US08345973B2
Embodiments of an apparatus, system and method are described for an adaptive light method for low power architecture. A histogram with a plurality of bins may be determined based on luminance for an image. A tone differential may be decreased based on a sum of pixel counts from adjacent bins. The image may be displayed based at least in part on a tone differential of a bin. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08345960B2
A method for synthetic reconstruction of objects includes: extracting criteria from a knowledge base; extracting, from sensed signals filtered by the criteria, weak signals; extracting, from the weak signals, weak signals of interest; removing noise from and amplifying the weak signals of interest and obtaining useful weak signals; identifying useful direct information, from useful weak signals filtered by the criteria and supplying optimum criteria; reconstructing, using the useful direct information, information of interest; reconstructing, using the information of interest, useful information and supplying optimum criteria; reconstructing, based on the useful information, three-dimensional information, supplying a recognition state file and supplying the optimum criteria; and updating the criteria with the optimum criteria.
US08345958B2
A method and a system for developing a new-view image from an original image with a corresponding depth map is provided. The original image has a plurality of original pixels and the new-view image has at least a new-view pixel. The method for developing the new-view image comprises the following steps. According to a corresponding depth value of each original pixel, a corresponding position of each original pixel corresponding to the new-view pixel is estimated. An occupancy proportion of each original pixel occupying the new-view pixel is estimated according to the corresponding position of each original pixel. An estimated color of an estimated partial pixel of the new-view pixel is initially obtained according to the occupancy proportion of one selected original pixel. The estimated partial pixel is updated according to the occupancy proportions and estimated occlusion proportion of the other selected original pixels one by one.
US08345950B2
A system and method for testing a multimeter provides a mechanical arm to set a gear of the multimeter. Values displayed on the multimeter are captured by a camera. The computer obtains the displayed values from captured images using a difference image method. If a difference between each two obtained values is in an allowable error range of the multimeter, the computer displays that the gear is qualified. If the difference between each two obtained values is not in the allowable error range, the computer displays that the gear is out of tolerance.
US08345948B2
A method of inspecting a turnout of a track includes the steps of: capturing images of the components of the turnout; converting each image into a set of coordinates that traces the transverse cross-section of a rail profile; analyzing the rail profile to determine if the rail profile is a profile of arunning rail portion or a component. Upon determination that the image represents a component, taking measurements of the rail profile and applying virtual gauges to the rail profile to check for potentially dangerous conditions of the component; and generating a summary of each cross-section of the rail profile of the component indicating problem areas. The method is used for identifying certain classes of switch or turnout rail conditions which can lead to derailments, and for enhancing the turnout inspection approach currently used. The use of this method as an integrated part of the rail profile monitoring program will reduce reliance on field measurements and will also allow more frequent, comprehensive, and convenient analysis of turnout condition.
US08345946B2
The present invention provides methods and apparatus for determining an orientation of a cilium relative to a characteristic of the shape of the cell from which the cilium projects. Three-dimensional microscopy data may be used to determine an orientation of a cilium relative to a specified axis, which is determined from a profile for each cell. Such orientation may be used to forecast alter, or otherwise study the growth process of chondrocytes. Results indicate that the shape of chondrocytes, the position of the ciliary basal body, the incidence of cilia, and the orientation of cilium, are not random through the growth plate.
US08345940B2
Method for automatic processing and evaluation of images, particularly diagnostic images, comprising an image processing tool in the form of a software program which is executable by the computer hardware and which image processing tool processes image data of a digital input image generating a modified digital output image whose image data are outputted in a graphical and/or alphanumerical format highlighting certain predetermined features or qualities of the corresponding regions of an imaged body or object, characterized in that the image processing tool comprises a first image detecting module which is an image processing module based on image processing non expert algorithms and which furnishes at its output a modified image file which modified image data are further processed by a classification or evaluation module which is a second image processing module comprising an image processing tool consisting in an expert image processing algorithm such as a classification or prediction algorithm the output of which is a further modified image file in which the pixels or voxels are highlighted corresponding to imaged object having a predetermined feature or quality.
US08345938B2
An image taking apparatus according to an aspect of the invention comprises: an image pickup device which picks up an object image and outputs the picked-up image data; a face detection device which detects human faces in the image data; a face-distance calculating device which calculates the distance between the faces among a plurality of faces detected by the face detection device; and a controlling device which controls the image pickup device to start shooting, after a shooting instruction is issued, in the case where the distance between the faces calculated by the face-distance calculating device is not greater than a first predetermined threshold value. The image taking apparatus allows shooting the moment the distance between the faces is close enough not be greater than to a predetermined threshold value.
US08345936B2
A multispectral iris recognition system includes a multispectral camera adapted to acquire spatially registered iris images simultaneously in at least three wavelengths and a database adapted to store the acquired iris images. A texture analysis section identifies an area within each acquired iris image having a maximum texture at each of the wavelengths. The identified areas are combined to generate an enhanced iris image. Additionally, a visible light iris image is acquired and stored along with a set of transformation mappings in a database. The acquired visible light iris image is modeled in a texture model, which clusters textures from the acquired visible light iris image. A mapping is selected from the database for each of the clusters. The selected mappings are applied to the acquired visible light iris image to generate a Near-Infrared equivalent.
US08345934B2
A method for automatically selecting and organizing a subset of photos from a set of photos provided by a user, who has an account on at least one social network providing some context, for creating a summarized photo album with a storytelling structure. The method comprises: arranging the set of photos into a three level hierarchy, acts, scenes and shots; checking whether photos are photos with people or not; obtaining an aesthetic measure of the photos; creating and ranking face clusters; selecting the most aesthetic photo of each face cluster; selecting photos with people until complete a predefined number of photos of the summarized album picking the ones which optimize the function: Of(C,C*,S,CSN)=αfAf(S)−γfd(HCharacter(S)HCharacter(C∪CSN)−δfd(HAct(S),HAct(C*)); and then selecting non-people photos which minimize the following function Oa: Oa(C*,S)=d(HAct,(S),HAct(C*)); ordering all the selected photos in chronological order; and finally discarding all the photos which have not been selected.
US08345933B2
A procedure for identifying a person with a data acquisition device (202) that is configured for capturing the image of their eyelashes (102, 104). The captured image is compared with eyelash images in a database.
US08345929B2
Method for visualizing and comparing two images or volumes of data of physical quantities or information referable to the same, recorded by means of suitable equipment, comprising the following steps: —defining which of the two quantities will be represented as color variations, and which as brightness variations; —defining a chromatic representation system based on three color coordinates, in which one coordinate represents the brightness and the other two coordinates represent appropriate color attributes; —applying a suitable transformation to the values of the physical quantities to be represented, so that the values of the physical quantities to be visualized are transformed from the original coordinates into the preselected chromatic coordinates; —transforming the values of the quantities to be visualized from the system of pre-selected coordinates into the chromatic coordinates typical of the pre-selected visualization system; —visualizing the image/volume containing the combination of the two quantities.
US08345928B2
A method is disclosed for localizing, in relation to a mark located at a ground level, a surveying instrument having a housing including at least one camera. In at least one embodiment, the method includes aligning the vertical rotational axis of the surveying instrument with the mark using a pointing device; capturing an image of the ground below the housing with the camera arranged in a known camera position and orientation, wherein the camera position is eccentric to the rotation center of the surveying instrument; identifying an object point corresponding to the mark in the captured image; measuring image coordinates of the object point in the captured image; and determining the height of the rotation center of said instrument above the ground based on the image coordinates and camera calibration data. Furthermore, a surveying instrument for performing at least one embodiment of the method is disclosed.
US08345926B2
A three dimensional machine scanning arrangement for a machine traveling over a worksite includes a pair of scanners that are mounted on the machine. Each of the pair of scanners measures distances to a number of points on the ground at the worksite. One of the pair of scanners faces rearward and the other of the pair of scanners is faces forward. A control is responsive to the pair of scanners. The control determines the contour of the worksite. A display, mounted on the machine, is responsive to the control for displaying the contour of the worksite.
US08345923B2
The present invention involves a system for automatically screening closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras for large and small scale security systems, as used for example in parking garages. The system includes six primary software elements, each of which performs a unique function within the operation of the security system to provide intelligent camera selection for operators, resulting in a marked decrease of operator fatigue in a CCTV system. Real-time image analysis of video data is performed wherein a single pass of a video frame produces a terrain map which contains parameters indicating the content of the video. Based on the parameters of the terrain map, the system is able to make decisions about which camera an operator should view based on the presence and activity of vehicles and pedestrians, furthermore, discriminating vehicle traffic from pedestrian traffic. The system is compatible with existing CCTV (closed circuit television) systems and is comprised of modular elements to facilitate integration and upgrades.
US08345917B2
There is provided an information processing system, comprising: a viewing apparatus equipped with a content reproduction unit that reproduces content containing video data or audio data; a radio communication apparatus equipped with a storage unit in which user data correlated to a user to whom said radio communication apparatus belongs are stored and a data transmitting unit that transmits viewer data that include part of or all of said user data stored in said storage unit; and an information processing apparatus equipped with an analyzing unit that analyzes, based upon the user data, a viewership effect of the content reproduced by said viewing apparatus and a content distribution unit that distributes content data to be used to reproduce the content to said viewing apparatus.
US08345915B2
A multi-functional subminiature speaker, namely a bone conduction speaker, which can generate vibration for a bone conduction function, bodily sensation of vibration, speaker attachment, and the vibration modes over the housing unit, without any projections, and which has an acoustic portion unit detachably mounted. The bone conduction is performed without the projections because the vibration can be generated over the whole surface of the multi-functional subminiature speaker, such that loss of the magnetic force transmitted to the vibration coil is minimized by disposing the magnets on both inner and outer sides with respect to the vibration coil.
US08345906B1
An ear plug has a body member, an insert member and a shaft member. The body member has a central bore and the insert member projects into the central bore. A portion of the shaft member is threaded into the insert member and a portion of the shaft member bears against a portion of the bore. Rotation of the shaft relative to the insert causes an enlarged portion of the shaft to bear against the bore of the body member which is flexible and forces the body member to flex outwardly and to bear against the user's ear canal forming a seal against entry of water into the user's ear.
US08345905B2
An arc-shaped waterproof wall is provided around a shaft to which a hearing aid main body case and a battery case are rotatably attached, and waterproof ribs are provided to the outer periphery of the installation face of the battery case and the hearing aid main body case, which improves the ability to prevent the penetration of moisture while also keep the cost low.
US08345904B2
In hearing devices, more particularly in hearing aids, it is desirable to be able to design an earpiece for generating sound in the audible range which is as small as possible. Such an earpiece can then be worn comfortably on an ear or in an auditory canal. A sound transducer for the hearing device disclosed here may be formed as a micro-electromechanical system and the transducer enables generation of an acoustic signal with little distortion. Provision is made for a hearing device with a sound transducer, which has a field generation apparatus for generating an electric or magnetic field and an emission apparatus for generating sound. Here, the emission apparatus has a multiplicity of fingers that are penetrated by the field of the field generation apparatus, wherein the shape of the fingers can be changed by means of the field of the field generation apparatus in order to generate the sound.
US08345901B2
An exemplary method of dynamically adjusting an amount of noise reduction applied in an auditory prosthesis system includes dividing an audio signal presented to a patient into a plurality of analysis channels each containing a signal representative of a distinct frequency portion of the audio signal, determining an overall noise level of the signals within the analysis channels, and dynamically adjusting an amount of noise reduction applied to the signals within the analysis channels in accordance with the determined overall noise level. The dynamic adjustment of noise reduction is configured to minimize the amount of noise reduction applied to the signals within the analysis channels if the overall noise level is less than a predetermined minimum threshold. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.
US08345886B2
A method and apparatus for detecting a malfunctioning speaker are provided. The apparatus detects a speaker abnormality by identifying the state of the speaker when turning the power on or off, switching from standby mode to play mode, or performing testing. The apparatus generates an audio signal having a frequency higher than a particular frequency, outputs the audio signal to the speaker, and determines that the speaker is malfunctioning if the level of a fed-back frequency signal is lower than a reference level. If the speaker is determined to be malfunctioning, the power supply is cut and the danger of a fire starting is accordingly reduced.
US08345885B2
A telephone with a speaker and a microphone uses the speaker both as an electric-to-acoustic transducer, to reproduce the far end party's voice, and an acoustic-to-electric transducer, to capture external sound in the vicinity of the near end party. From the captured sound signal and the signal picked up by the microphone, a decision unit decides whether or not the external sound is being blocked. When the external sound is blocked, a volume control unit increases the volume of the far end party's voice as reproduced by the speaker. The near end party can accordingly turn up the speaker volume by moving the part of the telephone including the speaker close to the user's ear to block external sound, without having to manipulate any manual controls.
US08345884B2
A first matrix (W(k)) indicating frequency characteristics of a separation filter is calculated from input signals of a plurality of channels. A second matrix (Ws(k)) is calculated by using the restriction coefficients (Ci(k)) for restricting the separation filter and the first matrix, and separation filter coefficients (wsij(s)) are calculated by using the second matrix. With use of the separation filter coefficients, separation signals (ysi(t)) are then calculated from the input signals. A third matrix (Ws−1(k)) is then calculated by transforming the second matrix into an inverse matrix at each frequency, and reproduction filter coefficients (a′I1(s), a′I2(s)) are calculated by using the third matrix. With use of the reproduction filter coefficients, the synthesized signal of each channel is calculated by using the separation signals. The restriction coefficients are calculated so that the reproduction filter coefficients indicate filter coefficients which perform a sound source localization on the separation signals.
US08345883B2
A multi-channel audio system is constituted using at least one line array speaker unit, in which plural speakers are arrayed in line, wherein the same audio signal is supplied with a prescribed delay time to each of the speakers, thus forming plural sound beams. The plural sound beams are reflected on a wall surface and a ceiling of a room so as to form plural virtual sound sources surrounding a listening position, and emission directions and intensities of the sound beams are controlled so as to localize a phantom at a prescribed position based on the plural virtual sound sources. By appropriately arranging plural line array speaker units horizontally, vertically, and slantingly in such a way that each line array speaker unit forms sound beams distributed and spread in a sectorial form, it is possible to realize a surround audio system having a high degree of freedom with regard to setup positions for forming virtual sound sources.
US08345866B2
A handheld communications device comprises a display device, and a data processor that is in communication with the display device. The data processor is configured to generate an encryption key, and vary a visual output of the display device in accordance with a bit sequence of the encryption key. The varying visual output comprises a sequence of colors rendered on the display device and/or brightness levels output by the display device.
US08345852B2
In one embodiment, a method includes obtaining a call from a caller, and determining whether to offer a first callback time to the caller. The first callback time is a future time for a contact between the caller and the call center. The method also includes providing the first callback time to the caller, obtaining a response from the caller, and scheduling the contact at the first callback time if the response indicates that the caller desires a contact at the first callback time. Providing the first callback time to the caller includes soliciting the response from the caller which indicates whether the caller desires the contact at the first callback time.
US08345847B2
A call hibernation method may include releasing resources allocated to a first call between a calling party and a called party in response to a hibernate message from the called party. The hibernate message may indicate to hibernate the first call, and/or the hibernate message may include reestablishment information for reestablishing communication between the calling party and the called party. A second call may be established between the calling party and the called party in response to a deactivate-hibernated message from the called party. The deactivate-hibernated message may indicate the called party desires to reestablish communication with the calling party, and/or the deactivate-hibernated message may include at least a portion of the reestablishment information.
US08345844B2
A system and method of saving and delivering a voice memo or text memo to identify incoming calls is provided. A user of the system of the invention is given the option of recording a memo on the calls he or she has received through a prompt on a telecommunication device. The user can choose to record a voice memo or text memo after each call. The memos are saved in connection with caller id information pertaining to the number from which the call was placed. When a user of the system receives a call from a number that has a memo saved in relation thereto, the user will be prompted to hear, and may listen to, the voice memo before answering the call. If the memo is in text form, the user can configure the system to provide various processing options. In one processing option, a text to speech audio presentation of the text of the memo is made available to permit the message to be heard over a telephone or networked audio capable PDA device. In other processing options, the user has the text of the message sent to the user's PC or emailed or sent by instant message to the user's PDA device.
US08345841B2
A charging device (100) and method (600) are described herein that can segment subscribers on a service class level and then can further segment those subscribers on an account level by using a service offerings parameter (105). The subscribers use communication services such as circuit switched voice, SMS, MMS and/or GPRS.
US08345838B2
A universal linking gateway interfaces between a local network of one or more local phones, such as analog phones or PBX phones, a plurality of cell phones and multiple service lines, including a public switched telephone network. Implementation of industry standard protocols such as hookflash signals enable a simplistic local phone to access enhanced calling features including answering calls on multiple service lines, to select and make calls on any desired service line as well as handle simultaneous calls on either an active service line or multiple service lines. Further, the gateway interfaces between a variety of other telephonic devices including PSTN, VoIP, and telephonic intercoms. Wireless communications are controlled by the gateway for proper pairing management.
US08345822B2
An X-ray optical configuration (1), comprising a position for an X-ray source (2), a position for a sample (3), a first focusing element (4) for directing X-ray radiation from the position of the X-ray source (2) via an intermediate focus (5) onto the position of the sample (3), and an X-ray detector (6) that can be moved on a circular arc (7) of radius R around the position of the sample (3), is characterized in that the configuration also comprises a second focusing element (8) for directing part of the X-ray radiation emanating from the intermediate focus (5) onto the position of the sample (3), and an aperture system (9) for selecting between illumination of the position of the sample (3) exclusively and directly from the intermediate focus (5) (=first optical path (10′)), or exclusively via the second focusing element (8) (=second optical path (10″)). The configuration facilitates changing between reflection geometry and transmission geometry, in particular, wherein modification and adjustment devices are minimized or unnecessary.
US08345818B2
Disclosed herein are a tomosynthesis system for digital X-ray imaging and a method of controlling the tomosynthesis system. The tomosynthesis system includes an X-ray source, a detector, and a terminal. The X-ray source continuously moves during a scan period, and maintains a uniform X-ray focus in each capture section in which capture is performed by adjusting the direction of an emitted electron beam. The detector detects an image of X-rays having passed through an area of interest of an object in the capture section. The terminal controls the adjustment of the direction of the electron beam, creates a three-dimensional (3D) X-ray image by synthesizing detected X-ray images, and then displays the 3D X-ray image.
US08345815B2
A fuel assembly for a pressurized water nuclear reactor contains a multiplicity of fuel rods which are guided in a plurality of axially spaced spacers which in each case form a square grid, composed of grid webs, with a multiplicity of cells arranged in rows and columns. In each case one control rod guide tube is guided through a number of these cells. At least one spacer is configured to be mechanically stronger in a first partial region than in a second partial region. In this second partial region, the spacer is provided with at least one resisting element which protrudes into a flow sub-channel formed between the fuel rods and increases the flow resistance. The resisting element counteracts a reduction associated with the mechanically weaker configuration, in the flow resistance in the second partial region and in this manner effects a homogenization of the hydraulic behavior of a spacer which is mechanically inhomogeneous on account of the varying mechanical configuration.
US08345811B2
A method of achieving reduced modulation range requirement in a Digitally Controlled Oscillator (DCO) which is deployed as part of a DRP (Digital Radio Processor) and tuned to a tuning frequency range having operating-channel center-frequencies, wherein phase difference between consecutive samples is termed as FCW (Frequency Control Word), uses the steps of digitally modifying and limiting the FCW so that the FCW does not exceed known FCW thresholds, e.g., chosen from π/2, π/4, π/8, and redistributing the FCWs while maintaining a cumulative sum of phases and without significant EVM (Error Vector Magnitude) degradation. The FCW threshold can be chosen arbitrarily and need not be in the form of π/2n. The method uses a FCW limiting algorithm which reduces supply voltage sensitivity of the DCO and enables significant reduction in area of capacitor bank which would be otherwise needed.
US08345805B2
A receiving circuit includes a frame memory to store received data of one frame, a de-rate matching circuit to generate data before encoding by reading the received data from the frame memory and performing de-rate matching in a reverse manner to rate matching performed on the received data at a transmitting end, and a TTI memory to store the data before encoding.
US08345798B2
A channel stacking system includes first and second downconverting stages, first and second analog to digital converters, and a digital switching and signal processor. The first downconverting stage includes a first downconverter circuit having an input for receiving a first RF input signal which includes a multitude of first channels. The first downconverter circuit frequency downconverts the first RF input signal to a first IF signal which includes the multitude of first channels. The first analog-to-digital converter converts the first IF signal to a first digital IF signal. The second downconverter stage includes a second downconverter circuit having an input for receiving a second RF input signal which includes a multitude of second channels. The second downconverter circuit frequency downconverts the second RF input signal to a second IF signal including said multitude of second channels.
US08345785B2
In MIMO transmission between M transmission antennas and N reception antennas, a transmission signal vector is set as a vector having 2M elements comprising in-phase components and quadrature components of M complex signals, a reception signal vector is set as a vector having 2N elements comprising in-phase components and quadrature components of N complex signals, and a transfer matrix is set as a real matrix comprising 2N rows and 2M columns. Then, a transfer matrix containing IQ mismatch is obtained based on a training signal, thereby executing MIMO encoding and decoding. For learning of the transfer matrix, a training signal which has two linearly-independent signal points on a constellation for each of the transmission antennas is used. With such an arrangement, in MIMO transmission, IQ mismatch in a quadrature modulator and a quadrature demodulator can be compensated and a bit error rate can be improved.
US08345781B2
A method and apparatus for determining a channel quality indicator (CQI) to be used in link adaptation for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communications. In one embodiment of the invention, the CQI is based on a set of capacity values for subcarrier components in a received OFDM signal. In another embodiment, a minimum value from a running average of the set of capacity values is used to determine the CQI.
US08345777B2
Provided is an image deblocking filtering method and apparatus. The method includes: determining whether at least one of two adjacent blocks is encoded using illumination compensation, adjusting a filtering intensity of a deblocking filter based on the determination, and deblocking filtering the two adjacent blocks based on the adjusted filtering intensity.
US08345776B2
A system and method for video coding include an encoder and decoder. The encoder/decoder respectively include a base layer encoding/decoding apparatus, at least one enhancement layer encoding/decoding apparatus, and an encoder/decoder drift control apparatus. The encoder drift control apparatus is configured to determine the amount of local error drift for the encoder according to local information of the base layer encoding apparatus and the enhancement layer encoding apparatus and control the value of an encoder leaky factor according to the amount of error drift. The decoder drift control apparatus is configured to determine the amount of local error drift for the decoder according to local information of the base layer decoding apparatus and the enhancement layer decoding apparatus and control a decoder leaky factor according to the amount of error drift.
US08345769B1
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique that enables a user to reverse through video content based on scene transitions. By employing a graphics processing unit to compute one or more frame-to-frame correlation coefficients that measure the consistency of sequential images and a central processing unit to analyze the one or more correlation coefficients, a list of scene transitions may be generated in real-time. The list of scene transitions forms the basis for a content-based reverse user control within the playback application. The content-based reverse user control enables a more natural mechanism for reversing through video content, providing the user with a superior overall viewing experience.
US08345764B2
In a motion estimation device and a video encoding device including the same, a motion estimation device provides a motion vector by performing a motion estimation algorithm, and includes a motion estimation unit including a processing elements that perform a calculating operation on pixel data of a block of a current frame and reference data in a search area of a reference frame and that output operation results on candidate blocks in the search area, in parallel; and a comparison and selection unit that compares the operation results provided from the motion estimation unit to each other, and that generates and outputs a motion vector corresponding to the block of the current frame.
US08345763B2
An integrated circuit capable of motion compensation and a method thereof. The integrated circuit includes a partition unit and a motion compensation unit. The partition unit receives a video block having a predetermined block dimension, and partitions the video block into sub-blocks with a sub-block dimension less than the predetermined block dimension when the video block is on a frame boundary of a video frame. The motion compensation unit, coupled to the partition unit, performs motion compensation on the sub-blocks.
US08345751B2
In a method for encoding and an encoder for a 3D video signal, center view frames, a depth map for center view frames and an occlusion data frame are encoded. On the basis of the depth map for the center view frame a distinction is made between functional and non-functional data in an occlusion data frame. This allows a strong reduction in bits needed for the encoded occlusion data frame. In the decoder a combined data stream is made of functional data in the encoded occlusion data frames and the center view frames. Preferably the center view frames are used as reference frames in encoding the occlusion data frames.
US08345743B2
Techniques for video encoding and decoding channel switch frames (CSF) to enable acquisition and re/synchronization of the video stream while preserving compression efficiency is provided. Systems and methods to process multimedia data enabling channel switching are presented. The systems generate a CSF with one or more network adaptation layer (NAL) units as a random access point (RAP) frame. Back-to-back frames are transmitted which include the CSF and a non-RAP frame, each having the same frame ID number.
US08345742B2
A method of processing moving picture and an apparatus thereof are disclosed. A method of processing a moving picture comprising: calculating a color distribution vector for each of plural sub-frames which are generated by dividing a frame of the moving picture; generating a first order differential of the color distribution vector based on the color distribution vector; generating a second order differential of the color distribution vector based on the first order differential of the color distribution vector; and generating a feature vector of the frame based on the color distribution vector, the first order differential of the color distribution vector and the second order differential of the color distribution vector, is provided. The moving picture processing method can provide an efficient mean to determine commonality between moving pictures by extracting a feature from a frame of the moving pictures.
US08345733B2
A system and apparatus are disclosed for a method and apparatus for equalizing signals. An apparatus that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an equalizer (100) having a channel estimation calculator (102) for calculating a time domain channel estimation from a baseband signal, an FFT processor (104) for translating the time domain channel estimation to a frequency domain channel estimation, a tap weight calculator (106) for calculating a frequency domain tap weight according to the frequency domain channel estimation, an inverse FFT processor (108) for translating the frequency domain tap weight calculation to a time domain tap weight calculation, and a filter (110) for equalizing the baseband signal according to the time domain tap weight calculation.
US08345727B2
A system, method and apparatus for wireless communications are provided. In an exemplary embodiment, frequency components present in a short duration modulated complex pulse is used to represent data to be sent. In other embodiments, the complex pulse is created, modulated, then modified to have desirable frequency characteristics. This Abstract is provided for the sole purpose of complying with the Abstract requirement rules that allow a reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure contained herein. This Abstract is submitted with the explicit understanding that it will not be used to interpret or to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.
US08345723B2
A TE gas laser contains a gas contour with the following elements arranged in succession: a discharge gap formed by two elongated electrodes; a diffuser; a heat exchanger; a cross-flow fan; and an additional converging channel, the inlet opening of which is situated on the discharge side of the fan, while the outlet opening is oriented towards the fan impeller on the intake side of the fan. The proposed technical solution makes it possible to produce a compact TE gas laser with a high pulse repetition rate.
US08345717B2
A continuous wave Raman laser for producing visible laser output comprising: a resonator cavity; at least a first reflector and a second reflector said first and second reflectors being located at opposite ends of the resonator cavity; a laser gain medium located in the resonator cavity for generating a continuous wave fundamental beam which resonates within the resonator cavity when pumped by a pump beam from a pump source external to the resonator cavity; a solid Raman-active medium positioned in the resonator cavity for Raman shifting the fundamental beam to produce a continuous wave Raman beam which resonates within the resonator cavity; and a non-linear medium positioned in the resonator cavity for frequency converting the continuous wave Raman beam to a converted wavelength to produce a continuous wave converted beam.
US08345712B2
A method, apparatus and system enable a mobile device to roam while maintaining a persistent IP tunnel. Specifically, a mobile router may be utilized to enable a mobile device to maintain a persistent IP tunnel while the device roams. In one embodiment, the mobile device is a virtual host and the mobile router is a virtual mobile router.
US08345711B2
This invention relates to communication systems and QSIG communication methods. According to a first aspect, a communication system includes a control component; and a data network configured to communicate packets of information intermediate an originating location and a terminating location, the originating location being configured to receive a QSIG communication including a content portion and a signaling portion, wherein the data network is configured to communicate the signaling portion to the control component and the control component is configured to establish a connection within the data network intermediate the originating location and the terminating location responsive to the signaling portion, and wherein the data network is further configured to communicate the content portion of the communication within a plurality of packets intermediate the originating location and the terminating location using the connection.
US08345708B2
A method and system for running and/or organizing at least one telecommunications network is provided. A software for organizing and/or carrying out the switching of telecommunications connections and/or services is run down by a central server of the telecommunications network. When the switching capacity of the switchboards is not sufficient, the software may be transmitted at least temporarily to at least another server of another selectable telecommunications network and/or is activated in said server at least temporarily. This may be effected in order to increase the transmission capacity.
US08345700B2
MPLS labels may be inserted in IPv6 source or destination IP address fields, potentially reducing network overhead bandwidth. In one implementation, a network device may receive a packet; determine whether the packet is an ingress packet for a MPLS LSP; determine an MPLS label for the packet when the packet is an ingress packet; insert the MPLS label in a portion of a source IP address field or a destination IP address field of the packet, when the packet is an ingress packet; and output the packet to the LSP.
US08345691B2
Systems and methods for scheduling wireless communications of a base station with multiple user mobile stations involve grouping the user mobile stations in clusters based on a predetermined criterion, such as a Quality of Service (QOS) profile of a user mobile station. Each cluster is assigned with a cluster weight factor that defines a priority level of the cluster. For each user mobile station in each cluster, a priority index may be determined based on the cluster weight factor of a respective cluster, and throughput and fairness factors respectively selected to maximize throughput and provide fairness to user mobile stations. The user mobile stations may be served in an order based on their priority indexes.
US08345687B2
An inter-network connection system is provided with a plurality of interface boards capable of processing traffic in a lower layer, an upper layer processing board capable of processing traffic in an upper layer, and an inter-board connection board capable of intervening in information transfer between the interface board and the upper layer processing board. The interface board has its input/output ports paired as port groups. When traffic is input through one input/output port of a port group, the traffic is output through the other input/output port of this port group. Only when the traffic is to be processed in the upper layer, the traffic is transferred from the interface board to the upper layer processing board. The inter-network connection system allows the amount of traffic processed in parallel to be increased with a high security configuration.
US08345686B2
A network system comprising a system of devices having a plurality of nodes defining a communications network. At least one identifier from a pre-determined group of identifiers is associated with each of the nodes and identifies the functionalities that are applicable to that node or device associated with that node. In one embodiment, at least one of the nodes can transmit the at least one identifier by a message sent over the communications network for receipt by at least one of the nodes to thereby publish the functionalities over the communications network.
US08345681B2
A method and system for audio transmission in a wireless communication system which transmits digital video and digital audio in High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) format. Position information of audio packets within the HDMI frame is obtained. Digital audio information including the position information is transmitted from a data source device to a data sink device via a wireless communication medium. At the data sink device, an HDMI frame is reconstructed by inserting received audio packets into horizontal and vertical blanking periods of the HDMI frame.
US08345678B2
A technique for flexibly performing processes depending on the type of a path for providing an additional service when there are a plurality of paths for providing additional services for the same session between terminals communicating with each other over a network is disclosed. According to the technique, when a mobile terminal (MN 100) establishes a QoS path using NSIS to a corresponding node (CN 124) on different types of data communication paths, a signaling message including information (MIE) representing the path type is created and transmitted. Each node (QNE) with an NSIS QoS function, which has received the message, identifies a plurality of QoS paths by comparing the MIE, a session identifier and a flow identifier, and performs processing of the QoS paths according to control information (CI) from MNs or/and the policy which the QNE has.
US08345673B1
Apparatus having corresponding methods comprise: a physical-layer input circuit to receive first signals representing first data; a first serializer to transmit a serial stream of the first data; and a magic packet circuit to generate a magic packet signal when the first data includes a magic packet.
US08345668B2
The video receiving device delivers reproducible video streams by synchronizing video images. The video delivering device determines the delivery time for each RTP packet based on the time information for plural video streams corresponding to plural contents, adds the determined delivery time (timestamp) to each RTP packet, and delivers RTP packets by using the counter common among plural contents. The video relaying device corrects the transfer timing for RTP packets based on the counter common among plural contents and the delivery time (timestamp) and sends them to the video receiving device. The video receiving device plays back the video images from the received RTP packets.
US08345660B2
A set sleep period is coordinated among a plurality of mesh network nodes to conserve power. A controller is synchronized with an existing wireless mesh network by sending a network synchronization signal from the controller indicating that sleep timing information is lost, and receiving a reply from one or more wireless mesh network nodes within the existing wireless mesh network comprising sleep timing information for the wireless mesh network.
US08345655B2
A technique of operating a wireless communication system includes determining respective geometries of multiple subscriber stations, which include a first subscriber station and a second subscriber station, with respect to a serving base station. Respective control channels, which include a first control channel associated with the first subscriber station and a second control channel associated with the second subscriber station, for the multiple subscriber stations are then scheduled based on the respective geometries. The first control channel is scheduled to be encountered earlier in a control channel search procedure, of the one or more control channel symbols, than the second control channel. The first subscriber station has a lower geometry than the second subscriber station.
US08345646B2
The access terminal is configured to wirelessly send to a data system a request that the data system assign an access terminal identifier (ATI) to the access terminal. The access terminal delays transmission of the request until after a user of the access terminal has employed the access terminal to request a packet data service from the data system. In some instances, the data system is an Evolution, Data Only (EV-DO) system and the access terminal identifier (ATI) is a Unicast Access Terminal Identifier (UATI) generated by the Evolution, Data Only (EV-DO) system.
US08345641B2
In a radio system performing scheduled transmission to a plurality of receiving stations from a transmitting station having a plurality of antennas, a transmitting station obtains reception quality information estimated from feedback information obtained from the plurality of receiving stations, determines whether a transmission system performs beamforming, which transmits data of an identical stream by weighting each of the plurality of antennas based on the obtained reception quality information, or performs MIMO multiplexing, which transmits data of different streams respectively from the plurality of antennas, and transmits information to identify the determined transmission system by adding to a scheduler management channel.
US08345638B2
An access node in the boundary area of a single frequency network service area transmits a boundary indication to the mobile terminals in the boundary area to notify the mobile terminals that they are approaching the boundaries of the single frequency network. The mobile terminals receiving the boundary indications may then take steps to maintain continuity of broadcast services when the mobile terminals leave the service area of the single frequency network.
US08345634B2
A method and apparatus for reducing interference between systems when a plurality of wireless access systems are co-located are disclosed. To support CLC mode, an MS in the CRC mode transmits a handover request message to a first Base Station (BS) to initiate a handover process, receives a handover command message acknowledging the handover request message from the first BS, transmits a ranging request message to second BS at network reentry after handover, and receives from the second BS a ranging response message including CRC start time information that set by the second BS.
US08345629B2
A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for transmitting data in a network (e.g., a relay network). In one embodiment, the method comprises performing pre-transmission of a packet to hops to enable the base station and the plurality of hops to transmit the packet synchronously to one or more mobile stations in the wireless communication system; and performing one or more re-transmissions of the packet at a first set of one or more hops in the system during a delay due to pre-transmissions at a second set of one or more hops in the system.
US08345620B2
A method and apparatus for a wireless communication system, for frequency hopping using frequency fraction reuse scheme. The frequency hopping pattern is generated by dividing a portion of frequency into plurality of sub-bands, dividing a portion of time into plurality of sectors, each sector comprising the divided sub-bands, designating one of the divided sub-band within one of the sectors as the restricted sub-band, and allocating a location the designated sub-band as a restricted sub-band.
US08345608B2
A system and method for transmitting downlink schedule in a WiMax/WiBro relay system is proposed in present invention. In present invention, the task of transmitting the schedule is dispersed from the BS to both of the BS and RS so that several RS may transmit the schedule items simultaneously and therefore the resource of the system is saved.
US08345605B2
A transmission of information between a secondary to a primary node in a wireless network occurs in a plurality of N logical time durations. Bundled feedback information for multiple DL transmissions is provided in one UL transmission. Each DL transmission is indicated by a DL grant comprising an M-bit downlink assignment indicator (DAI) field. The primary node increments the value of the M-bit DAI field in successively transmitted DL grants. The secondary node examines the value of the M-bit DAI field in received DL grants, to determine the bundled feedback information.
US08345604B2
Systems and methodologies are described that effectuate establishment of an IPSec tunnel for utilization in a wireless communication environment. IPSec establishment procedures on home base stations can be used to establish IPSec tunnels between home base stations situated on open access sectors of wireless communication environments and packet data interworking function components positioned at the contiguity of secured segments of the wireless communication environments. Moreover, high rate packet data point-to-point protocol challenge-handshake authentication protocols can be directed through the IPSec tunnels to facilitate authentication of access terminals associated with the home base stations in order to facilitate further communications with components dispersed within secure areas of wireless communication environments. Further, international mobile subscriber identities (IMSI) affiliated with access terminals associated with home base stations can be used to identify packet data serving nodes with which to establish communications between home base stations and packet data serving nodes.
US08345602B2
A wireless communication system has a transmitting device and a receiving device that perform communication by using a multi-carrier signal, wherein the receiving device includes a quality generating unit generating each piece of receiving quality information on each pilot channel for transmitting each pilot signal, a determining unit determining the number of pilot channels needed in the multi-carrier signal based on the receiving quality information, and a notifying unit transmitting a signal requesting the determined number of pilot channels to the transmitting device, and the transmitting device includes an allocation unit determining allocations of pilot signals in the direction of the time axis and in the direction of the frequency axis, corresponding to a requested number of pilot channels, and a transmitting unit transmitting the multi-carrier signal having the determined pilot signal allocations.
US08345600B2
A method, program and apparatus for limiting processing resources incurred due to refreshing a user interface of a first terminal. The method comprises: at a first terminal, receiving a plurality of event indications which indicate respective events, each of the event indications being received at a different time; and based on the event indications, refreshing the user interface of the first terminal to reflect each of the respective events. Refreshing comprises determining a plurality of time periods, and during each of those time periods postponing the user interface from being refreshed to reflect any outstanding ones of the event indications until that time period has elapsed. The time periods are each determined having a length set in dependence on a timing of the receipt of one or more of the event indications, wherein the length of a later time period is set to an increased value relative to an earlier time period in response to the receipt of one or more of said event indications within a time limit.
US08345598B2
A mobility management method includes: notifying, at a mobile terminal, an edge node of a terminal function indicating that the mobile terminal has a Mobile IP client function; instructing, at the edge node, the mobile terminal to perform an operation for mobility management by using not an MIP function but an IP function when the edge node has a PMIP client function; performing, at the mobile terminal, the operation for mobility management by using the IP function in response to the instruction from the edge node; and performing, the edge node, the operation for mobility management by using the PMIP client function.
US08345593B2
The invention relates to a method for obtaining a home node address in a packet switched network comprising nodes. The method comprises the steps of a first node sending to a first home node of a home network a request containing information about a home address of a mobile node to determine whether a binding with said home address indicating a registration of said mobile node at the first home node exists; the first home node receiving the request, said first home node comprising a stored binding table; determining whether the binding with said home address exists in any home node of the home network; and if the home address of the mobile node is in the binding table of any of the home nodes in the home network, the first node receiving a reply comprising the address of the home node with said binding.
US08345584B2
Embodiments related to Wireless Local Area Networks and access points for a Wireless Local Area Network are described and depicted.
US08345581B2
A method is provided of authorizing a user of a communication system to be added to a group communication event. The method comprises: selecting a group of users of the communication system; initiating from a host node the group communication event with the group of users; responsive to receiving a group communication acceptance from at least a first user in the group, establishing the group communication event with the first user in the group; receiving at the host node a communication set up request from another user of the communication system; analyzing the communication set up request to determine if said communication set up request is associated with said group communication event initiated by the host node; and adding said other user to the group communication event if it is determined that the communication set up request is associated with said group communication event.
US08345575B2
A traffic analysis apparatus includes: a packet transmitter/receiver; a packet aggregating unit, for adding the number of packets that employ the same values for items in a combination that includes one arbitrary item or multiple items in packets obtained by the packet transmitter/receiver; a variety aggregating unit, for adding the number of appearances of different values in the items that are not included in the combination; and a packet estimation unit for, when the total number of packets is greater than a designated threshold value, employing a relationship between the values of the items of the combination formed of one arbitrary item or multiple items, the number of appearances of different values and the threshold value, and estimating the characteristics of the packets for which the number has exceeded the threshold value.
US08345565B2
A method and system for operating a wireless access point is disclosed. In an embodiment, a wireless access point determines whether bursty interference is present within the operating range of the wireless access point and then adapts a transmission characteristic in response to the determination. In an embodiment, the wireless access point determines whether bursty interference is present by changing at least one transmission characteristic and monitoring the resulting error rates. The presence of bursty interference can be detected if a lowering of the transmission rate causes an increase in the error rate. The increase in the error rate is a result of the lower transmission rate and corresponding longer transmission time for each frame, which in turn increases the likelihood that a frame will overlap with bursty interference.
US08345559B2
A method, system and diagnostic tool for diagnosing a problem in CSPF and non-CSPF MPLS networks, including problems with LDP tunnels. This includes one or more of the following: hopping from network element to network element; determining whether an LSP between elements is operational; determining whether the hop was strict or loose; evaluating whether there is an existing path between the elements; finding and remembering an IGP link between the elements; recognizing whether the LSP is an FRR LSP; diagnosing a cause of the LSP between the elements being down; and altering a display of a topology map of the network to indicate the cause of the problem.
US08345551B2
There is provided a transmission rate control method. In this method, data is transmitted to a receiver at the most recent transmission rate RSNDt−1, and an RTCP packet including a reception rate RRCVt of the data is received from the receiver. When a network is in a congestion state, or when the network is in a non-congestion state and the most recent reception achievement rate RARt−1 is higher than the reception rate RRCVt, a reception achievement rate RARt is calculated as a long-term EWMA of the reception rate RRCV. When the network is in the non-congestion state and the most recent reception achievement rate RARt−1 is lower than the reception rate RRCVt, or when a time-out of the RTCP packet occurs, the reception achievement rate RARt is calculated as a short-term EWMA of the reception rate RRCV. A transmission rate RSNDt is set based on the reception achievement rate RARt.
US08345547B2
When a device is contending for the right to transmit on a wide channel (composed of a primary narrow channel and one or more secondary narrow channels), it may halt its backoff counter if one of the secondary channels is detected as busy, and restart the backoff counter from its halted value when all the channels are again detected as idle. Some embodiments may use a guard interval detection technique to aid in sensing whether the secondary channels are busy.
US08345545B2
Rate matching and rate shaping methods and systems for managing data traffic on wireless channels are disclosed. Rate matching embodiments dynamically determine downlink video data transmission rates based on frame decoding deadlines and frame sizes. In addition, if the channel capacity cannot support the video data transmission rate, the rate matcher can adjust the video stream accordingly so that it is supportable by the channel capacity. In turn, rate shaping implementations can tailor the transmission rate shaping based on the state of the wireless data channel. Shaper operations can be specifically adapted to a saturated state of the wireless channel, to an unsaturated state of the wireless channel and to transitions between the unsaturated and saturated states.
US08345539B2
A system and a method are provided for addressing at least two subscribers that are redundant in respect of each other in a communication network. The subscribers are each permanently assigned a unique address which is different for each subscriber. The subscribers form a group such that the subscribers in the group are redundant in respect to each other. The group of subscribers is assigned a unique group address which is only activate for one of the subscribers in the group and de-active for each of the remaining subscribers in the group. At least one higher-order unit is provided for the activation and deactivation.
US08345523B1
Aspects of the disclosure can provide a method to optimize optical recording. The method can include recording a pre-defined pattern on an optical medium according to a first write strategy, measuring edge timings corresponding to the pre-defined pattern recorded on the optical medium, determining a second write strategy including at least timing modifications to the first write strategy. The timing modifications can be determined based on means and variances of the measured edge timings, edge timing means and variances targets for desired edge timings, and edge timing sensitivities to the timing modifications.
US08345521B2
An optical disc apparatus includes a light separator configured to separate a light beam emitted from a light source into a main beam and a sub-beam, an objective lens configured to, when the light beam is condensed and irradiated to an optical disc having a uniform recording layer in which a track is formed by record marks, irradiate at least part of the sub-beam to an area where the main beam is not irradiated in a radial direction which is defined as a direction of radius of the optical disc, and a signal generating unit configured to generate a mark layer distance signal, representing a distance between a focus of the light beam and a mark layer to which the track belongs, based on a return light beam resulting from at least one of the main beam and the sub-beam, which has been irradiated to the track.
US08345520B2
A method for detecting whether vertical deviation of an optical disc occurs is provided. First, before a pickup head is successfully focused on the optical disc, a pickup head is actuated based on an input control signal so as to generate a focus error signal with a plurality of S-curves. Then, a plurality of zero crossing points of the S-curves in the focus error signal is identified and a plurality of input control values respectively corresponding to the zero crossing points is obtained. A variation of the input control values is then calculated. Whether vertical deviation of the optical disc occurs can be determined according to the variation of the input control values.
US08345504B2
A Random Access Memory (RAM) with a plurality of cells is provided. In an embodiment, the cells of a same column are coupled to a same pair of bit-lines and are associated to a same power controller. Each cell has two inverters; the power controller has two power-switches. For the cells of the same column, the two power-switches respectively perform independent supply voltage controls for the two inverters in each cell according to data-in voltages of the bit-lines during Write operation.
US08345503B2
A booster circuit includes a first capacitor and a second capacitor serially coupled between a first node and a second node through a third node; a third capacitor and a fourth capacitor serially coupled between a fourth node and a fifth node through a sixth node; a first switch coupling the third node with a power supply line when the fourth node is set to a first level; a second switch coupling the sixth node with the power supply line when the first node is set to the first level; a third switch transferring a plurality of electric charges of the sixth node to the second node; a fourth switch transferring a plurality of electric charges of the third node to the fifth node; a fifth switch coupling the second node with a voltage line; and a sixth switch coupling the fifth node with the voltage line.
US08345497B2
An output control circuit for a memory array includes a latched output node precharged to a first logic state prior to both a read and write operation; first logic that couples memory cell data from a memory read path to the output node during the read operation, the first logic controlled by a timing signal; second logic that internally bypasses the memory read path during a write operation by decoupling it from the output node, such that a logical derivative of write data written to the memory array is also coupled to the output node, the second logic also controlled by the timing signal; and wherein a transition of the output node from the first logic state to a second logic state during the write operation occurs within a time range as that of the same transition during the read operation.
US08345493B2
In a semiconductor memory device which performs a repair method of replacing a repair target word line and one adjacent word line at the same time by a repair operation through an efficient decoding operation for selecting a repair target address, a test operation of enabling only a word line corresponding to a cell coupled to a bit line or a bit line bar is stably performed.
US08345492B2
A memory controller includes an I/O circuit, a read latency detector and a clock domain synchronizer. The I/O circuit transmits a first signal to a semiconductor memory device, receives a reflected signal returned from the semiconductor memory device, and delays the reflected signal in response to a delay selection signal to generate a second signal. The reflected signal is provided by reflection of the first signal from the semiconductor memory device. The read latency detector generates the first signal in response to a system clock signal, and generates a read latency signal in response to the system clock signal, a hold signal, and the second signal. The clock domain synchronizer generates the delay selection signal and the hold signal in response to the system clock signal and the second signal.
US08345488B2
A flash memory array comprises a plurality of memory cells organized in a matrix of rows and columns. Each of the memory cells includes a floating gate memory transistor having a source region and a drain region, and a coupling capacitor electrically connected to the memory transistor. A plurality of word lines are each electrically connected to the capacitor in each of the memory cells in a respective row. A first set of bit lines are each electrically connected to the drain region of the memory transistor in each of the memory cells in a respective column. A plurality of high voltage access transistors are each electrically connected to a bit line in the first set of bit lines. A second set of bit lines are each electrically connected to the source region of the memory transistor in each of the memory cells in a respective column. Various combinations of voltages can be applied to the word lines and the first and second sets of bit lines in operations to erase, program, inhibit, or read the logic state stored by the memory transistor in one or more of the memory cells.
US08345472B2
A three-terminal Ovonic Threshold Switch (OTS) is used to provide current to a Phase Change Memory Switch (PCMS) cross point array. The current is started by sending a small current into the second terminal of the three-terminal OTS allowing a larger current to flow from the first terminal to the third terminal of the three-terminal OTS. A method of making the three-terminal OTS is also presented.
US08345465B2
A method of driving a variable resistance element includes: a writing step performed by applying a writing voltage pulse having a first polarity to a variable resistance layer to change a resistance state of the layer from high to low; and an erasing step performed by applying an erasing voltage pulse having a second polarity to the layer to change the state from low to high. Here, |Vw1|>|Vw2| where Vw1 represents a voltage value of the writing voltage pulse for first to N-th writing steps (N≧1) and Vw2 represents a voltage value of the writing voltage pulse for (N+1)-th and subsequent writing steps, and |Ve1|>|Ve2| where Ve1 represents a voltage value of the erasing voltage pulse for first to M-th erasing steps (M≧1) and Ve2 represents a voltage value of the erasing voltage pulse for (M+1)-th and subsequent erasing steps. The (N+1)-th writing step follows the M-th erasing step.
US08345463B2
A resistive memory device includes: a bottom electrode formed over a substrate; and an insulation layer having a hole structure formed over the substrate structure. Herein, the hole structure exposes the bottom electrode, has sidewalls of positive slope, and has a bottom width equal to or smaller than a width of the bottom electrode; a resistive layer formed over the hole structure; and an upper electrode formed over the resistive layer.
US08345449B2
A mounting system for the display of an audio/visual product. A cable-based mounting system for an audio/visual product includes at least one hanging cable and at least one attachment mechanism. The at least one attachment mechanism is configured to operatively engage with a plurality of various mounting patterns located on the rear of the audio/visual product. The cable-based mounting system allows for the relatively inexpensive and uncomplicated mounting of the audio/visual product on a display region.
US08345445B2
A heat sink assembly is provided for a pluggable module. The heat sink assembly includes a heat sink having a module side and an end surface that intersects the module side. The module side is configured to thermally communicate with the pluggable module. A holder extends from the end surface of the heat sink. A thermal interface material (TIM) layer extends on the module side of the heat sink. The TIM layer is configured to engage the pluggable module. The TIM layer includes an end that is engaged between the end surface and the holder of the heat sink.
US08345442B2
A latching structure of electronic device includes a lower housing, a circuit board and an upper housing. The lower housing forms at least one fixing pole; The circuit board defines at least one positioning slot corresponding to the fixing pole; The upper housing defines at least one engaging hole corresponding to the fixing pole. The fixing pole, passes through the positioning slot and the engaging hole, and the distal end of the fixing pole becomes liquefied, secures the lower housing with the circuit board and the upper housing, the circuit board is clamped between the lower housing and the upper housing.
US08345434B2
According to one embodiment, there is a high frequency circuit having a multi-chip module structure, including a semiconductor substrate set formed with discrete transistors connected in series, a first dielectric substrate set formed with capacitors, and a second dielectric substrate set formed with strip lines.
US08345429B2
A mobile terminal having a detachable sub-module is disclosed. The mobile terminal includes a sub-module having a sub-function configuration unit formed with parts for performing a function and a main terminal having a display unit at a front surface and a connection unit at a rear surface for coupling the sub-module to the main terminal. A magnet is installed at a side surface of the connection unit or the sub-module, and the sub-module is coupled to the main terminal or is detached from the main terminal through the magnet. Enhancement of the portability and function quality of mobile terminals that support various functions is achieved by coupling a sub-module for performing a function to the main terminal having a display unit that allows user interactivity with the mobile terminal.
US08345422B2
A latching mechanism for a portable electronic device includes a housing, a cover, a button, a latching member and at least one elastic member. The housing defines a latching hole. The cover defines a guide slot along a first direction. The button is assembled in the cover and movable along the guide slot. The latching member is secured with the button in a first direction and movable along a second direction, perpendicular with the first direction. The at least one elastic member is assembled between the button and the latching member. The latching member latches into the latching hole to secure the cover with the housing in the first direction. The button is pushed and slides along the guide slot. The latching member slides out the latching hole to unlatch the cover in the first direction.
US08345420B2
A battery assembly includes at least a plurality of battery cells that includes at least a first and a second battery cell each attached to a distributed battery monitoring unit, the second battery cell being associated with an external circuit, the second battery cell connected to a battery management unit (BMU) by way of a pre-formed battery contact shaped to accommodate the external circuit. The plurality of battery cells are electrically connected to at least the BMU such that each of the plurality of battery cells are substantially aligned with each other thereby preserving a battery profile corresponding to unconnected battery cells.
US08345417B2
An extension positioning structure for a portable memory device comprises a main body in a shell. A first end of the main body is disposed a drive element, and a spring is mounted outside a second end of the main body. A positioning element is pivotally disposed between the shell and the drive element. The positioning element includes a pivot shaft and an engaging portion. The engaging portion is helically formed with multiple cutting surfaces, and the positioning block is formed with a positioning block and a limiting block. By pushing the drive element, the cutting surface of the engaging portion of the positioning element cooperates with the positioning block and the limiting block to make the connecting terminal extend out of and retract into the shell, facilitating the operation and storage of the memory device while reducing both the production cost and increasing the yield rate.
US08345416B2
Interface protector for an electronic device includes a housing defining an opening exposing the interface; a retaining element defining a first stopping slot and a second stopping slot, the retaining element mounted to the housing by a retaining member; a cover having a protrusion protruding therefrom, the cover rotatably mounted to the retaining element by a rotation member. When the protrusion is received in the first stopping slot, the cover shields the interface; when the protrusion slides out of the first stopping slot, until latching in the second stopping slot, the cover is rotated to expose the interface.
US08345412B2
A wrist band for holding a portable electronic device, namely an Apple® iPod® Nano™ device, having a display screen and control buttons. The wrist band includes a band portion for engaging with a user's wrist, and a case portion formed of soft and pliable material with a cavity sized to receive and retain the electronic device, a perimeter rim with button controllers that are aligned with the control buttons of the electronic device, and a retainer to retain the electronic device in place in the cavity. The case portion includes an earphone jack aperture and a jack clip which is detachably attachable with the earphone jack aperture, and which jack clip is adapted to be inserted into the earphone jack aperture and block a jack plug of the portable electronic device when in a first position, and which is adapted to be removed from the earphone jack aperture and the jack plug of the portable electronic device when in a second position.
US08345409B2
Provided is a high-voltage solid electrolytic capacitor having a rated voltage of several hundreds of volts. After an anodic oxide film layer is formed on a roughened surface of an aluminum foil by way of a first conversion treatment, a hydrated film is formed by way of boiling water immersion; the hydrated film is provided with a second conversion treatment at a formation voltage lower than that of the first conversion treatment such that an anodic foil is formed; and a conductive polymeric layer is formed on a surface of the anodic foil.
US08345401B2
To provide a highly reliable semiconductor device (an RF tag) which operates normally even when a communication distance is extremely short, a protection circuit (a limiter circuit) for protecting an element which forms a semiconductor device (an RF tag) capable of wirelessly communicating data is provided. When the DC power supply potential which is generated in a rectifier circuit is equal to or greater than a predetermined value (a reference value), the protection circuit is made to operate, and the value of the generated DC power supply potential is reduced. On the other hand, when the DC power supply potential which is generated in the rectifier circuit is equal to or less than the predetermined value (reference value), the protection circuit is made not to operate, and the value of the generated DC power supply potential is used without change.
US08345395B2
The present invention describes an electrostatic discharge protection circuit that protects an internal circuit of a semiconductor device from electrostatic discharge. The electrostatic discharge protection circuit includes a first electrostatic protection unit that transfers static electricity as a driving signal and also discharges the static electricity to a first discharge line when the static electricity is generated in a pad. It also includes a second electrostatic protection unit that discharges the static electricity generated in the pad to a second discharge line in response to the driving signal transferred from the first electrostatic protection unit. Since the first electrostatic protection unit performs an electrostatic discharge operation and at the same time aids the driving of the second electrostatic protection unit, electrostatic discharge performance can be enhanced while a layout area of the electrostatic discharge protection circuit can be reduced.
US08345392B2
An energy dissipation arrangement for a cryogenically cooled superconductive magnet comprising a plurality of superconductive coils (10) connected in series and housed within a cryostat (24), comprising a superconducting switch (25) having a superconductive current path (28) in series with the superconductive coils (10); and a resistor (38), external to the cryostat, electrically connected in parallel with the superconductive current path (28) of the superconducting switch (25). The superconductive switch is arranged (26, 32, 30) to open in response to an electric current applied to an associated heater (26; 40).
US08345390B2
An MR element according to the present invention has the superior effects that further improve an MR ratio because a structure of a spacer layer 40 is configured of a certain three-layer structure with certain materials, and at least one of a first ferromagnetic layer 30 and a second ferromagnetic layer 50 contains a certain amount of an element selected from the group of nitrogen (N), carbon (C), and oxygen (O).
US08345389B2
A magnetoresistive element includes a first ferromagnetic layer, a second ferromagnetic layer, a nonmagnetic layer, a first metal layer, a second metal layer, a first electrode, and a second electrode. The nonmagnetic layer is provided between the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer. The first metal layer includes Au and is provided so that the first ferromagnetic layer is sandwiched between the nonmagnetic layer and the first metal layer. The second metal layer includes a CuNi alloy, and is provided so that the first metal layer is sandwiched between the first ferromagnetic layer and the second metal layer. In addition, magnetization of either one of the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer is fixed in a direction. Magnetization of the other is variable in response to an external field. At least one of the first ferromagnetic layer and the second ferromagnetic layer includes a half metal.
US08345382B1
A magnetic head includes a coil, a main pole, a gap part, a write shield, and a return path section. The return path section includes a yoke part with a first coupling layer connected to the write shield and a second coupling layer magnetically coupling the first coupling layer to the yoke part. The second coupling layer has an end face facing toward a medium facing surface and located away from the medium facing surface. The coil includes i) a first coil element disposed with the first coupling layer interposed between the medium facing surface and the first coil element and ii) a plurality of second coil elements aligned perpendicularly to the medium facing surface and disposed with the second coupling layer interposed between the medium facing surface and the second coil elements. The first coil element being interposed between the main pole and the second coil elements.
US08345380B2
The present invention provides a spin torque oscillator that can realize stable oscillation and has high reliability. A laminated structure including a first magnetic layer 1 having a bcc crystal structure and having in-plane magnetic anisotropy and a second magnetic layer 2 having perpendicular magnetic anisotropy laminated on the first magnetic layer 1 and including a multilayer film of Co and Ni is used.
US08345375B2
A storage apparatus includes carriages that are arranged in a matrix and store and transport objects, and a carriage shifting mechanism that is fixed to the storage apparatus and shifts the carriages.
US08345373B2
Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for phase offset based spectral aliasing compensation. For example, a circuit for spectral aliasing reduction is disclosed that includes a phase shift circuit operable to phase shift an analog input signal and to provide a phase shifted analog signal; a first analog to digital converter circuit operable to provide a first series of digital samples corresponding to the analog input signal at a sampling frequency; a second analog to digital converter circuit operable to provide a second series of digital samples corresponding to the phase shifted analog signal at the sampling frequency; and an averaging circuit operable to average the first series of digital samples with the second series of digital samples to yield an average output.
US08345367B1
A method for recording defects on a hard drive is provided. The method includes mapping a plurality of primary windows. Each primary window contains a respective plurality of data sectors on a disk of a hard drive. Each of the respective plurality of data sectors contains at least one defect. The method includes recording a location of each primary window in a defect log of the disk, and mapping a plurality of secondary windows if recording the location of each primary window fails. Each secondary window contains a respective plurality of data sectors containing at least one defect. The number of data sectors contained in each of the plurality of primary windows is different from the number of data sectors contained in each of the plurality of secondary windows. The method includes recording a location of each secondary window in the defect log of the disk.
US08345365B2
A processing unit performs a method including controlling a reading-out of data from a first storage medium at a predetermined read-out data rate to produce inputted data, and controlling a compression of the inputted data to produce first compressed data of a first compressed format. The method includes controlling a storage of the first compressed data in a second storage medium at a faster writing data rate than the predetermined read-out data rate, controlling a reading-out of second compressed data of a second compressed format from the second storage medium, and controlling a decompression of the second compressed data to produce decompressed data. The method also includes controlling simultaneously the storage of the first compressed data in the second storage medium, the reading-out of the second compressed data from the second storage medium, and audibly reproducing the decompressed data. The first compressed format is different from the second compressed format.
US08345363B2
A drive device capable of engaging a drive shaft and a part holding the drive shaft with a suitable force without accompanying increase in the size of the drive device. The drive device includes a couple member with a piezoelectric element and a transmission shaft coupled together, a lens holder that holds a lens and to which the couple member is secured, a biasing member that biases the transmission shaft in a direction intersecting a placement direction of the transmission shaft viewed from the lens holder (excluding a lengthwise direction of the transmission shaft), and a link member (link body) that holds the transmission shaft in a slidable manner together with the biasing member.
US08345361B2
The invention discloses a lens adjusting module for adjusting the position of a lens module. The lens adjusting module includes an input rod and an output rod, wherein the input rod is configured along a first direction and has an inclined surface. The output rod is configured along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The output rod has a first contact surface contacting the inclined surface, and a second contact surface contacting the lens module. When the input rod moves along the first direction, the first contact surface of the output rod moves along the inclined surface of the input rod, and the lens module moves with the output rod along the second direction.
US08345358B2
The present invention provides an image-capturing optical lens assembly comprising, in order from an object side to an image side, a front lens group, a stop, and a rear lens group. The front lens group comprises, in order from the object side to the image side: a first lens element with negative refractive power having a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface; and a second lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface. The rear lens group comprises, in order from the object side to the image side: a third lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface and a convex image-side surface; a fourth lens element with negative refractive power; and a fifth lens element with positive refractive power having a convex image-side surface. With such an arrangement of optical elements, the optical system will have a field of view that is large enough; meanwhile, aberrations of the optical system can be favorably corrected to obtain good image quality.
US08345349B2
Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to compact, sub-wavelength optical resonators. In one aspect, an optical resonator comprises two approximately parallel reflective structures positioned and configured to form a resonant cavity. The resonator also includes a fishnet structure disposed within the cavity and oriented approximately parallel to the reflective structures. The resonant cavity is configured with a cavity length that can support resonance with electromagnetic radiation having a fundamental wavelength that is more than twice the cavity length.
US08345346B2
An electrophoretic display includes first electrodes, a second electrode placed opposite the first electrodes, and a microcapsule layer placed between the first electrodes and the second electrode. The microcapsule layer contains microcapsules containing a dispersion medium and electrophoretic particles and a binder for retaining the microcapsules between the first electrodes and the second electrode. The electrophoretic particles are sealed in each microcapsule in such a state that the electrophoretic particles are dispersed in the dispersion medium. The following inequality is satisfied: (ρ2·∈2)/(ρ1·∈1)<1 (α) where ρ1 is the resistivity of the dispersion medium, ∈1 is the dielectric constant of the dispersion medium, ρ2 is the resistivity of the binder, and ∈2 is the dielectric constant of the binder.
US08345344B2
A multicolor photovoltaic electrochromic apparatus is provided, including a first transparent substrate, a second transparent substrate opposite to the first transparent substrate, a photovoltaic electrochromic device on the first transparent substrate, and a chromogenic device between the first and the second transparent substrates. The photovoltaic electrochromic device includes thin-film solar cells and an electrochromic material on the thin-film solar cells. The thin-film solar cells have different potential differences, and each of the thin-film solar cells includes an anode, a photoelectric conversion layer, and a cathode. The chromogenic device includes two electrodes and a chromogenic material thereon. The cathodes of the thin-film solar cells, which have distinct potential differences, are connected to the first electrode and the second electrode of the chromogenic device respectively.
US08345315B2
The document identification method includes: a step of generating an image, a step of marking a plurality of documents to form the image on each document with unique variations on each document, the majority of the images formed on the documents presenting a physical anti-copy characteristic satisfying a predefined criterion such that the characteristic of the majority of the copies that can be produced based on these images do not satisfy the pre-defined criterion, a step of characterizing the variations to form a unique imprint of the mark formed, for each document and a step of memorizing the unique imprint.
US08345311B2
A halftone screen is modified to reduce harmonic artifacts. Artifacts are modeled from the screen in a frequency domain. Threshold values in the screen are modified to reduce amplitude of at least some of the modeled artifacts.
US08345304B2
An image processing method of forming images of data onto a plurality of recording media each having an obverse surface and a reverse surface is disclosed. This method has a recognizing step of recognizing a delimiter of the data in document data and a recognizing step of, in the case where the delimiter of the data is recognized in the recognizing step when an image process is executed so as to form the image onto the obverse surface of a predetermined recording medium, recognizing an instruction showing either a mode to continue the image forming operation to the reverse surface of the recording medium or a mode to exchange the recording medium and continue the image forming operation from the obverse surface of another recording medium.
US08345303B2
An image processing apparatus has a function of printing pieces of image data to be printed arranging them on one printing paper sheet. In a preview display screen of the image processing apparatus, when a specific piece of image data is selected by a user's operation from a plural piece of image data, the specific piece of image data is displayed being distinguished. Pieces of image data in the same shooting orientation as that of the specific piece of image data are searched for and their display is similarly varied. At this time, when rotation of the images is selected using a dialogue, the orientation of the pieces of image data is rotated at once by 180°. Thereby, the orientations of pieces of image data shot in a portrait-like posture may easily be adjusted to be the same and their images may be printed according to the preview display.
US08345302B2
There is provided a method for image processing to transfer scanned data of a document read by an image reading apparatus to an application which is operated in an information processing apparatus connected to the image reading apparatus. The method includes obtaining an execution path of an application which is currently operated in the information processing apparatus, and transferring the scanned data to the image reading apparatus by using the execution path.
US08345300B2
A computer readable medium storing a program causing a computer to execute a process for document processing, the process includes: receiving image data obtained by, with an image reading apparatus, reading a document of a predetermined format in which contents of an electronic document stored in a storage portion while being associated with identification information, the identification information, and an entry for additional information are arranged; extracting entered additional information from the entry area of the received image data; and correlating the extracted additional information with an electronic document associated with the identification information.
US08345295B2
A device and method for controlling the initiation of an image forming apparatus are provided using a NAND flash memory. The device for controlling initiation of an image forming apparatus includes: a NAND flash memory for storing a boot program and system control programs for initiating the image forming apparatus; a random-access-memory (RAM) for temporarily storing an execution program and data; and a driving unit arranged to first read the boot program and an engine control program among the system control programs from the NAND flash memory, execute the boot program and the engine control program, then read remaining system control programs from the NAND flash memory and store the remaining system control programs in the RAM when the boot program and the engine control program are being executed. Since the remaining system control programs and data that have not been read during printing preparation are read by driving a driving unit of the image forming apparatus, the preparation time for the image forming apparatus to begin printing operation can be greatly shortened.
US08345292B2
An information processing apparatus selects attribute information in a predetermined layer based on a result of measurement of the number of appearances of attribute information included in print data, determines a priority order of the attribute information based on the number of times of references to a reusable object from a page corresponding to a record that includes the selected attribute information, serially selects attribute information based on the determined priority order, generates intermediate data for a page corresponding to the selected attribute information, and generates image data by rasterizing the generated intermediate data.
US08345281B2
An image processing device, having plural functions and executing at least any one of the plural functions based on a request from an application program, includes: a storage to store, from among plural setting information selectable to one of the plural functions, simultaneous use possible/impossible information being information concerning a combination of settings usable simultaneously or a combination of settings non-usable simultaneously; a selector to select any one of the plural setting information to at least any one of the plural functions based on the request from the application program; a discriminator to discriminate, by referring to the simultaneous use possible/impossible information, whether or not competitive setting information being the setting information non-usable simultaneously with the setting information selected by the selector exists; and a notification unit to notify the application program of information concerning the competitive setting information, when the discriminator discriminates that the competitive setting information exists.
US08345270B2
A print data generation apparatus generates print data to be used for printing a print result including a plurality of lines on a tape-shaped print medium. The print data generation apparatus includes an input device that inputs a plurality of character strings for the plurality of lines to be printed on the print medium, a storage device that stores the plurality of character strings for the plurality of lines, and a print data generation device that generates the print data in which each of the plurality of character strings are repeatedly arranged in a predetermined character size defined for each of the plurality of lines and at predetermined spacing in each of the plurality of lines until the print result reaches a predetermined length.
US08345265B2
A lithographic apparatus includes an illumination system configured to condition a radiation beam; a support constructed to support a patterning device, the patterning device being capable of imparting the radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section to form a patterned radiation beam; a substrate table constructed to hold a substrate; a projection system configured to project the patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of the substrate, and a sensor configured to measure a height level, curvature and/or angle of a surface of a patterning device supported on the support.
US08345264B2
A sensor, sensor assembly and a method of sensing, in which the sensor is in contact with a material or structure and the sensor directly measures one or more property changes in the material by means of light reflection and scattering using a reflective target.
US08345263B2
The present invention provides a measurement apparatus that illuminates a surface to be tested having an aspheric surface using light beams that form spherical waves to measure a figure of the surface to be tested, including a detection unit configured to detect interference patterns between light beams from the surface to be tested and light beams from a reference surface, and a controller configured to control processing for obtaining a figure of the surface to be tested based on the interference patterns detected by the detection unit.
US08345261B2
A digitized image of an object may include representations of portions of the object that are obscured, occluded or otherwise unobservable. The image may be a multi-dimensional visual representation of dentition. Characteristics of the dentition and its surfaces, contours, and shape may be determined and/or analyzed. A light may be directed toward and reflected from the dentition. The reflected light may be combined with a reference to determine characteristics of the dentition, including obscured areas such as subgingival tissue.
US08345259B2
Disclosed is a Rotation sensor with a light source, a light detector, an internal part having a first lateral surface, which is globally cylindrical and convex, and an external part having a second lateral surface which is globally cylindrical and concave. The first and second lateral surfaces both have a same central axis defining a rotation axis for a relative rotation between the internal part and the external part the angle of which this rotation sensor can measure. A first grating is arranged at the first lateral surface with its grating lines parallel to the rotation axis, and a second grating is arranged at the second lateral surface with its grating lines parallel to said rotation axis.
US08345255B2
A system (and corresponding methodology) for testing, evaluating and diagnosing quality of solar concentrator optics is provided. The innovation discloses mechanisms for evaluating the performance and quality of a solar collector via emission of modulated laser radiation upon (or near) a position of photovoltaic (PV) cells. The innovation discloses positioning two receivers at two distances from the source (e.g., solar collector or dish). These receivers are employed to collect modulated light which can be compared to standards or other thresholds thereby diagnosing quality of the collectors.
US08345251B2
A gas sensor uses optical interferents in a porous thin film cell to measure the refractive index of the pore medium. As the medium within the pores changes, spectral variations can be detected. For example, as the pores are filled with a solution, the characteristic peaks exhibit a spectral shift in one direction. Conversely, when tiny amounts of gas are produced, the peaks shift in the opposite direction. This can be used to measure gas evolution, humidity and for applications for other interferometric-based sensing devices.
US08345243B2
In one embodiment, a metrology target for determining a relative shift between two or more successive layers of a substrate may comprise; an first structure on a first layer of a substrate and an second structure on a successive layer to the first layer of the substrate arranged to determine relative shifts in alignment in both the x and y directions of the substrate by analyzing the first structure and second structure overlay.
US08345240B2
A rotation detection kit, comprising a source for generating at least a first polarized beam emitted along a propagation axis, a receiver comprising at least a first beam intensity sensor and an analyzer. The analyzer comprises a first polarizer device for location in the at least first polarized beam between the source and at least first beam intensity sensor. The first polarizer device is configured such that the receiver can measure rotation between the source and the analyzer about a first axis that is non-parallel to the propagation axis based on the at least first beam intensity sensor's output.
US08345239B1
An imaging system with an imaging mechanism which includes polarization analyzers, which may be crossed polarization analyzers, positioned to provide birefringence images of particles in the fluid passing through the flow chamber. Captured images are of high resolution and may be used in comparison to known images of a library of images. The system and related method enhance the accuracy and sensitivity of particle monitoring by utilizing birefringence imaging combined with particle analysis and the detection of each particle's characteristic features, such as crystalline features. The system includes a scatter detector used to trigger backlighting of the flow chamber and capture images of particles therein.
US08345235B2
An accessory for a spectrometer for carrying out measurements of specular reflectance of a sample. The accessory is designed so that all components can be located in a housing and the sample can be located horizontally on a top-plate of the housing with the components disposed below the plane of that plate.
US08345234B2
Disclosed is a system and methodologies for providing self-calibration in an optical analysis system. Illumination light is directed toward a material to be sampled while provisions are made to modify the characteristics of at least a portion of the illumination light falling on a reference detector. The modified characteristics may include light presence and/or spectral characteristics. Light presence may be modified by rotating or moving mirror assemblies to cause light to fall on either a sample detector or a reference detector while spectral characteristics may be modified by placing materials having known spectral characteristics in the path of the illumination light.
US08345223B2
An optical element includes a first layer that includes a first material, and is configured to be substantially reflective for radiation of a first wavelength and substantially transparent for radiation of a second wavelength. The optical element includes a second layer that includes a second material, and is configured to be substantially absorptive or transparent for the radiation of the second wavelength. The optical element includes a third layer that includes a third material between the first layer and the second layer, and is substantially transparent for the radiation of the second wavelength and configured to reduce reflection of the radiation of the second wavelength from a top surface of the second layer facing the first layer. The first layer is located upstream in the optical path of incoming radiation with respect to the second layer in order to improve spectral purity of the radiation of the first wavelength.
US08345222B2
High transmission, high aperture catadioptric projection objective and projection exposure apparatus
The disclosure provides projection objectives which may be used in a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus to expose a radiation-sensitive substrate arranged in the region of an image surface of the projection objective with at least one image of a pattern of a mask arranged in the region of an object surface of the projection objective. The disclosure also provides projection exposure apparatus which include such projection objectives, as well as related components and methods.
US08345218B2
An immersion lithographic apparatus is described in which a liquid removal device is arranged to remove liquid from the substrate, e.g. during exposures, through a plurality of elongate slots arranged along a line and angled to that line. The liquid removal device may act as a meniscus pinning device in an immersion hood or may be used in a drying device to remove a droplet from the substrate.
US08345217B2
An exposure apparatus comprises a recovery member that recovers a liquid. The recovery ability with which the recovery member recovers the liquid differs in accordance with the region of the recovery member.
US08345213B2
Provided is a liquid crystal device including a first substrate and a second substrate which face each other with a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween, wherein a plurality of columnar spacers for maintaining a gap between the first substrate and the second substrate is arranged on a surface of a liquid crystal layer side of the first surface, and spacer reception portions are arranged on a surface of a liquid crystal layer side of the second substrate in regions which face the columnar spacers, and wherein the spacer reception portions include contact reception portions which are in contact with the columnar spacers and non-contact reception portions which are not in contact with the columnar spacers.
US08345202B2
An antiglare film includes a transparent substrate, and an antiglare layer formed on the transparent substrate. The antiglare layer includes a binder matrix and acrylic-styrene copolymer particles, and the binder matrix includes an acrylic material having a hydroxyl group. A quotient RA/H, which is obtained by dividing the average diameter RA of the acrylic-styrene copolymer particles by the average thickness H of the antiglare layer, is within a range of 0.30 to 0.80. A product in |nA−nM|×wA×H, which is the product of: the absolute value |nA−nM| obtained by subtracting the average refractive index nM of the binder matrix from the refractive index nA of the acrylic-styrene copolymer particles; the content wA of the acrylic-styrene copolymer particles when the content wM of the binder matrix in the antiglare layer is 100 parts by weight; and the average thickness H of the antiglare layer, is within a range of 0.70 to 3.00.
US08345196B2
A liquid crystal display with better visibility and transmittance. The liquid crystal display includes a first plate having a first field-generating electrode, disposed in a pixel area on an insulating substrate, comprising a plurality of sub-electrodes which are separated from each other by a predetermined distance and arranged parallel to each other, and a connecting electrode electrically connecting the sub-electrodes. An alignment film that is rubbed in a first direction covers a first field-generating electrode and an alignment film that is rubbed in a second direction covers a second field-generating electrode to achieve a predetermined orientation of the liquid crystals when no field is applied and more uniform rotation of the liquid crystal molecules when a field is applied.
US08345194B2
The present invention discloses a liquid crystal lens and a manufacturing method thereof. At least one first electrode is disposed on a first substrate, a first alignment layer is disposed on the first electrode, a liquid crystal layer is disposed on the first alignment layer, a second alignment layer is disposed on the liquid crystal layer, an electric field uniformization layer is disposed on the second alignment layer, at least one second electrode and at least one third electrode are disposed on the electric field uniformization layer, and the second electrode is arranged around the third electrode. A second substrate is disposed on the second electrode and the third electrode. The third electrode which matches up with the second electrode produces an electric field gradient and the liquid crystal layer is affected uniformly by the electric field uniformization layer so as to achieve rapid focus purpose by the liquid crystal.
US08345187B2
Provided is a liquid crystal display device including: an optical switching member; a light guide panel; and a light source, the light guide panel including, on at least one of a front surface and a back surface thereof, a plurality of surface structures including: a first raised surface extending outward being formed as a free surface; a first light reflection surface entering inside from the first raised surface; a second light reflection surface extending outside from the first light reflection surface; and a second raised surface which continues from the second light reflection surface and is formed as a free surface, whereby a liquid crystal display device may be obtained, which includes a thin light guide panel with a thickness of, for example, 1 mm or less.
US08345180B2
An exemplary liquid crystal display device includes a backlight module, a metallic bracket and a liquid crystal panel. The backlight module includes a back bezel, a planar lighting source mounted on the back bezel and a frame. The frame includes a metallic beam and three plastic beams. The metallic beam and the plastic beams enclose the back bezel. The metallic beam is located at a top of the liquid crystal display device. The metallic bracket supports the backlight module and thermally connects with the metallic beam of the frame of the backlight module. The liquid crystal panel is located at a surface of emission of the planar lighting source.
US08345179B2
A flat panel display module is introduced herein, which principally includes an upper bezel, a liquid crystal panel, a frame, an optical film set and a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA), wherein various types electrical components mounted on the PCBA are capable of being completely or mostly accommodated within a caved structure constructed within the inside of the flat panel display module so as to reduce a thickness of the whole flat panel display module. Simultaneously, a better structural strength for the whole flat panel display module can be achieved therefore by closely stacking up the above-mentioned elements of the whole flat panel display module.
US08345177B2
A liquid crystal display (LCD) is provided having transistors disposed within via holes having elongated (e.g., rectangular or oval) contact areas. The use of via holes having elongated contact areas allows an opaque mask defining an aperture for light transmission to be lengthened, thereby increasing the overall area of the aperture. The increase in the area of the aperture may increase the amount of light that can pass through the aperture.
US08345175B2
An array substrate for an in-plane switching mode liquid crystal display device includes a substrate, a gate line disposed along a first direction on the substrate, a data line disposed along a second direction and crossing the gate line to define a pixel region, a thin film transistor connected to the gate line and the data line, pixel electrodes disposed in the pixel region and connected to the thin film transistor, common electrodes disposed in the pixel region and alternating with the pixel electrodes, a semiconductor layer underlying the data line and including a portion having a width greater than a width of the data line, and a first blocking pattern comprising an opaque material and disposed under the semiconductor layer.
US08345170B2
When an operation mode of a television receiver is a normal mode, insertion of a memory card having trigger information stored therein into a card insertion portion causes a storefront mode setting screen to be displayed on a video display unit. When the operation mode of the television receiver is a storefront mode, detection of supply of power by a power supply detector causes a storefront mode release screen to be displayed on the video display unit. Users performs selection and setting on the storefront mode setting screen and the storefront mode release confirmation screen by operating a remote controller to switch the operation mode of the television receiver.
US08345168B2
A display apparatus coupled with a video processing apparatus including: an input unit which inputs a video signal scanned by one of the plurality of scanning methods and a scanning method data detected based on said video signal from said video processing apparatus, a display which displays said video signal inputted by said input unit, a controller which controls as said display displays said video signal based on said scanning method data inputted by said input unit.
US08345167B2
A method of storing and accessing pictures in a multi-field video operation includes storing a first portion of a first field in first page of a first bank of a DRAM; storing a first portion of a second field in the first page of the first bank; reading the first page of the first bank; and performing the multi-field video operation according to the first portions of the first field and the second field. Another method includes storing a first field in a first bank of a DRAM; storing a second field in a second bank of the DRAM; reading a first portion of the first field from the first bank of the DRAM and reading a first portion of the second field from the second bank of the DRAM; and performing the multi-field video operation according to the first portions of the first field and the second field.
US08345157B2
An image processing apparatus detects an amount of pixel motion in a plurality of field images included in interlace image data, and determines a pixel region having a large motion by comparing the amount of the motion of the detected pixel to a predetermined threshold value. An image processing apparatus combines a predetermined pattern with the pixel region that has a large motion and is converted from the interlace image.
US08345151B2
An image processing apparatus includes a distribution detection unit configured to detect whether a luminance distribution on the screen changes to a hill-shaped form, based on a result of adding photometric values of each of divided photometry areas by rows and by columns, a difference calculation unit configured to calculate a luminance value difference between one portion of the screen and the peripheral portion thereof, a ratio calculating unit configured to calculate a ratio of pixels having a luminance value higher than or equal to a threshold value in the one portion, and a spotlight determination unit configured to determine whether a scene of the captured image is a spotlight scene according to a detection result of the distribution detection unit, calculation result of the difference calculation unit, and a calculation result of the ratio calculation unit.
US08345147B2
An image pickup apparatus that can decrease the probability of an image in which a main subject is not in focus being captured is provided. An image pickup apparatus 1A includes two image pickup devices 5 and 7 that capture an image relating to a subject image made incident through an image capturing lens, a main subject detecting unit 122 that detects a main subject in the captured image, a phase difference AF control unit 121 that performs focus control on the basis of a phase difference detection signal acquired from a ranging area set in an imaging area, a determination unit 123 that determines whether the main subject is present in the ranging area, and a warning control unit 126 that, if the determination unit 123 determines that the main subject is not present in the ranging area, performs predetermined control for preventing a state in which the main subject is not in focus.
US08345146B2
The present invention provides an automatic focus imaging system comprising a lens unit, an image sensor, and a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) unit fabricated by microfabrication technology to improve the portability and focusing speed of the automatic focus imaging system. The MEMS unit for automatic focusing comprises a substrate having a control circuitry, at least one reflective surface movably connected to the substrate, and at least one actuation unit comprising a micro-actuator having a large in-plane translation and at least one micro-converter configured to convert the large in-plane translation of the micro-actuator to the large out-of-plane translation of the reflective surface. The MEMS unit changes a distance between lens unit and the image sensor by controlling the out-of-plane translation of the reflective surface in order to form an in-focus image on the image sensor.
US08345144B1
Methods and apparatus for rich image capture using focused plenoptic camera technology. A radiance camera employs focused plenoptic camera technology and includes sets of modulating elements that may be used to modulate the sampling of different aspects of the range of plenoptic data. The radiance camera, via the modulating elements, may capture a particular property of light, such as luminance, color, polarization, etc., differently in different microimages or in different portions of microimages. With the focused plenoptic camera technology, the microimages are captured at the same time in a single image. Thus, multiple microimages of the same image of a scene may be captured at different exposures, different colors, different polarities, and so on, in a single image at the same time. Captured images may be used, for example, in High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging, spectral imaging, polarization imaging, 3D imaging, and other imaging applications.
US08345143B2
An image capturing apparatus has either one of a first display mode for continuously displaying a captured image on an image display unit and a second display mode for not displaying the captured image on the image display unit and displays an image according to the detection result on the image display unit when the second display mode is set.
US08345140B2
An image capturing apparatus for capturing a chart having color patches of a plurality of colors using a taking lens and obtaining a color-patch signal for creating a color profile. In the apparatus, the type of chart is identified, after which the focal length of the taking lens is acquired. Then, based upon the focal length, object distance suited to the chart type is determined and the user is notified of the object distance.
US08345130B2
A method for reducing noise in an image captured using a digital image sensor having pixels being arranged in a rectangular minimal repeating unit, comprising: computing first weighted pixel differences by combining first pixel differences between the pixel value of a central pixel and pixel values for nearby pixels of the first channel in a plurality of directions with corresponding local edge-responsive weighting values; computing second weighted pixel differences by combining second pixel differences between pixel values for pixels of at least one different channel in the plurality of directions with corresponding local edge-responsive weighting values; and computing a noise-reduced pixel value for the central pixel by combining the first and second weighted pixel differences with the pixel value for the central pixel.
US08345129B2
A method and combined video display and camera system are disclosed. In one embodiment, the system comprises a first sheet and a second sheet oriented parallel to the first sheet, the second sheet including a light diffuser. A light source is placed along an edge of the second sheet, wherein the second sheet diffuses light generated by the light source. One or more cameras are placed behind the second sheet to capture an image through the second sheet and the first sheet.
US08345126B2
A pixel driving portion 102 can carry out first read drive with which a transfer element is turned OFF in accordance with a drive signal TG to output a signal at an output node, and second read drive with which the transfer element is turned ON in accordance with the drive signal TG to transfer signal charges to the output node, thereby outputting a signal at the output node. A pixel signal reading portion 103, 104 outputs a signal corresponding to a difference between the signal read out in accordance with the second read drive and the signal read out in accordance with the first read drive.
US08345125B2
Systems and methods are provided for detecting an object of object class, such as faces, in an image sensor. In some embodiments, the image sensor can provide a scan sequence that scans a scene over multiple time intervals. The image sensor can scan, in succession, portions of a scene, where each of the portions covers a different amount or location of the scene. This way, the scanned portions can be saved in an image buffer that is sized significantly smaller than an entire frame. In some embodiments, when the image sensor detects the presence of an object of the object class, the image sensor can store positional information (e.g., location and size of the object) in a region of interest buffer. The image sensor can output the positional information to aid an electronic device, such as a camera, perform various functions, such as automatic exposure and color balancing.
US08345119B2
A method includes specifying an image area which is contained in the subject-present image taken and in which nonflatness is less than or equal to a predetermined value, determining whether or not a range of the specified image area in the subject-present image in which the nonflatness is less than or equal to a predetermined value is greater than or equal to a predetermined range, generating an extraction background image used to extract a subject area in the subject-present image containing the subject, from the image area when the range of the image area in which the nonflatness is less than or equal to a predetermined value is determined to be greater than or equal to the predetermined range, and extracting the subject area from the subject-present image based on information on a difference between each pixel in the extraction background image and a corresponding pixel in the subject-present image.
US08345114B2
Sub-regions within a face image are identified to be enhanced by applying a localized smoothing kernel to luminance data corresponding to the sub-regions of the face image. An enhanced face image is generated including an enhanced version of the face that includes certain original pixels in combination with pixels corresponding to the one or more enhanced sub-regions of the face.
US08345113B2
An image processing apparatus has: a data memory configured to store image data; an RP register configured to hold a two-dimensional address indicating a position of an RP in a frame of image data; and an RP control section configured to control the two-dimensional address held by the RP register on the basis of the width and height of the frame. Furthermore, the image processing apparatus has an address calculation unit configured to, when reading target pixel data is read from the data memory on the basis of an instruction code provided with a field for specifying a two-dimensional relative position from the RP by a combination of two immediate values, calculate an address at which the reading target pixel data is stored, on the basis of the two-dimensional address, the combination of immediate values and the width of the frame.
US08345103B2
An apparatus and method for obtaining an image. A first filter unit of the apparatus of obtaining an image may pass a light in a first wavelength band corresponding to visible light. Also, a second filter unit may pass a light in a second wavelength band corresponding to an Infrared ray (IR). A sensor unit may sense the light in the first wavelength band and the light in the second wavelength band. An operating unit may operate at least one of the first filter unit and the second filter unit.
US08345101B2
Techniques for automatically calibrating one or more regions of interest for video surveillance are provided. The techniques include at a user-defined frequency, determining if one or more regions of interest (ROIs) are present within a field of view of a camera, if one or more ROIs are present within the field of view of the camera, automatically calibrating the one or more ROIs within the field of view of the camera, and if one or more ROIs are not present within the field of view of the camera, sending an alert to a user.
US08345092B2
An imaging apparatus includes an observation optical system, a solid state imaging element photoelectrically converting an image from the observation optical system, a flexible board electrically connected to the solid state imaging element, a plurality of electronic components and a plurality of signal cables electrically connected to the flexible board, and a first resin sealing the electronic components and a second resin sealing a connection part of the signal cables. A thixotropic ratio of the first resin is set to be lower than a thixotropic ratio of the second resin. Accordingly, apparatus and an endoscope, which can be made compact, and have high physical and electrical reliability without increasing a size of the imaging apparatus, are provided.
US08345087B2
A three-dimensional (3D) display apparatus includes an image generation subsystem (IGS) for generating at least one two-dimensional (2D) image and providing filtered rays derived from the at least one 2D image to an optical element for modulating the filtered rays and producing a 3D image, wherein the filtered rays comprise limited overlap of pixel information. A method and a computer program product for generating 3D images are provided.
US08345086B2
An image data analyzing apparatus includes a monocular visual depth information determiner for determining the anteroposterior relationship of regions contained in an image frame of one of a left image and a right image forming stereoscopic image data of time-division display type, a binocular visual depth information determiner for determining the anteroposterior relationship of regions contained in a plurality of images assumed to be the left image and right image, and a left-right image discriminator for outputting left-right image identification information in agreement with an assumption of the binocular visual depth information determiner if a pair of determination results show a high rate of agreement, and outputting left-right image identification information in agreement with a reverse setting of the assumption if the pair of determination results show a low rate of agreement.
US08345060B2
The present invention provides a technique for providing color corrected images to a user over a network. In particular, the present invention allows multiple image providers to provide color corrected images to a user when the user's computer and its associated devices are not calibrated and/or characterized, or the calibration and/or characterization data is not available over the network to the image providers. This abstract is provided for the sole purpose of complying with the rules requiring an abstract to allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure contained herein. This abstract is submitted with the express understanding that it will not be used to interpret or to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.
US08345059B2
Methods, systems and data structures produce a rasterizer. A graphical state is detected on a machine architecture. The graphical state is used for assembling a shell rasterizer. The machine architecture is used for selecting replacement logic that replaces portions of shell logic in the shell rasterizer. The machine architecture is used for selectively inserting memory management logic into portions of the shell logic to produce.
US08345058B2
A graphics display device and method performing display indicating that graphics software for graphics drawing is an evaluation version including storing a display pattern indicating that the graphics software is an evaluation version, storing a parameter indicating a display method of the display pattern and displaying the display pattern based on the parameter by a cursor display hardware.
US08345048B2
A displaying chart image in a bitmap format is generated from ledger sheet data, while identifying layout information capable of identifying a plurality of line drawings on the chart image respectively is generated for a mouse decision. Then, identifying information corresponding to a dot designated through a mouse cursor over the displaying chart image is acquired from the identifying layout information and a dot string indicated by the identifying information is specified as the line drawing. Consequently, it is possible to increase a display speed more greatly as compared with the case in which the line drawings are subjected to vector rendering and are thus displayed respectively, and to identify the line drawings in the chart image formed into a bitmap based on the identifying layout information, respectively.
US08345043B2
Systems, program products and program products for accepting a request to move a first geometric entity that is constrained to other geometric entities in a drawing that may contain both one-way and two-way geometric constraints. A set of affected geometric entities that need to be repositioned or otherwise changed as the result of moving the first geometric entity is identified. The affected geometric entities and the geometric constraints are classified into groups which are solved using a variational geometric constraint solver. If the geometric constraints cannot be satisfied, the movement of the first geometric entity is restricted. Otherwise the affected geometric entities are updated.
US08345038B2
Elements of the present invention relate to systems and methods for image enhancement for color enhancement, brightness enhancement and/or backlight modulation compensation. Some elements comprise backlight illumination level selection.
US08345035B2
A liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal panel switchable between normal mode for displaying images and standby mode, a control circuit coupled to the liquid crystal panel controlling the liquid crystal panel mode according to video signals transmitted thereto, and a power board providing a power voltage to the control circuit. When the liquid crystal panel is in a standby mode, the control circuit outputs a corresponding feedback signal to interrupt power voltage supply from the power board to the control circuit.
US08345032B2
Disclosed herein is a display apparatus including a pixel matrix section including pixel circuits laid out to form a pixel matrix to serve as pixel circuits each having an electro optical device, a signal writing transistor, a signal storage capacitor, and a device driving transistor, and a power-supply section configured to change a power-supply electric potential appearing on a power-supply line for providing a driving current flowing to the device driving transistor from one level to another in order to control transitions from a light emission period of the electro optical device to a no-light emission period of the electro optical device and vice versa, and stopping an operation to assert the power-supply electric potential on the power-supply line during a portion of the no-light emission period of the electro optical device.
US08345029B2
An image display device includes an input unit having a common terminal for receiving a component signal and an analog RGB signal and a display control unit for controlling display conforming to predetermined standards when the signal inputted from the input unit is a component signal. Thus, when the inputted signal is a component signal, display control conforming to predetermined standards (desirably, the EIA standards) is performed, thereby realizing appropriate image display.
US08345028B2
A driving circuit applied in an electronic display apparatus is provided. The driving circuit includes a first exchange circuit and a first buffer. The first buffer includes first and second input stages, a second exchange circuit and first and second output stages. The first exchange circuit selectively couples a first input signal and a first output signal outputted from the first output stage to one of the first and the second input stages; and selectively couples a second input signal and a second output signal outputted from the second output stage to the other of the first and the second input stages. The second exchange circuit selectively couples the first input stage to one of the first and the second output stages and selectively couples the second input stage to the other of the first and the second output stages.
US08345026B2
A display apparatus includes a display panel, a flexible printed circuit board, a first data driver, and second data driver. The display panel includes a display area in which an image is displayed in response to a data voltage and a peripheral area adjacent to the display area. The flexible printed circuit board is attached to the peripheral area and includes a plurality of flexible circuit lines. The first data driver is mounted on the flexible printed circuit board to directly receive image data through a part of the flexible circuit lines and convert the image data into the data voltage. The second data driver is mounted on the peripheral area to directly receive the image data through a remaining part of the flexible circuit lines and convert the image data into the data voltage.
US08345023B1
A stylus input device, a stylus input device with display, and a method for entering input into a computer system are provided. The stylus is preferably used as a pointer that points to a particular region on an electronic display, and one or more buttons on the stylus can be used to scroll, modify or select that region. The buttons can be programmed in various ways to perform different functions, or one button can be programmed to perform a sequence of functions. The tip of the stylus need not contact the display surface to either render the stylus position or to select the region of the display shown by the stylus curser. The input device and system thereby operates in a contactless and wireless environment to leave the display area unencumbered to viewers of the display screen, and to allow more than one stylus to concurrently operate upon the display. The tip of the stylus can also be configured to scan an image of optically contrasting information, such as a barcode, in a contactless and wireless environment.
US08345008B2
An apparatus and method for providing an adaptive on-screen keyboard are provided. The apparatus includes a sensor for detecting touch action of a user from a touch screen, a pattern recognizer for recognizing a touch pattern of the user using the detected touch action of the user, a rearrangement processor for reconstructing the key arrangement of the on-screen keyboard to be provided through the touch screen on the basis of the recognized touch pattern of the user, and a display for displaying the on-screen keyboard on the basis of information on the reconstructed key arrangement. Thus, the apparatus can increase the convenience of use when the user makes use of the on-screen keyboard.
US08345004B1
An input device for controlling an object includes a joystick and a modal switch. A user may use the modal switch to select a subset of degrees of freedom of the object. The joystick may then be used to control a change over time of the selected subset, where the change over time is functionally depend on both a motion of the joystick and a state of the selected subset. A method for controlling an object via the input device is also provided. The method includes receiving inputs indicating a selection by the modal switch of a subset of degrees of freedom of the object, and a motion of the joystick. A configuration of the selected subset is then caused to be changed based on the motion of the joystick and a state of the selected subset.
US08345003B1
One embodiment relates to an optical displacement sensor for sensing movement of a data input device across a surface by determining displacement of optical features in a succession of frames. The sensor includes at least an illuminator, telecentric imaging optics on the object (scattering surface) side, and an array of photosensitive elements. The illuminator is configured to illuminate a portion of the surface. The telecentric imaging optics is configured to image the optical features emanating from the illuminated portion of the surface, and the array of photosensitive elements is configured to detect intensity data relating to the optical features imaged by the telecentric imaging optics. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US08345000B2
An information processing device performs a game process based on a tilt angle of an input device that can be rotated to any tilt about a predetermined axis. First, a game apparatus calculates a tilt angle representing the tilt of the input device. Then, the game apparatus determines whether the calculated tilt angle has transitioned across the boundary between the upper limit value and the lower limit value of the tilt angle. If the tilt angle has transitioned across the boundary, the tilt angle to be used in a predetermined information process is corrected to a predetermined value that is on one side of the boundary on which the tilt angle was before crossing the boundary.
US08344999B2
The present invention relates to a powerless electronic notepad and a powerless wireless transmission system using the same, and more particularly, to a powerless electronic notepad that stores data recorded on an electronic notepad using piezoelectric elements and transmits the stored data using a passive RFID tag without the use of a power source, and a powerless wireless transmission system using the same.
US08344998B2
Methods and systems for providing gesture-based power management for a wearable portable electronic device with display are described. An inertial sensor is calibrated to a reference orientation relative to gravity. Motion of the portable device is tracked with respect to the reference orientation, and the display is enabled when the device is within a viewable range, wherein the viewable range is a predefined rotational angle range in each of x, y, and z axis, to a user based upon a position of the device with respect to the reference orientation. Furthermore, the display is turned off if an object is detected within a predetermined distance of the display for a predetermined amount of time.
US08344995B2
A portable display device includes a display formed with electronic paper, an illuminating unit, and a controller. The electronic paper displays data in response to applied electrical current, and maintains displaying of the data in an absence of the applied electrical current. The illuminating unit selectively illuminates each particular region of a plurality of regions of the display and includes a plurality of light sources which are individually associated with one or more of the plurality of regions of the display. The controller activates the illuminating unit, selectively activating a first group of the plurality of light sources to illuminate a particular region of the display responsive to user contact, and the first group includes at least one of the plurality of light sources.
US08344991B2
A display device and a driving method of the same are provided. The display device includes a display panel having gate lines and data lines. A gate driver is included in each of stages and supplies each of the plurality of gate lines with gate signals using a clock signal and a clock bar signal. Each of the stages includes a gate output terminal through which the gate signal is outputted, a pull-down unit connected to the gate output terminal that pulls down a level of the gate signal using a first gate-off voltage. A holding unit is connected to the gate output terminal and holds the level of the pulled-down gate signal at a level of a second gate-off voltage using the second gate-off voltage, which is higher than the first gate-off voltage.
US08344990B2
A display panel with half source driver structure and a display data supplying method thereof are disclosed. The display panel includes a plurality of gate driving circuits, a data line, a plurality of first gate lines and second gate lines, a plurality of first pixels and second pixels. The first pixels are arranged along the data line and form two columns. The first pixels are disposed at one side of the data line and electrically coupled to the respective first gate lines. The second pixels are arranged along the data line and form two columns. The second pixels are disposed at an opposite side of the data lines and electrically coupled to the respective second gate lines. The data line has a bending portion between each two sequentially connected first pixels. The gate driving circuits are electrically coupled to the first gate lines and the second gate lines.
US08344986B2
Provided are a timing controller, a liquid crystal display (LCD) driver including the same, and a method of outputting display data, where the timing controller receives a vertical synchronous signal and a data enable signal, generates an internal data enable signal having a period that is longer than the period of the data enable signal in response to the vertical synchronous signal and the data enable signal, and updates a memory using the internal data enable signal; where the LCD driver including the timing controller outputs display data stored in a memory device based on the internal data enable signal; where a data line driving circuit drives data lines based on the output display data; and where the method of outputting display data is performed by the LCD driver.
US08344985B2
An exemplary liquid crystal display (300) includes a liquid crystal panel (301) having a plurality of pixel units (340), a data processor (391) having a calculation circuit (393) and an analyzing circuit (394), and a common voltage circuit (305). The calculation circuit is configured to carry out a predetermined calculation between display signals corresponding to a current frame period and display signals corresponding to a previous frame period. The analyzing circuit is configured to provide a compensating signal according to a result of the calculation. The common voltage circuit is configured to adjust a reference voltage signal according to the compensating signal, so as to generate a common voltage signal for the pixel units. A related method for driving a liquid crystal display is also provided.
US08344981B2
A display driver including: a data line driver circuit which drives an output line based on a drive voltage corresponding to display data; a first switching element connected between a first power supply line and the output line; a second switching element connected between a second power supply line and the output line; and a switch control circuit which controls the first and second switching elements. The lengths of first and second periods are determined based on at least part of the display data in a horizontal scanning period which is immediately before a current horizontal scanning period. The first and second switching elements are respectively turned ON and OFF in the first period, and are respectively turned OFF and ON in the second period. After the second period, the first and second switching elements are turned OFF, and the output line is driven by the data line driver circuit.
US08344980B2
A multiplexed pixel display includes a plurality of pixel electrodes, a plurality of storage elements, a first voltage supply terminal, a second voltage supply terminal, a common electrode, and a plurality of multiplexers each selectively coupling an associated one of the pixel electrodes with one of the first voltage supply terminal and the second voltage supply terminal responsive to a value of a data bit stored in an associated one of said storage elements. A controller is configured to sequentially write each bit of multi-bit data words to the storage elements, and assert, while each bit is stored in the storage elements, a first predetermined voltage on the first voltage supply terminal, a second predetermined voltage on the second voltage supply terminal, and a third predetermined voltage on the common electrode, for a time dependent on the significance of the stored bit. Various alternate controllers facilitate the use of additional driving schemes.
US08344979B2
A method and an apparatus for over-driving a liquid crystal display (LCD) are provided, which are suitable for compensating a gray level brightness of the LCD. The method includes the following steps. Firstly, a data buffer unit outputs a current frame data. Then, the current frame data is stored into a frame memory unit, and the frame memory unit outputs a previous frame data. Next, several look-up tables (LUTs) are searched for a driving voltage in a corresponding LUT according to the current frame data and the previous frame data. Afterward, a position scanning unit receives the current frame data to determine a current position. Finally, a multiplexer outputs the corresponding driving voltage at the current position. Thus, a display panel has the same gray level brightness in upper, middle, and lower portions thereof, thereby avoiding ghosting.
US08344976B2
A display device is provided that comprises a liquid crystal display panel for displaying an image by spatial light modulation, and circuitry for switching liquid crystal in the panel between having a first configuration in a first mode to cause an image displayed using the panel to be discernible from a wide range of viewing angles, and having a second configuration in a second mode to cause an image displayed using the panel to be discernible substantially only from within a narrow range of viewing angles. Several types of display panel to achieve such in-panel switching between public and private viewing modes are disclosed.
US08344975B2
A display device including: scanning lines; data lines; pixels provided in a matrix; and a power line, each of the pixels includes: an organic EL device; a drive transistor which converts a data voltage applied to a gate into a drive current; a capacitor which holds a voltage according to the data voltage; a selector transistor having a gate connected to one of the scanning lines and a source connected to the gate of the drive transistor; a selector transistor having a gate connected to the scanning line, a source connected to a drain of the selector transistor, and a drain connected to the data line; and a guard potential transistor having a gate connected to the source of the selector transistor, a source connected to the drain of the selector transistor, and a drain connected to the power line.
US08344973B2
An electrostatic preventing device for light emitting diodes (LED), operative to backlight a liquid crystal display (LCD) device is disclosed. The device includes RGB assemblies installed on a flexible circuit board, and an electrostatic preventing circuit separately installed on the flexible circuit board. The device is adapted to protect RGB LED chips inside each RGB package for backlight, mounted in the RGB assemblies, from static electricity.
US08344969B2
Example embodiments relate to a display device having first and second substrates arranged opposite to each other, a semiconductor device on the first substrate, an organic light emitting element on the first substrate and an optical unit between the organic light emitting element and the second substrate. The display device may be configured to adjust angle viewing modes, e.g., a narrow angle viewing mode and a wide angle viewing mode, by selectively applying a voltage to the organic light emitting element and the optical unit.
US08344967B2
A plasma display apparatus is disclosed. The plasma display apparatus includes a plasma display panel that includes a scan electrode, a sustain electrode, and a data electrode; and a scan driver that supplies the scan electrode with a first driving voltage serving as a reference voltage, a second driving voltage supplied from a single voltage source, and a third driving voltage that has the same magnitude as that of the second driving voltage and has the opposite polarity of that of the second driving voltage.
US08344964B2
An artificial medium includes: a dielectric layer having a front surface and a back surface; a plurality of first grid lines respectively formed on the front surface and the back surface and extending in a first direction and a plurality of second grid lines extending in a second direction different from the first direction; and electrically conductive elements respectively formed on the front surface and the back surface of the dielectric layer and located in areas where the first grid lines intersect the second grid lines, wherein when an electromagnetic wave propagated in the direction of the thickness of the dielectric layer is incident, a current excited by the electromagnetic wave is increased in a prescribed operating frequency and a current loop is formed in a plane parallel to the direction of the thickness.
US08344957B2
In this mobile device, at least either the selection antenna module or the selection circuit module is so formed as to be incapable of being mounted on the mobile device body when the selection antenna module and the selection circuit module are not matched to each other, and both the selection antenna module and the selection circuit module are so formed as to be capable of being mounted on the mobile device body when the selection antenna module and the selection circuit module are matched to each other.
US08344953B1
An access point housing structure includes a first enclosure, a second enclosure to house an array of antenna patches, and an omni-directional hinge component. The first enclosure includes a first coupling mechanism located near one of the corners of the first enclosure. The second enclosure includes a second coupling mechanism located near a corner corresponding to the location of the first coupling mechanism. The omni-directional hinge component connects to the first coupling mechanism and to the second coupling mechanism and allows rotation of the second enclosure about a first axis along an edge of the first enclosure adjacent to the first coupling mechanism and about a second axis along an edge of the second enclosure adjacent to the second coupling mechanism.
US08344950B2
A dual-loop antenna includes a grounding unit, a shorting unit, a feeding unit, a first loop radiating unit and a second loop radiating unit. The shorting unit has at least one shorting pin disposed on the grounding unit. The feeding unit has at least one feeding pin separated from the shorting pin by a predetermined distance and suspended above the grounding unit at a predetermined distance. The first loop radiating unit is disposed above the grounding unit at a predetermined distance. The first loop radiating unit has two ends respectively electrically connected to the shorting unit and the feeding unit. The second loop radiating unit is disposed above the grounding unit at a predetermined distance and around the first loop radiating unit. The second loop radiating unit has two ends respectively electrically connected to the shorting unit and the feeding unit.
US08344945B2
A telecommunications satellite having a phased array antenna, wherein the beam-forming function within the phased array is simplified by partitioning it into two stages, in which the sub-array stage relates to a fixed, or infrequently changed, set of overlapping sub-arrays and the main stage provides the main pattern reconfiguration, typically in the form of multiple reconfigurable spot beams within a defined coverage region. The key advantage lies in the significant reduction in number of second stage beam-forming control points (at which independent amplitude and phase is applied) when compared with a conventional phased array (where amplitude and phase control is applied for each element of the array). The sub-array stage beam-forming may be implemented in analogue technology. The main beam-former may be implemented in digital technology, where the key processing functions of A/D or D/A conversion, frequency (de)multiplexing and digital beam-forming all scale with the number of control points.
US08344944B2
A System and Method for CW interference suppression in pulsed signal processing having a front-end, an A/D converter, a data store, and a suppressor module coupled to both the A/D converter and the data store. The front-end is operable to receive a waveform and communicate such to the A/D converter to digitize for processing by the suppressor module. The suppressor module being operable to further process the digitized waveform by way of applying a FFT to obtain a corresponding amplitude spectrum of the digitized waveform, clipping the amplitude spectrum to obtain a clipped amplitude spectrum, performing successive piece-wise IFFTs on the positive frequency points of the clipped amplitude spectrum to obtain multiple amplitude-time series, each having a frequency value assigned, and then stacking such amplitude-time series successively in the data store to form a time-frequency spectrogram array to thereby facilitate suppression of interference signals and detection of data pulses.
US08344942B2
Range and Doppler ambiguities are common in radar, lidar, and acoustic systems. Resolving these ambiguities is important to achieve desirable geolocation and image quality performance in these systems. A new method is described to iteratively resolve the ambiguities. For Doppler ambiguity applications, a first PRF value and an initial Doppler frequency search window are selected. A new PRF is determined based on the ratio of the initial search window to the first PRF. The radar data of the first pair of PRF's is used to determine two modulo Doppler estimates. The modulo Doppler estimates are used to determine a new Doppler estimate with a confidence interval smaller than the first search window. The ratio of the new Doppler search window to the first PRF, is used to determine the next PRF. This process is iterated until the new Doppler search window is less than the first PRF.
US08344939B2
Radar sensor for motor vehicles, having a transmitting and receiving device for microwaves, in which beam-shaping devices which are independent of one another are provided for the azimuth and the elevation, and the beam-shaping device for the elevation has a cylindrical lens.
US08344938B2
An apparatus or a method for preventing radio-frequency (RF) interferences between rotating antennas. For example, the invention is particularly applicable to radar and communication systems on board naval ships.
US08344935B1
The present invention is directed to an avionics system. The avionics system may include a plurality of multi-function antennas. Each multi-function antenna includes a plurality of antenna elements and an antenna electronics system, the antenna electronics system being communicatively coupled with the plurality of antenna elements. The multi-function antennas are configured for being mounted to an exterior surface of a pressure vessel (ex—an exterior surface of an aircraft). The avionics system may further include a plurality of LRUs connected to the antennas via fiber optical cables, the LRUs being located in an interior of the aircraft. The LRUs receive communication control inputs from a communication system and establish settings of the LRUs based upon the received communication control inputs. The multi-function antennas are configured for performing operations (exs.—transmit operations, receive operations) based upon the settings established by the LRUs and based upon the communication control inputs.
US08344927B2
Provided are an analog digital converting device and a reference voltage controlling method thereof. The analog digital converting device includes: a first reference voltage generating circuit generating a first reference voltage; a second reference voltage generating circuit generating a second reference voltage; a first sub analog digital converter receiving an analog input signal and converting the analog input signal into a first digital signal by using the first reference voltage; an amplifier converting the first digital signal into a voltage corresponding to the first digital signal by using the first reference voltage and amplifying a difference between a voltage level of the analog input signal and a voltage level corresponding to the first digital signal to output a residual signal; and a second sub analog digital converter receiving the residual signal and converting the residual signal into a second digital signal by using the second reference voltage.
US08344925B1
A system and method are provided for adaptively controlling timing in SAR ADC of a sampled analog signal within a conversion period. A state machine maintains a set of SAR states including a sampling state and a plurality of bit conversion states. A reference generator generates a quantization level reference for each of the bit conversion states within a parametric settling time thereof. A comparator compares the sampled analog signal with the quantization level reference over a parametric propagation time for determining a hit value for each hit conversion state. A clock generator adaptively defines signals for clocking the state machine and comparator for each SAR state, thereby adaptively delaying bit determination in each bit conversion state by an integration period not less than the settling time, while adaptively delaying quantization level reference generation for a next bit conversion state by a regeneration period not less than the propagation time.
US08344922B2
A Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) with code independent output capacitance includes circuitry configured to convert a digital input signal to an analog output signal in a manner such that at least one output terminal of the DAC exhibits a constant capacitance value for up to all received values of the digital input signal. A method for converting a digital signal to an analog signal with a DAC includes converting a digital input signal to an analog output signal in a manner such that at least one output terminal of the DAC exhibits a constant capacitance value for up to all received values of the digital input signal.
US08344921B2
A sigma-delta modulator includes a processing circuit, a quantizer, a truncater and a feedback circuit. The processing circuit receives an input signal and an analog information and generates an integrated signal by perform an integration upon a difference between the input signal and the analog information. The quantizer includes a successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for receiving the integrated signal and generating a digital information according to the integrated signal. The truncater receives the digital information and generates a truncated information according to the digital information. The feedback circuit generates the analog information to the processing circuit according to the truncated information, wherein an order of the truncater is lower than an order of the integration.
US08344918B2
A process inserts a random noise in a Time to Digital Converter (TDC) designed for calculating the phase error between a first high frequency signal FDCO with respect to a second reference signal, switching at a lower frequency. The process involves: processing of the first signal FDCO by using a chain of delays having a set of n elementary delays which number is chosen so as to extend over a full period of the first signal; storing the outputs of the chain of delays in a set of latches and generation of a thermometer code presenting a stream of “1” separated from a stream of “0” by a border corresponding to the transition of the first signal with respect to the second reference signal; reducing the thermometer code by a random number PN of bits; processing of the result in an edge detecting and thermometer code decoding so as to generate two variables Δtr and Δtf which are representative of the difference between the rise and fall time of the first signal with respect to the second reference signal; computing the normalized gain so as to generate an average value of 1/TDCO; adding to the value Δtr a binary value corresponding to the number of bits PN; multiplying the preceding result by the average value of 1/TDCO and computing the phase error between the signals. The delay chain may be arranged with inverters. The process is particularly but not exclusively useful for carrying out a TDC convertor for the purpose of synthesizing of frequencies.
US08344917B2
Aspects of the present invention are related to systems and methods for context model initialization in entropy encoders and decoders.
US08344914B2
Provided is an intelligent multi-axial intuitive joystick suitable for use by both left-handers and right-handers and applicable to machine tools, measuring equipment, cars, and so on, which require moving instructions. The joystick features at most four-axis output control, multiple output modes to select from, a dead-band setting function, axial angle shift detection, origin calibration, feedback from axial force application, Z- and C-axis intuitive operation, working status display, and system surveillance.
US08344910B2
Systems and methods for aircraft cabin noise analysis are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a first request for an aircraft cabin noise analysis, wherein the request comprises a plurality of flight parameters associated with a first flight mission, retrieving, from a computer readable memory, a plurality of noise parameters associated with the plurality of flight parameters for the first flight mission, determining a total noise exposure parameter associated with the first flight mission, generating an output comprising the total noise exposure on a user interface, and generating a warning on a user interface when the total noise exposure exceeds a threshold. In some embodiments, the monitored system may be implemented in a computing system or as logic instructions recorded on a computer readable medium.
US08344887B2
A system for controlling circulation of media materials from a library includes a control system and a circulation control station having a housing defining a receptacle which is configured to receive a packaged unit of securable media therein. The circulation control station includes an electronic security control mechanism and a mechanical security control mechanism, each mounted to the housing. The electronic security control mechanism may include an RFID reader/writer, and the mechanical security control mechanism may include a magnet and an actuator. The control system is configured to release a packaged unit of securable media to circulation by disabling an electronic security device and a magnetic security device of a packaged unit of securable media resident within the receptacle and executing a media checkout procedure.
US08344884B2
According to some example embodiments, systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products are provided for triggering an alarm. In this regard, one example apparatus includes means for receiving an instruction to alarm a security gate device, and means for tuning a security resonator at a location such that a field generated by the security gate device interacts with the security resonator to cause the security gate device to trigger an alarm in response to at least receiving the instruction to alarm the security gate device.
US08344883B2
An input apparatus capable of receiving inputs of a plurality of levels in accordance with pressure loads varied in each operation by an operator and an input method using such an input apparatus are provided. An input apparatus 10 for receiving inputs of a plurality of levels in accordance with pressure loads has a load detection unit 40 configured to detect a pressure load of a pressing input and a control unit 20 configured to control such that a second load standard for receiving a second level input is set whenever the load detection unit 40 detects a pressure load satisfying a first load standard for receiving a first level input.
US08344881B1
A system for providing tamper detection includes a plurality of circuit cards in a housing. The housing includes magnetic sensors and magnetic signal generators that form multiple pairs of a magnetic sensor (S) coupled to a magnetic signal generator (M). Each pair of S and M forms a tamper detector for a respective circuit card in the housing. A tamper detector of one circuit card notifies another tamper detector of another circuit card of the occurrence of a tamper event. As an example, a first tamper detector of a first circuit card notifies a second circuit card of the occurrence of a tamper event, and a second tamper detector of the second circuit card notifies a third circuit card of the occurrence of the tamper event. The first tamper detector is configured to sense a change in a magnetic field surrounding the first circuit card and generate a magnetic pulse for transmission to the second circuit card. The second tamper detector is configured to sense a change in a magnetic field surrounding the second circuit card and generate a magnetic pulse for transmission to the third circuit card.
US08344880B2
A field device of automation technology, is fed via a two-wire line or via an energy source of limited energy reserve associated with the field device. The field device includes: a hardwired communication interface having at least one communication channel; and, associated with the communication interface, a functional unit, which is embodied in such a manner, that it performs sending and/or receiving of digital communication signals via the communication interface. The functional unit, for the purpose of energy saving, is turned on only in active, operating phases, while it is switched off in inactive, resting phases; and a detection circuit is provided, which detects a communication signal applied to the communication interface and automatically activates the functional unit.
US08344879B2
Novel tools and techniques for tracking assets, such as high-value tools, customer equipment, testing equipment, technicians, and/or the like. Some of these tools and techniques can be used to track assets in a mobile environment (such as in a delivery truck, installation van, and/or the like).
US08344866B2
A warning system for a motor vehicle includes sensor devices for detecting a driving situation, a warning device for the output of a warning to a driver of the motor vehicle, a device for detecting the driver's state of attention that includes operating elements of existing vehicle components, and a control device which triggers the warning device as a function of data of the sensor devices and the device for detecting the state of attention. In this warning system, the device for detecting the state of attention infers a reduced degree of driver attention when a total duration of a sequence of several operating actions related to the operating elements exceeds a minimum duration. A conclusion can also be drawn that the degree of driver attention is reduced when operating inputs are triggered that are known a priori as being cognitively demanding, for example, operating a telephone keypad.
US08344863B2
The present invention relates to haptic augmented reality, and more specifically, to a method for providing haptic augmented reality that provides mixed results of a real environment and a virtual environment to a user. The present invention provides an apparatus for providing haptic augmented reality comprising a controller that calculates a repulsive force from an object and determines a driving force in consideration of the calculated repulsive force and preset stiffness; and a driver that drives a haptic device with the determined driving force.
US08344862B1
The disclosure relates to a tactile messaging system configured to send tactile messages between users. The system may be configured so a first user may input tactile information into a first wearable tactile user device and a second user may receive sensory output from a second tactile user device that corresponds to the tactile information entered by the first user into the first tactile user device. This may allow users to communicate by touch, without having to manually enter electronic input information into the system.
US08344860B2
A system including a patient support apparatus that has an adjustable height, a brake and a siderail. The system also includes a processor receiving at least two of the following signals: a first signal indicating a brake condition of the brake, a second signal indicating a siderail condition of the siderail, and a third signal indicating a height condition of the patient support apparatus. The system has a user input configured to allow a person to make a selection of any one or more of the brake, siderail and height conditions for monitoring. The system includes a light that has a first state when any of the selected brake, siderail and height conditions indicate an alarm condition and that has a second state when all of the selected brake, siderail and height conditions of the selection indicate no alarm condition.
US08344852B2
A method for transmitting a plurality of notifications in a notification pool includes determining a first notification batch having the plurality of notifications, and assigning a priority weight to each of the plurality of notifications, at least two of the priority weights being different. The method further includes inserting the first notification batch into the notification pool, and transmitting the plurality of notifications in the notification pool sequentially, based on the priority weights of the plurality of notifications. A system for transmitting a plurality of notifications is also provided.
US08344851B2
Provided is a remote mobile device access and control method, and particularly a generic approach for providing remote mobile device access and control. To this end, there is provided a method for a user to access and control his/her mobile device at a remote location by using a remote mobile device access and control architecture that allows the user to access an application and data of his/her mobile device.
US08344845B2
A thermistor structure includes a multilayer structure of at least one quantum layer surrounded by barrier layers in a multilayer structure. The quantum layer includes Ge and may be in the form of either a quantum well or quantum dots. The barrier layer is a carbon-doped Si layer, and the thermistor is intended to provide a way to compensate for the strain in a multilayer IR-detector structure through carbon doping of the quantum layer and barrier layers.
US08344839B2
A transformer includes: —a plurality of windings (P, S1, S2) wound on a coil former (100), preferably in the form of a one-piece coil former, —a pair of first insulating flanges (106) separating a first winding (P) from a pair of second windings (S1, S2), —a pair of second insulating flanges (104) defining together with the first insulating flanges (106) two winding spaces for the second windings (S1, S2). The ends (P1, P2) of the wire of the first winding (P) extend across the winding spaces for the second windings (S1, S2). Insulating walls (208) are provided extending between the ends (P1, P2) of the wire of the first winding (P) and the second windings (S1, S2) to provide insulation therebetween.
US08344838B2
A transformer includes: a bobbin on which a coil is wound; a core coupled with the bobbin to provide a magnetic flux, at least a portion of the core being installed on the PCB in a penetrating manner; and a base plate electrically connected to the coil and having a lead frame connected to the PCB, wherein the base plate is installed to be reversedly disposed at an upper side of the bobbin on the PCB, a space is formed between a lower surface of the base plate and an upper surface of the PCB, and the space between the lower surface of the base plate and the upper surface of the PCB is supported by a support member in contact with the upper surface of the PCB.
US08344834B2
The invention provides an input apparatus An input apparatus according to the present invention includes: an operating member, operable to move in at least X and −X directions from a neutral position; first and second magnets, being arranged with spacing along an X and −X direction and having opposite magnetic polarities to each other, wherein when the operating member moves in either one of the two directions, the first and second magnets moves in the same direction as the operating member; and a first magnetic sensor, provided at a position displaced from a middle point between the two magnets when the operating member is located in the neutral position, the position being equidistant from the two magnets. When the operating member moves in one of the two directions, the first magnetic sensor outputs a signal in accordance with the magnetic polarity of one of the first and second magnets.
US08344833B1
An electric machine includes a wire conductor having at least one end, a terminal configured to be operatively connected to the at least one end of the wire conductor, and a terminal member having a first end section configured and disposed to establish a mechanical bond and an electrical connection with the at least one end of the wire conductor, and a second end section configured and disposed to establish a mechanical link and an electrical connection with the terminal.
US08344829B2
The RF signal generated by a ZigBee radio on the outside of a building structure is conveyed to the interior of the building by guiding it along an electric cable bundle that passes through the building's wall to supply domestic electric power to the interior of the structure. The RF signal is launched by a unique coupler comprising a pair of insulated foil conductors.
US08344824B2
Disclosed herein is an asymmetric power divider. The asymmetric power divider includes a power dividing unit, a first matching network, and a second matching network. The power dividing unit supplies different amounts of power to a carrier amplifier and a peaking amplifier, which are connected in parallel. The first matching network is connected between the power dividing unit and the carrier amplifier so as to perform impedance matching between the power dividing unit and the carrier amplifier. The second matching network is connected between the power dividing unit and the peaking amplifier so as to perform impedance matching between the power dividing unit and the peaking amplifier.
US08344817B2
A compensating DFLL (CDFLL) is disclosed that utilizes temperature readings at regular intervals in combination with production characterization data of a reference oscillator to compensate for frequency drift and nominal frequency error. In some implementations, the CDFLL selects a calibration value that is not optimal for frequency accuracy to minimize accumulated frequency error over time. More particularly, during a calibration run, mismatch between an ideal frequency and an actual frequency is measured, and the measurement is used as a starting point for a next calibration run, such that the accumulated frequency error is averaged almost to zero over time.
US08344814B2
A circuit comprises a frequency divider configured to receive an oscillating signal generated by an oscillator and to divide the oscillating signal into a clock signal, wherein the division ratio of the frequency divider is set to a value equal to one of: the integer part of the resonant frequency of the oscillator and the integer part of the resonant frequency of the oscillator plus 1. The circuit further comprises a control element which switchable connects or disconnects a calibration element to alter the frequency of the oscillation signal input to the frequency divider based on a number of oscillations that have transpired in the oscillating signal.
US08344807B2
A distributed low noise amplifier (DLNA) comprises at least a first amplifier part 30.1 providing a first path 36.1 form an input of the amplifier to an output of the amplifier and a second amplifier part 30.2 providing a second path 36.2 from the input to the output. Each of the first and second paths being associated with a respective and different change in phase. The difference being larger than degrees in a noise suppression band to cause a phase difference between noise generated by the amplifier arrangement propagating along the first and second paths and destructive interference of the noise before the output of the DLNA, thereby to suppress noise in the noise suppression band. The respective gains of the amplifier parts 30.1 to 30.n may decrease in a direction from the input of the amplifier to the output thereof.
US08344801B2
A power amplifier (PA) adjustably operable between two classes of operation. The range of operation lies in a range of operation between a conventional, linear, conjugately matched Class AB characteristic amplifier and a higher efficiency switching Class E characteristic amplifier. A circuit topology having a push-pull configuration that allows a Class E characteristic of operation.
US08344782B2
A delay circuit receives a data input having an input transition and that generates a data output having an output transition. The delay circuit is powered by a voltage source having a voltage. A first delay element is configured to generate a first data signal with a first edge that has a relatively constant delay relative to the input transition irrespective of the voltage of the voltage source. A second delay element is configured to generate a second data signal with a second edge that has a delay relative to the input transition as a function of the voltage of the voltage source. A selection element causes the output transition at the data output to correspond to a latest selected one of the first edge and the second edge. The delay circuit may be employed in a pulse generating circuit.
US08344781B2
To provide a power amplification device that can amplify an input signal having an envelope variation with high power-added efficiency in a wide frequency range, and a transmission device and a communication device using the power amplification device. A first orthogonal signal (Sd1) is generated by performing vector subtraction between first and second fundamental signals (Su1 and Su2) having the same amplitude and a phase difference δθ (0 degrees<δθ<180 degrees) therebetween. First and second fundamental signals are generated based on an input signal (Sin). A second orthogonal signal (Sd2) is generated by performing vector addition between the first and second fundamental signals (Su1 and Su2). First and second constant envelope signals (S1 and S2) are generated by performing vector addition between the second fundamental signal (Su2) and first and second constant envelope vector generation signals (e and −e) obtained based on the first fundamental signal (Su1). An output signal (Sout) obtained by amplifying the input signal (Sin) is output based on the first and second constant envelope signals (S1 and S2).
US08344778B2
A control circuit includes a triangular wave generating circuit, a temperature sensing circuit, a first comparator, and a switching circuit. The triangular wave generating circuit outputs a triangular wave signal. The temperature sensing circuit senses a temperature surrounding a fan and outputs a temperature signal. A non-inverting terminal of the first comparator is connected to the triangular wave generating circuit. An inverting terminal of the first comparator is connected to the temperature sensing circuit. The first comparator compares the triangular wave signal with the temperature signal to output a control signal. The switching circuit is connected between a power supply and the fan. The switching circuit turns on or off according to the control signal.
US08344776B2
Provided is a memory interface circuit connected to a memory device that outputs a first data signal, and including: a first delay unit delaying a first strobe signal outputted from the memory device by a first delay amount to generate a first delayed strobe signal; a first data latch unit latching the first data signal as a first latched data signal in synchronization with the first delayed strobe signal; a first range calculating unit calculating a first delay range width that is a width of a range of values of the first delay amount which allow the first data latch unit to correctly latch the first data signal as the first latched data signal; and a drive capability setting unit adjusting the drive capability of the memory device so as to widen the first delay range width.
US08344774B2
Frequency synthesizer with immunity from oscillator pulling. The frequency synthesizer for generating an output frequency includes an oscillator that is capable of generating a first frequency. The frequency synthesizer also includes an output divider coupled to the oscillator. The output divider is configurable to allow the oscillator to generate a second frequency to prevent degradation in phase noise due to an interference to the first frequency of the oscillator, and to generate the output frequency from the second frequency.
US08344770B2
A PLL circuit is provided capable of reducing phase noise and facilitating design. In the PLL circuit, a PLL receives a reference frequency and an output from a VC-TCXO, performs a lock operation. In a lock state, a selector selects an output of a first divider that divides the reference frequency. When PLL detects input of reference frequency being lost or an unlock state, the PLL outputs an alarm signal to the selector. When receiving the alarm signal from the PLL, the selector switches from the output of the first divider to an output of a second divider that frequency-divides an output of the VC-TCXO, and outputs the same. Then, a PLL receives an output of the selector and an output of a VCXO and performs a lock operation.
US08344765B2
A method for dividing the frequency of a signal using a configurable dividing ratio is disclosed. An input signal with a first frequency is received at clocked switches in a frequency divider with a configurable dividing ratio. Non-clocked switches inside the frequency divider are operated to select one of multiple dividing ratios. An output signal is output with a second frequency that is the first frequency divided by the selected dividing ratio.
US08344762B2
A primary circuit turns on switching elements and generates energy from a direct-current power supply to a secondary circuit through a transformer. The secondary circuit charges a driven element using the energy obtained from the primary circuit through the transformer, turns on a switching element, discharges the energy accumulated in the driven element, and generates the energy in the primary circuit through the transformer. The primary circuit returns the energy obtained from the secondary circuit to the direct-current power supply.
US08344761B2
Included are embodiments of a 3-level line driver. At least one embodiment of a method includes generating a repetitive wave; receiving an input signal and a complement of the input signal; providing a 3-level output signal; and filtering a feedback signal, the means for filtering including at least one of the following: a 0th order filter, and an even order filter.
US08344755B2
Some embodiments provide an IC with configuration context switchers. The IC includes several configurable circuits, each of which configurably performs one of several operations at any given time, based on the configuration data set that it receives at that time. The IC includes several storage circuits for storing several configuration data sets for each of the configurable circuits. The IC also includes a context switching interconnect circuit for switchably connecting the configurable circuit to different sets of storage circuits to receive different sets of configuration data sets. The context switcher includes one or more stages for re-timing the data coming from the configuration storage elements. The stages can include interconnect circuitry or storage circuitry. Some embodiments build one of the stages in the configuration data storage elements. Some embodiments encode the configuration data bits and hence utilize a decoder in the context switcher to decode the encoded configuration data.
US08344754B2
A multi-chip package includes a plurality of chips coupled in parallel to an I/O pad and an output driver circuit included in each of the chips and configured to transmit output data to the I/O pad. The driving force of the output driver circuit is controlled on the basis of stack information indicative of the number of chips being activated.
US08344749B2
A method of testing electronic assemblies including singulated TSV die attached to a ML package substrate, on a substrate carrier. The substrate carrier includes through-holes for allowing probe contact to the BGA substrate pads on a bottomside of the package substrate that are coupled to the frontside of the TSVs. Contactable TSV tips on the bottomside of the TSV die are contacted with a topside coupler that includes a pattern of coupling terminals that matches a layout of at least a portion of the TSV tips or pads coupled to the TSV tips. The topside coupler electrically connects pairs of coupling terminals to provide a plurality of TSV loop back paths. The BGA substrate pads are contacted with a plurality of probes tips that extend through the through-holes to couple to the frontside of the TSVs. Electrical testing is performed across the electronic assembly to obtain at least one test parameter.
US08344736B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for identifying improper cabling of control system devices connected to redundant communication networks of distributed control systems. In an embodiment, a receiving device receives messages including a sender identification or source address, and a network or associated device port identification, from sending devices, over redundant networks. The receiving device determines a connect status indicating whether a message was received on a particular device port, and an error event indicating whether the port is associated with the network identified in the message. A system diagnoses an improper communication path between devices and produces an indication of a location and/or type of improper cabling. A method supplants error events with error rates calculated as a probability of receiving messages on a device port not associated with the network identified in a received message. The method compares the error rates to error thresholds to identify improper cabling.
US08344735B2
The solid electrolytic capacitor includes a solid electrolyte type capacitor element including a dielectric layer intervening between an anode section and a cathode section, and an insulating substrate. The insulating substrate includes a first surface on which the capacitor element is mounted and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The first surface is provided thereon with a first anode layer to which the anode section is electrically connected and a first cathode layer to which the cathode section is electrically connected. The second surface is provided thereon with a second anode layer electrically connected to the first anode layer and a second cathode layer electrically connected to the first cathode layer. Here, a pad member with electrical insulation property projects on the first surface of the insulating substrate, and the first anode layer is formed on a tip end surface of the pad member.
US08344734B2
A test module and method for radio frequency identification (RFID) chips are provided. The test module includes a test head having a chip carrier for carrying a RFID chip to be tested, the chip carrier having a first antenna electronically connecting the RFID chip. The module further includes a second antenna for communicating with the first antenna; and a base supporting the chip carrier and the second antenna. The test module further includes a test computer electronically connecting the second antenna, wherein the test computer evaluates functions of the RFID chip by way of the communications between the first antenna and the second antenna.
US08344726B2
Many reservoirs of interest include heavy oil. In such reservoirs, NMR measurements have difficulty distinguishing between heavy oil and water in the formation. An acoustic signal is used to modify the relaxation time distribution of water and heavy oil in opposite directions and thus increase the separability of the distributions.
US08344718B2
A DC-DC converter includes a switching element to generate a pulse waveform by repeatedly admitting and cutting off the input voltage, a fluctuation component restraining circuit to restrain a fluctuation component generated in superposition on the pulse waveform and having a shorter cycle than a cycle of the pulse waveform, and a control circuit to operate the fluctuation component restraining circuit when the input voltage is equal to or larger than a reference voltage.
US08344717B2
A switching regulator and controller and an electronic device using same are disclosed in which the controller includes a sense circuit, an error amplifier circuit, a filter and reference circuit, and a comparator circuit. The switching regulator includes a pulse switch circuit coupled to an output inductor for developing an output voltage. The sense circuit provides a sense signal indicative of current through the output inductor. The error amplifier circuit develops an error signal indicative of error of the output voltage. The filter and reference circuit high pass filters the sense signal to provide a filtered sense signal and which balances the filtered sense signal and the error signal at a common DC level. The comparator circuit develops a pulse control signal using the error signal and the filtered sense signal, where the pulse control signal is for controlling switching of the pulse switch circuit.
US08344710B2
A control methodology for a two-stage PWM DC-DC conversion system, with transformer-isolation, in which the converter circuit input voltage is compared to a set voltage calibrated as a function of the desired output voltage and the maximum voltage conversion ratio provided by the second-stage converter. When the input voltage is above the set voltage, the second-stage converter is controlled to provide both output voltage regulation during normal operation and output current limiting during over-current conditions. However, when the input voltage is below the set voltage, the first-stage converter is controlled to provide output voltage regulation with minor output current limiting, and the second-stage converter is controlled to provide extended output current limiting independent of the input voltage.
US08344706B2
A power factor correction (PFC) system includes a direct current (DC) module, an error control module, an offset module, and a duty cycle control module. The DC module determines an average current value based on a plurality of current values over at least one cycle of an input alternating current (AC) line signal of the PFC system. The error control module generates an error signal based on the average current value. The offset module offsets a desired instantaneous current based on the error signal. The duty cycle control module controls at least one duty cycle of switches of the PFC system based on the offset desired instantaneous current.
US08344703B2
An apparatus and method of controlling power converters is achieved that produces high light-load efficiency and reduced output voltage ripple while maintaining quiet operation that is free from audible noise. The inventive method includes a variable on-time control circuit that is applicable to a wide variety of switching mode converters, including, but not limited to, boost converters, buck converters, buck-boost converters, single-ended primary inductor (SEPIC) converters, and other converter topologies, both isolated and non-isolated.
US08344693B2
A rotationally rechargeable electrical apparatus includes an electronic device with a back, a center of mass and a battery. An electrical generator at the back of the device has a rotor secured to the device and a stator having a flat contact surface extending parallel to the back of the device. The rotor and stator are rotatably connected together so that they can rotate relatively about an axis that extends perpendicular to the contact surface and passes through the center of mass. A voltage regulating circuit is connected electrically between the generator and the battery so that when the apparatus is placed on a support so that the contact surface frictionally engages the support and the device is spun about the axis, the generator produces an electrical output that is conditioned by the regulator circuit to charge the battery.
US08344685B2
A method that includes affixing a radio frequency identification tag on a storage battery at a battery manufacturing plant. The method also includes storing battery manufacturing information into the radio frequency identification tag at the battery manufacturing plant. The battery manufacturing information includes a battery algorithm suitable for use in testing the storage battery.
US08344684B2
The circuit structured to drive a motor is provided. The circuit includes: a division signal generator that generates a division signal dividing each of a high level period and a low level period of a binary position signal representing a relative position of a magnetic coil to a permanent magnet into a preset number of multiple divisions; a pulse width setter that sets a pulse width for PWM control corresponding to each of the multiple divisions represented by the division signal; and a PWM signal generator that performs PWM control with the set pulse width, thereby generating a PWM signal as a driving signal for driving the motor.
US08344683B2
A device and a method for determining the current position of a rotor, particularly the angle of rotation of the rotor, of an electric motor, wherein said device determines the current position of the rotor using the fluctuations of the armature current or the armature voltage of the electric motor. The fluctuations of the armature current or the armature voltage are separated from the fluctuations of the motor current or the motor voltage with the help of an amplifier unit dependent on a controllable offset value. The offset value is changed according to the motor current or the motor voltage. By virtue of the device and the method, the fluctuations of the armature current or the armature voltage can be separated from the fluctuations of the motor current or the motor voltage over the full measurement range of the motor current or the motor voltage.
US08344672B2
A differential amplifier detects a coil current Is at the time of steady rotation of a synchronous motor. An application voltage S0 at this time is detected from an output of an ATT circuit and so on. With the use of the coil current Is which is detected, the application voltage S0 at that time, and a predetermined scaling factor As, an induced current Ib is obtained based on Ib=As·S0−Is. The application voltage to the motor is controlled based on the induced current Ib which is obtained.
US08344671B2
The invention relates to a speed control method of a magnetic motor and is capable of providing a speed controller of the magnetic motor realizing highly stable, highly efficient and highly responsive control characteristics even around critical torque of the motor. When an excessive torque command value (or a q-axis commanded current value) greater than a torque maximum value (or a q-axis current) that can be outputted by the motor is required, an input of speed control is limited so that the q-axis commanded current value does not increase up to a limit value.
US08344670B2
The invention relates to a retraction device for a movable piece of furniture, having a pulling means windable on a roll, and an electric motor is provided for driving the roll. The retraction device also has a coupling for releasably connecting the movable piece of furniture to the electric drive, and the coupling has a first coupling part for fastening to the movable piece of furniture and a second coupling part connected to the pulling means. The first coupling part has an opening for at least the partial acceptance of the second coupling part. A locking mechanism is provided by which the first coupling part can be connected to the second coupling part in at least two different positions, and the second coupling part is located at different depths in the opening in the two different positions.
US08344659B2
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are increasingly used in illumination applications. To control multiple Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), or any other controllable light source, this document introduces a single-wire multiple-LED power and control system. Specifically, individually controlled LED units are arranged in a series configuration that is driven by a control unit located at the head of the series. Each of the individually controlled LED units may comprise more than one LED that is also individually controllable. The head-end control unit provides both electrical power and control signals down a single wire to drive all of the LED units in the series in a manner that allows each LED unit to be controlled individually or in assigned groups.
US08344654B2
A driving circuit supplies a suppression current (I4) which reduces a decrease in a driving current (Idrive) immediately after occurrence of an overshoot at the time of the rise of the driving current (Idrive) to a laser diode (1). The driving circuit draws a suppression current (I5) which reduces an increase in the driving current (Idrive) immediately after occurrence of an undershoot at the time of the fall of the driving current (Idrive) from the driving current (Idrive).
US08344640B2
A method for operating a fluorescent lamp which is connected to a series resonant circuit with a resonant circuit inductance and a resonant circuit capacitance. The method includes applying an excitation AC voltage at an excitation frequency to the series resonant circuit using a half bridge circuit, which has an output to which the series resonant circuit is coupled, and which has a first and a second switch which are alternately switched on and off on the basis of a frequency signal. A current flowing through the resonant circuit is monitored for the presence of a critical operating state. The switched-on times of the first and second switches are shortened in comparison to switched-on times which are predetermined by the frequency signal, upon detection of a critical operating state.
US08344629B2
The present invention relates to a solid state lighting system which comprises at least one luminaire controller (208, 203), a plurality of light engines (201, 203; 301, 303) each being coupled to a plurality of light emitting devices (RG, B, A) and a single sensor (206, 306) coupled to each of the at least one luminaire controller (208; 308) for sensing the light emitted by the plurality of light emitting devices. The luminaire controller is adapted to control at least one of the plurality of light engines based on the sensing signal from the sensor (206, 306) such that a feedback control loop is implemented. A synchronization connection (205) is provided between the plurality of light engines (101, 103; 301, 303) to synchronize the plurality of light engines (101, 103; 301, 303).
US08344628B2
A electronic ballast according includes a DC power source circuit for generating a DC voltage from an AC power source, a pair of switching elements, an LC series resonance circuit, an inverter circuit for converting the DC voltage into a high frequency voltage to supply to a fluorescent lamp FL, and means such as a current transformer for detecting a current flowing into the fluorescent lamp FL, wherein oscillation of the inverter circuit is stopped when a value of a current flowing into the fluorescent lamp exceeds a predetermined value.
US08344627B1
A method of generating a glow discharge plasma involves providing a pair of electrodes spaced apart by an electrode gap, and having a dielectric disposed in the electrode gap between the electrodes; placing the electrodes within an environment, wherein the electrode gap can be provided with a gas or gas mixture containing carbon at a specified pressure; and applying a rapid rise time voltage pulse across the electrodes to cause an extreme overvoltage condition, wherein the rapid rise time is less than a plasma generation time so that the extreme overvoltage condition occurs prior to current flow across the electrode gap. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08344624B2
An electrodeless plasma lamp apparatus includes a waveguide body having at least a first material and a second material. At least one of the materials has a dielectric constant of less than two. In a specific embodiment, the apparatus also includes an RF power source coupled to the waveguide body to provide RF power to the waveguide body at least one frequency that resonates within the waveguide body. A bulb containing a fill which forms a plasma to cause emission of light when the RF power is provided to the waveguide body.
US08344613B2
The invention provides an organic electroluminescence display device that makes it possible to obtain a highly reliable display. The organic electroluminescence display device has an organic electroluminescence element that includes a first layer (3) that contains a first substance that exhibits electron transport properties, and a second substance that exhibits electron-donating properties with respect to the first substance; a second layer (4) that is composed of a third substance that exhibits hole transport properties; a third layer (light-emitting layer (5) that contains a light-emitting substance; and a fourth layer (6) that is formed from a substance that exhibits electron transport properties.
US08344607B2
An electron-emitting device includes an electroconductive member and a lanthanum boride layer on the electroconductive member and further includes an oxide layer between the electroconductive member and the lanthanum boride layer. The oxide layer can contain a lanthanum element. The lanthanum boride layer can be overlaid with a lanthanum oxide layer.
US08344604B2
A precious metal tip on the side of a ground electrode is indirectly joined to the front end portion of the ground electrode via a mounting part interposed therebetween. The mounting part includes a base part and a protruding part. First, in the state where the precious metal tip is in contact with the protruding part, laser welding or the like is performed thereon to form a fused part and obtain a complex, and the base part is joined to a flat surface of the ground electrode by resistance welding. The grain size of grains of the mounting part in the vicinity of the of the fused part is greater than the grain size of the grain size of the grains thereof in the vicinity of the ground electrode, and the grain size of the grains of the flange part of the mounting part is smaller than the grain size of the grains of the protruding part.
US08344603B2
An organic EL display apparatus includes a plurality of pixels and a lens array which includes a light-condensing lens portion and a flat portion disposed on the light-emitting surface side of each pixel. Each pixel includes a light-emitting layer contained between a pair of electrodes. Part of the light emitted from the light-emitting layer is condensed by the light-condensing lens portion. A top surface of the light-condensing lens portion overlies the light-emitting region, and a part of the light-condensing lens portion is located outside the light-emitting region.
US08344592B2
The invention relates to an ultrasonic motor having a multilayer actuator in the form of a multilayer plate, having one or more friction elements or friction layers on its side surfaces and having an electrical exciter apparatus for the actuator. According to the invention, the multilayer plate has two intersecting, mirror-imaged asymmetrical generators for ultrasonic vibrations, to be precise in the form of layers of exciter electrodes and general electrodes which are alternately arranged with layers of piezoelectric ceramic, wherein a two-dimensional asymmetrical acoustic standing wave is generated in the multilayer actuator.
US08344588B2
A multidomain plate acoustic wave device is provided having one or more single piezoelectric crystalline plates with differently polarized ferroelectric domains, where the domains have diverse directions of their axes of polarization. The device may consist of a multidomain plate acoustic wave transducer, a multidomain plate acoustic wave delay line, a multidomain plate acoustic wave rf filter, and any combination thereof. The differently polarized ferroelectric domains may comprise a collection of inversely or differently poled ferroelectric domains within a single piezoelectric medium. The medium may be any crystalline or ceramic plate with non-zero piezoelectric properties, in which the domains are created and embedded. In varying embodiments, the device includes electrodes oriented to generate an external rf field in various, respective directions, including in a direction normal to a basal plane of the device, or in a direction parallel to a length or a width of the device.
US08344587B2
A capacitive electro-mechanical transducer includes a plurality of cavities, a communicating portion for connecting the cavities to each other, and two electrodes sandwiching each of the cavities. The cavities are sealed from outside, and at least a portion of the communicating portion is closed to interrupt the communication between the cavities through the communicating portion.
US08344580B2
A stator (16) is proposed for a polyphase electric machine, having a core body (17), which is provided with slots (114), which are situated in the radial direction with respect to an axis of rotation of the electric machine on one side of the core body (17) parallel to the longitudinal axis of the core body (17), having a slot width (bn1, bn2) and a stator yoke (122) being provided on the opposite side, with two slots (114) each being separated from one another by a tooth (116) having a tooth width (bz1, bz2) and extending from a slot base (120) to a tooth head (118), these slots (114) being provided to receive at least one coil winding having a plurality of coils that is electrically connected in series and are manufactured from at least one continuous wire (124) without interruption, the ratio (bz2/hj) of the tooth width (bz2) to the yoke height (hj) at the tooth head (118) being between 0.3 and 0.8 and/or the ratio (bz2/bn2) of the tooth width (bz2) at the tooth head (118) to the slot width (bn2) at the tooth head (118) being between 0.3 and 3, and/or the ratio (mCu(slot)/mCu(total)) of the copper mass of the wire (124) in the slot (114) to the total copper mass of the wire (124) being between 0.43 and 0.55.
US08344574B2
A stator for an electric rotating machine includes a stator coil that is formed of a plurality of electric wire segments each of which is comprised of an electric conductor and an insulating coat covering the electric conductor. The electric wire segments include a joined pair of first and second electric wire segments. Each of the first and second electric wire segments has an end portion of a first predetermined length where the electric conductor is not covered by the insulating coat. The end portions of the first and second electric wire segments are joined together. For each of the first and second electric wire segments, the insulating coat has, at its boundary with the end portion of the electric wire segment, a peeled portion of a second predetermined length which has a distal end peeled from the electric conductor and a proximal end remaining attached to the electric conductor.
US08344572B2
The present invention relates to an electromotive part of an elevator drive, comprising a rotor (24) and a stator (10, 22), wherein windings of the stator and/or the rotor (24) are provided as single tooth windings. An electromotive part of an elevator drive, is provided as an internal rotor motor, and includes a rotor and a stator. Windings of the stator and/or the rotor are provided as single tooth windings, the windings are, at least in part, encapsulated, and the windings are provided as two-layer windings. A method for winding-up windings of an electromotive part of an elevator drive with two-layer windings, includes inserting the windings of individual phases as alternating upper and lower layers.
US08344562B2
A fan motor apparatus for a vacuum cleaner is provided. The fan motor apparatus may include a fan motor, an outer casing surrounding at least a part of the fan motor, wherein the outer casing includes a discharge portion having a discharge port; and, a noise-absorbent member is supported by the discharge port such that the port is closed, wherein the noise-absorbent member changes its shape to form a leakage space when internal exhaust pressure of the fan motor exceeds a predetermined degree.
US08344558B2
A power supply control method of a production system including a first unit and a second unit includes: starting power supply for operation of the second unit in accordance with a signal acquired according to an operation status of the first unit (S41); starting the operation by the second unit after the start of the power supply (S44); acquiring stop time information indicating time from when the operation ends to when a next operation of the second unit starts (S22); determining, based on the acquired stop time information, whether or not to stop the power supply after the started operation ends (S24); and stopping the power supply when it is determined to stop the power supply (S48).
US08344557B2
The present invention provides a magnetic flux measuring device and magnetic flux measuring method for stationary induction electrical apparatus which can accurately measure the magnetic flux without being influenced by the DC offset component which superimposes on the measurement system, and can constantly and continuously measure the magnetic flux without setting a limit in the magnetic flux measurement period. The magnetic flux measuring method which measures a magnetic flux of a stationary induction electrical apparatus 2 using a voltage waveform of the stationary induction electrical apparatus 2, wherein the magnetic flux 151 of the stationary induction electrical apparatus 2 is determined by the steps of: inputting a voltage waveform 121 of the stationary induction electrical apparatus 2 into a negative-feedback amplification means 14 of which feedback circuit is constructed by a low pass filter; and integrating output of the negative-feedback amplification means 14 by integration means 15.
US08344553B1
A method and concomitant apparatus for generating pulses comprising providing a laser light source, disposing a voltage electrode between ground electrodes, generating laser sparks using the laser light source via laser spark gaps between the voltage electrode and the ground electrodes, and outputting pulses via one or more insulated ground connectors connected to the voltage electrode.
US08344547B2
A system and method for operating a photovoltaic element at or near a maximum power point. A maximum power point tracker changes a voltage or current set point of a photovoltaic element in sequential discrete steps, measuring an output power at each step after a predetermined settling time. A slope of a power-voltage curve is then estimated and the slope is corrected for irradiance changes. Finally, an operating voltage or current of the photovoltaic element is adjusted based on the slope of the power-voltage curve and other factors, causing the photovoltaic element to operate at or near its maximum power.
US08344545B2
An electrical power distribution system for a vehicle may provide from alternate sources of power to an electrical load. Two solid state power contactors (SSPC's) may provide connectivity paths between two power sources and the equipment. The SSPC's may be interconnected so that power to the load is provided on a first connectivity path between a first source of power and the load, unless and until a power interruption occurs on the first path. In the event of power interruption, the SSPC's actuate a second connectivity path between a second source of power and the load. Transfer of power sources may occur in a time period that is less than an equipment transparency time of the load.
US08344543B2
A modular device for use in emergency or everyday applications and having a plurality of modular components that are interchangeable with one another depending on the particular desired use. The modular device generally includes a plurality of interchangeable load modules, wherein each of the load modules has a load connected thereto, wherein the load is different for each load modules, and at least one power module having at least one battery therein, wherein the power module removably separately connects to each of the load modules and wherein the battery(ies) electrically connects to the load for powering the load. The load modules and power modules may be connected in various manners, such as a push-fit, friction, threadably, slidably, or various other manners to allow quick, easy, and reliable connectivity. The load of the load modules may be comprised of lights, external connectors, radios, MP3 players, or various other electrical devices.
US08344528B2
An on-site electrical power generation system utilizing environmentally hazardous waste oils as a combustible fuel. The disclosed invention utilizes the combustion of environmentally hazardous waste oils to drive a heat engine and electrical generator. In addition, the system is adapted to provide local space heating and hot water as a byproduct of the combustion process.
US08344526B2
Energy harvesting systems are described in which electroactive materials, such as dielectric elastomers, may be utilized to absorb the shocks, bumps, and vibrations from the road or path to generate energy which is captured and stored for use in the vehicle to provide additional power for any number of uses. Other devices and systems, such as household appliances which dissipate vibrational energy, may also incorporate any number of the dielectric elastomer generators.
US08344524B2
This invention provides a wire bonding method, comprising providing an integrated circuit (IC) die having thereon a passivation layer and a plurality of first bonding pads exposed by respective openings in the passivation layer; forming a polymer layer on the passivation layer; forming an adhesive/barrier layer on the polymer layer; forming a metal pad layer on the adhesive/barrier layer; bonding a wire onto the metal pad layer to form a ball bond thereon; and after forming the ball bond on the metal pad layer, running the wire so as to contact the wire with a second bonding pad and forming a wedge bond thereto.
US08344523B2
Conductive compositions which are useful as thermally conductive compositions and may also be useful as electrically conductive compositions are provided. The compositions include a conductive particle constituent in combination with a sintering aid which can, for example be a compound of the same metal in the nanometal, an organo-metallic, a metalorganic salt, mercaptan and/or resinate. In some embodiments the conductive particles include a small amount of nanoscale (<200 nm) particles. The compositions exhibit increased thermal conductivity.
US08344515B2
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of through vias extending through a substrate. The plurality of through vias are arranged dividedly in three or more via groups. Each of the via groups includes three or more of the through vias that are arranged in two dimensions.
US08344512B2
Scalable silicon (Si) interposer configurations that support low voltage, low power operations are provided. In one aspect, a Si interposer is provided which includes a plurality of through-silicon vias (TSVs) within a first plane thereof adapted to serve as power, ground and signal interconnections throughout the first plane such that the TSVs that serve as the power and ground interconnections are greater in number and/or size than the TSVs that serve as the signal interconnections; and a plurality of lines within a second plane of the interposer in contact with one or more of the TSVs in the first plane, the second plane being adjacent to the first plane, adapted to serve as power, ground and signal interconnections throughout the second plane such that the lines that serve as the power and the ground interconnections are greater in number and/or size than the lines that serve as the signal interconnections.
US08344511B2
To provide a semiconductor device which can reduce an electrical resistance between a plug and a silicide region, and a manufacturing method thereof. At least one semiconductor element having a silicide region, is formed over a semiconductor substrate. An interlayer insulating film is formed over the silicide region. A through hole having an inner surface including a bottom surface comprised of the silicide regions is formed in the interlayer insulating film. A Ti (titanium) film covering the inner surface of the hole is formed by a chemical vapor deposition method. At least a surface of the Ti film is nitrided so as to forma barrier metal film covering the inner surface. A plug is formed to fill the through hole via the barrier metal film.
US08344494B2
A layered chip package includes a main body and wiring. The main body includes a main part including a plurality of stacked layer portions, and a plurality of terminals disposed on the top and bottom surfaces of the main part. The wiring includes a plurality of lines electrically connected to the plurality of terminals. The plurality of lines include a plurality of common lines and a plurality of layer-dependent lines. Each of the plurality of layer portions includes: a plurality of common electrodes electrically connected to the plurality of common lines; a plurality of non-contact electrodes that are electrically connected to the layer-dependent lines and are not in contact with the semiconductor chip in the layer portion; and a selective connection electrode selectively electrically connected to only the layer-dependent line that the layer portion uses among the plurality of layer-dependent lines. The layer-dependent lines are greater than the common lines in maximum width.
US08344492B2
A first multilayer wiring structure has a first surface and a second surface positioned on an opposite side to the first surface, a first wiring pattern formed on the second surface side and a housing portion penetrating through the first multilayer wiring structure from the first surface to the second surface. An electronic component has an electrode pad. The electronic component is accommodated in the housing portion in a state that an electrode pad formation surface at the side where the electrode pad is formed is positioned on the second surface side of the first multilayer wiring structure. A second multilayer wiring structure has an insulating layer and a second wiring pattern which are stacked on the second surface of the first multilayer wiring structure and the electrode pad formation surface of the electronic component. The second wiring pattern is electrically connected to the first wiring pattern and the electrode pad.
US08344490B2
A semiconductor device is disclosed that includes a support substrate, a first semiconductor element that is mounted on one side of the support substrate, a second semiconductor element including a high frequency electrode that is mounted on the one side of the support substrate, a via hole that is provided at the support substrate in relation to the high frequency electrode, and an external connection electrode that is provided on the other side of the support substrate in relation to the via hole.
US08344489B2
A semiconductor device of the invention includes: a substrate having a hollowed hollow section on a top surface; a semiconductor chip mounted in the hollow section of the substrate; and a lid having a substantially plate-shaped top plate section that opposes the substrate and covers the hollow section, and having at least one pair of side wall sections that project from a circumference of the top plate section towards the substrate and that engage with a side surface of the substrate. The substrate and the lid can be accurately positioned.
US08344483B2
A carbon nanotube (CNT) array is patterned on a substrate. The substrate can be a microelectronic die, an interposer-type structure for a flip-chip, a mounting substrate, or a board. The CNT array is patterned by using a patterned metallic seed layer on the substrate to form the CNT array by chemical vapor deposition. The patterned CNT array can also be patterned by using a patterned mask on the substrate to form the CNT array by growing. A computing system that uses the CNT array for heat transfer from the die is also used.
US08344480B2
A trench structure of an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is formed as a trench net in a P region and extends into an N− layer. The trench net separates the P region into P wells and floating P layers. The P wells contact an emitter electrode while the floating P layers are not in direct contact with the emitter electrode. A gate formed of conductive material and having a surrounding insulation oxide layer is formed in the trench net. An N+ layer may be formed above each floating P layer under the gate. The floating P layers are isolated from the gate and are also not connected to the emitter electrode.
US08344479B2
Integrated circuit inductors (5) are formed by interconnecting various metal layers (10) in an integrated circuit with continuous vias (200). Using continuous vias (200) improves the Q factor over existing methods for high frequency applications. The contiguous length of the continuous vias should be greater than three percent of the length of the inductor (5).
US08344477B2
One exemplary embodiment includes a semiconductor chip that has a rectangle principal surface including a first and a second side that oppose each other. A first and a second semiconductor element, and a first and a second wire are formed on the principal surface. The first wire is formed from the first side to reach the second side, and coupled to the first semiconductor element. The second wire is formed to contact at least the first wire, and coupled to the second semiconductor element. Further, an edge part of the first wire on the second side and an edge part of the second wire on the first side are placed to substantially position on a common straight line which is vertical to the first and the second sides.
US08344469B2
An image sensor includes a color filter, an over-coating layer formed on the color filter, and a medium layer formed on the over-coating layer, wherein the medium layer is configured with at least two medium layers of which refractive indices are different from each other.
US08344466B2
A process for manufacturing a MEMS device, wherein a bottom silicon region is formed on a substrate and on an insulating layer; a sacrificial region of dielectric is formed on the bottom region; a membrane region, of semiconductor material, is epitaxially grown on the sacrificial region; the membrane region is dug down to the sacrificial region so as to form through apertures; the side wall and the bottom of the apertures are completely coated in a conformal way with a porous material layer; at least one portion of the sacrificial region is selectively removed through the porous material layer and forms a cavity; and the apertures are filled with filling material so as to form a monolithic membrane suspended above the cavity. Other embodiments are directed to MEMS devices and pressure sensors.
US08344463B2
A bidirectional switch includes a plurality of unit cells 11 including a first ohmic electrode 15, a first gate electrode 17, a second gate electrode 18, and a second ohmic electrode 16. The first gate electrodes 15 are electrically connected via a first interconnection 31 to a first gate electrode pad 43. The second gate electrodes 18 are electrically connected via a second interconnection 32 to a second gate electrode pad 44. A unit cell 11 including a first gate electrode 17 having the shortest interconnect distance from the first gate electrode pad 43 includes a second gate electrode 18 having the shortest interconnect distance from the second gate electrode pad 44.
US08344456B2
An ESD protection circuit including a first electrostatic discharge protection circuit provided between first power supply wiring and first ground wiring; a second ESD protection circuit provided between second power supply wiring and second ground wiring; a third ESD protection circuit provided between the first ground wiring and the second ground wiring; a PMOS transistor coupled to the first power supply wiring and provided between a first CMOS circuit coupled to the first ground wiring and the first power supply wiring, the first CMOS circuit receiving a signal from a first internal circuit and outputting a signal to a first node; an NMOS transistor provided between the first node and the first ground wiring; and an ESD detection circuit that renders the PMOS transistor conductive and the NMOS transistor non-conductive during normal operation, and renders the PMOS transistor non-conductive and the NMOS transistor conductive when an ESD is applied.
US08344450B2
A semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor substrate configured to include a plurality of trenches therein; a plurality of buried bit lines each configured to fill a portion of each trench; a plurality of active pillars each formed in an upper portion of each buried bit line; a plurality of vertical gates each configured to surround each active pillar; and a plurality of word lines configured to couple neighboring vertical gates with each other.
US08344442B2
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory fabrication method including forming a first insulating film and a floating gate electrode material on a semiconductor substrate; forming a gate insulating film and a floating gate electrode by etching the first insulating film and the floating gate electrode material, respectively, and forming a groove for an element isolation region by etching the semiconductor substrate; and forming an element region and the element isolation region by burying a second insulating film in the groove and planarizing the second insulating film.
US08344441B2
According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes: a semiconductor substrate; an element isolation insulator formed in an upper portion of the semiconductor substrate and dividing the upper portion into first and second active areas extending in a first direction; a first contact connected to the first active area; and a second contact connected to the second active area. Each of the first and second active area includes: a first portion connected to one of the first contact and the second contact; and a second portion having an upper surface being placed lower than an upper surface of the first portion. The first contact and the second contact are mutually shifted in the first direction. The first portion of the first active area is disposed adjacent to the second portion of the second active area.
US08344435B2
To realize a semiconductor memory device whose capacitance value per unit area in a memory cell is increased without increase in the area of the memory cell. The memory cell includes a transistor, a memory element, a first capacitor, and a second capacitor. The first capacitor includes a semiconductor film, a gate insulating film, and a gate electrode which are included in the transistor and is formed at the same time as the transistor. The second capacitor includes an electrode which is included in the memory element and an insulating film and an electrode which are formed over the electrode. Further, the second capacitor is formed over the first capacitor. In this manner, the first capacitor and the second capacitor which are connected in parallel with the memory element are formed.
US08344431B2
An image sensor includes a light receiving device, a field effect transistor, a stress layer pattern, and a surface passivation material. The light receiving device is formed in a first region of a substrate. The field effect transistor is formed in a second region of the substrate. The stress layer pattern is formed over the field effect transistor for creating stress therein to improve transistor performance. The surface passivation material is formed on the first region of the substrate for passivating dangling bonds at the surface of the light receiving device.
US08344426B2
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of first cells having a first cell height, and a plurality of second cells having a second cell height. Each of the first cells has a first MIS transistor of a first conductivity type, and a substrate contact region of a second conductivity type. Each of the second cells has a second MIS transistor of the first conductivity type, a power supply region of the first conductivity type, and a first extended region of the first conductivity type that is silicidated at a surface thereof. The first cell height is greater than the second cell height.
US08344425B2
Methods of forming microelectronic structures are described. Embodiments of those methods include forming a III-V tri-gate fin on a substrate, forming a cladding material around the III-V tri-gate fin, and forming a hi k gate dielectric around the cladding material.
US08344421B2
Structures and fabrication processes are described for group III-nitride enhancement mode field effect devices in which a two-dimensional electron gas is present at or near the interface between a pair of active layers that include a group III-nitride barrier layer and a group III-nitride semiconductor layer. The barrier layer has a band gap wider than the band gap of the adjacent underlying semiconductor layer. The two-dimensional electron gas is induced by providing one or more layers disposed over the barrier layer. A gate electrode is in direct contact with the barrier layer. Ohmic contacts for source and drain electrodes are in direct contact either with the barrier layer or with a semiconductor nitride layer disposed over the barrier layer.
US08344416B2
An integrated circuit includes at least one transistor over a substrate. A first guard ring is disposed around the at least one transistor. The first guard ring has a first type dopant. A second guard ring is disposed around the first guard ring. The second guard ring has a second type dopant. A first doped region is disposed adjacent to the first guard ring. The first doped region has the second type dopant. A second doped region is disposed adjacent to the second guard ring. The second doped region has the first type dopant. The first guard ring, the second guard ring, the first doped region, and the second doped region are capable of being operable as a first silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) to substantially release an electrostatic discharge (ESD).
US08344415B2
A semiconductor component is disclosed. One embodiment provides a semiconductor body having a cell region with at least one zone of a first conduction type and at least one zone of a second conduction type in a rear side. A drift zone of the first conduction type in the cell region is provided. The drift zone contains at least one region through which charge carriers flow in an operating mode of the semiconductor component in one polarity and charge carriers do not flow in an operating mode of the semiconductor component in an opposite polarity.
US08344394B1
A circuit includes multiple doped regions in a substrate. A first of the doped regions has a tip proximate to a second of the doped regions and is separated from the second doped region by an intrinsic region to form a P-I-N structure. The circuit also includes first and second electrodes electrically coupled to the first and second doped regions, respectively. The electrodes are configured to supply voltages to the first and second doped regions to reverse bias the P-I-N structure and generate light. The first doped region could include multiple tips, the second doped region could include multiple tips, and each tip of the first doped region could be proximate to one of the tips of the second doped region to form multiple P-I-N structures. The P-I-N structure could also be configured to operate in double avalanche injection conductivity mode with internal positive feedback.
US08344372B2
With an increase in the definition of a display device, the number of pixels is increased, and thus the numbers of gate lines and signal lines are increased. The increase in the numbers of gate lines and signal lines makes it difficult to mount an IC chip having a driver circuit for driving the gate line and the signal line by bonding or the like, which causes an increase in manufacturing costs. A pixel portion and a driver circuit driving the pixel portion are provided over the same substrate. The pixel portion and at least a part of the driver circuit are formed using thin film transistors in each of which an oxide semiconductor is used. Both the pixel portion and the driver circuit are provided over the same substrate, whereby manufacturing costs are reduced.
US08344371B2
A diode type ultraviolet sensor having a layered-structure body including a conductive layer composed of a sintered ceramic body having conductivity and a semiconductor layer composed of an oxide semiconductor including ZnO. The semiconductor layer is disposed on a principal surface of the conductive layer and forms a heterojunction with the conductive layer. The ultraviolet sensor is used in such a condition that the semiconductor layer is positioned at a light-receiving side irradiated by ultraviolet rays. The semiconductor layer is preferably composed of a sintered body. The sintered body serving as the conductive layer and sintered body serving as the semiconductor layer are preferably formed by co-firing. Terminal electrodes are provided on a principal surface and the other principal surface of the layered-structure body, respectively.
US08344368B2
The present invention relates to a new fused cyclic compound, and an organic electronic device using the same.Since the compound according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may be used as a material of an organic material layer of the organic electronic device and in particular may effectively inject, transport or extract a hole, it is possible to provide an organic electronic device having excellent efficiency and performance.
US08344367B2
Molecular devices and methods of manufacturing the molecular device are provided. The molecular device may include a lower electrode on a substrate and a self-assembled monolayer on the lower electrode. After an upper electrode is formed on the self-assembled monolayer, the self-assembled monolayer may be removed to form a gap between the lower electrode and the upper electrode. A functional molecule having a functional group may be injected into the gap.
US08344362B2
An organic EL device includes a base layer including a substrate, a partitioning portion disposed on the base layer and defining first and second film-formation regions adjacent to each other, a first organic EL element disposed on the base layer at a position overlapping the first film-formation region in plan view, a second organic EL element disposed on the base layer at a position overlapping the second film-formation region in plan view, a first drive circuit section disposed in the base layer to control driving of the first organic EL element, and a second drive circuit section disposed in the base layer to control driving of the second organic EL element. At least part of the first drive circuit section and at least part of the second drive circuit section overlap the first film-formation region in plan view.
US08344358B2
A graphene-based field effect transistor includes source and drain electrodes that are self-aligned to a gate electrode. A stack of a seed layer and a dielectric metal oxide layer is deposited over a patterned graphene layer. A conductive material stack of a first metal portion and a second metal portion is formed above the dielectric metal oxide layer. The first metal portion is laterally etched employing the second metal portion, and exposed portions of the dielectric metal oxide layer are removed to form a gate structure in which the second metal portion overhangs the first metal portion. The seed layer is removed and the overhang is employed to shadow proximal regions around the gate structure during a directional deposition process to form source and drain electrodes that are self-aligned and minimally laterally spaced from edges of the gate electrode.
US08344352B2
Incompatible materials, such as copper and nitrided barrier layers, may be adhered more effectively to one another. In one embodiment, a precursor of copper is deposited on the nitrided barrier. The precursor is then converted, through the application of energy, to copper which could not have been as effectively adhered to the barrier in the first place.
US08344350B2
A programmable resistance memory combines multiple cells into a block that includes one or more shared electrodes. The shared electrode configuration provides additional thermal isolation for the active region of each memory cell, thereby reducing the current required to program each memory cell.
US08344349B2
Provided is an electronic component that includes a first bi-layer stack including a first silicon oxide layer and a first silicon nitride layer, a second bi-layer stack including a second silicon oxide layer and a second silicon nitride layer, and a convertible structure which is convertible between at least two states having different electrical properties, where the convertible structure is arranged between the first bi-layer stack and the second bi-layer stack.
US08344341B2
A map of the surface of a substrate is generated at a measurement station. The substrate is then moved to where a space between a projection lens and the substrate is filled with a liquid. The substrate is then aligned using, for example, a transmission image sensor and, using the previous mapping, the substrate can be accurately exposed. Thus the mapping does not take place in a liquid environment.
US08344340B2
A system includes a patient support and an outer gantry on which an accelerator is mounted to enable the accelerator to move through a range of positions around a patient on the patient support. The accelerator is configured to produce a proton or ion beam having an energy level sufficient to reach a target in the patient. An inner gantry includes an aperture for directing the proton or ion beam towards the target.
US08344336B2
There is proposed an apparatus for doping a material to be doped by generating plasma (ions) and accelerating it by a high voltage to form an ion current is proposed, which is particularly suitable for processing a substrate having a large area. The ion current is formed to have a linear sectional configuration, and doping is performed by moving a material to be doped in a direction substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of a section of the ion current.
US08344328B2
A position detector includes a photodetector having photodetecting elements; and a scintillator crystal having uniaxial optical anisotropy. The scintillator crystal is continuous in a uniaxial direction, is disposed on the photodetector such that the uniaxial direction is not perpendicular to the normal to a photodetecting surface, and has a length at least three times the pitch of the photodetecting elements. The uniaxial anisotropy allows at least 4% of scintillation light emitted from a region farthest above the photodetecting surface to reach the photodetecting elements, and allows from 4% to 35% of scintillation light emitted from a region closest to the photodetecting surface to reach the photodetecting elements.
US08344325B2
An electronic device and method detects a predefined gesture. The electronic device includes a sensing assembly including at least one photoreceiver and a plurality of phototransmitters, where each phototransmitter is positioned to emit infrared light away from the electronic device about a corresponding central transmission axis, and where each central transmission axis is oriented in a different direction with respect to the others. Further, the emission of infrared light by each of the phototransmitters is controlled during each of a plurality of sequential time periods to facilitate detecting the gesture.
US08344323B1
A method for identifying and quantifying one or more analytes included in a sample comprising a background solvent is disclosed. The present invention enables in-situ calibration and removal of the spectral signature of the background solvent from a composite spectrum so that the spectral features associated with the analyte(s) can be more easily and precisely identified. Further, the method enables estimation of the concentration of the analyte(s) by normalizing the spectrum based on the path length of the infrared radiation through the sample.
US08344315B2
The invention is a process for finding the accurate masses of subfragments comprising an unknown compound from the accurate-mass mass spectral data of the unknown compound obtained on a mass spectrometer. This process generates these accurate masses of subfragments using mass differences of fragment ions and a listing of plausible masses. In this way, the accurate masses of subfragments, useful for generating modular structures, can be obtained very rapidly.
US08344314B2
A pressure sensor is disclosed with at least one pressure sensing element, the pressure induced changes in the optical properties of which are evaluated by illumination with at least one light source. The pressure sensor can include at least two semiconductor-based pressure sensing elements located in individual pressure chambers, which sensing elements are located essentially adjacent to each other. The sensing elements can be irradiated with the same light source, wherein the light transmitted through the sensing elements is detected using at least two corresponding detectors, and wherein the differential pressure in the two pressure chambers is evaluated based on the output of these detectors.
US08344307B2
The invention relates to an image sensor, in particular to a CMOS sensor, having a plurality of light sensitive pixels arranged in rows and columns for the generation of output signals proportional to the exposure, wherein column lines are associated with the columns to supply the output signals to at least one column amplifier for amplification, wherein the at least one column amplifier cooperates with the column lines such that the amplification of the respective output signal depends on the capacitance of the respective column line.
US08344302B1
A communication interface for a laser-guided projectile is configured to use the SAL seeker on board the laser-guided projectile as a communication link. A communication device generates a pulsed optical beam that overlaps the detection band of the SAL seeker. The pulsed optical beam is encoded with data for the SAL seeker. Computer-readable program code is loaded into and executed by the seeker's signal processor to process the signals generated in response to the pulsed optical beam to extract the data for the SAL seeker. Data is typically coupled to the projectile pre-launch but may be coupled in flight to the target.
US08344300B2
A substrate heating apparatus configured to be coupled to a processing system and radiatively heat a substrate is described. The substrate heating apparatus includes a radiative heat source coupled to a processing system and configured to produce electromagnetic (EM) radiation, a translucent object positioned between the radiative heat source and the substrate along a the EM radiation path, and an opaque object also positioned between the radiative heat source and the substrate along the EM radiation path. The translucent object includes at least one textured surface to cause random refraction of the EM radiation passing through the translucent object, or an optical waveguide configured to encapsulate the opaque object and direct the EM radiation around the opaque object, or both, to prevent creation of a shadow of the opaque object on the substrate.
US08344294B2
A method for the cooking of a cooking product in a cooking appliance with a cooking chamber that comprises at least one heating device, a computer device, a memory device and at least one sensor device, is carried out, in dependence on a degree of cooking of a cooking product and/or of a cooking duration, in particular determined by the core temperature, the browning, the pH value and/or the cooking value, from values measured by the sensor device with consideration of the at least occasionally deposited values in the memory device via the computer device, wherein at least two steps separated from one another in time, comprising a pre-cooking step, which is interrupted when a determined intermediate value of the degree of cooking and/or of the duration of cooking, in particular a determined remaining time for reaching the cooking duration is reached, and a finishing cooking step, in particular a finishing step that is recalled at a later time point in order to end the cooking of the cooking product with consideration of the intermediate value.
US08344292B2
A cooking appliance has a cooktop including a plurality of separately controlled cooking areas. A first heating element and a second heating element are positioned below one of the separately controlled cooking areas. A control switch is electrically coupled to the first heating element and the second heating element and is operable to selectively energize the first heating element with single-phase AC power and selectively energize the second heating element with two-phase AC power.
US08344291B2
A cooking appliance including a plurality of separately controlled cooking areas, a first heating element positioned below one of the plurality of separately controlled cooking areas, a second heating element positioned below the same separately controlled cooking area as the first heating element, and an infinite switch electrically coupled with the first heating element and operable to energize the first heating element to supply heat to the separately controlled cooking area when the infinite switch is located at a first position. The switch has an operational tolerance, and the first heating element is sized such that the separately controlled cooking area is maintained below a target cooking temperature when the infinite switch is located at the first position and is operating at an upper limit of the operational tolerance.
US08344283B2
A laser arc hybrid welding head and method which can form satisfactory beads at high speed are provided. A laser arc hybrid welding head (1) for welding a base material (W), which comprises aluminum steel sheets, by performing laser light irradiation and arc discharge, thereby combining laser welding and arc welding, splits inputted laser light (L0) into two beams, i.e., split laser light beams (L2a and L2b), then irradiates the base material (W) with the split laser light beams (L2a, L2b) while focusing these beams (L2a, L2b) on the base material (W), and also performs coaxial welding by generating an arc (A) from an arc electrode (20) disposed coaxially with the optical axis of the split laser light beams (L2a, L2b). Further, the transfer mode of a welding droplet from the arc electrode (20) is rendered spray transfer.
US08344281B2
A method for controlling an electron beam process wherein a wire is melted and deposited on a substrate as a molten pool comprises generating the electron beam with a complex raster pattern, and directing the beam onto an outer surface of the wire to thereby control a location of the wire with respect to the molten pool. Directing the beam selectively heats the outer surface of the wire and maintains the position of the wire with respect to the molten pool. An apparatus for controlling an electron beam process includes a beam gun adapted for generating the electron beam, and a controller adapted for providing the electron beam with a complex raster pattern and for directing the electron beam onto an outer surface of the wire to control a location of the wire with respect to the molten pool.
US08344276B2
An electrical contact arrangement for weak current applications includes at least one fixed contact including a first contact material, a moving contact configured to be brought into a closing and an opening position with the at least one fixed contact, and a contact bridge which carries the moving contact and includes at least one contact piece including a second contact material. The contact bridge is configured to be actuated in a longitudinally movable manner toward the fixed contact. The first contact material is a metallic conducting material and the second contact material includes at least 70% carbon material.
US08344273B2
A keyboard structure includes a housing having at least one post, a key assembly, and at least one connecting part. The key assembly includes a number of keypads and a keymat, the keymat defining a first through hole, a second through hole and a groove. The connecting part includes a ring, a protruding post and a connecting portion connecting the protruding post to the ring, the connecting part received in the first through hole, the second through hole and the groove, and then fixed on the keymat. The post passes through the key assembly and the ring coils around the post to connect the key assembly to the housing.
US08344269B2
A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a first pad, a second pad, and a third pad that are placed along one side of a perimeter of the substrate, a circuit that is formed above the substrate, and that is coupled to the first pad, a first external terminal that is coupled to the second pad, and a second external terminal that is coupled to the third pad, wherein the circuit generates a signal indicative of a connection configuration between the first pad and the first external terminal, wherein the third pad is placed adjacent to one of the first pad and the second pad, wherein, in a direction parallel to the one side of the perimeter of the substrate, the first pad, the second pad and the third pad have a first width, a second width and a third width, respectively, and wherein each of the first width of the first pad and the second width of the second pad is smaller than the third width of the third pad.
US08344264B2
A pair of discretionary points on a principal surface of a block are coupled to each other with a metal wire having a length larger than a distance between the pair of discretionary points, liquid resin is applied to the principal surface so as to cover the metal wire and then cured, so that a resin-cured material is formed, and the upper-surface portion of the resin-cured material is removed together with an intermediate portion of the metal wire, and then the block is removed from the resin-cured material.
US08344259B2
A connection terminal has, on an upper surface of a first dielectric layer, a first line conductor and a first grounding line conductor provided adjacent to both sides of the first line conductor, and has, on an upper surface of a third dielectric layer, a third line conductor and a third grounding line conductor provided adjacent to both sides of the third line conductor. These conductors are connected to a second line conductor and a second grounding line conductor provided adjacent to both sides of the second line conductor, respectively, the second line conductor and the second grounding line conductor being provided on an upper surface of a second dielectric layer. It is possible to obtain the connection terminal having a small size and capable of complying with a high-frequency signal.
US08344258B2
An electric device, in particular a mechatronic gear, motor, or brake control device in a motor vehicle, includes an electronic component having at least one electric contact surface for electrically contacting the component. A flexible circuit board with a conduction path structure includes at least one contact pad and conduction lines between two flexible, non-conducting films. A respective contact pad of the flexible circuit board is electrically connected, in particular by welding, to a respective contact surface of the component for creating at least one contact point. A sealing element is disposed on a side of the flexible circuit board opposite the component and an internal space is bounded by a wall. The sealing element is pressed against the flexible circuit board at an edge of the wall so that the edge surrounds at least one of the contact points.
US08344255B2
A multi-pair cable having a jacket, including a spacer integrally formed in the jacket. The spacer extends helically about the central axis of the cable. The spacer includes an inner projection that projects radially inward and an outer projection that projects radially outward from the main wall of the jacket. The jacket with the spacer reduces the occurrence of alien crosstalk between adjacent cables.
US08344250B2
An electrical device assembly includes an electrical device and a plug connector adapted to be received thereby. The electrical device includes a housing having a rear surface and an aperture in the rear surface. A ground strap is connected to the housing and is adapted to secure the electrical device to an electrical box. A plurality of contact blades are disposed in the electrical device and are accessible through the aperture. One of the contact blades is a ground contact blade. A conductive member extends between the ground contact blade and the ground strap. The plug connector includes a plurality of contact members adapted to engage the plurality of contact blades in the electrical device. A plurality of wires extend outwardly from the plurality of contact members such that the plurality of wires are substantially parallel to the rear surface of the electrical device when the plug connector is connected to the electrical device, thereby providing an electrical device assembly having a low profile.
US08344246B2
Aspects of the invention pertain to cooling bundles of power distribution cables or other current carrying cables. Such cables give off heat, especially when carrying high current loads. One or more cooling members are used to secure multiple cables. The cables may be placed about a generally circular shaped member which has a central opening. Receptacles are placed along an outer perimeter of the cooling member to secure the cables. The thickness of each cooling member may vary. When multiple cooling members are used, they may be spaced at least 6 inches apart. The cooling members may be fabricated from a nonconductive material such as PVC.
US08344238B2
Systems and materials to improve photovoltaic cell efficiency by implementing a self-cleaning function on photovoltaic cells and on albedo surfaces associated with photovoltaic cell assemblies are provided. Materials for protecting albedo surfaces that surround photovoltaic cell assemblies, thereby maximizing energy input into the photovoltaic cell assemblies, are provided. Materials for self-cleaning photovoltaic cell panels, thereby maintaining their efficiency, are provided. Portable albedo collecting devices associated with photovoltaic cell assemblies are provided.
US08344235B2
An electronic high-hat circuitry system allows the drummer to manually choose the sounds that an electronic high-hat makes when the drummer's foot is off of the pedal and the high-hat instrument is struck. When the pedal is at or near the top of its travel, a primary circuitry switch disables normal foot-controlled positioning circuitry and enables a secondary circuit that sends a selected positioning signal to a drum module. When the pedal is again pressed down, the primary circuitry switch returns control to the primary, pedal controlled circuit. An optional tertiary circuit allows for the choosing of a different sound when the secondary circuit is activated and the high-hat cymbal is tilted. A control panel is used by the drummer to select the desired high-hat sounds of the secondary and tertiary circuits. Also, high-hat instruments are introduced that have removable foot pedals, or no foot pedal.
US08344230B2
The invention relates to a method for improving the sound of acoustic musical instruments by decoupling the part of a musical instrument that is directly responsible for producing the primary sound event from the elements and components that are not directly involved in producing the primary sound event. The limitation of the acoustically active part prevents elements (6, 7) that have primarily static or optical functions or serve to produce variety of playing technique from vibrating or emitting sound, since they may lead to interferences and distortions of the primary sound event. According to the invention, an intermediate layer produced from a material (1) that reduces sound conduction is arranged in the connecting zones between the elements.
US08344226B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH728664. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH728664, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH728664 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH728664.
US08344216B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH681203. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH681203, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH681203 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH681203.
US08344214B1
A novel soybean variety, designated XB08U10 is provided. Also provided are the seeds of soybean variety XB08U10, cells from soybean variety XB08U10, plants of soybean XB08U10, and plant parts of soybean variety XB08U10. Methods provided include producing a soybean plant by crossing soybean variety XB08U10 with another soybean plant, methods for introgressing a transgenic, mutant trait, and/or native trait into soybean variety XB08U10, methods for producing other soybean varieties or plant parts derived from soybean variety XB08U10. Soybean seed, cells, plants, germplasm, breeding lines, varieties, and plant parts produced by these methods and/or derived from soybean variety XB08U10 are further provided.
US08344209B2
The invention relates to a regulatory sequence which mediates expression of an operably-linked protein encoding a polynucleotide of interest, wherein the protein encoding polynucleotide is transcribed in leaf tissue and not in pollen. The invention also relates to an expression cassette, vector, and transgenic plant comprising the regulatory sequence.
US08344206B2
The present disclosure provides compositions and methods for regulating expression of heterologous nucleotide sequences in a plant. Compositions include a novel nucleotide sequence for a promoter. A method for expressing a heterologous nucleotide sequence in a plant using the promoter sequence disclosed herein is provided. The method comprises stably incorporating into the genome of a plant cell a nucleotide sequence operably linked to the promoter of the present invention and regenerating a stably transformed plant that expresses the nucleotide sequence.
US08344205B2
This invention relates generally to plant cells and/or plants with increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell by increasing or generating one or more activities of polypeptides associated with the intermediate phosphoribosylpyrophosphate (PRPP) in plants. In particular, this invention relates to plant cells and/or plants with increased yield as compared to a corresponding non-transformed wild type plant cell by increasing or generating one or more activities of phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthases (PRPP synthetase, PRS) The invention also deals with methods of producing and screening for and breeding such plant cells and/or plants.
US08344201B2
A dressing product includes a thin film dressing sheet, one first surface of which is coated with an adhesive, such as a pressure sensitive hydrocolloid adhesive, which is applicable to an anatomical surface of a human. A carrier system, which provides a support for the dressing sheet, defines a gripping section for handling of the carrier system. The carrier system may include one or more foil members and supporting sheets for facilitating application and for providing a non-touch application system, i.e., a system which may be handled by an operator without the operator touching the dressing sheet or at least the adhesive surface. A protective sheet having an opening for application of a pharmaceutical product to the adhesive prior to application of the dressing sheet is disclosed.
US08344198B2
A processes is provided to inhibit or limit the decomposition of a halide-containing olefin oligomerization catalyst system during recovery of an oligomerization product. The process includes deactivation of an olefin oligomerization catalyst system present in an olefin oligomerization reactor effluent stream by contact with an alcohol under conditions that minimize potential for deactivated catalyst system decomposition. Such conditions include minimization of the water content of the deactivation agent and concentration of the deactivation agent.
US08344197B2
In a process for the production of para-xylene, methanol is preheated to a first temperature, an aromatic feedstock comprising toluene and/or benzene is preheated to a second temperature and the preheated methanol and aromatic feedstocks are fed to a reactor at a first methanol to aromatic feedstock molar ratio. The preheated aromatic feedstock is contacted with the preheated methanol under alkylation conditions in the reactor in the presence of a catalyst so that the methanol reacts with the aromatic feedstock to produce an effluent comprising para-xylene. During the reaction, a temperature is measured within the reactor and is compared with a predetermined optimal temperature. The methanol to aromatic feedstock molar ratio is then adjusted in a manner to reduce any difference between the measured and predetermined optimal temperatures in the reactor.
US08344194B2
A process for producing bio-fuel from biomass is disclosed herein. The process includes processing the mean particle diameter of the biomass by mechanical processing to a size ranging from 1 μm to 1000 μm to form particulated biomass. The particulated biomass is mixed with a liquid hydrocarbon to form a suspension, wherein the suspension includes between 1 weight percent to 40 weight percent particulated biomass. The suspension is heated to a temperature between 50° C. and 550° C. The heated suspension is fed into a unit selected from the group consisting of a pyrolysis reactor, a fluid catalytic cracking unit, a delayed coker, a fluid coker, a hydroprocessing unit, and a hydrocracking unit; and then at least a portion of the particulated biomass of the heated suspension is converted into fuel.
US08344191B2
The present invention provides a process for producing 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene represented by the formula CF3CF═CH2, comprising contacting a fluorine-containing propane represented by the formula CF2XCFYCH2Z, wherein X is Cl, Br, or I; one of Y and Z is H, and the other is F, Cl, Br, or I, with at least one catalyst selected from the group consisting of chromium oxides, fluorinated chromium oxides, and iron fluorides in a gas phase. According to the process of the invention, 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene can be easily produced under economically advantageous conditions.
US08344189B2
A method for recovery of fuel-grade ethanol from dilute aqueous ethanol feed in a continuous or batch-wise process includes providing a feed tank containing a dilute aqueous ethanol liquid phase and a vapor phase, removing a portion of the vapor phase from the tank and circulating it through a membrane contactor having an inner lumen and an outer shell, recovering from the membrane contactor a feed phase substantially reduced in ethanol and a solvent phase substantially enriched in ethanol, separating an enriched ethanol phase from the solvent phase, and removing a substantial amount of water from the enriched ethanol phase to produce a fuel-grade ethanol stream. A Venturi nozzle may be used in lieu of the membrane contactor.
US08344183B2
The present invention discloses a method for synthesizing polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers by ionic liquid catalysis. The method comprises synthesizing polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers by using a functional acidic ionic liquid as catalyst and using methylal and trioxymethylene as reactant under a relative mild reaction condition. The invention has advantages of high catalyst activity and reaction conversion, simple reaction process, high operationability and controllability, as well as good product distribution and high raw material utilization ratio.
US08344182B2
The invention relates to a process for the preparation of (S)-2-amino-1-propanol (L-alaninol) from (S)-1-methoxy-2-propylamine via the hydrochloride of (S)-2-amino-1-propanol and subsequent work-up.
US08344179B2
A method of recovering formate from halide-contaminated formate brine that includes mixing a formate recovery solvent and the halide-contaminated formate brine; separating halide contaminants from the formate; and recovering the formate from the formate recovery solvent is disclosed.
US08344178B2
The present invention generally relates to processes for producing and recovering cyclitolcarboxylic acids such as shikimic acid and quinic acid. In particular, the present invention is directed to processes for producing shikimic acid that comprise contacting glyphosate and an organism that has the common aromatic biosynthetic pathway. The present invention is also directed to recovery of the shikimic acid product from aqueous process streams utilizing membrane separation techniques.
US08344155B2
Disclosed are compounds of Formula III. Also disclosed are salts of the compounds, pharmaceutical composition comprising the compounds or salts, and methods for treating HCV infection by administration of the compounds or salts.
US08344147B2
The present invention relates to processes for preparing solid state forms of N-(4-(7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptan-7-yl)-2-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-4-oxo-5-(trifluoromethyl)-1, 4-dihydroquinoline-3-carboxamide, including Compound 1 Form A, Compound 1 Form A-HCl, Compound 1 Form B, and Compound 1 Form B-HCl, any combination of these forms, pharmaceutical compositions thereof, and methods of treatment therewith.
US08344146B2
A new compound is revealed and the strain of Streptomyces sp. producing it, which may be used in the production of drugs (Formula I).
US08344138B2
The present invention provides novel compounds of formula I wherein W1, W2, W3, W4, W5, B, X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, E and L are as defined herein; invention compounds are gamma amino butyrique acid receptor-subtype B (“GABAB”) positive allosteric modulators (enhancers), which are useful to provide methods of treating or preventing diseases or disorders, including treatment of anxiety, depression, epilepsy, schizophrenia, cognitive disorders, spasticity and skeletal muscle rigidity, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cerebral palsy, neuropathic pain and craving associated with cocaine and nicotine, panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorders, urge urinary incontinence, gastroesophageal reflux disease, transient lower oesophageal sphincter relaxations, functional gastrointestinal disorders and irritable bowel syndrome.
US08344133B2
The present invention provides methods of producing compounds with enhanced desirable properties and diminished side effects as well as the compounds produced by the methods. In preferred embodiments, methods of the present invention use a universal chemical glycosylation method that employs reducing sugars and requires no protection or activation. In a preferred embodiment, the invention provides neoglycoside digitoxin analogs that include compounds with significantly enhanced cytotoxic potency toward human cancer cells and tumor-specificity, but are less potent Na+/K+-ATPase inhibitors in a human cell line than digitoxin.
US08344128B2
Short interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) for oral administration, said siRNA comprising two separate RNA strands that are complementary to each other over at least 15 nucleotides, wherein each strand is 49 nucleotides or less, and wherein at least one of which strands contains at least one chemical modification.
US08344127B2
The present disclosure relates to RNAi agents useful in methods of treating Beta-ENaC-related diseases such as cystic fibrosis, pseudohypoaldosteronism type 1 (PHA1), Liddle's syndrome, hypertension, alkalosis, hypokalemia, and obesity-associated hypertension, using a therapeutically effective amount of a RNAi agent to Beta-ENaC.
US08344125B2
The invention relates to iRNA agents, which preferably include a monomer in which the ribose moiety has been replaced by a moiety other than ribose. The inclusion of such a monomer can allow for modulation of a property of the iRNA agent into which it is incorporated, e.g., by using the non-ribose moiety as a point to which a ligand or other entity, e.g., a carbohydrate; or a steroid, e.g., cholesterol, which is optionally substituted with at least one carbohydrate. is directly, or indirectly, tethered. The invention also relates to methods of making and using such modified iRNA agents.
US08344120B2
Disclosed are RAGE fusion proteins comprising RAGE polypeptide sequences linked to a second, non-RAGE polypeptide. The RAGE fusion protein may utilize a RAGE polypeptide domain comprising a RAGE ligand binding site and an interdomain linker directly linked to the N-terminus of an immunoglobulin CH2 domain. Also disclosed are RAGE fusion protein formulations and the use of the RAGE fusion proteins and RAGE fusion protein formulations as therapeutics for RAGE-mediated pathologies.
US08344116B2
A complex includes a nucleic acid and a cationic polymer with at least one side chain coupled to the nucleic acid. The at least one side chain including an acid degradable amine-bearing ketal or acetal linkage.
US08344108B2
Methods and apparatus for processing corn into one or more corn products. Zein is extracted from corn or corn products or by-products with a solvent. The corn-solvent mixture is separated into streams, one of which preferably includes an extract containing at least zein and solvent, and another that contains de-zeined corn solids and adsorbed solvent. The solvent is separated from the zein, and the de-zeined, desolventized corn solids are processed to provide one or more corn products.
US08344106B1
A collagen mixture having a portion of unhydrolyzed eggshell membrane collagen and Avian collagen.
US08344102B2
A nanoparticle contains a core including superparamagnetic nanoparticles and having an outer surface, and siloxanyl moieties covalently coupled to the outer surface of the core and having Formula (I): In formula (I): X1 and X2 independently represent methylene, ethylene or propylene; R represents an optionally substituted pyridyl group, or —S—R is a group derived from a targeting ligand containing —SH group and effective to bind specifically with a predetermined targeted cell in an object; n and m independently represent an integer ranging from 1 to 3; and p represents an integer ranging from 9 to 45. The nanoparticles are suitable for use as a magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent.
US08344099B2
A method for treating polymer particles with steam in a steaming vessel downstream a polymerization process, the method comprising contacting polymer particles with a counter-current flow of steam, wherein the flow rate of steam entering said steaming vessel is continuously maintained proportional to the production rate of said polymer in said polymerization process and to the gradient between the temperature (Tout) of the polymer exiting said steaming vessel and the temperature (Tin) of the polymer entering said steaming vessel.
US08344093B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for efficient continuous production of aliphatic polyester having good quality. The invention relates to a continuous production method of aliphatic polyester, wherein the polyester is obtained through a preparation step of slurry containing aliphatic dicarboxylic acid and aliphatic diol, an esterification reaction step and a polycondensation reaction step, wherein temperature range of the slurry during the preparation step thereof is from the coagulation point of the aliphatic diol to 80° C., and moisture content in the slurry is from 0.01 to 10% by weight.
US08344092B2
A dihydric phenol compound represented by the following formula (2), a phosgene compound, and an aliphatic tertiary amine are mixed together using a hydrophobic organic solvent to produce bischloroformate that is represented by the following formula (1) and has an average number of repeating units (n) of 1.99 or less. In the formulae (1) and (2), Ar is a divalent aromatic group.
US08344086B2
1-butene/ethylene/propylene terpolymer containing: c) from 4 to 10 wt % of ethylene derived units, and d) from 2 to 10 wt % of propylene derived units; the said terpolymer having the following properties: distribution of molecular weights (Mw/Mn) measured by GPC lower than 3; no melting point detectable at the DSC; melting enthalpy, measured after 10 days of aging at room temperature, from 12 to 20 J/g.
US08344079B2
Disclosed are catalyst systems and methods of making the catalyst systems/supports for the polymerization of an olefin containing a solid titanium catalyst component having a substantially spherical shape and containing an internal electron donor, a support made by contacting substantially equal molar amounts of a magnesium compound and an epoxy compound in the presence of an aprotic solvent and subsequent treatment with a halogenating agent to provide a magnesium based catalyst support. The catalyst system can further contain an organoaluminum compound and an organosilicon compound. Also disclosed are methods of polymerizing or copolymerizing an alpha-olefin. The methods involve contacting an olefin with a catalyst system containing the solid titanium catalyst component.
US08344075B2
A hybrid siloxane polymer, an encapsulant, and an electronic device, the hybrid siloxane polymer including a linear first siloxane resin including moieties represented by the following Chemical Formulas 1a and 1b, the first siloxane resin including double bonds at both terminal ends thereof, and a second siloxane resin having a reticular structure:
US08344073B2
Provided herein are telechelic polymers and methods for producing the same. In some embodiments, provided herein are compounds having the formula and methods for producing the same.
US08344072B2
Process for preparing partial (meth)acrylic esters of polyalcohols having different hydroxyl groups, process for their preparation, and use thereof.
US08344069B2
The present invention relates to a polymer composition comprising a polyolefin base resin comprising (A) a propylene homopolymer with a MWD of 1.5 to 5.0, and (B) an ethylene copolymer with one or more comonomers selected from alphaolefins with 4 to 12 carbon atoms, having a density of not greater than 920 kg/m3 wherein the polyolefin base resin has a weight ratio of propylene homopolymer (A) to ethylene copolymer (B) from 95:5 to 60:40, the use of such a polymer composition for the manufacture of an injection molded article, an article produced from such a polymer composition, an article with a grained surface structure produced from such a polymer composition showing having a scratch resistance, determined as the difference of the luminance ΔL at a load of 10 N, of not more than 1 and a gloss at an angle of 60° of not more than 2.8%, and the use of a polymer composition for the production of such an article.
US08344065B2
A nanoimprint resist includes a hyperbranched polyurethane oligomer (HP), a perfluoropolyether (PFPE), a methylmethacrylate (MMA), and a diluent solvent. A method of a nanoimprint lithography is also provided.
US08344062B2
A dispersion which contains particles of at least one intrinsically conductive polymer, wherein the particle size is on average (weight) less than 1 μm, and which is characterized in that the dispersant is a liquid at room temperature, and a layer, film or sheet formed from this dispersion has a conductivity of >100 S/cm after removal of the dispersant.
US08344060B2
Polymer nanocomposites exhibit a reversible change in stiffness and strength in response to a stimulus. The polymer nanocomposites include a matrix polymer with a comparably low modulus and strength and nanoparticles that have a comparably high modulus and strength. The particle-particle interactions are switched by the stimulus, to change the overall material's mechanical properties. In a preferred embodiment, a chemical regulator is used to facilitate changes of the mechanical properties. Methods for inducing modulus changes in polymer nanocomposites are also disclosed.
US08344056B1
A method of covering an anomaly in a wall substantially to match a pre-existing texture pattern surrounding the anomaly. The method comprises the following steps. A valve is supported on a container assembly to define a main chamber. Contained material comprising wall material concentrate and propellant material is disposed within the main chamber. An actuator relative is arranged relative to the container assembly such that displacement of a button relative to the valve changes the valve from a closed configuration to an open configuration in which a portion of the propellant material is allowed to force the contained material out of the main chamber through the outlet. A first portion of the contained material is applied to the anomaly by directing the outlet at the anomaly and displacing the button. Optionally, a second portion of the contained material may be applied to the base coat by directing the outlet at the base coat and displacing the button. If applied, the second portion of the contained material forms a desired texture pattern on the base coat that substantially matches the pre-existing texture pattern.
US08344051B2
The present invention relates to flameproofed, impact-modified, scratch-resistant polycarbonate (PC) compositions and molding compositions with surface-modified, calcined kaolin as filler, which have good mechanical properties, good flowability and high chemical resistance. Furthermore, the present application relates to the use of the compositions for the production of moldings.
US08344048B2
There is provided a liquid preparation for forming an epoxy resin having curing properties combining high transparency and high bending strength while maintaining advantageous handling properties as in a liquid state. A liquid preparation for forming an epoxy resin comprising: an A agent; and a B agent; wherein the A agent contains a modified epoxy resin (I) formed from at least one type of compound (i) having in a molecule thereof, at least one functional group of Formula (1): (where R1 and R2 individually represent an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an alkynyl group, an aryl group, an aralkyl group, a heterocyclic group or a halogenated, aminated or nitrated derivative of any of the groups) and a compound (ii) having a glycidyl group in a molecule thereof, and an inorganic particle (II); and the B agent contains a curing agent (III). A liquid preparation for forming an epoxy resin comprising: an A′ agent; and a B′ agent; wherein the A′ agent contains the modified epoxy resin (I); and the B′ agent contains the inorganic particle (II) and the curing agent (III).
US08344040B2
A process produces a block of polyolefin material with uniform crosslinking, which may be uniform between and within polymer chains in the polyolefin material. Steps include: providing an oven; placing the block into the oven; preheating the block to a uniform temperature above the melting point; further heating the block to a temperature at least 30 degrees Centigrade above the melting point; cooling the block to room temperature under an inert gas; and removing oxidized material from surface of the block. Optional steps include: subjecting the block to radiation before placing the block into the oven; removing the gases from the oven on a continuous or stepwise basis; controlling the purge gas flow out of the oven; and determining a heating time period for the block by subjecting control blocks to the same process and analyzing them after various heating times.
US08344039B2
There is provided a photo-curable composition that shows the suppression of a residual film formation and a high adhesion thereof to a substrate in a process for forming a three-dimensional pattern by a photo-imprinting method. A photo-curable composition for forming a three-dimensional pattern by a photo-imprinting method, comprises a monomer having a photopolymerizable group; an inorganic fine particle to which a dispersant is added; and a photopolymerization initiator. It is preferred that the inorganic fine particle (e.g., silica) has an average particle diameter of 1 to 1,000 nm, and the dispersant is a silane coupling agent, particularly a silane coupling agent containing an organic group having a carbon-carbon unsaturated bond or an organic group having an epoxy group.
US08344038B2
A liquid radiation curable composition for inkjet printing includes a photoinitiating system consisting of one or more diffusion hindered photoinitiators selected from the group consisting of non-polymeric di- or multifunctional initiators, oligomeric or polymeric initiators, and polymerizable initiators, and one or more polymerizable co-initiators, wherein at least one of the polymerizable co-initiators is a polymerizable aromatic tertiary amine. Inkjet inks, an inkjet printing process, and packaging materials may include the liquid radiation curable composition.
US08344037B2
A resin composition for cross-linking foam molding having a polymer composition which comprises 100 parts by weight of the following component (A) and 0.5 to 20 parts by weight of the following component (B); a foaming agent; and a cross-linking agent, wherein the component (A) is an ethylene-based polymer satisfying the following conditions (a1) to (a2): (a1) the density is 860 to 935 kg/m3, and (a2) the melt flow rate (MFR) is 0.1 to 10 g/10 minutes, and the component (B) is an ethylene-α-olefin copolymer satisfying the following conditions (b1) to (b3): (b1) the density is 890 to 925 kg/m3, (b2) the intrinsic viscosity [η] determined in a tetralin solution is 4 to 15 dL/g, and (b3) the activation energy of flow (Ea) is less than 50 kJ/mol.
US08344033B2
The invention relates to water-in-oil (W/O) or oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions containing an oil phase of at least one water-insoluble constituent; an aqueous phase; pyrogenic silica at the oil-water interface, the pyrogenic silica partially silylated such that non-silylated surface silanol groups remaining are between 95% and 5% of initial silanol groups, the equivalent of 1.7 to 0.1 surface SiOH groups per nm2, a surface energy gamma-s-D of 30 to 80 mJ/m2, and a specific BET surface area between 30 and 500 m2/g; and optionally other substances, such as pigments or preservatives. The inventive emulsions have a mean particle size of the dispersed phase, of between 0.5 μm and 500 μm, and are of low viscosity.
US08344021B2
At least one compound selected from among coumarin and/or derivative thereof, butylated hydroxyanisole, ethoxyquine and mixtures thereof, and admixtures thereof with other active agents selected from among active agents for combating desquamative conditions of the scalp, plant extracts having propigmenting activity and active agents that slow hair loss and/or promote hair regrowth, are useful for preventing and/or limiting and/or stopping the development of canities.
US08344020B2
A method of photodynamic therapy to treat diseased cells in an animal is generally provided. According to the method, 5-amino-2,2-dimethyl-6-[3′-(R,S)amino-4′-hydroxy-butan-1-one]-2,3-dihydro-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one or an analog thereof is administered to the animal such that the 5-amino-2,2-dimethyl-6-[3′-(R,S)amino-4′-hydroxy-butan-1-one]-2,3-dihydro-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one or an analog thereof accumulates in the diseased cells. Then, the diseased cells containing 5-amino-2,2-dimethyl-6-[3′-(R,S)amino-4′-hydroxy-butan-1-one]-2,3-dihydro-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one or an analog thereof is exposed to light energy (e.g., ultraviolet light).
US08344018B2
A compound of general Formula (I) having histone deacetylase (HDAC) and/or CDK inhibitory activity, a pharmaceutical composition comprising the compound, and a method useful to treat diseases using the compound. (Formula should be inserted here) Formula (I)
US08344014B2
An amino acid composition is disclosed. The composition includes: at least one constituent selected from the group consisting of a nitrate, a nitrite, and both; and at least one constituent amino acid selected from the group consisting of Arginine, Agmatine, Beta Alanine, Citrulline, Creatine, Glutamine, L-Histidine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Norvaline, Ornithine, Valine, Aspartic Acid, Cysteine, Glycine, Lysine, Methionine, Proline, Tyrosine, and Phenylalanine. Also disclosed are a method for increasing the bioabsorption of Amino Acids in a human or animal and a method for increasing vasodilative characteristics of Amino Acids in a human or animal.
US08344012B2
Described herein are compounds useful in the modulation of blood uric acid levels, formulations containing them and methods of making and using them. In some embodiments, the compounds described herein are used in the treatment or prevention of disorders related to aberrant levels of uric acid.
US08344008B2
Aryl-substituted bridged or fused diamine compounds, pharmaceutical compositions containing them, and methods of using the compounds and the pharmaceutical compositions for leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4H or LTA4H) modulation and for the treatment of disease states, disorders, and conditions mediated by LTA4H activity, such as allergy, asthma, autoimmune diseases, pruritis, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, and cardiovascular disease, including atherosclerosis and prevention of myocardial infarction.
US08344004B2
The invention relates to cyclic N-[1,3,4]-thiadiazol-2-yl-benzene sulfonamides and to their physiologically acceptable salts and physiologically functional derivatives showing PPARdelta or PPARdelta and PPARgamma agonist activity.What is described are compounds of the formula I, in which the radicals are as defined, and their physiologically acceptable salts and processes for their preparations. The compounds are suitable for the treatment and/or prevention of disorders of fatty acid metabolism and glucose utilization disorders as well as of disorders in which insulin resistance is involved and demyelinating and other neurodegenerative disorders of the central and peripheral nervous system.
US08344002B2
A novel compound represented by the formula (1) below which has β-secretase inhibitory activity, its pharmaceutically acceptable salt or a prodrug thereof. wherein Ar is a substituted or unsubstituted 5 to 6 membered mono cyclic aromatic group; R1, R2 and R3 are hydrogen atom, substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group or the like, or R2 and R3 may be taken together with the adjacent nitrogen atom and carbon atom respectively to form a 3 to 6 membered ring; R4 is C1-6 alkyl group, C1-6 alkyl group substituted by phenyl, phenylthio, or a hetero ring, or the like; A is represented by the formula below: wherein X and Y are oxygen atom, NH or sulfur atom, Z is hydrogen atom, hydroxy group which may be substituted, amino group, thiol group, or the like; and B is hydroxy group, substituted or unsubstituted amino group, substituted or unsubstituted aliphatic or aromatic amino group, or the like.
US08343998B2
The present invention relates to compound 1, which is useful in the inhibition of c-Met protein kinase. The invention also provides pharmaceutically acceptable compositions comprising Compound 1 and methods of using the compositions in the treatment of proliferative disorders.
US08343996B2
The present invention provides compounds and methods for treating or preventing the development of a disease, disorder, or condition in a subject or patient.
US08343990B2
Substituted cyclopropyl compounds of formula (I) are disclosed as useful for treating or preventing type 2 diabetes and similar conditions. Pharmaceutically acceptable salts and solvates are included as well. The compounds are useful as agonists of the g-protein coupled receptor GPR-119.
US08343989B2
Benzoimidazol-2-yl pyrimidines and pyrazines, pharmaceutical compositions and methods for H4 receptor activity modulation and for the treatment of disease states, disorders, and conditions mediated by H4 receptor activity, including allergy, asthma, autoimmune diseases, and pruritis.
US08343986B2
The present invention relates to compounds of Formula (I): pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, corresponding preparation processes, pharmaceutical formulations and methods for use as inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinase enzymes (MMPs).
US08343974B2
The present invention provides methods and compositions for treating thyroid-related medical conditions. Many thyroid-related medical conditions exist that go undiagnosed and untreated. These conditions may be prevented and treated with reduced folates and vitamin B12. Administration of reduced folates and vitamin B12 will prevent or treat cerebrospinal folate deficiency, which is linked to thyroid-related medical conditions. Administration of reduced folates and vitamin B12 will also prevent or treat conditions associated with masked megaloblastic anemia and hypothyroidism, and other conditions brought upon through improper thyroid function. Additionally, it is commonplace to treat many thyroid conditions with anti-thyroid drugs or thyroid stimulating drugs. This practice alone is also responsible for causing, or not beneficially addressing, adverse conditions that can be prevented or treated through the methods and compositions discussed herein.
US08343968B2
The present invention relates to piperidine-based renin inhibitor compounds having carboxylate or carboxylic acid terminal groups, and their use in treating cardiovascular events and renal insufficiency.
US08343963B2
The present invention relates to novel sulfamoyl-phenyl-ureido compounds having the formula (I) or a physiologically acceptable salt or derivative thereof which are suitable for the therapy of infections caused by protozoa and in particular uncomplicated or severe malaria caused by plasmodia.
US08343956B2
This invention generally relates to processes for making a crystalline zilpaterol salt, particularly zilpaterol hydrochloride. This invention also relates to methods of treatment using a crystalline zilpaterol salt prepared in accordance with this invention to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency, and/or increase carcass leanness in livestock, poultry, and fish.
US08343954B2
Disclosed are compounds of formula I, compositions containing them, and methods of use for the compounds and compositions in the treatment of conditions in which modulation of the JAK pathway or inhibition of JAK kinases, particularly JAK 2 and JAK3, are therapeutically useful. Also disclosed are methods of making the compounds.
US08343945B2
The present disclosure teaches unique formulations for topical administration of tetracycline antibiotics, in which the tetracycline antibiotics remain stable.
US08343937B2
A method and composition for treating a host infected with flavivirus or pestivirus comprising administering an effective flavivirus or pestivirus treatment amount of a described 1′, 2′ or 3′-modified nucleoside or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or prodrug thereof, is provided.
US08343935B2
The invention provides compositions and methods that employ compounds that can stimulate proliferation of fibroblasts or keratinocytes and/or stimulate production of collagen by fibroblasts. These compositions and methods are useful for treating gum- and skin-related conditions.
US08343925B2
The present invention provides a composition which may be ingested orally in a small dose for the purpose of improving brain function, and a method for improving brain function. The present invention is a composition for improving brain function, the composition comprising, as an active ingredient, Xaa-Pro-Pro (wherein Xaa represents Ile, Leu or Ser).
US08343923B2
The present invention provides methods of treating osteoporosis and other bone disorders by inhibiting Notch signaling.
US08343917B2
This invention relates to a combination of erythropoietin glycoisoforms, wherein such glycoisoforms may include a quantity of sialic acid ranging from 4 to 10 molecules of sialic acid per molecule of erythropoietin. The combination of glycoisoforms can be used for the treatment or prevention of sepsis, and used to prepare a pharmaceutical composition including such combination. The invention also encompasses a cell line producing a combination of erythropoietin glycoisoforms, procedures to obtain the cell line, a procedure to produce such a combination of glycoisoforms, and methods of treatment and prevention of sepsis.
US08343916B2
A method of reducing cholesterol in a subject is provided. The method may be used to decrease serum cholesterol and/or arterial wall cholesterol. The method comprises administering a therapeutically effective amount of heat shock protein 27 (HSP27), or a co-factor, variant or analogue thereof. The method may be used to treat, prevent or reverse cardiovascular disease (including atherosclerosis); to decrease atherosclerotic lesion formation or rupture; to decrease apoptosis within a plaque; to decrease macrophage accumulation; and/or to reverse the accumulation of atherosclerotic plaque mass in a subject. Kits and pharmaceutical compositions comprising HSP27 for preventing or treating of cardiovascular disease, such as atherosclerosis, are also provided.
US08343912B2
Provided herein is an antibacterial compound of the following formula: or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof. The antibacterial compound has antibacterial properties against a diverse range of gram negative bacteria and reduced toxicity compared to polymyxins such as polymyxin B. Also provided are antibacterial pharmaceutical compositions containing the antibacterial compound, as well as methods for preparing the antibacterial compound.
US08343900B2
The present invention relates to a novel polymer with pendant groups. The invention further provides for a lubricating composition containing said polymer. The invention further provides a method and use of controlling viscosity index by supplying to an oil of lubricating viscosity the polymer with pendant groups.
US08343891B2
A method of improving the properties of urea granulates, more especially the caking tendency, the dust formation and the foaming tendency in aqueous media, by the addition of an additive to the urea, wherein the additive comprises a carboxylic acid compound with the general formula XY—(Z)—COOH, in which Z is a saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon with 1-25 carbon atoms and X and Y are selected from the group consisting of a hydrogen atom or a polar organic functional group, and in that the additive is added as a solution in a polar solvent to the urea granulates, which are subsequently dried.
US08343889B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal transfer sheet which has a high transfer sensitivity in thermal transfer printing to obtain a high density print, has a high sharpness of thermal transfer images, can prevent an abnormal transfer in printing even after being stored at high temperature and high humidity, and can provide a sufficiently satisfactory printed matter.The above object is achieved by a thermal transfer sheet comprising: a substrate; a heat resistant slip layer provided on one side of the substrate; an undercoat layer and a dye layer provided in that order on the other side of the substrate, wherein the undercoat layer is formed by applying and drying a coating liquid which contains, as main components, a water soluble self cross-linking resin and colloidal inorganic pigment ultrafine particles, and cross-linking polymerizing the water soluble self cross-linking resin, or wherein the undercoat layer is formed by using colloidal inorganic pigment ultrafine particles and a copolymer resin of vinyl pyrrolidone and vinyl acetate as main components.
US08343886B2
A composition comprising a polymerization modifier for the copolymerization of at least one olefin monomer and propylene and a polymerization process using the polymerization modifier.
US08343875B2
Methods for forming a semiconductor device include forming self-aligned trenches, in which a first set of trenches is used to align a second set of trenches. Methods taught herein can be used as a pitch doubling technique, and may therefore enhance device integration. Further, employing a very thin CMP stop layer, and recessing surrounding materials by about an equal amount to the thickness of the CMP stop layer, provides improved planarity at the surface of the device.
US08343867B2
The embodiments of methods described in this disclosure for trimming back nitride spacers for replacement gates allows the hard mask layers (or hard mask) to protect the polysilicon above the high-K dielectric during trim back process. The process sequence also allows determining the trim-back amount based on the process uniformity (or control) of nitride deposition and nitride etchback (or trimming) processes. Nitride spacer trim-back process integration is critical to avoid creating undesirable consequences, such as silicided polyisicon on top of high-K dielectric described above. The integrated process also allows widening the space between the gate structures to allow formation of silicide with good quality and allow contact plugs to have sufficient contact with the silicide regions. The silicide with good quality and good contact between the contact plugs and the silicide regions increase the yield of contact and allows the contact resistance to be in acceptable and workable ranges.
US08343866B2
A masking layer is formed on a dielectric region of an electronic device so that, during subsequent formation of a capping layer on electrically conductive regions the masking layer inhibits formation of capping layer material on the dielectric region. The capping layer can be formed selectively on the electrically conductive regions or non-selectively; in either case, capping layer material formed over the dielectric region can subsequently be removed, thus ensuring that capping layer material is formed only on the electrically conductive regions. Silane-based materials, such as silane-based SAMs, can be used to form the masking layer. The capping layer can be formed of an electrically conductive, a semiconductor material, or an electrically insulative material, and can be formed using any appropriate process, including conventional deposition processes such as electroless deposition, chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition or atomic layer deposition.
US08343865B2
A method of forming a semiconductor device includes forming a dummy metal gate layer including work function metals directly on a base insulator, diffusing the work function metals into the base insulator by annealing, removing the dummy metal gate layer by a wet etching, forming a metal gate on the base insulator, and forming a high-k insulator on the metal gate.
US08343864B2
A semiconductor circuit and method of fabrication is disclosed. In one embodiment, the semiconductor circuit comprises a metal-insulator-metal trench capacitor in a silicon substrate. A field effect transistor is disposed on the silicon substrate adjacent to the metal-insulator-metal trench capacitor, and a silicide region is disposed between the field effect transistor and the metal-insulator-metal trench capacitor. Electrical connectivity between the transistor and capacitor is achieved without the need for a buried strap.
US08343860B1
The present invention provides molecules with high carbon content for Carbon-containing species implant in semiconductor material. The molecules can be used in various doping techniques such as ion implant, plasma doping or derivates methods.
US08343857B2
To provide a manufacturing method of a microcrystalline semiconductor film, the manufacturing method comprises the steps of forming a first semiconductor film over a substrate by generating plasma by performing continuous discharge under an atmosphere containing a deposition gas; forming a second semiconductor film over the first semiconductor film by generating plasma by performing pulsed discharge under the atmosphere containing the deposition gas; forming a third semiconductor film over the second semiconductor film by generating plasma by performing continuous discharge under the atmosphere containing the deposition gas; and forming a fourth semiconductor film over the third semiconductor film by generating plasma by performing pulsed discharge under the atmosphere containing the deposition gas.
US08343852B2
A method for obtaining individual dies from a semiconductor structure is disclosed. The semiconductor structure includes a device layer, and the device layer in turn includes active regions separated by predefined spacings. Thick metal is selectively formed on backside of the device layer such that thick metal is formed on backside of active regions but not on backside of the predefined spacings. The semiconductor structure is then cut along the predefined spacings to separate the active regions with thick metal on their backside into individual dies.
US08343844B2
A method of manufacturing a capacitor of a semiconductor device includes forming a high-k dielectric pattern on a semiconductor substrate, the high-k dielectric pattern having a pillar shape including a hole therein, forming a lower electrode in the hole of the high-k dielectric pattern, locally forming a blocking insulating pattern on an upper surface of the lower electrode, and forming an upper electrode covering the high-k dielectric pattern and the blocking insulating pattern.
US08343840B2
A band gap engineered, charge trapping memory cell includes a charge trapping element that is separated from a gate by a blocking layer of metal doped silicon oxide material having a medium dielectric constant, such as aluminum doped silicon oxide, and separated from the semiconductor body including the channel by an engineered tunneling dielectric.
US08343839B2
A method for forming a field effect transistor device includes forming an oxide layer on a substrate, forming a dielectric layer on the oxide layer, forming a first TiN layer on the dielectric layer, forming a metallic layer on the first layer, forming a second TiN layer on the metallic layer, removing a portion of the first TiN layer, the metallic layer, and the second TiN layer to expose a portion of the dielectric layer, forming a layer of stoichiometric TiN on the exposed portion of the dielectric layer and the second TiN layer, heating the device, and forming a polysilicon layer on the device.
US08343838B2
A structure and method of fabricating a semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) such as a strained Si n-MOSFET where dislocation or crystal defects spanning from source to drain is partially occupied by heavy p-type dopants. Preferably, the strained-layer n-MOSFET includes a Si, SiGe or SiGeC multi-layer structure having, in the region between source and drain, impurity atoms that preferentially occupy the dislocation sites so as to prevent shorting of source and drain via dopant diffusion along the dislocation. Advantageously, devices formed as a result of the invention are immune to dislocation-related failures, and therefore are more robust to processing and material variations. The invention thus relaxes the requirement for reducing the threading dislocation density in SiGe buffers, since the devices will be operable despite the presence of a finite number of dislocations.
US08343837B2
The work function of a high-k gate electrode structure may be adjusted in a late manufacturing stage on the basis of a lanthanum species in an N-channel transistor, thereby obtaining the desired high work function in combination with a typical conductive barrier material, such as titanium nitride. For this purpose, in some illustrative embodiments, the lanthanum species may be formed directly on the previously provided metal-containing electrode material, while an efficient barrier material may be provided in the P-channel transistor, thereby avoiding undue interaction of the lanthanum species in the P-channel transistor.
US08343836B2
A recessed gate FET device includes a substrate having an upper and lower portions, the lower portion having a reduced concentration of dopant material than the upper portion; a trench-type gate electrode defining a surrounding channel region and having a gate dielectric material layer lining and including a conductive material having a top surface recessed to reduce overlap capacitance with respect to the source and drain diffusion regions formed at an upper substrate surface at either side of the gate electrode. There is optionally formed halo implants at either side of and abutting the gate electrode, each halo implants extending below the source and drain diffusions into the channel region. Additionally, highly doped source and drain extension regions are formed that provide a low resistance path from the source and drain diffusion regions to the channel region.
US08343830B2
There is provided a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, including, forming a first insulating film on a semiconductor substrate, forming a capacitor on the first insulating film, forming a second insulating film covering the capacitor, forming a metal wiring on the second insulating film, forming a first capacitor protective insulating film covering the metal wiring and the second insulating film, forming an insulating sidewall on a side of the metal wiring, forming a third insulating film on the insulating sidewall, forming a hole by etching the third insulating film under a condition that an etching rate of the insulating sidewall would be lower than that of the third insulating film, and forming a conductive plug inside the hole.
US08343828B2
Some embodiments include methods of forming diodes. A stack may be formed over a first conductive material. The stack may include, in ascending order, a sacrificial material, at least one dielectric material, and a second conductive material. Spacers may be formed along opposing sidewalls of the stack, and then an entirety of the sacrificial material may be removed to leave a gap between the first conductive material and the at least one dielectric material. In some embodiments of forming diodes, a layer may be formed over a first conductive material, with the layer containing supports interspersed in sacrificial material. At least one dielectric material may be formed over the layer, and a second conductive material may be formed over the at least one dielectric material. An entirety of the sacrificial material may then be removed.
US08343822B2
A method for manufacturing a flexible semiconductor device includes (i) forming an insulating film on the upper surface of metal foil, (ii) forming an extraction electrode pattern on the upper surface of the metal foil, (iii) forming a semiconductor layer on the insulating film such that the semiconductor layer is in contact with the extraction electrode pattern, (iv) forming a sealing resin layer on the upper surface of the metal foil such that the sealing resin layer covers the semiconductor layer and the extraction electrode pattern, and (v) forming electrodes by etching the metal foil, the metal foil being used as a support for the insulating film, the extraction electrode pattern, the semiconductor layer, and the sealing resin layer formed in (i) to (iv) and used as a constituent material for the electrodes in (v). The metal foil need not be stripped, and a high-temperature process can be used.
US08343819B2
An electrical device is provided that in one embodiment includes a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate having a semiconductor layer with a thickness of less than 10 nm. A semiconductor device having a raised source region and a raised drain region of a single crystal semiconductor material of a first conductivity is present on a first surface of the semiconductor layer. A resistor composed of the single crystal semiconductor material of the first conductivity is present on a second surface of the semiconductor layer. A method of forming the aforementioned electrical device is also provided.
US08343813B2
Resistive-switching memory elements having improved switching characteristics are described, including a memory element having a first electrode and a second electrode, a switching layer between the first electrode and the second electrode comprising hafnium oxide and having a first thickness, and a coupling layer between the switching layer and the second electrode, the coupling layer comprising a material including metal titanium and having a second thickness that is less than 25 percent of the first thickness.
US08343810B2
A Fo-WLCSP has a first polymer layer formed around a semiconductor die. First conductive vias are formed through the first polymer layer around a perimeter of the semiconductor die. A first interconnect structure is formed over a first surface of the first polymer layer and electrically connected to the first conductive vias. The first interconnect structure has a second polymer layer and a plurality of second vias formed through the second polymer layer. A second interconnect structure is formed over a second surface of the first polymer layer and electrically connected to the first conductive vias. The second interconnect structure has a third polymer layer and a plurality of third vias formed through the third polymer layer. A semiconductor package can be mounted to the WLCSP in a PoP arrangement. The semiconductor package is electrically connected to the WLCSP through the first interconnect structure or second interconnect structure.
US08343809B2
A semiconductor wafer has a plurality of first semiconductor die. A first conductive layer is formed over an active surface of the die. A first insulating layer is formed over the active surface and first conductive layer. A repassivation layer is formed over the first insulating layer and first conductive layer. A via is formed through the repassivation layer to the first conductive layer. The semiconductor wafer is singulated to separate the semiconductor die. The semiconductor die is mounted to a temporary carrier. An encapsulant is deposited over the semiconductor die and carrier. The carrier is removed. A second insulating layer is formed over the repassivation layer and encapsulant. A second conductive layer is formed over the repassivation layer and first conductive layer. A third insulating layer is formed over the second conductive layer and second insulating layer. An interconnect structure is formed over the second conductive layer.
US08343808B2
A method of making a stackable semiconductor assembly that includes a semiconductor device, a heat spreader, an adhesive, a terminal, a plated through-hole and build-up circuitry is disclosed. The heat spreader includes a bump, a base and a flange. The bump defines a cavity. The semiconductor device is mounted on the bump at the cavity, electrically connected to the build-up circuitry and thermally connected to the bump. The bump extends from the base into an opening in the adhesive, the base extends vertically from the bump opposite the cavity and the flange extends laterally from the bump at the cavity entrance. The build-up circuitry provides signal routing for the semiconductor device. The plated through-hole provides signal routing between the build-up circuitry and the terminal. The heat spreader provides heat dissipation for the semiconductor device.
US08343803B2
A through-silicon via stack package contains package units. Each package unit includes a semiconductor chip; a through-silicon via formed in the semiconductor chip; a first metal line formed on an upper surface and contacting a portion of a top surface of the through-silicon via; and a second metal line formed on a lower surface of the semiconductor chip and contacting a second portion of a lower surface of the through-silicon via. When package units are stacked, the second metal line formed on the lower surface of the top package unit and the first metal line formed on the upper surface of the bottom package unit are brought into contact with the upper surface of the through-silicon via of the bottom package unit and the lower surface of the through-silicon via of the top package unit, respectively. The stack package is lightweight and compact, and can form excellent electrical connections.
US08343797B2
A process for preparing a solar cell comprising a support, a layer of cadmium sulfide (CdS), a layer of cadmium telluride (CdTe), a layer of a transparent conductive oxide (TCO), a conductive metallic layer and optionally a layer of buffer material, the CdS layer and the CdTe layer being deposited by means of a pulsed plasma deposition (PPD) method, a solar cell obtainable by means of the described process being also provided.
US08343784B2
The embodiment of the present invention provides an LED device, a manufacturing method of the LED device and a mounting structure of the LED device. In order to manufacture the LED device with low manufacturing cost through simple process capable of overcoming thermal fatigue due to heat generation, breaking of wire due to mechanical stress, the method comprises etching a wafer; forming a conductive metal layer from an upper surface to a lower surface of the wafer; bonding a light emitting diode chip to the metal layer which is disposed on the upper surface of the wafer; filling a resin into a space over the light emitting diode chip; and forming an electrode pad on the metal layer which is disposed on the lower surface of the wafer.
US08343783B2
A LED module and a packing method of the same include plural boards defined with a positive line and a negative line. The positive line connects to at least one positive joint, and the negative line connects to at least one negative joint. Some LEDs are respectively disposed on each board, and conducting ends of the LEDs are separately connected to the positive line and the negative line. A number of electronic elements are individually installed on each board, and conducting ends of the electronic elements are separately connected to the positive line and the negative line disposed on the board. A positive guiding line connects to the positive joint of each board, and a negative guiding line connects to the negative joint of each board. The LED module achieved in accordance with above-mentioned construction contributes to the flexibility.
US08343770B2
An analyzer comprising: a specimen container setting portion including a plurality of container holders for holding a plurality of specimen containers of different types; an aspiration section for aspirating the specimen from the specimen container set in the specimen container setting portion; a sensor for detecting the presence of the specimen container set in at least one of the plurality of container holders; and a controller for determining in which of the plurality of container holders the specimen container is set based on the detection result of the sensor, and controlling the operation of the aspiration section, is disclosed. A method for aspirating a specimen is also disclosed.
US08343764B2
Transgenic seed for crops with improved traits are provided by trait-improving recombinant DNA in the nucleus of cells of the seed where plants grown from such transgenic seed exhibit one or more improved traits as compared to a control plant. The present invention provides recombinant DNA molecules for expression of a protein, including a recombinant DNA molecule for expression of a glutamine synthetase.
US08343759B2
The present invention is directed to a unique mammalian cell line expressing inducible c-Src, and, particularly, a unique human cell line overexpressing c-Src in an inducible manner.
US08343758B2
This invention relates to methods for preparing biomaterials by applying multiple cycles of tensile loading to compacted collagen gels in order to fuse the collagen fibrils together within the compacted gels. This produces a biomaterial with improved material properties. Biomaterials produced by such methods may be useful, for example, as tissue equivalent implants, in the repair and/or replacement of damaged tissue in an individual.
US08343757B2
This invention provides a new approach to the design of a virus with a defective replication cycle, which can be rescued by wild type virus co-infection, and which expresses foreign antigenic epitopes that contribute to the elimination of virus infected cells and then to viral clearance. The vector of the invention, by expression of epitopes derived from common pathogens, by-passes existing tolerance of virus specific T cell responses. The vector will only replicate in virus infected cells.
US08343752B2
The technology relates in part to biological methods for producing adipic acid and engineered microorganisms capable of such production.
US08343751B2
The present invention relates to the use of F4+ non-pathogenic Escherichia coli strains to promote growth in an animal. The present invention also relates to the use of such strains to homogenize growth among a herd of animals. More specifically, the animal(s) of interest in the present invention are those wherein growth promotion or growth homogenization are desired goals, such as animals reared for meat production. The present invention further relates to a method for promoting growth of an animal as well as a method for homogenizing growth among a herd of animals.
US08343750B2
The invention discloses an Ochrobactrum sp. for degrading TBBPA and its application in environmental remediation. An Ochrobactrum sp. for degrading TBBPA was isolated from the sludge in a high risk area of electronic waste in the invention. The strain is named as Ochrobactrum sp. T, which has been deposited in China Center for Type Culture Collection (CCTCC) on Oct. 28, 2009 with an accession number of CCTCC M209246. Ochrobactrum sp. T obtained in the invention has high degradation capability to TBBPA in environment. The degradation efficiency of the strain achieves 96.2%. The strain could be applied to degrading TBBPA in environmental remediation.
US08343745B2
The present invention is directed to a polynucleotide sequence of a novel acylglycerol acyltransferase-like protein MGAT-X1. The invention also provides the human MGAT-X1 associated with the dermatological diseases, urological diseases, muscle-skeleton disorders, hematological diseases, cancer, reproduction disorders, neurological diseases, metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases or gastroenterological diseases. The invention also provides assays for the identification of compounds useful for the modulation of dermatological diseases, urological diseases, muscle-skeleton disorders, hematological diseases, cancer, reproduction disorders, neurological diseases, metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases or gastroenterological diseases for treating of such diseases associated with expression of the MGAT-X1. The invention also features compounds which bind to and/or activate or inhibit the activity of MGAT-X1 as well as pharmaceutical compositions comprising such compounds.
US08343744B2
Cytochrome P450 BM-3 from Bacillus megaterium was engineered using a combination of directed evolution and site-directed mutagenesis to hydroxylate linear alkanes regio- and enantioselectively using atmospheric dioxygen as an oxidant. Mutant 9-10A-A328V hydroxylates octane primarily at the 2-position to form S-2-octanol (40% ee). Another mutant, 1-12G, hydroxylates alkanes larger than hexane primarily at the 2-position, but forms R-2-alcohols (40-55% ee). These biocatalysts are highly active for alkane substrates and support thousands of product turnovers. These regio- and enantio-selectivities are retained in whole-cell biotransformations with E. coli, where the engineered P450s can be expressed at high levels and the expensive cofactor is supplied endogenously.
US08343721B2
Compositions and methods are provided for amplifying nucleic acid molecules. The nucleic acid molecules can be used in various research and diagnostic applications, such as gene expression studies involving nucleic acid microarrays.
US08343720B2
The present invention provides a method for identifying a set of target nucleotide sequences capable of identifying a member of a group of related nucleotide sequences, the method comprising the step of dividing the nucleotide sequence of each member of the group into a plurality of subsequences, wherein at least two of the subsequences overlap. The method is useful in generating probe sets capable of assigning alleles at HLA or KIR loci.
US08343716B2
A method of forming a variable pattern across a wafer using a reticle forms a plurality of first patterns on the wafer. The first pattern is repeated across the wafer and each first pattern has a first readable element. The method also forms a plurality of second patterns on the wafer. The second patterns is repeated across the wafer and each second pattern has a second readable element. The second patterns are positioned relative to the first patterns by aligning a first second pattern relative to one portion of a corresponding first pattern and then incrementally misaligning each successive second pattern in a row or a column relative to its corresponding first pattern. Thus, each corresponding first readable element and second readable element form a corresponding variable pattern.
US08343713B2
The invention is directed to a method for patterning a material layer. The method comprises steps of providing a material layer. The material layer has a first hard mask layer and a second hard mask layer successively formed thereon. Then, the second hard mask layer is patterned to form a plurality of openings therein. A patterned photoresist layer is formed to cover the second hard mask layer and the patterned photoresist layer exposes a portion of the openings. The first hard mask layer with the patterned photoresist layer and the patterned second hard mask layer together as a mask. Then, the patterned photoresist layer and the patterned second hard mask layer are removed. The material layer is patterned with the patterned first hard mask layer as a mask.
US08343702B2
The disclosure provides an electrophotographic toner and methods for preparing the same, including a first binder resin, a second binder resin, a colorant, a releasing agent, a charge control agent, and an ionomer, wherein the second binder resin is a resin derived biomass.
US08343701B2
An image forming material includes a perimidine-substituted squarylium dye that has a structure represented by the following formula (I) and shows diffraction peaks at least at Bragg angles (2θ±0.2°) of 17.7°, 19.9°, 22.1°, 23.2° and 24.9° in its X-ray powder diffraction spectrum measured by irradiation with X rays generated from a Cu target with a wavelength of 1.5405 angstroms:
US08343700B2
The presently disclosed embodiments relate in general to electrostatography comprising improved features in the flexible imaging member that enhance function when used in the electrostatographic imaging system. These embodiments pertain, more particularly, to a structurally simplified curl-free flexible electrostatographic imaging member belt containing a stress/strain free ground strip layer and stress/strain free imaging layer(s) to improve dynamic belt cyclic motion quality and extend service life.
US08343688B2
A polymer electrolyte fuel cell is provided with a fuel cell stack assembled by sandwiching a plurality of stacked single cell modules with a plurality of fastening members through a pair of end plates. The fuel cell includes a first elastic member arranged between the fastening member and the end plate and a plurality of second elastic members arranged between the end plate and the end of the fuel cell stack. Each of the second elastic members is arranged on the surface of the end plate corresponding to the electrode portion of a membrane electrode assembly in each of the single cell module, and each of the first elastic members is arranged on the surface of the end plate corresponding to a seal member arrangement region in which the seal member is arranged between the periphery of the membrane electrode assembly and a pair of separator plates in each single cell module.
US08343685B2
The present invention relates to composite material suitable for use as an electrode material in a solid oxide cell, said composite material consist of at least two non-miscible mixed ionic and electronic conductors. Further provided is a composite material suitable for use as an electrode material in a solid oxide cell, said composite material being based on (Gd1-xSrx)1-sFe1-yCoyO3-δ or (Ln1-xSrx)1-sFe1-yCioyO3-δ1 (s equal to 0.05 or larger) wherein Ln is a lanthanide element, Sc or Y, said composite material comprising at least two phases which are non-miscible, said composite material being obtainable by the glycine nitrate combustion method. Said composite material may be used for proving an electrode material in the form of at least a two-phase system showing a very low area specific resistance of around 0.1 Ωcm2 at around 600° C.
US08343683B2
A fuel cell stack including a plurality of fuel cells each formed by stacking separators and an electrolyte membrane-electrode assembly. The electrolyte membrane-electrode assembly includes an electrolyte membrane provided with a pair of electrodes on the opposite sides thereof. A stacked body formed by stacking the fuel cells is provided with a pair of end plates at the opposite ends thereof in a stacking direction. The end plates are integrally fixed by fastening members with the distance between the end plates maintained. A load measurement mechanism including a plurality of load sensors integrally connected to a connector member is provided between one of the end plates and the stacked body. The one of the end plates is provided with a pressure mechanism. The pressure mechanism presses the load measurement mechanism toward the stacked body to thereby apply a tightening load to the stacked body via the load sensors.
US08343680B2
A shutoff value provided on the entrance side and exit side of a fuel cell system has a diaphragm. A valve closing-side pressure chamber is provided on the upper face side of the diaphragm, and a valve opening-side pressure chamber is provided on the lower face side of the diaphragm. With the valve closing-side pressure chamber of the shutoff valve pressurized, the pressure in the chamber is maintained by ViS, Vic, and ViO in an electrically non-conducted state. Also, the pressure in the valve opening-side pressure chamber of the shutoff valve is maintained released. By this, force acting in the direction of closing a valving element acts on it through the diaphragm, maintaining the shutoff valve closed.
