing a disease or condition mediated by IgE antibodies.
US09707271B2
The invention features compositions featuring (a) one or more of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and human C-terminal CTGF peptide; and (b) one or more of insulin and IGF-1; and methods of using such compositions to reduce cardiac tissue damage associated with an ischemic event or to enhance engraftment of a cell in a cardiac tissue.
US09707265B2
The invention provides a compound capable of inhibiting ubiquitination for use in treating a disorder or symptom associated with reduced dystroglycan function in a subject.
US09707262B2
A composition with anoxia-tolerant and anti-fatigue functions, which is prepared by the following active ingredients: Arillus Longan, Fructus Jujubae, Radix Rehmanniae Preparata, Fructus Lycii, Semen Juglandis, Fructus Schisandrae Chinensis, Cortex Cinnamomi, and Cornu Cervi Pantotrichum. The invention further provides a use of aforesaid composition in the preparation of the health food with anoxia-tolerant and anti-fatigue functions. The health food of the present invention is prepared with natural Chinese herbal medicine as the major raw materials, can be administered for a long time, the result of functional experiment prove that, the health food of the present invention has anoxia-tolerant and anti-fatigue functions, the effect is significant.
US09707253B2
Disclosed are high loading, controlled-release dosage forms for oral administration of magnesium salts. For example, an oral dosage form can comprise from about 80% to about 95% magnesium lactate and one or more components. As another example, an oral dosage form can comprise at least about 50% magnesium salt and exhibit a controlled release dissolution profile. Also disclosed are methods for making controlled release dosage forms for oral administration of a therapeutically effective amount of magnesium salt to a mammal. Also disclosed are methods for treating a disorder characterized by magnesium deficiency and methods for preventing or alleviating low magnesium levels.
US09707252B2
A biocompatible synthetic macromer composition is provided which includes a first polymer having stiffening linkages and at least one amine group, and a second component having at least one amine-reactive group. The biocompatible synthetic macromer composition can be used as an adhesive or sealant in human and/or animal medical applications.
US09707245B2
Oral dosage forms of osteoclast inhibitors, such as nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates, can be used to treat or alleviate pain or related conditions such as complex regional pain syndrome.
US09707240B2
The present invention relates to a nutritional composition for infants and/or toddlers comprising a lipid component which has a large lipid globule size. The composition can be used to prevent obesity and/or improve body composition later in life.
US09707231B2
The present invention relates to methods and compositions for modulating levels of amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) exhibited by non-neuronal (i.e., peripheral) cells, fluids, or tissues. The invention also relates to modulation of Aβ levels via selective modulation (e.g., inhibition) of γ-secretase activity. The invention also relates to methods of preventing, treating or ameliorating the symptoms of a disorder, including but not limited to an Aβ-related disorder, by administering a compound that results in the modulation of γ-secretase in a non-neuronal tissue, either directly or indirectly to prevent, treat or ameliorate the symptoms of a brain Aβ disorder, such as Alzheimer's disease.
US09707230B2
Disclosed are pyruvate kinase M2 activators, which are, bis sulfonamide piperazinyl compounds of Formula (I) and 2,4-disubstituted 4H-thieno[3,2-b]pyrrole-2-(substituted benzyl)pyridazin-3(2H)ones of Formula (II), wherein L and R1 to R16 are as defined herein, that are useful in treating a number of diseases that are treatable by the activation of PKM2, for example, cancer and anemia,
US09707205B2
The invention relates to novel compounds that have S1P receptor modulating activity. Further, the invention relates to a pharmaceutical comprising at least one compound of the invention for the treatment of diseases and/or conditions caused by or associated with inappropriate S1P receptor modulating activity or expression, for example, autoimmune response. A further aspect of the invention relates to the use of a pharmaceutical comprising at least one compound of the invention for the manufacture of a medicament for the treatment of diseases and/or conditions caused by or associated with inappropriate S1P receptor modulating activity or expression such as autoimmune response.
US09707202B2
Chemical entities that are curcumin derivatives, pharmaceutical compositions and methods of treatment of cancer are described.
US09707199B2
Methods for detecting risks for and/or causes of metabolic syndrome or hyperferritinemia in accordance with several embodiments can include the step of measuring the level of heptadecanoic acid in a blood sample of a subject. The methods of several embodiments can further include the step of deeming the subject as having or being at risk of metabolic syndrome if the amount of heptadecanoic acid is below 0.4% of all fatty acids in the sera or plasma. The methods for treating metabolic syndrome or hyperferritinemia according to several embodiments can also include the step of administering a daily dose of heptadecanoic acid to a subject suffering from metabolic syndrome or hyperferritinemia for a period of time from three weeks to twenty-four weeks, wherein the minimum daily dose comprises about 3 mg per lb (or 6 mg per kg) of body weight.
US09707193B2
Methods for preconditioning and/or providing neuroprotection to the animal central nervous system against the effects of cerebral hemorrhage and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Therapeutic agents are administered to the upper third of the nasal cavity to bypass the blood-brain barrier and access the central nervous system directly to avoid unwanted and potentially lethal side effects. Therapeutic agents include those substances that interact with iron and/or copper such as iron chelators, copper chelators, and antioxidants. A particular example of such therapeutic agents is the iron chelator deferoxamine (DFO). An effective amount of DFO may be administered to the upper third of the nasal cavity of a patient at risk for, or diagnosed with, cerebral hemorrhage and subarachnoid hemorrhage. The effective amount of DFO is delivered directly to the patient's central nervous system for preconditioning, preventing and/or treating the cerebral hemorrhage and subarachnoid hemorrhage.
US09707190B2
The present invention relates to an injectable pharmaceutical formulation for the alleviation or reduction of joint irritation or for the reduction of worsening of existing joint inflammation, formulated for intra-articular injection comprising an active polyol ingredient, which polyol active ingredient is xylitol. Use of an intra-articular injectable formulations for the treatment of joint diseases or conditions including arthritis is described.
US09707183B2
A one-step method for fabricating solidified particles from all-aqueous emulsion droplets involves solidification and drying of the droplets by osmosis. According to this method the fabrication of solidified particles is induced by implementing a high osmotic pressure gradient between the internal phase and external phase of the all-aqueous emulsion. The resultant extraction of water leads to solidification of the emulsion droplets. This approach provides mild conditions for encapsulating bioactive ingredients or other delicate components to conveniently fabricate bio- and cyto-compatible particles because it does not involve the introduction of external energy used in conventional drying. Such conventional external energy inputs are time-consuming, so the method is more efficient.
US09707182B2
The present invention relates to novel oral sustained release pharmaceutical dosage forms for delivery of budesonide to the lower gastrointestinal tract for the treatment of Crohn's disease.
US09707177B2
Dermal delivery compositions are provided. Aspects of the dermal delivery compositions include the presence of active agent-calcium phosphate particle complexes, where these complexes include uniform, rigid, spherical nanoporous calcium phosphate particles associated with one or more active agents. Also provided are methods of using the compositions in active agent delivery applications.
US09707175B2
The present invention provides a chewing gum composition comprising a gum base matrix and a bulk portion, wherein the chewing gum composition comprises nicotine and includes a cross-linked polyacrylic acid, such as a carbomer, added in an amount of 0.1 to 5.0% by weight of the chewing gum composition. The invention may be used to enhance the release of nicotine in a nicotine chewing gum.
US09707173B2
The present invention is directed to the provision of a pharmaceutical suspension. The suspension includes high molecular weight polyethylene glycol as a suspending agent. The suspension also typically includes an antimicrobial agent (e.g., polymeric quaternary ammonium compound), an antimicrobial system (e.g., borate/polyol complex system) or both. The suspension has been found particularly useful as an ophthalmic suspension, but can be used in other instances as well.
US09707170B2
The present invention provides a water-based skin cosmetic comprising the following ingredients (A) and (B): (A) A compound represented by the following formula (I) (In this formula, l and m can be either the same or different; each denotes an integer 10-25.) (B) A thickener composed of microgel obtained by using a composition that has an organic solvent or oil component as the dispersion medium and water as the dispersion phase, dissolving a water soluble ethylenically unsaturated monomer in the dispersion phase, and radically polymerizing it in the dispersion phase, wherein said microgel is obtained by radically polymerizing dimethylacrylamide and 2-acrylamido-2 methylpropane sulfonic acid under the conditions in which a single phase microemulsion or fine W/O emulsion is formed by using a surfactant.
US09707131B2
Systems and methods for treating a patient having a head with a first ear and a second ear, function by aligning a first device with a tympanic membrane of the first ear; inputting a command to an input device operatively coupled to the first device to generate a signal; and actuating the first device in response to the signal so as to drive a penetrator of the device through the tympanic membrane.
US09707128B2
A method and shunt device for treating glaucoma includes positioning a first end portion of a tube body into the retrobulbar space of an eye. The method also includes positioning a second end portion of the tube body into the anterior chamber of the eye. The tube body provides fluid passage for aqueous humor such that the aqueous humor flows from the first end portion into the retrobulbar space. A surgical kit for reducing the intraocular pressure in the eye includes the shunt device, an introducer, and a stylet. The introducer has a distal end for positioning in the retrobulbar space and a proximal end for positioning exterior of the eye. The introducer has a radius of curvature adapted to circumvent the eye for insertion into the retrobulbar space.
US09707127B2
A method and apparatus for delivering energy during a surgical procedure such as phacoemulsification is provided. The method and apparatus include applying energy during at least one pulsed energy on period, typically sufficient or intended to rapidly induce and beneficially employ transient cavitation. Applying energy during the pulsed energy on period comprises applying energy during a first high energy period, and applying energy during a second nonzero lower energy period.
US09707126B2
A method for controlling activation of Riboflavin applied to an eye includes applying the Riboflavin to a selected region of a cornea of the eye and initiating cross-linking activity in the selected region by activating the Riboflavin with pulsed light illumination. The pulsed light illumination has an irradiance, dose, and an on/off duty cycle. The irradiance, the dose, and the on/off duty cycle are adjusted in response to a determination of photochemical kinetic pathways for Riboflavin cross-linking activity and to control photochemical efficiency.
US09707123B2
The present invention relates to an inserter for an intrauterine system, comprising a handle (3) having a longitudinal opening (8) at its first end, said opening (8) having a longitudinal axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the inserter, a first end (8a) and a second end (8b), a movable slider (5) arranged in said longitudinal opening (8) and having a first end (5a) and a second end (5b), a plunger (2) attached to the handle (3) and having a longitudinal axis, and an insertion tube (6) having a first end, a second end and a longitudinal axis essentially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the plunger (2), the insertion tube (6) being, along said longitudinal axis, movably arranged around the plunger (2). The invention is characterized in that it further comprises a flange (4) arranged on the insertion tube (6) at its first end, and means for locking the slider (5) into a position showing the correct insertion depth for the intrauterine system, said means being adjustable with respect to the opening (8) of the handle.
US09707119B2
An article of footwear includes a sole, an upper defining a foot cavity, and a brace member. The brace member is comprised of a non-elastic resilient material. The brace member is positioned within a pocket in the upper and extends from a heel portion to above an ankle portion of the upper. The brace member may be provided with a top plate member and a base plate member with a central shaft extending between the top plate member and the base plate member. The central shaft may have a C-shape that curves around an ankle of a human foot positioned within the foot cavity.
US09707110B2
A stent including a plurality of curved sections and a connector. The curved sections surround a longitudinal axis to define a tube portion and are distributed along the longitudinal axis to form a helix. The connector includes a bioresorbable material and is positioned between two adjacent curved sections. The stent has a spring constant that changes to a different spring constant after exposure to biological material.
US09707108B2
A prosthesis is disclosed for placement across an ostium opening from a main body lumen to a branch body lumen. The prosthesis comprises a radially expansible support, at least two axially elongate longitudinal members, at least one of which can be fronds, extending from an end of the support, and a circumferential member connected to at least one axially elongate longitudinal member and unconnected to at least one other axially elongate longitudinal member.
US09707102B2
The disclosure provides apparatus and methods of use pertaining to a prosthetic finger assembly. In one embodiment, the assembly includes a coupling tip and a distal ring coupled with the coupling tip. The assembly further includes a proximal ring coupled with the distal ring. A rocker formed in an H-shape with a first end forming a first split prong and a second end forming a second split prong may extend between the coupling tip and the proximal ring. The coupling tip, distal ring, proximal ring, and H-shaped rocker may all be hingedly connected such that movements of the residual finger within the proximal ring articulate the distal ring together with the rocker to articulate the coupling tip. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US09707098B2
Systems and methods for providing deeper knee flexion capabilities. In some instances, such systems and methods include an a modular anterior flange that includes a first surface configured to interface with an anterior portion of a distal end of a femur; a second surface configured to articulate against at least one of a patella and a patellar implant; a proximal end; and a distal end, wherein the distal end is configured to interface with a proximal end of an anterior portion of a femoral component that is configured to replace a distal portion of the femur. Other implementations are also discussed.
US09707096B2
A spinal fixation device includes a body having a first end defining an aperture, an engaging portion configured to engage a vertebral body, and an adjustment member configured to be received in the body through the aperture. The adjustment member is operatively coupled with the engaging portion to selectively position the engaging portion at one of a plurality of orientations relative to the body.
US09707082B2
Bifunctional and assembled implants are provided for osteochondral implantation.
US09707077B2
The disclosure pertains to a vessel for holding replacement heart valves and associated positioning and installation apparatus which is configured and adapted to contain a biocidal sterilization fluid during and following exposure of a delivery system for the replacement heart valve to sterilization by ionizing radiation and methods of use therefor. The vessel includes a shield which limits exposure of biologically derived material therein to radiation. The vessel also provides a storage and shipping container for the replacement heart valve in which the biologically derived material is maintained in a sterile fluid environment.
US09707075B2
The present invention relates to a stent for the positioning and anchoring of a valvular prosthesis in an implantation site in the heart of a patient. Specifically, the present invention relates to an expandable stent for an endoprosthesis used in the treatment of a narrowing of a cardiac valve and/or a cardiac valve insufficiency. So as to ensure that no longitudinal displacement of a valvular prosthesis fastened to a stent will occur relative the stent in the implanted state of the stent, even given the peristaltic motion of the heart, the stent according to the invention comprises at least one fastening portion via which the valvular prosthesis is connectable to the stent. The stent further comprises positioning arches and retaining arches, whereby at least one positioning arch is connected to at least one retaining arch via a first connecting web. The stent moreover comprises at least one auxiliary retaining arch which connects the respective arms of the at least one retaining arch connected to the at least one positioning arch.
US09707073B2
A breast implant device product that mimic the natural pectoral fat pad of the breast and is characterized by an incomplete pyramid with isosceles triangular base and wedge-shaped edges and sloping faces that meet at acute angles with variable degree located medially, laterally and on the top and a footprint characterized by a semicircular lower portion and an oval paraboloid upper portion and a center of gravity located closer to the base than to the profile, the said footprint is advantageously converging and moving towards the underlying surface as the chest wall with a method of manufacturing and a method of use of the said implant including a breast pyramid sizing system.
US09707072B2
A temporary diameter reduction constraint arrangement for a stent graft is disclosed. The arrangement comprises: primary and secondary release wires extending along the graft; a plurality of loops of thread, each loop engaged with either the primary or secondary wire and engaged around a portion of the graft circumferentially spaced away from its release wire, and drawn tight to reduce the diameter of the graft; an end constraint arrangement comprising four of the plurality of loops of thread arranged into a first and second pairs engaged with respective primary and secondary wires; and an intermediate constraint arrangement comprising a fifth and sixth of the plurality of loops of thread arranged into a third pair, the third pair engaged with the primary release wire, the primary release wire deviating towards the secondary release wire so as to locate the intermediate constraint arrangement substantially in-line with the end constraint arrangement.
US09707065B2
A urinary incontinence device for insertion in a urethra of a user. The device includes a non-absorbent body having an outer surface, the body having a leading end and a trailing end; a removal mechanism having a first end attached to the body and a portion of the removal mechanism located outside the user; a portion of the body having a generally bulbous shape for positioning within the urethra and providing a seal within the urethra preventing urinary leakage from the urethra; and a coating applied to the outer surface of the body for engaging a wall of the urethra and securing the device within the urethra of the user. Another embodiment relates to a method of controlling urinary incontinence comprising: engaging an applicator with the body of the device and introducing into the urethra the device wherein the device is positioned in the user's bulbar urethra.
US09707044B2
A method of making a patient specific surgical guide includes obtaining a virtual model of a fixation member, and virtually designing a guide that defines at least one hole that corresponds to a hole of the virtual model of the fixation member.
US09707042B2
An apparatus for percutaneously implanting a localization wire into a tissue mass includes a handle having a grip portion and a base. The grip portion is slidably mounted to the base. The base has a keyway. A cannula is movable relative to the handle between an insertion position and a retracted position. A localization wire is positioned to extend from the handle and into the cannula lumen. An actuator is coupled to the cannula and is configured to operate between a charged condition and a discharged condition to retract the cannula. A collar is mounted to the cannula. The collar includes a key having a key projection. The key projection is not aligned with the keyway when the actuator is in the charged condition and the key projection is aligned with the keyway to facilitate retraction of the cannula toward the retracted position to effect the discharged condition.
US09707039B2
An envelope for housing a medical device includes a body including first and second panels connected to one another along an edge thereof to define an interior space sized and shaped to house a medical device sealed within a packet and a first opening arrangement including a perforation extending about the body along the first and second panels to define a break portion breakable from a remaining portion of the body to open the envelope along with a second opening arrangement including a tab extending from a portion of the body such that pulling the tab in a direction away from the body tears a portion of the perforation extending along the first panel to open the envelope.
US09707035B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for monopolar neuromodulation, e.g., via a pulsed electric field. Such monopolar neuromodulation may effectuate irreversible electroporation or electrofusion, necrosis and/or inducement of apoptosis, alteration of gene expression, action potential attenuation or blockade, changes in cytokine up-regulation and other conditions in target neural fibers. In some embodiments, monopolar neuromodulation is applied to neural fibers that contribute to renal function. In some embodiments, such monopolar neuromodulation is performed bilaterally.
US09707033B2
An apparatus comprises an end effector, a shaft assembly, and an interface assembly. The end effector is operable to manipulate tissue, the shaft assembly is in communication with the end effector and a portion of the shaft assembly extends proximally from the end effector. The interface assembly is in communication with the shaft assembly. The interface assembly comprises a housing portion, a shaft cartridge, and a base portion. The housing portion can engage the shaft cartridge. The shaft cartridge is able to rotate and articulate the end effector, and the shaft assembly extends from the shaft cartridge. The base portion and the housing portion are able to enclose the shaft cartridge.
US09707025B2
A system, devices and methods are provided for facilitating stabilization of periarticular fractures. The system includes a compression plate and one or more of a cerclage cable for encircling the bone and securing the compression plate to the bone, a crimp lug for securing the cable in tension relative to the bone and/or a plate, and a supplemental plate coupled to the compression plate and adapted to receive bicortical or unicortical bone screws to further secure the compression plate relative to the bone. In addition, the system includes a cable tensioner for temporarily retaining the cable in tension and then applying a tension to the cable until a desired compression is effected between a plate and bone and while a cable retaining structure is secured to the cable to retain the applied tension on the cable. Also provided is a jig for use with plates for minimally invasive fracture stabilization.
US09707023B2
An osteotomy plate for maintaining the spacing of a wedge-like opening in bone, the osteotomy plate comprising: a body having a front side and a back side; a key extending out of the back side of the body for disposition in a keyhole formed in the bone along the wedge-like opening; and a plurality of mounting holes for receiving fixation screws therein, the mounting holes being formed in the body such that when the key is disposed in the keyhole, the mounting holes direct the fixation screws into bone on either side of the wedge-like opening.
US09707018B2
The instruments and methods of the present disclosure include an outer shaft, an inner shaft, a roller, and an actuator. In some examples, the outer shaft includes a lumen extending from a proximal end to a distal end. The inner shaft is disposed within the lumen. The roller rotatably is coupled with the distal end at an axis and configured to engage the fixation rod. The actuator operably couples with the inner shaft to translate the inner shaft within the lumen and cause rotation of the roller to impart linear movement on the fixation rod.
US09707016B2
A method and apparatus for spinal fusion at the facet joint using an irregularly shaped implant where the orientation of the implant can be preselected before implantation.
US09707014B1
A spinal screw assembly is provided. The assembly may be provided with a screw and a movable head in which angulation of the screw relative to the movable head is constrained so that angulation within limits is allowed in one plane but lesser or no angulation is allowed in another plane. Methods to assemble the disclosed apparatus are also disclosed.
US09707009B2
A system for implanting a penile prosthetic into a penis with an insertion tool includes a penile implant, a tow suture, and a delivery cap. The implant has a proximal end insertable into a crus penis and a distal end insertable into a glans penis. The tow suture is coupled to the distal end of the penile implant. The delivery cap is coupled to the tow suture and a portion of the delivery cap is shaped as a hemispherical dome. The delivery cap has an aperture that is formed in the hemispherical dome, with the aperture sized to allow the needle of the insertion tool to pass through the aperture.
US09707007B2
A steerable transseptal punch system and method of using the steerable transseptal punch system to access the left atrium.
US09707001B2
A pin guide for the surgical operation of an avascular necrosis of a femoral head includes a guide body having a central pin guide hole extending along a centerline of the guide body and a plurality of side pin guide holes formed so as to make a specified angle with the central pin guide hole. The side pin guide holes are radially arranged around the central pin guide hole at a front side of the guide body and joined to the central pin guide hole at a rear side of the guide body.
US09706999B2
A tissue resection method of resecting a portion of a hollow organ includes a first step of specifying a position and a range of a resection target tissue from the inside of the hollow organ and showing the position and the range in a visually recognizable manner from the inside of a body cavity; a second step of bringing a bioabsorbable member introduced into the body cavity into contact with the resection target tissue and pressing the resection target tissue, thereby inverting the resection target tissue to the inside of the hollow organ; and a third step of resecting the inverted resection target tissue over all layers from the inside of the hollow organ and performing anastomosis of a hole formed in the hollow organ from the inside of the hollow organ.
US09706997B2
A shunt rivet for implantation in the aorta and inferior vena cava to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and a method of treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
US09706986B2
An illustrative example suture securing method includes moving a first member in an insertion direction into bone. The first member includes an eyelet and suture threaded through the eyelet transverse to the insertion direction. The method includes moving a second member relative to the first member in the insertion direction into a suture securing position where the second member traps the suture.
US09706985B2
A one-way knot pusher and/or locking device is provided and can be used for the adjustment of soft tissue anchoring components that create or improve continence. The device can be generally button- or disc-shaped and can include a carrier and a pin. When the device is pushed in the free sliding direction it acts as a knot pusher. However, when reversed the suture (e.g., the knot) jams or wedges inside of the cavity of the carrier, restricting or preventing motion in the opposite direction.
US09706960B2
A loading data generator can be used with a scaffold for delivery within a patient. The loading data generator includes a driving circuit electrically coupled to drive an impedance of the scaffold. A detection circuit generates loading data based on the impedance of the scaffold, wherein the loading data indicates an amount of impregnation of the therapeutic material in the scaffold.
US09706956B2
Aspects of the disclosure are directed to detecting physiological and/or other characteristics of subjects. As may be implemented in accordance with one or more embodiments, a time series of cardiac intervals is computed from a recording of activity of a beating heart of a subject, and the time series is decomposed into subcomponents. An envelope of at least one of the subcomponents is computed, and the presence and/or degree of a depressive or stressed mental state of the subject is detected based upon characteristics of the envelope.
US09706950B2
The present disclosure provides methods and devices for managing health conditions associated with posture. The devices can be configured to monitor patient body angles and alert caregivers when measurements are outside a recommended range for the health condition. The methods and devices can facilitate patient compliance and assist caregivers in adhering to action plans.
US09706932B2
A cuff for a blood pressure measuring system including a flexible elongate band having a first end and a second end and a sizing mechanism coupled to the band, wherein the sizing mechanism selectively permits relative movement between the first end and the second end of the band to expand and constrict a diameter of the band.
US09706929B2
The present invention relates to an optical device for imaging and measuring characteristics of an objects surface shape, surface spectral reflectance and structure of sub-surface layers. In particular, the invention relates to imaging of topography of human skin and skin sub-surface layers and determination of concentration of skin constituents. The present invention has applications in areas such as skin care, dermatology, cosmetics, wound management and tricology. The imaging device of the invention significantly improves photometric stereo measurements by suppressing specular reflection and allows accurate determination of the surface shape. Consequently the device allows elimination of the influence of the shape and illumination conditions on spectral measurements and allows accurate measurement of skin constituents.
US09706912B2
Optical measurement system and method including blink rate monitor and/or tear film breakup detector
An optical measurement system and method measure a characteristic of a subject's eye. The optical measurement system receives from an operator, via a user interface of the optical measurement instrument, a begin measurement instruction indicating the start of a measurement period for objectively measuring at least one characteristic of the subject's eye. Subsequent to receiving the begin measurement instruction, the optical measurement system determines whether a criterion associated with the tear film quality of the subject's eye is not satisfied. In response to determining that the criterion is not satisfied, the optical measurement instrument takes one or more corrective actions to measure the characteristic of the subject's eye under a condition wherein the criterion is satisfied.
US09706909B2
An apparatus for implementing a method for determining the dominant eye of a spectacle wearer (1), includes a target (2), an element (3, 4) for occulting at least one eye, and a sighting device (5, 50) equipped with an optical window (6). The principal feature of the apparatus is that the sighting device (5, 50) includes an electronic sensor making it possible to identify the direction of movement of the sighting device (5, 50), during the method during various steps of viewing the target (2).
US09706898B1
The dish towel with separable mating elements is an attachment device that is adapted to work with a dish towel. The attachment device comprises a first element and a second element. The second element is attached to the dish towel. The first element is attached to a stationary object such as the door handle of a refrigerator or an oven. The attachment device holds the dish towel in a storage position until first element is separated from the second element which allows the dish towel to be used. The dish towel with separable mating elements comprises a dish towel and an attachment device.
US09706896B2
A dishwasher having a spray unit fixed at a washing tub and configured to spray wash water, and a conversion assembly provided as to convert the direction of the wash water being sprayed from the spray unit toward a tableware basket. The conversion assembly includes a vane rotatably provided while disposed as to face with respect to the spray unit such that the direction of the converted wash water is adjusted. Through the structure as such, the spraying range of the wash water is extended, and may be able to minimize noise from the striking of the wash water against an inside wall or door of the dishwasher.
US09706884B2
The present invention is a disposable bath brush intended for one or possibly two uses in the shower or bath. The bath brush contains soap gel and moisturizer stored in containers within the brush. Either of these fluids may be dispensed by applying pressure to the individual container or an integral release button, thereby causing the respective fluid to flow out of an opening at the front center of the brush. Also included is a retractable handle to provide a user with an extended gripping surface for reaching the back of the body and the feet. The front of the brush comprises bristles of any of a variety of materials and of an adequate length to provide a thorough cleansing experience.
US09706881B1
A planar ring for messages proximate a drain stopper decorative device has a flat, wide shape. The ring has a top surface and an opposite bottom surface. The visible top surface has an outer edge upon its perimeter. The outer edge spans from the top surface to the bottom surface. Inwardly from the outer edge, the ring has a band with a width. The band's width falls within from about 10/32 inch to about ½ inch. Inwardly from the band, the ring has its inner edge of a constant radius lesser than the outer edge. Within the inner edge, the ring has an aperture that admits a stopper. The two edges attain a perpendicular orientation to the two surfaces. The ring has a multiple layer construction with a smooth transparent layer at the top surface upon an ink layer upon a substrate with a releasable adhesive layer.
US09706876B2
A containing assembly for a food product for use as a culinary tool to assist in preventing thermal injury to a user while inserting and retrieving the food product from a toaster slot, the assembly including a support assembly defining a basket for receiving and retaining the food product, and having a support frame with a u-shaped bar with two side bars and a base bar and two articulating side walls coupled to the bottom of the support frame, the rotatable side wall rotates about an axis proximate the bottom of the support frame. A stop restricts the outward rotation of the rotatable side wall at a predefined open position. A handle is fixedly coupled to one of the two side bars of the support frame and configured for inserting and retrieving the support assembly from the toaster slot with a single user hand.
US09706867B1
A jewelry attachment device having a main body including a main platform that a person can rest their wrist or forearm thereon, and a clasp stand adjustably connected to the main body that includes a slot, such that a person can place a jewelry clasp member within the slot of the clasp stand in an opened position, place a jewelry item and their wrist or forearm upon the main platform, adjust the position of the clasp stand, and then connect with one hand a ring loop portion of the jewelry item to the jewelry clasp member.
US09706866B2
A sizer for a hanger lacking a hook boss includes a pair of longitudinal walls spaced apart from each other by a pair of end sections. The sizer may include a pair of protrusion, wherein a first is disposed on a first wall of the pair of longitudinal walls and directed toward a second wall of the pair of longitudinal walls. A first jaw is disposed on one of the pair of end section. The pair of longitudinal walls flexes apart when the jaw passes over a flange of the hanger. The first jaw includes a lower portion having a curved edge. The first jaw further includes an upper portion. The lower portion and upper portion meet at an abrupt jaw point.
US09706858B2
A product display displays bottles each suspended by its neck. The apparatus is usually a rack display with several shelf frames that each has a number of sliding bottle support structures with left and right slide structures spaced laterally so as to define a slot of substantially uniform width over at least a lengthwise portion of the slide structures. That width is such that the necks of the bottles extend upwardly through the slot and a widened portion of the bottle's neck rests on both the slide structures and slides forward and rearward. The left and right slide structures in the lengthwise portion are inclined forwardly and downwardly at a downward angle relative to level that is in a range of 3 to 7 degrees. Friction between the bottles and the slide structures is low enough that the bottles, by virtue of their weight, slide forwardly on the slide structures. A lower frame shelf provides a bumper rail that prevents the bottles in the shelf rack above from sliding off the front end of the slide structure. A bridging structure may link adjacent bottle support structures such that bottles are pushed to the rear of one support structure and then proceed slopingly downward on slide tracks in the bridging structure and the next adjacent bottle support structure.
US09706851B2
This invention is a mattress core that is manufactured as a single unit. It is made up of individual cones that have different configurations resulting in different densities at different portions of the mattress. There are three main ways to accomplishing this goal: columns of different sizes and shapes, columns with different hole diameters, and columns with different density foam used to create them. A key advantage of this invention is that it is a single mattress made from a single mold, and does not require multiple parts to be put together.
US09706849B2
The fastening structure includes an inner sleeve, a quick-release handle and an outer sleeve. The inner sleeve has an outer threaded conic surface, a through slot, shrinkable slots and claw plates between adjacent two of the shrinkable slots. The quick-release handle is provided at a bottom end of the inner sleeve for controlling a width of the through slot. The outer sleeve is used for connecting the footrest ring and has an inner threaded conic surface to screw the outer sleeve onto the inner sleeve.
US09706846B2
A new chair back assembly is disclosed with attachment mechanisms that allow the chair back components to be relatively easily assembled while maintaining a slim profile and obscuring certain of the attachment mechanisms from view. In some embodiments, the chair back assembly includes a ring that attaches fabric or upholstery to the base of chair back. The ring attaches to the base of the chair back through a system of flanges and pockets that restrict movement while maintaining ease of assembly.
US09706836B1
The disclosure defined by this invention is of a shelving system where the top and bottom shelf positions are fixed relative to each other by a plurality of support columns, and one or more inner shelves are vertically positionable by hand. The support columns pass through guide channels in a shelf, or in brackets attached to the shelves, and are forced to bend slightly to do so. The channels are larger than the support columns. The bent support columns exert opposing lateral forces against a shelf at the guide channel walls and edges and the friction between the support columns and the guide channels enables a shelf to remain stuck in a position even when under load. Force can be applied by hand to overcome the stuck position and slide a shelf to a new vertical position. Inner shelves can be finely positioned thru a finite vertical range.
US09706835B2
A system and method of provisioning a securable device may include providing a plurality of securable device stations, each securable device station including (i) a controller and (ii) a set of securable devices in local communication with the controller, the controller being configured to enable a user to initiate access to a securable device from a set of securable devices. In response to a first controller of a first securable device station receiving (i) an access indicia and (ii) rental parameter that enables the user to access a securable device located in at least two of the securable device stations from a user, the first controller may communicate the access indicia and rental parameter to a network address that enables, by a second controller, the user to access a securable device at the second securable device station as provided by the rental parameter.
US09706832B2
An applicator head for selectively dispensing product includes a base structure and a support structure. The base structure includes a top face inclined relative to a bottom face, and a first side wall. The top face includes a base flange, and defines a first orifice in fluid communication with a fastener of the bottom face. The support structure includes a lower face inclined relative to an upper face, and a second side wall. The upper face includes a top surface and defines a second orifice. The lower face includes a support flange engaged with the base flange such that the support structure is pivotable relative to the base structure between first and second positions. Fluid communication is facilitated from the fastener through the second orifice in only one of the first and second positions. A dispenser is also provided.
US09706827B2
An epilating device removes hair from a user by pinching, pulling and releasing the hairs. The epilating device has a tweezer portion having an axis and being mounted to rotate about its axis during use, the tweezer portion defining at least one pinching region at its circumference in which hairs may be grasped by tweezer elements. The tweezer portion is mounted in cantilevered fashion by its first end to an attachment portion of a handle. The cantilever arrangement of the tweezer portion allows better access to the tweezer elements, in particular for epilating in areas that may otherwise be difficult to reach.
US09706822B2
A folding suitcase includes a back case component, a front lid component, a circumferential surface component, and a restoring component. Two opposite sides of the circumferential surface component are connected with the back case component and the front lid component, respectively, so as to form an accommodating space selectively. The circumferential surface component has multiple sidewall parts and multiple bending parts connected with the multiple sidewall parts. The multiple bending parts are bendable to lead the multiple sidewall parts to be capable of being folded oppositely or being erected on the back case component. The restoring component is located on at least one bending part. The restoring component is elastic for erecting the multiple sidewall parts.
US09706820B1
An umbrella storage spike having an upper assembly and a lower assembly, each having a storage space inside. The lower assembly includes external threads to aid in ground penetration for anchoring the device. The top of the upper assembly terminates in a cap that attaches to a pole that supports a canopy. The cap includes a speaker and a charging port used with a portable electronic device.
US09706818B2
Example ambulation aid apparatus and associated methods of manufacture are disclosed and described herein. An example single-point supportive ambulation aid is formed as an integral part. The integral part of the example ambulation aid is formed to integrate: a body portion formed to support a user; a graspable area integrated with the body portion and providing an area to be gripped by a user; and a foot portion integrated with the body portion and providing a single point of contact with a walking surface to facilitate user movement and support in conjunction with the body portion and graspable area through the integral part.
US09706811B2
An article of footwear may have a sole structure and an upper that includes at least two layers and a plurality of strands. The two layers extend from a lace region of the upper to a lower region of the upper. The strands are located between the two layers and the strands extend from the lace region to the lower region. Additionally, the strands are unsecured to the layers for a distance of at least five centimeters in an area between the lace region and the lower region. The two layers may be secured to each other at portions located between the strands.
US09706806B2
A helmet cover having a dome with an outer edge, having at least two engaging members are provided extending along the outer edge of the dome and a method of advertising using the helmet.
US09706802B2
Provided is a sports band including a main body formed with one side open to be worn on a body of a user and to have a curvature, and wherein an expression zone having a form indicating a sports game is formed at both ends of the open side, and an expression layer exhibiting the form indicating the sports game on an external side of the expression zone, and the sports band disclosed herein may be used for various sports games including soccer, allow a user to express enthusiasm as well as a sense of unity with a sports game, provide a desirable wearing sensation not only for everyday use but also for the sports game, and improve physical vitality by a magnetic field.
US09706800B2
A method for making face masks includes: advancing continuously a longitudinal sheet material that can be divided into a plurality of mask sheets each of which has two opposite longitudinal ends and two opposite transverse ends; cutting the sheet material at intervals to form the mask sheets; providing a plurality of strips each of which has two longitudinally opposite strip ends and each of which is folded to form a pleat between the two strip ends thereof; and bonding the two strip ends of each of the strips to one of the opposite transverse ends of a respective one of the mask sheets to form an ear loop. A structure of the face mask is also disclosed.
US09706796B2
A hands free pumping bustier provides a nursing woman with a convenient way of supporting funnel-shaped breast shields that are used as the nipple and breast interface during expression of milk. The bustier features breast shield ports having additional support members that extend upward to a top band of the bustier, providing superior support for the breast shields, enabling the bustier to accommodate differently sized breast shields, and simplifying manufacture of the bustier. The bustier further features a hook at the top of the zipper, which helps the nursing woman to easily maintain the garment around her body as she uses both hands to secure and zip the zipper. The bustier is made of a stretch nylon multi-filament yarn, such that it has adequate stretch capability to accommodate women of different body sizes and shapes while maintaining comfortable compression of the breast shields against their bodies.
US09706794B2
Disinfecting devices and related methods are provided that apply germicidal ultraviolet light to disinfect dispensing components of food and beverage dispensers. A disinfecting holster for a bar gun includes a support surface configured to interface with a bar gun to support the bar gun when stowed in the holster, a housing coupled with the support surface and surrounding a dispensing nozzle of the bar gun when the bar gun is stowed in the holster, and an ultraviolet light source configured to emit germicidal ultraviolet light onto the nozzle. The housing substantially contains the ultraviolet light within the housing during the application of the ultraviolet light to the dispensing nozzle. The ultraviolet light can be periodically applied to maintain the nozzle in a disinfected state.
US09706792B2
Glucosyl stevia compositions are prepared from steviol glycosides of Stevia rebaudianaBertoni. The glucosylation was performed by cyclodextrin glucanotransferase using the starch as source of glucose residues. The short-chain glucosyl steviacompositions were purified to >95% content of total steviol glycosides. The compositions can be used as sweetness enhancers, flavor enhancers and sweeteners in foods, beverages, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
US09706790B2
The present invention provides edible compositions comprising a compound of the present invention, food products comprising such edible compositions and methods of preparing such food products. The present invention also provides methods of reducing the amount of NaCl in a food product, methods of reducing the sodium intake in a diet, and methods of reducing bitter taste in a food product.
US09706788B2
Soy protein products are provided which lack the characteristic beany flavor of conventional soy protein isolates and can replace conventional isolates in various food products to provide food products having improved flavor.
US09706782B2
A shoulder-blade incision-making apparatus is provided and includes: a fixing jig on which the poultry carcass which is eviscerated and which has leg parts removed is to be placed and fixed; a fixing jig conveyer forming a conveyance path of the fixing jig and convey the fixing jig along the conveyance path; a first separating member disposed above the conveyance path movably upward and downward; and a first driving device for moving the first separating member in an upward and downward direction. The first driving device is operated to move downward the first separating member and move the first separating member along a surface of the shoulder blade of the poultry carcass in accordance with a timing when the poultry carcass fixed to the fixing jig reaches a meat-separation position below the first separating member, therefore the meat portion attached to the shoulder blade is separated from the shoulder blade.
US09706773B2
Antimicrobial compositions comprising one or more compound components generally recognized as safe for human consumption, and related methods of use, such compositions and methods as can be employed in a wide range of agricultural, industrial, building, pharmaceutical and/or personal care products and applications.
US09706762B2
The present invention relates to a fishing rig having a fishing line, a fixture, a conical diverter and a hooking device. The conical diverter has a cylindrical wall portion that is contiguous with and extends from a conically-shaped wall portion having an aperture in the narrow end that allows the fishing line to pass through. The aperture has a diameter that is larger than a thickness of the line and smaller than a width of the fixture, which is attached to the line. The line passes through the aperture so that when the fishing rig is pulled through water, the fixture is positioned inside the conical diverter and prevents the narrow end of the conical diverter from traversing the line toward the hooking device beyond the fixture, thereby allowing the conical diverter to be pulled through the water ahead of and spaced from the hooking device.
US09706761B1
A spinning reel for fishing includes a rotor, a fishing line guiding mechanism, and a bail reversing mechanism. The rotor has a cylindrical portion, and first and second rotor arms disposed in opposed positions on the cylindrical portion. The fishing line guiding mechanism has a line roller to guide a fishing line, a bail, first and second bail support members supporting first and second ends of the bail, the first bail support member coupled to the first rotor arm, and the second bail support member coupled to the second rotor arm. The bail reversing mechanism inverts the fishing line guiding mechanism to line casting or line winding positions. The line roller is disposed on the first bail support member and the bail reversing mechanism is disposed inside the second rotor arm. The first rotor arm includes two support legs extending forwardly from an outer peripheral portion of the cylindrical portion.
US09706756B2
An animal movement prediction method including the steps of establishing, receiving and predicting. The establishing step establishes a wireless mesh network of a plurality of remote sensors. Each sensor is established in the wireless mesh network by installing said sensor on an object to detect the animal in a detection zone; activating the sensor; and capturing a geographic coordinate in a mobile device for at least a portion of the detection zone apart from the sensor. The receiving step receives animal detection information from the sensors by way of the mesh network. The animal detection information includes a time of detection. The predicting step predicts the future movements of animals dependent upon the animal detection information.
US09706753B2
A brush configured for removing debris and hairs is provided. Included in the brush are at least one surfaced body having a pad, and a plurality of first bristles extending from the pad. One end of each first bristle is connected to the pad, and an opposite free end of each first bristle has a radially extending head portion. At least one additional head portion is disposed in a spaced relationship along a longitudinal axis of the first bristle.
US09706749B2
An animal enclosure and method of collapsing the enclosure is disclosed. The enclosure is fabricated from a plurality of panels. One or more first panels have elongate rods whose end portions are formed into a hook. An edge rod of an adjacent second panel is disposed within the hooked end portion of the first panel. By offsetting the hooked end portion of the first panel from the plane within which the first panel resides, the first and second panels to be stacked upon each other by pivoting the second panel onto the first panel.
US09706745B2
A system includes a robotic arm on which at least one camera is attached. It further includes a memory and a controller communicatively coupled to the memory. The memory stores historical information associated with a dairy livestock. The historical information include a previously-determined location of a teat of the dairy livestock. The controller moves the camera on the robotic arm toward the previously-determined location of the teat. The camera generates an image of the teat of the dairy livestock from a position to which it is moved, and the controller determines a current location of the teat of the dairy livestock based at least in part on the image.
US09706735B1
A novel maize variety designated PH25F7 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant comprise crossing maize variety PH25F7 with another maize plant are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PH25F7 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 PH25F7 or a locus conversion of PH25F7 with another maize variety.
US09706726B2
This invention relates to a method for introgressing a form of seedlessness, viz. stenospermocarpy (SSC) from subgenus Euvitis Planch. across a partial sterility barrier and partial pollen incompatibility barrier into subgenus Muscadinia Planch. and the plants produced by the method.
US09706720B1
An indoor-outdoor garden unit including a basin having an overhead canopy, connected to a water source via a main water tube and holding a plurality of opaque growing trays with removable opaque lids for optimal sprout growth in the dark. The main water supply tube operationally communicates with an on-off timer controlling water cycles. Bottom holes in each growing tray allow water, infused into the basin by any of three selectable mechanisms, to flow upwardly to water the sprouts from underneath, and serve to drain water from the growing trays and to aerate the plants between watering cycles. Sprayers on the underside of each growing tray lid allow watering from the top side. Water can be infused into the basin by the direct basin fill inlet or by a water fountain from which water impacts a water catcher member undermounted on the canopy to shed droplets into the basin.
US09706712B2
A forage harvester includes a post-accelerator disposed in an interior of the forage harvester, which post-accelerator includes a conveying fan that rotates about a rotary axle. The post-accelerator is partially enclosed by a housing that is open in sections and that extends in sections into a crop-conveyance path. An extent of the extension into the crop-conveying path is adjusted by displacing the post-accelerator relative to the housing. The forage harvester also includes a wall disposed opposite an open section. The rotary axle includes ends that are mounted in bearing supports disposed on the housing via one end to be pivotable about a pivot axle. Each of the bearing supports are connected to an actuator at a free end opposing the one end disposed on the housing.
US09706710B2
A grass collector is provided with a grass collector body which includes a storage space for storing grass clippings formed inside the grass collector body and a communication air passage having a first end connected to a rear part of the storage space to allow the storage space and the outside to communicate with each other; a duct which has a first end connected to a front part of the grass collector body and guides grass clippings to the grass collector body; and a dustproof net provided in the communication air passage.
US09706709B2
A harvester having a harvesting structure for harvesting crop and a crop receptacle for receiving harvested crop. The harvester comprises a crop conveying fan configured to operate at a fan speed to facilitate transfer of harvested crop from the harvesting structure to the crop receptacle. A control system for controlling the fan speed based on crop mass flow comprises a crop mass flow feedback device that provides a crop mass flow feedback signal indicative of crop mass flow. A controller is in communication with the crop mass flow feedback device and is configured to automatically lower the fan speed when the crop mass flow feedback signal indicates a lower crop mass flow and automatically raise the fan speed when the crop mass flow feedback signal indicates a higher crop mass flow.
US09706697B2
An agricultural system includes a baler for picking up and compressing crop from a crop swath in a field and a tow tractor. The baler is towed by the tow tractor via a draft hitch arrangement, which draft hitch arrangement allows a baler pickup track to be laterally offset from the tractor driving track with respect to the tractor driving direction. During baling, the baler pickup track is aligned to the crop swath for picking up crop and the tractor driving track is laterally spaced from the crop swath with respect to the tractor driving direction. A steering system autonomously aligns the baler pickup track onto the crop swath.
US09713295B2
An electronic device housing may have conductive walls and planar metal internal housing structures. A display in the electronic device may have a touch sensor layer such as an array of capacitive touch sensor electrodes. The display may have display layers in a plastic chassis structure and a metal chassis structure. A display layer may have a conductive surface. Conductive tape may be used to couple the touch sensor to the metal chassis structure and a metal radio-frequency shielding structure. Conductive tape may also be used to short the conductive surface of the display layer to the internal metal housing structure. Segments of conductive tape may run along each of the four edges of a display and may overlap at display corners. Conductive foam structures may be used to short the segments to adjacent portions of the conductive housing walls.
US09713290B2
The subject disclosure is directed towards a datacenter or partial datacenter (e.g., a datacenter module) contained in a sealed container. The container may be filled with a cooling fluid, such as a dielectric fluid, to help cool the datacenter components. The container and its internal datacenter or datacenter portion may be submerged in water, in which event the fluid also helps to equalize the external water pressure.
US09713286B2
Methods and devices for active control for two-phase cooling include a cooling volume that has cavities and active coolant flow controls in the cavities configured to adjust coolant flow through the cavities. A reservoir in fluid communication with the cavities and there is a two-phase coolant in the reservoir and cavities. The two-phase coolant has a phase transition temperature between an ambient temperature and an expected device temperature. A coolant sensor is configured to determine a coolant phase condition in the cavities. A control module is configured to adjust the active coolant flow controls in response to the determined coolant phase condition.
US09713283B2
An electronic apparatus includes a housing that includes an air inlet, and an air-intake duct section provided to supply air to the air inlet, and a filter housing that houses a filter provided to cover the air inlet, and moves toward the air-intake duct section in a thickness direction of the filter housing, to shift from a closed state in which the filter covers the air inlet to an open state in which the air inlet is uncovered.
US09713280B2
A standalone uninterruptible power supply includes a cabinet and a power supply unit. The cabinet has a frame, rails and carrier plates removably disposed on the rails. The power supply unit installed in the frame includes a control module, a power input module, a power output module and cables. The control module is installed in one carrier plate. The power input module and the power output module are electrically connected with the control module and installed in another carrier plate. The cables are detachably connected with the control module, the input module and the power output module.
US09713275B2
The lock catch structure comprises a first lock catch main body and a second lock catch main body. The first lock catch main body comprises a first base and a first main body rotationally connected to the first base; The second lock catch structure comprises a second base, a second main body rotationally connected to the second base, a handle hinged at the base and a draw-off locking member pivoted with the handle through a pivot shaft; one end of the draw-off locking member is limited in the groove, and the handle rotates around the pivot shaft as the support point, so that the draw-off locking member drives the first lock catch main body to move towards the second lock catch main body until the first inclined surface is pressed against the second inclined main surface.
US09713273B2
This invention provides a fireproof separator board, which is made of a flame-retardant, high temperature resistant material and disposed within an insulating casing of an electrical device, for preventing the heat generated by the electrical components of the electrical device from being conducted to the insulating casing. This invention also provides a plug-based circuit interrupter that includes the fireproof separator board. The fireproof separator board and the plug-based circuit interrupter of this invention can effectively prevent high temperature and fire caused by the electrical components that could melt the casing.
US09713270B2
A voltage regulating device for an electric motor has programmable control and regulation circuits carried by a circuit board mounted in a sealed support casing. The circuits have at least one programming terminal which is accessible from outside the support casing to enable programming of the circuits without opening the support casing.
US09713267B2
A method for manufacturing a printed wiring board with conductive posts includes forming on a first foil provided on carrier a first conductive layer including mounting pattern to connect electronic component via conductive posts, forming on the first foil a laminate including an insulating layer and a second foil to form the laminate on the first conductive layer, removing the carrier, forming a metal film on the laminate and first film, forming resist on the metal film to have pattern exposing portion of the metal film corresponding to the mounting pattern and portion of the second foil for a second conductive layer, forming an electroplating layer on the portion of the metal film not covered by the resist, removing the resist, and applying etching to remove the first and second foils below the metal film exposed by the removing the resist and to form the posts on the mounting pattern.
US09713266B2
The present invention relates to a method for manufacture of fine line circuitry in the manufacture of printed circuit boards, IC substrates and the like. The method utilizes a first conductive layer on the smooth surface of a build-up layer and a second conductive layer selected from electrically conductive polymers, colloidal noble metals and electrically conductive carbon particles on the roughened walls of at least one opening which are formed after depositing the first conductive layer.
US09713265B2
In order to remove treatment liquid (21) from a planar material to be treated (10), which is transported in an assembly for the electrolytic or wet-chemical treatment of the material to be treated (10), or to promote the exchange of material on the surface of the material to be treated (10), a roll with a roll surface (4, 14) is provided. The roll surface (4, 14) is arranged relative to a transport path of the material to be treated (10) so that a gap (8, 18) remains between the roll surface (4, 14) and a useful region of the material to be treated (10) opposing the roll surface (4, 14), which extends over the useful region. The roll is driven rotatably so that at the gap (8, 18) a relative speed is produced between the roll surface (4, 14) and the material to be treated (10).
US09713262B2
A via adding method comprising: identifying a target area where a via is to be added in a printed circuit board; determining a starting point for starting a search for a location of the via in the target area; and moving a search point along a path in an intersecting direction that intersects a radial direction around the starting point while moving the search point in the radial direction and determining whether the via is to be added at a moved search point.
US09713238B2
Among other things, one or more rotating members of a radiation imaging modality, such as a CT system, are described herein. The rotating member may be configured to support at least one of a radiation source or a detector array and comprises at least one element configured to facilitate the transfer of power to the rotating member and at least one element configured to facilitate the transfer of information between the rotating member and a stator. The rotating member may also comprise one or more positioning elements that are formed within the rotating member and are configured to facilitate determining a rotation angle of the rotating member. The rotating member may further comprise, among other things, a bearing structure, antenna assembly for transferring image data, and/or a drive mechanism for facilitating rotation of the rotating member, for example.
US09713237B1
A dynamically optimized ballast includes a ballast and a circuit board as main components combined together. Said circuit board is provided with a microcontroller, a timer and a current-switching device; wherein said microcontroller is provided with a timed step-up module which can start the timer and maintain a low current output to HID lamp at the time the circuit board is powered, and the timer will transmit a signal to the microcontroller to start the current-switching device and automatically switch to a high current output to HID lamp when a preset time of the timer has been reached. So that this invention can protect HID lamp and extend the service life of HID lamp, even the HID lamp pulsing for a long time, the power source repeated power supply and power out will not cause great damage to HID lamp and it will not be out of function. Besides, this invention enables user to reduce the brightness of HID lamp to reduce the loss of electric power and the deterioration of HID lamp.
US09713236B1
A solid-state lighting arrangement (10) designed for use within a lighting fixture (100) having existing ballast circuitry (110) for powering one or more discharge lamps. The solid-state lighting arrangement (10) includes a solid-state light source (50) and a startup delay circuit (60) coupled to light source (50). During operation, delay circuit (60) prevents application of power to light source (50) for a startup delay period, so as to provide compatibility with a wide variety of existing ballasts, as well as enhanced compatibility with the protection circuitry that is present in many existing ballasts.
US09713219B1
A light emitting diode (LED) control system may include a LED control system for an aircraft. The LED control system may include an LED power controller, and a solid state power controller (SSPC) that includes a processor in communication with the LED power controller, where the LED power controller and the solid state power controller are integrated onto a single power module. The LED control system is configured to receive DC power from a power source, determine, via the processor, current flow through a series MOSFET element connecting to at least one LED, to control operational voltage across the at least one LED, and adjust, via the processor, a gate voltage of the series MOSFET element with the LED power controller.
US09713210B2
A system, in some embodiments, comprises: multiple light emitting diode (LED) strings configurable in series or in parallel depending on a supply voltage provided in the system; and multiple current regulators, a different one of the multiple current regulators coupled to each of the multiple LED strings and configured to regulate current passing through a respective LED string, wherein at least one of the multiple current regulators is bypassed when the multiple LED strings are configured in series.
US09713194B2
Managing data resource utilization in a wireless network environment comprising a first data network and a second data network is described herein. The described management infrastructure and method incorporates monitoring data usage of a wireless network subscriber over the first data network, determining that the data usage over the first data network meets a specified threshold, and, in response to the determination that usage has reached the specified threshold, administratively disconnecting the wireless network subscriber from the first data network so as to cause a data session of the wireless network subscriber to be reassigned to the second data network.
US09713192B2
A device is described comprising an audio processor configured to perform audio processing during an audio communication connection between the communication device and a second communication device, a memory configured to store at least a first audio processor wakeup schedule in accordance with a first predefined audio communication connection event and a controller configured to set at least one second audio processor wakeup schedule in accordance with a second predefined audio communication connection event being similar to the first audio processor wakeup schedule, and wake up the audio processor in accordance with at least one of the first audio processor wakeup schedule or the second audio processor wakeup schedule in response to the incidence of at least one of the first or second predefined audio communication connection events, wherein the audio processor is configured to enter into a sleep mode after the audio processing is complete and to enter into a processing mode from the sleep mode in response to a wake up signal received from the controller.
US09713190B2
A method for receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message by a user equipment (UE) is described. The method includes receiving an RRC connection reconfiguration message including mobility control information. In response to receiving the RRC connection reconfiguration message including mobility control information, a medium access control (MAC) entity of a secondary cell group (SCG) is released if any MAC entity of the SCG is established. In response to receiving the RRC connection reconfiguration message including mobility control information, a MAC entity of a master cell group (MCG) is reset.
US09713188B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a service data transmission method. An AN entity of a first network sends a first request message to an AN entity of a second network corresponding to a target cell in which a UE is located, so as to request the AN entity of the second network to establish a radio bearer for the UE. The AN entity of the first network sends a second request message to the UE, so as to request the UE to establish the radio bearer with the AN entity of the second network. After the AN entity of the second network has established the radio bearer with the UE, the AN entity of the first network transmits service data to the UE by using the AN entity of the second network.
US09713186B2
Technologies are generally described for systems, devices and methods effective to implement a line of sight initiated handshake. In some examples, a processor in a first communication device may detect a line of sight directed from the first communication device to a second communication device. The first communication device may send a handshake request to the second communication device. The first communication device may receive a handshake acknowledgement from the second communication device. The handshake request and handshake acknowledgement may be effective to create the handshake. The first and second communication devices can thereafter share data.
US09713181B2
A methods and apparatus may be used for accelerated link setup. A method may include a station (STA) acquiring information about an access point of an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 network in advance through a previously connected IEEE 802.11 interface and/or an interface other than the IEEE 802.11 network. The STA may use the acquired information during a link setup procedure between the STA and the access point. The information may include a suggestion for a specific procedure to complete the link setup procedure between the STA and the access point.
US09713180B1
Systems and methods are disclosed for efficient signaling between devices. A relay device initiates association with discovery broadcast signals to leaf devices. Each leaf responds with association request signals. After association, the relay periodically sends stay alive signals to the leaf, and the leaf periodically sends link confirmation signals to the relay. If either device fails to send its signal, link breakage is assumed. The leaf device reverts to uplink communication with a base station while searching for another relay. In another embodiment, the leaf foregoes association with a relay, instead forming a device to device (D2D) connection with a relay. A D2D connection is used when the leaf does not expect a link to a relay to be stable enough to justify the association overhead, or when downlink traffic is arriving more frequently than an associated relay is awake. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.
US09713171B2
Provided is a wireless communication system that is capable of preventing interference between secondary use systems that do not use a database. The wireless communication system uses a white space for opposing communication between a base station and a terminal station.At startup, the base station transmits a preamble over a cycle that is n-times a frame length (where n is an integer 2 or greater), changes a set frequency channel if ranging is not detected from a terminal station within a fixed time interval, and begins normal operation using the set frequency channel if ranging is detected.At startup, the terminal station detects a preamble within a received signal, changes a set frequency channel if a peak is detected at each frame length, and transmits a ranging signal if peaks are detected for cycles that are n-times the frame length and peaks are not detected for other cycles.
US09713170B2
Systems and techniques are disclosed to manage coexistence of wireless technologies, including 5G unlicensed transmissions, with 802.11 transmissions in the unlicensed band. Aspects of the present disclosure include channel selection and 802.11 traffic monitoring and coordinated access. The systems and techniques include implementing a dynamic duty cycle on a selected channel of an unlicensed 802.11 band and dynamically varying the duty cycle based on traffic load on the selected channel. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.
US09713165B2
The embodiments herein relate to a method in a base station (301) for scheduling a user equipment (305) in a communication system (300). The user equipment (205) receives a part of a CSI from the user equipment (305) in a TTI. The CSI comprises at least one of a CQI, a RI, a PCI, and an HARQ ACK/NACK. The user equipment (205) determines a type of data stream in which the part of the CSI was received and determines whether the type of data stream is equal to a predetermined type. The user equipment (205) schedules the user equipment (305) with a first transmission type when the type of data stream is equal to the predetermined type with a second transmission type when the type of data stream is different from the predetermined type.
US09713164B2
An apparatus and method for initiating discontinuous reception (DRX) operation in a user equipment (UE) are disclosed herein. Applications running on the UE are monitored by the UE to identify one or more inactivity trigger events associated with the application(s). The UE includes an application-radio cross layer to process the application information, including the inactivity trigger event, for use by a radio layer. The radio layer of the UE determines initiation of the DRX operation in accordance with the application information, including the inactivity trigger event, provided by the application-radio cross layer and device characteristics information.
US09713156B2
A beam forming communication system includes a beam forming wireless communication device that is configured to provide wireless communication signals on a plurality of beamed formed wireless communication paths. A plurality of computing devices are positioned in a rack and are each configured to receive wireless communication signals from the beam forming wireless communication device. Each of the plurality of computing devices may determine whether wireless communication signals satisfy minimum wireless signal characteristics and, if so, provide a beam form receiving indication. The plurality of computing devices are positioned such that only a first subset of the plurality of computing devices provide the beam form receiving indication in response to the beam forming wireless communication device providing the wireless communications signals on a first beam formed wireless communication path.
US09713155B2
A intelligent backhaul radio is disclosed that is compact, light and low power for street level mounting, operates at 100 Mb/s or higher at ranges of 300 m or longer in obstructed LOS conditions with low latencies of 5 ms or less, can support PTP and PMP topologies, uses radio spectrum resources efficiently and does not require precise physical antenna alignment.
US09713148B2
Provided is a communication system that can be normally and efficiently operated in the case where existing carriers and new carrier types coexist. A base station device and a communication terminal device are configured to perform communication in cells of legacy carriers LC1 to LC3 being existing carriers. When the base station device starts operating new carrier types NCT1 and NCT2, the NCT1 and NCT2 are associated with legacy carriers belonging to the same frequency band. For example, the NCT2 is associated with the LC2 or the LC3 and is not associated with the LC1. The legacy carriers LC1 to LC3 associated with the NCT1 and the NCT2 notify the communication terminal device of the information on the NCT1 and NCT2. This allows the communication terminal device to communicate with the NCT1 and the NCT2.
US09713141B2
The capacity of a cellular wireless system is increased by operation of base stations or base station sectors arranged to re-use radio resource elements that are used by neighboring base stations or base station sectors, in conjunction with operation of relay stations, which are similarly arranged to re-use radio resource elements used by neighboring relay stations, and where the radio resource elements re-used by the relay stations are different to those used by the base stations. The relay stations provide coverage, particularly in the areas at the boundaries between the areas of coverage of base stations that suffer from interference between signals transmitted from the respective base stations. In addition, the relay stations generally increase the average available carrier to interference ratio compared with a system in which base stations alone are deployed. The scheme for the allocation of radio resource elements ensures in particular that interference is avoided between signals transmitted from a base station and signals transmitted from a relay station in radio resource elements allocated to control data.
US09713140B2
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more specifically, disclosed are a method and an apparatus for transmitting or receiving a downlink signal by considering an antenna port relationship. A method for user equipment decoding an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) in the wireless communication system, according to one embodiment of the present invention, comprises the steps of: determining a quasi co-location (QCL) of an antenna port of the EPDCCH; and decoding the EPDCCH based on the QCL with respect to the antenna port of the EPDCCH. The user equipment can determine a QCL assumption between an antenna port of an EPDCCH demodulation reference signal and an antenna port of a different reference signal based on the type of a QCL assumption with respect to a PDSCH.
US09713138B2
This invention concerns concepts for signaling resource allocation information to a terminal that indicates to the terminal assigned resources for the terminal. The terminal can receives downlink control information (DCI), which comprises a field for indicating the resource allocation information of the terminal. This resource assignment field within the DCI has a predetermined number of bits. The terminal can determines its assigned resource allocation information from the content of the received DCI, even though the bit size of the resource allocation field in the received DCI is insufficient to represent all allowed resource allocations. According to an embodiment, the received bits that are signaled to the terminal in the DCI represent predetermined bits of the resource allocation information. All remaining one or more bits of the resource allocation information that are not included in the field of the received DCI are set to predetermined value.
US09713128B2
A handheld device, a base station and transmission control methods thereof are provided. The handheld device transmits an uplink signal to the base station with an uplink dedicated physical control channel (UL DPCCH) carrying both transport format combination indicator (TFCI) code word and acknowledgement (ACK) information. The base station terminates a downlink signal transmission to the handheld device in response to the ACK information.
US09713124B2
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a method for transmitting a device-to-device (D2D) signal from a first user equipment in a wireless communication system, wherein the signal transmission method comprises the steps of: deciding a physical resource block through frequency-hopping; and mapping data onto the physical resource block that is decided, wherein a hopping offset value common to a first cell and a second cell is used for the frequency-hopping, when a second user equipment for receiving the signal belongs to the second cell, which is not the first cell to which the first user equipment belongs.
US09713120B2
A method for reducing paging traffic between a gateway (GW) and plural base stations (BSs) is provided when paging user equipments (UEs). A cache map, which records most-recently visited BSs of selected UEs, is used to limit the number of BSs in the paging of each selected UE, thereby reducing paging traffic. Furthermore, paging requests sent to the same BS node are grouped into one batch in generating a transport-layer payload, reducing the number of generated transport-layer messages. When used in a LTE system, piggybacking paging requests as provided by the SCTP reduces paging traffic and windowing/congestion control overhead at the transport layer. Transmission efficiency is thus improved. In addition, the number of paging requests sent out by the GW node per one paging interval is controlled to be not greater than a pre-determined maximum value to further limit paging traffic for avoiding occurrence of a paging storm.
US09713109B2
Locating a frequency deviation in a communication network is provided. A node clock frequency is assigned to each internal clock of each network node. Messages are transmitted synchronizing the internal clocks. The synchronization messages are transmitted from one node to another in succession based on a reference clock frequency predefined by a reference clock. The synchronization messages include a reference clock count state of the reference clock. Synchronization deviations are calculated at predefined intervals of time. If the synchronization deviation of the middle network node exceeds a threshold value, a change in the reference clock frequency is detected if the synchronization deviations of adjacent nodes. Otherwise, a change in the node clock frequency of the middle network node is detected.
US09713100B2
Disclosed is a method for interference distribution. The method comprises: a reconfiguration management node of a secondary system acquires or receives information of an idle spectrum resource and information on the total interference value that the secondary system is permitted to generate on the idle spectrum resource; and, the reconfiguration management node calculates, on the basis of the information on the total interference value that the secondary system is permitted to generate, a transmission power for a secondary user equipment that is subordinate to the reconfiguration management node. While at the same time, also disclosed are a system, management node, database, and storage medium for interference distribution.
US09713093B2
A wireless communication device including an integrated processing circuit, a first memory and a testing circuit is provided. The integrated processing circuit includes a processing unit capable of processing a wireless communication signal and a radio frequency (RF) unit capable of performing a conversion between a radio frequency (RF) signal and a baseband signal, wherein the wireless communication signal is one of the RF signal and the baseband signal. The first memory is coupled to the integrated processing circuit. The first memory is capable of storing data used by the processing unit. The testing circuit is coupled to the first memory, and is capable of testing the first memory for determining if the first memory is an effective memory. The RF unit and the first memory are placed in a single module.
US09713091B2
A technique, including in a radio link failure report from a communication device information about the power saving state of the communication device.
US09713090B2
An apparatus includes a detector to detect an idle state of a communication link that communicates bursts or packets of information. The apparatus also includes an oscillator having low-power and normal modes of operation. The oscillator makes a transition to the low-power mode during the idle state of the communication link. The oscillator leaves the low-power mode of operation and enters the normal mode of operation when the communication link is in a non-idle state.
US09713077B2
A hierarchy of controllers that are part of a communication network include: (1) a network controller at the top of the hierarchy having direct access to at least one subscription profile, ProfileUE, associated with at least one User Equipment (UE), (2) a radio access network (RAN) controller located at a level directly beneath the network controller receiving the subscription profile, ProfileUE, from the network controller, (3) a base station controller associated with a base station and located beneath the RAN controller in the hierarchy, (4) a UE controller associated with an UE located beneath the base station controller in the hierarchy. The RAN controller, based on information in the received subscription profile, ProfileUE, delegates handoff decisions to either the base station controller or the UE controller, and the RAN controller makes such delegation decisions by programming a per UE White List (WLUE) and a per UE Black List (BLUE), the WLUE comprising a programmable list of candidate base stations with which the UE is permitted to conduct handoff operations, and the BLUE comprising another programmable list of base stations with which the UE is not permitted to conduct handoff operations.
US09713076B2
According to one embodiment of the present description, a method by which a terminal receives a search signal from a small-sized cell is provided. The method can comprise the steps of: receiving, from a serving cell, configuration set information of search signals of clustered neighboring small-sized cells for each cluster; determining configuration information of a search signal of each of the neighboring small-sized cells belonging to a corresponding cluster on the basis of the set information; and detecting a search signal from a corresponding small-sized cell on the basis of the determined configuration information.
US09713070B1
In one embodiment, a system includes a control word processor to generate first regional-specific control word formation data items (RSCWFDI), for a first geographical sub-region of a primary geographical region which includes different geographical sub-regions, for use over cryptoperiods, the first RSCWFDI being used in generating control words in receiver-decoder devices, an encryption engine to encrypt content with the control words over the cryptoperiods yielding encrypted content, a first transmission apparatus to broadcast the first RSCWFDI and the encrypted content in the primary geographic region, and a communication interface to share data about second RSCWFDI of the first geographical sub-region with at least one regional transmission apparatus of the first geographical sub-region operative to broadcast the second RSCWFDI of the geographical sub-region in the geographical sub-region, wherein each control word may be generated in the receiver-decoder devices using one of first and one second RSCWFDI.
US09713068B2
A closed subscriber group (CSG) cell is a cell that allows use of subscribers. In order to receive the service by the CSG cell, a CSG-ID is required to be notified to a user equipment, which cannot be obtained in a situation outside the reach of radio waves from a non-CSG cell. In a mobile communication system including base stations respectively provided to a CSG cell and a non-CSG cell in which access is made to the CSG cell with the use of a CSG-ID issued in a case where use of the CSG cell is allowed, the base station provided in the CSG cell refers to the notified identification information of a user equipment and then transmits a tracking area update request from the user equipment to a core network, and the core network determines whether the user equipment is allowed to use the CSG cell and, in the case where the use is allowed, transmits a signal for allowing assignment of radio resources to the user equipment and the CSG-ID. The user equipment accesses the CSG cell with the use of the CSG-ID.
US09713067B2
Techniques, apparatuses, and systems are described for wireless communications. In one implement, wireless communication systems can provide one or more mechanisms to reduce reverse overhead control signaling by adaptively transmitting overhead control information.
US09713064B2
A schedule for access to a shared wireless medium by a device is based on profile data and an algorithm.
US09713060B2
A method, system, and computer program product that provides a two-index system for clusters of small cells in a wireless network. A first index is employed for access to and identification of a serving cell within a cluster of small cells. A second index indicates a group of small cells for determining mobility control. The first index may be derived from primary/secondary synchronization signals, or from frequency/time division multiplex signal position. The second index may be indicated in system/master information block signals or predefined as a plurality of small cells identified by the first index for each cell. Determination of physical cell identification is aided by providing a plurality of primary/secondary synchronization (PSS/SSS) signal alternating configurations with indicator, wherein a maximum number of configurations is predefined. Signaling the PSS/SSS configurations by one of broadcast or dedicated signaling, said signaling indicating whether each configuration is one of periodic or aperiodic alternation.
US09713056B2
A small cell controller for switching and aggregating wireless data between a cellular network and a noncellular network is disclosed. The small cell controller may include a cellular interface to communicate data with the cellular network, a noncellular interface to communicate data with the noncellular network, and an analyzer configured to determine whether a portion of the wireless data may be transferred from the cellular network to the noncellular network, and determine a first portion of the noncellular network to be allocated to the portion of the wireless data when the portion of the wireless data may be transferred.
US09713040B2
With the deployment of the Mobile Routers, some of the mobile devices would access the IP services, e.g. Remote Local IP Access (LIPA), via the local connections provided by the Mobile Router. In such cases, the mobile devices may be detached from the 3GPP access, and thus lose the capability of receiving certain services, e.g. CS domain related services. This invention presented a solution to allow the mobile device to continue enjoying the services provided via 3GPP access by placing the mobile device into a special state and binding Mobile Router's context with the mobile device's context. In this way, the mobile operator's core network would be able to trigger the mobile device to receive the CS service even its 3GPP access connections are removed.
US09713039B2
Methods, apparatus, and systems are disclosed for handover of a Wireless Transmitter/Receiver Unit (WTRU) moving between a local network and another network. The WTRU established a local IP access (LIPA) session in the local network via a first Access Point (AP). The method includes receiving, by a second AP in the other network, a request to connect to the other network; and transitioning the LIPA session in the local IP network to a managed remote access (MRA) session in the other network. The transitioning includes establishing a path between the first AP and the second AP via a gateway, and informing the gateway of the transition to the MRA session.
US09713035B2
Methods and apparatuses are described in which an unlicensed spectrum is used for Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications. A first method includes broadcasting beacon signals in an unlicensed spectrum at predetermined times from an evolved Node B (eNB). A second method includes receiving beacon signals broadcast in an unlicensed spectrum at predetermined times from an eNB. The beacon signals may include downlink signals identifying the eNB and at least one associated attribute of the eNB.
US09713023B2
An example technique may include measuring a wireless link between a user device and an access point to obtain a first set of measurement values, detecting that the wireless link is temporarily blocked during the measuring, modifying, based on the wireless link being temporarily blocked, the first set of measurement values to obtain a second set of measurement values, and sending, to a network device, a report indicating the second set of measurement values.
US09713020B2
Characterization and enhancement of a mobile local scattering environment. The system includes a channel component and a link control component, wherein the channel component facilitates communication of a ping signal, which is used to estimate the delay spread characteristics and/or angle of arrival in order to characterize the mobile local scattering environment. This information is sent to the link control component, which enhances radio link performance based on the received information. The system can be used to assist in E-911 location applications, such as determining the location of an indoor user.
US09713015B2
The present invention relates to a method by which a base station transmits a signal for coverage coordination in a wireless communication system and a device for the same. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a coordinating base station receives coverage related information from each of a first base station and a second base station, performs a coverage coordination procedure by using the coverage related information of the first and second base stations and transmits a signal for coverage coordination, which is determined according to the result of performing the coverage coordination procedure, to each of the first and second base stations, wherein the coverage coordination procedure includes determining whether the second base station can supplement the coverage of the first base station when the first base station switches to an idle mode.
US09713011B2
An apparatus, configured to communicate with other apparatuses in a wireless network and operating in a frequency-division duplexing mode, can be caused to refrain from transmitting during a number of subframes of a frame of a downlink frequency band prior to a detection of a radar transmission, can be caused to send a first signal, related to monitoring for the radar transmission, to a second apparatus, and can be caused to change the number of the subframes of the frame of the downlink frequency band in response to an event that can be an increase or a decrease in a load of the apparatus or the detection of the radar transmission. Optionally, placement of the subframes within the frame of the downlink frequency band can correspond to placement of subframes that are designated for an uplink communication within a frame configured in accordance with the Long-Term Evolution Time-Division Duplex standard.
US09713008B2
A system and method for user certificate initiation, distribution, and provisioning in converged WLAN-WWAN interworking networks. A computing device operable in a wireless local area network sends a public key to a mobile device operable in a wireless cellular wide area network. The mobile device performs a bootstrapping procedure with a cellular operator in the wireless cellular wide area network to obtain a user certificate based on the public key. The mobile device sends the user certificate to the computing device for installation on the computing device. The user certificate may be used for digital signature, verification, and encryption purposes. The user certificate is also used in both the wireless local area network and the wireless wide area network for authenticating a subscriber when accessing services from both networks.
US09712994B2
A method of managing identities for use in a mobile telecommunications device in a telecommunications network has the following features. The identity management process is triggered and one or more parameters of a currently available mobile telecommunications network detected. An identity database is searched—each record in the identity database comprises an identity and additional identity information for each identity. The additional identity information includes the one or more parameters. The identity management process involves selecting an identity when a first record comprising the one or more parameters detected is found in said searching and modifying an active identity of the mobile telecommunications device to be the selected identity when the active identity is not already the selected identity. This process can be carried out by a subscriber information module of a mobile telecommunications device.
US09712992B2
A system in radio communication comprising a controller, a first device, and a second device is provided. The first device is associated with a first particular sector of a radio communication cell and the second device is associated with a second particular sector of the radio communication cell. The first device comprises a first sector indicating hardware and the second device comprises a second sector indicating hardware. The first and second sector indicating hardware each comprises a first visual sector information relating to the first particular sector such that the first visual sector information is visible to a human, and a first electronically readable sector information relating to the first particular sector. Each device comprises a first reading arrangement for reading the electronically readable sector information.
US09712987B2
Systems, methods, apparatuses, and media for the provision of emergency services information are provided. Embodiments include receiving, by a mobile device, an emergency services information mapping table, the emergency services information mapping table comprising a plurality of entries, each entry of the plurality of entries comprising a mobile country code value, an emergency services telephone number value, and an emergency services type value. Embodiments include retrieving, by the mobile device, information from the emergency services information mapping table in response to an input from a user of the mobile device.
US09712986B2
Systems and methods for operating a mobile virtual network are disclosed. A mobile virtual network operator is disclosed as an entity that provides a mobile networking service to a user, the mobile networking service being provided using a physical mobile network provided by a third party. The mobile virtual network operator may provide content distribution services, data access services, or messaging services to a user of a mobile device.
US09712980B1
A portable electronic device configured to function as an electronic identifier in a facility and to display an interactive graphical facility map of the facility, a facility mapping and visitor tracking system, and a set of facility mapping and visitor tracking processes are disclosed.
US09712978B2
A method of identifying mobile computing devices includes sending a request from a first mobile computing device to a second mobile computing device for the location of the second mobile computing device, and receiving the location of the second mobile computing device at the first mobile computing device. The method further includes providing a notification to one of the first and second mobile computing devices based upon the location of the second mobile computing device.
US09712976B1
Systems and methods for position updating for a mobile device are disclosed. A mobile device receives a first position data at a first time and queries for network information associated with a serving cell of a cellular network. The network information contains a radio signal level associated with the serving cell of the cellular network. The mobile device compares the radio signal level against a previously stored radio signal range received from a network server and determines a position updating opportunity for the mobile device based on the comparison. The network server assists the position updating process by acquiring, positioning data from a plurality of mobile devices operating in the cellular network. The network server determines a QoP information based on the acquired positioning data and transmits the QoP information to the plurality of mobile devices to be stored for position update.
US09712975B2
The present disclosure discloses a system and a method for displaying mobile trails for mobile client devices. Specifically, a network device obtains a plurality of performance measurements and a corresponding plurality of physical locations for a client device over a period of time. Then the network device generates a plurality of visual representations for the client device over the period of time, each visual representation representing a respective performance measurement and a respective physical location at a respective time during the period of time. Moreover, the network device can display, store, and/or transmit a map of a physical environment with the plurality of visual representations.
US09712974B2
A method for demodulating a signal is provided. The method includes: acquiring a reference clock signal provided by a power management unit (PMU) in a mobile terminal; determining a moving velocity of the mobile terminal; determining, based on the moving velocity, a Doppler frequency shift value generated when the mobile terminal receives a radio frequency (RF) signal transmitted by a base station; and demodulating, according to the reference clock signal and the Doppler frequency shift value, the received RF signal.
US09712968B2
A system and method for using super geo-fences and virtual fences to improve efficiency of geo-fences is disclosed. A server system stores geo-fence data for a plurality of geo-fences and receives a request for updated geo-fence data from a client system. The server system selects one or more geo-fences and generates a super geo-fence that encompasses all the selected geo-fences. The server system determines a super geo-fence reduction factor. The server system reduces the size of the super geo-fence based on the determined reduction factor. The server system then transmits the generated super geo-fence and the selected one or more geo-fences to the client system.
US09712960B2
In one embodiment an apparatus comprises logic, at least partially including hardware logic, configured to establish a geographic reference point, define one or more geofences relative to the geographic reference point, determine, based on an input from at least one inertial sensor, a location of the apparatus relative to the geographic reference point, and generate a warning signal in response to a determination that the location of the apparatus is outside the one or more geofences. Other embodiments may be described.
US09712959B2
A network system for positioning services based on wireless communication system, including base stations, a dedicated access apparatus, cables, and a server. The base stations, the dedicated access apparatus and the cables constituting a private network. The server constituting a public network. The base stations are configured to send and receive signals in a broadcasting manner, and transmit the signals to the server through the cables and the dedicated access apparatus. The dedicated access apparatus is configured to transfer transmission data between the private network and the public network, forward data from the base stations to the server, and forward data from the server to a corresponding base station. The cables are configured to transmit data between the base stations and between the base stations and the dedicated access apparatus. The server is configured to perform data processing according to the received data collected by at least one base station.
US09712956B2
An Internet phone may be physically located based on its credential. The credential is related to a MAC address of the Internet phone. The MAC address is related to a port identifier of a network switch in communication with the Internet phone. The port identifier is related to a physical location of the Internet phone.
US09712943B2
An apparatus of this invention is directed to an information processing apparatus that selects an appropriate combination of a device connected to a mobile terminal and a program used in the information processing apparatus to operate the device via a network and the mobile terminal, based on a history of the combination. The information processing apparatus accumulates the history of the combination of the device connected via the network and the mobile terminal, and the program used in the information processing apparatus to operate the device. When receiving information about the device connected to the mobile terminal from the mobile terminal via the network, the information processing apparatus selects the combination of the device and the program based on the history of the combination of the device and the program accumulated in an accumulator.
US09712942B2
A request for a first resource by a user is received. In response to receiving the request for a first resource, a second resource is determined based on the first resource and a resource usage pattern of the user. A response to the request for the first resource is provided. The response includes the first resource and the second resource.
US09712940B2
Various systems and methods for automatically adjusting audio balance are described herein. A system for automatically adjusting audio balance includes a distance module to determine a distance from an audio speaker to an audience, the audio speaker being one of a plurality of audio speakers, an audio modification module to determine a modification to an audio characteristic of the audio speaker based on the distance, the modification to provide a balanced soundstage for the audience from the plurality of audio speakers, and a control module to apply the modification of the audio characteristic to the audio speaker.
US09712938B2
The invention discloses rendering sound field signals, such as Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA), for arbitrary loudspeaker setups, where the rendering results in highly improved localization properties and is energy preserving. This is obtained by a new type of decode matrix for sound field data, and a new way to obtain the decode matrix. In a method for rendering an audio sound field representation for arbitrary spatial loudspeaker setups, the decode matrix for the rendering to a given arrangement of target loudspeakers is obtained by steps of obtaining a number of target speakers, their positions, positions of a spherical modeling grid and a HOA order, generating a mix matrix from the positions of the modeling grid and the positions of the speakers, generating a mode matrix from the positions of the spherical modeling grid and the HOA order, calculating a first decode matrix from the mix matrix and the mode matrix, and smoothing and scaling the first decode matrix with smoothing and scaling coefficients.
US09712928B2
A binaural hearing system comprising left and right hearing devices is provided, each comprising an input unit providing an electric input signal representing an environmental sound; a noise reduction system for estimating and reducing a noise component of the electric input signal; antenna and transceiver circuitry allowing the exchange of data between the hearing devices. The binaural hearing system is—in a mode of operation, where a sound source is predominantly audible at a first one of the hearing devices—configured to transmit the estimate of the noise component determined in a second one of the hearing devices to the first hearing device and to use said estimate to reduce the noise component in the electric signal of the first hearing device and to provide a noise reduced signal in the first hearing device. Thereby improved noise reduction is provided for use, e.g. in hearing aids, in non-symmetric acoustic situations.
US09712922B2
A sound generator includes a vibration unit (60) having a piezoelectric element (61) and also includes a weight (10) for applying a load to the vibration unit (60). The vibration unit (60) deforms based on a sound signal while receiving the load from the weight (10), thereby vibrating a contact surface (150) in contact with the sound generator (10) and generating a sound from the contact surface (150).
US09712919B2
To reduce signal output and wiring to a D/A converter (DAC).A DAP 1 comprises a DAC 7 that D/A-converts LR 2 channels digital audio data into LR 2 channels analog audio data, an amplification circuit 9 that amplifies the LR 2 channels analog audio data that the DAC 7 D/A-converts, a DAC 8 that D/A-converts the LR 2 channels digital audio data into the LR 2 channels analog audio data, and an amplification circuit 10 that amplifies inverted LR 2 channels analog audio data that the LR 2 channels analog audio data that the DAC 8 D/A-converts is inverted.
US09712914B1
The disclosure describes a costume coordinated, motion activated sound generation system, including apparatuses and methods, for generating pre-defined audio in connection with a costume worn by a user and the type, extent, and rate of movements by the user. According to an example embodiment, the system comprises an electronic controller having a memory for storing pre-defined audio data associated with the type, forcefulness, and rate of a user's movements and having an audio interface and speaker for generating audio from such audio data. The system also comprises one or more accelerometers or sensors for enabling detection of the type, extent, and/or rate of user movements. Based in part on the type, forcefulness, and rate of such movements, the system retrieves audio data corresponding thereto from memory and causes playback thereof, creating the illusion that the character, person, or thing being played by the user while in costume produced the sounds.
US09712892B2
Method and an apparatus for processing a broadcast signal including an interactive broadcast service
A method of processing a broadcast signal including an interactive broadcast service at a transmitter is disclosed. The method comprises generating an parameter table containing metadata about applications and interactive broadcast events targeted to the applications, dividing the parameter table into a plurality of parameter blocks, inserting each of the parameter blocks into each of a plurality of parameter table sections, generating a trigger which is a signaling element to identify signaling and establish timing of playout of the interactive broadcast events, inserting the trigger into a closed caption channel of the broadcast signal, transmitting the broadcast signal including the closed caption channel and a specific channel carrying the plurality of parameter table sections, wherein the trigger includes location information specifying a location of the parameter table in the broadcast signal.
US09712891B2
Various methods are described for selecting an access method for receiving a DASH media presentation. One example method may comprise providing for reception of a media presentation description. The media presentation description may identify a first set of access methods for receiving media and may provide attribute values associated with each of the access methods. The method of this example embodiment may further comprise identifying a second set of access methods supported by an apparatus. Furthermore, the method of this example embodiment may comprise determining a third set of access methods belonging to both the first set and the second set. The method of this example embodiment may further comprise selecting an access method from the third set based at least in part on the attribute values associated with the access method. Similar and related example methods, example apparatuses, and example computer program products are also provided.
US09712886B2
Aspects of a method and apparatus for band separation for multiband communication systems are provided. One or more circuits for use in a transceiver may comprise a triplexer and a leakage processing module. The triplexer may comprise a first port, a Multimedia Over Coaxial Alliance (MoCA) port, a television upstream port, and a television downstream port. The leakage processing module may comprise a television downstream input port, a cable television downstream output port, a MoCA port, and a cable television upstream port. The leakage processing module may be operable to (1) process a MoCA signal to generate a first compensation signal; (2) process a cable upstream signal to generate a second compensation signal; (3) process a filtered signal based at least in part on the first and second compensation signals; and (4) output the processed filtered signal via the cable television downstream output port of said leakage processing module.
US09712883B2
A user interface is presented on a monitor of a media device for providing information about available programs. The user interface includes an array having three columns (channel, current show, and next show) with commonly aligned rows. Each row of the channel column includes an indicator. Each row of the current show column includes a title naming a program currently available on a channel of the media device corresponding to the indicator in a commonly aligned row of the channel column. Each row of the next show column includes a title naming a show available after the current program on the same channel. The currently available program may be displayed on the monitor in response to a viewer selected row, indicator, and/or title in the array.
US09712878B2
Methods, systems, and media for presenting supplemental information corresponding to on-demand media content are provided. In some implementations, the method comprises: receiving an indication from a web browser extension executing within a web browsing application that a media content item is being presented on a content provider website; identifying the media content item being presented on the content provider website; determining whether supplemental content associated with the broadcasted media content item is available; in response to determining that the supplemental content is available, causing the web browser extension to present an indicator that the supplemental content is available; obtaining the supplemental content corresponding to the broadcasted media content item, wherein each piece of the supplemental content is associated with timing information of the broadcasted media content item; and causing a portion of the obtained supplemental content to be presented concurrently with the media content item in response to detecting that the indicator has been selected.
US09712875B2
A consumer electronic device tracks the current channel to which the electronic consumer device is tuned. The consumer electronic device determines an amount of time that the current channel remains unchanged. Based at least in part on this amount of time, the consumer electronic device determines whether the current channel should be stored as a favorite channel. When the consumer electronic device subsequently receives a favorite channel command, the consumer electronic device is caused to tune to the favorite channel that is currently stored in memory. Changing user preferences are thus automatically accommodated without manual intervention, resulting in an effortless user interface.
US09712873B2
Enable appropriate caching of application programs executed in coordination with AV content. The cache memory temporarily stores a coordinated application that is executed in coordination with received AV content. When a plurality of coordinated applications are stored in the cache memory, a control block controls the cache memory according to the priority of the coordinated applications which corresponds to a predetermined frequency specified for each of them in advance. The present technology is applicable to, for example, television receivers that receive digital television broadcast signals.
US09712872B2
A system and method for providing awareness in a hospitality environment are presented. In one embodiment, a vertical and horizontal array of set-top boxes is provided and each set-top box includes an identification corresponding to the room in which the set-top box is placed. Each set-top box includes a wireless transceiver that periodically transmits an identification beacon that is received by a proximate wireless-enabled interactive device. The proximate wireless-enabled interactive device, in turn, broadcasts data packets including an indication of the strength of set-top box identification signals received. The broadcasts are received by a server via an array of wireless routers. The location of the proximate wireless-enabled interactive device is determined based on the signal strength information in the data packets.
US09712861B1
A technique for load balancing between first and second DVRs includes receiving a customer selection of content with respect to load balancing between the DVRs, and responsive to the customer selection and based at least in part on a storage size of one content, execute a load balancing algorithm to move at least some content from the first DVR to the second DVR. Responsive to the customer selection and based at least in part on a storage size of a future content, a DVR is selected to record the future content at a future recording time.
US09712858B2
An apparatus includes a network interface. The apparatus includes a processor coupled to the network interface. The apparatus further includes memory accessible to the processor. The memory includes instructions that are executable by the processor to perform operations. The operations include receiving user history information associated with customer premise equipment device. The operations include generating a rule associated with a startup screen based on the user history information and based on additional information. The additional information is based on information extrapolated from the user history information and based on external information that is not directly accessed by or provided to the customer premise equipment device. The operations further include initiating a transmission of the rule to the customer premise equipment device.
US09712856B2
A method and apparatus for managing a subscription to a plurality of content providers and the irretrievably referring users to an interface of the content provider to directly consume media programs provided by the content providers is disclosed. The method irretrievably passes users to content providers so that the user can view media programs from those content providers using the content provider's application, while providing a central source for users to locate media programs available from a plurality of content providers and to subscribe for access to such media programs. This construct permits content providers to retain control over the user viewing experience and to encourage the user to view further media programs from the same content provider.
US09712855B2
A method for receiving additional information from a device in a broadcast communication system is provided. The method includes receiving broadcast information provided from a broadcast service provider over a broadcast channel, extracting application information from the broadcast information, acquiring location information for the additional information associated with a broadcast content from the application information, and transmitting the location information for the additional information to a peer device for displaying the additional information.
US09712827B2
An object is to suppress an instantaneous increase in the computational complexity of an encoder and an information amount of an encoding result without increasing a delay even when input timing of input video is not constant and fluctuates. A frame rate control method for adjusting a frame rate of input video to a frame rate at which an encoder is able to perform encoding includes: a step of determining whether the number of pictures input in the past within a predetermined time from a time when a determination target picture of dropping is input exceeds a predetermined threshold value; and a step of discarding the determination target picture if the number of pictures exceeds the threshold value and designating the determination target picture as an encoding target if the number of pictures does not exceed the threshold value.
US09712823B2
Provided are a method and apparatus for encoding a video and a method and apparatus for decoding a video. The encoding method includes: splitting a picture of the video into one or more maximum coding units; encoding the picture based on coding units according to depths which are obtained based on a partition type determined according to the depths of the coding units according to depths, determining coding units according to coded depths with respect to each of the coding units according to depths, and thus determining coding units having a tree structure; and outputting data that is encoded based on the partition type and the coding units having the tree structure, information about the coded depths and an encoding mode, and coding unit structure information indicating a size and a variable depth of a coding unit.
US09712822B2
A method of encoding a video is provided, the method includes: determining a filtering boundary on which deblocking filtering is to be performed based on at least one data unit from among a plurality of coding units that are hierarchically configured according to depths indicating a number of times at least one maximum coding unit is spatially spilt, and a plurality of prediction units and a plurality of transformation units respectively for prediction and transformation of the plurality of coding units, determining filtering strength at the filtering boundary based on a prediction mode of a coding unit to which pixels adjacent to the filtering belong from among the plurality of coding units, and transformation coefficient values of the pixels adjacent to the filtering boundary, and performing deblocking filtering on the filtering boundary based on the determined filtering strength.
US09712821B2
Provided is an image processing apparatus which includes a setting unit assigning a control block, which is a control unit of a filter process that is locally performed with respect to an image, to an initial position of the image determined based on a predetermined reference point; a movement unit moving the control block, which has been assigned to the initial position of the image by the setting unit, up to a position in which the result of the filter process is improved; and a filter processing unit performing the filter process for the respective control blocks which has been moved by the movement unit.
US09712813B2
Disclosed are a display system and a control method for the same. The display system includes a display means (1), an image input means (2), a depth of field analysis means (3) and a bending degree control means (4). The image input means (2) inputs the images to the depth of field analysis means; the depth of field analysis means (3) analyzes the depth of field of the images; the bending degree control means (4) controls the bending degree of the display means according to the depth of field of the images; the display means (1) displays the images. The display system and the control method thereof can adapt to the images with different depth of field, thus observer's visual experience is improved.
US09712805B2
The present invention generally relates to sub-diffraction limit image resolution and other imaging techniques, including imaging in three dimensions. In one aspect, the invention is directed to determining and/or imaging light from two or more entities separated by a distance less than the diffraction limit of the incident light. For example, the entities may be separated by a distance of less than about 1000 nm, or less than about 300 nm for visible light. In some cases, the position of the entities can be determined in all three spatial dimensions (i.e., in the x, y, and z directions), and in certain cases, the positions in all three dimensions can be determined to an accuracy of less than about 1000 nm. In one set of embodiments, the entities may be selectively activatable, i.e., one entity can be activated to produce light, without activating other entities. A first entity may be activated and determined (e.g., by determining light emitted by the entity), then a second entity may be activated and determined. The emitted light may be used to determine the x and y positions of the first and second entities, for example, by determining the positions of the images of these entities, and in some cases, with sub-diffraction limit resolution. In some cases, the z positions may be determined using one of a variety of techniques that uses intensity information or focal information (e.g., a lack of focus) to determine the z position. Non-limiting examples of such techniques include astigmatism imaging, off-focus imaging, or multi-focal-plane imaging. Other aspects of the invention relate to systems for sub-diffraction limit image resolution, computer programs and techniques for sub-diffraction limit image resolution, methods for promoting sub-diffraction limit image resolution, and the like.
US09712794B2
A projector has a light source, image forming units, a projection lens, a first optical system and a second optical system. The image forming units form image light by adjusting, on a per-pixel basis, the intensity of light emitted by the light source. The projection lens projects the image light formed by the image forming units to the outside. The first optical system guides light of a first wavelength emitted by the light source to the projection lens, and the second optical system guides light of a second wavelength emitted by the light source to the projection lens. The f-number of the first optical system is higher than the f-number of the second optical system.
US09712788B2
A request for information (RFI) system is provided a viewer of a cable television network enters an RFI input (1) to a digital set top box using a user remote. Based on this RFI input, the digital set top box transmits a data request (2) to an RFI data center. The RFI data center also receives asset data (3) from an asset database so as to associate the RFI input (1) with a particular asset. An RFI request (4) can then be transmitted to the appropriate asset provider. The asset provider can then provide a package of assets or follow-on information (5) back to the RFI data center. The RFI data center may then, in turn, provide the package of assets or follow-on information to a user data terminal, for example, of the cable television network viewer, via access through a web-portal or e-mail (6).
US09712787B2
A system and method of delivering video content is disclosed. In a particular embodiment, the method includes receiving channel selection data from a set-top box device via an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) access network. The channel selection data indicates a selection of an IPTV channel. The method also includes sending a rapid channel change (RCC) request to a distribution switch/router system via a subscriber virtual local area network (VLAN) associated with the set-top box device after receiving the channel selection data. The RCC request indicates the selected IPTV channel.
US09712778B2
A secondary television receiver device includes one or more television tuners that can be integrated into a whole-home television receiving system. The secondary device that is enhanced with tuner capability registers the tuners with a primary receiver, which allocates tuners from available sources as needed. The tuned video stream may be directed to the primary television receiver for storage, trick play or other features prior to re-transmission to the ultimate viewing device. Alternatively, the received video stream may be directly rendered to a video display attached to the enhanced secondary receiver.
US09712763B2
An apparatus and method improve sight. The apparatus includes a first sight configured to view a scene. A second sight is configured to alter content representative of the scene in a first manner to form first altered content. A third sight is configured to alter content representative of the scene in a second manner to form second altered content. An image combiner is configured to combine the second altered content with the first altered content to form combined altered scene content.
US09712752B2
There is provided an image processing device, includes: a first display image generation section that generates a first display image; a second display image generation section that generates a second display image for use in focus-checking; an acquisition section that acquires color data of the first display image; a determination section that, based on the color data, determines as a display color for the second display image a color with different color characteristics from color characteristics of the first display image; and a display controller that displays on a display section the first display image generated by the first display image generation section, and displays on the display section the second display image generated by the second display image generation section within a display region of the first display image.
US09712748B2
A driver includes a piezoelectric sheet, a fixing frame, a moving frame, and a control circuit. The piezoelectric sheet includes a first piezoelectric body portion which bends in a first direction, a second piezoelectric body portion which bends in a second direction that intersects at right angles with the first direction, and a connection portion which connects the first and second piezoelectric body portions. The fixing frame is fixed to the connection portion. The moving frame is supported on the first and second piezoelectric body portions. The control circuit applies voltage signals to the first and second piezoelectric body portions to bend the first and second piezoelectric body portions and which moves the moving frame in one of the first direction and the second direction or in a composite direction of the first direction and the second direction.
US09712747B2
The present invention relates to a method for enabling an image stabilized video. The method comprises providing data defining a vignetting effect for digital image frames captured by a video camera; determining a dislocation value for a digital image frame captured by the video camera; determining, based on the dislocation value, a region of the digital image frame to be displayed in the image stabilized video; applying a vignetting removal process at least on pixels of the digital image frame corresponding to the region to be displayed in the image stabilized video, wherein said applying being based on the data defining the vignetting effect; and reintroducing vignetting on the region of the digital image frame to be displayed in the video based on the data defining the vignetting effect and the dislocation value.
US09712746B2
One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for ordering images for panorama stitching and/or for providing a focal point indicator for image capture. For example, one or more images, which may be stitched together to create a panorama of a scene, may be stored within an image stack according to one or more ordering preferences, such as where manually captured images are stored within a first/higher priority region of the image stack as compared to automatically captured images. One or more images within the image stack may be stitched according to a stitching order to create the panorama, such as using images in the first region for a foreground of the panorama. Also, a current position of a camera may be tracked and compared with a focal point of a scene to generate a focal point indicator to assist with capturing a new/current image of the scene.
US09712737B2
A request to issue a photographing ID is received from a user and a first photographing ID is generated. The first photographing ID is issued from an ID issuer installed in a photographing spot. When a second photographing ID is received from a mobile terminal of the user, the first photographing ID is collated with the second photographing ID. When the collated photographing IDs are identical, a transmission source of the second photographing ID is authenticated as being present in the photographing spot. In accordance with an instruction from the authenticated transmission source of the second photographing ID, a photographing camera installed toward the photographing spot is controlled.
US09712734B2
Disclosed is a method for photographing a panoramic image. The method includes comparing an current image input with a previous image to obtain a motion information of a corresponding photographing apparatus, when photographing respective images forming the panoramic image, recognizing a degree of movement of the corresponding photographing apparatus at least based on the obtained motion information, and photographing corresponding image by a manual input or automatically when the recognized degree of movement is satisfied with a pre-set movement distance reference.
US09712728B2
Modular digital camera systems, such as modular digital still and motion cameras are disclosed. Individual modules may be removed from the system and replaced, such as to benefit from upgraded technology, while preserving the remaining modules in the system.
US09712724B2
An image signal processing apparatus includes an image signal input unit for inputting an image signal, a noise correcting unit for executing noise correction processing for the input image signal to output a noise-corrected image signal; an image signal correcting unit for executing signal level correction processing for the noise-corrected image signal to output a signal level-corrected image signal; an image signal correction intensity control unit for determining correction intensity of the signal level correction processing in the image signal correcting unit; a signal extension estimating unit for estimating a signal extension degree of signal extension based on the determined correction intensity; and a noise correction intensity control unit for calculating and controlling correction intensity of the noise correction processing in the noise correcting unit.
US09712721B2
A first correction is executed on target image data representative of a target image when a ratio of a number of first type pixels relative to a number of a plurality of pixels in the target image data is determined to be greater than or equal to a prescribed value. A second correction is executed on the target image data when the ratio is determined to be smaller than the prescribed value. Pixel values of the first type pixels are within a first range that is defined based on a color value indicative of a background color of the target image. The first correction corrects both of internal pixel values and external pixel values which are within and out of a second range that contains the color value of the background color. The second correction corrects the internal pixel values and does not correct the external pixel values.
US09712720B2
Techniques related to image refocusing for camera arrays using a space variant filter based on a pixel by pixel blur level associated with a difference between a reference image and a basic refocused image are discussed. Such techniques may include taking the difference between the reference image and the basic refocused image and applying a space variant filter to the basic refocused image to generate a final refocused image having a region of increased blur with respect to the all in focus reference image. The blur level implemented by the space variant filter may be based on the difference and, optionally, the reference image noise level and the reference image gradient.
US09712717B2
An image processing apparatus includes a presumed background region extractor for extracting a presumed background region presumed to include an image of a background from an input image, a threshold value determination module for determining a threshold value based on pixels in the presumed background region, an edge pixel extractor for using the threshold value to extract edge pixels from the input image, and a document region detector for detecting a document region from the edge pixels.
US09712714B2
A computer-implemented process can be operated to create a watermarked copy of a unique original copy of an electronic sales receipt in a first computerized device to a second computerized device. The watermarked copy includes an electronic watermark identifying the copy. The process includes creating the watermarked copy of the electronic sales receipt by copying information from the original copy of the electronic sales receipt to the watermarked copy and providing the electronic watermark within the watermarked copy.
US09712712B1
A method is described for adjusting the focus position of a linear printhead in a digital printing system. A line image is printed including a plurality of variable linewidth lines at different cross-track positions. A digital image capture system is used to capture an image of the printed line image, and a data processing system is used to automatically analyze the captured image to determine linewidth parameters representing linewidths of the plurality of lines. Linewidth progression functions are determined for the lines responsive to the determined linewidths, wherein the linewidth progression functions represent the linewidth parameters as a function of position. The linewidth progression functions are analyzed to determine defocus characteristics of the linear printhead, which are used to adjust the focus position of the linear printhead.
US09712700B1
An image reading apparatus (6) includes a document placing table (6a) to an upper surface of which a contact glass (25) is fixed, and a document pressing device (24) supported at an end of the document placing table (6a) to be openable/closable via a hinge portion, and having, on its back surface side, a document presser (30) that presses a document placed on the contact glass (25). The document pressing device (24) includes a light transmission window (31) transmitting light in a front-surface-to-back-surface direction of the document pressing device (24). The light transmission window (31) is disposed at a position not overlapping with the contact glass (25) when the document pressing device (24) is at the closure position, and when the document pressing device (24) has moved in an opening direction from the closure position, light that has passed through the light transmission window (31) reaches the contact glass (25).
US09712698B1
Methods and devices process an electronic image of an item that has a background color and line features of a second color distinct from the background color. An electronic image and a menu option are displayed to allow the user to define at least one area of the electronic image as a distinctive color region. The electronic image is separated into different planes, and line features within the distinctive color region are removed from a second mask plane (second color) and added to a third mask plane (third color). The first plane, second mask plane, and third mask plane, are combined into an electronic file, and automatically stored.
US09712697B1
An electronic document image of a document is captured using a camera of a handheld device. A user interface of the handheld device displays an instruction to place the handheld device on the document and to change the magnification of the electronic document image on the user interface until the electronic document image and the document are the same size. The handheld device automatically determines the original size of the document based on the magnification that made the electronic document image and the document the same size when the handheld device was on the document. The handheld device converts the electronic document image into an original size document image file based on the original size of the document.
US09712694B2
An operation unit in a child device causes a main unit in the child device to execute a stand-alone job, and causes the main unit and a server device to execute a cooperating job. The main unit executes the stand-alone job every time it is requested, and generates and manages a stand-alone job log including stand-alone job log identification information. The server device controls the execution of stand-alone jobs included in the cooperating job based on a request for executing the cooperating job, and manages cooperating job identification information associated with the stand-alone job log identification information of the stand-alone jobs included in the cooperating job. The server device acquires the stand-alone job logs from the main unit and extracts the stand-alone job logs including the stand-alone job log identification information associated with the cooperating job identification information, to generate a cooperating job log corresponding to the cooperating job.
US09712692B2
Provided is a communication apparatus in which when reception data from a transmission apparatus contains a request for an acknowledgement response, a determination as to whether or not to send an acknowledgement response from the communication apparatus to the transmission apparatus is made, if the acknowledgement response is permitted, an acknowledgement is sent to the transmission apparatus over a network, and when the acknowledgement response is not permitted, reception data containing the acknowledgement response is transferred to the external apparatus.
US09712675B1
Configuration parameters are defined for indicating when and how a call handled by a call handler is to be streamed to a speech analytics system (“SAS”). The parameters may indicate when a call is to be streamed by identifying certain campaigns or agents in which calls associated therewith are to be streamed to the SAS. The parameters may also identify how the streaming is to occur, namely via a single audio stream, a mixed audio stream, or dual audio streams. When using dual audio streams, a stream for the agent audio is established separately from a stream for the remote party audio. In addition, procedures are indicated for determining whether licenses are available for interfacing with the SAS. The number of licenses used for a call depends on whether the configuration parameters indicate one or two streams are to be established.
US09712674B2
A network device in a service provider network receives an incoming call, from a caller, to a telephone number associated with a customer. The network device applies to the call an interactive voice response (IVR) script corresponding to the customer and determines that the caller wants to speak to an agent. The network device establishes a secure duplex communication channel between the network device and an automatic call distributor (ACD) for the customer. The secure duplex communication channel is dedicated for use in managing the incoming call. The network device informs the ACD, via the secure duplex communication channel, that an agent is needed for the incoming call and receives, via the secure duplex communication channel, instructions from the ACD to manage the incoming call.
US09712668B2
Embodiments are provided for notifying an electronic device connected to a non-terrestrial communication network of a voice-based communication request that is intended for the electronic device. According to certain aspects, a data center can receive the voice-based communication request that is initiated by an originating device. The data center can generate a text message that indicates the voice-based communication request and transmit the text message to the non-terrestrial communications network for delivery to the destination electronic device. The text message can identify the originating electronic device and enable the user of the destination electronic device to send an additional text message to the originating electronic device.
US09712650B2
A system for PIM fast failover recovery includes a network of a plurality of switching devices. The plurality of switching devices includes a source switching device near a source communicatively connected to a receiver switching device near a receiver by a first interface and at least a third switching device that is communicatively connected to the receiver switching device by a second interface and further is communicatively connected to the source switching device by a third interface. The receiver switching device may discover that the first interface has failed and responds by sending the third switching device a PIM graft message prior to deleting an associated first interface route entry.
US09712649B2
A method is provided for managing fragmentation of packets for content object retrieval at a content centric networking (CCN) gateway in a CCN network. The method includes receiving a first CCN interest packet including a name for a first content object from a user equipment in an access network, storing a fragmentation stream identifier in a header of the first CCN interest packet, and setting a path minimum maximum transmission unit (MTU) in the first CCN interest packet to an MTU value required by a link between the CCN gateway and a node forwarding the first CCN interest packet to the CCN gateway. The method further includes forwarding the first CCN interest packet with updated fragmentation stream identifier and path minimum MTU toward a content provider, receiving a set of packets of including fragments of the first content object from the content provider, reassembling and verifying the first content object from the set of packets, and refragmenting the first content object to minimum MTU of the access network and storing the refragmented first content object in the content store. The first content object is then returned to the user equipment in the access network.
US09712644B2
A process performed on a server includes configuring the server to enable script for a Web service to be defined dynamically, where the Web service includes an application program interface (API) for enabling access by, and interaction with, a computer program executing on a device other than the server. The process also includes compiling the script to produce machine-executable code for the Web service, receiving a call from the computer program to the Web service, executing the machine-executable code in response to the call to produce an output, and sending the output to the device.
US09712641B2
An image forming apparatus includes an event notification data preparing unit, an event notification data transmitting unit, an information-processor count calculating unit, and an information-processor count determining unit. The information-processor count calculating unit calculates a count of the at least one information processor to which the event notification data is transmitted. The information-processor count determining unit determines whether the information-processor count is equal to or less than an upper limit value for the event notification count. The event notification data transmitting unit directly transmits the event notification data to the at least one information processor if the information-processor count is equal to or less than the upper limit value for the event notification count, and via the server transmits the event notification data to the at least one information processor if the information-processor count is more than the upper limit value for the event notification count.
US09712634B2
A method is provided in one example and includes receiving a request for a service from a requestor, an determining at least a first network element and at least a second network element required to satisfy the request from among a plurality of network elements. The method further includes triggering a coordinating of a work flow between the first network element and the second network element responsive to the request. The method still further includes translating communication messages exchanged between the first network element and the second network element from a first communication protocol format and a second communication protocol format.
US09712629B2
Methods, devices, and computer programs are presented for creating a unified data stream from multiple data streams acquired from multiple devices. One method includes an operation for receiving activity data streams from the devices, each activity data stream being associated with physical activity data of a user. Further, the method includes an operation for assembling the unified activity data stream for a period of time. The unified activity data stream includes data segments from the data streams of at least two devices, and the data segments are organized time-wise over the period of time.
US09712625B2
Techniques for creating a persistent connection between client devices and one or more remote computing resources, which may form a portion of a network-accessible computing platform. This connection may be considered “permanent” or “nearly permanent” to allow the client device to both send data to and receive data from the remote resources at nearly any time. In addition, both the client device and the remote resources may establish virtual channels over this single connection. If no data is exchanged between the client device and the remote computing resources for a threshold amount of time, then the connection may be severed and the client device may attempt to establish a new connection with the remote computing resources.
US09712617B2
A method for controlling multiple replication processes that includes allocating, by a local storage system and for each replication process, local resources for performing local operations that comprise transmitting remote replication content to a remote storage system; the allocating is responsive to a state of transmission of the replication content and a maximal local storage system allocation threshold; allocating, by the remote storage system and for each replication process, remote resources for performing remote operations that comprise handling the replication content transmitted from the local storage system; the allocating is responsive to a load associated with the handling of the replication content, and a maximal remote storage system allocation threshold; and executing each replication process by the replication process local and remote storage systems resources.
US09712606B2
An asynchronous distributed computing system with a plurality of computing nodes is provided. One of the computing nodes includes a sequencer service that receives updates from the plurality of computing nodes. The sequencer service maintains or annotates messages added to the global state of the system. Updates to the global state are published to the plurality of computing nodes. Monitoring services on the other computing nodes write the updates into a locally maintained copy of the global state that exists in shared memory on each one of the nodes. Client computer processes on the nodes may then subscribe to have updates “delivered” to the respective client computer processes.
US09712602B2
A method and routing device are provided for aggregating of requests relating to a data segment of a stream into another request and for storing data segments belonging to different streams in a queue prior to the device routing them to client entities that have requested them. The method includes: determining a credit associated with a stream, the credit varying based on a number of requests transmitted by client entities and relating to data segments belonging to the stream; and, on receiving a data segment in response to the other request, and when memory space available in the queue does not enable the received data segment to be stored: selecting a stream having at least one data segment stored in the queue and for which the associated credit is the smallest; and deleting from the queue a data segment belonging to the selected stream.
US09712586B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus can provide ordered (e.g. ranked) lists of content items as a suggested list of items to watch. The ordered list can be based on feedback from other users. The content items can also be presented (e.g. in a continuous playback mode) to a passive user so that the user does not have to actively select a next item to watch. This passive mode can select a next item (e.g. from a list that is updated based on recent user feedback), and the item can be queued on a client device for playing to a user. Content items can also be provided from different independent servers.
US09712579B2
Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media creating and publishing customizable images from within online events are provided. A user may capture an image from an online event presented within a user interface. In response to capturing the image, a pop-up window may be displayed within the presented online event on the user interface. In some embodiments, the pop-up window may include one or more options for customizing or modifying a background of the capture image, as well as including one or more sharing options to publish the captured image.
US09712574B2
Particular embodiments maintain social-networking information associated with a user, wherein the user is represented by a user node in a social graph. One or more nodes of the social graph may be associated with respective locations. A request for social information related to a location may be received from a computing device. The request may comprise a location of the computing device, an orientation of the computing device, and an identifier for the user. A relevance score may be determined for one or more proximate nodes based on the request, the social-networking information associated with the user, and the location information for the respective proximate node. Each proximate node may be associated with at least one location within a threshold distance from the location of the computing device. Particular embodiments may provide social-networking information associated with at least one of the proximate nodes for display in conjunction with an image.
US09712567B2
In accordance with at least one embodiment of the invention, methodologies and mechanisms are provided that enable methods, systems and software for supporting or implementing functionality to intercept a phone call and/or data transmission in a cellular network and direct it to at least one receivers' VoIP account if the account is active and provides VoIP connectivity.
US09712565B2
Systems and methods for protecting a data item include, upon initiation of transfer of the data item from a server to a client device, determining a sensitivity score and a current protection level of the data item. A policy is applied to determine an appropriate protection for the data item based upon the sensitivity score and the current protection level. A protected data item is provided to the client device by applying the appropriate protection to the data item.
US09712562B2
The present disclosure discloses a method and device for detecting a potential phishing website. In the method, a computing device having at least a processor obtains information input to a website and determines whether the website is legitimate through a server when the input information entered by the user has some private information. The computing device continues to access the website if the website is legitimate and generates a warning if the website is determined not to be legitimate.
US09712553B2
A cyber-attack scenario simulation system and method may include an aircraft simulator operable to generate an aircraft simulation, a cyber-attack generator operable to generate a cyber-attack simulation, a cyber defense generator operable to generate a cyber defense simulation, a scenario generator operable to generate a cyber-attack scenario including the cyber attack simulation and the cyber defense simulation and launch the cyber-attack scenario against the aircraft simulation, and a cyber-attack scenario analysis tool operable to assess an impact of the cyber-attack scenario on the aircraft simulation.
US09712552B2
A system, method, and computer-readable medium for reporting sensor data over a communication network are provided. A data reporting instruction that identifies at least one of a sensor or a data reporting technique is received from a trust mediator over a communication network. The data reporting instruction is based at least in part on an identified risk. Sensor data is obtained from the sensor, and the sensor data is transmitted to the trust mediator over the communication network based on the data reporting technique.
US09712551B2
Methods and systems for use in architecture-centric threat modeling are described. One example system includes a display device, a memory device for storing a plurality of attributes for each of a plurality of network objects, and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory device. The processor is programmed to receive a user selection of at least a first network object and a second network object from the plurality of network objects; create a network architecture including the first network object and the second network object; associate the stored plurality of attributes with the selected network objects in the network architecture; display, on the display device, a graphical representation of the created network architecture; receive, from the user, at least one dataflow attribute associated with at least one of the first and second network objects; and store the at least one dataflow attribute to said memory device as an attribute of at least one of the plurality of network objects.
US09712545B2
Particular embodiments described herein provide for an electronic device that can be configured to determine when a peripheral is connected to the electronic device, determine a peripheral identification for the peripheral, and monitor the data going to and from the peripheral. Based on the monitored data, a type for the peripheral can be determine. The peripheral identification can be compared with the determined type for the peripheral and if they do not match, then communication to and from the peripheral can be blocked.
US09712530B2
Methods and systems described herein relate to enhancing security on a device by configuring one or more software functions in a trusted zone of a processor using object firewalls, IPC mechanisms, and/or a policy engine.
US09712529B2
The present disclosure describes a method and an apparatus for sending an authentication request message in a social network. In order to resolve the problem that there are few parameters to be relied on when a user authenticates a request seeking to establish a social network relationship with the user, the method disclosed by the present disclosure includes: a social network server that, after obtaining an authentication request message sent by a first client to a second client to request to establish a social network relationship, modifies the first client's identification information in the first authentication request message to a third client's identification information to obtain a second authentication request message. The third client has a social network relationship with the first client and also has a direct social network relationship with the second client. The second authentication request message is sent to the second client. As the third client's identification information is used as identification information of a sending party in the second authentication request message that is sent to the second client, there will be more parameters for use when the second client verifies the request to establish the social network relationship.
US09712523B2
A technique to reassign one or more stored elements of web application client state information is provided in an HTTP-based client upon receipt of an HTTP redirect in response to a request-URI. One or more stored elements associated to the request-URI are saved in or in association with the client. Upon receipt of an HTTP 301 (permanent) redirect, the client automatically reassigns (re-associates) the one or more stored elements to the redirect domain when the redirect can be verified as authentic (e.g., to originate from the application to which the client is attempting to connect).
US09712522B1
Authentication mechanisms are disclosed herein that authenticate user access to enterprises. For example, either an enterprise associated number or a social security number (SSN) can be provided to the enterprise to enter a first level. Then, any one of a ZIP code number, a device calling/contacting number, a date of birth, and a portion of the SSN can be provided to access applications in the first level. Lastly, a PIN can be provided to enter a second level of the enterprise. Additionally, these authentication mechanisms can be added and/or changed. In the former case, if a user used a SSN to enter the mentioned first level of the enterprise, then a date of birth can be used to update an authentication mechanism. Alternatively, if a user used an enterprise number to gain such access, then part of the SSN can be used for the update. If the user wants to change the authentication mechanism, the date of birth can be used for the update.
US09712520B1
Techniques for authenticating a user may be described. In particular, a network-based document may be provided to a computing system of a user. The network-based document may include code and an identifier of another network-based document. The code may be configured to, upon execution, determine whether the other network-based document was accessed prior to providing the network-based document to the computing system. The other network-based document may be accessible to the user based on an identifier of the user. An indication that the other network-based document was accessed may be determined. For example, the indication may be received from the computing system based on an execution of the code at the computing system. The user may be authenticated based on the indication.
US09712512B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for secure messaging and content sharing. In one implementation, a processor receives a content item in a first format, the content item being associated with an intended recipient, converts the content item into a second format, provides the content item, as converted into the second format, to a device associated with the intended recipient, receives, from the device associated with the intended recipient, one or more inputs in relation to a segment of the content item, processes the one or more inputs to determine that an authentication action is being performed with respect to the segment of the content item, and based on a determination that the authentication action is being performed with respect to the segment of the content item, provides an instruction to present the segment of the content item at the device associated with the intended recipient.
US09712511B2
Techniques are described for implementing a cloud computer system to facilitate communication between a computing device (e.g., a mobile computing device) and enterprise computer systems. In certain embodiments, the cloud computer system may receive, from a computing device, a request for a service provided by an enterprise computer system. The cloud computer system may determine security authentication of a user for the requested service. A security protocol may be determined for a requested enterprise computer system and a security token may be generated for the request according to the determined security protocol. The request may be sent to the requested enterprise computer system. In some embodiments, security authentication for a request to an enterprise computer system may be determined based on previous authentication. The cloud computer system may be configured to communicate with several different enterprise computer systems according to their supported protocols (e.g., communication protocol and/or security protocol).
US09712509B1
Financial security and coverage may be reviewed at a comprehensive level by evaluating an ownership status of an entity relative to multiple types of financial products. Based on results of the review, recommendations for one or more financial products may be provided. Additionally or alternatively, the recommendations and products may be ranked or prioritized. According to another aspect, the review of the entity's financial security and coverage may be represented graphically. For example, types of financial products may be represented by icons (e.g., pictograms) with various visual attributes (e.g., color, transparency, pattern, size, etc.) indicating the entity's ownership status. Potential gaps in the entity's financial coverage may be represented with a specified visual element such as a warning symbol or the like. The graphical depiction may allow an entity to better appreciate the spectrum of available financial product types and potential risks in the entity's current financial coverage profile.
US09712501B2
A system and method for the randomization of packet headers is disclosed. A controller is used to provide random values, also referred to as nonces, that replace the source and destination addresses that typically appear in a packet header. The controller also provides routing rules to the switches and routers in the network that allow these devices to properly route packets, even though the source and destination addresses are not present. In some embodiments, network devices that support software-defined networking (SDN) are employed. The number of times that a particular nonce is used may be variable. In some embodiments, a nonce is used for exactly one packet header. In this way, packets may traverse a network using nonces in place of actual source and destination addresses. Because the nonces are changed periodically, detection of traffic patterns is made significantly more difficult.
US09712500B2
A method for determining a compute amount contributed by a device is provided. The method comprises receiving encrypted data from a processor of a customer system and parsing the encrypted data into a plurality of encrypted subsets. Then, the method associates a token specific to the device with an encrypted subset of the plurality of encrypted subsets to produce a packaged subset. The packaged subset is sent to the device. In response, a processed packaged subset that includes the token is received. The compute time contributed by the device is determined from the token of the processed packaged subset.
US09712493B2
The inventive system includes a host, a network including a security gateway, and a public application. Established are an access session between the network and the host and an application session between the public application and the network. An application session record is created for the application session, and includes the user's public user identity used to access the public application, the user's private user identity used to access the network, a host identity, and an application session time. To determine the private user identity for the application session, the security gateway sends a query with the host identity and the application session time. These are compared with the host identity and access session time in an access session record, if they match, then the private user identity in the access session record is returned, and it is stored as the private user identity in the application session record.
US09712485B2
Techniques are provided for performing dynamic DNS-SD. In an embodiment, an apparatus includes one or more databases, one or more transceivers to receive a first Domain Name System (DNS) query from a first computing device, the first DNS query defining a first service discovery name space, and one or more processors in communication with each of the one or more databases and the one or more transceivers. The one or more processors generate and append a first metadata associated with the first computing device to the first DNS query. The one or more transceivers transmit the first DNS query and the first metadata to a Domain Name System (DNS) server computer, receive, from the DNS server computer, a first response responsive to the first DNS query, and relay, to the first computing device, the first response.
US09712483B1
A system for automated monitoring simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) email delays. The system comprises a data store to store message identifiers for sent emails and a first monitoring server. The first monitoring server comprises a processor, a memory, and an application stored in the memory that, when executed by the processor, builds a test email with a message identifier in a header of the email, creates an entry with the message identifier in the data store, sends the email through internal email servers to an external email system with a public distribution list (PDL), obtains average time duration for an email to be delivered, and sends an alert when the email is not received after a predefined period of time, whereby the entire delivery path of the test email is examined by sending the test email in the same email system as ordinary emails.
US09712482B2
In some aspects, control circuitry may detect a social media interaction associated with a user. Control circuitry may then identify a symbol associated with the interaction, map the symbol to first media asset metadata, and identify a set of media asset metadata. Control circuitry may further compare the identified media asset metadata to a set of attributes of the user's profile, and identifying second media asset metadata and a first field of the second media asset metadata from the set of media asset metadata that matches attributes of the set of attributes of the user's profile. Control circuitry may then search databases to identify collections of media asset for recommendation to the user by identifying media assets that include the second media asset metadata in a field corresponding to the first field. Lastly, control circuitry may perform an action to provide the user with access to the collection.
US09712476B2
A communication network encrypts a first portion of a transaction associated with point-to-point communications using a point-to-point encryption key. A second portion of the transaction associated with end-to-end communications is encrypted using an end-to-end encryption key.
US09712472B2
The automatic spawning of application in response to detected content in other communications. Such application spawning has the effect of enriching the original communication with the additional functionality of applications that accomplish and supplement the original communication. Such application spawning may be automatic, and responsive to monitoring of the content of the communication. Upon detecting that the content of the communication has satisfied summoning criteria, the application is summoned on a hardware entity associated with one or more of the participants in the communication. This may be accomplished while the communication is still ongoing.
US09712466B2
Implementations disclosed herein provide for integrating actionable objects into an on-line chat communications platform. A method is provided in which state information of a chat message session between participants of a group is determined. A selection of one of a plurality of actionable objects is received based on the state information. Each actionable object comprises a type indicator to characterize a user perceivable action associated with the actionable object. Responsive to the selection, at least one participant is associated with the actionable object. The actionable object is provided to the chat message session to be selectably executed by a client device of the participant. The providing comprises updating the state information of the chat message session in accordance with the at least one actionable object.
US09712461B2
A data caching method for an Ethernet device is provided. The method includes: receiving data frames from various Ethernet interfaces and converting the Ethernet data frames received from the Ethernet interfaces into data frames having a uniform bit width and a uniform encapsulation format; maintaining a cache address in which data has already been written and a currently idle cache address in a cache; receiving the currently idle cache address and generating a write instruction and/or a read instruction for the cache and performing a write operation and/or a read operation so as to write the data received and processed by an IPC into the currently idle cache or to read data from the cache; and performing bit conversion and format encapsulation on the data that is read according to a read request and outputting the data subjected to the bit conversion and the format encapsulation through a corresponding Ethernet interface. A data caching system for an Ethernet device is also provided. By means of the data caching method and system provided herein, the expandability and the high bandwidth storage capacity of a network switching device can be improved, a high bandwidth utilization rate is achieved, and it becomes possible to improve bandwidth utilization rate based on traffic management.
US09712460B1
Embodiments are directed towards selecting a local port number for server side connections that hash to a same processor as a matching client side flow on a multiprocessor device using Receive Side Scaling (RSS) for the disaggregation hash. A hash of a flow key is computed with an initial port number. An exclusive-or (XOR) distance is computed to a desired hash, using least significant bits. An XOR is performed on a corrected pre-computed collision value, to transform the source port number to a value that hashes correctly with other elements within the flow key. The transformed source port number may then be inserted into network packets sent to a server device, such that the transformed source port number can be used in a returning RSS hash to again select the same processor.
US09712455B1
Presented herein are techniques for resolving VxAN (VSANs and VLANs) networking connectivity, prior to server or domain migration. When UCS domains receive a workload or service profile from a UCS Central Controller, required VLANs/VSANs are checked for deployment for that UCS domain in Fabric Interconnects, and once VLANs/VSANs are successfully confirmed, the workload is deployed into one of the compute servers in that domain.
US09712453B1
Customers of shared resources in a multi-tenant environment can have token buckets allocated that have an associated depth and fill rate, with each token enabling the customer to obtain an amount of work from a shared resource. A resource management system can monitor one or more system or output metrics, and can adjust a global fill rate based at least in part upon values of the monitored metrics. Such an approach can provide a fair distribution of work among the customers, while ensuring that the metrics stay within acceptable ranges and there are no drastic changes in performance levels of the system. The fill rate can update dynamically with changes in the monitored parameters, such that the system can float near an equilibrium point. Commitments for specific minimum service levels also can be met.
US09712445B2
The disclosed embodiments include system and method for routing communications over a communications network. In one embodiment, a determination is made as to whether to establish a communication along a communication path based on network performance information. The disclosed embodiments provide several alternatives for establishing the communication and improving communications along the communication path in response to a determination that at least one network node along the communication path is impaired or congested.
US09712444B1
A method for providing quality of service includes identifying a high network traffic event at a node, providing a user score to each user account of a plurality of user accounts, wherein the plurality of user accounts corresponds to a plurality of user devices connected to the node, and responsive to identifying the high network traffic event, providing instructions to a subset of user devices of the plurality of user devices, wherein the instructions instruct the subset of devices to enter a low traffic mode, and wherein each device of the subset of devices corresponds to a user account with a user score below a threshold. A computer program product and computer system corresponding to the above method are also disclosed herein.
US09712439B2
A packet processing block. The block comprises an input for receiving data in a packet header vector, the vector comprising data values representing information for a packet. The block also comprises circuitry for performing packet match operations in response to at least a portion of the packet header vector and data stored in a match table, and circuitry for performing one or more actions in response to a match detected by the circuitry for performing packet match operations and according to information stored in an action table. Each of said match table and said action table comprise one or more memories selected from a pool of unit memories, wherein each memory in the pool of unit memories is configurable to operate as either a match memory or an action memory.
US09712438B2
Routing messages between virtual networks using a mapping of virtual addresses from one virtual network to a virtual address of the other virtual network. Each virtual network has a valid set of virtual addresses, some of which being assigned to virtual nodes within the corresponding network. When a virtual network identifies a message to be sent, it identifies a destination for the message. Some destinations may be within the same virtual network and thus may be routed to virtual nodes within the virtual network. Other destinations may instead be mapped to a virtual address of another virtual network. In that case, routing information may also be obtained and the message may be dispatched to the virtual address of the other virtual network. This may be performed without the need for a gateway, which publishes a public address that is globally unique.
US09712435B2
In general, a cloud-based services exchange (or “cloud exchange”) for interconnecting multiple cloud service providers with multiple cloud service customers is described. The cloud exchange may enable cloud customers to bypass the public Internet to directly connect to cloud services providers so as to improve performance, reduce costs, increase the security and privacy of the connections, and leverage cloud computing for additional applications. In this way, enterprises, network carriers, and SaaS customers, for instance, can integrate cloud services with their internal applications as if such services are part of or otherwise directly coupled to their own data center network.
US09712429B1
In distributed object computing, messages from a source node to a destination node are often required to be routed via one or more intermediate nodes. In order to enhance efficiency of the relay process, a message envelope of a message may include a node list field that specifies the routing path of the message. The communication protocol for communicating the message may specify that when a message is received into a particular node, the node analyzes the node list field. If the identity of the node is last in the node list field, then the node is the destination node and thus the node unmarshals the message. Otherwise, the node forwards the message to the next node in the field list without unmarshalling the message.
US09712427B1
A system and method for checking a current load on at least one virtual endpoint of a path assigned to a virtual connection that represents communication between a client and server over a fiber channel network using Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) communication. The method further includes selecting an alternate path between the client and serve over the fiber channel network, migrating a virtual connection to the selected alternate path, and messaging the client to utilize the selected alternate path using SCSI over the fiber channel network.
US09712421B2
A system and method for subscriber aware network monitoring is provided. The method includes: determining subscriber and session data, wherein the subscriber has a non-unique IP (Internet Protocol) address; retrieving identifying data from a packet; and comparing the identifying data with the determined subscriber and session data to determine the subscriber associated with the packet. The system includes: at least one network probe configured to determine subscriber and session data, wherein the subscriber has a non-unique Internet Protocol (IP) address; at least one traffic probe configured to retrieve identifying data from a packet; and a processing module configured to compare the identifying data with the stored subscriber and session data to determine the subscriber associated with the packet.
US09712417B2
Methods and systems for collision control during delay measurements in optical transport networks include scheduling delay measurements in time slices of a time window. At most, one delay measurement per time slice is scheduled and performed for each optical data unit (ODU) in an optical transport network (OTN).
US09712414B2
In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, disclosed is a method and an apparatus thereof for selecting a packet loss concealment procedure for a lost audio frame of a received audio signal. A method for selecting a packet loss concealment procedure comprises detecting an audio type of a received audio frame and determining a packet loss concealment procedure based on the audio type. In the method, detecting an audio type comprises determining a stability of a spectral envelope of signals of received audio frames.
US09712412B2
A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes receiving a request for content from a source in a network; determining a geographic service region for the source; determining a status of a plurality of content delivery networks in the service region. The status is indicative of at least whether each of the plurality of content delivery networks is active or impaired. The method can also include selecting a particular one of the content delivery networks having a corresponding status as active to service the request for content.
US09712409B2
The agile information technology infrastructure management system and related methods and processes provide a solution with the required flexibility to effectively and efficiently monitor and manage a wide-variety of disparate information technology and network infrastructure deployed in businesses and enterprises throughout a region or the world.
US09712406B2
A network device test station (“TS”) is capable of simultaneously testing and verifying a group of routers and/or switches at the same time. The TS includes a user interface (“UI”), a test bed engine, and a TS manager. The UI facilitates interactive communication between TS and user via an interactive graphical representations showing, for example, test configurations and test results. The test bed engine uses a set of test beds to conduct tests on attached devices or routers which are also known as device under tests (“DUTs”) or unit under tests (“UUTs”). The TS manager is configured to provide a test environment with one or more emulated communication networks for verifying functionalities of every DUT.
US09712405B2
Methods and systems provide integrated reporting for analytics. A flexible solution may be provided via an integrated delivered reporting model for various deployment scenarios. A customer landscape can vary, e.g., including an on-premise product, an on-demand product, or a combination thereof. The products may originate from more than one vendor. A report may be generated based on a virtual data model (VDM) and be compatible with a variety of scenarios and views for cross-reporting. A report may be generated for various deployment scenarios. A report may be generated for data stored in a relational storage apparatus (e.g., a database) with data structure(s) reflected in a corresponding VDM. Methods and systems provide automatic deployment of VDM parts into different storage apparatus/schema and automatic set up of relevant mapping, e.g., schema mapping.
US09712401B2
Disclosed are systems, computer-readable mediums, and methods for receiving client quality of service values associated with a first client. Client metrics of a volume in a storage system are determined for the first client. The client metrics reflect usage of the storage system by the first client. A client load value based is determined upon the client metrics. A quality of service management policy for the first client is determined from a plurality of quality of service management policies based upon the client load value. Each quality of service management policy comprises a formula based on a quality of service parameter. A client target performance value is determined based upon the formula of the quality of service management policy and the received client quality of service values. Performance of the storage system is adjusted for the first client based upon the client target performance value.
US09712389B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a detector apparatus for detecting a physical resource employed in providing a particular virtual resource in a computer network, the computer network including a plurality of physical resources each being operable to be employed in providing virtual resources and having an environment sensor outputting sensor data representing changes in an operating property of the physical resource. A detector apparatus embodying the present invention comprises a sensor data receptor operable to receive sensor data output by the environment sensors, a pattern extractor operable to extract a pattern from the received sensor data from a physical resource, and a pattern matcher, wherein the pattern matcher is operable to compare the extracted pattern with a unique pattern known to be generated by a particular virtual resource, and to detect that the physical resource is employed in providing the particular virtual resource when a match is found.
US09712384B2
A mobile data network supports making subscriber data addressable as devices in a mobile data network. Each data chunk is assigned a device address in the mobile data network. The data chunk can then be addresses as a device in the mobile data network. A first implementation allows accessing data in existing mobile data networks by sending a text message to the device address of the data chunk. When the data chunk receives a text message, it responds with one or more text messages that deliver the data in the data chunk to the sender who sent the text message. A second implementation includes a subscriber data mechanism in the mobile data network that supports tracking, transfer and management of subscriber data in the mobile data network. Making subscriber data addressable as a device simplifies data-centric communication in a mobile data network.
US09712373B1
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to memories used in server applications. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide a server that has memory management module that is connected to the processor using one or more DDR channels. The memory management module is configured to provide the processor local access and network access to memories on a network. There are other embodiments as well.
US09712367B2
A method of implementing Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) for radio communications in general and LTE in particular. Common prior art so far recreate the vorticity (axial rotation of the Poynting vector) by using ring-shaped antenna arrays. This application proposes to create the vorticity in signal processing without the need of any space diversity (i.e. work with a single antenna). An Hilbert transform is applied in frequency domain to the Fourier transform of the analytical representation of a band-limited OFDM signal. The Hilbert transform is then approximated by a development in series into orthogonal twisted modes. This can be seen as an inverse Fourier transform of the complex analytical signal. Therefore an OAM IFFT based transmitter is proposed where parallel IFFTs are performed for each OAM mode and superimposed.
US09712351B2
An apparatus and method are provided to adaptively set a threshold to detect a transmission symbol. The apparatus and method calculate detection parameters to determine the threshold to detect the transmission symbol based on probability distribution parameters, which determine a statistical probability distribution of an input signal. The apparatus and method adaptively detect a present transmission symbol using a previously detected transmission symbol and the detection parameters.
US09712349B1
A system and method for Feed Forward. Equalizer (FFE)-Aided Clock Data Recovery (CDR) to calibrate phase offset and enhance gain in baud rate sampling phase detector is provided. In an embodiment, a clock data recovery (CDR) apparatus includes an incremental feed forward equalizer (INC-FFE) in a CDR path and a calibration component in an equalization path, the calibration component connected to the INC-FFE, the calibration component configured to adjust FFE coefficients for the INC-FFE according to a phase code (PC) index in a PC index table and one of a signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and a bit error rate (BER) of a sampled signal, wherein the PC index table comprises adjustment values for the FFE coefficients, and wherein the PC index is linearly related to a sampling phase.
US09712345B2
A communication device and method of controlling the same are provided. A communication device includes a transceiver that receives a radio signal and a processor electrically connected to the transceiver, and is configured to store a data signal including data received through the radio signal in a first buffer according to a first delay period, store a channel signal including channel estimation information on a transmission channel of the radio signal in a second buffer according to a second delay period, determines a coefficient of a low pass filter and a group delay related to the low pass filter based on information related to the radio signal, and output at least one of the channel signals stored in the second buffer based on the determined group delay and the first delay period to perform equalizing.
US09712338B2
A communication system is provide which includes a plurality of communication units connected to a communication line, in which collisions occur between dominant signals outputted from the communication units on the communication line. At least one of the communication units includes a first driver which is set so that a variation of voltage applied to the communication line in transmission of the dominant signal with respect to that in absence of transmission of the dominant signal is smaller than a variation of voltage applied from another of the communication units to the communication line in transmission of the dominant signal. One of the communication units, which differs from the communication unit including the first driver, includes a second driver which limits variation per unit time of current flowing through the communication line in transmission of the dominant signal.
US09712337B2
Methods and apparatus for implementing Power over Ethernet (PoE) for auxiliary power in computer systems. Under aspects of the methods, one or more voltage inputs comprising standard power input is employed by a power control component in a network interface in an apparatus such as a network adaptor board, a System on a Chip (SoC), computer server or server blade to supply power to a network controller on the apparatus when the apparatus is operating at a normal power state. To enable the apparatus to maintain network communication when operating at a reduced power state, a PoE power input derived from at least one PoE signal received at at least one Ethernet jack of the apparatus is employed to provide power to the network controller absent use or availability of the standard power input. Accordingly, the PoE power input facilitates an auxiliary power function that may be used alone or in combination with existing (as applicable) auxiliary power input when apparatus are operated in reduced power states.
US09712333B2
Systems and technologies for providing an electronic bilateral chat room are disclosed. Users of the system may be screened against a database of organizations having hierarchal information relating to parent organization for which the user is associated, including parent subsidiaries, joint ventures and affiliates. While a bilateral chat room is limited to users in only two organizations, the present disclosure also allows other users that are associated with the structure of the parent organization to be included in the chat room.
US09712331B1
Various systems and methods for providing a policy realization framework for a communications network are disclosed. The policy realization framework can be an application and service layer policy framework that is separate and distinct from the network layer policy framework. As such, policy decisions can be made remote from the network layer, and common policies across multiple networks are possible. Methods and systems for providing these and other features are disclosed. A policy intelligence rules system for a policy realization framework, and methods of implementing a policy intelligence rules system, are also disclosed.
US09712330B2
In some examples, a first delay path and a second delay path may each be configured to receive a signal as an input signal at the same time, propagate the input a plurality of MRAM cells, and output the propagated input signal for an arbiter. The arbiter may be configured to output a response value based at least in part on a relative order of arrival of the propagated input signals from the first and second delay paths.
US09712324B2
Embodiments of a method and apparatus for reducing or eliminating unauthorized access to secured files are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the method includes establishing a connection between a communication portion of the secured file and an authentication agent. The method may include requesting a decryption key from the authentication agent for accessing the secured file on a first computing device. The decryption key may be based on device information retrieved from devices in an authenticated environment of devices. The authenticated environment may be an environment in which the secured the was encrypted. The method may include destroying the secured file subsequent to receiving a message indicating that the requesting has failed.
US09712320B1
Techniques are provided for delegating evaluation of pseudorandom functions to a proxy. A delegator delegates evaluation of a pseudorandom function to a proxy, by providing a trapdoor τ to the proxy based on a secret key k and a predicate P using an algorithm T, wherein the predicate P defines a plurality of values for which the proxy will evaluate the pseudorandom function, wherein the plurality of values comprise a subset of a larger domain of values, and wherein the trapdoor τ provides an indication to the proxy of the plurality of values. A proxy evaluates a pseudorandom function delegated by a delegator by receiving a trapdoor τ from the delegator that provides an indication of a plurality of values to be evaluated, wherein the plurality of values comprise a subset of a larger domain of values; and evaluating an algorithm C on the trapdoor τ to obtain the pseudorandom function value for each of the plurality of values. The trapdoor τ can be provided to the proxy using a Gordreich, Goldwasser, Micali (GGM) binary tree representation.
US09712313B2
A system for multi-peak filter-based analog self-interference cancellation includes a transmit coupler that samples the analog transmit signal to create a sampled analog transmit signal; an analog self-interference canceller, using multi-peak filters, that generates an analog self-interference cancellation signal; and a receive coupler that combines the analog self-interference cancellation signal with the analog receive signal.
US09712310B2
An embodiment method for network communications includes receiving, by a network device, a plurality of channel quality indicator (CQI) symbols and one or more acknowledgement (ACK) symbols and selecting a reduced set of candidate CQI symbols by comparing a plurality of candidate CQI symbols with the plurality of CQI symbols. The method further includes generating a plurality of candidate CQI and ACK symbol combinations by combining the reduced set of candidate CQI symbols with candidate ACK symbols. The network device detects the plurality of CQI symbols and the one or more ACK symbols by comparing the plurality of candidate CQI and ACK symbol combinations with the plurality of CQI symbols and the one or more ACK symbols.
US09712307B2
A method for receiving system information via a broadcast control channel (BCCH) to which a broadcast channel (BCH) and a downlink shared channel (DL_SCH) are mapped, the method including receiving, by a user equipment (UE), a block of first system information from a base station via the BCH, and receiving, by the UE, a first block of second system information from the base station via the DL_SCH. The first block of second system information is scheduled with a fixed time offset. The method further includes receiving, by the UE, a plurality of second blocks of second system information from the base station via the DL_SCH.
US09712300B2
A method includes causing first reference information associated with a first cell or carrier and second reference information associated with a second cell or carrier to be sent to a first destination in a first time interval and causing at least third reference information associated with a third cell or carrier to be sent to a second destination in a different time interval.
US09712299B2
A Method of scrambling reference signals, device and user equipment using the method are provided. In the method, a plurality of layers of reference signals assigned on predetermined radio resource of a plurality of layers of resource blocks with the same time and frequency resources are scrambled, the method comprising: an orthogonalizing step of multiplying each layer of reference signal selectively by one of a plurality of orthogonal cover codes (OCCs) with the same length wherein the OCC multiplied to a first layer of reference signal can be configured as different from those multiplied to other layers of reference signals; and a scrambling step of multiplying all of symbols obtained from the OCC multiplied to each of the other layers of reference signals by a symbol-common scrambling sequence wherein the symbol-common scrambling sequences can be different from each other for reference signals multiplied by the same OCC.
US09712292B2
An apparatus for transmitting a broadcast signal according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: an encoder for encoding data pipe (DP) data corresponding to a DP which transmits at least one broadcast service or broadcast service component; a mapper for mapping the encoded DP data on a constellation; a time interleaver for time-interleaving the mapped DP data; a frame builder for generating at least one signal frame builder for generating at least one signal frame including the time-interleaved DP data; a pilot inserting unit for inserting signal frame, according to at least one pilot pattern; an OFDM modulator for OFDM-modulating the at least one generated signal frame using OFDM parameters; and a transmitter for transmitting at least one broadcast signal including the at least one modulated signal frame.
US09712280B2
A transmitter apparatus wherein a simple structure is used to successfully suppress the degradation of error rate performance that otherwise would be caused by fading or the like. There are included encoding parts that encode transport data; a mapping part that performs such a mapping that encoded data sequentially formed by the encoding parts are not successively included in the same symbol, thereby forming data symbols; and a symbol interleaver that interleaves the data symbols. In this way, a low computational complexity can be used to perform an interleaving process equivalent to a bit interleaving process to effectively improve the reception quality at a receiving end.
US09712276B2
In a communication device, a multi-carrier signal with at least one group of signal carriers is received from a communication connection. For each of the signal carriers, at least one individual error value is evaluated or generated. From the individual error values, a combined error value is evaluated or generated. The combined error value is transmitted on a backchannel of the communication connection.
US09712270B2
Networks, network devices and methods of synchronization using transfer of synchronization packets are provided. Some network devices are configured to use either a timing reference extracted based on GPS signals or an imported timing reference, as an operative time reference. A network device from which to import the time reference is selected and may be updated to meet a selection rule related to the quality of receiving the transfer of synchronization packets.
US09712268B2
In a group level control section, a largest output level among those in channels belonging to a relevant group is selected automatically as a group level. By operating a control part of a channel level control section displayed on a basic screen, an output level of an input channel corresponding to the operated channel level control section can be controlled. Further, by operating a control part of a group level control section, output levels of the input channels belonging to the group can be collectively controlled with difference in levels among the input channels being maintained.
US09712257B1
An apparatus, and method therefor, relates generally to a transmitter. In such an apparatus, a decoder is configured to receive a data input and control signals and to generate state signals responsive to a control signal of the control signals and data polarity the data input. Select circuitry is configured to receive coded signals to replace the data input with a pull-up code and a pull-down code of the coded signals responsive to the state signals and the control signals for propagation of the pull-up code and the pull-down code in place of the data input.
US09712247B2
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving an optical input signal to be modulated by an IQ modulator. The method includes applying data to first and second modulators during a first operation, and applying a first pattern of data to the first modulator and a second pattern of data to the second modulator during a second operation. The second operation results in an optical output signal of the IQ modulator having a low power output and a high power output. The first and second patterns are defined to provide respective desired average powers for a predefined time period based on the low and high power outputs. In another embodiment, a method includes indentifying a transmitter in an optical system by low bit rate signaling. Low bit rate signaling includes receiving an optical input signal from an optical source and transmitting identification data of the transmitter.
US09712242B2
An optical network is suggested, comprising a first set of optical fibers, a multimode multiplexer, a multimode amplifier, a multimode demultiplexer, and a second set of optical fibers, wherein the first set of optical fibers is connected via the multimode multiplexer to the multimode amplifier and wherein the multimode amplifier is connected via the multimode demultiplexer to the second set of optical fibers. Accordingly, an optical network element is provided.
US09712239B2
A multiplexed optical communication system comprising a carrier optical fiber, a plurality of launching light sources, and a matching plurality of multiplexer/demultiplexers and photodetectors is described and claimed. Optical communication channel separation by Spatial Domain Multiplexing (SDM), Optical Angular Momentum (OAM) multiplexing, and Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is used in combination to achieve significant increase in optical communication channel bandwidth over the prior art. The launching light sources may be positioned such that the light beams are incident on the receiving end of the carrier optical fiber at desired angles including complementary angles. Crosstalk between optical communication channels is minimal. The communication bandwidth of a TDM system may be increased by an order of magnitude due the layered WDM/SDM/OAM data multiplexing of the invention.
US09712235B2
A data communication system comprises a wave-front multiplexer configured to wave-front multiplex first electronic signals into second electronic signals. The data communication system further comprises an electronic-to-optical converter configured to convert a third electronic signal carrying information associated with the second electronic signals into a first optical signal; and an optical transferring module configured to split the first optical signal into second optical signals, wherein each of the second optical signals carries the same data as the first optical signal carries. The data communication system further comprises optical-to-electronic converters configured to convert the second optical signals into fourth electronic signals; and wave-front demultiplexers each configured to wave-front demultiplex one of the fourth electronic signals into fifth electronic signals equivalent to the first electronic signals respectively.
US09712234B1
A visible light communication system identifies the location of a mobile device using light intensities corrected by mobile device orientation. This location can be used to generate a dynamic cluster of visible light transmitters about the mobile device providing improved “handoff” between transmitters and reduced shadowing.
US09712228B2
Systems and methods configured to form and point beams from one or more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) toward a target coverage area on the ground. One embodiment describes dividing the target coverage area on the ground among multiple UAVs when each UAV antenna system generates static beams. Another embodiment describes dividing the target coverage area on the ground among multiple UAVs when their antenna systems are capable of dynamically steering their respective beams. Another set of embodiments describe systems and method to allow multiple UAVs to provide service in the same area on the ground using the same spectrum.
US09712227B2
A radio frequency (“RF”) repeater system can receive, from a connected home device, an original RF signal that is unable to propagate through an object. The RF repeater system can demodulate the original RF signal to extract a data stream that includes data captured by the connected home device, can change an original data rate of the data stream to a new data rate that matches an ultrasonic frequency capable of propagating through the object thereby creating an ultrasonic data stream, can transmit, by a first surface transducer, the ultrasonic data stream through the object to a second surface transducer, can receive, by the second surface transducer, the ultrasonic data stream, can change the data stream from the new data rate back to the original data rate, can modulate the data stream to create a new RF signal, and can transmit the new RF signal towards the destination.
US09712210B2
A method and system supply energy to at least one mobile component in a wireless communications system, in particular to RFID tags of an RFID system. In the method for supplying energy to at least one mobile component in a wireless communications system with two or more base stations, coherent electromagnetic waves are transmitted by at least two of the base stations. In the system of base stations of a wireless communications system, at least two of the base stations are designed for transmitting coherent electromagnetic waves.
US09712196B2
Aspects of this disclosure relate to a tunable notch filter. In an embodiment, a tunable notch filter includes a series LC circuit in parallel with a tunable impedance circuit, and the tunable notch filter is in a radio frequency signal path associated with a common port of a multi-throw radio frequency switch. According to certain embodiments, the tunable notch filter can be in a radio frequency signal path between an antenna switch and an antenna port.
US09712194B2
A receiver arranged to receive and to suppress a distortion in a receive signal, the receive signal comprising an information signal, the information signal occupying a first frequency band, the receive signal further comprising a pilot signal, the pilot signal occupying a second frequency band different from the first frequency band, the receiver comprising a pilot removal device arranged to receive a processed receive signal, and to extract and process the processed pilot signal from the processed receive signal as a processed extracted pilot signal, and to combine the processed extracted pilot signal with the processed receive signal to generate a distortion suppressed receive signal.
US09712191B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide an apparatus (200) for feeding an antenna array (207) comprising at least first and second antenna elements (2071, 2072). The apparatus comprises a first transmitting element (2011) configured to receive a first base band signal (202-i) and to feed a first feed signal (2041) to a first antenna element (2071), the first transmitting element (2011) comprising a first power amplifier (2031). The apparatus also comprises a second transmitting element (2012) configured to receive a second base band signal (2022) and to feed a second feed signal (2042) to a second antenna element (2072), the second transmitting element (2012) comprising a second power amplifier (2032). A tapering control unit (205) is adapted to provide a tapering function between the first feed signal to the first antenna element and the second feed signal to the second antenna element.
US09712183B2
A current source device having a current source array includes a plurality of current source units, a plurality of least significant bits, and a plurality of most significant bits. The current source units are arranged along a plurality rows and columns of a current source array. Each of the least significant bits includes a first amount of current source units is placed at the geometric center of the current source array. Each of the most significant bits includes a second amount of current source units. The second amount is the first amount multiplied by a positive integer. The two adjacent bits in the most significant bits are centrally symmetrical to the geometric center.
US09712182B1
A digital to analog conversion circuit, DAC, comprises a number of serializing lanes, each serializing lane comprising at least two bit inputs, and each serializing lane being configured to output the two bit inputs serially via a serialized output port at a predetermined first clock rate. The DAC further comprises a number of non-serializing lanes, each non-serializing lane comprising at least two bit inputs and each non-serializing lane being configured to output the two bit inputs in parallel each via a separate parallel output port, at a second clock rate, which is half the clock rate of the first clock rate, and a current switching network comprising a bit input port for every one of the serialized output ports and for every one of the parallel output ports and being configured to produce a output current, based on the signals received via the bit input ports.
US09712173B2
A semiconductor device detects an edge of input data input into a data retention circuit to which a clock signal is supplied, resets a first count value obtained by counting an edge detection frequency with a clock signal, resets a second count value obtained by counting the edge detection frequency with an inverted clock signal, and thereby detects an abnormality of the clock signal in accordance with a situation that either of the first count value and the second count value has reached a value indicative of an overflow state.
US09712167B2
Described is an apparatus which comprises: a first node to provide an un-gated power supply; a second node to provide a threshold dependent supply; an inverter with an input and an output, the inverter coupled to the first and second nodes, the inverter to receive the un-gated power supply at its power supply node, and to receive the threshold dependent supply for supplying ground supply at its ground node; and a transistor with its gate terminal coupled to the output of the inverter, the transistor to provide gated power supply to one or more logic units.
US09712150B2
A method and an arrangement of limiting temperature variations in a semiconductor component of a switching converter, the method comprising determining a quantity relating to operation temperature of the switching converter, determining temperature of the semiconductor component, selecting a maximum value of switching frequency of the switching converter based on the determined quantity relating to operation temperature of the switching converter and the temperature of the semiconductor component, and limiting the switching frequency of the semiconductor component of the switching converter to the selected switching frequency.
US09712147B2
Disclosed is a method and a drive circuit. The method includes measuring a frequency of an input signal received by a drive circuit and driving a transistor device by the drive circuit based on the input signal such that a switching speed of the transistor is dependent on the measured frequency. The drive circuit is configured to receive an input signal, to measure a frequency of the input signal, and to drive a transistor device based on the input signal such that a switching speed of the transistor is dependent on the measured frequency.
US09712145B2
A delay line circuit includes a plurality of delay circuits and a variable delay line circuit. The plurality of delay circuits receives an input signal and to generate a first output signal. The first output signal corresponds to a delayed input signal or an inverted input signal. The variable delay line circuit receives the first output signal. The variable delay line circuit includes an input end, an output end, a first and a second path. The input end is configured to receive the first output signal. The output end is configured to output a second output signal. The first path includes a first plurality of inverters and a first circuit. The second path includes a second plurality of inverters and a second circuit. The received first output signal is selectively transmitted through the first or second path based on a control signal received from a delay line controller.
US09712143B2
A system includes a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) to generate an output signal based on an input voltage and a multi-stage delay network to receive the output signal from the VCO. Each stage of the delay network produces a phase-shifted output signal. The system includes a multi-stage digital-to-analog converter (DAC) network, where each stage of the DAC network is associated with a corresponding stage of the delay network. Each stage of the DAC network receives the phase-shifted output signal from its corresponding stage of the delay network and generates a weighted output signal based on the received phase-shifted output signal. The DAC network combines the weighted output signal of each stage. A weighting factor for each stage of the DAC network is selected to reduce harmonic content of the combination of weighted output signals.
US09712141B2
Embodiments relate to modulating a power supply voltage for varying a propagation delay of data paths within an integrated circuit. The power supply voltage is modulated to increase the delay of shorter data paths for reducing an incidence of hold time violations without substantially affecting the delay of longer data paths. For example, the power supply voltage is reduced from a nominal value in the first half clock cycle to increase delay of both the shorter data paths and the longer data paths. The power supply voltage is increased from the nominal value in the second half clock cycle to decrease delay of the longer data paths within the second half clock cycle such that the overall delay of the longer data paths is virtually same as when the power supply voltage is fixed at the nominal value for the entire clock cycle.
US09712140B1
A tunable multi-path filter, a method for filtering a radio frequency signal with the tunable multi-path filter, and a communication device including the tunable multi-path filter. In one embodiment, the tunable multi-path filter includes a voltage controlled current source, an oscillator source, and at least two filter paths. The voltage controlled current source for receiving a radio frequency (RF) signal and generating a current signal. The oscillator source for generating a tunable clock signal. Each of the at least two filter paths are coupled to the voltage controlled current source and the oscillator source, and are configured to generate an output voltage signal based at least in part on the current signal and the tunable clock signal. In some embodiments, the tunable multi-path filter further includes a carrier signal rejection component that is configured to reduce the carrier feedthrough in the output voltage signals.
US09712139B2
An elastic wave filter device includes serial and parallel arms and a plurality of elastic wave resonators. Each elastic wave resonator includes an IDT electrode. In the case where a direction in which electrode fingers extend is taken as a width direction of the IDT electrode, the IDT electrode includes a central area at a center in the width direction, a low acoustic velocity area at an outer side portion of the central area, and a high velocity area at a farther outer side portion thereof. A width of the low acoustic velocity area of at least one elastic wave resonator differs from a width of the low acoustic velocity area of the other elastic wave resonators.
US09712126B2
Automatically calibrating operational amplifier (op-amp) systems for mitigating effects of offset voltages are disclosed. In one aspect, an automatically calibrating op-amp system is provided that employs an analog calibration signal corresponding to a calibration mode to compensate an output voltage signal of an op-amp corresponding to an amplify mode. An automatic calibration circuit is included that employs a successive approximation register (SAR) controller configured to successively generate digital values based on the output voltage signal of the op-amp in response to a mode signal indicating the calibration mode. The automatic calibration circuit includes a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) configured to convert each successive digital value into the analog calibration signal in response to the mode signal indicating the calibration mode. The analog calibration signal is provided to an auxiliary differential input of the op-amp to compensate for the composite offset voltage in the amplify mode.
US09712122B2
A distortion compensation apparatus that compensates for distortion of an amplifier is provided. The distortion compensation apparatus includes: a distortion compensation processing section that performs a predistortion process for a signal provided to the amplifier, based on an amplifier model of the amplifier, and outputs a compensated signal; an estimation section that estimates the amplifier model; and a filter. The estimation section estimates the amplifier model, based on the compensated signal and a monitor signal obtained by monitoring an output of the amplifier. The monitor band of the monitor signal provided to the estimation section is narrower than a frequency band of the compensated signal. The filter is provided so as to eliminate an influence of a signal component outside the monitor band among signal components of the compensated signal, on the estimation of the amplifier model by the estimation section.
US09712121B2
This disclosure provides a circuit for linearizing an output signal Sout produced by a non-linear component based on an input signal x(n). The circuit comprises a primary pre-distorter module configured to generate a pre-distorted signal y(n) based on the input signal x(n) and a primary pre-distortion function parameterized by a pre-distortion parameter λ and to feed the pre-distorted signal y(n) to the non-linear component. The circuit comprises an estimation module. The estimation module is configured to receive samples z(n) of the output signal Sout, and to determine the pre-distortion parameter λ. The estimation module comprises a secondary pre-distorter module configured to generate a secondary pre-distorter output signal r(n) based on a secondary pre-distortion function and the samples z(n) of the output signal Sout. The secondary pre-distorter module is configured to determine the pre-distortion parameter λ based on a previously determined pre-distortion parameter stored on a data storage, the secondary pre-distorter output signal r(n) and the pre-distorted signal y(n) provided by the primary pre-distorted module. The determining comprises correlating the input signal x(n) with an error signal between the pre-distorted signal y(n) and the secondary pre-distorter output signal r(n).
US09712119B2
Doherty power amplifier with tunable input network. An input network for a Doherty power amplifier can include a splitter circuit configured to receive a radio-frequency (RF) signal and split the RF signal into a first portion along a first path to a carrier amplifier of the Doherty power amplifier and a second portion along a second path to a peaking amplifier of the Doherty power amplifier. The input network can further include a tunable input circuit implemented along either or both of the first path and second path. The tunable input circuit can be configured to provide control of the amplitude and phase of either or both of the first portion and second portion.
US09712115B2
A current-mode power amplifier is disclosed. In some embodiments, the power amplifier may include a first cascode transistor pair including a first transfer function coupled to a second cascode transistor pair including a second transfer function. The first transfer function may be an inverse of the second transfer function. The current-mode power amplifier may also include an inductive-capacitive (LC) resonant circuit to reduce the effects of gate capacitances of the first cascode transistor pair and the second cascode transistor pair. In some embodiments, the current-mode power amplifier may include a bias current controller. The bias current controller may adjust transistor bias currents based, at least in part, on an input signal received by the current-mode power amplifier.
US09712104B2
A control method of over-temperature protection, a driver chip and a control system of over-temperature protection are disclosed. The control method includes the following steps: a driver chip provides an output voltage to drive a DC fan. A temperature of the driver chip is detected by an over-temperature detection module. When the temperature of the driver chip is higher than a first threshold value, the power supplying to the driver chip is stopped, so that the driver chip can cool down. After the temperature of the driver chip is lower than a second threshold value, the driver chip is restarted. A preset voltage is provided to the DC fan by the driver chip and the DC fan rotates at a preset rotational speed which is higher than the rotational speed.
US09712103B2
The controller for an actuator that is driven by a brushless motor estimates the temperature of the magnet in the brushless motor on the basis of an electric current value and a rotation speed thereof which are obtained by supplying power to rotate the brushless motor in a reverse direction, and limits current flowing through the brushless motor during forward rotation so as to prevent the magnet temperature from rising beyond an allowable maximum temperature. Limiting the current flowing through the brushless motor on the basis of the estimated magnet temperature makes it possible to drive the brushless motor while preventing the magnet temperature from rising beyond the allowable maximum temperature without providing the brushless motor with any temperature sensor for detecting the magnet temperature therein.
US09712094B2
A floating power generator having a water wheel and electrical generator. The floating power generator can comprise a variable speed drive.
US09712088B2
A control method and system of an electrical vacuum pump is provide to resolve generation of peak current when a motor of the electrical vacuum pump initially starts and implement a soft start. The electrical vacuum pump generates vacuum by suctioning air by rotating a pump with a motor. The control method includes starting the motor by supplying a power supply to the motor to switch on the electrical vacuum pump and sensing current applied to the motor using a current sensing circuit. In addition, the method includes determining a target value of motor input voltage set as a value according to the sensed applied current while starting the motor until the sensed applied current reaches a predetermined current and adjusted the motor input voltage applied to the motor to correspond to the target value.
US09712087B2
A piezoelectric element drive circuit includes a piezoelectric element that has a piezoelectric substance whose thickness is 0.05μ to 20 μm and two electrodes which interpose the piezoelectric substance therebetween, an inductor that is connected to the piezoelectric element in parallel, and a drive voltage generation circuit that applies a drive voltage including an AC component to the piezoelectric element and the inductor.
US09712081B2
A power converter includes inverters, AC sides of the inverters being connected in parallel, and a controller configured to control total output power of the inverters by controlling output power of at least one of the inverters in a control cycle shorter than a shortest communication cycle which allows communication with each of the inverters.
US09712078B2
The present disclosure relates to a synchronous rectification circuit adapted to an electronic transformer. Operation states of four transistor switches in the synchronous rectification circuit are adjusted in accordance with a detected input voltage signal of the synchronous rectification circuit to achieve synchronous rectification. Moreover, the transistor switches in a rectifier bridge and a switching control circuit are all integrated into a single chip to have an increased integration level, a reduced chip size, and high efficiency. The present disclosure also relates to a switching power supply comprising the above synchronous rectification circuit.
US09712076B2
A plurality of capacitors are interposed between ones of a plurality of input lines. The clamp capacitor is connected between two DC power supply lines. A current-source converter includes a plurality of switch devices, where x represents r, s and t. The switch device selects conduction/non-conduction through a first diode between corresponding one of the input lines and the first DC power supply line and conduction/non-conduction through a second diode between said corresponding one of input lines and the second DC power supply line based on external signals and brings corresponding one of the input lines with the first and second DC power supply lines in a state of not receiving the signals.
US09712075B2
A method of controlling a single-phase voltage source AC/DC converting circuit has internal equivalent impedance as seen from an AC terminal, for converting power from a DC voltage source connected to a DC terminal to single-phase AC power or for converting single-phase AC power from a single-phase AC source connected to the AC terminal to DC power in accordance with a pulse width of a gate signal generated based on a PWM command.
US09712063B2
A method for improving a power converter's efficiency comprises detecting an input voltage of a power converter, determining an operation mode of the power converter based upon the input voltage of the power converter and generating a plurality of gate drive signals based upon a damped gain control, wherein the damped gain control is configured such that an output voltage of the power converter is in a range from a tightly regulated output voltage to an unregulated output voltage.
US09712060B2
A method manages hysteretic DC-DC buck converters each including a hysteretic comparator operating according to a respective hysteresis window. The method includes, in a given converter, verifying if a respective feedback voltage reaches a lower threshold in order to enter a switch-on period of the converter, The method comprises: while the verifying indicates that the lower threshold is not reached, detecting if another converter has entered a respective switch on period and, in the affirmative, entering a hysteresis voltage adjustment procedure, include increasing by a given amount the amplitude of the hysteresis window of the given converter by reducing the lower threshold of the hysteresis window.
US09712050B2
A power converter is disclosed. The power converter includes a resonant half-bridge having a first power switch and a second power switch for driving a resonant circuit of the resonant half-bridge. The power converter further includes a charge pump coupled to the resonant half-bridge, where the charge pump is configured to selectively provide a positive current from the resonant circuit to an output stage of the power converter, and to selectively shunt to ground a negative current from the resonant circuit, based on an output stage feedback signal. In one implementation, the resonant circuit includes a series L-C circuit. The power converter is configured to provide a constant output current and/or a constant output voltage.
US09712046B2
Representative implementations of devices and techniques determine the timing of switches associated with a dc-dc converter. The determination is based on a body diode conduction of at least one of the switches, which is detected and used to determine a switching delay.
US09712044B2
In a power converter including at least one bridge circuit configured to have upper and lower arms in which a first power semiconductor device and a second power semiconductor device are connected in series, a first gate driving circuit that supplies a charge to the first power semiconductor device of an upper arm to drive the first power semiconductor device monitors a voltage developed by an output inductor between a connection end between the first power semiconductor device and the second power semiconductor device and a load, and performs control to protect the first power semiconductor device based on a value of the monitored voltage.
US09712043B2
An apparatus for controlling overcurrent of a grid-connected inverter due to an abnormal grid voltage includes a grid voltage sensor configured to sense a grid voltage according to an output current of the grid-connected inverter, a voltage variation calculator configured to calculate a D-axis voltage and a Q-axis voltage of the grid voltage to obtain variation values of the D-axis voltage and the Q-axis voltage, and an output current controller configured to determine whether at least one of the D-axis voltage variation value and the Q-axis voltage variation value exceeds a set value of the grid voltage variation, and decrease the output current by a predetermined value when one of the D-axis voltage variation value and the Q-axis voltage variation value exceeds the set value of the grid voltage variation.
US09712041B2
A peak current protection circuit includes a current sensing circuit configured to sense an operating current of a DC-DC converter, and an over-current detector operably coupled with the current sensing circuit. The over-current detector is configured to generate an over-current detect signal at a peak current limit that is that is independent of a voltage level of an output signal of the DC-DC converter. A method for providing over-current protection for a DC-DC converter includes sensing an operating current of a DC-DC converter at a first input of a comparator, sensing a reference current at a second input of the comparator, comparing the first input with the second input, and generating an over-current detect signal in response to the comparison such that a peak current limit for the DC-DC converter is independent of a voltage level of an output signal of the DC-DC converter.
US09712027B2
A guiding device for coiling electrically conducting wires around an electrically conducting block of a rotor of an electric motor including a shaft extending axially in the rotor, the electrically conducting block including at least four notches for receiving wires. The guiding device includes at least two branches extending radially away from the shaft and disposed at 90° to one another, the branches being connected by an elastic linking mechanism.
US09712026B2
A conductive wire piece set forming method includes: a bending step of bending a conductive wire piece set in a second bent portion; a restraining step of restraining the second bent portion of the conductive wire piece set and a portion adjacent thereto with a clamp portion; and a twisting step of twisting the conductive wire piece set by rotating the clamp portion. The restraint of the conductive wire piece set is performed in such a way that the conductive wire pieces form a predetermined angle with each other.
US09711999B2
Antenna array calibration for wireless charging is disclosed. A wireless charging system is provided and configured to calibrate antenna elements in a wireless charging station based on a feedback signal provided by a wireless charging device. The antenna elements in the wireless charging station transmit wireless radio frequency (RF) charging signals to the wireless charging device. The wireless charging device provides the feedback signal to the wireless charging station to indicate total RF power in the wireless RF charging signals. The wireless charging station is configured to adjust transmitter phases associated with the antenna elements based on the feedback signal until the total RF power in the wireless RF charging signals is maximized. By calibrating the antenna elements based on the feedback signal, it is possible to achieve phase coherency among the antenna elements without requiring factory calibration.
US09711988B2
The fuel cell system includes: a power generation unit; an obtaining unit obtaining battery information indicating a storage state of a storage battery; and a control unit selecting one of a first control mode and a second control mode based on the battery information when load power changes from a first load power to a second load power, the first control mode being for supplying power from the power generation unit to the load by causing the power generation unit to generate power without causing the storage battery to charge and/or discharge, the second control mode being for causing the power generation unit to generate power with a change rate of generation power being set to a value smaller than a value in the first control mode, by causing the storage battery to charge and/or discharge.
US09711984B2
A method and apparatus for generating a high voltage at a battery system. The apparatus in one embodiment includes a supply node configured for direct or indirect coupling to a supply voltage. A converter is coupled between an input node and an output node, wherein the converter is configured to operate in a forward mode or a reverse mode. The converter generates a voltage at the converter output node for charging a battery when operating in the forward mode, wherein a magnitude of the voltage generated at the converter output node is less than a magnitude of the supply voltage. The converter generates a voltage at the converter input node when operating in the reverse mode, wherein a magnitude of the voltage generated at the converter input node is different than a magnitude of a voltage provided by the battery. A control circuit is coupled to and configured to control operation of the converter in the forward mode or the reverse mode.
US09711981B2
A mobile power supply includes an upper and lower shells, both of which are attached to each other to form a housing of the mobile power supply. A first PCB and a storage battery connected with the first PCB are disposed within the housing. An upper cover is provided at the top of the upper shell. A lower cover is provided at the bottom of the lower shell. A first and second conductive poles, which pass through the upper and lower covers and are both connected with the first PCB, are vertically disposed apart from each other within the housing. Top ends of the first and second conductive poles form first snap button structures with the upper cover, respectively. Bottom ends of the first and second conductive poles form first buckling structures with the lower cover, respectively, the first buckling structures match with the first snap button structures, respectively.
US09711973B2
A wireless power source including a microwave receiver, a matching network, and a transducer. The microwave receiver receives a microwave signal having a carrier frequency. The matching network receives a signal having the carrier frequency and a switched frequency and removes the carrier frequency such that the matching network outputs a switched signal at the switched frequency. The transducer is configured to receive the switched signal and output a DC voltage.
US09711971B2
A wireless power-supplying system includes a power-transmitting coil provided on the ground and a power-receiving coil provided above the power-transmitting coil and wirelessly supplies electric power from the power-transmitting coil to the power-receiving coil. The wireless power-supplying system further includes a flexible cover provided so as to cover the power-transmitting coil and configured to be inflated to occupy a space between the power-transmitting coil and the power-receiving coil. During the inflation of the flexible cover, the flexible cover assumes a specific shape capable of removing a foreign object laid thereon before occupying the space between the power-transmitting coil and the power-receiving coil.
US09711967B1
A power conversion system for use with an alternate energy source includes a first inverter, a battery, and a second inverter, each of which receives power from the alternate energy source. The output of the first inverter and the grid are each connected to at least one electrical load via a load center. The battery is charged via a charger connected to the alternate energy source. This stored energy powers a selected portion of the electrical loads during a failure of the utility grid. The second inverter is connected between the battery and a transfer switch. During normal grid operation, the second inverter is disabled and the transfer switch connects the load center to the selected electrical loads. During a failure of the utility grid, the first inverter is disabled, the second inverter is enabled, and the transfer switch connects the second inverter to the selected electrical loads.
US09711964B2
A method for controlling operation of a power generation and delivery system while increasing a power output of the power generation and delivery system is described. The method includes, monitoring an output parameter of the power generation and delivery system and determining a rate of change of the output parameter as a function of time. A reactive current command signal is generated a as a function of the determined rate of change of the output parameter. Operation of a power converter is controlled based at least partially on the reactive current command signal to facilitate maintaining a substantially constant terminal voltage as the power output of the power generation and delivery system is increased.
US09711963B2
A system and a method for distributing power to telecommunication subscriber lines is disclosed. It is important that the power dissipation in the subscriber line interface circuits, SLICs is reduced. Power dissipation occurs when the subscriber lines are fed with a voltage level that is higher than necessary. It is also important that the implementation allows for flexibility when configuring the subscriber lines. These problem have been solved by using a power distribution system comprising at least three power supply units with different power supply voltages, a control unit and a switching unit connected between the SLICs and the power supply units. The control unit is adapted to determine the loop voltages of the subscriber lines and to connect the corresponding SLIC to the power supply unit giving the least power dissipation.
US09711958B2
A guide device (10) is provided for guiding a wiring harness (32) through an aperture (26) in a panel (24). The guide device (10) has a substantially tubular sidewall (12) with opposite front and rear ends (14, 16). Portions of the sidewall (12) adjacent the front end (14) are dimensioned to fit in the aperture (26). The sidewall (12) flares out toward the rear end (16). A slit (22) extends from the front end (14) of the sidewall (12) to the rear and (16) thereof. The front end (14) of the guide device (10) can be mounted in the aperture (26) so that the wiring harness (32) can be guided into the outwardly flared rear end (16) and through the aperture (26). The slit (22) enables the sidewall (12) to be biased open at the slit so that the guide device (10) can be separated from the wiring harness (32).
US09711951B2
A spark plug having a resistor disposed within a through hole of an insulator and between a center electrode and a metal terminal so as to be spaced apart from the center electrode in a direction of an axial line; and a conductive glass seal layer provided between the resistor and the center electrode and electrically connecting the resistor and the center electrode to each other, the conductive glass seal layer has a diameter of 3.9 mm or less, and a joined surface of the conductive glass seal layer and the resistor has a convex shape toward the center electrode side. A length α from a rear end to a front end of the joined surface and a maximum length β of the conductive glass seal layer in the direction of the axial line meets a relation of α/β≧0.4.
US09711935B2
The invention relates to an apparatus for generating temporally spaced apart light pulses, comprising a first laser (11) which generates a first sequence (I) of light pulses at a first repetition rate, a second laser (12) which generates a second sequence (II) of light pulses at a second repetition rate, and at least one actuating member which influences the first repetition rate and/or the second repetition rate. It is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus for generating temporally spaced apart light pulses which is improved in relation to the prior art. This object is achieved by the invention by a control element (23) which applies a periodic modulation signal (24) to the actuating member for periodic variation of the first repetition rate and/or the second repetition rate, wherein the actuating member comprises a mechanical oscillator excited by the modulation signal (24), the deflection of said oscillator causing an adjustment in the resonator length of the first laser (11) and/or second laser (12), wherein the mechanical oscillator oscillates in resonant fashion at the frequency of the modulation signal (24). In accordance with the invention, an actuator (e.g. a piezo-actuator) which adjusts the resonator length of the laser is operated in resonant fashion. As a result, a large maximum time offset of the light-pulse sequences (I, II) with, at the same time, a high scanning speed is rendered possible. Moreover, the invention relates to a method for generating temporally spaced apart light pulses.
US09711923B2
A communication adapter that includes an RJ45 jack with a plurality of plug interface contacts and an ARJ45 plug including a plurality of plug contacts. The plug interface contacts are in electrical communication with the plug contacts. The RJ45 jack and the ARJ45 plug are connected by a housing.
US09711921B2
An electrical contact receptacle includes a base with opposed contact portions extending from one surface thereof. Each contact portion has three arms in spaced arrangement, and optionally a bridge portion extending across outboard arms. Each of arms has an inner contact surface for conductively engaging a blade terminal or a bus bar. Optionally, the base defines an opening through which a tip portion of a blade terminal can be received, thereby permitting insertion of the blade terminal from above or below the contact receptacle, and allowing for additional contact surfaces with the blade terminal.
US09711920B2
A connecter system is configured for macro motion. Two mating terminals are configured so that during macro motion cycles, the resistance between two terminals does not substantially increase. One terminal can have multiple, somewhat spherical-shaped mating surfaces while a mating surface on the other terminal can be flat. The mating terminals can be configured to provide desirable resistance performance after more than 5000 cycles of macro motion.
US09711917B2
A connector including coupling and sleeve flanges defining opposing recesses separated by an axial gap along an elongate axis. The connector also includes a conductive band radially biased outwardly against at least one of the internal contact surfaces of the opposing recesses and spanning the axial gap. The conductive band maintains electrical conductivity across the axial gap even when the sleeve does not electrically contact the coupling member. At least one of the contact surfaces defines a conical surface which is responsive to the radially biased conductive member to produce a radial force against the internal contact surfaces. The radial force produces an axial force component along the elongate axis.
US09711896B2
A connector includes: a sensor side connector section mounted to a connector mounting hole and fastened thereto by thread fastening and including a first housing part in which a first terminal is disposed; and a wire harness side connector section disposing a second terminal and including a second housing part capable of being fitted to the first housing part. The connector mounting hole includes a key groove, and the first housing part includes a key protrusion. A bolt prevented from moving axially and supported rotatably is provided on the outer periphery of the first housing part. Screwing the bolt into the connector mounting hole fastens the first housing part to the connector mounting hole by thread fastening.
US09711894B2
An electrical connector comprises a printed circuit board module including a printed circuit board (PCB) and a plurality of electrical elements disposed on the PCB, the PCB includes a mating end for mating with a mating connector and a plurality of conductive paths electrically connecting with the electrical elements; wherein the PCB includes a fracture surface, and the plurality of conductive paths are exposed to the fracture surface.
US09711893B2
An electrical plug and receptacle relying on magnetic force from an electromagnet to maintain contact are disclosed. The plug and receptacle can be used as part of a power adapter for connecting an electronic device, such as a laptop computer, to a power supply. The plug includes electrical contacts, which are preferably biased toward corresponding contacts on the receptacle. The plug and receptacle each have a magnetic element. The magnetic element on one of the plug or receptacle can be a magnet or ferromagnetic material. The magnetic element on the other of the plug or receptacle is an electromagnet. When the plug and receptacle are brought into proximity, the magnetic attraction between the electromagnet magnet and its complement, whether another magnet or a ferromagnetic material, maintains the contacts in an electrically conductive relationship.
US09711891B2
An electrical junction box includes a circuit board and a case. The case holds the circuit board therein. The case includes case components bonded to each other such that the case components are liquid-tight to each other. One of the case components includes a connector portion that is liquid-tight to another portion of the one of the case components. The connector portion includes a hood portion to which a mating connector is to be connected. The hood portion includes a ventilation hole that communicates with internal space of the case.
US09711888B2
A cable assembly with connector includes: a housing provided with a mate connector opposing part provided on a front side and a cable part provided on a rear side having a cable opening formed; a conductive contactor provided on the mate connector opposing part side of the housing; a cable disposed in the housing via the cable opening and electrically connected to the contactor; a rear faceplate disposed on the cable part on the rear side of the housing and aligned with the cable opening; and a front faceplate disposed on the mate connector opposing part on the front side of the housing and enclosing a housing front face portion; wherein the housing is interposed between the rear faceplate and the front faceplate, and the front faceplate is fixed to the rear faceplate by at least one fixing member extending in the front and rear direction in the housing.
US09711887B1
An electrical connector includes an insulating housing, a terminal module, two adhesive films and a shielding shell. The insulating housing defines two rows of terminal grooves. The terminal module assembled to the insulating housing includes a plurality of conductive terminals. Front ends of the conductive terminals project into the terminal grooves. Each of the two adhesive films includes an insulation layer and an adhesive layer. The adhesive layer is disposed to a rear end of an inner surface of the insulation layer. The adhesive layer of one of the two adhesive films is adhered to a top wall of the insulating housing, and the adhesive layer of the other adhesive film is adhered to a bottom wall of the insulating housing. The insulating housing together with the terminal module and the adhesive films are received in a receiving space of the shielding shell.
US09711878B2
A power connector includes: an insulative housing having an upper surface, a lower surface, and a receiving space; a number of contacts accommodated in the insulative housing, the contact having a contacting portion, a rear portion accommodated in a rear end of the insulative housing, and a snakelike elastic portion connecting the contacting portion and the rear portion, the snakelike elastic portion having a number of vertical bending sections and a number of connecting sections each connecting every two adjacent bending sections, wherein the vertical dimension of the intersecting surface of the bending section is greater than the vertical dimension of the intersecting surface of the connecting section.
US09711867B2
A basic antenna (2), designed to form a radiating element of an array antenna, includes, superimposed, a planar reflector (4), a probe (6), and an assembly (8) of the EBG type by default in the form of a cavity (16). The basic antenna (2) includes a wall enclosure (10) capable of reflecting the electromagnetic waves at the operating frequency or frequencies of the basic antenna (2), the wall enclosure (10) being an extension in a direction orthogonal to the planar reflector (4) and simultaneously surrounding only the probe (6), the cavity (16) and the structure (14).The one- or two-dimensional array antenna includes a plurality of joined basic antennas (2) arranged compactly.
US09711861B2
An antenna device includes a dielectric substrate, a conductor plate that is placed on one surface of the dielectric substrate, that includes a first slot element, a second slot element, and one or more slits, and a ground conductor that is placed at a specified distance from the conductor plate in a first direction. A center of the first slot element is placed between a center of the second slot element and a center of each of slits, in a second direction.
US09711857B2
The present invention relates to multi-band antenna. This antenna comprises a substrate and at least one conductive layer provided with a plurality of antennas, such as PIFAs, resonating in specific frequency bands. The antennas are cascaded in order to achieve a compact antenna. The first antenna comprises a first radiating element, a first feed element connected to said first radiating element and a first ground return element and the second antennas comprises a second radiating element, a second feed element connected to said second radiating element and a second ground return element. The ground plane is printed in the same layer as the first or second antenna.
US09711855B2
A multiband antenna includes a feeding element connected to a feeding point, a radiating element functioning as a radiating conductor, the radiating element being positioned apart from the feeding element and fed with electric power by electromagnetically coupling to the feeding element, a ground plane, and a non-feeding element being positioned close to the radiating element and connected to the ground plane via a reactance element. The reactance element has a reactance that causes the multiband antenna to match with a frequency other than a resonance frequency of a resonance mode of the radiating element.
US09711850B2
Control of dual (two) antennas, for satellite communications (satcom) with satellites in one or more constellations in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). The dual antennas are typically part of a ground-based antenna system, in particular using the Satrack single pedestal with split antenna design, housed efficiently under a compact radome. Features simultaneous pointing toward two separate satellites during the satellites' handover/switching periods with instantaneous transition between the satcom modems for assuring real-time, continuous data communication over a LEO/MEO satellite link. The dual (two) antennas system can also be used in a “monopulse/electronic scan” mode where a first antenna is used for tracking according to ephemeris data, while a second antenna on the same pedestal will scan for offset/compensation to the first antenna path.
US09711848B2
An antenna device includes an antenna element and an impedance converting circuit connected to the antenna element. The impedance converting circuit is connected to a power-supply end of the antenna element. The impedance converting circuit is interposed between the antenna element and a power-supply circuit. The impedance converting circuit includes a first inductance element connected to the power-supply circuit and a second inductance element coupled to the first inductance element. A first end and a second end of the first inductance element are connected to the power-supply circuit and the antenna, respectively. A first end and a second end of the second inductance element are connected to the antenna element and ground, respectively.
US09711846B2
Improved radio-transparent communication tower panel security devices that can be easily mounted to and strapped around the cover panels of communication towers, including flag-supporting cellular communication towers, so as to band and secure the cover panels thereto and prevent them from falling off in high winds and/or other adverse weather conditions, while preventing wear and tear of flags and their lanyards. Preferably, the communication tower panel security device employs a flexible plastic tubing assembly and a connecting/tensioning assembly having first and second connector modules for safely securing radiation-transparent panels covering antenna service bays of a wireless telecommunication tower.
US09711838B2
Coaxial probes for guided wave radar level transmitters have an inner rod within an outer tube. Transmission line impedance changes where the space between the two fills with process fluid, causing a reflection of radar energy. Time of flight calculations yield the distance to the product and thus the level of the fluid in a tank. The inner rod and outer rod should maintain their spacing because a reflection can occur if the inner rod moves too close to the outer tube wall. Spacers can maintain the spacing. The spacers should be retained so that their location over time doesn't change. Retention strategies involving shoulders or discontinuities in the inner rod or outer tube can cause measurement errors. Applications requiring high temperature resistance and high chemical compatibility lead to ceramic spacers instead of plastic spacers. Slip fits are needed when ceramics are too stiff for snap-in functionality.
US09711836B1
A system for improving port isolation of a three port circulator device includes a power splitter having a power splitter input and two power splitter outputs. A first circulator has a first circulator first port, a first circulator second port, and a first circulator third port, and the first circulator first port is electrically coupled to the first of the two power splitter outputs. A second circulator has a second circulator first port, a second circulator second port, and a second circulator third port, and the second circulator first port is electrically coupled to the second of the two power splitter outputs. A first trimmer is electrically coupled to the first circulator third port and a second trimmer is electrically coupled to the second circulator third port. The system further includes a power combiner having two power combiner inputs and one power combiner output, and the first of the two power combiner inputs is electrically coupled to the first trimmer and the second of the two power combiner inputs is electrically coupled to the second trimmer.
US09711832B2
The present application relates to a harmonic oscillator. The harmonic oscillator includes a dielectric body and at least one responding unit attached onto a surface of the dielectric body, where the responding unit is a conductive structure having a geometrical pattern. The application further relates to a cavity filter having the harmonic oscillator and an electromagnetic wave device. By using the harmonic oscillator in the application, a permittivity can be effectively increased and a resonance frequency of a cavity filter can be decreased, thereby implementing miniaturization. Moreover, for an electromagnetic wave in a TM mode, a frequency can be decreased and an electromagnetic loss is not affected.
US09711829B2
A cooling device for a vehicle battery is provided with a cooling plate (22) comprising a first plate part (24) which faces towards the battery (10) and has a first wall thickness (di), comprising a second plate part (30) which has a second wall thickness (d2), and comprising a multiplicity of depressions (32) formed in the second plate part (30). The cooling plate (22) has a multiplicity of refrigerant ducts (34) with a first duct cross section, said refrigerant ducts being formed between the first and second plate parts (24, 30) in the depressions (32) of the second plate part (30). The cooling plate (22) has a distributor portion (42) and a collector portion which each have at least one connection (46) for a refrigerant feed line (56) and a refrigerant return line. The wall of the distributor portion (42) and/or of the collector portion (44) is formed at least in portions by a component (52) additional to the first and second plate parts (24, 30).
US09711827B2
Provided is a sodium molten-salt battery having good charge-discharge cycle characteristics. The sodium molten-salt battery includes a positive electrode that contains a positive electrode active material, a negative electrode that contains a negative electrode active material, and a molten-salt electrolyte that contains a sodium salt and an ionic liquid that dissolves the sodium salt. The negative electrode active material contains non-graphitizable carbon. The ionic liquid is a salt of a bis(sulfonyl)imide anion and a first onium cation that does not cause a Faradaic reaction with the non-graphitizable carbon. The molten-salt electrolyte contains a second onium cation in an amount of 1,000 ppm by mass or less. The second onium cation is represented by a general formula (1): R1R2R3R4N+ where R1 to R4 are each independently a hydrogen atom or a methyl group.
US09711823B2
An electrolyte includes an eutectic mixture composed of (a) a hetero cyclic compound having a predetermined chemistry figure, and (b) an ionizable lithium salt. An electrochemical device having the electrolyte. The eutectic mixture included in the electrolyte exhibits inherent characteristics of an eutectic mixture such as excellent thermal stability and excellent chemical stability, thereby improving the problems such as evaporation, ignition and side reaction of an electrolyte caused by the usage of existing organic solvents.
US09711821B2
The present invention provides a lithium secondary battery and the preparation thereof, more specifically a lithium secondary battery comprising an electrode assembly having a cathode, an anode, and a separator interposed between the cathode and the anode; and a non-aqueous electrolyte solution impregnated in the electrode assembly, wherein the separator further comprises a layer having a plurality of destroyed capsules dispersed therein, the layer being formed on at least one surface of the separator coming into contact with the cathode and the anode, and the destroyed capsules has a film formed from a binder polymer and inorganic particles dispersed therebetween. The lithium secondary battery of the present invention can be prepared without the separate introducing process of a non-aqueous electrolyte solution, and has a separator exhibiting improved mechanical property and safety.
US09711816B2
Described herein is a composition comprising: a polymer derived from (a) a fluorinated olefin monomer; (b) a highly fluorinated sulfur-containing monomer of the formula: CX1X2═CX3[(CX4X5)w—O—R1—SO2Y] where X1, X2, X3, X4, and X5 are independently selected from H, Cl, or F; w is 0 or 1; R1 is a non-fluorinated or fluorinated alkylene group; and Y is selected from F, Cl, Br, I, or OM, where M is a cation; and (c) a polyfunctional monomer comprising at least two functional groups, wherein the functional groups are selected from the group consisting of: (i) a fluorovinyl ether group, (ii) a fluoroallyl ether group, (iii) a fluorinated olefinic group, and (iv) combinations thereof; articles thereof; and a method of making such polymers.
US09711813B2
A scavenging process is performed on the anode side by opening an air supply valve to remove liquid droplets in a fuel gas flow field using the compressed air from an air compressor. During the scavenging process, when a start up signal from an ignition switch is received, the start up of a fuel cell is prohibited until the gas in the fuel gas flow field is replaced completely by air.
US09711804B2
This invention is directed to electrolysis-based devices and methods for recycling of electrolyte solutions. Specifically, the invention is related to regeneration of spent electrolyte solutions comprising metal ions such as electrolyte solutions used in metal/air batteries.
US09711802B2
Provided is a method for preparing an alloy catalyst for fuel cells having excellent catalytic activity and high durability. The method includes coating a platinum or platinum-transition metal catalyst supported on carbon with polydopamine as a capping agent. The method for preparing an alloy catalyst supported on carbon uses polydopamine as a capping agent for a platinum or platinum-transition metal catalyst supported on carbon, and thus provides a binary or ternary platinum alloy catalyst supported on carbon having a small particle size and high alloying degree despite the subsequent high-temperature heat treatment. In addition, polydopamine (PDA) is a highly adhesive material and allows thin and uniform coating, and thus inhibits particle size growth during heat treatment while allowing easy diffusion of a transition metal into the metal. As a result, it is possible to provide an alloy catalyst provided with a core-shell structure having a surface layer formed of platinum alone and showing a high alloying degree. Finally, it is possible to provide an alloy catalyst having excellent catalytic activity and durability. Further, since polydopamine (PDA) is capable of self-polymerization at room temperature, PDA coating is carried out without additional reagents or equipment. Thus, the method has high processability and cost-efficiency.
US09711799B1
The present disclosure relates to an improved electrodeposited copper foil having uniform thickness and methods for manufacturing the electrodeposited copper foil. The electrodeposited copper foil typically has one to four interfacial lines through the cross-sectional area of the foil and a weight deviation less than 2.0%. The disclosure also relates to a process for making the electrodeposited copper foil that includes the addition of one or more insulative masks to the surface of a dimensionally stable anode. The insulative mask is cut to correspond to areas of variation in electrodeposited copper foil, such that the mask causes interferences with the electrodeposition process to even out the variation.
US09711796B2
In an aspect, a binder composition for a secondary battery including a first fluoropolymer binder including a tetrafluoroethylene polymer binder, a second fluoropolymer binder including a vinylidene fluoride binder, and a non fluoropolymer binder is provided.
US09711792B2
Provided is a positive electrode active material for lithium ion secondary batteries, having a crystal structure containing a layered Li2MnO2 structure with a high theoretical electrical capacity as a basic skeleton, and having both a high theoretical electrical capacity and a high open-circuit voltage by increasing an open-circuit voltage to a value of more than 2 V by replacing a part of manganese ions with calcium ions by adding the calcium ions. That is, a positive electrode active material for secondary batteries mainly containing a compound represented by a chemical composition formula Li2−xMn1−yCayO2, and an electrode and a battery including the same are realized. In the formula, x satisfies 0
US09711774B2
The present application provides a lithium ion battery including a thermal sensitive layer comprising polymer particles. The thermal sensitive layer may be disposed between the electrodes and the separator. When the lithium ion battery is under thermal runaway condition and the internal temperature rises to a critical temperature, the polymer particles undergo a thermal transition process (melting) to form an insulating barrier on the electrodes, which blocks lithium ion transfer between the electrodes and shuts down the internal current of the battery.
US09711773B2
The present disclosure provides a separator and a lithium-ion secondary battery. The separator comprises: a microporous membrane having micropores; and a coating provided on a surface of the microporous membrane. The coating comprises polymer particles and binder particles. The polymer particle is a hollow shell structure which comprises a shell and a cavity positioned in the shell, an outer surface of the shell is distributed with nanopores which are communicated with the cavity, a particle diameter of the polymer particle is larger than a pore size of the micropore of the microporous membrane; a particle diameter of the binder particle is larger than the pore size of the micropore of the microporous membrane. The lithium-ion secondary battery comprises: a positive electrode plate; a negative electrode plate; the aforementioned separator interposed between the positive electrode plate and the negative electrode plate; and an electrolyte.
US09711770B2
A battery system comprises a plurality of substantially planar layers extending over transverse areas. The plurality of layers comprises at least one cathode layer, at least one anode layer, and at least one separator layer therebetween.
US09711758B2
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) light source includes, in order: (i) a biaxially oriented polyester film substrate including light-scattering particles (P1); (ii) optionally an organic planarising coating layer (OPC1); (iii) optionally a barrier layer (B1); (iv) an organic planarising coating layer (OPC2) including light-scattering particles (P2); (v) optionally a barrier layer (B2); and (vi) a multi-layer light-emitting assembly including a first electrode, a light-emitting organic layer and a second electrode; wherein the OLED light source includes at least one of barrier layers (B1) and (B2).
US09711757B2
An organic electroluminescent display device including a rear substrate, an organic electroluminescent portion disposed on a surface of the rear substrate, the organic electroluminescent portion including a first electrode, an organic layer, and a second electrode in sequence, a front substrate coupled to the rear substrate at an internal surface of the front substrate to seal an internal space in which the organic electroluminescent portion is accommodated, thereby isolating the organic electroluminescent portion from the outside, a transparent moisture-absorbing layer coated on the internal surface of the front substrate, and a sealant disposed between the rear substrate and the transparent moisture-absorbing layer to couple the front substrate and the rear substrate.
US09711755B2
A display panel is provided. The display panel includes a first substrate having a display area and a non-display area. A sealant is disposed on the first substrate and on the non-display area. A planarization layer is disposed on the first substrate. The planarization layer has a first trench formed therein on the non-display area. The first trench has a bottom and a side adjacent to the bottom. The bottom has a roughness that is greater than the roughness of the side.
US09711747B2
Disclosed is a white organic light emitting device for enhancing emission efficiency and a color viewing angle or a color reproduction rate. The white organic light emitting device includes a first emission part between a first electrode and a second electrode, the first emission part having a first emission layer, a second emission part on the first emission part, the second emission part having a second emission layer, and a third emission part on the second emission part, the third emission part having a third emission layer. At least two emission layers of the first to third emission layers emit lights having a same color to enhance emission efficiency and a color viewing angle, and the at least two emission layers are adjacent to each other.
US09711740B2
A novel organometallic complex which can emit phosphorescence is provided. A light-emitting element, a light-emitting device, an electronic device, or a lighting device with high emission efficiency is provided. The organometallic complex having an aryl triazine derivative as a ligand is represented by General Formula (G1) below as a representative of the organometallic complex of the present invention.
US09711736B2
A condensed cyclic compound is represented by Formula 1. The components of Formula 1 are described herein. An organic light-emitting device includes the condensed cyclic compound. The organic light-emitting device has improved driving voltage, improved luminance, improved efficiency, and improved half-lifetime, as compared to those of an organic light-emitting device that does not include the condensed cyclic compound.
US09711733B2
An organic thin film transistor containing a compound represented by one of the following formulae in a semiconductor active layer has a high carrier mobility and a small change in the threshold voltage after repeated driving. X represents S or O, and at least one of R1 to R6 represents -L-R wherein L represents alkylene, etc., and R represents alkyl, etc.
US09711727B2
A polymer having at least four different repeat units comprising: In this polymer R1, R2, R3 and R4 can be independently selected from the group consisting of alkyl group, alkoxy group, aryl groups and combinations thereof and where the combination of R1, R2, R3 and R4 are not all identical. Additionally, in this polymer, m, n, o and p can be greater than 1. x and y are different from each other and can be independently selected from the group consisting of: of alkyl group, alkoxy group, aryl groups, where y=1-3, where y=0-12, where R5 is selected from the group consisting of H, of alkyl group, alkoxy group, aryl groups, where R6 is selected from the group consisting of H, alkyl, substituted alkyls, aryls and substituted aryls, where R7 and R8 are independently selected from the group consisting of H, of alkyl group, alkoxy group, aryl groups, —NR9R10 where R9 and R10 are independently selected from the group consisting of H, of alkyl group, alkoxy group, aryl groups.
US09711724B2
A mask has both ends supported on a frame while tensile force is applied in a first direction. The mask includes: a mask main body having a band shape which is extended in the first direction; a plurality of active patterns spaced apart in the first direction from each other in the mask main body and having a first shape; a plurality of first ribs surrounding borders of the plurality of respective active patterns and defining a shape of the active pattern; and a plurality of first dummy patterns surrounding the plurality of first ribs, respectively, and having a second shape.
US09711721B2
According to one embodiment, a plurality of first wirings are disposed in a first direction and a second direction which intersect with each other, and extended in a third direction. A second wiring stack is configured to include second wirings and interlayer insulating films which are extended and alternately stacked in the second direction. A memory cell includes, in the first direction, a first variable resistive layer which is disposed on a side near the first wiring and a second variable resistive layer which is disposed on a side near the second wiring. The second variable resistive layer is disposed between the interlayer insulating films in the third direction, and made of a material which is obtained by oxidizing the second wiring.
US09711716B2
A magnetic memory device and a method for manufacturing the magnetic memory device are disclosed. The method includes forming a first interlayer insulating layer on a substrate, forming a first conductive pattern that penetrates the first interlayer insulating layer, forming a mold insulating layer that includes first and second mold insulating layers on the first interlayer insulating layer, forming a second conductive pattern that penetrates the first and second mold insulating layers and the first interlayer insulating layer, and forming a magnetic tunnel junction pattern on the second conductive pattern. The first mold insulating layer is in contact with the first conductive pattern, and the second mold insulating layer is disposed on the first mold insulating layer.
US09711711B2
A piezoelectric energy harvester device has a cantilevered structure with a rectangular proof mass portion defined by holes through a substrate along three sides of a proof mass portion and supported by a thinned hinge portion for free pivotal movement relative to an anchor portion. Elongated strips of piezoelectric energy harvesting units are formed in side-by-side spaced positions on the hinge portion and aligned parallel or perpendicular to a stress direction. Multiplexing electronics coupled to contact pads on the anchor portion selectively connects different strip combinations to power management circuitry, responsive to variations in vibration magnitude or modes.
US09711709B2
Transducer systems with reduced acoustic noise coupling are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a transducer system includes pressure balancing features to prevent a floating portion of the transducer system from contacting a fixed portion of the transducer system, or to reduce the degree to which the floating portion is urged into contact with the fixed portion by process pressure or atmospheric pressure. In some embodiments, a transducer system includes one or more acoustic dampening elements, interruption grooves, annular projections, or dampening washers to reduce acoustic noise coupling between various components of the transducer system or between the transducer system and a flowcell in which the transducer system is mounted.
US09711705B2
Systems methods and/or apparatus for the conversion of various types of energy into thermal energy that may be stored and/or then converted into electrical energy. The electrical energy may be available on demand and/or at a user's desired power requirements (e.g., power level and/or type). For example, the energy may be available at a particular voltage and either as direct current (DC) energy or alternating current (AC) energy. The electrical energy may be easily transported and therefore available at a user's desired location. For example, the systems, methods and/or devices may eliminate or reduce the need for electricity transmission, at least for certain applications. In exemplary embodiments, the system may include an organic phase change material for storing the thermal energy.
US09711700B2
A light emitting device includes a light emitting element and a package. The package includes a first lead frame, a second lead frame, and a resin. The first lead frame has a first surface on which the light emitting element is provided. The first lead frame has a first overlap portion. The second lead frame is spaced apart from the first lead frame and has a second overlap portion. The first overlap portion and the second overlap portion overlap at an overlap position so that the first lead frame extends from the overlap position toward a first direction and a second direction opposite to the first direction and so that the second lead frame extend from the overlap position toward a third direction and a fourth direction opposite to the third direction as viewed along a line substantially perpendicular to the first surface.
US09711697B2
According to one aspect, the present invention concerns a terahertz modulator (1) intended to be used in a given frequency band of use. The modulator comprises a semi-conductor polar crystal (330) presenting a Reststrahlen band overlapping said frequency band of use and presenting at least one interface with a dielectric medium, coupling means (330) allowing the resanant coupling of an interface phonon polariton (IPhP) supported by said interface and of an incident radiation (2) of pre-determined frequency lying in said frequency band of use and means of control (22) apt to modify the intensity of the coupling between said interface phonon polariton and said incident radiation (2) by modification of the dielectric function of the polar crystal in the Reststrahlen band of the polar crystal (10).
US09711688B2
A light emission device comprising a light emitting element, a wavelength conversion (e.g. phosphor) element, and a filter that reduces Color over Angle (CoA) effects by at least partially reflecting light from the light emitting element that strike the filter at near-normal angles of incidence. In some embodiments, a combined phosphor and filter layer is formed over the LED die. The filter may comprise a dispersion of self-aligning moieties, such as dielectric platelets in a film that is vacuum laminated to the LED structure. Xirallic® Galaxy Blue pigment, comprising an aluminum oxide core coated on both sides with thin films of SnO2, and TiO2, and Ronastar® Blue, comprising Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate and TiO2 may provide the dielectric platelets.
US09711687B2
In embodiments of the invention, a semiconductor structure comprising a III-nitride light emitting layer disposed between an n-type region and a p-type region is grown on a substrate. The substrate is a non-III-nitride material. The substrate has an in-plane lattice constant asubstrate. At least one III-nitride layer in the semiconductor structure has a bulk lattice constant alayer and [(|asubstrate−alayer|)/asubstrate]*100% is no more than 1%. A surface of the substrate opposite the surface on which the semiconductor structure is grown is textured.
US09711684B2
There is provided a Group III nitride semiconductor light-emitting device in which electrons and holes are suppressed to be captured by threading dislocation, and a production method therefor. The light-emitting device comprises an n-type semiconductor layer, a light-emitting layer on the n-type semiconductor layer, a p-type semiconductor layer on the light-emitting layer. The light-emitting device has a plurality of pits extending from the n-type semiconductor layer to the p-type semiconductor layer. The n-type semiconductor layer includes an n-side electrostatic breakdown preventing layer. The n-side electrostatic breakdown preventing layer comprises an n-type GaN layer containing starting point of the pits, and an ud-GaN layer disposed adjacent to the n-type GaN layer and containing a part of the pits. At least one of the n-type GaN layer and the ud-GaN layer has an In-doped layer. The In composition ratio of the In-doped layer is more than 0 and not more than 0.0035.
US09711674B2
The present invention concerns methods for producing photovoltaic material and a device able to exploit high energy photons. The photovoltaic material is obtained from a conventional photovoltaic material having a top surface intended to be exposed to photonic radiation, having a built-in P-N junction delimiting an emitter part and a base part and comprising at least one area or region specifically designed, treated or adapted to absorb high energy or energetic photons, located adjacent or near at least one hetero-interface. According to the invention, this material is subjected to treatments resulting in the formation of at least one semiconductor based metamaterial field or region being created, as a transitional region of the or a hetero-interface, in an area located continuous or proximate to the or an absorption area or region for the energetic photons of the photonic radiation impacting said photovoltaic material.
US09711671B2
System and method of providing a photovoltaic (PV) cell with a complex via structure in the substrate that has a primary via for containing a conductive material and an overflow capture region for capturing an overflow of the conductive material from the primary via. The conductive filling in the primary via may serve as an electrical contact between the PV cell and another PV cell. The overflow capture region includes one or more recesses formed on the substrate back surface. When the conductive material overflows from the primary via, the one or more recesses can capture and confine the overflow within the boundary of the complex via structure. A recess may be a rectangular or circular trench proximate to or overlaying the primary via. The recesses may also be depressions formed by roughening the substrate back surface.
US09711665B2
A color converter comprising at least one layer comprising at least one organic fluorescent colorant and at least one barrier layer having a low permeability to oxygen.
US09711656B2
To provide a semiconductor device having a structure capable of suppressing deterioration of its electrical characteristics which becomes apparent with miniaturization. The semiconductor device includes a first oxide semiconductor film over an insulating surface; a second oxide semiconductor film over the first oxide semiconductor film; a source electrode and a drain electrode in contact with the second oxide semiconductor film; a third oxide semiconductor film over the second oxide semiconductor film, the source electrode, and the drain electrode; a gate insulating film over the third oxide semiconductor film; and a gate electrode over the gate insulating film. A first interface between the gate electrode and the gate insulating film has a region closer to the insulating surface than a second interface between the first oxide semiconductor film and the second oxide semiconductor film.
US09711648B1
A semiconductor structure is provided that includes a channel material portion composed of a III-V compound semiconductor located on a mesa portion of a substrate. A dielectric spacer structure is located on each sidewall surface of the channel material portion and each sidewall surface of the mesa portion of the substrate. The dielectric spacer structure has a height that is greater than a height of the channel material portion. An isolation structure is located on each dielectric spacer structure, wherein a sidewall edge of the isolation structure is located between an innermost sidewall surface and an outermost sidewall surface of the dielectric spacer structure.
US09711646B2
A semiconductor structure and a manufacturing method for the same are disclosed. The semiconductor structure includes a first gate structure, a second gate structure and a second dielectric spacer. Each of the first gate structure and the second gate structure adjacent to each other includes a first dielectric spacer. The second dielectric spacer is on one of opposing sidewalls of the first gate structure and without being disposed on the dielectric spacer of the second gate structure.
US09711644B2
One illustrative method disclosed herein includes, among other things, forming a liner semiconductor material within a trench, the liner material defining a transistor cavity, and forming spaced-apart source/drain placeholder structures that are at least partially positioned within the transistor cavity, the spaced-apart source/drain placeholder structures defining a gate cavity therebetween where a portion of the liner semiconductor material is exposed within the gate cavity. The method further includes forming a gate structure within the gate cavity and, after forming the gate structure, removing at least a portion of the source/drain placeholder structures to define a plurality of source/drain cavities within the transistor cavity on opposite sides of the gate structure, and forming a source/drain structure in each of the source drain cavities.
US09711639B2
A semiconductor device contains a vertical MOS transistor having a trench gate in trenches extending through a vertical drift region to a drain region. The trenches have field plates under the gate; the field plates are adjacent to the drift region and have a plurality of segments. A dielectric liner in the trenches separating the field plates from the drift region has a thickness great than a gate dielectric layer between the gate and the body. The dielectric liner is thicker on a lower segment of the field plate, at a bottom of the trenches, than an upper segment, immediately under the gate. The trench gate may be electrically isolated from the field plates, or may be connected to the upper segment. The segments of the field plates may be electrically isolated from each other or may be connected to each other in the trenches.
US09711636B2
A super-junction semiconductor device is provided. The super-junction semiconductor device includes a substrate, a drift layer, a field insulator, a floating electrode layer, an isolation layer, and at least one transistor structure. The drift layer includes a plurality of n-type and p-type pillars alternately arranged in parallel to form a super-junction structure. An active region, a termination region and a transition region located therebetween are defined in the drift layer. The field insulator disposed on a surface of the drift layer covers the termination region and a portion of the transition region. The floating electrode layer disposed on the field insulator partially overlaps with the termination region. The transistor structure includes a source conductive layer extending from the active region to the transition region and superimposed on a portion of the floating electrode layer. The source conductive layer is isolated from the floating electrode layer by the isolation layer.
US09711635B1
A semiconductor device includes: a first semiconductor layer formed at a surface of a semiconductor substrate; an insulating layer formed on the surface of the semiconductor substrate; a first electrode that is electrically connected to the first semiconductor layer; a second semiconductor layer formed to a surface of a region, which is adjacent to the first semiconductor layer; a second electrode formed above a part of the second semiconductor layer; a third semiconductor layer adjacent to the second semiconductor layer in the one direction; a fourth semiconductor layer formed to a surface of a region, which is adjacent to the third semiconductor layer in the one direction; a third electrode that is electrically connected to the fourth semiconductor layer; and a conductor that is separated from the second electrode in the one direction and is kept at the same potential as the first electrode.
US09711633B2
Methods of forming a semiconductor device include forming a dielectric layer on a Group III-nitride semiconductor layer, selectively removing portions of the dielectric layer over spaced apart source and drain regions of the semiconductor layer, implanting ions having a first conductivity type directly into the source and drain regions of the semiconductor layer, annealing the semiconductor layer and the dielectric layer to activate the implanted ions, and forming metal contacts on the source and drain regions of the semiconductor layer.
US09711632B2
The present disclosure relates to an intra-band tunnel FET, which has a symmetric FET that is able to provide for a high drive current. In some embodiments, the disclosed intra-band tunnel FET has a source region having a first doping type and a drain region having the first doping type. The source region and the drain region are separated by a channel region. A gate region may generate an electric field that varies the position of a valence band and/or a conduction band in the channel region. By controlling the position of the valence band and/or the conduction band of the channel region, quantum mechanical tunneling of charge carries between the conduction band in the source region and in the drain region or between the valence band in the source region and in the drain region can be controlled.
US09711628B2
A semiconductor device has a reduced an on-voltage and uses a gate resistance to improve the trade-off relationship between turn-on loss Eon and dV/dt, and turn-on dV/dt controllability. A floating p+-type region is provided in an n−-type drift layer so as to be spaced from a p-type base region configuring a MOS gate structure. An emitter electrode and the floating p+-type region are electrically connected by an n+-type region provided in the surface layer of a substrate front surface. The n+-type region is covered with a second insulating film which film is covered with an emitter electrode. By an electric field being generated in the n+-type region by the emitter electrode provided on the top of the n+-type region via the second interlayer insulating film, the n+-type region forms a current path which causes holes accumulated in the floating p+-type region to flow to the emitter electrode when turning on.
US09711625B2
A method for manufacturing a thin-film transistor includes: forming a first metal layer of a pattern including a gate on a substrate through pattern formation operations; forming a gate insulation layer on the substrate and the first metal layer and forming an oxide semiconductor layer, of which an orthogonal projection is cast on the gate, on the gate insulation layer within a thin-film transistor area and an etch stop layer on the oxide semiconductor layer, in which two etching operations are applied to the patternized oxide semiconductor layer and etch stop layer; forming a patternized second metal layer on the thin-film transistor area and an exposed portion of the gate insulation layer, forming a patternized insulation protection layer on the substrate and the patternized second metal layer, and forming a patternized pixel electrode on the insulation protection layer.
US09711621B2
A trench transistor having a semiconductor body includes a source region, a body region, a drain region electrically connected to a drain contact, and a gate trench including a gate electrode which is isolated from the semiconductor body. The gate electrode is configured to control current flow between the source region and the drain region along at least a first side wall of the gate trench. The trench transistor further includes a doped semiconductor region having dopants introduced into the semiconductor body through an unmasked part of the walls of a trench.
US09711620B2
A fin field effect transistor (FinFET) comprises a substrate; a fin over the substrate, the fin having a channel region; a gate structure engaging the fin adjacent to the channel region; and a spacer on sidewalls of the gate structure. The FinFET further includes first and second heavily doped source/drain (HDD) features at least partially in the fin, on opposing sides of the gate structure, and adjacent to the spacer. The FinFET further includes first and second lightly doped source/drain (LDD) regions in the fin between the first and second HDD features, respectively, and the channel region. A sidewall of the first HDD feature and a sidewall of the first LDD region have substantially a same shape.
US09711612B2
A semiconductor device structure and a method for fabricating the same. A method for fabricating semiconductor device structure includes forming gate lines on a semiconductor substrate; forming gate sidewall spacers surrounding the gate lines; forming respective source/drain regions in the semiconductor substrate and on either side of the respective gate lines; forming conductive sidewall spacers surrounding the gate sidewall spacers; and cutting off the gate lines, the gate sidewall spacers and the conductive sidewall spacers at predetermined positions, in which the cut gate lines are electrically isolated gates, and the cut conductive sidewall spacers are electrically isolated lower contacts. The method is applicable to the manufacture of contacts in integrated circuits.
US09711607B1
A method and structure for providing a GAA device. In some embodiments, a substrate including an insulating layer disposed thereon is provided. By way of example, a first metal portion is formed within the insulating layer. In various embodiments, a first lateral surface of the first metal portion is exposed. After exposure of the first lateral surface of the first metal portion, a first graphene layer is formed on the exposed first lateral surface. In some embodiments, the first graphene layer defines a first vertical plane parallel to the exposed first lateral surface. Thereafter, in some embodiments, a first nanobar is formed on the first graphene layer, where the first nanobar extends in a first direction normal to the first vertical plane defined by the first graphene layer.
US09711604B1
First, second, and third trenches are formed in a layer over a substrate. The third trench is substantially wider than the first and second trenches. The first, second, and third trenches are partially filled with a first conductive material. A first anti-reflective material is coated over the first, second, and third trenches. The first anti-reflective material has a first surface topography variation. A first etch-back process is performed to partially remove the first anti-reflective material. Thereafter, a second anti-reflective material is coated over the first anti-reflective material. The second anti-reflective material has a second surface topography variation that is smaller than the first surface topography variation. A second etch-back process is performed to at least partially remove the second anti-reflective material in the first and second trenches. Thereafter, the first conductive material is partially removed in the first and second trenches.
US09711600B2
In a semiconductor device having a silicon carbide device, a technique capable of suppressing variation in a breakdown voltage and achieving reduction in an area of a termination structure is provided. In order to solve the above-described problem, in the present invention, in a semiconductor device having a silicon carbide device, a p-type first region and a p-type second region provided to be closer to an outer peripheral side than the first region are provided in a junction termination portion, a first concentration gradient is provided in the first region, and a second concentration gradient larger than the first concentration gradient is provided in the second region.
US09711599B2
A switching device, such as a barrier junction Schottky diode, has a body of silicon carbide of a first conductivity type housing switching regions of a second conductivity type. The switching regions extend from a top surface of the body and delimit body surface portions between them. A contact metal layer having homogeneous chemical-physical characteristics extends on and in direct contact with the top surface of the body and forms Schottky contact metal portions with the surface portions of the body and ohmic contact metal portions with the switching regions. The contact metal layer is formed by depositing a nickel or cobalt layer on the body and carrying out a thermal treatment so that the metal reacts with the semiconductor material of the body and forms a silicide.
US09711596B2
A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a first source/drain (S/D) region, a second S/D region, and a semiconductor sheet. The first S/D region is disposed on the substrate. The second S/D region is disposed above the first S/D region. The semiconductor sheet interconnects the first and second S/D regions and includes a plurality of turns. A method for fabricating the semiconductor device is also disclosed.
US09711590B2
There is provided a semiconductor device including corundum crystal films of good quality. There is provided a semiconductor device including a base substrate, a semiconductor layer, and an insulating film each having a corundum crystal structure. Materials having a corundum crystal structure include many types of oxide films capable of functioning as an insulating film. Since all the base substrate, the semiconductor layer, and the insulating film have a corundum crystal structure, it is possible to achieve a semiconductor layer and an insulating film of good quality on the base substrate.
US09711588B2
Disclosed is an organic light emitting display device that may include first and second pads on a pad area of a substrate, wherein the first pad includes a first bonding region and a first link region, and the second pad includes a second bonding region, a contact region, and a second link region. A first bonding electrode in the first bonding region is electrically connected to one or more signal lines in the active area of the device through contact holes in the first bonding region. A second bonding electrode is electrically connected to one or more signal lines of the device through contact holes in the contact region. The contact region is closer to the active area than the first bonding region.
US09711586B2
An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes a substrate, thin film transistors (TFTs), and organic light-emitting diode elements (OLEDs). First wirings have a first width and a first height and second wirings have a second width and a second height, in which the first wirings and the second wirings are formed in at least a portion of areas between the OLEDs. Third wirings connect the first wirings and the second wirings and have a third width smaller than the first width of the first wirings and the second width of the second wirings or have a third height smaller than the first height of the first wirings and the second height of the second wirings. An insulating layer covers at least a portion of the first and second wiring portions and exposes at least a portion of the third wirings.
US09711585B2
An organic light emitting diode display according to an example embodiment of the present invention includes: a substrate; a scan line and a data line that are insulated from one another and crossing each other on the substrate; a first transistor on the substrate and connected to the scan line and the data line; a second transistor connected to the first transistor; a first electrode connected to the second transistor and having a cutout; an organic emission layer on the first electrode; and a second electrode on the organic emission layer, wherein the cutout is at a position corresponding to the data line.
US09711565B2
Memory cells are disclosed. Magnetic regions within the memory cells include an alternating structure of magnetic sub-regions and coupler sub-regions. The coupler material of the coupler sub-regions antiferromagnetically couples neighboring magnetic sub-regions and effects or encourages a vertical magnetic orientation exhibited by the neighboring magnetic sub-regions. Neighboring magnetic sub-regions, spaced from one another by a coupler sub-region, exhibit oppositely directed magnetic orientations. The magnetic and coupler sub-regions may each be of a thickness tailored to form the magnetic region in a compact structure. Interference between magnetic dipole fields emitted from the magnetic region on switching of a free region in the memory cell may be reduced or eliminated. Also disclosed are semiconductor device structures, spin torque transfer magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) systems, and methods of fabrication.
US09711558B2
An imaging device including a unit pixel cell comprising: a semiconductor substrate including a first conductivity type region of a first conductivity type, a first and second impurity regions of a second conductivity type provided in the first conductivity type region; a photoelectric converter located above the semiconductor substrate; and a first transistor including a gate electrode and at least a part of the second impurity region as a source or a drain. The first impurity region is at least partially located in a surface of the semiconductor substrate and electrically connected to the photoelectric converter. The second impurity region is electrically connected to the photoelectric converter via the first impurity region and has an impurity concentration lower than that of the first impurity region. The second impurity region at least partially overlaps the gate electrode in a plan view.
US09711556B2
An image sensor structure includes a region of semiconductor material having a first major surface and a second major surface. A pixel structure is within the region of semiconductor material and includes a plurality of doped regions and a plurality of conductive structures. A metal-filled trench structure extends from the first major surface to the second major surface. A first contact structure is electrically connected to a first surface of the conductive trench structure, and a second contact structure electrically connected to a second surface of the conductive trench structure. In one embodiment, the second major surface is configured to receive incident light.
US09711552B2
Optoelectronic modules include a silicon substrate in which or on which there is an optoelectronic device. An optics assembly is disposed over the optoelectronic device, and a spacer separates the silicon substrate from the optics assembly. Methods of fabricating such modules also are described.
US09711548B2
Methods of forming semiconductor devices are disclosed. In some embodiments, a first trench and a second trench are formed in a substrate, and dopants of a first conductivity type are implanted along sidewalls and a bottom of the first trench and the second trench. The first and second trenches are filled with an insulating material, and a gate dielectric and a gate electrode over the substrate, the gate dielectric and the gate electrode extending over the first trench and the second trench. Source/drain regions are formed in the substrate on opposing sides of the gate dielectric and the gate electrode.
US09711537B2
A display device with low manufacturing cost, a display device with low power consumption, a display device capable of being formed over a large substrate, a display device with a high aperture ratio of a pixel, and a display device with high reliability are provided. The display device includes a transistor electrically connected to a light-transmitting pixel electrode and a capacitor. The transistor includes a gate electrode, a gate insulating film, and a first multilayer film including an oxide semiconductor layer. The capacitor includes the pixel electrode and a second multilayer film overlapping with the pixel electrode, positioned at a predetermined distance from the pixel electrode, and having the same layer structure as the first multilayer film. A channel formation region of the transistor is at least one layer, which is not in contact with the gate insulating film, of the first multilayer film.
US09711533B2
A semiconductor device includes a first FinFET device and a second FinFET device. The first FinFET device includes a first gate, a first source, and a first drain. The first FinFET device has a first source/drain proximity. The second FinFET device includes a second gate, a second source, and a second drain. The second FinFET device has a second source/drain proximity that is smaller than the first source/drain proximity. In some embodiments, \the first FinFET device is an Input/Output (I/O) device, and the second FinFET device is a non-I/O device such as a core device. In some embodiments, the greater source/drain proximity of the first FinFET device is due to an extra spacer of the first FinFET device that does not exist for the second FinFET device.
US09711526B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a substrate, a stacked body, and a columnar part. The stacked body is provided on the substrate. The stacked body includes a plurality of first insulating films and a plurality of electrode films alternately stacked one layer by one layer. The columnar part includes a semiconductor pillar provided in the stacked body and extending in a stacking direction of the stacked body, and a memory film provided between the semiconductor pillar and the stacked body. The electrode films include a first portion provided on a side part of the columnar part, a second part contacting the first portion and provided further outside the columnar part, and a first conductive layer covering an upper surface and a lower surface of the first portion.
US09711506B2
A method of fabricating a semiconductor device includes preparing a substrate including a first region and a second region, sequentially forming a first semiconductor layer and a second semiconductor layer on the first and second regions, patterning the first and second semiconductor layers to form a lower semiconductor pattern and an upper semiconductor pattern on each of the first and second regions, selectively removing the lower semiconductor pattern on the second region to form a gap region, and forming gate electrodes at the first and second regions, respectively.
US09711500B1
A package may include a plurality of stacked semiconductor devices (chips) is disclosed. Each chip may include through vias (through silicon vias—TSV) that can provide an electrical connection between chips and between chips and external connections, such as solder connections or solder balls. Electro static discharge (ESD) protection circuitry may be placed on a bottom chip in the stack even when through vias connect circuitry on a top chip in the stack exclusive of the bottom chip. In this way, ESD protection circuitry may be placed in close proximity to the ESD event occurring at an external connection. In particular, every chip in the stack of semiconductor chips may have circuitry electrically connected to the external connection and by placing ESD protection circuitry on the bottom chip closest to the electrical connection, instead of on all chips ESD protection may be more area efficient. Furthermore, by only placing ESD protection circuitry on a bottom chip in a stack of semiconductor chips, ESD protection circuitry may not be included on other chips, so that total area may be reduced and more chips may be produced on a single silicon wafer.
US09711499B2
A semiconductor device includes first and second semiconductor regions, and a third semiconductor region between the first and second semiconductor regions, wherein the dopant concentration of the third semiconductor region is greater than the dopant concentration of the second semiconductor region. The semiconductor device further includes a fourth semiconductor region selectively provided on an upper surface of the second semiconductor region, wherein a portion of the second semiconductor region is interposed between the third semiconductor region and the fourth semiconductor region, an insulating layer disposed on the second semiconductor region and the fourth semiconductor region and having an opening that exposes a portion of a top surface of the fourth semiconductor region, wherein the ratio of an area of opening to an area of the top surface is from 10% to 90%, and a wiring layer on the insulating layer and connected to the fourth semiconductor region via the opening.
US09711497B2
A semiconductor unit includes: a transistor configured to provide electrical conduction between a first terminal and a second terminal, based on a trigger signal; and a trigger device formed in a transistor region where the transistor is formed, and configured to generate the trigger signal, based on a voltage applied to the first terminal.
US09711494B2
Methods of fabricating multi-die assemblies including a base semiconductor die bearing a peripherally encapsulated stack of semiconductor dice of lesser lateral dimensions, the dice vertically connected by conductive elements between the dice, resulting assemblies, and semiconductor devices comprising such assemblies.
US09711488B2
The invention provides a semiconductor package assembly. The semiconductor package assembly includes a semiconductor die. A first molding compound covers a back surface of the semiconductor die. A redistribution layer (RDL) structure is disposed on a front surface of the semiconductor die. The semiconductor die is coupled to the RDL structure. A second molding compound is disposed on the front surface of the semiconductor die and embedded in the RDL structure. A passive device is disposed on the second molding compound and coupled to the semiconductor die.
US09711486B2
A stacked semiconductor device includes: a plurality of stacked integrated-circuit chips that are to be mounted onto a substrate and including at least one power-supply target chip; a decoupling through-electrode transmission line including a decoupling power-supply-side through-electrode wiring line coupled to a power-supply terminal of the at least one power-supply target chip and a decoupling ground-side through-electrode wiring line coupled to a ground terminal of the at least one power-supply target chip; a resistor and a capacitor provided one of the a plurality of integrated-circuit chips that is located at a termination of the decoupling through-electrode transmission line, the resistor having an impedance substantially equal to a characteristic impedance of the decoupling through-electrode transmission line, wherein the resistor and the capacitor are coupled in series.
US09711483B2
A bonding apparatus bonds a plurality of device chips on a plurality of electrode pads that are provided to a surface of a substrate. The bonding apparatus includes a stage, a head unit, a head lifting mechanism, a head vibrator, a heater, and a bonding region observation component. The substrate is placed and supported on the stage. The head unit holds the device chips. The head lifting mechanism raises and lowers the head unit in an up and down direction relative to the stage. The head vibrator vibrate the head unit in the up and down direction. The heater heats a bonding paste that bonds the device chips and the electrode pads. The bonding region observation component observes a region that includes at least a peripheral part of the electrode pads.
US09711467B2
In accordance with an embodiment, a semiconductor component, includes a common mode filter monolithically integrated with a protection device. The common mode filter includes a plurality of coils and the protection device has a terminal coupled to a first coil and another terminal coupled to a second coil.
US09711465B2
An integrated fan-out package having a top-side redistribution wiring structure, a back-side redistribution wiring layer, a ground plane provided in the back-side redistribution wiring layer, and a molding compound layer having a thickness and provided between the back-side redistribution wiring layer and the top-side redistribution wiring structure is disclosed. The package has an RF IC die embedded within the molding compound layer and one or more integrated patch antenna structure provided in the top-side redistribution wiring structure. The one or more integrated patch antenna structure is coupled to the RF IC die and an antenna cavity is provided within the molding compound layer under each of the one or more integrated patch antenna.
US09711464B2
A structure and a method. The structure includes a semiconductor substrate; a stack of wiring levels from a first wiring level to a last wiring level, the first wiring level closest to the semiconductor substrate and the last wiring level furthest from the semiconductor substrate, the stack of wiring levels including an intermediate wiring level between the first wiring level and the last wiring level; active devices contained in the semiconductor substrate and the first wiring level, each wiring level of the stack of wiring levels comprising a dielectric layer containing electrically conductive wire; a trench extending from the intermediate wiring level, through the first wiring level into the semiconductor substrate; and a chemical agent filling the trench, portions of at least one wiring level of the stack of wiring levels not chemically inert to the chemical agent or a reaction product of the chemical agent.
US09711460B2
A semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor chip including an electronic part; and a package sealing the semiconductor chip, wherein the package includes a transparent section which is opaque to visible light and transparent to near-infrared light or near-ultraviolet light, and the transparent section is disposed in such a way that the electronic part is observed from outside under the near-infrared light or the near-ultraviolet light.
US09711459B2
The present disclosure relates to a multi-layer substrate structure with an embedded die to miniaturize designs and improve performance. The multi-layer substrate structure includes a core layer having a cavity and a die mounted within the cavity. The die has a die body, a die conductive element on a top surface of the die body, and a dielectric layer over the die conductive element. The multi-layer substrate structure also includes a substrate conductive element formed over a portion of a top surface of the core layer and extending over at least a portion of the die conductive element. Overlapping portions of the die conductive element and the substrate conductive element are separated by the dielectric layer and form an electronic component.
US09711457B2
Semiconductor devices and methods of manufacturing semiconductor devices. One example of a method of fabricating a semiconductor device comprises forming a conductive feature extending through a semiconductor substrate such that the conductive feature has a first end and a second end opposite the first end, and wherein the second end projects outwardly from a surface of the substrate. The method can further include forming a dielectric layer over the surface of the substrate and the second end of the conductive feature such that the dielectric layer has an original thickness. The method can also include removing a portion of the dielectric layer to an intermediate depth less than the original thickness such that at least a portion of the second end of the conductive feature is exposed.
US09711456B2
A semiconductor device includes a metal-containing structure such as a copper-containing wire or plug and a composite capping layer formed over the metal-containing structure. The composite capping layer includes a manganese-containing layer disposed over the metal-containing structure, a silicon-containing low-k dielectric layer disposed over the manganese-containing layer, and an intermediate layer between the manganese-containing layer and the silicon-containing low-k dielectric layer. The intermediate layer is the reaction product of the manganese-containing layer and the silicon-containing low-k dielectric layer.
US09711451B2
Characteristics of a semiconductor device are improved. A semiconductor device includes a coil CL1 and a wiring M2 formed on an interlayer insulator IL2, a wiring M3 formed on an interlayer insulator IL3, and a coil CL2 and a wiring M4 formed on the interlayer insulator IL4. Moreover, a distance DM4 between the coil CL2 and the wiring M4 is longer than a distance DM3 between the coil CL2 and the wiring M3 (DM4>DM3). Furthermore, the distance DM3 between the coil CL2 and the wiring M3 is set to be longer than a sum of a film thickness of the interlayer insulator IL3 and a film thickness of the interlayer insulator IL4, which are positioned between the coil CL1 and the coil CL2. In this manner, it is possible to improve an insulation withstand voltage between the coil CL2 and the wiring M4 or the like, where a high voltage difference tend to occur. Moreover, a transformer formation region 1A and a seal ring formation region 1C surrounding a peripheral circuit formation region 1B are formed so as to improve the moisture resistance.
US09711450B1
Interconnect structures are provided that include an intermetallic compound as either a cap or liner material. The intermetallic compound is a thermal reaction product of a metal or metal alloy of an interconnect metallic region with a metal of either a metal cap or a metal layer. In some embodiments, the metal cap may include a metal nitride and thus a nitride-containing intermetallic compound can be formed. The formation of the intermetallic compound can improve the electromigration resistance of the interconnect structures and widen the process window for fabricating interconnect structures.
US09711448B2
A finger metal oxide metal capacitor including an outer conducting structure and an inner conducting structure. The outer conducting structure is defined in a plurality of metal layers and a plurality of via layers of an integrated circuit and includes first and second side portions. An inner conducting structure is defined in the plurality of metal layers and the plurality of via layers of the integrated circuit. Each of the outer conducting structure and the inner conducting structure includes respective finger sections extending in the plurality of metal layers. Oxide is arranged between the outer conducting structure and the inner conducting structure.
US09711447B1
Methods of lithographic patterning and structures formed by lithographic patterning. A hardmask layer is formed on a dielectric layer, a feature is formed on the hardmask layer, and a mandrel is formed that extends in a first direction across the first feature. The mandrel and the hardmask layer beneath the mandrel are removed to pattern the hardmask layer with the feature masking a section of the hardmask layer. After the hardmask layer is patterned, the dielectric layer is etched to form a first trench and a second trench that are separated by a section of the dielectric layer masked by the section of the hardmask layer. The first trench and the second trench are filled with a conductor layer to respectively form a first wire and a second wire that is separated from the first wire by the section of the dielectric layer.
US09711443B2
Incorporating at least one magnetic alignment structure on a microelectronic device and incorporating at least one alignment coil within a microelectronic substrate, wherein the alignment coil may be powered to form a magnetic field to attract the magnetic alignment structure, thereby aligning the microelectronic device to the microelectronic substrate. After alignment, the microelectronic device may be electrically attached to the substrate. Embodiments may include additionally incorporating an alignment detection coil within the microelectronic substrate, wherein the alignment detection coil may be powered to form a magnetic field to detect variations in the magnetic field generated by the alignment coil in order verify the alignment of the microelectronic device to the microelectronic substrate.
US09711440B2
A wiring board includes a core substrate including an insulating layer and a conductor layer formed on the insulating layer, and a build-up layer laminated on the substrate and including an inter-layer insulating layer and a conductor layer laminated on the inter-layer. The substrate has opening penetrating through the insulating layer such that surface of the conductor layer in the substrate is forming bottom of the opening, the substrate has a via conductor formed in the opening and including plating filling the opening, the conductor layer in the substrate includes a metal foil, the conductor layer in the build-up layer includes a metal foil, and the metal foil in the substrate has surface in contact with the surface of the insulating layer such that the surface of the metal foil in the substrate has surface roughness smaller than surface roughness of surface of the metal foil in the build-up layer.
US09711439B2
A printed wiring board includes an insulating layer including insulating material, and a conductor layer formed on a surface of the insulating layer and including conductor pads and conductor patterns such that the conductor pads are positioned to connect one or more electronic components and that the conductor patterns are formed between the conductor pads. The conductor patterns are formed such that each conductor pattern has a pattern width of 3 μm or less and that the conductor patterns have a pattern interval of 3 μm or less between adjacent conductor patterns, and the insulating layer has recess portions formed on the surface between the conductor patterns at least along the conductor patterns such that the recess portions have a depth in a range of 0.1 μm to 2.0 μm relative to a contact interface at which the conductor patterns and the insulating layer are in contact with each other.
US09711437B2
According to an exemplary implementation, a semiconductor package includes a multi-phase power inverter having power switches and situated on a leadframe of the semiconductor package. The semiconductor package further includes a temperature sensor situated on the leadframe, where the temperature sensor is configured to generate a sensed temperature of the power switches. The semiconductor package also includes a driver circuit configured to drive the power switches of the multi-phase power inverter responsive to the sensed temperature. The temperature sensor can be on a common IC with the driver circuit. Furthermore, the semiconductor package can include an over-temperature protection circuit configured to provide over-temperature protection to the multi-phase power inverter using the sensed temperature.
US09711427B2
A package includes a die, which includes a semiconductor substrate, a plurality of through-vias penetrating through the semiconductor substrate, a seal ring overlapping and connected to the plurality of through-vias, and a plurality of electrical connectors underlying the semiconductor substrate and connected to the seal ring. An interposer is underlying and bonded to the die. The interposer includes a substrate, and a plurality of metal lines over the substrate. The plurality of metal lines is electrically coupled to the plurality of electrical connectors. Each of the plurality metal lines has a first portion overlapped by the first die, and a second portion misaligned with the die. A thermal conductive block encircles the die, and is mounted on the plurality of metal lines of the interposer.
US09711425B2
A sensing module is provided. The sensing module includes a sensing device. The sensing device includes a first substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite thereto. The sensing device also includes a sensing region adjacent to the first surface and a conducting pad on the first surface. The sensing device further includes a redistribution layer on the second surface and electrically connected to the conducting pad. The sensing module also includes a second substrate and a cover plate bonded to the sensing device so that the sensing device is between the second substrate and the cover plate. The conducting pad is electrically connected to the second substrate through the redistribution layer. The sensing module further includes an encapsulating layer filled between the second substrate and the cover plate to surround the sensing device.
US09711423B2
A via hole is accurately formed in an interlayer insulating film over a metal wiring. Of emission spectra of plasma to be used for dry etching of the interlayer insulating film, the emission intensities of at least CO, CN, and AlF are monitored such that an end point of the dry etching of the interlayer insulating film is detected based on the emission intensities thereof.
US09711422B2
Methods and structures provide an electrostatic discharge (ESD) indicator including an electric field sensitive material configured to undergo a specific color change in response to an electric field. An exposure of the structure to an ESD can be visually determined via the specific color change of the ESD indicator.
US09711418B2
Composite substrate with a high-performance semiconductor layer and method of manufacturing the same
Provided is a composite substrate which has a high-performance semiconductor layer. A composite substrate of the present invention comprises: a supporting substrate which is formed of an insulating material; a semiconductor layer which is formed of a single crystal semiconductor that is superposed on and joined to the supporting substrate; and interfacial inclusions which are present in the interface between the supporting substrate and the semiconductor layer at a density of 1012 atoms/cm2 or less, and which are formed of a metal element that is different from the constituent elements of the supporting substrate and the semiconductor layer.
US09711405B2
A substrate dividing method which can thin and divide a substrate while preventing chipping and cracking from occurring. This substrate dividing method comprises the steps of irradiating a semiconductor substrate 1 having a front face 3 formed with functional devices 19 with laser light while positioning a light-converging point within the substrate, so as to form a modified region including a molten processed region due to multiphoton absorption within the semiconductor substrate 1, and causing the modified region including the molten processed region to form a starting point region for cutting; and grinding a rear face 21 of the semiconductor substrate 1 after the step of forming the starting point region for cutting such that the semiconductor substrate 1 attains a predetermined thickness.
