US08055234B2

Circuits and methods are disclosed for compensating for received signal distortion caused by non-linearities in the receiver circuitry. An exemplary receiver circuit includes a distortion waveform generator configured to approximate one or more non-linear response characteristics of a downconverter circuit used to downconvert the received radio frequency signal. The estimated distortion waveform thus produced is filtered, using a filter or filters substantially similar to those used for filtering an intermediate frequency signal that includes the desired signal and non-linear distortion products caused by strong interfering signals. The filtered estimated distortion waveform and the intermediate frequency are sampled, to obtain a sampled distortion signal and a sampled signal of interest. The sampled distortion signal is scaled, and subtracted from the sampled signal of interest to obtain reduced-interference signal samples. In some embodiments, the scaling factor is determined by correlating the sampled signal of interest with the sampled distortion signal.
US08055226B2

A method of correcting the frequency response of an RF receiver having a frequency translation device and a fixed IF frequency section uses calibration data representing frequency responses over a wide frequency range for multiple center frequencies. The calibration data are based upon a multi-dimensional model for the frequency translation device that includes at least center frequency and offset frequency. The calibration data are stored in the RF receiver during factory calibration. A run-time normalization of the RF receiver produces a normalization frequency response at a reference frequency, and a relative frequency response at a desired center frequency is derived from the calibration data. The normalized and relative frequency responses are combined to produce an overall frequency response that is used by the RF receiver to configure an inverse filter to correct channel linear distortion produced by the frequency response of the frequency translation device at the desired center frequency.
US08055225B2

An arctangent detector according to the present invention generates a demodulated signal based on the result of arctangent calculation of the ratio between an in-phase component and a quadrature component obtained from a frequency modulation (FM) received signal that are perpendicular to each other. A median filter substitutes the median value of the sample values obtained by sampling the demodulated signal generated by the arctangent detector as many times as the point number for the current value of the demodulated signal and outputs a resultant signal. The point number altering unit alters the point number in the median filter based on the signal intensity of the FM received signal.
US08055224B2

A wireless receiver that includes a reception unit which, in the case in which the frequency bandwidth of the chunk is Fc, receives a) data to which phase rotation for controlling the maximum delay time between the plurality of transmission antennas is added so that the maximum delay time is set to either a predetermined first value which is smaller than 1/Fc or a predetermined second value which is larger than 1/Fc depending on whether transmission is performed using frequency diversity or transmission is performed using multi-user diversity and b) pilot channels corresponding to the plurality of transmission antennas which are orthogonal to each other; and a demodulating unit which demodulates the data based on transfer functions calculated using the pilot channels.
US08055220B2

A broadcast receiver for and a method of providing broadcast channel information in which a broadcast search list is dynamically created and provided to a user, the broadcast receiver including: a tuner unit to tune a broadcast channel from a plurality of broadcast channels and to output a digital broadcast signal of the tuned broadcast channel; a broadcast signal processing unit to receive service information included in the broadcast signal output by the tuner unit; a storage unit to store the received service information; and a control unit to dynamically create a broadcast search list based on the service information and to generate a screen providing the broadcast search list. Accordingly, it is possible to dynamically change a broadcast search list that provides search information regarding broadcast channels and to provide a user with the dynamically changed broadcast search list.
US08055211B2

A multi-receiver wireless communication device includes a transmitter, a transmit oscillator communicatively coupled to the transmitter, a receive oscillator communicatively coupled to a first receiver and second receiver, and a switching assembly having a first state in which the receive oscillator is coupled to the first and second receivers and a second state in which the receive oscillator is de-coupled from the second receiver and the transmit oscillator is coupled to the second receiver. The first receiver and the second receiver of the wireless communication device are able to operate independent of one another when the switching assembly is in the second state.
US08055203B2

A metrology system monitors radio frequency (RF) power at a plurality of locations in a circuit. The system includes a plurality of RF sensors that generate respective analog signals based on electrical properties of the RF power, a multiplexing module that generates an output signal based on the analog signals, and an analysis module that generates messages based on the output signal. The messages contain information regarding the electrical properties that are sensed by the plurality of RF sensors.
US08055202B2

A measuring apparatus for measuring service quality in an area in a communication system, in which a plurality of base stations use one frequency band for transmitting downlink signals, includes: a receiver configured to receive constant power signals that are the downlink signals transmitted by the base stations through constant power channels in which transmission powers are constant; a reception power measuring unit configured to measure reception powers of the constant power signals transmitted by the respective base stations; a reception power selector configured to select a reception power which is a base for measurement of the quality in the area, out of the reception powers measured by the reception power measuring unit; and an area quality measuring unit configured to measure the quality in the area on the basis of the reception power selected by the reception power selector, and a total of the reception powers not selected by the reception power selector.
US08055190B2

A signal transforming and transmitting apparatus and a signal transforming and transmitting method are provided. The signal transforming and transmitting apparatus includes a processing chip, and a signal dividing/integrating unit. The processing chip defines a signal-download period and a signal-upload period according to a clock signal. The signal dividing/integrating unit is coupled to the processing chip, and is adapted for dividing a wired downloading signal from a wireless downloading signal transmitted from the base station during the signal-download period, and transmitting the wired downloading signal and the wireless downloading signal to corresponding downstream devices. The signal dividing/integrating unit is adapted for integrating a wired uploading signal and a wireless uploading signal into an integrated wireless uploading signal and transmitting the integrated wireless uploading signal to the base station, during the signal-upload period. In such a way, the present invention avoids the interference caused by overlaps between uploading and downloading operations.
US08055188B2

A structure of a data frame for transmitting data via a relay, and a transmission apparatus and a relay using the data frame are provided. The relay includes: a receiver to receive, from a transmission apparatus, first radio resource allocation information with respect to a first radio resource and second radio resource allocation information with respect to a second radio resource, and to receive first data from the transmission apparatus using the first radio resource allocation information; and a transmitter to transmit the received first data to a receiving apparatus using the second radio resource allocation information.
US08055185B2

The invention refers to a method for a screening device and a screening device (1), for a cellular communication system comprising a user equipment, UE, (UE) in a cellular network The invention is characterized in the screening device (1) is arranged to generate a pulsed first signal (S1) being matched to screen a control channel (S, F, B) in a second signal (S2) generated in the cellular network.
US08055179B2

An image forming apparatus capable of efficiently performing an image forming processing even in a case where a post-processing apparatus performs a post-processing during a both-sides printing. A first time period needed by a first both-sides image forming processing and a second time period needed by a second both-sides image forming processing are computed in a case where a post-processing unit performs a post-processing on a recording sheet formed images on both sides thereof. The first time period and the second time period is compared, and any one of the first both-sides image forming processing and the second both-sides image forming processing is selected based on the comparison.
US08055176B2

A heat roller for an electrophotographic device comprised of an internal tube inside an insulating layer wherein a heating element having a resistance member is fixed to the outer surface of the insulating layer by depositing the resistance member onto a polyimide film applied to the insulating layer, depositing the resistance member directly to insulating layer, or embedding the resistance member in the insulating layer. Alternatively, the heating element having a resistance member is fixed to the outer surface of the internal tube by depositing the resistance member onto a polyimide film applied to the internal tube, thereby eliminating the insulating layer. An elastomer layer of predetermined thickness is overmolded to the outer surface of the insulating layer or the internal tube and an outside surface is applied to the outer surface of the elastomer layer wherein a toner image is fused on paper from the outside surface by heat transferred from the heating element.
US08055171B2

A process cartridge according to one aspect of the invention comprises: an image carrier configured to carry a developer image and having a transfer position capable of transferring the developer image to a recording sheet; and an elastically-deformable cantilever-shaped guide plate including a distal end portion being unsupported, and having a first surface and a second surface that is opposite to the first surface. A leading end of the recording sheet is guided on the first surface in a conveying direction, such that the leading end is guided toward the transfer position after the leading end is brought into contact with the image carrier. The distal end portion of the guide plate is bent toward the second surface side to form a bent portion.
US08055170B2

In an image forming apparatus, a pre-transfer guide (50) is provided immediately before a transfer nip portion formed by an intermediate transferring belt (12) and a transferring roller (18b). The pre-transfer guide (50) extends in a width direction of a sheet conveying path, and projections (50b) are formed on opposite end portions of the pre-transfer guide (50) on sides outer than an area on which a sheet is conveyed. The intermediate transferring belt (12) is driven in a state where a tension is applied to some extent, so that it may bow in a thickness direction on a running path. However, in an area immediately before the transfer nip portion, the projections (50b) retains a distance between the sheet and the intermediate transferring belt (12) to be greater than a predetermined distance.
US08055168B2

A magnet knife assembly for a toner developing device including a ferromagnetic strip held between like poles (N) of two permanent magnets such that a knife edge portion of the strip projects outwardly beyond the two magnets and is subject to a magnet force that tends to urge the strip in a direction in which the knife edge projects further out of the magnets, wherein the length of the strip is selected such that a portion of the strip opposite to the knife edge is subject to a magnetic force that at least counterbalances said magnetic force on the knife edge portion.
US08055164B2

A developer storage case includes: a storage case that includes a discharge opening formed in the horizontal direction side surface thereof, that is formed in a flat shape having a horizontal direction width larger than the vertical direction height thereof, and that stores a developer therein; a delivery member that has a center of rotation disposed shifted to the discharge opening, that is rotatably supported on one end wall of the storage case, and that delivers the developer stored within the storage case; and a drive transmission member that is supported on the end portion of the delivery member, and that drives and rotates the delivery member.
US08055160B2

The present disclosure is drawn to apparatuses, methods, and systems involving liquid electrophotographic printing. Generally, a liquid electrophotographic printer can comprise an ink application device that is configured to apply liquid electrophotographic ink to a substrate, and a roller having a tacky surface that removes excess material from the surface of the substrate thereby pretreating the substrate prior to receiving the liquid electrophotographic ink.
US08055154B2

A protection cover includes a cover base that covers and protects an external exposure portion of a photosensitive member and that comes into contact with an image forming apparatus housing body to movably guide a process cartridge; an extrusion member that is disposed in the cover base on a side opposite to an insertion direction of the process cartridge to the image forming apparatus housing body and that moves in the insertion direction of the process cartridge to extrude the process cartridge from the cover base; and a restriction portion that is disposed in the extrusion member to restrict the process cartridge in the cover base in a state where the process cartridge is located in the cover base and to release the process cartridge from the cover base in a state where the process cartridge is inserted and mounted to the image forming apparatus housing body.
US08055146B2

An image forming apparatus, including: an image carrier; an image forming section to form a toner image on the image carrier; a transfer section to transfer the toner image formed on the image carrier to an intermediate transfer body or a recording sheet; a cleaning section to remove not transferred toner particles remaining on the image carrier, an image covering density calculating section to calculate an average image covering density of the toner image formed on plural areas divided in a lateral direction of the image carrier, during a predetermined time period; an obtaining section to obtain a difference of the average image covering density in each divided area, based on the image covering density calculated by the image covering density calculating section; and an adjusting section to adjust an amount of abrasive particles to be supplied to each divided area, based on the differences obtained by the obtaining section.
US08055141B2

An apparatus and method for reducing electrical signal intermodulation by processing a balanced electrical signal in the optical domain in a manner adapted to reduce noise and second order intermodulation, and converting the processed optical signal back to an electrical domain signal with either a single or balanced (differential) outputs.
US08055140B2

According to particular embodiments, reducing cross-phase modulation includes sending instructions to a phase modulation array comprising channel pixel sets that modulate phases of channels. The channel pixel sets comprise a first channel pixel set that modulates a first phase of a first channel and a second channel pixel set that modulates a second phase of a second channel that uses a phase modulation format. The first channel pixel set is instructed to modulate the first phase at a first constant phase. The second channel pixel set is instructed to modulate the second phase at a second constant phase different from the first constant phase in order to create a group delay between the first channel and the second channel.
US08055139B2

There is provided a light receiver including a photodiode converting an optical signal into an electrical signal, and a plurality of amplifiers respectively having different gains, each input end of the plurality of amplifiers being connected to one end of the photodiode, and one of the plurality of amplifiers being in operating state for outputting an output signal. At least one of the plurality of amplifiers and the photodiode are connected through a diode.
US08055136B2

A base station is provided for communicating data to a mobile terminal unit by means of at least one antenna unit, wherein the at least one antenna unit is linked to the base station by means of at least one optical fiber and the at least one antenna unit is operable to communicate wirelessly with the mobile terminal unit. The base station comprises an optical transmitter for transmitting modulated data signals to the at least one antenna unit for wireless transmission, an optical receiver for receiving modulated data signals forwarded by the at least one antenna unit and a demodulator for demodulating received modulated data signals. The optical transmitter comprises a first optical modulator arranged to modulate an optical carrier with a radio frequency oscillator signal to generate an optical oscillator signal, a second optical modulator, coupled optically to the first optical modulator, operable to modulate the optical oscillator signal with an input data signal of a predetermined frequency to generate a downlink optical data signal and an optical output for directing the downlink optical data signal to the at least one antenna unit by means of the at least one optical fiber.
US08055134B2

An optical communications network architecture and associated method which employs time and wavelength-interleaving for homing between nodes/satellites and hubs and for grooming, while employing wavelength-division-multiplexed wavelength circuits between hubs without requiring cross-connects or routers therebetween.
US08055127B2

A wavelength division multiplex optical ring network comprises optical fibre (1-4) arranged in a ring configuration and a plurality of doped fibre optical amplifiers (17-20) arranged in the ring. The spectral response in the ring is configured such in use amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise circulates around the ring in a lasing mode to clamp the gain of each doped fibre optical amplifier. Each optical amplifier (17-20) includes respective control means (28) which in use control the optical amplifier to produce a substantially constant output power or to maintain a substantially constant pump power. In the event of loss of the lasing peak, detection means switches the doped fibre optical amplifiers to a different mode of gain control, for example, a mode to produce constant gain at the value before the loss of the lasing peak. Optionally, after a predetermined delay, the optical amplifiers may revert to constant output power or pump power mode. Loss of the peak could be detected by a peak detection circuit (27), which filters by means of filter (26) a fraction of the input or output power of the optical amplifier using splitters and/or by detection of a drop in amplifier input power.
US08055126B2

A zoom lens formed of a plurality of lens groups and performing zooming by changing separations between predetermined lens groups. A lens group closest to an object side is fixed in both optical axis directions during zooming, and has a reflecting member for folding an optical axis approximately 90 degrees. A final lens group positioned closest to an image side and fixed in both optical axis directions during zooming has a lens part group SG having positive refractive power and a lens part group RG arranged adjacent to the image side of the lens part group SG and having negative refractive power. A blur is corrected by shifting the lens part group SG in either direction perpendicular to the optical axis.
US08055124B2

A system can control a rotary speed of a computer fan according to the type of the computer fan. If the computer fan is determined to be a 3-pin fan, the system can output a changeable voltage to control the rotary speed of the 3-pin fan.
US08055123B2

Methods and apparatus for customizing content navigation. In one embodiment, a user navigates through pre-recorded or cached content in accordance with on one or more user preferences. Such user preferences may include one or more of content cache size, instant replay time, advance time, FF/REV speeds, slow motion speed and overshoot correction. In one embodiment, a DVR setup menu may be used to enter the user preferences via a remote control device. The user preferences may then be saved in non-volatile memory and used for navigation of subsequent content playback.
US08055115B2

An optically active glass and an optical fiber comprising such glass, having reduced photodarkening properties are provided. The optically active glass is mainly composed of silica representing from about 50 to 98 mol % of the glass. It also includes at least one active ion, such as a rear-earth ion, which induces a photodarkening effect in optical properties of the glass. Moreover, the glass includes an effective amount of phosphorus oxide providing the photodarkening reducing effect, preferably in an amount of from about 1 to 30 mol %. A method for reducing a photodarkening effect in optical properties of an optically active glass including the step of introducing phosphorus oxide to the glass is also provided.
US08055108B2

A broadband light source includes one or more laser diodes that are capable of generating a pump signal having a wavelength shorter than 2.5 microns, a pulse width of at least 100 picoseconds and a pump optical spectral width. The light source also includes one or more optical amplifiers that are coupled to the pump signal and are capable of amplifying the pump signal to a peak power of at least 500 W. The light source further includes a first fiber that is coupled to the one or more optical amplifiers. The first fiber including an anomalous group-velocity dispersion regime and a modulational instability mechanism that operates to modulate the pump signal. In one particular embodiment, the pump signal wavelength resides in the anomalous group-velocity dispersion regime of the first fiber and where different intensities in the pump signal can cause relative motion between different parts of the modulated pump signal produced through modulational instability in the first fiber. The light source also including a nonlinear element that is coupled to the first fiber that is capable of broadening the pump optical spectral width to at least 100 nm through a nonlinear effect in the nonlinear element.
US08055107B2

The optical rotary adapter is used with an optical tomographic imaging system for acquiring an optical tomographic image of an object under measurement. The adapter includes a fixed sleeve, a stationary optical fiber supported by the fixed sleeve and having an inclined end face, a stationary collimating lens spaced a given distance from the inclined end face, a mounting cylinder carried rotatably with respect to the fixed sleeve, a rotary optical fiber mounted to the mounting cylinder and having an inclined end face, a rotary collimating lens mounted to the mounting cylinder and disposed with a given distance from the inclined end face, and a rotation actuating device for rotating said mounting cylinder. The central axes of the stationary and rotary optical fibers are offset from or inclined with respect to a central axis of rotation of the mounting cylinder to reduce attenuation of returning light from the object.
US08055106B2

An optical communication device provided with digital optical switching includes a substrate; and at least one optical switch including a first optical switch composed of a main core disposed on the substrate and extending along a first direction, the main core including an optical input part and a transmission output part sequentially arranged along the first direction; a heater extending along a second direction to cross the main core; and a reflection output part extending along a third direction from a central point of the main core. The first direction and the second direction define a first angle there between, the second direction and the third direction define a second angle there between, and the first angle is equal to the second angle. An optical signal is outputted through the reflection output part or the transmission output part in response to heat from operation of the heater.
US08055102B1

A vector interpolator optimizes the conversion of an interlaced signal to a non-interlaced signal. The vector interpolator improves the visual clarity of slanted features in a displayed image by adjusting the luminance value of each pixel such that the appearance of “steps” or “jaggies” in the features is reduced. For each pixel, the vector interpolator determines a similarity measure for the pixels within a predetermined area around the pixel. From the similarity measure, an angle for interpolation is selected. The luminance value is then interpolated along the selected vector corresponding to the angle and applied to the pixel. One or more ambiguity measures such as a local edge count ambiguity measure may also be computed to indicate the reliability of the computed luminance value.
US08055100B2

A system and method for confirming the accuracy of an image registration process is provided. The method includes: receiving a first image that depicts a scene area; defining a comparison area within a second image that includes the scene area; obtaining a registration model that registers the first image to the second predefined image; constructing a third image from the first image and the comparison area of the second image based on the registration model; and comparing the third image to the second image.
US08055092B2

An image processing apparatus is provided, including a brightness change level classifying unit, a dynamic weight calculating unit, and a brightness correcting unit. The brightness change level classifying unit compares a brightness change average value representing brightness changes from a pixel of interest to neighboring pixels around the pixel of interest with an upper threshold value and a lower threshold value and classifies the brightness change level of the pixel of interest into three types of levels according to the result of the comparison. An upper threshold value and a lower threshold value are predetermined based on the brightness of the pixel of interest. The dynamic weight calculating unit calculates different dynamic weights according to the brightness change level of the pixel of interest. The brightness correcting unit corrects the brightness of the pixel of interest, based on the dynamic weights. Accordingly, noise generated on a plane part of an image is minimized and a contour of the image is appropriately emphasized, consequently improving the definition of images.
US08055083B2

One method embodiment executes a director. The director invokes at least one “active stamp” when processing data, where each of the active stamps relates to a different data manipulation method. The active stamps comprise specialized, portable and dynamic logic processes generically applicable to a plurality of different directors such that each of the active stamps can be individually invoked by each of the different directors to perform the same operation for each of the different directors. The invoking of the active stamps by the director calls the active stamps from a resource in a structure that allows each of the different directors to individually access each of the active stamps that correspond to a current data manipulation process being invoked by each of the different directors. Because the director calls the active stamps at run time of the processing of the data, the active stamps avoid having to be compiled with the director. The active stamps can also subscribe and listen to events as they occur during the processing of the data.
US08055080B2

An album generating apparatus that stores a plurality of images, sorts the plurality of images stored per event based on image capturing environments, selects a main image that is to be a primary image in the album out of the plurality of images stored per event sorted, selects subsidiary images that are to be images subsidiary to the main image selected in the album out of the plurality of images stored per event sorted based on the contents of the main image and determines a layout of the main image selected and the subsidiary images selected based on the contents of the main image selected and the subsidiary images selected.
US08055065B2

A method is described of generating a vector description of a color gradient in an image. The image comprises an array of pixels, each pixel having one or more associated color values. The image has at least one gradient area in which at least one of the color values varies between neighboring pixels. In each gradient area, a path is generated (step 210) comprising pixels having substantially the same color. Linear paths (403) and circular paths (501) are described. One or more control points are determined (step 220, 230) defining a line substantially perpendicular to the path. Representative color values are calculated at points along the line and a piecewise-linear color function is generated from the representative color values (step 240). The one or more control points and the piecewise-linear color function form a vector description of the color gradient in the gradient area.
US08055063B2

Embodiments of the present invention comprise methods and systems for digital image color balance correction.
US08055062B2

Disclosed herein is an information processing apparatus configured to classify time-series input data into N classes, including, a time-series feature quantity extracting section, N calculating sections, and a determination section.
US08055045B2

A method includes a periodic motion data input step S208 of receiving input of periodic motion data indicating changes of the periodic motion with time in an object to be examined who is a target of image data collection, a step S214 of estimating fluctuations in the time resolution of the image data with time based on the periodic motion data, designating an image collection range in the object, and adjusting the collection position of the image data such that the image data is collected in the image collection range at a suitable time of image data collection, the estimated time resolution being set in a predetermined suitable range, and an image data collection position control step S216 of relatively moving at least a part of the image data collection range and the collection position of the image data such that the part of the range and the position are superimposed on each other within a time when the image data of the image data collection range has a time resolution within the desired range based on the image data collection conditions.
US08055042B2

Apparatus for and method of fully automatic rapid scanning and digitizing of an entire microscope sample, or a substantially large portion of a microscope sample, using a linear array detector synchronized with a positioning stage that is part of a computer controlled microscope slide scanner. The invention provides a method for composing the image strips obtained from successive scans of the sample into a single contiguous digital image. The invention also provides a method for statically displaying sub-regions of this large digital image at different magnifications, together with a reduced magnification macro-image of the entire sample. The invention further provides a method for dynamically displaying, with or without operator interaction, portions of the contiguous digital image. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, all elements of the scanner are part of a single-enclosure that has a primary connection to the Internet or to a local intranet. In this embodiment, the preferred sample type is a microscope slide and the illumination and imaging optics are consistent with transmission mode optics optimized for diffraction-limited digital imaging.
US08055021B2

The invention concerns a device for capturing the motion of a structure consisting of N articulated segments, characterized in that it comprises: first means (ML) that deliver at least one item of information able to restore an absolute acceleration vector {right arrow over (a)}1 of a point on the segment of rank 1 in a reference frame forming a reference, at successive times tk, k being an integer number greater than or equal to 1, and second measuring means (MD1, MDn) distributed over the various segments and which deliver, for each segment of rank 1 to N, at each time tk, a measurement (M1, Mn) representing an orientation vector ({right arrow over (Θ)}1, {right arrow over (Θ)}n) of the segment in the reference frame. Application to biomechanical analysis, telemanipulation, animation of characters, etc.
US08055011B2

A hairstyle simulation image is formed by combining a face image and a hair image such that a hair image of any hairstyle can be simply combined with the face image without impairing the naturalness of the fitted face and hair images, irrespective of whether or not a part of the face is covered with the hair. The hairstyle simulation image formed by combining the face and hair images is formed as follows. First, two eyes in the face image are detected, and a semi-oval shaped curve L0 is formed based on a facial width D0 and a line passing through the eyes (an eye line L1). The facial width D0 is obtained by multiplying the distance between the eyes by a predetermined multiplier, and the semi-oval shaped curve L0 serves as a temporary facial outline. By moving the semi-oval shaped curve L0 in the right and left directions on the face image, the left and right edges Pb and Pc of the facial outline of the face image are detected based on the degree of overlap between the semi-oval shaped curve L0 and an edge line La of the jaw portion of the face image. The left and right edges Pb and Pc of the outline of the hair image are also detected as in the above. The widths D1f and D1h between the left and right edges Pb and Pc of the facial outlines of the face and hair images, respectively, are adjusted to the same width, and then the face and hair images are combined with each other.
US08055007B2

An open-air type earphone having a duct that communicates between an inside and an outside of the earphone and applies an inductance component to an acoustic signal generated by an electroacoustic transducer. The earphone includes the electroacoustic transducer to convert an electric signal into an acoustic signal, a housing to accommodate the electroacoustic transducer, and a variable duct unit that inwardly extends from the housing to communicate between the earphone and the surrounding atmosphere, and to adjust an inductance component for the acoustic signal generated by the electroacoustic transducer. Since a length or sectional area of the duct can be varied at an end of the housing, a frequency characteristics, particularly, a loss bass characteristic of the earphone, can be easily adjusted according to a user's taste, a genre of music, and the like.
US08054999B2

The invention regards a method for processing audio signals whereby an audio signal is captured, digitized and processed in the digital domain by a digital signal processing unit or DSP, and where a processed output signal from the digital signal processing unit is converted to the analog domain and served at a transducer for providing a sensation of sound. The DSP unit is provided with mean for performing at least two different digital algorithms which delivers each their processed signal having each their non identical time delay and further the most rewarding sound signal is chosen and served at the output transducer.
US08054994B2

A request is received to play an audio file. A determination is made regarding whether volume normalization parameters associated with the audio file are stored in a media library. If the volume normalization parameters associated with the audio file are stored in the media library, the volume normalization parameters are retrieved from the media library. If the volume normalization parameters associated with the audio file are not stored in the media library, retrieving the volume normalization parameters from the audio file. The volume normalization parameters are applied while playing the audio file. The volume normalization process can be applied across multiple audio files during playback.
US08054992B2

A method and apparatus for increasing phase margin in a feedback circuit of an active noise reduction headphone. The method includes providing an acoustic block comprising an acoustic driver comprising a voice coil mechanically coupled along an attachment line to an acoustic energy radiating diaphragm, the acoustic block further comprising a microphone positioned along a line parallel to an intended direction of vibration of the acoustic diaphragm and intersecting the attachment line, the acoustic block characterized by a magnitude frequency response compensating the magnitude frequency response by a compensation pattern that has a positive slope over at least one spectral range above 10 kHz.
US08054973B2

A broadcast encryption (BE) for acquiring an encryption key which is used to decrypt a session key by a node receiving services, with less computation overhead. A plurality of subgroups, each consisting of at least one of a plurality of nodes, are generated, and layers are formed according to a number of nodes which form the subgroup. Prime numbers are assigned to the subgroups not to overlap one another, and a subgroup at an upper layer is connected with a subgroup, which includes nodes forming the subgroup of the upper layer, at a lower layer. A prime number assigned to a subgroup at an upper layer, a prime number assigned to an unconnected subgroup at the same layer, and a prime number assigned to a subgroup at a lower layer, are re-assigned to each subgroup, and an encryption key which is generated from the re-assigned prime numbers is assigned to the each group.
US08054970B2

In an image forming method of receiving encrypted data generated by an information processing apparatus, decrypting the encrypted data into data to be printed, and causing an image forming apparatus to execute printing processing, print data is acquired by decrypting the received encrypted data, and the acquired print data is converted into image data for which the printing processing can be performed. The image data is encrypted with first key information.
US08054960B1

A method and apparatus for setting up a ringback media session between a calling party and a ringback server. A signaling proxy may receive a call setup message seeking to set up a call from the calling party to a called party and responsively forward the call setup message from the signaling proxy to the called party. Thereafter, the signaling proxy may receive from the called party a reply to the call setup message indicating that the call is not yet answered by the called party. In response, the signaling proxy may send a call-forwarding initiation message to the ringback server to initiate forwarding of the call to the ringback server and setup of a ringback media session between the ringback server and the calling party. That message may include a designation of particular media that the ringback server should provide to the calling party, based on subscriber profile data.
US08054958B2

The present invention provides a highly flexible system that can receive SMDR messages in many different formats and process these messages to produce useful reports and control information. The system can collect data via a LAN/WAN connection from PBX systems with internal data storage, PBX systems without internal data storage and legacy PBX systems that are connected to a buffer for storage of SMDR records.
US08054956B2

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for handling prepaid recharge requests in a telecommunications network. If the prepaid recharge request results in exceeding a recharge cap, the requesting customer is provided with one or more alternative rewards, such as bonus points for making a limited class of calls, for the excess beyond the cap. Advantageously, the service provider and service resellers can provide incentives to customers to continue to use the maximum amount of service without removing restrictions on a cap or the time limit by which prepaid services must be used.
US08054951B1

Methods combine speech recognition with telephonic sales order processing, in order to automate and improve the efficiency of telephone sales orders, by responding appropriately to vocalizations, pausing for interruption, repeating responses when appropriate, automatically transferring calls to human agents or different automated systems at appropriate points in a transaction, and collecting information. A method accepts incoming sales order calls and appropriately handles order processing. A method connects outgoing calls to customers who have disconnected before completing sales order calls, and appropriately handles sales and order processing.
US08054948B1

A system and associated methods provide an audio experience such that a user spatially perceives one or more audio events. One particular method set forth involves obtaining audio events and presenting the audio events so that an audio experience is provided. According to one embodiment of the method, upon obtaining audio events, the audio events are associated with one or more corresponding audio components. Thereafter, the audio experience is determined based on the audio events and associated audio components. The audio experience is then presented such that the user may spatially perceive the audio events.
US08054944B2

An x-ray tube has a number of emitters that generate respective electron beams, and has a common anode at which the electron beams strike on a surface to generate x-rays. A high x-ray dose power with a long lifespan are achieved while being able to quickly vary the x-ray dose power by using a superimposed intensity distribution from the x-ray beams, which is measured by a detector, to optimize the x-ray beams on the surface.
US08054941B2

The invention relates to a method for the production of angiography recordings. First, a mask image is recorded with a first modality. A contrast medium is injected after the first recording. A control image is recorded with a second modality after the injection of the contrast medium. A spreading of the contrast medium is determined based on the images and the control of subsequent recordings is analyzed. A recording criterion is checked to determine whether the recording criterion has been achieved. If it has not been achieved, the control image is repeatedly recorded for repeatedly determining the spreading of the contrast medium. If it has been achieved, a contrast image is recorded with the first modality and the mask image and the contrast image are processed and analyzed.
US08054940B2

The present invention provides a technique capable of objectively discriminating the constituent of a subject also in an image in which density difference is not easily discriminated on a gray image obtained by image capturing for medical use using X-rays. An image capturing system for medical use includes: a detecting unit for detecting an X-ray dose by absorbing X-rays passed through a subject in image capturing for medical use and outputting absorbed X-ray dose information; an obtaining unit for obtaining image information of the subject from the absorbed X-ray dose information; an image processing unit for calculating average detection energy in each first predetermined region in the image information; and an output unit for outputting the average detection energy.
US08054920B2

A repeated preamble bit or symbol pattern such as for a binary phase shift keyed (BPSK) communications signal is received within a modem. An initial frequency offset and phase error estimate is generated by processing a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) that detects the repeated preamble pattern for a block of samples within the communications signal. Two halves of the block of samples are correlated with a plurality of different BPSK shifted sequences to obtain a symbol timing alignment based on the shifted sequence providing the maximum correlation value. A frequency offset estimate is iteratively updated an N number of times using the shifted sequence providing the maximum correlation value to refine an acquisition estimate of the frequency offset and phase error of the received communications signal.
US08054919B2

A method and apparatus for generating training sequence codes in a communication system. In the method, a pair of sequences A and B having cross-correlation properties as well as autocorrelation properties are generated, and protection sequences A′ and B′ are generated by copying last L symbols of the sequences A and B, respectively. The training sequence codes are generated by locating the protection sequences A′ and B′ in the most significant positions (MSPs) of the sequences A and B. The training sequence codes can be extended and applied to 16-QAM and 32-QAM used in a GERAN system, and the use of such training sequence codes enables data to be efficiently transmitted/received without performance deterioration in a GERAN system.
US08054918B2

A wireless communication system is provided that detects a frequency burst (FB) through analysis of the autocorrelation function of received signals. The system can accommodate the relatively large frequency offsets that are associated with less expensive reference frequency crystals. The system employs a multi-mode filter including an FB filter and a channelization filter. In one embodiment, the FB filter is employed until an FB is located and then, once the FB is located, the channelization filter is employed to receive signals.
US08054917B2

A method of estimating a time variant Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) while eliminating Inter-carrier Interference (ICI) is disclosed, where the time variant channel matrix is estimated at channel taps using a Basis Expansion Model (BEM). The BEM method decomposes the time variant channel into a group of basis functions in the frequency domain. Coefficients are estimated using a sub-space tracking algorithm that decreases the dimensions of the coefficient matrix allowing for simpler calculation of the estimated signal. The coefficients matrix is estimated using a conjugate gradient iterative method that may be stopped after 6-8 iterations to arrive at an acceptable estimation. Finally, the transmitted data is estimated, again using the conjugate gradient method iteratively, wherein the conjugate gradient method is stopped after a small number of iterations.
US08054912B2

A predistorters for use with a nonlinear element and methods of predistorting for a nonlinear element for use in a 3G, e.g., WCDMA transmitter. In one embodiment, the predistorter includes: (1) a lookup table having non-uniformly spaced entries therein, (2) a compander configured to compand an input signal based on a nonlinearity of the nonlinear element to address the entries and (3) an interpolation offset calculation circuit associated with the lookup table and configured to produce an output based on a value of the input signal and a linear interpolation involving at least two entries from the lookup table.
US08054908B2

A transmitter circuit, which transmits data by using an impulse, has a variable delay circuit and a logic circuit. The variable delay circuit takes a clock as an input, and delays the clock in accordance with the data. The logic circuit takes the clock and an output of the variable delay circuit as inputs, and outputs an impulse by performing a logic operation between the clock and the output of the variable delay circuit.
US08054906B2

A digital broadcasting system and method of processing data therein are disclosed. The present invention includes a baseband processor unit receiving a broadcast signal including mobile service data and main service data, wherein the mobile service data can configure an RS frame and wherein the RS frame includes at least one of the mobile service data and a notification message and at least one of a first signaling information describing signaling information of a virtual channel for transmitting the mobile service data and a second signaling information describing signaling information on a notification channel for transmitting the notification message, a management processor unit accessing the notification message by parsing the second signaling information from the RS frame, the management processor unit processing the accessed notification message, the management processor unit storing the processed notification message in a storage device, and a presentation processor unit outputting the processes notification message to an output device.
US08054901B2

A method for generating a signal is presented. The method includes selecting a first set of carrier frequencies that are integral multiples of a first frequency interval, and selecting a second set of carrier frequencies that are integral multiples of a second frequency interval. The second frequency interval is an integral multiple of the first frequency interval and the second set is a subset of the first set. The method includes, for each of one or more signal carrier frequencies in the second set, selecting a plurality of associated carrier frequencies in the first set including a peak carrier frequency having substantially the same value as the signal carrier frequency, and modulating waveform frequency components at each of the selected plurality of associated carrier frequencies according to the same data value.
US08054900B2

In a digital communications receiver configured to receive, via a communications channel, a received first signal representing a sequence of symbols, each symbol being encoded to be representative of data bits, a method of processing the received signal includes adjusting a magnitude, filtering, and applying cyclic prefix restoration, to the received signal to produce a second signal, converting the second signal from time domain to frequency domain to produce a frequency domain signal, and determining a first quantity of values representing a first portion of the symbols by evaluating a relationship of channel values representing characteristics of the communications channel and a second quantity of values representing a portion of the frequency domain signal, the first quantity being smaller than the second quantity.
US08054899B2

A terminal apparatus including a block generation unit, a transmission timing calculation unit, and a transmission unit. The block generation unit generates a block that includes a plurality of symbols being temporally consecutive and one or more repetition symbols added to a head end of the symbols. The transmission timing calculation unit calculates a transmission timing at which the block is to be transmitted to an external apparatus according to a symbol rate of the block and a number of extended repetition symbols included in the block. The transmission unit transmits the block to the external apparatus at the transmission timing calculated by the transmission timing calculation unit.
US08054886B2

Rules for the signaling and interpretation of chroma position are described. One rule, called the short rule, defines fifteen discrete chroma centering positions and corresponding four-bit syntax element. Another rule, called the extended rule, defines 81 discrete chroma centering positions and corresponding seven-bit syntax elements. A described method includes receiving digital media data at a digital media encoder, determining chroma position information for the received digital media data, and representing the chroma position information with one or more syntax elements in an encoded bitstream. The one or more syntax elements are operable to communicate the chroma position information to a digital media decoder. The chroma position information facilitates an image rotation or flip.
US08054883B2

Transcoder apparatus for transcoding an input video bit-stream having a first encoding profile (e.g., MPEG-2) into an output video bit-stream having a second encoding profile (e.g., H.264), the first encoding profile including motion estimation information, the apparatus including: a front-end for extracting the motion estimation information from the input video bit-stream, and a back-end for constructing the output bit-stream. The front-end and the back-end of the apparatus are interconnected (e.g., via a buffer) to pass the motion estimation information from the front-end to the back-end, thereby avoiding motion estimation in constructing the output bit-stream at the apparatus back-end.
US08054873B2

A method and apparatus for joint training of an analog equalizer (AEQ) and an analog echo canceller (AEC) is described. In one embodiment, which both the AEQ and AEC process an input analog signal in the analog domain. In one embodiment, the method includes joint training the AEQ and the AEC using independent analog error signals.
US08054853B2

The present invention provides systems and methods for supporting native TDM and native Packet switching simultaneously in a meshed switching architecture. Specifically with the present invention, the meshed links are common to both TDM and packet traffic, and both types terminate to a common system interface without the need to separate physical resources and infrastructure; the common termination function has access to both the TDM (Time Slot Interchange (TSI)) switching and packet switching elements. Native TDM switching and packet switching operate in concurrently in the mesh over common links, with the personality of the links derived by the card type (attached to the mesh). In this, a given card or slot in a system can communicate in the native format to both packet based cards (slots) or TDM based cards (slots) simultaneously with no preconceived restrictions or limitations on slot or link definition.
US08054845B2

Methods and nodes are provided herein that can generate reliable acknowledgements within the time-frame required to transmit a single message over a decoupled connection so as to meet the real-time requirements of the CEC protocol. Specifically, there is provided a method in a communication system, the communication system comprising a first device, a second device, a first node and a second node, the first and second nodes being connected via a decoupled connection, the method comprising sending a plurality of data packets from the first device to the second device via the first and second nodes; on receiving a data packet from the first device, providing an acknowledgement for said data packet from the first node to the first device; wherein the acknowledgement provided to the first device corresponds to an acknowledgement provided to the first node from the second device in respect of a data packet preceding said data packet.
US08054844B2

The present invention relates to a communication system and method in a ship area network. In a network of a structure including a plurality of shielded regions, communication is performed between terminals provided in the shielded region by using wireless communication, and communication is performed between terminals provided in different shielded regions by further using power line communication, optical communication, or the power line communication and the optical communication in addition to the wireless communication. Therefore, it is possible to obtain advantages of minimizing inconvenience, which is caused by using only wire communication in the related art, and enlarging a working area.
US08054832B1

In one embodiment, a method includes performing, at a host device on a first side of a single-hop link, packet classification associated with hairpin routing of a first data packet between a first virtual resource and a second virtual resource that are logically defined at the host device. The first virtual resource can be different than the second virtual resource. The also includes transmitting a second data packet to a network device on a second side of the single-hop link so that packet classification associated with hairpin routing of the second data packet between at least two virtual resources logically defined at the host device is performed at the network device.
US08054830B2

A technique for managing control protocol information in a network node involves identifying messages as control protocol messages and checking the messages to see if the messages carry any updated control protocol information. If a control protocol message carries updated control protocol information, then the message is forwarded to a control protocol processor and if the message does not carry any updated control protocol information then the message is dropped before getting to the control protocol processor. The determination as to whether or not a control protocol message carries updated control protocol information can be made by generating a digest from a control protocol message and comparing the digest to a digest generated from a previously received control protocol message. A mismatch between the newly generated digest and the digest from the previously received control protocol message is an indication that the current message carries updated control protocol information.
US08054825B2

The invention relates to a method for transferring a call between a telecommunications network and a data network. Between the data network and the telecommunications network an internetwork computer (gateway) is arranged, by which voice data of the call is converted from a format used in the telecommunications network into a format used in the data network, and conversely. Signaling data of the call is processed by a data processing device arranged in the data network. In order to make full use of the available functions of a signaling channel in telecommunications networks, even with voice connections that are partially over a data network, it is proposed that the signaling data be transferred bit-transparently between the gateway and the data processing device.
US08054822B2

Communication networks and methods are disclosed for synchronizing call traffic in the forward direction over backhaul links. Within a communication network, a traffic processing unit is connected to base stations over a plurality of backhaul links. When the traffic processing unit receives reverse call traffic over the backhaul links, the traffic processing unit processes the reverse call traffic to determine a differential delay in receiving the reverse call traffic over the backhaul links. The traffic processing unit then receives forward call traffic. In response to receiving the forward call traffic, the traffic processing unit transmits the forward call traffic over the backhaul links to the base stations based on the differential delay determined for the reverse call traffic. The transmission of the forward call traffic in this manner substantially synchronizes receipt of the forward call traffic at the base stations.
US08054821B2

The present technology relates to protocols relative to utility meters associated with an open operational framework. More particularly, the present subject matter relates to protocol subject matter for advanced metering infrastructure, adaptable to various international standards, while economically supporting a 2-way mesh network solution in a wireless environment, such as for operating in a residential electricity meter field. The present subject matter supports meters within an ANSI standard C12.22/C12.19 system while economically supporting a 2-way mesh network solution in a wireless environment, such as for operating in a residential electricity meter field, all to permit cell-based adaptive insertion of C12.22 meters within an open framework. Cell isolation is provided through quasi-orthogonal sequences in a frequency hopping network. Additional features relate to apparatus and methodology subject matters concerning the handling of Beacon Requests and Registered State bit resolving to avoid circular routes.
US08054818B2

A method for allocating resources in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) mobile communication system where data is transmitted by Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) is provided, in which a multiplexing mode is selected for multiplexing a Distributed Resource Channel (DRCH) and Localized Resource Channel (LRCH) over orthogonal frequency resources, in which it is determined whether to use persistent resource allocation for each slot, if the selected multiplexing mode is a multiplexing mode that punctures the DRCH onto the LRCH, resources are allocated in an Synchronous HARQ S-HARQ scheme if the persistent resource allocation is used, and resources are allocated in a Resource Adaptive S-HARQ (RAS-HARQ) scheme if the persistent resource allocation is not used and resources are to be reused when early termination of HARQ transmission occurs.
US08054816B2

Provided is a method for hopping frequencies of an OFDM (orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing) symbol, including: receiving an OFDM symbol comprising mapping information as to a type of disposing sub-carriers of the OFDM symbol, a frequency hopping pattern, and positions of pilots; and mapping the type, the frequency hopping pattern, and the positions of the pilots based on the mapping information.
US08054813B2

Provided are a system and method of transmitting an Aggregated Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (A-MPDU) in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) system. A MAC layer divides service data transferred from an upper layer into a plurality of MPDUs, forms a single transmission frame including the sequentially arranged MPDUs, delimiter information for distinguishing each of the MPDUs, and ACK request information for requesting for a reception result of the MPDUs, and transmits the formed transmission frame to a recipient. Accordingly, service coverage is extended, and a transmission delay is minimized, resulting in improved service efficiency.
US08054797B2

A technique for improving the efficiency of downloading transmission data is disclosed. An information downloading apparatus downloads differing sets of information to predetermined groups to which a mobile terminal may belong. This apparatus includes a channel selecting unit for selecting from plural information channels an information channel for transmitting transmission data and a transmitting unit for transmitting transmission data using the selected information channel. The channel selecting unit selects an information channel so that sets of transmission data with differing destination addresses may be transmitted through differing information channels. The transmitting unit transmits to each group, through a control channel, information pertaining to whether a set of transmission data exists, the information channel to be used if the set of transmission data exists, and the data length of the set of transmission data. The control channel includes time slots that are associated with the groups.
US08054795B2

A technique for improving the efficiency of downloading transmission data is disclosed. An information downloading apparatus downloads differing sets of information to predetermined groups to which a mobile terminal may belong. This apparatus includes a channel selecting unit for selecting from plural information channels an information channel for transmitting transmission data and a transmitting unit for transmitting transmission data using the selected information channel. The channel selecting unit selects an information channel so that sets of transmission data with differing destination addresses may be transmitted through differing information channels. The transmitting unit transmits to each group, through a control channel, information pertaining to whether a set of transmission data exists, the information channel to be used if the set of transmission data exists, and the data length of the set of transmission data. The control channel includes time slots that are associated with the groups.
US08054779B2

A system and method for providing the ability to discover the capabilities of a user's computer to determine whether it is capable of supporting more than one wireless protocol simultaneously is provided. A computing device's capabilities (including, for example, hardware and/or software capabilities) is checked to determine if it supports at least two specific wireless protocols and checking a computing device's capabilities (including, for example, hardware and/or software capabilities) is checked to determine if it supports both wireless protocols simultaneously. The techniques for determining the computing device's compatibility may include comparing lists of protocol requirements to lists of system capabilities and/or generating test signals by the system according to the protocol.
US08054771B2

A method (300) and system (200) for adding a connection identifier to an existing power saving class. The method can include the steps of—at a mobile unit (212) that is associated with at least one existing power saving class—generating (310) a type-length-value that specifies the identification of the existing power saving class, and integrating (312) the type-length-value into a dynamic service message request. The method can also include the step of transmitting (314) the dynamic service message request to a base station (210) such that the connection identifier will be automatically added to the existing power saving class without requiring deactivation or redefinition of the existing power saving class.
US08054760B2

A line-rate, real-time-traffic detector classifies a network traffic flow as real-time when it determines the smoothness of the packet arrival rate of the network traffic flow is bounded by an empirically derived bound. In some embodiments, to improve performance, a tighter smoothness bound is applied to the smoothness calculations performed on a first set of packet arrival times, while a looser smoothness bound is applied to a second set of packet arrival times, the second set inclusive of and larger than the first.
US08054754B1

Exemplary methods and systems may provide a soft-inactivity notification during a VoIP call, which according to an exemplary embodiment involves a SIP session and packet-data communications between participants in the VoIP call. The method comprises (a) detecting that packet-data communications in the VoIP call have been interrupted; (b) in response to determining that the packet-data communications have been interrupted, making a determination as to whether or not the SIP session is active; (c) if the SIP session is active, then initiating a soft-inactivity notification procedure; and (d) otherwise, if the SIP session is inactive, refraining from initiating the soft-inactivity notification procedure. The soft-inactivity notification thus notifies a user that while the call has been interrupted, the call may be re-established without requiring the user to reconnect.
US08054750B2

Particular embodiments provide a virtual responder that can be contacted by any number of senders. When a sender wants to perform a measurement test with a real responder, the sender sends a control message to a virtual responder. The virtual responder is configured to determine a real responder based on real responder selection metrics. The virtual responder may poll the real responders at certain times to receive the real responder selection metrics. The virtual responder then selects a real responder from a plurality of real responders based on the real responder's selection metrics. The virtual responder then sends contact information for the selected real responder to the sender device. This allows the sender device to contact the selected real responder to perform the measurement test with a real responder.
US08054747B1

A mobile node registers with a wireless telecommunications network to obtain a mobile node registration having a registration time period. Before the registration time period expires, the mobile node's registration is renewed, if a renewal criterion is met. The renewal criterion distinguishes between user data traffic and automatic data traffic.
US08054740B2

Prior to transferring to a radio communication system, at least one data block is encoded according to predetermined quality-of-service requirements with the aid of a first code. Subsequently, the data block, encoded by the first code, is further encoded according to the radio transmission properties of a usable radio transmission source with the aid of a second code.
US08054734B2

Optical pickup 24 for operation in the far-field and in the near-field mode comprising a movable part 26 having an objective lens 2 comprising a solid immersion lens 4 and a multifocal lens 6, which are both disposed on a common optical axis A. The multifocal lens 6 comprises a central zone 8 and a peripheral zone 10 being circumferential to the central zone 8. The peripheral zone is adapted to constitute an optical system for a far-field mode. The central zone 8 of the multifocal lens 6 together with the solid immersion lens 4 are adapted to constitute an optical system for a near-field mode. The solid immersion lens and the multifocal lens are adapted to be moved in unison. A method for operating an optical pickup 24 comprises a first approach to a surface 21 of an optical storage medium 22 with the movable part 26 to reach a far-field working distance DF based on a focus control using an optical system for working in the far-field mode, and a subsequent approach to the surface 21 of the optical storage medium 22 which is performed by lowering the far-field working distance DF to a smaller near-field working distance NF.
US08054732B2

An optical recording and reproducing apparatus which suppresses the generation of a noise component in a servo signal while preventing a deterioration in using efficiency of a light beam is provided. The optical recording and reproducing apparatus has an optical pickup including a liquid crystal correcting element, a liquid crystal element control unit, a memory, and an operation mode control unit. The memory stores a plurality of correction data sets respectively corresponding to a plurality of refractive index distribution to be formed by the liquid crystal correcting element. The liquid crystal element control unit selectively reads out the correction data set corresponding to the operation mode designated by the operation mode control unit from the memory and supplies a driving voltage according to the read-out correction data set to the liquid crystal correcting element.
US08054723B2

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for controlling the record and reproduction of optical record medium in which plural nonrecord regions having different phase are arranged between recordable data regions for the distinction in the shape of the data region. The method and apparatus performs the servo using focus error signal and tracking error signal averaged by the low pass filter at the header region of the optical disc. Especially, the tracking servo is performed by holding a fixed DC off-set value at the header region existing on the L/G switching or holding the tracking error value of the previous same track region. As a result, the exact header region is detected, the track sliding phenomenon is removed, and the tracking servo is stabilized, resulting in preventing the degeneration of the record and reproduction characteristics.
US08054717B1

A system and method are provided to detect defects in a data storage medium by sampling data read from the data storage medium. Time referenced samples of data read from the data storage medium are equalized to mediate the effects of channel noise and the equalized samples are decoded by a decoder, such as a Viterbi decoder. The decoded signal is then reconstructed through a reconstruction filter to approximate the equalized signal. The equalized data signal and the reconstructed data signal are then combined and compared in a bit-by-bit deconstruction scheme to determine, based on a variation between the signal elements, that a defect exists on the data storage medium. Additional action is then taken to mediate the effects of attempting to process corrupted data based on the defect by isolating the defective bit.
US08054715B1

A tracking system for an optical drive includes a focus error module. The focus error module generates a focus error signal based on a difference between a first sensor output signal and a second sensor output signal, which are based on a reflected portion of a laser beam that is reflected by an optical storage medium. A control module generates a tracking signal based on the focus error signal.
US08054708B2

A power-on detector supplied with a power supply voltage from an external source and detects a variation of the power supply voltage. The operating method of the power-on detector comprises calculating the slope of the rise of power supply voltage from a first voltage to a second voltage higher than the first voltage; and calculating the expected time for the power supply voltage to reach a target voltage level, based on the calculated slope.
US08054707B2

The present invention is directed to a DRAM circuit that implements a self-refresh scheme to substantially reduce its power dissipation level during self-refresh operations. A ramped power supply voltage in replacement of a substantially invariant power supply voltage is used to power a sense amplifier in the DRAM circuit for amplifying a voltage difference between two bit lines coupled to the sense amplifier. As a result, the heat produced by the self-refresh operation is only a fraction of the heat produced by the conventional self-refresh powered by the substantially invariant power supply voltage.
US08054704B2

A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of memory cell mats each comprising a plurality of normal memory cell arrays; and a redundancy memory cell array configured to replace a defective memory cell with a plurality of redundancy memory cells corresponding to a redundancy word line when the redundancy word line corresponding to one or more redundancy memory cell arrays is activated in response to an address corresponding to the defective memory cell among the plurality of normal memory cell arrays.
US08054703B2

An active termination circuit is used to set the input impedance of a plurality of input terminals. Each of the input terminals is coupled to a supply voltage through at least one PMOS transistor and to ground through at least one NMOS transistor. The impedances of the transistors are controlled by a control circuit that generates a first control signal to set the impedance of another PMOS transistor to be equal to a first predetermined resistance, and generates a second control signal to set the impedance of another NMOS transistor to be equal to a second predetermined resistance. The first control signal is used to control all of the PMOS transistors and the second control signal is used to control all of the NMOS transistors. As a result, the PMOS and NMOS transistors coupled to each input terminal have impedances corresponding to the first and second resistances, respectively.
US08054698B2

A device for programming PCM cells includes a pulse-generator circuit for supplying programming current pulses. The pulse-generator circuit includes: at least one first capacitive element; a charging circuit, connectable to the first capacitive element in a first operating condition, for bringing a reference voltage on the first capacitive element to a reset value; a discharge-current generator, selectively connectable to the first capacitive element in a second operating condition, for discharging the first capacitive element through a controlled discharge current; a logic unit, configured to control connection and disconnection of the first capacitive element), of the charging circuit, and of the discharge-current generator; and a voltage-to-current converter, for converting the reference voltage into current.
US08054691B2

A set of non-volatile storage elements are subjected to a programming process in order to store data. During the programming process, one or more verification operations are performed to determine whether the non-volatile storage elements have reached their target condition to store the appropriate data. Programming can be stopped when all non-volatile storage elements have reached their target level or when the number of non-volatile storage elements that have not reached their target level is less than a number or memory cells that can be corrected using an error correction process during a read operation (or other operation). The number of non-volatile storage elements that have not reached their target level can be estimated by counting the number of non-volatile storage elements that have not reached a condition that is different (e.g., lower) than the target level.
US08054689B2

A memory card including a memory controller, a memory system and a method to control a memory are provided. The memory card includes a flash memory, a memory interface outputting a writing data signal to be written into the flash memory, and a multi-level converter transforming the writing data signal into a writing voltage signal to be provided to the flash memory. The writing voltage signal has one of different voltage levels in accordance with plural bits of the writing data signal.
US08054684B2

A program operation in a non-volatile memory is segmented at predefined junctures into smaller segments for execution over different times. The predefined junctures are such that they allow unambiguous identification when restarting the operation in a next segment so that the operation can continue without having to restart from the very beginning of the operation. This is accomplished by requiring the programming sequence of each segment to be atomic, that is, to only terminate at a predetermined type of programming step. In a next segment, the terminating programming step is identified by detecting a predetermined pattern of ECC errors across a group of programmed wordlines.
US08054673B2

A memory unit including a first transistor spanning a first transistor region in a first layer of the memory unit; a second transistor spanning a second transistor region in a second layer of the memory unit; a first resistive sense memory (RSM) cell spanning a first memory region in a third layer of the memory unit; and a second RSM cell spanning a second memory region in the third layer of the memory unit, wherein the first transistor is electrically coupled to the first RSM cell, and the second transistor is electrically coupled to the second RSM cell, wherein the second layer is between the first and third layers, wherein the first and second transistor have an transistor overlap region, and wherein the first memory region and the second memory region do not extend beyond the first transistor region and the second transistor region.
US08054665B2

A stacked memory device may include a substrate, a plurality of memory layers stacked on and above the substrate and divided into a plurality of groups, a plurality of inter-decoders electrically connected to and disposed between the plurality of memory layers in a corresponding one of the plurality of groups, and at least one pre-decoder electrically connected to the plurality of inter-decoders and disposed between the plurality of inter-decoders. A stacked memory device may include a substrate, a plurality of memory layers stacked on and above the substrate and divided into a plurality of groups, a plurality of inter-drivers electrically connected to and disposed between the plurality of memory layers in a corresponding one of the plurality of groups, and at least one pre-driver electrically connected to the plurality of inter-drivers, and disposed between the plurality of inter-drivers.
US08054656B2

A switching control circuit is coupled to a switching device and an auxiliary winding of a transformer, wherein a primary winding of the transformer is coupled to the switching device. The switching control circuit includes a voltage receiver, a comparing unit and a propagation delay circuit, wherein the voltage receiver is coupled to the auxiliary winding of the transformer for receiving a reflected voltage signal and transforming the reflected voltage signal into a peak voltage signal, while the switching device is turned off. The comparing unit is coupled to the voltage receiver for receiving the peak voltage signal and a first threshold voltage, and outputting a comparison result. The propagation delay circuit is coupled to the comparing unit for receiving the comparison result, and outputting a PWM signal to turn on the switching device after a delay time.
US08054653B2

A direct current (DC) power supply for varying an output voltage according to a load current variation is disclosed. The DC power supply includes an alternating current (AC)/DC conversion unit converting commercial AC power into DC power, a DC/DC conversion unit converting a voltage level of the DC power and outputting output power, and a control unit controlling conversion of the voltage level of the fed-back DC power according to a variation in a load current of the output power from the DC/DC conversion unit.
US08054652B2

Various embodiments of the present invention provide voltage converters and methods for using such. As one example, a voltage converter is disclosed that includes a transformer with a first winding and a second winding. A voltage is applied to the first winding for a period that is followed by an OFF time. The voltage converter further includes an OFF time controller that is operable to adjust the OFF time based at least in part on a load current traversing the second winding.
US08054649B2

An adjustable housing frame with industrial rails includes a fixed plate, two movable plates and at least two positioning pieces. A front side of the fixed plate is provided with a rail. Both ends of the fixed plate are provided with two opposite rails respectively. Each set if the two opposite rails is provided with at least one positioning hole. One of the two movable plates is provided in the two rails at one end of the fixed plate, and the other movable plate is provided in the two rails at the other end of the fixed plate. Edges of the two movable plates are provided with a plurality of positioning troughs. The two positioning pieces pass through the two positioning holes and extend into the positioning troughs respectively. The two positioning pieces are stopped on inner walls of the positioning trough.
US08054640B2

An electronic apparatus includes: a circuit board that is disposed inside a case that is formed by coupling first and second case halves, the circuit board being interposed between first and second boss portions; first and second conductive members that are disposed between a gap formed between the first boss portion and the circuit board; a third conductive member that is disposed between the first boss portion and the first conductive member and between the first boss portion and the second conductive member to electrically connect the first conductive member to the second conductive member; and a measurement circuit that is electrically connected to a first wiring and a second wiring, which are respectively connected to the first conductive member and the second conductive member, and measures an electrical characteristic value of at least one of the first conductive member and the second conductive member.
US08054635B2

A carrier for supporting an expansion card is disclosed herein. The expansion card is configured for connection to a server. The carrier includes a module that is configured to receive and removably retain the expansion card. The module is further configured to support the expansion card in a position that aligns the expansion card with a receiver in the server. The module is further configured to move with respect to the receiver to facilitate connection of the expansion card to the receiver.
US08054634B2

There is provided a camera module package including: a housing having an optical system; a board bonded to a bottom end of the housing and mounting an image sensor on a top surface thereof; a contact part integrally formed in the housing to electrically connect a sensor bonding pad of the image sensor with a board bonding pad of the board each other when the housing is engaged with the board. In the camera module package, a process of bonding the housing and the board together is performed at the same time as a process of electrically connecting the image sensor and the board to each other. This simplifies an assembly process and enhances productivity. Also, the camera module package is fundamentally free from contamination of external contact terminals caused by an overflowing bonding material when the board and the housing are bonded together.
US08054628B2

A method for operating a sealed for life compact secondary substation including a transformer, a high voltage side and a ring main unit arranged at the high voltage side and connected to a primary side of a the transformer, a secondary side of the transformer is connected a low voltage switch gear. An enclosure includes watertight material capable of withstanding corrosion at least for a life time of the compact secondary substation. The compact secondary substation is cooled with a cooling system that includes a heat exchanger. The compact secondary substation is protected with an extended arc eliminator. The compact secondary sub-station is connected to a remote control for surveillance and operation, which remote control is communicating with a fault protection equipment.
US08054624B2

A mounting apparatus, for storage device defining a securing hole, including a bracket configured to receive the storage device. Two securing members are attached to the bracket sidewall. Each of the securing members includes an actuating end, a securing end engaged with the storage device securing hole, and a pivot portion formed between the actuating end and the securing end that is pivotally attached to the bracket sidewall. A spring member is secured to the sidewall of the bracket between the two securing members. The spring member includes two resilient arms biased against the two securing members respectively.
US08054614B2

A cover for a device is disclosed. The cover may include a first portion operable to protect a button of a device from inadvertent actuation, wherein the first portion enables viewing of the button while the cover overlaps the device. The cover may also include an opening operable to afford access to an interface component of the device, wherein the opening is operable to enable a user to reach through and physically interact with the interface component while the cover overlaps the device. The cover may further include a second portion enclosing the opening on all sides.
US08054613B2

A supporting device of the invention comprises a main body, a shaft, and a rotating component. The main body comprises a sliding path and an opening. The shaft and the rotating component can slide along the sliding path. The rotating component is connected to the shaft. The shaft and at least a part of the rotating component can then be extended beyond the main body through the opening. Through the aforementioned configuration, the shaft can rotate with respect to the main body when the shaft and at least a part of the rotating component are extended beyond the main body.
US08054602B2

A comparator receives, on its second input terminal, a third anomaly threshold voltage from a threshold voltage generator, and outputs a low-level breaking indication signal to a control logic portion when a terminal voltage falls below the third anomaly threshold voltage. Three threshold setting resistors are serially connected between the source of a power MOSFET and a ground terminal. A divided voltage at the connecting point between the threshold setting resistors and is outputted as the third anomaly threshold voltage.
US08054597B2

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) structures having a connection to a through wafer via structure and methods of manufacture are provided. The structure includes an electrostatic discharge (ESD) network electrically connected in series to a through wafer via. More specifically, the ESD circuit includes a bond pad and an ESD network located under the bond pad. The ESD circuit further includes a through wafer via structure electrically connected in series directly to the ESD network, and which is also electrically connected to VSS.
US08054596B2

An element is protected without hampering an actual operation in the case where overvoltage that might damage the element is applied. A semiconductor device includes a first potential supply terminal 100; a second potential supply terminal 101; a protection circuit 107 which includes a voltage divider 102 electrically connected to the first potential supply terminal 100 and the second potential supply terminal 101, a control circuit 103, and a bypass circuit 106; and a functional circuit 108 which is electrically connected to the first potential supply terminal 100 and the second potential supply terminal 101 through the protection circuit 107.
US08054593B2

A circuit that includes a single grounded fault sensing transformer coupled to a resonant circuit that produces an output signal used by a microcontroller to determine a load current flowing through at least two conductors passing through the center of the sensing transformer. The microcontroller pings the resonant circuit, causing an impulse disturbance at the output signal, and the microcontroller calculates the inductance component of the resonant circuit based on the frequency of the decaying output signal. The microcontroller calculates the resistive core loss as a function of a known resistance of the resonant circuit, a known capacitance of the resonant circuit, the calculated inductance, and the determined rate of decay of the output signal. The calculated resistive core loss is compared to a table or to a polynomial function that characterizes known resistive core losses with known load currents to determine the load current corresponding to the calculated resistive core loss.
US08054590B2

A GFCI device with circuit condition detection function includes a leakage current detection circuit, a disconnect mechanism, a reset mechanism, a circuit condition detection and control circuit, and a selection switch. The disconnect mechanism includes a first SCR controlled by the leakage current detection circuit. The circuit condition detection and control circuit includes a first control circuit and a second control circuit. When the first control circuit is connected to an anode of the first SCR by the selection switch, it provides an intermittent simulated leakage current to the leakage current detection circuit, and the leakage current detection circuit provides a trigger signal for a control gate of the first SCR, so that the first control circuit generates an intermittent simulated leakage current. When the leakage current detection circuit is not operational to generate the trigger signal, the first control circuit generates a control signal to disable the GFCI device.
US08054589B2

An apparatus, such as a switch module, is provided. The apparatus can include an electromechanical switch structure configured to move between an open configuration and a fully-closed configuration (associated with a minimum characteristic resistance) over a characteristic time. A commutation circuit can be connected in parallel with the electromechanical switch structure, and can include a balanced diode bridge configured to suppress arc formation between contacts of the electromechanical switch structure and a pulse circuit including a pulse capacitor configured to form a pulse signal (in connection with a switching event of the electromechanical switch structure) for causing flow of a pulse current through the balanced diode bridge. The electromechanical switch structure and the balanced diode bridge can be disposed such that a total inductance associated with the commutation circuit is less than or equal to a product of the characteristic time and the minimum characteristic resistance.
US08054583B2

A dynamic fly heater (DFH) for improved lifetime and better film uniformity is disclosed for a magnetic head. The heater has a lower amorphous Ta layer and an upper W layer to promote small grain size and reduced electro-migration. The composite film is especially advantageous for heaters greater than 1000 Angstroms thick where dR/R is difficult to control in the prior art. The DFH may be a (Ta/W)n laminate in which the Ta layers are about 30 Angstroms thick and the combined thickness of the W layers is from 400 to 1200 Angstroms. A Ta film is preferably sputter deposited with an Ar pressure of 3 to 5 mTorr and the W film is sputter deposited in the same chamber with a 3 to 20 mTorr Ar pressure. In one embodiment, a merged read/write head has one DFH in the read head and a second DFH in the write head.
US08054581B2

To provide a perpendicular magnetic recording head which can prevent unintentional recording and erasing from occurring on recording media.In a perpendicular magnetic recording head comprising a pair of side shield layers made of a soft magnetic material on both sides in a track width direction of a magnetic pole part of a main magnetic pole layer, the pair of side shield layers have a front end face exposed at a medium-opposing surface and a side end face extending from one end part of the front end face remote from the magnetic pole part in the track width direction to the deeper side in a height direction, while the front end face and the side end face form an angle of 90° or greater therebetween.
US08054578B2

A perpendicular magnetic recording head includes a main magnetic pole layer and a return yoke layer which are laminated with a magnetic gap layer interposed therebetween on a medium-opposing surface, and a pair of side shield layers positioned on both sides in the track width direction of the main magnetic pole layer while interposing a nonmagnetic material layer therebetween. The magnetic gap layer is constituted by a first gap layer formed in a partial area in the track width direction bridging the main magnetic pole layer and the pair of side shield layers, and a second gap layer thinner than the first gap layer and interposed between the return yoke layer and the pair of side shield layers in a remaining area where the first gap layer is absent.
US08054577B2

An integral recording head, for use in a linear tape drive system, includes a circumferentially grooved roller guide assembly and a recording head actuator assembly. The circumferential groove feature is incorporated on the surfaces of the roller guide assembly, and provides a substantial frictional contact force that acts to reduce the lateral motion, and further attenuates high frequency lateral disturbances of the magnetic tape. The reduced high frequency content of the lateral disturbances significantly improves the ability of the actuator to achieve a desired track following control. The grooved roller guide assembly is formed integrally of two solid cylindrical contact surfaces separated by a circumferential slot that accommodates the recording head actuator assembly.
US08054572B2

Protection against data overwrite of a rewritable non-WORM data storage cartridge is provided by a data storage drive operating cartridge data overwrite protection procedures independent of, or not withstanding, the absence of cartridge controls relating to data overwrite protection. Also for the non-WORM cartridge, the drive responds to an allow data overwrite command to allow an immediately subsequent write type command to write to the cartridge even if the write command overwrites existing data. The overwrite protection procedures and data overwrite procedures may be configured and enabled for the data storage drive.
US08054570B2

A recording head includes a slider, and a recording element fixed to a side surface of the slider on the side of an outflow end and having a main magnetic pole and an auxiliary magnetic pole which generate a recording magnetic field. A spot light generating element includes a core having a reflecting surface that reflects a luminous flux introduced from one end side to the other end side in a direction different from the direction of introduction and a luminous flux condensing unit configured to generate a spot light by propagating the reflected luminous flux to the other end side while condensing the same, and a clad configured to confine the core in the interior thereof. The spot light generating element is fixed adjacently to the recording element in a state in which the other end side is faced toward a magnetic recording medium. A luminous flux guide is arranged in parallel with the slider and allows the luminous flux to be introduced from the one end side into the core whereby the luminous flux condensing unit generates a spot light in the vicinity of the main magnetic pole.
US08054568B2

Timing based servo bursts of servo frames, in which the frames are arranged to be symmetric with the same number of servo stripes in each burst of a frame, are synchronized by shifting selected bits. For example, servo frames are arranged with four servo bursts with an equal number of servo stripes in each burst, the servo frames comprising two symmetric sub-frames, each sub-frame comprising two bursts of servo stripes that are parallel to each other within a burst, and the bursts are non-parallel with respect to each other; each servo burst is arranged to comprise at least one reference servo stripe; and each servo burst is arranged to comprise at least one shifted servo stripe, wherein the shift is in the same longitudinal direction with respect to at least one reference servo stripe for each burst of a frame and the opposite longitudinal direction for bursts of sequentially adjacent frames.
US08054567B2

Test data is written in tracks of a discrete track medium by making the tracks eccentric by accessing a plurality of tracks by forcibly making a composite magnetic head eccentric under an ON track servo control. The test data written in the tracks which are pseudo-eccentric are written in the tracks with the original write sensitive width of a write head. It is possible to obtain a read characteristics profile having a peak by tracing and reading the test data while moving the composite magnetic head (read head) which is forcibly made eccentric in a radial direction.
US08054563B2

The present disclosure relates to a wide angle lens system. The wide angle lens system includes, in order from the object side to the image side thereof, a first lens of positive refraction power, a second lens of positive refraction power, and a third lens of negative refraction power. The wide angle lens system satisfies the following condition: 0.45
US08054558B2

A multiple magnification optical system has a single objective focused upon a specimen at a given working distance. A graded-index lens receives light passing through the objective from the specimen. A beam splitter splits the light exiting the gradient-index lens into a first optical axis and a second optical axis. A first lens is aligned in the first optical axis between the beam splitter and a first camera to focus a magnified image at the first camera. A second camera is situated along the second optical axis from the rear principal plane of the objective so as to obtain unity magnification when the working distance of the objective is set at twice its focal length. Multiple magnifications can be obtained with a single objective by moving the optical system axially to set different working distances from a specimen, and by using multiple beam splitters, or combinations thereof.
US08054554B2

A display apparatus is provided. The display apparatus includes a front side that is exposed the outside. A refractor or set of refractors is positioned so as to minimize the appearance of a shield member to a viewer, thus causing a non-display region of the display apparatus to appear to be smaller than its actual size, thus increasing a size of an image display region of the display apparatus.
US08054548B2

In a three-dimensional image display device for displaying color three-dimensional images, a fly eye lens, a display panel, and a light source are provided in this order from the observer side. A display panel has four pixels arrayed in a (2×2) matrix correlated with one lens element of the fly eye lens. In the event that j is a natural number, a pixel magnifying projection width e in a second direction is set in a range of the following expression according to mean interpupillary distance Y of the observers. e 3 ≠ Y 2 × j
US08054538B2

A Raman amplification apparatus includes a pumping light supplying section, a main signal wavelength light level acquisition section, a monitoring signal wavelength light level acquisition section, a function information storage section for storing, as function information, information regarding functions for deriving a noise amount and a gain by Raman amplification with regard to a monitoring signal wavelength light with respect to pumping light power supplied from the pumping light supplying section, and a transmission characteristic derivation section for deriving a transmission characteristic on an optical transmission line based on information acquired by the main signal wavelength light level acquisition section and the monitoring signal wavelength light level acquisition section and the function information stored in the function information storage section, and Raman gain is derived with high accuracy in comparison with the conventional technique.
US08054535B2

A multi-stable electrophoretic display device has a plurality of pixels and comprises a first substrate and a second substrate. The substrates are spaced apart from each other and enclose a layer of an electrophoretic medium comprising a liquid crystal material having finely divided pigment particles dispersed therein. The device further comprises electrodes for formation of a pixel area outline and applying an electric field across at least some of the electrophoretic medium in the pixel area. The electrodes occupy substantially less than the entire field of view of the display pixels and can be used to effect switching between a first optical state in which most incident light on a pixel does not impinge on a pigment particle, and a second optical state in which most incident light on a pixel impinges on pigment particles.
US08054532B2

An Interferometric Modulator (IMod) is a microelectromechanical device for modulating light using interference. The colors of these devices may be determined in a spatial fashion, and their inherent color shift may be compensated for using several optical compensation mechanisms. Brightness, addressing, and driving of IMods may be accomplished in a variety of ways with appropriate packaging, and peripheral electronics which can be attached and/or fabricated using one of many techniques. The devices may be used in both embedded and directly perceived applications, the latter providing multiple viewing modes as well as a multitude of product concepts ranging in size from microscopic to architectural in scope.
US08054523B2

An optical reflection device includes a flexible substrate, an elastic portion connected with an end of the flexible substrate, an optical reflector coupled with the flexible substrate via the elastic portion, a first electrode layer provided on the flexible substrate, and a piezoelectric layer provided on the first electrode layer. The optical reflection device may have a small size.
US08054522B2

Geometric-waveform oscillator for processing light, the geometric waveform oscillator including a plurality of masses, at least one force producing element, and a plurality of elastic elements, each of the force producing elements being coupled with a respective one of the masses, at least one of the masses including a light processing module, each of the force producing elements applying a force to the masses, the elastic elements coupling the masses together, the elastic elements coupling the masses with a respective support, wherein the mass values of the masses, the force values of the forces, and the stiffness coefficients of the elastic elements, are selected such that the light processing module oscillates according to the geometric-waveform.
US08054521B2

In a galvano scanner system (1), a light position detection unit (30) is mounted so as to match the scanning center of the workpiece surface (7), the light position detection unit being provided with a two-dimensional light position sensor (32) disposed in the center and four one-dimensional light position sensors (33(1)) to (33(4)) concyclically disposed at equal angles about the center of the two-dimensional light position sensor. An origin position command is given to galvano scanners (3, 4), laser light is irradiated at low output, and the offset adjustment value is calculated based on the detection output of the two-dimensional light position sensor (32). Next, the galvano scanners (3, 4) are pivoted left, right, up, and down; the perpendicularity in relation to the workpiece surface (7) is determined and the distance from the workpiece surface (7) is calculated based on the detection output of each one-dimensional light position sensor (33); and the scale adjustment value is calculated on the basis thereof. Adjustment can be carried out with good accuracy in a simple manner in comparison with the case in which such an adjustment is made in alignment with a scale on a workpiece surface while visually observing visible laser light.
US08054515B2

An image ordering rule is selected from among multiple image ordering rules that use mutually different types of image characteristic values to determine the order of arrangement of images. The image characteristic value used by the selected image ordering rule is obtained for each of a plurality of images. The order of arrangement of a plurality of images is determined based on the selected image ordering rule and the image characteristic values for a plurality of images. The number of images to be placed on each page is determined based on the maximum number of images that can be included in each page of the electronic album. An electronic album in which a plurality of images are laid out on multiple pages in sequential order is created in accordance with the order of arrangement of a plurality of images and the number of images to be placed on each page.
US08054511B2

An image reading device to read an image carried on a document, including: an image reading section to read an image carried on a document; a polygonal member, mounted to face the image reading section, and spaced from the image reading section at a predetermined distance, the polygonal member includes a document feeding flat surface which faces the image reading section when the document is fed thereon, a white flat surface, and a black flat surface; a light source to emit light rays onto the image carried on the document, and onto the polygonal member when the document is not fed; and a control section to control an amount of the light rays emitted from the light source; wherein the control section corrects an amount of light rays concerning the white color and the black color, based on the amount of the light rays read by the image reading section.
US08054509B2

The image processing apparatus of the present invention includes: a specific pattern detecting unit which detects a background pattern representing additional information from inputted original document image data; an information detecting unit which extracts the additional information represented by the background pattern which is detected by the specific pattern detecting unit; an erase processing unit which erases a prescribed region of the original document image and outputs erase-processed document image data; a re-embedding background pattern generating unit which generates a re-embedding background pattern representing the additional information extracted by the information detecting unit; a background pattern composition processing unit which embeds the re-embedding background pattern into the erase-processed document image data and outputs re-embedded document image data; and a processor which controls the units mentioned above. The apparatus of the present invention is capable of embedding the background pattern again, which has once been lost through the erase function, so as to maintain a background pattern detection rate at a high level.
US08054507B2

The present invention relates to an image data luminance compensating method and a sheet-feeding scanning apparatus using such an image data luminance compensating method. According to the reference luminance value change of the reference background strip before and after the current document passes through the scan operating region, the luminance gain associated with compensation of the image data of the next document is determined.
US08054505B2

A method for adjusting the gamuts of a set of printers to match the gamuts across a population of printers using mass targets. The method involves printing color patches suitably positioned in the color gamut with CMYK separations and simultaneously actuating DMA targets to the level 2 controls of the printers using closed loop control algorithms. An extreme MIMO control algorithm is used to converge to the desired L*a*b* targets by adjusting mass targets to the printing system in an iterative fashion to maximize the common intersection gamut across the printers.
US08054498B2

An image processing apparatus includes a background image generation section and a combining section. The background image generation section generates a background image containing new updated trace information that identifies at least one of the image processing apparatus and a user who instructs the image processing apparatus to form an image. The combining section combines the background image generated by the background image generation section with a foreground image to generate a composite image. The combining section outputs the composite image to an image forming section that forms an image on a recording medium. The background image generation section arranges the updated trace information in an end region of the background image.
US08054497B2

An effective and efficient means for composition printing of multi-page image data is disclosed. Multiple image files may be received and read into memory to be processed and printed as a single job. Pages may be reordered and/or a subset of pages may be selected for printing by changing the link order between image file directories (IFDs) in the image headers before sending the image data to a printing device. Once processed to select and reorder pages for printing, the image data is streamed directly to the output, with each offset entry in the IFD being modified on-the-fly to correspond to its relocated position. When an image is skipped, the data associated with the image is not written out to the printing device. When the end of one file is reached, the next file is merged into the existing output stream relative to the end of the previous file.
US08054491B2

A communication apparatus preventing output of wasteful error reports is provided. To this end, first, the communication apparatus comprises a display means displaying an error report regarding a communication error and a print means printing an error report regarding a communication error. The communication apparatus further comprises a control means allowing the display means to display an error report regarding a communication error in the case the occurrence of the communication error is detected while the user is authenticated by an authentication means. The control means allows the print means to print an error report regarding a communication error where the occurrence of a communication error is detected and when the user is not authenticated by the authentication means.
US08054487B2

A method in a data processing system for managing jobs. A change to a job receiving that is un-instantiated. A reservation for the job is created. Instantiated jobs for an instance of the job are monitored corresponding to the reservation, and applying the change to the instance of the job responsive to identifying the instantiated job.
US08054485B2

A method for, from a server, controlling transfers of jobs from clients to shared resources in the network comprises that a request for sending a job to a shared resource selected by a client is received from the client and it is checked continuously whether the resource is available and has capacity by the moment for reception of jobs. A go-ahead is sent immediately to the client that the client can send the job to the resource if the resource is available and has capacity by the moment. The request is placed in a queue for the resource if the resource is available, but for the moment lacks capacity, the queue is updated continuously and a go-ahead is sent to the client that the client can send the job to the resource when the request has advanced to the first position in the queue and the resource has capacity. The step of receiving a request is followed by assigning an identity to the job, which is sent to the client, and the identity is comprised in the go-ahead sent to the client so that the client from said identity can identify the job. A confirmation that the job has been completed successfully by the resource or an indication that the job has not been completed successfully by the resource is received from the client, after which the request is removed from the queue.
US08054471B2

An optical system including a signal processing unit has been developed to study the contours of objects and/or their deformations. The optical system utilizes projectors comprising an illumination source including those outside the visible range and an observation source such as a digital camera. The optical system provides information regarding the object in such a way that renders a complete description of the surface geometry and/or its deformation. The optical system further facilitates a substantial simplification in obtaining the desired result in the form of eliminating the need for point-wise solution of simultaneous equations. The signal processing unit comprises software that, among others, provides a transformation that mimics projection and observation from infinity. The signal processing unit further reduces data processing by recognizing known geometric shapes, and automatically correcting for discontinuities of the object and/or optical system.
US08054463B2

In a method for measuring a composition of a sample, an illumination surface area of the sample is illuminated using a light source, and light from a plurality of emitting surface areas of the sample is received, each emitting surface area at a different location, the received light scattered by the sample. A cumulative area of the illumination surface area is greater than a cumulative area of two emitting surface areas of the plurality of emitting surface areas. For each emitting surface area, spectral content information associated with received light corresponding to that emitting surface area is determined, and composition information corresponding to a sub-surface region of the sample is determined based on the determined spectral content information. Different shapes of illumination surface areas as well as the plurality of emitting surface areas may advantageously be utilized for various specimen or sample geometries or illumination sources.
US08054462B2

Systems and methods for increasing the quantum efficiency of a photocathode used in an intensified an intensified array detector with a photocathode, such as a charge-coupled device (ICCD) are presented. A quantum efficiency enhancement device is disposed in front of an ICCD and is configured to enable or facilitate an increase in the angle of incidence of incoming rays incident on the photocathode. The ICCD itself may be tilted to achieve an increased angle of incidence, and such tilting is preferably only in a direction in which pixel columns of the ICCD extend such that a plane of incidence of incoming light to the ICCD is perpendicular to a direction of wavelength dispersion. The quantum efficiency enhancement device may include re-imaging optics, an optical tilt compensator and optical coupler.
US08054459B2

A method of inspecting a lateral pipe extending from a manhole, said method comprising: (a) inserting an imaging head into said manhole using a positioning system, said imaging head connected to an elongated member and comprising an imaging device adapted to convert an image to an image signal, a lens optically coupled to said imaging device, and at least one lamp suitable for projecting a light beam, said lamp having a beam that is adjustable to enable said beam to move relative said imaging device; (b) imaging a target located within said lateral pipe; (c) holding said imaging device essentially steady while imaging said target and adjusting said beam to adjust the illumination of said target.
US08054444B2

A lens cleaning module for a lithography system having an exposure apparatus including an objective lens is provided. The lens cleaning module includes a scanning stage for supporting a wafer beneath the objective lens. A cleaning module is provided adjacent to the scanning stage for cleaning the objective lens in a non-manual cleaning process.
US08054435B2

A liquid crystal panel includes: a p-type liquid crystal material sandwiched by a pair of substrates and comb-teeth shape electrodes for applying, to the p-type liquid crystal material, an electric field parallel to a substrate surface. The p-type liquid crystal material is aligned vertically with respect to the substrate surface at the time when no electric field is applied. The comb-teeth shape electrodes have an electrode width of 5 μm or less, and an electrode spacing of 15 μm or less. A product of a dielectric constant anisotropy Δε and a refractive index anisotropy Δn of the p-type liquid crystal material is 1.3 or more and 3.1 or less.
US08054433B2

There are provided a viewing angle control device that can provide a black display without coloring and achieve a significantly improved shielding ability during a narrow viewing angle state, and a display using the same. In order to adjust VT (voltage-transmittance) characteristics of a viewing angle control liquid crystal panel (2) that switches a viewing angle between a wide viewing angle state and a narrow viewing angle state by using birefringence of liquid crystal, the viewing angle control liquid crystal panel (2) includes a translucent dielectric film (206g, 206r) for adjusting the voltage-transmittance characteristics of the liquid crystal at a position corresponding to a picture element of at least one color in a display liquid crystal panel (1) on at least one of a pair of translucent substrates (201, 202) that sandwich the liquid crystal therebetween.
US08054430B2

A tetragonal ring shape aperture is formed in the common electrode on one substrate and a cross shape aperture is formed at the position corresponding to the center of the tetragonal ring shape aperture in the pixel electrode on the other substrate. A liquid crystal layer between two electrodes are divided to four domains where the directors of the liquid crystal layer have different angles when a voltage is applied to the electrodes. The directors in adjacent domains make a right angle. The tetragonal ring shape aperture is broken at midpoint of each side of the tetragon, and the width of the aperture decreases as goes from the bent point to the edge. Wide viewing angle is obtained by four domains where the directors of the liquid crystal layer indicate different directions, disclination is removed and luminance increases.
US08054426B2

A VA mode LCD device is disclosed, to improve the viewing-angle properties by isotropically compensating for a viewing angle, in which the VA mode LCD device includes first and second substrates; a plurality of gate and data lines formed on the first substrate, and formed perpendicularly to define a plurality of pixel regions. A thin film transistor is formed in each pixel region of the first substrate. A pixel electrode and a common electrode are formed in each pixel of the respective first and second substrates, wherein the pixel and common electrodes generate an electric field. At least one first slit of a curved-stripe shape, such as a circular-stripe shape, is formed in the pixel electrode of the first substrate. At least one second slit is formed in the common electrode of the second substrate. A liquid crystal layer formed between the first and second substrates.
US08054421B2

The invention relates to a reflective display panel (9), comprising a plurality of pixels (10, 11a b), each having a modulative portion (15, 16a-b) which is controllable between light-modulation states, and a non-modulative portion (17, 18). The reflective display panel (9) comprises a redirection sheet (14) having a plurality of redirecting structures (19, 20) each being configured to redirect ambient light incident thereon towards an adjacent modulative portion (15, 16a-b). Through the invention, the portion of the light which would otherwise have hit the non-modulative portion of the pixel and would not have contributed constructively to the image forming of the display panel is instead directed towards the modulative portion of the pixel and can thereby contribute to the brightness as well as to the contrast of the reflective display panel.
US08054412B2

A light source portion having laser light sources emitting red light, green light, and blue light and conventionally disposed integrally with the liquid crystal display panel is spatially separated from the liquid crystal display panel. Accordingly, the power supply, the optical system, and the heat source are incorporated into the light source portion and are thereby completely separated from the liquid crystal display panel. A laser beam emitted from the light source portion is guided to the liquid crystal display panel via a fiber. In this manner, it is possible to achieve a liquid crystal display device capable of significantly reducing the liquid crystal display panel in thickness and weight.
US08054411B2

This invention relates to a birefringent layer, wherein the direction of the optical axis varies along the thickness direction of the layer, comprisingI) (i) a liquid crystal monomer or pre-polymer having polymerisable groups; and (ii) a monomer or oligomer or polymer having photo-orientable groups, and/or (iii) a liquid crystal monomer or pre-polymer, oligomer or polymer having photo-orientable and polymerisable groups, and (iv) and optionally further components, or II) (v) a liquid crystal monomer or pre-polymer, oligomer or polymer having photo-orientable and polymerisable groups, and (vi) and optionally further components, in addition, this invention relates to a method for the preparation of the birefringent layer, its uses and optical components thereof.
US08054410B2

A pixel structure includes a red sub-pixel, a green sub-pixel, a blue sub-pixel and a white sub-pixel. The red sub-pixel, the green sub-pixel and the blue sub-pixel are suitable for providing a first white light, and a chroma coordinate of the first white light is (x1, y1). The white sub-pixel is suitable for providing a second white light, and a chroma coordinate of the second white light is (x2, y2). The chroma coordinate of the first white light is different from the chroma coordinate of the second white light, that is, (x1, y1)≠(x2, y2), while x2≧x1 and y2≦y1.
US08054397B2

It is an object of the present invention to provide a display device that has a structure of an electrode where a residue of a transparent conductive film is not generated when a weak acid solution is used in etching, which is particularly appropriate for an electrode of a light-emitting element.A display device according to the present invention has an electrode that has a laminated structure of laminated transparent conductive films, and the electrode has a first transparent conductive film as the bottom layer, where no residue is generated when a weak acid solution is used in etching, and a second transparent conductive film as the top layer, which has a work function of 5.0 eV or more.
US08054388B2

A support apparatus is provided for supporting a television or other video display for movement between a viewing position and a storage position. The support apparatus is attached to the frame of an article of furniture such as a bed. The support apparatus may allow the video display to rotate from a vertical, viewing position to a horizontal position in which the video display can be retracted beneath the article of furniture for storage. The movement of the support apparatus may be manual or automatic.
US08054387B2

An electronic apparatus includes a remote control device that transmits a predetermined key code signal, excluding a unique key code (signal) for identifying the device itself, and an operation information signal of a user, a receiving unit that receives the signals to be transmitted by the remote control device, an arithmetic unit, and an ID number setting unit that sets an ID number peculiar to a main body. The arithmetic unit receives the operation information signal when information specified by a set of the key code received by the receiving unit and numerals is consistent with information specified by the ID number set by the ID number setting unit.
US08054386B2

A display system includes a display device and a remote controller. Remote controller makes RF communication with the display device so as to obtain device information and includes a display panel that displays the device information. Remote controller adjusts the device information and sends the adjusted device information to the display device. In the display system, characteristics of the display device are monitored and adjusted by means of remote controller.
US08054385B2

A pre-processor pre-processes enhanced data packets by coding the enhanced data packets for forward error correction (FEC) and expanding the FEC-coded data packets. A data formatter adds first null data into first place holders within each pre-processed enhanced data packet. A first multiplexer multiplexes the main data packets with the enhanced data packets having the first null data. A holder inserter inserts second null data into second place holders within an enhanced data packet outputted from the first multiplexer. A data interleaver replaces the second null data with parity data. A data generator generates at least one known data sequence. A symbol processor replaces the first null data included in an output of the data interleaver with the known data sequence(s). A non-systematic RS encoder generates the parity data by performing non-systematic RS-coding on an output of the symbol processor, and provides the parity data to the data interleaver.
US08054376B2

An image sensor holder a frame, a first slidable holder, a second slidable holder, a first and a second driving arms, a first and a second driving device and at least two restoration devices. The first slidable holder is slidably mounted on the frame. The second slidable holder is slidably mounted on the first slidable holder. The first and second driving devices are separately mounted on the frame. The first driving arm rotatably is mounted on the frame and contacts the first slidable holder and the first driving device by both opposite ends thereof. The second driving arm slidably is mounted on the frame and contacts the second slidable holder and the second driving device respectively by both opposite ends thereof. The restoration devices are respectively positioned on the frame and the first holder for restoring the first and second holders back to original positions.
US08054374B2

An image brightness correction method is described. First, a pre-flash is fired and a pre-flash image is shot. After a main flash duration is estimated according to the pre-flash image and an automatic exposure time of a camera device, a main flash is fired and a raw image is shot. Then, a brightness gain of the raw image is compensated according to a preset gain threshold, and a digital brightness gain of the image is adjusted to enable the image shot each time to achieve the same brightness gain.
US08054369B2

An image capturing device includes a base formed with a first receiving space defined by a bottom wall and a first surrounding wall, and a second receiving space defined by a top side of the first surrounding wall and a second surrounding wall. A lens module is mounted on the base for generating an optical image of an object. An auto-focusing module is disposed in the second receiving space for auto-focusing the optical image based on an external voltage. A sensing module is mounted in the first receiving space and on the bottom wall of the base, is disposed under the auto-focusing module, and is spaced apart from the lens module at a predetermined distance for sensing the optical image focused by the auto-focusing module so as to generate an electrical output corresponding to the optical image.
US08054364B2

A drive control method for an image pickup device is disclosed. The image pickup device includes two-dimensionally arranged light receiving elements to photoelectrically convert incoming light, vertical transfer paths to transfer charges, which have been generated through the photoelectric conversion by the light receiving elements, in the vertical direction, and a horizontal transfer path to transfer the charges, which have been transferred by the vertical transfer path, row by row in the horizontal direction. In the method, the charges, which have been horizontally transferred by the horizontal transfer path, are directed and outputted in more than one directions, and the directed charges are respectively transferred and are added by temporarily stopping the transfer of the charges.
US08054363B2

A method and device having a CCD in which charge multiplication is obtained by applying drive voltages to clocking elements and is arranged to derive the gain provided by the multiplication elements from at least first and second output signals. The CCD is operated at a first voltage or temperature setting, and then a second voltage or temperature setting and the output signals derived with the CCD imaging a substantially constant scene. The gain at a given voltage or temperature setting can then be derived as a function of the different operational voltage of temperature setting. The method and device can also derive the gain as a function of the rate of change of output signal with an operational parameter such as voltage or temperature.
US08054360B2

A device that includes a pixel array and a sample and hold circuit configured to provide sampled current to the pixel array wherein the sample and hold circuit includes a first transistor, a capacitor and a pair of current mirrors. The pair of current minors are connected to the first transistor and wherein the capacitor is connected to a drain of the first transistor. The sample and hold circuit is configured to sample an input current during a sampling phase to provide a sampled current, wherein the sampling includes: providing the input current to the pair of current mirrors and allowing the capacitor to be charged to the capacitor voltage that is a function of the input current; store, during a hold phase, the capacitor voltage; wherein the capacitor voltage forces an output stage of the sample and hold circuit to output a current that is substantially equal to the sampled current; and utilize the pair of current mirrors to force the gate, source and drain voltages of the first transistor to be equal to each other during the hold phase.
US08054343B2

A method for generating an image sequence using an image capture device, the method comprising using image data generated using the device and representative of an existing image of a sequence to assist a user of the device to capture one or more subsequent images for the sequence in order that said existing and the or each subsequent image are captured at substantially the same location and device orientation, and an image capture device operable to assist a user in generating an image sequence.
US08054337B2

A signal processing method and apparatus are provided. A method of serializing signals output from an image sensor is provided which includes sampling a vertical synchronization signal, a horizontal synchronization signal, and parallel image data output from the image sensor, at a first edge of a clock signal, for n cycles of the clock signal, where n is an integer. The method further includes generating a packet including information regarding timing parameters and valid image data based on the sampling result.
US08054328B2

A video phone communication system and method therefor are provided. The system includes a master phone device and at least one extension phone device. The master phone device is connected to the extension phone device through a wired or wireless communication way. The master phone device is used to conduct a voice/image communication with a communication partner, and transmit the voice/image signals of the communication partner to an extension phone device through the wired or wireless communication way. Thus, the image of the communication partner is displayed on a display of the extension phone device. Through the application of the video phone communication system and method of the application, the contents and range of the image displayed can be increased, thus fulfilling the requirements of mobility and multi-party communications in the phone communication.
US08054321B2

A display device includes a data modulator for analyzing a gray level of input data, modulating the input data in accordance with the analyzation result, and inserting one of black data and white data along with the modulated data, and a driver for supplying modulation data from the data modulator and the one of black data and white data to a display panel.
US08054316B2

A system and method for adjusting pictures minimizes the impact on graphics processing performance of a discrete processor. A hybrid system configuration includes the discrete processor and an integrated processor, where the discrete processor typically consumes more power and provides greater processing performance compared with the integrated processor. A picture is produced by a video or graphics engine of a discrete processor within a hybrid system. Each picture is then transferred to a back buffer in the host processing memory. The picture is analyzed to produce picture analysis results that are used to generate adjustment settings. The back buffer is swapped to become the front buffer and the adjustment settings are applied to the picture by an integrated processor to display an adjusted picture. The adjustment may be used in conjunction with power saving techniques to maintain the image quality when display backlighting is reduced.
US08054310B2

Computer-implemented methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for recasting a legacy web page as a motion picture with audio. Embodiments include retrieving a legacy web page; identifying audio objects in the legacy web page for audio rendering; identifying video objects in the legacy web page for motion picture rendering; associating one or more of the video objects for motion picture rendering with one or more of the audio objects for audio rendering; determining in dependence upon the selected audio objects and video objects a duration for the motion picture; selecting audio events for rendering the audio objects identified for audio rendering; selecting motion picture video events for rendering the video objects identified for motion picture rendering; assigning the selected audio events and the selected video events to playback times for the motion picture; rendering, with the selected audio events at their assigned playback times, the audio content of the each of the audio objects identified for audio rendering; rendering, with the selected motion picture video events at their assigned playback times, the video content of the video objects identified for motion picture rendering; and recording in a multimedia file the rendered audio content and motion picture video content.
US08054307B2

A device for driving a light source in an image display device includes input terminals to receive a horizontal synchronization signal and a control signal, an oscillator to generate a reference signal having a frequency, a controller to modulate the reference signal in response to the control signal and output a modulated signal, and a phase difference detecting unit to receive the horizontal synchronization signal and the modulated signal and detect a phase difference between the horizontal synchronization signal and the modulated signal to generate an output signal indicating the phase difference. The oscillator adjusts the frequency of the reference signal in response to the output signal of the phase difference detecting unit so that the horizontal synchronization signal and the reference signal are synchronized with each other.
US08054301B2

There is disclosed an interactive display system comprising an interactive surface for displaying an image and for receiving inputs from remote devices, the system being adapted to detect the presence of at least two remote devices proximate the interactive surface.
US08054299B2

An embodiment of an improved touch surface controller for controlling a multi-point touch surface such as a touch screen or a touch pad in a computer system is disclosed. The improved touch system controller detects signal capacitance from the pixels in the touch surface digitally, and therefore is easier and simpler to implement then previous approaches relying on analog detection and processing. Specifically, signal capacitance is measured by measuring a number of clock cycles taken to discharge or charge the input node of a comparator. Embodiments of the disclosed touch surface controller are particularly useful in the context of detecting multiple simultaneous touches on the touch surface.
US08054292B1

A mouse having an adjustable body size includes a mouse body having a first side and a second side; and a palm rest coupled to the mouse body, wherein the palm rest has a first size and the palm rest is configured to be removed from the mouse body to fit another palm rest to the mouse body having a second size that is different from the first size. The palm rest includes a first arm, a second arm, and a body portion that couples the first arm and the second arm. The first arm and the second arm are respectively coupled to the first side and second side of the mouse body.
US08054284B2

A back light module and a method for driving the back light module are disclosed. The back light module includes a plurality of light emitting units and a driving unit. The driving unit is electrically connected to the light emitting units and utilized for driving the light emitting units according to a switched-on number of the light emitting units and a dithering scheme.
US08054280B2

A display apparatus including a display driver. The data driver includes a converter to receive and convert image data in digital form into data voltages in analog form, and to provide the data voltages to output buffers. The output buffers receive and buffer the data voltages based on bias voltages generated as part of a feedback path between a bias voltage control circuit and the output buffers. The data voltages are provided to a display part. Before the data voltages output from the output buffers are provided to the display part, the bias voltage control part receives data voltage from the output buffers to count a slew rate of the data voltage, and varies the voltage level of the bias voltage based on the counted result of the slew rate, thereby providing feedback to the output buffers. Accordingly, differences of the slew rate between the data voltages output from the output buffers may be decreased.
US08054274B2

An exemplary liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel configured for displaying images according to external image data. The liquid crystal panel comprising a plurality of sub-pixel regions and a controlling circuit. The sub-pixel regions are arranged regularly, each of the sub-pixel regions having either a positive polarity or a negative polarity when displaying images. The controlling circuit is configured to adjust a common voltage applied to the liquid crystal panel according to a relationship between variations of the common voltage and polarity information of at least a plurality of the sub-pixel regions during operation of the liquid crystal display device.
US08054266B2

A driving apparatus for a display device includes a gray voltage generator that generates a plurality of gray voltage sets, each including a plurality of gray voltages having different levels, and a signal converter that includes a first selector for selecting one gray voltage set among the plurality of gray voltage sets on the basis of a first portion of an image signal and a second selector for selecting one or more gray voltages among the plurality of gray voltages belonging to the selected gray voltage set on the basis of a second portion of the image signal to output and select gray voltages with a smaller size digital-analog converter.
US08054259B2

A pixel for compensating for the threshold voltage of a drive transistor and the voltage drop of a first power source is provided. The pixel includes an organic light emitting diode; a driving transistor coupled between a first power source and the organic light emitting diode for controlling the current supplied to the organic light emitting diode; an emission control transistor coupled between a first electrode of the driving transistor and the first power source and configured to be turned off when a high light emission control signal is applied; a switching transistor coupled between a gate electrode of the driving transistor and a data line and configured to be turned on when a low scan signal is applied; a first capacitor coupled between the gate electrode of the driving transistor and the first electrode of the driving transistor; and a second capacitor coupled between the first electrode of the driving transistor and the first power source.
US08054255B2

An organic light emitting display device including: an optical sensor for generating an optical sensor signal corresponding to brightness of ambient light; a first luminance control unit for generating a pulse width (EW1) of a brightness control signal in accordance with the optical sensor signal; a second luminance control unit for generating a fluctuated value (EW2) for the pulse width of the brightness control signal in accordance with the optical sensor signal and data of one frame of the image; and a luminance control signal generation unit for generating a luminance control signal (Vc) for controlling a scan driver in accordance with the pulse width of the brightness control signal and the fluctuated value.
US08054238B2

A balanced patched inverse F antenna comprises a radiation conductor and a balun circuit. The radiation conductor includes a main body, a first branch and a second branch. The balun circuit includes an unbalanced port, a balanced port, and first, second, third and fourth components, with the first, second, third and fourth components being serially connected. A feeding input of the unbalanced port is connected to the second and third components, a grounding wire of the unbalanced port is connected to the first and fourth components, an inverting terminal of the balanced port is connected to the first and second components, a non-inverting terminal of the balanced port is connected to the third and fourth components, and the inverting and non-inverting terminals are respectively connected to the first and second branches.
US08054236B2

A lossless broadband dipole antenna of length L having three collinear parts including a central part and two external parts. The parts are separated by slits, with a first feeding point for the antenna being located at a first end of one of the external parts nearest the slits, and a second feeding point being located at a second end of the other external part nearest the slits. The two feeding points of the antenna at the slits are arranged at a distance d from each other along the length L of the antenna, d/L being chosen such that d L = 0.37 ± 0.04 .
US08054226B2

A method localizes a set of nodes in a wireless network that includes a target node having unknown location and a set of anchor nodes having known locations. The set of anchor nodes is partitioned into subsets of anchor nodes, wherein each subset has at least three anchor nodes. A distance from the target node to each of anchor nodes in each subset is measured, to estimate possible locations of the target node. A geometric constraint is applied to each estimated location to determine valid locations, which are then filtered to determine filtered locations. The filtered locations are averaged to determine an initial estimate of the location.
US08054223B2

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to a method for association in contention access periods and to a method for multi-cycle training in channel time allocation periods.
US08054220B1

A method of variable rate measurements in a device. The method generally includes the steps of (A) generating an intermediate signal conveying both a position of the device and a velocity of the device in response to a plurality of navigation signals received from external the device, (B) calculating an extrapolated position of the device at a second time based on the position and the velocity both measured at a first time, (C) adjusting an interval between the second time and a third time in response to a difference between the extrapolated position and the position measured at the second time and (D) generating a position signal conveying the position and the velocity, wherein the third time occurs after the second time and the second time occurs after the first time.
US08054217B2

A detection system and method. The inventive system includes an arrangement for receiving a frame of image data; an arrangement for performing a rate of change of variance calculation with respect to at least one pixel in said frame of image data; and an arrangement for comparing said calculated rate of change of variance with a predetermined threshold to provide output data. In the illustrative embodiment, the frame of image data includes a range/Doppler matrix of N down range samples and M cross range samples. In this embodiment, the arrangement for performing a rate of change of variance calculation includes an arrangement for calculating a rate of change of variance over an N×M window within the range/Doppler matrix. The arrangement for performing a rate of change of variance calculation includes an arrangement for identifying a change in a standard deviation of a small, localized sampling of cells. In accordance with the invention, the arrangement for performing a rate of change of variance calculation outputs a rate of change of variance pixel map.
US08054213B2

A method and apparatus for transmitting beams of electromagnetic energy. A plurality of beams having a first number of frequencies and a number of beams having a second number of frequencies are transmitted. The plurality of beams and the number of beams overlap each other at an area with a pattern of intensities in the area. Difference frequency signals having a number of difference frequencies equal to a difference between the first number of frequencies and the second number of frequencies are monitored. The difference frequency signals are generated by an object having non-linear electrical characteristics in response to receiving the plurality of beams and the number of beams.
US08054207B1

Systems and methods are provided for encoding and decoding constrained codewords using an enumerative coding graph. The constrained codewords may contain run-length and DC level limits. The enumerative coding graph contains a series of states and each state has multiple branches that lead to other states. Each state in the enumerative coding graph is associated with at least two bits of an enumerative codeword. Configuring the structure of the graph and cardinalities associated with each state allows the encoder to generate a code that conforms to defined constraints.
US08054204B2

A method and system is provided for updating a sensor disposed within a mobile unit. The method includes the steps of: a) providing a remote server and at least one sensor, which remote server and sensor are located in the mobile unit and are in communications with one another through a first wireless network, and wherein the sensor has a first functionality; b) receiving an update signal transmitted from a base server to the remote server over a second wireless network; c) transmitting the received update signal from the remote server to the sensor over the first wireless network; and d) reconfiguring the sensor from the first functionality to a second functionality based upon the transmitted update signal.
US08054193B1

Method for controlling output of a classification algorithm which classifies an occupant of a seat in a vehicle in which a bladder or other type of weight sensor is arranged in a bottom cushion of the seat, data relating to the pressure exerted by the occupant on the bottom cushion is obtained from the weight sensor, the occupant is initially classified, a current classification is output using data from the weight sensor, the occupant is periodically re-classified using data from the weight sensor, and a classification change is allowed only upon obtaining evidence of a new classification which is greater than evidence of the current classification. The classification change may be enabled by determining a substantially consecutive period of time when the re-classification is unchanged and different from the current classification, and enabling the classification change upon when the consecutive period of time is greater than a threshold.
US08054184B2

A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag is embedded on a surgical instrument and a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader is provided on a surgical robot to allow identification of the attached surgical instrument. The RFID tag includes an RFID circuit assembly, a first pot core half, and a first toroidal wire coil that fits within the first pot core half and is electrically coupled to the RFID circuit assembly to modulate received radio frequency (RF) energy. The RFID reader includes an RFID transceiver circuit, a second pot core half, and a second toroidal wire coil that fits within the second pot core half and is electrically coupled to the transceiver circuit to transmit RF energy and receive modulated RF energy from the first wire coil only when the first pot core half is substantially aligned with and proximate to the second pot core half.
US08054181B2

An exclusion zone compliance circuit comprises a terrestrial radio signal reception component for receiving a terrestrial radio signal comprising a unique identification of a transmission source. A non-volatile memory component of the circuit stores an encrypted data set describing boundaries of an exclusion zone. A navigation data deriving component of the circuit accesses a data set and compares the unique identification with a station identification of the transmission source and the geographic position of the transmission source. The navigation data deriving component derives a geographic position of the exclusion zone compliance circuit and determines whether the exclusion zone compliance circuit is located within an exclusion zone. A data blocking component of the circuit accesses the encrypted data set. A data control component of the exclusion zone compliance circuit blocks output of a signal in response to an indication that the circuit is located within an exclusion zone.
US08054176B2

A data transmission method for use in the transmission of a performance transmitter of a portable user-specific performance monitor by using wireless data transmission that is based on radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation, and the method comprises measuring with the performance monitor the movement and/or organ system state of a user. In the solution, the availability of wireless data transmission in the performance transmitter is determined. If wireless data transmission is not available, measuring data is stored into a memory of the performance transmitter, otherwise the measuring data is transmitted using wireless data transmission.
US08054172B2

The present invention relates to an apparatus with reconfiguration function and signal gathering function. The apparatus with reconfiguration function and signal gathering function according to the present invention comprises a signal gathering unit which gathers at least one alarm digital alarm signal, an alarm signal address setting unit where the address of the alarm signal gathering unit is setup; and an alarm signal collection controller which outputs the at least one digital alarm signal through serial bus. Therefore, address is allocated to a plurality of digital signals and thus the number of necessary components decreases and the embodiment area decreases, as well.
US08054168B2

A method for estimating an emergency level of a vehicular accident includes detecting an event associated with the vehicular accident, initiating a video recording of an interior and/or exterior of the vehicle in response to the detecting of the event, uploading the video recording on a remotely accessible page, and reviewing the uploaded video recording to estimate the emergency level of the vehicular accident. Also disclosed herein is a system for accomplishing the same.
US08054167B2

An onboard vehicle information notifying apparatus is proved with a moving body position acquiring section, an information acquiring section, an information providing zone setting section and an information notifying section. The moving body position acquiring section acquires a moving body position for at least one moving body existing in a vicinity of a host vehicle. The information acquiring section acquires an advancement speed and an advancement direction of the host vehicle, and a prescribed movement speed of the moving body. The information providing zone setting section sets an information providing zone within which existence of the moving body should be reported, based on information acquired by the information acquiring section. The information notifying section reports the existence of the moving body when the position of the moving body acquired by the moving body position acquiring section exists within the information providing zone set by the information providing zone setting section.
US08054166B2

A method for accessing and browsing the internet through the use of a telephone and the associated DTMF signals is disclosed. The preferred embodiment provides a system that converts the information content of a web page from text to speech (voice signals), signals the hyperlink selections of a web page in an audio manner, and allows selection of the hyperlinks through the use of DTMF signals generated from a telephone keypad. Upon receiving a DTMF signal corresponding to a hyperlink, the corresponding web page is fetched and again delivered to the user via one of the available delivery methods such as voice, fax-on-demand, electronic mail, or regular mail.
US08054161B2

A method and apparatus for suppressing a transmit leakage signal of a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader is provided. The apparatus includes: a first power distributor distributing a transmission signal to output a first transmission signal and a second transmission signal; a second power distributor distributing the second transmission signal to output a third transmission signal and a fourth transmission signal; a first amplitude/phase converter converting an amplitude and a phase of the first transmission signal to generate a first converted signal; a second amplitude/phase converter converting an amplitude and a phase of the third transmission signal to generate a second converted signal; a first power combiner combining the first converted signal with a first leakage signal generated in association with the fourth transmission signal; and a second power combiner combining the second converted signal with a second leakage signal generated in association with the fourth transmission signal.
US08054148B2

A device for controlling the flow of electric current is provided. The device comprises a first conductor as thin film form; a second conductor switchably coupled to the first conductor to alternate between an electrically connected state with the first conductor and an electrically disconnected state with the first conductor. At least one conductor further comprises an electrical contact, the electrical contact comprising a solid matrix comprising a plurality of pores; and a filler material disposed within at least a portion of the plurality of pores. The filler material has a melting point of less than about 575 K. A method to make an electrical contact is provided. The method includes the steps of: providing a substrate; providing a plurality of pores on the substrate; and disposing a filler material within at least a portion of the plurality of pores. The filler material has a melting point of less than about 575 K.
US08054146B2

The invention provides simplified negative index materials (NIMs) using wire-pair structures, 4-gap single ring split-ring resonator (SRR), fishnet structures and overleaf capacitor SRR. In the wire-pair arrangement, a pair of short parallel wires and continuous wires are used. In the 4-gap single-ring SRR, the SRRs are centered on the faces of a cubic unit cell combined with a continuous wire type resonator. Combining both elements creates a frequency band where the metamaterial is transparent with simultaneously negative ∈ and μ. In the fishnet structure, a metallic mesh on both sides of the dielectric spacer is used. The overleaf capacitor SRR changes the gap capacities to small plate capacitors by making the sections of the SRR ring overlap at the gaps separated by a thin dielectric film. This technique is applicable to conventional SRR gaps but it best deploys for the 4-gap single-ring structures.
US08054144B2

Various embodiments include apparatus, systems, and methods having a conductive contact configured to couple to a resistor-capacitor (RC) network, a device unit coupled to the conductive contact, and a mode switching unit to change a characteristic of a signal at the conductive contact based at least in part on an RC time constant of the RC network. The mode switching unit may switch the device unit between a first operating mode and a second operating mode based on a signal level of the signal.
US08054136B2

An electronic circuit includes a transimpedance amplifier, a bypass circuit that allows a part of an input signal to be applied to the transimpedance amplifier to flow through the bypass circuit so as to bypass the transimpedance amplifier on the basis of a control signal, and a control signal circuit that includes a hold circuit having a time constant that is variable on the basis of a time constant control signal and generates the control signal.
US08054131B2

A transconductor circuit, particularly according to the multi-tanh principle, having a first input node and a second input node, a first differential amplifier coupled to the first and second input nodes, and having a first offset voltage, and a second differential amplifier coupled to the first and second input nodes, and having a second offset voltage different from the first offset voltage. A first resistance circuit is coupled between the first differential amplifier and at least one current source, and a second resistance circuit is coupled between the second differential amplifier and the at least one current source. Varying of the current sources enables control of the transconductance without degrading linearity.
US08054125B2

A charge pump circuitry for generating a charging voltage for programming a one time programmable (OTP) memory includes a charge pump sub-circuit for generating the charging voltage in a second voltage range when the charging voltage exceeds a threshold level. A precharge circuit generates the charging voltage in a first voltage range when the charging voltage is below the threshold level. A voltage measurement circuit determines the charging voltage. A first control circuit enables the precharge circuit and disables the charge pump sub-circuit in a first mode of operation responsive to the charging voltage being determined to be below the threshold level and disables the precharge circuit and enables the charge pump sub-circuit in a second mode of operation responsive to the charging voltage being determined to exceed the threshold level. A second control circuit provides an indication that the charging voltage has reached a charging level for programming the OTP memory responsive to the determined charging voltage.
US08054118B2

System and method, including path sections, each path section including a supply line into which a medium-frequency current is able to be injected by an infeed assigned to the particular path section, each infeed encompassing a control circuit, a first one of the control circuits transmitting a clock signal for the synchronization of the additional infeeds thereto.
US08054114B2

A fractional-N phase-locked loop (PLL) includes a phase detector, a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), a frequency divider and a frequency multiplier with a multiplication factor of a mixed number. The phase detector compares phase difference between a reference frequency and a divided signal from the frequency divider. The voltage-controlled oscillator generates the output frequency according to the phase difference. The frequency multiplier performs frequency multiplication on the output frequency to generate a multiplied signal, and the frequency multiplier comprises a second phase-locked loop, to form a second loop. The frequency divider performs frequency division on the multiplied signal to generate the divided signal. The divided signal and the reference frequency are compared by the phase detector to determine the phase difference.
US08054112B2

A reset control apparatus may include a first reference generator adapted to output a first reference value in response to an enable signal from an external power source, a second reference generator adapted to receive the first reference value and to output a second reference value, and a set signal generator adapted to output a set signal when the second reference value exceeds a predetermined value.
US08054109B2

A low-current input buffer is disclosed. The buffer uses self-biased N and P channel differential pairs with their outputs tied together. The self-biasing assists in reducing current consumption. The combination of N and P-channel differential pairs results in symmetry across a wide range of reference and supply voltages.
US08054098B2

Embodiments generally describe techniques for an integrated circuit having a physical unclonable function (PUF). Example integrated circuits may include an input circuit having an input network, a configurable delay circuit having one or more configurable delay chains, and an output circuit having one or more arbiters, serially coupled together. Each delay chain may include a number of serially coupled configurable switching-delay elements adapted to receive, configurably propagate, and output two delayed signals. Each delay chain may be configured using configuration signals responsively output by the input network in response to challenges provided to the input network. The output circuit may further include an output network to generate combined output signals based on the signals output by the arbiters. Each of the input and/or output networks may comprise combinatorial logic, sequential logic, or another PUF, which may be of the same design. Other embodiments may be disclosed and claimed.
US08054091B2

A novel microfluidic device has been developed to measure stability of thin liquid films of water in oil emulsions using electrochemical perturbation of interfaces. This new device can be utilized in rapid classification of de-emulsifiers used in petroleum industries. Although water/crude oil emulsions have been the primary focus of this research, this measurement platform can be used in other industries such as food, cosmetics and bio-engineering (bilayer lipid membranes) as well as environmental remediation of oil spills. The compact design of the device and replacement of the mechanical measurements such as pressure with electrical signal measurements contributes in substantial size reduction of the experimental platform so that it can be employed for onsite measurements in remote areas.
US08054089B2

The present invention is based on the finding that a capacitance can be measured precisely and efficiently when, in a delta-sigma modulator having an operational amplifier, a first capacitor connectable to an input of the operational amplifier, and a second capacitor in a feedback branch of the operational amplifier, a reference signal source is connectable to the first capacitor, wherein the first or second capacitor may represent a capacitance to be measured. Due to the fact that, in contrast to what is conventional, no input quantity is measured and digitalized at the input of the delta-sigma modulator, but instead a defined reference signal source is coupled at the input and a device of the delta-sigma modulator itself represents the measuring quantity, an extremely compact circuit is provided allowing capacitances to be measured quickly and reliably, the measuring result being additionally made available in a digital form.
US08054082B2

The measurement is carried out by a device of two non- dissociable measurement chains resulting in a continuous measurement which is representative of the total concentration of tars (even as traces) of a hot gas. It involves coupling of methods including one, SPME/GC/MS/PID, which is discontinuous and a priori partial, the other, PID, which is continuous but difficult to interpret alone. It is based on on-line processing of the elements transmitted by each of the measurement methods used. A tar generator (28) allows calibration of the apparatuses and calculation of the different coefficients required.
US08054081B2

Provided is an excellent residual gas analyzer, which can perform measurements while being suitably arranged even in small areas, such as those in semiconductor equipments, and can perform measurements for display of measurement results without an external personal computer. The analyzer is provided with a sensor unit having a sensor section for detecting a residual gas; an operating section for receiving operation for controlling the sensor section; a residual gas analysis processing section for processing analysis of the residual gas based on the output from the sensor section; and an analysis processing result screen display section for displaying on a screen the analysis processing results obtained from the residual gas analysis processing section. The analyzer is also provided with a device main body which can be in a mounted status wherein the sensor unit is mounted or in a removed status wherein the sensor unit is removed.
US08054079B2

In one embodiment a method for processing a reconstruction image is disclosed. The method includes recording the reconstruction image by a magnetic resonance device having a gradient coil to generate a gradient field. The method further includes distortion-correcting the reconstruction image. The method further includes back-transforming the distortion-corrected reconstruction image, by an image processing device, into a distortion-uncorrected reconstruction image, the back-transforming uses an algorithm having a first input value describing a real gradient field given at a real measuring point of the signal.
US08054074B2

An atomic magnetometer includes a cell containing an atomic group, a pump light source, a probe light source, a mirror, and a detector. The cell is disposed between the pump light source and the mirror and between the probe light source and the detector. A pump beam emitted from the pump light source is circularly polarized light. The pump beam passes through the cell and is reflected by the mirror and then passes through the cell again. The probe beam emitted from the probe light source is linearly polarized light. An optical path of the probe beam is parallel to the plane of incidence of the pump beam and is also parallel to the surface of the mirror. The optical path of the probe beam crosses the optical path of the pump beam in the cell. The probe beam which has passed through the cell enters the detector.
US08054068B2

A magnetic absolute position sensor comprises: a read head, a horizontal magnetic scale, and an oblique magnetic scale. The read head is provided with a first position sensing unit and a second position sensing unit which are used produce signal with respect to the horizontal magnetic scale and the oblique magnetic scale, respectively. The distance between the first position sensing unit and the horizontal magnetic scale is constant, and the distance between the second position sensing unit and the oblique magnetic scale changes from narrow to wide. The absolute position identifying system is electrical connected to the first and second position sensing units, respectively, to obtain absolute position coordinates.
US08054059B2

A current sense circuit includes a power transistor, a first level shifter, an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA), a second level shifter, and a dummy transistor. The power transistor has a first terminal and a power control terminal coupled to a control voltage. The first level shifter is coupled to the first terminal and pulls up a voltage of the first terminal to an operating voltage. The OTA is coupled to the first level shifter and converts the operating voltage into an operating current. The second level shifter is coupled to the OTA and pulls down the operating voltage to the voltage of the first terminal. The dummy transistor has a dummy control terminal with the control voltage, and a third terminal coupled to the second level shifter and having the same voltage as the voltage of the first terminal.
US08054051B2

The present invention provides, as one aspect, an apparatus for detecting an abnormality of a generator for vehicles. The generator includes a multi-phase armature winding that has phase windings and a rectifier that rectifies multi-phase output of the armature winding. The apparatus includes a first period detection unit that detects a first period of an output voltage of the generator, a second period detection unit that detects a second period of an voltage of one of the phase windings, and an abnormality determination unit that determines presence or absence of an abnormality of the generator by comparing the first period with the second period.
US08054050B2

In an electrical power system of a diesel powered system having at least one diesel-fueled power generation unit, the electrical power system configurable in a starting mode for cranking the diesel fueled power unit, the electrical power system having a synchronous machine coupled to the diesel-fueled power generation unit, the synchronous machine having a field winding connected in a parallel relationship with a current conditioner, a method for reconfiguring a baseline circuit topology of the electrical power system for controlling a voltage being developed across the field winding including uncoupling the field winding from the parallel relationship with the current conditioner, and coupling the field winding in a series relationship with the current conditioner.
US08054048B2

Methods and systems are provided for controlling the charging of an onboard energy storage system of a plug-in vehicle using a remote command center, such as a vehicle telematics service. An embodiment of such a method involves the transmission of a charge request for the onboard energy storage system to a remote command center associated with the plug-in vehicle. In response to the charge request, a charge command is received from the remote command center. The charging of the onboard energy storage system is regulated in accordance with the received charge command, which may be a charge enable command or a charge disable command.
US08054042B2

A modular power supply that can be adapted to receive and charge practically any type or number of portable electronic devices includes a power converter that receives an AC wall voltage and converts the wall voltage to DC bus voltage. Each charging module has a pair of conductive rails and magnets positioned around the exterior of the module. The power converter has a connector that is physically and electrically coupled to a charging module through a pair of magnets and conductive rails such that the DC bus voltage is applied to the conductive rails of the module. Each charging module has a dock that physically couples to a portable electronic device and supplies a charging voltage produced from the DC bus voltage to the device. Additional charging modules can be physically and electrically coupled together by simply placing the modules adjacent one another through the interaction of the module's conductive rails and magnets. Adapters can be inserted into the docks of the charging modules to reconfigure the docks stations to mate with different types of devices. An FM transmitter can be included in one of the modules to transmit audio from the charging device to a remote FM receiver.
US08054038B2

A method and apparatus for optimizing the level of battery charging required by an electric vehicle is provided. The system includes an interface for the user to input various travel parameters, such as a travel itinerary, which is then used by the battery charging system during charge optimization. In addition to a travel itinerary, the system may be configured to take into account departure times, road conditions, traffic conditions and weather conditions in determining miles to be traveled as well as the electrical energy per mile conversion factors to be used during optimization.
US08054028B2

A table containing correspondence between “n” and “m” is set in a control circuit of a servo control system so that the current command data in the m-th (m=1, 2, 3 . . . ) current command register is assigned to the n-th (n=1, 2, 3 . . . ) servo amplifier. When data is specified in this table to satisfy “n=m”, the current command data in the n-th current command register is passed to the n-th servo amplifier. When “m=1” is set for “n=1” and “m=1” is set for “n=2” in this table, the current command data stored in the first current command register is passed to the first and second servo amplifiers.
US08054027B2

A robot control unit (30) comprises: a setting means (40) for setting operating ranges of each shaft and a working tool of the robot (20); a storage means (33) for storing an inertial running distance of the robot decided by at least one of the operating speed of the robot and the weight of the working tool; and an arriving range calculation means (36) for calculating an arriving range to which the robot arrives according to the operating range, which has been set by the setting means, and the inertial running distance stored by the storage means. Due to the foregoing, while consideration is being given to the inertial running distance of a robot, the arriving range of the robot is made. Further, a display means (41) for displaying the arriving range may be provided. In the case where each shaft of the robot and the working tool deviate from the operating range, a stopping means (34) for stopping the robot may be provided.
US08054011B2

A variable frequency transformer including: a first parallel circuit including at least two of the rotary transformers arranged in parallel and having an isolating circuit breaker connected to a rotor winding of each of the rotary transformers, and a separate synchronizing circuit breaker connected to a stator winding in each of the rotary transformers in the first parallel circuit; a first main transformer having a first winding connectable to a first power grid and a secondary winding connectable to the isolating circuit breaker in the first parallel circuit; a second main transformer having a first winding connectable to a second power grid and a secondary winding connectable to each of the synchronizing circuit breakers in the first parallel circuit, and a control system operatively connected to each of the synchronizing circuit breakers, the isolating circuit breakers and the drive motors for each of the rotary transformers.
US08054006B2

A power supply of luminous sources is disclosed comprising a first circuit configured to generate a direct voltage signal from an alternating input voltage and a second circuit having in input the direct voltage signal and configured to generate an alternating voltage signal of rectangular wave shape and null average value. The power supply comprises: a third circuit configured to generate a current signal of triangular wave shape from the alternating voltage signal, a fourth circuit configured to extract from the current signal a voltage signal of triangular wave shape and non-null average value, a fifth circuit configured to control the frequency of the alternating voltage signal based on the average value of the voltage signal extracted by the fourth circuit, a sixth circuit configured to rectify said current signal and supply the luminous sources.
US08054004B2

A bipolar (dis)charge LED drive method and circuit thereof which is having a diode connected in series of forward polarity with an light emitting diode before being connected in parallel with a bipolar capacitor of the same polarity to constitute the first component, and having a diode, a capacitor and an optional light emitting diode to constitute the second component; the first and second components are connected in series of reversed polarity to be driven by AC, or DC power capable of periodical exchange polarity.
US08054002B2

The present invention relates to a light emitting device. The light emitting device according to the present invention comprises a light emitting cell block having a plurality of light emitting cells; and a bridge rectifying circuit connected to input and output terminals of the light emitting cell block, wherein the bridge rectifying circuit includes a plurality of diodes between nodes. In manufacturing an AC light emitting device with a bridge rectifying circuit built therein, the present invention can provide a light emitting device capable of enhancing the reliability and luminance of the light emitting device by setting the size of diodes of the bridge rectifying circuit to be a certain size and controlling the number thereof.
US08054001B2

A circuit structure for LCD backlight is disclosed in the present invention. The circuit structure includes an inverter topology, a current balance circuit, and a plurality of loads. The current balance circuit is coupled to the plurality of loads and capable of balancing current of N loads by using N/2−1 balance chokes. The circuit structure may further include a protection circuit which is coupled to the low voltage sides of the plurality of loads. The protection circuit is capable of sensing lamp voltages and providing a feedback signal to a controller. Furthermore, the protection circuit is composed of count-reduced and cost-competitive electronic elements.
US08053987B2

It is an object of the present invention to provide a PDP and an FED with excellent visibility and a high level of reliability that each have an antireflective function by which reflection of external light can be reduced. A plurality of adjacent pyramidal-shaped projections and an antireflective layer equipped with a covering film that covers the projections are provided. The reflection of light is prevented by the index of refraction of incident light from external being changed by a pyramid, which is a physical shape, projecting out toward an external side (atmosphere side) of a substrate that is to be used as a display screen as well as by the covering film used to cover the projections being formed of a material that has a higher index of refraction than the index of refraction of the pyramidal projection.
US08053986B2

A Plasma Display Panel (PDP) enabling optimization of a process to apply phosphor paste in order to achieve mass production using a jet nozzle method includes dummy areas structured to determine whether application conditions such as an ejecting pressure or the like are stable by measuring a depth of the applied layer after applying phosphor paste at a portion thereof in advance. The PDP includes: a first substrate and a second substrate opposing each other; address electrodes arranged on the first substrate; display electrodes arranged on the second substrate along a direction perpendicular to the address electrodes; barrier ribs arranged in a space between the first substrate and the second substrate to define a plurality of discharge cells, and phosphor layers arranged in each of the discharge cells.
US08053980B2

The present invention provides a light-emitting device includes first, second and third light-emitting elements, emitting light having different color. The first light-emitting element includes a first anode; a first cathode; and first and second light-emitting layers therebetween, wherein the first light-emitting layer includes a first high light-emitting substance and a first organic compound, and the second light-emitting layer includes the first high light-emitting substance and a second organic compound. The second light-emitting element includes a second anode; a second cathode; and a third light-emitting layer and a layer for controlling carrier transfer therebetween, wherein the third light-emitting layer includes a second high light-emitting substance, wherein the layer for controlling carrier transfer includes third and fourth organic compounds. The third light-emitting element includes a third anode; a third cathode; and a fourth light-emitting layer, wherein the fourth light-emitting layer includes fifth and sixth organic compounds, and a third high light-emitting substance.
US08053975B2

Organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) are provided. An exemplary OLED includes a substrate, a first electrode, a second electrode, and an organic layer between the first and second electrodes having a hole injection layer and an emissive layer. The emissive layer includes red, green and blue emissive layers. The organic layer further includes an auxiliary layer selected from a first auxiliary layer between the hole injection layer and the red emissive layer for adjusting the resonance cycle of red light, a second auxiliary layer between the hole injection layer and the green emissive layer for adjusting the resonance cycle of green light, and combinations thereof. The material of the auxiliary layer is different from the material of the hole injection layer. The organic light emitting device has low turn-on voltage, high current density, high luminance, high current efficiency, high power, long life-time, and excellent color purity.
US08053970B2

An LED with a semiconductor light emitting element that emits a blue or a blue-violet light, and a fluorescent material that absorbs some or all of the light emitted from the element and emits a fluorescent light of a wavelength different from the absorbed light. The fluorescent material is a mixed fluorescent material obtained by mixing a first fluorescent material that emits a blue-green or a green light, a second fluorescent material that has a peak emission wavelength longer than that of the first fluorescent material and emits a green or a yellow-green light, a third fluorescent material that has a 1 peak emission wavelength longer than that of the second fluorescent material and emits a yellow-green, a yellow or a yellow-red light, and a fourth fluorescent material that has a peak emission wavelength longer than that of the third fluorescent material and emits a yellow-red or a red light.
US08053969B2

An LED package structure for increasing light-emitting efficiency includes a heat-dissipating unit, an insulating unit, a light-emitting unit and a conductive unit. The heat-dissipating unit has a heat-dissipating substrate. The insulating unit has an insulating layer formed on the heat-dissipating substrate and at least one receiving groove passing through the insulating layer and formed above the heat-dissipating substrate. The insulating layer has a top surface on a top side thereof and an inner surface, and the inner surface of the insulating layer is an annular inclined surface in the receiving groove. The light-emitting unit has at least one light-emitting element received in the receiving groove and disposed on the heat-dissipating substrate. The conductive unit has at least two conductive structures disposed on the insulating layer and separated from each other, and the light-emitting element has two electrodes respectively electrically connected to the two conductive structures via two conductive wires.
US08053967B2

An electron emission device includes a cathode electrode and a gate electrode, the gate electrode is separated and insulated from the cathode electrode, the gate electrode is a carbon nanotube layer, and the carbon nanotube layer includes a plurality of carbon nanotube wire-like structures. A display device that includes the electron emission device is also disclosed.
US08053966B2

An insulator for a spark ignition device is disclosed which includes an electrically insulating ceramic core tube having a terminal end, a firing end and an inner bore which extends along a longitudinal bore axis from the terminal end to the firing end and an electrically insulating, ceramic core nose tube having a second outer surface and a second bore where the second outer surface of said ceramic core nose tube is in nested engagement with and directly bonded to the bore of the ceramic core tube proximate the firing end. The insulator also may include a similarly nested and directly bonded shoulder tube on an outer surface of the core tube, or a nested and directly bonded mast tube on an outer surface of the core tube. The ceramics may include alumina-based ceramics, as well other suitable ceramic materials, and the tube may be made from the same ceramic compositions or different ceramic compositions. The invention also includes a method of making the nested tube, directly boded insulators by controlling shrinkage during sintering.
US08053965B2

An igniter for an internal combustion engine, the igniter comprising: a center electrode; an insulator disposed about the center electrode; a ground shield disposed about the insulator, the insulator having a tip portion extending past an end portion of the ground shield and a tip portion of the center electrode extending through and away from the tip portion of the insulator; and a spark gap disposed between the tip portion of the center electrode and the end portion of the ground shield.
US08053959B2

A light-emitting diode (LED) lamp device includes at least one light-emitting module and a heat-dissipation module. The heat-dissipation module includes a plurality of cooling fins arranged in a radial pattern and connected annularly at intervals around the light-emitting module. Each of the cooling fins has an outer rim folded back a predetermined distance toward the light-emitting module to form a bent edge. The bent edges are formed with arcuate folded-back portions so that the cooling fins have rib-like outer perimeters after the bent edges are formed. Thus, the LED lamp device is allowed to be held safely by the folded-back portions while the cooling fins are structurally strengthened.
US08053958B2

A piezoelectric resonator element includes: a resonating arm extending in a first direction and cantilever-supported; a base portion cantilever-supporting the resonating arm; and an excitation electrode allowing the resonating arm to perform flexural vibration in a second direction that is orthogonal to the first direction. In the piezoelectric resonator element, the resonating arm includes an adjusting part adjusting rigidity with respect to a bend in a third direction that is orthogonal to the first and second directions.
US08053955B2

A piezoelectric device includes a lower electrode, a piezoelectric film and an upper electrode laminated in this order on a support. An oxide film containing a material that forms a lower electrode is formed on a side surface of the piezoelectric film. The piezoelectric device is produced such that an upper electrode and a piezoelectric film are patterned by dry-etching through a mask formed on a side of the upper electrode of the piezoelectric device member and thereafter a side surface of the patterned piezoelectric film (a film adhered to a side wall) is oxidized to form an oxide film.
US08053953B2

An electronic component, which is surface-mounted on a wiring board by soldering, and in which the occurrence of cracks in the solder after surface-mounting is suppressed, may include: a member constituting at least part of a container and made of ceramic; and an external terminal provided on the outer surface of the member and used in surface-mounting the electronic component on the wiring board by solder. The film thickness of a layer constituting the external terminal is designed so that when the thermal expansion coefficient of the ceramic constituting the member is α1, combined expansion coefficient αk of the member and the external terminal satisfies a relation of 1.029≦αk/α1≦1.216. The external terminal preferably comprises a nickel layer as an electrode body.
US08053945B2

A commutator 10 for an electric motor comprises a plurality of commutator segments supported by a base. The segments have an electrically conductive body portion 14 and at least one electrically conductive foldable tang 16 provided on the body portion 14 for engaging a winding lead wire 44 of an electric motor. The foldable tang 16 has a proximal end 18 on or adjacent to the body portion 14, and a distal end 22 remote from the proximal end 18. A wire-accommodating portion 30 is provided on or adjacent to the foldable tang 16, so that, when the tang 16 is folded, the wire-accommodating portion provides a predetermined gap 56 for the winding lead wire 44.
US08053941B2

An electric motor assembly includes a rotor rotatable about an axis and a stator spaced radially away from the rotor. An isolation housing, configured to permit magnetic flux to flow therethrough between the rotor and the stator, is disposed between the rotor and the stator and defines an internal rotor chamber, in which the rotor is located. The isolation housing fluidly isolates the internal rotor chamber from the stator. An encapsulating cover is provided that radially and axially surrounds the stator. The cover is formed of a resin material and bonds the stator to the isolation housing to prevent relative movement therebetween.
US08053940B2

A magnetic motor generator that produces electric power by rotating a one piece magnetic floating flywheel assembly that is operated by a linear induction motor and repelled upward by a stationary natural magnet. The floating flywheel assembly magnetic axel rotates inside magnetic collar bearings, which have repelling stationary magnets to center the axel at speed. The floating flywheel assembly rotors move inside generator stators to generate electric power. The floating flywheel assembly has no physical contact with other components to prevent bearing losses at speed. A timing computer controls the operation of the linear induction motor, assesses the speed of the floating flywheel assembly and fires only when necessary to maintain rotation. The moving components are enclosed in a vacuum chamber to prevent wind resistance, or windage losses at speed. Surplus electric power can ether be stored/used by the system or used to supply a load.
US08053937B2

A linear motor is equipped with a coil body (62), and a yoke (71) that supports a magnetism generating body (72) and that moves relative to the coil body (62). The yoke (71) has a first portion (73) that is formed from a magnetic material and disposed based on the saturation state of the magnetic field, which is generated by the magnetism generating body (72), in the yoke (71).
US08053916B2

The present invention provides a wind and wave power generation system including a platform (12) and a wind turbine (16) rotatably mounted on a tower (32) and provided with an actuator (34) for changing the yaw angle of the turbine blade (38) relative to said tower (32). The system further includes a sensor (118) for detecting at least yaw motion of the platform and a controller (56) for causing actuation of the actuator (34) to cause movement of the rotor so as to at least partially correct detected yaw motion.
US08053906B2

A copper bonding wire includes a line portion and a non-spherical block portion. The non-spherical block portion is physically connected to the line portion, and the cross-sectional area of the non-spherical block portion is bigger than that of the line portion.
US08053905B2

A light emitting device includes a semiconductor structure comprising a light emitting layer disposed between an n-type region and a p-type region, a metal p-contact disposed on the p-type region, and a metal n-contact disposed on the n-type region. The metal p-contact and the metal n-contact are both formed on the same side of the semiconductor structure. The light emitting device is connected to a mount by a bonding structure. The bonding structure includes a plurality of metal regions separated by gaps and a metal structure disposed between the light emitting device and the mount proximate to an edge of the light emitting device. The metal structure is configured such that during bonding, the metal structure forms a continuous seal between the light emitting device and the mount.
US08053896B2

An IC chip coating material includes first metal oxide particles; a metal alkoxide; an organic solvent; and second metal oxide particles and/or flat particles of a composite oxide, the second metal oxide particles having a composition identical to or different from that of the first metal oxide particles and also having a mean particle size and/or a shape different from that of the first metal oxide particles. Further, a vacuum fluorescent display device includes an IC chip, wherein the IC chip is at least partially coated by a coating material layer including the first metal oxide particles; a metal forming metal alkoxide; and the second metal oxide particles and/or flat particles of a composite oxide.
US08053893B2

The reliability of wirings, each of which includes a main conductive film containing copper as a primary component, is improved. On an insulating film including the upper surface of a wiring serving as a lower layer wiring, an insulating film formed of a silicon carbonitride film having excellent barrier properties to copper is formed; on the insulating film, an insulating film formed of a silicon carbide film having excellent adhesiveness to a low dielectric constant material film is formed; on the insulating film, an insulating film formed of a low dielectric constant material as an interlayer insulating film is formed; and thereafter a wiring as an upper layer wiring is formed.
US08053891B2

A standing chip scale package is disclosed. The standing chip scale package provides electrical connection to bumped device contacts on both sides of the chip. The package is coupleable to a printed circuit board in a standing configuration such that front and back sides of the bumped chip are substantially perpendicular to a mounting surface. A process of fabricating the standing chip scale package is also disclosed.
US08053888B2

A system for clamping a heat sink that prevents excessive clamping force is provided. The system may include a heat sink, a semiconductor device, a printed circuit board, and a cover. The semiconductor device may be mounted onto the circuit board and attached to the cover. The heat sink may be designed to interface with the semiconductor device to transfer heat away from the semiconductor device and dissipate the heat into the environment. Accordingly, the heat sink may be clamped into a tight mechanical connection with the semiconductor device to minimize thermal resistance between the semiconductor device and the heat sink. To prevent excessive clamping force from damaging the semiconductor device, loading columns may extend between the cover and the heat sink.
US08053886B2

A semiconductor package includes a wiring board and a semiconductor device mounted on the wiring board. At least one penetration hole extends from one surface of the semiconductor chip to an opposite surface of the semiconductor chip. A penetration electrode is situated inside the penetration hole without contacting a wall of the penetration hole. The penetration electrode has one end fixed to the one surface of the semiconductor chip and an opposite end protruding from the opposite surface of the semiconductor chip. A connection terminal is formed on the opposite end of the penetration electrode and electrically connected to the wiring board.
US08053885B2

A wafer level vertical diode package structure includes a first semiconductor layer, a second semiconductor layer, an insulative unit, a first conductive structure, and a second conductive structure. The second semiconductor layer is connected with one surface of the first semiconductor layer. The insulative unit is disposed around a lateral side of the first semiconductor layer and a lateral side of the second semiconductor layer. The first conductive structure is formed on a top surface of the first semiconductor layer and on one lateral side of the insulative layer. The second conductive structure is formed on a top surface of the second semiconductor layer and on another opposite lateral side of the insulative layer.
US08053879B2

A stacked semiconductor package having a unit package, cover substrates, adhesive members and connection electrodes is presented. The unit package includes a substrate, a first circuit pattern and a second circuit pattern. The first circuit pattern is disposed over an upper face of the substrate. The second circuit pattern is disposed over a lower face of the substrate. The lower and upper faces of the substrate oppose each other. The first and second semiconductor chips are respectively electrically connected to the first and second circuit patterns. The cover substrates are opposed to the first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip. The adhesive members are respectively interposed between the unit package and the cover substrates. The connection electrodes pass through the unit package, the cover substrates and the adhesive members and are electrically connected to the first and second circuit patterns.
US08053873B2

An integrated circuit (IC) includes a substrate having a top semiconductor surface and a bottom surface, and integrated circuitry including an analog subcircuit and at least one digital subcircuit formed on the top semiconductor surface. A plurality of through substrate vias (TSVs) extend through the substrate. At least one integrated Faraday shield includes a top and a bottom electrically conducting member that are coupled by the TSVs which surround the analog subcircuit and/or the digital subcircuit. At least one voltage regulator supplies a regulated power supply voltage that is coupled to the integrated Faraday shield that surrounds the analog subcircuit.
US08053870B2

Disclosed are embodiments of a semiconductor structure that incorporates multiple nitride layers stacked between the center region of a device and a blanket oxide layer. These nitride layers are more thermally conductive than the blanket oxide layer and, thus provide improved heat dissipation away from the device. Also disclosed are embodiments of a method of forming such a semiconductor structure in conjunction with the formation of any of the following nitride layers during standard processing of other devices: a nitride hardmask layer (OP layer), a “sacrificial” nitride layer (SMT layer), a tensile nitride layer (WN layer) and/or a compressive nitride layer (WP layer). Optionally, the embodiments also incorporate incomplete contacts that extend through the blanket oxide layer into one or more of the nitride layers without contacting the device in order to further improve heat dissipation.
US08053867B2

Phosphorous-comprising dopants, methods for forming phosphorous-doped regions in a semiconductor material, and methods for fabricating phosphorous-comprising dopants are provided. In one embodiment, a phosphorous-comprising dopant comprises a phosphorous source comprising a phosphorous-comprising salt, a phosphorous-comprising acid, phosphorous-comprising anions, or a combination thereof, an alkaline material, cations from an alkaline material, or a combination thereof, and a liquid medium.
US08053858B2

A lateral Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (LIGBT) includes a semiconductor substrate and an anode region in the semiconductor substrate. A cathode region of a first conductivity type in the substrate is laterally spaced from the anode region, and a cathode region of a second conductivity type in the substrate is located proximate to and on a side of the cathode region of the first conductivity type opposite from the anode region. A drift region in the semiconductor substrate extends between the anode region and the cathode region of the first conductivity type. An insulated gate is operatively coupled to the cathode region of the first conductivity type and is located on a side of the cathode region of the first conductivity type opposite from the anode region. An insulating spacer overlies the cathode region of the second conductivity type. The lateral dimensions of the insulating spacer and the cathode region of the second conductivity type are substantially equal and substantially smaller than the lateral dimension of the cathode region of the first conductivity type.
US08053857B2

Methods for forming electrically conductive through-wafer interconnects in microelectronic devices and microelectronic devices are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a microelectronic device can include a monolithic microelectronic substrate with an integrated circuit has a front side with integrated circuit interconnects thereon. A bond-pad is carried by the substrate and electrically coupled to the integrated circuit. An electrically conductive through-wafer interconnect extends through the substrate and is in contact with the bond-pad. The interconnect can include a passage extending completely through the substrate and the bond-pad, a dielectric liner deposited into the passage and in contact with the substrate, first and second conductive layers deposited onto at least a portion of the dielectric liner, and a conductive fill material deposited into the passage over at least a portion of the second conductive layer and electrically coupled to the bond-pad.
US08053856B1

The present disclosure provides methods and apparatus for reducing dark current in a backside illuminated semiconductor device. In one embodiment, a method of fabricating a semiconductor device includes providing a substrate having a frontside surface and a backside surface, and forming a plurality of sensor elements in the substrate, each of the plurality of sensor elements configured to receive light directed towards the backside surface. The method further includes forming a dielectric layer on the backside surface of the substrate, wherein the dielectric layer has a compressive stress to induce a tensile stress in the substrate. A backside illuminated semiconductor device fabricated by such a method is also disclosed.
US08053853B2

An image sensor device includes a semiconductor substrate having a light-sensing region, and a first and second electrode embedded within the substrate. The first and second electrode forms an array of slits, the array of slits is configured to allow a wavelength of light to pass through to the light-sensing region. A method for making an image sensor device includes providing a semiconductor substrate, forming a plurality of pixels on the semiconductor substrate, and forming a plurality of slits embedded within each of the plurality of pixels. The plurality of slits is configured to allow a wavelength of light to pass through to each of the plurality of pixels.
US08053847B2

A method for fabricating a metal-oxide semiconductor transistor is disclosed. First, a semiconductor substrate having a gate structure thereon is provided, and a spacer is formed around the gate structure. An ion implantation process is performed to implant a molecular cluster containing carbon, boron, and hydrogen into the semiconductor substrate at two sides of the spacer for forming a doped region. The molecular weight of the molecular cluster is preferably greater than 100. Thereafter, a millisecond annealing process is performed to activate the molecular cluster within the doped region.
US08053839B2

A semiconductor structure includes of a plurality of semiconductor fins overlying an insulator layer, a gate dielectric overlying a portion of said semiconductor fin, and a gate electrode overlying the gate dielectric. Each of the semiconductor fins has a top surface, a first sidewall surface, and a second sidewall surface. Dopant ions are implanted at a first angle (e.g., greater than about 7°) with respect to the normal of the top surface of the semiconductor fin to dope the first sidewall surface and the top surface. Further dopant ions are implanted with respect to the normal of the top surface of the semiconductor fin to dope the second sidewall surface and the top surface.
US08053835B1

A semiconductor element includes an insulating outer layer that includes electric contact connections of a first conductive type. These connections are connected to contact areas located beneath the insulating surface layer, of which connections at least one is of a first conductive type. At least one of the contact areas and a further area that includes two layers of mutually different conductive types disposed between the contact areas, are covered by a layer of a second conductive type of material. This second layer is, in turn, covered with an insulating layer on at least that side which lies distal from the surface layer.
US08053832B2

Provided is a capacitor-less DRAM device including: an insulating layer formed on a semiconductor substrate; a silicon layer formed on the insulating layer, wherein a trench is formed inside the silicon layer; and an offset spacer formed on both sidewalls of the trench and protruded upward through the silicon layer. A gate insulating layer is formed on a bottom of the trench, and a gate electrode is formed to be buried in the gate insulating layer and in the trench and the offset spacer. A source region and a drain region are formed in the silicon layer on both sides of the offset spacer so as not to overlap with the gate electrode. A channel region is formed in the silicon layer below the gate insulating layer to be self-aligned with the gate electrode.
US08053825B2

A stacked gate nonvolatile semiconductor memory includes at least a memory cell transistor and a selective gate transistor which are formed on a semiconductor substrate. The memory cell transistor includes a floating gate made of a semiconductor material below an interlayer insulating layer and a control gate made of a silicide above the interlayer insulating layer. The selective gate transistor includes a semiconductor layer made of the semiconductor material, a silicide layer made of the silicide and a conductive layer made of a conductive material not subject to silicide process which is formed through the interlayer insulating film so as to electrically connect the semiconductor layer and the silicide layer.
US08053823B2

A structure is provided herein which includes an array of trench capacitors having at least portions disposed below a buried oxide layer of an SOI substrate. Each trench capacitor shares a common unitary buried capacitor plate which includes at least a portion of a first unitary semiconductor region disposed below the buried oxide layer. An upper boundary of the buried capacitor plate defines a plane parallel to a major surface of the substrate which extends laterally throughout the array of trench capacitors. In a particular embodiment, which starts from either an SOI or a bulk substrate, trenches of the array and a contact hole are formed simultaneously, such that the contact hole extends to substantially the same depth as the trenches. The contact hole preferably has substantially greater width than the trenches such that the conductive contact via can be formed simultaneously by processing used to form trench capacitors extending along walls of the trenches.
US08053822B2

Example embodiments provide a capacitorless dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and methods of manufacturing and operating the same. The capacitorless DRAM according to example embodiments may include a semiconductor layer separated from a top surface of a substrate and that contains a source region, a drain region, and a channel region, a charge reserving layer formed on the channel region, and a gate formed on the substrate to contact the channel region and the charge reserving layer.
US08053821B2

An image sensor includes a photoelectric converter, a reflector, and a charge carrier guiding region. The reflector is disposed under the photoelectric converter, and the charge carrier guiding region is disposed between the photoelectric converter and the reflector. The reflector reflects incident light passed by the photoelectric converter back through the photoelectric converter for increasing photoelectric conversion efficiency and reduced crosstalk. The charge carrier guiding region dissipates undesired charge carriers for further increasing photoelectric conversion efficiency.
US08053819B2

An IC structure having reduced power loss and/or noise includes two or more active semiconductor regions stacked in a substantially vertical dimension, each active semiconductor region including an active layer. The IC structure further includes two or more voltage supply planes, each of the voltage supply planes corresponding to a respective one of the active layers.
US08053817B2

A vertical transistor and a method for forming the same. The vertical transistor includes a semiconductor substrate having pillar type active patterns formed on a surface thereof; first junction regions formed in the surface of the semiconductor substrate on both sides of the active patterns; screening layers formed on sidewalls of the first junction regions; second junction regions formed on upper surfaces of the active patterns; and gates formed on sidewalls of the active patterns including the second junction regions to overlap with at least portions of the first junction regions.
US08053816B2

It is an object of the present invention to obtain a photoelectric conversion device having a favorable spectral sensitivity characteristic and no variation in output current without such a contamination substance mixed into a photoelectric conversion layer or a transistor. Further, it is another object of the present invention to obtain a highly reliable semiconductor device in a semiconductor device having such a photoelectric conversion device. The present invention relates to a semiconductor device including, over an insulating surface, a first electrode; a second electrode; a color filter between the first electrode and the second electrode; an overcoat layer covering the color filter; and a photoelectric conversion layer having a p-type semiconductor layer, an i-type semiconductor layer, and an n-type semiconductor layer, over the overcoat layer, where one end portion of the photoelectric conversion layer is in contact with the first electrode, and where an end portion of the color filter lies inside the other end portion of the photoelectric conversion layer.
US08053813B2

A semiconductor device includes first lines extending in a first direction and formed in a first wiring layer in a predetermined arrangement order, second lines formed in a second wiring layer different from the first wring layer in the predetermined arrangement order, and contacts electrically connecting between the first lines and the second lines so as to match the arrangement order. In the semiconductor device, at least adjacent two tracks are defined in a linear manner parallel to a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. Then, each of the second lines includes a first line portion extending along one of the two tracks, a second line portion extending along another of the two tracks, and a connection portion connecting between the first and second line portions, while two or more of the contacts are formed at the connection portion.
US08053806B2

A group III nitride semiconductor device having a gallium nitride based semiconductor film with an excellent surface morphology is provided. A group III nitride optical semiconductor device 11a includes a group III nitride semiconductor supporting base 13, a GaN based semiconductor region 15, an active layer active layer 17, and a GaN semiconductor region 19. The primary surface 13a of the group III nitride semiconductor supporting base 13 is not any polar plane, and forms a finite angle with a reference plane Sc that is orthogonal to a reference axis Cx extending in the direction of a c-axis of the group III nitride semiconductor. The GaN based semiconductor region 15 is grown on the semipolar primary surface 13a. A GaN based semiconductor layer 21 of the GaN based semiconductor region 15 is, for example, an n-type GaN based semiconductor, and the n-type GaN based semiconductor is doped with silicon. A GaN based semiconductor layer 23 of an oxygen concentration of 5×1016 cm−3 or more provides an active layer 17 with an excellent crystal quality, and the active layer 17 is grown on the primary surface of the GaN based semiconductor layer 23.
US08053797B2

The present invention provides a light-emitting device with a reflection layer and the structure of the reflection layer. The reflection layer comprises a variety of dielectric materials. The reflection layer includes a plurality of dielectric layers. The materials of the plurality of dielectric layers have two or more types with two or more thicknesses, except for the combination of two material types and two thicknesses, for forming the reflection layer with a variety of structures. The reflection layer according to the present invention can be applied to light-emitting diodes of various types to form new light-emitting devices. Owing to its excellent reflectivity, the reflection layer can improve light-emitting efficiency of the light-emitting devices.
US08053793B2

The present invention discloses a III-nitride compound semiconductor light emitting device including an active layer for generating light by recombination of an electron and a hole between an n-type nitride compound semiconductor layer and a p-type nitride compound semiconductor layer. The active layer is disposed over the n-type nitride compound semiconductor layer. The III-nitride compound semiconductor light emitting device includes a masking film made of MgN and grown on the p-type nitride compound semiconductor layer, and at least one nitride compound semiconductor layer grown after the growth of the masking film made of MgN.
US08053785B2

A tunneling field effect transistor (TFET) device includes a semiconductor substrate having a layer of relatively intermediate bandgap semiconductor material, a layer of relatively low bandgap semiconductor material overlying the layer of relatively intermediate bandgap semiconductor material, and a layer of relatively high bandgap semiconductor material overlying the layer of relatively low bandgap semiconductor material. The TFET device includes a source region, a drain region, and a channel region defined in the semiconductor substrate. The TFET device also has a gate structure overlying at least a portion of the channel region. The source region is highly doped with an impurity dopant having a first conductivity type, and the drain region is highly doped with an impurity dopant having a second conductivity type. The layer of relatively low bandgap semiconductor material promotes tunneling at a first junction between the source region and the channel region, and the layer of relatively high bandgap semiconductor material inhibits tunneling at a second junction between the source region and the channel region.
US08053784B2

A channel layer (40) for forming a portion of a carrier path between a source electrode (100) and a drain electrode (110) is formed on a drift layer (30). The channel layer (40) includes Ge granular crystals formed on the drift layer (30), and a cap layer covering the Ge granular crystals.
US08053783B2

A high voltage diamond based switching device capable of sustaining high currents in the on state with a relatively low impedance and a relatively low optical switching flux, and capable of being switched off in the presence of the high voltage being switched. The device includes a diamond body having a Schottky barrier contact, held in reverse bias by the applied voltage to be switched, to an essentially intrinsic diamond layer or portion in the diamond body, a second metal contact, and an optical source or other illuminating or irradiating device such that when the depletion region formed by the Schottky contact to the intrinsic diamond layer is exposed to its radiation charge carriers are generated. Cain in the total number of charge carriers then occurs as a result of these charge carriers accelerating under the field within the intrinsic diamond layer and generating further carriers by assisted avalanche breakdown.
US08053776B2

In a vertical diode, an N+-type layer, an N−-type layer, and a P+-type layer are stacked in this order on a lower electrode film, and an upper electrode film is provided thereon. The effective impurity concentration of the N−-type layer is lower than the effective impurity concentrations of the N+-type layer and the P+-type layer. At least one of the N+-type layer, the N−-type layer, and the P+-type layer is formed from a small grain size polycrystalline semiconductor whose each crystal grain does not penetrate each layer through its thickness.
US08053774B2

A wafer having a plurality of dies (also called array chips) on the wafer, the die having an electrode to generate a deprotecting reagent, a working electrode to electrochemically synthesize a material, a confinement electrode adjacent to the working electrode to confine reactive reagents, and a die pad, wherein die pads of the plurality of dies are interconnected on the wafer to electrochemically synthesize the material in parallel on a plurality of working electrodes is disclosed. Also, a method for wafer-scale manufacturing of a plurality of dies and a method for electrochemically synthesizing a material in parallel on a plurality of dies on a wafer are disclosed.
US08053770B2

An organic light emitting device is provided. The device includes an anode, a cathode, and an organic emissive stack disposed between the anode and the cathode. The device may be a “pixel” in a display, capable of emitting a wide variety of colors through the use of independently addressable “sub-pixels,” each subpixel emitting a different spectrum of light. In the most general sense, the device includes a first subpixel and a second subpixel, and at least one of the anode and the cathode has independently addressable first and second regions corresponding to the first and second subpixels. The device includes an emissive stack disposed between the anode and the cathode. The emissive stack includes a first organic emissive layer and a second organic emissive layer. The first organic emissive layer is disposed between the anode and the cathode, and extends throughout the first and second regions. The second organic emissive layer is disposed between the anode and the cathode, and extends throughout the second region but not the first region. The second organic emissive layer is disposed closer to the cathode than the first organic emissive layer. The first organic emissive layer is emissive in the first region, and the second organic emissive layer is emissive in the second region.
US08053769B2

A transistor includes a first semiconductor layer associated with a first electrode; a second semiconductor layer associated with a second electrode; and a discontinuous layer between the first and second semiconductor layer. The discontinuous layer has a plurality of openings being formed on a non-uniform organic surface. Applications of the transistor include an inverter that operates at low supply voltage and high frequency.
US08053766B2

In a semiconductor element, and a display pixel and a display panel using the same, the semiconductor element includes a first electrode, a second electrode, an organic light-emitting layer and a third electrode. The second electrode and the first electrode are disposed separately. The organic light-emitting layer is electrically connected with the first electrode and the second electrode. The third electrode is disposed above the organic light-emitting layer.
US08053759B2

A substrate material including a Si-containing substrate and an insulating region that is resistant to Ge diffusion present atop the Si-containing substrate. The substrate material further includes a substantially relaxed SiGe alloy layer present atop the insulating region, wherein the substantially relaxed SiGe alloy layer has a planar defect density from about 5000 defects/cm−2 or less. The substrate material may be employed in a heterostructure, in which a strained Si layer is present atop the substantially relaxed SiGe alloy layer of the substrate material.
US08053754B2

A computer-implemented method for encryption and decryption using a quantum computational model is disclosed. Such a method includes providing a model of a lattice having a system of non-abelian anyons disposed thereon. From the lattice model, a first quantum state associated with the lattice is determined. Movement of non-abelian anyons within the lattice is modeled to model formation of first and second quantum braids in the space-time of the lattice. The first quantum braid corresponds to first text. The second quantum braid corresponds to second text. A second quantum state associated with the lattice is determined from the lattice model after formation of the first and second quantum braids has been modeled. The second quantum state corresponds to second text that is different from the first text.
US08053753B2

A multi-layer thin-film device includes thin film memory and thin film logic. The thin film memory may be programmable resistance memory, such as phase change memory, for example. The thin film logic may be complementary logic.
US08053752B2

Reconfigurable devices and methods for the fabrication thereof are provided. In one aspect, a reconfigurable device is provided. The reconfigurable device comprises a substrate; a first dielectric layer on the substrate; a conductive layer recessed into at least a portion of a side of the first dielectric layer opposite the substrate; at least one second dielectric layer over the side of the first dielectric layer opposite the substrate, so as to cover the conductive layer; a heater within the second dielectric layer; at least one programmable via extending through the second dielectric layer, extending through and surrounded by the heater and in contact with the conductive layer, the programmable via comprising at least one phase change material; a capping layer over the programmable via; a first conductive via and a second conductive via, each extending through the second dielectric layer and in contact with the heater; and a third conductive via extending through the second dielectric layer and in contact with the conductive layer.
US08053730B2

An infrared sensor and a method of fabricating the same are provided. The sensor includes a substrate including a reflection layer and a plurality of pad electrodes, an interdigitated sensing electrode connected to the pad electrode and formed to be spaced apart from the reflection layer by a predetermined distance and a sensing layer formed on the sensing electrode and having an opening exposing a portion in which an interdigitated region of the sensing electrode connected to one pad region is separated from the sensing electrode connected to the other pad electrode. Therefore, the sensor has an electrode in a very simple constitution, and a sensing layer divided into rectangular blocks, so that current that non-uniformly flows into the electrode can be removed. Accordingly, the sensor in which current of the sensing layer can be uniformly flown, and noise is lowered can be implemented.
US08053729B2

The electromagnetic radiation detector compromises at least one radiation absorption membrane transforming the absorbed energy into heat transmitted to at least one resistive thermometer having a resistance varying with temperature. Each absorption membrane is suspended above a substrate by a nanowire connected to the central area of the membrane. The nanowire comprises an electrically conducting core and an electrically conducting external layer electrically insulated from one another and respectively connected to measuring areas of said thermometer. The nanowire serves the purpose both of support for the membrane and of electrical connection between the measuring areas and a circuit arranged at the level of the substrate.
US08053718B2

A photoelectric conversion apparatus includes a first block line through which an optical signal is output and a second block line through which a noise signal superimposed on the optical signal is output. The photoelectric conversion apparatus also includes a switch used to control a connection between the first block line and the second block line.
US08053715B2

A preferred embodiment comprises a method and system for generating an image of a subject or area comprising a processor; at least one incoherent light source which illuminates the subject or area; a first receiver for receiving light reflected from the subject or area operatively connected to the processor; a second receiver for receiving light from at least one incoherent light source operatively connected to the processor; the first receiver collecting the amount of light reflected from the subject and transmit a value at specific intervals of time; the second receiver comprising a second detector which detects and transmits spatial information regarding the incoherent light source independent of any data concerning the subject at specific intervals of time; wherein the processor correlates the value transmitted by the first receiver with the spatial information derived from the second receiver at correlating intervals of time to create an image of the subject or area. Alternatively, sound or quantum particles may replace the incoherent light source.
US08053711B2

A spherical aberration adjustment system is disclosed, which includes a plurality of objective lenses, where at least one of the plurality of objective lenses has a spherical aberration collar. The plurality of objective lenses are mounted onto an objective holder, where the objective holder is configured to place the at least one of the plurality of objective lenses in an imaging position. A driving mechanism is coupled by a mechanical link to the at least one of the plurality of objective lenses, where the mechanical link is configured to transmit motion from the driving mechanism to the spherical aberration collar. A control system is configured to manipulate the driving mechanism to move the spherical aberration collar of the at least one of the plurality of objective lenses in the imaging position to a specific spherical aberration adjustment setting.
US08053710B2

A molybdenum silicide type-heating element and a method of manufacturing a heating element of the molybdenum silicide type. The heating element contains substantially Mo(Si1-x Alx)2 and Al2O3 and is prepared by mixing a molybdenum aluminum silicide-type material Mo(Si1-yAly)2 with SiO2, wherein the SiO2 has a purity of at least 98%.
US08053706B2

Elimination of sodium contamination at the negative terminal of an electrical stri resistance heater (1, FIGS. 2 and 4) for a gas sensor (3) can be accomplished by providing a grounding plane (-18′) electrically connected to system ground and located between the heater (1) and the sensor (3).
US08053693B2

In an electrical switch, in particular an electrical microswitch, has at least one electrical contact designed as a hollow-shape section of a component of an electrically conducting material. In this electrical switch, the occurrence of vibrations with the introduction onto an opposing contact is prevented.
US08053690B2

An automotive brake light switch mounted on a brake booster includes a housing defining a constant pressure chamber and a variable pressure chamber partitioned by a diaphragm, with a first through-hole of the housing, a second through-hole formed in the diaphragm and an air intake valve to allow the constant pressure chamber to selectively communicate with the variable pressure chamber, wherein the air intake valve is fitted into the second through-hole and configured to selectively open or close the first through-hole in response to a brake pedal, the brake light switch apparatus having a switch body, a switch rod slidably mounted to the switch body so as to turn on/off a switch of the switch body, wherein a protruding length of the switch rod is changeable by the air intake valve, and a coupling portion coupling the switch body to the housing through the first through-hole.
US08053679B2

An exemplary printed circuit board includes a substrate, a differential transmission line, and at least two weld pad pairs. The differential transmission line and the at least two weld pad pairs are disposed on the substrate. The differential transmission line includes two parallel signal conductors disposed on the substrate. Each of the two signal conductors is electrically connected to an edge of one of the weld pads of a respective pair of the at least two weld pad pairs. Thereby, the two signal conductors of the differential transmission line can extend in the same distance anywhere, particularly in the position where the two signal conductors pass the two weld pad pairs. As a result, the coupling performance and the capability of the differential transmission line to resist electromagnetic interference are both enhanced.
US08053675B2

Printed wiring board (PWB) provides for reduction in pin counts required for power plane (including ground plane) connections and/or reduction in requirements for connector current handling per pin. Multiple collinear slots in the form of a dashed line are introduced in the metal layer implementing the power plane that alter the current distribution in the power plane and improve the strength of the PWB. The per-pin current profile for connector pins connected to the power plane is equalized by tuning the length of the slot(s). The slots are dashed and may be made internal to the power plane metal layer to avoid weakening the metal layer for laminated multi-layer PWBs and may be shaped around a connector end when the power plane pin allocation is not uniform at the connector ends. The resulting equalization reduces either pin count required for carrying the power plane current or reduces connector pin current requirements.
US08053673B2

A capacitor embedded printed circuit board (PCB) includes a multilayer polymer capacitor layer with a plurality of polymer sheets. One or more first inner electrodes and second inner electrodes, separated by one or more of the plurality of polymer sheets, are alternately disposed to form a pair. A plurality of first extended electrodes and second extended electrodes protrude from the first inner electrodes and second inner electrodes, respectively. One or more insulating layers are laminated on one or both surfaces of the multilayer polymer capacitor. A plurality of first via holes for capacitor, and a plurality of second via holes for capacitor, penetrating the multilayer polymer capacitor layer are connected to the first extended electrodes and the second extended electrodes, respectively. The plurality of the first and second extended electrodes are alternately disposed to be opposite to each other.
US08053669B1

Various embodiments of the present invention relate to power distribution systems and associated methods. In specific examples, the present invention may be applied to use in a vehicle (e.g., an automobile; a truck; a boat; an airplane; a helicopter; a military vehicle).
US08053667B2

A housing of a Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable transceiver module includes a metallic casing and a plurality of elastic grounding assemblies. The metallic casing has a lower casing, a plurality of partitions and an upper casing. The lower casing is connected to the upper casing. The partitions are provided between the lower casing and the upper casing at intervals, thereby separating the interior of the metallic casing into a plurality of accommodating spaces. The accommodating spaces each receives a connector of a transceiver module, thereby forming a plurality of ports. Thus, the connectors of the transceiver modules share the common housing, thereby reducing the occupied space on the circuit board and increasing the number of the transceiver modules arranged on the circuit board.
US08053656B1

A single-arm pedal assembly of the present invention mainly includes two hammers and two pedals. Each pedal can indirectly drive a hammer to rotate respectively. The single-arm pedal assembly can be reconstituted into two separate pedal assemblies. Both of the two pedal assemblies have one pedal and one hammer. As such, the single-arm pedal assembly can be transformed for particular situations.
US08053645B1

A novel maize variety designated PHECH and seed, plants and plant parts thereof. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprise crossing maize variety PHECH with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PHECH through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. Hybrid maize seed, plant or plant part produced by crossing the variety PHECH or a trait conversion of PHECH with another maize variety. Inbred maize varieties derived from maize variety PHECH, methods for producing other inbred maize varieties derived from maize variety PHECH and the inbred maize varieties and their parts derived by the use of those methods.
US08053644B1

A novel maize variety designated PHV4M and seed, plants and plant parts thereof. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprise crossing maize variety PHV4M with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PHV4M through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. Hybrid maize seed, plant or plant part produced by crossing the variety PHV4M or a trait conversion of PHV4M with another maize variety. Inbred maize varieties derived from maize variety PHV4M, methods for producing other inbred maize varieties derived from maize variety PHV4M and the inbred maize varieties and their parts derived by the use of those methods.
US08053643B2

A novel garden bean cultivar, designated H26107, is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of garden bean cultivar H26107, to the plants of garden bean line H26107 and to methods for producing a bean plant by crossing the cultivar H26107 with itself or another bean line. The invention further relates to methods for producing a bean plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic plants produced by that method and to methods for producing other garden bean lines derived from the cultivar H26107.
US08053641B2

Methods for making transgenic plants that are resistant to HPPD herbicides are presented. Polynucleotides other than those from Pseudomonas fluorescens that encode resistant HPPD enzymes are enclosed for use in the process of making transgenic plants that are tolerant to HPPD-inhibiting herbicides.
US08053639B2

The present invention provides transgenic plants transformed with novel DNA constructs comprising promoter sequences useful for driving the expression of heterologous DNA sequences. Such promoter sequences include promoters hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein promoters. Also included in the invention are plant cells and seeds produced by the transgenic plants that comprise the novel DNA sequences.
US08053638B2

The invention provides methods and compositions for enhancing the efficiency of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of host cells such as plant cells. Plant expression constructs comprising a gene encoding a VIP2 or VIP2-like polypeptide are provided, as well as methods for utilizing such constructs to enhance Agrobacterium-mediated transformation efficiency.
US08053626B2

An absorbent article has a skincare composition applied on at least a portion thereof so as to be transferable to the skin of the wearer. The composition is solid at 21° C. and includes at least three constituents, being chosen according to their melting behavior, and characterized, in particular, by the presence of a crystallization accelerator.
US08053617B2

A new family of crystalline aluminosilicate zeolites has been synthesized. These zeolites are represented by the empirical formula. Mmn+Rr+Al(1-x)ExSiyOz where M represents a combination of potassium and sodium exchangeable cations, R is a singly charged organoammonium cation such as the propyltrimethylammonium cation and E is a framework element such as gallium. These zeolites are similar to MWW but are characterized by unique x-ray diffraction patterns and compositions and have catalytic properties for carrying out various hydrocarbon conversion processes.
US08053616B2

A method comprising providing a halogen stream; providing a first alkane stream; reacting at least a portion of the halogen stream with at least a portion of the first alkane stream to form a halogenated stream, wherein the halogenated stream comprises alkyl monohalides, alkyl polyhalides, and a hydrogen halide; providing a second alkane stream; and reacting at least a portion of the second alkane stream with at least a portion of the alkyl polyhalides to create at least some additional alkyl monohalides.
US08053615B2

Processes and reactor systems are provided for the conversion of oxygenated hydrocarbons to hydrocarbons, ketones and alcohols useful as liquid fuels, such as gasoline, jet fuel or diesel fuel, and industrial chemicals. The process involves the conversion of mono-oxygenated hydrocarbons, such as alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, furans, carboxylic acids, diols, triols, and/or other polyols, to C4+ hydrocarbons, alcohols and/or ketones, by condensation. The oxygenated hydrocarbons may originate from any source, but are preferably derived from biomass.
US08053613B2

A process is disclosed for making CH2ClCF2CClF2. The process involves reacting CH2ClF with CClF═CF2 in an addition reaction zone in the presence of an aluminum halide composition having a bulk formula of AlClxBryF3-x-y wherein the average value of x is 0 to 3, the average value of y is 0 to 3−x, provided that the average values of x and y are not both 0. Also disclosed is a process for making CH2FCF2CF3 that involves reacting the CH2ClCF2CClF2 with HF in a fluorination reaction zone in the presence of a fluorination catalyst. Also disclosed is a process for making CHF═CFCF3 that involves dehydrofluorinating the CH2FCF2CF3.
US08053602B2

Propionic acid is produced via the catalytic dehydration of glycerol in the presence of at least one transition metal catalyst.
US08053597B2

A process is provided for producing an enriched carboxylic acid compositions produced by contacting composition comprising a carboxylic acid with an enrichment feed in an enrichment zone to form an enriched carboxylic acid composition. This invention also relates to a process and the resulting compositions for removing catalyst from a carboxylic acid composition to produce a post catalyst removal composition.
US08053583B2

Anti-cancer compounds and manufacturing methods thereof are disclosed. The anti-cancer compounds are 1,8-diamidoanthraquinone derivatives with amino compounds. The manufacturing method includes the steps of: add 1,8-bis(chloroacetamido)anthraquinone or 1,8-bis(3-chloropropionamido)-anthraquinone with amino compounds, catalysts, and dehydrated dimethylformamide (DMF) to form a mixture and react with one another. Then by purification and recrystallization, the anti-cancer compounds are obtained. The anti-cancer compounds of the present invention are compounds with whole new structure that overcome serious cardiac toxicity of the conventional anti-cancer drug-doxorubincin.
US08053581B2

The present invention relates to 2,4,5-trisubstituted thiazole compounds of formula (I) or all possible isomers, prodrugs, pharmaceutically acceptable salts, solvates or hydrates thereof for the inhibition of plasma PLTP activity and/or plasma CETP activity, wherein the substituents are as defined in the specification; a process for the preparation of the compounds of formula (I); a pharmaceutical composition comprising the compound of formula (I) and its use for the preparation of a medicament for treatment and/or prevention of diseases associated with the increased plasma PLTP activity and/or the increased plasma CETP activity in a mammal, such as atherosclerosis, cardiovascular diseases and peripheral vascular diseases, etc.
US08053579B2

Disclosed are new salts of Clopidogrel viz. Clopidogrel mesylate, Clopidogrel besylate and Clopidogrel tosylate, methods for their preparation and pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use in medicine.
US08053577B2

A compound of Formula I, a pharmaceutically-acceptable salt or a hydrate thereof, wherein R1 is H, or C1-4 alkyl; R2 is H, halogen, or C1-4 alkyl; R3 is H, halogen, or C1-4 alkyl, and R4 is C1-6 alkyl, aryl; or ═CR3R4 is cyclopentylidene, cyclohexylidene, 1-methylpiperidin-4-ylidene, or inden-1-ylidene; R5 is independently at each occurrence F, Cl, Br, CF3, R9, OR9, NR9R10, NO2, CN, COOR9, O2CR9, CONR9R10, NR9C(O)R10, heterocyclic group, aryl, or a group of Formula II; R6 is H, halogen, or C1-4 alkyl; R7 is H, halogen, or C1-4 alkyl; R8 is H, C1-4alkyl group; R9 is H, or C1-6 alkyl; R10 is H, or C1-6 alkyl; R11 is H, or C1-4 alkyl; R12 is H, or C1-4 alkyl; m is 0, 1, or 2; when R5 is F, Cl, Br, CF3, R9, OR9, NR9R10, NO2, CN, COOR9, O2CR9, CONR9R10, NR9C(O)R10, heterocyclic group, or aryl, n is 1, 2, 3, or 4; when R5 is the group of Formula II, n is 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4; x is 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4.
US08053552B2

The present invention relates to compounds and methods useful for the detection and treatment of disorders associated with frameshift mutations in coding microsatellite regions. The compounds and methods are applicable in cancers, especially of DNA mismatch repair deficient (MMR) sporadic tumors and HNPCC associated tumors. The compounds disclosed in the invention are useful for detection of disorders and in therapy such as e.g. immuno-therapy. The diagnostic methods relate to diagnosis and prognostic assessment of disorders associated with frameshift polypeptides originating from frameshift mutations in coding microsatellite regions of genes based on the detection of immunological entities directed against said frameshift polypeptides in body fluids. With respect to the treatment of cancer, especially of DNA mismatch repair deficient (MMR) sporadic tumors and HNPCC associated tumors, the invention pertains to methods which use immuno therapy with combinatorial mixtures of tumor specific frameshift peptides to elicit a cytotoxic T-cell response specifically directed against tumor cells for use in prevention as well as in curative treatment of cancers and precancers.
US08053549B2

A method for the preparation of a modified fluoropolymer powdered material is disclosed. A suspension of solid fluoropolymer particles together with PTFE particles in an aqueous carrier, is frozen and the frozen carrier is then removed by sublimation at sub-atmospheric pressure to produce a dry powder of modified fluoropolymer particles.
US08053543B2

A polymer compound derivative, obtained by modifying part of the hydroxy or amino groups of a polymer compound having the hydroxy or amino groups with molecules of a compound represented by the following general formula (I): A-X—Si(Y)nR3-n (I), where A represents a reactive group which reacts with a hydroxy or amino group, X represents an alkylene group which has 1 to 18 carbon atoms and which may have a branch, or an arylene group which may have a substituent, Y represents a reactive group which reacts with a silanol group to form a siloxane bond, R represents an alkyl group which has 1 to 18 carbon atoms and which may have a branch, or an aryl group which may have a substituent, and n represents an integer of 1 to 3.
US08053536B2

The present invention relates to process comprising reacting a polyfluorenes comprising at least one structural group of formula I with an iridium (III) compound of formula II wherein R1 and R2 are independently alkyl, substituted alkyl, aryl, substituted aryl or a combination thereof; R5is H or CHO; R3 and R4 are independently hydrogen, alkyl, substituted alkyl, aryl, substituted aryl or a combination thereof; R11 and R12 taken together form a substituted or unsubstituted monocyclic or bicyclic heteroaromatic ring; R13 is independently at each occurrence halo, nitro, hydroxy, amino, alkyl, aryl, arylalkyl, alkoxy, substituted alkoxy, substituted alkyl, substituted aryl, or substituted arylalkyl; Ar is aryl, heteroaryl, substituted aryl, substituted heteroaryl, or a combination thereof; X is selected from a direct bond, alky, substituted alkyl, and combinations thereof; Y is CHO or NH2; Z is CHO or NH2 where Z does not equal Y; and p is 0, 1 or 2. The invention also relates to the polyfluorenes, which are products of the reaction, and the use of the polyfluorenes in optoelectronic devices.
US08053535B2

Anti-fouling materials may include one or more of a number of suitable copolymers (e.g., block copolymers, graft copolymers, etc.) which provide biocidal and/or fouling release characteristics. The copolymers may include a polysiloxane backbone with one or more polymers grafted onto the polysiloxane backbone.
US08053534B2

Disclosed is a thermoplastic resin composition that includes: (A) about 55 to about 95 wt % of a polycarbonate resin; (B) about 1 to about 40 wt % of a polyalkyl(meth)acrylate resin having a weight average molecular weight of about 1,000,000 g/mol or more; and (C) about 0.001 to about 10 wt % of a polysiloxane resin, and a molded product made using the same.
US08053523B2

A hydrogen tank liner material comprises a polyamide resin composition which comprises (A) a polyamide resin at 85-40 wt %, (B) a copolyamide at 5-30 wt % and (C) an impact-resistant material at 10-30 wt % with respect to the total weight of the polyamide resin composition. Preferably, the (B) copolyamide is PA6/66 and the (C) impact-resistant material is an acid-modified ethylene/α-olefin-based copolymer. A hydrogen tank liner material with excellent gas barrier properties and superior impact resistance even at low temperatures is obtained.
US08053522B2

The present invention relates to a novel synthesis of (meth)acrylate-grafted polyesters and their action as compatibilizers.
US08053519B2

Coating composition comprising an alkyd having at least 20% by weight of vinylic building blocks and having an oil length below 65%. The weight ratio non-vinylic:vinylic groups is between 1:1 and 4:1, preferably between 1.5:1 and 3:1. The vinylic groups include styrene and (meth)acrylate groups. The ratio of styrene:(meth)acrylate groups is between 0.5:1 and 4:1, preferably between 1.5:1 and 3:1. The vinylic groups show low polarity. The Mw is below 10,000. The oil length is above 45%. The coating composition can be water borne or solvent borne. The alkyd according to the invention allows formulation of solvent borne coatings a volatile organic content below 300 g/l.
US08053516B2

A polylactic acid resin composition contains a polylactic acid resin having an epoxy group, and a flame-retardant additive.
US08053511B2

A description is given of a process of emulsion polymerization of free-radically polymerizable ethylenically unsaturated monomers selected from the group of the monoesters or diesters of ethylenically unsaturated monocarboxylic or dicarboxylic acids with alkanols, vinyl esters and/or vinylaromatics and, if desired, further monomers copolymerizable therewith, at least 60% of the total conversion in the polymerization taking place at a temperature of 100° C. to 160° C., the polymerization being performed in the presence of emulsifiers and an amount of 0% to 1% by weight, based on the total amount of the monomers used, of protective colloid.The process can be used to obtain significantly faster conversions for comparable quality of the process products.The dispersions obtained can be employed in a wide variety of different applications, such as binders for paints or as adhesives.
US08053510B2

The present invention is directed to a pneumatic tire having a wire-reinforced component comprising (A) a metallic wire; and (B) a rubber composition contacting the wire, the rubber composition comprising (1) a diene based elastomer; and (2) from 2 to 20 phr of at least one carboxylic acid selected from the group consisting of salicylic acid and dithiodipropionic acid.
US08053509B2

The present invention provides a starch-(meth)acrylate graft copolymer and the preparation process thereof. The starch-(meth)acrylate graft copolymer is prepared by copolymerizing (meth)acrylate monomer and starch in a weight ratio of (0.4˜8):1, the graft copolymer having a skeleton of large starch molecule is grafted with one or more (meth)acrylate monomer with a grafting ratio of no less than 70%. The present invention further provides an oil swellable material, which comprises the starch-(meth)acrylate graft copolymer above as the swelling agent; and also an oil- and water-swellable material, which comprises the starch-(meth)acrylate graft copolymer above, water absorbing agent, reactive monomer, surfactant and material matrix. Further, sealing articles and packers prepared from the above oil swellable material and oil- and water-swellable material are also provided.
US08053506B2

A method of producing a carbon fiber composite material including: mixing an elastomer which includes an unsaturated bond or a group having affinity to carbon nanofibers with metal particles; and dispersing the carbon nanofibers into the elastomer including the metal particles by a shear force.
US08053498B2

Pulverulent polycondensation products are described, consisting of a) 5 to 95% by weight of a polycondensation product based on an aromatic or heteroaromatic compound (A) having 5 to 10 C atoms or heteroatoms having at least one oxyethylene or oxypropylene radical and one aldehyde (C) selected from the group consisting of formaldehyde, glyoxylic acid and benzaldehyde or mixtures thereof, and b) 5 to 95% by weight of a finely divided mineral carrier material having a specific surface area of 0.5 to 500 m2/g (according to BET as specified in DIN 66 131). The pulverulent polycondensation products according to the invention are outstandingly suitable in construction material mixtures in an amount of from 0.1 to 5% by weight, based on the weight of the construction material. The pulverulent polycondensation products have a number of advantages here, such as, for example, excellent storage stability, good liquefying action at low dosage and industrially simple production.
US08053491B2

An object of the invention is to provide a resin composition which is particularly excellent in impact resistance, tensile elongation characteristics, heat resistance, surface properties, moldability and the like accompanied by less time dependent alteration of these properties and which is produced by mixing a certain plasticizer with a biodegradable polymer of plant origin, and to provide a molded product of the composition. The present invention can provide a resin composition comprising a biodegradable 3-hydroxyalkanoate copolymer (A) and a plasticizer (B), wherein: the biodegradable 3-hydroxyalkanoate copolymer (A) has a recurring unit represented by the structure formula (1): [—CHR—CH2—CO—O—] (wherein, R represents an alkyl group represented by CnH2n+1; and n is an integer of 1 to 15); the plasticizer (B) is based upon a polyglycerol acetic acid ester having an acetylation degree of no less than 50% ester.
US08053490B2

A dental filler and dental resin restorative composition containing the dental filler is provided. The dental filler is prepared by pre-treating an acid-reactive filler with a polymerizable monomer or oligomer pre-treatment chemical having at least one acid or acid-precursor functional group, at least one polymerizable unsaturated carbon-carbon bond, and a molecular weight of about 1,000 grams per mole or less.
US08053489B2

Crosslink agents used to copolymerize at least one hydrophilic monomer with at least one lens monomer typically used to prepare polymeric materials for ophthalmic lenses. The crosslink agents have a relatively high selectivity for the hydrophilic monomer and limited reactivity with the crosslink agent used to polymerize the lens monomer. Accordingly, the invention is also directed to a hydrophilic crosslinked polymer that comprises at least two monomeric units and at least two different crosslink units. The use of the dual crosslink system provides an improved means to control the final chemical, physical and structural characteristics of the resulting polymer.
US08053487B2

This invention describes an adhesive used for bonding dental and medical biomaterials to hard tissues via a molecular bridge formed from calcium-reactive amines and acrylic or methacrylic ester monomers to hard tissues such as enamel, dentin, and bone. This formulation consists of an acid-stable polymerizable compound with multi-functional acrylate cross-linkers. This formula provides good self-adherence without prior preparation of the hard tissue substrates. The formulation can contain chemical- and/or light-activated free-radical initiators.
US08053485B2

A polyurethane foam is disclosed and described. The polyurethane foam is formed by combining a first component comprising at least one polyol with a second component comprising at least one polyisocyanate. The ratio of the number of isocyanate equivalents in the second component to the number of hydroxyl equivalents in the second component is less than 1.0. The foam exhibits low levels of free diisocyanate monomer, thereby reducing the amount of hazardous, volatile organic compounds. As a result, the foam can be prepared and installed without the need for ventilation equipment, external sources of fresh air, and the like.
US08053484B2

A polyurethane foam composition includes a polyol, a polyisocyanate, a catalyst, a foam stabilizer, a blowing agent and a fluorinated carbonate wherein the fluorinated carbonate is a compound represented by Formula 1: a compound represented by Formula 2: or a mixture thereof. Also disclosed is a polyurethane foam derived from the composition.
US08053474B2

The present invention discloses compounds with a carboxyl acid group and an amide group which also containing the tertiary amino groups. The carboxyl acid group having a partial negative charge can attract the tertiary amino group with each other to form a quaternary ammonium salt structure, so that the compounds are easy to dissolve in water. Moreover, these compounds having a mushroom tyrosinase-inhibition effect and have the potential to use in the cosmetics for skin whitening.
US08053472B2

The invention relates to the use of the acetyl L-carnitine in association with the biotin for the treatment of patients with Type 2 insulin-resistant diabetes mellitus.
US08053469B2

This invention relates to improved solutions comprising ascorbic acid (vitamin C). These solutions may comprise as much as 15% ascorbic acid; they are stable for at least two years, without no significant development of yellowish coloration and no substantial (not more than 10%) degradation of the vitamin. The process involves sequential additions of ascorbic acid and ethoxydiglycol to a first solution of vitamin in water, which are followed by addition of propylene glycol. The high stirring speed that occurs during the additions favors a process of micronization. Mild heating is used to achieve ascorbic acid concentrations equivalent to about 6% in 10% water or higher.
US08053467B2

The present invention provides a novel flavor improving agent capable of sufficiently enhancing or alleviating the flavor sensed in oral cavity; for example, enhancing and improving the thickness in taste or the like to provide depth and profoundness to the flavor, and also improving the sense of volume or the sharpness of aftertaste. The present invention also provides a food/drink, a pharmaceutical product and an oral care product having a good taste which can fulfill the recent high-level demand for taste.
US08053456B2

The present invention relates to substituted triazole compounds and compositions comprising substituted triazole compounds. The invention further relates to methods of inhibiting the activity of Hsp90 in a subject in need thereof and methods for preventing or treating hyperproliferative disorders, such as cancer, in a subject in need thereof comprising administering to the subject a substituted triazole compound of the invention, or a composition comprising such a compound.
US08053448B2

This invention provides methods of using compounds of formula Ib below to treat pulmonary disorders. wherein: R4 is hydrogen or (1-4C)alkyl; q is 0, 1, or 2; R5 is independently selected from halo, (1-4C)alkyl, and (1-4C)alkoxy, wherein each alkyl and alkoxy group is optionally substituted with from 1 to 3 fluoro substituents; R7 is hydrogen or (1-4C)alkyl; or a pharmaceuticallly acceptable salt thereof.
US08053441B2

The present invention is directed to novel pyrazolylquinazolinone derivatives, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use in the treatment of disorders related to potassium channel.
US08053438B2

Pyrazine compounds, and compositions containing them, and processes for preparing such compounds. Provided herein also are methods of treating disorders or diseases treatable by inhibition of PDE10, such as obesity, non-insulin dependent diabetes, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the like.
US08053435B2

The present invention discloses novel naphthalenyloxypropenyl derivatives useful for inhibiting the enzyme activity of histone deacetylase, leading effective suppression of cancer cell proliferation.
US08053428B2

The present invention relates to novel vinorelbine derivatives. Pharmaceutical compositions containing these compounds as well as processes of preparation and processes of use for treatment of various conditions are also disclosed.
US08053427B1

Improved topical gel compositions, such as those containing brimonidine, for the treatment of skin disorders are described. The gel compositions contain carbomer and methylparaben, and are substantially free of methylparaben crystalline particles after an extended period of storage.
US08053426B2

The present invention relates to progesterone receptor antagonists of general formula I: in which R1 can be a hydrogen atom and R2 a hydroxyl group or R1 and R2 together can be an oxo group.
US08053420B2

A therapeutic oligomer-peptide conjugate, and methods of using the conjugate are disclosed. The conjugate includes (a) a substantially uncharged oligonucleotide analog compound having a base sequence that includes a string of bases that are complementary to four or more contiguous cytosine bases in a target nucleic acid region to which the compound is intended to bind, and (b) conjugated to the compound, an arginine-rich peptide effective to enhance the uptake of the compound into target cells. The string of bases in the compound includes at least one inosine base positioned in the string so as to limit the number of contiguous guanine bases in said string to three or fewer. The conjugate has greater cellular uptake than the compound alone, by virtue of the arginine-rich peptide, and substantially greater antisense activity greater activity than the conjugate in the absence of inosine for guanine substitutions.
US08053413B2

The present invention relates to a method for preventing or ameliorating a sleep-related breathing disorder. The method involves the use of one or a combination of cholecystokinin (CCK) receptor antagonists.
US08053407B2

The present invention relates to a method of treating a neurological condition in a mammal by administering at least one hematopoietic growth factor.
US08053406B2

A composition comprising leukotoxin proteins isolated from a bacterium is provided. In this composition, greater than 85% of the leukotoxin proteins are chemically modified at a basic amino acid residue, and the proteins induce cell death in myeloid leukocytes, while remaining substantially non-toxic to lymphoid leukocytes, lymphocytes, and red blood cells. Also provided is a method of selectively inducing cell death in myeloid leukocytes. The method comprises contacting the myeloid leukocytes with a composition comprising leukotoxin proteins. These leukotoxin proteins may be isolated from the NJ4500 strain of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans. A method of purifying leukotoxin protein from the NJ4500 strain of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans is also provided, as well as an assay that allows for the rapid determination of the activity of a given drug against leukemic cells either taken from a patient or derived from a cell line. The assay is performed in the presence of whole blood or serum.
US08053405B2

A fragrance delivery system comprises a suspension concentrate including a suspending matrix and a fragrance material which system can be diluted with water to form a use composition such as a body wash formulation.
US08053402B2

Liquid compositions, which are chemically and physically stable, comprising peroxygen bleach, a crystalline hydroxyl-containing stabilizing agent, perfume microcapsules and more than 10% of surfactant by weight of the total composition. The perfumes microcapsules, preferably, comprise a polymeric outer shell made of the condensation of melamine and formaldehyde. Process for laundering fabrics comprising the step of contacting the fabrics with said bleaching compositions.
US08053398B2

Warming personal lubricant compositions, condom products including such compositions and methods of making such condom products are disclosed. The present warming lubricant compositions include at least about 50% by weight of a polyalkylene glycol component, preferably including at least two portions of different molecular weights, and an effective amount of a viscosity inducing component.
US08053396B2

Use of a mixture comprising a surfactant and a cosurfactant in the form of an aqueous solution for flooding underground deposits of hydrocarbons for mobilizing and recovering the hydrocarbons from the underground deposits, the cosurfactant being a substance or a group of substances selected from the following list: an amphiphilic comb polymer having a backbone with two or more side chains attached to the backbone, the side chains differing from one another and/or the side chains differing from the backbone in their amphiphilic character, an amphiphilic polymer having one or more hydrophobic subunits [A2] based on a polyisobutene block, at least 50 mol % of whose polyisobutene macromolecules have terminally arranged double bonds, and one or more hydrophilic subunits [B2], or an amphiphilic polymer having the general structural formula
US08053394B2

A drilling fluid has a redispersible polymer powder introduced as a water dispersion that is capable of providing a deformable latex film on at least a portion of a subterranean sand formation and which inhibits or controls fluid loss and acts as a sealing agent when used to drill in sand formations for hydrocarbon recovery operations. The redispersible polymer powder may be made by drying the emulsion in which they are formed and then grinding into a powder or by spray drying. The polymer particles of suitable size precipitate or collect or assemble onto the pores of a subterranean sand formation to at least partial seal the formation with a deformable polymer film.
US08053392B2

An auxin acid-catalyzed stable microemulsion pesticide formulation is provided that is clear and stable under a wide range of temperature conditions encountered during distribution, storage, and use of the pesticide formulation. A precursor for the microemulsion includes an auxin ester, a protox inhibitor, and an auxin acid stabilizing agent as active ingredients. Inactive ingredients in the precursor include a microemulsifier, a stabilizing co-emulsifier, a dispersant, and a solvent present in amounts such that when the precursor is added to water of dilution to form a concentrate or a ready-to-use formulation, the clear and stable microemulsion that is spontaneously formed has oily active ingredient-containing nano-sized particles no larger than about 1μ dispersed in the water.
US08053391B2

A method for inducing resistance to abiotic stress is provided, comprising applying to the plant an amount of a composition comprising a yeast cell wall effective to prevent or reduce harmful effects of the pathogen. The composition may further include a plant extract derived from Yucca.
US08053390B2

A heat-sensitive transfer sheet, containing a substrate, at least one thermal transfer layer containing a thermally transferable dye and a resin, disposed on one surface of the substrate, and a heat-resistant slipping layer disposed on another surface of the substrate, wherein said at least one thermal transfer layer contains at least one kind of polymer type releasing agent having a mass-average molecular weight of 5,000 to 100,000 and also having a fluorine-substituted aliphatic group at a side chain of the polymer, and at least one kind of non-polymer type fluorine-system surfactant.
US08053388B2

Disclosed are a catalyst support particle comprising alumina having dispersed therein ceria primary particles, wherein a prominent peak of alumina is not present in the vicinity of 2θ=67° in the X-ray diffraction analysis; an exhaust gas purifying catalyst obtained by loading a noble metal on the support particle; and production processes of the support catalyst and the exhaust gas purifying catalyst.
US08053387B2

The invention contemplates a method of making a catalytic material, and uses of the material. The catalytic material is made by depositing catalytic metals, such as gold or platinum, on substrate materials, such as lanthanum-doped ceria or other oxides. The catalytic metal, which comprises both crystalline and non-crystalline structures, is treated, for example with aqueous basic NaCN solution, to leach away at least some of the crystalline metallic component. The remaining noncrystalline metallic component associated with the substrate exhibits catalytic activity that is substantially similar to the catalyst as prepared. The use of the catalyst in an apparatus such as a reactor or analytic instrument is contemplated, as is the use of the catalyst in efficient, cost-effective reactions, such as removal of carbon monoxide from fuel gases, for example by performing the water gas shift reaction.
US08053381B2

An optically detectable, floatable arsenic- and antimony-free, glazable lithium-aluminosilicate glass that can be prestressed and the glass ceramic converted therefrom are described. The glass or the glass ceramic has a composition (in % by weight based on oxide) of essentially SiO2 55-69, Al2O3 19-25, Li2O 3.2-5, Na2O 0-1.5, K2O 0-1.5, MgO 0-2.2, CaO 0-2.0, SrO 0-2.0, BaO 0-2.5, ZnO 0-<1.5, TiO2 1-3, ZrO2 1-2.5, SnO2 0.1-<1, ΣTiO2+ZrO2+SnO2 2.5-5, P2O5 0-3, Nd2O3 0.01-0.6, CoO 0-0.005, F 0-1, B2O3 0-2.
US08053378B2

A modified phenolic resin that is an alternate copolymer of at least one phenolic compound selected from phenol, naphthols, and their derivatives and a compound having a divalent connecting group, said modified phenolic resin having a side chain attached to an aromatic ring having a hydroxy group, said side chain being represented by defined formula (1-1). The modified phenolic resin can be used as a hardener for epoxy resins and a cured product thereof has excellent adhesion and flame retardancy without impairing properties of conventional phenolic resins such as gel time, glass transition temperature, moisture absorption, and mechanical properties. The epoxy resin composition can provide excellent adhesion and flame retardancy as hardeners for semiconductor sealing epoxy resins, insulating materials for electrical/electronic components, and laminates (printed circuit boards). A prepreg containing a glass substrate impregnated with the epoxy resin composition, a laminate, and an electronic circuit board are also provided.
US08053372B1

The present invention relates to an enhanced cyclic deposition process suitable for deposition of barrier layers, adhesion layers, seed layers, low dielectric constant (low-k) films, high dielectric constant (high-k) films, and other conductive, semi-conductive, and non-conductive films. The deposition enhancement is derived from ions generated in a plasma. The techniques described reduce the time required for plasma stabilization, thereby reducing deposition time and improving efficiency.
US08053368B2

The present invention relates to a method for removing residues from open areas of a patterned substrate involving the steps of providing a layer of a developable anti-reflective coating (DBARC) over a substrate; providing a layer of a photoresist over said DBARC layer; pattern-wise exposing said photoresist layer and said DBARC layer to a radiation; developing said photoresist layer and said DBARC layer with a first developer to form patterned structures in said photoresist and DBARC layers; depositing a layer of a developer soluble material over said patterned structures; and removing said developer soluble material with a second developer.
US08053367B2

A wafer polishing method is provided. First, a wafer, having a first surface, a second surface, and a plurality of opening portions depressed on the first surface, is provided. A plastic adhesive is filled in the opening portions and cured later. A polishing step is performed to thin the thickness of the wafer. Therefore, the yield of the wafer in the polishing process can be improved by the protection of the plastic adhesive.
US08053364B2

This disclosure provides a method of fabricating a semiconductor device layer and an associated memory cell. Empirical data may be used to generate a hysteresis curve associated with metal oxide deposition for a metal-insulator-metal structure, with curve measurements reflecting variance of a desired electrical property as a function of cathode voltage used during a sputtering process that uses a biased target. By generating at least one voltage level to be used during the sputtering process, where the voltage reflects a suitable value for the electrical property from among the values obtainable in mixed-mode deposition, a semiconductor device layer may be produced with improved characteristics and durability. A multistable memory cell or array of such cells manufactured according to this process can, for a set of given materials (e.g., metals and oxygen source), be fabricated to have minimal leakage or “off” current characteristics (Ileak or Ioff, respectively) or a maximum ratio of “on” current to “off” current (Ion/Ioff).
US08053360B2

To prevent two contacts that have different heights, share at least one interlayer insulating film and are disposed close to each other from being short-circuited to each other due to misalignment thereof, a semiconductor device according to the invention has a recess in an interlayer insulating film in which a first contact hiving a lower height, the recess being formed by the upper surface of the first contact, and a silicon nitride sidewall is formed in the recess to extend from the upper surface of the first contact and along the side surface of the recess.
US08053350B2

Methods are generally provided for forming a conductive oxide layer on a substrate. In one particular embodiment, the method can include sputtering a transparent conductive oxide layer on a substrate at a sputtering temperature from about 50° C. to about 250° C., and annealing the transparent conductive oxide layer at an anneal temperature of about 450° C. to about 650° C. Methods are also generally provided for manufacturing a cadmium telluride based thin film photovoltaic device.
US08053348B2

Disclosed is a method of forming planar and non-planar semiconductor devices using a sacrificial gate sidewall spacer with a uniform vertical thickness. The method forms such spacers by selectively growing an epitaxial film on the vertical sidewalls of a gate structure. The use of an epitaxial growth process, as opposed to a deposition and etch process, ensures that the resulting spacers will have a uniform vertical thickness. Then, any process steps (e.g., implant and/or etch process steps) requiring the use of the gate sidewall spacers (e.g., as a mask or shield) are performed. Precise implant and/or etch profiles can be achieved, during these process steps, as a function of the uniformity of the gate sidewall spacers. Once such process steps are completed, the sidewall spacers are selectively removed. Optionally, before removing the sidewall spacers, they can be oxidized in order to enhance the selective removal process.
US08053346B2

A gate in a semiconductor device is formed to have a dummy gate pattern that protects a gate. Metal lines are formed to supply power for a semiconductor device and transfer a signal. A semiconductor device includes a quad coupled receiver type input/output buffer. The semiconductor device is formed with a gate line that extends over an active region, and a gate pad located outside of the active region. The gate line and the gate pad are adjoined such that the gate line and a side of the gate pad form a line. Dummy gates may also be applied. The semiconductor device includes a first metal line patterns supplying power to a block having a plurality of cells, a second metal line pattern transferring a signal to the cells, and dummy metal line patterns divided into in a longitudinal direction.
US08053339B2

There are provided a structure of a semiconductor device in which low power consumption is realized even in a case where a size of a display region is increased to be a large size screen and a manufacturing method thereof. A gate electrode in a pixel portion is formed as a three layered structure of a material film containing mainly W, a material film containing mainly Al, and a material film containing mainly Ti to reduce a wiring resistance. A wiring is etched using an IPC etching apparatus. The gate electrode has a taper shape and the width of a region which becomes the taper shape is set to be 1 μm or more.
US08053330B2

The present invention provides a method for removing or reducing the thickness of ultrathin interfacial oxides remaining at Si—Si interfaces after silicon wafer bonding. In particular, the invention provides a method for removing ultrathin interfacial oxides remaining after hydrophilic Si—Si wafer bonding to create bonded Si—Si interfaces having properties comparable to those achieved with hydrophobic bonding. Interfacial oxide layers of order of about 2 to about 3 nm are dissolved away by high temperature annealing, for example, an anneal at 1300°-1330° C. for 1-5 hours. The inventive method is used to best advantage when the Si surfaces at the bonded interface have different surface orientations, for example, when a Si surface having a (100) orientation is bonded to a Si surface having a (110) orientation. In a more general aspect of the invention, the similar annealing processes may be used to remove undesired material disposed at a bonded interface of two silicon-containing semiconductor materials. The two silicon-containing semiconductor materials may be the same or different in surface crystal orientation, microstructure (single-crystal, polycrystalline, or amorphous), and composition.
US08053325B1

A body contact structure which reduce parasitic capacitance and improves body resistance of a device and methods of manufacture. The method includes forming a gate insulator material and gate electrode material on a substrate. The method further includes patterning the gate insulator material and the gate electrode material to form a gate structure having a shape with a first portion isolated from a second portion. The method further includes forming source and drain regions on sides of the first portion and a body contact at a side and under an area of the second portion, and forming an interlevel dielectric within a space that isolates the first portion from the second portion of the gate structure, and over the gate structure, source and drain regions and the body contact.
US08053319B2

A method of forming a device is presented. A substrate prepared with an active device region is provided. The active device region includes gate stack layers of a gate stack that includes at least a gate electrode layer over a gate dielectric layer. An implant mask is formed on the substrate with an opening exposing a portion of a top gate stack layers. Ions are implanted through the opening and gate stack layers into the substrate to form a channel well. The substrate is patterned to at least remove portion of a top gate stack layer unprotected by the implant mask.
US08053315B2

This invention discloses a method of manufacturing a trenched semiconductor power device with split gate filling a trench opened in a semiconductor substrate wherein the split gate is separated by an inter-poly insulation layer disposed between a top and a bottom gate segments. The method further includes a step of forming the inter-poly layer by applying a RTP process after a HDP oxide deposition process to bring an etch rate of the HDP oxide layer close to an etch rate of a thermal oxide.
US08053313B2

In a method of fabricating a semiconductor device on a substrate having a pillar pattern, a gate electrode is formed on the pillar pattern without etching the latter. A conductive pattern is filled between adjacent pillar patterns, a spacer is formed above the conductive pattern and surrounding sidewalls of each pillar pattern, and the gate electrode is formed by etching the conductive pattern using the spacer as an etch barrier.
US08053312B2

A semiconductor device and a method for fabricating the same are provided. The method includes: forming a plurality of protruded patterns smaller than gate structures by selectively removing predetermined portions of a substrate; and forming the gate structures over the protruded patterns. The semiconductor device includes: a plurality of protruded substrate portions smaller than the gate structures; and a plurality of gate structures encompassing the protruded substrate portions, wherein channels are formed on surfaces of the protruded substrate portion.
US08053309B2

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate that includes first and second regions; first, second, and third insulating layers; a capacitor dielectric layer that includes first and second dielectric layers; a gate insulating layer formed on the first and second regions; a gate formed on the gate insulating layer of the second region; a first capacitor electrode formed on the capacitor dielectric layer; and impurity regions formed in the semiconductor substrate on sides of the gate. The first and second regions include first and second trenches, respectively. The third insulating layer is formed on the second insulating layer, which is formed on the first insulating layer, which is formed on an inner surface of the second trench. The second dielectric layer is formed on the first dielectric layer, which is formed on an inner surface of the first trench.
US08053307B2

A semiconductor device may include a substrate having a cell active region. A cell gate electrode may be formed in the cell active region. A cell gate capping layer may be formed on the cell gate electrode. At least two cell epitaxial layers may be formed on the cell active region. One of the at least two cell epitaxial layers may extend to one end of the cell gate capping layer and another one of the at least two cell epitaxial layers may extend to an opposite end of the cell gate capping layer. Cell impurity regions may be disposed in the cell active region. The cell impurity regions may correspond to a respective one of the at least two cell epitaxial layers.
US08053305B2

The invention provides a method for producing a semiconductor device that can reduce the number of mask steps. In a CMOS production process, gate electrodes are formed in regions for forming an NMOS and a PMOS at the same time with a common mask pattern, and after the gate electrodes have been formed, a well, and source and drain regions are formed by impurity ion implantations with a common mask pattern in each region of the NMOS and the PMOS, using the gate electrode as a mask, whereby the number of mask steps is reduced.
US08053301B2

Silicon germanium (SiGe) is epitaxially grown on a silicon channel above nFET and pFET regions of a substrate. SiGe is removed above the nFET regions. A device includes a silicon channel above the nFET regions and a SiGe channel above the pFET regions.
US08053297B2

A thin film transistor (TFT) having improved characteristics, a method for fabricating the same, and an organic light emitting display device (OLED) including the same. The TFT is constructed with a substrate, a semiconductor layer disposed on the substrate and including a channel region, source and drain regions, a gate insulating layer disposed on the semiconductor layer, a gate electrode disposed on the gate insulating layer and corresponding to the channel region, an interlayer insulating layer disposed on the gate electrode, and source and drain electrodes electrically connected to the source and drain regions of the semiconductor layer. The channel region is made from polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si), and the source and drain regions are made from amorphous silicon (a-Si). The polycrystalline silicon of the channel region is formed by crystallizing amorphous silicon using Joule's heat generated by the gate electrode.
US08053287B2

A method of making a backside illuminated sensor is provided. A substrate is provided and a high energy ion implantation is performed over the substrate to implant a first doped region. A layer is formed over the substrate and a self-align high energy ion implantation is performed over the substrate to implant a second doped region over the first doped region. The combined thickness of the first and second doped region is greater than 50 percent of thickness of the substrate and the distance between back surface of the substrate and the first and second doped regions is less than 50 percent of thickness of the substrate. In this way, an enlarged light sensing region is formed through which electrons generated from back surface of the surface may easily reach the pixel.
US08053278B2

A multi-chip package type semiconductor device includes an insulating substrate having first and second conductive patterns thereon, a first semiconductor chip on the insulating substrate and having a first terminal pad and a relay pad isolated from the first terminal pad. The device further includes a second semiconductor chip on the first semiconductor chip having a second terminal pad. The first semiconductor chip is connected to the first pattern by a first bonding wire. The second semiconductor chip is connected to the second pattern by a second bonding wire, which connects the second pattern to the relay pad, and a third bonding wire, which connects the relay pad to the second terminal pad. The lengths of the first, second and third bonding wire are approximately the same.
US08053276B2

An electronic component is disclosed including a plurality of stacked semiconductor packages. A first such embodiment includes an internal connector for electrically coupling the stacked semiconductor packages. A second such embodiment includes an external connector for electrically coupling the stacked semiconductor packages.
US08053272B2

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device, comprises steps of forming a common contact hole for a first conductivity-type region and a second conductivity-type region, implanting an impurity in at least one of the first conductivity-type region and the second conductivity-type region, and forming a shared contact plug by filling an electrical conducting material in the contact hole, wherein in the implanting step, an impurity is implanted in at least one of the first conductivity-type region and the second conductivity-type region such that the first conductivity-type region and the shared contact plug are brought into ohmic contact with each other, and the second conductivity-type region and the shared contact plug are brought into ohmic contact with each other.
US08053267B2

The present invention provides three-dimensional force input control devices for use in sensing vector forces and converting them into electronic signals for processing, and methods of fabricating three-dimensional force input control devices for sensing vector forces and converting them into electronic signals for processing. In some embodiments, methods of fabricating provide a semiconductor substrate having a side one and a side two; fabricate stress-sensitive IC components and signal processing IC on side one of the substrate; fabricate closed trenches on side two of the substrate, the trenches forming boundaries defining elastic elements, frame areas, and rigid islands, and remove additional substrate material from side two of the substrate in the frame area leaving the dimension of the rigid island protruding outward from side two.
US08053257B2

The invention predicts premature dielectric breakdown in a semiconductor. At least one dielectric breakdown mode is calculated for a layer within chips comprising a semiconductor wafer lot. If only one mode is calculated, that is the best calculated mode. If multiple modes can be calculated, a best mode that most accurately represents dielectric breakdown for the semiconductor wafer lot is determined. Premature dielectric breakdown will be associated with any semiconductor with a breakdown voltage less than a predetermined standard deviation from the best calculated mode.
US08053237B2

Novel plant cell signaling genes and gene products are provided. These gene, polypeptide and oligonucleotide sequences are useful in regulating plant phenotype. Moreover, these genes and gene products are useful for expression profiling of plant cell signaling genes. The invention specifically provides polynucleotide and polypeptide sequences isolated from Eucalyptus and Pinus species.
US08053233B2

A novel polypeptide that functions as an IL-18 receptor is disclosed. The receptor is multimeric and includes at least one AcPL polypeptide, or fragment thereof, and at least one IL-1Rrp1 polypeptide, or fraction thereof. The receptor binds IL-18 and finds use in inhibiting biological activities mediated by IL-18.
US08053230B2

A device for culturing cells or tissue includes a culture dish with a bottom wall and at least one sidewall to define an interior cavity, at least one channel formed on the bottom wall to minimize the effect of fluid movement on biologics in the dish and, optionally, at least one barrier wall for partitioning the interior cavity into a plurality of compartments. The barrier wall maintains a biologic in one compartment separate from a biologic in another compartment. The barrier wall may also provide fluid communication between compartments.
US08053216B2

A new method to produce formulations of bacterial cellulose that exhibit improved viscosity-modifying properties particularly with low energy applied to effectuate viscosity changes therewith is provided. Such a method includes the novel co-precipitation with a water soluble co-agent that permits precipitation in the presence of excess alcohol to form an insoluble fiber that can than be utilized as a thickener or suspension aid without the need to introduce high energy mixing. Such bacterial cellulose properties have been available in the past but only through highly labor and energy intensive processes. Such an inventive method as now proposed thus provides a bacterial cellulose-containing formulation that exhibits not only properties that are as effective as those for previous bacterial celluloses, but, in some ways, improvements to such previous types. Certain end-use compositions and applications including these novel bacterial cellulose-containing formulations are also encompassed within this invention.
US08053215B2

The present invention provides a nucleic acid sequence amplification method and apparatuses thereof that are simple in the design and easy to miniaturize and integrate into complex apparatuses, with capability of using DNA polymerases that are not thermostable. In the present invention, a plurality of heat sources are combined to supply heat to, or remove heat from specific regions of the sample such that a specific spatial temperature distribution is maintained inside the sample by locating a relatively high temperature region lower in height than a relatively low temperature region.
US08053214B2

An extraction and analysis device includes a microfluidic based collection system that extracts one or more different analytes from a fluid-based sample and an optical analysis system directly coupled to the collection system to perform optical analysis on the one or more collected analytes. The microfluidic based collection system includes microfluidic circuitry for directing a fluid based sample to a purification chip. Analytes collected within the purification chip can be either subsequently removed and analyzed or the analytes can be analyzed directly, while still within the purification chip, using the optical analysis system. The purification chip is preferably comprised of a plurality of pillars, the surface area of each pillar is coated with a specific capture chemistry. The specific capture chemistry is applied by derivitizing the pillars such that a ligand, such as a nucleic acid, an amptimer, or an antibody is attached to each pillar.
US08053212B1

This invention relates to nucleoside, nucleotide, and oligonucleotide analogs that incorporate non-standard nucleobase analogs, defined to be those that present a pattern of hydrogen bonds to a paired nucleobase analog in a complementary strand that is different from the pattern presented by adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. The invention is specifically concerned with compositions of matter that present the donor-donor-acceptor, donor-acceptor-donor, and acceptor-donor-donor non-standard hydrogen bonding patterns on pyrimidine analogs, where nucleoside analogs bearing these pyrimidine analogs do not epimerize as easily as those known in the art. The heterocycles on these nucleoside analogs are diaminopyridines and aminopyridones that have electron withdrawing groups attached to the position analogous to the 5-position of the ring in standard pyrimidines, including nitro, cyano, and carboxylic acid derivatives.
US08053203B2

The present invention relates generally to detection of occult blood. In particular, the present invention provides a device and methods for the simultaneous detection of hemoglobin and transferrin in fecal samples, which permit a more sensitive diagnosis of occult blood in fecal sample and a differential diagnosis of bleeding of the upper GI tract versus the lower GI tract.
US08053197B2

The present disclosure relates to methods for inhibiting an autoimmune disease by administering to a subject a therapeutically effective amount of a composition that increases FOXP3 expression, thereby inhibiting the autoimmune disease. Further disclosed herein are methods for detecting in a subject an autoimmune disease or a predisposition to an autoimmune disease, and methods for assessing the efficacy of a therapy for an autoimmune disease.
US08053194B2

Disclosed is a labeling substance capable of reversibly immobilizing (reversible detachment) to a solid surface and to reliably and accurately identify a target biological substance interacting with a probe substance bound to the labeling substance. A chimeric compound is provided, which includes a labeling substance L including (1) an organic compound S with a chemical structure capable of binding to a probe substance P, which can interact with a biological substance B and (2) a peptide bound to the organic compound S and specifically recognized by an antibody A, peptide and a probe substance P at least except a peptide or protein. In addition, a method for preparing the labeling substance L and a method for capturing, structurally analyzing and/or identifying the biological substance using the labeling substance L are provided.
US08053191B2

Certain aspects of the present invention provide methods for assembling nucleic acid molecules using iterative activation of one or more vector-encoded traits to progressively assemble a longer nucleic acid insert. Aspects of the invention also provide kits, compositions, devices, and systems for assembling synthetic nucleic acids using iterative activation of one or more vector-encoded traits.
US08053183B2

In order to identify the molecules involved in esophageal carcinogenesis and those to be useful for diagnostic markers as well as targets for new drugs and immunotherapy, a cDNA microarray representing 32,256 genes was constructed to analyze the expression profiles of 19 esophageal squamous-cell carcinomas (ESCCS) purified by laser-capture microdissection. a detailed genome-wide database for sets of genes that are significantly up- or down-regulated in esophageal cancer is disclosed herein. these genes find use in the development of therapeutic drugs or immunotherapy as well as tumor markers. additionally, genes associated with lymph-node metastasis and post-surgery recurrence are disclosed herein. among the candidate molecular target genes, ECT2 and CDC45L and DKK1 are further characterized. treatment of ESCC cells with small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) of ECT2 or CDC45L suppressed growth of the cancer cells. Thus, the data herein provide valuable information for identifying diagnostic systems and therapeutic target molecules for esophageal cancer.
US08053163B2

For patterning during integrated circuit fabrication, an image layer is activated for forming a respective first type polymer block at each of two nearest activated areas. A layer of block copolymer is formed on the image layer, and a plurality of the first type polymer blocks and a plurality of second and third types of polymer blocks are formed on an area of the image layer between outer edges of the two nearest activated areas, from the block copolymer. At least one of the first, second, and third types of polymer blocks are removed to form a variety of mask structures.
US08053160B2

An imaging composition, article and method of imaging are disclosed. The imaging composition is energy sensitive such that upon application of a sufficient amount of energy to the composition a color or shade change is affected. The imaging composition is coated on an article to form an energy sensitive article, which may be used in marking work pieces.
US08053154B2

A toner for electrostatic charge development is provided where the toner comprises a colorant and a resin and contains an organic boron compound represented by a following chemical formula (A) as a charge controlling agent, further the toner is treated with an inorganic fine particle and at least one of the inorganic particles is a magnesium silicate compound represented by a following general formula [2] is provided. wherein X is an alkali metal, R1, R2, R3 or R4 each represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, an alkoxy group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, or a halogen atom. MgxSiyO(x+2y)  [2] wherein x and y are integers.
US08053145B2

To provide a method for manufacturing a holographic recording medium and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, by which effects of distortion or irregularities of the surface of an exposure object can be reduced. The method includes the steps of: splitting a laser beam emitted from a laser oscillator into a first laser beam and a second laser beam, and forming a fringe pattern in a holographic recording medium by illuminating the holographic recording medium with the first laser beam through a mask and illuminating the holographic recording medium with the second laser beam. The mask is a substrate having a light-shielding film formed over its surface.
US08053142B2

A nanostructured composite anode with nano gas channel and an atmosphere plasma spray manufacturing method thereof are disclosed. The anode consists of a porous base material and a composite film with nano gas channels above the porous base material while the composite film has a plurality of nano gas pores and a plurality of nano gas channels. The manufacturing method according to the present invention includes the steps of: provide micron-sized agglomerated and nanostructured powders having mixture of nano oxide particles and a binder; heat the micron-sized agglomerated and nanostructured powders into melt or semi-melt oxide mixture; spray the melt or semi-melt oxide mixture on a porous base material; and generate the nanostructured anode composite film with nano gas channels through hydrogen reduction. The anode of the present invention increases the electrochemical activity and slows down nickel particle aggregation effect under high temperature environment.
US08053141B2

The present invention relates to a contact plate for fuel cells with a coherent active area (11) on at least one side of the contact plate, wherein the active area (11) consists of a contact surface (2) which over the whole surface comprises a coating (4) of an electrically conductive, corrosion-resistant material, and of recesses (3) so that the recesses (3) form a channel structure, wherein the coating (4) furthermore at least in the bottom regions (5) of the recesses (3) is omitted. The invention further relates to a corresponding fuel cell or to a fuel cell stack with at least one such contact plate as well as to various methods for manufacturing such contact plates which may serve as bipolar plates as well as monopolar plates or end plates. With the contact plate according to the invention, one achieves an optimally reduced contact resistance with a minimal material expense for the coating (4).
US08053123B2

A fuel cell system includes: an AC impedance measuring unit which measures an AC impedance of a fuel cell at a scavenging start and which measures an AC impedance of the fuel cell at a time when a predetermined time has elapsed from the scavenging start; a scavenging execution time estimation unit which estimates a scavenging execution time based on the AC impedance measured at the scavenging start, the AC impedance measured at the time when the predetermined time has elapsed from the scavenging start, and the predetermined time; and an error processing unit which forcibly terminates scavenging processing if a fuel cell voltage becomes lower than a predetermined threshold value during a period from the scavenging start to the time when the predetermined time has elapsed from the scavenging start.
US08053121B2

A system and technique for switching the polarity of an electrochemical cell stack to switch operation of the stack between a power producing mode of operation and an electrochemical pumping mode of operation is provided. The system and technique include a plurality of polarity switches that are switched between configurations in response to a mode select signal.
US08053120B2

There are provided a power generation unit, a fuel tank, a line, a mixing tank, a fuel circulation unit which circulates a mixture fuel from the mixing tank to the mixing tank via the power generation unit and the line, a fuel supplier which supplies the fuel from the fuel tank to the mixing tank, an air supplier which supplies air to a cathode, a power adjustment unit which adjusts the current applied to the load in accordance with a generated power output, a fan which adjusts the temperature of the power generator, and a control unit which detects the concentration and volume of the mixture fuel and manipulates, on the basis of a detection result, the fuel circulation unit, the fuel supplier, the load of the power adjustment unit, the air supplier and the fan to control the concentration and volume of the mixture fuel.
US08053117B2

A fuel cell system that employs a start-up heater. The heater is coupled to a cold plate that warms a stack coolant during system start-up. A heater circuit measures the voltage at the output of the fuel cell stack and across the heater and the current through the fuel cell stack and through the heater. The heater circuit controls the amount heat that the heater generates by the measured voltage and current and the available power at the output of the fuel cell stack. In one embodiment, the heater includes field effect transistors (FETs) and planar resistors directly mounted to the cold plate. The FETs operate in their linear mode, allowing only the amount of current, which is required at a given voltage, to produce the power needed from the stack.
US08053103B2

A battery pack including: a bare cell; a holder disposed at an end of the bare cell, having a connection groove on a side surface thereof; a protection circuit board seated in the holder; and an outer case disposed upon a side of the bare cell, having a connection protrusion mated with the connection groove, to secure the holder. Another battery pack includes: a bare cell including an electrode assembly and an cell case to accommodate the electrode assembly, including an outer casing and a inner casing, the cell case having a connection protrusion disposed at an edge of at least one of the outer and inner casings; a holder disposed at an end of the bare cell, having a connection groove to mate with the connection protrusion and thereby secure the holder; and a protection circuit board seated in the holder.
US08053102B2

The present invention relates to electrical separators and to a process for making them. An electrical separator is a separator used in batteries and other arrangements in which electrodes have to be separated from each other while maintaining ion conductivity for example. The separator is preferably a thin porous insulating material possessing high ion permeability, good mechanical strength and long-term stability to the chemicals and solvents used in the system, for example in the electrolyte of the battery. In batteries, the separator should fully electrically insulate the cathode from the anode. Moreover, the separator has to be permanently elastic and to follow movements in the system, for example in the electrode pack in the course of charging and discharging. This object is achieved by an electrical separator according to the invention, comprising a sheetlike flexible substrate having a multiplicity of openings and having a coating on and in said substrate, said substrate being a polymeric nonwoven and said coating being a porous electrically insulting ceramic coating, said separator being characterized by a thickness of less than 80 μm.
US08053088B2

A slide member provided with an Al-based alloy layer including Si and having a first contoured surface having first planar surfaces and first convexities consisting of Si particles protruding from the first planar surfaces; an intermediate layer that coats the Al-based alloy layers an overlay that coats the intermediate layer; wherein 90% or more of the Si particles protruding from the first planar surfaces are configured to have a predetermined particle diameter of 2 μm or less, the Si particles having the predetermined particle diameter being distributed in the Al-based alloy layer with a distance between centers of gravity of the Si particles having the predetermined particle diameter averaging 6 μm or less, and wherein the overlay has a second contoured surface having second planar surfaces and second convexities conforming with the first planar surfaces and the first convexities of the first contoured surface.
US08053081B2

A cutting tool having a cutting edge with a layer of an organophosphorus compound is disclosed.
US08053080B2

A modification process of the synthetic quartz powder, which can make a quartz glass product hardly having bubbles at the time of fusing, is provided, along with a modification process of the synthetic quartz powder and a glass product using said modified quartz powder are provided, wherein the synthetic quartz powder is kept in helium atmosphere at least in the temperature falling process, when the amorphous synthetic quartz powder produced by the sol-gel method is carried out by heat treatment in a vacuum furnace at more than the degas temperature and less than the baking temperature, wherein the highest temperature in the helium atmosphere is preferably set to from more than 700° C. to less than 1400° C., and the helium atmosphere is kept to less than 400° C.
US08053079B2

A glass sheet laminate structure (10) produced by laminating at least three glass sheets (20) each having a thickness of less than 1 mm through an intermediate layer (30) between two adjacent glass sheets. The maximum variation ΔHmax of the interval H between two adjacent glass sheets opposed to each other through the intermediate layer in connection with the central portion and the opposite end portions satisfies a relationship of 0 μm<ΔHmax<200 μm.
US08053074B2

A stretch nonwoven fabric 10 contains inelastic fibers having a varied thickness along the length and elastic fibers. The nonwoven fabric 10 preferably includes an elastic fiber layer 1 and a substantially inelastic, inelastic fiber layer 2 on at least one side of the elastic fiber layer 1. The fibers with a varied thickness along the length are contained in the inelastic fiber layer 2. The nonwoven fabric 10 is conveniently produced by (a) superposing a web containing low-drawn, inelastic fibers having an elongation of 80% to 800% on at least one side of a web containing elastic fibers, (b) subjecting the webs, while in a non-united state, to through-air technique to obtain a fibrous sheet having the webs united together by thermal bonding the fibers at their intersections, and (c) stretching the fibrous sheet in at least one direction to draw the low-drawn inelastic fibers, followed by releasing the sheet from the stretch.
US08053072B2

This invention relates to an article having a reduced porosity and a method for sealing porosity of at least a portion of an outer porous surface of an article, said method comprising (i) applying a sealant solution on the outer porous surface of said article, (ii) infiltrating at least a portion of the outer porous surface with said sealant solution, and (iii) allowing the infiltrated sealant solution to react, thereby forming an infiltrated solid precipitate, said infiltrated solid precipitate sealing the porosity of at least a portion of the outer porous surface of said article. The method is useful, for example, in the protection of integrated circuit manufacturing equipment, internal chamber components, and electrostatic chuck manufacture.
US08053071B2

There is provided a film having use of impact absorption capable of protecting a panel from impacts when the impacts are given to a display device, a window since it has an excellent ability to absorb impacts given to a surface of a display device, a window, or equivalent base plates. The impact absorption layer having a thickness of 30 μm or more has a hardness of 20 to 100 as measured at a room temperature using an Asker C hardness tester. Also, the film having use of impact absorption has excellent impact resistance and includes at least one layer, wherein the film includes at least one impact absorption layer having a hardness of 20 to 100 as measured at a room temperature using an Asker C hardness tester, the impact absorption layer having the total thickness of 30 μm or more.
US08053065B2

In a flexible layer composite comprising a support and at least one curable surface coating composition applied to the support, the layer of curable surface coating composition comprises a binder which contains double bonds and has a double bond density in the range from 3 mol/kg to 6 mol/kg, a transition glass temperature Tg in the range from −15° C. to 20° C. and a solids content in the range from 40% to 100%, if appropriate at least one surface coating auxiliary, preferably a surface coating auxiliary combination, if appropriate solvents and if appropriate pigments and/or fillers and is not sticky after thermal drying. At least one removable protective layer, preferably a removable protective film, has preferably been applied to the layer of curable surface coating composition.
US08053055B2

A stretch film comprising a base film made of a stretchable plastic film material, a multiplicity of holes in the base film arranged in several columns along a main direction, at least one reinforcement strip made of a stretchable plastic film material. The reinforcement strip is arranged and fixed on the base film in an area between two adjacent columns of holes. The thickness of the base film is greater than or equal to the thickness of the reinforcement strip and the width (w) of the reinforcement strip is as great as possible, but is such that the reinforcement strip does not contact or overlap the holes in the adjacent columns of holes. The reinforcement strip may be fixed to the base film so as to be inseparable and indistinguishable from the base film.
US08053042B1

An artificial tree apparatus having a plurality of tree trunk segments that couple together to provide electrical power to receptacles on each of the segments. An electrical line is connected to a first trunk segment electrical connector, such that when the first trunk segment is brought into juxtaposition with the second trunk segment, a detent on the first trunk segment can be brought into alignment with and slidably engage with a guide slot on the second trunk segment to permit connection of the first trunk segment electrical connector (socket) with the second trunk segment electrical connector (plug). The recessed location of the plug on the second segment protects the plug prongs, and connection with the corresponding socket on the first segment is only possible when the detent on the first segment has been aligned with the guide slot on the second segment.
US08053038B2

A method is disclosed for making a titanium-based compound film of a poly-silicon solar cell. In the method, a ceramic substrate is made of aluminum oxide. The ceramic substrate is coated with a titanium film in an e-gun evaporation system. Dichlorosilane is provided on the titanium film by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition. A titanium-based compound film is formed on the ceramic substrate.
US08053035B2

An assembly and associated method of manufacture are provided in which electrostatic deposition is used to directly apply and/or apply without solvents an electrode to one of an ion-conducting member, a member adapted to hold an ion-conducting member and a gas diffusion layer of the assembly.
US08053027B2

A compositionally stratified multi-layer Ba1-xSrxTiO3 (BST) heterostructure material is described which includes a lower layer of crystallized Ba1-xSrxTiO3 perovskite oxide where x is in the range of 0.36-0.44, inclusive, deposited on a substrate; an intermediate layer of crystallized Ba1-xSrxTiO3 perovskite oxide where x is in the range of 0.23-0.27, inclusive, in contact with the lower layer; and an upper layer of crystallized Ba1-xSrxTiO3 perovskite oxide where x in the range of 0.08-0.13, inclusive, in contact with the intermediate layer. A phase shifter and/or preselector tunable device including a compositionally stratified multi-layer BST heterostructure material is described according to the present invention. Temperature sensitivity of an inventive phase shifter is reduced by at least 70% in the temperature interval of 20 to 90° C., inclusive, and by at least 14% in the temperature interval of −10 to 20° C., inclusive, compared to a compositionally homogeneous 60/40 BST material.
US08053023B2

In a method of forming a conductive layer, a conductive layer formed using the method, an organic electroluminescent device including the conductive layer, and a method of manufacturing the organic electroluminescent device, the method of forming the conductive layer comprises: pre-treating a substrate in order to improve adhesive force; coating a mixture solution which contains a sulfonate-based catalyst and a solvent on the substrate, and then drying the coated product; and performing vapor-phase polymerization by contacting the substrate on which the catalyst is coated with monomers which make up a conductive polymer in a vapor phase. The conductive layer obtained using the method of forming a conductive layer has high conductivity, high transmittance with respect to light having a wavelength of 300 nm to 700 nm, uniform thickness, and thermal-chemical stability.
US08053022B2

The invention relates to a patternable coatable electrically conductive layer comprising a fluid-coated electrically conductive material, wherein the fluid-coated electrically conductive material has sufficient conductivity to induce an electric field strong enough to change the optical state of a light modulating material and a display comprising a substrate, at least one patternable coatable electrically conductive layer comprising a fluid-coated electrically conductive material, wherein said fluid coated electrically conductive material has sufficient conductivity to induce an electric field strong enough to change the optical state of a light modulating material which has a first and a second field-switched stable optical state, and an imaging layer comprising said light modulating material disposed over said at least one patternable fluid-coated electrically conductive layer. The invention also relates to a method for making a coatable electrically conductive layer and a method for making a display with a coatable electrically conductive layer.
US08053021B2

A coating apparatus and an operating method thereof that prevent damage to the nozzle of a spinless coater from impurities on a substrate during resin coating of the substrate, and impurities remaining on a stage at the bottom of the substrate. The coating apparatus comprises a stage, a nozzle, a nozzle cleaner, and a stage cleaner. A substrate is placed upon the stage. The nozzle discharges resin on the substrate to perform coating. The nozzle cleaner cleans the nozzle. The stage cleaner cleans the stage. The operating method includes removing a coated first substrate from atop a stage, cleaning the stage using a stage cleaner, introducing a second substrate to be coated onto the cleaned stage, and discharging resin through a nozzle onto the second substrate and coating the second substrate.
US08053020B2

Methods are provided for coating a first surface of a device while also preventing coating of a second surface of the device by forming a covering of solid carbon dioxide on the second surface. In one embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for coating a luminal surface of a device while masking the abluminal surface with a covering of solid carbon dioxide. In another embodiment, a method is provided for coating the abluminal surface of the device while covering the luminal surface of the device with solid carbon dioxide.
US08053017B2

A formed lump of shellfish meat is manufactured by placing cooked shellfish meat into a mold, placing raw shellfish meat into a mold, compressing the shellfish meat, and cooking the compressed shellfish meat to make a formed lump of shellfish meat. The shellfish meat may be crab, scallops, shrimp, or lobster.
US08053014B2

The present invention is a liquid seasoning containing the following (A), (B), and (C): (A) 0.4 to 8% by mass of sodium (B) 0.01 to 4% by mass of flavonoid (C) 1 to 10% by mass of ethanol wherein, the flavonoid (B) satisfies the formula (1) and/or has one or more OH groups on the A-ring or B-ring in a molecule and no OH group at the position adjacent to the OH group (ortho position). Y/(X+Y)=0.05 to 1  formula (1) wherein, X and Y represent the following numbers, respectively: X; the number of OH group bonded to benzene rings in a molecule of the flavonoid, Y; the number of OCH3 group bonded to benzene rings in a molecule of the flavonoid.
US08053010B2

Bran treatment methods are described, comprising acidifying bran with a acid to pH's ranging from 4-6 forming acidified bran and thereafter treating with low levels of ozone to oxidize native bitter constituent, ferulic acid, preferably to vanillin to provide better flavored bran. The treated bran is useful as an ingredient for use in products such as flour based food products such as flours, pastas, dry mixes, refrigerated uncooked doughs, pet foods, ready-to-eat cereals, breads, tortilla, and grain based snacks.
US08053007B2

The described invention provides a method to determine a standard equivalent unit of nutrition in one serving of a weighted composition comprising a basket of fruits and vegetables representing at least 85% of all fruits and vegetables consumed in a defined geographical area; a method to fortify a base food so that the base food contains a standard equivalent unit of nutrition present in at least one serving comprising (i) at least one fruit; (ii) at least one vegetable, or (iii) at least one fruit and at least one vegetable; and a nutritional supplement or food additive comprising a set of nutritive components wherein the set of nutritive components provides at least one standard equivalent unit of nutrition present in one serving of a composition comprising at least one fruit and at least one vegetable.
US08053002B2

Herbal compositions derived from Kenyan plants are provided for the treatment of HIV and other infectious diseases. The herbal compositions can include the extracts of up to 14 plants, including the root of Dovyalis abyssinica and Clutia robusta. Also provided are methods for extracting alkaloids and other compounds from the plants. Also provided are methods of treating a subject having an infectious disease, particularly HIV.
US08052994B2

Disclosed are novel pharmaceutical compositions containing 3′-[(2Z)-[1-(3,4-dimethylphenyl)-1,5-dihydro-3-methyl-5-oxo-4H-pyrazol-4-ylidene]hydrazino]-2′-hydroxy-[1,1′-biphenyl]-3-carboxylic acid bis-(monoethanolamine) (eltrombopag olamine) and processes for preparing the same.
US08052991B2

There is provided a method of preparing an unsaturated fatty acid dry concentrate, wherein a substance comprising at least one unsaturated fatty acid is applied on a biologically inert matrix having a large surface area and is subsequently dried, as well as a composition comprising at least one unsaturated fatty acid and foods, beverages, drugs comprising this composition.
US08052990B2

The invention relates to a method for producing a biocompatible crosslinked gel consisting in crosslinking a determined quantity of at least one type of liquid biocompatible polymer by adding a quantity of crosslinking agent, in carrying out a crosslinking reaction, in adding an additional quantity of liquid polymer whose molecular mass is greater than 500,000 Da, in solving the reaction mixture in such a way that the total concentration of the liquid polymer is reduced, in crosslinking and in stopping the crosslinking reaction by removing the crosslinking agent. The inventive gel and the use thereof are also disclosed.
US08052983B2

A method of treating acne in a human in need thereof comprising administering systemically to said human a tetracycline compound in an amount that is effective to treat acne but has substantially no antibiotic activity, without administering a bisphosphonate compound.
US08052976B2

Polypeptide growth factors, methods of making them, polynucleotides encoding them, antibodies to them, and methods of using them are disclosed. The polypeptides comprise an amino acid segment that is at least 90% identical to residues 46-163 of SEQ ID NO:2 or residues 235-345 of SEQ ID NO:2. Multimers of the polypeptides are also disclosed. The polypeptides, multimeric proteins, and polynucleotides can be used in the study and regulation of cell and tissue development, as components of cell culture media, and as diagnostic agents.
US08052970B2

The present invention is directed to methods for diagnosis and treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus and drug-induced systemic lupus erythematosus. More specifically, the specification describes methods using a lysosomal phospholipase A2 in methods for the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune disorders such as systemic lupus erythematosus and drug-induced systemic lupus erythematosus.
US08052964B2

Protease resistant modified interferon-beta polypeptides, pharmaceutical compositions and methods of treatment by administering the compositions are provided. The modified interferon-beta polypeptides are orally available; hence pharmaceutical compositions formulated for oral administration also are provided.
US08052948B2

A CO2 recovery system includes an absorption tower and a regeneration tower. CO2 rich solution is produced in the absorption tower by absorbing CO2 from CO2-containing gas. The CO2 rich solution is conveyed to the regeneration tower where lean solution is produced from the rich solution by removing CO2. A compressor compresses CO2 that is removed from the rich solution and discharged through a head of the regeneration tower. Heat is generated while the compressor compresses the CO2. A heat supplying unit supplies the heat to the regeneration tower for heating the lean solution.
US08052947B2

A method for separating and recovering trivalent and tetravalent actinoids in a simple and less costly manner without using an organophosphorus compound is provided. This method selectively separates and recovers the tetravalent actinoid plutonium Pu (IV) and the trivalent actinoids americium Am (III) and curium Cm (III) from trivalent lanthanoids Ln (III), etc. with the use of an extractant having a functional group with neutral multidentate ligand activity which is a hybrid donor type organic compound having both of donor atoms, i.e., an oxygen atom and a nitrogen atom.
US08052941B2

A package having an improved yield is provided. The package includes a support on which a plurality of biochips are disposed, and a cover bonded to the support and defining a reaction space for each of the plurality of biochips together with the support, the cover including at least one inlet/outlet.
US08052932B2

A chemical sensor and a system and method for sensing a chemical species. The chemical sensor includes a plurality of nanofibers whose electrical impedance varies upon exposure to the chemical species, a substrate supporting and electrically isolating the fibers, and a set of electrodes connected to the plurality of fibers at spatially separated points to permit the electrical impedance of the plurality of fibers to be measured. The system includes the chemical sensor, an impedance measuring device coupled to the electrodes and configured to determine an electrical impedance of the plurality of fibers, and an analyzer configured to identify the chemical species based on a change in the electrical impedance. The method measures at least one change in an electrical impedance between spatially separated electrodes connected to a plurality of fibers upon exposure of the fibers to the chemical species, and identifies the chemical species based on the measured change in the electrical impedance.
US08052928B2

A tissue infiltration apparatus (1) for specimens present in cassettes (5). comprises at least two liquid containers (7, 11, 13, 15) and a transport apparatus (6). A liquid having a definable property is introducible into a liquid container (7, 11, 13, 15). Multiple cassettes (5) are receivable in a transport basket (4). The transport apparatus (6) is configured in such a way that with it, at least two transport baskets (4) are transportable in the tissue infiltration apparatus (1). A transport basket (4) is deliverable to a liquid container (7, 11, 13, 15) and/or movable away from a liquid container (7, 11, 13, 15) with the transport apparatus (6). An execution sequence (21) in which the transport baskets (4) pass through the liquid containers (7, 11, 13, 15) of the tissue infiltration apparatus (1) is definable. To enable accelerated or preferred processing of a transport basket (4) with the tissue infiltration apparatus (1), but without using an additional liquid container provided only for that purpose, at least one means (8) is provided with which the order of two transport baskets (4) is definably modifiable.
US08052923B2

A method of producing three-dimensional bodies which wholly or for selected parts consist of amorphous metal. A metal powder layer (4) is applied to a heat-conducting base (1, 13), and a limited area of the layer is melted by a radiation gun (5) and the area is cooled so that the melted area solidifies into amorphous metal. The melting process is successively repeated on new limited areas of the powder layer until a continuous layer of amorphous metal is formed. A new powder layer is applied and the method is repeated, the new layer being fused to underlying amorphous metal for successive construction of the three-dimensional body. The heat-conducting base can be a worktable or a body of amorphous metal or crystalline metal to which amorphous metal is added.
US08052921B2

An apparatus for manufacturing molten iron includes i) at least one fluidized-bed reduction reactor that reduces and plasticizes iron ore and converts the iron ore into reduced materials, ii) a melter-gasifier into which the reduced ore is charged and oxygen is injected, the melter-gasifier manufacturing molten iron, and iii) a reducing gas supply line that supplies a reducing gas discharged from the melter-gasifier to the fluidized-bed reduction reactor. The fluidized-bed reduction reactor includes a cyclone that is installed in the fluidized-bed reduction reactor to collect fine iron ore. A gas injector, which prevents the fine ore from adhering by injecting gas containing carbon, is connected to the cyclone.
US08052919B2

To provide a heat treatment providing a product with quality as desired, high frequency induction heating treatment equipment capable of temperature control to provide such heat treatment includes temperature controlling means for adjusting in temperature an object to be treated, and quenching means for determining when the object heated should be cooled. The temperature controlling means includes heating means, temperature measuring means involved in temperature control, and temperature adjusting means. The quenching means includes temperature measuring means involved in quenching, and heat treatment adjusting means.
US08052917B2

A transparent article includes a continuous polyester matrix having at least one incompatible filler dispersed therein. The incompatible filler provides domains in the polyester matrix, each domain having a particular dimension, thus providing a range of dimensions for the domains in the article. To create haze, the dimensions are within the range of from about 380 nm to about 720 nm. Once the range of dimensions is determined, a light absorbent composition can be found which absorbs light at a range of wavelengths that at least substantially covers the range of dimensions of the domains. In doing so, it has been found that the haze of the article can be substantially masked. Method for producing the article and for masking the haze are also provided.
US08052914B2

The disclosure provides a modified arteriotomy closure plug, the modification consisting of subjecting a bioabsorbable foam closure plug to radial compression and/or axial bending until at least some struts of the foam have been torn or elongated within at least one axially disposed region.
US08052909B2

Method for molding a multi-component manufactured product through injection of plastic materials in a mold comprising on the inside one or more movable parts, characterized in that the movable parts are moved into a first configuration in which at least two distinct mold cavities are made in the mold, plastic material is injected into each of the two distinct mold cavities to form two components of the manufactured product, the movable parts are moved into a second configuration, in which they make at least a third cavity in the mold the walls of which at least partially consist of the two components already injected, plastic material is injected into the third mold cavity to form a third component of the manufactured product that is thus welded to the first two.
US08052908B2

A nanophotolithography mask includes a layer of an electrically conductive optically opaque material deposited on a mask substrate in which regular arrays of sub-wavelength apertures are formed. The plasmonic excitation in the layer perforated with the sub-wavelength apertures arrays under the light incident on the mask produces high resolution far-field radiation patterns of sufficient intensity to expose a photoresist on a wafer when propagated to the same. The fill-factor of the mask, i.e., the ratio of the total apertures area to the total mask area, may lead to a significant increase in mask manufacturing throughput by FIB or electron beam “writing”. The mask demonstrates the defect resiliency and ability to imprint coherent clear features of nano dimensions and shapes on the wafers for integrated circuits design.
US08052905B2

A process for the preparation of polymer yarns from ultra high molecular weight homopolymers or copolymers, wherein the process includes the following steps: (a) preparing a suspension of a homopolymer or copolymer and a spinning or gelling solvent of a non polar nature at a weight of homopolymer or copolymer to solvent ratio from 2/98 to 30/70, wherein said ultra high molecular weight homopolymer or copolymer is reactor bimodal or multimodal; (b) feeding said homopolymer or copolymer suspension to an extruder; (c) extruding said suspension under gel forming conditions, at a temperature in excess of 150° C., and under inert conditions; (d) spinning the gel obtained from the extrusion so as to obtain non-stretched filaments with diameters of at least 1 mm, at a temperature in excess of 150° C., while maintaining the inert conditions; (e) cooling the non-stretched filament bundles; (f) treating said non-stretched yarn with a second extraction solvent; (g) drying the non-stretched yarn and (h) stretching the dry yarn.
US08052903B2

A defect-free vitreous carbon material having a three-dimensional (x,y,z) size in which each of the x, y and z dimensions exceeds twelve millimeters. A process of making such vitreous carbon material employs a three-dimensional fiber mesh that vaporizes at elevated temperature, in which the mesh is impregnated with a polymerizable resin and thereafter the resin is cured. During the initial stage(s) of pyrolysis, the mesh volatilizes to yield a residual network of passages in the cured resin body that thereafter allows gases to escape during pyrolysis of the cured resin material to form the vitreous carbon product. As a result, it is possible to form defect-free vitreous carbon material of large size, suitable for use in structural composites, and product articles such as sealing members, brake linings, electric motor brushes, and bearing members.
US08052902B2

A method of fabricating a polarizing plate includes: providing a polarizing roll film having transmission axes; and cutting the polarizing roll film with a knife having a plurality of openings each having a rectangular shape to form a plurality of polarizing plates, the plurality of openings parallel to the transmission axes.
US08052898B2

A hydrogen gas detecting material, which changes in light absorption characteristics when exposed to an atmosphere containing hydrogen, and the coating method are characterized in that (1) the principal component of the hydrogen gas detecting material is tungsten oxide, (2) palladium is deposited on the surface of the tungsten oxide, (3) the tungsten oxide is coated on a substrate by a sputtering method involving a controlled oxygen pressure, and (4) the temperature of the substrate during coating with the tungsten oxide is room temperature (20° C.).
US08052891B2

Disclosed are a novel fluorene derivative, a liquid crystal composition comprising the same, and an optical film using the same liquid crystal composition. More particularly, there are provided a liquid crystal material for a viewing angle compensation film with high quality characteristics, which can improve a contrast ratio measured at an oblique angle to the front and minimize variations in color with viewing angles in a black state, a liquid crystal composition comprising the same liquid crystal material, and a compensation film obtained from the same liquid crystal composition.
US08052869B2

A chamber filter plate for a filter press includes a plate plane having a longitudinal direction and a crosswise direction. A plate body has a surface with a thickness. A plate edge frames the plate body and is thicker than the surface of the plate body. The plate edge has at least one hollow channel formed therein, extending in the longitudinal and/or crosswise direction. A method of producing a chamber filter plate is also provided.
US08052852B2

A magnetron sputtering cathode mechanism includes a backing plate, a target, at least one magnetic component and at least one magnet. The backing plate has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The first surface has at least one positioning recess, and the target has a bombarded surface and a non-bombarded surface opposite to the bombarded surface. The non-bombarded surface contacts with the first surface and has at least one combining recess. The magnetic component is disposed between the backing plate and the target and has a combining portion and a positioning portion. The combining portion is positioned in the combining recess, and the positioning portion is received in the positioning recess. The magnet is disposed at the second surface. The magnetic component is attracted to the corresponding magnet so as to fix the target at the backing plate.
US08052846B2

The invention relates to a liquid cleaning device that is intended for purifying liquid from pollutants, which liquid cleaning device includes a vessel, having a lower chamber and an upper chamber, which lower chamber is connected to a heating member arranged to heat the liquid in said lower chamber, as well as further including a riser and liquid-distributor member, which riser is arranged to transport heated liquid from said lower chamber up to the upper part of said upper chamber, where the liquid-distributor member is arranged to impart the heated liquid an increased area of exposure to surrounding air, the liquid then, by means of the gravity, running back downward outside the riser and being collected in the lower part of the upper chamber of the vessel, said upper chamber and lower chamber being in at least conditioned communication with each other in order to allow transfer of the liquid from the upper chamber to the lower chamber. According to the invention, the heating member is arranged to be capable of assuming at least two power levels and that a change-over member is arranged to automatically reduce the power level of the heating member.
US08052837B2

Waste paper is deinked by a composition which comprises a surfactant and a hydrophobic-based deinking component.
US08052829B2

The invention relates to photopolymerizable compositions containing an oxonol dye, which compositions cure by exposure to ultraviolet and/or visible radiation and whose visible color is substantially reduced during exposure. More particularly, the invention pertains to photopolymerizable compositions comprising a pyridin-2,6-dione oxonol dye in an admixture of a polymerizable component and a photopolymerization initiator. Such compositions find use as adhesives, coatings, and the like. The disappearance of the visible color of the oxonol dye acts as an indicator of full cure of a photopolymerizable composition.
US08052820B2

A method of making a load bearing member (30) for an elevator system (20) includes placing at least one tension member (32) adjacent one side (60) of a first layer (36) of a polymer material. A second layer (38), comprising a urethane in a disclosed example, is added adjacent to at least the one side (60) of the first layer (36) such that the tension member (32) is between the first layer (36) and the second layer (38). Such a technique allows for eliminating the bridges typically used to support the tension members in molding devices. Eliminating such bridges eliminates the resulting grooves associated with previous arrangements. Providing a grooveless exterior on the jacket (34) of the load bearing member (30) eliminates a significant source of potential vibration and noise in an elevator system.
US08052816B2

An ultrasonic welding method includes the acts of pressing an ultrasonic welding stack mounted for linear movement against a first workpiece using an electrical servo motor, applying a predetermined initial load to the first workpiece, and initiating a weld, the initiating of the weld comprising outputting energy from the ultrasonic welding stack to the first workpiece. The method further includes sensing, with at least one sensor, a control variable, outputting a signal corresponding to the sensed control variable to a controller, simultaneously outputting energy from the ultrasonic welding stack to the first workpiece and maintaining a weld distance at or near zero until the signal corresponding to the sensed control variable satisfies a predetermined condition, and applying a controlled force, speed, or a combination of force and speed to said first workpiece with an electrically powered linear actuator to urge said first workpiece against a second workpiece to which said first workpiece is to be joined following satisfaction of said predetermined condition.
US08052814B2

A device and a method, in particular for labeling containers, in particular bottles, having a corresponding conveyor device, several equipment units, in particular labeling units, and a controller as well as a control console for controlling certain unit functions. To ensure reliable operation of the device, the control console is arranged to be variable in position and at least one position detector is provided, whereby the controller enables or blocks certain functions in a safety-oriented manner as a function of the position of the control console.
US08052813B2

An ignition composition and its applications, the ignition composition including at least (a) an explosive fraction that includes at least one primary explosive, (b) an oxidation-reduction system and (c) an agglomerate. In the ignition composition the explosive fraction represents 9 to 35% by weight of the composition, the primary explosive at least is tetrazene, and tetrazene represents at least 95% by weight of said explosive fraction.
US08052807B2

The present invention provides a steel sheet excellent in workability, which may be used for components of an automobile or the like, and a method for producing the same. More specifically, according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a steel sheet excellent in workability, including in mass, 0.08 to 0.25% C, 0.001 to 1.5% Si, 0.01 to 2.0% Mn, 0.001 to 0.06% P, at most 0.05% S, 0.001 to 0.007% N, 0.008 to 0.2% Al, at least 0.01% Fe. The steel sheet having an average r-value of at least 1.2, an r-value in the rolling direction of at least 1.3, an r-value in the direction of 45 degrees to the rolling direction of at least 0.9, and an r-value in the direction of a right angle to the rolling direction of at least 1.2.
US08052798B2

A particle removal apparatus for removing particles from a chamber of a plasma processing apparatus, wherein the chamber is connected to a gas exhaust port and a plasma of a processing gas is generated in the chamber to plasma process a substrate to be processed, includes a particle charging control member for positively charging particles generated within the chamber by positive ions of an ion sheath region formed in a region other than the vicinity of the substrate to be processed, wherein positively charged particles are discharged from the chamber via the gas exhaust port. Therefore, there is no plasma disturbance or metal contamination, and thus can be applied to a practical use.
US08052797B2

A method for removing inorganic foreign matters from the surface of a substrate made of silicon or glass or the surface of an inorganic coating formed on the surface of the substrate, which includes applying a light beam in a wavelength range which makes the light absorption coefficient of at least one of a material of the substrate, a material of the inorganic coating and the inorganic foreign matters be at least 0.01/cm, to the surface of the substrate or to the surface of the inorganic coating in an application amount of at least 10 J/cm2 in an oxygen- or ozone-containing atmosphere, and exposing the surface of the substrate or the surface of the inorganic coating having a negative surface potential to an acidic solution having a pH ≦6.
US08052792B2

The present invention relates to microfluidic devices and methods facilitating the growth and analysis of crystallized materials such as proteins. In accordance with one embodiment, a crystal growth architecture is separated by a permeable membrane from an adjacent well having a much larger volume. The well may be configured to contain a fluid having an identity and concentration similar to the solvent and crystallizing agent employed in crystal growth, with diffusion across the membrane stabilizing that process. Alternatively, the well may be configured to contain a fluid having an identity calculated to affect the crystallization process. In accordance with the still other embodiment, the well may be configured to contain a material such as a cryo-protectant, which is useful in protecting the crystalline material once formed.
US08052788B2

Colloidal silica having a controllable broad particle size distribution and a controllable minimum particle size is disclosed and claimed. Particles below a predetermined size are excluded from the product colloidal silica of the invention. A method for continuously producing the desired colloidal composition is disclosed comprising the steps of providing preformed silica particles having a surface area which controls the particle size of the colloidal silica product, adding a feed silica comprising an alkaline solution and silicate at a feed rate which is less than a nucleation rate.
US08052781B2

The present disclosure provides for a device that can include a waste collector, a system that transports waste stream of particle matter from a housing, a system that transports a waste stream of effluent and particle matter from the housing, and a separator that receives the waste streams and collects the particle matter into the waste collector.
US08052779B2

A centrifugal separator device for concurrent separation of solid and/or liquid particles suspended in a gaseous media includes a rotor having a multiplicity of sedimentation members and which is mounted rotatably in a surrounding housing. An intake is provided for the gaseous medium to be cleaned, which leads to a central inlet shaft of the rotor. The housing has an outlet for cleaned gas, which has been freed of solid and/or liquid particles on passage through the sedimentation members in the rotor, and an outlet for the solid and/or liquid particles, which have been deposited on the sedimentation members and then transferred to a side wall of the housing by a centrifugal force. A nozzle is arranged upstream of the sedimentation members in order to supply a liquid to the sedimentation members.
US08052778B2

A wetted wall cyclone system for sampling an aerosol. In an embodiment, the system comprises a cyclone body including an inlet end, an outlet end, and an inner flow passage extending therebetween. In addition, the system comprises a cyclone inlet tangentially coupled to the cyclone body proximal the inlet end. The cyclone inlet includes an inlet flow channel in fluid communication with the inner flow passage of the cyclone body. Further, the system comprises a skimmer coaxially coupled to the outlet end of the cyclone body. The skimmer comprises a separation end extending into the outlet end of the cyclone body, a free end distal the outlet end of the cyclone body, and an inner exhaust channel in fluid communication with the inner flow passage of the cyclone body. Still further, the system comprises means for reducing the temperature of at least a portion of the cyclone body.
US08052773B2

An object of this invention is to provide a manufacturing method of metal nanowire in which a length and a diameter can be uniformly controlled, metal nanowire having excellent form uniformity, and a transparent electric conductor exhibiting excellent conductivity and transparency by employing metal nanowire having excellent conductivity and transparency. A manufacturing method of metal nanowire which reduces a metal ion in a solution to form metal particles having a wire-form, wherein a nucleus forming process and a particle growth process after said nucleus forming process are provided, and said nucleus forming process reduces a metal ion to form reduced metal, which is directly precipitated on the surface of said particles formed in the said nucleus forming process or on the surface of particles having grown from said nucleus particles during a growth process, whereby metal particles are formed.
US08052769B2

A filter bag for a vacuum cleaner includes a tubular bag made of a casing which has at least one nonwoven layer. The casing has a first end region which is sealed at least partially and a second sealed end region situated opposite the first end region. The first end region is folded and forms a base.
US08052750B2

A prosthesis is provided for implantation at a native semilunar valve of a native valve complex. The prosthesis includes a distal fixation member, configured to be positioned in a downstream artery, and shaped so as to define exactly three proximal engagement arms that are configured to be positioned at least partially within respective ones of semilunar sinuses, and, in combination, to apply, to tissue that defines the semilunar sinuses, a first axial force directed toward a ventricle. The prosthesis further includes a proximal fixation member coupled to the distal fixation member, the proximal fixation member configured to be positioned at least partially on a ventricular side of the native semilunar valve, and to apply, to the ventricular side of the native valve complex, a second axial force directed toward the downstream artery, such that application of the first and second forces couples the prosthesis to the native valve complex.
US08052749B2

The present invention provides an apparatus for endovascularly replacing a patient's heart valve. In some embodiments, the apparatus includes an expandable anchor supporting a replacement valve, the anchor and replacement valve being adapted for percutaneous delivery and deployment to replace the patient's heart valve, the anchor having a braid having atraumatic grasping elements adapted to grasp tissue in a vicinity of the patient's heart valve.
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